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Clima invernale e perdita di grasso: il freddo fa ingrassare?

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Titolo: Clima invernale e perdita di grasso: il freddo fa ingrassare?
Autore: Tom Venuto, CSCS, NSCA-CPT

Traduzione: Piero Maina
URL: www.Burnthefatinnercircle.com
Parole: 23.966

Clima invernale e perdita di grasso: il freddo fa ingrassare?
Di Tom Venuto

BurnTheFat.com – Body Transformation System

Ciao a tutti, oggi pubblico con il suo permesso, un articolo del grande Tom Venuto che ho tradotto in Italiano, cosicchè anche chi non conosce l’inglese, possa godere di queste preziose e interessanti informazioni che proprio in questo periodo invernale e post vacanze di Natale, ci possano tornare utili per recuperare la nostra forma. Buona lettura:

“In inverno quando è più freddo, ingrasso!” Se sentissi qualcuno dire questo, probabilmente rideresti e diresti che sono le solite scuse tipo: “Mi dispiace, ma oggi non posso allenarmi … le tute da allenamento sono da lavare”. Ma la verità è che ci sono conferme scientificamente provate per cui in inverno si tende ad aumentare di peso. Fortunatamente, ci sono anche delle soluzioni, peraltro semplici e di facile applicazione.

Se vivi dove le stagioni cambiano, o anche peggio, dove il clima è freddo e nuvoloso per la maggior parte dell’anno, o se la neve, il ghiaccio e la pioggia gelida interrompono i tuoi programmi di allenamento all’aperto e sei preoccupato per il tuo girovita, allora questa è la domanda e la risposta di Burn The Fat della settimana ed è una lettura obbligata …

    DOMANDA: Ehi Tom, ci sono prove che durante la stagione fredda e in inverno diventa più difficile perdere grasso corporeo? A me sembra più facile perdere peso durante la stagione calda. Mi chiedevo se ci fosse una ragione per questo, forse uno desidera maggiormente diversi tipi di cibo? Si perde l’appetito nella calura estiva? O l’appetito aumenta con il freddo? Il metabolismo rallenta in inverno? Se sai darmi delle risposte al riguardo, te ne sarei grato. Grazie!

RISPOSTA: Sì, ci sono molte ragioni per cui molte persone tendono ad ingrassare in inverno. Sono sia fisiche che mentali. Da un punto di vista psicologico, ecco una semplice spiegazione: il mutare delle stagioni può influenzare il tuo umore.Una condizione nota come Disturbo Affettivo Stagionale (DAS) è stata studiata a lungo da psicologi e psichiatri. Spesso è molto più del semplice “Winter Blues” (Depressione Invernale), il DAS si verifica durante le giornate più brevi e le lunghe notti dell’inverno e dell’autunno, quando c’è meno luce solare e le temperature sono più fredde.I sintomi includono depressione, desiderio di cibi specifici, in particolare carboidrati densi di calorie, si sperimenta perdita di energia, senso di disperazione e sonno eccessivo. Ovviamente, tutti questi effetti possono contribuire a far aumentare di peso.

Una ricerca scientifica svizzera intitolata “Abitudini alimentari nel Disturbo Affettivo Stagionale: chi tenderà ad aumentare di peso in inverno?”  I ricercatori hanno scoperto che non solo i pazienti con DAS mangiavano più zuccheri e cibi ricchi di amido, ma erano anche più suscettibili al mangiare emotivo, ricercando i dolci, quando emotivamente si sentivano più ansiosi, affamati, stanchi o soli. Uno dei trattamenti standard per il DAS è la terapia della luce intensa. Assicurati di dormire a sufficienza, ma alzati anche alle prime luci dell’alba, perché è importante massimizzare le ore di esposizione alla luce naturale.

Al contrario, un’ altra causa psicologica dove il clima influisce sulla quantità di cibo che  ingeriamo è l’attività fisica e la perdita di grasso è maggiore quando il clima è caldo; le persone stanno all’aperto per più tempo vestendosi meno, questo fatto crea più motivazione all’esercizio fisico. Diciamolo pure, le persone vogliono avere un bell’aspetto quando indossano il costume o hanno meno indumenti addosso. In inverno e quando il clima è più freddo, sei coperto, quindi c’è meno presa di coscienza e nessuna responsabilità poiché di solito nessuno ti vede attraverso i vestiti, diverso è quando la gente ti vede con pantaloncini e canotta. Pertanto, la maggior parte delle persone tende a seguire una dieta più diligentemente e ad allenarsi più duramente nei mesi più caldi. (Non è un caso che così tanti bodybuilder mettano su massa nel periodo invernale, viceversa perdano peso durante l’estate).

Naturalmente, abbiamo il problema opposto nel periodo delle festività Natalizie, un periodo che tradizionalmente si sposa con i festeggiamenti, banchetti, bevande e regali (dove a volte anche i regali sono commestibili!) Molte persone si preoccupano maggiormente del loro stato di forma in questo periodo perché pensano che arriveranno ad aumentare di peso fra i 2Kg e 5Kg. La ricerca ha dimostrato che l’aumento di peso stagionale è reale, anche se di solito non è così tanto, in genere solo circa mezzo chilo, un kg al massimo, se si fa la media sui grandi numeri di popolazione. (Solo il 10% circa guadagna 3 kg o più). Il vero problema che la ricerca ha dimostrato a lungo termine è quel lento aumentare di peso anno dopo anno e che spesso passa inosservato e, in un periodo di 10, 15 o 20 anni, è sufficiente a portarci al sovrappeso cronico o all’obesità. Sono tanti gli uomini e le donne che si svegliano una mattina all’età di 40 o 50 anni, e guardandosi allo specchio si chiedono: “come ho fatto a diventare così grasso/a?” (Mezzo kg, o un kg all’anno, dopo ogni stagione invernale, si arriva a questo aumento di peso incontrollato). Lo studio più famoso su questo argomento è stato pubblicato sul prestigioso “New England Journal of Medicine”. Ecco cosa hanno riscontrato gli autori:

  In contrasto con la percezione comune che il peso aumenti durante le festività invernali, il peso della stragrande maggioranza dei soggetti in questo studio è cambiato poco durante le festività natalizie. Questi soggetti credevano di aver incrementato di quattro volte il loro effettivo aumento di peso durante le vacanze, che è invece risultato di soli 0,37 kg. Meno del 10% dei soggetti ha guadagnato 2,3 kg o più. Pertanto, nonostante il fatto che l’85% dei soggetti monitorati non facesse alcuno sforzo per controllare il proprio peso, grandi aumenti di peso durante le festività invernali non sono stati la norma.Sfortunatamente, abbiamo anche scoperto che l’aumento di peso durante il periodo autunnale pre-ferie e l’aumento durante le festività natalizie sono stati in gran parte mantenuti durante il periodo invernale post-ferie da gennaio a marzo, con un conseguente aumento medio netto di 0,48 kg. Nei soggetti che hanno completato un anno di osservazione, il peso è aumentato in media di 0,32 kg durante il periodo di vacanza e di 0,62 kg durante l’intero anno, suggerendo che il periodo che contribuisce maggiormente alla variazione di peso annuale è il periodo di sei settimane di vacanza.

 La maggior parte di noi mangia e beve di più nel periodo delle festività natalizie. Tuttavia, alcune persone hanno anche chiesto se ci siano altre motivazioni e se le giornate brevi, il clima cupo e le temperature fredde hanno qualcosa a che fare con l’aumento di grasso a livello fisiologico. La domanda è: “Il metabolismo rallenta in inverno, come se stessimo entrando in “modalità letargo?”  In realtà, è vero il Contrario. L’esposizione a temperature fredde provoca una risposta di termogenesi da tremito, il che significa che c’è un aumento del metabolismo per produrre più calore. Per creare calore è necessaria energia (calorie bruciate = calore). Infatti, nel corso degli anni, molti guru della perdita di peso hanno promosso l’idea dell’esposizione al freddo per accelerare il metabolismo, suggerendo strani “trucchi” come spegnere il riscaldamento in casa, uscire di casa poco vestiti in inverno, nuotare in laghi gelidi o fare surf tutti i giorni in acque fredde o fare docce fredde che stranamente ancora oggi risultano popolari. Sfortunatamente l’esposizione al freddo, aria fredda o acqua fredda, come tentativo per far bruciare più calorie al nostro corpo non si traduce nel tempo in risultati di perdita di grasso nel mondo reale, anche se risultati a breve termine possono mostrare un elevato consumo di calorie.

Perché non funziona? A parte il fatto che si tratta di una piccola quantità di calorie bruciate in più, non è poi così pratico o piacevole congelarsi il sedere, quindi il tentativo probabilmente non durerebbe a lungo e sarebbe destinato al fallimento se uno ci provasse. Un altro motivo è che il nostro corpo può adattarsi e compensare le perdite di calore. Un esempio interessante dell’impatto che le temperature fredde hanno sul bilancio energetico è il caso del nuoto. Paradossalmente, è stato osservato che molte persone che hanno iniziato a nuotare hanno bruciato tantissime calorie, ma non hanno perso grasso (o hanno persino guadagnato peso). All’inizio alcune persone pensavano che il corpo stesse producendo grasso per ripararsi dal freddo. Sembra plausibile, vero? Ma dopo che alcuni scienziati attenti hanno esaminato la cosa più da vicino, hanno scoperto che il nuoto può essere un eccellente esercizio per bruciare i grassi, ma molte persone non perdono molto grasso col nuoto perché si è scoperto che il nuoto, specialmente in acque fredde, fa si bruciare più calorie, ma fa anche aumentare l’appetito.

Pertanto, potremmo ipotizzare che lo stesso possa accadere con temperature fredde (aria). Se il tuo corpo usa un po’ di energia per tremare o produrre calore, un modo in cui può compensare quella perdita di energia è aumentare l’appetito, quindi è probabile che il bilancio energetico negativo, se presente, sia a breve termine. (Incredibile come il tuo corpo funzioni per controbilanciare le cose, non è vero?)

Alcuni scienziati suggeriscono addirittura che mangiare di più nei freddi mesi invernali sia inserito nel nostro DNA come meccanismo di sopravvivenza. Teorizzano che gli esseri umani hanno una tendenza naturale a mangiare di più in inverno perché storicamente parlando, questo era un periodo in cui c’era carenza di cibo. Sebbene non ci sia praticamente alcuna possibilità di morire di fame nella moderna società industrializzata, potremmo inconsciamente cedere alle direttive evolutive.

Per una serie di possibili ragioni, la maggior parte delle persone tende a mangiare di più in inverno, soprattutto durante le festività natalizie e allo stesso tempo, tende anche a muoversi meno.

Uno studio condotto in Massachusetts e pubblicato sull’European Journal of Clinical Nutrition ha mostrato alcune scoperte interessanti sulle variazioni stagionali dell’assunzione di cibo, dell’attività fisica e del peso corporeo in una popolazione in sovrappeso. I risultati principali includevano:

    L’apporto calorico giornaliero era di 86 calorie in più nei mesi freddi rispetto alla primavera

    L’attività fisica più bassa è stata in autunno e in inverno

    Il peso corporeo ha raggiunto il picco in inverno

    Tutti i cambiamenti stagionali sono stati abbastanza piccoli, ma abbastanza significativi da essere misurabili

Durante le vacanze, la maggior parte delle persone che aumenta di peso, dà la colpa al cibo, ma non sono solo le feste del Natale e Capodanno che incidono, è anche una minore attività fisica durante l’intero inverno che contribuisce all’aumento del girovita. Le routine di esercizi all’aperto a volte termina bruscamente e non viene fatto nulla per compensare la cosa. Di solito si usano scuse del tipo: “è colpa del meteo (“Fa troppo freddo” o “Non posso correre / camminare / andare in bicicletta sulla neve e sul ghiaccio!” O “È buio prima che torni a casa dal lavoro”).

Il calo dell’attività fisica non è solo dovuto al minor numero di sessioni di allenamento. Anche la quantità di passi che normalmente si fanno durante il giorno subiscono un calo, soprattutto se non li si monitorano.

