Fasted Cardio for Weight Loss – Is It Worth It?

Ever thought about getting up first thing in the morning and doing some cardio training before breakfast? Many individuals perform this ritual in order to burn more body fat and attain that wonderful, lean physique!

The theory behind cardio training before breakfast is that as you don’t eat anything at all for perhaps 10-12 hours prior to exercise, your body will be in somewhat of a fasted state. Your levels of stored carbohydrates (glycogen) will be lower than normal and therefore if you train first thing in the morning you will be using a lot more fat for energy as this is the body’s second preferred source of fuel. Sounds simple enough right? Well not quite.

Many fitness experts are divided on the merits and success of training in a fasted state with many stating that it is not effective and many swearing by it. The confusion lies in the fact that training in the fasted state is effective for some goals but not for others, there is no black and white, just many grey areas!

Let me give you some examples. If an individual wanted to increase muscle mass then performing cardio training in the morning is a bad idea. Why? Well if glycogen levels are low, or lower, then the body will begin to use more fat for fuel. However the body will also dip into muscle tissue to extract proteins (amino acids) in order to convert the proteins into energy, a process known as gluconeogenesis. This is bad news for bodybuilders or anyone looking to increase muscle mass (hypertrophy) as your body will basically be eating away at your muscles!

If an individual wished to lose body fat however, and didn’t mind losing a bit of lean muscle tissue, then cardio training in a fasted state is good news. The intensity can only be that of low-moderate as it would be difficult to train highly intensely in a fasted state, although it is possible, it just depends on how much stored energy you actually have.
For individuals involved in weight training I would recommend at least two meals prior to exercise in order to produce a quality training effect, however many individuals have demonstrated quality gains through weight training first thing in the morning without breakfast.

Personally I have found that to get lean, cardio training in a fasted state 2-3 times per week is excellent and I have seen wonderful results from it. I have seen even better results if your last meal in the evening prior was a protein meal with no starchy carbs and a stimulant, such as caffeine, administered prior to morning training. The stimulant will do two things. Firstly it will spark the central nervous system into action firing up your cardiovascular system for exercise which is highly beneficial if you’re getting up at 6am!

Secondly a stimulant will help free fatty acids in the blood stream that will contribute to the burning of body fat, all good news. If you’re still sceptical over it’s merits, then simply try it for 4-6 weeks and monitor your results. Remember your goal must be to get lean, lose weight and body fat. If you are wishing to develop muscle tissue or are involved in anaerobic sports such as sprinting or weight lifting then avoid it at all costs!

Food supplements - Lose Your Money, Not Your Weight!

Weight loss supplements are a multi-billion dollar industry with so many people (mainly women) seeking the "get rich quick" solution to their weight loss desires. Unfortunately for most they are simply wasting their hard-earned money as the supplements do not do as they say on the tin.

Researchers from the Peninsula Medical School at the universities of Exeter and Plymouth reviewed a number of studies into the effectiveness of nine supplements and found no evidence they work. The UK team reviewed existing data on guar gum, bitter orange, calcium, glucomannan (a dietary fibre), chitosan (listed as a fat absorber), chromium picolinate (sometimes sold as an appetite suppressant) and green tea. Their findings prove that as far as weight loss supplements go they're mostly worthless!

Another study conducted in Germany looked at the nine most common weight loss supplements sold over the counter. They took 189 overweight individuals and spilt them into 10 groups. The groups were given either the weight loss supplements or placebo. Even though those taking the weight loss supplements did lose weight it was really no different from those taking the placebo.

Weight loss supplements are in general a waste of your money. Some containing caffeine can assist in your training and dieting for weight loss, but the bottom line is that if you're looking to lose weight, a specific exercise program combined with a quality diet plan is the only way you will succeed.

Low carb, low calorie diet for weight/fat loss

Below is the diet of one of my on-line clients looking to lose weight/fat:

Thursday 24-June
1 – 7:15 am: Protein Shake post workout (1 scoop protein powder, water & ice)
2 – 10:15 pm: 3 egg whites, 2 rye crisp crackers
3 – 1:30 pm: Grilled chicken salad (4 oz chicken breast over 2 cups mixed greens, 5 black olives, onions, cucumbers)
4 – 4:30 pm: Atkins Protein Bar
5 – 7:30 pm:
Water: 3 Liters

