By Tom Venuto
There are six strategies you must use to lose every bit of flab
- the natural way - without plateaus, metabolic slowdown or lingering fat pockets:
(1) LOSE FAT VERY SLOWLY
Here's
where most of the problems begin: Most people have no
patience. How many times have you been told
to lose no more than two pounds per week? How many times have you
ignored that
advice? All the time, right? The American
College of Sports Medicine told you this, your trainer told you this,
your dietician
told you this, your doctor told you this,
etc. Almost everyone agrees 1.0 to 2.0 pounds per week is usually the
maximum rate
for safe, permanent weight (fat) loss. But
few people want to listen theyre ecstatic when the scale registers a 5
or 7 pound
weekly weight loss.
I
advise my clients to lose 1-2 lbs per week. Naturally, most
go for the two pounds (and often ask if three
is okay). Personally I go for 1 lb per week before competitions. If I
lose more
than one pound per week, I eat more. Losing
too much weight too quickly always causes muscle loss, which in turn
causes metabolic
slowdown. Don't ever confuse weight loss with
fat loss. You can lose weight quickly, but you can't lose fat quickly.
If you
think you can outwit Mother Nature and you're
dead set on losing 4, 5, 10 pounds a week, you're going to lose fat in
the beginning,
but not all of it you will plateau and
rebound before the last fat pockets are gone. Set your goal to lose one
or two pounds
per week, but also set your goal to lose this
fat weight consistently every week. When there aren't any plateaus,
this really
adds up over time.
2) REFEED REGULARLY - DONT STAY ON LOW CALORIES ALL THE TIME
I
GUARANTEE you are going to hear a LOT more about the refeeding
concept in the near future. It's not a new
idea, however. Fred Dr. Squat Hatfield was writing about this in the
late 1980s!
He called it Zig Zag Dieting.
Carbing
up, Cyclical Dieting, zig-zag dieting, re-feeding, call
it whatever you want; to me, its so obvious
that increasing calories for a short periods while youre dieting is the
best way
to avoid metabolic downgrade, that I can't
see how anyone would dispute it. But of course, die hard academics often
demand
concrete undisputable scientific evidence
before anything is deemed true.
I would suggest you do not wait for such evidence and you begin
using this technique immediately! All you really need to understand is this basic principle:
If
staying on very low calories for a long time is what causes
your metabolism to slow down and if the
slowdown in metabolism is the reason you have a difficult time losing
that last bit
of stubborn localized fat, then its only
logical that the way to lose the stubborn fat is to avoid metabolic
slowdown by not
staying on low calories all the time!
The
re-feeding concept can all be boiled down to this simple
advice; just raise your calories every few
days instead of staying on low calories all the time. This is the method
smart
bodybuilders use to diet all the way down to
low single digit body fat and lose the last fat pocket without hitting a
single
plateau.
3) DIET IN CYCLES OR SEASONS USING NUTRITIONAL PERIODIZATION
- CHRONIC DIETING IS DANGEROUS
Everyone
knows someone who is ALWAYS on a strict diet. Maybe
you're one of them. As paradoxical as it
seems, chronic dieting is a great way to get fatter! You see, everything
in life
has a certain rhythm or seasonality to it:
Winter- Summer. Tide comes in tide goes out. Sun goes up sun goes down.
To lose
fat for good, you have to diet in seasons.
All sunshine makes a desert.
In
sports training, a big buzzword is periodization. This refers
to a cyclical approach to training an
athlete, so the athlete peaks at his or her best performance level on
the day of an
event, or maintains optimal performance for
the duration of a season.
In
periodization training, there is an off-season and an in-season.
Training continues year-round, but the
programs are quite different during these two cycles. The long major
cycles are called
macrocycles. Smaller weekly and monthly
cycles within the larger cycles are called mesocycles. There are even
tiny day-to-day
variations in sets, reps, poundage,
intensity, duration and tempo called microcycles.
Nutrition
can be periodized too, and this is another topic I
predict will become very hot in the near
future. Re-feeds are like nutritional mesocycles while the annual
seasons are like
nutritional macrocycles (the muscle building
phase versus fat burning phase).
