CARDIO SUCKS THE SIMPLE SCIENCE OF LOSING FAT FAST WITHOUT LOSING MUSCLE SECOND EDITION
Michael Matthews
Copyright © 2015 Oculus Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions of this book. Don’t participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. This book is a general educational health-related information product and is intended for healthy adults age 18 and over. This book is intended solely for information and educational purposes and does not constitute medical advice. Please consult a medical or health professional before you begin any exercise, nutrition, or supplementation program or if you have questions about your health. For people in poor health or with pre-existing physical or mental health conditions, there may be risks associated with participating in activities or using products mentioned in this book. Because these risks exist, you should not use the products or participate in the activities described in this book if you are in poor health or if you have a pre-existing mental or physical health condition. If you choose to participate in these activities, you do so knowingly and voluntarily of your own free will and accord, assuming all risks associated with these activities. Specific results mentioned in this book should be considered extraordinary, and there are no “typical” results. Because individuals differ, results will differ. Cover Designed by Damon Za Edited by Kristin Walinski Published by Oculus Publishers, Inc. www.oculuspublishers.com Visit the author’s website: www.muscleforlife.com
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR A gold medal is a wonderful thing. But if you’re not enough without one, you’ll never be enough with one.
— IRV FROM THE MOVIE COOL RUNNINGS
I’m Mike. I believe that every person can achieve the body of his or her dreams, and I work hard to give everyone that chance by providing workable, proven advice grounded in science. I’ve been training for more than a decade now and have tried just about every type of workout program, diet regimen, and supplement you can imagine. While I don’t know everything, I know what works and what doesn’t. Like most guys, I had no clue what I was doing when I started out. I turned to magazines for help, which had me spending a couple of hours in the gym every day and wasting hundreds of dollars on worthless supplements each month, only to make mediocre gains. This went on for years, and I jumped from workout program to workout program. I tried all kinds of splits and routines, exercises, rep ranges, and other schemes, and while I made some progress during this time (it’s impossible not to if you just keep at it), it was slow going and eventually put me in a rut. My weight remained stuck for over a year, and I wasn’t building any strength to speak of. I had no idea what to do with my nutrition beyond eating “clean” and making sure I was getting a lot of protein. I turned to various trainers for guidance, but they had me do more of the same. I liked working out too much to quit, but I wasn’t happy with my body, and I didn’t know what I was doing wrong.
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CARDIO SUCKS
Here’s a picture of me after almost six years of lifting regularly:
Not very impressive. Something had to change.
TIME TO GET SMART I finally decided that it was time to get educated — to throw the magazines away, get off the forums, and learn the actual physiology of muscle growth and fat loss and figure out what it takes to build a big, lean, and strong body. I searched out the work of top strength and bodybuilding coaches, talked to scores of natural bodybuilders, and read hundreds of scientific papers, and a clear picture emerged. The real science of getting into incredible shape is very simple — much simpler than the health and fitness and supplement industries want us to believe. It flies in the face of almost all the crap that we hear on TV, read in magazines, and see in the gym. As a result of what I learned, I completely changed the way I trained and ate. And my body responded in ways I couldn’t believe. My strength skyrocketed. My muscles were growing again for the first time in years. My energy levels went through the roof.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
xi
That was just over five years ago, and here’s how my body has changed since:
Quite a difference.
THE BIRTH OF MY CAREER Along the way, my friends noticed the improvements in my physique and began asking for advice. I became their unofficial trainer. I took “hardgainers” and put 30 pounds on them in a year. I took people who were absolutely baffled as to why they couldn’t lose weight, stripped 30 pounds of fat off them, and helped them build noticeable muscle at the same time. I took people in their fifties who believed their hormones were too bottomed out to accomplish anything with exercise and helped them turn back the clock 20 years in terms of body fat percentage and muscle definition. After doing this over and over for years, my “clients” (I never asked for money — I just had them come train with me) started urging me to write a book. I dismissed the idea at first, but it began to grow on me. “What if I had such a book when I had started training?” I thought. I would’ve saved an untold amount of money, time, and frustration, and I would’ve achieved my ideal physique years ago. I enjoyed helping people with what I had learned, and if I wrote books and they became popular, what if I could help thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people? That got me excited.
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I acted on the impulse, and the result was the first edition of Bigger Leaner Stronger, which was published in January 2012. Sales were slow at first, but within a month or two, I began receiving e-mails from readers with high praise. I was floored. I immediately started on my next book and outlined several more. I’ve now published several books, which have sold more than 300,000 copies. More importantly, though, every day I get scores of e-mails and social media messages from readers who are blown away by the results they’re seeing. They’re just as shocked as I was years ago when I learned just how simple building lean, healthy muscle and losing fat, without ever feeling starved or miserable, is. It’s motivating to see the impact I’m having on people’s lives, and I’m incredibly inspired by the dedication of my readers and followers. You guys and gals rock.
WHERE TO NOW? My true love is researching and writing, so I’ll always be working on another book, my website (www.muscleforlife.com), and whatever other types of literary adventures come my way. My big, evil master plan has three major targets: 1. Help a million people get fit and healthy. “Help a million people” just has a sexy ring to it, don’t you think? It’s a big goal, but I think I can do it. And it goes beyond just helping people look good — I want to make a dent in alarmingly negative trends we’re seeing in people’s overall physical and mental health. 2. Lead the fight against broscience and BS. Unfortunately, this industry is full of idiots, liars, and hucksters who prey on people’s fears and insecurities, and I want to do something about it. In fact, I’d like to become known as the go-to guy for practical, easy-to-understand advice grounded in real science and results. 3. Help reform the sport supplement industry. The dishonest pill and powder pushers are the people I despise the most in this space. The scams are numerous: using fancy-sounding but worthless ingredients, cutting products with junk fillers like maltodextrin and even stuff like flour and sawdust (yes, this happens), using bogus science and ridiculous marketing claims to sell, underdosing the important ingredients and covering it up with the label “proprietary blend,” sponsoring steroid-fueled athletes so they can pretend supplements are the secret to their gains, and more. I hope you enjoy this book, and I’m positive that if you apply what you’re about to learn, you too can dramatically transform your physique without hating your “diet” or beating yourself to death in the gym every day. So, are you ready? Great. Let’s get to it.
CONTENTS
5 REASONS YOU SHOULD READ THIS BOOK
1
What if I could show you how to dramatically transform your body faster than you thought possible?
CHAPTER 1 THE GREAT “ONE TRUE DIET” HOAX
5
How to break free from the lies, dogmas, and pseudoscience of mainstream diet trends and fads.
CHAPTER 2 HOW TO GET THE BODY YOU WANT WITH FLEXIBLE DIETING15 The problem with dieting is that most people get it all wrong. Learn how to do it right, though, and it can change your life.
CHAPTER 3 HOW TO EAT RIGHT WITHOUT OBSESSING OVER EVERY CALORIE If planning or tracking numbers isn’t your thing, you can still get the body you want by developing the right eating habits.
33
CHAPTER 4 HOW MUCH CARDIO SHOULD YOU DO, AND HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?
39
If you think it takes hours and hours of cardio every week to have the lean, ripped body you want, think again.
CHAPTER 5 HOW I USE FASTED CARDIO TO LOSE FAT (AND STUBBORN FAT IN PARTICULAR) FASTER
49
Many “experts” say that training on an empty stomach accelerates fat loss, but it’s not that simple. Here’s the real story.
CHAPTER 6 7 CARDIO WORKOUTS THAT DON’T SUCK
63
Building bigger, stronger muscles is much easier than you’ve been led to believe.
CHAPTER 7 THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO HIGH-INTENSITY INTERVAL TRAINING
65
CHAPTER 8 GET YOUR CARDIO UP WITH STAIR SPRINTS
73
CHAPTER 9 THE ULTIMATE BOXING WORKOUT
75
CHAPTER 10 HOW TO MASTER THE KETTLEBELL SWING
79
CHAPTER 11 REAP THE REWARDS OF CROSS-TRAINING
85
CHAPTER 12 BURN FAT FAST WITH TABATA TRAINING… IF YOU DARE
87
CHAPTER 13 BLAST FAT WITH JUMP ROPING
91
CHAPTER 14 THE REAL “SIX-PACK SHORTCUT”
93
CHAPTER 15 FROM HERE, YOUR BODY WILL CHANGE You are about to start a journey of self-transformation. Where will it take you?
97
FREE BONUS! 10 FLEXIBLE DIETING WEIGHT LOSS MEAL PLANS & MAXIMUM MUSCLE & FIT IS THE NEW SKINNYS
102
In this free bonus pack, you’re going to get 10 flexible dieting weight loss meal plans (5 for men and 5 for women) that will show you how to lose fat eating delicious foods every day. With them you’ll also get two books, Maximum Muscle and Fit is the New Skinny, that will complement everything you’ve learned in this book and teach you how to incorporate weightlifting for maximum gains.
WOULD YOU DO ME A FAVOR?
103
You’re awesome for reading my book, and I have a small favor to ask...
I WANT TO CHANGE THE SUPPLEMENT INDUSTRY WILL YOU JOIN ME?
106
The supplement industry could be best described by Obi-Wan Kenobi’s famous words: “a wretched hive of scum and villainy.” I want to do something about it.
OTHER BOOKS BY MICHAEL MATTHEWS
107
More practical health and fitness advice to help you get into the best shape of your life.
RECOMMENDED READING
111
Want to take your knowledge even further? Check out these books.
REFERENCES113 Every one of the 100+ scientific studies referenced in this book.
5 REASONS YOU SHOULD READ THIS BOOK The most successful people don’t have super-strong willpower when making decisions. Rather, they conserve their willpower by developing habits and routines, so they reduce the amount of stress in their lives.
