Burn Body Fat!
1.
DO CARDIO 7 DAYS A WEEK
If you do cardio for 30-45 minutes a day every day for 8-12 weeks, you'll
get so lean, you'll kick yourself for not realizing it was that simple.
Every time I give this advice, I always hear lots of whining and complaining.
Why is everybody so cardio-phobic? Why do people keep fighting me on
this when they've tried "everything" else and they still can't
get as lean as they want to be?
"But Tom, Bill Philips says 20 minutes 3 days a week is the solution!"
"But Tom, doesn't daily cardio burn up muscle?"
"But Tom, doesn't weight training boost the metabolism more than
aerobics."
"But Tom, long aerobic cardio is outš 15 minutes of high intensity
interval cardio is in.
"But, but, but..." People have plenty of buts. What they don't
have is plenty of RESULTS!
If you want to get lean - get off your "buts" and do what
it takes. Make cardio a daily discipline and the RESULTS will simply
amaze you.And don't say you don't have time! I know many people who
get up at 4 or 5 in the morning to work out because it's the only way
they can fit it in their schedule. It's NEVER an issue of time, it's
ALWAYS an issue of WILLINGNESS. Are you willing to do what it takes?
That's only real question you have to answer.
If you want to know WHY you should do cardio more often, go back and
re-read part 2 in this series about the mathematics of calorie expenditure
(how to double and even triple your fat loss).
2. DO YOUR CARDIO FIRST THING IN THE MORNING ON AN EMPTY STOMACH
Morning cardio is still controversial in academic circles, but as far
as I'm concerned it's a closed case and the verdict is in: it works!
But don't take my word for it - examine the facts, try it and decide
for yourself. The argument in favor of fasted early morning cardio burning
more fat goes something like this:
1. After an overnight 8-12 hour fast, your body's stores of glycogen
are depleted and you burn more fat when glycogen is low.
2. Eating causes a release of insulin. Insulin interferes with the mobilization
of body fat. Less insulin is present in the morning; so more body fat
is burned when cardio is done in the morning.
3. There is less carbohydrate (glucose) in the bloodstream when you
wake up after an overnight fast. With less glucose available, you burn
more fat.
4. If you eat immediately before a workout, you have to burn off what
you just ate first before tapping into stored body fat (and insulin
is elevated after a meal.)
5. When you do cardio in the morning, your metabolism stays elevated
for a period of time after the workout is over. If you do cardioin the
evening, you burn calories during the session, but you fail to take
advantage of the "afterburn" effect because your metabolic
rate drops dramatically as soon as you go to sleep.
3. REDUCE YOUR CARBS, BUT DON'T CUT THEM OUT COMPLETELY AND DON'T
STAY ON LOW CARBS TOO LONG
I'm not a big fan of very low carb (VLCD) or "ketogenic" diets.
They make you feel like crap, you get "brain fog," you lose
muscle along with the fat, and your training intensity suffers from
lack of muscle glycogen (yes, even on a "cyclical" ketogenic
diet.) The worst side effect of the VLCD is one that few people think
of because it requires a long-term perspective (and most people are
caught up in short term results)...For the average non-competitor, it's
VERY difficult to keep off the fat you lose through low carb dieting.
VLCD's set you up for a BIG rebound.
Bodybuilders often use VLCD's successfully before contests, but bodybuilders
are extreme athletes with incredible discipline and willpower. I know
bodybuilders who are so "hard core" that they can eat nothing
but tuna fish out of the can for 12 weeks, then go back to a normal,
balanced diet, no problem - no bingeing. That's a rare feat.
Lots of people lose weight on very low carb diets. Very few keep it
off. I've seen people go on massive, uncontrollable binges of doughnuts,
pizza and Ben & Jerry's (Chunky Monkey!), gaining 30 pounds in less
than seven days after coming off a very low carb diet.
Folks, very low carb diets ain't the long term solution to fat loss.
To use one successfully without gaining everything back, you have to
know what you're doing and you must be extremely disciplined. Even then,
you should consider low carb diets as "last chance" diets
or short term "peaking" diets that are fraught with side effects
and disadvantages.
The "balanced" diet, which contains a wide variety of foods
includingabout 50% of the calories from fruits, vegetables, natural
starches and whole grains, is almost always the best way to permanently
lose fat and it's the way everyone should start. This is sometimes referred
to as a "baseline diet." All you have to do is exercise, pick
the right types of foods and eat less than you burn each day and you'll
lose fat.
Once you've mastered all the basics and you've reached the advanced
stage, THEN I have to admit, despite the potential pitfalls, low carb,
high protein diets can help accelerate fat loss even more.
Almost every competitive bodybuilder I've ever met uses some variation
of the reduced carb diet. Maybe not zero carbs; maybe not 100 grams
or less, but there's always some degree of carb restriction. Why? Because
lower carbs provide metabolic and hormonal advantages that high carb
diets do not. They also eliminate water retention and give the muscles
a hard, dry look.