La ricerca fatta con l’utilizzo del pedometro pubblicata sulla rivista “Medicine and Science and Sports And Exercise” ha rivelato quanto l’attività fisica diminuisca in inverno rispetto alle altre stagioni.

E’ stato preso in esame un gruppo di donne di mezza età, che sono generalmente meno attive di altri gruppi, per cominciare c’è stato un importante calo dei passi compiuti durante il giorno durante il ciclo stagionale:

    7616 passi al giorno in estate

    6293 passi al giorno in autunno

    5304 passi al giorno in inverno

    5850 passi in primavera

Questo è il motivo per cui utilizzare un contapassi tipo il Fitbit o uno smartwatch tutto l’anno è un’ottima idea. Puoi vedere i cambiamenti del numero di passi stagionali e se noti che diminuiscono all’arrivo dell’inverno, puoi apportare le modifiche necessarie più facilmente alla tua attività semplicemente perché sai quello che sta succedendo e diventi responsabile per quello che fai. Inoltre, sebbene 10.000 passi al giorno (o più) possano essere scoraggianti, non è così difficile partire con 2.500 passi al giorno in più, rispetto a quanti ne fai ora. Questo è sufficiente per compensare il calo medio di passi registrato dalla maggior parte delle persone. Migliorando la propria responsabilità dal punto di vista nutrizionale e combinando le due azioni, sinergicamente questo piccolo cambiamento da solo può risolvere il problema dell’aumento di peso invernale.

Come si può vedere è legittimo pensare che è più facile ingrassare durante i mesi più freddi. Se non si fa nulla per impedirlo; ci sono buone probabilità che si possa ingrassare almeno mezzo chilo o forse uno durante il periodo autunnale e in inverno, quando le giornate sono più buie. Proprio perché questa quantità di aumento di peso non è significativa è particolarmente insidiosa perché o te ne accorgi e agisci immediatamente con le dovute misure o potrebbe passare completamente inosservata all’inizio, per poi trovartela “appiccicata” addosso e non “staccarla” più. In 10 anni, ti ritrovi con un aumento di peso/grasso che può andare da 4,5 Kg a 9 Kg. In 20 anni, puoi arrivare a guadagnare da 9 Kg a 18 Kg, senza quasi accorgertene e tutto grazie a un lento accumulo di peso/grasso.

Fortunatamente, l’aumento di peso in inverno non è una condizione scontata, Questa battaglia si può vincere abbastanza facilmente. Puoi rimanere magro tutto l’anno, quello che devi fare è rimanere attivo durante l’inverno, indipendentemente dal tempo atmosferico e rimanere disciplinato con l’alimentazione la maggior parte del tempo.

Ti suggerisco di avvicinarti all’alimentazione e all’allenamento invernale in due fasi. Novembre e dicembre sono mesi perfetti per fissare obiettivi e chiudere bene l’anno. Creare obiettivi per questo periodo, ti manterrà motivato per tutto il tardo autunno e l’inizio dell’inverno. È una strategia perdente aspettare il nuovo anno e non avere nuovi obiettivi su cui lavorare durante le vacanze, procrastinare, non paga.

Per oltre un decennio ho promosso sfide di fitness durante le vacanze natalizie, iniziate prima del giorno del Ringraziamento e proseguite fino alla fine dell’anno. Se mai hai la possibilità di iscriverti, partecipa con tutti i mezzi. Se non riesci a trovare un concorso formale, una sfida, una gara o un qualche tipo di evento di fitness, crea la tua sfida per le vacanze natalizie, e non è mai troppo tardi. Anche se è il giorno di Natale, si possono fissare degli obiettivi per l’ultima settimana dell’anno. Ho amici che tengono viva una tradizione facendo un allenamento epico a Capodanno.

Se possibile, invita gli amici a unirsi a te per aumentare la responsabilità verso gli obiettivi fissati. Se possibile, assumi un coach che ti aiuti a creare il tuo piano e ti renda ancora più responsabile. È incredibile quanto sarai motivato e quanto duramente lavorerai quando dovrai riferire i tuoi progressi ogni settimana a un mentore o ad una figura autorevole che rispetti. Con un obiettivo o una sfida, un allenatore o un sistema di supporto, o entrambi, credimi, le vacanze non ti saranno di ostacolo. Potresti anche arrivare alla migliore forma della tua vita.

La seconda fase inizia a gennaio. Anche se l’esercizio e la dieta “Buoni propositi per il nuovo anno” sono una consuetudine in questo periodo dell’anno e molte persone li fanno con scarsi risultati, non sono contrario a fissare obiettivi il primo dell’anno. Credo che sia un ottimo momento per pensare a cosa vuoi per i 12 mesi a venire. Assicurati che i tuoi obiettivi non si concentrino solo sul peso corporeo o sul grasso corporeo, ma includano anche obiettivi di fitness, salute, forza e prestazioni. Questo ti manterrà molto più motivato se hai una settimana in cui la bilancia non si muoverà.

Un fattore chiave per l’alimentazione durante tutto l’arco dell’anno, ma soprattutto nel periodo vacanziero, è la dieta flessibile. Ciò significa mantenere il tuo piano nutrizionale preciso dall’80% al 90% delle volte, riuscendo a goderti così tutti i tuoi cibi preferiti nel periodo delle vacanze con moderazione. Evita di pensare in modo dicotomico al cibo e di chiamare alcuni cibi buoni e altri cattivi. Non dimenticare mai che tendi a desiderare ciò che non ti è permesso avere. Diete rigide con elenchi di alimenti proibiti si ritorcono contro e, anche se non lo facessero, la restrizione non è un modo per godersi le festività natalizie.

I migliori trucchi per avere successo con il tuo allenamento invernale sono gli stessi che dovresti usare tutto l’anno: fissare continuamente obiettivi di prestazione (avere obiettivi per ogni allenamento), creare un piano con un programma settimanale in cui ti impegni e rimanere responsabile (avere qualcuno nel tuo angolo in modo da poter mostrare a lui/loro i tuoi risultati e i tuoi progressi settimanali comparati con i tuoi obiettivi). Assicurati inoltre che il tuo piano includa un elenco di potenziali ostacoli e come ti comporterai se li incontrerai, comprese le contingenze per tutti i tipi di tempo. Inoltre, considera di provare un allenamento che non hai mai fatto prima. Provare esercizi, tecniche e programmi completamente nuovi può aggiungere quel briciolo di sale in più, una scintilla di motivazione e una ventata di freschezza che ti manterrà più euforico e motivato nelle giornate invernali più cupe.

Ovviamente dipende dalla località in cui vivi e quale meteo incontri, ma è improbabile che tu non possa indossare cappotto, cappello e guanti e andare a fare una passeggiata solo perché è inverno. Tuttavia, se è tempestoso o pericolosamente freddo, o se preferisci, puoi effettuare le tue camminate e la parte cardio del tuo programma al chiuso su una cyclette, un tapis roulant, un vogatore o una macchina ellittica, o ancora, semplicemente con esercizi a corpo libero se non hai a disposizione le macchine o attrezzature cardio. Si, dipende da te, puoi farlo!

Non è necessario nemmeno sfidare gli elementi e avere il coraggio di guidare fino a una palestra per allenarti con i pesi, puoi farlo anche a casa. Una configurazione casalinga semplice come manubri e una panca, oltre a bande elastiche di resistenza e l’allenamento a corpo libero possono farti raggiungere ottimi risultati e portarti lontano. E considera che puoi aggiungere più attrezzi se il tuo spazio e il tuo budget lo consentono.

I mesi invernali sono anche un ottimo periodo per essere avventurosi e provare qualcosa di nuovo all’esterno, vale a dire gli sport invernali. Pensa a inserirli nel tuo piano di allenamento. Lo ammetto, non sono mai stato un fan del freddo, del ghiaccio e della neve. Anche se l’escursionismo e lo zaino in spalla sono i miei hobby preferiti dietro il sollevamento pesi, sono sempre stato un uomo di tre stagioni all’aperto.

Io abito in New Jersey e verso la fine di ottobre, proprio quando le prime gelate stavano arrivando e le foglie stavano cadendo, ho deciso che questo sarebbe stato l’anno in cui finalmente mi sarei rifiutato di restare rinchiuso a casa. Ho deciso di continuare a fare escursioni. Ho anche fissato alcuni obiettivi di corsa, il più possibile sui sentieri. Tutto quello che dovevo fare era investire nella giusta attrezzatura, scarpe e capi caldi e ho continuato a uscire come ho fatto per il resto dell’anno. Non ho mai dovuto utilizzare il tapis roulant. Con mia sorpresa, mi piaceva stare fuori, anche con il freddo e la neve.

A dicembre, dopo il primo grande temporale, ho fatto una cosa che non avrei mai pensato di fare: ho comprato il mio primo paio di scarpe da neve e sono uscito per oltre 5 miglia/8Km la domenica prima di Natale. Quanto bruciavano i quadricipiti ed è stato un serio test cardio. Non ho nemmeno le scarpe da neve tradizionali – ho le scarpe da corsa (da running). Scendere a palla dalle colline innevate è stata la cosa più divertente che io abbia fatto da anni.

Allo stesso tempo, per questi ultimi tre mesi dell’anno, ho deciso di iniziare un nuovo programma di sollevamento pesi con una routine di split incentrata sull’ipertrofia che non avevo mai provato prima. (È una “divisione ibrida 3-2” di cui scriverò in un prossimo post). Ho incluso anche l’attrezzatura da palestra che avevo usato raramente prima – una landmine (Barra da bilanciere con una estremità fissa a terra e l’altra libera) – insieme ai miei soliti esercizi con bilanciere e manubri.

Come risultato, il fissare nuovi obiettivi, creare nuovi programmi e provare cose nuove nel tardo autunno e la prima parte dell’inverno, mi sono trovato più coinvolto, entusiasta e motivato che mai e la mia attività complessiva (passi, miglia, calorie bruciate), è stata più alta che mai a metà dicembre. Mangiavo il 90% di cibo non trasformato, ma non stavo facendo una vera e propria dieta o limitando i macro nutrienti o i gruppi di alimenti. In realtà ho dovuto mangiare di più per evitare di perdere troppo peso e troppo velocemente.

L’aumento di peso in inverno è un problema per molte persone. Ci sono molte forze che sembrano cospirare per farti mangiare di più e muoverti di meno, ma queste insidie ​​sono evitabili e le soluzioni non sono complicate. Non possiamo cambiare le stagioni, ma possiamo cambiare noi stessi, come pensiamo e come agiamo. L’ho fatto io, molti altri l’hanno fatto, e puoi farlo anche tu se segui i consigli di questo post del blog.

Concludendo, ricorda che le festività natalizie di fine anno sono solo la prima parte dell’inverno. Gennaio e febbraio, a volte fino a marzo, sono i mesi più freddi e nevosi per la maggior parte di noi, e se hai un buon proposito di inizio anno senza un obiettivo significativo e/o un grande piano d’azione e una forte volontà di riuscita e improbabile che lo perseguirai e lo abbandonerai presto. Cerca una sfida di trasformazione corporea, tipo quella che organizzo sul mio sito; questo è il momento per sfruttare queste opportunità. È il momento di fissare nuovi obiettivi e fare nuovi piani per arrivare in ottima forma alla fine dell’inverno e in primavera.

Allenati duramente e aspettati il ​​successo!

Tom Venuto

References

Kräuchi K, Reich S, Wirz-Justice A, Compr Psychiatry. 1997 Mar-Apr;38(2):80-7. Eating style in seasonal affective disorder: who will gain weight in winter? . Psychiatric University Clinic, Basel, Switzerland.

Hamilton SL, et al, UK adults exhibit higher step counts in summer compared to winter months. Ann Hum Biol. 2008 Mar-Apr;35(2):154-69, Department of Human Sciences, Loughborough University, Leicestershire, UK.

Ma Y, et al, Seasonal variation in food intake, physical activity, and body weight in a predominantly overweight population, Eur J Clin Nutr. 2006 April; 60(4): 519–528. University of Massachusetts, Division of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine

Newman, MA, et al, Monthly variation in physical activity levels in postmenopausal women. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2009 41(2):322-7. Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.

