Don't Catch These Two Diseases
By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.BurnTheFat.com
www.BurnTheFatInnerCircle.com
One of my favorite motivational speakers is a guy by the name of Brian Tracy, who is one of the world’s top experts on success psychology and personal achievement. In case you haven’t heard of Brian, he is sort of like a calmer, more “laid back” version of infomercial guru, Tony Robbins.
Not long ago, I had the chance to attend a seminar Brian held at the Jacob Javitz center here in New York City. One part of his talk really grabbed my attention, and I’d like to share it with you...
Brian said that that there are two diseases running rampant across America and much of the industrialized world today. If you had to hazard a guess, which two do you think they are? Cancer? Diabetes? Heart Disease? Osteoporosis? Obesity?
Guess what? They’re NONE of the above. In fact, they’re not even physical diseases – they are mental diseases.
The first mental disease, according to Tracy, is called something-for nothing disease. Something for nothing disease is contracted by people who believe they can take more out than what they put in. These are the people who want all the rewards without paying full price, or as Brian put it, “They want to go through the revolving door of life on someone else’s push.”
Quick fix disease is the second of the mental diseases. According to Brian, this disease is contracted by people who always want a quick way to reach their goals. They search for instant cures to solve problems that may have taken months or even years to develop. They seek short cuts to acquire key skills that actually take many months and years of hard work to master.
These diseases are not to be confused with the desire to constantly get better and search for more efficient ways to reach your goals (which is a positive trait). The “diseased” people are those trying to reach their goals faster than nature intended without any effort (which is a negative trait). As a friend of mine once said, "There’s a big difference between seeking efficiency and being lazy."
Brian’s New York City seminar was mostly filled with businesspeople, sales professionals and entrepreneurs, so he referred to financial examples, such as: wanting to work fewer hours and earn more money, investing in get rich quick schemes, or buying lottery tickets.
However, I personally feel that quick fix and something for nothing disease are more rampant and insidious among people with fitness goals than they are among any other group.
Health and fitness seekers with something for nothing disease they think they can get twice the results in half the time. They want weight loss without dieting, fitness without exercise, and perfect health while eating, drinking and smoking whatever they want.
Those with quick fix disease want to take a pill, go to sleep, and wake up skinny. They are forever on a quest to find short cuts to fitness goals that that normally take months or years to attain.
People afflicted by quick fix disease are suckers for the latest “exercise in a bottle,” “fat burning cream,” “diet pill,” or “steroid replacement” scams. They impulsively buy miracle solutions on a whim, which they haven’t researched and know nothing about.
Saddest of all, they often waste YEARS of their lives on a misguided quest for the holy grail of weight loss or muscle growth, when they could have reached their goals with a better work ethic and a little bit of persistence.
People with these diseases are violating some of the most basic laws of the universe: Cause and effect, sowing and reaping, action and reaction. This is just as ridiculous as attempting to violate other natural laws such as the law of gravity. Jump off a cliff, and you’re going to plummet to the Earth below – 100% of the time.
But there’s more: Not only are you going to FAIL and hit bottom if you catch one or both of these diseases - the very act of seeking a quick fix or wanting something for nothing makes you a weaker person.
On the other hand, the act of setting a worthy goal for something you want and reaching it through diligence, determination, discipline and hard work changes the very fiber of your being. You literally change on a cellular level; you become a stronger person.
The purpose of having a worthy goal then, is not to possess the goal, it is to become a better person as result of pursuing and achieving the goal. If you get something for nothing, you may have that thing, but you have not become anything. Pity the person who wins a million dollars who has not become a millionaire in spirit and character.
It’s been said you don’t get what you want in life, you get what you deserve. If you want to achieve your perfect weight and improve your health… if you want success and achievement… if you want to win the championship title… then set the goal and go for it!
But whatever you do, don’t catch these two diseases. SHUN THE QUICK FIX, AVOID THE FREE RIDE and deserve it. You can have, do or be anything you want - just pay the price and it’s yours!
About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal trainer (CPT), certified strength & conditioning specialist (CSCS), and author of the #1 best-selling e-book, "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle.” Tom has written hundreds of articles and has been featured in print magazines such as IRONMAN, Australian IRONMAN, Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development, Exercise for Men and Men’s Exercise, as well as on hundreds of websites worldwide. For information on Tom's Fat Loss program, visit: www.burnthefat.com. To learn more about Tom's Fat Loss Support Community, visit: www.burnthefatinnercircle.com
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
The New Visualization Breakthrough: Mental Training Tactics For Health And Fitness Success
The New Visualization Breakthrough: Mental Training
Tactics For Health And Fitness Success
By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.BurnTheFat.com
Understanding the mind's role in motivation and behavior is one of the most critical elements in fitness success. If you struggle with changing habits and behaviors or if you can’t get motivated, then even the best training and nutrition program is not much help.
A fascinating fact about your subconscious mind is that it's completely deductive in nature. In other words, it’s fully capable of working backwards from the end to the means. You don't need to know how to reach a goal at the time you set the goal. If you "program" only the desired outcome successfully into your "mental computer," then your subconscious will take over and help you find the information and means and carry out the actions necessary to reach it.
Many people are familiar with affirmations and goal-setting as ways to give instructions to your subconscious mind. But perhaps the ultimate mental training” technique is visualization. In one respect, affirmation and visualization are the same, because when you speak or think an affirmation first, that triggers a mental image, being as the human brain "thinks" in pictures.
You can use visualization to plant goals into your subconscious mind. You simply close your eyes, use your imagination and mentally create pictures and run movies of your desired results. For example, in your mind's eye, you can see the "body of your dreams". If repeated consistently with emotion, mental images are accepted by your subconscious as commands and this helps with changing habits, behavior and performance.
Although there are some new and creative ways to use visualization, (which you are about to learn), this is not a new technique. Visualization has been used formally in the fields of sports psychology and personal development for decades and philosophers have discussed it for centuries:
“If you want to reach your goal, you must 'see the reaching' in your own mind before you actually arrive at your goal.”
- Zig Ziglar
“The use of mental imagery is one of the strongest and most effective strategies for making something happen for you.”
- Dr. Wayne Dyer
“Creative visualization is the technique of using your imagination to create what you want in your life.”
- Shakti Gawain
“Perhaps the most effective method of bringing the subconscious into practical action is through the process of making mental pictures - using the imagination.”
- Claude Bristol
"There is a law in psychology that if you form a picture in your mind of what you would like to be, and you keep and hold that picture there long enough, you will soon become exactly as you have been thinking."
- William James, 1842-1910, Psychologist and Author
Despite these glowing endorsements and a long track record, some people can’t get past feeling that this is just a "hokey" self-help technique. Rest assured, however, that visualization is an effective and time-tested method for increasing personal success that has been used by some of the highest achievers the world.
The Soviets started to popularize visualization in sports psychology back in the 1970's, as detailed in Charles Garfield's landmark book, "Peak Performance." They dominated in many sports during that period, which validated visualization anecdotally.
In the last 10-15 years, there has been some groundbreaking new brain research which has validated visualization scientifically. Here's something that was written recently by Dr. Richard Restak, a neuroscientist and author of 12 books about the human brain:
"The process of imagining yourself going through the motions of a complex musical or athletic performance activates brain areas that improve your performance. Brain scans have placed such intuitions on a firm neurological basis. Positron emission tomography (PET) scans reveal that the mental rehearsal of an action activates the prefontal areas of the brain responsible for the formulation of the appropriate motor programs. In practical terms, this means you can benefit from the use of mental imagery."
So much for visualization being a "cheesy" self-help technique.
Although visualization is widely used today, even people who are familiar with it often don't realize its many applications. Arguably the most common use of visualization is by athletes, musicians and other performers as a form of “mental rehearsal.” Research shows that "practicing in your mind" is almost as effective as practicing physically, and that doing both is more effective than either one alone.
A common use of visualization in the fitness context is “goal visualization.” In your mind’s eye, you can see yourself having already achieved your physique goal or your ideal goal weight. You can also visualize a specific performance goal such as completing a difficult workout or a heavy lift like a squat or bench press.
One creative way you can use mental imagery is called “process visualization.” Once you've set your goals, it's easy to come up with a list of the daily habits, behaviors and action steps necessary to reach your goal. So write down the action steps and visualize them - the entire process, not just the end result. See yourself food shopping and grabbing fruits, vegetables and lean proteins, ordering healthy foods from restaurant menus, saying no to sodas and drinking water instead, and going to the gym consistently and having killer workouts. Some people visualize their entire “perfect day” as they would want it to unfold. When you do this as vividly, emotionally and in as much detail as you can, you will be neurologically priming your brain to carry out those behaviors.
The least known of all mental imagery techniques is called “physiology visualization.” An example would be picturing the fat burning process in your body or seeing the muscle fibers growing larger and larger. Using this technique, could it be possible that you might be giving subconscious instructions to your body's cells, organs and tissues?
Well, consider the work of Dr. Carl Simonton, a physician and cancer researcher who taught his patients (as one part of a comprehensive program), how to visualize powerful immune cells devouring the cancer cells. I’m not suggesting that you can cure cancer or materialize a lean and muscular body just by visualizing, (there's a step in between thought and manifestation - it's called action - a step that many self help ‘experts’ forget to mention). However, thoughts and mental images are the precursors to action and the fact that a mind-body connection definitely exists makes this an exciting prospect.
Scientists have established the mind-body link in many contexts, and not just by the existence of a placebo effect. There’s also direct evidence as in the way emotional stress can contribute to physical disease. The mind does influence the body! The mere fact that a branch of science has been devoted to this area is proof that it deserves critical investigation and is not just the domain of infomercial self help gurus. The science is called psychoneuroimmunology.
Using “physiology visualization,” you could, even in the middle of a workout, imagine the fat burning process taking place, and visualize fat being released from adipose tissue storage in your abdominal region or elsewhere. You could see the free fatty acids entering your bloodstream, being carried to the working muscles and being burned for energy in the muscle cells. You could also visualize the physiology of muscle growth.
To make your imagery as accurate and detailed as possible, my best suggestion is to refer to an anatomy & physiology textbook that shows pictures of fat cells, blood vessels, myofibrils, motor units, sarcomeres, and cell organelles like the mitochondria, so you know what the structures look like. You could also get more details about the processes by looking up lipolysis, hypertrophy or beta oxidation.
Even if you had no idea what the internal structure and workings of the body were like, you could still use this method. Your body responds to mental imagery even if it isn't anatomically correct. We know from the field of hypnosis that the subconscious mind responds well to metaphor – maybe even better than literal suggestions. Facts and logic are the domain of the conscious mind, while emotion and metaphor can slip right past the conscious and into the subconscious. Dr. Simonton often wrote about his young patients who created (metaphorical) mental images of immune system cells as "knights in shining armor", slaying "the dragon" of cancer cells.
One of your greatest mental powers is imagination. You can visualize anything you want and you can embellish and exaggerate your imagery as much as you want. For example, you could imagine the free fatty acids being burned for energy in the "cellular powerhouse" - the mitochondria - and you could imagine the mitochondria as a fiery furnace... "incinerating" the fat! I think it’s a pretty cool idea to "see" your fat cells shrinking and visualize your body as a "fat burning furnace.”
Should you not believe that there's anything to the physiology visualization technique, that's ok, because we know that the subconscious is deductive. Just give it a goal, tell it what you want and it will get you there automatically by altering your attention and behavior. Therefore, we can be confident that physiology visualization will be effective even if only as a subconscious directive about your desired goal. If science someday provides us with conclusive evidence that visualization actually does cause cellular - physiological changes in the body, well, that's just all the better.
About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS) and a certified personal trainer (CPT). Tom is the author of "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using methods of the world's best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: www.burnthefat.com
Tactics For Health And Fitness Success
By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.BurnTheFat.com
Understanding the mind's role in motivation and behavior is one of the most critical elements in fitness success. If you struggle with changing habits and behaviors or if you can’t get motivated, then even the best training and nutrition program is not much help.
A fascinating fact about your subconscious mind is that it's completely deductive in nature. In other words, it’s fully capable of working backwards from the end to the means. You don't need to know how to reach a goal at the time you set the goal. If you "program" only the desired outcome successfully into your "mental computer," then your subconscious will take over and help you find the information and means and carry out the actions necessary to reach it.
Many people are familiar with affirmations and goal-setting as ways to give instructions to your subconscious mind. But perhaps the ultimate mental training” technique is visualization. In one respect, affirmation and visualization are the same, because when you speak or think an affirmation first, that triggers a mental image, being as the human brain "thinks" in pictures.
You can use visualization to plant goals into your subconscious mind. You simply close your eyes, use your imagination and mentally create pictures and run movies of your desired results. For example, in your mind's eye, you can see the "body of your dreams". If repeated consistently with emotion, mental images are accepted by your subconscious as commands and this helps with changing habits, behavior and performance.
Although there are some new and creative ways to use visualization, (which you are about to learn), this is not a new technique. Visualization has been used formally in the fields of sports psychology and personal development for decades and philosophers have discussed it for centuries:
“If you want to reach your goal, you must 'see the reaching' in your own mind before you actually arrive at your goal.”
- Zig Ziglar
“The use of mental imagery is one of the strongest and most effective strategies for making something happen for you.”
- Dr. Wayne Dyer
“Creative visualization is the technique of using your imagination to create what you want in your life.”
- Shakti Gawain
“Perhaps the most effective method of bringing the subconscious into practical action is through the process of making mental pictures - using the imagination.”
- Claude Bristol
"There is a law in psychology that if you form a picture in your mind of what you would like to be, and you keep and hold that picture there long enough, you will soon become exactly as you have been thinking."
- William James, 1842-1910, Psychologist and Author
Despite these glowing endorsements and a long track record, some people can’t get past feeling that this is just a "hokey" self-help technique. Rest assured, however, that visualization is an effective and time-tested method for increasing personal success that has been used by some of the highest achievers the world.
The Soviets started to popularize visualization in sports psychology back in the 1970's, as detailed in Charles Garfield's landmark book, "Peak Performance." They dominated in many sports during that period, which validated visualization anecdotally.
In the last 10-15 years, there has been some groundbreaking new brain research which has validated visualization scientifically. Here's something that was written recently by Dr. Richard Restak, a neuroscientist and author of 12 books about the human brain:
"The process of imagining yourself going through the motions of a complex musical or athletic performance activates brain areas that improve your performance. Brain scans have placed such intuitions on a firm neurological basis. Positron emission tomography (PET) scans reveal that the mental rehearsal of an action activates the prefontal areas of the brain responsible for the formulation of the appropriate motor programs. In practical terms, this means you can benefit from the use of mental imagery."
So much for visualization being a "cheesy" self-help technique.
Although visualization is widely used today, even people who are familiar with it often don't realize its many applications. Arguably the most common use of visualization is by athletes, musicians and other performers as a form of “mental rehearsal.” Research shows that "practicing in your mind" is almost as effective as practicing physically, and that doing both is more effective than either one alone.
A common use of visualization in the fitness context is “goal visualization.” In your mind’s eye, you can see yourself having already achieved your physique goal or your ideal goal weight. You can also visualize a specific performance goal such as completing a difficult workout or a heavy lift like a squat or bench press.
One creative way you can use mental imagery is called “process visualization.” Once you've set your goals, it's easy to come up with a list of the daily habits, behaviors and action steps necessary to reach your goal. So write down the action steps and visualize them - the entire process, not just the end result. See yourself food shopping and grabbing fruits, vegetables and lean proteins, ordering healthy foods from restaurant menus, saying no to sodas and drinking water instead, and going to the gym consistently and having killer workouts. Some people visualize their entire “perfect day” as they would want it to unfold. When you do this as vividly, emotionally and in as much detail as you can, you will be neurologically priming your brain to carry out those behaviors.
The least known of all mental imagery techniques is called “physiology visualization.” An example would be picturing the fat burning process in your body or seeing the muscle fibers growing larger and larger. Using this technique, could it be possible that you might be giving subconscious instructions to your body's cells, organs and tissues?
Well, consider the work of Dr. Carl Simonton, a physician and cancer researcher who taught his patients (as one part of a comprehensive program), how to visualize powerful immune cells devouring the cancer cells. I’m not suggesting that you can cure cancer or materialize a lean and muscular body just by visualizing, (there's a step in between thought and manifestation - it's called action - a step that many self help ‘experts’ forget to mention). However, thoughts and mental images are the precursors to action and the fact that a mind-body connection definitely exists makes this an exciting prospect.
Scientists have established the mind-body link in many contexts, and not just by the existence of a placebo effect. There’s also direct evidence as in the way emotional stress can contribute to physical disease. The mind does influence the body! The mere fact that a branch of science has been devoted to this area is proof that it deserves critical investigation and is not just the domain of infomercial self help gurus. The science is called psychoneuroimmunology.
Using “physiology visualization,” you could, even in the middle of a workout, imagine the fat burning process taking place, and visualize fat being released from adipose tissue storage in your abdominal region or elsewhere. You could see the free fatty acids entering your bloodstream, being carried to the working muscles and being burned for energy in the muscle cells. You could also visualize the physiology of muscle growth.
To make your imagery as accurate and detailed as possible, my best suggestion is to refer to an anatomy & physiology textbook that shows pictures of fat cells, blood vessels, myofibrils, motor units, sarcomeres, and cell organelles like the mitochondria, so you know what the structures look like. You could also get more details about the processes by looking up lipolysis, hypertrophy or beta oxidation.
Even if you had no idea what the internal structure and workings of the body were like, you could still use this method. Your body responds to mental imagery even if it isn't anatomically correct. We know from the field of hypnosis that the subconscious mind responds well to metaphor – maybe even better than literal suggestions. Facts and logic are the domain of the conscious mind, while emotion and metaphor can slip right past the conscious and into the subconscious. Dr. Simonton often wrote about his young patients who created (metaphorical) mental images of immune system cells as "knights in shining armor", slaying "the dragon" of cancer cells.
One of your greatest mental powers is imagination. You can visualize anything you want and you can embellish and exaggerate your imagery as much as you want. For example, you could imagine the free fatty acids being burned for energy in the "cellular powerhouse" - the mitochondria - and you could imagine the mitochondria as a fiery furnace... "incinerating" the fat! I think it’s a pretty cool idea to "see" your fat cells shrinking and visualize your body as a "fat burning furnace.”
Should you not believe that there's anything to the physiology visualization technique, that's ok, because we know that the subconscious is deductive. Just give it a goal, tell it what you want and it will get you there automatically by altering your attention and behavior. Therefore, we can be confident that physiology visualization will be effective even if only as a subconscious directive about your desired goal. If science someday provides us with conclusive evidence that visualization actually does cause cellular - physiological changes in the body, well, that's just all the better.