Friday 25-June
1 – 7:30 am: Protein Shake post workout (1 scoop protein powder, water & ice)
2 – 10:30 am: 2 rye crisp crackers, 1 lowfat string cheese
3 – 1:30 pm: Protein Shake - RTD
4 – 4:30 pm: 4 oz. lean beef, 1 ½ cup green peppers and onions
5 – 7:30 pm: 10 mixed nuts
Water: 3 Liters

Saturday 26-June
1 – 10:00 am: Protein Shake ( 1 scoop, water & ice)
2 – 1:00 pm: ½ Turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread with lettuce & tomato
3 – 4:00 pm: 3 oz. Chicken, 4 Shrimp and 1 cup Chinese Veggies
4 – 7:30 pm: Protein Shake (1 scoop, water, ice)
5 – 9:30 pm – 10 mixed nuts
Water: 3 Liters

Sunday 27-June
1 – 10:00 am: Protein Shake (1 scoop, water/ice)
2 – 1:30 pm: ½ Turkey Sandwich on Whole Wheat Bread with Lettuce & Tomato
3 – 4:30 pm: 3 oz. Grilled chicken breast, 4 grilled shrimp, 2 grilled scallops, 5 asparagus spears
4 – 8:00 pm: 10 mixed nuts
Water: 2 ½ Liters

Monday 28-June
1 – 10:30 am: Protein Shake (1 scoop, water & ice)
2 – 1:30 am: 3 oz. salmon, 1 cup mixed veggies (peppers, onions, squash, carrots)
3 – 4:30 pm: 2 rye crisp crackers with 1 tbsp. almond butter
4 – 7:30: 4 oz. chicken breast, 1 cup mixed veggies
5 – 9:30 pm: Protein Shake (1 scoop, water & ice)
Water: 3 Liters

Tuesday 29-June
1 – 7:30 am: Protein Shake (1 scoop, water,ice)
2 – 10:35 am: 2 rye-crisp crackers, 1 lowfat string cheese
3 – 1:30 pm: 4 oz. salmon, 1 cup mixed veggies
4 – 4:30 pm: Greek yogurt
5 – 7:30 pm: 4 oz. chicken breast, 1 cup grilled veggies
Water: 3 ½ Liters

Wednesday 30-June
1 – 7:30 am: Protein Shake (1 scoop, water, ice )
2 – 10:30 am: 2 rye crisp crackers, 1 ostrim
3 – 1:30 pm: 4 oz. chicken breast, 1 cup mixed veggies
4 – 4:30 pm: Greek yogurt, 3 strawberries
5 - 7:30 pm: 4 oz chicken, 1 cup red pepper and snow peas
Water: 3 Liters

My Workout Today! Arms of Death!

Great arm workout today, biceps and triceps:

Close-grip bench press 4 x 12

Cable Preacher curls 4 x 10

Dips 4 x 10

Standing barbell curls 4 x 10

These four arm exercises are the big exercises for quality muscle activity and are the major arm exercises. The next four exercises I performed as supersets so I did one then immediately went onto the other without rest. This increases the acidity within the muscle cells and subsequently stimulates the release of the powerful anabolic hormones growth hormone and testosterone:

Lying barbell tricep extensions 4 x 10

Incline seated dumbbell curls 4 x 10 (the stretch on my biceps from this exercise allows for greater contractions)

next superset:

standing cable bicep curls 4 x 12

tricep pushdowns 4 x 12 (did the ast two sets using a rope)

Arms completely shredded to bits! :-)

Raoul Moat's Steroid Rage!

A lot has been said recently, especially on SKY news, that one of the contributing factors as to why Raoul Moat killed his ex-girlfriend's partner Chris Brown, shot her, and the attempted murder of PC David Rathband, was that he was using anabolic steroids which causes individuals to rage with anger, violence and hostility. This is completely untrue with no sound evidence to support this. Basically if you're an idiot without steroids, you'll be an idiot on steroids!

Anabolic steroids are simply a synthetic version of testosterone which is a naturally producing substance in our bodies. For men wishing to gain a lot more muscle size, steroids help enormously, and quickly, for that cause. They can't work on their own, the individual has to train hard, very hard, and diet well for the muscles to get bigger, steroids simply magnify the gains. The problem is that when men come off steroids they lose a lot of their gains which is why many men are addicted to them.

Steroids in the medical world are a wonder drug. For individuals experiencing a great deal of atrophy (muscle wasting), from burns, AIDS, HIV, cancer etc. steroids help people gain more weight. The amount of deaths per year in the US from alcohol? 75,000. The amount of deaths per year from tobacco? 475,000. The amount of deaths from steroids in the US per year? 3!!

