Working-Out and Fat Loss

Ever wonder why some people can exercise religiously for months and not lose any weight?

Every now and again I run into this type of woman at the gym. She is on the elliptical everyday at 5:30 AM, and when I'm leaving the gym at 6:30 AM, she's still on the elliptical.

When I'm back in the gym around 7 PM, she's there again too, running through all the weight machines.

The problem is, no matter how hard she pushes herself she's still not losing weight. The answer to her weight loss goals is in her nutrition plan.

To get the best results out of any program you must not only have a great exercise plan, but a great nutrition plan as well.

And a new study has shown us just how important nutrition is for fat loss.

In this study, women exercised on a treadmill until they burned a set number of calories. The women were then asked to guess how many calories they burned during the workout.

The subjects were also told to eat at a buffet and try to eat the same amount of calories that they had just burned during the workout. Think you could do that?

Shockingly, the researchers found that the women over-guessed how many calories they burned by 300 to 400%! And, they ate double to triple the amount of calories that they had actually burned during the exercise!

Are you undoing all the benefits of your workout by eating too much?

Are you giving yourself "free reign" nutritionally just because you worked out?

It's a common myth in the fitness industry that you can eat anything you want after your workout and it won't become fat. It is also a myth that you need large amounts of calories in order to "recover" from your workout (a very small amount will do).

When left to eat as you please, your mind and body will try and convince you to overcompensate and eat more than you normally would.

So don't shoot yourself in the foot and waste all that hard exercise by eating too many calories, especially in your "post workout meal".

Always remember that the best approach to getting the body you want and the performance you desire is by combining a solid exercise program with a sound nutrition plan.

BP

Fasting Diet, Circuit Training

The Two Types of Food

In the last couple of weeks I've been writing about the benefits of interval training for weight loss and athletic conditioning over at grrlathlete.

So now it’s only fitting that I move on to what I consider the most important piece of the puzzle that you need to get in shape, lose weight and improve your fitness - Nutrition.

Nutrition is discussed by just about every magazine writer, talk show host, fitness expert and guru in the industry. Just about everyone and their dog can quote some type of scientific research, touting the benefit of eating one certain type of diet or another, or ramble on about the scientific reasons why some foods are better for you than others.

In my opinion, all of these scientific intellectual ramblings may actually be part of the reason why people still don't eat well.

Let's face it, when it comes to understanding what's good for us and what's not, "science" is confusing the heck out of us!

Because the science of nutrition seems to involve flip-flopping your opinions every other day, the best approach to eating healthy is to look at nutrition with the most simplified technique possible. In your mind think about what your current goals are, whether it is sports performance, weight loss, weight gain or overall health, identify your goals.

Once you have your goals firmly in your head, think of a food, any food.

Now ask yourself "Will this food move me closer to my goals or farther away from my goals?". If you believe it will help you move closer to your goal, then eat it.

If you believe it will actually move you away from your goals, then don't eat it, or at least eat it moderately and in very small portions.

The key to this technique is that you have to believe that there are no "neutral" foods. It is either good or bad.

The trouble with eating healthy is that nobody wants to think about it because nutrition is perceived to be a very complex and confusing topic.

But when we don't think about it, we eat what is put in front of us, and when we eat what is put in front of us, chances are we over eat, and eat the wrong foods.

However, when you simplify the problem down to "good food, bad food" it becomes very easy to "think nutrition". It is not complex or confusing. It simply returns to very fundamental wisdom that your grandmother probably told you when you were a child. Gravitate towards fruits and vegetables and lean protein, and be weary of anything processed (generally foods that you buy in a bag or in a box).

So forget all the debates and all the fads. It doesn't matter whether or not aspartame is good for you. Look at that diet cola and ask yourself if it will move you closer to your goals. If the answer is no, then go get a sparkling water, or green tea or any other drink that you think will move you towards your goals.

