Tom Venuto Interview
Tom Venuto author of
Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle has turned 40, and
was recently interviewed about the success of his book (being readied for a version 2.0 to be released later this year). I reviewed Burn the Fat a few years ago and got great results with it myself.
If getting into single digit body fat is your goal, and you’re serious about your training and nutrition lifestyle, then Tom’s book may very well give you the guidance you need to fulfill your dream.
Find out what’s new with Tom Venuto and
read what he has to say about the Internets most famous and effective weight loss system.
Labels: burn fat, Burn The Fat, fat loss, interviews, Tom Venuto, weight loss
Weight Loss Blog Interviews - Andrew Scott
I had to opportunity to interview Andrew Scott, a Scotsman living in Indonesia about his weight loss program. I met Andrew when he answered the call to be a beta tester for the 12 week course in whole food eating I'm developing. In a post I did the other day about other
weight loss blogs, I quoted from Andrew's website
Discipline or Regret where he says:
It’s time to think for myself, it’s time to educate myself about my body and the foods that I eat and how exercise affects it. And that’s what I did, for months I read and asked people and read some more. Then the time comes when all that knowledge has to be turned into actions to be come wisdom. I had to initiate all the information I had, and I am ... I am embracing the pain of discipline because I don’t want to suffer the pain of regret!
Hi Andrew, thanks for doing the interview. Lets start with your age.
I'm 29 Rob.
Where are you currently living?
I live in Surabaya, Indonesia, but I'm originally from Scotland
And what do you do in Indonesia?
I'm a happily married English teacher with an eleven month old son
What was your reason for starting your weight loss program?
I went on a Dr. visit in January and he told me if I don't lose weight I probably wont see 40. I have a beautiful wife and son, heck I have got lots to live for!
Wow, powerful motivation. What was your starting weight when you began?
My starting weight 15 weeks ago was 302lbs and now it's 282lbs
Congratulations - well done Andrew! 20 pounds down in 15 weeks, a safe and effective weight loss. Do you have a weight loss goal? Is it a weight number or body fat number you’re shooting for?
My weight loss goal is 220lbs, I am going home to Scotland in June for a holiday and I'll be having my body fat checked out. I also have a goal of a waist-to-hip ratio of 0.92
What sort of exercise program are you following?
At the start I was using the Abs Diet and then I started making my own workouts. But now I am following the Turbulence Training workouts
Yes, Turbulence Training by Craig Ballantyne, excellent. I'm in the middle of an
interview with Craig Ballantyne right now. How often do you workout / train?
I am doing 3 strength training workouts per week (Mon, Wed & Fri) and then 3 interval training workouts on the other days (Tue, Thu & Sat), with Sundays off. I do all my workouts at 4am in the morning, not because I want to but it's the only time I have.
Wow, 6 workouts a week, awesome, and 4 am! now that's commitment. Someone who's driven to get results, to get to their goal will do whatever it takes to get the job done. Nice to see you putting in such a huge effort. What's your favorite exercise?
I enjoy working my back and chest muscles, so anything that works them and gets them burning.
Are there any obstacles you had to overcome to begin exercising / keep exercising?
Getting up at 4am! If I try to do my workouts after work I get lazy and then inconsistent.
What is your goal in regards to exercising?
I am really digging into the science of exercising, before I would focus on small muscles but now I am targeting the big muscle groups to blast my fat!
Yes, once you begin exercising or make a change in your eating program, it's always fun to read more and discover the science of it all. I like science, but I like the ancient / natural approaches too. The natural approaches seem to get forgotten by maney. What sort of nutrition program are you following?
I started off with the Abs Diet program. But now I am happy to say that I am beta testing your "12 weeks to a Former Fat Guy" course; coming away from processed foods and sugar.
Yes, that's kinda how we met, you're a subscriber of my newsletter and when I put out the request for beta testers, you answered. Thanks for being involved. What is one of the cardinal rules of nutrition that you have learned, always follow or never break?
There are many that I don't want to break with my new lifestyle; I drink bottled water (about 2.5 - 3 liters per day). Eating more protein, and low carbs. One thing I have learnt is that not all carbs are bad.
Yep, it's mostly processed carbs that are bad, not all carbs. Do you have a food tip that you’d like to share?
Eat between meals!! Don't let anyone tell you that you can't eat between meals. If you have healthy snacks between your meals then you'll spike your metabolism into burning fat throughout the day.
Do you allow for a reward meal? A reward day?
I have a Cheat Meal usually on Saturdays for my dinner. Everything can be on the menu, but I am usually still very careful.
Ah ha, I see you're regarding it as a cheat meal, not a reward meal - interesting. How important do you regard proper rest and sleep in your weight loss program?
If I don't get a good nights sleep then my muscles wont get the recovery they need. I would like to be getting about 8 hours per night, but at the moment I am getting about 7 hours. I try to have a 30 min nap on workout days at about 4pm.
What sort of nutritional supplements do you use?
I am using Whey Protein.
Why did you start blogging your journey at http://www.disciplineorregret.com?
I started the blog to keep myself accountable and to encourage others.
Awesome. Tell the world your story and your goals and you have a huge audience to keep accountable to. Nice. If you had any advice to anyone who’s considering starting a weight loss journey, or someone who knows they should start but haven’t yet, what would you say?
Be very careful with all the weight loss lies out there. Start to educate your self with eating & exercise. I have but myself into this formula.
Educate + Initiate + Evaluate = Success! People can motivate you but you really need to take yourself seriously and know what you want and how to get there.
Evaluation is the key to show you where you have come from (mini successes) and also how you can build upon and improve what you are doing.
Thanks for taking a moment out of your busy day to share your story with us Andrew.
You can visit Andrew's website at
Disipline or RegretLabels: blogger-interviews, interviews, weight loss, weight-loss-blogs
Speed Linking - Weight Loss Blogs
A few weight loss blog's that I've come across lately or interacted with.
Fat Man UnleashedIsrael was always a gym rat, and in his best shape weighed in around the 220 pound to 235 pound mark. For one reason or another, Israel lost touch with the gym and didn't train for a good number of years and reached his maximum weight of 348 pounds, 120 pounds heavier than he wants to be.
Israel is also interested in promoting health related stories, through his latest venture
Health Ranker where members can vote on stories they like giving them more exposure. check it out.
As of this writing, Israel is down 44 pounds on his quest to regain his lean mean physique.
No More Fat DadSteve, a former Navy man, woke up one day to realize that his weight was affecting his family life. A 38 year old father of 2 boys, Steve realized that he wasn't being as active with his boys and when his kids’ friends told him he was fat - that was part of the beginning. Steve's highest weight was 208 pounds and at 5'11", he feels that he's about 18 pounds heavier than he wants to be. His goal is 180 and he's doing it with a simple and sensible eating program, along with
Turbulence Training.
Discipline or RegretAndrew Scott is a 29 year old Scottsman living in Indonesia who’s starting weight was 302 but he's down 17 over 6 weigh ins. His blog isn’t clear when he decided to start his little project, nor how far apart his weigh ins occur (I’d guess weekly), but it’s nice to see a daily food journal on his website.
Andrew came to the realization
It’s time to think for myself, it’s time to educate myself about my body and the foods that I eat and how exercise affects it. And that’s what I did, for months I read and asked people and read some more. Then the time comes when all that knowledge has to be turned into actions to be come wisdom. I had to initiate all the information I had, and I am.
He continues "I am embracing the pain of discipline because I don’t want to suffer the pain of regret!", hence the name of his blog Discipline or Regret!
Andrew is a subscriber to my newsletter, and when I put out the request for beta testers of my 12 Week Course to better health and better eating, he responded quickly.
Labels: speed-linking, weight loss, weight-loss-blogs
Weight Watchers Core Program
I started a
weight watchers poll a few weeks ago and got very little response about it. I’m wondering,
does weight watchers work and if people are happy with the program. If you’ve been on weight watchers, I’d LOVE some help understanding it.
I have a small discussion going on in my weight loss forum about weight watchers as well.
I was on it in grade 5 but know very little about it because it was my mom who handled all the logistics around it.
I’ve since come to learn more about the program, mostly from television and hearing people talk about the weight watchers points system.
However, I’ve also recently come to learn about the core program.
Weight watchers describes it this way:
The Core Food List is based on the science of energy density. It contains foods that are low in energy density, meaning they contain a small number of calories per ounce. That means they’ll make you feel more satisfied while you are actually consuming fewer calories. You can mix and match these foods as much as you want, and you’ll learn to stay aware of hunger and fullness, so you won’t overeat.
Along with eating any Core Foods you want, you get a "Weekly Allowance" for foods that aren’t on the Core Plan. You can use them for daily treats, a night on the town, or a special occasion--so you can still indulge sometimes, without going off track.
I find this very interesting as my own understanding about food is that we must eat what I’m referring to as
Nutrient Dense foods. If we eat more nutrient dense foods, we can nourish our bodies, reduce or eliminate cravings, feel fuller on less food and improve our health through the increase in fiber. Health improvements include lowering of cholesterol, reverse or eliminate heart disease and of course lose weight.
I’d like to know what sort of results you’ve gotten from the
weight watchers core program and if you’ve actually learned anything about healthy eating in the process.
Labels: weight loss, weight-watchers, weight-watchers-core-program
Shredded At Last
By Dr Clay HyghtThe only thing harder than starting an exercise and nutrition plan is following through till the bitter end, without giving up or giving in to the "this is too hard" or "I'm just not meant to be lean" excuses.
Sometimes, however, even perseverance is not enough. It often takes something more high-tech to enable you to get rid of that last little bit of body fat that seems permanently affixed to your body.
You know the fat I'm talking about. The last few pounds that seem to defy physiology, calling your body home no matter what you do. For men, those pounds tend to linger at the belt-line, either in the front or on the lateral aspect of your lower back. Women tend to find those pesky last few pounds in the lower glute/upper hamstring region, or just out to the side on the widest part of the hips: the saddlebag region.
Regardless of your gender, where you find these pounds, or how long you've had them, they can be gotten rid of! That's right, you don't have to settle for accepting that they're always gonna be there, and you certainly don't have to resort to something invasive like liposuction to get rid of those unwanted fat cells.