About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS) and a certified personal trainer (CPT). Tom is the author of "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using methods of the world's best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: www.burnthefat.com
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
A “Mind Training” Technique That Makes You Stronger
A “Mind Training” Technique That Makes You Stronger
By Tom Venuto
www.BurnTheFat.com
The word “visualization” sometimes conjures up images of new age gurus teaching esoteric techniques for personal enlightenment and “attracting” what you want into your life. This causes many evidence-based types to scoff. However, piles of research has shown that mental imagery (aka “visualization”) can improve performance. The latest study suggests that a certain type of mental imagery can also increase your strength
Olympic champions and professional athletes have used visualization and mental rehearsal techniques for decades. Not only is visualization one of the most widely accepted techniques in sports psychology, it’s supported by scientific research.
Nevertheless, many people remain skeptical.
Some people agree that mental rehearsal might enhance specific skills, like a golf swing or a basketball throw, but they question whether it could make you stronger, increase muscle growth or help you lose weight.
A new study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research suggests that indeed, mental imagery can make you stronger. This study also begins to explain how mental imagery works on a neurological level…
Twenty two sports students, with a mean age of about 20, participated in the 6-week long experiment. Prior to the study, none had done mental imagery before. The students were divided into a control group and a mental rehearsal group.
The goal was to see if mental imagery could increase bench press and leg press strength.
Each participant was given very specific instructions on how to perform the mental imagery. During the rest period between sets, they were to vividly imagine the exercise movement and the muscle contractions generated from each rep.
After 12 workout sessions, the mental imagery group had significantly increased their strength more than the control group, especially in the lower body (leg press).
The researchers concluded:
“The results provided evidence that mental imagery did contribute to improve strength of the leg muscles without any macroscopic structural change”
What they were saying is that the duration of the study wasn’t long enough that there was any major muscle size increase, so they credited the strength increase to non morphological adaptations.
It’s well known in exercise science that gains in strength occur from changes not just in the muscle fibers and surrounding tissues, but in the nervous system.
That gives us clues about how mental imagery works.
Put simply, mental training techniques, (since they’re working with your brain/nervous system - as the name implies), can trigger some of the same neurological adaptations that occur from physical training.
Apparently, mental imagery can increase synchronization of motor units in muscles, having large corresponding cortical areas in the primary mortor cortex.
There are also psychological benefits, such as increased motivation, improved focus during the set, technique improvements, more confidence and less apprehension or anxiety. But clearly, there’s more to this than just “psyching up.”
Here’s something else interesting. The researchers even suggested that mental imagery could decrease strength loss when athletes are inactive due to injury.
This recent study is a practical one because it gives us one specific technique that you can apply to your next workout: vividly imagine a successful lift for the upcoming set while you’re resting between sets.
NOTE: it’s important to mentally see (visualize) the exercise and mentally “FEEL” the muscle contraction. This is multi-sensory - both visual and kinesthetic.
In some of my previous articles, I talked about density training and superset training as excellent techniques for busy people because these methods reduce rest intervals, making the workout time efficient.
But the rest time between heavy sets doesn’t have to be wasted - now you know what to do with that time…
Instead of chatting with your gym buddies, or scoping out the attractive bods in the gym, you can be mentally rehearsing your next set… and enjoying the strength increase that follows.
Most fat loss programs only focus on diet or physical training. If you want to learn more about how you can add “mental training” techniques to increase fat loss, muscle growth and muscular strength, then be sure to check out chapter one in my ebook, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle.
Tom Venuto, author of
Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle
www.burnthefat.com
Founder & CEO of
Burn The Fat Inner Circle
www.burnthefat.com/innercircle
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
By Tom Venuto
www.BurnTheFat.com
The word “visualization” sometimes conjures up images of new age gurus teaching esoteric techniques for personal enlightenment and “attracting” what you want into your life. This causes many evidence-based types to scoff. However, piles of research has shown that mental imagery (aka “visualization”) can improve performance. The latest study suggests that a certain type of mental imagery can also increase your strength
Olympic champions and professional athletes have used visualization and mental rehearsal techniques for decades. Not only is visualization one of the most widely accepted techniques in sports psychology, it’s supported by scientific research.
Nevertheless, many people remain skeptical.
Some people agree that mental rehearsal might enhance specific skills, like a golf swing or a basketball throw, but they question whether it could make you stronger, increase muscle growth or help you lose weight.
A new study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research suggests that indeed, mental imagery can make you stronger. This study also begins to explain how mental imagery works on a neurological level…
Twenty two sports students, with a mean age of about 20, participated in the 6-week long experiment. Prior to the study, none had done mental imagery before. The students were divided into a control group and a mental rehearsal group.
The goal was to see if mental imagery could increase bench press and leg press strength.
Each participant was given very specific instructions on how to perform the mental imagery. During the rest period between sets, they were to vividly imagine the exercise movement and the muscle contractions generated from each rep.
After 12 workout sessions, the mental imagery group had significantly increased their strength more than the control group, especially in the lower body (leg press).
The researchers concluded:
“The results provided evidence that mental imagery did contribute to improve strength of the leg muscles without any macroscopic structural change”
What they were saying is that the duration of the study wasn’t long enough that there was any major muscle size increase, so they credited the strength increase to non morphological adaptations.
It’s well known in exercise science that gains in strength occur from changes not just in the muscle fibers and surrounding tissues, but in the nervous system.
That gives us clues about how mental imagery works.
Put simply, mental training techniques, (since they’re working with your brain/nervous system - as the name implies), can trigger some of the same neurological adaptations that occur from physical training.
Apparently, mental imagery can increase synchronization of motor units in muscles, having large corresponding cortical areas in the primary mortor cortex.
There are also psychological benefits, such as increased motivation, improved focus during the set, technique improvements, more confidence and less apprehension or anxiety. But clearly, there’s more to this than just “psyching up.”
Here’s something else interesting. The researchers even suggested that mental imagery could decrease strength loss when athletes are inactive due to injury.
This recent study is a practical one because it gives us one specific technique that you can apply to your next workout: vividly imagine a successful lift for the upcoming set while you’re resting between sets.
NOTE: it’s important to mentally see (visualize) the exercise and mentally “FEEL” the muscle contraction. This is multi-sensory - both visual and kinesthetic.
In some of my previous articles, I talked about density training and superset training as excellent techniques for busy people because these methods reduce rest intervals, making the workout time efficient.
But the rest time between heavy sets doesn’t have to be wasted - now you know what to do with that time…
Instead of chatting with your gym buddies, or scoping out the attractive bods in the gym, you can be mentally rehearsing your next set… and enjoying the strength increase that follows.
Most fat loss programs only focus on diet or physical training. If you want to learn more about how you can add “mental training” techniques to increase fat loss, muscle growth and muscular strength, then be sure to check out chapter one in my ebook, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle.
Tom Venuto, author of
Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle
www.burnthefat.com
Founder & CEO of
Burn The Fat Inner Circle
www.burnthefat.com/innercircle
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
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Faith Based Diets: Does God Punish You For Being Fat?
Faith Based Diets: Does God Punish You For Being Fat?
By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.BurnTheFat.com
Faith based diets have been around for decades. But is overeating really a sin? Does God punish you for being fat? A recent column in an issue of USA Today answers, “weight loss is hard enough without feeling that the almighty is on your back, too”…
Recently, I was sitting in a wonderful little breakfast “parlor” on Main Street in Santa Monica (California), enjoying a bowl of oatmeal, a mountain of fresh fruit and a “sexy omelette” (the bodybuilder’s favorite). There was even a “Schwarzenegger omelette” on the menu - I kid you not! Although the usual dietary temptations are omnipresent everywhere, I noticed a lot more healthy eateries and healthy options on menus out here, which is okay by me! It seems like people are much more health conscious in Southern California compared to back home in the New Jersey/New York City area.
One thing is for sure - people are definitely in better shape. No doubt, it’s partly due to the year-round beautiful weather. You can’t hide under those winter coats in this weather! When I left Newark airport it was a blustery 37 degrees. It’s 77 degrees and sunny as I sit here on my hotel balcony, laptop on my lap, overlooking the palm trees and Pacific ocean.
A friend of mine once said that “Palm trees are God’s way of saying, LIVE HERE!”
Speaking of God, that brings me to the subject of this article. As I was finishing up the last few bites of my high protein omelette, I came across an article in USA Today that I simply HAD to pass on to you because it’s related to some of the weight loss work I’ve been recently doing and it bears some important lessons.
The column, written by Christine Whelan, a professor of sociology, said that religious diet groups are growing in number and some of them say that “God might not approve of that second piece of pie.” In fact, some of these groups, reported Whelan, warn that God will punish you for overeating and being fat. The Weigh Down Workshop, one of the most “hard-line” of such groups, tells their participants that God will “destroy you” if you abuse your body by overeating.
Well, we’ve certainly heard of gluttony referred to as a deadly sin, but is this going a little too far?”
I’m not sure what other people think, but I prefer to think of God as a loving God, who does not punish a person in the hereafter for being fat in this life. But then again, why would he have to? He has created a magnificent physical world based on immutable physical laws of cause and effect, reward and consequence, which mete out all the “punishment” needed, right here in this life: diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, osteoarthritis, gout, and even cancer. All of them are linked to obesity. Combined with the emotional pain of being overweight and the lower quality (and sometimes quantity) of life, I’d say that’s punishment enough, wouldn’t you?
But enough of my theological viewpoint, I found some tremendously valuable practical lessons in the newspaper article.
I don’t believe that instilling guilt or fear of eternal damnation is an uplifting way to change behavior. Perhaps it might be effective for some, as fear of consequences can be a powerful motivator. But aren’t there more positive ways to achieve behavior modification than hellfire and brimstone?
For example, metaphors are also powerful motivators, especially because metaphors are language that your unconscious mind can understand. Didn’t Jesus teach in parables and metaphors? What if you said your body was like a temple? Would you behave differently? Would you look after your “temple” with more care? Those with spiritual beliefs almost certainly would, if they kept that in mind and believed it on a deep level.
In my books, I delve into the emotional, psychological and social aspects of body fat loss.
Some of the chapters are devoted to teaching you how to build a fortress of positive, uplifting, inspiring energy around you in the form of positive, uplifting, and inspiring people. But many of my readers and clients tell me this is easier said than done in their world. “What am I supposed to do when peer pressure from my friends is pulling me down?” “What do I do if my own family won’t support my new, healthier choices? What if they keep bringing potato chips, cookies and ice cream into the house?” “What if no one supports me?”
Enter spiritual diet support groups. Not all of these groups are so extreme as to pronounce that being fat is a sin. And as Whelan put it, “religion may be the ultimate trump card of many behavior modification programs.”
No matter how independent we are, we all need support in our journeys toward personal improvement. It’s the great paradox of succeeding in any endeavor in life - you have to do it by yourself, but you can’t do it alone.
Spiritual communities and religious support groups can be the last refuge of support and encouragement for some people. For anyone with spiritual beliefs, these groups may be one of the best places of all to turn for social support. There’s your church, synagogue, mosque or other place of worship. There are also organized weight loss support groups.
One such group mentioned in the USA Today article is BABES - Beautiful Accountable Babes Exercising Sensibly. The mission of babes is “connecting with others to lose weight and build friendships.” Accountability. Exercising. Connecting with others. That all sounds pretty sensible to me! Moreover, according to BABES co-founder, Barb Swanson, “we are not into sin and judgement. God wants balance and it’s more than the size that you are.”
Indeed it is. As I have said before, body fat is not a person, it’s a temporary physical condition. What we really are is far more than physical bodies.
There’s enough guilt, fear and shame for people who are struggling with weight issues already. They don’t need any more negativity from their spiritual leaders. Instead, if you are a person of faith, use your spiritual community as a source of social support and inspiration, and motivate yourself by focusing on the positive and uplifting side. It will pay you eternal dividends.
Train hard and expect success,
Tom Venuto
Fat Loss Coach
www.BurnTheFat.com
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
By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.BurnTheFat.com
Faith based diets have been around for decades. But is overeating really a sin? Does God punish you for being fat? A recent column in an issue of USA Today answers, “weight loss is hard enough without feeling that the almighty is on your back, too”…
Recently, I was sitting in a wonderful little breakfast “parlor” on Main Street in Santa Monica (California), enjoying a bowl of oatmeal, a mountain of fresh fruit and a “sexy omelette” (the bodybuilder’s favorite). There was even a “Schwarzenegger omelette” on the menu - I kid you not! Although the usual dietary temptations are omnipresent everywhere, I noticed a lot more healthy eateries and healthy options on menus out here, which is okay by me! It seems like people are much more health conscious in Southern California compared to back home in the New Jersey/New York City area.
One thing is for sure - people are definitely in better shape. No doubt, it’s partly due to the year-round beautiful weather. You can’t hide under those winter coats in this weather! When I left Newark airport it was a blustery 37 degrees. It’s 77 degrees and sunny as I sit here on my hotel balcony, laptop on my lap, overlooking the palm trees and Pacific ocean.
A friend of mine once said that “Palm trees are God’s way of saying, LIVE HERE!”
Speaking of God, that brings me to the subject of this article. As I was finishing up the last few bites of my high protein omelette, I came across an article in USA Today that I simply HAD to pass on to you because it’s related to some of the weight loss work I’ve been recently doing and it bears some important lessons.
The column, written by Christine Whelan, a professor of sociology, said that religious diet groups are growing in number and some of them say that “God might not approve of that second piece of pie.” In fact, some of these groups, reported Whelan, warn that God will punish you for overeating and being fat. The Weigh Down Workshop, one of the most “hard-line” of such groups, tells their participants that God will “destroy you” if you abuse your body by overeating.
Well, we’ve certainly heard of gluttony referred to as a deadly sin, but is this going a little too far?”
I’m not sure what other people think, but I prefer to think of God as a loving God, who does not punish a person in the hereafter for being fat in this life. But then again, why would he have to? He has created a magnificent physical world based on immutable physical laws of cause and effect, reward and consequence, which mete out all the “punishment” needed, right here in this life: diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, osteoarthritis, gout, and even cancer. All of them are linked to obesity. Combined with the emotional pain of being overweight and the lower quality (and sometimes quantity) of life, I’d say that’s punishment enough, wouldn’t you?
But enough of my theological viewpoint, I found some tremendously valuable practical lessons in the newspaper article.
I don’t believe that instilling guilt or fear of eternal damnation is an uplifting way to change behavior. Perhaps it might be effective for some, as fear of consequences can be a powerful motivator. But aren’t there more positive ways to achieve behavior modification than hellfire and brimstone?
For example, metaphors are also powerful motivators, especially because metaphors are language that your unconscious mind can understand. Didn’t Jesus teach in parables and metaphors? What if you said your body was like a temple? Would you behave differently? Would you look after your “temple” with more care? Those with spiritual beliefs almost certainly would, if they kept that in mind and believed it on a deep level.
In my books, I delve into the emotional, psychological and social aspects of body fat loss.
Some of the chapters are devoted to teaching you how to build a fortress of positive, uplifting, inspiring energy around you in the form of positive, uplifting, and inspiring people. But many of my readers and clients tell me this is easier said than done in their world. “What am I supposed to do when peer pressure from my friends is pulling me down?” “What do I do if my own family won’t support my new, healthier choices? What if they keep bringing potato chips, cookies and ice cream into the house?” “What if no one supports me?”
Enter spiritual diet support groups. Not all of these groups are so extreme as to pronounce that being fat is a sin. And as Whelan put it, “religion may be the ultimate trump card of many behavior modification programs.”
No matter how independent we are, we all need support in our journeys toward personal improvement. It’s the great paradox of succeeding in any endeavor in life - you have to do it by yourself, but you can’t do it alone.
Spiritual communities and religious support groups can be the last refuge of support and encouragement for some people. For anyone with spiritual beliefs, these groups may be one of the best places of all to turn for social support. There’s your church, synagogue, mosque or other place of worship. There are also organized weight loss support groups.
One such group mentioned in the USA Today article is BABES - Beautiful Accountable Babes Exercising Sensibly. The mission of babes is “connecting with others to lose weight and build friendships.” Accountability. Exercising. Connecting with others. That all sounds pretty sensible to me! Moreover, according to BABES co-founder, Barb Swanson, “we are not into sin and judgement. God wants balance and it’s more than the size that you are.”
Indeed it is. As I have said before, body fat is not a person, it’s a temporary physical condition. What we really are is far more than physical bodies.
There’s enough guilt, fear and shame for people who are struggling with weight issues already. They don’t need any more negativity from their spiritual leaders. Instead, if you are a person of faith, use your spiritual community as a source of social support and inspiration, and motivate yourself by focusing on the positive and uplifting side. It will pay you eternal dividends.
Train hard and expect success,
Tom Venuto
Fat Loss Coach
www.BurnTheFat.com
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
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
A “Mind Training” Technique That Makes You Stronger
A “Mind Training” Technique That Makes You Stronger
By Tom Venuto
www.BurnTheFat.com
The word “visualization” sometimes conjures up images of new age gurus teaching esoteric techniques for personal enlightenment and “attracting” what you want into your life. This causes many evidence-based types to scoff. However, piles of research has shown that mental imagery (aka “visualization”) can improve performance. The latest study suggests that a certain type of mental imagery can also increase your strength
Olympic champions and professional athletes have used visualization and mental rehearsal techniques for decades. Not only is visualization one of the most widely accepted techniques in sports psychology, it’s supported by scientific research.
Nevertheless, many people remain skeptical.
Some people agree that mental rehearsal might enhance specific skills, like a golf swing or a basketball throw, but they question whether it could make you stronger, increase muscle growth or help you lose weight.
A new study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research suggests that indeed, mental imagery can make you stronger. This study also begins to explain how mental imagery works on a neurological level…
Twenty two sports students, with a mean age of about 20, participated in the 6-week long experiment. Prior to the study, none had done mental imagery before. The students were divided into a control group and a mental rehearsal group.
The goal was to see if mental imagery could increase bench press and leg press strength.
Each participant was given very specific instructions on how to perform the mental imagery. During the rest period between sets, they were to vividly imagine the exercise movement and the muscle contractions generated from each rep.
After 12 workout sessions, the mental imagery group had significantly increased their strength more than the control group, especially in the lower body (leg press).
The researchers concluded:
“The results provided evidence that mental imagery did contribute to improve strength of the leg muscles without any macroscopic structural change”
What they were saying is that the duration of the study wasn’t long enough that there was any major muscle size increase, so they credited the strength increase to non morphological adaptations.
It’s well known in exercise science that gains in strength occur from changes not just in the muscle fibers and surrounding tissues, but in the nervous system.
That gives us clues about how mental imagery works.
Put simply, mental training techniques, (since they’re working with your brain/nervous system - as the name implies), can trigger some of the same neurological adaptations that occur from physical training.
Apparently, mental imagery can increase synchronization of motor units in muscles, having large corresponding cortical areas in the primary mortor cortex.
There are also psychological benefits, such as increased motivation, improved focus during the set, technique improvements, more confidence and less apprehension or anxiety. But clearly, there’s more to this than just “psyching up.”