By following this principle it makes it easier to "think" nutrition. Every time you put some food in front of you ask the simple question "good or bad" and then act accordingly.

You will find that by simplifying nutrition down to this simple equation you can make dramatic improvements in the way you eat, and avoid a lot of the confusion that is out there.

Nutrition really is the missing piece of the puzzle for any fitness program, and from our experience, when you combine interval training and really good success measurements (like the ones we outlined last week) with a solid nutrition program, amazing things can happen in very little time.

Brad

How to Beat Chocolate Cravings

I've been doing a lot of reading about Chocolate lately.

The history of chocolate is really quite amazing. The making of chocolate traces back to the Mayans and the Aztecs, who worshiped chocolate for its health and anti-fatigue benefits as far back as 2,600 years ago.

In fact, I think Cocoa roughly translates into "food of the gods".

Nowadays, chocolate is often thought of as a nutritional "evil". No matter how hard we try, most of us just can't resist chocolate. Many of the women I work with have tried to quit cold turkey, and then end up 'breaking down' and eating more chocolate then a kid on Halloween night.

Even when I was training for a bodybuilding contest and consuming 3-4 chocolate flavored protein shakes (I don't do this anymore), I still broke down several times and had some chocolate!

It seems that no matter how hard we try, a good chocolate craving can derail even the best diet plan.

Unless of course you have learned the secret to beating your chocolate cravings...

The one way that I have discovered can help people beat their chocolate addiction is by becoming a chocolate snob.

You can have chocolate while dieting, in fact, you can have a little bit of chocolate everyday, it just has to be the good stuff.

By good stuff I mean real dark chocolate, or anything over 70% cocoa mass.

Did you now that when scientists refer to the health benefits of chocolate, they aren't talking about your grocery store check-out line variety of chocolates, they are talking about the good stuff.

Chocolate is rich in antioxidants and polyphenols, rivaling red wine and green tea in these areas. Not only that, but chocolate also contains healthy fat. I bet you didn't know that much of the fat in chocolate is oleic acid, the same healthy fat that is in olive oil!

Problem is, these health benefits are highest in the good dark stuff. When it comes to those check-out line chocolates, the more diluted the chocolate, the less antioxidants and polyphenols it contains.

Here's the trick with real dark chocolate, its bitter. It takes a while to get used to how bitter it is. But, because its so bitter, it only takes a little bit to really conquer your chocolate craving, so you end up eating less.

Also, as an added bonus, once you've developed a taste for the good stuff, you learn to love the bitterness, and your typical check-out line variety simply tastes like chocolate flavored wax. They're just not appealing anymore.

So if you want to beat your chocolate cravings, start by eating a little bit of the good stuff. It will help you eat less chocolate, get all the health benefits, and keep you from going back to the check-out line varieties.

BP

Fasting Diet, Circuit Training

The "Secret" to Fat Loss

Can I eat carbs with fats if I am dieting?

Which fats are better, monounsaturated fats or polyunsaturated fats?

Is it true that I shouldn't eat after 7 pm?

How much protein do I have to eat to lose weight?

I get one of these questions at least once a day over at www.grrlathlete.com. When it comes to dieting, people are just plain confused. And no wonder, if you search "dieting" on amazon.com you will find that there is over 14,000 books available on dieting. Each with their own set of rules and gimmicks.

In last Friday's health section of the Toronto Star, Megan Ogilvie wrote a very interesting article about the amount of diets that are out there.

According to the article, Megan has been on 55 diets in the last 56 weeks. She has had varying degrees of success with each diet. According to Megan, the key problem with diets is that "Unless you are an expert in nutrition you could easily fall for a diet fallacy".

So true .

Megan then goes on to say that, "diets that promote health weight loss- and prescribe it in a healthy way are the minority in this mega-business".

Again, very true.

The fundamental "problem" with diets is that they all work in theory. Anytime you lower your calorie intake below your daily need, you will lose weight. And, we know from previous research that if you are lifting weights while on ANY of these diets you will not lose any muscle mass.