Read the whole article on
T-NationLabels: Dr-Clay-Hyght, weight loss
Calorie Restriction Weight Loss Program For Longevity
Since the 1930’s studies show (in rodents, dogs, cows, mice, worms, spiders and monkeys at least) that by restricting calories, we can extend life. Calorie restriction also reduces the incidence of virtually all diseases of aging such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, auto-immune disorders, neurological decline and diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. (
source)
No tests have yet to be done on man, however, in 1991, quite by accident, 8 scientists sealed themselves up in a giant airtight terrarium in the Arizona desert for a 2 year experiment on self sustaining ecosystems called Biosphere 2 and quite quickly found that indeed, they could not grow enough food to support themselves.
Roy Walford, the team’s physician, had been studying calorie restriction diets for a number of years and convinced his fellow scientists to give it a try.
I don’t really think they had a choice.
When their project ended and they exited the bubble …
tests proved them healthier in nearly every nutritionally relevant respect than when they’d gone in
Walford is the author of The Anti-Aging Plan: The Nutrient-Rich, Low-Calorie Way of Eating for a Longer Life--The Only Diet Scientifically Proven to Extend Your Healthy Years, but himself passing away at the age of 79 from Lou Gehrig’s disease. Ironically however, caloric restriction may have accelerated the course of ALS for Dr. Walford, as mice genetically engineered to develop ALS experience faster disease course and shorter lifespan when placed on a calorically restricted diet
I’ve done my own bit of calorie restriction as part of an experiment of ABCDE, Anabolic Burst Cycling of Diet and Exercise I did back in 2003. ABCDE is about two week cycles of diet and exercise. Two weeks of double caloric intake plus 1000 calories along with heavy lifting 3x a week and no cardio. This is immediately followed by two weeks of lower calories (in my case, 1800 per day) along with cardio and light weight training just enough to keep the muscle built during the first phase.
The idea behind ABCDE was presented to my by Bill Phillips during an interview he did with the ABCDE designer and I followed this program for 2 months. In a way, I experimented with a version of the calorie restriction program.
Calorie Restriction Test
What would it be like to follow this program for 2 months?
That’s the premise behind a story done by New York Magazine writer Julian Dibbell who did an
entire 2 months on a calorie restricted diet. Her account leaves her 20 pounds lighter, an improved sex drive, dreams of immortality and, well, hungry.
I’m not sure if it’s worth it really.
I enjoy food and I always have.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the junk food I ate when I was younger, but have now come to love whole foods, imported beer and great wine.
I’ve often said that the reason I train so hard is because I like eating. I love training hard for all the benefits it provides both physically, mentally and emotionally and then I get to eat more too.
Is calorie restriction something you do or would consider doing? Read the
Ultra Extreme Calorie Restriction Diet Test and make up your own mind. Personally, I’d like the freedom of earning my food because of the work I put in.
But hey, that’s just me.
Labels: Calories, Diet, longevity, weight loss
Why Have I Not Written A Book?
I got this question today from a subscriber to my weight loss and natural health newsletter
Q: Hi Rob,
a question has been bothering me about your site and newsletters, and i thought it best to go straight to the source.
Why have you not written a book, rather than give away this information for free?
Please don't take this the wrong way, Its just I'm hyper-sensitive to possible Snake Oil peddlers, and trust is a difficult issue for me.
Best wishes
Jim
A: Simple answer Jim. Fear.
It’s a tiny bit of fear and a big part of "who the hell would want to listen to me anyway" issue.
Just recently, and I mean just in the past week, have decided to do just that. Write my book. I've been talking about it for years and have never come through with the finished product. I’ve started it a few times and then just left it.
I've spent the better part of the past two years thinking each and every day about what I'd say, what's important to know about and in what sort of format I'd present the material.
Partly I'm a bit of a perfectionist, that the book has to be just right, in a format that I'd be happy to put my name behind, so that's been part of the delay.
Partly it's a bit of struggle about "the truth" of food, how the body works and busting through beliefs. There are a lot of big truths about food that people just don't want to hear.
Jim, I'm all about health as the primary focus to gaining your ultimate physique, not weight loss for the sake of weight loss.
Health is way more important.
By striving for health, constantly learning and applying the principles, we will gain our best looking body, along with some very positive side effects.
You see, I've been a student of health for many years. I'm a guy's guy so don't get me wrong, but some of the principles that I will suggest and promote aren’t in a typical "guy's" book.
However, I can't argue with results. What I'm about to describe in the book works.
I always seem to see new things, new principles that take me to the next level and then I delay the book some more while I experiment with the new thing. It's like the pieces have been coming to me year in, year out and I hadn't gotten a complete picture yet.
Am I using that as an excuse? Maybe.
The truth is though, that the book has to be written.
I know it's time and I believe that I'm finally ready
I have enough pieces to finally put it into words, which is exactly the next step.
Now comes the commitment part.
Can I commit to a date? That's a tough one.
I don't think I can. I don’t know how long it will take to put into words that which I want to say. I mean, "how long does it take to write a book?". I don't know. Depends on the book, the content and what flows out. When I'm flowing, other things may come up, extending it. I'm not sure I can commit to a date.
I will say this.
I have committed to writing the book, so it is coming out.
The book name is "Fat Loss Fundamentals"
The website will be www.fatlossfundamentals.com
I can give an approximate target date of June 1st 2008 for sure, but know that it will be out much earlier. How's that sound?
In the mean time Jim, I'd like to thank you for being a subscriber and trusting ME enough to ask the question. It makes me proud to know that you trust me enough over the people that I recommend. I thank you for that.
It's readers like you that ask me for my opinion, my help and tell me that you trust me that allow me to take the steps I need to take to write the book.
The people that I recommend on my website are the people that I know and that I trust. They’re either friends, people I know or products that I use myself.
I've been eating Sunrider foods for going on 17 years now and it will always be my primary source of nutrition.
Because of the ranking and traffic that my website gets, I am approached almost daily to promote the newest drug or the latest diet. When I turn them down, their immediate come back is "think about all the money though" to which I respond "it's not about the money, it's about trust".
I don't recommend things that I have not personally tried. I say this to the best of my knowledge and I can’t speak for the Google ads on my site.
Health and fitness are my passion Jim
I will make it my personal commitment to you to get this book out of my head, off the drawing board and into the hands of the many people who need it, now more than ever.
Thank you again for taking the time to write and thank you for being a subscriber.
Labels: Reader Questions, weight loss
Biggest Loser Not Realistic
I received an email from an editor of the
New York Times (NY Times) regarding an article they were doing about the television show "
The Biggest Loser".
They wanted my opinion about the show and it’s impact on the general viewing public.
Do I have an opinion about "the Biggest Loser" ?
Yep
First and foremost, I want to say congratulations to all those who have been on the show and have dropped the weight they have. Well done. I would love to hear from them and find out how they’re continuing in their lives after the show.
My biggest issues with the concept of this show is that it isn’t realistic.
The healthy way to lose weight is through a combination of
- Change in eating habits to whole foods
- Increase in movement, both cardio and weight training
- A change in belief systems
It’s an entire lifestyle change. In my opinion, doing this for the sake of losing weight is not the correct approach. I believe that we have to make changes in our thinking and being a program of health.
A goal of becoming healthy includes a change in eating habits, television viewing habits, eliminating smoking, drinking responsibly, improvements in water consumption, food supplements like the
Sunrider line of foods (the cornerstone of my health program), movement like walking and beginning a weight training program. The goal of becoming health has the same effect but lasts a lifetime, not just until you’re 50 or 100 pounds lighter.
The
NY Times quoted me in their article about the biggest loser where I suggested that someone with a healthy continued weight loss of 2 to 3 pounds a week may become disillusioned about their success after seeing the contestants dropping 10 or more pounds a week.
A weight loss of 2 to 3 pounds a week is fantastic. It’s healthy and it proves that you’re making gains on your goal weight. It’s important to know what kind of weight you’re losing though as you want to keep your muscle.
If there’s one thing I could impress upon you it would be to keep track of your body composition, not your weight.
I think you’d agree that 180 pounds at 12% body fat is healthier than 180 pounds at 25% ore more body fat.
Muscle helps you burn fat even during sleep, increases your energy levels and makes you feel better about yourself.
2 to 3 pounds of
fat loss is fantastic, realistic and doable for someone who’s committed to their new lifestyle.
Here’s a quick little list of what I’d recommend
- Turn off the TV.
- Get out of that chair, get active
- Do something physical every day even if it’s just a 20 minute walk. Do this every day regardless of rain, shine, sleet or snow.
- Read a book on natural health or fat burning, learn what others who are successful with their fat loss program have done and duplicate it. I recommend Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle as a great resource.
- Read another book and work the teachings into your new lifestyle, don’t take one book as gospel. Atkins may work for some body types, but throw others out of balance.
- Learn about Food Combining
- Consider a short stint of vegetarianism to reset your digestion and give your digestive system a break
- Learn and create some Whole Food Recipes
- Learn about detoxification which includes Probiotics and pure water such as Distilled
This is just a few suggestions of where to start. I will go into more detail about each of them over time.
The New York Times article on the Biggest Loser got picked up by another writer and appeared in the
entertainment section of MSN as well and then a fellow blogger went on a rant over at
Elastic Waist. We both agree, even thought the contestants get results, they’re not necessarily sustainable, nor healthy and show the viewers unrealistic results.
Focus on your health, you’ll be a great role model for your family and kids and get the results you want 2 to 3 pounds at a time.
Be Well
Labels: biggest-loser, weight loss
Alcohol and Weight Loss - Your Choice
Can you drink alcohol on your weight loss program? I have to admit that I love a good red wine and an imported beer, so I’m no different than anyone else, however, when I’m fully committed to getting results, quick results, I have to cut alcohol from my diet.
We know that a glass of Red wine is good for us with all the antioxidants they contain, but what place does it have in your diet when you have other goals?
If you’re happy burning 1 pound of fat per week while drinking a glass of Red wine every other day, then fantastic. If you’re not though, and 1 pound a week isn’t cutting it for you, then you have to make a choice.
It’s all about choices. Life is about choices. Getting
quick weight loss results is a choice as well.
Before even getting into alcohol, lets discuss whole foods briefly.
