The Number #1 Rule You Need to Lose Weight!

So what is the #1 rule you need to lose weight? First, let me tell you that it’s not some fat loss pill, colon cleanse or acai berry drink! Those items DO NOT WORK and are just a waste of your hard earned money!

The #1 rule of weight lose is:

Eat Less and Exercise More!

Pretty simple right? The formula for losing weight is really easy: If calories consumed is less than calories expended than you will lose weight! There’s no magic pills, cleanses or fruits needed! You just need to find good exercise and eating programs.

I've lost over 35lbs so far this year following this easy formula. For an exercise program, I'd highly recommend Turbulence Training. A great diet program is the Every Other Day Diet. If you hate dieting than try Eat Stop Eat.

Mistakes with my intermittent fasting

I discoverd a mistake in my intermittent fasting that I hope you can learn from.


I usually fast twice a week and have been following Eat Stop Eat since February. I have seen great results since I started fasting, but I realized a mistake I was making that when corrected, should lead to more fat loss.


So what was I doing wrong? I was eating too much!

I know what you're thinking, if I was fasting, how was I eating too much?? I wasn't eating at all during my 24 hour fast. It's after the fast ended that I was eating too much! I wasn't eating junk, but my meal size was too big and effecting my fat loss.


Eat Stop Eat is based off of weekly calorie counting. So if my daily maintence level (calories at which you will not gain or lose weight) is 2,500 calories, then your weekly maintence calorie level is 17,500 (2,500 x 7).


I usually eat at maintence five days a week and consume 12,500 calories. The other two days of the week I will fast from dinner the night before to dinner the day of. Up until today I would eat a healthy dinner, but it would be quite large, probably 800-1,000 calories.


If I eat a dinner of 1,000 calories two times a week then my weekly calories is now at 14,500 calories. That puts me at a deficet of 3,000 calories which is almost a pound (lb = 3,500 calories). This is also a deficet without any exercise factored in.


BUT if I lower my meals to 400-500 calories after a fast then I can increase my caloric deficet to 4,000 calories, which will help expedite my fat loss!! This may not seem like a big change, but it adds up over time.


Lowering my total calories consumed after I fast will help me get to my ripped six pack abs even faster!


Eat Stop Eat has really helped me lose a lot of fat throughout my weight loss journey and should help even more now that I've correct my post-fast meals. To find out how Eat Stop Eat works (including how your growth hormones increase when you use it) please follow the link below:


=>Eat Stop Eat

Tuesday's Workouts and Meals

This is the last week of doing Turbulence Training's Lean and Jacked workout. Remember that if you did join Turbulence Training's Transformation Contest 6 that you have to use a Turbulence Training workout throughout the contest. I haven't decided what I want to start next week yet.

Workout

Today I completed workout A from Lean and Jacked which is a chest and back workout with some ab work thrown in.

I moved up all of my weights by at least 5 lbs on DB exercises and 10 lbs when using a barbell. Man was I wiped at the end of my workout. After the first super-set I was pretty spent. The triple presses really took it out of me, but that's why I love that exercise.

If you're following Craig's time recommendations then you will be winded and sweaty by the end of this workout! I measured my heart rate after one of my sets and I was at 80% of my max heart rate.

Meals

Today I did my first day this week of Eat Stop Eat (I usually fast 2 days a week). So far today all I've consumed is A LOT of water and 2 cups of black coffee. The more I read about intermittent fasting, the more it makes sense, I'm glad I'm doing it.

Tonight for dinner I plan to have a big salad with green bell peppers, tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, some chicken and balsamic vinegar.

7 Traveling Tips for Fat Loss

Last week I had to travel to Washington DC for a few days to help my company fight the IRS. Yes, I know this may be a lost battle.


Traveling is very tricky when you are trying to lose fat, get ripped and finally see your six pack abs. Here are some tips that I applied to my trip to DC to help me maintain my healthy eating habits and workouts.


1. Planning - This is the most important tip! If you can plan, than you should be able to stick close to your fat loss plans. Since you should be allowing yourself a 'cheat' meal each week, I'd recommend that you plan your cheat meal for your trip (more on this below).


