My Top 3 Internet Fat Loss and Fitness Gurus
I get to read a lot of articles from many different internet trainers, nutritionists and health and fitness experts. Sometimes it’s just curiosity and sometimes I really learn from what they have to say.
Although I mostly rely on my own research of the scientific literature for assessing the worth and veracity of any particular aspect of the preventive health sciences, expert writers and commentators can help by providing analysis, exploration and summary of what’s reasonably known about any particular subject; from fat loss to muscle building and the prevention of the big three preventable diseases — cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
As far as fitness, fat loss and nutrition are concerned, but not necessarily preventive health in its wider aspects, here are three guys I enjoy reading. That’s not to say there are not others of similar worth, especially academic and institutional professionals that specialise, but these guys have a good grasp of nutrition and fitness training combined with practical experience – and they also know how to convey a message with lucid communication. They all have their strengths and I might even disagree with a minor point here or there, but read up on their blogs and free articles and you will learn a lot about weight loss, fitness training and general nutrition for the masses — pretty much without any loony stuff or weird approaches — which is more than can be said for some other sites.
Each of them has something to sell but none are too pushy. And by the way, I don’t do commissions or affiliate stuff with these people at all. By all means buy their products, but they all have plenty of free content to keep you going for some time.
The 7 Mega Principles of Diet and Exercise for Fat Loss
Yes, I am somewhat proud of the fact that if you do a Google search (at the main google.com site), an article of mine still comes up number 1 for the term fat burning. It’s an article I wrote for About.com Weight Training over 12 months ago. I am surprised at this because Google records about 3.1 million records for the search term ’fat burning’. And when you see all the goony, loony web sites and weight loss schemes and supplements and silly diets and downright ripoffs that plague the internet, it does seem unlikely that a truthful and accurate article still has a chance of getting to the top. Three cheers for Google.
In any case, for Christmas I’ll do the KISS thing and “keep it simple, stupid” by summarising the no-fail approach to weight loss that emphasizes fat loss and muscle maintenance. If it fails for you, then you are either eating too much, moving too little or have a genuine pathology or genetic disorder — and mostly this is rare as a cause of obesity.
7 Rules to Rule Them All
- Don’t sweat the small stuff. The number 1 rule is not to get hung up on the trivia. This is the 90/10 rule or whatever you want to call it. The idea is that you must concentrate on putting most effort into doing the things that bring you most return and success. It’s okay to follow up on the small stuff after you get the big picture correct. Don’t get distracted by “insider secrets” or any of that web marketing hype. There are no insider secrets to achieving and maintaining normal weight. But that doesn’t mean there are not serious challenges.
- It’s the calories stupid! Even though I saw Tom Venuto use this phrase recently, I first used it in 2001 in a book I wrote called The Organic Factor. Even so, I’m sure quite a few people have come up with this independently, it’s so very obvious. This is one of the pieces of “big stuff” that I refer to in the rule above. You need to get into negative energy balance territory (but not too negative) to lose weight and that means eating less and exercising more. And the best way to cut calories? Limit animal fats, added fats, added sugars, alcohol, and reduce excessive portion sizes.
- Adopt a lifestyle. Most diets will work for a short while – low-carb, low-fat, meal replacement shakes, you name it. If you take in less than you expend in energy, you will lose weight. However, you need to find an eating and exercise pattern that suits you, that works, and that you can adopt more or less every day of your life.
- Do Regular Aerobic Exercise. Aerobic exercise is walking, running, treadmill, cycling, swimming, class aerobics and rowing. You need to put some effort in so that you puff and sweat to some extent. Do this at least 5 times a week, for at least 30-40 minutes, even if it’s walking fast around the block.
- Do Regular Weight Training. Get to a gym or buy some dumbbells and a bench for home and do at least 2 sessions of weight training each week. It helps maintain muscle and bone while you lose fat and builds strength, flexibility and mobility for the future.
- Move more at home and work. Under-rated and misunderstood, this is the science of NEAT or “non-exercise activity thermogenesis.” Moving more at home or work builds a feedback system that upregulates your metabolism. Get a pedometer and try to rack up 5,000 steps each day. It can be gardening, housework, playing with kids, lunchtime walks at work, stair walking, anything in addition to programmed exercise. Upper-body movement counts as well.
- Get a brain plan. Tackle weight loss as a personal project. Keep a diary, set goals, review your progress each week, do lots of internal head talk, adjust your approach when necessary, be patient, stick to a lifestyle you can tolerate, and get encouragement from friends or a group.
