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  • The Truth About Fast Weight Loss

    The Truth About Fast Weight Loss

    Title: The Truth About Fast Weight Loss

    By line: By Tom Venuto

    URL: www.BurnTheFat.com!

    Word count: 1356 words

    WEIGHT LOSS POP QUIZ: What are 3 things that ALL 8 of these advertisements have in common?

    “Burn 30 lbs in 3 weeks – no diet!”

    “Lose 9 Pounds Every 11 Days!”

    “Lose a pound a day without diet or exercise!”

    “Lose 2 pounds a day without dieting!”

    “Lose 30 pounds In 30 Days!”

    “Lose 20 lbs in 3 weeks!”

    “Burn 30 lbs in 25 days!”

    “Lose 10 Pounds This Weekend!”

    ANSWER: (1) They are all FALSE, (2) they are all DECEPTIVE…

    I just did an Internet search for “how fast should you lose weight” and these are just a small sample of ACTUAL ADS that are running this very moment. They sure are enticing, aren’t they? They play on your emotions and on your desire for instant gratification.

    But did you know that…

    (3) these claims are all actually ILLEGAL, says the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

    “We have known for some time now that there is a serious problem with weight-loss product advertising,” said FTC Chairman Timothy J. Muris. “Reputable marketers continue to take care to avoid false and misleading claims, but it appears that too many unscrupulous marketers are making false claims promising dramatic and effortless weight loss to sell their products. It is not fair to consumers; it is not fair to legitimate businesses, it is illegal, and it will not be tolerated.”

    You might be asking, “Ummm, if it will not be tolerated, then why do we keep seeing these ads?” Ah yes, well, God bless the Internet, On Google, you can put up an ad and have it showing in 15 minutes. You can then have it taken down just as fast. Same goes for websites. The FTC couldn’t keep up with OFFLINE false advertising, how are they possibly going to keep up with it ONLINE??? And it’s only going to get worse.

    There’s only so much the FTC and other consumer watchdog organizations can do. It’s up to YOU to educate YOURSELF and know the red flags and warning signs of bogus weight loss claims.

    Here’s what else the FTC says about why these types of advertising claims are so damaging:

    • “The deceptive promotion of quick and easy weight loss solutions potentially fuels unrealistic expectations on the part of consumers. consumers who believe that it really is possible to lose a pound (of fat) a day may quickly lose interest in losing a pound a week.”
    • “The proliferation of “fast and easy” fixes undermines the reality of what it takes to lose weight. People who need to lose weight are buying empty promises.”

    I believe that the weight loss education industry has been knocked a few steps backward in the last few years due to (1) the internet and (2) the horrendous reality TV shows that actually encourage people to attempt “extreme” body makeovers or see who can lose weight the fastest. The winners (or shall we say, the “losers”, as if that’s a flattering title to earn), are rewarded generously with fortune, fame and congratulations.

    These shows are damaging and despicable. I’m shocked that so many millions tune in and I’m even more surprised how many people think this garbage is “inspiring.”

    Let’s face it. Everyone wants to get the fat off as quickly as possible – and having that desire is not wrong – it’s simply human nature. Patience is the one thing you never seem to have when you’ve got a body fat problem. You want the fat gone and you want it gone now!

    Like the FTC said, with what we see on TV these days and with web page after web page of fast weight loss claims, you actually start to believe it’s doable and you’re no longer interested in a healthy 1-2 lbs weight loss per week. In fact, you even see people with your own eyes losing weight incredibly fast. How do you deny it’s possible when you see THAT?

    Well, the answer comes to you when you expand your time perspective and see where those people are 6, 12, 18 months from now. Deep in your heart, you KNOW the answer…

    The faster you lose weight, the more muscle you will lose right along with the fat, and that can really mess up your metabolism.

    An even bigger problem with fast weight loss is that it just won’t last. The faster you lose, the more likely you are to gain it back. It’s the the “yo-yo diet effect” – weight goes down, but always comes back up.

    What Really Matters Is Not How Much WEIGHT You Lose, But How Much FAT You Lose

    Where did your weight loss come from? Did you lose body fat or lean body mass? “Weight” is not the same as “fat.” Weight includes muscle, bone, internal organs as well as lots and lots of water…

    Don’t Be Fooled By Water Weight Losses

    One thing you should also know is that it’s very common to lose 3 – 5 pounds in the first week on nearly any diet and exercise program and often even more on low carb diets (because low carb diets deplete glycogen and every gram of glycogen holds 3 grams of water). Just remember, its NOT all fat – WATER LOSS IS NOT FAT LOSS – AND WATER LOSS IS TEMPORARY!

    The only way to know if you’ve actually lost FAT is with body composition testing. For home body fat self-testing, I recommend the Accu-Measure skinfold caliper as first choice. Even better, get a multi site skinfold caliper test from an experienced tester at a health club, or even an underwater (hydrostatic) or air (bod pod) displacement test.

    From literally hundreds of client case studies, I can confirm that it’s rare to lose more than 2 to 3 lbs of weight per week without losing some muscle along with it. If you lose muscle, you are damaging your metabolism and this will lead to a plateau and ultimately to weight relapse.

    The Biggest Weight Loss Mistake That Is FATAL To Your Long Term Success

    Lack of patience is one of the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to losing body fat. If you want to lose FAT, not muscle, and if you want to keep the fat off for good, then you have to take off the pounds slowly (of course, if you want to crash diet the weight off fast, lose muscle with the fat and gain all the fat back later, be my guest!).

    This is one of the toughest lessons that overweight men and women have to learn – and they can be very hard learners. They fight kicking and screaming, insisting that they CAN and they MUST lose it faster.

    Then you have these TV shows that encourage the masses that rapid, crash weight loss is okay. To the producers of these shows, I say SHAME ON YOU! To the personal trainers, registered dieticians and medical doctors who are associated with these programs, I say DOUBLE SHAME ON YOU, because you of all people should know better. These shows are not “motivating” or “inspiring” – they are DAMAGING! They are a DISGRACE!

    The rapid weight loss being promoted by the media for the sake of ratings and by the weight loss companies for the sake of profits makes it even harder for legitimate fitness and nutrition professionals because our clients say, “But look at so and so on TV – he lost 26 pounds in a week!”

    Sure, but 26 pounds of WHAT – and do you have any idea what the long term consequences are?

    Short term thinking… foolish.

    Do it the right way. The healthy way. Take off pounds slowly, and steadily with a sensible lifestyle program like my BurnTheFat Feed the Muscle System that includes the important elements of cardio training, strength training and proper nutrition.