2. Use your Intermittent Fast - I try to fast for 24 hours twice a week using Eat Stop Eat. Since I knew I would be traveling for most of the day Wednesday, I planned (See #1 above!) a fast to use Eat Stop Eat. This worked out great because did an intermittent fast from Tuesday after dinner to Wednesday's dinner. I stuck to drinking black coffee and water up until dinner and I felt great, especially since I knew I was burning fat!


3. Make Sure You Cheat - I knew that I would most likely come upon an eating situation where there would be pressure to eat something 'unhealthy.' If you allow yourself one cheat meal a week then this a great way to plan (Once again see how important #1 is?) your cheat meal, just don't go overboard!!


My second night in DC I went out to dinner with my boss and a consultant. I enjoyed half a steak sandwich, some fries and a beer. Notice that I didn't eat the whole steak sandwich. Although it was my cheat meal I still used portion control.


4. Workouts - While I was in DC I was working 10-12 hours days so there wasn't a lot of time for workouts. So what did I do? I planned (#1 again!) to get up a bit earlier and get a workout done.


If your hotel has a gym that is available for you to use than you should be able to get your Turbulence Training workout in.


Unfortunately, the gym at my hotel did not open until 8am!! So what did I do? I did workouts in my room. Since I planned ahead, I printed out Turbulence Training's Body Weight Workouts and did them every morning. They were quick but very effective! I woke up 30 minutes early and was able to use some furniture in my room to get in an effective workout.


5. Fruit & Vegetables- Eat as much fruits and vegetables as you possibly can!! I actually paid $20 for a breakfast buffet my last morning in DC and just ate fruit and a bell pepper. Everything else looked really greasy but I was able to fill myself up with a banana, lots of strawberries and half a bell pepper. During my lunches and dinners I asked for steamed vegetables instead of fries or a potato and I made sure I ate them first so I'd get filled up.


6. Water, Coffee and Tea - Just because your traveling doesn't mean you should be drinking calories! I stuck to water, coffee and green tea while I was away. If you're thinking that diet soda doesn't have calories, your right. BUT it does have sodium so you can retain water weight when you drink diet sodas.


7. Pack for the Plane - I knew I would most likely get hungry at the airport when I was waiting for my plane home, so I planned ahead! Remember that $20 breakfast buffet I had for breakfast? Well I put some walnuts and almonds in a napkin and had them as a snack with my bottle of water at the airport. They made a great snack.


If you plan ahead when you travel you will do a great job in your fat loss efforts! Remember to eat plenty of fruits and veggies and drink plenty of water!!

Wednesday's Meals and Workout

Today was a very good day. I fasted until dinner, following Eat Stop Eat. While fasting I only consumed water, black coffee and green tea. I did NOT add any sugar or milk to the coffee or green tea.

I do not have any problem fasting. Contrary to popular belief, I did not feel light headed or hungry. I actually felt like I had a clearer head and had more energy during the day. I even did my Turbulence Training workout while fasting and felt great during and afterwards!!

For dinner I had tilapia, carrots, mushrooms and spinach.


Workout

I did Turbulence Training's Lean and Jacked workout A today.

It was a great upper body workout designed to let you lift heavy but also keep your heart rate up so you are getting resistance training and cardio training at the same time.

My favorite exercise was the Triple Press!

Overall, a very good day! I think I will due will during this contest!

Reaction to Time's "Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin"

If you have not read Time's article "Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin," the link is at the bottom of this post.

First, let me say I'm not a scientist nor do I have a degree in exercise physiology or nutrition. BUT I do think I have learned a lot this year in my quest for six pack abs (31lbs lost and kept off so far this year!!)

But I doubt the author, John Cloud, has a lot of experience in nutrition or exercise (I tried to Google his background and was unable to confirm this). This article seems like he he found a bunch of studies that supported his argument and he threw them in his story.

Eat Junk and Exercise and You Will Get Fat!

John states that when he exercises he tends to get more hungry than on days when he does not exercise. Thank you Captain Obvious!! Of course you will be more hungry after you exercise because you have just expended more calories than normal.