— DR. ROY BAUMEISTER
This book is small, but it can absolutely change your life. It can free you from problems and pitfalls that most people will never escape: yo-yo and fad dieting, ineffective workouts, overtraining and undereating, and much more.
THERE ARE FIVE REASONS I THINK YOU’LL LOVE THIS BOOK. The advice in this book is simple, practical, effective, and flexible. Health and fitness books are notorious for being too complex or vague in their explanations and instructions and too restrictive and impractical in their methodologies. Cardio Sucks is different. This book wasn’t written for scientists. It was written for people like you and me. We’re busy, we don’t have time to waste, and we just want to know what works, what doesn’t, and how to get started. So here’s what you’ll find in this book: Clear, precise, easy-to-follow diet and exercise routines that you will be able to understand and use immediately, that are flexible enough to fit any lifestyle, and that will produce fast, noticeable results.
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CARDIO SUCKS
Everything
in this book is based on peer-reviewed
scientific research and personal experience.
The health and fitness space is riddled with gymlore and broscience, and all kinds of myths and fallacies are kept alive by word of mouth. For example, do any of these claims sound familiar? • “Bad carbs make you fat.” • “You have to ‘eat clean’ to lose weight.” • “You have to do a lot of cardio to get lean.” • “You have to eat more protein if you’re not gaining muscle.” • “If you eat too few meals per day, your body goes into ‘starvation mode.’” Chances are, you’ve heard these things repeated ad nauseam by magazines, bloggers, gym buddies, trainers, and just about anyone else who cares enough about fitness to discuss it. Well, they’re nonsense. All of them. How do I know that? Because I’ve got the inside scoop on revolutionary fat-burning and muscle-building secrets? Hardly. First, I know they’re false because I’ve reviewed a lot of scientific research that categorically disproves these myths — research that I cite in my work for you to review as well. Second, and more importantly, I’ve worked directly with thousands of people and have found, without fail, that following a handful of science-based principles delivers outstanding results, every time, with everyone. My point is that you’re in good hands. Your body works in the same basic ways as mine and everyone else’s, and you can transform yours just like we have ours.
This
book is for people who don’t “diet”
and don’t have time to live in the gym.
If you’re like me, you’re not willing to sacrifice eating foods you like or hours of your time every day just to have abs. And you don’t have to. You can eat the foods you love and spend no more than a few hours exercising per week and have the body of your dreams. This book shows you how.
I
get real results with normal people.
I’m honored by the thousands of people who have taken my teachings to heart.
5 REASONS YOU SHOULD READ THIS BOOK
3
They are people in their twenties, thirties, forties, and even seventies who have lost 20, 30, 50, and even 80+ pounds and built muscle, and are now in the best shape of their lives. And the best part is that they’re not professional bodybuilders or fitness models who live to work out, eat, and sleep. They’re normal, everyday people who want to be fit but also have jobs, families, and social obligations. I’m able to help them find the balance needed to do it all, and I can do the same for you.
You
have a problem sticking to a commitment?
Good.
You’re not alone. Overweight doctors, procrastinating professors, and unfaithful presidents are proof of this. And you’ll love Cardio Sucks. Inside, you’ll discover simple, effective actions for improving your body by following a “diet” that’s so easy it doesn’t deserve the title and by doing workouts that you actually enjoy. You’ll also find tips and tricks to bulletproof your commitment to building your best body. It’s all possible. And it starts the minute you turn the page.
1 THE GREAT “ONE TRUE DIET” HOAX When you look at your life in daily increments to try to succeed daily, that builds over time.
— SHANE SNOW
If you give too much credence to mainstream diet trends, you’re pretty much doomed. Maybe you’ll identify with the Paleo culture and become convinced that eating like a caveman is the way of the future. Or maybe you’ll go for scapegoating the carbohydrate as the source of all your weight-loss woes and subject yourself to trial by ketogenic dieting. Or, heaven forbid, maybe you’ll mire yourself in the swamps of outright quackery: cleanses, unclogging hormones, biohacking, and the like. You can fritter away months like this, jumping from one form of dietary dogma to another, with little to nothing to show for it in the gym and mirror. And, if you’re like many people, you’ll just suck it up and soldier on, continuing your quest to find the One True Diet that will give you the body you’ve always desired. Here’s the problem: there is no One True Diet. There is no “shortcut to shred.” There are no “weight loss foods” or “muscle-building hacks.” The truth about dieting is rather boring, actually. It doesn’t have the sizzle to sell millions of books and millions in supplements. But it has this: it works. Efficiently. Unquestioningly. Invariably. What is this truth?
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Well, it has several parts, or tiers, and you can envision it as a pyramid of descending importance that looks like this:
Let’s look at each of the layers in detail.
ENERGY BALANCE Energy balance is at the bottom — the foundation — because it’s the overarching principle of dieting. This is the one that dictates your weight gain and loss more than anything else. What is energy balance, though? Energy balance is the relationship between the energy you feed your body and the energy it expends. As you probably know, this is often measured in kilocalories. The scientifically validated, unexciting reality — the one that book publishers and TV producers yawn at — is that meaningful weight loss requires you to expend more energy than you consume, and meaningful weight gain (both fat and muscle) requires the opposite: more consumption than expenditure. If you’re shaking your head, thinking I’m drinking decade-old Kool-Aid, answer me this: Why has every single controlled weight-loss study conducted in the last 100 years — including countless meta-analyses and systematic reviews —
THE GREAT “ONE TRUE DIET” HOAX
7
concluded that meaningful weight loss requires energy expenditure to exceed energy intake? Why have bodybuilders dating back just as far — from Sandow to Reeves and all the way up the line — been using, and continue to use, this knowledge to reduce and increase body fat levels systematically and routinely? And why do new brands of calorie denying come and go every year, failing to gain acceptance in the weight-loss literature? The bottom line is that a century of metabolic research has proven, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that energy balance, operating according to the first law of thermodynamics, is the basic mechanism that regulates fat storage and reduction.1
MACRONUTRIENT BALANCE Next on the diet pyramid is macronutrient balance, and this is second in importance to energy balance. In case you’re not familiar with the term, the dictionary defines macronutrient as “any of the nutritional components of the diet that are required in relatively large amounts: protein, carbohydrate, fat, and minerals such as calcium, zinc, iron, magnesium, and phosphorous.” You’ve probably heard that a calorie is a calorie, and while that’s true for matters relating purely to energy balance and weight loss and gain, a calorie is not a calorie when we’re talking body composition. Don’t believe me? Well, Professor Mark Haub lost 27 pounds on a diet of protein shakes, Twinkies, Doritos, Oreos, and Little Debbie snacks, and you could do exactly the same if you wanted to (not that you should though — more on this soon).2 We don’t want to just gain and lose weight, though. Our goals are more specific: we want to gain more muscle than fat, and we want to lose fat, not muscle. And with those goals, we have to watch more than just calories. We have to watch our macronutrient intake, too. If you want to go beyond weight loss and learn to optimize your body composition, the macronutrient you have to watch most closely is protein. Your carbohydrate and dietary fat intakes can be all over the place without derailing you, but eating too little protein is the cardinal sin of dieting for us fitness folks. Eat too little protein while restricting your calories for fat loss, and you’ll lose a significant amount of muscle as well.3 This is why weight loss isn’t enough: lose muscle and you lose weight, but you’re going backward in your quest to build an impressive physique.
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Eat too little protein while eating a surplus of calories to maximize muscle growth and you’ll build less muscle.4 This is one of the reasons “bulking” has a bad rap. When done improperly, it packs on way more fat than muscle and is just counterproductive in the long run. What is too little protein, you ask? I could write an entire chapter on this alone, but here’s what it boils down to for people who exercise regularly: • If you’re relatively lean and aren’t dieting for fat loss, you should set your protein intake at 0.8 to 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight per day. • If you’re relatively lean and are dieting for fat loss, you should increase your intake slightly to 1 to 1.2 grams per pound of body weight per day. (Research shows the leaner you are, the more protein your body will need to preserve muscle while in a calorie deficit for fat loss.)5 • If you’re overweight or obese, your first priority should be fat loss, and your protein intake should be set at 1 to 1.2 grams per pound of lean mass per day. “But wait,” you might be thinking, “aren’t high-protein diets unhealthy?” The mainstream media has been buzzing with anti-protein propaganda over the last few years. For example, some claim a high-protein diet can damage the kidneys and increase the risk of cancer and osteoporosis. However, these allegations simply aren’t supported by sound scientific research. Research shows that people with pre-existing kidney damage or dysfunction should restrict protein intake, but a high-protein diet has never been shown to cause kidney damage.6 Ironically, a high-protein diet has been shown to both lower blood pressure and improve blood glucose control in diabetics, which would decrease the risk of kidney disease, not increase it.7 Claims that a high-protein diet increases the risk of osteoporosis are even stranger, as research directly demonstrates that it helps prevent the condition.8 Other rather disturbing claims that have recently made the rounds are that a high-protein diet increases the risk of cancer and that eating meat and cheese regularly is as unhealthy as smoking. Well, while such sensationalism works wonders for website hits, it’s misleading and scientifically bankrupt. To quote Dr. Spencer Nadolsky from Examine.com: To even suggest that eating protein is as bad as smoking is pure sensationalism... A more accurate headline for this study would have been, “High protein for those between 50 years to 65 years old who have poor diet and lifestyle habits may be associated with increased cancer risk.”
