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There is something to be said for brief workouts. Back in the 80's, when I joined my first gym, it was common for workouts to last over 90 minutes. In college I would train up to 2 hours per day with a group of friends. We would spend 90 minutes lifting and 30 minutes on cardio. The routine was "3 days on and 1 day off". Although that was WAY too much time in the gym, each of us was in great condition. With that much time sweating and burning calories, it was bound to work. The problem was that our workouts weren't time efficient. With a few less beers per week and less calories, we could have got the same results with about 1/2 the amount of time spent in the gym. In fact, with enough intensity and with a proper diet I believe I could have maintained a low body fat percentage just training a few times per week. Although a few intense brief workouts are enough for a 20 year old to stay ripped, I believe the rules are different for a 40 year old.

[The time element of training is rarely discussed. Usually it is just assumed that less time training is better. If you are in your mid 30's or older, I think you might need to question this assumption.]

Raging Hormones, High Metabolism, and "Naturally Active"…

This past August, I spent the majority of the month on a West Coast road trip (one of the reasons I haven't posted in a while). About a week into our road trip we reached Huntington Beach, CA. This is one of California's prime surf beaches. Anyway, one thing I noticed was how the majority of the young surfers were lean and fit just as a natural result of their circumstances. Not only did these young surfers have higher levels of HGH than the older people on the beach, they were out in the water for 4-6 hours at a time. No wonder why they were in such outstanding shape. This isn't a big breakthrough or anything, but it made me think more about age and fitness.

Why Are Young People Typically Lean Without Trying?

I know this is a generalization, but people in their early 20's are typically lean with very little effort. On our road trip, we stayed in Sedona, AZ for a few days and went to a cliff diving spot called "Grasshopper Point". There was a group of college kids chugging beer and then doing crazy flips off of some pretty darn high cliffs. With only 1-2 exceptions all of these young people were in outstanding condition. You could tell they probably did a bit of training, but staying lean was probably as easy deal for them. Again, not a huge discovery or anything, it just made me think about age and fat loss a bit more.

[Grasshopper Point is an amazing swimming hole. On one side of the river is a beach and the other side is a steep cliff. You swim across, climb up as high as you want up the red colored cliffs, and simply jump back into the water. A perfect summer day!]

Let's Discuss What Young People Have in Their Favor

So I am going to generalize a lot here. We have all seen overweight teens and naturally lean 50 year old's. I'm talking about averages here.

1) More Natural Physical Activity Each Week:

I will use myself as an example. Back in college I didn't have a car and walked everywhere. Heck, just walking to and from class took up over an hour of my day, 5 days a week. In addition to that, I would play volleyball or pickup basketball 2-3 times per week for 1-2 hours at a time. I would estimate that I spent 8-9 hours per week of exercise outside of my gym workouts. These days I'm lucky to get in 2 hours per week of exercise outside of my gym workouts. So 7 more hours of activity per week, even at a low intensity level, is significant. Now wonder it was a breeze to stay lean back then!

2) High HGH Levels

Young people are fat burning machines compared to their older counterparts. A big reason for this is the high levels of HGH in younger folk. HGH is a natural fat burning hormone and declines as one ages. Exercise can slow down this decline, but can't stop it from happening completely. Not only are the normal HGH levels higher in young people, my belief is that the "HGH response" to a workout is greater in younger people as well (not proven by a scientific study as far as I know, just a belief of mine based on experience).

3) A Higher Metabolism

The combination of being more active and producing more HGH typically means younger folk are burning more calories even when they aren't active. The average 20 year old also has more lean muscle than the average 40 year old and this helps a bit as well. No matter how you look at it, the typical 20 year old is burning more calories day to day than the average 40 year old. Whether it is attributed to hormones, muscle mass, activity, etc…it all adds up to more calories being burned over the course of a day by a 20 year old compared to a 40 year old.

[San Francisco is one of the coolest cities I've ever been to. I could easily see living here. A big city in an amazing location.]

Let's Examine if LESS Time Training is What You Need

I like the idea of brief and intense workouts, but is that going to get the job done? If you are over 30 and struggling to get as lean as you were in your teens and 20's, it could be that you simply aren't active enough each week. Is training less the smartest approach to dropping that excess body fat? In my opinion there is a very good possibility that you need to spend a little bit more time in the gym, not less…especially if you aren't as active as you were in your younger days.

You Can Only Diet So Hard Before You Are Starving Yourself

I do believe that diet is the first thing to look at when you are trying to get lean, but there is a lower limit. If you cut back the calories too far, you will become malnourished. It is okay to eat slightly less than maintenance levels, but much lower than that for long periods of time is a terrible strategy. When reducing calories there is a lower limit. Even if you still need to lose body fat, it isn't wise to go far below this lower limit for long periods of time.

