Find Your Abs Fitness / Health Blog

What is a safe, reasonable amount of weight to loose? We all want to loose weight fast and alot in a short time. But that is not reasonable, check out this article by Tom Venuto of Burn The Fat.

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By Tom Venuto
www.BurnTheFat.com

Why do you always hear that 2 pounds per week is the maximum amount of fat you should safely lose? If you train really hard while watching calories closely shouldn’t you be able to lose more fat without losing muscle or damaging your health? What if you want to lose fat faster? How do you explain the fast weight losses on The Biggest Loser? These are all good questions that I’ve been asked many times. With the diet marketplace being flooded every day with rapid weight loss claims, these questions desperately need and deserve some honest answers. Want to know where that 2 pounds per week rule comes from and what it really takes to burn more than 2 pounds of fat per week? Read on.

Why Only 2 Pounds Per Week?

The truth is, two pounds is not the maximum amount you can safely lose in a week. That’s only a general recommendation and a good benchmark for setting weekly goals. It’s also sensible and realistic because it’s based on average or typical results.

The actual amount of fat you can lose depends on many factors. For example, weight losses tend to be relative to body size. The more body fat you carry, the more likely you’ll be able to safely lose more than two pounds per week. Therefore, we could individualize our weekly guideline a bit by recommending a goal of 1-2 lbs of fat loss per week or up to 1% of your total weight. If you weighed 300 lbs, that would be 3 lbs per week.

Body Weight Vs Body Composition

Weight loss is somewhat meaningless unless you also talk about body composition; the fat to muscle ratio, as well as water weight. Ask any wrestler about fast weight loss and he’ll tell you things like, “I cut 10 lbs overnight to make a weight class. It was easy – I just sweated it off.”

You’ve also probably seen people that went on some extreme induction program or a lemon juice and water fast for the first week and dropped an enormous amount of weight. But once again, you can bet that a lot of that weight was water and lean tissue and in both cases, you can bet that those people put the weight right back on.

The main potential advantage of any type of induction period for rapid weight loss in the first week is that a large drop on the scale is a motivational boost for many people (even if it is mostly water weight).

Why do you hear so many diet and fitness professionals insist on 2 lbs a week max? Where does that number come from? Well, aside from the fact that it’s a recommendation in government health guidelines and in position statements of most nutrition and exercise organizations, it’s just math. The math is based on what’s practical given the number of calories an average person burns in a day and how much food someone can reasonably cut in a day.

How Do You Lose More Than 2 Pounds Per Week?

Can you lose more than 2 lbs of pure fat in a week? Yes, although it’s easier in the beginning. It gets harder as your diet progresses. How do you do it? My rule is, extraordinary results require extraordinary efforts. An extraordinary effort means a particularly strict diet, as well as burning more calories through training because you can only cut your calories so far from food before you’re starving and suffering from severe hunger.

Simply put, you need a bigger calorie deficit.

If you have a 2500 calorie daily maintenance level, and you want to drop 3 lbs of fat per week withe diet alone, you’d need a huge daily deficit of 1500 calories, which would equate to eating 1000 calories per day. You would lose weight rapidly for as long as you could maintain that deficit (although it would slow down over time). Most people aren’t going to last long on so little food and they often end with a period of binge eating. It’s not practical (or fun) to cut calories so much and in some cases it could be unhealthy.

The other alternative is to train for hours and hours a day, literally. People ask me all the time, “Tom, how is it possible for the Biggest Loser contestants to lose so much weight? Well first of all they’re not measuring body fat, only body weight. Then you have the high starting body weights and the large water weight loss in the beginning. After that, just do the math – they’re training hours a day so they’re creating a huge calorie deficit.

But without that team of trainers, dieticians, teammates, a national audience and all that prize money, do you think they’d be motivated and accountable enough to do anywhere near that amount and intensity of exercise in the real world? Would it even be possible if they had a job and family? Not likely, is it? It’s not practical to do that much exercise, and it’s not practical to cut your calories below a 1000 a day and remain compliant. If you manage to achieve the latter, it’s very difficult not to rebound and regain the weight afterwards for a variety of physiological and psychological reasons.

For Fast Fat Loss: Less Food Or Harder Training?

Trainers are becoming more inventive these days in coming up with high intensity workouts that burn a large amount of calories and really give the metabolism a boost. This can help speed up the fat loss within a given amount of time. But as you begin to utilize higher intensity workouts, you have to start being on guard for overtraining or overuse injuries.That’s why strict nutrition with an aggressive calorie deficit is going to have to be a major part of any fast fat loss strategy. Unfortunately, very low calorie dieting has its own risks in the way of lean tissue loss, slower metabolism, extreme hunger, and greater chance of weight re-gain.

My approach to long term weight control is to lose weight slowly and patiently and follow a nutrition plan that is well balanced between lean protein, healthy fats and natural carbs and doesn’t demonize any entire food group. To lose fat, you simply create a caloric deficit by burning more and eating less (keeping the nutrient density of those calories as high as possible, of course).