Here’s something else interesting. The researchers even suggested that mental imagery could decrease strength loss when athletes are inactive due to injury.
This recent study is a practical one because it gives us one specific technique that you can apply to your next workout: vividly imagine a successful lift for the upcoming set while you’re resting between sets.
NOTE: it’s important to mentally see (visualize) the exercise and mentally “FEEL” the muscle contraction. This is multi-sensory - both visual and kinesthetic.
In some of my previous articles, I talked about density training and superset training as excellent techniques for busy people because these methods reduce rest intervals, making the workout time efficient.
But the rest time between heavy sets doesn’t have to be wasted - now you know what to do with that time…
Instead of chatting with your gym buddies, or scoping out the attractive bods in the gym, you can be mentally rehearsing your next set… and enjoying the strength increase that follows.
Most fat loss programs only focus on diet or physical training. If you want to learn more about how you can add “mental training” techniques to increase fat loss, muscle growth and muscular strength, then be sure to check out chapter one in my ebook, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle.
Tom Venuto, author of
Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle
www.burnthefat.com
Founder & CEO of
Burn The Fat Inner Circle
www.burnthefat.com/innercircle
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
By Tom Venuto
www.BurnTheFat.com
The word “visualization” sometimes conjures up images of new age gurus teaching esoteric techniques for personal enlightenment and “attracting” what you want into your life. This causes many evidence-based types to scoff. However, piles of research has shown that mental imagery (aka “visualization”) can improve performance. The latest study suggests that a certain type of mental imagery can also increase your strength
Olympic champions and professional athletes have used visualization and mental rehearsal techniques for decades. Not only is visualization one of the most widely accepted techniques in sports psychology, it’s supported by scientific research.
Nevertheless, many people remain skeptical.
Some people agree that mental rehearsal might enhance specific skills, like a golf swing or a basketball throw, but they question whether it could make you stronger, increase muscle growth or help you lose weight.
A new study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research suggests that indeed, mental imagery can make you stronger. This study also begins to explain how mental imagery works on a neurological level…
Twenty two sports students, with a mean age of about 20, participated in the 6-week long experiment. Prior to the study, none had done mental imagery before. The students were divided into a control group and a mental rehearsal group.
The goal was to see if mental imagery could increase bench press and leg press strength.
Each participant was given very specific instructions on how to perform the mental imagery. During the rest period between sets, they were to vividly imagine the exercise movement and the muscle contractions generated from each rep.
After 12 workout sessions, the mental imagery group had significantly increased their strength more than the control group, especially in the lower body (leg press).
The researchers concluded:
“The results provided evidence that mental imagery did contribute to improve strength of the leg muscles without any macroscopic structural change”
What they were saying is that the duration of the study wasn’t long enough that there was any major muscle size increase, so they credited the strength increase to non morphological adaptations.
It’s well known in exercise science that gains in strength occur from changes not just in the muscle fibers and surrounding tissues, but in the nervous system.
That gives us clues about how mental imagery works.
Put simply, mental training techniques, (since they’re working with your brain/nervous system - as the name implies), can trigger some of the same neurological adaptations that occur from physical training.
Apparently, mental imagery can increase synchronization of motor units in muscles, having large corresponding cortical areas in the primary mortor cortex.
There are also psychological benefits, such as increased motivation, improved focus during the set, technique improvements, more confidence and less apprehension or anxiety. But clearly, there’s more to this than just “psyching up.”
Here’s something else interesting. The researchers even suggested that mental imagery could decrease strength loss when athletes are inactive due to injury.
This recent study is a practical one because it gives us one specific technique that you can apply to your next workout: vividly imagine a successful lift for the upcoming set while you’re resting between sets.
NOTE: it’s important to mentally see (visualize) the exercise and mentally “FEEL” the muscle contraction. This is multi-sensory - both visual and kinesthetic.
In some of my previous articles, I talked about density training and superset training as excellent techniques for busy people because these methods reduce rest intervals, making the workout time efficient.
But the rest time between heavy sets doesn’t have to be wasted - now you know what to do with that time…
Instead of chatting with your gym buddies, or scoping out the attractive bods in the gym, you can be mentally rehearsing your next set… and enjoying the strength increase that follows.
Most fat loss programs only focus on diet or physical training. If you want to learn more about how you can add “mental training” techniques to increase fat loss, muscle growth and muscular strength, then be sure to check out chapter one in my ebook, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle.
Tom Venuto, author of
Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle
www.burnthefat.com
Founder & CEO of
Burn The Fat Inner Circle
www.burnthefat.com/innercircle
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
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
The #1 Fat Loss Tip Of The Year
The #1 Fat Loss Tip Of The Year
By Tom Venuto
www.BurnTheFat.com
If you stopped me on the street to ask me what my number one fat loss tip for this year is, there are a hundred different directions I could lead you. Of course, there is one strategy that stands out among the others, and in almost all cases, this would be the first thing I suggest. This is the one absolute requirement for weight loss, and it’s something you’ve probably heard of before. However, there’s one critical distinction about this familiar advice that you might not have considered - and this one thing makes all the difference in the world…
Let me quote Melvin Williams, PhD, professor emeritus of exercise science at Old Dominion University and author of the textbook Nutrition for Health, Fitness and Sport (McGraw Hill):
“Human energy systems are governed by the same laws of physics that rule all energy transformations. No substantial evidence is available to disprove the caloric theory. It is still the physical basis for bodyweight control.”
There are a variety of diet programs and weight loss “gurus” who claim that calories don’t count. They insist that if you eat certain foods or avoid certain foods, that’s all you have to do to lose weight. Dozens, maybe hundreds of such diets exist, with certain “magic foods” put up on a pedestal or certain “evil fat-storing foods" banished into the forbidden foods zone.
Other weight loss “experts” invoke the insulin/carbohydrate hypothesis which claims that carbs drive insulin which drives body fat. That’s akin to saying “Carbs are the reason for the obesity crisis today, not excess calories.”
They are all mistaken.
Of course, there IS more to nutrition than calories. Food quality and nutrition content matters for good health. In addition, your food choices can affect your energy intake. We could even point the finger at an excess of refined starches and grains, sugar and soft drinks (carbs!) as major contributing factors to the surplus calories that lead to obesity.
However, that brings us back to excess calories as the pivotal point in the chain of causation, not carbs. A caloric deficit is a required condition for weight loss - even if you opt for the low carb approach - and that’s where your focus should go – on the deficit.
Now, here’s that critical distinction…
You’ve heard it said, “exercise more and eat less” a million times. However, saying “focus on the deficit” is NOT the same thing. If you don’t understand the difference, you could end up spinning your wheels for years.
You could exercise more, but if you compensate by eating more, you cancel your deficit.
You could eat less, but if you compensate by moving less, again you cancel your deficit.
This type of compensation can happen unconsciously, which leads to confusion about why you’re not losing weight or why you’re gaining. That often leads you to make excuses or blame the wrong thing… anything but the calories.
Therefore, “focus on the deficit” more accurately states the most important key to weight loss than “exercise more and eat less.” Make sure you understand this distinction and then follow this advice.
Last but not least, keep in mind that there are a lot of ways to establish a deficit and many of those ways are really dumb. Eating nothing but grapefruits, cabbage, twinkies… but in a deficit?… Dumb!
A calorie deficit is required for fat loss, but once your deficit is established, the composition of your hypo-caloric diet DOES matter. That’s why any good fat loss program starts with calories but doesn’t stop there - you also need to look at protein, essential fats, macronutrients, micronutrients, food quality and how the diet you choose fits into your lifestyle.
Don’t let the simplicity of this idea fool you. This is the #1 key to your successful weight loss this year, and every year: Focus on the deficit!
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 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
or www.burnthefat.com/innercircle
By Tom Venuto
www.BurnTheFat.com
If you stopped me on the street to ask me what my number one fat loss tip for this year is, there are a hundred different directions I could lead you. Of course, there is one strategy that stands out among the others, and in almost all cases, this would be the first thing I suggest. This is the one absolute requirement for weight loss, and it’s something you’ve probably heard of before. However, there’s one critical distinction about this familiar advice that you might not have considered - and this one thing makes all the difference in the world…
Let me quote Melvin Williams, PhD, professor emeritus of exercise science at Old Dominion University and author of the textbook Nutrition for Health, Fitness and Sport (McGraw Hill):
“Human energy systems are governed by the same laws of physics that rule all energy transformations. No substantial evidence is available to disprove the caloric theory. It is still the physical basis for bodyweight control.”
There are a variety of diet programs and weight loss “gurus” who claim that calories don’t count. They insist that if you eat certain foods or avoid certain foods, that’s all you have to do to lose weight. Dozens, maybe hundreds of such diets exist, with certain “magic foods” put up on a pedestal or certain “evil fat-storing foods" banished into the forbidden foods zone.
Other weight loss “experts” invoke the insulin/carbohydrate hypothesis which claims that carbs drive insulin which drives body fat. That’s akin to saying “Carbs are the reason for the obesity crisis today, not excess calories.”
They are all mistaken.
Of course, there IS more to nutrition than calories. Food quality and nutrition content matters for good health. In addition, your food choices can affect your energy intake. We could even point the finger at an excess of refined starches and grains, sugar and soft drinks (carbs!) as major contributing factors to the surplus calories that lead to obesity.
However, that brings us back to excess calories as the pivotal point in the chain of causation, not carbs. A caloric deficit is a required condition for weight loss - even if you opt for the low carb approach - and that’s where your focus should go – on the deficit.
Now, here’s that critical distinction…
You’ve heard it said, “exercise more and eat less” a million times. However, saying “focus on the deficit” is NOT the same thing. If you don’t understand the difference, you could end up spinning your wheels for years.
You could exercise more, but if you compensate by eating more, you cancel your deficit.
You could eat less, but if you compensate by moving less, again you cancel your deficit.
This type of compensation can happen unconsciously, which leads to confusion about why you’re not losing weight or why you’re gaining. That often leads you to make excuses or blame the wrong thing… anything but the calories.
Therefore, “focus on the deficit” more accurately states the most important key to weight loss than “exercise more and eat less.” Make sure you understand this distinction and then follow this advice.
Last but not least, keep in mind that there are a lot of ways to establish a deficit and many of those ways are really dumb. Eating nothing but grapefruits, cabbage, twinkies… but in a deficit?… Dumb!
A calorie deficit is required for fat loss, but once your deficit is established, the composition of your hypo-caloric diet DOES matter. That’s why any good fat loss program starts with calories but doesn’t stop there - you also need to look at protein, essential fats, macronutrients, micronutrients, food quality and how the diet you choose fits into your lifestyle.
Don’t let the simplicity of this idea fool you. This is the #1 key to your successful weight loss this year, and every year: Focus on the deficit!
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 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
or www.burnthefat.com/innercircle
Monday, December 27, 2010
Everything You Need To Know About Loose Skin And Weight Loss
Everything You Need To Know About Loose Skin And Weight Loss
By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.burnthefat.com
I receive a lot of e-mail from people with loose skin or from overweight people who are concerned about having loose skin after they lose the weight. In fact, this is one of the biggest concerns and most frequently asked questions I receive from men and women who have a lot of weight to lose.
Just recently, I received this email from a reader of my syndicated "Ask Tom" fat loss column:
"Tom, I began a fat loss program using your Burn The Fat system and it worked so well I got down to 15 1/2 stones (from 19). However, this has caused me a problem: Excess abdominal skin. I didn't crash lose this weight, it came off at the rate of about 2 lbs. per week just like you recommended. Now I'm unsure of whether to carry on, as my abdomen has quite a lot of excess skin - I feel like I've turned into a bloody Shar-Pei! Does everyone go through this? Will the skin tighten up? I was overweight for more than 12 years. Am I going to end up needing surgical skin removal? Can you offer me any advice? I'm a medical student in the UK and my colleagues seem determined to proffer surgery as the only option."
There are 14 things you should know about loose skin after very large weight losses:
1. Skin is incredibly elastic. Your skin can stretch and expand or tighten and retract to a great degree. Look at what women go through during pregnancy. Some women do experience stretch marks after pregnancy, but obviously skin is remarkably elastic.
2. Elasticity of skin depends on both genetics and environment/lifestyle. Wrinkling and loss of elasticity is partly the consequence of aging (genetic factors) and also a result of environmental factors such as oxidative stress, excessive sun exposure, and nutritional deficiency. The environmental parts you can fix, the genetics and age part, you cannot. Advice: Get moving and change the things you have control over... Be realistic and don't worry about those things you don't have control over.
3. How much your skin returns to its former tautness depends partly on age. The older you get, the more an extremely large weight loss can leave loose skin that will not return to normal.
4. How long you carry extra weight may influence how much the skin will become taut after the weight loss: For example, compare a 9 month pregnancy with 9 years carrying 100 excess pounds.
5. How much weight was carried has a lot to do with how much the skin will resume a tight appearance. Your skin can only be stretched so much and be expected to "snap back" one hundred percent. With extreme obesity, the probability of there still being loose skin after weight loss is higher.
6. How fast the weight was gained also has a lot to do with how much the skin will resume a tight appearance. Your skin can only be stretched so quickly and be expected to "snap back."
7. How fast weight is lost also has a lot to do with how much the skin will tighten up. Rapid weight loss doesn't allow the skin time to slowly resume to normal. (This is yet another reason to lose fat slowly; 1-2 pounds per week, 3 pounds at the most if you have a lot of weight to lose, and even then, only if you are measuring body fat and you're certain it's fat you're losing, not lean tissue).
8. There are exceptions to all of the above; For example, people who gained and then lost incredible amounts of weight quickly at age 50 or 60, and their skin returned 100% to normal.
9. Creams probably don't work. There are many creams advertised as having the ability to restore the tightness of your skin. the late bodybuilding guru Dan duchaine used to recommend topical creams made with pycnogenol, which contain the antioxidant bioflavanoids called proanthocyanidins. But to the best of my knowledge, none of the topical creams are scientifically validated. I haven't even heard much anecdotal evidence that they work -- at least not permanently and measurably -- and especially if you have a lot of loose skin. There are definitely some topicals that will pull water from under your skin, but remeber, that is temporary. Buyer should beware with topical products. (as an aside, Ive also heard anectodal reports that skin brushing was helpful, but again, I am not aware of any scientific evidence proving this is effective).
10. Nutrition has a lot to do with the health of your skin. Essential fatty acids in particular are very valuable for many reasons, and one of them is for the health of your skin. It would be worth taking an EFA supplement such as fish oil, flax oil or an oil blend like Udo's choice. Antioxidants are also very important, so be sure to consume copious amounts of a variety of vegetables and fruits. Also pay very close attention to hydration. Drink approximately a gallon of water a day or a minimum of half your body weight in ounces. (By the way, whey protein is high in a powerful antioxidant called glutathione).
11. Exercise has a lot to do with how your skin appears after you lose body fat. If you use very low calorie diets, you are likely to lose lean body mass, and this is going to exacerbate the loose, hanging skin appearance. On the other hand, if you are exercising regularly and increasing lean body mass with weight training, you will be more likely to minimize the appearance of loose skin.
12. Get second opinions if you are considering surgery.If you're considering surgical skin removal, consult a physician for advice because this is not a minor operation, but keep in mind that your plastic surgeon may be making his BMW payments with your abdominoplasty money. (Surgery might be recommended in situations where it's not 100% necessary). Surgery should be left as the absolute final option in extreme cases.
13. Give your skin time. Your skin will definitely get tighter as your body fat gets lower. I've seen and heard of many cases where the skin gradually tightened up, at least partially, after a one or two year period where the weight loss was maintained and exercise continued.
14. Know your body fat percentage before even thinking about surgery. Loose skin is one thing, but still having a lot of body fat is another. Be honest with yourself and do that by taking your body fat measurement. This can be done with skinfold calipers or a variety of other devices (calipers might not be the best method if you have large folds of loose skin. Look into impedance analysis, underwater weighing, DEXA or Bod Pod).
Suppose for example, a man drops from 35% body fat all the way down to 20%. He should be congratulated, but I would tell him, "Don't complain about loose skin yet, your body fat is still high. Press onward and keep getting leaner and be sure to focus on strength training to increase lean body mass as well."
Average body fat for men is in the mid teens (16% or so). Average body fat for women is in the 20-25% range. Good body fat for men is 10-12%, and single digits is extremely lean. Men shouldn't expect to look "ripped" with 100% tight skin on the abs unless they have single digit body fat. Women shouldn't expect to have tight abdominal skin unless they are in the low to mid teens in body fat.
Except in extreme cases, you are actually unlikely to see someone with loose skin who has very low body fat and especially someone who has not just "lost weight" but has altered body composition by adding lean muscle as well. It's quite remarkable how much your skin can tighten up once your body fat goes from "average" to "excellent" and even more so when lean body mass increase. Someone with legitimate single digit body fat and a ton of loose skin is a rare sight.
So the key to getting tighter skin is to improve your body composition (muscle to fat ratio), and lose more body fat, slowly and sensibly, up to the point where your body composition rating is BETTER than average (in the "good" to "great" category, not just "okay"). Only AFTER you reach your long term body fat percentage goal should you give thought to "excess skin removal." At that point, admittedly, there are bound to be a few isolated cases where surgery is necessary if you can't live with the amount of loose skin remaining.
However, unless you are really, really lean, it's difficult to get a clear picture of what is loose skin, what is just remaining body fat and how much further the skin will tighten up when the rest of the fat is lost.
Need help getting rid of that last bit of body body fat? Click here to find out how to do it the natural way: www.burnthefat.com
About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal trainer (CPT), certified strength & conditioning specialist (CSCS), and author of the #1 best-selling e-book, "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle.” Tom has written more than 200 articles and has been featured in print magazines such as IRONMAN, Australian IRONMAN, Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development, Exercise for Men and Men’s Exercise, as well as on hundreds of websites worldwide. For information on Tom's Fat Loss program, visit: www.burnthefat.com
By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.burnthefat.com
I receive a lot of e-mail from people with loose skin or from overweight people who are concerned about having loose skin after they lose the weight. In fact, this is one of the biggest concerns and most frequently asked questions I receive from men and women who have a lot of weight to lose.
Just recently, I received this email from a reader of my syndicated "Ask Tom" fat loss column:
"Tom, I began a fat loss program using your Burn The Fat system and it worked so well I got down to 15 1/2 stones (from 19). However, this has caused me a problem: Excess abdominal skin. I didn't crash lose this weight, it came off at the rate of about 2 lbs. per week just like you recommended. Now I'm unsure of whether to carry on, as my abdomen has quite a lot of excess skin - I feel like I've turned into a bloody Shar-Pei! Does everyone go through this? Will the skin tighten up? I was overweight for more than 12 years. Am I going to end up needing surgical skin removal? Can you offer me any advice? I'm a medical student in the UK and my colleagues seem determined to proffer surgery as the only option."
