Whether they want to admit it or not the vast majority of people exercise because they want to look better, period. Although the health benefits are undeniable, people  want the rippling six pack and the tight butts they see on the fitness magazine covers. In fact a recent survey found 60 percent of people would rather look good than feel good. I am not sure how “official” any of these findings are but my point is most peoples goals are based more on how they want to look than how they feel or perform. Right or wrong this is the way it is.

Keeping this in mind I am puzzled by the amount of people who desire one outcome but do training that is counterproductive to that goal. One example of this that I see everyday is people who desire the bodies of fitness models and physique athletes but train like endurance athletes. Any successful natural bodybuilder or fitness model I have ever trained has no idea what their best time for a 10k is. The reason for this is the training involved in achieving an elite time in a 10k or more will do nothing to help achieve a cover models physique. It will in fact hinder the process.  

The tight muscles possessed by cover models and natural physique athletes, are a result of  2 things

1)intense weight training

2)strict diets

The  weight training builds and maintains the muscles that give those bodies their shape and form and the diets strip bodyfat to low levels so these muscles show. Cardio training does have a place in their training but I would put it third in priority.  If the other two factors are in check the amount of cardio that is required is relatively low. 

To turn everything upside down and put the training priority on cardio does 2 things

1) drains the bodies recovery reserves

2) strips away muscle tissue, especially in the upper body.

It is easy to see why these two things are exactly what you don’t want when trying to get as lean and ripped as possible.

This is not an attack on endurance athletes either. far from it. In fact for them to train as physique athletes or natural bodybuilders do would be  equally ridiculous.  It is  a sure way to be the best looking loser of any race.

The overall point is you first have to decide what you are trying to accomplish, and then train specifically for that purpose. unfortunately you cannot have the best of both worlds. If you try to train for two apposing goals at one time, your end result will be mediocrity in both.

In the past 25 years I have heard it all when it came to cardio and fat loss or a least it seems like it.” Cardio must be done on a empty stomach first thing in the morning”. “steady state cardio will not make you ripped, you must do intervals” and of course the ever popular “cardio must be done in the target “fat burning zone” to be effective for fat loss. All  of these statements are backed up by reams of scientific studies, sometimes the same study is even used to prove two opposite opinions.

There is nothing wrong with scientific studies. Many amazing life changing things have been discovered,either on purpose or by accident, by such studies. It actually amazes me that so much time and money has been spent on the subject of exercise and fat loss. It seems like such a waste of time for the rats and untrained college students that are usually the subjects in the studies. Isn’t there cheese to be eaten and beer to be drunk? This would seem like a much better use of this resource.

Why not look at more relevant examples for the answers. People that actually get lean for a “hobby” Subjects that get themselves into single digit bodyfat land just for shits and giggles. Yes if you have not guessed it I am talking about the lowly bodybuilder. More specifically the natural bodybuilder because you can not attribute his extreme leanness to some pharmaceutical concoction. He or she has had to achieve this leanness through their training protocol. Surely the answer must lie with these speedo wearing hairless creatures. Funny thing though, when you examine the cardio stategies employed by this group.  Some swear by early morning cardio, some by slow long steadystate and others worshiped at the interval alter. There isno more agreement among this group than the lab coat wearing pencilnecks.

The simple fact is all of these methods have been used with success to achieve extreme leanness. But how can this be?  Surely there must be a best way! Well sorry, there is no best way to do your cardio to promote fat loss and here is why. cardio is not the biggest factor in getting your body to lose fat. In My opinion there are two factors that are much more important.

1) calorie deficit

 2) efficient metabolism

The single biggest fact that effects these two thing is, drumroll please, DIET. A properly designed diet can effectively put you into a calorie deficit while still maintaining a efficient fat burning metabolism. No matter what type of cardio you do if your diet is not on track you will not achieve extreme leanness, not even close. And the beauty is the better your diet the less cardio you will have to do before the six pack makes its grand entrance.

So lets end the debate about the hows, and whens, of cardio. Put some of that time into tightening up your diet and then do whatever type of cardio you chose. Just be careful not to step on any  rats doing wind sprints along the way.

I came across this article from Dr Doug Cook Rd commenting on a popular “fat loss/cleanse system. I found it interesting, maybe you will to.

Isagenix is not new but it seems to have taken on new life. I have been approach by representatives of Isagenix on several occasions to be a distributor – that’s right, it’s a multi-level marketing scheme. While some product lines like Avon are a little more straight forward, Isagenix is a line of nutritional products making unsubstantiated claims and promises.

Keeping with the fad of detoxing, these products claim to help rid the body of excess ‘toxins’, which they say, are the reason why so many people struggle with weight. One of their main arguments is that people are unable to digest and use the food they eat making them malnourished at a cellular level. When people are starved of nutrients and when they are loaded with toxins, their bodies can not use stored fat for fuel and so it just accumulates and people gain weight, according to pitch I’ve been presented with.

Upon closer examination of their weight loss plan, you replace two meals with Isalean shakes (about 250 calories each), and eat a ’sensible’ dinner – this would provide about 1000 to 1200 calories per day! You don’t need to be an expert in nutrition to know that this will result in weight loss, and the weight loss is not due to the herbal supplements etc that they claim help to ‘flush’ the body of toxins or the cayenne pepper/green tea ‘accelerator’ used to ‘boost’ metabolism.

When pressed for supporting research to substantiate these claims, I’ve always been given the run around. This system does nothing more than line the pockets of the distributors while leaving the buyer with products that just don’t measure up! What’s amazing to me is how people take the sales pitch of the distributors, who tend not to know the first thing about nutrition or human physiology, as proof positive. Reiterating the information that comes with the product does not make someone knowledgeable! Please save your money for real wholesome foods, a good multivitamin and of course vitamin D to start!

Let me take you down a familiar road. Perhaps you have been there yourself or have been down it with someone else. This journey usually begins for me with a client, usually one that does not know me to well, standing before me and with the best of poker faces claims to be doing everything I have told them to do, but is not making any progress in fat loss. I usually listen to their story for a short while and don’t say a word. Just looking and listening. Then i begin to ask basic, small questions. Like a well seasoned investigator i begin to pick apart there stories little by little. Very soon it is obvious to us both that they are not following the plan at all. The seemingly small insignificant facts that were left out of the original tale made all the difference. The moral of the story is, very rarely is the plan “failing”. You are failing the plan. Just because you tell yourself close enough is good enough does not make it true.

Behavior modification