Fat Loss Tips For Ripped Abs
GymBuddiez | March 8, 2009Natural Bodybuilding & Fitness magazine recently asked me for 3 of my best fat loss secrets. Since most times the magazines just don’t have enough space to run my full tips, I thought I’d give you a more detailed explanation of my secrets here (plus a few extra bonus tips that I didn’t send to the magazine).
Before I get started, let me vent a little. The information in this article is cutting edge, it is real, and it is not commonly known. If you take it in, and utilize it, you will be able to radically change your body and your life in as little as 12 weeks.
From what I can see from the literally thousands of people that have come to me for help is that most are confused on exactly what works and what does not work for fat loss. They have too much information. I see the most progress with my own physique, as do my trainers, and my clients when we take information away, and get back to the basics. I believe that no one is fat and lazy when it comes to fitness and fat loss. Every one wants it, every one tries, but when you keep trying over and over again with the wrong strategies, it’s easy to just say “what’s the use.”
But when some one tries with the right strategies on nutrition, resistance & cardio vascular training, goal setting, positive mental mindset, and social support, magic happens. Many times people ask me what the secret is to getting my body-fat % under 5% (my body is most comfortable around 15% body fat) at the age of 43. I tell them that there is no secret. I simply do the basic simple strategies that I have outlined in my book “The Fatloss Lifestyle” to the 100th degree. It’s as simple as that.
But here is the key. Even I do not live “The Fatloss Lifestyle” to the 100th degree all the time. You see, my day is just like yours with things coming at me from all directions. Plus, I like to have fun with my family once in a while. Things like staying up really late, eating junk food at the movies, going to a club and having a few drinks and dancing with my wife, going to the ball game and having a beer and a brawt.
So here is the key, picking a dead line to peak your fitness for once, twice, or three times throughout the year. For me, it is to stand on stage and compete against other professional drug-free for life bodybuilders once or twice a year. The 12 weeks before the contest, I sacrifice some of the fun stuff and focus on the fitness lifestyle. It is important to have something to get ready for, something that excites you.
Maybe it is a wedding, a vacation or a class or family reunion. Or you can hire a professional photographer and do some glamour shots. It does not matter what it is, just pick something that excites you to get ready for once or twice per year. And for the next 12 weeks before your deadline live the “Fatloss Lifestyle” to the 100th degree. That is the only fat loss secret that I know of. Do not underestimate its power because of its simplicity.
Another note that has radically helped me, my trainers, my one on one clients, and my e-book clients is to limit your information and keep things simple. The best chance that you have at doing that is to have a guideline or blueprint. For that I highly suggest my system at www.fatlosslifestyle.com. I am not going to sit here and tell you that I know everything about fitness, fat loss, and longevity. But what I can tell you is that over 500 people have graduated from my system and are now training themselves. And the major reason is that I simplified everything for them and got them excited. Once they read my book they new exactly how to exercise (weights and cardio), how to eat, how to set goals, how to habitually think positive, and how to use a support group of others that have gone through the same trials and tribulations before them.
Let me vent a little here again. What I see with the majority of other fitness and fat loss guru’s on the internet is that they give away about 7 bonus’s with their program. Each bonus is some other trainer’s tips on fitness and fat loss. So what you get with their program is a lot of maybe good ideas and tips from 7 different view points. While each and every one of them might have good information included, the main thing that you will get with their program is confused. So I highly suggest that you get one simple plan of action at a time, and focus on that strategy for 12 weeks.
Secret #1 – Focus on burning carbohydrates, not fat, during your fat-loss workouts.
Sounds backwards, right? But not when you look at how routines that have been proven to be effective are structured. Remember that “The FATLOSS LIFESTYLE” focuses on resistance training and cardio training that are both performed in a High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), meaning 60-90 seconds of intense exertion followed by a 60-90 second rest. Just long enough to catch your breathe and slow your heart rate down. By training this way we are using carbohydrates as the main source of energy. So you see, the most effective fat loss work-outs use maximum efforts (heart rate may peak at 95 – 100% of your maximum) for short duration and thus forces the body to use carbohydrates for fuel.
I have no interest in you trying to train in your "target heart rate zone" for fat burning (aka – the fat burning zone, 55 – 65% of your maximum heart rate) like the text books teach. If you want to get the most results in the least amount of time, focus on burning carbohydrates, not fat.
Why do my fat loss workouts and those of fitness trainers “in the know focus” on burning carbohydrates rather than fat? In order to burn more calories after the workout, that’s why. When you exercise with intervals and heavy resistance training, your body uses more calories in the hours after exercise than it would if you did traditional cardio and lifted lighter weights. Once you are done with a “fat burning zone” work-out, you are done burning calories. PERIOD.
When you are done with a high intensity interval resistance or cardio work-out your body fights for 3-6 hours to get back down to homeostasis. During that time frame your body burns more calories than you normally burn. This is where the advantage comes in between slow go and high intensity interval. It is not nearly so important where the body gets the energy for the work-outs (from the fat cells for slow go “fat burning” or from glycogen stored in the muscles and the liver for high intensity interval) as it is about the total calorie usage.
Plus another advantage that you receive from HIIT style training is you train your body to become an energy storing / fat burning machine. This is something that you must understand, it is huge. And you will rarely ever hear this info in the fitness world.
Two points that are important to understand;
You see when you eat carbs your body breaks them down into glucose and stores them in your liver and your muscles. Glucose is to your body what gasoline is to your car. It’s your fuel. When you eat too many carbs and calories then your glycogen stores in your muscles and liver become full, then the body has no other choice then to take the excess and store it in the fat cells as fat.
Your body uses glycogen stored in the liver and the muscles for anaerobic (not needing air / high intensity for short duration) exercise. Things like high intensity cardio intervals or interval type resistance exercises. That’s why I incorporate those types of exercises in the “Fatloss Lifestyle” exercise library on page 256. In fact there are 34 exercise of this type there with four pictures per exercise so you can master them all quickly.
When you utilize anaerobic exercises into your program, you become very time efficient. In fact, I and all the graduates of my program only exercise 3-5 hours per week. And that is including weights, and cardio.
When you use aerobic (needing air / low intensity for long duration) exercise in your program your body can not use your glycogen stores in the muscle and the liver, it must use fat stored in the fat cells.
So finally here is the second advantage to doing high intensity short duration interval style training a majority of the time. The first is because of the extra calories that are burned in the 4-6 hours after the session is over.
The second is because the majority of benefits from exercise comes from how the body adapts after the exercise. So after a very intense interval style training session, your body says “Wow, it’s a good thing I had that glycogen stored in the liver and the muscles for that short duration high intensity work-out.” And what it will do is store more of the future carbs that you eat into those glycogen stores to be better prepared for future intense interval work-outs, essentially increasing the size of those glycogen storages. So that means less fat stored and more glycogen available for work-outs. That is huge. Your body adapts and becomes energy storage, fat burning machine.
When your body stores fat, it just sits there. But when your body stores glycogen, it burns calories just sitting there. It is like lean mass. Therefore it raises your BMR (how many calories your body burns in a day).
We are selling books very fast. We are in four different countries now and very close to selling out of the free access to our 24/7 on-line support forum with direct access to me through my head trainer Cordell. We only have a few more spots so if you have been thinking about changing your waistline, lifestyle, and life with my system, you should go on over to http://fatlosslifestyle.rxsportz.com now.