Ricci MR et al, Acute cold exposure decreases plasma leptin in women. Metabolism 49(4): 421-423, 2000, Rutgers University, Department of Nutritional Sciences.

Uitenbrock DG, seasonal variation in leisure time physical activity. Med Sci Sports Exer 25(6): 755-760, 1993

White, L., Increased caloric intake soon after exercise in cold water. Int J Sport Nutr Exer Metab, 15: 38-47, 2005

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1,000 Sit Ups And Crunches A Day And Still No Abs

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Title: 1,000 Sit Ups And Crunches A Day And Still No Abs
By line: By Tom Venuto, CSCS, NSCA-CPT
URL: BurnTheFat.com – Body Transformation System
www.Burnthefatinnercircle.com
Word count: 857 words

QUESTION: Dear Tom: I have been working out for around a year now and I cannot get my lower abs into any type of shape. Despite doing 900 various crunches, ab roller, and 100 sit-ups four days a week, along with running and my regular workout on the weights, I still have a tire around my waist. What else can I do?

ANSWER: “What should I do to get abs?” is still one of the most frequently asked questions I receive out of the 7,000+ emails that come into my office every week. Although the question is often phrased differently, my answer is always the same:

Seeing your abs, or any other muscle group, for that matter – is almost entirely the result of having low body fat levels. You get low body fat from proper diet (as well as cardio and strength training), not from doing hundreds of ab exercises every day.

You didn’t mention whether you knew your body fat level or not. My guess is that it may seem like your lower ab muscles are “hard to develop,” but it’s not really an issue of “muscle development” at all, you simply have too much body fat and are storing it in your lower abdominal region more readily than other parts of your body and you can’t see the muscles through the fat.

Most people don’t have their fat distributed evenly throughout their bodies. Each of us inherits a genetically determined and hormonally-influenced pattern of fat storage just as we inherit our eye or hair color. In other words, the fat seems to “stick” to certain areas more than others.

Men often tend to store fat more readily in the lower abdominal region (the “pot belly”, “spare tire”, “beer gut”, or “love handles”). In women, the “stubborn” areas are usually the hips, thighs (“saddlebags”) and the triceps (“grandmother arms”).

You could focus on more “lower ab” exercises like hanging leg raises, reverse crunches and hip lifts (“toes to sky”), but even these won’t help as long as you still have body fat covering the muscles. You can’t “spot reduce” with abdominal exercise.

The lower abs is often the first place the fat goes when you gain it, and the last place it comes off when you’re losing it. Think of ab fat like the deep end of the swimming pool. No matter how much you protest, there is no way you can drain the deep end before the shallow end.

I would suggest cutting back the volume on your ab training and spending that time on more cardio work instead. Personally, I only do about 15 minutes of ab work two times per week. (About two to four exercises with reps usually ranging from 10-25 reps).

Here is a recent ab routine that I used (for bodybuilding/ ab-development purposes). I do this routine only twice a week and I change the exercises approximately every month so my body doesn’t adapt. I prefer slightly higher rep range than other muscle groups, but as you can see, it is far from doing a thousand reps a day. (if you want to see what my abs look like, just checkout my picture below

venuto7
Tom Venuto – Abs

A1 Hanging leg raises 3 sets, 15-20 reps

Superset to:

A2 Hanging knee ups (bent-knee leg raises) 3 sets, 15-20 reps (no rest between supersetted exercises A1 & A2, 60sec between supersets)

B1 Incline Revere Crunches 3 sets, 15-20 reps

Superset to:

B2 Elbow to knee twisting crunches 3 sets, 15-20 reps

For maximum fat loss, you should do cardio 4-7 days per week for 30-60 minutes (the amount is variable depending on your results). You could continue running or mix up the type of cardio you do (stationary cycling, stairclimbing, elliptical machines, and other continuous aerobic activities are all excellent fat burners without the high impact and joint stress of frequent running).

If time efficiency is an issue for you, you could perform high intensity interval cardio training and achieve very efficient results with even briefer workouts (20-30 min per sessions, or less, if the intensity is high enough)

Once you are satisfied with your level of body fat and your abdominal definition, you can cut back to 3 days per week for 20-30 minutes for maintenance.

As far as nutrition goes, here are a few fat-burning nutrition guidelines in a nutshell:

  • Eat about 15-20% below your calorie maintenance level. If you use a more aggressive calorie deficit of 25-30%, then do not keep calories too low for too long; increase calories to maintenance or maintenance +10-15% 1-2 days per week.
  • Spread your calories into 5-6 smaller meals instead of 2-3 big ones. Be very conscious of portion size. eat too much of anything and you can say goodbye to your abs. Period.
  • Eat a source of complete, high quality lean protein with each meal (egg whites, lean meat, fish, protein powder, etc)
  • Choose natural, complex carbs such as vegetables, oatmeal, yams, potatoes, beans, brown rice and whole grains. Start with aprox. 50% of your calories from natural carbs and reduce carbs slightly (esp. late in the day) if you are not losing fat.
  • Avoid refined, simple carbs that contain white flour or white sugar
  • Keep total fats low and saturated fats low. Aim for 20% of your total calories from fat (and no more than 30%). A little bit of “good fat” like flax oil, fish fat, nuts & seeds, etc is better than a no fat diet.
  • Drink plenty of water – a gallon is a good ballpark to shoot for if you are physically active.

1000+ reps of ab work four days a week is an amazing feat of endurance, but thats not how you get visble, rock hard, 6-pack abs!

You probably have outstanding development in your abdominal muscles. (you certainly have great muscular endurance). Unfortunately, if your abs are covered up with a layer of fat, you wont be able to see them even if you do 10,000 reps a day!

You “get abs” from reducing your body fat and you reduce body fat mostly through diet and cardio.

If you’d like to learn more about how to decrease your body fat level and improve your level of abdominal definition, then visit: BurnTheFat.com – Body Transformation System
www.Burnthefatinnercircle.com

About the Author:

Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified strength and conditioning specialist Tom Venuto 8

(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: BurnTheFat.com – Body Transformation System
www.Burnthefatinnercircle.com

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How An Entire Year Could Go By With No Fat Loss

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Title: How An Entire Year Could Go By With No Fat Loss
By line: By Tom Venuto, CSCS, NSCA-CPT
URL: BurnTheFat.com – Body Transformation System
www.Burnthefatinnercircle.com
Word count: 1293 words

 

QUESTION: Dear Tom: I’ve been going to the gym for the past year now, but I have only lost 2 pounds. I eat about 1800 calories a day and I do 3 cardio and 3 weight training sessions a week. I am 5 feet 5 inches (1.65 mt.) and 128 lbs. (58 Kg.)  I would like to be at 120 lbs. (54 Kg.)  To lose 8 more lbs isn’t a lot to ask, but I’m really frustrated. I’ve been VERY persistent, and I rarely cheat except once each weekend, but at this rate, it will take me another 4 years for me to reach my goal! Please help!

ANSWER: Don’t worry, it won’t take another 4 years! In fact, you can reach your target wt. within the next month if you start getting feedback, charting results and making some strategic changes to your program.

First, it’s important that you understand how a year could go by with almost no progress.

Have you been doing the same nutrition, same calories, same cardio and same workout for the entire past year with no changes? If so, then you shouldn’t be suprised if you’ve continued to get the SAME results (very little).

If you do more of the same, you usually get more of the same.

Caloric intake, for example is not something you calculate once and then never pay attention to again. Calories have to be calculated and customized for each individual in the beginning and then adjusted continuously in “real time” during the course of a fat loss program, based on actual results.

Just because you start at 1800 doesn’t mean your caloric intake should stay there. Calories may need to be increased or decreased depending on whether your goals, your body weight and your activity levels change and based on your weekly progress (or lack of).

Which brings me to another point. I am a huge fan of using progress charts. There is a saying in business management and sports coaching:

“What gets measured gets done.”

When you start “keeping score” and tracking performance right down to the numbers, it’s almost miraculous how this awareness of how you’re doing translates into improved results.

When you track your body composition results every week, if a week or two goes by with no results, then you don’t continue with more of what got you no results, you change some variable in your program immediately!

An old Turkish proverb that says,

“No matter how far you’ve traveled down the wrong road, always turn back!”

Of course, you don’t have to throw out your entire program, you can simply “tweak” ONE or maybe two variables within the same program.

Also, when you measure, track and analyze muscle versus fat (body composition), instead of just scale weight, you might even discover you’ve gained some lean body mass and this offsets the drop on the scale (which means it’s possible you made more progress than you thought).

Now, back to the calories. To break a plateau, you can take a reduction in calories, or an increase in activity, either of which will create a deficit if you are currently in energy balance, or increase your existing caloric deficit.

1800 calories may not provide a large enough deficit for some women, and in fact, the majority of women your height, weight and activity level usually are losing fat safely and successfully on 1500-1600 calories per day. (for men about 2200-2500 calories, avg.)

At the end of the day, fat loss boils down to calories in versus calories out, so if you plateau, you may need a simple calorie reduction, provided you don’t restrict too low for too long (which tends to trigger your body’s “starvation response.”)

As for your cardio program, 3 days a week of cardio works for many people, but usually, I would consider three weekly cardio sesssions a maintenenance workout or at best a starting point for beginners,NOT a “maximum fat loss” program.

Example: this week, you could increase your cardio from 3 sessions to 4 sessions. If you combine the decrease in food intake with an increase in calories burned through activity, that will almost certainly get you burning fat again.

If it does, then stay with 4 days a week of cardio. If not, the next week go up to 5 days a week. Repeat this simple “feedback loop” process as many times and for as long as necessary.

Also remember that more (often) is not always better. You can also increase the intensity and get more calories burned in same amount of time. This feedback loop process can be used to make decisions about your training intensity, duration and type, as well as frequency.

Whichever strategy you choose to break the plateau, remember Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity:

“Insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”

Although this seems like common sense to some people, what happened to you is really quite common because it does appear that you’re doing everything you’re “supposed to be doing” with perfectly good intentions.

You have have all the key elements there: You’re exercising (weights and cardio). You’re watching your nutrition, and you’ve been disciplined and consistent in following it.

The trouble with many popular programs – even good ones – is that they are too dogmatic. Their entire program may revolve around “X” number of calories, “X” days per week of cardio and “X” days a week of weights….

And you’re not allowed to “tamper” with that “holy grail” formula.

I can understand the rationale for a simple diet and exercise prescription for a beginner in order to not confuse them with too many choices, but what if it doesnt work after a month, three months, six months, A WHOLE YEAR? What if there are no options, what then?

In NLP, there’s a principle, (borrowed from cybernetics), called The Law of Requisite Variety, which says,

“The person with the most choices and the most flexibility is the person with the most power and the greatest chance for success.”

You need to know what to do when you’re not getting results… you need options and choices for breaking plateaus, and that’s important because plateaus happen to everyone – including me.

Some people think that hitting a fat loss plateau means there’s something wrong with them. But plateaus are natural and normal. In fact, you could look at it this way:

Hitting a plateau means your body is healthy and your body is functioning normally, because normal function of the body is to adapt effectively to stress, to protect you and to maintain homeostasis.

Exercise is a stress. Dieting is a stress. It’s natural for your body to adapt to them. When you adapt, you must place a new “positive stress” on the body if you want continued improvement.

If you want to learn more details about how to change your program to break plateaus and make continuous progress as fast as safely possible, then I recommend you take a look at <bBurnTheFat.com – Body Transformation System
www.Burnthefatinnercircle.com
.

BFFM has flexibility, feedback and performance tracking built right into it. Chapter 4 in BFFM teaches the “BFFM feedback loop method”, and shows you how to chart progress and adjust your diet and workouts on a weekly basis, to keep you making progress or get you back on track if your progress stalls out.

There is no reason to allow even a few weeks, let alone an entire year to go by without results. But you can’t expect to get different results if you continue doing more of what’s not working.

Keep after it! Be persistent – but also be flexible!