But to achieve the extraordinary goals such as photo-shoot-ready, super-low body fat or simply faster than average fat loss, while minimizing the risks, I often turn to a stricter cyclical low carb diet for brief “peaking” programs. I explain this method in chapter 12 of my e-book Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle (it’s my “phase III” or “competition” diet).

The cyclical aspect of the diet means that after three to six days of an aggressive calorie deficit and strict diet, you take a high calorie / high carb day to re-feed the body and re-stimulate the metabolism. Essentially, this helps reduce the starvation signals your body is receiving. It’s also a psychological break from the deprivation which helps improve compliance and prevent relapse.

The higher protein intake can help prevent lean tissue loss and curb the hunger. A high protein diet also helps by ramping up dietary thermogenesis. A high intake of greens, fibrous vegetables and low calorie fruits can help tip the energy balance equation in your favor as fibrous veggies are very low in calorie density and some of the calories in the fiber are not metabolizable. Healthy fats are added in adequate quantities, while the calorie-dense simple sugars and starchy carbs are kept to a minimum except on re-feed days and after (or around) intense workouts.

There’s No Magic, Just Math

In my experience, a high protein, reduced carb approach in conjunction with weights and cardio can help maximize fat loss – both in terms of increasing speed of fat loss and particularly for getting rid of the last of the stubborn fat. It helps with appetite control too. But always bear in mind that the faster fat loss occurs primarily as a result of the larger calorie deficit (which is easily achieved with sugars and starches minimized), not some type of “low carb magic.” If your diet were high in natural carbs but you were able to diligently maintain the same large calorie deficit, the results would be similar.

I’m seeing more and more advertisements that not only promise rapid weight loss, but go so far as saying that you’re doing it wrong if you’re losing “only” two pounds per week. “Why settle” for slow weight loss, they insist. Well, it’s certainly possible to lose more than two pounds per week, but it’s critically important to understand that there’s a world of difference between rapid weight loss and permanent fat loss.

It’s also vital to know that there’s no magic in faster fat loss, just math. All the new-fangled dietary manipulations and high intensity training programs that really do help increase the speed of fat loss all come full circle to the calorie balance equation in the end, even if they claim their method works for other reasons and they don’t mention calories burned or consumed at all.

Beware of The Quick Fix

Faster fat loss IS possible. My question is, are you willing to tolerate the hunger, low calories and high intensity exercise for that kind of deficit? Do you have the work ethic? Do you have the supreme level of dietary restraint necessary to stop yourself from bingeing and putting the weight right back on when that aggressive diet is over? Or would you rather do it in a more moderate way where you’re not killing yourself, but instead are making slow and steady lifestyle changes and taking off 1-2 lbs of pure fat per week, while keeping all your hard-earned muscle?

Remember, 1-2 pounds per week is 50-100 pounds in a year. Is that really so slow or is that an astounding transformation? You don’t gain 50-100 pounds over night, so why should anyone expect to take it off overnight? Personally, I think short-term thinking and the pursuit of quick fixes are the worst diseases of our generation.

If you want to be one of those “results not typical” fat loss transformations, it can be done and it may be a perfectly appropriate short-term goal for the savvy and sophisticated fitness enthusiast. It’s your call. But when you set your goals, it might be wise to remember that old fable of the tortoise and the hare, and buyer beware if you go shopping for a fast weight loss program in today’s shady marketplace.

Train hard and expect success,

Tom Venuto
Fat Loss Coach
www.BurnTheFat.com

About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a fat loss expert, lifetime natural (steroid-free) bodybuilder, independent nutrition researcher, freelance writer, and author of the #1 best selling diet e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle: Fat-Burning Secrets of The World’s Best Bodybuilders & Fitness Models (e-book) which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using secrets of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: www.burnthefat.com

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Makes sense doesn’t it. Loose the weight, keep it off, but do it safely and correctly.

Have a Great Day!

Till later,
Keep It Burning & Be Healthy

What the heck is Bodyweight Cardio?

It’s a fun fat burning workout program that you can do at the park or in the comfort of your own home without equipment.

If you’re sick and tired of boring cardio, or if you’ve even had enough of traditional interval training, these new bodyweight circuit programs can be used to replace both of those fat burning workout methods.

You can also replace your entire workout program with the bodyweight cardio program, because it combines bodyweight strength training with muscle endurance to give you a complete lean body workout.

After all, it often feels like there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Between work, family, appointments, and unexpected time-zappers, it’s hard finding time to squeeze in a quality workout.

And it’s even more difficult to workout when it involves navigating through rush hour traffic, dealing with annoying people and dirty machines in the gym, and following a program that isn’t making even the slightest dent in your belly fat.

It’s frustrating, exhausting, and most importantly, wastes your precious time!

What you need is a fat burning workout that you can do ANYWHERE – including the park, your backyard or even in a hotel room. With your busy lifestyle, you need a no-equipment workout that will help you burn fat as fast as interval training on a treadmill.

Fortunately, I’ve discovered the perfect program…

Turbulence Training Bodyweight Cardio 3

This no-equipment, anywhere, anytime workout system has already helped thousands of other men and women to burn fat and sculpt their bodies.