Therefore, the very best diet for you is the one that fits your lifestyle and that you can stay on for an extended period.The more limited the diet is, and the more crazy rules you have to follow, the more likely you are to fail.With this in mind, here are my five golden rules of dieting.

1. Lower you calories to a level where you will see 1-2 pounds of weight loss every one to two weeks. Typically, this is about 500 to 750 Calories below what you would normally consume.

2. Eat as many fruits and vegetables as you possibly can. Fruits and veggies are the cornerstone for any successful diet or nutrition plan.

3. Eat foods you like. Let's face it. If you don't like oatmeal, then trying to follow a diet that calls for oatmeal for breakfast is going to be painful. Pick foods you like, just make sure the portions are correct.

4. Lift weights to preserve muscle mass. We know from research that the number one way to ensure you are burning as much fat as possible is by resistance training. Our Turbulence Training program has been designed to ensure you burn as much fat as possible by helping you preserve muscle mass. You can check out Turbulence Training HERE.

5. Record what you eat. I know you are probably sick of hearing me say this, but I believe recording what you eat is the key to successful weight loss.A good diet is not a sprint, it's a marathon. Most likely, you are going to be dieting for anywhere between 6 and 12 weeks, sometimes much longer. It is vitally important to your success that your diet is realistic, and built around foods you like.

Ignore diet fads. They will only cause you to become frustrated.

BP

PS- You can read Megan's article HERE

Fasting Diet, Circuit Training

Lessons from Ottawa - Nutrition For Fat Loss

I just spend the last couple days helping out at a hockey skills camp in Ottawa, Canada. Now that I'm back, I'd like to share some observations with you.

The key thing that I noted from this years camp is that the athlete with the lowest body fat is rarely the athlete with the best conditioning. In fact, if you were to rank the athletes I was working with last weekend, the leanest most shredded athlete wouldn't have even been in the top three for conditioning.

It is true that you can have incredible conditioning, whether it is aerobic or anaerobic, and not be "shredded".

Now, I’m not saying that body composition isn't important in sports. If you take the really well conditioned athlete and melt twenty pounds of fat off him or her, they become an even better athlete. They will still be highly conditioned, only now they will have less weight that they have to move around with them.

That's were nutrition comes into play. Nutrition is the key to losing body fat, especially for highly trained athletes.

If you are already training for two or three hours a day on almost every day of the week, adding in some more exercise with the hopes of losing weight may just not be possible and will definitely not be effective.

While most people understand the importance of keeping a workout log, I think that keeping a nutrition log is far more important for an anyone who is trying to lose some fat.

Just like with a workout log, a nutrition log allows you to look back on the last week, month or year and really examine what worked for you and what didn't work for you. It allows you to quickly identify why you had stalls in progress or dips in performance.

Bottom line: If you are trying to lose weight but are not keeping a nutrition log, you are making the process a hundred times harder then it needs to be. Keep a log and you will be able to lose fat without compromising any of your conditioning or performance.

BP

Fasting Diet, Circuit Training

Crabs in a Bucket - Weight Training Over 50

After a busy couple of days of travel, I decided it was time to head back up north to get some more work done on some of my projects with grrlathlete.

When I'm up north, people often drop in for a visit, and last night was no exception. I had a couple of old friends drop in on me for dinner.

As usual, it only took a little bit of time before the conversation turned to nutrition and working out. One of my friends was in his late 50's. He has always been in great shape. He maintains a great workout program and always pays attention to what he eats. Yet, on this particular visit, he seemed a little discouraged with his progress.

After a little bit of prying I found out why.

He had been out having dinner with several of his friends who were all medical doctors and they were "on him" about working out. Turns out these three highly educated individuals were trying to convince my friend that it was physically impossible to put on muscle once you pass fifty years of age.

They told him that it had something to do with his hormone levels and lack of testosterone.

No wonder he was discouraged!