There are 14 things you should know about loose skin after very large weight losses:
1. Skin is incredibly elastic. Your skin can stretch and expand or tighten and retract to a great degree. Look at what women go through during pregnancy. Some women do experience stretch marks after pregnancy, but obviously skin is remarkably elastic.
2. Elasticity of skin depends on both genetics and environment/lifestyle. Wrinkling and loss of elasticity is partly the consequence of aging (genetic factors) and also a result of environmental factors such as oxidative stress, excessive sun exposure, and nutritional deficiency. The environmental parts you can fix, the genetics and age part, you cannot. Advice: Get moving and change the things you have control over... Be realistic and don't worry about those things you don't have control over.
3. How much your skin returns to its former tautness depends partly on age. The older you get, the more an extremely large weight loss can leave loose skin that will not return to normal.
4. How long you carry extra weight may influence how much the skin will become taut after the weight loss: For example, compare a 9 month pregnancy with 9 years carrying 100 excess pounds.
5. How much weight was carried has a lot to do with how much the skin will resume a tight appearance. Your skin can only be stretched so much and be expected to "snap back" one hundred percent. With extreme obesity, the probability of there still being loose skin after weight loss is higher.
6. How fast the weight was gained also has a lot to do with how much the skin will resume a tight appearance. Your skin can only be stretched so quickly and be expected to "snap back."
7. How fast weight is lost also has a lot to do with how much the skin will tighten up. Rapid weight loss doesn't allow the skin time to slowly resume to normal. (This is yet another reason to lose fat slowly; 1-2 pounds per week, 3 pounds at the most if you have a lot of weight to lose, and even then, only if you are measuring body fat and you're certain it's fat you're losing, not lean tissue).
8. There are exceptions to all of the above; For example, people who gained and then lost incredible amounts of weight quickly at age 50 or 60, and their skin returned 100% to normal.
9. Creams probably don't work. There are many creams advertised as having the ability to restore the tightness of your skin. the late bodybuilding guru Dan duchaine used to recommend topical creams made with pycnogenol, which contain the antioxidant bioflavanoids called proanthocyanidins. But to the best of my knowledge, none of the topical creams are scientifically validated. I haven't even heard much anecdotal evidence that they work -- at least not permanently and measurably -- and especially if you have a lot of loose skin. There are definitely some topicals that will pull water from under your skin, but remeber, that is temporary. Buyer should beware with topical products. (as an aside, Ive also heard anectodal reports that skin brushing was helpful, but again, I am not aware of any scientific evidence proving this is effective).
10. Nutrition has a lot to do with the health of your skin. Essential fatty acids in particular are very valuable for many reasons, and one of them is for the health of your skin. It would be worth taking an EFA supplement such as fish oil, flax oil or an oil blend like Udo's choice. Antioxidants are also very important, so be sure to consume copious amounts of a variety of vegetables and fruits. Also pay very close attention to hydration. Drink approximately a gallon of water a day or a minimum of half your body weight in ounces. (By the way, whey protein is high in a powerful antioxidant called glutathione).
11. Exercise has a lot to do with how your skin appears after you lose body fat. If you use very low calorie diets, you are likely to lose lean body mass, and this is going to exacerbate the loose, hanging skin appearance. On the other hand, if you are exercising regularly and increasing lean body mass with weight training, you will be more likely to minimize the appearance of loose skin.
12. Get second opinions if you are considering surgery.If you're considering surgical skin removal, consult a physician for advice because this is not a minor operation, but keep in mind that your plastic surgeon may be making his BMW payments with your abdominoplasty money. (Surgery might be recommended in situations where it's not 100% necessary). Surgery should be left as the absolute final option in extreme cases.
13. Give your skin time. Your skin will definitely get tighter as your body fat gets lower. I've seen and heard of many cases where the skin gradually tightened up, at least partially, after a one or two year period where the weight loss was maintained and exercise continued.
14. Know your body fat percentage before even thinking about surgery. Loose skin is one thing, but still having a lot of body fat is another. Be honest with yourself and do that by taking your body fat measurement. This can be done with skinfold calipers or a variety of other devices (calipers might not be the best method if you have large folds of loose skin. Look into impedance analysis, underwater weighing, DEXA or Bod Pod).
Suppose for example, a man drops from 35% body fat all the way down to 20%. He should be congratulated, but I would tell him, "Don't complain about loose skin yet, your body fat is still high. Press onward and keep getting leaner and be sure to focus on strength training to increase lean body mass as well."
Average body fat for men is in the mid teens (16% or so). Average body fat for women is in the 20-25% range. Good body fat for men is 10-12%, and single digits is extremely lean. Men shouldn't expect to look "ripped" with 100% tight skin on the abs unless they have single digit body fat. Women shouldn't expect to have tight abdominal skin unless they are in the low to mid teens in body fat.
Except in extreme cases, you are actually unlikely to see someone with loose skin who has very low body fat and especially someone who has not just "lost weight" but has altered body composition by adding lean muscle as well. It's quite remarkable how much your skin can tighten up once your body fat goes from "average" to "excellent" and even more so when lean body mass increase. Someone with legitimate single digit body fat and a ton of loose skin is a rare sight.
So the key to getting tighter skin is to improve your body composition (muscle to fat ratio), and lose more body fat, slowly and sensibly, up to the point where your body composition rating is BETTER than average (in the "good" to "great" category, not just "okay"). Only AFTER you reach your long term body fat percentage goal should you give thought to "excess skin removal." At that point, admittedly, there are bound to be a few isolated cases where surgery is necessary if you can't live with the amount of loose skin remaining.
However, unless you are really, really lean, it's difficult to get a clear picture of what is loose skin, what is just remaining body fat and how much further the skin will tighten up when the rest of the fat is lost.
Need help getting rid of that last bit of body body fat? Click here to find out how to do it the natural way: www.burnthefat.com
About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal trainer (CPT), certified strength & conditioning specialist (CSCS), and author of the #1 best-selling e-book, "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle.” Tom has written more than 200 articles and has been featured in print magazines such as IRONMAN, Australian IRONMAN, Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development, Exercise for Men and Men’s Exercise, as well as on hundreds of websites worldwide. For information on Tom's Fat Loss program, visit: www.burnthefat.com
The Truth About Counting Calories And Weight Loss
The Truth About Counting Calories And Weight Loss
By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.burnthefat.com
Do calories matter or do you simply need to eat certain foods and that will guarantee you’ll lose weight? Should you count calories or can you just count “portions?” Is it necessary to keep a food diary? Is it unrealistic to count calories for the rest of your life or is that just part of the price you pay for a better body? You’re about to learn the answers to these questions and discover a simple solution for keeping track of your food intake without having to crunch numbers every day or become a fanatic about it.
In many popular diet books, “Calories don’t count” is a frequently repeated theme. Other popular programs, such as Bill Phillip's "Body For Life," stress the importance of energy intake versus energy output, but recommend that you count “portions” rather than calories…
Phillips wrote,
"There aren't many people who can keep track of their calorie intake for an extended period of time. As an alternative, I recommend counting 'portions.' A portion of food is roughly equal to the size of your clenched fist or the palm of your hand. Each portion of protein or carbohydrate typically contains between 100 and 150 calories. For example, one chicken breast is approximately one portion of protein, and one medium-sized baked potato is approximately one portion of carbohydrate."
Phillips makes a good point that trying to count every single calorie - in the literal sense - can drive you crazy and is probably not realistic as a lifestyle for the long term. It's one thing to count portions instead of calories – that is at least acknowledging the importance of portion control. However, it's another altogether to deny that calories matter.
Calories do count! Any diet program that tells you, "calories don't count" or you can "eat all you want and still lose weight" is a diet you should avoid because you are being lied to. The truth is, that line is a bunch of baloney designed to make a diet sound easier to follow.
Anything that sounds like work – such as counting calories, eating less or exercising, tends to scare away potential customers! The law of calorie balance is an unbreakable law of physics: Energy in versus energy out dictates whether you will gain, lose or maintain your weight. Period.
I believe that it's very important to develop an understanding of and a respect for portion control and the law of calorie balance. I also believe it's an important part of nutrition education to learn how many calories are in the foods you eat on a regular basis – including (and perhaps, especially) how many calories are in the foods you eat when you dine at restaurants.
The law of calorie balance says:
To maintain your weight, you must consume the same number of calories you burn. To gain weight, you must consume more calories than you burn. To lose weight, you must consume fewer calories than you burn.
If you only count portions or if you haven't the slightest idea how many calories you're eating, it's a lot more likely that you'll eat more than you realize. (Or you might take in fewer calories than you should, which triggers your body’s "starvation mode" and causes your metabolism to shut down).
So how do you balance practicality and realistic expectations with a nutrition program that gets results? Here's a solution that’s a happy medium between strict calorie counting and just guessing:
Create a menu using an EXCEL spreadsheet or your favorite nutrition software. Crunch all the numbers including calories, protein, carbs and fats. Once you have your daily menu, print it, stick it on your refrigerator (and/or in your daily planner) and you now have an eating "goal" for the day, including a caloric target.
Rather than writing down every calorie one by one from every morsel of food you eat for the rest of your life, create a menu plan you can use as a daily goal and guideline. If you’re really ambitious, keeping a nutrition journal at least one time in your life for at least 4-12 weeks is a great idea and an incredible learning experience, but all you really need to get started on the road to a better body is one good menu on paper. If you get bored eating the same thing every day, you can create multiple menus, or just exchange foods using your primary menu as a template.
Using this meal planning method, you really only need to “count calories” once when you create your menus, not every day, ad infinitum. After you've got a knack for calories from this initial discipline of menu planning, then you can estimate portions in the future and get a pretty good (and more educated) ballpark figure.
So what’s the bottom line? Is it really necessary to count every calorie to lose weight? No. But it IS necessary to eat fewer calories then you burn. Whether you count calories and eat less than you burn, or you don’t count calories and eat less than you burn, the end result is the same – you lose weight. Which would you rather do: Take a wild guess, or increase your chance for success with some simple menu planning? I think the right choice is obvious.
For more information on calories (including how calculate precisely how many you should eat based on your age, activity and personal goals, and for even more practical, proven fat loss techniques to help you lose body fat safely, healthfully and permanently, check out my e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle at www.burnthefat.com
About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal trainer (CPT), certified strength & conditioning specialist (CSCS), and author of the #1 best-selling e-book, "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle.” Tom has written more than 200 articles and has been featured in print magazines such as IRONMAN, Australian IRONMAN, Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development, Exercise for Men and Men’s Exercise, as well as on hundreds of websites worldwide. For information on Tom's Fat Loss program, visit: www.burnthefat.com
By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.burnthefat.com
Do calories matter or do you simply need to eat certain foods and that will guarantee you’ll lose weight? Should you count calories or can you just count “portions?” Is it necessary to keep a food diary? Is it unrealistic to count calories for the rest of your life or is that just part of the price you pay for a better body? You’re about to learn the answers to these questions and discover a simple solution for keeping track of your food intake without having to crunch numbers every day or become a fanatic about it.
In many popular diet books, “Calories don’t count” is a frequently repeated theme. Other popular programs, such as Bill Phillip's "Body For Life," stress the importance of energy intake versus energy output, but recommend that you count “portions” rather than calories…
Phillips wrote,
"There aren't many people who can keep track of their calorie intake for an extended period of time. As an alternative, I recommend counting 'portions.' A portion of food is roughly equal to the size of your clenched fist or the palm of your hand. Each portion of protein or carbohydrate typically contains between 100 and 150 calories. For example, one chicken breast is approximately one portion of protein, and one medium-sized baked potato is approximately one portion of carbohydrate."
Phillips makes a good point that trying to count every single calorie - in the literal sense - can drive you crazy and is probably not realistic as a lifestyle for the long term. It's one thing to count portions instead of calories – that is at least acknowledging the importance of portion control. However, it's another altogether to deny that calories matter.
Calories do count! Any diet program that tells you, "calories don't count" or you can "eat all you want and still lose weight" is a diet you should avoid because you are being lied to. The truth is, that line is a bunch of baloney designed to make a diet sound easier to follow.
Anything that sounds like work – such as counting calories, eating less or exercising, tends to scare away potential customers! The law of calorie balance is an unbreakable law of physics: Energy in versus energy out dictates whether you will gain, lose or maintain your weight. Period.
I believe that it's very important to develop an understanding of and a respect for portion control and the law of calorie balance. I also believe it's an important part of nutrition education to learn how many calories are in the foods you eat on a regular basis – including (and perhaps, especially) how many calories are in the foods you eat when you dine at restaurants.
The law of calorie balance says:
To maintain your weight, you must consume the same number of calories you burn. To gain weight, you must consume more calories than you burn. To lose weight, you must consume fewer calories than you burn.
If you only count portions or if you haven't the slightest idea how many calories you're eating, it's a lot more likely that you'll eat more than you realize. (Or you might take in fewer calories than you should, which triggers your body’s "starvation mode" and causes your metabolism to shut down).
So how do you balance practicality and realistic expectations with a nutrition program that gets results? Here's a solution that’s a happy medium between strict calorie counting and just guessing:
Create a menu using an EXCEL spreadsheet or your favorite nutrition software. Crunch all the numbers including calories, protein, carbs and fats. Once you have your daily menu, print it, stick it on your refrigerator (and/or in your daily planner) and you now have an eating "goal" for the day, including a caloric target.
Rather than writing down every calorie one by one from every morsel of food you eat for the rest of your life, create a menu plan you can use as a daily goal and guideline. If you’re really ambitious, keeping a nutrition journal at least one time in your life for at least 4-12 weeks is a great idea and an incredible learning experience, but all you really need to get started on the road to a better body is one good menu on paper. If you get bored eating the same thing every day, you can create multiple menus, or just exchange foods using your primary menu as a template.
Using this meal planning method, you really only need to “count calories” once when you create your menus, not every day, ad infinitum. After you've got a knack for calories from this initial discipline of menu planning, then you can estimate portions in the future and get a pretty good (and more educated) ballpark figure.
So what’s the bottom line? Is it really necessary to count every calorie to lose weight? No. But it IS necessary to eat fewer calories then you burn. Whether you count calories and eat less than you burn, or you don’t count calories and eat less than you burn, the end result is the same – you lose weight. Which would you rather do: Take a wild guess, or increase your chance for success with some simple menu planning? I think the right choice is obvious.
For more information on calories (including how calculate precisely how many you should eat based on your age, activity and personal goals, and for even more practical, proven fat loss techniques to help you lose body fat safely, healthfully and permanently, check out my e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle at www.burnthefat.com
About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal trainer (CPT), certified strength & conditioning specialist (CSCS), and author of the #1 best-selling e-book, "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle.” Tom has written more than 200 articles and has been featured in print magazines such as IRONMAN, Australian IRONMAN, Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development, Exercise for Men and Men’s Exercise, as well as on hundreds of websites worldwide. For information on Tom's Fat Loss program, visit: www.burnthefat.com
Glycemic Index - Key To Fat Loss Or Just Another Diet Gimmick?
The Glycemix Index (GI) - Key To Fat Loss Or Just Another Diet Gimmick
By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.burnthefat.com
The glycemic index (GI) is a scale from 1 to 100 that measures how quickly carbohydrate foods are broken down into glucose. The original purpose for the glycemic index was to help diabetics keep their blood sugar under control. The glycemic index has recently attracted a lot of attention in the bodybuilding, fitness and weight loss world and has even become the central theme in numerous best-selling diet books as a method to choose the foods that are best for losing weight.
According to advocates of the glycemic index system, foods that are high on the GI scale such as rice cakes, carrots, potatoes, watermelon or grape juice are "unfavorable" and should be avoided because high GI foods are absorbed quickly, raise blood sugar rapidly and are therefore more likely to convert to fat or cause health problems.
Instead, we are urged to consume carbohydrates that are low on the GI scale such as black eye peas, barley, old fashioned oatmeal, peanuts, grapefruit, apples and beans because they do not raise blood sugar as rapidly.
While the GI does have some useful applications, such as the use of high GI foods or drinks for post workout nutrition and the strong emphasis on low GI foods for those with blood sugar regulation problems, there are flaws in strictly using the glycemic index as your only criteria to choose carbs on a weight loss program.
For example, the glycemic index is based on eating carbohydrates by themselves in a fasted state. If you are following effective principles of fat-burning and muscle building nutrition such as those outlined in my Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle (BFFM) e-book (www.burnthefat.com), you should be eating small, frequent meals to increase your energy, maintain lean body mass and optimize metabolism for fat loss.
However, since the glycemic index of various foods was developed based on eating each food in the fasted state, the glycemic index loses some of its significance. you should be eating small, frequent meals to increase your energy, maintain lean body mass and optimize metabolism for fat loss. However, since the glycemic index of various foods was developed based on eating each food in the fasted state, the glycemic index loses some of its significance.
In addition, when you are on a diet program aimed at improving body composition (losing fat or gaining muscle), you will usually be combining carbs and protein together with each meal for the purposes of improving your fat to muscle ratio. When carbs are eaten in mixed meals that contain protein and some fat, the glycemic index loses even more of its significance because the protein and fat slows the absorption of the carbohydrates (as does fiber).
Mashed potatoes have a glycemic index near that of pure glucose, but combine the potatoes with a chicken breast and broccoli and the glycemic index of the entire meal is lower than the potatoes by itself.
Rice cakes have a very high glycemic index, but if you were to put a couple tablespoons of peanut butter on them, the fat would slow the absorption of the carbs, thereby lowering the glycemic index of the combination.
A far more important and relevant criteria for selecting carbs for weight loss - as well as all your other foods, proteins and fats included - is whether they are natural or processed. To say that a healthy person with no metabolic disorders should completely avoid natural, unprocessed foods like carrots or potatoes simply because they are high on the glycemic index is ridiculous.
I know many bodybuilders (myself included) who eat high glycemic index foods such as white potatoes every day right up until the day of a competition and they reach single digit body fat. How do they do it if high GI foods “make you fat?” It’s simple – high GI foods DON’T necessarily make you fat – choosing natural foods and burning more calories than you consume are far more important factors. Although it’s not correct to say that all calories are created equal, a calorie deficit is the most important factor of all when fat loss is your goal.
The glycemic index is clearly not a "gimmick" and should not be completely disregarded, as it is a definitely a legitimate nutritional tool. Is it a good idea to eat low GI foods in general? Sure. Is eating high GI foods after your workouts a good idea? Absolutely. But diet programs which hang their hats on glycemic index alone as the “miracle solution” are just another example of how one single aspect of nutrition can be used as a "hook" in marketing and said to be the "end all be all" of fat loss, when it's really only one small piece of the puzzle.
Eating Low glycemic index foods alone does NOT guarantee you will lose fat. You have to take in the bigger picture, which includes calories/energy balance, meal timing and frequency, macronutrient composition, choice of processed versus refined foods as well as how all these nutritional factors interact with your exercise program.