In this program, you’ll get:

- 4 challenging, ZERO equipment workouts that will tone your body in ALL the right places

- NEW exercises GUARANTEED to burn more calories all day long

- Fun workouts you can get done quickly

- Fat-blasting workouts you can SUBSTITUTE for interval training and cardio workouts (No treadmill? No problem!)

- PLUS, you’ll get the never-seen-before 5-Round “fat burning fight” workout that will ignite your fat-burning hormones

One of the most critical elements to your fat loss success is finding a workout program that fits into your lifestyle, and with the flexibility of Turbulence Training Bodyweight Cardio 3, things just got a whole lot easier.

Have a Great Day!

Till later,
Keep It Burning & Be Healthy

Have you ran across all the Turbulance Training programs and just not sure which one(s) is appropriate for you? This article just might help you choose.

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By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
www.TurbulenceTraining.com

With Turbulence Training for Fat Loss, there are a lot of workouts to choose from.

So why did I create so many fat burning programs?

Because you need to have variety in your workouts to keep on boosting your metabolism, and burning fat month after month.

If you did the same workout program for 3 months straight, your results would screech to a halt after 5 or 6 weeks.

With the Turbulence Training fat loss program, you will be able to change your workouts every 4 weeks. Each time you do that, you’ll kickstart your fat burning and your metabolism to a new level.

You must change your workout every 3-4 weeks.

Unfortunately, with so many Turbulence Training workouts, people often ask, “Which program should I start with?”. So here are the fat burning guidelines you need to get the most out of Turbulence Training no matter what your fitness level…

1) The Best Program for a Total BEGINNER

Overweight, sedentary beginners should start with the Introductory Program in the main Turbulence Training for Fat Loss manual.

If you haven’t been doing any exercise, you must start there. No exceptions.

The bodyweight exercises will prepare your muscles for all future workouts, and will prevent the overuse injuries people usually get when they start a high-volume cardio program (which is the worst thing an overweight person can do for weight loss).

2) The Best Program for an Experienced Lifter Who Has NOT Exercised in the Last 4 Weeks

Please start with the Intermediate Workout from the main Turbulence Training for Fat Loss program .

BUT NOTE: Do only ONE SET per exercise in each workout in the first week.

This will prevent you from being excessively sore from the exercises, which can occur when you have been away from exercise for so long.

3) The Best Program For ADVANCED Fitness & Fat Loss

I suggest you start with the “Original Turbulence Training Workout” from the main Turbulence Training for Fat Loss manual.

Work your way through each following three advanced workouts in the manual.

Upon completion of the Turbulence Training for Fat Loss workouts from the main manual, you can move onto the bonus workouts in this order:

A) If you are a women that wants to put the final touches on a female physique, use the Turbulence Training for Women workout.

B) If you are a man that wants to build muscle, use the TT for Muscle program.

C) If you want to keep burning fat, move to the DB-BW Fusion Workout.

D) Follow that with the 30-Day Advanced Fat Loss program.

E) And finally, finish with the Advanced Fusion Fat Loss 4-Week Program.

At any time you are traveling or want a break from the dumbell workouts, you can use the beginner, intermediate, or advanced bodyweight program from the Original Bodyweight 4-Week TT workout.

Sincerely,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training

About the Author

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit www.TurbulenceTraining.com

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Have a Blessed Day!

Till later,
Keep It Burning & Be Healthy

If you’re looking for a way to jack your fat-burning sky-high, here’s a great tip for you: focus on single ingredient meals, especially after 6:00pm.

Note: this is not a long-term strategy,nor is it something you should do every day. Aim for consuming 3-4 meals per week at first that contain only one ingredient.

Guess what ingredient that is?

–Protein.–

Eating hard proteins foods as I describe in “Simply Eat!” is a great way to get lean. You can do this using animal or vegetarian based protein foods.

The key is one ingredient. Consume your normal meal’s calories all in protein. This will help elevate your thermogenic rate and keep that fat burning.

If you select a second ingredient, select celery — and lots of it. Celery will fill you up and help expend even more calories in the fat-burning process.

For more tips on why “ingredients”, not calories, are the key to long-term fat-burning and success, go here now — Simply Eat Diet

This will tell you all you need to know.

Sincerely,

~terrie~

Have a Great Day!

Till later,
Keep It Burning & Be Healthy

Want to create your own Fitness website or anything else you may like? Check out SBI! (Site Build It!). Everything you need is pretty much included all in one place. You get an action plan to either read and/or watch and follow along to create your website. They have a great forum of folks always ready to help and much much more. Check this video out about this guy and why he loves SBI!

How much do you know about Interval Training? Read on and don’t make these mistakes…..

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By Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS

Interval training is not as good as *they* make it out to be.

Seriously.

By *they*, I mean the inexperienced personal trainers and generic fitness magazines who aren’t sure what they are talking about.

In fact, the advice they’ll give you can cause a LOT of problems with your interval training — including the BIG 3 I’m about to share with you…

After all, you’re probably already doing some form of interval training, but what kind of RESULTS are you getting?

Are you truly enjoying your workouts?