Thankfully, in no way is any of this true. There is lots of research that has been conducted on subjects over 50 years of age showing the benefit of weight training.

A group of researchers at the University of Saschetchewan in Canada has been studying the effects of creatine supplementation and weight lifting in the elderly with great results.

Dr. Ira Jacobs, one of my early mentors, has been quoted as saying that at least 80% the muscle loss associated with aging can be attributed to lack of activity.

When it comes to muscle - Use it or lose it. That’s the bottom line.

There is no truth to the saying that you can’t build muscle over a certain age. People in their 70's can build muscle with weight training. So why would a group of medical doctors try to convince my friend that he was wasting his time working out, when research clearly shows there is benefit?

The answer is "crabs in a bucket".

If you aren't familiar with the "crabs in a bucket" analogy, it’s pretty simple. Crabbers never have to worry about crabs escaping when they are caught and thrown into a bucket. This is because if one crab starts climbing the walls of the bucket, the other crabs will pull the escaping crab back down.

The crabs see it like this - if we are going to be dinner, then you are going to be dinner too.

After a little more prying my friend informed me that his three medical doctor friends did not workout, were overweight (one of them was very overweight) and mostly ate fast food.

Like I said, crabs in a bucket. When you are trying to live a healthy lifestyle, you are always going to go up against crabs. They do not like it when you say "no" to dessert, pass on "just one more drink", or go work out. The reason they don't like it is because it makes them painfully aware that you are in control of an area in your life that they have no control over in there own.

Ignore the crabs and remember- no matter your age, if you want to look and feel better than the average person, then you can’t eat and work-out like an average person. You have to go one-step farther.

BP

Fasting Diet, Circuit Training

The "secret" to Preventing Muscle Loss While Dieting

I review a lot of fat loss programs. It's part of my job at www.grrlathlete.com. From the most underground e-books, to the latest best seller on Amazon, I’ve read through stacks of them.

Let me tell you, most of the time, once I’ve finished reading of these works of garbage, I feel like I need to take a shower.

They are just that sleazy.

Sure, they’re some of the greatest examples of marketing this side of beer commercials, but the actual information in them is a combination of basic good nutritional practices (you should eat more fruits and vegetables) and make-believe (never eat carbohydrates past 6:45 pm).

Most of the time the marketing story starts like this… “My special ‘melt the lard’ program guarantees you will lose fat fast without losing any muscle”.

The part I have a trouble with is the “without losing any muscle”. It seems losing muscle is something everyone is deathly afraid of doing. Most of the bodybuilders, athletes and fitness models I’ve talked with are convinced that they lose muscle when they are dieting.

Here’s the truth about losing muscle mass while dieting. I don’t believe it. Not at all.

I have taken over one hundred body fat measurements on amateur body builders and fitness models, none of them lost any more than 1 or 2 pounds of lean mass while dieting for a competition!

They drop anywhere from 20 to 50 pounds of fat, but lose almost no muscle! My measurements were taken with a BodPod, and validated with both skin fold calipers and limb circumference measurements, so I’m sure they were accurate.

All of these athletes were on different types of low calorie diets and loads of different supplements or no supplements at all; however, none of them were losing muscle.

This is for one reason and one reason only.

People who are weight training while dieting (within reason) will not lose muscle mass. I believe this is for one main reason. By lifting weights, you are telling your body you need that muscle. Your body recognizes that need, and thinks “Whoa. Looks like I’m dieting again. I need to burn something for some extra energy but if I get rid of some of this muscle, it’ll make this whole lifting weights thing even harder. I better keep this muscle and burn something else, maybe this fat over here…”

Straight up, the number one way to ensure you don’t lose any muscle while you are dieting is by lifting weights. Protein may play a role on in this (almost all of the people I was tracking were eating a high protein diet), but other than that, no fancy diet program works better than weight training for preventing you from losing muscle while you are dieting.

BP

Fasting Diet, Circuit Training