There is An Upper Limit to Workout Intensity

If you perform too many intense workouts per week, you will over-train. You will break your body down at a faster rate than it can repair itself. To be honest, even a few ultra intense workouts per week can result in over-training. There is an upper limit to intensity that can't be breached, even if you still have a lot of fat to lose.

["Redlining" is a term I like to use when someone is eating below maintenance level calories and training intensely, but is unable to lose any more weight.]

When You Reach the Limits of Diet and Workout Intensity?

What variable can you adjust if you are at your limits with diet and workout intensity? You can adjust the amount of time you train. This is logical, but it isn't discussed much. If you are stuck at a certain body weight, simply add in 30-90 minutes per week to your training and you will lose weight again. This has to be lower intensity training, if you are close to your upper limits already in terms of training intensity.

Why Cardio Is a Potent Tool for Fat Loss, In My Opinion

Cardio, whether it means walking outside or on a treadmill, is the perfect way to add in more activity without over-training. I like body weight circuits and HIIT and other versions of intense intervals, but there is a limit to how much I can do before I over-train. If I am still not losing as much body fat as I would like, I can't simply increase the intensity or I will burn out. What I can do is extend the amount of time I do steady state cardio after I do HIIT, or I can add in walking for 1-2 hours per week.

What Training in the 80's Taught Me

The big thing in the 80's was to bulk up in the winter and cut down right before summer. I don't think this is a great strategy, but it taught me quite a bit about dropping body fat. One thing I learned about fat loss was, given enough time on the treadmill or exercise bike and you can get as lean as you desire. This was before HIIT was known by the fitness community. Back then you would do steady state cardio for an hour per day, while eating a low fat diet to get extremely lean. It wasn't time efficient, but it worked. I even read about bodybuilders who would walk on a treadmill an hour in the morning and an hour at night to reach ultra-low body fat levels.

Steady State Cardio is the Great Equalizer

Unlike the 80's, I don't think it is smart to use steady state cardio as your main method of losing body fat. It simply isn't as time efficient as HIIT or other form of interval training. What I am saying is that if you are dieting properly and doing brief intense training along with HIIT, then it makes sense to add in lower intensity steady state cardio. Steady state cardio is one way a 40 year old can get as lean as a 20 year old. Steady state cardio will make up for the fact that you are less active and your HGH levels aren't as high, etc…this is why I call it the great equalizer. It is the ideal supplementary exercise to give that small extra push needed to burn off that little bit of stubborn body fat that many can't seem to lose when they get older.

If You Are Training Hard, But Are Stuck at a Certain Weight

So if you are training hard already and your diet is dialed in, then my advice is to train a little more than you are training now. It doesn't have to be time spent in the gym…it could be walking 2-3 times per week, in addition to what you are doing now. Another approach is to just add 15 more minutes of steady state cardio to what you are doing now. Again, make sure you get everything optimum and as time efficient as possible before adding in additional steady state cardio. The goal isn't to live in the gym or train non-stop. It is to get in shape.

Note: Sorry it has been so long since my last post. I had good intentions of getting posts done before my road trip, but ran out of time. Has a blast. I highly recommend Sedona as well as Huntington, for a full blown vacation. As far as places to live, San Francisco looked outstanding and hard to beat.

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Tags: Body Fat

People often talk about rep tempo and lifting speed when it comes to gaining strength or adding muscle. What about fat loss when it comes to lifting speed? About 10 years ago I started using lower reps to increase muscle definition. I also slowed down the speed of each lift to really focus hard on increasing the tension in the lifts. This type of lifting quickly made a difference to my physique. I reached the best shape of my life lifting with sets of 5 reps at a slow pace. I didn't realize this at the time, but the slow lifting speed I was using may have contributed to reaching a low body fat percentage as well.

[No need to use a timer or stopwatch to time the speed of lifting and lowering your weights during a set. The "1 Mississippi...2 Mississippi" or "1 Alligator...2 Alligator" methods are just as accurate. Kids have been using this scientific counting method for "Hide and Seek" for centuries.]

An Interesting Study That Inspired This Post

I cruise the internet on a daily basis trying to find useful info that isn't just "cookie cutter" generic fitness tips found on hundreds of other sites. It gets a little tough at times because I have written 300+ articles on this site now. No doubt I will continue to find useful info for years to come, it just takes a little longer than it used to. Every once in a while I find a study or an article that takes me by surprise and look at something in a way I have never thought about.