THE GREAT “ONE TRUE DIET” HOAX
9
The bottom line is that if you’re physically active, a high-protein diet is, without question, going to help you improve your health, body composition, and performance (this applies to endurance athletes as well).8 And while sedentary people don’t need as much protein as those who exercise regularly, research shows that the current recommended daily intake (RDI) of 0.8 grams per kg of body weight simply isn’t enough to maintain lean mass and bone health as they age.9 Before we move on, I’d like to take a minute to discuss low-carbohydrate dieting, because it’s all the weight-loss rage these days. Like most diet fads that come and go, low-carb dieting simply can’t live up to its reputation. There are about 20 studies that low-carb proponents bandy about as definitive proof of the superiority of low-carb dieting for weight loss. If you read the abstracts of these studies, low-carb dieting definitely seems more effective, and this type of glib “research” is what most low-carbers base their beliefs on. But there’s a big problem with many of these studies, and it has to do with protein intake. The problem is the low-carb diets in these studies invariably contained more protein than the low-fat diets. Yes, one for one...without fail. What we’re actually looking at in these studies is a high-protein, lowcarbohydrate diet vs. low-protein, high-fat diet, and the former wins every time. But we can’t ignore the high-protein part and say it’s more effective because of the low-carb element. In fact, better designed and executed studies prove the opposite: that when protein intake is high, low-carb dieting offers no special weight-loss benefits. Why is protein intake so important, exactly? Because, as you now know, adequate protein intake while dieting for fat loss is vital for preserving lean mass, both with sedentary people and especially with athletes. If you don’t eat enough protein when dieting to lose weight, you can lose quite a bit of muscle, and this in turn hampers your weight loss in several ways:10 1. It causes your basal metabolic rate to drop.11 2. It reduces the number of calories you burn in your workouts.12 3. It impairs the metabolism of glucose and lipids.13 As you can see, when you want to lose fat, your number one goal is to preserve lean mass. Now, let’s turn our attention back to the “low-carb dieting is better” studies mentioned earlier. In many cases, the low-fat groups were given less
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CARDIO SUCKS
protein than even the RDI of 0.8 grams per kg of body weight, which is just woefully inadequate for weight-loss purposes. Research shows that even double and triple those RDI levels of protein intake isn’t enough to fully prevent the loss of lean mass while restricting calories for fat loss.14 So, what happens in terms of weight loss when you keep protein intake high and compare high and low levels of carbohydrate intake? Is there even any research available to show us? Yup. I know of four studies that meet these criteria, and, gee whiz look at that, when protein intake is high and matched among low-carb and high-carb dieters, there is no significant difference in weight loss.15 So long as you maintain a proper calorie deficit and keep your protein intake high, you’re going to maximize fat loss while preserving as much lean mass as possible. Going low-carb as well won’t help you lose more weight. Let’s move up the pyramid to food choices — the tier worshipped by most mainstream diet “experts” as the be-all and end-all of dieting.
FOOD CHOICES The cult of “clean eating” is more popular than ever these days. While I’m all for eating nutritious (“clean”) foods for the purposes of supplying our bodies with essential vitamins and minerals, eating nothing but these foods guarantees nothing in the way of building muscle or losing fat. The truth is that you can be the cleanest eater in the world and still be weak and “skinny fat.” Why? Because when it comes to body composition (how much muscle and body fat you have), how much you eat is more important than what you eat. Claiming that one food is “better” than another for losing or gaining weight is misleading because it misses the forest for the trees. You see, foods don’t have any special properties that make them better or worse for weight loss or gain. However, they do have varying amounts of potential energy, as measured in calories and varying types of macronutrient profiles. These two factors — the calories contained in foods and how those calories break down into protein, carbohydrate, and fat — are what make certain foods more suitable for losing or gaining weight than others. As Professor Haub showed us earlier, and as the “If It Fits Your Macros” crowd simply won’t shut up about, you can lose fat eating whatever you want
THE GREAT “ONE TRUE DIET” HOAX
11
so long as you regulate your intake and maintain a state of negative energy balance. That said, certain foods make it easier or harder to lose and gain weight due to their volume, calorie density, and macronutrient breakdown. Generally speaking, foods that are “good” for weight loss are those that are relatively low in calories but high in volume (and thus satiating).16 Examples of such foods are lean meats, whole grains, many fruits and vegetables, and lowfat dairy. These types of foods also provide an abundance of micronutrients, which is especially important when your calories are restricted. (Eat too much junk on a calorie-restricted diet, and you can develop vitamin and mineral deficiencies.) Foods conducive to weight gain are the opposite: high in calories and low in volume and satiety. These foods include the obvious, like caloric beverages, candy, and other sugar-laden goodies, but quite a few “healthy” foods fall into this category as well: for example, oils, bacon, butter, low-fiber fruits, and whole-fat dairy products. The more we fill our meal plans with calorie-dense, low-satiety foods, the more likely we are to get hungry and overeat. Think of it this way: you can only “afford” so many calories every day, whether dieting to lose fat or gain muscle, and you have to watch how you “spend” them. When dieting for fat loss, you want to spend the majority of your calories on foods that allow you to hit your daily macronutrient and micronutrient needs without “overdrafting” your energy balance “account.” (I know, I’m getting carried away with this financial metaphor, but bear with me.) When dieting for muscle growth, you have quite a few more calories to spend every day. This makes it easy to hit both your macronutrient and micronutrient targets with calories to spare, which you can then spend on whatever you want. Now, don’t mistake this section as me railing against eating healthy foods. I’m not a fan of the people trying to prove that you can eat junk and get ripped. Long-term health matters more than getting super lean while eating boxes of Pop Tarts every week. As a rule of thumb, if you get the majority (~80 percent) of your calories from relatively unprocessed, nutrient-dense foods, you can fill the remaining 20 percent with your favorite dietary sins and be healthy, muscular, and lean.
NUTRIENT TIMING Nutrient timing is the capstone of the pyramid and last in importance. And the long story short is, how often you eat and when you eat what don’t really matter.
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Increasing meal frequency doesn’t speed up your metabolism.17 Eating carbs at night doesn’t make you fat.18 The “post-workout anabolic window” is more fiction than fact.19 One of the many beauties of our bodies is that they are incredibly good at adapting to meet the demands we place on them. So long as you get the other points of the pyramid right — proper energy balance, good macronutrient breakdown, and smart food choices — you have a lot of leeway here. You can eat three or 13 meals per day. You can eat 80 percent of your carbohydrates at breakfast, dinner, or after your workout. You’re not on the clock after a workout, slowly losing gains until you chug a shake. That said, I do think it’s worth noting that there is evidence that eating protein in particular after a workout is better for long-term muscle growth.20 Personally, I eat about 40 grams of protein within an hour of weightlifting, and I’d recommend that you do the same. The Bottom Line If you’ve struggled to find a diet that actually works, that doesn’t make you a slave to arbitrary rules and restrictions, and that is enjoyable enough to be a lifestyle and not an ordeal, you now know the way. Learn how to manipulate energy balance, keep protein intake high and adjust carbohydrate and fat to meet your needs and preferences, eat a wide variety of nutritious foods supplemented with some indulgences, and eat on a schedule you prefer, and you’ll never look back.
CHAPTER SUMMARY • A century of metabolic research has proven, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that energy balance, operating according to the first law of thermodynamics, is the basic mechanism that regulates fat storage and reduction. • Eat too little protein while restricting your calories for fat loss, and you’ll lose a significant amount of muscle as well. • Eat too little protein while eating a surplus of calories to maximize muscle growth, and you’ll build less muscle. • If you’re relatively lean and aren’t dieting for fat loss, you should set your protein intake at 0.8 to 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight per day. • If you’re relatively lean and are dieting for fat loss, you should increase your intake slightly to 1 to 1.2 grams per pound of body weight per day. (Research shows that the leaner you
THE GREAT “ONE TRUE DIET” HOAX
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•
•
are, the more protein your body will need to preserve muscle while in a calorie deficit for fat loss.21) If you’re overweight or obese, your first priority should be fat loss, and your protein intake should be set at 1 to 1.2 grams per pound of lean mass per day. So long as you maintain a proper calorie deficit and keep your protein intake high, you’re going to maximize fat loss while preserving as much lean mass as possible. Going lowcarb as well won’t help you lose more weight. You see, foods don’t have any special properties that make them better or worse for weight loss or gain. However, they do have varying amounts of potential energy as measured in calories and varying types of macronutrient profiles. Generally speaking, foods that are “good” for weight loss are those that are relatively low in calories but high in volume (and thus satiating). Foods conducive to weight gain are the opposite: high in calories and low in volume and satiety. These foods include the obvious, like caloric beverages, candy, and other sugarladen goodies, but quite a few “healthy” foods fall into this category as well: oils, bacon, butter, low-fiber fruits, and whole-fat dairy products, for example. You can eat three or 13 meals per day. You can eat 80 percent of your carbohydrates at breakfast, at dinner, or after your workout. You’re not on the clock after a workout, slowly losing gains until you chug a shake. That said, I do think it’s worth noting that there is evidence that eating protein in particular after a workout is better for long-term muscle growth. Personally, I play it safe and eat about 40 grams of protein within an hour of weightlifting, and I’d recommend that you do the same.
13
2 HOW TO GET THE BODY YOU WANT WITH FLEXIBLE DIETING The intelligent want self-control; children want candy.
— RUMI
If you dread the idea of dietitng, I understand. Most diets feel more like punishment than self-improvement. Instead of educating you on how the metabolism truly works and giving you the tools you need to manage it effectively, most diet “gurus” resort to fearmongering and food restriction instead. If you want to lose fat or build “lean muscle,” they say, you can kiss just about everything you like eating goodbye. Grains, anything containing gluten or sugar, high-glycemic carbs, red meat, processed foods, fruit, dairy, caloric beverages, granola...it’s all gotta go. All your toys. Throw all that shit into the fire. No pain no gain! Suffer now and live the rest of your life a champion! The news hits you like a spike through your body, and you feel your heart sink into a deep, frozen lake. Maybe you’re not up to this. Maybe you’re not tough enough. You’ve always had trouble with willpower and dedication. Maybe abs aren’t really worth it. On the other hand, who knows, maybe all you need in life is chicken, eggs, and vegetables? Starving children in Africa have it much worse... Stop! Put the Kool-Aid down and slowly walk away. What if I told you that you could dramatically transform your body eating foods you actually like...every day...seven days per week? What if all you had to do to build muscle and lose fat was follow a handful of flexible dietary guidelines...not starve and deprive yourself? And what if I promised that you could forever break free of the restrictions and anxieties most people associate with dieting and learn to love it instead? Too good to be true, you think? Downright heresy?
