Fat Loss Magic

Eat Less. It's really as simple as that; or at least it CAN be. The amount of food you currently eat has created the physique you see in the mirror. Want to lose some fat, eat less food. MAGIC!

Ok, all smartass comments aside, there are some special tactics as I like to call them, which can create fat loss magic! In today's post I hope to explore a few of these, and to make a few suggestions for incorporating them into your lifestyle.

Exercise - No big surprise here right? Everyone and their dog knows that exercise is good for you, but not many understand it. I will be speaking about exercise as Cardio, Intervals and Strength Training. Several articles could be written about the benefits, differences & synergy of these three. However, as a minimalist, I just want to tell you how to use these for fat loss.

Cardio - Anything less than sprinting. I refer to this type of cardio as "steady state" as you generally get into a groove and maintain it throughout the exercise session. This is good for your cardiovascular system (duh!) and can therefore make your body a more efficient machine. It also burns calories, and being relatively easy (comparatively) does not demand much from your recovery abilities.

Intervals - Anything that alternates periods of very hard work with easier work. Think Sprinting for 20 seconds and then walking 40 seconds, repeated for 20 minutes. This burns more calories than steady state cardio work, but also takes more recovery.

Strength Training - Anything that involves lifting or moving objects, including your own body. Barbells, dumbbells, kettle bells, sand bags, a sack of potatoes, etc. This type of exercise builds or maintains muscle and therefore is ESSENTIAL on a diet to avoid losing lean body tissue and forcing your body to burn fat!

Several important things regarding exercise must be mentioned here.
1) Exercise for strength, and conditioning; diet for fat loss. Far too many people are looking for exercise to make them skinny, and it’s a losing battle. The amount of activity needed to burn 1 pound of fat is outside the ability of most people, however to burn the same pound by dieting is achievable by anyone!

2) Cardio can be done fasted, strength training cannot. The lower the intensity of exercise the more fat it uses relative to other fuel sources. This means walking on an empty stomach will burn nearly all fat! It also means you are not burning any fat when you're lifting weights. Therefore when doing strength training, you want to be in the fed state, roughly 2-3 hours after a meal. Intervals occupy the land in between; most people can't train intensely when fasted, so the usual recommendation is to fuel your interval session as you would a strength training session.

3) Progression is king. No matter which type of activity you're doing, you must continue to progress. Heavier weights, more repetitions at the same weight, a faster run time, longer work periods for intervals, etc. Your body adapts to whatever you do, therefore to progress, do more!

Fasting - Specifically Intermittent Fasting (alternating periods of fasting with periods of eating) is a method that many find ideal for reducing calories. The diet myth of "6 meals a day, 2-3 hours apart" has been proven wrong, and the major factor for fat loss is caloric intake vs. caloric expenditure. By having a period of each day, or week where no calories are ingested you lower your caloric intake dramatically. Many find this to be an easy way of dieting, as your meals still stay the usual size, cravings and hunger are kept in check.

Positivity - Whatever you think of yourself, you're right! You are programmed to become what you believe, so stay positive and visualize yourself as the lean, healthy, beautiful person you WANT to be, and then watch yourself transform. Many people write this off as new age, hippy bull s**t, but there is solid science behind this. Negative self talk is your worst enemy. If you think of yourself as fat, you will subconsciously engage in practices that create a fat person. Think of yourself as lean & sexy and your subconscious will drive you to the choices & practices that create a lean sexy body.

Tomorrow I will show you how to put together a proper fat loss exercise program, and I will reveal how to maximize an already solid exercise regime. Later this week I plan to explore good intentions gone bad (overtraining) and how this relates to your individual maximal rate of fat loss.

Keep on living the Lean Life,