The Rep Tempo and Metabolism Study

So —> here is a link to an abstract of a great study. I couldn't find the entire document online, but the abstract gives enough info for a good discussion. This study examined the effects of slow eccentric contractions (slowly lowering the weight) on metabolism. Pretty interesting findings…

"The main finding of this investigation is that full-body resistance training with an eccentric concentration significantly increased REE up to 72 hours postexercise…"

They Used a "1 Second Up and 3 Seconds Down" Rep Tempo

So I am not writing this to convince you that this is the magical tempo that boosts your metabolism the most. What I am saying is that rep tempo affects not only muscle size and strength, but the amount of calories you burn after your workout as well. What is funny is that I have always been my leanest when following a slow tempo. I can't say that tempo was the only reason behind getting lean, because I also diet a little harder and do more HIIT when I'm doing lower reps slowly…but I do think the slow tempo contributed to losing body fat.

Harder to Use a Slower Tempo In Higher Rep Ranges

I find that lifting at a slow tempo works best in the lower rep ranges, like 6 reps or less. The participants in this study were doing sets of 6 reps. It is tougher to use this slow tempo on higher rep sets, because each set will then last for days. I actually believe that higher rep "fatigue training" is better suited for building muscle. Save the slower tempo for lower reps for when you are looking to lose body fat while increasing definition and density.

The Speed of the Concentric (Lifting) Part of the Rep

I typically recommend going slow when lifting heavy for both the positive and negative portion of each rep. The people in this study used slow going down and a fast tempo on the lifting part of the movement. When used strategically this can work very well. Doing the positive portion at a fast rate increases power and can get you through a sticking point…but the potential for injury is higher than if you lift the positive portion of the rep at a slower rate. So use this tempo for 4-6 weeks at a time when you reach a sticking point…then go back to the safer tempo where you do the positive portion of the rep at a slower pace.

Experiment With "3 Seconds Down" If You Haven't Tried This

There are many benefits of going slow during the negative portion of the lift. For example, lowering the weight slowly will give you time to build up the tension and use Pavel's "irradiation" concept to generate maximum tension and muscle recruitment into the lift. How fast you do the positive portion of the lift is up to you. Since I have been using the slow tempo up and down, I'm switching over to "1 second up" for the next month to mix things up. Most of the time I would suggest a medium to slow pace on the positive portion of the lift to be safe. If you plan on lifting for a lifetime, I just feel you need to weigh the risk vs reward of more explosive lifting.

Note: So this is just another variable you can tweak to get better results in your workouts. What is cool about this is that it applies to just about any type of resistance training.

Tags: Muscle Tone Strategies, body fat percentage, building muscle, gaining strength, irradiation, lifting heavy, lose body fat, losing body fat, low body fat, muscle definition, pavel

I have never met anyone who stays as lean as Martin Berkhan does year round. In fact, most people think it is near impossible to stay below 6% body fat for more than a few days at a time. Martin has held at a steady 5-6% body fat for three years straight! Many people will immediately think it is just do to great genetics or a naturally fast metabolism, but they would be wrong. He was a chubby kid growing up and simply figured out a methodology of staying lean without depriving himself of good food. He outlines these methods on his outstanding blog, Lean Gains. Here is an exclusive guest article he wrote for Fitness Black Book.

[Yeah, I probably overdo the fire effects on this site. I just couldn't resist with the word "scorch" in the title.]

-by Martin Berkhan

This articles title was originally going to be Food Choices That Kill Your Chance of Getting Lean per Rustys suggestion. But it would be highly ironic if I, who regularly ate ice cream and cereal on my last cut to 5.5% body fat, told you that there are certain foods that would kill your chance of getting lean.

Besides that, there are about one billion articles on what foods cause fat gain or stall fat loss. Youve seen them and its usually the same tired stuff. Do you guys need another article telling you to avoid white bread, fast food and hot pockets? Nope.

So I asked myself how to approach this topic and make it worth your while. Theres no food that, once you eat it, flips on a metabolic switch that completely shuts down fat burning and weight loss if youre maintaining a daily caloric deficit. Its a question of quantity, moderation and context.

[Martin Berkhan at 5.5% body fat]

I believe most foods can be consumed in the right context, but should be avoided in another context, in order to optimize body recomposition and fat loss. For example, most of my clients consume a fair amount of starchy carbohydrates following a workout. This isnt a problem because its part of optimizing the plan. In this context, starchy carbs are great for restoring muscle glycogen. On rest days however, my clients might skip starches, eating fewer carbs and more satiating ones. This strategy optimizes satiety, fat loss, diet adherence and performance.

