Overweight and Need to Lose Bodyfat

Here’s a question I was recently e-mailed about needing to lose weight.

Q: I am currently 214 lbs at about 34% bodyfat and I need to lose some fat.
Here is my plan:

I'm going to start a low carb diet and train with weights four times a week. Here’s the weight training split:
Mon: Chest and Back
Tue: Legs
Wed: Off
Thu: Arms and Abs
Fri: Off
Sat: Full Body Circuit
Sun: Off

I'm also going to start walking for 45 to 60 minutes every morning but I'll make sure to keep my heart rate in the fat burning zone.

Is there anything you'd do to upgrade or modify this?

A: From your program I’m guessing you haven’t read my blog. At 214 with 34% bodyfat you’ve got about 72lbs of fat to cut back on, so pretty much any program will work as long as you're burning more calories than you take in, but since you’re looking for an upgrade let’s see how we can improve your program.

If you’re looking for fast results I'd start by throwing this plan out and starting over from scratch. Here’s what I recommend you do:


Stop it with the body part split. You’re not a bodybuilder so you don’t need to hit each muscle with its own day. Besides you’re goal is to lose fat and your arm day won’t burn much fat or elevate your metabolism much. Instead switch to and upper lower split three times per week for a higher caloric burn and a better use of your time. Day 1 do upper body compound lifts such as rows, pull downs and presses on Day 2 rest, Day 3 do lower body exercises such as squats, lunges, and deadlifts. Day 4 rest and day 5 back to upper body. Keep alternating between upper and lower body exercises. Next week you’ll do two lower body days and one upper body day.

For cardio stop the doing the fat burning zone workouts. Besides there are several studies showing that low intensity aerobic work does almost nothing for fat loss. To get more bang for your buck switch to high intensity interval training three times per week, it burns more calories while you are doing it, burns more calories after you have done it (EPOC) and in every single head-to-head study is shown to be more effective than steady state cardio.

For your diet know that carbs aren’t bad. Making some changes aren’t a bad idea though. Switch to whole wheat pastas and breads and brown rice and load up on vegetables. Most important stick to correct portion sizes. Don’t forget high protein foods such as lean turkey, chicken and fish and healthy fats. Make sure you’re not drinking your calories either. Swap sodas and high calorie coffees for water.

Overall this plan should help you lose 1-2 lbs. of fat a week. For more tips check out my blog and workoutquest.com.

The Secret to Successful Fat Loss

I’m going to share with you the secret to successful fat loss. It’s real easy and begins with three questions you must ask yourself.

1. Where am I today?
2. Where do I want to be?
3. Is what I’m doing today going to get me there?

Let me break down each one for you.

First, do you know where you are today? Did you set a goal at the beginning of the year to be down 25 pounds by December? If so, the year is half way there; are YOU half way there? Or do you have the same open ended goal of losing some weight and toning up? First before you can do anything else, figure out where you are today.

Second, where do you want to be? What is your goal? Figure it how, write it down, and have a clear picture in your mind what this looks like and know what it’s going to take to get yourself there.

The third question is so powerful because it relates to you taking action. You can read all the blogs, magazines, and books you want but nothing happens until you take action! Ask yourself this question daily; is what I’m doing today going to get me there? If you can answer yes to this question on a daily basis then you’re on your way!

My Muscle Building Fat Burning Countdown Workout

I’m going to share with you a workout that I recently did using countdowns. It was a great workout because it was a full body circuit that incorporated strength, balance, cardio conditioning, and core stabilization with only four body weight exercises. To do countdowns you’ll start with a high number of reps and with each round you’ll do fewer reps, working your way down to 1 rep on the last round. I started at 10 reps and worked my way down to 1. Best of all it was done in under 30 minutes; my heart rate was racing, I was sweating and my muscles were burning (remember if you want to see results, you must push beyond your comfort zone; translation - work up a sweat).

The four exercises:

1. Bulgarian Split Squat 10 reps with right leg, 10 reps with left leg
2. Single-leg Romanian Deadlift 10 reps with right leg, 10 reps with left leg
3. Chin up 10 reps
4. Pike push up 10 reps

The exercises are done with no rest between (unless you’re tired) that’s one round. The next round repeats the same order with 9 reps of everything, then 8 rep and so on until the last round is complete with 1 rep of everything. That’s 330 total reps!

The great thing about this workout is I didn’t need any weight; all I needed was a pull up bar. Anyone who thinks you can’t do cardio without a machine needs to try this. I challenge you to work through it with as little rest as you can and let me know how high your heart rate gets.

Not Seeing Results with Cardio Workouts?

Do you do the same cardio workout day after day and week after week? If so, you may have noticed a decline in your progress. In a previous blog I wrote about progressive overload with resistance training, the same principle holds true with cardiovascular workouts. That is your workouts must gradually get harder over time in order for you to see improvement.

Because you body adapts to the workout after a few weeks you need to be doing something harder than you’re used to in order to continue to improve. Your body becomes more efficient as it adapts. Let’s say you go out and run a mile and you burn 138 calories running at 5.0 miles per hour and it takes you 12 minutes. We’ll if this were your first run in a while you’d be sweating pretty good, you’d be huffing and puffing and your heart rate would be up pretty high. Now if you did this every other day for a month straight your body would adapt and if you continued to run at the same speed; still doing 5.0 miles per hour and finishing in 12 minutes your body would be more efficient and you’d sweat less, you wouldn’t be huffing and puffing and your heart rate would not be as high. This all equates to a lower caloric burn.