I've
always claimed that the bodybuilders method to fat loss
is the superior one, and isn't cyclical
dieting exactly what bodybuilders do? Don't they diet strictly in a
deficit for a
period of months, then train for muscle
growth for a period of months? Doesn't a really astute physique artist
cycle the calorie
levels throughout the year? Of course. That's
why bodybuilders who use this strategy are the supreme examples of
effective
permanent fat loss.
Bulk
too long, you gain too much fat and get completely out
of fat burning mode. Diet too long, you lose
muscle and downgrade your metabolism. Cycle the two every year in a
seasonal
fashion, whether you compete or not, and you
have the perfect balance.
Three
time Mr. Olympia Frank Zane continued to diet once a year
after he retired, exactly as if he were still
going to compete. As a personal challenge to himself, each year he
continued
to attempt to beat his previous best or at
least he strived to be the best he could be at any given time of his
life. Smart
guy. And now in his 60s, he has a body that
would make men half his age green with envy.
Cycle
your nutrition and your training. Diet strictly at times
and relax your diet at times. Train with
everything you've got at times, and train to maintain at other times.
Don't listen
to experts who constantly warn of
overtraining and say things like daily cardio is catabolic and
unnecessary. Daily cardio,
as part of a short term fat loss cycle,
supported with the proper nutrition and weight training, is the best way
in the world
to lose body fat. Of course you can do cardio
daily! What you can't do is continue with a high volume of daily
training all
year round.
There's
no such thing as a double winter, so why put your body
through severe dieting weather two seasons in
a row? Diet strictly for a while, then slowly ease back for a while...
eat more,
relax then go back at it even harder, pushing
this time for an even higher peak. Be like the athlete trying to beat
last years
record. And continue with this approach for
the rest of your life.
4) DEVELOP A LONG TERM TIME PERSPECTIVE AND SET LONG TERM
GOALS
You
need patience and the right mental attitude to lose body
fat. If you have a lot of fat to lose and you
want to lose it permanently, you need to set up some long-term goals
for your
nutritional seasons. Otherwise, your body is
going to fight back.
I
know dozens of people who did phenomenally well on before
and after transformation programs, only to
quickly gain back all of the fat they lost. Do YOU want to diet for 12
weeks, look
great for a week or two then slip right back
where you started from, or do you want to get lean and stay lean?
Here
are the reasons why so many people re-gain the weight:
They only had a 12-week goal... Short-term
time perspective... No long-term goals... Failure to develop goal
setting as a
lifelong continuous discipline... Failure to
develop nutrition and training disciplines as habits All fatal errors.
Every
season or "nutritional macrocycle", you must strive to
improve on your previous best by setting new
goals. Goal setting is not an event; it's a never-ending process. Isn't
this
what any world-class athlete does? Doesn't
the Olympian strive to beat his record at the last Olympics? Run faster,
throw
farther, jump higher? Doesn't that require a
very long-term time perspective? Can't you apply this concept in your
own training
even if it's just for health, fitness and
recreation? Wouldn't this keep you motivated for years at a time instead
of just
doing ONE 12 week program and then slipping
backwards to square one? Couldn't this mindset for constant and never
ending improvement
in a seasonal fashion keep you motivated for
LIFE? Of course.
5) RE-SET YOUR SET POINT (AKA, TURN DOWN YOUR FAT THERMOSTAT)
When
I was in college, my body fat usually hovered around 15-16%.
(Yes, I confess I DID drink my share of beer
in college). I lost the beer belly, of course, dropping my fat all the
way down
to the mid single digits. However, I always
seemed to slide back where I started (16% or so). It seemed like that
was a natural
set point for me, kind of like my fat
thermostat had the dial locked in at 16%.
One
day, I finally got wise and I decided to set a LONG TERM
GOAL to get better every year and MAINTAIN a
lower off-season body fat every year. First 14%, then 12%, then 10%, and
finally,
today, I don't allow myself over 9.9% at any
time. I refuse to go to double digits and I'll tighten up my diet or add
cardio
the second I notice myself slip.