I heavily promote the importance of eating a diet rich in whole foods vs processed foods. Processed foods are cheap and lacking in nutrition. They are easy to prepare though, but what’s the trade off.
The choice is Time and Money over QualityEating processed foods are cheap and easy to prepare but lack nutrition
Eating whole foods cost slightly more so may increase your monthly budget for foods and take longer to prepare, but they are plentiful in nutrition, nourish the body, eliminate cravings, provide dietary fiber, facilitate weight loss and improve the ability to gain important fat burning muscle.
The choice is again Time and Money FOR QualityIn choosing to make the majority if not all of your meals from whole foods, if you don’t have the room in your budget, you have to make a choice of cutting something else, or increasing your income.
What would you choose to eliminate from your budget so that you may eat a diet primarily of whole foods?
- Eliminate Movies?
- Cut off the TV?
- Cut out Smoking ($150 a month or more, and that’s being reasonable)
- Eliminate drinking?
- Eliminate shopping?
- Eliminate eating out?
- Quit drinking your daily Starbucks or Second Cup Coffee ($150 a month)
See it’s a choice. If you want something, you have to decide what you really want and what you’re willing to do about it. I wrote about sacrifices in this article
What Are You Willing To Do To Burn Fat and it applies here.
So now about alcohol. That’s a choice as well
I introduced this post saying that I love Red wine and import beer. I too have to make a choice when it comes to my health and my weight loss results.
The first question is about how much of a role alcohol plays in weight loss. Tom Venuto recently wrote about
alcohol and weight loss and came to the conclusion that the
beer belly is not related to alcohol, but rather to the lifestyle of the drinker. We might be able to drink a moderate amount of alcohol as long as we’re completely in control of the rest of our diet. Personally, I believe that alcohol has no place in the diet of someone looking to achieve their best physique, but that’s just my position.
If you have truly committed to attaining your best physique, then alcohol does not have a place in your diet. Drinking changes our mood, our behavior and we begin to make poor decisions. Alcohol leaves us with a hangover which then affects our ability to train properly and without full intensity.
This is a tough one and I’m no different. After a night out playing floor hockey with the team, it’s nice to finish it off with a few beers at the local pub. A few beers leads to nachos and chicken wings, believe me, I know how it goes. This situation just came up for me after I said I was going to put 14 days between my drinks and limit myself to just 2 drinks. Last night I had 3, but I’ll tell you what, I enjoyed the social time, I enjoyed the beer and I knew what my choices would result in. I was fully aware.
I’ve always wanted to go to an Oktoberfest here in Edmonton. I’ve never been out to one ever. I’ve now got tickets to go with my girlfriend and we’re brining along a few other couples. I fully intend to socialize, have a good time, enjoy David Wilcox, one of my favorite performers and yes, have a bunch of beer. My plan though is to not have another drink until then, and then get back to work, and go another 14 days without another drink. It’s a good 14 days away from now and I have no alcohol in the house, so notwithstanding another social night out, I should be good on my intention.
What are the benefits of eliminating alcohol?
- By eliminating alcohol, we drop a bunch of calories of which we can then replace with whole foods.
- By eliminating alcohol, we have more money to spend on whole foods.
- By eliminating alcohol, we can train harder and are more likely to get out of bed to do cardio in the morning
Eliminating alcohol is a choice, much the same as eliminating spending money on movies, coffee, shopping or cigarettes. The money you save could not only improve your health by eliminating the acidic foods, low quality foods and alcohol, it could be the single thing you needed to add 1 extra pound per week of fat loss.
The choice is yours, it always was and it always will be
Labels: Alcohol, weight loss
Unstoppable Fat Loss Interviews For Free
How would you like an entire collection of motivational audio clips with the
worlds best physique transformation experts along with The Fit Bastard’s and The Fit Chic’s ebooks for free? These are not just inspirational, these are
Unstoppable fat loss experts. The kind of people that show you that anything is possible if you put your mind to it and truely want to make a change in your life. Scott asks a very simple question.
Just what exactly do you think it takes to achieve your dream body?Think about that for a moment. Got any idea? Have no idea? Seriously, what do you think it takes?
That’s the question my friend Scott Tousignant is asking over on his blog
Unstoppable-Fat loss and he's giving away his entire collection of motivational and inspirational audio interviews of which I am a part. He’s adding to that, his and his wife’s (the Fit Chic) ebooks for free. Part of what he's giving you is his $47
Unstoppable Fat Loss interview set.
I am very happy to be a part of his interview series where Scott interviewed me for a full hour asking what it was that got me started, kept me going and continues to inspire me to take action on my health and physique.
Now, when I say unstoppable, I really mean unstoppable. I've talked about this before, about people who always seem to come up with a reason that they can't do it. They're disabled, or they don't have the money to eat better, or they don't get the support from their spouse, or whatever.
well, who's life is it anyway?
What about Nino Savona? Nino is someone who is living the Unstoppable Lifestyle.
Nino was born 3 months prematurely. His parents were told that he was simply too small and underdeveloped to survive and that they needed to prepare for the worst.
A priest was called to the nursury and read Nino his last rights. But it looks like life had other plans for Nino!
Nino grew little by little until he was well enough to go home from the hospital after several months. In his childhood he underwent corrective leg surgery that was unsuccessful. Nino was left having to rely on crutches or a wheel chair in order to get around.
Later in life Nino decided that he wanted to become as fit as possible. When he tried to join a gym, he was told by a professional trainer that, “it would be unsafe for him to use the exercise equipment”.
What a good thing Nino decided not to listen to the “No’s” and to block out the negativity!
Nino decided that he couldn’t accept the limitations that others were trying to impose on him.
Was it easy for him to get where he is today. Absolutely Not!
Nino pushed himself physically and mentally to develop a body that was healthy, fit, and conditioned. He achieved his dreams!
Scott interviews Jon Benson, Tom Venuto, Dax Moy, Donna Krech and many others including
Dr. Joe Vitale
* Author of "The Attractor Factor." Lost over 80lbs applying the teachings of The Law Of Attraction.
Clark Bartram
* Creator of "Chisel Your Abs"
Jim Katsoulis
* Creator of "Addictive Health" and "Program Yourself Thin"
Fran Harris
* Author of "Will The Real You Please Stand Up", creator of the "Booming Women Conference", former WNBA Star.
Shane James
* Creator of "Weight Loss and The Mind"
Marna Goldstein
* Author of "Naturally Thin Secrets" and "Attracting A Thin You"
James Villepigue
* Author of "The Body Sculpting Bible" Series, "Mind Over Muscle", "Goal Mining", and "Zone Tone"
Kevin Gianni
* Creator of "The Fountain Of Youth World Summit" and "Live Awesome"
Scott York
* Creator of "Your Business Body", "Fitness Figure Reality", and "Bodybuilders Reality"
Roxayn Daniels
* Creator of the "Total Transformation Challenge"
Zach Even-Esh
* Author of "Real Man Fitness" and "Underground Strengths Manual"
Kyle Battis
* Author of "Home Gym Secrets" and "Traveling Trainers Guide"
I’ve been listening to the interviews when I go for my walks and truly, sincerely think that it will make a difference in your life. If you were to get just ONE piece of information that changes how you think and helps you get results, then it would be worth it wouldn’t it? Have a look at the
Unstoppable Fat Loss interview series so you know what you're playing for at least.
What do you think it takes to create your dream body?
Scott’s contest is open until October 1st 2007, then he picks a winner and gives his entire product line away. Go enter your answer. You understand that when I say it's free, that I mean, it's absolutely free right? no cost to you? no charge. Free.
Labels: fat loss, unstoppable, weight loss
Knowing Your Metabolic Type For Weight Loss
So why does the latest diet not work for you? The latest weight loss craze has hit and your buddy gets results, but you don't. "But the diet made the front page of the New York Times?" Yep, it's your genetics or your destiny to be fat right? More psychological pain and distress because again... everything you've tried for weight loss has failed. Miserably.
Well, here's the deal.
Each of us is different! Surprise surprise. We're each a collection of hormones and chemicals, water, bone and muscle. We've each got things going on a little different than our buddy in the next cubicle. You know the type, eats all the fruit he wants and drops pounds like he was melting.
What's the solution?
Eat for your body. Your body, not your buddies body. Eat the food that is designed to keep you balanced, alkaline and feeling great.
Did you know that in some cases, lack of nutrition, inner starvation, the starvation of your very cells and dna can lead to what seems to be mental illness? My friend and Inner Biochemist had this to say on a recent post about this subject
...I bet you didn’t know inner-starvation-induced neurosis and psychosis cannot be differentiated clinically - from functional mental illnesses? Many mistakenly believe this to originate in much more complex psychological conflict, and trauma?
So how do you find out what foods to eat?
My Ultra Homeopath physician is now writing for my new weight loss community and posted her first article in a series about this very thing. From what I understand (and she will correct me if I'm wrong), is that there are three basic metabolic types:
Sugar Burners, Fat Burners and SympatheticSugar burners will need to eat more protein, more fat and fewer carbohydrates, eliminate wheat and favor certain vegetables with protein. And here's a kicker.. Sugar burners should be AVOIDING certain multi vitamins because they take us further out of balance. I say us because I believe I'm a sugar burner.
Find out all the details about what to eat, and especially what to avoid to get results. It's not as complicated as you may think, even though the explanation and the science behind it does. Find out
what to eat for a sugar burner metabolic type.
My
Ultra Homeopath has a simple online test that can determine your metabolic type and a bunch of us from the weight loss community are already involved. Myself, my girlfriend, Jessie and a few others will be writing about what sort of results we got, what we found out and how we're applying it.
So, where one mans food is another mans poison, wouldn't it be easier to find out exactly what you should be eating? Skip the testing and guessing and finally get to the root of the issue.
Read this first article that describes
Sugar Burner Metabolic Type, sign up for the daily blog posts and then follow along with her next explanations of the Fat Burner type. Find out more about the simple
point and click online tests that you can take to determine your metabolic type.
You'll be glad you did
Labels: Metabolic-Types, Sugar-Burner, weight loss
Tips On Losing Fat Without Really Trying
by
Aja PerkinsHealthy eating is very important. Here are some tips on losing
weight without really trying.