    Measure your body fat, not just your body weight, and make this a new lifestyle, not a race, and you will never have to take the pounds off again, because they will be gone forever the first time.

    Tom Venuto, author of Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle 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!

  • No Pain No Gain: Fitness Myth or Ultimate Fitness Truth?

    No Pain No Gain: Fitness Myth or Ultimate Fitness Truth?

    Title: No Pain No Gain: Fitness Myth or Ultimate Fitness Truth?

     By line: By Tom Venuto URL: www.BurnTheFat.com!

    Word count: 1086 words

    No Pain, No Gain. Is this aphorism just a fitness myth and downright bad advice? A lot of people seem to think so. As a bodybuilder with 25 years of training experience and more than two dozen trophies on my shelf, I have another perspective to offer you. Success with your body and in every area of your life is all about stepping outside of your comfort zone and that means embracing pain.

    To reach high levels of physical and personal success you must approach your training, and your entire life, as an endeavor in constant growth. The ultimate truth is, you are either moving forward or moving backward; growing or dying. There’s no such thing as comfortably maintaining.

    To grow, you must step above past achievements; beyond your perceived boundaries and limits. That means stepping out of the known, into the unknown; out of the familiar and into the unfamiliar; out of the comfortable into the uncomfortable. You must get out of your comfort zone.

    The Late Cavett Robert, who was founder of the National Speakers Association, said something I’ll never forget: “Most people are running around their whole lives with their umbilical cords in their hands and they’re looking for some place to plug it back in.”

    Most people are scared of the unknown. They prefer to stay in that womb of comfort. When the going gets tough; when the effort gets painful, when the work gets hard, they always pull back into safety. But the extraordinary people do the opposite. They know they have to get out of the comfort zone, and into new territory or they’ll stagnate and die.

    Walt Disney once said that he never wanted to repeat a past success. He was always creating something new. They called it “Imagineering.” Disney’s mission was to continuously dream up and create things they had never done before, and look at what Disney has become today.

    Here’s a little quote that you should post on your bulletin board, your computer desktop or somewhere you will always see it:

    “Do what you always did, get what you always got.”

    You can’t grow or change by doing what you’ve already done. You’ve got to train just to prevent yourself from going backwards. Maintenance doesn’t occur when you do nothing, maintenance is working to fight entropy, the tendency for things to naturally deteriorate.

    Still, most people won’t leave their comfort zones. They won’t do it in business, they won’t do it in their personal lives. They won’t do it in their sport. They won’t do it for personal health and fitness. Why? The answer is simple… It hurts.

    By definition, what’s it like outside the comfort zone? It’s UN-COMFORTABLE, right? Change is uncomfortable. Sometimes it’s physically painful, but it’s always mentally and emotionally painful, in the form of discipline, sacrifice, uncertainty and fear.

    The maxim, “no pain no gain” gets knocked all the time as if it were bad advice. The fact of life is that you don’t grow unless you’ are constantly stepping outside the comfort zone, and outside the comfort zone is discomfort and pain.

    I find that it’s mostly the non-achievers who make out “no pain, no gain” to be a bad thing. But the winners get it. The champions understand stepping outside the comfort zone in a healthy context, so they embrace it.

    When you’re talking about the Olympics, or pro bodybuilding or the Super Bowl or a world championship, you’d better believe it’s physical pain, it’s discipline, it’s sacrifice, it’s blood, sweat, and tears – literally. But for most people who simply want to go from unfit to fit, from overweight to ideal weight, it’s not so much about physical “pain”; it’s more like stretching yourself.

    How do you develop flexibility? What does your trainer tell you? You stretch to the point of discomfort, but not to the point of pain, right? You get into a position of slight discomfort and you hold it just long enough, then what happens? The discomfort goes away, because the muscle becomes more pliable, and the range of motion is increased.

    Each time, you stretch a little further, just barely into the range you’ve never been in before, and eventually, you’re doing the splits. And why do you approach it like that? Because you don’t want to injure yourself. Stretch too far, too fast and your muscle tears.

    The elite athletes and high achievers really have to push themselves; they’re going to push their boundaries and test their limits. But if you’re not an elite athlete or seasoned bodybuilder, and you take the advice, “no pain, no gain” too literally, you’re going to end up getting injured.

    I always say to my training partner when I watch him cringing during a set and he finishes up with that pained look on his face, “Are you injured, or just hurt?” He knows what I’m talking about. If he says he’s hurt, I say, “OK, good. As long as you’re not injured. Let’s get on with it. Next set.”

    It’s not about injury. That is bad pain. That is stupidity. But do stretch yourself. You can’t improve unless you stretch yourself. If that’s what some people want – if they just want to “stay fit” – OK fine. It actually doesn’t take that much to stay fit, once you’ve already achieved it.

    But what if you want to improve? What if you want a new body? What if you want to change? If that’s what you want, you’ve got to push yourself a little. You’ve got to break comfort zones. And if your body is not changing, then I don’t care how hard you think you’re working, whatever you’re doing right now is inside your comfort zone.

    The statement “no pain, no gain” has been misinterpreted, criticized and labeled a fallacy by many. However, the people doing the criticizing are almost always comfort zoners who haven’t achieved much. Don’t listen to them. Instead, follow the small percentage of people who step out and achieve great things. If you don’t like the sound of it, then say, “No effort, no gain.” We’re still talking about the same thing.

    Embrace the discomfort like the champions do. Soon it subsides, you enjoy the benefits of the change and the pain is forgotten. You’ve reached a new, higher plateau of achievement. Enjoy the view for a short while. But be on guard because it’s not long before that higher level becomes your new comfort zone and then its time to press on again.

    About the author
    Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural (steroid-free) bodybuilder, freelance writer and best selling author of www.BurnTheFat.com,Feed The Muscle: Fat Burning Secrets of the World’s Best Bodybuilders and Fitness Models. Tom has been featured in IRONMAN, Australian IRONMAN, Italian IRONMAN (Olympian’s News), Natural Bodybuilding and Fitness, Muscular Development, Men’s Exercise, and Men’s Fitness Magazines. Tom’s hard work, no-quick fixes approach has won him multiple titles in drug tested bodybuilding including Mr. Natural Pennsylvania, Natural New Jersey, Natural New York State, Natural Mid Atlantic States and NPC Natural Eastern Classic championships. More important, tens of thousands of people in 141 countries have used Tom’s Burn The Fat program to lose as much as 253 pounds or just the last stubborn 5-10 pounds and achieve that coveted 6-pack of abs. To learn more about Tom’s all-natural approach to fat burning, visit his site at www.BurnTheFat.com!