That being said, there are some foods that should be ditched first from your diet if weight loss is stalling or if you want to speed things up. Same thing goes if you just want to make the diet as easy and painless as possible. Having reviewed and created hundreds of meal plans throughout the years, I know a little something about this topic.

Your diet is where you fix things first and foremost. Adding more cardio when your diet is suboptimal is an inefficient and time-wasting strategy that will result in an increased risk of burnout and overtraining.

In this article Ill spotlight a few less-than-obvious staples that people tend to include in their diets. These are foods that people generally think of as healthy and diet friendly, when they can be diet killers in disguise.

Nuts, protein bars and dried fruit

Nuts in all their various forms are the most overrated and overhyped foods in the health conscious community. Just because its a natural food doesnt mean its all that diet friendly or even healthy for that matter.

Packing a higher calorie density than chocolate, its no big mystery that people easily overdo it with nuts. Some people rationalize a high nut consumption by saying its a healthy and natural snack, but this is wrong. Nuts contain an incomplete amino acid profile and consist mostly of plant fats. The westernized diet is already highly unbalanced in the omega 3: omega 6-ratiothe polyunsaturated fats from nuts certainly wont help.

Optimize the fat composition of your diet by kicking nuts to the curb and add more fish, thats my recommendation. Youll be more satiated and healthier to boot.

A protein bar is nothing more than a chocolate bar with slightly higher protein content and crappier taste. A whopping 300 calories for a bar that youll gulf down in a few minutes is crazy. For most women that amount makes up about -1/5 of the daily total calorie intake needed to lose fat efficiently. Besides that, eating protein bars to up your protein intake isnt a great strategy as a bars protein content makes up only about 30-40% of its calories. You could down half a Snickers bar and a protein shake, and end up consuming fewer calories with a better nutritional breakdown than having your typical protein bar. Protein bars are nothing more than glamorized candy. And you dont eat candy on a regular basis if you want to optimize fat loss and diet adherence.

Unprocessed fruit is good, but dried fruit including dried apricots, dates and raisins are just sugar lumps with some extra fiber. These snacks have high calorie density and tend to stimulate hunger rather than quench it. Out of the three popular snacks discussed here, dried fruit may just be the worst of the lot. You dont want or need them on a fat loss diet.

Shakes

Shakes, liquids and anything else that resembles baby food shouldnt stay on menu when its time to shave off calories or make your diet more manageable and painless. This includes recovery shakes with high-glycemic index carbs and protein shakes, fruit juices, milk and yogurt. Packing a good deal of calories in proportion to the little satiety they provide, liquid calories have no place in your diet other than for convenience.

Think you need a recovery shake post-workout? Think again. Unless youre an elite athlete training twice a day and need to refill muscle glycogen as fast as possible for your next training session, fast carbs are a complete waste of calories. Your time (and money) is better spent with whole food carbohydrates that offer chewing resistance.

Are you drinking whey protein shakes throughout the day because youre too lazy to cook or eat real food? Well, if youre too lazy to step into the kitchen or chew your food, youre probably not going to reach your fat loss goals anyway. Id rather have you learn to savour a good steak with veggies rather than rapidly chugging insulin-spiking and appetite-triggering whey protein shakes. Liquid calories should be replaced with whole foods, including your protein choices. But if you must supplement your diet with protein shakes, I recommend casein or milk protein isolate over whey.

What about those vitamin drinks, smoothies and fruit juices people are drinking to make sure theyre getting enough antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals? Another complete waste of calories Do you think you risk missing vital nutrients if you cut these health drinks out from your diet? Its actually the other way around: strong evidence suggests that overdoing intake of antioxidants and vitamins can negatively affect your health and your training results. A balanced diet with wholesome foods such as meat, eggs, berries, veggies and some starches, doesnt need vitamin or antioxidant support. It has everything in abundance. If youre still paranoid, take a multivitamin with your first meal.

Breakfast

I apologize in advance to readers who were expecting a third group of food items that I think should be ditched from your diet. This is in part tongue-in-cheek. There is nothing inherently bad about breakfast. Nor is there anything inherently good about it either. But for me, skipping breakfast was the single greatest diet fix I ever made and the one that allowed me to really take it to the next level in terms of lowering my body fat. Theres a lesson in here, so keep reading even if you dont think you can live without breakfast.

I was never a breakfast person in the sense that I wasnt hungry in the morning and preferred to eat later in the day and evening. Yet I forced myself to eat breakfast on every diet attempt I made until a few years ago. I believed breakfast was absolutely crucial for a few different reasons.