Fill up on fiber. Choose whole grains, fruits and vegetables,
high fiber cereals, dries beans, lentils, or other legumes. Your goal is 25 to 30 grams daily. Food hihg in fiber make you feel full without lots of calories.
Drink a glass of water before each meal and you'll get a feeling
of fullness. By sipping water throughout the day, you'll know when you're really hungry. Drink at least eight 8oz. glasses of water daily. I drink 1-1 1/2 gallons daily.
Eat more fish. Fish and poultry have less calories then beef,
lamb and pork. Veal has the lowest calories of the meats, but it is higher in cholesterol than beef or lamb.
Limit your salt intake. Instead spice up your diet with pepper,
lemons, basil and oregano (or Mrs.. Dash) and you'll never miss salt. Your blood pressure will improve and you'll lose fat faster! Buy salt-free salsa and sugarless jam as snacks. They taste great on baked tortillas or whole wheat crackers. Also
find lower fat substitutes that satisfy your taste preferences.
Think "healthy eating" instead of "diet". A "Diet" is an on
again off again thing, healthy eating is a life long process. So if you're still hungry and it's not time to eat, take a walk, call a friend, or put on a swimsuit and check on the airfare to Jamaica!
Labels: fat loss, weight loss
Weight Loss Scavenger Hunt July Winner
Jessie aka Blush from my weight loss forum was the winner of the first ever former fat guy
natural health and weight loss scavenger hunt.
Jessie picked Tom Venuto's
Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle as her prize. I bought it for her today and sent it to her. She's excited to get started.
Each month I hide a little something on one of my website, either this one or my new
weight loss blog and fitness community. Members of the
scavenger hunt are allowed to
pick their own prize (according to the rules), and if they find the treasure, they're in the draw.
Yes, I
GIVE you your prize for winning. I Buy it and give it to you.
YOU.
Read the
Weight Loss Scavenger Hunt rules and regulations for more information. This is a monthly contest and previous winners can participate each month, so join now and begin searching.
Happy hunting
Labels: scavenger hunt, weight loss
The Best Thing About Weight Loss
I wrote an article about two years ago and it's time to bring attention to it again. Anthony had his diet pimped by me and he's about to get started. He's getting married in a few days and pimping his diet was my wedding gift to him. Anthony is starting at 405 pounds. His chosen cardio method is biking and he's from Florida. Anthony is calling his
weight loss story "Let My New Life Begin"
We're tracking the whole thing in the
weight loss forum under the
Pimp My Diet Section.
So here's a snippet from the article I wrote two years ago called "
The Number One Best Thing About Burning Fat"
There are a lot of other things people just don’t consider when entering into a fat loss program like Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle so I want to list a few things that I’ve been thinking about over the past few days in regards to this.
- Laundry - With doing all the extra cardio along with weight training, I’m finding that I have to wash clothes a lot more often. I only have a limited amount of assigned “workout” clothes and I am going through them faster than before so have to wash more often.
- Cooking - Preparing so much food takes time and if you don’t have a system, it may seem like you’re always cooking. I prepare enough food for a few days in advance by spending some time in the evening cooking a bunch of chicken and rice. If I know I’m going to be out all day the next day, I prepare my meals in advance so that I can just pack it into a cooler the next morning and I’m safely staying within my planned caloric needs for the day.
- Tupperware - I’m noticing that I have to have more Tupperware not only to store the prepared food, but to pack it along. Baggies too. Ziplock baggies of various sizes to hold my veggies and wraps
- Math - I hated math in high school and now I’m having to calculate my day’s food broken down into the six meals per day that I need. I have to calculate my post workout meal first and then plan the rest of the meals around what’s left for protein, carbs and fats. It’s well worth the effort though and now I have a system for that too. Once I’ve found the exact calories that I need for me right now, I’m simply creating a day’s meal plan and then keeping it in a binder. When that specific day rolls around again, I just bring out that day’s meal plan and go from there. There’s a lot to be said for eating the same thing over and over.
I vary it, but still based on the days’ plan. I have a few sets of these now because re-feed days are different. I have Low Carb days (LCD) and Very Low Carb Days (VLCD) and then re-feed days. Learn all about this and how it can maximize your fat loss success by getting Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle.
There are a lot of things that you have to be aware of when embarking on a journey such as this, so be prepared for the best.
and, a new quote I recently read in a book by Bijan entitled "Effortless Prosperity" is "Everything that CAN go right WILL go right". I love it
Labels: Natural Weight Loss, weight loss
Power Of Commitment To Weight Loss
Ang and Myself Crossing Into Arizona
One of my best friends sent me an email just the other day, committing to getting into what she calls "fucking hot shape". The picture above is from last summer, as she and I were crossing from California into Arizona on a weekend road trip between
Warrior Camps.
She is not overweight.
However, she wants to have the best physique she's ever had and asked me for support. The email she sent touched me greatly and she gave me permission to post it.
Head over to
One Serious Commitment To Weight Loss, have a read and comment if you like. Ang will be documenting her journey for everyone to read in my
weight loss forum.
Labels: weight loss
Stupid Questions About Weight Loss
The only
stupid questions about weight loss are the ones that don't get asked. There are no stupid questions. I try and answer as many questions as possible with time permitting as I know that any question that gets asked is most likely a question that a lot of people want to ask but don't.
For example… you may be reading about weight loss and want to ask a question but don't take the time to post a comment or send an email. Trust me, if you think of the question, someone else has as well. Ask away. The question and the answer will help not only yourself, but many other readers as well.
My goal is to answer at least one question per week. I usually answer these questions on the weekends, but I don't limit it to that. However, as much as I want to take the weekends off, I usually find myself in front of my computer at some point and do answer them.
On my
former fat guy weight loss blog, I have an entire section dedicated to
reader questions. I also take questions from my
weight loss forum and answer them in the forum as well as in blog posts if I deem them appropriate.
I encourage you to post comments on the questions to facilitate discussion on the topic.
I recently added the dofollow plugin so, links WILL be followed. However, I am cautious about what I link to as well, so no spam sites. If your link is a spam site or something I just DO NOT agree with, I may not publish the comment.
A common question I do get is about loose skin. The past week alone, I was asked this question at least 3 times. I did answer the
question about loose skin here, but kept it vague for specific reasons. I've promised the readers an answer to that question in depth, but my "in depth answer" is a bit more in depth than I can do in a post. I am in the process of writing a special report on
loose skin after weight loss which I may very well create an entire website for. This is a very common question.
So to those who've asked, it's in the works. Just give me some time to come up with a full report about it, explaining the process step by step.
To fully answer each question, may take an hour or two of my time, so while I encourage the questions, they may be a bit delayed in answering.
The most recent question I answered was from Rachel who asked "
How To Deal With A Mental Blockage In Weight Loss?". Specifically, Rachel wanted to know "
How To Motivate Yourself To Go To The Gym?"
Thank you for your understanding.
Labels: Reader Questions, weight loss
Burn The Fat - Free Gift
I just got back from my daily walk and today I was listening to the an Interview with Tom Venuto of Burn The Fat, Feed the Muscle. I've followed Tom's program for years now and you be following it as well.
As you know, I've committed to and am following this
10000 steps a day walking program that I was introduced to a few weeks ago. I've written about it and I'm talking about it in the
10000 steps a day walking forum.
I'm using the time to manifest what I want and create my goals for the day. I get a lot of good thoughts and this Scavenger hunt thing I just came up with was one of them.
I've been listening to the
Unstoppable Fat Loss interviews for the past few days but just a few days ago Tom sent an email to all the people who has purchased his book
Burn The Fat. In the email, he offered his recent interview in which he answers questions that were submitted to the interviewer.
How to lose the last 10 pounds
What do do about a plateau
What a trained athlete training 8 hours a week can do about busting their 14% body fat plateau and dropping into single digits.
Tom goes into great detail about the importance of mindset in achieving your goals as well as the commitment involved in this process. I agree with Tom that you can't just buy a book, read it and expect it to work like magic.. there is a lot of work, effort and commitment involved, but the plan is sound and if you're doing your due diligence, you will get results like thousands of others who've gone before you. I used it to get as low as 8% body fat, so
you can too!
What an amazing interview. If you've already got the book, make sure you download that interview he offered and listen to it. If you haven't, then get
Burn the Fat, read it and listen to the interview that he is offering for clients.
Great great great listening.
Load up your MP3 player and go for a walk!
Labels: Burn The Fat, walking, weight loss
Dont Let Another Day Pass Without Taking Action
We think about what we should do, we read about how to do it, we surf the internet for others who are doing it and we talk about it in forums looking for answers and support.
My mentor T. Harv Eker has a saying "Ready…. Fire …. Aim"
His point is to get off your ass and get doing it, then make the corrections as you go along the journey. We spend so much time learning about what to do and getting ready to do it rather than just taking action.
There is so much power in that one little decision, to do something and to do it now.
You should not let another day go by without taking action. You know what to do, and even if you don’t, or you're not sure, get off your ass and get doing it. This may apply to just about anything. Picking up the phone to call someone that you've been meaning to call or asking out that girl or guy you're interested in, or finally doing the taxes, or in this specific situation, doing something about your weight or physique.
There is so much power in making the decision to take action.
I wrote an entire post about this called "
the law of attraction for weight loss" on my other blog and wanted to nudge your attention over there.
I decided to write this because I just keep hearing it so often from friends and associates who talk about what they're going to do, but never do.
My motto when I first started my whole weight loss journey was "think it, do it". If it popped into my mind, I'd take action on it. There's power in that. Very much akin to being accountable to yourself. After all, it was your mind who thought it up, so you should respect that thought and take action on it.
Do not wait any longer
Do that which you think you should do.
Get out, go for a walk. Go to the gym.. Tell your kids you love them instead of telling yourself that you should say it more often. I met a fellow at Mind of Steel, Heart of Gold last year who's most important thing he took home with him was to tell his wife every day that he loved her. That's what he decided. That's what he's been putting of, or that's what he's been hesitating on.
Make the best of your day tomorrow. If you think it, do it.