  • The Little Thing in Your Head That’s Keeping You Fat

    The Little Thing in Your Head That’s Keeping You Fat

    Title: The Little Thing in Your Head That’s Keeping You Fat

    By line: By Tom Venuto

    URL: www.BurnTheFat.com!

    Word count: 1685 words

    The Little Thing in Your Head That’s Keeping You Fat

    By Tom Venuto

    I have no doubt that a scientist somewhere just read the title of this article and said out loud, “YES! Venuto is right! That little thing in your head – the hypothalamus – it IS the thing that is keeping you fat! By George, that Venuto guy isn’t a dumb bodybuilder after all – he’s been doing his research!” At which moment, I will be shaking my head and thinking, “you need to get out of the laboratory and into the real world, with real people, buddy.” Okay, okay, to be fair, Neuro-endocrine control of appetite and body fat really is quite fascinating. But today, I’m talking about PSYCH-ology, not PHYSI-ology. The little thing in your head that’s keeping you fat is actually just a….

    Limiting belief!

    Self-limiting beliefs are among the biggest problems that people deal with in their struggles to achieve a healthy ideal weight. They’re also one of the reasons that so many people start to falter or fall off the diet and exercise wagon as early as late January or early February in their New Year’s goal pursuits.

    If you’re that science guy I spoke of and you’re about to bail because you’re thinking, “Here we go again… another psycho-babble, self help article,” then think again. A belief is the force behind the placebo effect, which is well known by every scientist and medical professional. A respected doctor gives a patient a pill and is told it’s a powerful drug. The patient gets well immediately, not knowing that the “miraculous” substance was a dummy pill. Inert. Sugar. The miracle was in the mind.

    But beliefs are not only involved in the mind-body connection, they are unconscious programs that control your behavior. The most important factor in whether you achieve the body and the health you want is NOT what diet or training program you follow. It’s what makes you follow your diet and training program. And guess what? What you believe controls your behavior – whether you will stick with your program or sabotage it with cheating, bingeing or inconsistency.

    What to do about limiting beliefs

    Ok, so now you agree that beliefs are psychological factors that affect you physically by controlling your behavior, including your eating, exercising and lifestyle. What now? 3 steps. 2 questions.

    STEP 1: IDENTIFY LIMITING BELIEFS

    You are fully aware of many of your beliefs. For example, beliefs about spirituality or politics are usually in the front of your conscious mind.

    But the beliefs that hold back your health and physical development the most are usually the ones you don’t even know you have. They are like unconscious “brain software,” running silently in the background.

    So the first step is to bring those unconscious and potentially damaging beliefs up to the surface so you are aware of them. You can’t fix a problem if you don’t know you have one.

    2 Quick Questions That Will Help Draw Out Your Beliefs

    Beliefs can go back to childhood, but don’t worry, you don’t have to go to a psychotherapist and be regressed back to kindergarten. It’s simpler than that. But it does pay to do this questioning process as a formal “exercise” with serious quiet time, with pen and paper (instead of just thinking about it).

    Question #1: What causes me to be overweight (or unhealthy, or not having the body I want)?

    Question #2: What’s preventing me from getting leaner? (or healthier?)

    Spend some time with it and see how big of a list you can create. Ask yourself whether each belief helps or hurts you. Does it move you forward or backward. Does it empower or disempower you? The ones that hurt you or hold you back will be obvious. You may come up with beliefs such as:

    “I’m overweight and I can’t get leaner because”:

    I have no time I’m too old I can’t stop eating I hate exercise You just can’t do it when you have 4 kids It’s impossible after having a hip replacement

    But the million dollar question is: are these beliefs actually true?

    Beliefs are not facts. You may hold your beliefs as absolute reality, but when you deconstruct them and challenge them, you may see that they don’t hold any water.

    Self limiting beliefs are false interpretations (negative thought patterns) that hold you back. And you keep holding on to them because making excuses and staying the same is a lot more convenient than changing, isn’t it? Change requires hard work, effort and leaving your comfort zone.

    Your mission now: weaken the limiting beliefs and get rid of them

    STEP 2: CHALLENGE THOSE BELIEFS

    How do you challenge a belief? 4 ways:

    (A) Challenge it directly: Is the belief even valid at all? See if you can find a “counter example” that disproves your belief. For example; if you think that after you’ve had 3 or 4 kids, it’s impossible to get a nice flat stomach, what will you say after I introduce you to a dozen of my clients and readers who had 3 or 4 kids and went from bulging belly to rock-hard flat stomach? If they did it, then how could your belief be valid? Answer: It WASN’T! You believed something false and inaccurate and it was holding you back!

    (B) Challenge the source: Is it your belief, or have you been living what your parents, peers or culture handed down to you? Just the realization that a belief wasn’t yours to begin with is enough to shatter it.

    (C) Challenge the usefulness of the belief: Ok, so you believed something when you were younger. Does still believing it has any usefulness today? Does it help you move closer to what you want in your life today? If not, then wouldn’t today be a good time to get rid of it?

    (D) Challenging the belief by weighing the consequences: If you keep this belief, what is it going to cost you? What will the pain be like? What will you miss? And what will these consequences be if you don’t change it NOW?

    STEP 3: INSTALL A NEW BELIEF

    Nature abhors a vacuum, as Spinoza once said. You don’t simply get rid of a belief, you must also replace it. What things would you want and need to believe instead that would create positive behaviors that would move you toward your goal? Write them down, then massage them into an affirmation. For example, if you’ve hung your hat on the belief that you didn’t have time to exercise, could you write a new affirmation of belief similar to this?

    “I’m a very busy person, so that means I must set clear priorities and I must keep my health and body on the top of my priority list. I always schedule time for my most important priorities, I am efficient with my training, and I use every minute of my day wisely. And if Barack Obama, the busiest person in the world, can train for 45 minutes a day 6 days a week, there’s no excuse for me. I can do it too.”

    Write down your new belief affirmations and read them, right along with your goals, every day.

    Then “activate” this affirmation by doing what Olympic and professional athletes do: engaging in mental rehearsal. Visualize yourself carrying out the behaviors that this belief would generate. Think about and feel what it would be like to take those positive actions steps and play mental movies of how your life would change by doing so. Involve all your senses: see it, hear it, feel it.

    Keep it up until you start to see your behavior change and your habitual actions come into alignment with your goals/intentions. If you’re diligent, you’ll see changes in attitude and behavior with 21-30 days. It may happen sooner. It may take longer if you’ve carried deep, lifelong limiting beliefs. But in less than a month, the roots of the new belief pattern will be formed.
    Then you can update your goals and affirmations to reflect your current priorities and move on to the next goal you want to achieve or the next limiting belief you want to change. Keep THAT up, and pretty soon, you will be LIMIT-LESS!
    BELIEVE ME, spending quality time understanding and working on your beliefs is a lot more productive than spending time in forums arguing about whether a low carb program is better than a high carb program… or even whether the cure for obesity is found in the arcuate nucleus of the lower hypothalamus. It’s in your head all right… but most people have been looking in the wrong place.
    Train hard and expect success.