For more information on carbohydrates and the glycemic index, and for a balanced, gimmick-free look at all aspects of fat-burning nutrition, be sure to visit the Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle website at: www.burnthefat.com
About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal trainer (CPT), certified strength & conditioning specialist (CSCS), and author of the #1 best-selling e-book, "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle.” Tom has written more than 200 articles and has been featured in print magazines such as IRONMAN, Australian IRONMAN, Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development, Exercise for Men and Men’s Exercise, as well as on hundreds of websites worldwide. For information on Tom's Fat Loss program, visit: www.burnthefat.com
By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.burnthefat.com
The glycemic index (GI) is a scale from 1 to 100 that measures how quickly carbohydrate foods are broken down into glucose. The original purpose for the glycemic index was to help diabetics keep their blood sugar under control. The glycemic index has recently attracted a lot of attention in the bodybuilding, fitness and weight loss world and has even become the central theme in numerous best-selling diet books as a method to choose the foods that are best for losing weight.
According to advocates of the glycemic index system, foods that are high on the GI scale such as rice cakes, carrots, potatoes, watermelon or grape juice are "unfavorable" and should be avoided because high GI foods are absorbed quickly, raise blood sugar rapidly and are therefore more likely to convert to fat or cause health problems.
Instead, we are urged to consume carbohydrates that are low on the GI scale such as black eye peas, barley, old fashioned oatmeal, peanuts, grapefruit, apples and beans because they do not raise blood sugar as rapidly.
While the GI does have some useful applications, such as the use of high GI foods or drinks for post workout nutrition and the strong emphasis on low GI foods for those with blood sugar regulation problems, there are flaws in strictly using the glycemic index as your only criteria to choose carbs on a weight loss program.
For example, the glycemic index is based on eating carbohydrates by themselves in a fasted state. If you are following effective principles of fat-burning and muscle building nutrition such as those outlined in my Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle (BFFM) e-book (www.burnthefat.com), you should be eating small, frequent meals to increase your energy, maintain lean body mass and optimize metabolism for fat loss.
However, since the glycemic index of various foods was developed based on eating each food in the fasted state, the glycemic index loses some of its significance. you should be eating small, frequent meals to increase your energy, maintain lean body mass and optimize metabolism for fat loss. However, since the glycemic index of various foods was developed based on eating each food in the fasted state, the glycemic index loses some of its significance.
In addition, when you are on a diet program aimed at improving body composition (losing fat or gaining muscle), you will usually be combining carbs and protein together with each meal for the purposes of improving your fat to muscle ratio. When carbs are eaten in mixed meals that contain protein and some fat, the glycemic index loses even more of its significance because the protein and fat slows the absorption of the carbohydrates (as does fiber).
Mashed potatoes have a glycemic index near that of pure glucose, but combine the potatoes with a chicken breast and broccoli and the glycemic index of the entire meal is lower than the potatoes by itself.
Rice cakes have a very high glycemic index, but if you were to put a couple tablespoons of peanut butter on them, the fat would slow the absorption of the carbs, thereby lowering the glycemic index of the combination.
A far more important and relevant criteria for selecting carbs for weight loss - as well as all your other foods, proteins and fats included - is whether they are natural or processed. To say that a healthy person with no metabolic disorders should completely avoid natural, unprocessed foods like carrots or potatoes simply because they are high on the glycemic index is ridiculous.
I know many bodybuilders (myself included) who eat high glycemic index foods such as white potatoes every day right up until the day of a competition and they reach single digit body fat. How do they do it if high GI foods “make you fat?” It’s simple – high GI foods DON’T necessarily make you fat – choosing natural foods and burning more calories than you consume are far more important factors. Although it’s not correct to say that all calories are created equal, a calorie deficit is the most important factor of all when fat loss is your goal.
The glycemic index is clearly not a "gimmick" and should not be completely disregarded, as it is a definitely a legitimate nutritional tool. Is it a good idea to eat low GI foods in general? Sure. Is eating high GI foods after your workouts a good idea? Absolutely. But diet programs which hang their hats on glycemic index alone as the “miracle solution” are just another example of how one single aspect of nutrition can be used as a "hook" in marketing and said to be the "end all be all" of fat loss, when it's really only one small piece of the puzzle.
Eating Low glycemic index foods alone does NOT guarantee you will lose fat. You have to take in the bigger picture, which includes calories/energy balance, meal timing and frequency, macronutrient composition, choice of processed versus refined foods as well as how all these nutritional factors interact with your exercise program.
For more information on carbohydrates and the glycemic index, and for a balanced, gimmick-free look at all aspects of fat-burning nutrition, be sure to visit the Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle website at: www.burnthefat.com
About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal trainer (CPT), certified strength & conditioning specialist (CSCS), and author of the #1 best-selling e-book, "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle.” Tom has written more than 200 articles and has been featured in print magazines such as IRONMAN, Australian IRONMAN, Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development, Exercise for Men and Men’s Exercise, as well as on hundreds of websites worldwide. For information on Tom's Fat Loss program, visit: www.burnthefat.com
Friday, December 24, 2010
Did You Inherit Fat Genes? The Truth About Biology And Body Fat
Did You Inherit Fat Genes? The Truth About Biology And Body Fat
By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.burnthefat.com
"Battle Your Biology? Fat Chance," proclaimed a headline recently in the health section of the New York Post newspaper. Quoting new research and citing psychologists, dietitians and physicians, the article says that more and more evidence proves that your weight is genetically determined, and if you're fat, "it's not your fault." "We've known for a while that genes - more than environment and behavior - explain obesity" argues Dr. James Rosen, an eating disorder specialist and professor at the University of Vermont.
While genetics are definitely a factor, believing you are destined to be overweight for life because you've inherited "fat genes" is the most disempowering and self-defeating attitude you could ever adopt. The only way you’ll lose weight permanently is to accept total responsibility for yourself and acknowledge the fact that you have the power to change, regardless what mother nature has given you to work with.
There's no denying that heredity plays a major role in how difficult it will be for you to lose fat. You inherited a body type, a predetermined number of fat cells, a metabolic rate and body chemistry just as you inherited your eye color and hair color. In the 1930's, Harvard psychologist Dr. William H. Sheldon developed a classification system for these different body types called "somatotyping." While there are no absolutes, Sheldon identified three basic somatotypes: ectomorphs, mesomorphs and endomorphs.
Ectomorphs are the lean, lanky types. They are usually very thin and bony, with fast metabolisms and extremely low body fat. An ectomorph can eat like a horse without gaining an ounce. Mesomorphs are the "genetically gifted." They are lean, muscular and naturally athletic. Mesomorphs lose fat and gain muscle with ease. Endomorphs are the "fat retainers." Characterized by round features, excess body fat and large joints ("big bones"), endomorphs usually have great difficulty in losing body fat. They have slow metabolisms, they are often carbohydrate sensitive, they gain fat quickly if they eat poorly or don't exercise, and they lose fat slowly - even on a healthy diet.
The tendency of endomorphs to store fat easily can be partly attributed to metabolic problems. For example, endomorphs often metabolize carbohydrates inefficiently. Normal people can eat lots of carbohydrates - up to 60% of their total calories - and they still stay lean. Endomorphs produce too much insulin when they eat carbohydrates and this leads to increased fat storage and difficulty in losing existing fat. This condition is known as "insulin resistance" or "Syndrome X."
Scientists claim that the tendency to gain weight easily may also be due to chemical imbalances in the brain that cause people to overeat. Researchers at Johns Hopkins recently announced the discovery a compound called C75 that blocks an appetite-regulating hormone in the hypothalamus. In mice injected with the substance, 30 percent more weight was lost because the drug caused the mice to eat less. More research is planned to develop a similar appetite-suppressing drug for humans. Unlike Xenical, which blocks fat absorption in the intestine, this new drug would affect the brain's chemistry so that people feel full sooner.
Many physicians and health professionals consider these metabolic disorders and chemical imbalances as genetically transmitted "diseases" that require medical treatment. "Obesity is a disease and should be treated like one" says Jackie Newgent, spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association . This idea should be viewed with a great deal of suspicion however, because weight loss is potentially the biggest market in the world for drug sales.
According to Justin Gillis, a staff writer for the Washington Post, more than 45 companies worldwide are trying to develop new obesity drugs, and the stakes couldn't be higher. Gillis writes, "In world where a blockbuster drug is worth $1 billion a year in sales, analysts give $5 billion as the low estimate for sales of an important obesity drug. If a company developed a truly safe, effective weight loss drug, and sold it for $3 a day to one quarter of the 97 million American adults estimated to be overweight, sales would exceed $26 billion a year in this country alone."
Basically, what the medical community is trying to tell you is that if you are overweight, it's not your fault; you were born fat, so don't feel guilty - and don't worry, we have a drug that can "cure" you. Sounds like there's an ulterior motive at work here, wouldn't you agree? Before you run to get a prescription for the next "miracle" drug, you'd better wonder whose interests are being served; yours or the pharmaceutical giants.
Besides, drugs can never be the solution if they treat the symptoms and not the cause. Drugs should be considered a last resort for the morbidly obese who have already tried everything else without success and who will face serious health consequences if they don't lose weight. The editors of obesity.com said it best: "Weight loss drugs do not take the place of diet, exercise, patience, and perseverance."
"Dieting can be an uphill battle against your genes." says Post writer Joyce Cohen. Unfortunately, if you're an endomorph, Cohen is right. Losing weight is definitely easier for some people than for others and that doesn't seem fair. But that's the way life is. Life isn't fair. Let's be honest; not everyone is going to become an Olympic Gold medallist, a Mr. America or a fitness model. But don't despair - you are not doomed to live a life of fatness if you don't have "athletic genes."
Obesity is the result of many influences. Genetics is only one of them. Like it or not, the primary cause of obesity is your own behavior. Most of the factors that affect body composition are entirely under your control. These factors include how much you eat, what you eat, when you eat, what type of exercise you do, how frequently you exercise, how long you exercise and how hard you exercise.
If you have the genetic predisposition towards obesity, you can lose fat like everyone else, you're just going to have to work harder and longer at it than other people. "There is a genetic component to weight," Says Dr. Thomas Wadden, a psychologist from Syracuse University, "but no one is destined to be obese. If weight has been a major problem in your family, you may not be able to become as thin as you'd like, but you can lose weight."
If you find losing weight to be a slow and difficult process, the empowering thing to do is to look at it as asset, because overcoming this obstacle will force you to develop discipline, determination and persistence. These traits will carry over to other areas of your life and make you a stronger person all around. Arnold Schwarzennegger said, "Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strength. When you overcome hardships, that is strength."
The first thing you must do if you want to lose weight or succeed in any area of your life, is to accept complete responsibility for your situation. In a short but powerful little book called "As Man Thinketh," the author James Allen wrote, "circumstances do not make a man, they reveal him." What he meant was that we are not products of our environment or our heredity (our "circumstances"), instead, we products of our own thinking and belief systems.
We create our own circumstances through positive thinking and positive action and we create negative circumstances through negative thinking and lack of action or wrong actions. In other words, we are responsible for where we are, what we have and how our bodies look.
Some people get very angry with me when I tell them this: They say, "Wait a minute. Are you trying to tell me that when bad things happen to me, it’s my own fault? That I brought unemployment, financial hardships, failed relationships, weight gain or even health problems onto myself? Because if that's what you're saying, that's totally unfair!"
Well, my friend, with very few exceptions, (some things really are out of your control) that is exactly what I am saying.
If you refuse to accept the fact that you are 100% responsible for your weight, you will never be successful. When people find themselves in undesirable situations or they aren't getting the results they want, it’s all too easy to make excuses: It's my genetics, I have big bones, I have a slow metabolism, I don't have enough time to exercise, etc. etc., etc. Making excuses is relinquishing control. It is conceding that you a victim of circumstances instead of the creator of your circumstances. Stop blaming and start taking responsibility for your life. Take action! Start working out. Eat better. Do something - do anything - but don't just sit there on the couch and curse your chromosomes.
So, are you a frustrated "endomorph?" Do you feel like dieting is an uphill battle against your genes? If your answer is "yes," please don’t just quit and chalk in up to "bad genetics," and don't believe that drugs are the answer either - they're not. Your genetics will largely dictate your athletic ability and how easily you will lose weight. That doesn't mean you can't get lean; it only means that you're going to have to adjust your diet and training to fit your body type and you may have to work harder and be more persistent than the "genetically lucky" ones.
Maybe obesity really should be classified as a genetically inherited "disease." But frankly, if you have a "disease" that forces you to learn more about exercise and nutrition, to eat nutritious foods, to adopt a healthier lifestyle, to develop a strong work ethic and to become a more persistent person, that sounds like a blessing in disguise to me.
About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal trainer (CPT), certified strength & conditioning specialist (CSCS), and author of the #1 best-selling e-book, "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle.” Tom has written more than 200 articles and been featured in IRONMAN, Australian IRONMAN, Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development, Exercise for Men and Men’s Exercise, as well as on hundreds of websites worldwide. For information on Tom's Fat Loss program, visit: www.burnthefat.com
By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.burnthefat.com
"Battle Your Biology? Fat Chance," proclaimed a headline recently in the health section of the New York Post newspaper. Quoting new research and citing psychologists, dietitians and physicians, the article says that more and more evidence proves that your weight is genetically determined, and if you're fat, "it's not your fault." "We've known for a while that genes - more than environment and behavior - explain obesity" argues Dr. James Rosen, an eating disorder specialist and professor at the University of Vermont.
While genetics are definitely a factor, believing you are destined to be overweight for life because you've inherited "fat genes" is the most disempowering and self-defeating attitude you could ever adopt. The only way you’ll lose weight permanently is to accept total responsibility for yourself and acknowledge the fact that you have the power to change, regardless what mother nature has given you to work with.
There's no denying that heredity plays a major role in how difficult it will be for you to lose fat. You inherited a body type, a predetermined number of fat cells, a metabolic rate and body chemistry just as you inherited your eye color and hair color. In the 1930's, Harvard psychologist Dr. William H. Sheldon developed a classification system for these different body types called "somatotyping." While there are no absolutes, Sheldon identified three basic somatotypes: ectomorphs, mesomorphs and endomorphs.
Ectomorphs are the lean, lanky types. They are usually very thin and bony, with fast metabolisms and extremely low body fat. An ectomorph can eat like a horse without gaining an ounce. Mesomorphs are the "genetically gifted." They are lean, muscular and naturally athletic. Mesomorphs lose fat and gain muscle with ease. Endomorphs are the "fat retainers." Characterized by round features, excess body fat and large joints ("big bones"), endomorphs usually have great difficulty in losing body fat. They have slow metabolisms, they are often carbohydrate sensitive, they gain fat quickly if they eat poorly or don't exercise, and they lose fat slowly - even on a healthy diet.
The tendency of endomorphs to store fat easily can be partly attributed to metabolic problems. For example, endomorphs often metabolize carbohydrates inefficiently. Normal people can eat lots of carbohydrates - up to 60% of their total calories - and they still stay lean. Endomorphs produce too much insulin when they eat carbohydrates and this leads to increased fat storage and difficulty in losing existing fat. This condition is known as "insulin resistance" or "Syndrome X."
Scientists claim that the tendency to gain weight easily may also be due to chemical imbalances in the brain that cause people to overeat. Researchers at Johns Hopkins recently announced the discovery a compound called C75 that blocks an appetite-regulating hormone in the hypothalamus. In mice injected with the substance, 30 percent more weight was lost because the drug caused the mice to eat less. More research is planned to develop a similar appetite-suppressing drug for humans. Unlike Xenical, which blocks fat absorption in the intestine, this new drug would affect the brain's chemistry so that people feel full sooner.
Many physicians and health professionals consider these metabolic disorders and chemical imbalances as genetically transmitted "diseases" that require medical treatment. "Obesity is a disease and should be treated like one" says Jackie Newgent, spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association . This idea should be viewed with a great deal of suspicion however, because weight loss is potentially the biggest market in the world for drug sales.
According to Justin Gillis, a staff writer for the Washington Post, more than 45 companies worldwide are trying to develop new obesity drugs, and the stakes couldn't be higher. Gillis writes, "In world where a blockbuster drug is worth $1 billion a year in sales, analysts give $5 billion as the low estimate for sales of an important obesity drug. If a company developed a truly safe, effective weight loss drug, and sold it for $3 a day to one quarter of the 97 million American adults estimated to be overweight, sales would exceed $26 billion a year in this country alone."
Basically, what the medical community is trying to tell you is that if you are overweight, it's not your fault; you were born fat, so don't feel guilty - and don't worry, we have a drug that can "cure" you. Sounds like there's an ulterior motive at work here, wouldn't you agree? Before you run to get a prescription for the next "miracle" drug, you'd better wonder whose interests are being served; yours or the pharmaceutical giants.
Besides, drugs can never be the solution if they treat the symptoms and not the cause. Drugs should be considered a last resort for the morbidly obese who have already tried everything else without success and who will face serious health consequences if they don't lose weight. The editors of obesity.com said it best: "Weight loss drugs do not take the place of diet, exercise, patience, and perseverance."
"Dieting can be an uphill battle against your genes." says Post writer Joyce Cohen. Unfortunately, if you're an endomorph, Cohen is right. Losing weight is definitely easier for some people than for others and that doesn't seem fair. But that's the way life is. Life isn't fair. Let's be honest; not everyone is going to become an Olympic Gold medallist, a Mr. America or a fitness model. But don't despair - you are not doomed to live a life of fatness if you don't have "athletic genes."
Obesity is the result of many influences. Genetics is only one of them. Like it or not, the primary cause of obesity is your own behavior. Most of the factors that affect body composition are entirely under your control. These factors include how much you eat, what you eat, when you eat, what type of exercise you do, how frequently you exercise, how long you exercise and how hard you exercise.
If you have the genetic predisposition towards obesity, you can lose fat like everyone else, you're just going to have to work harder and longer at it than other people. "There is a genetic component to weight," Says Dr. Thomas Wadden, a psychologist from Syracuse University, "but no one is destined to be obese. If weight has been a major problem in your family, you may not be able to become as thin as you'd like, but you can lose weight."
If you find losing weight to be a slow and difficult process, the empowering thing to do is to look at it as asset, because overcoming this obstacle will force you to develop discipline, determination and persistence. These traits will carry over to other areas of your life and make you a stronger person all around. Arnold Schwarzennegger said, "Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strength. When you overcome hardships, that is strength."
The first thing you must do if you want to lose weight or succeed in any area of your life, is to accept complete responsibility for your situation. In a short but powerful little book called "As Man Thinketh," the author James Allen wrote, "circumstances do not make a man, they reveal him." What he meant was that we are not products of our environment or our heredity (our "circumstances"), instead, we products of our own thinking and belief systems.