About the Author:

Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified strength and conditioning specialist Tom Venuto

(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: BurnTheFat.com – Body Transformation System
www.Burnthefatinnercircle.com

 

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The Low Body Fat Secret Of Bodybuilders & Fitness Models

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Title: The Low Body Fat Secret Of Bodybuilders And Fitness Models
By line: By Tom Venuto, CSCS, NSCA-CPT
URL #1: www.BurnTheFat.com
URL #2www.Burnthefatinnercircle.com
Word count: 1322 words

The Low Body Fat Secret Of Bodybuilders And Fitness Models
By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.BurnTheFat.com
www.Burnthefatinnercircle.com

The secret to getting super lean – I’m talking about being RIPPED, not just “average body fat” – is all about mastering the art of “peaking.” Most people do not have a clue about what it takes to reach the type of low body fat levels that reveal ripped six-pack abs, muscle striations, vascularity and extreme muscular definition, so they go about it completely the wrong way.

Here’s a case in point: One of my newsletter subscribers recently sent me this question:

Tom, on your www.burnthefat.com website, you wrote:

‘Who better to model than bodybuilders and fitness competitors? No athletes in the world get as lean as quickly as bodybuilders and fitness competitors. The transformations they undergo in 12 weeks prior to competition would boggle your mind! Only ultra-endurance athletes come close in terms of low body fat levels, but endurance athletes like triathaletes and marathoners often get lean at the expense of chewing up all their muscle. Some of them are nothing but skin and bone.’

“There seems to be a contradiction unless I’m missing something. Why do bodybuilders and fitness competitors have to go through a 12 week ‘transformation’ prior to every event instead of staying ‘lean and mean’ all the time? If they practice the secrets exposed in your book, they should be staying in shape all the time instead of having to work at losing fat prior to every competitive event, correct?”

There is a logical explanation for why bodybuilders and other physique athletes (fitness and figure competitors), don’t remain completely ripped all year round, and it’s the very reason they are able to get so ripped on the day of a contest…

You can’t hold a peak forever or it’s not a “peak”, right? What is the definition of a peak? It’s a high point surrounded by two lower points isn’t it?

Therefore, any shape you can stay in all year round is NOT your “peak” condition.

The intelligent approach to nutrition and training (which almost all bodybuilders and fitness/figure competitors use), is to train and diet in a seasonal or cyclical fashion and build up to a peak, then ease off to a maintenance or growth phase.

I am NOT talking about bulking up and getting fat and out of shape every year, then dieting it all off every year. What I’m talking about is going from good shape to great (peak) shape, then easing back off to good shape…. but never getting “out of shape.” Makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?

Here’s an example: I have no intentions whatsoever of walking around 365 days a year at 4% body fat like I appear in the photo on my website. Off-season, when I’m not competing, my body fat is usually between 8 – 10%. Mind you, that’s very lean and still single digit body fat.

I don’t stray too far from competition shape, but I don’t maintain contest shape all the time. It takes me 12-14 weeks or so to gradually drop from 9.5% to 3.5%-4.0% body fat to “peak” for competition with NO loss of lean body mass…using the same techniques I reveal in my e-book.

It would be almost impossible to maintain 4% body fat, and even if I could, why would I want to? For the few weeks prior to competition I’m so depleted, ripped, and even “drawn” in the face, that complete strangers walk up and offer to feed me.

Okay, so I’m just kidding about that, but let’s just say being “being ripped to shreds” isn’t a desirable condition to maintain because it takes such a monumental effort to stay there. It’s probably not even healthy to try forcing yourself to hold extreme low body fat. Unless you’re a natural “ectomorph” (skinny, fast metabolism body type), your body will fight you. Not only that, anabolic hormones may drop and sometimes your immune system is affected as well. It’s just not “normal” to walk around all the time with literally no subcutaneous body fat.

Instead of attempting to hold the peak, I cycle back into a less demanding off-season program and avoid creeping beyond 9.9% body fat. Some years I’ve stayed leaner – like 6-7%, (which takes effort), especially when I knew I would be photographed, but I don’t let my body fat go over 10%.

This practice isn’t just restricted to bodybuilders. Athletes in all sports use periodization to build themselves up to their best shape for competition. Is a pro football player in the same condition in March-April as he is in August-September? Not a chance. Many show up fat and out of shape (relatively speaking) for training camp, others just need fine tuning, but none are in peak form… that’s why they have training camp!!!

There’s another reason you wouldn’t want to maintain a “ripped to shreds” physique all year round – you’d have to be dieting (calorie restricted) all the time. And this is one of the reasons that 95% of people can’t lose weight and keep it off –they are CHRONIC dieters… always on some type of diet. Know anyone like that?

You can’t stay on restricted low calories indefinitely. Sooner or later your metabolism slows down and you plateau as your body adapts to the chronically lowered food intake. But if you diet for fat loss and push incredibly hard for 3 months, then ease off for a while and eat a little more (healthy food, not “pigging out”), your metabolic rate is re-stimulated. In a few weeks or months, you can return to another fat loss phase and reach an even lower body fat level, until you finally reach the point that’s your happy maintenance level for life – a level that is healthy and realistic – as well as visually appealing.

Bodybuilders have discovered a methodology for losing fat that’s so effective, it puts them in complete control of their body composition. They’ve mastered this area of their lives and will never have to worry about it again. If they ever “slip” and fall off the wagon like all humans do at times … no problem! They know how to get back into shape fast.

Bodybuilders have the tools and knowledge to hold a low body fat all year round (such as 9% for men, or about 15% for women), and then at a whim, to reach a temporary “peak” of extremely low body fat for the purpose of competition. Maybe most important of all, they have the power and control to slowly ease back from peak shape into maintenance, and not balloon up and yo-yo like most conventional dieters!

What if you had the power to stay lean all year round, and then get super lean when summer rolled around, or when you took your vacation to the Caribbean, or when your wedding date was coming up? Wouldn’t you like to be in control of your body like that? Isn’t that the same thing that bodybuilders and fitness/figure competitors do, only on a more practical, real-world level?

So even if you have no competitive aspirations whatsoever, don’t you agree that there’s something of value everyone could learn from physique athletes? Don’t model yourself after the huge crowd of losers who gobble diet pills, buy exercise gimmicks and suffer through starvation diets like automatons, only to gain back everything they lost! Instead, learn from the leanest athletes on Earth – natural bodybuilders and fitness competitors…

These physique athletes get as ripped as they want to be, exactly when they want to, simply by manipulating their diets in a cyclical fashion between pre-contest “cutting” programs and off season “maintenance” or “muscle growth” programs. Even if you have no desire to ever compete, try this seasonal “peaking” approach yourself and you’ll see that it can work as well for you as it does for elite bodybuilders.

If you’re interested in learning even more secrets of bodybuilders and fitness models, visit the Burn The Fat website at: www.BurnTheFat.com

 

About the Author:

Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal trainer (CPT)Tom Venuto 8

and a certified strength& conditioning specialist (CSCS).

Tom is the author of the #1 best-selling e-book, “Burn the

Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how to get lean

without drugs or supplements using the secrets of the

world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how

to get rid of stubborn body fat and increase your

metabolism by visiting: www.BurnTheFat.com. To learn more about Tom’s Fat Loss

Support Community, visit: www.Burnthefatinnercircle.com

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The New Visualization Breakthrough: Mental Training Tactics For Health And Fitness Success

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Title: The New Visualization Breakthrough: Mental Training Tactics For Health And Fitness Success
By line: By Tom Venuto, CSCS, NSCA-CPT
URL: BurnTheFat.com
Word count: 1500 words

The New Visualization Breakthrough: Mental Training Tactics For Health And Fitness Success

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

Understanding the mind’s role in motivation and behavior is one of the most critical elements in fitness success. If you struggle with changing habits and behaviors or if you can’t get motivated, then even the best training and nutrition program is not much help.

A fascinating fact about your subconscious mind is that it’s completely deductive in nature. In other words, it’s fully capable of working backwards from the end to the means. You don’t need to know how to reach a goal at the time you set the goal. If you “program” only the desired outcome successfully into your “mental computer,” then your subconscious will take over and help you find the information and means and carry out the actions necessary to reach it.

Many people are familiar with affirmations and goal-setting as ways to give instructions to your subconscious mind. But perhaps the ultimate mental training” technique is visualization. In one respect, affirmation and visualization are the same, because when you speak or think an affirmation first, that triggers a mental image, being as the human brain “thinks” in pictures.

You can use visualization to plant goals into your subconscious mind. You simply close your eyes, use your imagination and mentally create pictures and run movies of your desired results. For example, in your mind’s eye, you can see the “body of your dreams”. If repeated consistently with emotion, mental images are accepted by your subconscious as commands and this helps with changing habits, behavior and performance.

Although there are some new and creative ways to use visualization, (which you are about to learn), this is not a new technique. Visualization has been used formally in the fields of sports psychology and personal development for decades and philosophers have discussed it for centuries:

“If you want to reach your goal, you must ‘see the reaching’ in your own mind before you actually arrive at your goal.”

– Zig Ziglar

“The use of mental imagery is one of the strongest and most effective strategies for making something happen for you.”

– Dr. Wayne Dyer

“Creative visualization is the technique of using your imagination to create what you want in your life.”

– Shakti Gawain

“Perhaps the most effective method of bringing the subconscious into practical action is through the process of making mental pictures – using the imagination.”

– Claude Bristol

“There is a law in psychology that if you form a picture in your mind of what you would like to be, and you keep and hold that picture there long enough, you will soon become exactly as you have been thinking.”

– William James, 1842-1910, Psychologist and Author

Despite these glowing endorsements and a long track record, some people can’t get past feeling that this is just a “hokey” self-help technique. Rest assured, however, that visualization is an effective and time-tested method for increasing personal success that has been used by some of the highest achievers the world.

The Soviets started to popularize visualization in sports psychology back in the 1970’s, as detailed in Charles Garfield’s landmark book, “Peak Performance.” They dominated in many sports during that period, which validated visualization anecdotally.

In the last 10-15 years, there has been some groundbreaking new brain research which has validated visualization scientifically. Here’s something that was written recently by Dr. Richard Restak, a neuroscientist and author of 12 books about the human brain:

“The process of imagining yourself going through the motions of a complex musical or athletic performance activates brain areas that improve your performance. Brain scans have placed such intuitions on a firm neurological basis. Positron emission tomography (PET) scans reveal that the mental rehearsal of an action activates the prefontal areas of the brain responsible for the formulation of the appropriate motor programs. In practical terms, this means you can benefit from the use of mental imagery.”

So much for visualization being a “cheesy” self-help technique.

Although visualization is widely used today, even people who are familiar with it often don’t realize its many applications. Arguably the most common use of visualization is by athletes, musicians and other performers as a form of “mental rehearsal.” Research shows that “practicing in your mind” is almost as effective as practicing physically, and that doing both is more effective than either one alone.

A common use of visualization in the fitness context is “goal visualization.” In your mind’s eye, you can see yourself having already achieved your physique goal or your ideal goal weight. You can also visualize a specific performance goal such as completing a difficult workout or a heavy lift like a squat or bench press.

One creative way you can use mental imagery is called “process visualization.” Once you’ve set your goals, it’s easy to come up with a list of the daily habits, behaviors and action steps necessary to reach your goal. So write down the action steps and visualize them – the entire process, not just the end result. See yourself food shopping and grabbing fruits, vegetables and lean proteins, ordering healthy foods from restaurant menus, saying no to sodas and drinking water instead, and going to the gym consistently and having killer workouts. Some people visualize their entire “perfect day” as they would want it to unfold. When you do this as vividly, emotionally and in as much detail as you can, you will be neurologically priming your brain to carry out those behaviors.

The least known of all mental imagery techniques is called “physiology visualization.” An example would be picturing the fat burning process in your body or seeing the muscle fibers growing larger and larger. Using this technique, could it be possible that you might be giving subconscious instructions to your body’s cells, organs and tissues?

Well, consider the work of Dr. Carl Simonton, a physician and cancer researcher who taught his patients (as one part of a comprehensive program), how to visualize powerful immune cells devouring the cancer cells. I’m not suggesting that you can cure cancer or materialize a lean and muscular body just by visualizing, (there’s a step in between thought and manifestation – it’s called action – a step that many self help ‘experts’ forget to mention). However, thoughts and mental images are the precursors to action and the fact that a mind-body connection definitely exists makes this an exciting prospect.

