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Those who are successful at fat loss know their body well and how it responds
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to nutrition and training. Here is an in-depth fat loss guide to help you lose fat
Dietisthemostimportantcomponenttofatloss,comprising8090%ofyour
success.
Youwilllosefatbydietingalone,butworkingouttoowillyieldthebestresults.
Thebestprogramforlosingfatisonethatincludesweights,cardio,andflexibility.
Many people have the desire to lose weight. More specifically, many people desire to lose
body fat (BF). However, most of those people do not know how to go about it. They see
conflicting messages everywhere, from one fad diet to another, one person telling them one
thing about training and someone else telling them differently.
Those who are successful at fat loss know their body well and how it responds to different
aspects of nutrition and training manipulation. Those who do not know look to those who are
successful and try to emulate their methods. What everyone needs to remember is that
everything is individual. What works for one person may not work for another.
However, there are three keys to fat loss that apply to everyone:
1. Goal Setting
2. Nutrition
3. Exercise
Each key is important, and without one of those keys, whilst one may lose weight/BF for a time,
they are less likely to keep that weight/BF off.
This article is going to discuss each key, and make suggestions on how to utilize them
effectively for fat loss.
Key #1:
Goal Setting
The first thing that you need to do, before you look at diet and exercise, is to set goals. Look at
where you are now, and what you want to be. Your end goal can be whatever you want,
because as long as you give yourself a realistic timeframe to achieve it in, you can achieve
anything that you want!
Once you have set your long-term goal, then you need to set smaller goals - these are your
short-term goals that will help you get to your long-term goal. Goals made should be SMART
goals.
Specific: You must be specific in what your goals is - i.e. I want to lose 4% BF in 8 weeks.
Measurable: You must be able to measure your progress towards achieving your goal i.e. %BF can be measured doing a 6-8 skinfold body composition test every week.
Adjustable: Your goals must be able to be adjusted if for whatever reason something
happens and they no longer become realistic for the period that you have set yourself.
Realistic: Your goals must be realistic - i.e. losing 4% BF in 8 weeks is realistic; losing 4%
BF in 2 weeks is NOT.
Time-Based: You must set a time frame over which you want to achieve your goal; have
specific start and finish dates- i.e. I want to lose 4% BF in the period 13 July to 6
September.
Once you have set your goal(s), the second thing you need to look at is your diet. Diet is the
most important component to fat loss, comprising 80-90% of your success.
When you look at your nutrition you should think "diet", as defined by a diet plan that can only
be sustained for short periods of time (i.e. low calorie or low carbohydrate diets). When you
think "diet", you should think lifestyle eating (i.e. your diet should be something that you can
easily maintain all year round, with the only thing you change about it being the amount of
calories consumed, based upon your body goal).
Your diet plan should incorporate 6 principles:
1. Adequacy: Your diet provides enough energy and nutrients to meet your needs
(Wardlaw & Hampl, 2007).
1. Balance: Not over consuming any single type of food (Wardlaw & Hampl, 2007).
1. Energy Control: You need to know what your energy needs are (i.e. maintenance),
and allow for that; to ensure that you get the nutrients that you require without
going in excess of your required calories, use foods that have a high nutrient
density (Wardlaw & Hampl, 2007).
1. Nutrient Density: Select foods that deliver the most nutrients for the least energy
(Wardlaw & Hampl, 2007).
1. Moderation: Moderating portion sizes; and consuming foods that contain high fat
and sugar in moderation (Wardlaw & Hampl. 2007).
1. Variety: Eating a variety of foods day-to-day (Wardlaw & Hampl, 2007).
3:50
that you are having up to 500 calories less than maintenance. Depending on how
fast or slow you lose the fat you can adjust and tweak your calorie intake each
week.
cumin, cayenne pepper, curry powder, chilli powder, and garlic all help thermogenesis).
Eat most food as 'natural' as possible. This means fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, grains,
etc. Try not to eat too much packaged food, as it is full of extra calories and sugar
(Wardlaw & Hampl, 2007).
Most importantly, remember that it is OK to cheat every now and then. Actually the body
needs cheat meals. By throwing all the guidelines just mentioned out of the way and
having a day where you eat what you want it helps not only your mind, but also in
preventing your body from going into starvation mode (i.e. where the body battles you to
hold onto the fat as much as it can). If you prefer not to 'cheat', then add in 1-2 higher
calorie days (i.e. go up to just above maintenance, or bulking, or even slightly higher), with
the extra calories coming from quality complex carbs.