    Tom Venuto Fat Loss Coach www.BurnTheFat.com!
    About the Author:Tom Venuto

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

     

  • 8 Reasons Why You Keep Falling Off The Diet Wagon

    8 Reasons Why You Keep Falling Off The Diet Wagon

    Title: 8 Reasons Why You Keep Falling Off The Diet Wagon

    Author: Tom Venuto

    Word count: 719

    URL: www.BurnTheFat.com!

    Clearly, we have an obesity problem in America and many other countries across our planet. Yet, I propose that we do not have a weight loss problem today. In case you’re confused at this apparent contradiction, consider these statistics:

    According to a study from Oxford University published in the International Journal of Obesity, within 3 to 5 years, about 80 percent of all ‘weight losers’ have regained the lost weight, and often gained back a little extra.

    According to research by the National Weight Control Registry, that relapse rate may be as high as 95 percent.

    For comparison, relapse rates for drug, alcohol and tobacco dependency have been reported in the range of 50-90%.

    This means that lots and lots of people have “successfully” lost weight. But not many have kept it off. Therefore, we don’t have a weight loss problem, we have a weight-relapse problem; we have a “not sticking with it” problem. Wouldn’t you agree?

    In fact, the fall and subsequent weight-regain usually doesn’t take years. Many people have abandoned their new year’s resolutions within weeks. By the time the Super Bowl party rolls around, their diet is history!

    If this is true, then shouldn’t we put more of our attention onto figuring out why you haven’t been sticking with your program, and what you should do about it?

    I put together this new list (below) of the top 8 reasons why you fall off the wagon.

    Rather than worrying about the minutiae of your diet plan, like whether you should be on low carb or high carb, Mediterranean or Okinawan, vegetarian or meat eater, I propose that if you simply focus on these 8 issues, you’ll start getting more lasting results.

    How? By being able to stick with whichever plan you decided was best for you! After all, even if you have the best nutrition program in the world – on paper – it doesn’t do you much good if you can’t stick with it in practice!

    THE 8 REASONS

    1. No focus: you didn’t set goals, you didn’t put your goals in writing, and/or you didn’t stay focused on your goals daily (by reading them, affirming them, looking at a vision board, etc.)

    2. No priorities: you may have set a goal, but you didn’t put it on or near the top of your priorities list. For example, your goal is six pack abs, but drinking beer and eating fast food on the weekend is higher on your priorities list than having a flat stomach.

    3. No support system: you tried to go at it alone; no buddy system, training partners, family, spouse, friends, mentors or coaches to turn to for information and emotional support when the going got tough.

    4. No Accountability: you didn’t keep score for your own accountability – with a progress chart, weight record, measurements, food journal, training journal, and you didn’t set up external accountability (ie, report to someone else or show your results to someone else)

    5. No patience: you were only thinking short term and had unrealistic expectations. You expected 10 pounds a week or 5 pounds a week or 3 pounds a week, so the first week you lost “only” 1 or 2 pounds or hit a plateau, you gave up.

    6. No planning: you winged it. You walked into the gym without having a workout in hand, on paper, you didn’t plan your workouts into your weekly schedule; you didn’t have a menu on paper, you didn’t make time (so instead you made excuses, like “I’m too busy”)

    7. No balance: your diet or training program was too extreme. You went the all or nothing, “I want it now” route instead of the moderate, slow-and-steady wins the race route.

    8. No personalization: your nutrition or training program was the wrong one for you. It might have worked for someone else, but it didn’t suit your schedule, personality, lifestyle, disposition or body type.

    So there you have it – 8 reasons why most people fall off the wagon! Have you been making these mistakes? If so, the solutions are clear and simple: focus, prioritize, get support, be accountable, be patient, plan, balance and personalize.

    Train hard and expect success,

    Tom Venuto Fat Loss Coach www.BurnTheFat.com!

    About the Author:

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

     

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

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

    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!

  • Q & A: Should You Weigh Yourself Everyday or Throw Away…

    Q & A: Should You Weigh Yourself Everyday or Throw Away…

    Title:Should You Weigh Yourself Everyday or Throw Away Your Scale?
    By : Tom Venuto
    URL: www.BurnTheFat.com!
    Word count: 1363 words

    Have you ever had a weight loss expert tell you to “throw away your scale?”…
    or maybe you heard that too much focus on scale weight can turn you into an obsessive-compulsive (sound familiar?). Well… body composition is more important
    than body weight – you won’t get any argument from me about THAT. But… what if I told you that research supports a strong correlation between daily weigh-ins and
    long term weight loss success? Yes, I said DAILY weigh-ins. Do you think that’s crazy, or could this habit be something that might help you increase your fat loss success?
    This week’s Burn the Fat Blog Q & A column answers…

    QUESTION: Tom, I know your www.BurnTheFat.com! recommends weekly
    weight and body fat measurement, but what do you think about daily weigh-ins? What about using a moving average? The problem with daily readings is they may fluctuate based on a number of factors. You never know which is an “up” and which is a “down” reading. But I was thinking the same could be true weekly. You don’t know if your weekly weigh-in is actually a bit higher than your “true” weight or a bit lower. A moving average would smooth out those variances and give you a better idea of your “real” weight and the general trend of your improvement.Thoughts?

    ANSWER: It’s normal for your body weight to fluctuate, so it’s important to control and account for those variances when you weigh-in and chart your progress. Your weight fluctuates not only on a weekly and day to day basis,but even within the same day – sometimes by several pounds just from morning to night!

    Changes in weight can be based on numerous factors including hydration (loss or gain of water weight) and contents of your digestive system (how recent the last meal and bowel movements were). A moving average could definitely smooth out the variances.

    To get accurate weigh-ins, consistency is also a key. Always do your best to duplicate the weigh in conditions every time: Fed or fasted, clothed or not clothed, bladder empty or full, pre or post workout, morning or evening, high carb or low carb day, amount of fluids ingested, diuretic substances consumed,etc. If you control for all these factors, you’ll get more accurate weight and body composition data and also help smooth out the variances.

    As part of the www.BurnTheFat.com!Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle program, I recommend taking a body fat measurement only once a week (once every two weeks would probably suffice, but I prefer getting weekly feedback). I also recommend weighing yourself “officially” once a week, on the
    same scale, under the same conditions. But I also believe daily weighing can be helpful as long as you’re controlling the variables and you don’t obsess over daily fluctuations (instead, using the multiple data points to track the trend over time).

