Anna Kaiser didn't want to dance around the issue.
Asked about her balanced approach to both fitness and diet, the founder of Anna Kaiser Studios told E! News, "I feel like in this moment where people are focused on losing weight with drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic, we need to get back to a place where we think of food as fuel and nourishment, and less about how much we're eating and more about what we're eating and when we're eating it."
Generally speaking, when people give Ozempic a shot, said Kaiser, "Their body isn't craving foods, so they're eating a lot less and then what happens is they're going to burn muscle." With less muscle, "their metabolism slows down," continued the New York City-based pro, "so when they go off of the drug they're going to gain that weight back much more quickly."
So, go ahead, blend up that protein shake. We'll wait.
"We have to eat to allow our bodies to perform," noted Kaiser, who knows a bit about getting bodies to peak levels, having trained longtime clients Shakira and Kelly Ripa for a combined three decades. "If we don't eat enough, our bodies won't be healthy."
And there's a reason you'll hear most every health expert shill hard for protein.
"I still think there's this myth that if you eat a lot of protein, you will get bulky," explained Kaiser. "It is so impossible for women, you just won't. You have to lift extremely heavy weight, and eat protein and creatine and have all of these additional supplements in order to bulk."
What often happens when someone commits themself to a new fitness routine, she noted, is that "their body is developing muscle and they're not giving themselves enough time to burn off the fat, so they feel, like, puffy." For every pound of lean muscle you build, she continued, your body will burn an additional 50 calories at rest, "So if you gain 11 pounds of muscle, you will burn an additional 550 calories a day without doing anything."
However, you have to give it a beat to truly see the fruits of all that labor.
"People think, 'It's two weeks in, I feel really puffy, my jeans aren't fitting,'" said Kaiser, "and they don't give themselves two months to get to the other side. That's when the magic really starts to happen."
For Ripa, all that lean muscle comes courtesy of dutifully committing to six days a week of Kaiser's unique brand of high intensity dance interval training, which has devotees shift from dance choreography to strength training.
"I find it very rewarding to see someone grow," Kaiser said of her years-long journey with the LIVE with Kelly and Mark cohost. "I think we started with 20 minutes. And we have such a good time together because I know exactly where I can push her every day. Sometimes she has had to shoot three shows and a podcast and this is her one hour before she goes into another interview. And so I work with the energy that she has that day to help boost her for the rest of her day.'"
But for those not within walking distance of Kaiser's NYC studio, well, she's got an app for that.
With her Anna Kaiser Studios Virtual program, users get all the dance-based workout fun without any of the guesswork. With 10 workouts on offer—five are pre-recorded, five they can join live and actually Zoom into her space—devotees simply pick four each week: a high-intensity interval training workout, dance intervals, power up and sculpt.
"Every workout, you're doing something that complements the other workouts, but they build on each other," Kaiser explained. "So the strength stays the same for two-to-four weeks so they can make sure they're getting stronger and their form is getting better. And then they start with beginner dance and then they add on, add on, add on. So they also learn to move in space as a dancer does and not just cardio for cardio's sake."
Ready to give her method a whirl? Well she's got a few more steps for you to master. The fitness pro laid out the choreography for achieving your best body ever.
Start Small
If the doctor-recommended 30 minutes of heart-pumping daily movement feels daunting, "I would start with 15 minutes," shared Anna Kaiser. "And it doesn't need to be intense, it can just be going for a walk for 15 minutes, or tapping into a strength training video or going to class for 15 minutes. Just do as much as you can. But the important thing is that you get into a rhythm where it becomes a consistent part of your week. And then if you have to miss a day, every here and there, it's fine."
Nor do you need to go hard AF each time you suit up for your sweat session. "You can do as much as you can do that day," noted Kaiser. "If you're only at 30 percent one day, you do 100 percent of that 30 percent. And then the next day, you're 80 percent and we work with that."
Phone a Friend
Enlisting a workout buddy is an easy way to inject a dose of fun into your fitness. "Surrounding yourself with people who are also interested in maintaining a healthy lifestyle will help you do that," noted Kaiser, who recommends scheduling three sweat sessions each week with a pal, plus an additional three more on your own.
For longtime client Kelly Ripa, that plus-one is often daughter Lola Consuelos. "They'll pick on each other and joke around and laugh," says Kaiser. "It's really fun."
Refuel Post Workout
Getting your sweat on is just step one in the process of building muscle. Your recovery meal is just as crucial, said Kaiser.
"We have to eat to allow our bodies to perform," she explained, noting that "the most important time to eat is right after you exercise to feed your muscles, allow them to recover and give yourself enough protein to build lean muscle."
Power Up With Protein
Speaking of that all-important nutrient, while the official recommendation is a gram per each pound of body weight, aiming for 70 grams a day is "a good start," said Kaiser. "That's a protein shake after you work out, a piece of chicken or salmon at lunch and then a piece of fish or meat at dinner or, if you're vegetarian, tofu and beans."
The key to healthy eating, she continued, isn't restriction: "It's not about cutting back on calories, it's about eating more protein and then supplementing it with healthy, nutrient-dense carbohydrates." (Read: fiber-rich fruits and vegetables.)
Act Your Age
As your body changes over time, so should your fitness routine.
"In your 20s, specifically, push your level of intensity, push the weight, develop as much muscle as possible, push your cardio and really strengthen your heart," advised Kaiser, "because it gets exponentially more difficult as you get older."
Once you hit the big 3-0, "cut back a bit on the intensity and focus more on maintaining and developing muscle and using cardio to boost that," she continued, "which is where I started with Kelly."
At 40, it becomes more challenging for women to develop muscle, she noted, "So you have to eat a lot of protein, you have to really focus on strength training, you have to cut back on the cardio. And that's why dance is great because you can have fun doing it and you don't have to feel like you're pushing yourself sprinting or doing standing mountain climbers or burpees."
By your 50s, "we really should be focusing on just maintaining that muscle and thinking about sitting in a more moderate place with cardio, like 65 to 70 percent of your heart rate," added Kaiser. "And then in your 60s, it's really strength training and balance, in addition to recovery."
Don't Forget Cardio
You definitely do want to sweat it when it comes to working out. "You really should be training your heart for the rest of your life," Kaiser said of the importance of cardiovascular activity. "Especially with the rise in heart disease, it's still important to elevate your heart rate. I know, that's one of the hardest things to ask someone to do. So finding something fun, like dance, and doing it with friends is a great place to start."
With an increased focus on strength training, it can be easy to let the sweatier stuff go, continued Kaiser, "but we need to find the happy medium and have a balance of both."