Scientists have established the mind-body link in many contexts, and not just by the existence of a placebo effect. There’s also direct evidence as in the way emotional stress can contribute to physical disease. The mind does influence the body! The mere fact that a branch of science has been devoted to this area is proof that it deserves critical investigation and is not just the domain of infomercial self help gurus. The science is called psychoneuroimmunology.

Using “physiology visualization,” you could, even in the middle of a workout, imagine the fat burning process taking place, and visualize fat being released from adipose tissue storage in your abdominal region or elsewhere. You could see the free fatty acids entering your bloodstream, being carried to the working muscles and being burned for energy in the muscle cells. You could also visualize the physiology of muscle growth.

To make your imagery as accurate and detailed as possible, my best suggestion is to refer to an anatomy & physiology textbook that shows pictures of fat cells, blood vessels, myofibrils, motor units, sarcomeres, and cell organelles like the mitochondria, so you know what the structures look like. You could also get more details about the processes by looking up lipolysis, hypertrophy or beta oxidation.

Even if you had no idea what the internal structure and workings of the body were like, you could still use this method. Your body responds to mental imagery even if it isn’t anatomically correct. We know from the field of hypnosis that the subconscious mind responds well to metaphor – maybe even better than literal suggestions. Facts and logic are the domain of the conscious mind, while emotion and metaphor can slip right past the conscious and into the subconscious. Dr. Simonton often wrote about his young patients who created (metaphorical) mental images of immune system cells as “knights in shining armor”, slaying “the dragon” of cancer cells.

One of your greatest mental powers is imagination. You can visualize anything you want and you can embellish and exaggerate your imagery as much as you want. For example, you could imagine the free fatty acids being burned for energy in the “cellular powerhouse” – the mitochondria – and you could imagine the mitochondria as a fiery furnace… “incinerating” the fat! I think it’s a pretty cool idea to “see” your fat cells shrinking and visualize your body as a “fat burning furnace.”

Should you not believe that there’s anything to the physiology visualization technique, that’s ok, because we know that the subconscious is deductive. Just give it a goal, tell it what you want and it will get you there automatically by altering your attention and behavior. Therefore, we can be confident that physiology visualization will be effective even if only as a subconscious directive about your desired goal. If science someday provides us with conclusive evidence that visualization actually does cause cellular – physiological changes in the body, well, that’s just all the better.

About the Author:

Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified strength and conditioning specialistTom Venuto 8

(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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The Low Carb Diet Cheat Sheet Accelerate Your Fat Loss With 1 Simple Food Tweak

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Title: The Low Carb Diet Cheat Sheet Accelerate Your Fat Loss With 1 Simple Food Tweak

By  Line: Tom Venuto

Website: www.BurnTheFat.com!

Word Count: 2000

carbs - evil or just optional

I like reducing carbs for maximizing fat loss.

That’s why I’m always surprised when I get an email or see a comment from someone who thinks I’m against low carb diets or that low carbing doesn’t work or that low carb is just a fad.Not true. In fact, I’ve used a special variation of the reduced carb diet for years to prepare for bodybuilding contests or when I want to get my body fat extremely low (the “ripped abs” look).

The best fat loss diet of all?

I’ll even go as far as saying that, although there are many diets that can work, restricting carb calories is probably the most effective approach of them all… if it’s done intelligently.

Why do some people think I’m anti-low carb? I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I’ve spoken out against the old school low carb thinking, where some devotees still believe carbs are inherently fattening, “bad” (even “evil”) foods and that carbs and insulin drive fat gain, independent of excess calories.

Maybe it’s because they’ve seen my muscle-building (aka “bulking”) meal plans, which have  large amounts of carbs – usually at least half my total calories from carbs.

Or maybe it’s because they see my fat loss meal plans and they notice I still eat 150 to 200 grams of carbs per day (the woman’s equivalent might be 120-130 grams). Some low carbers wouldn’t dream of eating that many carbs even on the long-term maintenance phase.

What IS “low carb?” How Low is Low?

Now that I’ve made it clear that I’m NOT against low carbing, a good question is, what IS a low carb diet? There are so many different types of reduced carb diets out there, the definition of low carb has gotten pretty fuzzy.

For example, I’ve seen diet reviews that call the Zone diet “low carb” even though it prescribes 40% of the calories from carbs. I’ve heard many people refer to paleo as low carb, when the carbs, according to Loren Cordain, could run anywhere from 22% to 40% (Cordain refers to this as “moderate” carb).

On the other end, some people don’t think anything is “low carb” unless it’s under 100 grams a day or even a full-blown ketogenic diet.

So the first thing I want to do is clarify the TYPE of reduced carb diet I use:

I use the bodybuilding low carb, high protein diet. If your goal is less fat and more muscle, you can use it too, so keep reading – even if you’re not a bodybuilder – because this melts fat like a blowtorch on butter.

Bodybuilding nutrition, which I’ve been teaching to my readers of all ages and backgrounds for years in BurnTheFat Feed The Muscle, has phases that you shift in and out of based on your goal at the moment:

Phase I is “baseline nutrition” for maintenance, muscle gain and long-term lifestyle (lots of carbs). Phase II is for maximized fat loss (moderate carbs), and Phase III is the contest diet (low carbs) – the strictest and lowest carb of the three.

The fat loss phases (Phase I or Phase II) have the following characteristics:

1. The diet is low to medium carb; it is not zero carb, very low carb or ketogenic.
2. The diet does not prescribe one amount of carbs for everyone – it acknowledges individual body types and allows a customized approach.
3. Carb amounts are the most you can get away with (and still lose fat), not the least you can tolerate.
4. The diet usually uses “carb cycling”, a method of non-linear dieting .
5. The diet is high in protein.

I fully acknowledge that some people succeed on ketogenic diets, which are extremely low in carbs and higher in fat (with less protein). A handful of people may even thrive on them and get better health outcomes (contrary to conventional wisdom).

However, after experimenting with keto diets years ago, I found they didn’t suit me or support my intensive weight training. I found the near-complete removal of carbs distasteful and difficult to live with – physically AND mentally. I prefer the cyclical low or medium carb bodybuilding diet and after I discovered how to do it, I never turned back.

For active, metabolically healthy people who want BODY COMPOSITION and PHYSIQUE DEVELOPMENT, the bodybuilder’s way is the best way.

The bodybuilder’s way supports intense training and is designed for improving body composition, not just losing weight. When you talk about low carb diet weight loss, you really have to discuss the type of weight, since water and glycogen weight can make up so much of the early poundage lost and lean tissue loss may be a concern.

Remember, there’s weight loss, and then there’s a HOT, HARD BODY! – big difference!

Phase I: Baseline nutrition

In my fat loss system, BurnTheFat, Feed The Muscle, there are three phases, from basic to advanced. The first phase is the baseline nutrition plan. This is designed to be very balanced and maintainable. Carbs are usually not restricted, but they are carefully chosen healthy and nutrient-dense carbs.

There are 3 parts to a fat-burning or muscle-building meal in Phase I: 
1. Lean protein
2. Fibrous carb
3. Starchy carb

Here’s an example of a typical lunch or dinner using this baseline (Phase I) template:
1. Baked tilapia (lean protein)
2. Broccoli (fibrous carb)
3. Brown rice (starchy carb)

Here’s an example of a typical breakfast – Phase I:
1. 1 whole egg, 5 egg whites scrambled (lean protein)
2. Omelet veggies – mushrooms, bell peppers, tomato, etc (fibrous carb)
3. Oatmeal (starchy carb)
* a fruit could easily be substituted for the veggies – example, berries or an apple

Phase II: Maximized Fat Loss

When your goal shifts from muscle gain or maintenance into fat loss, what you need to focus on first is CALORIES, NOT CARBS. Even if this is just semantics or a technicality (because carbs have calories), please let this point sink in or you will end up like those (well-meaning, but wrong) low carb zealots who think “carbs are bad” and calories don’t matter.

To lose fat, you need a calorie deficit, so that means you have to reduce calories below maintenance level. What I’m asking you to think about, is where do you pull out the calories?  You could cut calories across the board – just eat less of everything in the Phase I meal plan – and yes, that absolutely will work.

But the ideal way to create your calorie deficit is to drop down the starchy carbs.

Why? Because keeping protein high on a hypocaloric fat loss diet is important for retaining lean body mass, protein controls appetite, starches are calorie dense, starches are easy to overeat, extreme carb restriction may have negative hormonal consequences, you need to keep the fiber up, and you also need healthy fats for reasons too numerous to list.

So the no-brainer place to create a calorie deficit is by cutting back on starchy carbs and grains. If you were taking in a lot of refined grains or sugars, they are actually the first to go, but I’m assuming you’re not eating a ton of sugar and refined carbs to begin with – we don’t do that even on phase I baseline plan.

Lunch or dinner example – Phase II: 
1. Baked tilapia (lean protein)
2. Broccoli (fibrous carb)
3. Brown rice (starchy carb) – Reduced portion

Breakfast example – Phase II: 
1. 1 whole egg, 5 egg whites scrambled (lean protein)
2. Omelet veggies – mushrooms, peppers, tomato, etc (fibrous carb)
3. Oatmeal (starchy carb) – Reduced portion
* a fruit could easily be substituted for the veggies – example, berries

Phase III: The “Contest Diet”

As a diet progresses, fat loss typically slows down as your body adapts in various ways to the weight loss and calorie restriction. Almost everyone can relate to how the last bit of fat can seem like the most stubborn or difficult to lose.

To get past this plateau, and reach your peak condition or final goal, you can take another calorie reduction. Again, you want to leave those vital lean proteins and fibrous carbs alone, so you reduce the starchy carbs even more.

For some people, almost all the starchy carbs are removed. For others, especially those who are large and training very hard, they remain, but in small quantities and only after training sessions (and also most commonly, for breakfast to get a good start on the day).

Lunch or dinner example – Phase III: :
1. Salmon (lean protein with healthy fat)
2. Broccoli (fibrous carb)
* no starchy carb except in post-workout meal and or breakfast

Breakfast example – Phase III:
1. 1 whole egg, 5 egg whites scrambled (lean protein)
2. Omelet veggies – mushrooms, peppers, tomato, etc (fibrous carb)
* no starchy carb except in post-workout meal and or breakfast

And there you have it! The contest diet is mostly lean proteins, fibrous carbs (green veggies, salad veggies and other non-starchy vegetables). Healthy fats are always included somewhere in the daily meal plan – or provided by supplements – and if the calories get too low (in the absence of concentrated carbs), the percentage of fats can be increased further.

Did you catch the 1 simple food tweak?

At this point, most people have a million  questions about specifics: what foods to eat or how many grams of each macro or what time to eat or when do do the carb cycling and so on, some of which are relevant or even important. But this is where we end today’s lesson because the purpose of this article has been to simplify and make one major point.  More details would only serve to complicate.

Bottom line: Don’t look at those starchy carbs as bad, dirty, forbidden or… “evil!” Instead, let’s call them “optional.” Better still, let’s call them a “variable” – an “X factor.”  You eat more of them during maintenance or muscle gain programs. As your goal shifts to fat loss and as your fat loss phase progresses, speeding up fat loss or getting past sticking points is a simple matter of adjusting your calories by tweaking the X factor.

You’re basically manipulating 1 thing: starchy carbs. Everything else stays mostly the same!  Keep your lean protein high and eat a lot of fibrous carbs and green veggies (think “LEAN AND GREEN!”)  Be sure to keep some healthy fats in the plan too.

Keep it Simple!

I am a “structure and details” guy and I DO make my meal plans by the numbers on spreadsheets.  But this low carb technique is so simple, so easy, if you did NOTHING but drop some starchy carbs (and of course sugar) – and if all else remained equal, you would start losing more fat – without counting anything.