    If you weigh yourself daily, you can log your weight into a spreadsheet and then convert your progress into a graph with the date on the horizontal axis and weight on the vertical axis. The key is to look for the trend over time. Body fat (and weight) should be heading down in a long term trend and lean body mass should be staying relatively stable. You could also add a column for 7-day moving average if you choose, which smooths out the fluctuations or “noise.” (okay, okay, so only the analytical, number-crunching “geeks” will go that far…but then again, we have quite a few of them in our Burn The Fat ranks… and someof them are pretty darn LEAN!)

    Another benefit of tracking your measurements frequently is that you can compare your weight and body composition results to your training and nutrition for the same time period to look for correlations between methods and results and hopefully learn what methods work the best for you.

    Many weight loss experts say you should “throw away your scales” and that it’s a bad idea to weigh yourself daily or even to weigh yourself at all. I disagree and there’s a LOT of research showing that self monitoring behaviors such as tracking food intake, exercise, body weight and body composition helps to increase compliance and improve weight loss and
    maintenance.

    It’s common sense for weight management, but also well accepted wisdom in teaching, coaching and business management — that you can only expect what you inspect – and what gets measured and tracked gets improved. When measurements are reported to an authority figure, and you are “graded” and held accountable for what gets measured and tracked, results usually improve even more.

    Although weight gain can sometimes happen quickly when there are sudden changes in environment, body weight and body fat usually tend to “creep” when left unchecked. Folks who don’t monitor weight or body composition seem to wake up one day and realize they “suddenly” got fat. Of course, what really happened is that tiny increases in fat and waist line went unchecked and therefore,
    unnoticed over a long time period.

    Successful weight reducers and maintainers have a common behavior pattern and that is they keep track of their weight. Weight monitoring could be daily or weekly, but either way, most people will get best results by checking it regularly. This way, if results are negative, you’ll be alerted and you can increase compliance and “buckle down” or change your strategy. Frequent (weekly
    or even daily) weighings provide a feedback tool which increases awareness,allowing for a quick course correction.

    By the way, people who have to wear well-tailored suits or tight fitting clothes have a feedback mechanism they can check themselves with every single day. Those who wear baggy clothes / elastic waist bands who also do not weigh themselves tend to succumb to the weight creep and not realize it. If you don’t have to dress up for work every day or if you wear loose, baggy clothing most of the time, its not a bad idea to have a pair of “lean jeans” that you try on regularly just to see how they’re fitting.

    Just to be fair and show both sides, the only potential criticisms /drawbacks to frequent weighing that remain include:

    (1) It might encourage obsessive behaviors (IF someone is psychologically susceptible), and

    (2) There may be only a small amount of measurable progress after one week,and no measurable change after just a day – both of which might lead some people to impatience and frustration if they don’t have a long term time perspective and/or they don’t understand how to use statistics.

    So, I admit, daily weighing may not be appropriate for everyone. In fact, I think it’s best practice to suggest measuring and recording body weight “at least once a week” and then leave it up to the individual to decide whether they want to weigh daily or not.

    Keep in mind, weigh ins are not an absolute necessity and the mere act of weighing yourself every day or every week doesn’t guarantee more weight loss.
    There are people who for various reasons, choose not to weigh themselves at all, who never go near a scale who successfully lose weight and maintain their ideal
    weight.

    However, regular weigh-ins have consistently been correlated with improved weight loss and some research says that daily weigh ins correlate even more highly with long term success than weekly weigh ins. Studies have also concluded that people who weighed themselves regularly improved weight maintenance and avoided weight regain/cycling as compared to people who didn’t weigh themselves at all.

    There’s one last thing I want to re-emphasize and that’s the importance of measuring and tracking body composition (fat vs. muscle) not just scale weight.

    Understanding body composition (not just body weight), and developing the patient-person’s lifestyle mindset are the final keys that really complete
    this self-monitoring advice and helps you avoid compulsive behaviors or obsessing over short term results. This is exactly the approach I outline in the Burn The Fat System, which teaches you how to leverage your daily and weekly feedback results to help you burn stubborn body fat and strengthen your metabolism over the long haul.

    Train hard and expect success!


    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!

  • Q & A : What’s the Required Bodyfat Percentage to See Your Abs?

    Q & A : What’s the Required Bodyfat Percentage to See Your Abs?

    By:Tom Venuto
    URL:www.BurnTheFat.com!
    Word count: 1238 words

    QUESTION: “Tom, I know what I want to look like and I follow your
    advice about visualization and seeing my abs the way I want them to look. But
    what I can’t figure out is what body fat % I should be aiming at to achieve that look? I am female, 35 yrs old and I’ve done awesome on your Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle program. I started at 19% body fat and the lowest I’ve gotten so far was 11.8% body fat with a caliper test. I’ve been thinking about doing a figure competition, but even at that body fat percentage, which I know is very low, I still had some “patches” of fat. How do I know what body fat percentage I should target so that all the fat is gone?”

    ANSWER: Congrats! For most women, 11.8% is ripped, and for many women,
    that’s contest ready.

    Just for comparison, I’ve done over 7,000 body fat tests during my career,and the lowest I have ever measured on a female was 8.9% (4-site skinfold method).
    She was a national-level figure competitor and she was shredded – full six pack of abs… “onion skin!” However, I do know some women who get down to 11-13% body fat – by all
    standards extremely lean, complete with six pack abs – but oddly, they still had a few stubborn fat spots – usually the hips and lower body – so this would confirm your experience.

    I know a guy who looks absolutely chiseled in his abs at 11% body fat, but other guys don’t look really cut in the abs until they get down to 6-8% body fat.
    That’s the trouble with trying to pin down one specific body fat number as THE body fat level for seeing 6-pack abs (or being contest or photo-shoot ready).
    Everyone distributes their body fat differently and two people may look different at the same percentage.

    Here’s what I’d recommend:

    Get familiar with some benchmarks for body fat levels.
    My www.BurnTheFat.com!
    has a body fat rating scale, which includes averages and my suggested optimal body fat percentages.
    This is my own chart, which I created with a combination of research
    literature and my own personal experience.