When is the last time you did an interval training workout where you thought ‘Wow, that was really fun!’?

Trust me, you CAN have fun, fast, proven, and powerful interval training workouts. I’ll show you how in a second, but first…

The 3 Problems With Interval Training

1) Intervals can stop working if you do the same workout over & over

Yes, you MUST switch up your interval training every 4-6 weeks.

If you continue to do the same interval workout, you’re results will slow down.

So if you’re doing intervals and you’re stuck at a fat loss plateau, then it is time for a new interval workout.

2) Intervals can be dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing

Jumping into an advanced interval program on the treadmill or with kettlebells is a bad idea. That’s why you need to start safely.

However, most people don’t realize that even beginners can do interval training if they get a professionally designed program.

Fortunately, there are beginner interval workouts in my new manual.

3) You don’t know what else to do for intervals

Okay, great, now you know that you need to do a different interval program every 4 weeks, but what are you to do?

Well, the great news is that there are dozens and dozens of ways to do intervals. You can do the 30-60 method, Adrenaline intervals, Tabata intervals, and even aerobic intervals (perfect for runners who want fat loss).

There is absolutely no reason you should ever be bored of interval training or wondering what type of intervals you should do next.

BUT WAIT…One more problem: You don’t have any fancy equipment!

Most people think you need a treadmill or bike to do interval workouts, but that can’t be further from the truth.

In the 31 Interval Training Workouts manual, you’ll discover how to do intervals with kettlebells, hill sprints, and even bodyweight exercises (including a NEW bodyweight cardio 5×5 circuit).

In fact, I’ve spent last summer in my “Turbulence Training lab” creating the Ultimate Interval Training Guide, featuring over 31 different interval workouts and replacements…

…including NO-equipment bodyweight cardio circuits, kettlebell intervals and “ladders”, hill sprint workouts, and much, much more.

The new TT 31 Interval Training Workouts Manual solves all of the BIG 5 problems with interval training and gives you the much needed variety for your fat burning workouts.

===> Interval Training Workouts <===

With these workouts you'll have the exact prescription for fast fat loss from intervals. No more of that generic "get on the treadmill and then go fast and then go slow" advice you get from uneducated members at the gym or at work.

This is the real deal.

You'll soon be boosting your metabolism with proven, powerful interval training workouts from one of the first trainers to introduce fat loss intervals to the world.

I've been using and preaching intervals for over 13 years now, and having trained thousand of clients - in person and online - I know exactly what works.

Fixing intervals to help you lose fat fast. Get all of those new interval workouts here.

===> Interval Training Workouts <===

Looking forward to your success story!

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Have a Great Day!

Till later,
Keep It Burning & Be Healthy

What makes a diet stop working? What causes a man or a woman go on a diet, full of good intentions, only to discard the diet in a few weeks or months?

Is it discipline? Frustration? A lack of effectiveness? According to nutrition and fitness author Jon Benson, it comes down to one word: “Love.”

“Love is the key to staying on a diet, a workout plan… anything that requires a change of lifestyle. It may seem obvious, but unless you actually ‘love’ the diet you are on, there is little chance of you staying on it for very long,” says Benson. “All diets require a change in how you look at food, how you consume food, and even how you think about food. The problem is most diets make too many demands of the dieter right off the bat. They tell you not to eat certain foods, sometimes making that a permanent restriction, while allowing perhaps a day per week to ‘overeat’ your favorite foods.”

“This is a disaster waiting to happen… and there is a much more balanced, healthy and effective way to diet than this,” states Benson.

Ten years ago Benson was a somewhat typical American male: Overworked, over-stressed, and overweight. Benson’s weight put him officially into the “obese” category and brought with it all the associated disease states such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high triglycerides (a type of blood fat) and of course massive amounts of “stress fat” around the belly and chest region.

When Benson decided enough was enough, he, like so many others who are truly ready to change their body and their life, went a bit overboard. “Oh sure, I ate the typical dry chicken, oatmeal with nothing on it, bland rice, and tried to never eat anything I actually enjoyed. Lucky for me I actually love chicken, but most of my diet was composed of what I call my “hate foods”, not my love foods — foods I truly enjoyed eating. But my thinking was just like that of the typical dieter: ‘If I eat (fill-in-the-blank favorite food) I’ll get fatter and never lose weight!’ How wrong I was… and after I started and stopped my diet at least ten times during a course of three years I finally got the message.”

Benson decided to use his nutritional knowledge and his background in body shaping to his advantage. “I started thinking, ‘Why not focus on progress rather than perfection?’ Again, this seems like common sense, but most dieters are focused on being perfect all the time. So I began applying some old body shaping tricks to my dietary plan. For example, I started cycling my calories. I would eat more on one day, less on another. This kept my metabolism guessing and never allowed my body to hit that dreaded ‘no more weight loss’ plateau.”

“Then I decided to push the envelope. I started experimenting with my favorite foods — pizza, pasta, and even desserts, all in reasonable quantities — on my higher-calorie food days. At first it didn’t work out too well. But then I used what Jon calls the “Caveman Principle” which involves strategically eating protein at specific times with a bit less food volume (and guess what, this allowed me to stop counting calories too!) and then including my favorite foods on specific days and, most important, specific times. Timing in this case is everything.”