I could actually agrue against that statement too. I would say a majority of the time after my workouts I am not hungry at all.

The key to not gaining weight is what you decide to put in your body, whether you work out or not. Mr. Cloud talks of consuming fast food and Starbucks after workouts. Well of course you will gain weight by eating that crap (pardon my French) after your workouts.

The key to losing weight is your diet. You need to eat healthy wholesome foods. The one rule that I learned from Craig at Turbulence Training is that you should try to avoid eating "anything out of a box or a bag." Chances are if you are eating out of a box or a bag then it is all processed and not very healthy.

So how do you eat healthy? Start with small changes and remember this should be a lifestyle not a crash diet.

You CAN'T out train a bad diet!!

Willpower

As for Mr. Cloud's study on willpower from Psychological Bulletin. I say BullSh!t!!! Before I started my weight lost crusade earlier this year I would eat every couple of hours (not even close to healthy meals). Heck, they knew me by name at the Wendy's drive through. Sure willpower does not just happen right away, but it can be learned. I manage to fight my cravings all of the time. The key is to have healthy substitutes when you do get a craving.

My 'willpower' is so strong now that I follow Brad Pilon's Eat Stop Eat and fast up to 2 days a week. Its really not that hard and you'd be amazed how clear your head is and how much better you sleep when you fast!

What Type of Exercise?

I would like to know what type of exercise Mr. Cloud is talking about. From reading the article I think he is talking about cardio. I did not see him mention resistance training or high intensity intervals (HIIT).

The problem with Mr. Cloud's exercise is that it seems to me is he doing long boring cardio. While he is doing this type of exercise he is just burning calories while exercising.

When someone performs a resistance training workout with HIIT (Turbulence Training is a perfect example), not only do they burn calories during their workout, but they continue to burn calories after their workout!! (Get your free report on the dark side of cardio.)

Conclusion

I may not have any studies on hand to back up my counter-argument to this article, but I do have my mirror. Since I have lost 31lbs this year, my exercise activity has gone up! That is all of the facts I need. In fact, when I reach my goal of ripped six pack abs later this year, I may send Mr. Cloud a picture and ask him how he feels!

Exercising more will not make you fat, eating more will!! Its simple math, if calories consumed is less than calories expended, then you will lose weight!!

Eat Less and exercise with resistance training and HIIT!!

Here's the link to the full Time article. After reading please leave me your comments:

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1914857-1,00.html

Transformation Contest #5 Results!!

I officially finished the Turbulence Training Transformation Contest #5 last Monday. I managed to drop another 12lbs during these 12 weeks and really am showing a lot of definition now! So far this year I have lost 31lbs using Turbulence Training!!

I am also a lot closer to my long term goal of 10% body fat and ripped 6 pack abs!!

Check out my pictures, stats and final essay:

------------------------194lbs --------------------------182lbs!!






Stats:

Day 1 – May 11, 2009

• Height: 5’10’’
• Weight 194
• Waist 34''
• Neck 15.75''
• Biceps 14''
• Bi's Flexed 15.5''
• Thighs 22''

Day 84 - August 2, 2009

• Weight 182lbs
• Waist 32.5''
• Neck 15.25''
• Biceps 13''
• Bi's Flexed 15''
• Thighs 22''

Change

• Weight minus 12lbs!!
• Waist minus .5''
• Neck minus .75''
• Biceps minus 1''
• Bi's Flexed minus .5''
• Thighs minus 1.5''

Essay:

Essay Just in case my pictures do not do enough justice, let me put it into words how much Turbulence Training has changed my life.

I enlisted myself in TC4 and saw great results. I liked the competition because it kept me accountable. After all, I don’t want to submit before and after pictures with no results. Plus Turbulence Training has become more of a lifestyle for me that I plan to use to get to my ultimate goal of body fat below 10%.

I must admit that TC5 was a lot tougher than the last contest. In TC4 the fat just fell off of me, but now that I was down to my last 10-20 pounds of fat, I knew it would not come off as easy. I was religious with my Turbulence Training workouts and even threw in some fun off day workouts which consisted of hitting the heavy bag, swimming and soccer. The best off day workouts were the long walks with my wife, newborn son and our dog.