    :: Burn The Fat, Feed the Muscle Body Fat Rating Scale ::
    WOMEN:
    Competition Shape (“ripped”): 8-12%
    Very Lean (excellent): < 15%
    Lean (good): 16-20%
    Satisfactory (fair): 21-25%
    Improvement needed (poor): 26-30%
    Major improvement needed (very poor):
    31-40+%
    MEN:
    Competition Shape (“ripped”): 3-6%
    Very Lean (excellent):< 9%
    Lean (good): 10-14%
    Satisfactory (fair): 15-19%
    Improvement
    needed (poor): 20-25%
    Major improvement needed (very poor): 26-30+%

    Just a quick note: You’re not destined to get fatter as you get older, but in the general population (non fitness and bodybuilding folks), the average older person has more body fat.

    What I did to accomodate this is to include a range instead of one number, so younger people can use the low end of the range and older people can use the higher number.
    Also, just so the average reader can keep things in perspective, single digit body fat for women and low single digits for men is far beyond lean – it’s
    RIPPED – and that’s usually solely the domain of competitive physique athletes. Competition body fat levels were not meant to be maintained all year round.
    It’s not realistic and it may may not be healthy, particularly for women.
    The average guy or gal should probably aim for the “lean” category as a realistic year round goal, or if you’re really ambitious and dedicated, the “very lean category.”
    You’ll probably have to hit the “very lean” category for six pack abs.However, the bottom line is that there’s no “perfect” body fat percentage where you’re assured of seeing your abs.
    Besides, body fat is one of those numbers that gets fudged and exaggerated all the time. I hear reports of women with body fat between 4 and 8% and I usually dismiss it as error in measurement (or there’s some “assistance” involved). Body fat testing, especially with skinfolds, is not an exact science.
    All body fat tests are estimations and there is always room for human error.
    The low numbers are nice for bragging rights, but the judges don’t measure your body fat on stage. What counts is how you look and whether you’re happy with that (or whether the judges are happy with it, if you’re competing).You can use my chart to help you set some initial goals, but for the most part, I recommend using body fat testing as a way of charting your progress over time to see if you’re improving rather than pursuing some holy grail number.
    One final note: there are always a few people out there who take exception to my body fat rating scale. More often it’s females than males. More often older than younger. And more often non athletes than athletes. Usually it’s because they have a body fat of 26% or 27% or thereabouts, they are perfectly healthy and they are not significantly overweight. They argue that a body fat of 26% or so should not be rated as “poor” and that the standards on my chart are too high.
    Having been influenced by the bodybuilding and physique world my entire life,I do have high standards, and my chart is admittedly skewed slightly toward an athletic population. However, for a young girl, 26% body fat and for a 40 or 50-something woman, 30% body fat, does in fact, leave plenty of room for improvement which is exactly what the chart says.

    I’d like to encourage all my readers to consider setting higher standards and loftier goals. Not everyone wants or needs to be “ripped.” But in my opinion,many people set goals too low and settle for what they think they can get, not what they really want. With that said, please use my chart only as a guideline and not as gospel. Ultimately, it’s up to you to set your own goals and standards. if 6-pack abs are your goal, I think this info should give you a better idea of what it will take.
    In my Burn The fat, Feed The Muscle system, you can learn more about how to measure your body fat – professionally or even by yourself in the privacy of your own home.
    Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle explains why body mass index and height and weight charts are virtually worthless, and shows you how to track your body composition over time and “tweak” your nutrition and training according to your weekly results.
    Get more details at: www.BurnTheFat.com!

    Train hard and expect success!

    Tom Venuto, author of
    Burn The Fat Feed The Musclewww.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!

  • Q & A : Fat Loss Per Week: Average vs High Achievers

    Q & A : Fat Loss Per Week: Average vs High Achievers

    By: Tom Venuto

    URL:www.BurnTheFat.com!

    Word count:669 words

    QUESTION: Dear Tom: I know it will probably be different for everyone, but I find it hard to set weekly goals for body fat
    percentage because I don’t know what an average body fat percentage drop in a week is supposed to look like. I’m a 30 year old female. Any input?

    ANSWER: I recommend setting a fat reduction goal of about half a percent per week (0.5%). Based on many years of testing clients in person with
    skinfold calipers, I’ve concluded that this is about average.

    This is an
    honest number that reflects not just the outliers in the top success stories,but an average of everyone. That’s what makes this figure a good realistic
    weekly goal [To see some of the more exceptional transformations
    visit: www.BurnTheFat.com!
    Chris,
    for example dropped 9% body fat in 7 weeks. That’s not typical, but its possible
    in a highly motivating environment like our Burn the Fat body transformation
    contests]

    To calculate realistic, average weekly fat loss:

    If your body fat measured 24.6 percent on day one of week one, then 24.1 percent would be your goal for the end of that seven-day period. That will be an impressive 6%
    drop in your body fat if you keep that up over 12 weeks.If you’re more ambitious and you want to shed body fat even faster, it’s certainly possible,although it does
    depend on body size. Larger people can often lose larger amounts of weight and body fat.
    When someone is already lean and wants to get even leaner, there is less fat remaining so it becomes more difficult to lose large amounts every week.
    I’ve seen many people drop 0.6 percent or 0.7 percent body fat per week if they worked hard, usually doing multiple cardio sessions per week on top of their weight training, combined with excellent dietary compliance.
    I’ve even seen people shed 0.8 to 1.0 percent body fat per week, but more often than not, those were temporary spikes in progress,reflecting one exceptionally good week, or in conjunction with a highly motivating event, like one of our burn the fat challenge contests (where the reward of a luxury trip to Maui is dangling in front of you).
    If you lose less than a half a percent per week, as long as you made some forward progress,you should celebrate that as success.
    It’s more normal for results to vary from one week to the next than to drop the same amount every week, so an occasional slow week is nothing to get upset about. It’s just feedback.
    After a below average week, to bring the rate of fat loss up to
    average or better for the next week, you’ll need to:
    (a) re-establish
    compliance if you had a bad week (get back on the wagon! and start tracking food
    intake more meticulously if necessary) or
    (b) make adjustments to your
    nutrition and training to increase your caloric deficit and optimize body
    composition changes.
    Last but not least, if you want to be one of those
    “not typical” people, then remember this:
    * Above average results require
    above average effort.
    * Extraordinary results require extraordinary
    effort.
    Everything in this article is explained in even further detail in my fat loss
    program, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle at: http://www.BurnTheFat.com

    Train hard and expect success!

    Tom Venuto, author of
    Burn The Fat Feed The Musclewww.Burn The Fat.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!

  • How Liquid Calories May Be Making You Fat…!

    How Liquid Calories May Be Making You Fat…!

    Title:How Liquid Calories May Be Making You Fat..Even Your Favorite Protein Drinks!

    By :Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
    www.BurnTheFat.com!
    Word count: 994 words

    At least 7 scientific studies have provided strong evidence that energy containing beverages (i.e., “liquid calories”) do not properly activate the satiety mechanisms in the body and brain and do not satisfy the appetite as well as food in solid form.