Benson says this timing includes both time of day as well as eating higher-calorie, higher-fat, higher-carbohydrate foods only after exercise. “Specific exercise, done for short periods of time, can set the body up to receive additional calories and carbohydrates more effectively without storing them as body fat. You just have to have to know when to do it. Do it right and it works like a charm.”

“The end result was a loss of over 25 pounds of fat, and I never gave up eating my favorite foods… not once, but at least three times a week.”

A study conducted at the University of Phoenix could shed some light on why this approach to dieting may work better than traditional “calorie-counting” and overly-restrictive foods plans. People given the option of eating more frequently versus three meals a day ended up eating smaller servings of both healthy foods and, on some days, “junk foods” yet still lost more weight than the three-meals-per-day group. The evidence pointed toward the elevation of the metabolic rate through frequent eating and the psychological ease of being less restrictive regarding foods consumed.

“I believe food should be enjoyed, and in my opinion life is way too short to worry about eating perfect all the time,” says Benson. “When I crafted this approach into what is now known as “The Every Other Day Diet”, it became an overnight smash, and for good reason… it gave people a chance to have a life while they are losing weight. Let’s face it: Anyone can diet for a day or two, and that’s basically what The Every Other Day Diet asks of its users. Of course you cannot go hog wild on your Feed Days (the higher-calories favorite food meals) but just knowing your favorite foods are always just around the corner keeps you on the weight loss track.”

“The end result is a diet that just about everyone can fall in love with. Loving your diet is the key to dietary success, as I said. And I do happen to love me some pizza! I just use that pizza now to actually help me lose weight rather than gain it, all while staying in good health.”

Today, Jon Benson’s online best-seller, The Every Other Day Diet, can be purchased along with nine additional dieters bonuses, including the first 30 days of private email diet coaching free of charge, for only $39.97, and the program is guaranteed for a full 60 days. If you are not satisfied in any way, the company, Jon Benson Fitness LLC, will refund your money without questions or hassles.

Have a Great Day!

Till later,
Keep It Burning & Be Healthy

Do you have a slow metabolism, or wondering why your just not losing very much when your doing everything your supposed to? Read on and be enlightened…….

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By Tom Venuto
www.BurnTheFat.com

You may have heard (or, heh, realized), that it’s more difficult for women to lose fat than men. Immediately most people think it must be estrogen or hormonal issues. But perhaps the biggest factor is NOT hormones, but the simple fact that women are usually smaller and lighter than men.

When you have a smaller body, you have lower calorie needs. When you have lower calorie needs, your relative deficit (20%, 30% etc) gives you a smaller absolute deficit and therefore you lose fat more slowly than someone who is larger and can create a large deficit more easily.

For example, if my TDEE is 3300 calories a day (I’m 5′ 8″ and moderately to very active), then a 20% deficit is 660 calories, which brings me to 2640 calories a day. On paper, that will give me about 1.3 lbs of wt loss per week, rather painlessly, I might add.

If I bumped my calorie burn up or decreased my intake by another 340 a day, that’s enough to give me a 2 lbs per week wt loss.

That’s hardly a starvation diet (Ahhh, the joys of being a man). For smaller women, the math equation is very different.

If your total daily energy expenditure is only 1970 calories, even at a VERY high exercise level, then a 20% deficit for you is only 394 calories which would put you at 1576 calories a day for (on paper) only 8/10th of a lb of fat loss/wk.

If you pursued your plan to take a more aggressive calorie deficit of 30%, that puts you at a 591 calorie deficit which would now drop you down to only 1382 calories/day.

That’s starting to get fairly low in calories. However, you would still have a fairly small calorie deficit. In fact, I would get to eat almost twice as many calories as you and I’d still get almost twice the weekly rate of fat loss!

What this all means is that women who are petite or have a small body size are going to lose fat more slowly than larger women and much more slowly than men, so you cannot compare yourself to them.

It’s great to be inspired by our success stories, but if you’re looking for someone to model yourself after, choose one of our success stories of someone your body size and wt, rather than the folks who started 100 lbs overweight and were therefore easily dropping 3 lbs a week.

ONE POUND a week of fat loss is much more in line with a realistic goal for someone of a smaller body size. Overweight people can lose it faster. The best thing you can do is to be extremely consistent with your nutrition over time.

Suggestion #1: Weigh and measure all your food any time you feel you are stuck at a plateau, just to be sure. When your calorie expenditure is on the low side, you don’t have much margin for error.

Suggestion #2: Take your body comp measurements with a grain of salt, especially if you are using Bioelectric Impedance Analysis (BIA) scales (they are a bit wonky) and remember that body comp testing is seldom perfect. Pay attention to your circumference measurements, how your clothes fit and how you look in the mirror and in photos as well.

Suggestion #3: You might actually want to take fewer refeeds – once a week instead of every 4th day, or even just once every 10-14 days, so you can get a larger weekly deficit.

