The Definitive Guide To Fat Loss And Abs

Fat Loss, everyone's Achilles Heel. Most of us go into a sense of denial, and only then try and address the situation. And the worse thing is, the longer you take to act, the more you're going to have to lose. This article will go into how we can attain fat (apart from too much food and no exercise), how we can train to make our exercise programs as efficient at fat burning as we can and most important of all, how to devise a nutrition plan that is easy and enjoyable to follow.

Measuring Body Composition

There are numerous ways that you can evaluate body composition. There is the Body Mass Index ( BMI), basic scale reading, body fat percentage reading and the easy method of noting how our clothes fit and how you look in the mirror. My preferred method is to go by body fat percentage. My main reason behind this is because you can be "skinny fat" like a runner where your muscle mass and weight is so low that even though you might have little to moderate to fat on your body, the small amount of muscle mass causes your body fat to be higher percentage wise, so therefore a muscle building program would be in order.

Where possible, take your weight on a scale that also provides a water percentage reading as well as a body fat reading. This can allow you to break everything down into kilograms or pounds. All you need to do is simply multiply your total weight by the percentage of body fat and water. Below is one of my calculations from about 2 months ago

Body Weight – 74.2kgs

Body Fat % - 11.6%

Water % - 61.8%

From these numbers we can actually work out how we fare in actual kilograms to really determine what’s going on. Hopefully you can follow the calculations below.

To determine your body fat in kgs, simply multiply your body weight by your body fat %.

74.2 x .116 = 8.61kgs of fat

To determine your water weight in kgs, simply multiply your bodyweight by your water %.

74.2 x .618 = 45.81kgs of water (this also includes organs, bones etc)

From here we can now determine our ever important muscle weight.

8.61 (body fat) + 45.81 (water) = 54.47

74.2 (body weight) – 54.47 (fat + water weight) = 19.73kgs of muscle

Every time you measure you should break it down like this because a loss of muscle is the last thing we want, even with a loss of body fat.

Metabolism

The most important aspect of fat loss is your metabolism. The bulk of calories burnt come from your resting metabolic rate so that’s what we need to increase and the metabolism increase from a single session can last up to 36 hours so 1 workout every 2nd day can have you burning fat constantly. Your metabolism is basically a bunch of organs and glands (thyroid, pancreas, stomach, small and large intestines and the colon) that are responsible for regulating how your body burns food for fuel and how it converts that food into energy. Having a slow metabolism means that you can eat only a little amount of food and still gain weight and if you do have a slow metabolism, there's a good chance that one of more of the systems above is out of balance or simply not functioning properly.

The best ways to increase your metabolism is to eat smaller meals more regularly which will provide the body with a steady stream and volume of nutrients and to exercise intensely (sprinting, resistance etc) which will burn up any excess calories that you have consumed as well as build muscle at a more efficient rate. Simply by adding 3 pounds of muscle (without fat gain) can result in a 7% metabolism increase which underlines the importance of anaerobic training over aerobic training for fat loss.

For those with a normal to fast metabolism, a good detriment to see for non workout meal timing is perceived body temperature. When you're hot after eating, you're expanding diet induced thermogenesis which means your metabolic rate is elevated because your body is processing the ingested food. People who can eat and not gain fat are like furnaces and simply burn off more than they take in. If your goal is to gain muscle mass and you’re in 24 hour mass mode you should be hot all the time. If you’re in a temperature controlled environment and you're not feeling warm, you need to eat again. This ensures that you’re always in an overfed state even if hunger says otherwise. After a couple of weeks of this you will get to know how different foods effect you and this will aid you in the planning each meal.

Insulin

If you've read any book on dieting in the 5 - 10 years you will be familiar with insulin and its effect on the body. Insulin aids with muscle growth and repair but can also store excess blood sugar as adipose tissue when you eat too much sugar and bad foods. Frequent eating of processed and refined foods causes continual insulin secretion and leads to insulin insensitivity where the body can no longer control insulin release from the pancreas.

An important positive function of insulin is its ability to take blood sugar and convert it into muscle and liver glycogen for use later during activity but if you are movement deficient (not enough) and you eat the aforementioned foods, your blood sugar rises and insulin is secreted from the pancreas to reduce blood sugar to its normal level, with the excess sugar being converted to glycogen in the muscles and sent back for storage in the liver and muscles. This is where the problem lies because when your liver and muscles are already full you get a spillover effect so you then store the insulin as triglycerides or fatty acids (body fat). As your bad eating and lack or exercise continues, it spills over time and time again causing fat gain.