That’s the short and sweet “cheat sheet” summary, but if you want ALL the details of the “cyclical low carb diet”, then review chapter 12 inBurnTheFat, Feed The Muscleif you already have it.
OR, if you are new to our community and you want to see the complete system for yourself (now in the completely updated 2nd edition), visit the home page here (it’s an e-book, so it’s an instant download) ====>  Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle Fat-Burning System.

Train hard and expect success,

Tom Venuto, Fat Loss Coach, Author of Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle,
www.BurnTheFat.com!

PS. We’ve seen people transform their bodies in as little as 49 days with Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle. Busy father of four James used it to cut his body fat below 5% and get ripped abs! Shannon melted her belly fat and added lean muscle even though she struggled with hypothyroidism and major fat gain after her second child was born.

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The Doctor Says, “Aerobics Will Kill You!”

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Title: The Doctor Says, “Aerobics Will Kill You!”

By line: By Tom Venuto

URL: www.BurnTheFat.com!

Word count: 1492 words

The Doctor Says, “Aerobics Will Kill You!” By Tom Venuto www.BurnTheFat.com!

I recently got an email from a reader who was told by a fairly prominent doctor/authorthat aerobics and running will “kill you” (that was more or less the gist of it). As a result, you should avoid aerobics like the plague, says this MD. Since I’ve tolerated enough “steady state cardio is dead” and “aerobics doesn’t work” nonsense over the last few years, despite the success stories I keep churning out that clearly show otherwise, (not to mention my own bodybuilding success, which includes regular cardio), I thought I should not only answer my reader, but also make this topic into an article for anyone else who may have doubts.

Here’s the “killer cardio” question and my response:


——————————————————————————————
BURN THE FAT READER EMAIL:
——————————————————————————————

Tom, your articles are great. Here’s the problem. More runners die from sudden heart attack and stroke than any other form of exercise on the planet.
It’s because nothing is more foreign to human beings than getting their heart rate up and keeping it there for long periods of time.
Recent studies have shown that while there are benefits to aerobics, (like weight loss), in the long term, statistics show a direct increase in heart disease.
Part of the reason for this is that in an effort to adapt to the unnatural demands being put on the body, to economize, the heart and lungs actually shrink.
Just look at the long list of joint, bone, and muscle injuries that come along with running (it’s right there in the magazines).
As I know you know, a serious weight lifter, if he’s paying attention to form, should almost never suffer injury from weight training. The same is true for the following:
Instead of unnatural, self-abusive aerobics, the best way to actually increase heart and lung capacity and size is to go beyond aerobics. In short, spurts of intense exercise, such as wind-sprints, you move past your ability to produce ATP with oxygen as fast as you are using it, causing your muscles to become ATP depleted.
That’s the point at which your anaerobic energy system kicks in. This is also known as crossing your aerobic threshold.
Burst training, sprints, whatever you want to call it, it shouldn’t be done in addition to aerobics, it should be done in place of aerobics.
Incidentally, I am not saying that one shouldn’t walk, jog, bicycle, swim, etc, just be reasonable.
I had a heart condition that has been totally alleviated. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday of each week, I go through a 45 minute weight training session, followed by a 20 minutes of the interval program.
Check it out, I think this sort of thing would be a great addition to your already good program.
-Jeff

————————————————- RESPONSE: ————————————————

While I agree with much of what you said about the benefits of intense “burst” exercise, I find the anti-running and anti-aerobics arguments promoted by these “experts” to be horribly inflexible, dogmatic and, unlike what you suggested, totally UNreasonable.

Based on the science, I also find the argument that traditional cardio or aerobics is “unhealthy” to be wholly unconvincing. That doctor isn’t giving the full picture.

I subscribe to many sports medicine and exercise science journals and I’ve certainly seen research papers looking at sudden death in elite runners, etc. But most of them were case studies and epidemiology. Believe me, there’s another side to the story.

Marathon running is a highly publicized sport, and the media loves bad news, so the oxymoron of a runner dying of a heart attack makes a great story, which means greater visibility for what is actually a very rare occurrence.

It’s also easy to cherry pick case studies on just about anything to start up a big scare.

This comes from the American Journal of Cardiology:

“The overall prevalence of sudden cardiac death during the marathon was only 0.002%, strikingly lower than for several other variables of risk for premature death calculated for the general U.S. population.”

Although highly trained athletes such as marathon runners may harbor underlying and potentially lethal cardiovascular disease, the risk for sudden cardiac death associated with such intense physical effort was exceedingly small.”

I also find comparing serious endurance athletes pushing their physical limits to regular cardio for general fitness training to be an inappropriate comparison.

What does a rare cardiac event during a 26 mile run have to do with you doing 30 or 45 minutes of jogging or me doing 40 minutes of moderate work on the stairmaster to get cut for a bodybuilding contest?

Even sillier are the people who keep using the late marathon runner and running author Jim Fixx as an example of anything but a guy who had a genetic predisposition for heart disease (gun was loaded). Rumor has it he was a long time smoker, too.

I know some bodybuilders and weight lifters who died of heart attacks in the gym. Should we argue against against weight lifting too? Should we just play it safe and stay on the couch? Freak incidents happen and heredity is a factor.

Please note, I’m saying all this as a strength/physique athlete (bodybuilder), who understands full well that excessive aerobics is counterproductive to my goals and that weight training is priority #1.

But in the right amounts, balanced with proper recovery (as you said, “reasonable”) regular cardio can be instrumental in helping me lower my body fat and it can benefit you in many other ways, physically and mentally.

There are MANY ways to do cardio and all of them have their place at certain times for certain people.

What you’re talking about with sprints or burst training is also known as High Intensity Interval Training or HIIT for short.

HIIT can be a great way to get cardiovascular conditioning and burn a lot of calories in a very time efficient manner.

Furthermore, a paper just published recently in the ACSM’s Exercise and Sport Sciences Review (July 2009) discussed the research suggesting that intense aerobic interval training provides greater benefits for the heart than low or moderate intensity exercise.

The benefits discussed included:

  • Increased maximal oxygen uptake
  • Improved heart muscle contractile function
  • Improved heart muscle calcium handling
  • reduced cardiac dysfunction in metabolic syndrome
  • Reversed pathological cardiac hypertrophy
  • Increased physiological hypertrophy of the heart muscle
  • Overall improved quality of life and length of life by avoiding fatal heart attacks.

This is NOT an argument AGAINST regular cardio, it is evidence in favor of intense cardio.

I like HIIT and intense types of cardio! I don’t need to add it to my program because it’s already a part of it.

My first book about fat loss, BurnTheFat Feed The Muscle was first published in 2002 and I recommended HIIT way back then – as well as regular cardio, not one or the other. I Still do!

There were also people promoting HIIT long before me. It’s not any revolutionary idea – people just keep putting new names and spins on it for marketing purposes.

The problem is, to argue in favor of HIIT should not be construed as arguing against conventional cardio or aerobics.

Many of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models used slow, steady state cardio exclusively prior to competitions and they got ripped right down to the six pack abs. They didn’t die of a heart attack and they didn’t lose muscle either.

In fact, many bodybuilders opt for low intensity cardio specifically for muscle retention when they get to the tail end of contest prep where body fat stores are getting low and food intake is low. Adding more high intensity training on top of all the weight training is often catabolic in that caloric deficit situation.

Listen, HIIT and other types of intense cardio are great. It’s time efficient, making it ideal for the busy person, and its very effective for both fat loss and cardiovascular conditioning. It’s also more engaging, as many people find longer, slower sessions of cardio boring.

If you have a history of heart disease and you smoke like a chimney and at the same time you decide you want to take up marathon running, ok, I’ll concede to some caution.

But, “Aerobics is going to kill you!”??????

GIVE ME A BREAK!

Perfect marketing hook for a cultish “HIIT is the only way” type of program… little more.

Bottom line: sure, do your HIIT, do your sprints, do your Tabatas….

OR…

Do your regular steady state aerobics or running too…

Or, do a little bit of everything like I do!

Be sure weight training is your foremost training priority and then do whatever type of cardio you enjoy and whatever type gets you the best results.

If you like to run, then RUN, and tell the “experts” who say otherwise to BUZZ OFF and take their sensationalistic journalism and marketing with them!

Train hard and expect success!

Tom Venuto, author of Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle

Founder & CEO of Burn The Fat Inner Circle at www.BurnTheFat.com!

About the Author:

Tom Venuto is the author of the #1 best seller, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle: Fat Burning Secrets of the World’s Best Bodybuilders and Fitness Models. Tom is a lifetime natural bodybuilder and fat loss expert who achieved an astonishing 3.7% body fat level without drugs or supplements. Discover how to increase your metabolism and burn stubborn body fat, find out which foods burn fat and which foods turn to fat, plus get a free fat loss report and mini course by visiting Tom’s site at: www.BurnTheFat.com!

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5 Tips to Avoid Plateaus and Metabolic Slowdown

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Title: 5 Tips to Avoid Plateaus and Metabolic Slowdown

By line: By Tom Venuto, CSCS, NSCA-CPT

URL: www.BurnTheFat.com!

Word count: 1340 words

5 Tips to Avoid Plateaus and Metabolic Slowdown By Tom Venuto www.BurnTheFat.com!

QUESTION:Tom, Is it possible to not lose body fat because you’re eating too little? -Linda