Here are the 4 "advanced bodybuilder's secrets" to using
a low carb diet successfully:
1) Don't cut out all your carbs, just reduce them to a moderate level
so carbs and protein are balanced and carbs are not the predominant
macronutrient. 30% to 40% carbs should be low enough to get low carb
diet benefits without low carb diet side effects.
2) DON'T eat a lot of carbs at night, but DO eat starchy carbs early
inthe day.
3) Don't stay on any reduced carb diet more than 12-16 weeks. Always
go back to the balanced diet because it's healthier and more maintainable.
4) It you reduce your carbs substantially on ANY low carb program, eat
more carbs every 4th day or so. These are called "carb up"
days, or "re-feed" days. This will prevent your metabolism
from slowing down, keep your thryroid functioning optimally and maintain
your energy levels.
4. RAISE YOUR PROTEIN
If you bring your carbs down, something has to go up or your calories
would drop too low. That something is protein or fat (or both). Although
many mainstream low carb diets (such as Atkins) are actually high fat
diets, competitive bodybuilders usually keep the fats low (15% -20%
or less) and eat extremely large amounts of protein - sometimes as much
as 40 or 50% of their total calories!
Conventional bodybuilding and fat reducing wisdom says you should eat
one gram of protein per pound of body weight. This is good advice for
someone just starting to establish good habits and a baseline diet.
For a 172 pound man, that' s 172 grams a day, or approximately 30 grams
per meal spread over five to six meals.
On the bodybuilder's low carb "advanced diet," 40-50% of total
calories comes from protein. That's about 300 - 375 grams of protein
a day for most male bodybuilders and 175-225 grams for female bodybuilders.
Yes, I know this is too much protein. In fact, it's an obscene amount
of protein. However, (temporary) high protein diets are the way most
bodybuilders get so ripped. Eating very high protein speeds up your
metabolism due to the thermic effect of protein foods. All the top natural
bodybuilders in the high levels of the sport eat 300 - 400 grams a day
before contests and sometimes even more. I'm not necessarily recommending
this; (like they say on MTV's "Jackass" show, don't try this
at home!), I'm simply pointing out that this is how most bodybuilders
do it.
5. DROP ALL THE PROCESSED FOODS...YES, EVEN YOUR WHOLE WHEAT BREAD,
BOXED CEREALS, BAGELS AND PASTA
Sometimes I recommend whole grain bread, boxed cereals and pasta for
my clients and sometimes I don't. But that's not contradicting myself.
What I'm doing is creating totally individualized nutrition programs
for each person depending on their genetics, carb-sensitivity, experience
and goals.
A basic beginner or intermediate's diet should contain plenty of whole
grain products and more carbs than anything else. Certain people - in
particular, the "endomorph" or "carb sensitive"
body types, seem to gain fat rapidly when they eat processed carbs.
Advanced bodybuilders almost never eat any bread or pasta products before
competitions.
The rule of thumb on the advanced fat loss diet is never eat anything
man-made or processed. The ultimate test for whether a food is natural
or processed is to ask, "did this food come out of the ground or
off the tree/plant this way?" If the answer is no, it's processed
and you shouldn't eat it.
6. GET TOTAL CLARITY OF PURPOSE
To get super-lean, you have to DECIDE EXACTLY what you want and zero
in on it the way a guided missile locks onto its target.
The Great Napoleon Hill called it "definiteness of purpose."
Achievement expert Brian Tracy calls it "CLARITY." Most of
us simply know it as having goals, but I like the terms "clarity"
and "definiteness of purpose" better than goals. Vague goals
can be your downfall."I want to gain muscle and lose fat."
That's certainly a goal, but it's NOT definiteness of purpose. It's
a poor goal because it lacks clarity.
One of the biggest reasons people fail to move up to the advanced level
(especially the guys) is because they can't decide what they want. They
become victims of "flip flop syndrome."
Imagine a captain giving no commands and just allowing his ship to just
float around rudderless, drifting wherever thecurrents take it. Or imagine
the captain giving instructions to his crew like this: "go east;
no, go west; no, go east; no, go west again." Ridiculous right?
This is exactly what you're doing when you lack a specific goal or when
you want to gain muscle one day and lose fat the next (or do both at
the same time).
YOU HAVE TO MAKE UP YOUR MIND! "A made up mind attunes itself to
tremendous extra power," wrote Napoleon Hill. You must choose a
definite course, make a clear-cut, definite decision and follow through
with action in one specific direction.
When you have a clear-cut goal and you're totally committed to it, you
TAKE ACTION without thinking about it or forcing it. The process becomes
unconscious. If you lack clarity, you flounder and hesitate like a ship
with an indecisive captain.
7. FIVE MEALS A DAY FOR WOMEN, SIX MEALS A DAY FOR MEN....OR JUST
FUGGETABOUTIT!
Meal frequency is more important than most people realize. Most fitness
conscious people know about meal frequency, but they figure they can
"get by" with three "square" meals.
Comparing three "squares" to six meals a day is like comparing
a Porsche 911 Turbo to a Yugo. Yes, you can get some results with three
well constructed meals, but you'll never get anywhere near your full
potential (and it will take a lot longer!)