Insulin resistance is when your cell receptors are unable to accept glucose as energy which leads to more blood sugar rises and fat gain. The cell receptors generally shut down as they are getting pounded by excess insulin and high blood sugar levels and the pancreas must release more insulin to get the job done and eventually ceases to operate functionally and can actually release insulin when it’s not needed.

To keep blood sugar and insulin systems functioning at peak efficiency and to stay lean and healthy, focus on increasing movement rather than decreasing calories, avoid rapid weight fluctuations, drink lots of water, eat plenty Essential Fatty Acids 9EFA’s), avoid excessive alcohol as well as avoiding refined foods.

A Little More on Body Fat

For the body to reduce body fat it needs to know it can safely get by with such low body fat and for most people there is a certain point during fat loss where the body wants to maintain its, current body fat level. This is usually where you can't seem to shake off stubborn fatty spots such as hips, thighs and belly no matter what you do. This is your body telling you that it doesn't want to go any lower body fat wise and if you keep trying to lose body fat than muscle will be lost and therefore fat gain will increase.

On the other hand though, if you’ve been down to low body fat % before but have blown out a little, it will be easier to get back there as the body will "remember" that it can function at that level. If you have dieted down by being extremely strict with your food and you usually hover around 15% body fat, as soon as your diet and / or exercise slips, the body will try to go back to 15% body fat as quick as it can as it feels comfortable there. This is the prime reasons why diets don't work but long term nutrition plans and lifestyle changes do.

Spot Reduction

I think we all know by now that you can't reduce fat in specific areas and that if you lose body fat, than you'll lose it from all over the body although you can lose quickly from some spots before others although you will have no control of the order that the body will draw fat from for energy. In general it's easier to lose upper body fat as the body will use this before middle and lower body fat as its covering vital organ's that we need to survive and in most cases, lower body fat won't start to decrease until nearly, if not all upper body fat is oxidised.

Females need to note that their bodies are different than males in body fat respects. Female body’s resist going below 13% body fat because it holds extra fatty tissue for a fetus and maintains energy reserves to stabilise hormonal production. Below are age related body fat % readings for both males and females.

Recommended Body Fat %

Age         up to 30         30 – 50           50+

Females   14 – 21%        15 – 23%        16 – 25%

Males      9 – 15%          11 – 17%        12 – 19%

You Can't Out Train a Bad Diet

This is rule number 1. A great percentage of those looking to drop wt will either:

a) drop calories dramatically,

b) increase activity dramatically, or

c) both

Whichever of these options you opt for, it will not yield sustainable benefits. If you drop your calories too much, than your activity intensity and / or duration will suffer as you would not have fuelled the body enough for exercise. If you increase activity without increasing calories, than you’ll get the same result. Both together, well you get the picture.

From my experience with clients, most don't eat enough. They eat too little (and usually exercise too little) and too infrequently, which decreases metabolism (refer to part 1) which we talked about earlier. As well as frequency and portioning, meal timing is also an important element. All meals should be just about equal in portion size as well as being equally spaced. Here is what happens when you only have 3 meals a day:

7 am. – You have big breakfast which triggers insulin release (refer to part 1) which stores excess carbs as body fat with the rest increasing blood sugar to fuel activity and prevent fat burning for a few hours. If you miss breakfast, you start burning muscle immediately

10 am. – blood sugar level is low and starvation mechanism kicks in and you burn muscle for energy while conserving fat

12 am. – same as breaky

3 pm. – same as 10

7 pm. – because you've missed another you have big dinner which triggers another insulin surge, blunting fat burning and storing more fat

9:30 pm. – starvation mechanism kicks in again and you either burn muscle or you binge which feeds your fat cells. If you don't eat than you'll waste muscle from now until you have breakfast.

This underlines the importance of smaller and more frequent meals.

For some it may seem a lot to eat but with the right foods such as solid protein, fruit, vegetables and salad, the total food volume may be high but the calorie total will not. This is what you should strive to do, eat as much as you can but by keeping within your calorie limit. It is also worth noting that the more fat you are, the more efficient your body is at storing carbs and fats which will also dictate the volume and timing of their consumption.

Post Workout Nutrition

The most neglected meal is the post workout meal. Everything should be based around breakfast and your post workout meal/s, than fill in the gaps. A "pre and / or post workout window plan" should be developed which is to be followed before and / or after every training session. This is a period where your body will be the most receptive to food. Unfortunately it can also be abused because of this very reason. Some think that because they will use whatever foods they eat, it is a time to consume cheat foods. This is all well and good and is the best time to have them but your recovery is compromised. I usually tell my client's that if they know that they are going for tea or a party where they might veer off their nutrition plan, try and do a pretty intensive workout beforehand so that metabolism ramps up and some of the excess calories can be used or stored in the muscles and not as fat.