Supplements should not be a big deal, as most fat loss can be done through simply eating the
right food at the right time; and unless everything that you are doing is already done to ensure
the maximum results in the timeframe that you want to achieve it in, and then supplementation
should not be the focus. However, there are a few supplements that I think are important to any
regime.
Multivitamin: Although you should be eating as much of a variety of food as possible, in
order to meet the RDI/AI of most nutrients from actual food.
Creatine Monohydrate: Creatine helps the body to recover faster, as well as indirectly
aiding in increasing strength levels and lean body mass (Burke, et al., 2006; McArdle,
Katch & Katch, 2007).
Flaxseed/Fish Oil: This is the good fats. Flaxseed or Hempseed oil is great with breakfast
or in protein shakes.
Protein Powder: This just helps for the in-between meals, or after the gym, and to make
sure that you get enough protein in.
Apart from these four 'staple' supplements, you do not need much else. You especially do not
need fat-burners or thermogenics; they are a waste of time unless you are already lean and are
looking for that 'extra edge' to lose the extra % BF (i.e. like a fitness competitor, etc.)
pre-season, in-season, and postseason, all forms of training should gradually progress in
an organized manner from generalized to sport specific" (Baechle & Earle, 2000, p. 394) i.e. if you are an athlete your off-season would be general conditioning, progressing to
strength and power work, then speed, and eventually to sports specific exercises. "The
more similar the training activity is to the sport movement, the greater the likelihood that
there will be a positive transfer to that sport" (Baechle, et al., 2000, p. 400).
Overload: "Refers to assigning a workout or training regime of greater intensity than the
athlete is accustomed to. Without the stimulus of overload, even an otherwise welldesigned program greatly limits the athlete's ability to make improvements. Overload
training principles ensure that the muscles involved in the selected exercises are those
that the sport relies on and that the loads are sufficient to challenge the athlete to become
stronger, larger, faster, and more resistant to fatigue" (Baechle, et al., 2000, p. 394) - i.e. if
you are training for strength, then if you do not consistently increase weights lifted during
resistance training, then you are not overloading the muscles enough to get stronger. It is
only when the body is consistently pushed that gains are made (McArdle, et al., 2007).
Adaptation: Training must be continually progressing via overload; otherwise [positive]
adaptations can be lost quickly and performance can begin to decline, with fitness and
conditioning sometimes returning to its initial state (Baechle, et al., 2000) - i.e. if there was
no periodization to your training and you perpetually did the same thing, then either your
body would stop making adaptations and progressing.
Progression: "The intensity of the training must become progressively greater.
Progression, when applied properly, promotes long-term training benefits" (Baechle, et al.,
2000, p.394) - i.e. this is why you must change your training program every 4-6 weeks, to
ensure that you are providing new challenges and continually getting results.
The best exercise program for losing fat is one that includes weights, cardio (mostly in the form
of high intensity training), and flexibility (to help your muscle flexibility and joints).
2003). Otherwise, I would recommend a 3 or 4 day split. Each body part should be trained
once a week; this gives it plenty of time to recover before the next training session. For
example, Monday: Legs & Abs, Tuesday: Chest & Back, Thursday: Shoulders & Traps,
Friday: Arms & Abs. (You only need to do Abs twice a week; it works the same as any
other body part).
Exercises that you should be doing are multijoint, compound exercises, as they use more
than one muscle, and are the most effective for not only building muscle, but also in
burning fat, because they are recruiting more of your body to perform the exercise
(Heyward, 2006) than isolation exercises (these are a waste of time unless you are looking
for a pump close to competition).
The best compound exercises that you can do are the squat and the deadlift, as they use
pretty much every muscle in your body (Baechle, et al., 2000). Other compound exercises
that are good to include are the bench press, shoulder press, pullups, dips, and calf raises
(the only isolation exercise that's really good).
You should be doing at least 2 exercises for each muscle group, with 4 sets of 6-10 (even
up to 12) reps per exercise, with 1-2 minutes recovery in between (the shorter the
recovery, the lighter your weights will possibly be, which will give you a 'cardio' workout as
well).