We create our own circumstances through positive thinking and positive action and we create negative circumstances through negative thinking and lack of action or wrong actions. In other words, we are responsible for where we are, what we have and how our bodies look.
Some people get very angry with me when I tell them this: They say, "Wait a minute. Are you trying to tell me that when bad things happen to me, it’s my own fault? That I brought unemployment, financial hardships, failed relationships, weight gain or even health problems onto myself? Because if that's what you're saying, that's totally unfair!"
Well, my friend, with very few exceptions, (some things really are out of your control) that is exactly what I am saying.
If you refuse to accept the fact that you are 100% responsible for your weight, you will never be successful. When people find themselves in undesirable situations or they aren't getting the results they want, it’s all too easy to make excuses: It's my genetics, I have big bones, I have a slow metabolism, I don't have enough time to exercise, etc. etc., etc. Making excuses is relinquishing control. It is conceding that you a victim of circumstances instead of the creator of your circumstances. Stop blaming and start taking responsibility for your life. Take action! Start working out. Eat better. Do something - do anything - but don't just sit there on the couch and curse your chromosomes.
So, are you a frustrated "endomorph?" Do you feel like dieting is an uphill battle against your genes? If your answer is "yes," please don’t just quit and chalk in up to "bad genetics," and don't believe that drugs are the answer either - they're not. Your genetics will largely dictate your athletic ability and how easily you will lose weight. That doesn't mean you can't get lean; it only means that you're going to have to adjust your diet and training to fit your body type and you may have to work harder and be more persistent than the "genetically lucky" ones.
Maybe obesity really should be classified as a genetically inherited "disease." But frankly, if you have a "disease" that forces you to learn more about exercise and nutrition, to eat nutritious foods, to adopt a healthier lifestyle, to develop a strong work ethic and to become a more persistent person, that sounds like a blessing in disguise to me.
About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal trainer (CPT), certified strength & conditioning specialist (CSCS), and author of the #1 best-selling e-book, "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle.” Tom has written more than 200 articles and been featured in IRONMAN, Australian IRONMAN, Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development, Exercise for Men and Men’s Exercise, as well as on hundreds of websites worldwide. For information on Tom's Fat Loss program, visit: www.burnthefat.com
How To Lose 20 Pounds Really, Really Fast
How To Lose 20 Pounds Really, Really Fast
By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.burnthefat.com
Back “in the day” when I was a full time personal trainer and I met with weight loss clients in person at my New Jersey Health Club, the first thing I would always ask during the initial consultation was:
"Tell me what you want... and I'll show you how to get it."
Typical reply from client:
"I want to lose 20 pounds fast."
My reply:
"Are you SURE that's what you want? ...If I can show you how to lose 20 pounds REALLY fast, will that make you happy?"
They nodded their head affirmatively as their eyes lit up in anticipation of the rapid weight loss secrets I was about to reveal...
Their face went white when - with a totally straight face – I pulled out a hacksaw and started walking towards them.... menacingly.
Not sure whether to laugh or run in sheer terror, they said,
"What the heck are you doing?"
"You said you wanted to lose 20 pounds fast. This is the easiest, surest, most effective way I know to take 20 pounds off you FAST! In fact, I figure that right leg of yours might even weigh 25 pounds!"
I kept walking closer and started to get into sawing position, wielding my fast, effective and guaranteed weight loss tool...
"Bear with me because this IS quick, but sometimes it takes a few minutes for me to cut through the bone."
By this time, my client (and I) are either completely cracking up, I have seriously scared the living you know what out of them, or they just think I'm a complete lunatic... (depends on whether I was able to keep a straight face or not)
Finally, the light bulb goes on, and my client would see where I was going with this:
"Okay, smart alec," I get it... I don't want to lose WEIGHT, I want to lose FAT."
Sometimes I would be having so much fun, I would just keep on playin'...
"But why not? This is easy, fast and guaranteed - just what everyone wants these days... it's even better than taking a pill! Come on... let me hack it off! You'll be my next testimonial: 'I lost 20 pounds in 5 minutes!' Imagine what that will do for my business!"
"Very funny. I told you, I get it! I want to lose FAT, not muscles and bones. I need my leg!”
Naturally, of course, I don't always have to pull out my trusty blade. Every once in a while... about as often as a total solar eclipse... a client answers my question like this:
"What do I want? Tom, I want to lose 20 pounds of body fat in the next 12 weeks. I want to do it slowly, safely and healthfully and then keep it off permanently. I want all the fat around my hips and thighs completely gone and I want a firm flat stomach. I want muscle all over my body while still looking feminine. I'd like to see myself at about 16% body fat and maintain all my muscle or gain a few pounds of lean mass if I can, especially in my arms. This is important to me because I want to set a good example for my kids, I want to be healthy and live to at least 90 and I want my husband to look at me and say, "I love your body," and I want to be able to *honestly* say back to him, "me too!"
It is on these rare occasions that I know there is still intelligent life on this planet.
If you could answer the question, "What do you want" with the lucidity, clarity and specificity that this woman did, I don't think you would ever have any difficulty reaching your health and fitness goals... or any other goal in your life, for that matter.
Her answer was what you call a very "well-formed" goal, backed up with lots of emotional motivation-inducing "reasons why."
"I want to lose weight" is a poorly-formed goal.
"Weight" is not the same as "fat." Weight includes muscle, bone, internal organs as well as lots and lots of water.
If you only learn ONE thing from all my newsletters, articles and books, PLEASE learn this:
WHAT YOU REALLY WANT IS TO BURN THE FAT, WHILE KEEPING THE MUSCLE!!!!
FAT LOSS is what you want, not weight loss.
If your body were 100% rock-solid muscle, with absolutely nothing that jiggled (unless it was supposed to), would you care how much you weighed?
I bet you wouldn't! And if that’s true, then…
STOP WORSHIPPING THE SCALE AND START MEASURING YOUR BODY COMPOSITION!
By measuring your body fat, you take the guesswork out of your health and fitness plan and you get an accurate picture of what's really happening in your body as a result of your diet and exercise program.
Instead of worrying about whether you are losing muscle, or wondering if you are losing fat, you can measure it and KNOW for sure. (I always get a good chuckle when someone tells me they're worried about losing muscle when they don't even measure how much muscle they have!)
Instead of being confused by all the "opinions" from weight loss and exercise "experts" who are all telling you something different, you can MEASURE your body composition and based on the results, you can KNOW for sure whether your program is working.
A very wise man once said,
"A single measurement is worth a thousand opinions."
So, how do you measure body fat?
Thanks to technology, there are some methods today that are so accurate, they can tell you whether your left pinky has more fat than your right pinky! Unfortunately, many of them are either too expensive or they are inaccessible, being found only in hospitals or research facilities
If you want to learn a LOT about various body fat testing methods, chapter 3 of my e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle (www.burnthefat.com) goes into great detail about the pros and cons of all the various fat testing methods. Instead of re-hashing it all here, let me give you three quick and easy, practical suggestions:
Suggestion 1: Have a trainer or fitness professional measure you if this service is available at your local health club. Sometimes, there's a charge - usually $15 - $25, although some clubs offer the service for free to all their members.
Suggestion 2: Purchase an Accu-measure skinfold caliper. Do a google or yahoo search to find a reseller.
The Accu-measure was designed to allow you to measure your own body fat in the privacy of your own home (you don't need someone else to measure you)
Some people wonder if this is really accurate. Truth is, it's not quite as accurate as a multi site skinfold test from an experienced tester, but what's most important is not the "accuracy" per se, but the reliability and consistency of your measurements so you can track your progress. Skinfold calipers in general are not accurate or inaccurate, it's the person doing the test that is accurate or inaccurate.
Suggestion 3: If you have a spouse, roommate, or friend who can measure your body fat, you can purchase a Slim Guide body fat caliper (or just about any brand of caliper) from Creative Health Products: chponline.com
The Slimguide is the best inexpensive caliper available (about $20), but it wasn't designed for you to measure your own body fat like the Accu Measure. You'll need someone to measure you with this caliper. Other models of body fat calipers (if you want to splurge), range from $150 to $450. (At our health clubs, I use the electronic "SKYNDEX" caliper with the 4-site "Durnin formula.")
The calipers come with instructions, or you can use these formulas, which I have used and found to be very accurate:
4 Site formula for men (abdomen, suprailiac, thigh, tricep)
% fat = .29288(sum of 4 skinfolds) - 0.0005(sum of four skinfolds squared) + 0.15845(age) - 5.76377
4-Site Formula for women (abdomen, suprailiac, thigh, tricep)
% Fat = (.29669)(sum of 4 skinfolds) - (.00043)(Sum of four skinfolds squared) + .02963(age) + 1.4072
[Source: Jackson A S, Pollock, M (1985) Practical assessment of body composition. Physician Sport Med. 13: 76-90.]
Body fat percentages vary based on age and gender, but 20-25% body fat is average for women (15-19% is ideal), while 15-20% is average for men (10-14% is ideal). I have detailed charts for body fat charts in my e-book if you're interested.
Once you know your body fat percentage, then weigh yourself and record your weight and body fat on a progress chart such as the one found in my Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle Program (a fat loss program, not a weight loss program). This chart is how you will track your progress and "keep score."
You can calculate your lean body mass (muscle and other fat free tissue) very easily just by crunching some numbers:
For example, if you weigh 200 pounds and you have 10% body fat then you have 20 pounds of fat (10% of 200 = 20). That means you have a lean body mass (LBM) of 180 pounds.
Now we're talking! With this data, you can get a really clear picture of how your exercise and nutrition program are affecting your physique.
Losing weight is very easy. Losing fat - and keeping it off without losing muscle - is a much bigger challenge. If you simply wanted to lose weight, we could just chop off your leg.
Or, (slightly less painful), I could show you how to drop 10 - 15 pounds over the weekend just by dehydrating yourself and using natural herbal diuretics. Wrestlers do it all the time to make a weight class. But what good would that do if it’s almost all water and you’re just going to gain it all back within days?
You don't have to "throw away your scale" like many "experts" tell you to. By all means, keep using the scale, the tape measure and even photographs and the mirror - the more feedback the better - but body fat is where it's at.
By the way, I recently bought a chain saw and a shiny new axe from Home Depot, and I've been practicing my "American Psycho" and Jack Nicholson, "The Shining" impersonations... so if you want to come to my office any time soon for personal consultation, you'd better have the right answer to my question, "What do you want?"
For more information about a nutrition and training program that focuses exclusively on FAT LOSS, not WEIGHT LOSS, visit: www.burnthefat.com
About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal trainer (CPT), certified strength & conditioning specialist (CSCS), and author of the #1 best-selling e-book, "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle.” Tom has written hundreds of articles and been featured in IRONMAN, Australian IRONMAN, Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development, Exercise for Men and Men’s Exercise, as well as on dozens of websites worldwide. For information on Tom's Fat Loss program, visit: www.burnthefat.com
By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.burnthefat.com
Back “in the day” when I was a full time personal trainer and I met with weight loss clients in person at my New Jersey Health Club, the first thing I would always ask during the initial consultation was:
"Tell me what you want... and I'll show you how to get it."
Typical reply from client:
"I want to lose 20 pounds fast."
My reply:
"Are you SURE that's what you want? ...If I can show you how to lose 20 pounds REALLY fast, will that make you happy?"
They nodded their head affirmatively as their eyes lit up in anticipation of the rapid weight loss secrets I was about to reveal...
Their face went white when - with a totally straight face – I pulled out a hacksaw and started walking towards them.... menacingly.
Not sure whether to laugh or run in sheer terror, they said,
"What the heck are you doing?"
"You said you wanted to lose 20 pounds fast. This is the easiest, surest, most effective way I know to take 20 pounds off you FAST! In fact, I figure that right leg of yours might even weigh 25 pounds!"
I kept walking closer and started to get into sawing position, wielding my fast, effective and guaranteed weight loss tool...
"Bear with me because this IS quick, but sometimes it takes a few minutes for me to cut through the bone."
By this time, my client (and I) are either completely cracking up, I have seriously scared the living you know what out of them, or they just think I'm a complete lunatic... (depends on whether I was able to keep a straight face or not)
Finally, the light bulb goes on, and my client would see where I was going with this:
"Okay, smart alec," I get it... I don't want to lose WEIGHT, I want to lose FAT."
Sometimes I would be having so much fun, I would just keep on playin'...
"But why not? This is easy, fast and guaranteed - just what everyone wants these days... it's even better than taking a pill! Come on... let me hack it off! You'll be my next testimonial: 'I lost 20 pounds in 5 minutes!' Imagine what that will do for my business!"
"Very funny. I told you, I get it! I want to lose FAT, not muscles and bones. I need my leg!”
Naturally, of course, I don't always have to pull out my trusty blade. Every once in a while... about as often as a total solar eclipse... a client answers my question like this:
"What do I want? Tom, I want to lose 20 pounds of body fat in the next 12 weeks. I want to do it slowly, safely and healthfully and then keep it off permanently. I want all the fat around my hips and thighs completely gone and I want a firm flat stomach. I want muscle all over my body while still looking feminine. I'd like to see myself at about 16% body fat and maintain all my muscle or gain a few pounds of lean mass if I can, especially in my arms. This is important to me because I want to set a good example for my kids, I want to be healthy and live to at least 90 and I want my husband to look at me and say, "I love your body," and I want to be able to *honestly* say back to him, "me too!"
It is on these rare occasions that I know there is still intelligent life on this planet.
If you could answer the question, "What do you want" with the lucidity, clarity and specificity that this woman did, I don't think you would ever have any difficulty reaching your health and fitness goals... or any other goal in your life, for that matter.
Her answer was what you call a very "well-formed" goal, backed up with lots of emotional motivation-inducing "reasons why."
"I want to lose weight" is a poorly-formed goal.
"Weight" is not the same as "fat." Weight includes muscle, bone, internal organs as well as lots and lots of water.
If you only learn ONE thing from all my newsletters, articles and books, PLEASE learn this:
WHAT YOU REALLY WANT IS TO BURN THE FAT, WHILE KEEPING THE MUSCLE!!!!
FAT LOSS is what you want, not weight loss.
If your body were 100% rock-solid muscle, with absolutely nothing that jiggled (unless it was supposed to), would you care how much you weighed?
I bet you wouldn't! And if that’s true, then…
STOP WORSHIPPING THE SCALE AND START MEASURING YOUR BODY COMPOSITION!
By measuring your body fat, you take the guesswork out of your health and fitness plan and you get an accurate picture of what's really happening in your body as a result of your diet and exercise program.
Instead of worrying about whether you are losing muscle, or wondering if you are losing fat, you can measure it and KNOW for sure. (I always get a good chuckle when someone tells me they're worried about losing muscle when they don't even measure how much muscle they have!)
Instead of being confused by all the "opinions" from weight loss and exercise "experts" who are all telling you something different, you can MEASURE your body composition and based on the results, you can KNOW for sure whether your program is working.
A very wise man once said,
"A single measurement is worth a thousand opinions."
So, how do you measure body fat?
Thanks to technology, there are some methods today that are so accurate, they can tell you whether your left pinky has more fat than your right pinky! Unfortunately, many of them are either too expensive or they are inaccessible, being found only in hospitals or research facilities
If you want to learn a LOT about various body fat testing methods, chapter 3 of my e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle (www.burnthefat.com) goes into great detail about the pros and cons of all the various fat testing methods. Instead of re-hashing it all here, let me give you three quick and easy, practical suggestions:
Suggestion 1: Have a trainer or fitness professional measure you if this service is available at your local health club. Sometimes, there's a charge - usually $15 - $25, although some clubs offer the service for free to all their members.
Suggestion 2: Purchase an Accu-measure skinfold caliper. Do a google or yahoo search to find a reseller.
The Accu-measure was designed to allow you to measure your own body fat in the privacy of your own home (you don't need someone else to measure you)
Some people wonder if this is really accurate. Truth is, it's not quite as accurate as a multi site skinfold test from an experienced tester, but what's most important is not the "accuracy" per se, but the reliability and consistency of your measurements so you can track your progress. Skinfold calipers in general are not accurate or inaccurate, it's the person doing the test that is accurate or inaccurate.
Suggestion 3: If you have a spouse, roommate, or friend who can measure your body fat, you can purchase a Slim Guide body fat caliper (or just about any brand of caliper) from Creative Health Products: chponline.com
The Slimguide is the best inexpensive caliper available (about $20), but it wasn't designed for you to measure your own body fat like the Accu Measure. You'll need someone to measure you with this caliper. Other models of body fat calipers (if you want to splurge), range from $150 to $450. (At our health clubs, I use the electronic "SKYNDEX" caliper with the 4-site "Durnin formula.")
The calipers come with instructions, or you can use these formulas, which I have used and found to be very accurate:
4 Site formula for men (abdomen, suprailiac, thigh, tricep)
% fat = .29288(sum of 4 skinfolds) - 0.0005(sum of four skinfolds squared) + 0.15845(age) - 5.76377
4-Site Formula for women (abdomen, suprailiac, thigh, tricep)
% Fat = (.29669)(sum of 4 skinfolds) - (.00043)(Sum of four skinfolds squared) + .02963(age) + 1.4072
[Source: Jackson A S, Pollock, M (1985) Practical assessment of body composition. Physician Sport Med. 13: 76-90.]
Body fat percentages vary based on age and gender, but 20-25% body fat is average for women (15-19% is ideal), while 15-20% is average for men (10-14% is ideal). I have detailed charts for body fat charts in my e-book if you're interested.
Once you know your body fat percentage, then weigh yourself and record your weight and body fat on a progress chart such as the one found in my Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle Program (a fat loss program, not a weight loss program). This chart is how you will track your progress and "keep score."
You can calculate your lean body mass (muscle and other fat free tissue) very easily just by crunching some numbers:
For example, if you weigh 200 pounds and you have 10% body fat then you have 20 pounds of fat (10% of 200 = 20). That means you have a lean body mass (LBM) of 180 pounds.
Now we're talking! With this data, you can get a really clear picture of how your exercise and nutrition program are affecting your physique.
Losing weight is very easy. Losing fat - and keeping it off without losing muscle - is a much bigger challenge. If you simply wanted to lose weight, we could just chop off your leg.
Or, (slightly less painful), I could show you how to drop 10 - 15 pounds over the weekend just by dehydrating yourself and using natural herbal diuretics. Wrestlers do it all the time to make a weight class. But what good would that do if it’s almost all water and you’re just going to gain it all back within days?
You don't have to "throw away your scale" like many "experts" tell you to. By all means, keep using the scale, the tape measure and even photographs and the mirror - the more feedback the better - but body fat is where it's at.
By the way, I recently bought a chain saw and a shiny new axe from Home Depot, and I've been practicing my "American Psycho" and Jack Nicholson, "The Shining" impersonations... so if you want to come to my office any time soon for personal consultation, you'd better have the right answer to my question, "What do you want?"