What this all means is you need to gradually make the workout harder if you want to continue to burn more calories. You can go faster, longer, or add hills or harder intervals. I prefer to add intervals because although your body still adapts to them they provide a raised metabolism for hours after the workout resulting in the greatest caloric burn. To see more on that click here.

Here’s one quick and easy way to make this work for you while doing intervals:

Month 1 - Run hard for 1 minute and jog light for 2 minutes; repeat two times. Total 9 minutes

Month 2 – Run hard for 1 minute and jog light for 2 minutes; repeat three times; Total 12 minutes

Month 3 – Run hard for 1 minute and jog light for 2 minutes; repeat four times; Total 15 minutes

As you can see each moth you run a little bit more. That’s how easy it is to avoid reaching a plateau in your weight loss.

I know you may be thinking how am I going to burn lots of calories in only 15 minutes? First off this example may not suit your specific needs, but the principle does; and that is increase time, distance, intensity or shorten rest intervals. Just remember it’s the high intensity that helps get your metabolism revved up for hours later. And if you’re not really sweating during the hard run your intensity is too low.

For more information visit us a www.workoutquest.com

Beat Dehydration and Improve Your Performance

Many people still underestimate the importance of proper hydration during their workouts. Because water is a key component of your body, making up 60 to 65 percent of total body weight, dehydration can diminish energy and impair performance. Even a two percent loss of body weight through sweat can put you at a disadvantage while exercising. Research also shows that properly hydrated resistance-trained weight lifters can lift more than those who are dehydrated.

Follow the Tips Below to stay hydrated during your workouts:
• Shoot for eight to ten eight ounce glasses of water daily

• Remember fluids throughout the day. This may be as simple as using fountains, coolers, or carrying a water bottle for drinking throughout the day.

• Hydrate 2 to 3 hours before training. Aim for at least 16 ounces (2 cups) of fluid at this time and an additional 8 ounces (1 cup) 10 to 20 minutes prior to lifting.

• Drink during and after training. Sports drinks can help ward off dehydration and muscle cramps because they help replenish both fluid and electrolytes (i.e., sodium and potassium) lost in sweat without overdrinking. Just be weary of those containing artificial sweeteners such as sucralose, acesulfame K or high fructose corn syrup.

Nutrition is the Key to Reaching Your Fitness Goals

Whether you want to burn fat or build muscle what, when and how much food you consume can be the key to your success or keep you from succeeding. No matter how often and how hard you workout you cannot out train a crappy diet. Many guys fail to bulk up because they aren’t eating enough or enough of the right things. At the same time many of you fail to lose weight or build muscle tone because you of your eating habits.

A few simple changes can be the difference in finally reaching you goals.

First, eat small meals with correct portion size every 2-3 hours
Plan to eat every 2 -3 hours, whether it’s a full meal or just a healthy snack. When you eat more often, your blood sugar level tends to stabilize, which means you are less likely to experience severe hunger. Since your body only needs so many calories at a given time, excess calories become stored as body fat. The longer you wait between meals, the more likely you are to overeat at your next meal prompting your body to store more body fat.

Second, don’t skip breakfast
Eat a big breakfast, a medium sized lunch, followed by a smaller evening meal, with small frequent snacks in between. After sleeping at night your metabolism has slowed down. Eating a big breakfast gets your metabolism revved up first thing in the morning to help you start burning fat. You should make an effort to eat larger meals in the early part of the day when you are most active, and can use those calories as energy throughout your day. In the later part of the day when you are less active, your body requires fewer calories so make sure to eat smaller meals as the day progresses.

Third, stop drinking your calories
Many people drink a large number of calories during the day without even knowing it. Super sized soft drinks and flavored coffee beverages can have 300 to 700 calories or more. First make sure to stay away from super sized beverages (stick with 8 to 12 ounces), second making the switch to water can lead to a 20 pound weight loss or more over the course of a year. Non-calorie beverages such as water and green tea are your best choices.

Aim for .6 to .7 ounces per pound of body weight. For instance if you weigh 160 pounds aim to get at least 96 ounces per day. Having 16 ounces of water upon waking in the morning is a good idea because you have been dehydrated during your sleep. With each meal you should also drink one to two cups of water. Carrying a water bottle to work or school and sipping throughout the day, helps keep you hydrated and full between meals. Don’t wait until you’re thirsty to have a drink as this is a sign that you are already dehydrated.

Remember, Small changes go a long way to getting you where you want to go. Make the change today.

The Definition of Insanity

Albert Einstein once said “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. Think about this quote for a second and ask yourself, does this quote apply to me?

Well, if you have been doing the same workout for years and aren’t getting the results you want then guess what? You might be a little insane. First of all don’t feel bad at least you’re still going to the gym right? The problem is you need to learn what is going to get you the results you’re after.

Chances are the intensity of your workouts is too low and you’re not breaking out of your comfort zone. Until you push beyond your comfort zone you’ll maintain at best. Don’t be afraid to sweat and don’t be afraid of being sore. These are two indicators that you’re pushing yourself hard, and when you push yourself hard results aren’t far behind.

Stop the insanity now and push yourself to the next level. For more tips visit us www.workoutquest.com