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I know. I used to think the same thing. I now know the truth, though, and in this chapter, I’m going to break it all down for you. Let’s get to it.
WHY FLEXIBLE DIETING ISN’T A “DIET” What kind of “diet” worth a damn has you be less strict about the foods you eat? How can you possibly lose fat while eating bucketfuls of carbs every day? Which self-respecting “dieter” would dare eat sugary treats with a clean conscience? Such questions represent some of the common criticisms of flexible dieting. They also show why it’s often considered the “anti-diet.” Much of the controversy stems from the fact that flexible dieting means different things to different people. And, like a superpower, it can be used for good or evil. So, for the sake of thoroughness, let’s start with something of an outline for flexible dieting. Here’s how it shakes out: 1. How much you eat is more important than what. 2. You should tailor your daily food choices to your preferences, goals, and lifestyle. 3. Forgive dietary lapses, and “keep calm and carry on.” 4. Long-term compliance is the key to sustainable improvements. Basically, flexible dieting is a way to take your body’s basic energy and nutritional needs and turn them into an eating regimen that you actually enjoy. Thou shalt not deprive yourself of foods you like. Thou shalt eat on a schedule you like. Thou shalt view dieting as a lifestyle, not a quick fix. Thou shalt accept dietary blunders and calmly get back in the saddle. These are the commandments of flexible dieting. And they’re getting more and more popular because they work. Now, that all sounds good in theory, but you’re probably wondering how it plays out in practical terms. Let’s find out.
HOW FLEXIBLE DIETING WORKS Let’s take a look at each of the points above to gain a better understanding of how to make flexible dieting work.
HOW TO GET THE BODY YOU WANT WITH FLEXIBLE DIETING
How
17
much you eat is more important than what.
This statement is almost blasphemous in today’s diet culture. Well, as you know, if you eat too much of even the “cleanest” foods in the world, you will gain weight. Maintain a calorie deficit while following a “gas station diet” of the most nutritionally bankrupt crap you can find, and you will lose weight. Sugar isn’t your enemy, and “healthy fats” aren’t your savior.
Tailor
your daily food choices to your
preferences, goals, and lifestyle.
You should eat foods you like. Every meal. Every day. For the rest of your life. And no, I’m not talking about only getting to choose from foods generally recognized as “healthy,” like fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. If you want to maximize your health, longevity, and overall well-being, you want to get the majority of your calories from these types of foods. That’s true. But once you’re doing that, you “earn” the “right” to also eat foods often demonized as “unhealthy,” like pizza, pasta, ice cream, cereal, bagels, and french fries. As a general rule of thumb, if you get 80 percent of your daily calories from relatively unprocessed, nutrient-dense foods, you can fill the remaining 20 percent with foods most diet “gurus” frown upon. My daily indulgences range from ice cream, to chocolate, to muffins, to pancakes with syrup, to cookies. It just depends on what I’m in the mood for and how many calories I want to “spend.” This all applies regardless of your body goals. You can be as lean, muscular, and healthy as you want with flexible dieting, eating just as I outline above. And this isn’t theory — I’m speaking from experience. I maintain my physique by practicing what I preach: • flexible dieting exactly as laid out in this chapter, • 4 to 6 hours of weightlifting per week, • 1 hour of HIIT cardio per week, and • smart use of supplements. That’s it. Every day, I eat several servings of fruits, vegetables, and high-quality proteins as well as foods that are “supposed” to make me fat and unhealthy, like grains, dairy, and sugar. The key is balance. Eat a lot more nutritious foods than nonnutritious foods, and you’ve got it made.
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Forgive
dietary lapses, and keep calm and carry on.
Highly restrictive, very low-calorie diets lead to cravings. Cravings lead to cheating. Cheating leads to bingeing. And bingeing leads to quitting. Sound familiar? It should. It’s the slippery slope of mainstream dieting, and millions of people tumble down it every year. Flexible dieting is the most effective tool I know for breaking this cycle. When you eat foods you like, balance your macronutrient intake properly, and moderately restrict your calories, dietary magic happens. The psychological burden almost completely disappears, and you no longer have to battle the stomach demons that constantly scream for more food. Losing weight becomes easy — even enjoyable. That said, it doesn’t mean that you’re never going to slip up. You might be hungrier than usual one day and roll with it. It’s really easy to overeat at social events. It’s okay. There’s no need for self-loathing or guilt bingeing. In fact, I’d say that we should just plan for minor setbacks. Every so often, you’re going to eat more than you intended. You don’t have to fear it. So you had a couple of scoops of ice cream, effectively halving your calorie deficit for the day. Big deal. So you took it further and overate for a few days, putting yourself in a slight calorie surplus, and gained a little fat as a result. You’ve set yourself back what? A few days? No more than a week. Who cares. Keep calm and carry on. Even a moderate binge doesn’t necessarily cause as much fat gain as some people think. Again, you’re looking at no more than a week or two of damage to undo.
Long-term
compliance is the key to sustainable improvements.
“The best diet is the one you can stick to.” There’s a lot of truth in that old saw. It captures the essence of successful dieting: sticking to the plan well and long enough to get and maintain the results you want. Notice my emphasis on sustainable results that you can maintain. That’s the real goal — not rapidly losing weight with a crash diet and then, when you can suffer it no longer, ballooning back to your previous self. Flexible dieting is the road out of that swamp. It makes reaching your body composition goals straightforward and painfree. It’s also flexible enough to accommodate just about any lifestyle and become a long-term habit, not a quick fix.
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GETTING STARTED WITH FLEXIBLE DIETING Okay, now that I’ve (hopefully) sold you on giving flexible dieting a try, let’s put some rubber on the road. First, a couple of ground rules:
Get
the majority
(80
percent+) of your daily calories
from relatively unprocessed, nutritious foods.
I know I’m repeating myself here, but I’m doing it for your own good. Just because you can eat a bunch of junk food and “fit your macros” doesn’t mean you should. Remember that your body needs adequate fiber and a wide spectrum of vitamins and minerals to function optimally and, unfortunately, ice cream, Fruity Pebbles, and Pop Tarts won’t get you there. Here’s a handy list of tasty, nutrient-dense foods that I eat regularly: • avocados; • greens (chard, collard greens, kale, mustard greens, spinach); • bell peppers; • brussels sprouts; • mushrooms; • baked potatoes; • sweet potatoes; • berries; • whole wheat; • cheese and yogurt; • eggs; • seeds (flax, quinoa, pumpkin, sesame, and sunflower); • beans (garbanzo, kidney, navy, and pinto); • lentils and peas; • almonds, cashews, and peanuts; • barley, oats, and rice (white and brown); • salmon, halibut, cod, scallops, shrimp, and tuna; • lean beef, lamb, and venison; and • chicken and turkey. If I wanted even more variety, that list could go on and on. And your list may look totally different. But you get the idea.
Eat
on a schedule that fits your preferences and lifestyle.
As you know, when you eat your food doesn’t matter. So long as you’re managing your energy and macronutrient balances properly, meal timing and frequency aren’t going to or hinder your results.
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That said, if you’re serious about weightlifting, there are a few caveats: • There’s a fair amount of evidence that eating protein before and after weightlifting workouts can help you build muscle and strength over longer periods. • There’s a fair amount of evidence that post-workout carbohydrate intake, and high-carbohydrate intake in general, can help as well, mainly due to insulin’s anti-catabolic effects. So, if you’re lifting weights regularly, I do recommend that you have 30 to 40 grams of protein before and after your workouts. Eating 30 to 50 grams of carbohydrates before a workout is great for boosting performance, and 1 gram per kilogram of body weight is enough for post-workout needs.
HOW TO CREATE YOUR FLEXIBLE DIETING PLAN Now you get to see the real beauty of flexible dieting. This is going to be the easiest diet plan you’ve ever made. Let’s break this down into two goals: fat loss and muscle growth.
Flexible Dieting
for
Losing Fat
As you know, the key to losing fat is maintaining a calorie deficit over time. So the first step is working out how many calories you should be eating. Let’s learn how to figure that out. Your body requires a certain amount of energy to stay alive. Every cell in your body needs a steady supply of fuel to do its job, and it must ultimately obtain this fuel from the food we eat. The 24-hour measurement of how much energy your body uses to perform all basic functions related to staying alive (excluding any and all physical activity) is known as your basal metabolic rate, or BMR. (Basal means “forming a base” or “fundamental.” Metabolic means related to the metabolism, which is “the physical and chemical processes in an organism by which it produces, maintains, and destroys material substances, and by which it makes energy available.”) A formula like the Katch McArdle will predict most people’s BMRs with a high degree of accuracy. Here’s how it works: BMR = 370 + (21.6 * LBM) LBM refers to lean body mass, and it’s measured in kilograms for this calculation. In case you’re not familiar with it, lean body mass refers to the nonfat components of the human body.