That’s the nub of it. No secrets, no surprises. Good luck.
Burn That Belly Fat With High-Intensity Training?
Photo: Soldiersmediacenter. Jarad Bargas
A recent study by researchers at the University of Virginia found that high-intensity exercise training disposed of more belly fat in obese middle-aged women than lower-intensity training of the same energy expenditure.
The idea that doing high-intensity interval training burns off stubborn fat and visceral belly fat has been around for quite a few years. The premise has always lacked strong evidence in my opinion — or at least reasonable qualification. Any number of internet training and fat-loss gurus are promoting this idea.
What is High-Intensity Training?
First up, we need to get the concept straight. What exactly is the ’interval training’ or ‘high-intensity training’ or ’high-intensity interval training (HIIT)’ that we hear so much about?
Interval training is intermittent training, often near your maximum, in which you do a lap of an oval, or a spin on a bike, or 60 seconds on a treadmill very fast, then you recover, and do it again several times. That’s simple enough.
For example, I’m a masters sprinter and in training I might do 10 x 100 metres at 95% capacity, or 10 x 40 metres at 100% capacity. This is high-intensity interval training in real life. But I’ve been a marathoner and triathlete as well (don’t ask), and high-intensity training for those disciplines is mostly entirely different; say, 2km fast, 2km slow, 2km fast; or 6 x 400 metres at 90% capacity, or even, I might add, 5km at race pace, which is still high-intensity training, even if not interval training. And further, I know that if you run 40 to 60 miles a week in marathon or triathlon training you’ll burn fat . . . lots of it. So what’s this HIT stuff all about?
Early Investigations Were Not Adequate
One problem with some of the earlier studies was that they did not set a rule for what constitutes ‘high intensity’. The study I quoted above used lactate threshold to determine this, an excellent idea. And few earlier studies actually compared the different intensities for the same energy expenditure, which is what needs to be done to get a reasonable comparison.
You can’t just do 6 spins on a stationary bike for 30 seconds flat out and expect to burn the same amount of calories and fat as someone who does 30 minutes on the treadmill at 85% capacity, or even a 90-minute run at slow pace for that matter. Energy expenditure, which just about always includes some fat and glucose burning, is going to be a product of intensity X time for any physical activity.
In that event, the best approach for fat loss and fitness goals is likely to be a combination of interval training, weight training and cardio at different intensities. Big surprise eh? No, that’s right, it’s not. It almost reflects the recent exercise guidelines issued by the US government for general health and fitness.
Persistent Abdominal Fat and How to Shed It
What the study above suggests is that high-intensity training just might be superior to to lower-intensity training, for equal energy expended, in removing belly fat, especially the visceral fat wrapped around the internal organs that has been shown to increase your risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Naturally, you have to include a nutrition program with some calorie restriction as well.
Even though the study involved a small number of women, 27, it seemed to be well designed. And yet men might respond differently, as might the young or post-menopausal women. It’s an idea that has promise for designing exercise programs for the overweight and people with metabolic syndrome and diabetes and is well worth watching in the future. The main problem is one that is not going to be easily solved: that unfit, obese people are unlikely to take on high-intensity training by themselves and stick to it, despite what you see on The Biggest Loser.
Having said that, there is plenty of evidence that aerobic, cardio type programs help people lose fat in general — even some visceral fat — and aerobic exercise has additional benefits for cardiovascular protection. A combination of weights, cardio and HIT is likely to be the superior program if it can be tolerated.
The Best Type of High-Intensity Training for Obesity?
Heavy people exert quite a shock to the knees when they run long or hard. It’s a real injury concern. Running is often out of the question for obese people, let alone high-intensity running. For this reason, I favour cycle spin classes on a stationary bike. Doing this exercise in a group has advantages. The instructor will encourage hard work, but it’s possible to set your own pace by adjusting resistance and peddle cadence if you get overwhelmed. You’ll get some high-intensity work threaded with lower-intensity cardio — an excellent workout combo. A medical checkup is highly recommended for anyone moving from a sedentary lifestyle to high-intensity training.
The Diet Wars Really Are Over
John Tierney over at TierneyLab recently had a bit to say about the New England Journal of Medicine study that compared an American Heart Association low-fat diet with Atkins and Mediterranean diets.