In terms of emergency room visits from drug use, alcohol comes first obviously, aspirin comes 25, and steroids come in at 142! That's even lower down the list than your multi-vitamins!

Incredible how steroids get such a bad rap and yet we let people drink alcohol freely which leads to an unbelievable amount of problems many of which are never reported such as domestic violence and rape.

The problems with steroids, like most drugs, is they are abused by men wishing to enhance their gains as quickly as possible. Steroids for 90% of exercisers are completely unnecessary as the gains that most would like to make can be made without steroids. Only those involved in very serious training, and have training experience of at least 5-10 years, and have pushed their genetic potential to it's heights, would benefit better from steroid use. For everyone else, no need.

Exercisers should be aware that anabolic steroid use in certain countries such as the US is illegal and many have been prosecuted for steroid use. Alcohol is legal in the US and available to purchase almost anywhere! Maybe we need to re-think things??? :-)

The Slow Metabolism Myth – Not A Factor For Gaining Weight!

A common remark to justify weight gain is for one to claim that they have a slow metabolism and even though they do not eat a great deal of food, they still manage to store a lot of body fat and subsequently gain more and more weight.

People are often quite surprised to discover the even though having a slow metabolism does exist in theory, it is very rare and not considered a factor at all for contributing to weight/fat gain.

Studies have shown clearly that obese and overweight people actually have a higher metabolic rate and burn even more calories at rest than lean people! This is due obviously to the body have to deal with a lot more mass in order to function properly, but even when body mass is taken into account, there is still no difference in metabolic rate people obese people and lean people.

So why do people put on lots of weight despite not eating very much? Well firstly, it is common for obese people to under-estimate the amount of energy they are consuming every day. When I ask my heavier clients to write down everything they eat and drink every day, they are often surprised at the amount of calories they are consuming.

The main reasons why people gain fat/weight is because of genetics, too much energy consumption, lack of regular physical exercise, medication, stress, emotional eating, and medication.

Your metabolism does indeed drop as you age but this is due to losing lean muscle tissue which increases your metabolic rate which is why resistance or weight training is very effective, more so than cardiovascular training, for burning body fat.

Don’t look for reasons as to why you may be gaining fat/weight, get out there and do something positive about it. Everything is possible, it all depends on your determination, desire and attitude.

Best Celebrity Workouts 2: Tri-Sets!

As a Celebrity Personal Trainer I am constantly looking for techniques and methods to increase the intensity of my client’s workouts in order for them to burn fat and achieve a lean and wonderful physique.

Celebrities do not have an abundance of time, contrary to public belief, they need time efficient workouts that produce quality results.

Adding on from the Best Celebrity Workouts 1 we now have an extension to super-setting with a method known as Tri-Sets. As if super-sets were not hard enough, tri-sets involve a third exercise being added in order to increase the intensity even further!

Supersets involve training opposing muscle groups without any rest between sets. So a celebrity could train chest and combine it immediately with back, or quads and hamstrings. Tri-sets can involve either three sets performed immediately each other using the same muscle group, or three exercises performed immediately after each other.

If one were to use tri-sets for the same muscle group then this is an advanced method of training and I would only perform this method with experienced exercise users as the intensity is very high. An example of a tri-set using the same muscle group would be:

Barbell squats
Lunges
Leg extensions

Or

Bench press
Dips
Flys

One cannot use a heavy load for this method of training and it would not be possible to complete the tri-set. Sets of 0f 8-12 reps are good approx 75% of the maximum one could lift for one repetition (1RM).

Another method of training using tri-sets is to use different muscle groups therefore reducing the high intensity on one particular muscle group making the workout more tolerable but still intense. An example of this would be:

Deadlifts
Chin-ups
Decline sit-ups

Or

Shoulder push-press
Lunges
Seated rows

If a celebrity wanted to work heavily on their legs and butt then I may design a tri-set workout for them using just leg exercises. If I just need more a a general application but focused on burning fat then I would opt for the latter tri-sets using various exercises, especially if the client was less advanced.

Tri-sets stimulate the release of the powerful hormones testosterone and growth hormone and can only be performed for about 30-45 mins due to the intensity of the workouts.

Celebrity workouts require a higher intensity and tri-sets are a great training tool in order to burn fat and create quality lean muscle tissue!