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You calculate LBM by subtracting your body fat weight from your total body weight, giving you the weight of everything but your body fat. Here’s how it looks: LBM = (1 – BF% expressed as decimal numeral) * total body weight For instance, I’m currently 188 pounds at about eight percent body fat, so my LBM is calculated like this: 1 – 0.08 = 0.92 0.92 * 188 = 173 lbs. (LBM) There are 2.2 pounds in a kilogram, so here is the formula to calculate my BMR: 173 / 2.2 = 78.5 kg 370 + (21.6 * 78.5) = 2,065 calories per day BMR calculation doesn’t give you a definitive answer — the amount of energy your body uses while at rest can increase or decrease based on longterm dietary and exercise patterns (this is known as metabolic adaptation and is a fascinating subject unto itself ) — but this formula will predict BMR fairly accurately for most people. When you want to know the approximate amount of additional energy you burn through physical activity, you want to know your total daily energy expenditure, or TDEE. This is the grand total of energy that your body burns in a 24-hour period, and it too changes from day to day (some days you move more and some days less). Once you know your BMR, you can calculate your TDEE by multiplying it as follows: • by 1.2 if you exercise one to three hours per week, • by 1.35 if you exercise four to six hours per week, or • by 1.5 if you exercise vigorously for six or more hours per week. The resulting number will be a fairly accurate measurement of the average total energy your body burns every day. If you ate that number of calories every day, your weight would remain more or less the same. Thus, to reduce your weight, you have to eat less, which brings me to point three.
Calculate your calorie deficit. I recommend a moderate calorie deficit of 20 to 25 percent. Anything larger can cause unwanted side effects associated with “starvation dieting.”
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So what this means is that you want to set your daily calorie intake to 75 to 80 percent of your TDEE. For example, my average daily TDEE is about 3,000 calories, so when I want to lose weight, I set my intake to about 2,300 calories.
Determine your macronutrient targets. Now that you have your calorie target worked out, it’s time to turn it into protein, carbohydrate, and fat targets. Here’s how to do it: Eat 1.2 grams of protein per pound of body weight. If you’re very overweight (a man over 25 percent body fat or a woman over 30 percent), modify this to 1 gram per pound of lean body mass. Eat 0.2 grams of fat per pound of body weight. If you’re very overweight, modify this to 0.3 grams per pound of lean body mass. Get the rest of your calories from carbohydrates. It’s that simple. Here’s how it plays out for me: Body weight: 190 pounds Calorie intake: 2,300 230 grams of protein = 920 calories 40 grams of fat = 360 calories 255 grams of carbohydrate = 1,020 calories So, now that you have your numbers, it’s time to turn them into a meal plan that you will enjoy. Make a list of foods you’d like to eat every day and head over to www. calorieking.com to learn their macronutrient profiles. Many people like to use Excel for this, listing the foods and their protein, carbohydrate, fat, and calorie numbers in side-by-side columns. Now you need to start piecing together meals using those foods until you’re happy with the setup and your total daily intake is within 50 calories of your target. Here are a few examples of meal plans that my team has made for clients so you can see how they look:
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HOW TO GET THE BODY YOU WANT WITH FLEXIBLE DIETING
25
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CARDIO SUCKS
HOW TO GET THE BODY YOU WANT WITH FLEXIBLE DIETING
27
Once you’ve made your plan, you now stick to it every day. If, along the way, you get tired of a certain food or meal, simply replace it with something else you’d like to eat that fits your numbers. It’s that simple!
FLEXIBLE DIETING FOR BUILDING MUSCLE When you want to lose fat, you eat less than your TDEE. When you want to maximize muscle growth, you eat a little more. When you want to maximize muscle growth, you should eat about 10 percent more than your average TDEE. This slight calorie surplus allows your body to grow as efficiently as possible. The macronutrient breakdown for bulking is different as well: • Eat 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. • Eat 0.3 grams of fat per pound of body weight. • Get the rest of your calories from carbohydrates. So for me: 190 grams of protein = 760 calories 60 grams of fat = 540 calories 500 grams of carbohydrate = 2,000 calories And yes, eating that much carbohydrate helps me lift a lot of weight in the gym!
WHY COUNTING CALORIES DOESN’T (SEEM TO) WORK FOR EVERYONE I’ve helped thousands of people build muscle and lose fat, and here are the simple reasons why some people struggle with counting calories or think it doesn’t work.
They
hate the idea of having to plan and track what they eat.
These people usually view meal planning or tracking intake with something like My Fitness Pal as a psychological burden or have a lifestyle that involves a lot of unplanned meals prepared by others, which are basically impossible to measure in terms of calories. On the other hand, these people quickly change their minds when they see how effortless weight loss is when you use calorie counting properly, just as you’ve learned in this chapter — no hunger, no cravings, and no crossing your fingers, hoping that this is the diet that finally works.
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They
hate the idea of having to restrict their eating in any way.
Some people just have a strange relationship with food and want to eat what they want when they want and don’t want to feel like a slave to the oppressive calorie count. In my experience, these people are harder to change. They will try anything before finally submitting to the master of energy balance — fad diets, cleanses, weight-loss pills, etc. — and often choose to stay fat and wait for the next “metabolic miracle” than count a calorie.
They
don’t stick to the plan and regularly overeat.
Of course, this is all too common. They have a few extra bites at breakfast. A double portion of dressing at lunch. A little unplanned dessert at dinner. All these little portions of extra calories add up and can easily negate the moderate calorie deficit you’re trying to maintain on a daily basis. The solution is simple: you plan or track every single thing that goes into your mouth every day.
They don’t measure and weigh food correctly. This is the accidental version of the mistake above. Instead of knowingly overeating, many people unknowingly overeat through imprecise food measuring. For example, according to the nutrition facts panel of my oatmeal, a dry cup contains 307 calories. I want to eat some, so I get out my measuring cup, fill it to the brim (a slightly heaping cup, if you will), and log 307 calories. But I’m wrong — it’s actually just over 360 calories of oatmeal. What tripped me up here is simple human error. One cup is a vague measurement that can be easily over- or undershot. What I should have done instead is weighed by grams. Eighty grams of dry oatmeal is 80 grams — no more and no less — and is about 300 calories. So I overeat by about 50 calories in that meal, and life goes on. A few hours later, I want some peanut butter, so I decide to eat two tablespoons, which is 188 calories according to the label. Out comes the tablespoon, and I fill it with creamy nut butter...slightly above the rim...which I savor oh so sweetly. The problem is that 188 calories of peanut butter weighs 32 grams, but my slightly overzealous scooping gave me 40 grams, which contains 235 calories.
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I then repeat this same mistake a few more times...with my ketchup at dinner, my cream in my coffee, and my chocolate squares for dessert, and I’ve successfully erased my calorie deficit for the day without even realizing it.
They
cheat like a competitive eater.
I recommend having a moderate cheat meal every week when you’re dieting. It’s a nice psychological boost and, depending on where you’re at in terms of body fat percentage, it can help keep the weight loss going. Notice I said cheat MEAL, though. And moderate — not a cheat DAY or an all-out binge meal, because either can undo some or all of a week’s worth of fat loss (super high-fat meals with alcohol are the absolute worst). So, when you’re cheating, you can end the day a few hundred calories above your normal daily intake, but don’t go crazy. If you need to, you can even reduce your carbohydrate and fat intake throughout the day to “save up” calories for the larger meal and thus keep your overall intake for the day in a reasonable range.
They
calculate their total daily energy expenditure incorrectly.
Unfortunately, this is easy to do, because the activity multipliers of scientific formulas commonly used to calculate TDEEs are just too high. This is something most bodybuilders know but most laymen don’t. For instance, I lift weights five times per week for about an hour and do about 25 minutes of HIIT cardio three to four times per week, and according to the activity multipliers for the Katch McArdle, my TDEE should be around 3,300 calories. That means that I should be able to eat that amount every day and stay exactly the same. But I can’t. If I eat 3,300 calories per day, I get a little fatter each week. My intake needs to be closer to 2,900 per day for me to not gain fat.
Their
metabolisms need to be fixed.
When many people want to lose weight, they dramatically reduce their calorie intake and dramatically increase their energy output (through many hours of exercise each week). And while this approach will induce weight loss for a bit, it will ultimately fail. Why? Because your metabolism adapts to the amount of energy you feed your body. Its goal is to balance energy intake with output — to maintain homeostasis. When you restrict your calories and feed your body less energy than it burns, your metabolism naturally begins slowing down (burning less energy).1 The more you restrict your calories, the faster and greater the down-regulation.2
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Eventually, the metabolism slows down enough to match intake with output, and weight loss stalls despite the very low-calorie diet and large amount of exercise. This is usually met with further calorie reduction or more exercise, which only results in more metabolic slowdown, and thus a vicious cycle begins. This process of dramatically and chronically slowing down the metabolic rate is often referred to as metabolic adaptation or even damage, and fortunately, it can be resolved through a simple process known as reverse dieting. I discuss reverse dieting in more detail in my book Beyond Bigger Leaner Stronger, but the basic idea is that you gradually increase your total daily calorie intake with the purpose of raising your metabolic rate and improving your health.
They
are impatient.
Whenever people write me complaining about not losing weight, I always ask for the specifics. Are they not losing any weight? For how long? Are they looking leaner? Is their waist shrinking (a reliable sign of fat loss)? And the answers are almost always along these lines: “Well, I’ve lost about one pound per week, but shouldn’t I be losing more?” or “I haven’t lost weight in the last four days,” or “I can’t see my abs yet,” etc. They’re usually making good progress but have unrealistic standards as to what they want to achieve (often fueled by ridiculous, misleading two- and three-month transformations featured on big fitness websites). The bottom line is that if you’re losing about one pound per seven to 10 days, you’re doing great. Keep it up. If your weight is more or less the same after seven to 10 days, however, you simply need to move more or eat less.
They
focus too much on the scale.