My workout programs consisted of the Turbulence Training for Reformed Meatheads, Turbulence Training Hardcore Fat Loss and Turbulence Training for Buff Dudes and Hot Chicks. I followed Craig’s instructions for the workouts very strictly and used my watch to make sure I adhered to the 60 seconds of rest in-between sets. The great part about these workouts is that I was in and out of the gym in 45 minutes or less, or I could even do some of them from home! No long cardio is another great factor of TT. 20 minutes max on the bike or treadmill while doing HIIT cardio was great and effective!!

Now for the hard part, the diet! Actually it wasn’t hard and I wouldn’t consider it a diet either! I plan to follow this for the rest of my life. Basically, I stuck to natural, whole foods and tried to avoid anything out of a box or bag and processed sugars. My diet consists of plenty of fruits, vegetables and lean proteins. I also used Brad Pilon’s Eat-Stop-Eat for the contest and fasted 1-2 days per week.

I lost 12 pounds during this contest and now weigh 182lbs. At first I was not very happy with my results, but when I went and looked back at my starting pictures I was amazed! Wow what a difference! I plan to keep on going until I can see my 6 pack abs. (Please see my other measurements above).

If I had to sum up my success during this transformation, it would be accountability and patience. To see any success you need to be accountable to yourself, especially with your diet. Patience is key because everyone expects to see a 6 pack after a couple of weeks, if not sooner. What you must remember is that it took you years to get fat, so you’re not going to get lean a couple of weeks. Remember this should be a lifestyle change, not some crash diet/exercise program.

Craig thanks again. So far in 2009, I’ve lost 32lbs using Turbulence Training!

The importance of your Lower Back for getting Ripped

This posting is going to be one that is more 'Do as I say, and not as I did.' Obviously in order to get six pack abs and to get ripped you need to eat correctly and exercise. BUT when you are exercising you have to make sure that you use the correct form and use a weight that will allow you to perform the exercise with correct form. Otherwise you can strain your lower back or other body parts.

I realize this is a woman's lower back. But would you rather look at this or a man's bottom??

So what did I do? I strained my lower back and most likely put myself out of commission for a week. I broke both of my rules above and while performing Good Mornings in a barbell circuit used too heavy of a weight and must have used horrible form.

I did this Wednesday and my lower back just felt a little tight that night. I than went to try and do my normal workout on Friday and felt a pain after finishing my squats.

My Plan Going Forward:

1. Rest. Since I was entering my last week of TT Hardcore Fat Loss I will take this week off to recover. However, I do not plan to just sit on the couch, so I still plan to keep on working even if it is very moderate. To start, I will be taking my son and dog on long walks each day since walking does not bother my back.

2. Body-Weight Exercises. Once my back starts feeling better (I'm hoping next Wed) than I hope to start doing light body weight exercises. I plan to progressively do more BW exercises until the week of July 6, as I strengthen the back again.

3. The Elliptical. Yes, I know this machine really sucks, but guess what? Its very low impact which will be perfect for my back. Although the intensity will not be the same, I can still do my HIIT on the Elliptical after my BW workouts.

4. Eat Right. I know I've been eating pretty well lately, but my goal for the next week will to have an almost perfect diet since I will not be working out as hard. I know a lot of people would see this as a huge setback and give up and head to Wendy's. Not me. I'm looking at this as a week of rest before heading into the last month of TT Transformation Contest 5. I will most likely do Eat-Stop-Eat twice this week.

Although I know I will most likely not make any progress towards my goal of getting ripped 6 pack abs, I do not want to go backwards either. I think this plan will allow me to accomplish this and start TT Buff Dudes - Hot Chicks workout for the week of July 6th.

Thursday's Off-Day Workout and Meals to help get 6 pack abs

We all know that your body adjusts to your workouts pretty quickly (if you didn't know that, you do now!). So although I do my Turbulence Training workout programs for 4 weeks, I always try to either increase my weight or do more repetitions.