First, sleeping supposedly leaves your muscles without a steady supply of amino acids for several hours, making breakfast crucial to keep your muscles from falling off.
Second, my poor fragile metabolism apparently couldnt handle a few hours without food before completely shutting down.

And third, breakfast-eaters were on average healthier and weighed less than breakfast-skippers so there had to be something good about it, right?

One day I looked into all of thisthe actual studies that is, and not what I had learned through fitness magazines and supplement ads. Guess what? All of those claims about the healthiness of breakfast, muscle catabolism and metabolic rate were wrong.

Ive written a lot about this topic on my blog, but let me provide the main points.

Your metabolism doesnt scavenge amino acids from your muscles after an overnight fast. Fatty acid metabolism is highly up-regulated, but muscle catabolism doesnt occur in short-term fasting for up to 24 hours. If youre still paranoid about this (I am), make sure to eat some slowly absorbed protein before bed, such as cottage cheese, egg white protein or meat with veggies (the extra fiber will slow absorption as meat is generally considered a fast protein). Another thing to keep in mind is the very slow absorption rate of whole food proteins. Were talking a few grams per hour, which means that a mixed meal with 40-50 grams of protein will maintain a steady level of amino acids in your bloodstream well through the night and into the next day. The belief that a few hours without food will cause muscle catabolism is absurd.

Metabolic rate does not slow down during short-term fasting. It actually increases slightly. Thats probably the complete opposite from what youve heard, but this is an undisputed fact. It takes more than three days without food before metabolic rate is negatively affected via down-regulation of thyroid activity. That skipping breakfast or missing a meal affects metabolic rate, a myth still propagated in the fitness and health community, is ludicrous.

What about those studies showing breakfast is healthy and people that eat breakfast weigh less than breakfast-skippers? Those are all correlational studies. Skipping breakfast is connected to a certain dysregulated eating behavior that predisposes people to weigh more. The Average Joe or Jane breakfast-skipper is the personality type to grab a donut on the way to work, eat junk food for lunch and finish the day off with a big dinner and snack in front of the TV. Those studies have no relevance to the conscious dieter that skips breakfast as a fat loss strategy.

Summary

Did you see the red line with regards to what foods should be ditched from your fat loss diet in order to optimize it? Chew your calories. Generally speaking, the more chewing resistance a food provides, the slower the digestion will be and the longer and faster youll stay satisfied and full. Dont half-ass your calories with calorie-dense snacks and shakes. Another factor to consider with snacks and shakes is the appetite stimulating effect they have on some people.

A new study shows that, if the choice stands between three big meals and six small meals, three meals come out on top with regards to appetite control. Three meals is also a meal frequency that I have favored for years. Invest some time in your meals and eat less frequently. Ditch the snacks and shakes in between meals.

Dont let dogma or false beliefs dictate your meal frequency. Choose a meal frequency completely based on personal preferences. That was the lesson I wanted to teach through with my tale of skipping breakfast. If you never were a breakfast-eater like me, skip breakfast and eat later in the day. You can have lunch, dinner and an evening meal. Or whatever other eating pattern that lets you adhere the best to your diet.

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Make sure and visit Lean Gains and learn more tips for getting lean from Martin. He actually has one of the more entertaining posts I have ever read where he downs an entire cheescake: Cheesecake Mastery Part 2: Easter '10 Massacre. In fact, the picture from that post is so clever, I have to post it here. All former video game geeks will instantly know what this is all about. The comments on the post are hilarious. People told him it was irresponsible, he was setting a bad example, etc. I give him props for crushing the entire cheesecake (plus being able to pull off the Fatality in style).

Tags: Diet Tips, body fat, metabolism, protein shake, weight loss

Agence France-Presse is reporting that a new robot, designed to help people lose the pounds, will soon be available on the US market. The Autom from Intuitive Automata was designed to act like a personal coach, talking you through a personalized diet and helping you to stick with it.

From the product preview page:

You can talk to Autom™ for just a few minutes a day to help you keep track of how you’re progressing towards your goals. No two conversations with her are alike and she’s always ready to give you encouragement and advice to keep you going. You tell her what you have eaten and how much you have exercised and she remembers it all. Whenever you want to see your progress, just ask her and it is there for you.

In a recent randomized controlled study, we compared people using Autom™ to people using a computer-based system or a paper-based system for keeping track of how much they were eating and exercising each day. What we found is that Autom™ helps people to stick with their diets for nearly twice as long as with other methods. This is a big difference! It could mean the difference between another yo-yo diet and a lasting change.

Product page: Autom…

More from AFP: Robot takes on battle of the bulge…