While the scale moving down is clearly a good indicator, it’s not the final word. Especially not if you’re weightlifting for the first time, because this alone will increase your body weight through muscle growth (yes, it’s possible to build muscle and lose fat simultaneously) and additional glycogen and water storage in the muscles. If people don’t know this, however, they can be baffled as to why their pants are fitting more loosely or why they’re looking leaner yet their weight has remained exactly the same. All that’s happening is the additional musclerelated weight is replacing the weight of the lost fat. Remember that body composition is the real key here — not just weight. We want to see your muscle mass going up and your body fat percentage going down, which is more accurately assessed by the mirror and a waist measurement than a scale. If, however, the scale, mirror, and waist measurements are all staying the same for seven to 10 days, then it’s time to change something.
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These are the most common reasons people fail or feel like they’re failing with counting calories. Avoid these pitfalls and follow the tips in this chapter, and you’ll have tremendous success with it and even find it enjoyable.
THE BOTTOM LINE If you’re skeptical about the workability of flexible dieting, I understand. I was pretty sure it was a complete waste of time when I first found it but quickly discovered otherwise. You can eat the foods you like and have the body you want. That’s the big promise of flexible dieting and, as you’ll soon see for yourself, it keeps its word. Happy “dieting.”
CHAPTER SUMMARY • As a general rule of thumb, if you get 80 percent of your daily calories from relatively unprocessed, nutrient-dense foods, you can fill the remaining 20 percent with foods most diet “gurus” frown upon. • You might be hungrier than usual one day and roll with it. It’s easy to overeat at social events. It’s okay. There’s no need for self-loathing or guilt bingeing. In fact, I’d say that we should just plan for minor setbacks. Every so often, you’re going to eat more than you intended. You don’t have to fear it. • There’s a fair amount of evidence that eating protein before and after weightlifting workouts can help you build muscle and strength over longer periods. • There’s a fair amount of evidence that post-workout carbohydrate intake, and high-carbohydrate intake in general, can help as well, mainly due to insulin’s anti-catabolic effects. • I recommend a moderate calorie deficit of 20 to 25 percent. Anything larger can cause unwanted side effects associated with “starvation dieting.” • When you want to maximize muscle growth, you should eat about 10 percent more than your average TDEE. This slight calorie surplus allows your body to grow as efficiently as possible.
3 HOW TO EAT RIGHT WITHOUT OBSESSING OVER EVERY CALORIE You have to go wholeheartedly into anything in order to achieve anything worth having.
— FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
While calorie counting is the easiest way to reliably lose weight while still eating foods you love, if you’re not looking to lose weight, you can look and feel great without breaking out a calculator every time you eat. This is because maintaining a certain body composition allows for a relatively laid-back approach to dieting, guided by smart food choices and your natural appetite. In this chapter, I’m going to share with you some simple dietary guidelines that will help you establish healthy dietary habits conducive to staying lean without planning or tracking everything you eat.
EAT A HIGH-PROTEIN BREAKFAST Research shows that simply eating eggs in the morning, as opposed to a grain-based breakfast like bagels, can help you lose weight.1 Why? It’s very simple: people who eat eggs for breakfast end up eating fewer calories at lunch, for the rest of the day, and according to one study, even for the next 36 hours.2 These benefits aren’t exclusive to egg breakfasts, either. What matters most is the protein content, not the foods you eat.3 Research shows that increasing protein intake decreases appetite through several mechanisms,4 including favorably altering hormones related to hunger and fullness.5
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This satiating effect not only applies to a high-protein diet in general, but it applies to individual meals as well.6 High-protein meals are more satiating than high-fat meals, which means you feel fuller longer, making you less likely to overeat.7 And in case you’re worried that eggs raise your “bad cholesterol” levels or otherwise increase your risk of heart disease, more recent research has completely debunked these long-standing claims.8 Eggs are a cheap, healthy food that we should all enjoy.
EAT PLENTY OF LOW-CALORIE FIBROUS FOODS Fibrous foods with a high water content, like most vegetables and some fruits, are great for maintaining health and preventing weight gain. They’re extremely filling despite being low in calories, which helps regulate overall daily calorie intake, and they are packed with vital micronutrients. Here are my favorite fibrous fruits and veggies: • raspberries, • pears, • green peas, • broccoli, • apples, • bananas, • brussels sprouts, • spinach, and • oranges. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends that adults eat two to three cups of fruits and vegetables per day, and I’ve found that this works extremely well for preserving both health and body composition.
LIMIT YOUR INTAKE OF LOW-QUALITY FATS Fats help your body absorb the other nutrients that you give it and they nourish the nervous system, help maintain cell integrity, regulate hormone levels, and more. Not all fats are the same, though. Some types improve health, while others harm it. Healthy fats are found in non-fried plant oils like olive oil, coconut oil, and peanut oil; nuts and seeds and butters made from them; dairy products; and high-quality meat and seafood, like lean cuts of free-range animals fed natural diets and wild-caught fish. There is abundant evidence in the literature that these foods confer significant health benefits. For example, research shows that regular nut consumption increases longevity, that olive oil reduces systemic inflammation,
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that omega-3 fatty acids abundant in certain fish protect your brain against the effects of aging, and that people who eat the most dairy are less likely to develop heart disease and diabetes than those who eat less.9 Unhealthy fats are found in fried foods like potato chips, doughnuts, fried chicken, and the like; processed meats like low-quality sausages, cold cuts, bacon, jerky, cured meats, and hot dogs; and packaged foods like pastries, breakfast cereal, microwave popcorn, frozen pizza, and low-quality yogurt and peanut butter. Again, the evidence is clear that these types of foods are inherently bad for the body. Regular consumption of fried foods is associated with Obesity and various types of chronic disease like hypertension, heart disease, and cancer; processed meats contain various carcinogenic chemicals; and many packaged foods contain a processed form of fats called trans fats, which have been shown to increase the risk of heart disease, diabetes, infertility, and more.10 Trans fat is a scientifically modified form of saturated fat used to extend the shelf life of food and improve palatability. Meat and dairy products also contain miniscule amounts of trans fats, but these molecules are different from what we find in TV dinners. The most common forms of trans fats added to foods are hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils (oils that have hydrogen atoms added to them). Any food that contains hydrogenated oil or partially hydrogenated oil contains trans fats. The big problem with trans fat is how little it takes to adversely affect our health. One study conducted of more than 120,000 female nurses found that replacing just two percent of daily calories with trans fats doubled the risk of heart disease.11 This is why the Institute of Medicine recommends that your trans fat intake be “as low as possible” and why the American Heart Association recommends that you eat less than 2 grams of trans fat per day. Personally, I completely avoid foods with added trans fats, and I recommend that you do the same. (Sure, you can eat some now and then and be fine, but I wouldn’t make it a regular part of my diet.) Avoiding trans fats isn’t as simple as finding foods with labels claiming them to be trans fat free, though. To meet the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s definition of “zero grams trans fat per serving,” foods don’t have to contain zero trans fats — they must simply contain less than 1 gram of trans fats per tablespoon, or up to seven percent by weight, or less than 0.5 grams per serving. So if a bag of cookies contains 0.49 grams of trans fat per serving, the manufacturer can claim it’s trans fat free on the packaging. These “fake zero” products are a problem when we’re supposed to eat less than 2 grams of trans fat per day, so keep that in mind when choosing which foods to eat.
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Health isn’t the only reason that you should limit your intake of unhealthy fats. Foods with high levels of unhealthy fats are often very tasty and calorie dense, which promotes overeating.12 Notice that I’m advising you to limit your intake of unhealthy fats. I’m not forbidding them. And that’s because if you have a generally healthy diet and exercise regularly, you can occasionally eat unhealthy foods without harming your health. That is, you can use diet and exercise to get your body into such a good state of health that occasional lapses have no long-term consequences.
Get the majority of your dietary fat from fish, nuts, and oils. These foods are high in unsaturated fat, which is a form of fat that’s liquid at room temperature. Research shows that unsaturated fats improve heart health, lower bloodpressure levels, and decrease the risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.13 This is why the American Heart Association recommends that you get the majority (50+ percent) of your daily fat calories from unsaturated fats. This is easy to do. A tablespoon of olive oil on a salad, for example, provides 12 grams of unsaturated fat, a handful of almonds about 9 grams, and a 4-ounce serving of salmon about 11 grams.
Keep your intake of saturated fats relatively low (less than 10 percent of your total daily calories). Saturated fat is found in foods like meat, dairy products, eggs, coconut oil, bacon fat, and lard. If a fat is solid at room temperature, it’s a saturated fat. The long-held belief that saturated fat increases the risk of heart disease has been challenged by recent research.14 This has been a boon to various diet “gurus” who promote high-fat eating, and we’ve seen a veritable renaissance of meat and dairy consumption. The problem is the research used to promote this movement has also been severely criticized by prominent diet-heart researchers for various flaws and omissions.15 These scientists maintain that there is a strong association between a high intake of saturated fatty acids and heart disease and that we should follow the generally accepted dietary guidelines for saturated fat intake (less than 10 percent of daily calories) until we know more. Given the research currently available, I don’t think we can safely say that we can eat all the saturated fats we want without any health consequences. And I’d rather play it safe and wait for further research before jumping onto the bandwagon. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests several simple ways to reduce your intake of saturated fat:
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• Choose leaner cuts of meat that do not have a marbled appearance (where the fat appears embedded in the meat). Leaner cuts include round cuts and sirloin cuts. Trim all visible fat off meats before eating. • Remove the skin from chicken, turkey, and other poultry before cooking. • When reheating soups or stews, skim the solid fats from the top before heating. • Drink low-fat (one percent) or fat-free (skim) milk rather than whole or two percent milk. • Buy low-fat or nonfat versions of your favorite cheeses and other milk or dairy products. • When you want a sweet treat, reach for a low-fat or fat-free version of your favorite ice cream or frozen dessert. These versions usually contain less saturated fat. • Use low-fat spreads instead of butter. Most margarine spreads contain less saturated fat than butter. Look for a spread that is low in saturated fat and that doesn’t contain trans fats. • Choose baked goods, breads, and desserts that are low in saturated fat. You can find this information on the Nutrition Facts label. • Pay attention at snack time. Some convenience snacks, such as sandwich crackers, contain saturated fat. Instead, choose nonfat or low-fat yogurt and a piece of fruit. Don’t think you have to do all of these things. You can simply pick what suits your diet and preferences best. Personally, I eat around 3,000 calories per day, which means my saturated fat intake should be under 35 grams per day (which contains about 315 calories), and I do this by eating lean, skin-free meats and low-fat dairy products, but I do prefer butter over a low-fat spread and two percent milk over fat-free.