For more information about a nutrition and training program that focuses exclusively on FAT LOSS, not WEIGHT LOSS, visit: www.burnthefat.com
About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal trainer (CPT), certified strength & conditioning specialist (CSCS), and author of the #1 best-selling e-book, "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle.” Tom has written hundreds of articles and been featured in IRONMAN, Australian IRONMAN, Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development, Exercise for Men and Men’s Exercise, as well as on dozens of websites worldwide. For information on Tom's Fat Loss program, visit: www.burnthefat.com
Don't Be A Big Loser -
Don't Be A Big Loser - Why You Should Say No To Quick Weight Loss
By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.burnthefat.com
Patience. It’s 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! And why not? It seems so do-able. Everywhere you look, you read and hear promises of quick weight loss and you even see people losing weight quickly. We have reality TV shows that actually encourage people to attempt “extreme” body makeovers or see who can lose weight the fastest, and the winners (or shall we say, the losers), are rewarded generously with fortune, fame and congratulations.
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. However, you must become aware of some serious problems that can occur if you try to force it and lose weight too quickly. The faster you lose weight, the more muscle you will lose with the fat, and that can really mess up your metabolism. An even bigger problem with fast weight loss is that the loss just won’t last. The faster you lose, the more likely you are to gain it back. Think about it: We don’t have a weight loss problem today, we have a “keeping the weight off” problem.
Weight loss will be the healthiest, safest and most likely to be permanent if you set your goal for about two pounds per week (and even if you lose only a single pound each week, that is healthy progress). This is the recommendation of almost every legitimate and respected dietician, nutritionist, exercise physiologist and personal trainer, as well as exercise organizations such as the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Dietetic Association.
Are there any exceptions to this rule? Is it ever okay to lose more than two pounds per week? The answer is yes. It may be ok to lose slightly more than two pounds per week if you have a lot of weight to lose because the rate of weight loss tends to be relative to your total starting body weight. Generally the rule is that it’s safe to lose up to 1% of your total body weight per week, so if you weigh 300 lbs to start, then 3 lbs a week is a reasonable goal.
But there IS a catch.
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. What you really want is fat loss, not weight loss. If you only wanted weight loss, I could show you an easy way to lose 20 or 25 pounds in about 5 minutes. Just come over to my house. I have a really sharp hacksaw in my garage, and we’ll just slice off one of your legs, after all it’s just extra “weight” right?
Let’s look at an example with some numbers so you can really grasp this concept of weight versus fat and then you can see, clearly illustrated, what will happen when you lose weight too quickly (because I know you probably don’t believe me and you STILL want to lose weight as fast as possible… read on and it will all become clear to you).
As an example, let’s take a 260 pound man who has a lot of body fat to lose - let’s call it 32%. With 32% fat, a 260 pounder has 83.2 pounds of body fat and 176.8 pounds of lean mass. Using this example, let’s look at a few possible scenarios with losses ranging from two to four pounds per week.
Weight Loss Scenario 1:
Suppose our 260 pound subject loses four full pounds instead of the recommended two pounds per week. Is this bad? Well, let’s see:
If he loses a half a percent of body fat, here are his body composition results:
256 lbs
31.5% body fat
80.6 lbs fat
175.4 lbs lean body mass
Out of the four pounds lost, 2.8 pounds were fat and 1.2 were lean mass. Not a disaster, but not good either. Thirty percent of the weight lost was lean tissue.
Weight Loss Scenario 2:
If he loses a half a percent of body fat and only three pounds, here are his results:
257 lbs
31.5% body fat
80.9 lbs fat
176.1 lbs lean body mass
These results are better. Although he lost less body weight than scenario one, in this instance, 2.3 pounds of fat and only 0.7 lbs of lean mass were lost.
Weight Loss Scenario 3:
What if he only lost two pounds? Here are the results:
258 lbs
31.5% body fat
81.2 lbs fat
176.8 lbs lean body mass
These results are perfect. Even though our subject has only lost two pounds, which seems slow, 100% of the two pound weight loss came from fat.
Weight Loss Scenario 4:
Now let’s suppose he loses three pounds but he loses more body fat: .8%
257 lbs
31.2% body fat
80.2 lbs fat
176.8 lbs lean body mass
These are the best results of all. When the weekly fat loss is .8%, 100% of the three pounds lost is fat.
So the answer to the question is yes - it’s safe to lose more than two pounds per week… but only if the weight is all fat or at least mostly fat with minimal lean mass losses.
If you take example one – with thirty percent lean tissue loss and compound that over a few months, you’re talking about a massive muscle tissue loss which can dramatically slow down your metabolism and turn you into nothing more than a “skinny fat person” (a person with low body weight because they lost so much muscle, but still holding stubborn body fat because they shut down their metabolism).
One thing you should know is that water weight losses sometimes distort the numbers, especially when you first begin a new nutrition and training program. 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. Just remember, its NOT all fat - WATER LOSS IS NOT FAT LOSS!
The best advice I can give you is to focus on losing fat, not losing weight. If you lose three to five pounds per week, and you know it’s all fat, and not lean tissue, then more power to you!
Of course the only way to know this 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 a water (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 1.5 - 2.0 lbs of weight per week without losing some muscle along with it. If you exceed 2.0 to 3.0 pounds per week, the probability of losing muscle is extremely high. If you lose muscle, you are damaging your metabolism and this will lead to a plateau and ultimately to relapse.
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 you want to keep the fat off for good, then you have to take off the pounds slowly.
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.
The rapid weight loss being promoted today by the media for the sake of ratings and by the weight loss companies for the sake of profits makes it even harder for those of us who are 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, folks… foolish. There are hundreds of ways to lose weight quickly, but only one way to lose fat and keep it off in the long term.
Do it the right way. Take off the pounds slowly, steadily and sensibly with an intelligent nutrition and exercise program, 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. No more yo-yoing.
If you’re interested in the healthy, sensible way to take off the fat, while keeping all your muscle and actually increasing your metabolism in the process, then my Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle program can teach you how. No gimmicks or false promises. Just the truth - you have to work at it and you have to be patient. For more information, www.burnthefat.com
About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal trainer (CPT), certified strength & conditioning specialist (CSCS), and author of the #1 best-selling e-book, "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle.” Tom has written hundreds of articles and been featured in IRONMAN, Australian IRONMAN, Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development, Exercise for Men and Men’s Exercise, as well as on dozens of websites worldwide. For information on Tom's Fat Loss program, visit: www.burnthefat.com
By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.burnthefat.com
Patience. It’s 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! And why not? It seems so do-able. Everywhere you look, you read and hear promises of quick weight loss and you even see people losing weight quickly. We have reality TV shows that actually encourage people to attempt “extreme” body makeovers or see who can lose weight the fastest, and the winners (or shall we say, the losers), are rewarded generously with fortune, fame and congratulations.
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. However, you must become aware of some serious problems that can occur if you try to force it and lose weight too quickly. The faster you lose weight, the more muscle you will lose with the fat, and that can really mess up your metabolism. An even bigger problem with fast weight loss is that the loss just won’t last. The faster you lose, the more likely you are to gain it back. Think about it: We don’t have a weight loss problem today, we have a “keeping the weight off” problem.
Weight loss will be the healthiest, safest and most likely to be permanent if you set your goal for about two pounds per week (and even if you lose only a single pound each week, that is healthy progress). This is the recommendation of almost every legitimate and respected dietician, nutritionist, exercise physiologist and personal trainer, as well as exercise organizations such as the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Dietetic Association.
Are there any exceptions to this rule? Is it ever okay to lose more than two pounds per week? The answer is yes. It may be ok to lose slightly more than two pounds per week if you have a lot of weight to lose because the rate of weight loss tends to be relative to your total starting body weight. Generally the rule is that it’s safe to lose up to 1% of your total body weight per week, so if you weigh 300 lbs to start, then 3 lbs a week is a reasonable goal.
But there IS a catch.
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. What you really want is fat loss, not weight loss. If you only wanted weight loss, I could show you an easy way to lose 20 or 25 pounds in about 5 minutes. Just come over to my house. I have a really sharp hacksaw in my garage, and we’ll just slice off one of your legs, after all it’s just extra “weight” right?
Let’s look at an example with some numbers so you can really grasp this concept of weight versus fat and then you can see, clearly illustrated, what will happen when you lose weight too quickly (because I know you probably don’t believe me and you STILL want to lose weight as fast as possible… read on and it will all become clear to you).
As an example, let’s take a 260 pound man who has a lot of body fat to lose - let’s call it 32%. With 32% fat, a 260 pounder has 83.2 pounds of body fat and 176.8 pounds of lean mass. Using this example, let’s look at a few possible scenarios with losses ranging from two to four pounds per week.
Weight Loss Scenario 1:
Suppose our 260 pound subject loses four full pounds instead of the recommended two pounds per week. Is this bad? Well, let’s see:
If he loses a half a percent of body fat, here are his body composition results:
256 lbs
31.5% body fat
80.6 lbs fat
175.4 lbs lean body mass
Out of the four pounds lost, 2.8 pounds were fat and 1.2 were lean mass. Not a disaster, but not good either. Thirty percent of the weight lost was lean tissue.
Weight Loss Scenario 2:
If he loses a half a percent of body fat and only three pounds, here are his results:
257 lbs
31.5% body fat
80.9 lbs fat
176.1 lbs lean body mass
These results are better. Although he lost less body weight than scenario one, in this instance, 2.3 pounds of fat and only 0.7 lbs of lean mass were lost.
Weight Loss Scenario 3:
What if he only lost two pounds? Here are the results:
258 lbs
31.5% body fat
81.2 lbs fat
176.8 lbs lean body mass
These results are perfect. Even though our subject has only lost two pounds, which seems slow, 100% of the two pound weight loss came from fat.
Weight Loss Scenario 4:
Now let’s suppose he loses three pounds but he loses more body fat: .8%
257 lbs
31.2% body fat
80.2 lbs fat
176.8 lbs lean body mass
These are the best results of all. When the weekly fat loss is .8%, 100% of the three pounds lost is fat.
So the answer to the question is yes - it’s safe to lose more than two pounds per week… but only if the weight is all fat or at least mostly fat with minimal lean mass losses.
If you take example one – with thirty percent lean tissue loss and compound that over a few months, you’re talking about a massive muscle tissue loss which can dramatically slow down your metabolism and turn you into nothing more than a “skinny fat person” (a person with low body weight because they lost so much muscle, but still holding stubborn body fat because they shut down their metabolism).
One thing you should know is that water weight losses sometimes distort the numbers, especially when you first begin a new nutrition and training program. 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. Just remember, its NOT all fat - WATER LOSS IS NOT FAT LOSS!
The best advice I can give you is to focus on losing fat, not losing weight. If you lose three to five pounds per week, and you know it’s all fat, and not lean tissue, then more power to you!
Of course the only way to know this 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 a water (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 1.5 - 2.0 lbs of weight per week without losing some muscle along with it. If you exceed 2.0 to 3.0 pounds per week, the probability of losing muscle is extremely high. If you lose muscle, you are damaging your metabolism and this will lead to a plateau and ultimately to relapse.
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 you want to keep the fat off for good, then you have to take off the pounds slowly.
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.
The rapid weight loss being promoted today by the media for the sake of ratings and by the weight loss companies for the sake of profits makes it even harder for those of us who are 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, folks… foolish. There are hundreds of ways to lose weight quickly, but only one way to lose fat and keep it off in the long term.
Do it the right way. Take off the pounds slowly, steadily and sensibly with an intelligent nutrition and exercise program, 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. No more yo-yoing.
If you’re interested in the healthy, sensible way to take off the fat, while keeping all your muscle and actually increasing your metabolism in the process, then my Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle program can teach you how. No gimmicks or false promises. Just the truth - you have to work at it and you have to be patient. For more information, www.burnthefat.com
About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal trainer (CPT), certified strength & conditioning specialist (CSCS), and author of the #1 best-selling e-book, "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle.” Tom has written hundreds of articles and been featured in IRONMAN, Australian IRONMAN, Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development, Exercise for Men and Men’s Exercise, as well as on dozens of websites worldwide. For information on Tom's Fat Loss program, visit: www.burnthefat.com
The Top Bonehead Workout Mistakes
The Top 10 Bonehead Workout Mistakes
By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.burnthefat.com
“Common workout mistakes” has always been a very popular topic in fitness publications. But no matter how many times this subject is re-hashed, you almost always hear about the same half a dozen or so mistakes, including poor form, overtraining, going too heavy, not stretching, not warming up, yadda, yadda yadda. Ironically, you seldom hear about the biggest mistakes of all. I call these humongous bloopers “bonehead mistakes” because once you start to analyze and think about them, they’re really just common sense and they all seem so obvious… except of course to the person doing it… who is often quite oblivious until someone else points it out to them... then the light goes on and it's like... "Doh!"
Before I begin the countdown, (in no particular order), there’s one more gripe I have about the treatment this subject has been given in the past: Most of the attention has been put on the mistakes, but very little on the solutions. It’s all too easy to point fingers and say, “Don’t do that” and “Shame on you, dummy” but only 1% of your time should be spent on problems. 99% should be spent on solutions. So in that spirit, after I bring each mistake to your attention, I’ll give you a solution-oriented training tip to help you avoid boneheadedness and join the elite group who “kick butt” in the gym at every workout…
Bonehead workout mistake #1: "Winging it"
“Winging it” means having no written goals or plans, no training journal and no way of “keeping score.” It’s when you just show up at the gym day after day and do whatever strikes your fancy, whatever machine happens to be available, or whatever you’ve become habitually accustomed to doing. Winging it is when you don’t know where you are, where you’re going or how you’re going to get there - but you start your journey anyway – no compass, no roadmap. It’s been said that “Action without planning is the biggest cause of failure,” and I believe that statement is 100% accurate.
Kick butt workout tip #1: Develop a strategic plan
Successful people never “wing it,” they always have a plan. Strategic planning is a never ending process and includes: Assessment (where am I now?), goal setting (where do I want to go?), creating a plan or strategy (How will I get where I want to go?), executing the plan (what action steps must I take daily to reach my goal?), and measuring results (how will I know if I’m moving towards my goal and how will I know when I’ve reached it?). Boneheads “wing it.” Butt–kickers have a master plan and goals for every workout.
- - - - -
Bonehead workout mistake #2: Repeating the same workouts… without progressive overload
In one respect, repeating the same workouts is important – it’s called “continuity.” Continuity means that to experience an adaptive response (more muscle, more strength, less fat and all that other good stuff), you must a repeat a certain modality or exercise consistently over a long enough period of time to allow the adaptive response to occur and to reap the full benefits (rather than changing exercises at every workout). That type of repetition is good. The bonehead mistake is when you do the same exercises, same reps, same weight, same everything, week after week, without ever challenging yourself to do more than you’ve done before. If your muscles could talk they would say, “Yawn…. Did that, done that, been there… we’re just going to stay exactly the way we are… no need to get bigger or stronger today.”
Kick butt workout tip #2: Strive to beat your previous workouts
Muscle growth and strength increases occur when you place demands on your body above and beyond what it has experienced in the past. Your body responds to this progressive overload by getting stronger in order to handle this type of demand in the future. Your objective at almost every workout is to set goals to beat what you did during the previous one. If you can’t add more weight, it could be as simple as one more rep with the same weight or the same sets/reps/weight in less time. It could also mean one more minute of cardio, one level higher on a stairclimber, or half a percent steeper incline on the treadmill. Continuous and never-ending improvement is the name of the game.
- - - - -
Bonehead workout mistake #3: Starving yourself
A calorie deficit is the only way to lose body fat. However, the caloric deficit must be kept small. When calories are cut too much, or held too low for too long, your body thinks you are starving and sets into motion a series of metabolic and hormonal events, which ultimately result in muscle loss, slow metabolism and plateaus. Your body is like a power plant or furnace and when you don’t feed the fire, your metabolic flame dwindles to a flicker, producing less heat and less energy. That’s why not eating enough is one of the biggest mistakes of all.
Kick butt workout tip #3: Eat more, burn more
Did it ever occur to you that if you exercise more you can eat more and that this is a more effective fat loss strategy than eating less and exercising less? To lose body fat, you must create a calorie deficit. A deficit can be created by exercising more, eating less, or ideally, with a combination of both. The best combination of all is a small decrease in calories accompanied by a large increase in activity. Think about it: Decreasing calories slows your metabolism. Increasing calories increases your metabolism. Exercise increases your metabolism.
Therefore, eat more, exercise more = double increase in metabolism. Eat less, don’t exercise = double decrease in metabolism. This is the entire premise of my Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle System and that’s why the program is so powerful and has helped tens of thousands of people lose fat without depriving themselves. Yes, starving is for boneheads.
- - - - -
Bonehead workout mistake #4: Skipping scheduled workouts
A great body doesn’t happen overnight. Successful body transformation is the cumulative result of dozens or even hundreds of successful workouts. Each workout brings you one small step closer to your goal. Each workout missed takes you one small step backwards. Most people underestimate the cumulative effect of each small step. They figure that “It just doesn’t matter… it’s only one workout.” If you don’t think that one little workout matters, then think about the humble termite; they’re such itty bitty little creatures and they take such itty bitty little bites, yet when enough little bites are taken, an entire building can come crumbling down.
Kick butt workout tip #4: Be disciplined and consistent
Not only do you slip backwards physically when you skip even one scheduled workout, perhaps more devastating is the effect on your mind and character. Every time you successfully complete a scheduled workout, you build your discipline and self esteem. When your self esteem increases, it makes you feel good and that stimulates a positive self-reinforcing cycle of even more discipline, confidence and action. Everything you do helps or hurts. Every workout counts. Treat your word as law. When you say you’re going to work out... WORK OUT!
- - - - -
Bonehead workout mistake #5: Focusing on strengths, favorite exercises and favorite body parts, neglecting weaknesses
Most people have a favorite body part or exercise. But playing favorites in your training can lead to big problems. An unbalanced, asymmetrical physique is one of them, but having a great upper body with toothpick legs is the least of your worries. Strengthening and stretching some muscle groups but not others is a great way to cause poor posture, muscular imbalance, dysfunction, strains, pulls, tears or ruptures.
Kick butt workout tip #5: Train for functional balance and aesthetic balance
Non-boneheads train every muscle group for symmetrical, visually pleasing development. However, “balance” is more than cosmetic. Everyone – athletes, bodybuilders, and recreational exercisers – must also train for functional balance to prevent injury and maintain optimal function and range of movement in every joint and muscle group. Every plane of movement and angle of movement must be trained. Flexors must be balanced with extensors. Front to back movements must be balanced with rotational and side to side movements. Prime movers, antagonists and stabilizers must all be strengthened. Always stretch, strengthen and build to the point of total body balance.