Suggestion #4: You may want to take 2 or 3 of your long cardio sessions on the treadmill and switch them to intense intervals or ANY other type of activity that has potential to burn more than 362 calories for an hour’s investment of time, or perhaps that equivalent calorie burn in less time. No need to add more days of cardio or more time – get the most out of the time you are already spending.

Suggestion #5: If you do intervals, don’t make the workout too brief (ignore the advertisements for those “4 minute miracle” workouts, etc.), or you may burn fewer calories than you were before! In fact, you might even try the method where you do HIIT for 15-20 min, then continue for another 30-40 at slow to medium intensity. Increasing total calories burned should be your focus.

Dropping only ONE pound per week (or less) may seem excruciatingly slow, but it’s actually the same type of thing I do. As a bodybuilder, I go from lean to extremely lean when I diet and I don’t expect more than a pound a week during contest cuts.

You are in a similar situation, even if not competing. Even if you get a half a pound a week fat loss, if you get that progress every week, that’s what you’re looking for – steady progress – even if slow.

It’s entirely possible that you HAVE been making progress, only very slowly. With the way water weight and glycogen levels can fluctuate (and lean mass may increase), a half a pound or pound fat loss in a week could have been easily masked… and therefore, missed. That’s one of the drawbacks of going by the scale alone.

Understand the calorie math I explained above and be patient, watching for slow and steady progress, paying special attention to the trend over time on your progress chart.

Keep after it – the persistence will pay, I promise!

Train hard and expect success,

Tom Venuto, author of
Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle
http://www.BurnTheFat.com

PS. You can learn about more fat loss strategies (including the details about the carb cycling method) inside my e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle. Learn more and see some of the inspiring before and after success stories at:
http://www.BurnTheFat.com

About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a fat loss expert, lifetime natural (steroid-free) bodybuilder, independent nutrition researcher, freelance writer, and author of the #1 best selling diet e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle: Fat-Burning Secrets of The World’s Best Bodybuilders & Fitness Models (e-book) which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using secrets of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: www.burnthefat.com

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Have a Great Day!

Till later,
Keep It Burning & Be Healthy

Are you calculating the 3500 calories = 1 pound formula, you may be missing something. Read on and learn if you are calculating it right.

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By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.BurnTheFat.com

Most fitness conscious people have heard that there are 3,500 calories in a pound of fat, so if you create a deficit of 3500 calories in a week, you lose a pound of weight. If you create a deficit of 7000 calories in a week, you lose two pounds, and so on. Right? Well, not so fast…

Dr. Kevin Hall, an investigator at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda has done some interesting research about the mechanisms regulating human body weight. He recently published a new paper in the International Journal of Obesity that throws a wrench in works of the “3500 calories to lose a pound” idea.

Some of the equations in his paper made my head hurt, but despite the complex math he used to come to his conclusions, his article clearly prompts the question, “3500 calories to lose a pound of WHAT?” His paper also contained a lot of simple and practical tips you can use to properly balance your caloric intake with output, fine tune your calorie deficit and help you retain more muscle when you diet.

Below, I’ve distilled some of the information into a simple bullet-point summary that any non-scientist can understand. Then I wrap up with my interpretation of how you can apply this data in your own fat loss program:

Calculating the calories required to lose a pound and fine-tuning your caloric deficit

* 3500 calories to lose a pound has always been the rule of thumb. However, this 3500 calories figure goes back to research which assumed that all the weight lost would be adipose tissue (which would be ideal, of course).
* But as we all know (unfortunately), lean body mass is lost along with body fat, which would indicate that the 3500 calorie figure could be an oversimplification.
* The amount of lean body mass lost is based on initial body fat level and size of the calorie deficit.
* Lean people tend to lose more lean body mass and retain more fat.
* Fat people tend to lose more body fat and retain more lean tissue (revealing why obese people can tolerate aggressive low calorie diets better than already lean people)
* Very aggressive low calorie diets tend to erode lean body mass to a greater degree than more conservative diets.
* whether the weight loss is lean or fat gives you the real answer of what is the required energy deficit per unit of weight loss
* The metabolizable energy in fat is different than the metabolizable energy in muscle tissue. A pound of muscle is not 3500 calories. A pound of muscle yields about 600 calories.
* If you lose lean body mass, then you lose more weight than if you lose fat.
* If you create a 3500 calorie deficit in one week and you lose 100% body fat, you will lose one pound.
* But if you create a 3500 calorie weekly deficit and as a result of that deficit, lose 100% muscle, you would lose almost 6 pounds of body weight! (of course, if you manage to lose 100% muscle, you will be forced to wear the Dieter’s Dunce cap)
* If you have a high initial body fat percentage, then you are going to lose more fat relative to lean, so you may need a larger deficit to lose the same amount of weight as compared to a lean person.
* Creating a calorie deficit once at the beginning of a diet and maintaining that same caloric intake for the duration of the diet and after major weight loss fails to account for how your body decreases energy expenditure with reduced body weight.
* Weight loss typically slows down over time for a prescribed constant diet (the “plateau”). This is either due to the decreased metabolism mentioned above, or a relaxing of the diet compliance, or both (most people just can’t hack aggressive calorie reductions for long).
* Progressive resistance training and or high protein diets can modify the proportion of weight lost from body fat versus lean tissue (which is why weight training and sufficient protein while on calorie restricted diets are absolute musts!).