"Life is not a dress rehearsal. Quit practicing what you're going to do, and just do it. In one bold stroke you can transform today"
I believe in you
Expect Miracles
Labels: taking action, unstoppable, weight loss
Natural Hormone Enhancement Carb Cycle For Weight Loss
Like I said yesterday, my 7 days of eating no carbohydrates in order to switch from sugar burner to fat burner is over. This is the initial start of the
Natural Hormone Enhancement program by Rob Faigin. Now, I'm pretty sure I was always a fat burner, but I wanted to follow the program from start to finish just as outlined.
That's the problem with a lot of books people read. They discount some of the information, or it's challenging their beliefs on what is right and what isn't when it comes to health and weight loss. They begin to read, but either add in some of their own things, or modify the program, or don't even complete it.
Start with the chapter explaining how to do the first 7 days. Then go back and read from the beginning to learn how the Natural Hormone Enhancement program works. Give yourself the 7 days to catch up to that chapter and go beyond.
I have begun my first carbohydrates cycle. I'm adding Cauliflower back in, as Rob suggests removing all carbohydrates during the "switch over" cycle to fully facilitate changing from sugar burner to fat burner. I'll be limiting my "active carbohydrates" to under 30g per day and 20g per day if I can do it. It's been a long time since I've been that low on carbohydrates for such an extended time, so it's just a matter of getting into the habit of reading labels for everything I eat. What I'm going to be most cautious about is hidden carbohydrates. I actually have no idea how many active carbohydrates are in mustard. I'll look that up. The low number of carbohydrates doesn't concern me, it's just getting into the new habit.
You'll have two programs to choose from, the regular program for maximum fat burning and then the bodybuilder program which is a lot more strict and does require a good deal of commitment in order to get enough carbohydrates on the re-feed meal. As Rob says, the lows are lower and the highs are higher.
The regular program allows for between 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrates per day and then during the re-feed meal, he suggests 40g of active carbohydrates for women and 60g for men. Compare that with 200g for bodybuilders. I remember trying this with brown rice and it turns out to be a LOT of brown rice. Now, remember that the amount of active carbohydrates mentioned above is for
one meal… the last meal of the day. Bodybuilders can split the 200g into the last
two meals. Rob also recommends limiting fluids and fibrous carbohydrates for this meal as it would just create extra volume in the stomach when the goal is to eat as many active carbohydrates as possible. In fact, the amounts above for the regular program is
minimum amounts of carbohydrates because there is
no limit.
This re-feed meal happens during two different cycles. Cycle one is 3 days and cycle two is 4 days. So every 3rd or 4th day depending on the cycle, you get to eat an enormous amount of food. Now, that said, the reverse is true for fats and proteins. With this re-feed meal, the idea is to have as much insulin response as possible, so you'll also have to reduce the amount of protein at that meal as well as the fat with less than 20g of each suggested. Up until that last meal of the day, everything else is the same…. Namely meals comprising of protein, fat and fibrous vegetables and little or no active carbohydrates.
My breakfast for today:8 Egg whites
3 whole eggs
3 inches of polish sausage sliced up
½ a green pepper
3 Tablespoons of Coconut oil
2 slices of Yves veggie cheese
2 slices of Elk Sausage diced up
Organic black pepper
1 cup Cauliflower
I warmed up the frying pan with the coconut oil, browned the sausages and green pepper, added the egg whites, whole eggs and veggie cheese and then kinda scrambled it / made an omelet out of it. Nibbled on the Cauliflower (raw) afterwards and washed it all down with some Fortune D.
Lunch is going to be some Elk burgers with veggie cheese and mustard, no bun, and more cauliflower and maybe a green salad.
Meal 3 will probably be a protein shake with 1 scoop whey protein with 8 egg whites and two tablespoons of Udo's Oil. I call this my Chocolate Egg Shake.
Meal 4 and 5, not sure yet, but will be more meat and veggies and fat.
WHY? All this to
INCREASE fat burning, increase testosterone, Thermogenics, reduce insulin response and increase Glucagon.
This post is certainly going to piss off a lot of vegetarians (I'm a former vegetarian….. so take it easy) and surely create some controversy. I look forward to the comments.
Labels: Natural Hormone Enhancement, Rob Faigin, weight loss
Salad For Breakfast For Weight Loss and Blood Sugar Control
I've been reading about what people eat for breakfast around the world and it's amazing to see the diversity. Obviously various parts of the world eat meals that include traditional fare from their country like the Chinese eating soup with Tofu, the Dutch eating a lot of cheese, Mexicans and other central American countries eating tortilla's and the Australians including Vegemite spread on their toast.
I was surprised to see that very few if any include any sort of vegetables with their breakfast. There's a lot of sweet things like jam's and preserves to spread on bread or toast and certainly a lot of coffee and juices, but no veggies.
What happened to eating veggies for breakfast?
Do you have a salad or vegetables with your breakfast? And if not, why not?
Why is it that eggs are considered fine for breakfast, but then never later in the day? Weird.
Eggs are a great source of protein with little or no fat, depending on how you're preparing them, egg whites or whole eggs. Do you avoid them because of the
egg cholesterol myth? Yes, it's a myth. I've been promoting eggs for a long time and in a book I'm reading by Dr John Corso called "
Stupid Reasons People Die" John agrees with me stating
"the fallout from that era [the 60's] is that eggs still have a bad rap, even though it turns out they're not bad for you"
. My mom will not hear it any other way.
I eat a lot of egg whites. A lot! When I'm training very heavy, I have been known to eat in the range of 40 egg whites a day, but I almost always have either 8 to 16 egg whites for breakfast…. Plus a salad and raw veggies.
Vegetables have a large amount of fiber, slow the absorption of carbohydrates and make you feel full. My buddy Dirk has always said
"there's nothing like a good crap in the morning to start your day"
, and veggies certainly help you stay regular.
Vegetables are your friend and should be eaten with each and every meal, but which veggies?
There really are no "better than the other" vegetables when it comes right down to it, but there are some circumstances where you can optimize the veggies in accordance to the
Glycemic index. For instance, Parsnips are much higher on the GI than say celery or peppers. Parsnips fall into the 70 to 100 range and should be avoided, while peppers are low on the GI at 20 to 49 and are your ally. I typically add red and green peppers to my morning eggs for example, but avoid baked potatoes.
However, the GI scale was introduced in 1979 and
"is a system of ranking the quality of carbohydrate in a food according to the immediate effect it has on blood glucose"
The tests were done with just the food in question, but not tested when combined with other foods. For example, eating some chicken or other lean protein, and then a high GI vegetable would have less of an impact on your blood glucose because the protein slows down the absorption. If you're not eating your protein first, you should be. Always begin your meal with the protein portion, then the veggies and then the starch if you're having a starch with the meal. Food combiners would never do this. They would eat a protein and veggies, or a starch and veggies, but never a protein and a starch. Read more about
food combing here and
discuss food combining here.
Having the traditional breakfast of cereal, juice and coffee will raise your blood sugar quite fast as those foods are easily broken down and converted to sugar. Then you'd have a crash a few hours later and begin searching for other non nutritional foods or more coffee.
Having eggs and a salad or veggies would create long lasting energy and little or no effect on blood sugar, avoid the blood sugar crash and cut down on cravings.
So when do you begin? Let me and others know by posting your thoughts on salad for breakfast in my
weight loss forum.Labels: weight loss
10000 Steps A Day Weight Loss Program
My sister informed me about this
10000 steps a day walking program while she was visiting me the other day. I did some research about it and found that it's a popular walking program using a pedometer to measure your steps per day.
There are walking clubs doing it and a lot of people have gotten involved.
It was first mentioned about 40 years ago in Japan as a way to increase activity and promote good heart health. I had never heard of it before and I walked for years when I first began my weight loss journey. (click here to read my
weight loss story)
They say that
10000 steps a day is the number required to stay healthy and fit so I looked into it and wrote about it on my new blog at :
10000 steps a day walking program.
I'd love to hear your comments and have you join my
weight loss forum to post your thoughts and results with it. There's an entire section in the
10000 steps a day forum.
Your thoughts?
Labels: walking, weight loss
Weight Loss Mistakes
When trying to lose fat, there are several, easy mistakes almost everyone makes. If you are looking to lose fat, avoid making any of the mistakes listed below. Losing fat is not difficult, it just takes time and commitment.
Too much too soon. Fat loss takes time, you can't rush it, plain and simple. If you try to lose too much in a short period of time, you will fail, get discouraged, and probably stop your diet. It's a long term process, making changes for life, not just "the moment" and making your commitment into a lifestyle.
Eating carbs later in the day. You should not consume any carbs in the second half of your day. For example, if you get up at 8:00AM, stop eating carbs at 4:00pm. Make your meals consisting of a lean protein and a vegetable or salad and some fats. Good fats mind you. Here's a great article on
night time eating by Tom Venuto.
Not taking time to prepare meals. If you are going to diet, do it right. Plan you meals for the following day, the night before. If you need to cook anything, have it ready. If you don't prepare, you may end up eating whatever is available, which is usually fattening.
Not exercising regularly. You need to exercise to burn fat. I suggest doing some type of cardio, 30 minutes a day, 4 times a week. This can include walking, biking, running, swimming, etc. For best results, exercise in the morning, on an empty stomach.
Not weight training. Weight training not only makes you look and feel better, it also increases your metabolism, to help burn more fat. You build more muscle which then requires more fuel to support it and if you're cutting calories, that fuel must come from fat. Muscle is your friend, your best friend.
Doing the same thing over and over again. If you don't switch up your exercises, you will get tired of it, and probably quit all together. Not only that, but the body will adapt to what you are doing, and you will not see any results. Most personal trainers switch up your program every 4 to 6 weeks. This gives you time to get used to your program and excel at it, and then just as it's becoming boring, it's switched up inspiring you as well as giving your muscles a "shock" because there's a "new program" in town. This is called
periodization which I covered in 2004.
Another way to mix things up is to do a
Random Act of Fitness. Throw something random into the mix.
Paying too much attention to the scale. If you are weight training, and increasing muscle mass, you may not be dropping in weight, but you will be dropping fat. This is probably the biggest reason people dont think they're getting results. They pay attention to the scale rather than body fat percentage. Your ultimate goal is to gain lean muscle mass, while dropping body fat. The scale stays the same, but you look better.