THE BOTTOM LINE Counting or tracking calories and macronutrients is the surest way to guarantee results in your dieting, but I understand if you balk at the idea of doing this every meal for every day of the rest of your life. Fortunately, you don’t have to. Instead, you can do what I do: plan and track your food intake when you want to maximize fat loss or maintain a very low body fat percentage (sub-10 percent for men and sub-20 percent for women), which is when you need to be very precise with your calories), and otherwise use the strategies in this chapter to stay healthy and prevent weight gain.
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CHAPTER SUMMARY • Increasing protein intake decreases appetite through several mechanisms, including favorably altering hormones related to hunger and fullness.16 • Fibrous foods with a high water content, like most vegetables and some fruits, are great for maintaining health and preventing weight gain. • Healthy fats are found in non-fried plant oils like olive oil, coconut oil, and peanut oil; nuts and seeds and butters made from them; dairy products; and high-quality meat and seafood, like lean cuts of free-range animals fed natural diets and wild-caught fish. • Unhealthy fats are found in fried foods like potato chips, doughnuts, fried chicken, and the like; processed meats like low-quality sausages, cold cuts, bacon, jerky, cured meats, and hot dogs; and packaged foods like pastries, breakfast cereal, microwave popcorn, frozen pizza, and low-quality yogurt and peanut butter. • The Institute of Medicine recommends that your trans fat intake be “as low as possible,” and the American Heart Association recommends that you eat less than 2 grams of trans fat per day. • The American Heart Association recommends that you get the majority (50+ percent) of your daily fat calories from unsaturated fats. • We should follow the generally accepted dietary guidelines for saturated fat intake (less than 10 percent of daily calories) until we know more.
4 HOW MUCH CARDIO SHOULD YOU DO, AND HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH? Exercise turns out to be the closest thing to a wonder drug that self-control scientists have discovered.
— DR. KELLY MCGONIGAL
Every time I go to the gym, I see the same crowd of overweight people grinding away in their spin classes and treadmill, Stairmaster, and elliptical sessions. Every day they’re there, sweating on the same machines — probably reserved and named by now — and they’re just as fat as they ever were. Some are even fatter than when they started. After all this time, do they think anything is going to change, or am I witnessing some twisted kind of Stockholm Syndrome between fleshy slaves and mechanical lords? Jokes aside, the truth is that these people are just following decades of bad exercise advice centered on long hours of cardio, which has produced millions of overtrained, overweight, underfit people addicted to burning calories instead of getting fit. Now, you might be thinking that I’m staunchly anti-cardio. I’m not. I do cardio regularly, and as you’ll see, it has its benefits and uses. When done properly, cardio can improve your health, help you lose fat faster, and even help you build muscle. But when done improperly, it can do the opposite: impair health, fail to help you lose weight, and hurt your body composition. So, in this chapter, we’re going to break down how much cardio you should do, how to get the most bang for your (sweaty) buck, and how much cardio is too much and why. Let’s start with how to determine whether you should do cardio at all and, if so, how much you should do.
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HOW MUCH CARDIO SHOULD YOU DO, AND HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH? You should do as much cardio as it takes to achieve your goals and no more, and it shouldn’t be so much that it significantly impairs your physical performance, recovery, or health. If that sounds overly cautious to you, I understand. I make cardio sound like a medicine that you carefully dose to beat the disease without wrecking your body in the process. That metaphor is more accurate than many people realize, though. • Research shows that endurance athletes are at a higher risk of heart dysfunction than the general, non-running public and that the older they get and the more miles they log, the worse the problem gets.1 • Research shows that marathoners develop more arterial plaque than sedentary non-runners, which increases the risk of stroke and dementia.2 • The more cardio you do, the more you stress your body, and if you take it too far, you can wind up in a state of chronic stress wherein your body can’t adequately recover from your workouts.3 • Hang around dyed-in-the-wool endurance athletes, and you’ll quickly notice how many people have trouble with their knees, backs, hips, tendons, and bones. While it’s sensationalistic to say doing too much cardio can kill you, there’s some truth there. If your goal is to look and feel good, more cardio — and exercise in general — is not always better.4 Moderate amounts improve health, but too much impairs it.5 So, with that overture on the subject in place, let’s take a closer look at how your goals should dictate how much cardio you do.
HOW MUCH CARDIO SHOULD YOU DO TO LOSE WEIGHT? The majority of people doing cardio are trying to lose weight. In fact, many think that you simply can’t lose weight without sacrificing sweat to the hamster wheels. Unfortunately, research shows that just doing regular cardio guarantees little in the way of fat loss.6 In fact, many people wind up even fatter than when they began their cardio routines.7 Well, I have good news for you: you can get — and stay — as lean as you want without ever doing more than an hour or two of cardio per week. In fact, if you want to achieve and maintain a low level of body fat while also preserving muscle, strength, and overall health, you can’t subject yourself to a torturous cardio routine. You must do less than you probably think is necessary.
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A personal case in point:
I’m around seven percent body fat in this picture, and I got there doing about 1.5 hours of cardio per week (in addition to my weightlifting, of course). I also maintain eight to nine percent body fat more or less year-round doing 45 to 60 minutes of cardio per week. And the truth is, I could drop the cardio from my maintenance routine if I wanted, but I’ve come to enjoy it. It’s relaxing. You see, there are several problems with trying to lose weight using cardio as your only form of exercise.
IT’S TOO EASY TO EAT THE CALORIES YOU BURN. You have to work hard to burn a few hundred calories doing cardio, but you can eat them all back (and more) without even realizing it. A couple of handfuls of nuts and a piece of fruit is all it takes. The point here isn’t that the energy you burn doing cardio doesn’t support your weight-loss efforts, but if you’re not also correctly regulating your food intake, you’re probably not going to reach your weight-loss goals.
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YOUR BODY ADAPTS TO THE EXERCISE TO REDUCE CALORIC EXPENDITURE.8 This is particularly sneaky and troublesome, because while many people failing to lose weight can deduce or at least suspect that they’re overeating, they’re completely unaware of this adaptive element of exercise. The problem is simple: the more you do a certain type of activity, the more your body adapts to increase efficiency, and the more this occurs, the less energy you need to continue doing it.9 The net effect is that people often think they’re burning more calories doing cardio than they actually are, eat more than they should to maintain an adequate calorie deficit, and then wonder whether their metabolisms are just busted or whether calorie counting simply doesn’t work. Unwilling to give up, many then try to fight fire with fire by doing even more cardio, which does increase overall caloric expenditure but also brings the various health risks discussed earlier into play.
CARDIO DOESN’T PRESERVE MUSCLE, WHICH IS JUST AS IMPORTANT AS LOSING FAT. What most people think of as “losing weight” includes losing muscle, which is to be expected when you combine a calorie deficit with cardio alone, and which is the road to a “skinny fat” physique.10 The key here is the inclusion of resistance training in your weight-loss regimen, which ensures that you lose maximal amounts of fat and minimal amounts of muscle. As you can see, cardio is a double-edged sword of diminishing returns. A little bit of the right stuff can help you lose weight without compromising your health, but only if you combine it with a proper diet. What, then, is the “right stuff” when it comes to cardio and weight loss? Well, I’ve already mentioned that I do no more than a couple of hours of cardio per week when dieting for fat loss, and I recommend the same for you, but there’s more to my advice...
THE BEST TYPE OF CARDIO FOR WEIGHT LOSS When it comes to losing fat, not all types of cardio are created equal. The type of cardio you see most people doing is called low-intensity steadystate cardio, or LISS, and it involves longer periods of low-intensity activity like walking, jogging, or biking.
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LISS can help you lose fat. But, as noted above, it is very easy to outeat LISS, and it burns less and less energy over time. It’s just not a great way to spend your time if fat loss is your primary goal. There’s another way to do your cardio, though, and it’s far more effective for losing fat. It’s called high-intensity interval training, or HIIT, and it involves alternating periods of high-intensity, all-out exertions and low-intensity rest periods. Yes, HIIT is harder than LISS, but it’s also far more rewarding. Studies such as those conducted by scientists at Laval University,11 East Tennessee State University,12 Baylor College of Medicine,13 and the University of New South Wales14 have conclusively proven that shorter sessions of highintensity cardio result in greater fat loss over time than longer, low-intensity sessions. In fact, a study conducted by researchers at the University of Western Ontario showed that doing just four to six 30-second sprints burns more fat over time than 60 minutes of incline treadmill walking.15 Yes, you read that correctly. Research also shows that high-intensity interval cardio is particularly good for getting rid of stubborn abdominal fat, including dangerous accumulations of visceral fat.16 Although the exact mechanisms of how high-intensity cardio trumps steady-state cardio aren’t fully understood yet, scientists have isolated quite a few of the factors17: • increased resting metabolic rate for more than 24 hours after exercise, • improved insulin sensitivity in the muscles, • higher levels of fat oxidation in the muscles, • significant spikes in growth hormone levels (which aid in fat loss) and catecholamine levels (chemicals your body produces to directly induce fat mobilization), • post-exercise appetite suppression, • and more. And as if all that weren’t enough, keeping your cardio sessions shorter means you better preserve your muscle and strength, which is ideal for optimizing body composition.18 Most fitness experts in the know don’t argue HIIT’s superiority in terms of fat loss but warn that it places a lot of strain on the nervous system and is likely to lead to overtraining. Well, I’ve yet to find convincing evidence of this in the literature and have yet to run into that problem with my own body or with the thousands of people I’ve helped.