I also try to keep my off-day workouts (lighter workouts than my TT workouts) different from week to week (off day workouts are Tues, Thurs and Sat or Sun depending on what day of the weekend I take).



Yesterday I tried a workout I never tried before!! I jogged down the block to the community pool and swam laps!! Since I have not done any swimming in a long time I treated my laps like intervals. I would swim 2 laps (1 freestyle, 1 breast stroke) and then rest for 1 minute (my watch is waterproof thankfully). I did 7 intervals total and then dried off and jogged back home.



Man was I sore this morning!! My lats and abs felt like they were on fire! Now that is a sign that my body was not expecting that workout!



I also tried something different for my meal plan too. I didn't eat anything! Yep, I tried 2 days of Eat Stop Eat this week. I had no problems and actually feel great today. Lets hope the scale gives me a good # on Sunday. I know the mirror is already showing encouraging signs!

Eat Stop Eat my way to 6 Pack Abs!!

I hope everyone had a great weekend. I keep saying that a great fat loss diet (ie. healthy lifestyle eating) is the fastest way to 6 pack abs. Friday my eating was totally clean. It was clean because I ate NOTHING!!

I know you are saying that this can't be healthy. Although I was burning calories, I must have been burning muscle, right? Well you're wrong! Brad Pilon has a great book about fasting called Eat Stop Eat.

I'm not going to get into the scientifics of it, but Brad tells us that fasting 1-2 days a week can actually be helpful in fat loss. He states that this will not bring your body into starvation mode, but can actually help with insulin levels and help increase growth hormone in the body. Both of these play key roles in burning fat and muscle growth.

I am personally going to do Eat Stop Eat once per week along with my healthy eating habits the other 6 days a week.

Here are some questions friends have asked me about Eat Stop Eat:

I can't make the 24 hours without eating, how do you do it?

If you time your fasts the right way, you can sleep through a majority of the fast. I started at 7pm Thursday night and ended at 7pm Friday night. I went to bed at 10pm on Thurs night and slept until 7am on Friday morning. That's 9 hours of the fast and I wasn't even awake!!

If I'm fasting that means I can't eat or drink anything?

No, you can drink zero calorie drinks. This means you can have plenty of water, green tea, BLACK coffee, and although I don't recommend it, you can have diet soda.

Won't I get light headed?

I have been doing Eat Stop Eat since January and have yet to feel light headed. I always make sure to keep drinking to avoid this. During my fasting days, I take in at least double the amount of water I normally do. This keeps me from becoming light headed and also keeps me from feeling hungry.

Here is some detail from 24 hour fast.

Thursday at 7pm I finished my dinner and started my fast. I had a couple glasses of water and then went to bed at 10pm.

I awoke at 7am and got ready for work. I drank a glass of water and made a pot of coffee. I had a BLACK cup of coffee and began work.

From 9am -11:30am I was able to do all of my work without any problems or any feeling of being hungry. I continued to drink water during this time period to try and keep myself from feeling hungry.

At 11:30 I had another cup of black coffee to get ready for the gym. I immediately followed this with a glass of water to keep from becoming dehydrated.

12pm - I went to the gym and the fast had NO effect on my workout. I got my workout done in under 45 minutes and it was very intense. I felt no energy lost from fasting at all.

1pm - 5pm. I did my work as usual, constantly sipping on water. I felt no effects from not eating. My mind actually seemed clearer during the afternoon. I did notice that most days after lunch I usually felt like taking a nap. This did not happen today!! My afternoon was a lot more productive because of it.

6pm - With an hour to go, I started to feel a little hungry. To combat this I made myself a cup of green tea and then chugged a cold glass of water. This did the trick!!

7pm - Sat down to a great dinner of chicken breast with spinach and a salad.


So as you can see I made it through the 24 hour fast without any problems. I did this and got a great workout in too. I will have my weight loss for the week posted tomorrow so we will see if fasting helped or not. I do suggest that you go check out Brad's site for Eat Stop Eat. He offers a free newsletter that you can sign-up for to obtain more information on intermittent fasting.