Be sure that you always use good form for every exercise; otherwise you are putting
yourself at risk for injury. All reps should be controlled and with good form. It is not about
how much you can lift, but how well you lift. You will get stronger as you keep at it
(although maybe not so much when trying to lose fat, but this depends on the individual).
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You should never spend longer than 45-50 minutes in total lifting (i.e. your session should
take that long from the time you walk in to the time you walk out, excluding if you do a
warm-up - and this is strictly your own preference); otherwise you become too catabolic
and can end up losing muscle.
You also need to change your weights program around slightly every 4-6 weeks, just so
that your body does not get used to it and stop adapting (Epley, 2004). This can be as
little as changing the order of exercises in a session or the number of sets and/or reps that
you do for an exercise (and it only needs to be one exercise changed at a time, small
adjustments over the weeks).
Here's a sample circuit plan for a beginner. This is a very basic routine, designed to get
you 'used' to resistance training and condition your body for it, building a base to work on,
whilst also targeting your goals (Aaberg, 1999). After 4-6 weeks you will need to change
your program.
Do an easy 10 minute warm-up. Select weights that you can do for said reps on each
exercise (but not too much more), and use these for the entire session.
Complete exercises in order from 1-8, with minimal recovery (ideally it should be moving
from one exercise to another; but since you are a beginner 30-60 seconds will be ok). At
the end of one set (i.e. 1-10) rest for 1-2 minutes, and then repeat. You can increase to 3
sets after 2-4 weeks (or as you see fit). Stretch full-body for 5 minutes after session. This
should take ~45 minutes in total.
Every week your weights should increase (i.e. not on all sessions, but keep weights the
same for a week, and increase as you can for the next week's sessions), so that you keep
challenging your body.
Beginner Fat Loss Workout Program:
Barbell Squats: 2 sets of 12 reps
Romanian Deadlifts: 2 sets of 10 reps
Standing Calf Raises: 2 sets of 15-25 reps
Pullups: 2 sets to failure
Pushups: 2 sets to failure
Dumbbell Shoulder Press: 2 sets of 12-15 reps
Dips: 2 sets of 12-15 reps
Crunches: 2 sets of 50 reps
GetAPrintableLogOfBeginnerFat
LossWorkoutProgram.
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I highly recommend getting a personal trainer if you are a beginner, so that you can be
shown the correct technique (very important) for each exercise.
Personal trainers can be there with you for your first few sessions, to determine starting
weights, as you get acquainted with resistance training. They also provide motivation,
support, and a source for accountability. Here's a sample resistance plan for a more
experienced lifter.
This is just a basic sample program. You may want to do a different split - i.e. push/pull, or
upper body/lower body etc.; whatever suits you.
Advanced Fat Loss Workout Program:
Day 1: Legs And Abs
Barbell Squat: 4 sets of 8-10 reps
Barbell Deadlift: 4 sets of 6-8 reps
Standing Calf Raises: 6 sets of 6 reps
Crunches: 3 sets of 10-15 reps
Hanging Leg Raises: 3 sets of 10-15 reps
GetAPrintableLogOfDay1:LegsAnd
Abs.
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Cardio:
Whilst long, slow cardio burns calories, you require long periods of time to do it. Some
even recommend doing two hours of cardio a day, or double cardio sessions, to lose fat,
but it's simply not necessary.
The most effective way to burn fat through cardio is to do either:
Interval training
Cardio at a higher intensity (i.e. just going out and running as fast as you can
over a certain distance, instead of 45 minutes at a 60% max heart rate).
Forget about the 'Fat Burning Zone'; it does not matter what fuel you use during cardio, as
your body will burn other substrates during the rest of the day (i.e. if you burn fat during
cardio it will use carbs the rest of the day, and vice versa) (Norton, 2005).
If you feel that you need to do more cardio, then you can do brisk walks every other day,
or perhaps a run (but no more than 30 minutes; after 30 minutes of running you are very
catabolic and are likely to lose muscle, which you do not want happening). Skipping, stair
sprinting/running, or rowing, are the next highest calorie burners after sprinting.
RELATED VIDEO: Your 12-Week Daily Video Trainer
Thursday, Week 10: Focus On Cardio!
Kris Gethin is your own Daily Personal Trainer! Today we will discuss the reason for cardio and
why it is necessary to follow the plan exactly.
4:35
results for minimal time. You also need to remember that some of this is experimental, and
about finding what works best for you, since everyone is different and responds differently
to different exercise programs.
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