I’ve discussed the details and the implications in a longer page post called Diet Wars, but the upshot of this and many other bits and pieces of nutrition research from recent times pretty much suggests that we stop wasting time debating low-fat or low-carb or in between and get on with recommending a healthy eating pattern that spans a wider macronutrient range for fat, protein and carbohydrate.
Let’s get the faddists, fanatics and false prophets on the run.
Walking is NEAT - Walk More - Lose Weight
As reported elsewhere, I just spent 5 days walking on Fraser Island, a World Heritage island just off the coast of south-east Queensland, Australia. It’s an amazing island built entirely of ocean sand deposits, yet it supports large freshwater lakes and huge forest and scrub wilderness — ideal for hiking with backpacks between specially built walkers’ camps courtesy of the National Parks people. And the dingoes add a little spice to the adventure.
NEAT also happens to be a technical term in the metabolism sciences meaning “non-exercise activity thermogenesis”. This is the activity you do when you’re not doing any formal exercise — things like fidgeting, pacing, being on the move all the time at home or at work and so on. Hauling a 20 kilo pack for 15 kms a day hiking is not necessarily ‘non-exercise’ but the point is that in studies of NEAT in various populations, scientists found that the differences in energy use between NEAT maximisers and neat minimisers can be up to 2000 kcalories a day, and even just standing for two hours rather than sitting for two hours can use around 300 kcalories extra a day.
A team at the Mayo Clinic have studied the NEAT thing quite extensively: “Obese individuals appear to exhibit an innate tendency to be seated for 2.5 hours per day more than sedentary lean counterparts.”
Now that’s really useful to know, because for those of us who run training and weight loss programs for the obese and overweight, it becomes obvious that some people are not going to be able to do any formal exercise program for reasons of size or motivation or disability.
The next best thing — or perhaps even the best thing — is to get them to ramp up their NEAT. Three hundred to 500 kcalories a day in NEAT could be all that some of these people need, along with another 500 kcalories in food energy restriction, to start losing the flab.
Convincing people to move more in their daily lives could be the ’sleeper’ factor is arresting the obesity epidemic. Walking is the dominant form of NEAT, even if it’s around the home, but preferably around the block and not to the refrigerator or local fast food outlet.
Exercise Really is Necessary to Maintain Weight
Pic from mikebaird
Recently I got into a discussion about whether exercise is really necessary in a weight loss program. The other guy was saying . . . ‘well, if you just cut calorie intake you’re going to lose weight . . . if you starve you lose weight; witness concentration camps and so on’. And of course, Gary Taubes has been stirring up the diet and exercise community with his irreverent, but flawed views.
It’s a trite argument isn’t it? If you don’t eat, or eat very little, inevitably you will lose weight, fat and muscle. We all know that; except that’s not what we’re really talking about today. If you’re overweight you need to find a pattern of living that allows you to maintain a normal weight and eat well enough so that you enjoy life without having to do “diets”.
What I recommend is moderate calorie restriction in conjunction with a substantial increase in physical activity. And I’m not alone. Increasingly the science supports this, as do many successful weight losers.
Calorie-restricted diets
The trouble with low-calorie diets by themselves is threefold:
- You reset your metabolism — downward. This is diet-induced thermogenesis. The body senses a low-calorie environment and decides to reduce its basal energy expenditure. It’s a survival mechanism that’s evolved over thousands of years.
- On low-calorie diets you lose not only muscle, but bone as well. Okay, when you stabilise your weight you may get some of this back, but it’s not ideal.
- Without exercise, you don’t get all those other proven benefits like protection from heart disease and some cancers, improved bone density, mental health, and perhaps protection from dementias as well as a list of other benefits.
Proven as a practical approach
Professional physical activity guidelines have for several years recommended that one needs to exercise an hour a day for most days of the week to lose weight and to keep it off. This has recently been confirmed by a study of women published in the Archives of Internal Medicine
Not only that, but the US National Weight Control Registry – a program that keeps track of successful weight losers — found that most of their successful listers did just that: exercised for about an hour a day in addition to their day-to-day activities. It doesn’t have to be all high-intensity stuff, because many did a lot of walking.
Low energy density, high-nutrient foods
One way to trick the body into maintaining metabolism while you reduce calorie intake is to eat plenty of low energy density foods — along with the increase in exercise. That means fruit and vegetables, salads, soups, bowl foods, beans, lean meat and not too much fat, refined carbohydrates and sugars. This is a proven approach called Volumetrics, which originated with Barbara Rolls at Pennsylvania State University.