Giving up. Whatever you do, don't give up. You will regret it, a couple months down the road. If you are frustrated and not losing weight, try something different, try and make it fun. Try martial arts, yoga, Five Tibetan rites, or something different like that. The five secret Tibetan exercises will help you increase energy and improve mood. Activate your power centers and pop out of bed alert and happy every morning. Not only do you get to try something new, but you end up with a social network of exercise friends. Making friends at Taekwondo or Yoga gives you a reason to continue and possibly challenge one another.
A good social network for discussing your challenges and success' may help as well. Have a friend in your
weight loss support forum that holds you accountable may be just the thing as well. I'm happy to recommend my new
weight loss forum for just that purpose.
Never give up. If you're not getting the results you want, make sure you tell yourself that "you are getting results". Everything produces a result. If it's not the one you want, then it's time to take a look at what you're doing and modify it, then wait to see the results. Usually this can be done on a week to week basis. If you hit a plateau, ask yourself "is it because I'm eating too much, or eating too little". yes, eating too little can slow down your metabolism and create a plateau. Adding in a second cardio session at night might break the plateau as would adding extra calories in the form or lean protein. Add 2 ounces of chicken to each meal for the week and see if that breaks your plateau. You'd be suprised.
Labels: Dieting, motivation, weight loss
New Weight Loss Community
There is no time like the present to get started, so here it goes.
After being on the net since 1996 (I believe) under the name "former fat guy", I finally launched a new version of my blog including an entire
weight loss forum.
Formerfatguy.com has had a blogger blog, which you're reading now, included in my website and I've finally moved over to Wordpress to fully utilize it's features. Now, that blog is not here, but rather at
www.formerfatguyblog.com, and with it, I finally made the jump to include an entire
weight loss community forum in it.
I've set up some forums for discussion about various
weight loss programs like Tom Venuto's
Burn The Fat program, Harvey Diamond's
Fit For Life book and food combining. Also some sections on popular weight loss methods like
weight watchers, Sunrider,
Isagenix and
Herbalife.
I am working very hard at getting expert moderators in the specific forums such as Harvey Diamond for the Fit for Life forum. I'll let you know how it goes.
I think it's long overdue so I've been working the past few days to get it up (the website I mean), running and tweaked. It's still not perfect and will be a work in progress but I'm going to launch it anyway.
formerfatguyblog.com, the
weight loss blog with
community forum also features a
link directory for
bodybuilding,
dieting,
fitness,
health,
personal trainers,
sports and of course
weight loss. If you've got a website related to any of those topics, you can get your link listed in the dirctory.
I wanted a better way to interact with users, answer questions from community members for everyone else to benefit from, answer visitors emails and display the answers for everyone else to read and comment on and just basically harness the power of Wordpress.
Please go have a look at the new
weight loss blog. I'll still be active here as well, but right now, I'm putting a lot more attention on the new one.
It's been tested about as much as I can test it from my end, but I'd love readers to go have a look around and let me know about anything they see that's unusual.
I have a request for a graphics designer to create a new logo for the blog and for the forum. If you know what you're doing with photoshop and have examples of your work, then contact me for a possible designer project.
PLEEEEZZZEEE make sure you register for the community. There's not much in there now as It's just been started, but I'd sure like some initial testers to register and post some threads about their weight loss success stories. I will begin to feature some select stories for that blog as well as this one. It's something I've wanted to do for a long time. Ah heck, there's a lot I've wanted to do with this website for along time and now I am able to in a much easier fashion.
I've also just posted my inaugural post entitled
How I Lost 300 Pounds with subtitle my
Weight Loss StoryTags:
weight loss community,
weight loss forum,
weight loss blogLabels: Burn The Fat, fat loss, weight loss, weight loss forum
Fat Loss Basics
Nearly 60% of Americans are overweight or obese today. If you are struggling to keep your stomach from overlapping your belt then here are a few pointers for you. Listening to all the fat loss methods and messages out there can confuse you and make you forget about the very important basics.
Causes For Fat Gain It is very easy this day and age to fall into a lot of habits that can contribute to your dreaded weight gain. Below are few of many reasons why so many Americans are becoming overweight:
Consuming 300 more calories a day then we did 20 years ago. We are eating out a lot more than normal.
Eating larger sized portions of their meals.
Think that low fat foods are good and can eat as much as they want.
And the big reason, not enough exercise.
Many people that try to keep their weight down do so by only eating low fat foods. However, many low fat foods have more calories than the normal food. Be sure to read the labels on foods, although fat matters calories count.
Fat Gain Prevention Physical activity is a factor too, about a third of Americans do not get enough physical exercise. Instead we spend most of our time sitting at our computers, watching TV, driving instead of walking, taking the elevator instead of the stairs, or taking any other kind of short cut that allow us to work less. It is recommended that you get 30 minutes of moderate exercise a day such as a brisk walk or a bike ride.
No weight loss program would be affective without the exercise. Or perhaps that should be worded differently - "a weight loss program is MORE effective with exercise". We all want to take the breaks or the short cuts, but only with exercise can we get the results we want. Mostly, it's about your metabolism. Dieting slows the metabolism while exercise and eating more often increase metabolism.
Consider that when we wake up, our metabolism is at it's lowest and slowly increases throughout the day, then slowing near dinner time. Changing this is as easy as exercising first thing in the morning and eating a larger meal at breakfast consisting of lean protein such as egg whites, plus good carbs such as oatmeal or Chia.
Chia Seed
For centuries this tiny little seed (Chia) was used as a staple food by the Indians of the south west and Mexico. Known as the running food, its use as a high energy endurance food has been recorded as far back as the ancient Aztecs. It was said the Aztec warriors subsisted on the Chia seed during the conquests. The Indians of the south west would eat as little as a teaspoon full when going on a 24hr. forced march. Indians running form the Colorado River to the California coast to trade turquoise for seashells would only bring the Chia seed for their nourishment.
By sticking with the above basics fat loss and maintenance can be achieved by adding a few simple minor changes to your lifestyle.
There are no quick fixes or magic methods. Losing fat and keeping it off does not come easy for many people. The idea of eating less and moving more should be the common approach.
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Getting Ready For The Summer Weight Loss Tips
Here's a little blast from the past to get your ready for summer. Some popular posts from summer of 2006. One of the posts is about bottled drinking water which I understand is not the acceptable thing to do anymore. I heard that California restauraunts are now switching back to tap water. Does anyone know about this and could get me into the loop? I'd like to see the reasearch and what their reasons are for doing this. I never heard about it.
So here are the posts from Last summer for your reading pleasure.
Peak Potentials Warrior Camp 2006How I spent my summer last year - Warrior camps, wizard camps and
Ultimate Leadership Camp. Ahhh the memories. Speaking of Warrior camp, I wrote this post for everyone about to attend. It gets hot in the summer and when you're asked to drink even more water before heading to the camp, you often wonder why? Yours is not to wonder (well, ok, wonder if you want), yours is to do. The importance of
hydrating before warrior camp and what it is about
Dehydration.
Bottled Drinking WaterDuring the summer, more water is consumed than any other time of the year. It is a time when everyone tries to stay hydrated and healthy while participating in various summer events. A bottle of cool, clear water offers optimum refreshment with the least amount of calories.
Five Healthy Diet Foods That Will Protect Against Any DiseaseAs well as being one of the most realistic and safest ways to lose weight, the
Mediterranean diet can also help prevent serious diseases such as cancer and heart disease.
Bowflex ExerciseThe bowflex exercise is done with rubber bands that work against your motions. While there is no steel involved with the restriction process, you'll certainly feel the burn regardless. The bowflex exercise simply offers a new and innovative twist on things. The great aspect of these new-age toning machines is the all-in-one factor. You can literally choose from dozens of exercises when it comes to a contemporary bowflex workout center
Weight Loss PlateauWeight loss pleatau's can be the worst form of discouragement. When we've hit a weight loss pleatau or fitness plateau, our mind becomes distracted with negative thoughts and sometimes feelings of low self esteem. If you've hit a weight loss pleatau and want to find some way to break it, or be encouraged to continue regardless of anything, please come back to this page, or print it for your files for constant encouragement. I have not read anything on the subject that best describes how to deal with discouragement than this article writen by Tom Venuto.
Benefits Of Dietary FiberIt's not only the average American who isn`t getting enough fiber in their diets, but studies have shown that even fitness minded people aren't getting enough. Why is this? We are supposed to be educated people when it comes to getting good nutrition and it comes as a major surprise that we are not getting enough. This article is going to explain the basics of dietary fiber. You will learn what fiber is, its benefits, best fibrous foods, best supplements to use, and the side effects of consuming to much of it.
and I guess, while I'm at it, my
Summer Birthday at Mind of Steel Heart of Gold from 2006.
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What Do I Do To Lose Weight
I get a lot of emails around the subject "what do I do to lose weight", and "what tips can you give me".
In the beginning, I'd respond with my thoughts and my advice or tips and we would start an email dialog about it. This would go on for a number of emails and I may or may not have heard back from them later. Some people give me regular updates as to their success on a monthly or yearly basis and it’s really nice to hear back from everyone with their results.
Then I decided to take another approach to the emails.
I now begin with by asking a question:
When someone asks me for tips or advice, I ask
"
What are you doing now?"
Before I invest a lot of time answering their questions about what to do or what I recommend, I want to know what they’ve been doing so far. Originally I began to ask this question because I didn't want to duplicate what they were already doing, but rather improve on what they were doing, or look for their weak spots.
What does their program look like, what are they eating, what sort of exercise are they doing, how often etc.
Surprisingly, it’s cut way down on the rest of the emails and my time. I say surprisingly because I honestly expected a reply email with the details.
I could look at this in a number of ways :
1. People are not doing anything about their weight loss or their exercise right now
2. People don’t want to invest the time to write back
3. Unknown
Or they’re simply not doing anything about it and are looking to chat
There are some simple undeniable truths about losing weight.
You must eat less calories than you burn
You must exercise at least 3 times a week
Cardio and weight training must be part of your program
So what’s the deal? I’m curious. I’d like to have you post your comments about this here
The Question is:
What are you currently doing in regards to your weight loss program?