ANSWER: Yes and no. This gets a little complicated so let me explain both sides.
Part one of my answer: I say NO, because if you are in a calorie deficit you WILL lose weight.
Most people have heard anecdotes of the dieter who claims to be eating 800 calories a day or some starvation diet level of intake that is clearly in a deficit and yet is not losing fat. Like the mythical unicorn, such an animal does not exist.
Every time you take a person like that and put them in a hospital research center or metabolic ward where their food can be counted, weighed, measured and almost literally “spoon fed” to them, a calorie deficit always produces weight loss.
There are no exceptions, except possibly in rare diseases or mutations. Even then metabolic or hormonal defects or diseases merely lead to energy imbalance via increases in appetite, decreases in energy expenditure or changes in energy partitioning. So at the end of the day it’s STILL calories in versus calories out.
In other words, NO – it’s NOT your thyroid (unless you’ve got a confirmed diagnosis as such…and then guess what… it’s STILL calories in vs calories out, you’re just not burning as many as someone should at your height and weight).
One famous study that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine years ago proved this point rather dramatically. After studying obese people – selected specifically because they swore they were eating less than 1200 calories but could not lose weight – Steven Lichtman and his colleages at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital in New York came to the following conclusion:
“The failure of some obese subjects to lose weight while eating a diet they report as low in calories is due to an energy intake substantially higher than reported and an overestimation of physical activity, not to an abnormality in thermogenesis.”
That’s right – the so-called “diet-resistant” subjects were eating more than they thought and moving less than they thought. This was probably the single best study ever published that debunks the “I’m in a calorie deficit but I can’t lose weight” myth:
Part two of my answer, YES, because:
1) Energy intake increases.
Eating too little causes major increases in appetite. With hunger raging out of control, you lose your deficit by overeating. This happens in many ways, such as giving in to cravings, binge eating, eating more on weekends or simply being inconsistent, so some days you’re on your prescribed 1600 calories a day or whatever is your target amount, but on others you’re taking in 2200, 2500, 3000 etc and you don’t realize it or remember it. The overeating days wipe out the deficit days.
2) Metabolism decreases due to smaller body mass.
Any time at all when you’re losing weight, your metabolism is slowly decreasing due to your reduced body mass. The smaller and lighter you get, especially if there’s a large drop in skeletal muscle mass, the fewer calories you need. So your calorie deficit slowly shrinks over time as your diet progresses. As a result, your progress slows down even though you haven’t changed how much you eat.
With starvation, you always lose weight, but eventually you lose so much weight/body mass that you can reach energy balance at the same caloric intake you used to lose weight on. You might translate that as “I went into starvation mode” which wouldn’t be incorrect, but it would be more accurate to say that your calorie needs decreased.
3) Metabolism decreases due to adaptive thermogenesis.
Eating too little also causes a starvation response (adaptive thermogenesis) where metabolic rate can decrease above and beyond what can be accounted for from the change in body mass (#2 above). This is “starvation response” in the truest sense. It does exist and it is well documented. However, the latest research says that the vast majority of the decrease in metabolism comes from reduced body mass. The adaptive component of the reduced metabolic rate is fairly small, perhaps 10% (ie, 220 calories for an average female with a 2200 TDEE). The result is when you don’t eat enough, your actual weight loss is less than predicted on paper, but weight loss doesn’t stop completely.
There is a BIG myth about starvation mode (adaptive thermogenesis) that implies that if you don’t eat enough, your metabolism will slow down so much that you stop losing weight. That can’t happen, it only appears that way because weight loss stops for other reasons. What happens is the math equation changes!
Energy balance is dynamic, so your weight loss slows down and eventually stops over time if you fail to adjust your calories and activity levels in real time each week.
I teach a system for how to adjust calories and activity weekly using a feedback loop method in my Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle program (more info from www.BurnTheFat.com!)
So what can be done to stop this metabolic slowdown caused by low calorie dieting and the dreaded fat loss plateau that follows? I recommend the following 5 tips:
1) Lose the pounds slowly.
Slow and steady wins in long term fat loss and maintenance every time. Rapid weight loss correlates strongly with weight relapse and loss of lean body mass. Aim for one to two pounds per week, or no more than 1% of total body weight (ie, 3 lbs per week if you weigh 300 lbs).
2) Use a higher energy flux program.
If you are physically capable of exercise, then use weight training AND cardio to increase your calorie expenditure, so you can still have a calorie deficit, but at a higher food intake (also known as a “high energy flux” program, or as we like to say in Burn The Fat, “eat more, burn more.”)
3) Use a conservative calorie deficit.
You must have a calorie deficit to lose fat, but your best bet is to keep the deficit small. This helps you avoid triggering the starvation response, which includes the increased appetite and potential to binge that comes along with starvation diets. I recommend a 20% deficit below your maintenance calories (TDEE), a 30% deficit at most for those with high body fat.
4) Refeed.
Increase your calories (re-feed) for a full day periodically (once a week or so if you are heavy, twice a week if you are already lean), to restimulate metabolism. On the higher calorie day, take your calories to maintenance or even 10, 15, 20% above maintenance and add the extra calories in the form of carbs (carb cycling). The leaner you get, and the longer you’ve been on reduced calories, the more important the re-feeds will be. (You can learn more about this method in chapter 12 of Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle at www.BurnTheFat.com!)
5) Take periodic diet breaks.
Take 1 week off your calorie restricted diet approximately every 12 weeks or so. During this period, take your calories back up to maintenance, but continue to eat healthy, “clean” foods. Alternately, go into a muscle building phase if increasing lean mass is one of your goals. This will bring metabolism and regulatory hormones back up to normal and keep lean body mass stable.
There is much confusion about how your metabolism, hormones and appetite mechanisms are affected when you’re dieting, so this was really one of the most important questions anyone could have asked.
If this didn’t REALLY click – then you may want to save this and read it again because misunderstanding this stuff  leads more people to remain frustrated and stuck at plateaus than anything else I can think of.
If you’d like to learn exactly how you should be eating to lose 2 lbs of fat per week, then visit www.BurnTheFat.com!.
Train hard and expect success,
Tom Venuto, Author of Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle www.BurnTheFat.com!

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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Q & A: Intensity or Insanity: How Much Training Effort is Enough?

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Title: Intensity or Insanity: How Much Training Effort is Enough?
Author: By Tom Venuto

Word Count: 1705

QUESTION: Tom, do you think that the intensity of your workout is “THE THING” that gives you results or is it more about being consistent with your workouts? The reason I ask is because I’m following your www.BurnTheFat.com! nutrition program and I also just got a new high-intensity workout program called the Insanity series. I like doing these workouts, but I’m having a hard time pushing myself that hard every day and I’m finding now that I’m starting to dread doing them. I have been doing these workouts only 2-3 times per week instead of the 5 times per week that is recommended in the program. This workout brings me to my knees. I’ve started questioning myself and wondering if it’s even worth the torture. – Paul

ANSWER: Intensity is one of the most important training variables, and at times, you’ll definitely want to train with high intensity to get maximum results in the shortest time.

But the real answer to your question may depend on your goals, the shape you’re in now and even your personality type.

Some things to consider:

  • Are you a beginner or already in shape and looking for the next challenge?
  • Do you like home bodyweight workouts or are you a gym and weights/ cardio machine type?
  • Are you the “hard-core” fitness nut type of person or do you simply want to get leaner and healthier, nothing crazy?
  • When you say you want “results”, are you talking about fat loss, cardiovascular fitness improvement, muscle growth or all of the above?

With that in mind, let’s answer the HOW MUCH INTENSITY question in the context of fat loss first.

I’m sure you can appreciate that people can lose weight while lying in a hospital bed. If someone is sick and can’t keep food down, then there can be a significant calorie deficit even without exercise. That rules out high intensity training as an absolute prerequisite for weight loss. In fact, this simple example proves that exercise is not a requirement to lose weight at all.

Obviously, starving yourself is NOT the approach I recommend! My burn the fat program (www.BurnTheFat.com!) is based on the opposite: train more and feed the muscle and fuel the training. I’m simply making the point that it’s NOT intensity PER SE or even ANY type of particular workout that creates the fat loss, IT’S THE CALORIE DEFICIT!

To burn fat, focus on establishing and maintaining a calorie deficit.

To increase speed of fat loss, focus on increasing the size of the calorie deficit.

Calorie deficit = fat loss is a liberating concept because it makes you realize you have endless options for achieving your fat loss goal using all kinds of different combinations of nutrition and exercise. Furthermore, none of the workouts have to beat you into submission to achieve a calorie deficit, especially if you work diligently on the nutrition side of the equation.

Countless thousands of people have acheived their goal weight with walking (low intensity exercise) as their only cardio. They chose walking because that’s what suited their needs and their personality.

Here’s where intensity comes in:

From a bodyfat loss perspective, using higher intensity training makes the workout more EFFICIENT. The higher the intensity, the more calories you burn. The more calories you burn, the more fat you lose, if all else remains equal (ie, if you don’t compensate by eating more).

Some trainers claim that low intensity steady-state exercise is “ineffective” or even “totally worthless.”

THIS IS TOTALLY FALSE!

Low intensity training is not ineffective, it’s simply less efficient. For example, it takes a lot of time walking to burn enough calories to put a major dent in your fat stores. If you were to increase the intensity of your cardio, you’d burn more calories in less time and you’d drop the fat faster. You’d also be improving time efficiency by achieving a calorie deficit with less time investment.

But think about this: If that high intensity workout made you start to dread it, or if you started to think of it as torture, or if it got you injured, then how long would you stick with it?

If you can’t stick with it, what good did it do you? It gets tossed on the ever-growing pile of other quick fixes.

It’s surprising how often a moderate approach, or even the slow and steady approach, beats out the quick and intense approach if you extend your time perspective and think long term.

It’s the classic story of the tortoise vs the hare:

The hare comes blazing out of the gate in a sprint and leaves the tortoise in the dust. Looks like the hare will be the clear winner. But the hare gasses out after that sprint and takes a nap.

The tortoise, being the more consistent of the two, slowly but surely keeps making progress, getting closer and closer to the goal, never missing a step.

As the fable goes, the tortoise eventually passes the complacent and or exhausted hare, who is lazily snoozing under a shady tree. In the end, the Tortoise wins the race. Leisurely, I might add… (no “pukey” t-shirt necessary).

Intensity gets you there faster, if you can stick with it, but consistency ALWAYS pays in the long run when it comes to fat loss.

What about intensity in the context of fitness improvement?

It’s important to know that you can get health benefits from moderate and even light exercise. But when you compare it to intense exercise, there’s no contest. Higher intensity types of cardio kick low intensity’s butt.

In fact, it’s almost shocking how much cardiovascular improvement you can get from a fairly small amount of intense, or sprint-like training:

This is one of the reasons High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is justifiably so popular.

A paper just published in the ACSM’s Exercise and Sport Sciences Review (July 2009) discussed the research suggesting that intense aerobic interval training provides greater benefits for the heart than low or moderate intensity exercise.

The benefits discussed included:

Increased maximal oxygen uptake

  • Improved heart muscle contractile function
  • Improved heart muscle calcium handling
  • reduced cardiac dysfunction in metabolic syndrome
  • Reversed pathological cardiac hypertrophy
  • Increased physiological hypertrophy of the heart muscle
  • Overall: improved quality of life and length of life by avoiding fatal heart attacks.

The researchers concluded:

“The studies indicate that high intensity may be an important success factor for designing effective exercise programs and that high intensity may be particularly critical for improving cardiac function.”

Ok, so that covers intensity in the contexts of fat burning and cardiovascular improvement. What about for building muscle?

Once again, training intensity is a critical factor. For muscles to grow, you have to literally break down muscle fibers, disrput your body’s homeostasis and create a stress response. The adaptation to that disruption is strength and hypertrophy, but it only occurs if you can recover from the stress. The major point is that intensity is a critical factor for all kinds of health and fitness training, but it’s also the one variable that has to be managed the most carefully… and sensibly!

Doing knock-you-to-your-knees workouts of any kind, every single day is not a smart strategy.

I know a few guys – like my friend Mike the kickboxing instructor – the dude is indestructable! He could take any workout you give him, chew it up, spit it out and then say, “Is that it?” (Then he would go teach 3 classes in a row!)

But unless you’re one of these super-human genetic mutants, your body just can’t take a nonstop pounding. Yet there are lots of people with the dispostion and personality type to go in the gym and beat themselves to a pulp each time. Despite the heroic effort, they may be doing their bodies more harm than good (of course, I was never one of those crazy “insane training” people, ahem, cough, cough)

This is why most experts today are recommending only 2-3 HIIT style or high intensity cardio workouts per week when you’re concurrently doing intense weight training. If you want to increase your calorie deficit so you can burn more fat in less time, go ahead and do more training. But for most people, the additional workouts should be low or medium in intensity so they don’t interfere with physical recovery or lead to mental burnout.

Intense daily boot-campish workouts may appeal to the “I want to be tough as a navy seal” personality types and advanced workouts serve their purpose – to provide an appropriate challenge for advanced fitness enthusiasts. If you enjoy it, and if you can recover from it, and if you can stay injury-free, and if you can stick with it consistently, then go for it. But be sure to balance your intensity with recovery:

* Balance your weight training and cardio (volume, frequency and intensity) so you can recover from both and reap the benefits of both forms of training.

* Vary your workouts with some form of periodization or intensity-cycling system.

Last but not least, I believe that weight training should sit atop the exercise hierarchy as one part of a total fitness program.

Fat loss programs that are based entirely on calisthenic, aerobic or body weight exercise are popular today, but I recommend a 4-element model:

1. Nutrition
2. Weight training
3. Cardio training (low/moderate and intense)
4. Mental training (mindset and motivation)

For total fitness and physique development – muscle, strength, conditioning and leanness, combine weights with cardio…

Judiciously balance hare-like intensity with recovery…

AND do it all with tortoise-like consistency…

Then, watch what happens to your body. You will like it!

Train hard and expect success,

Tom Venuto
Author
www.BurnTheFat.com!

PS. You can learn more about my 4-part model of fat loss in my burn the fat program at: www.BurnTheFat.com!

 

About the Author:

Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified strength and conditioning specialistTom Venuto (CSCS) and a certified personal trainer (CPT). Tom is the author of “www.BurnTheFat.com!” 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!

 

 

 

Q & A - Domande e Risposte

Q. & A.: How To Get Your Abs To “POP” Out

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Title:How To Get Your Abs To “POP” Out: The Real Secrets To Exposing Your Six Pack

URL: www.BurnTheFat.com!

By: Tom Venuto
words:2523


Q: I’ve managed to get my body fat down to about 6.5%, according to my calipers. I’m starting to see the outline of my abs in certain lighting conditions, but they certainly don’t pop out like a washboard. I must also say that I’ve only been training them with a vengeance in the last 4 months. What I’m wondering is do I keep trying to lose more body fat to expose them, and will this level of body fat be sustainable, or do I increase my calories on the basis of increasing the muscle size of the abs to expose them?