What I stress to them though is that, don't have it REPLACE their post workout meal but rather have it on top of it. So you might workout at 4:00pm, have post workout shake immediately upon finishing at 5:00pm, have post workout solid meal at 5:45pm than get ready and go out at 6:30 without guilt. In my opinion it's better to overeat to support muscle growth than to under eat and waste it but only sparingly.

A post workout window plan might be as follows:

- 60mins (pre workout): Apple and 1 Tin of Tuna (the contents of this meal is optional but you still want some slow digesting carbs and protein)

0mins: Workout x 60mins

+ 60mins: Post Workout Protein Shake and 1 Bowl of Cerial with Skim Milk

+ 90mins: 100g Chicken, 2 x Slices of Multi Grain Bread, 1 Cup of Steamed Vegetables

This window should be placed before and after every workout you do providing they are resistance training workouts. If they are cardio only workouts than depending on the intensity of it, calories may need to be adjusted.

It is important to note that fat should be minimised at this time as it will only slow digestion so the window cannot be taken full advantage of.

Breakfast

As Grand Ma says, breakfast is the most important meal of the day and that is true. While sleeping, your body has been deprived of nutrients for at least 7 - 10 hours. If you did this while you were awake you'd most probably pass out if you tried to do anything remotely intensive which is why fasted morning workouts aren’t the greatest either. The body recovers and muscle growth occurs while you are resting so by the time you rise the next day, everything you consumed has been utilised, hopefully for the best (muscle growth etc). Similar to the post workout meal, the body is also highly receptive to food at this time and should set you up for the entire day raising your metabolism and kick starting your body for a new day.

It should be the biggest meal of the day (in respective to your total calorie intake) also as it will all be utilised with no spill over so it is the best time to consume a high carb type meal such as cerial, toast with some fruit juice or just a plain old fruit salad. However some protein is required at this time to keep amino acid supply to the muscles for preservation. The more fat you are then less carbs should be consumed here for optimal benefits.

Fat Loss Plateau

As discussed in the previous installment, fat loss plateaus will arise when the body gets to a point it's not comfortable with. The best way to deal with this is to purposefully maintain where you are so that the body can get comfortable at its new weight and shape. Once it is, you can continue to lose body fat again and repeat the process whenever you reach a plateau again.

There will also come a point where you will not be able to just continue to decrease calories to keep muscle preserved and metabolism high. The best way is to drop calories a little and then increase activity a little at the same time or more so than dramatically increase activity and / or decrease calories.

Carbohydrates

For fat loss, a smart carb approach is where all simple carbs are consumed during your post workout meal and the rest are from oatmeal, vegetables and maybe some fruit at breakfast. The rest of the day, eat lots of protein, vegetables, salad and healthy fats. The body can store 300 – 400 grams of glycogen in the muscle cells at one time and then uses 100 grams per session, 100 grams for basic functions and 100 grams for muscle growth so you can still consume a moderate amount of carbs and you should, especially when training intensively.

Protein

Whatever training plan you are following, protein should be included at every meal and is of greater importance within a total fat loss plan. Protein, especially solid sources, has a high “thermic effect" which means that your body has to “work hard” just to digest it. When you eat 100 calories of solid protein such as a chicken breast, your body will burn off 20-30% of its calories just to digest it so the “net” caloric value is only 70 - 80 calories. It will also help in preserving existing muscle mass to keep metabolism from dropping.

Fats

Researchers are now beginning to realize the fact that a nutrition plan high in the good fats helps the body to burn fat. Omega - 3 fatty acids increase the size of your cell's fuel - burning furnaces so your metabolic rate rises and you burn more calories every minute of every day. Omega-3's also help your body's sensitivity to insulin and helps your body store less fat. In addition, the fat you do store is more readily and easily converted into energy and burned during activity. You should also strive for a 1:2 ratio of omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids

Fibre

There are two types of fiber: soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber slows down the digestion of the foods you eat in the stomach and the small intestine. This stabilizes blood glucose levels by slowing down the conversion of other carbs into glucose. Insoluble fiber actually increases the rate of digestion and helps prevent digestive disorders such as constipation. It also reduces the absorption of salt, reduces the risk of high blood pressure, and eliminates toxins from the body. The average fiber intake should range from 20 - 35 grams daily although most people get only 12 - 17 grams a day. Along with protein, fibre should be a major factor in your fat loss nutrition plan.