Tags:
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Weight Loss AdviceLabels: fat loss, weight loss
Burning A Lot Of Calories
I got emailed this cartoon and I just had to post it. First of all, it's funny, second of all, I got a kick out of his choice of words "hopefully he's burning a lot of calories".
Most people Hope to burn fat and get into shape, but it's not wishing that makes it happen. There is a lot of work involved, which seems to go better when we're well informed on the topic at hand. He also uses the phrase "struggling", which is not in my vocabulary. I don't struggle at anything and neither should you. There's no such thing as struggling, but rather results. Everything shows results - in the mirror, one the scale and in how your clothes fit and how you feel about yourself. No matter what happens, you get results. It's up to us to interpret the results and make changes in our routine or program. Then monitor the new results.
If you're "struggling" as it were, then time to have a look at the post I made about
5 great ways to burn more bodyfat.
Add in or increase your weight training to obtain more muscle mass, Double up on your cardio etc.
Do something different and then test the results. Simple.
Tags:
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Weight LossLabels: fat loss, weight loss
5 Great Ways To Burn More Body Fat
1. Do not eat poor quality carbohydrates before going to sleep. Poor quality carbohydrates are those that contain sugar or are highly processed. These would include most breakfast cereals, breads, snack foods, candies, and even fruits and juices. Eating these foods immediately prior to sleeping will likely result in increased fat deposit and will prevent your body from maintaining a successful fat-burning mode. Read more about
night time eating by
Tom Venuto2. The more lean muscle you have, the more calories your body will burn even at rest. Muscle is extremely active metabolically. Do some resistance training, add some muscle, and crank up that metabolism.
3. Never let yourself get too hungry, or too stuffed. It really is all about moderation. Time your meals so that you eat before you are starving . . . doing this one simple thing will cause you to almost always eat less. When you do eat, stop when your satisfied not when you are so stuffed you cannot even get down another bite.
4. Double up on your cardio training. From time to time it may be beneficial to the fat-burning process for you to split your cardio training into two short sessions rather than one longer one. Studies suggest that people who do 30 minutes of morning cardio and then 30 minutes of evening cardio lose more fat than those doing just one 60 minute session.
5. Eat more high fiber foods. Most of us do not get enough fiber in our daily diets, and that's just a shame. Fiber not only promotes overall general health, but also can significantly aid in your fat-burning efforts. Leafy greens and salads are ideal sources of fiber.
Want more inspiration? Want to be Unstoppable in your fat loss? Check out the latest from "the Fit Bastard" Scott Tousignant - an audio package of 15 interviews with 21 Fat Loss Experts including
Tom Venuto,
Clarke Bartram,
Jon Benson and others.
Zack Evan-Esh is someone I've seen around the net and on fat loss and bodybuilding program websites. I've read his material but never heard anything else about him. I was happy to have listened to his interview this morning.
check out the
Unstoppable Fat Loss Program Ever heard of
Joe Vitale? Heard of "
the Secret" ? Well Joe Vitale of "the Secret" is featured in this unstoppable fat loss package where he talks about "the Law Of Attraction" and how it applies to getting the body we desire.
there is an interview with
John Riccio who was born with Cerebral Palsy and had to overcome 49 surgeries. Is he unstoppable? you bet.
And I'm proud to announce that an interview with me,
Rob Cooper "Former Fat Guy" is featured in the package. Scott asked me about what it took to go from 500 pounds down to a lean impressive 240 pounds, what motivates me, what I do to motivate others, what do I believe is holding people back from achieving their goals and much much more.
I highly recommend you check out the
Unstoppable Fat Loss Interview program by Scott Tousignant. Learn what it takes to get motivated, stay motivated and become Unstoppable!
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MotivationLabels: fat loss, motivation, unstoppable, weight loss
6 Diet Tips For Quick Weight Loss
1) Water. Did you know that water is essential for weight loss?
Water helps to flush your body clean of toxins & fat. Drinking ample water each day allows your bodily functions to work optimally. One of the biggest benefits of drinking water while losing weight is that it makes you feel full. If you always have a full water bottle with you & drink it throughout the day, it will take away your "extra" hunger & help you from snitching unwanted calories. Aim for at least 64 ounces of pure water a day.
2) Fiber. Fiber is a wondrous fat loss aid. Eating foods high in fiber throughout the day will really make you feel full & help to keep your appetite in check. Try to incorporate about 5 grams of fiber each meal (about 25 total for the day). If you are currently not up to par with your fiber intake (& chances are you are not) gradually increase to 25 grams a day to prevent bloating. High fiber foods: vegetables, nuts/seeds, beans, whole grains (like oatmeal, granola, non-sugary cereals) & many fruits.
3) Eat 5 meals a day. Some may think that sounds like an awful lot of food but eating 5 small meals during the day will really help you lose fat. It may take some getting used to but your body will adjust & you will start to lose unwanted pounds. If you eat 5 small, balanced meals a day you will not be hungry, you will have higher energy levels through out the whole day & food cravings should virtually disappear.
4) Be prepared. It is so much easier to eat healthy when you plan ahead. Bring some healthy meals to work, make leftovers at dinner for lunch the next day, keep good food in the fridge at work or even in your drawers (nutrition bars, shakes & a shaker bottle, nuts & seeds, fruit or other favorite healthy snacks).
5) Free day. Yippee! A day of eating anything you want, anything you desire is allowed! Not only is it allowed, it is also encouraged. By completely denying yourself of all sweets & snacks, you may be setting yourself up for a disastrous fallout.
Allow yourself one day a week where you can have a piece of your favorite dessert or a Pina Colada or whatever your favorite treat may be. Allowing yourself a little breathing room for just 1 day a week can really help you maintain the correct mindset to stay focused & committed to your weightloss efforts.
6) Try a diet supplement. While there’s no substitute for a healthy diet & consistent exercise program, many people find taking a fat burning supplement helps the process along.
Labels: Diet, Dieting, Quick Weight Loss, weight loss
17 Foods That Heal And Natural Health
Who Else Wants To Learn What Foods Help Stop The Pollution Of Your Body And Start Healing It?That's the headline that caught my attention.... I'll tell you about it in a moment, but first...
Imagine if you could just eat a food and …… everything in your life improves, your spouse improves? Your dog stops pissing in the house and your cat stops ripping up your furniture. Imagine if you could just eat a food and …. Your car got better mileage? Or your kids suddenly got better grades? Actually, I believe that one might be true!
When I drove cab a bunch of years back and I was learning about nutrition and weight loss (my
weight loss story), I began to realize and see the effect food has on people including their mood.
Two Categories Of Foods
I would pick people up from grocery shopping and would help them load their groceries into the trunk. I would see everything that they purchased and it usually fell into three categories, two of which were:
Dead – White and Processed foods
The customers were usually in a very bad mood and had poor complexion. They complained about a number of things including headaches, stiffness and frequent colds and the like.
Live Whole Foods
The customers were usually better dressed and in a much happier mood. They had clear skin and the trip was usually a lot more fun. They and their families were quite active with other physical activities.
Even today, 15 years later, the people who have the best success with their weight loss and health are those who focus on becoming healthy rather than on losing weight.
Natural techniques work
Whole live foods work. Foods are our fuel. They're from which our bodies create themselves every day and if we provide our body with better fuel then we build better bodies.
I've recently updated my website with articles about
high cholesterol,
low cholesterol,
natural cure for high cholesterol,
natural cure for high blood pressure,
hoodia information for natural weight loss because I am asked about these things on a regular basis.
My belief has always been that
natural cures work and if we eat better we become healthy.
While doing a bunch of research on the topics I listed above, I found a very interesting website that offers information on eating natural foods,
17 foods that heal to be exact that seems to address a lot of things we have to deal with as we age.
I'd say it's worth checking out.
| Imagine if you could just eat a food and... |
 |
- Lower High Blood Pressure
- Reduce High Cholesterol
- Control Your Diabetes
- Suppress Your Appetite
- Prevent Blood Clots
- Reduce Triglycerides
- Lower Your Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke
- Ease The Symptoms of Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Relieve Migraine Headaches
- Fight Inflammation
- Regulate Your Immune System
- Soothe Bronchial Asthma
- Combat Early Kidney Disease, and more...
|
Why keep popping pills and wasting money on every new fad that comes along when you can simply eat these foods and be healthy the natural way?
17 Foods That Heal
Healthy Healing Foods From The Bible
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Weight LossLabels: foods that heal, heart disease, high cholesterol, lower cholesterol, natural cures, weight loss
Night Time Eating And Weight Loss
By Tom Venuto, CSCS, NSCA-CPTwww.BurnTheFatbook.com"Eat breakfast like a king, eat lunch like a prince and eat dinner like a pauper." This maxim can be attributed to nutrition writer Adelle Davis, and since her passing in 1974, the advice to eat less at night to help with fat loss has lived on and continued to circulate in many different incarnations. This includes suggestions such as:
"Dont eat a lot before bedtime"
"Don't eat midnight snacks"
"Don't eat anything after 7pm"
"Don't eat any carbs at night"
"Don't eat any carbs after 3 pm"
and so on.
I too believe that
eating lightly at night is usually very solid advice for people seeking increased fat loss, especially for people who are inactive at night. However, some fitness experts today, when they hear "eat less at night", start screaming, Diet Voodoo!"
Opinions on this subject are definitely mixed. Many highly respected experts strongly recommend
eating less at night to improve fat loss, while others suggest that it's only calories in vs calories out over 24 hours that matters.
The critics claim that it's ridiculous to cut off food intake at a certain hour or to presume that "carbs turn to fat" at night as if there were some kind of nocturnal carbohydrate gremlins waiting to shuttle calories into fat cells when the moon is full. They suggest that if you eat less in the morning and eat more at night, it all "balances itself out at the end of the day."
Of course, food does not turn to fat just because it's eaten after a certain "cutoff hour" and carbs do not necessarily turn to fat at night either (although there are hypotheses about low evening insulin sensitivity having some significance).
What we do know for certain is that the law of energy balance is with us at all hours of the day - and that bears some deeper consideration when you consider that we expend the least energy when we are sleeping and many people spend the entire evening watching TV.
I recently had the privilege of interviewing sports nutritionist and dietician Dan Benardot, PhD for our members-only fat loss support community, and he gave us a very interesting perspective on this.
