The Recipe: Cookin' up some fat loss!

When living a healthy lifestyle, doing something is definitely better than doing nothing, but doing the right thing will always take you a lot further! Now the question is "what is the right thing?" Many of us live hectic lives and work a busy schedule. If you want results, you must use what ever time you have in the most effective way. What you need is the right Recipe for success.

To lose fat and build lean attractive muscle you have to follow a recipe (program) that yields outcome you want. If you were to mix and microwave a bowl of bananas, flour, milk and pasta, you can't expect to get cookies! If you want your chocolate chip cookies to taste just like mom's you need to buy the exact same ingredients, mix them in the exact same way, use the same oven and cook them for the same amount of time. Any deviation from the original recipe will give a different result. A good fat-loss program is just like a recipe. It is important to follow every step with precision and care if you want the outcome to be predictable. You can't omit or add too much of any ingredient. And you can't make changes to the recipe until you've mastered the original. So lets start with a shopping list of the supplies you'll need to start your program:

1. A diet that promotes the loss of fat and building of lean muscle: Diet is the #1 ingredient in a successful weight management plan. You can actually lose weight without exercise, but you will never lose weight without a calorie deficit. The calories in vs. calories out equation is the simplest way to start. The best ways to understand your diet is with a food journal. You should use this tool to identify how many calories you eat and estimate how much you are burning.

2. A diet that promotes the loss of fat and building of lean muscle:
Yes! It is so important that I'm having you buy it twice! Your diet should also include enough protein and healthy fats (monounsaturated fats) to help promote your metabolism and the building of lean muscle.

3. Workouts that promote the building of lean muscle:
Lifting weights plays a critical role in every fat loss plan. Since muscles are the engines that burn fat, the more muscle we have, the more fat we can burn. Full-body resistance training promotes muscle growth which increases your resting metabolism. Weight lifting not only helps you drop the unwanted pounds, but it makes it possible to keep the fat off!

4. Workouts that raise you metabolism:
The key word here is intensity. The harder you push during the workout, the longer your metabolism is elevated. When your effort nears 100%, your metabolism will keep pumping (sometimes up to 36hrs after the workout is over). This "afterburn" effect is the reason that shorter duration hi-intensity workouts have been shown to burn 9X more fat than long duration slow cardio. Examples of hi-intensity training would be circuits, interval cardio or the "1000" workout.

5. Workouts that burn a lot of calories:
These are moderate duration/moderate intensity workouts that may or may not promote lean muscle gains (running, cycling, swimming, x-country skiing). These workouts do not give the same "afterburn" effect as the hi-intensity work. They are used on your non-lifting days to burn additional calories while your body is recovering and rebuilding from weight lifting and hi-intensity metabolic workouts.

Putting it all together!
Now that you've finished shopping for the supplies, you have to assemble the recipe in a way that fits your lifestyle. The final cooking time will depend on the time you've allocated each week to exercise. Here's how it goes... if you have:

0 hours a week: You will work with ingredients 1 and 2. If you can't make it to the gym or workout on your own, it is crucial that your diet is spot on. You can still lose lbs, but don't expect to get the results quickly.

1-3 hours a week: You will work with ingredients 1, 2 and 3. Since lean muscle is the largest component in a lasting fat loss program, drop the cardio and hit the weights! 40 minutes of hard lifting will actually burn a similar number of calories as 40 minutes of light jogging. The difference between weights and cardio is that lifting results in the "afterburn" which equates to more calories burnt in the long run.

4-5 hours a week: Always start with ingredients 1 and 2. You will preform 3 servings of ingredient #3 (weight lifting) and add 1-2 servings of ingredient #4 (metabolic training). Metabolic workouts are short and intense. These can be sprints on the treadmill and bike, or high-intensity calisthenic style circuits.

6+ hours a week: This is like adding the frosting to the cake. You will continue your conscientious diet, along with 3 servings of weights and 2 servings of hi-intensity training. All of your remaining time can be used on ingredient #5 (low/moderate intensity aerobic work such as running/jogging, swimming, cycling, ect...).

If you need help planning and deciding which recipe is best for you, feel free to email me at cheston.bogue@westloopgym.net. These fat loss recipes are scientifically proven to be the most effective use of your time. If you change the ingredients or order of mixing, don't expect a predictable result!

This posting is based on Alwyn Cosgrove's Hierarchy of Fat Loss.