Giving the body plenty of fibre, water and bulk to deal with even though the calorie count is comparatively low, tends to keep that metabolism from dropping too much.
Exercise - the fourth macronutrient
Food pyramids increasingly include physical activity in their recommendations because the best evidence suggests that uncoupling physical activity from food consumption creates a body environment that is not ideal for weight loss and maintenance, or health. This also reflects an evolutionary state built over tens of thousands of years when early humans moved much more than we do today.
I understand that some people can’t do much exercise. The infirm, injured and invalid have additional challenges, but the effort may be just as important for many people in this situation.
EPOC, Afterburn and Weight Loss - Does It Work?
Soldiers in Iraq. Soldiersmediacenter. Jarad Bargas
When we exercise hard or long, or both, we use the body’s resources in certain ways in order to achieve this level of performance. Glycogen (glucose) in muscles and liver is used up, lactic acid builds up in muscles, muscle gets damaged and broken down for energy, other energy systems are exhausted. It’s a demolition job and repair is required when you finally stop exercising. Oxygen is the driver of this process, and without it being supplied at the level that can drive your intensity of effort, you slow down and even stop — exhausted. Yet oxygen is also the driver of the repair process.
Anaerobic exercise causes oxygen debt
The body has a way of enduring for a few minutes when it really has insufficient oxygen for your exercise needs. This is called anaerobic exercise. You know when this is happening because you start to get out of breath and slow dramatically. This can only go on for a few minutes at top effort.
However, after you stop, your body then tries to get everything back to normal. To do this, it uses oxygen in the repair and replenishment process and to repay the debt — more than it would normally if you had not exercised that day or for as hard or long. This increased oxygen use is called “excess post-exercise oxygen consumption” or EPOC. It’s sometimes called “afterburn”, which is not a bad way of thinking of it. Short term oxygen debt recovery happens just after you stop and until you get your breath back. Longer-term EPOC continues for several hours, perhaps more than 12 hours, until glycogen is restored, lactate is removed and muscle is repaired and replenished by amino acids.
How EPOC can help you
EPOC often gets discussed in terms of weight loss programs because the excess oxygen use stimulates metabolism and, theoretically, it’s good for weight loss, which is probably true, except it’s not all a bed of roses stimulating EPOC, and it’s not necessarily the best option.
The thing is, you have to work hard for the afterburn effect. You need to exercise at high intensity or for a longer time at moderate intensity. EPOC occurs when you degrade body systems and use resources. A brisk 30-minute stroll around the block with the dog or a leisurely chat and pump at the gym and a nice cup of coffee in between won’t do it either. You will read in various places how EPOC only comes from high intensity exercise. This is not necessarily true. There is likely a minimum amount of work to be done, but no one really knows what this is. It could just as easily result from moderate intensity cardio for a longer period of time. You can probably do it lifting weights, running sprints or running for an hour, but in the end, you have to work hard whatever you do.
EPOC versus energy consumed during exercise for weight loss
It’s no use doing lots of high-intensity intervals for 20 minutes, exhausting yourself, then expecting EPOC to make you thin like a cheetah after you stop. You also have to consider how much energy (calories) you expend during the exercise. While the interval training might be time efficient, you’re probably not going to burn the same calories during that exercise as the guy or gal that runs for an hour at 5 minutes/kilometre pace (8 minute/mile) pace. EPOC can’t make up for an imbalance of calories burnt during exercise.
The best exercise program for weight loss
Stop worrying about the afterburn. (As if you ever did.) Mix your training up with weights, aerobics, and sprint or interval training if you feel fit enough for it. Read more in my article: The Best Fat Loss Strategy That Really Works.
A 3-Day HIT Fitness Program for Busy People
Fast cat from Polandeze
The American College of Sports Medicine physical activity guidelines include the following recommendations for general health and wellbeing:
- Moderately intense cardio 30 minutes a day, five days a week, OR,
- Vigorous intense cardio 20 minutes a day, 3 days a week, AND
- 8 to 10 strength-training exercises, eight to 12 repetitions of each exercise, twice a week.
Note that they recommend you can substitute 3 days a week of higher-intensity exercise for 5 days of moderate intensity — plus two weight training sessions in either case.