In contest season, I decided that 6-7% wasnt lean enough, and
I strived to beat that, which I did, hitting 6%, 5%, 4% and eventually as low as 3.4% body fat.
Basically, I raised my standards of what body fat level was
acceptable to me during the off season and for competitions. I vowed to improve both.
I
disciplined myself and stopped "bulking up." After I made
this commitment, then each year it got easier
to lose the fat because I wasn't putting myself under prolonged periods
of dieting
stress to get there; I was already close, and
starting closer every year because what I had done, unbeknownst to me
at the
time, was to re-set my set point.
I'm
sure you've heard of the set point theory before. This is
the genetically pre-determined body fat level
towards which you tend to gravitate. The good news is, you can lower
your set
point (your fat thermostat) through
nutritional discipline, increasing your lean body mass, dieting in
seasons/cycles, setting
long term goals, and raising your standards
in terms of how much body fat you are willing to carry.
A
lowered set point won't happen over night. It doesn't happen
by the day or week, it happens by the month
and year and is achieved by setting higher standards for how lean you
stay over
prolonged periods of time.
6) WATCH YOUR INTERNAL DIALOGUE: YOU BECOME YOUR I AMS
Be careful what you call yourself and what you say to yourself.
It's a psychological truth that you become your labels you become your I ams.
If
you want to lose body fat, then why on Earth do you walk
around all day long saying over and over
again, I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't lose this stubborn fat? Why
say, I'm fat?
Why affirm the negative? Why would you do
that to yourself? Over and over the tape plays in your head programming
your subconscious
building your belief systems forging your
paradigms directing your behavior creating your own reality.
Why
not visualize your ideal and affirm the positive?: I am
getting leaner and leaner every day! Do not
dwell on your present condition. Dwell on your future vision. Refuse to
use the
term stubborn fat again. Never say, I can't
lose this fat. Do not look at localized fat as any different than other
fat on
your body. Understand that it was the first
place on, and will be the last place to come off but it WILL come off IF
you do
it the right way.
CONCLUSION
Usually
articles on stubborn fat discuss breakthroughs in transdermal
delivery systems, adrenergic agonists,
alpha-2 receptors and lots of other scientific stuff. I've read papers
on this subject
that were so scientific, you'd need a medical
dictionary to translate them. The so-called experts list dozens of
references
and write overly technical articles for an
audience they know damn well has only a seventh grade reading level and
couldn't
give a whiff about anything except seeing
their abs. However, they do it anyways to make themselves look like
almighty, all-knowing
gurus and to sell worthless products. The
reality is, these really arent even articles they're advertisements for
spot reducing
gimmicks
Listen;
there is nothing complicated or overly scientific about
the process of fat loss even the last 10
pounds. Sure, there are proven products such as thermogenic supplements,
but they
don't work miracles, nor are they spot
reducers. Theres no such thing as spot reduction. Theres no such thing
as stubborn
fat it only appears that way for lack of
understanding about the way the human body and mind work.
You
can do this naturally with nothing more than exercise, proper
nutrition and the right attitude. To lose fat
steadily without plateaus - right down to the very last fat cell - all
you have
to do is work with your bodys inherent
nature, not against it. It may not be easy, but its incredibly simple
and 100% predictable.
Embrace the challenge, expect success, use
what you've just learned, and in the long run, you'll agree that the
rewards were
well worth the effort.
Tom Venuto is a bodybuilder, gym
owner, freelance writer, success coach and author of the #1 best-selling
e-book
"Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle" (BFFM). Tom
has written over 160 articles and has been featured in IRONMAN magazine,
Natural
Bodybuilding, Muscular Development,
Muscle-Zine, Exercise for Men and Men's Exercise. Tom's inspiring and
informative articles
on bodybuilding, weight loss and motivation
are also featured regularly on dozens of websites worldwide. For
information on
Tom's "Burn The Fat" e-book, click here: www.burnthefat.com. To subscribe to Tom's free monthly e-zine, visit the Fitness Renaissance website here:
www.fitren.com
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