Non Training Day Nutrition

On off days from training, keep macronutrient % the same, but decrease overall calories. So if your training day calories are 2500 totaled and split up into 40% carbs (1000 calories), 40% protein (1000 calories) and 30% fats (750 calories), on non training days you would consume the same % of carbs, protein and fats but with maybe 2000 calories (800 calories for carbs and protein and 600 calories for fats). Depending on your carb tolerance you may also drop them to 30% or less and increase protein and healthy fats a little to make up the excess calorie requirements.

Calorie Deficit for Fat Loss

This is from Lyle McDonald who is leading fat loss guru in the US. To find out how many calories you need to drop for fat loss and to maintain your current muscle mass, simply multiply your total fat mass in pounds by 31 and subtract that from you maintenance calorie total.

Weight - 158pds

Body Fat in Pounds - 17 Pounds

Maintenance Calorie Total - 2300 calories

Calorie Deficit - 31 x 17 = 539

From this example, they could consume 1761 calories to induce fat loss without muscle loss.

If you go by this make sure to perform regular updates because as your fat loss weight decreases, your calorie total shall as well, otherwise you will have decreased calories too much and muscle loss will be the result. At some point, your calorie figure will get too low and you will need to increase activity a little (10% for females, 5% for males). If strength levels start to decrease, than increase calories a little irrespective of the equation

Most people might not be aware, but exercise will only yield 20% of the results in any fat loss program as resistance exercise, and especially cardio exercise alone cannot match diet induced weight loss. A combination of diet, a small amount aerobic exercise, and moderate amount of resistance exercise should yield the greatest weight loss while preserving lean body mass. First let's look at some of the functions of the body that we can use to our advantage for greater fat loss.

Growth Hormone

Growth Hormone promotes the build up of new muscle and retards the use of existing muscle during exercise but also has a potent fat burning effect. People with high growth hormone levels have more “killer cells” which defend against viruses and cancerous cells. It is released from the pituitary gland located at the base of the brain in response to a number of complex conditions including increased body temperature, decrease blood glucose levels, specific amino acid ingestion and exercise. The amount of growth hormone released during exercise depends on your current level of fitness, training intensity and the power output by the muscles but as you get older, less growth hormone is released. Growth Hormone begins to tear down muscle after 20 minutes of high intensity training and on programs that require heavy weight and long rest periods, testosterone levels increase (if enough muscle mass is used) but growth hormone release does not. To increase both, use compounds exercises for 3 x 8 – 12 reps with 30 – 60secs rest with high volume as stated above. Cardio wise, high intensity interval training and regular / hill sprints are your best options.

Cortisol

Cortisol is a hormone produced by your adrenal glands which can increase blood glucose levels and your body produces cortisol in response to stress, physical, mental or emotional, If you were faced with a “life or death” situation, cortisol would increase the flow of glucose, protein and fat out of your tissues and into the bloodstream in order to increase energy and physical readiness to handle the stressful situation or threat.

It is also related to abdominal obesity, particularly “visceral” abdominal body fat (also known as intra-abdominal fat) which is stored deeper in the abdominal cavity and around the internal organs, whereas “regular” fat is stored below the skin (known as subcutaneous fat). Visceral fat is particularly unhealthy because it is a risk factor for heart disease and diabetes. Cortisol increases the breakdown of stored adipose tissue into glycerol and fatty acids where it can enter the bloodstream and then be used as energy but if cortisol levels become too high, they can increase muscle protein breakdown and inhibit protein synthesis.

To keep cortisol in the normal range, reduce stress and allow adequate time for recovery by consuming carbs and lean protein post workout (and during) which has a cortisol suppressing effect so very low carb diets are dangerous because of this. Also avoid over training by keeping workouts intense, but brief as cortisol rises sharply after 45 - 60 minutes of resistance training without adequate nutrition timing and consumption.

For both growth hormone and cortisol, the type of program used will dictate the hormonal response from the body.

Anaerobic Training

Anaerobic training such as resistance and sprint training, leads to a large calorie use, especially after exercise (metabolism) and interval training lead to aerobic, anaerobic and ATP-PC enzyme activity which are responsible for regulating the energy pathways to the muscle. By up-regulating these enzymes, you’ll burn more fat and carbs. It can also lead to an increase in fast twitch muscle fibres (which have greatest growth potential), decrease the amount of slow twitch muscle fibres one possesses and leads to increased growth hormone by 2000% in the blood shortly after exercise.

