In my years of training, I’ve learned that there are factors that are absolutely critical when it comes to fat loss. And I’ve also learned there are many factors that would SEEM to be critical but actually AREN’T!
The critical factor for fat loss are actually pretty simple – you probably know them already. It’s the things that WON’T break your fat loss routine that can throw people off!
What will MAKE Your Fat Loss
1. Eating less – duh. You’ve got to eat less than your maintenance level of calories to see fat loss.
2. WHAT you eat – if you eat crap foods, it’ll be harder to lose fat. All calories are NOT equal. If you eat junk food but still stay below your maintenance levels, your body won’t give up its fat as easily.
3. Training properly – continue to train hard with heavy weights. Add in interval training for cardio (not the long, slow stuff – it’s gotta be challenging).
What Will BREAK Your Fat Loss
1. Eating too many calories – this is a simple one. If you eat too much, you’re not going to lose fat.
2. Not eating ENOUGH calories – your metabolism needs fuel. Simple as that. If you don’t eat enough calories, your body will desperately hang onto whatever fat it’s got and start burning up muscle tissue.
But here’s the kicker – you CAN go VERY low calorie for short periods of time and get really good results. I’m talking 800 to 1000 calories per day. It’ll be tough to do and it’s hard to train hard at that level but it CAN give your fat loss a kick in the pants. Just be sure not to stay at this level for too long – a few days at the most.
3. Training wrong – using nothing but light weight and slow cardio. There are exceptions to the rule (a.k.a. Lactic Acid Training uses lighter weights). But overall, you have to train hard and heavy.
What Doesn’t Really Matter!!
1. Doing cardio first thing in the morning – honestly, you can do your cardio any time! You may see a bit more fat loss if you do it first thing in the morning but here’s my take…if you’re doing interval training (like you should for losing fat) and you can’t drum up a lot of intensity first thing in the morning (I know I can’t), it’s not going to do much good to train first thing in the morning.
Personally, I get more out of it doing cardio later in the day. I’m more awake and train harder. If you can train hard first thing, totally fine! That’ll work too.
Bottom line – it doesn’t matter when you do your cardio as long as you actually do it and do it hard!
2. Eating 6 meals a day – it’s nice if you can do it. It’ll certainly help somewhat with your fat loss. But if you can’t eat 6 times a day, it’s not going to break your fat loss results. Don’t fret if you can only eat 3 meals a day. I do it all the time, even when training for fat loss. I keep my muscle and my metabolism is raging because of the training that I do.
3. Letting yourself get hungry – oh, the horror! Hungry…while on a diet!! Think of it this way, hunger is a sign from your body that it doesn’t have food in the stomach and it has to work on STORED FUEL to function. That sounds like fat to me. Certainly muscle may be broken down a little as well, but it’s not a big a problem as some people make it out to be. When you train with weights, it’s a HUGE stimulus for your body to hang onto that muscle. Eat enough protein during the day, train hard, and you won’t lose muscle.
Honestly, I like to let myself get hungry while dieting, especially before training. If you train on an empty stomach, your GH response to training increased (which helps burn fat and build muscle). You’ll get better results.
If you’re on a muscle-building program, you don’t want to go hungry. You WANT your body to have a constant supply of nutrients so that it think it can start storing everything. When you’re losing fat, you’re using up stored nutrients.
4. Taking fat burner supplements – contrary to all the ads in the magazines, fat burners don’t give you THAT much in the way of results. Your own metabolism and training (and nutrition) do a FAR better job of it. Some of those pills can help (not many are any good at all) but only by about 5% or so. You can’t just take pills and get shredded. Doesn’t work that way. You’ve gotta work for it.
5. Eating some junk food once in awhile – it’s what you eat 90% of the time that gets you the results. It’s tough to be absolutely perfect all the time when dieting and trying to be perfect is a surefire way to disappoint yourself when you DO break it. So why not accept that and PLAN it into your diet? It’s not going to throw off your entire program if you eat some pizza one day. Or somebody gives you a piece of birthday cake. Digest it and move on! You can be strict again on your next meal. It’s only when you cheat CONSTANTLY that it’ll affect your results. Heck, I find the occasional cheat to be quite helpful by giving my body a shock! A quick trick to make it think it’s not on a diet anymore :)
6. Waiting an hour after training to eat – if anything, this will actually HURT your progress. That “afterburn” that some people talk about – when they refer to the body continuing to burn fat after a workout, goes on REGARDLESS of what you eat. Even if you eat carbs, which you would think would stop fat burning in it’s tracks, your body will continue to burn fat post-workout. Why?
The post-workout recovery process is FUELED BY FAT. It doesn’t matter what you eat (naturally, don’t eat crap), fat will be burned. So why not take advantage of this primetime for recovery by eating protein and carbs to help your body out! It’ll help keep your metabolism from shutting down sooner.
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