    Epidemiological research also supports a positive association between calorie-containing beverage consumption and increased body weight or body mass index. New research now suggests that soda may not be the only culprit…
    The primary source of liquid calories in the United States Diet is carbohydrate, namely soda. Now running a close second are specialty and dessert coffees. Did you know that a 16 ounce Frappucino can contain 500 calories or even more! That’s one-third of a typical female’s daily calorie intake while on a fat loss program.
    A recent study at Purdue University published in the International Journal of Obesity set out to learn even more about this bodyfat – liquid calories relationship.
    Researchers compared solid and beverage forms of foods composed primarily of carbohydrate, fat or protein in order to document the independent effect of food form in foods with different dominant macronutrient sources.
    Based on previous research, some experts have recommended targeting specific beverages as being “worse” than others. High fructose corn syrup and soda has been singled out the most and you’ve probably seen that yourself in the news.
    There’s no question that soda has been on top of the “hit list” for some time now, by virtue of the amounts and frequency of consumption alone.
    However, this recent study says that from a pure energy balance perspective, we should be cautious about ALL liquid calories, not just soda and not just carbohydrates!
    Fruit juice for example, appears to be an obvious improvement over soda, so many people have swapped out their soda for fruit juice. However, when fruit juice is compared to an equal amount of calories from whole fruit, the whole fruit satisfies appetite better (largely due to the bulk and fiber content), and so you tend to eat fewer calories for the day.
    [On an interesting side note, soup does not seem to apply; soup has higher satiety value than calorie containing beverages, possibly for mere cognitive reasons.]
    If you were to meticulously track your calories from beverages and you made sure that your calories remained the same for the day, whether liquid or solid, there would probably be little or no difference in your body composition.
    But that’s not what usually happens in free-living humans. Most people do not accurately track or report their caloric intake. Our mistake is that we tend to drink calories IN ADDITION TO our usual food intake, not instead of it.
    Men are especially guilty of this when they drink alcohol – Men tend to drink AND eat, while women tend to drink INSTEAD OF eating.
    This new research found that with all three macronutrients – protein, carbs or fat – daily calorie intake was significantly greater when the beverage form was consumed as compared to the solid.
    Yes, it’s true! Even protein drinks did not satisfy the appetite the way that protein foods did!
    While you would think that protein drinks are purely a good thing, because protein foods have been proven to reduce appetite and increase satiety, if you turn a solid protein food into a protein drink, it loses it’s appetite suppressive properties in the same way that happens when you turn fruit into fruit juice.

    [NOTE: After weight training workouts, liquid nutrition may have benefits that outweigh any downside, especially on muscle-gaining programs]

    Why do liquid calories fail to elicit the same response as whole foods? reasons include:

    high calorie density lower satiety value more calories ingested in short period of time lower demand for oral processing shorter gastrointestinal transit times energy in beverages has greater bioaccessibility and bioavailability mechanisms may include cognitive, orosensory, digestive, metabolic, endocrine and neural influences (human appetite is a complex thing!!!)
    last but not least, nowhere in our history have our ancestors had access to large amounts of liquid calories. Alcohol may have been around as far back as several thousand years BC, but even that is a blip on the evolutionary calendar of humanity.
    As a result, our genetic code has never developed the physiological mechanisms to properly register the caloric content in liquids the way it does when you eat, chew and swallow whole foods.

    Bottom line: This study suggests that we shouldn’t just target one type of liquid calories such as soda. If you’re trying to beat body fat, it’s wise to limit all types of liquid calories and eat whole foods as much as possible.
    Start by ditching the soda. Then ditch the high calorie dessert coffees. Then cut back on the alcohol. From there, be cautious even about milk, juice and protein drinks.
    Drink water or tea instead, or limited amounts of black coffee – without all the high calorie extras.
    If you do consume any beverages that contain calories, such as protein shakes, be sure to account for those calories meticulously and be sure you don’t drink them in addition to your usual food intake, but in place of an equal amount of food calories.
    Remember, those protein shakes you might be drinking are called “meal replacements” not “free calories!”
    For many years I have suggested focusing primarily on whole foods rather than liquids, even protein shakes. Unlike so many other fat reduction programs, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle does not require any kind of liquid meal replacement or protein drinks and our company does not exist to sell supplements; we are here to educate you and millions of others about the realities of body fat loss.
    We now have even more scientific data that confirms what Burn The Fat has been teaching all along.

    I hope you found this helpful. You can learn more about “Burn The Fat” at www.BurnTheFat.com!

    Train hard and expect success,

    Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
    Fat Loss Coach
    www.BurnTheFat.com

    Reference: Effects of food form on appetite and energy intake in lean and obese young adults. International Journal of Obesity. 2007 Nov (11):1688-95. Mourao DM, Bressan J, Campbell WW, Mattes RD. Department of Foods and Nutrition, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2059, USA.

    About the Author:

    Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified personal trainer and freelance fitness writer. Tom is the author of “Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using secrets of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: www.BurnTheFat.com!

  • Why Cardio Doesn’t Work For Some People: A NEAT Explanation

    Why Cardio Doesn’t Work For Some People: A NEAT Explanation

    Title: Why Cardio Doesn’t Work For Some People: A NEAT Explanation

    By: Tom Venuto
    URL: www.BurnTheFat.com!

    Word count: 1701 words

    At the Burn the Fat Inner Circle member forums, I get a question which comes up with alarming frequency: “Why isn’t my cardio working?”  Despite not only doing regular cardio for weeks, but actually increasing the duration of her workouts, one member still saw no added fat loss and started wondering what she was doing wrong… or what was wrong with her!  I gave her the surprisingly simple answer, which I’ve printed for you as well in this article and new research has added even more to the answer – it’s a NEAT explanation…

    How is it possible that some people do tons of cardio and don’t lose weight?

    Simple: Weight loss is a function of caloric deficit, not how much cardio you do. Cardio is only one of the tools you use to create and increase a caloric deficit.

    Endurance athletes are a perfect example for illustrating the error in thinking that “an hour a day” (or whatever amount) of cardio will guarantee weight loss…

    They might train for two, three, even four hours or more on some days, but they are often not trying to lose weight. They (have to) eat huge amounts of food to fuel their training and keep their weight stable.

    It’s not unusual at all for a cyclist to burn 4000 or 5000 calories per day and not lose any weight. Why? Same reason you’re doing a lot of cardio but not losing weight:  there’s no calorie deficit. Calories in are equaling the calories out.

    What you need to do is shift your focus OFF of some kind of prerequisite time spent doing cardio and ON to the REAL pre-requisite for weight loss: a caloric deficit.