The benefits of frequent eating include:
a. Faster metabolic rate
b. Higher energy levels
c. Less storage of body fat due to smaller portions
d. Reduced hunger and cravings
e. Steadier blood sugar and insulin levels
f. More calories usable for muscle growth
g. Better absorption and utilization of nutrients
If you want to move up to the advanced level and get super-ripped, you
have to take advantage of every weapon in your fat burning arsenal.
That means five or six small meals a day, or else, as Al Pacino would
say, just fuggetaboutit!
8. GO EASY ON THOSE PROTEIN BARS AND MEAL REPLACEMENT SHAKES - FOCUS
ON REAL FOOD
My clients just HATE me when I take away their cookies n cream protein
bars and chocolate Myoplex, but when they're eating only one or two
food meals per day and chugging own four or five meal replacements and
wondering why they aren't getting leaner, I have to give them my lecture
on the thermogenic effects of whole foods versus liquid calories.
If you want to get lean, don't drink too many of your calories and lay
off those bars! I don't care what anybody says, whole food gets you
leaner. The weight loss industry is $33 billion and the supplement industry
alone is $13 billion. Anyone who advises you that "shakes get you
leaner than food" has their greedy little hands in the supplement
companies cookie jar somewhere, somehow, someway - trust me!
By the way, this advice applies to ALL liquid calories. Are you drinking
fruit juice by the quartful because it's "healthy?" Well,
that may be true; you may have a glassful of highly concentrated vitamins
and minerals, but if you want to turbo charge your metabolism, get rid
of your juicer and eat the fruits and vegetables whole and raw!
9. HIIT THE FAT!
High Intensity Interval Training, known as HIIT for short, is
the technique of alternating short periods of very high intensity aerobics
with periods of low to moderate intensity. HIIT has received a lot of
press lately as being superior to steady state exercise. In some ways,
it IS superior: HIIT burns a lot of calories during the workout, but
where it really shines is after the workout. Your metabolic rate
stays elevated longer after the workout is over than steady state cardio.
Here's an example of an ascending 21 minute HIIT workout on the Lifecycle
stationary bike:
Level 3: 5 minutes (warmup)
Level 5: 1 minute (work interval)
Level 4: 1 minute (recovery interval)
Level 6: 1 minute (work interval)
Level 4: 1 minute (recovery interval)
Level 7: 1 minute (work interval)
Level 4: 1 minute (recovery interval)
Level 8: 1 minute (work interval)
Level 4: 1 minute (recovery interval)
Level 9: 1 minute (work interval)
Level 4: 1 minute (recovery interval)
Level 10: 1 minute (work interval - maxed out)
Level 3: 5 minutes (cool down)
This is just an example of course; you'll need to adjust the workout
based on your fitness level. You can adjust the duration of the intervals,
the number of intervals performed and the difficulty level. You can
perform similar workouts on almost any piece of cardio equipment.
HIIT works, but it's not a panacea. What's most important for fat loss
is that you burn a lot of calories. If your intensity is high and you
sustain a STEADY STATE workout for a long duration, you're likely to
burn far more calories than a brief HIIT workout, even when the "afterburn"
effect from HIIT is factored in.
My best advice is to use BOTH forms of cardio training, focusing on
total calorie expenditure and leaning towards HIIT when you're short
on time or when you seem to have hit a plateau using conventional cardio.
10. DO YOUR CARDIO HARDER
Here's an idea that might shatter every paradigm you ever had about
cardio training. HIIT is very trendy these days, so if you're trying
to lose fat, and you're wondering whether you should do short duration
high intensity or long duration, low intensity, the answer might be
neither!
The most effective workout is long duration, high intensity! Push yourself
to the highest level you can hold steady for 30-45 minutes nonstop.
In other words, put the cell phone and magazine away and do a real workout.
Then watch your body get leaner BY THE DAY!
11. USE THE ADVANCED THREE DAY SPLIT ROUTINE
As a beginner, you started on a full body routine. When you graduated
to intermediate status, you moved to a two day split routine. Now you're
ready for the advanced three day split. This split is excellent for
genetically gifted bodybuilders with good recuperation abilities.
The split:
Day 1:Chest, Back, Abs
Day 2: Shoulders, Biceps, Triceps
Day 3: Quads, Hamstrings, Calves
The 2 on 1 off weekly schedule
Mon: Chest, Back, Abs
Tue: Shoulders, Biceps, Triceps
Wed: Off (cardio only)
Thu: Quads, Hamstrings calves
Fri: Chest, Back, Abs
Sat: Off (cardio only)
Sun: Shoulders, Biceps, Triceps
Pick up with Quads & Hams Monday and repeat the cycle. For extra recuperation, a more conservativeversion of this split is: 2 on 1 off, 1 on 1 off, 1 on 1 off.
Well,
that's it, you've learned every fat burning trick in the book from beginner
to advanced. Well, maybe not EVERY trick, but you now have enough tools
that - if you apply them diligently - you can get as lean as you want
to be.
Best
wishes on your new program.
Tom Venuto
Author Tom Venuto - at 3.7% Body fat
Burn Body Fat!