So, based on this info, should you throw out the old calorie formulas?

Well, not necessarily. You can still use the standard calorie formulas to figure out how much you should eat, and you can use a 500-1000 calorie per day deficit (below maintenance) as a generic guideline to figure where to set your calories to lose one or two pounds per week respectively (at least that works “on paper” anyway).

Even better however, you could use this info to fine tune your caloric deficit using a percentage method and also base your deficit on your starting body fat level, to get a much more personalized and effective approach:

15-20% below maintenance calories = conservative deficit
20-25% below maintenance calories = moderate deficit
25-30% below maintenance calories = aggressive deficit
31-40% below maintenance calories = very aggressive deficit (risky)
50%+ below maintenance calories = semi starvation/starvation (potentially dangerous and unhealthy)

(Note: According to exercise physiologists Katch & Mcardle, the average female between the ages of 23 and 50 has a maintenance level of about 2000-2100 calories per day and the average male about 2700-2900 calories per day)

Usually, we would suggest starting with a conservative deficit of around 15-20% below maintenance. Based on this research, however, we see that there can be a big difference between lean and overweight people in how many calories they can or should cut.

If you have very high body fat to begin with, the typical rule of thumb on calorie deficits may underestimate the deficit required to lose a pound. It may also be too conservative, and you can probably use a more aggressive deficit safely without as much worry about muscle loss or metabolic slowdown.

If you are extremely lean, like a bodybuilder trying to get ready for competition, you would want to be very cautious about using aggressive calorie deficits. You’d be better off keeping the deficit conservative and starting your diet/cutting phase earlier to allow for a slow, but safe rate of fat loss, with maximum retention of muscle tissue.

The bottom line is that it’s not quite so simple as 3,500 calories being the deficit to lose a pound. Like lots of other things in nutrition that vary from person to person, the ideal amount of calories to cut “depends”…

Note: The Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle program not only has an entire chapter dedicated to helping you calculate your exact calorie needs, it was designed very specifically to keep a fairly conservative approach to caloric deficits and to maximize the amount of lean tissue you retain and minimize the amount of metabolic adaptation that occurs when you’re dieting. The approach may be more conservative, and the fat loss may be slower, but it has a better long term track record… You can either lose weight fast, sacrifice muscle and gain the fat back like 95% of people do, or lose fat slow and keep it off forever like the 5% of the people who know the secrets. The choice is yours. For more information, visit: www.burnthefat.com

References:

Forbes GB. Body fat content influences the body composition response to nutrition and exercise. Ann NY Acad Sci. 904: 359-365. 2000
Hall, KD., What is the required energy deficit per unit of weight loss? Int J Obesity. 2007 Epub ahead of print.
McArdle WD. Exercise physiology: Energy, Nutrition, and Human performance. 4td ed. Williams & Wilkins. 1996.
Wishnofsky M. Caloric equivalents of gained or lost weight. Am J Clin Nutr. 6: 542-546.

About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS) and a certified personal trainer (CPT). Tom is the author of “Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using methods of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: www.burnthefat.com

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Well what did you think? Does this make sense? Remember depending on what type of shape you’re all ready in may make a difference in the formula.

Have a Great Day!

Till later,
Keep It Burning & Be Healthy

Belly fat is just so hard to get rid of, here are some tips try especially if your short on time.

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By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Turbulence Training for Fat Loss

I often get asked, “What’s the best way to burn fat and lose my belly?” People want to know if aerobics is better than strength training, or if traditional cardio exercise is better than intervals.

Well, to say I’ve done them all would be an understatement.

With over 15 years experience helping others, training myself, training for sports, spending countless hours in the gym, AND actually conducting laboratory research studies on different exercise methods, I’m pretty confident in knowing what works and what does not.

But first of all, I want to frame my responses. I’m going to talk about what works for people that have a limited amount of time to exercise, mostly because I expect your readers don’t have 90 minutes per day to devote to a workout, unlike the typical audience of a fitness magazine.

That’s why there is a huge disconnect between some of the information found in magazines and the ability of the reader to apply it to their lives.

We just don’t have 6-8 hours per week for exercise, nor do we need it. If you’re a triathlete, you might need that, but not someone that just wants to lose fat and gain muscle.

Having said all that, the bottom line for getting a better body is…

Use bodyweight exercises to warm-up, strength training supersets to build muscle, and then finish your workout with interval training to burn fat in a short amount of time. I’ve structured my system so that you are in and out of the gym in 45 minutes, three times per week.

You’ll do 5 minutes of bodyweight exercises to warm-up. This is a much more efficient approach than spending 5 minutes walking on a treadmill, which really doesn’t prepare you for anything except more walking on a treadmill.

Then we move into the strength training supersets, where we use two exercises performed back to back with minimum rest between each. This cuts our workout time, while still giving us maximum results. We only need 20 minutes for this, and we’ll use basic exercises, and sometimes even more bodyweight exercises, depending on the client’s goal for muscle building.