    If your caloric intake remains exactly the same and you add cardio or other training or activity you will create a deficit and you will lose weight, guaranteed.

    With all this talk about “cardio” and “training” one important area that people often forget about is all the other activity in your life outside of your cardio and weight training. There’s a name for that:

    Non exercise activity thermogenesis, or NEAT

    NEAT is all your physical activity throughout the day, excluding your “formal” workouts.

    NEAT includes all the calories you burn from casual walking, shopping, yard work, housework, standing, pacing and even little things like talking, chewing, changing posture, maintaining posture and fidgeting. Walking contributes to the majority of NEAT

    It seems like a bunch of little stuff – and it is – which is why most people completely ignore it. Big mistake.

    At the end of the day, week, month and year, all the little stuff adds up to a very significant amount of energy. For most people, NEAT accounts for about 30% of physical activity calories spent daily, but NEAT can run as low 15% in sedentary individuals and as high as 50% in highly active individuals.

    I’m always telling people to exercise more – to burn more, not just eat less. This is not only for health, fitness and well-being, but also to help increase fat loss.

    But some people say that increasing exercise doesn’t always work and they quote from research to make their case.  It’s true that some studies paradoxically don’t show better weight loss by adding exercise on top of diet.

    But there are explanations for this…

    If you add training into your fat loss regime but you don’t maintain your nutritional discipline and keep your food intake the same, you remain in energy balance. If a study doesn’t monitor this type of compensation, or if the researchers trust the subjects to accurately self-report their own food intake (hahahahahahahaha!), it will look like the exercise was for nothing.

    In studies where the food intake was controlled when exercise was added… surprise, surprise, weight loss increased!

    Stated differently, all these “experts” who keep saying that exercise doesn’t work for weight loss are  ignoring or not understanding the concepts of calorie deficit and energy compensation.

    Why  Exercise “Doesn’t Work” – The NEAT Explanation

    So a handful of people exercise and then eat more than they were eating before and then scratch their heads and wonder why they aren’t losing. DUH!

    Or, they go on some idiotic crusade against exercise. “SEE! exercise is a waste of time… all you have to do is follow the ‘magic’ diet!”

    Wrong. Dieting alone is the worst way to lose weight because without training, the composition of the weight you lose is not so good (goodbye muscle… hello skinny fat person!). Want to avoid skinny fat syndrome? It’s nutrition, then weight training, then add in and manipulate the cardio as your results dictate.

    There’s another type of compensation that researchers have recently started studying.  When people increase their training, especially high intensity training, sometimes they also compensate by moving less later in the day and in the days that that follow!

    For example, you work out like an animal in the morning, but then instead of your usual walking around and doing housework the rest of the day, you crash and plop your tired body in your LAZY BOY for a nice nap and a marathon session of TV. The next day, the delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) sets in and then you REALLY don’t feel like moving!

    Research on NEAT is extensive and it tells us that NEAT plays a major role in obesity and fat loss. Finding ways to INCREASE NEAT along with formal exercise can be a promising strategy to increase your total daily calorie burn and thus, increase fat loss. The flip side of that equation is finding ways to avoid decreases in NEAT that we might not have been aware of. Because NEAT is so completely off most people’s radars, most people miss this.

    (NOTE: For a real eye-opener, try a using a pedometer or bodybugg for a while)

    Previous studies have confirmed that many people compensated and decreased their activity (NEAT) during the remainder of the day or on rest days after exercise training. This led anti-exercise pundits once again to spit out their party line, “see, exercise doesn’t work! You might as well just diet.”

    However, a study published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise found no immediate debilitative effect on NEAT on the day of exercise or on the following 2 days. In fact, there was a delayed reaction and NEAT actually INCREASED 48 hours after the exercise session (60 minutes of treadmill walking at 6 kph @ 10% grade with 5 minute intervals at 0% grade).

    Why the conflicting findings? Scientists aren’t 100% sure yet, but they have discovered that part of it has to do with exercise intensity.

    Moderate Intensity vs High Intensity cardio: Effect on NEAT

    You sometimes hear certain trainers claim that only high intensity exercise is worthwhile and everything else is a waste of time or at best inefficient. That’s not always true, on many levels, and one of them involves NEAT.

    It looks like higher intensity training has more potential to DECREASE NEAT later on than low or moderate intensity training. You burn a lot of calories DURING the workout when training at high intensity. However, the calories burned during the formal training can be at least partly canceled out by a decrease in NEAT outside the training session.

    It also appears that moderate intensity exercise may be better tolerated than high intensity exercise by some people, especially beginners and obese individuals. The low or moderate intensity workouts don’t wipe them out so much that they don’t become fatigued, sluggish and sore later in the day…. and there’s no decrease in NEAT.

    Am I saying you shouldn’t do high intensity exercise? Not at all.

    High intensity training can be very effective and very time efficient and a mix of high and lower-intensity training might be ideal. But if you do a lot of high intensity training, you have to be aware of how OVER-doing it might affect your energy and activity level outside the gym – on the day of training, and even in the days that follow the intense workout. Otherwise, you might end up with fewer total calories burned at the end of the week, not more.

    If you don’t understand the calorie balance equation and the calorie deficit… if you don’t understand the compensatory effect of NEAT on energy out and you don’t understand the compensatory effect of eating behaviors on energy in, then you can do cardio until you’re blue in the face and you’ll still be in energy balance… and your body fat will stay exactly the same.

    Important points

    1. This study SUPPORTS the role of exercise for weight loss and debunks the idea that exercise doesn’t work for weight loss, provided all else remains equal when exercise is added on top of diet.

    2. Exercise intensity can affect NEAT for days after a workout is over. Too much high intensity work might zap your energy and activity outside the gym, resulting in a lower level of NEAT. You have to keep up your habitual activity level outside the gym after pushing yourself hard in the gym.

    3. This information supports the role of low moderate intensity exercise (like 60 minutes of treadmill walking) based on the effect this has on your activity outside the gym. It is not true that only high intensity training is worthwhile. There are pros and cons of training at various intensities.

    4. If you can keep up your NEAT, you can increase your weekly calorie expenditure and increase your fat loss.

    5. It’s important in research to look beyond short term results (during a workout bout, 24 hour studies, etc), and also consider longer term effects. We should watch out for more studies on NEAT that go beyond 24 hours to learn more.

    NEAT is a great way to improve your total fat loss results, but it can also undermine your efforts if you don’t consider the toll it takes on your daily energy expenditure. The best thing you can do is follow a fat loss system like my Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle Program that takes account of the big picture, including NEAT.


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

     

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