Just recently, as reported in Heartwire, a research group from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Circulation July 7, 2008) showed that high-intensity exercise for 3 days a week for a total of 2 hours might produce better results in people with ‘metabolic syndrome’, a condition that is measured by excess weight around the waist, high blood triglycerides and low HDL cholesterol.
This is exactly how I train now after many years of running and gym for 5 days a week. It’s tougher, and it’s best to have some measure of fitness leading up to this, but it does save time. This is my program now: it’s pretty simple and I make adjustments to suit from time to time. Running is done at a local sports field. Weights are done at a fitness centre and gym. I always take at least one day break between sessions.
It’s a little more than what might be done for general health and fitness, but I train for various recreational sports as well.
- Day 1. Track:: 20 x 60m; 90-95% effort, explosive start; jog/walk back, 10-20 seconds rest, repeat, recover at number 10. Weights:: Same day, go straight to gym before cooldown, 10 exercises upper body — rows, curls, pulldowns, pullups, dips, abs, pushdowns, shoulder or bench press.
- Day 2. Full body workout and HIT at gym:: stiff-leg deadlifts, squats or leg press, calf raises, rows, dips, pulldowns, curls, abs, pushdowns, shoulder press, overhead press. Cardio HIT:: treadmill, 10 minutes continuous at 85%; mini-trampoline, two and one-legged high bounces, high-knee sprint intervals, 10 minutes.
- Day 3. Track:: 10 x sprint starts, sometimes with spikes, 40m, 100%, plenty of rest; form runs 80m x 10, 85%. Gym as for Day 1.
From that, you can get the general idea of a 3-day program even though it doesn’t have to be quite as intense or as long. The main point to note is that it needs to be at an intensity where you are sweating profusely and can hardly talk during the tough bits. You don’t have to be superfit to start like this, but it is wise to get a medical clearance. It is best to work up to it with a more gradual approach, one of the main problems being injury to the muscles, tendons, ligaments and joints.
10 Ways Exercise Prevents or Manages Diabetes
Trials in the US, Finland and China have shown that moderate weight loss combined with an exercise program can ward off impending type 2 diabetes by getting blood glucose (sugar) under control and generally improving markers for this disease of glucose, fat and insulin metabolism. Diagnosed diabetics also benefit from regular exercise in a similar way.
Here’s how exercise helps:
- Physical activity helps you manage weight. You need to include a sensible eating program, but weight loss improves your ability to process glucose and ward off diabetes.
- Exercise uses glucose stored in muscle and, over time and with increased fitness, enhances the amount of glucose you can store, lowering blood glucose in the process.
- Weight training uses muscle glucose more than fat, as does other high-intensity exercise. Regular sessions of weight lifting lower your blood glucose and open up the “gates” for glucose transport.
- Weight training also builds more muscle. More muscle provides additional storage capacity for glucose.
- Glucose transport to muscle during exercise does not require insulin. In fact, insulin goes quiet during exercise in people with normal metabolism and not injecting insulin.
- Physical activity enhances insulin sensitivity even when you’re not exercising. Insulin sensitivity is the ability of insulin to store glucose.
- Day to day, exercise gives you improved glucose storage when you’re exercising, and improved glucose storage when you’re not. You get a synergy of effect when you exercise.
- Cardiovascular fitness is a result of aerobic conditioning. Cardio type exercise is best for this. Heart and lung fitness is associated with protection against diabetes and heart disease. The fitter you are, the better your chances — even allowing for some excess weight.
- Faulty fat metabolism and high levels of fat (triglycerides) in the blood raise your chances of getting diabetes. Exercise of any sort can help normalize blood fat levels. Look to be under 150 mg/dL or 1.69 mmol/L. When you’re really fit and healthy and have low overall body fat, this number will be closer to 100 mg/dL (1.1 mmol/L). You should aim for this.
- Regular exercise, especially higher-intensity exercise, increases your metabolism when you’re not exercising. This not only helps lower blood fats and glucose, it helps you reach and maintain normal weight.
The Best Fat Loss Strategy That Really Works
It depends. It depends on how fat you are, how mobile you are, how much exercise you can do and not break, or get bored, or how well you can stick to a modified eating pattern. Many will need to start more moderately than this. But if you’re up for it, you can lose weight, rapidly, with this basically simple exercise and nutrition approach. No doubt.
In any case, here is the ultimate fat loss strategy — no ifs, no buts, no pussy-footing around. Get a medical to ensure you’re up for this. Can you do it?
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