Dr. Benardot said that thinking in terms of 24 hour energy balance may be a seriously flawed and outdated concept. He says that the old 24-hour model of energy balance looks at calories in versus calories out in 24 hour units.
However, what really happens is that your body allocates energy minute by minute and hour by hour as your body's needs dictate, not at some specified 24 hour end point.
I first heard this concept suggested by Dr. Fred Hatfield about 15 years ago.
Hatfield explained how and why you should be thinking ahead to the next three hours and adjusting your energy intake accordingly.
Although it's not really a new idea, Dr. Benardot has recently taken this concept to a much higher level of sophistication and he calls the new paradigm, "
Within Day Energy Balance."
The Within Day Energy Balance
The Within Day Energy balance approach not only backs up the practice of eating small meals approximately every three hours, AND the practice of "nutrient timing" (which is why pre and post workout nutrition is such a popular topic today, and rightly so). it also suggests that we should adjust our energy intake according to our activity.
Let's make the assumption most people come home from work, then plop on the couch in front of the TV all night. Let's also assume that the majority of people go to bed late in the evening, usually around 10 pm, 11 pm or midnight. Therefore, night-time is the period during which the least energy is being expended.
If this is true, then it's logical to suggest that one should not eat huge amounts of calories at night, especially right before bed because that would provide excess fuel at a time when it is not needed. The result is increased likelihood of fat storage.
From the within day energy balance perspective, the advice to eat less at night makes complete sense. Of course it also suggests that if you do intense training at night, then you should eat more at night to support that activity.
Those stuck on a 24 hour model of energy expenditure would say timing of energy intake doesnt matter as long as the total calories for the day are in a deficit. But who ever decided that the body operates on a 24-hour "DAY".
Try this test (or not!):
Eat a 2500 calorie per day diet, with nothing for breakfast, nothing before or after your morning workout, 500 calories for lunch, 750 calories for dinner and 1250 calories before bedtime.
Now compare that to the SAME 2500 calorie diet with 6 small meals of approximately 420 calories per meal and then tweak those meal sizes a bit so that you eat a little more before and after your workout and a little less later at night.
Both are 2500 calories per day. According to "a calorie is just a calorie"
and "24 hour energy balance" thinking, both diets will produce the same results in performance, health and body composition. But will they?
Does your body really do a calculation at midnight and add up the day's totals like a business man when he closes out the register at night? It's a lot more logical that energy is stored in real time and energy is burned in real time, rather than accounted for at the end of each 24 hour period.
24 hour energy balance is just one way to academically sort calories so you can understand it and count it in convenient units of time. This has it's uses, as in calculating a daily calorie intake level for menu planning purposes.
Ok, but enough about calories, what about the individual macronutrients?
Some people dont simply suggest eating fewer calories at night, they suggest you take your calorie cut specifically from CARBS rather than from all macronutrients evenly across the board. Is there anything to it?
Well, there's more than one theory. The most commonly quoted theory has to do with insulin.
The late
bodybuilding guru Dan Duchaine was once asked by a competitor,
"I want to get cut up for an upcoming contest. Should I eat at night?
I heard I shouldn't eat carbs after 6:00 pm."
Duchaine answered:
"It's true that insulin sensitivity is lowest at night. Let's discuss what is happening in your body that makes it dislike carbs at night. Cortisol, a catabolic hormone, is highest at night. When cortisol is elevated, your muscle cell insulin sensitivity is lowered."
More recently, David Barr wrote a tip on "lower carbs at night" for the bodybuilding website, T-Nation. He said:
"Even when bulking, you don't want to start scarfing down Pop Tarts before you go to bed. Our muscle insulin sensitivity decreases as the day wears on, meaning that we're more likely to generate a large insulin response from ingesting carbs. Stated differently, we're more predisposed to adding fat mass by eating carbs at night because our body doesn't handle the hormone insulin as well as it does earlier in the day."
Mind you, Barr is a not a "voodoo" guy; he is a respected scientist who also happens to be well known as a "dogma destroyer" and "myth buster". and Duchaine, although he had a shady past and some run-ins with the law, was nevertheless highly respected by nearly all in the bodybuilding world for his ahead-of-his-time nutrition wisdom.
As a result of this advice, word got out in the
bodybuilding and fitness community that you should eat fewer carbs at night. Real world results and the "test of time" have suggested that this is an effective strategy.
I also don't know a single nutrition or training expert who doesn't agree that insulin management and improvement of insulin sensitivity aren't effective approaches in the management of body fat.
However, it's only fair to point out that not all scientists agree that cutting carbs at night will have any major real world impact on fat loss.
Dr. Benardot, for example, doesn't think there's much to it. He says that exercisers and athletes in particular, usually have excellent glycemic control, so the ratio of macronutrients should not be as much of an issue as the total energy balance in relation to energy needs at a particular time.
Regardless of which side of the "carbs at night" debate you lean towards, if you consider the within day energy balance principle, it make perfect sense not to eat large, calorie-dense meals late at night before bedtime.
Keep in mind of course, that cutting back on your calories and or carbs at night makes the most sense in the context of a fat loss program, especially if fat loss has been slow. It's quite possible that I might give the exact opposite advice (eat a big meal before bed) to the skinny "ectomorph"
who is having a hard time gaining muscular body weight.
Also consider that this doesn't necessarily mean eating nothing at night; it may simply mean eating smaller meals or emphasizing lean protein and green veggies (or a small protein shake) at night.
Many programs suggest a specific time when you should eat your last meal of the day. However, I'd suggest avoiding an absolute cut off time, such as "no food or no carbs after 6 pm, etc," because people go to bed at different times, and maintenance of steady blood sugar and an optimal hormonal balance even at night are also important goals.
A more personalized suggestion is to cut off food intake 3 hours before bedtime, if practical and possible. For example, if you eat dinner at 6 pm, but don't go to bed until 12 midnight, then a small 9:00 pm meal or a snack makes sense, but keep it light, preferably lean protein, and dont raid the refrigerator at 11:55!
An Important Rule Ro Remember
An Important rule to rememberin all cases, is:
that whatever is working, keep doing more of it. If you eat your largest meal before bed and lose fat anyway, I would never tell you to change that. Results are what counts. On the other hand, if you're stuck at a fat loss plateau, this is a technique I'd suggest you give a try.
Night time eating is likely to remain a subject of debate - especially the part about whether carbs should be targeted for removal in evening meals.
However, perhaps even those who are skeptical can consider, that if cutting out carbs at night is effective for fat loss, it may be for the simple reason that it forces you to eat less automatically.
In other words, setting a rule to eat fewer calories or to eat fewer carbs at night may be a superbly effective way to keep your daily calories in check and to match intake to activity, whereas people who are allowed to eat ad libitum at night when they're home, glued to the couch and watching TV, etc., may tend to overeat when the energy is not needed in large amounts.
Me personally? Unless I'm weight training at night, I have always reduced calories and carbs at night when "cutting" for bodybuilding competition.
It's worked so well for me that I devoted a whole section to it in my e-book,
Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle (BFFM) and I have names for the techniques: "calorie tapering" and "carb tapering."
For more information on how I use these methods to help me reach single digit body fat, you can visit:
http://www.BurnTheFatbook.comAbout 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.burnthefatbook.com Tags:
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caloriesLabels: Burn The Fat, Calories, Tom Venuto, weight loss
Why Some People Quit And Some People NEVER Give Up
By Tom Venuto, CSCS, NSCA-CPTwww.BurnTheFatbook.comThroughout my 18 years in the fitness industry as a trainer, nutrition consultant and motivational coach, I have noticed that some people who start a nutrition and exercise program give up very easily after hitting the first obstacle they encounter. If they feel the slightest bit of discouragement or frustration, they will abandon even their biggest goals and dreams.
On the other hand, I noticed that some people simply NEVER give up. They have ferocious persistence and they never let go of their goals. These people are like the bulldog that refuses to release its teeth-hold on a bone. The harder you try to pull the bone out of his mouth, the harder the dog chomps down with a vice-like grip.
What's the difference between these two types of people? Psychologists say there is an answer.
An extremely important guideline for achieving fitness success is the concept that, "There is no failure; only feedback. You don't "fail", you only get results."
This is a foundational principle from the field of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), and the first time I ever heard it was from peak performance expert Anthony Robbins back in the late 1980's. It's a principle that stuck with me ever since, because it's a very, very powerful shift in mindset.
A lot of people will second-guess themselves and they'll bail out and quit, just because what they try at first doesn't work. They consider it a permanent failure, but all they need is a little attitude change, a mindset change, or what we call a "reframe."
Instead of saying, "This is failure" they can say to themselves, "I produced a result" and "This is only temporary." This change in perspective is going to change the way that they feel and how they mentally process and explain the experience. It turns into a learning opportunity and valuable feedback for a course correction instead of a failure, and that drives continued action and forward movement.
It's all about your results and your interpretation of those results
Dr Martin Seligman, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, did some incredible research on this subject and wrote about it in his book, Learned Optimism. Dr. Seligman noticed that the difference between people who give up and people who persist and never quit is what he referred to as "explanatory style." He said that explanatory style is the way we explain or interpret bad events or failures.
People who habitually give up have an explanatory style of permanence. For example, they hit a plateau in their progress and explain it by saying, "diets never work" or "I have bad genetics so I'll always be fat." These explanations imply permanence.
Other people hit the same plateaus and encounter the same challenges, but explain them differently. They say things such as, "I ate too many cheat meals this week," or "I haven't found the right diet for my body type yet." These explanations of the results imply being temporary.
People who see negative results as permanent failure are the ones who give up easily and often generalize their "failure" into other areas of their lives and even into their own sense of self. It's one thing to say, "I ate poorly this past week because I was traveling," (a belief about temporary behavior and environment), and to say, "I am a fat person because of my genetics" (a belief about identity with a sense of permanence). Remember, body fat is a temporary condition, not a person!
People who see challenges and obstacles as temporary and as valuable learning experiences are the ones who never quit. If you learn from your experiences, not repeating what didn't work in the past, and if you choose to never quit, your success is inevitable.
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.burnthefatbook.com Tags:
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fitness,
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beliefsLabels: fitness, goals, Tom Venuto, weight loss