A: EXPOSING YOUR ABS is a matter of getting very low body fat levels. The lower your body fat level, the “thinner” your skin will be (actually the “skinfold” which contains skin and subcutaneous fat), and the more your abdominal musculature will show through.
DEVELOPING YOUR ABS – is a matter of training, and in that respect, the popular maxim “abs are made in the kitchen, not in the gym” is not entirely true. It’s only true that without the proper diet (“kitchen”), the ab exercises by themselves are useless because well-developed abs can remain covered up with a layer of fat and it’s possible to out-eat any amount of exercise.
I’ve discovered that there are two personality types with regards to getting great abs…

Personality A is the person with the mindset that, “as long as I get super lean, my abs will show,” so they blow off ab workouts or train them very minimally thinking they will have ab EXPOSURE and ab DEVELOPMENT just by being lean.

Personality B (which includes a lot of women) is the type of person who cranks out a 30 minute or even a one HOUR ab class every day, but they’re not informed about the importance of low body fat – or they are, but they don’t put the effort into nutrition so they never get their body fat low enough.
Here’s the true secret of exposing your abs and getting them to “pop out” more: It’s absolutely a combination of both – low body fat to EXPOSE aka UNCOVER them (reveal the muscle that’s already under there), and training to DEVELOP the ab muscles, aka build what is not there yet.

Some people find abdominal development difficult. I’ve always found it easy – the removal of the fat was the harder part for me. It took me years before I figured it out. The good news is, after I learned how to get ripped just once, I owned it for life. It’s like riding a bicycle – you can always get back on and ride even if you haven’t ridden for years, once you know how.
So which personality type are you? Are you toiling away like the girl in the class with an hour of abs a day (utterly unnecessary and a TOTAL waste of time) but you still can’t see enough abs because your skinfolds are too thick, or are you personality B – youre super strict on nutrition and you are very lean but you’re still frustrated with your abs because they don’t pop like you want them to… meanwhile, you blow off ab workouts or treat them as an afterthought… a few sets at the end of your real manly workout: chest and biceps!
Or… are you personality C? That’s the person who takes nutrition (revealing the abs) and training (developing the abs) as equally important and can recognize which area needs the work. Personality C always gets the best results.

The Value of Body Fat Percentage Vs. Skinfold Measurements
Another suggestion I have is not to put so much stock in the body fat number by itself. That number is valuable for tracking your week to week fat loss progress, assuming you can measure consistently. The number itself is worth nothing but bragging rights if it’s low, because for one thing, man A can look RIPPED at 9% body fat while man B may not look ripped until 5-6% body fat.
Furthermore, the body fat percentage measurement doesn’t tell you how thick your skinfold is. Some people are tracking overall body fat percentage, but not paying much attention to the individual skinfolds. It’s very possible for skinfolds on the extremities and even in the hip bone area (illiac crest skinfold site) to be quite low and to have body fat more concentrated in the abdominal area near the umbilicus.
In trying to figure out if you need to get leaner and get “thinner skin” to reveal your abs more, you should not just look at bf% but also the actual skinfold thickness in the abdominal area.
This means that skinfold testing is more useful than bodyfat testing methods like bioelectric impedance analysis when youre trying to gauge your progress in getting your abs to pop because you literally know the skinfold thickness covering the abs. Measure skinfolds as well as body fat percentage and you have more feedback to judge progress. What gets measured gets improved.
For example, an illiac crest skinfold of 3.5 mm is ULTRA LEAN. That skinfold is not going to get much lower than 2.0 to 2.5 mm because that’s the approximate thickness of skin, without the fat. I dont recall seeing below 2 mm except on a scant few occasions when I had a digital SKYDEX caliper which can show readings like 1.9 mm or 1.7 mm.
But also remember, that the illiac crest usually becomes the Lowest skinfold. Let’s stop kidding ourselves. Two areas on a guy retain more fat than the illiac crest: One is the circular area right around your belly button – just draw an imaginary circle around it and there is almost always a pocket of fat there EVEN when the illiac crest fat has “run dry” and even when the very lower lower ab region is starting to show veins.
If you have veins running across your belly button area and your abdominal skinfold is 2.0 to 3.0 you are bloody ripped. The abdominal skinfold is usually at least a few millimeters higher than the iliac crest. Your abs are showing as much as they’re going to show – if you want them to look different, it’s all training at that point.
The other “stubborn” area is the love handes and lower back. Reach around and pinch, not gingerly, but for real – grab the biggest hunk of skinfold you can around the side of your waist, toward your back. Tell me it isn’t WAY bigger than the illiac pinch? But guess what – that’s not an official skinfold site at all.
If you want to be brutally honest with yourself on your level of leanness, find the largest skinfold and use that as your benchmark, not your smallest skinfold. Testing the abdominal skinfold and keeping an eye on the umbilicus area is most telling. It certainly is for me…
I could (sometimes ashamedly) show you pictures ON STAGE – day of contest where I was ripped head to toe and looked great all over except that one little spot right around the belly button was retaining the last bit of fat even at sub 5%-6% body fat. I didn’t quite have that “shrink-wrapped,” “drum-tight” skin there yet.

Abdominal Shape and Genetics: What Training Can and Cannot Change

As for DEVELOPING the abs more – that’s achieved with training, and though I realize that some people say they have a tough time getting the abs to develop, I’ve always found abdominals easy to develop. Achieving the low body fat (the “revaling” abs) part was harder than the developing abs part for me and I think that’s true for a lot of people. Admittedly, this is partially related to genetics. Some people have “easy to develop muscles” (mesomorphs) and some have “hard to develop muscles” and that’s dictated by genetics on an individual level.
But one thing you have to realize, is that whether you have the best or the worst genetic potential for muscle size, the structure of your abdominal musculature is entirely genetic. NOT EVERYONE HAS A PERFECT 6-PACK. The six pack is three rows of rectus abdominus separated by tendinous horizontal bands and one large tendinous band down the middle called the linea alba.

Bodybuilder with a wide linea alba... no amount of training will fill in that gap - the muscle shape is genetically determined - but these abs sure POP don't they?

Some guys have a wide and deep lina alba, to the point it looks like a gap. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, it’s just an individual’s genetically given muscle shape.

Some people have only 2 visible rows of abs and below that where the 3rd row is usually located is only a flat sheet of tendinous tissue – no 3rd row. Others have 4 visible rows if you count the lowermost portion of the abs – an 8 pack. Some people consider having the 8-pack being the ultimate in “genetic freakiness.”

Some people have even rows of abs horizontally, while others have the abs offset as in slightly “checkered.” Some people consider the even rows to be more aesthetically pleasing (though there have been plenty of Mr. America’s, Mr. Universes and Mr. Olympia’s who did NOT have even rows of abs).

Ladies and gentlemen – YOU CANNOT CHANGE ANY OF THIS! If you have a 4 pack, all you can do is develop the 4 pack you have. You can make that 4-pack “pop out” more, but you can’t build a 3rd row for a 6 pack where there is no muscle fiber to begin with. If you have a 6 pack with even rows, you are considered genetically gifted, at least in a muscle aesthetics sense. If you have a nice, even 8 pack, then we are probably going to call you a genetic freak, LOL!

If you have a deep and wide linea alba you can’t change that either. Some people think that is not aesthetically pleasing, but on the other hand, it does manifest itself as a “deep cut” down the middle, so and even if some people dont like those aesthetics, the wide linea alba does makes your abs POP.

Developing Abdominal Muscle Size

Given that you understand the limitations of your genetics, the abdominal muscle fibers that you DO have can be developed like any other muscles – they can hypertrophy with direct training. The difference between the abs and other muscles is that the abs don’t grow OUT so much as a muscle with a large muscle “BELLY” because the abs are literally a long flat sheet, whereas a bicep is a muscle with a large belly and therefore will “plump out” and become more round and peaked (“popping out” literally), as it hypertrophies.

Last but not least, can you develop your lower abs amd make them pop more, to the exclusion of your upper abs? NO they cannot be isolated completely. Can you put more emphasis on your lower abs than the upper abs with exercise choice? That is very likely, but that is also controversial. You have guys like Dr. Stuart McGill, one of the worlds TOP experts on spine biomechanics and if he speaks, many trainers receive his words as if they were the word of God. When highly regarded experts like McGill say you can’t train your lower abs (apart from upper abs), then that’s it, you can’t work them, say a large group of trainers.

But not everyone agrees with that. Some trainers argue that there are different innervation points for different segments of the adbominals. Others point to EMG studies which show greater activation of the lower abdominals (the EMG studies may be controversial, but most experts DO agree that some “ab” exercises activate the obliques more than the abdominals, so it’s not like you can only work your abdominal region as if it were one giant region of muscle – different exercises DO have different effects.

Most bodybuilders and many trainers believe that some exercises activate the lower abs more. Usually these are the exercises that bring the legs toward the upper body and or tilt the pelvis posteriorly. These include hanging knee ups, hanging leg raises and reverse crunches. Keeping in mind what I mentioned about 4 packs vs 6 packs and 8 packs, these exercises may help bring out the washboard appearance and make your abs pop more by putting more stress on that bottom row of abs.

Adding weight to abdominal exercise may also help your abs pop, by increasing hypertrophy. The abs are a muscle that can often be trained very effectively just with body weight. The problem is, most people stick with bodyweight exercises exclusively, even when they can do more than 25 reps per set, sometimes even 50 or 100 reps. At that point, you’re training pure endurance and not hypertrophy. Yes, it’s absolutely a myth that endless high reps gives you better abs – you might be better off with lower reps and adding some weight.

I know some girls who can do abs for an hour, it seems (I’ll never figure that one one… guys, unless youre related to Jack LaLanne, don’t try to keep up with those girls who teach ab classes, they will embarrass you, LOL… I bow to women’s ab endurance). But anyway, remember that muscle hypertrophy is achieved in the 8-12 rep range and even if abs are a slighly more higher rep responsive muscle, 15-20 with some weight ouught to do it.

If it’s abdominal muscle development you want, there is simply NO reason whatsoever to do hundreds of reps of ab work. If your goal is endurance or personal satisfaction about your endurance and conditioning abilities, that’s one thing, otherwise doing hundreds of reps on abs with bodyweight is the wrong approach.

Warning: Build Your Abs, But Don’t Build Your Obliques!

I do have one final warning though, about weighted exercises: don’t train your obliques with heavy weight if you’re prone to easy muscle growth there. Exercises like weighted side bends can make your waist larger and blockier and throw off your symmetry.

Pro bodybuilders who are naturally blocky and NOT born with the “Frank Zane tiny waist” and symmetry are not doomed – just look at Jay Cutler, Mr Olympia. However, Jay had to blow up his delotoids up to ridiculous size to compensate visually and be utterly paranoid about doing anything that would make his waist wider. The dual effect of larger wider shoulders and simulaneously shrinking waist size PLUS rectus abdominals development and low body fat is STUNNING!

Conclusion

So, I think I’ve made the case pretty clear that abs are made in the kitchen AND in the gym, not one or the other.

If you’re a freak mesomorph, you might diet down and find that the abs are already there. I know people who never train their abs and they have amazing six packs. On that note, I know people who have freaky calves who never work them either. Chalk up both of those scenarios to genetics.

For most of us in the normal range of the genetic bell curve however, it’s going to take strict diet and hard training to get ultimate abs develoment and see that washboard pop!

Train hard AND eat right, gang!


Tom Venuto, author of
Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle
www.BurnTheFat.com!

Founder & CEO of
Burn The Fat Inner Circle
Burn the fat inner circle

About the Author:

Tom Venuto is the author of the #1 best seller, Burn the
Fat, Feed the Muscle: Fat Burning Secrets of the World’s Best Bodybuilders and
Fitness Models. Tom is a lifetime natural bodybuilder and fat loss expert
who achieved an astonishing 3.7% body fat level without drugs or supplements.
Discover how to increase your metabolism and burn stubborn body fat, find out
which foods burn fat and which foods turn to fat, plus get a free fat loss
report and mini course by visiting Tom’s site at: www.BurnTheFat.com!