- - - - -
Bonehead workout mistake #6: Using mostly machines and single joint/isolation exercises
So you joined the gym and you hit “the circuit”… you know, that section in the gym with all those fancy, chrome-plated, “technologically advanced” weight stack-pulley, hydraulic or computerized machines all lined up in neat rows… far, far away from the barbells and squat racks (which you never touch), and which is designed to give you an “easy, safe, injury-free, effective full-body workout.” The machines may be easy, but most machines aren’t as safe or effective as they’re made out to be.
Kick butt workout tip #6: Use mostly free weights and compound, multi joint exercises
For lower body, squat and lunge variations are tops. For upper body, barbell and dumbbell presses, chin ups and rows are king. These and similar “BIG” exercises stimulate more muscle fiber, stir up more fat burning and muscle building hormones, and have more carry-over to real world and sporting activities than machines. Although weight stack machines are safe with respect to the fact that you can’t drop a barbell on your head, they’re ultimately NOT as safe as free weights because they don’t develop the stabilizing muscles and functional strength that protect you from injury. A few machines and isolation exercises mixed into a balancedr program is fine, especially if you have bodybuilding goals, but focusing on compound and free weight exercises gives you far more bang for your buck than any machine ever created.
- - - - -
Bonehead workout mistake #7: No mental preparation
This mistake goes hand in hand with mistake number one (winging it). You see, preparation is more than setting goals, writing out plans, and scheduling workouts. Preparation is also mental, yet most people haven’t the slightest idea just how powerful the mind is or how to harness its power. Psychologists and “brain scientists” have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the subconscious mind cannot tell the difference between an experience that is real and one that is imagined. Failure to take advantage of this discovery is a mistake of enormous magnitude.
Kick butt workout tip #7: Use visualization and mental rehearsal daily
Arnold Schwarzenneger, Jack Nicklaus, Andre Agassi and countless other sports legends have written and spoken extensively about their regular use of mental imagery. Those who succeeded, but claimed not to use such techniques as “visualization” were surely using it unconsciously or in a non-formalized manner. I would suggest you consciously and deliberately use this technique in the following manner: Twice a day, once in the morning and once at night, get relaxed, close your eyes and form mental images of yourself having the body you’ve always wanted, completing perfect workouts with motivation and enthusiasm and reaching all your goals. These images will penetrate your subconscious mind and literally program your brain to activate your body for total success.
- - - - -
Bonehead workout mistake #8: Not eating immediately after training
Not eating anything after your workout (or waiting 2-3 hours to eat), because (a) you don’t feel like eating, (b) you don’t have anything to eat with you, (c) you heard that you get leaner if you don’t eat after your workout… is one of the most boneheaded things you can ever do!
Kick butt workout tip #8: Eat protein AND carbs (not just carbs) immediately after your workout
Much research has been done on the topic of post workout nutrition in recent years and the scientific literature is almost unanimous in its findings: At one time carbohydrates were emphasized after a workout. Other people insisted that protein is more important. The truth is, the optimal post workout meal includes quickly digesting protein and carbohydrates and is consumed immediately after training during the period known as the “post-workout window of opportunity.” Although the ideal amount and type of protein and carbs is still debated, the studies have shown that proper post workout nutrition increases protein synthesis, suppresses cortisol, replenishes glycogen, and enhances recovery.
- - - - -
Bonehead workout mistake #9: Comparing yourself to others
Always trying to one-up the next guy is bonehead behavior. Comparing yourself to others is a great way to lower your self esteem and stay perpetually frustrated, unhappy and dissatisfied!
Kick butt workout tip #9: Compare yourself to nobody but yourself
Legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden always advised his players, “Never try to be better than someone else; but never cease trying to be the best you can be. That is under your control. The other isn’t.” So why not focus on competing with yourself? Compare yourself to yourself. Improve yourself. Work on progress and forward movement. Become better than you used to be. Ultimately, competitive sports are most valuable to the degree you use them to better yourself, not to beat others.
- - - - -
Bonehead workout mistake #10: Making excuses
Many people, when they don’t get the result they want, or when things don’t go the way they expect, insist it’s not their fault. When they don’t lose any body fat, it’s their genetics or "The diet just doesn’t work!” When they fall off the wagon, it’s their friends and family’s fault – “They just don’t support me… they even tempt me with junk food and eat in front of me.” When they miss workouts, it’s their boss’s fault – “I just don’t have time with so much work being piled on me at the office.” No matter what the situation, the boneheads never even consider that the problem is staring right back at them in the mirror – someone or something outside of them is always responsible.
Kick butt workout tip #10: Accept total, 100% responsibility for all your results – good or bad
When you win, you don’t attribute it to luck or give someone else the credit for it. You proudly say, “I created it… I did it… that was me!” However, if you want to take the credit for your wins, you must also take credit for your losses and say, “Yep, I created it… I did it… that was me!” Boneheads want to take credit for their successes but not accept responsibility for their failures. Ultimately, that turns them into nothing but big losers. Winners and successful people became successful because they learned three magic words: I AM RESPONSIBLE. Once you claim responsibility for every result in your life – the good and the bad - the feeling of empowerment and liberation that comes over you is beyond description. For the first time in your life, you realize that YOU are in control. From that moment on – and not a second sooner – you become the creator of circumstance rather than a victim of it.
- - - - -
Well, that’s all ten of em'. Let me wrap up with what is perhaps the biggest mistake of all, and that is: Not learning from your mistakes. Mistakes are okay. The only people who don’t make any are the timid, wimpy people who don’t even attempt anything. If you realize you’ve been making a lot of these mistakes, don’t beat yourself up. As long as you learn from them and then stop making them, you’re off the hook! But if you keep repeating these mistakes over and over again, then it’s official: You’re a bonehead!
If you enjoyed this article and you're interested in learning how to quickly and easily lose fat permanently - without drugs, supplements or fad diets - AND without making any bonehead mistakes - click here to visit my BURN THE FAT website: www.burnthefat.com
About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal trainer (CPT), certified strength & conditioning specialist (CSCS), and author of the #1 best-selling e-book, "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle.” Tom has written more than 200 articles and has been featured in print magazines such as IRONMAN, Australian IRONMAN, Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development, Exercise for Men and Men’s Exercise, as well as on hundreds of websites worldwide. For information on Tom's Fat Loss program, visit: www.burnthefat.com
By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.burnthefat.com
“Common workout mistakes” has always been a very popular topic in fitness publications. But no matter how many times this subject is re-hashed, you almost always hear about the same half a dozen or so mistakes, including poor form, overtraining, going too heavy, not stretching, not warming up, yadda, yadda yadda. Ironically, you seldom hear about the biggest mistakes of all. I call these humongous bloopers “bonehead mistakes” because once you start to analyze and think about them, they’re really just common sense and they all seem so obvious… except of course to the person doing it… who is often quite oblivious until someone else points it out to them... then the light goes on and it's like... "Doh!"
Before I begin the countdown, (in no particular order), there’s one more gripe I have about the treatment this subject has been given in the past: Most of the attention has been put on the mistakes, but very little on the solutions. It’s all too easy to point fingers and say, “Don’t do that” and “Shame on you, dummy” but only 1% of your time should be spent on problems. 99% should be spent on solutions. So in that spirit, after I bring each mistake to your attention, I’ll give you a solution-oriented training tip to help you avoid boneheadedness and join the elite group who “kick butt” in the gym at every workout…
Bonehead workout mistake #1: "Winging it"
“Winging it” means having no written goals or plans, no training journal and no way of “keeping score.” It’s when you just show up at the gym day after day and do whatever strikes your fancy, whatever machine happens to be available, or whatever you’ve become habitually accustomed to doing. Winging it is when you don’t know where you are, where you’re going or how you’re going to get there - but you start your journey anyway – no compass, no roadmap. It’s been said that “Action without planning is the biggest cause of failure,” and I believe that statement is 100% accurate.
Kick butt workout tip #1: Develop a strategic plan
Successful people never “wing it,” they always have a plan. Strategic planning is a never ending process and includes: Assessment (where am I now?), goal setting (where do I want to go?), creating a plan or strategy (How will I get where I want to go?), executing the plan (what action steps must I take daily to reach my goal?), and measuring results (how will I know if I’m moving towards my goal and how will I know when I’ve reached it?). Boneheads “wing it.” Butt–kickers have a master plan and goals for every workout.
- - - - -
Bonehead workout mistake #2: Repeating the same workouts… without progressive overload
In one respect, repeating the same workouts is important – it’s called “continuity.” Continuity means that to experience an adaptive response (more muscle, more strength, less fat and all that other good stuff), you must a repeat a certain modality or exercise consistently over a long enough period of time to allow the adaptive response to occur and to reap the full benefits (rather than changing exercises at every workout). That type of repetition is good. The bonehead mistake is when you do the same exercises, same reps, same weight, same everything, week after week, without ever challenging yourself to do more than you’ve done before. If your muscles could talk they would say, “Yawn…. Did that, done that, been there… we’re just going to stay exactly the way we are… no need to get bigger or stronger today.”
Kick butt workout tip #2: Strive to beat your previous workouts
Muscle growth and strength increases occur when you place demands on your body above and beyond what it has experienced in the past. Your body responds to this progressive overload by getting stronger in order to handle this type of demand in the future. Your objective at almost every workout is to set goals to beat what you did during the previous one. If you can’t add more weight, it could be as simple as one more rep with the same weight or the same sets/reps/weight in less time. It could also mean one more minute of cardio, one level higher on a stairclimber, or half a percent steeper incline on the treadmill. Continuous and never-ending improvement is the name of the game.
- - - - -
Bonehead workout mistake #3: Starving yourself
A calorie deficit is the only way to lose body fat. However, the caloric deficit must be kept small. When calories are cut too much, or held too low for too long, your body thinks you are starving and sets into motion a series of metabolic and hormonal events, which ultimately result in muscle loss, slow metabolism and plateaus. Your body is like a power plant or furnace and when you don’t feed the fire, your metabolic flame dwindles to a flicker, producing less heat and less energy. That’s why not eating enough is one of the biggest mistakes of all.
Kick butt workout tip #3: Eat more, burn more
Did it ever occur to you that if you exercise more you can eat more and that this is a more effective fat loss strategy than eating less and exercising less? To lose body fat, you must create a calorie deficit. A deficit can be created by exercising more, eating less, or ideally, with a combination of both. The best combination of all is a small decrease in calories accompanied by a large increase in activity. Think about it: Decreasing calories slows your metabolism. Increasing calories increases your metabolism. Exercise increases your metabolism.
Therefore, eat more, exercise more = double increase in metabolism. Eat less, don’t exercise = double decrease in metabolism. This is the entire premise of my Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle System and that’s why the program is so powerful and has helped tens of thousands of people lose fat without depriving themselves. Yes, starving is for boneheads.
- - - - -
Bonehead workout mistake #4: Skipping scheduled workouts
A great body doesn’t happen overnight. Successful body transformation is the cumulative result of dozens or even hundreds of successful workouts. Each workout brings you one small step closer to your goal. Each workout missed takes you one small step backwards. Most people underestimate the cumulative effect of each small step. They figure that “It just doesn’t matter… it’s only one workout.” If you don’t think that one little workout matters, then think about the humble termite; they’re such itty bitty little creatures and they take such itty bitty little bites, yet when enough little bites are taken, an entire building can come crumbling down.
Kick butt workout tip #4: Be disciplined and consistent
Not only do you slip backwards physically when you skip even one scheduled workout, perhaps more devastating is the effect on your mind and character. Every time you successfully complete a scheduled workout, you build your discipline and self esteem. When your self esteem increases, it makes you feel good and that stimulates a positive self-reinforcing cycle of even more discipline, confidence and action. Everything you do helps or hurts. Every workout counts. Treat your word as law. When you say you’re going to work out... WORK OUT!
- - - - -
Bonehead workout mistake #5: Focusing on strengths, favorite exercises and favorite body parts, neglecting weaknesses
Most people have a favorite body part or exercise. But playing favorites in your training can lead to big problems. An unbalanced, asymmetrical physique is one of them, but having a great upper body with toothpick legs is the least of your worries. Strengthening and stretching some muscle groups but not others is a great way to cause poor posture, muscular imbalance, dysfunction, strains, pulls, tears or ruptures.
Kick butt workout tip #5: Train for functional balance and aesthetic balance
Non-boneheads train every muscle group for symmetrical, visually pleasing development. However, “balance” is more than cosmetic. Everyone – athletes, bodybuilders, and recreational exercisers – must also train for functional balance to prevent injury and maintain optimal function and range of movement in every joint and muscle group. Every plane of movement and angle of movement must be trained. Flexors must be balanced with extensors. Front to back movements must be balanced with rotational and side to side movements. Prime movers, antagonists and stabilizers must all be strengthened. Always stretch, strengthen and build to the point of total body balance.
- - - - -
Bonehead workout mistake #6: Using mostly machines and single joint/isolation exercises
So you joined the gym and you hit “the circuit”… you know, that section in the gym with all those fancy, chrome-plated, “technologically advanced” weight stack-pulley, hydraulic or computerized machines all lined up in neat rows… far, far away from the barbells and squat racks (which you never touch), and which is designed to give you an “easy, safe, injury-free, effective full-body workout.” The machines may be easy, but most machines aren’t as safe or effective as they’re made out to be.
Kick butt workout tip #6: Use mostly free weights and compound, multi joint exercises
For lower body, squat and lunge variations are tops. For upper body, barbell and dumbbell presses, chin ups and rows are king. These and similar “BIG” exercises stimulate more muscle fiber, stir up more fat burning and muscle building hormones, and have more carry-over to real world and sporting activities than machines. Although weight stack machines are safe with respect to the fact that you can’t drop a barbell on your head, they’re ultimately NOT as safe as free weights because they don’t develop the stabilizing muscles and functional strength that protect you from injury. A few machines and isolation exercises mixed into a balancedr program is fine, especially if you have bodybuilding goals, but focusing on compound and free weight exercises gives you far more bang for your buck than any machine ever created.
- - - - -
Bonehead workout mistake #7: No mental preparation
This mistake goes hand in hand with mistake number one (winging it). You see, preparation is more than setting goals, writing out plans, and scheduling workouts. Preparation is also mental, yet most people haven’t the slightest idea just how powerful the mind is or how to harness its power. Psychologists and “brain scientists” have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the subconscious mind cannot tell the difference between an experience that is real and one that is imagined. Failure to take advantage of this discovery is a mistake of enormous magnitude.
Kick butt workout tip #7: Use visualization and mental rehearsal daily
Arnold Schwarzenneger, Jack Nicklaus, Andre Agassi and countless other sports legends have written and spoken extensively about their regular use of mental imagery. Those who succeeded, but claimed not to use such techniques as “visualization” were surely using it unconsciously or in a non-formalized manner. I would suggest you consciously and deliberately use this technique in the following manner: Twice a day, once in the morning and once at night, get relaxed, close your eyes and form mental images of yourself having the body you’ve always wanted, completing perfect workouts with motivation and enthusiasm and reaching all your goals. These images will penetrate your subconscious mind and literally program your brain to activate your body for total success.
- - - - -
Bonehead workout mistake #8: Not eating immediately after training
Not eating anything after your workout (or waiting 2-3 hours to eat), because (a) you don’t feel like eating, (b) you don’t have anything to eat with you, (c) you heard that you get leaner if you don’t eat after your workout… is one of the most boneheaded things you can ever do!
Kick butt workout tip #8: Eat protein AND carbs (not just carbs) immediately after your workout
Much research has been done on the topic of post workout nutrition in recent years and the scientific literature is almost unanimous in its findings: At one time carbohydrates were emphasized after a workout. Other people insisted that protein is more important. The truth is, the optimal post workout meal includes quickly digesting protein and carbohydrates and is consumed immediately after training during the period known as the “post-workout window of opportunity.” Although the ideal amount and type of protein and carbs is still debated, the studies have shown that proper post workout nutrition increases protein synthesis, suppresses cortisol, replenishes glycogen, and enhances recovery.
- - - - -
Bonehead workout mistake #9: Comparing yourself to others
Always trying to one-up the next guy is bonehead behavior. Comparing yourself to others is a great way to lower your self esteem and stay perpetually frustrated, unhappy and dissatisfied!
Kick butt workout tip #9: Compare yourself to nobody but yourself
Legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden always advised his players, “Never try to be better than someone else; but never cease trying to be the best you can be. That is under your control. The other isn’t.” So why not focus on competing with yourself? Compare yourself to yourself. Improve yourself. Work on progress and forward movement. Become better than you used to be. Ultimately, competitive sports are most valuable to the degree you use them to better yourself, not to beat others.
- - - - -
Bonehead workout mistake #10: Making excuses
Many people, when they don’t get the result they want, or when things don’t go the way they expect, insist it’s not their fault. When they don’t lose any body fat, it’s their genetics or "The diet just doesn’t work!” When they fall off the wagon, it’s their friends and family’s fault – “They just don’t support me… they even tempt me with junk food and eat in front of me.” When they miss workouts, it’s their boss’s fault – “I just don’t have time with so much work being piled on me at the office.” No matter what the situation, the boneheads never even consider that the problem is staring right back at them in the mirror – someone or something outside of them is always responsible.
Kick butt workout tip #10: Accept total, 100% responsibility for all your results – good or bad
When you win, you don’t attribute it to luck or give someone else the credit for it. You proudly say, “I created it… I did it… that was me!” However, if you want to take the credit for your wins, you must also take credit for your losses and say, “Yep, I created it… I did it… that was me!” Boneheads want to take credit for their successes but not accept responsibility for their failures. Ultimately, that turns them into nothing but big losers. Winners and successful people became successful because they learned three magic words: I AM RESPONSIBLE. Once you claim responsibility for every result in your life – the good and the bad - the feeling of empowerment and liberation that comes over you is beyond description. For the first time in your life, you realize that YOU are in control. From that moment on – and not a second sooner – you become the creator of circumstance rather than a victim of it.
- - - - -
Well, that’s all ten of em'. Let me wrap up with what is perhaps the biggest mistake of all, and that is: Not learning from your mistakes. Mistakes are okay. The only people who don’t make any are the timid, wimpy people who don’t even attempt anything. If you realize you’ve been making a lot of these mistakes, don’t beat yourself up. As long as you learn from them and then stop making them, you’re off the hook! But if you keep repeating these mistakes over and over again, then it’s official: You’re a bonehead!
If you enjoyed this article and you're interested in learning how to quickly and easily lose fat permanently - without drugs, supplements or fad diets - AND without making any bonehead mistakes - click here to visit my BURN THE FAT website: www.burnthefat.com
About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal trainer (CPT), certified strength & conditioning specialist (CSCS), and author of the #1 best-selling e-book, "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle.” Tom has written more than 200 articles and has been featured in print magazines such as IRONMAN, Australian IRONMAN, Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development, Exercise for Men and Men’s Exercise, as well as on hundreds of websites worldwide. For information on Tom's Fat Loss program, visit: www.burnthefat.com
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