And finally, we’ll do 18 minutes of interval training. A warm-up, followed by six short intervals at the appropriate fitness level for the client, interspersed with short periods of low-intensity recovery. Finish with a cool-down. And that’s the workout. Again, about 45 minutes total.

Compare that to what most people do, which is run, jog, cycle or use the cardio machines for 45 minutes straight. Sure, that will burn calories, but it doesn’t build a better body.

In fact, there are a few “dark sides” to long slow cardio, including less-than-optimal results, the potential for overuse injuries, and it is an inefficient form of exercise. If you only have 30-45 minutes for your workout and you spend it all on a cardio machine, when are you going to train the rest of your muscles and sculpt a better body?

So the best way to burn belly fat is with a combination of strength training and interval training. It’s fast, it works, and it’s fun!

About the Author

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit Turbulence Training for Fat Loss

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Have a Great Day!

Till later,
Keep It Burning & Be Healthy

Turbulence Training for Fat Loss

Exercising with a kettleball/kettlebell is great for your abs, glutes, arms and more. But because you are swinging it around it’s very important to exercise with it correctly, so here’s a good article on just that.

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The Kettlebell Swing: One Exercise To Rule Them All
By: Chris Lopez, CSCS, RKC, CTT
Author, The TT Kettlebell Revolution

With the recent results of this study…

J Strength Cond Res. 2011 Dec 28. MECHANICAL DEMANDS OF KETTLEBELL SWING EXERCISE. Lake JP, Lauder MA.

…Which proved that a simple exercise like kettlebell swings can be just as, if not more effective for your body that performing a barbell squat, many exercisers are now becoming more and more curious about kettlebell training and how effective it can be when it comes to losing fat and gaining muscle.

Kettlebell Swings provide a healthy alternative to squatting. Healthier because of the decreased impact they have on your joints AND the almost ZERO compression factor that kettlebell swings have on your spine.

This means that 1) Exercisers can swing a kettlebell safely without the fear of hurting their already sensitive joints and 2) Exercisers can safely use a kettlebell swing as a means to strengthen their glutes, hamstrings and abs without the fear that they may cause injury to themselves.

Kettlebell Swings 101

With Kettlebell Swings being the most popular of all the kettlebell exercises – and the one that seems to have the most benefit – here’s how the swing exercise breaks down into 3 easy steps…

1) The HIKE PASS. Start with the kettlebell on the ground a few inches away from your feet. You should make sure that your toes are just slightly flared are your weight is evenly distributed through your feet. Now, bending at your hip and arching your back while pushing your rear end back and slightly bending your knees, reach forward and grab the kettlebell.

You want to imagine that you’re an (American) Football Player about to “hike pass” the ball to the quarterback behind you.

As you grab the kettlebell, make sure that your shoulders “stay in their sockets”. That is, make sure that your shoulders stay down and back and that they don’t shrug up to where your ears are.

Now, to start the Kettlebell Swing exercise, throw the kettlebell between your knees while maintaining your arched back.

2) The HIP HINGE. As the kettlebell is “thrown” between your knees, it is very important to maintain an arched back and to stay flexed at the hips. Hingeing at the hips is what creates momentum that allows you to generate power when you explode forward.

As the kettlebell reaches its furthest distance between your knees, start the upswing by standing up straight, keeping the arch in your back, BUT squeezing your glutes in the process.

You are not trying to lift the kettlebell with your arms, but instead, create “float” in the bell where your arms are just along for the ride.

This float is created by the hingeing and the forceful straightening of the hips.

If you do this right, you’ll need no upper body effort whatsoever because your powerful hips with take care of “carrying” the kettlebell through the entire exercise.

3) The ROOT. The top position or “the finish” of the kettlebell swing requires that you stand-up completely straight with your shoulders relaxed, your butt squeezed and your abs tight.

It’s tempting to lean back at the top of the exercise, but keep in mind that this is the wrong approach.

Instead, you want to think of driving your energy through 2 places: 1) Through the floor as you ROOT yourself into the ground. If you actually get “tuned in” to your swing you can litterally feel the ground give you energy back. And 2) Direct your energy through the kettlebell out to the horizon. That is, feel the bell spring forward and imagine launching it towards the horizon in front of you (obviously don’t let go of the kettlebell though!).

With the ROOT, you are creating a perfect 90-degree right angle between your arms and the rest of your body.

To continue the swing exercise, you are now just combining Steps 2 and 3 continuously for the required reps.

Remember to forcefully drive your hips back to the Hip Hinge position and make sure that you are keeping the arch in your back and only slightly bending your knees (it’s NOT a squat, afterall) and then squeezing your glutes and keeping your abs tight and your arms relaxed as you ROOT yourself into the ground.

Mastering the kettlebell swing is a versatile addition to your exercise arsenal and is a sure fire way to help you burn unwanted belly fat and build rock hard muscle.

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For more information and excersises with the kettleball check out The TT Kettlebell Revolution.

Have a Great Day!

Till later,
Keep It Burning & Be Healthy