Resistance Training

Resistance training should be the first port of call for any fat loss program as it will increase or at the very least, muscle which will in turn increase your metabolism. On average, weight lost without weight training is 28% muscle but only 13% muscle if you resistance training is used but a better result is 0%. In general, higher volume resistance training burns the most calories. You should also strive to gradually increase training density but do so progressively, so if you usually use 2 minutes rest between sets, than decrease rest by 15 seconds for 4 weeks and then by 5 seconds for 5 weeks so you're down to 20 seconds rest between sets by week 9 while still at the same weight. Exercise selection is also vital as you want to perform only compound exercises, doing as many as you can from a standing position.

Fat Loss guru Alwyn Cosgrove recommends super setting upper and lower body compound exercises for about 18 sets per workout x 10 - 12 reps each set and finishing with 2 - 3 rounds of barbell or dumbbell complexes for post metabolic conditioning is a good place to start. When super setting upper and lower body exercises it allows you to use non-competing exercises but performing both at a high intensity with short rest.

If this isn't enough to get you breathing hard than the complexes performed at the end will. For a complex simply choose 5 compound exercises and perform them for 6 reps each with no rest between exercises where you will perform 30 reps (6 each) per complex set. An example of a complex is to do Deadlifts, Shrugs, Power Cleans, Front Squats and Bent Row. Each movement runs fluently into the next. As well as preserving and maybe building muscle, these complexes will keep your metabolism ramped up for days.

The biggest resistance training fat loss myth is the high reps, low weight approach. This is not effective as the weight used will not be heavy enough to increase, and in some cases not even maintain, current muscle mass levels. Use it or lose it people!!

Aerobic Training

The cardio for fat loss philosophy is still going strong. If cardio for fat loss was the answer than 90% of all trainer's would be cut to the bone. Cardio releases cortisol (refer to part 2) which breaks down muscle once all glucose are used instead of excess fat and once you lose muscle, your metabolism decreases and you burn less calories.

Everybody does some type of cardio and it is usually long duration with low to moderate intensity. During human evolution, food supplies were unreliable and to survive famine our physiology learned to become very efficient, especially when it was needed to do an exercise based on cyclical motions (swimming, running etc). This causes the body to become calorie conscious and progressively accomplishes the same work but with less energy. What does this mean? It means that the first time you run 2 kilometers straight, you may expend 800 calories but the 10th time you do it, you may only expend 300 calories from becoming more efficient at the movement, so if you don't adjust your calories, than you'll eventually gain fat.

Low intensity aerobic exercise is best used by those who are very de-conditioned or those needing to lose a lot of weight quickly (on top of intervals not in place of) and can be used for stubborn fat situations although consistent training and diet will do the trick for 95% of trainers. If you're really overweight, than walk as far as you can and try and walk 1 minute further each day until you're at 20 minutes duration. At this point try and walk the same path in less time where eventually you'll have to add some running intervals, ending up running the entire path over time.

With most of my client's I have them start fat loss programs without cardio and only add it in once fat loss has stalled and all resistance training and nutrition avenues have been exhausted.

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

This is where it's at for fat loss. You can either do low intensity and long duration cardio (90 minutes + @ 50 - 60% intensity) or high intensity interval training where you alternate easy and hard exercise intervals. Examples of this includes suicide runs on a basketball court with 1 minute rest, skipping for 1 minute hard then 1 minute easy, and medicine ball toss and sprint where you simply toss a medicine ball, sprint to retrieve it and repeat x 5 minutes. Running backwards for 50 meters x 5 - 10 sets is an excellent method to use as it uses more of the quadriceps which is the largest muscle in the body and therefore expends more calories.

Alwyn Cosgrove’s 5 Factors of Fitness

1 – Metabolic Resistance Training

2 – High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

3 – HIIT Aerobic Interval Training (longer but less intensive intervals)

4 – Steady State HI Aerobic Training 9simply to burn extra cal’s)

5 – Steady State Low Intensity Aerobic Training

The time you have to dedicate to training will dictate what type of training you should use for optimal benefits.

3hrs/week – 3 to 4 sessions of resistance training using the methods described above

3 – 5hrs/week – 3 to 4 sessions of resistance training and 1 to 2 HIIT sessions

5 – 6hrs/week - 3 to 4 sessions of resistance training, 1 to 2 HIIT sessions and 1 HIIT Aerobic Interval Training session

6 – 8hrs/week - 3 to 4 sessions of resistance training, 1 to 2 HIIT sessions, 1 HIIT Aerobic Interval Training session and 1 Steady State Low Intensity Aerobic Training session

• If not losing weight than look closely at diet at this point which should already be near perfect

8hrs+/week – increase accidental activity and general movement

Conclusion

I hope this helps all of you looking to put together a fat loss training and nutrition plan. I have purposefully left full exercise plans out everybody has different equipment, time to train, nutrition deficiencies and each program needs to be individualised.