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This is probably because I recommend a very moderate amount of highintensity interval cardio — no more than four sessions per week, and no more than 25 to 30 minutes per session — and because the level of intensity found in studies used to support the overtraining hypotheses I’ve seen is higher than the average person is even capable of (trained endurance athletes pushing themselves as hard as they possibly can). Given all the above, I think it’s just a no-brainer to choose high-intensity interval cardio over LISS. And later in this book, I’ll explain exactly how it works and how to build the optimal HIIT routine for your needs.
DOES CARDIO GET IN THE WAY OF BUILDING MUSCLE? Many bodybuilders and fitness folks shun cardio mainly because they just dislike it, but it’s also commonly believed that cardio has an almost mystical power to shrivel up muscle and sap strength. While we now know that excessive cardio is unhealthy, it’s pretty obvious that it’s also not conducive to muscle growth (just look at any marathon runner). But what about moderate or light cardio? Do they also interfere with muscle growth? The long story short is that it can go both ways: cardio can both hurt and help the processes related to muscle growth. Cardio can help you build (and retain) more muscle in three primary ways: 1. It improves muscle recovery. 2. It improves your body’s metabolic responses to food. 3. It keeps up your conditioning, making the transition from bulking to cutting easier on your body. Let’s look at these in more detail.
CARDIO AND MUSCLE RECOVERY As you know, intense exercise causes damage to muscle fibers, which must then be repaired. This damage is the cause of the soreness that you feel the day or two following a workout and is known as delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS. Repairing the damage is a complex process partly regulated by two simple factors: how much of the substances needed for repair are brought to the damaged muscle over time and how quickly waste products are removed. Thus, cardio can speed your body’s repair of muscle damage because it increases blood flow. This helps your body build the muscle back up more
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quickly and remove the waste, which results in an all-around faster recovery. This is why I always do a cardio session on legs day — it dramatically reduces leg soreness in the days to follow. However, it’s worth noting that these benefits are primarily seen in the legs, because most forms of cardio don’t involve the upper body. If you want to boost whole-body recovery, then you would need to do something that gets your upper body working, like a rowing machine, or using your arms to help pump on the elliptical.
CARDIO AND HOW YOUR BODY METABOLIZES FOOD In our collective dietary fantasy, all nutrients eaten would be sucked into the muscles and either absorbed or burned off, and none would result in fat storage. And when we dieted to lose weight, all energy needs would be met by burning fat, not muscle. Our bodies do these things to varying degrees. Some people’s bodies store less fat when they overeat (they burn off more excess calories instead of storing them), and lose less muscle when they diet for weight loss (more energy is sucked from fat than muscle to make up for the caloric deficit). On the other hand, other people are more likely to store excess calories and lose muscle when they restrict calories for weight loss. Hormones like testosterone and cortisol play major roles in these processes (higher levels of testosterone promote more muscle and less fat, whereas higher levels of cortisol promote less muscle and more fat), but unfortunately, there isn’t much we can do about either beyond injecting ourselves with drugs. Our genetics have basically set our normal physiological hormonal ranges, and that’s that. However, all is not lost if you’re not blessed with elite genetics. Another factor in what your body does with the food you eat is insulin sensitivity (how well your cells respond to insulin’s signals). Good insulin sensitivity is highly beneficial when you’re eating a surplus of calories to build muscle, whereas insulin resistance inhibits muscle growth and promotes fat storage under these dietary conditions. Now, genetics do affect natural levels of insulin sensitivity as well, but you can do various things to manipulate this mechanism. This is where cardio comes in, because it improves insulin sensitivity and does so in a dose-dependent manner (meaning the more you do, the more benefits you get).19 So, cardio can help your muscles better absorb the nutrients you eat, leaving less available for fat storage.
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CARDIO AND CONDITIONING A common issue in the bodybuilding world is the dramatic reduction in cardiovascular fitness when focusing only on heavy weightlifting for months on end. Building one’s cardio conditioning back up is not only uncomfortable, but going from doing absolutely no cardio to several sessions per week, on top of a caloric deficit (as cardio is added back in for weight-loss purposes), puts a lot of stress on the body. This added stress makes weight loss physically and psychologically tougher, and it can even accelerate muscle loss.20 By keeping regular cardio in during your bulking phases, however, you can maintain your metabolic conditioning and prevent the shell shock that many people experience during the beginning of a cut. It’s also common for people who have bulked for months without cardio to experience an initial lag in weight loss. Those who keep doing their cardio seem to better retain the ability to oxidize fat.21
TWO WAYS CARDIO CAN GET IN THE WAY OF MUSCLE GROWTH As I said earlier, cardio can both hurt and help muscle growth. The two primary ways it can negatively affect your gains are by reducing your caloric surplus too much and by causing you to overtrain. The surplus issue is moot, however. Normal cardio sessions don’t burn that many calories (a few hundred at most), which is easy enough to correct. But if you engage in long, intense sessions, that could cause caloric issues. “Hardgainers” might have something to worry about in this regard, as they usually have trouble eating enough as it is. However, research shows that lowintensity cardio can stimulate the appetite, so including some every week can actually help with eating enough.22 Issues relating to cardio and overtraining revolve around intensity and frequency. Simply put, the more cardio you do, and the more intense it is, the more your strength and growth will be negatively affected due to excessive stresses put on both the central nervous system and the muscles being worked (usually the legs get it the worst).23
SO, CARDIO WHILE FOCUSING ON MUSCLE GROWTH: YES OR NO? I think the positives of including cardio in your regimen clearly outweigh the negatives, especially considering the fact that the negatives are easily dealt with.
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Generally speaking, I prefer HIIT cardio to steady state despite the fact that it puts more stress on my body. Research shows that HIIT cardio preserves muscle better than steady state, but don’t take that as a carte blanche to do hours of HIIT every week.24 There is a point where the stress is just too much for the body. If you find that even that much HIIT negatively affects your strength or well-being, opt for a few 30-to-40-minute sessions of low-to-moderate cardio each week instead. And, as a little added bonus, research shows that cycling is a better choice than running when you’re trying to maximize muscle gains.25 This is probably because it mimics actual movements that you perform with weights. I experienced this when I switched to cycling for all of my cardio: my leg strength improved dramatically over the following several months.
SHOULD YOU DO CARDIO OR WEIGHTS FIRST? We’ve covered a lot of ground already, but I wanted to address this final point before moving on, and I’ll keep it short and simple. Lift weights first and then do your cardio. Heavy weightlifting requires a lot of energy, both muscular and systemic, and if you do cardio first — especially high-intensity cardio — your lifts will suffer.
THE BOTTOM LINE Medicine has known the value of regular exercise for thousands of years, but only recently have we gained a better understanding of how much is enough and how much is too much. If you do at least a few hours of resistance training per week (and you should — it confers certain benefits you can’t get from cardio), you should view cardio as supportive, not essential, and you should do enough to reach your goals but not more.26
CHAPTER SUMMARY • You should do as much cardio as it takes to achieve your goals and no more, and it shouldn’t be so much that it significantly impairs your physical performance, recovery, or health. • You can get — and stay — as lean as you want without ever doing more than an hour or two of cardio per week.
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• HIIT cardio is best for maximizing fat loss and minimizing muscle loss. I recommend no more than four sessions per week and no more than 25 to 30 minutes per session. • There are three primary ways that cardio can help you build (and retain) more muscle. They are as follows: It improves muscle recovery. It improves your body’s metabolic responses to food. It keeps up your conditioning, making the transition from bulking to cutting easier on your body. • The more cardio you do, and the more intense it is, the more your strength and growth will be negatively affected due to excessive stresses put on both the central nervous system and the muscles being worked (usually the legs get it the worst). • Research shows that cycling is a better choice than running when you’re trying to maximize muscle gains, probably because it mimics actual movements that you perform with weights. • Heavy weightlifting requires a lot of energy, both muscular and systemic, and if you do cardio first — especially highintensity cardio — your lifts will suffer.
5 HOW I USE FASTED CARDIO TO LOSE FAT (AND STUBBORN FAT IN PARTICULAR) FASTER Aut non tentaris, aut perfice. (Either don’t attempt it, or carry it through to the end.)
— OVID
This fat-loss strategy has been around for decades and, like most everything in the health and fitness space, it has its advocates and detractors. Many advocates swear by its fat-burning benefits, and many critics say it’s no better for losing weight than any other form of cardio. Well, I’d like to weigh in on the matter and speak on both the science of fasted cardio and the practical experience of what it takes to get very lean without drugs and without burning up all your muscle.
WHAT IS FASTED EXERCISE? Many people think fasted cardio is simply training on an empty stomach, which they usually think is simply a stomach that feels empty. Well, they’re wrong. Fasted cardio is cardio done while in a fasted state, wherein your stomach is empty, but it’s more than that. It has to do with how your body processes and absorbs the food you eat. When you eat food, it gets broken down into various molecules that your cells can use, and these molecules are released into your blood. Insulin is released as well, and its job is to shuttle these molecules into cells. Depending on how much food you eat in a meal, your insulin levels can remain elevated for several hours (anywhere from three to six or more).1
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When your body is digesting and absorbing what you’ve eaten, your body is in a fed or postprandial state (prandial means “having to do with a meal”). Once it has finished processing and absorbing the nutrients, insulin levels drop to a minimum low (or “baseline” level), and your body enters a fasted or postabsorptive state. Every day, your body moves between fed and fasted (or postprandial and postabsorptive) states. So, to recap: • Exercise done during periods where insulin levels are elevated and food is still being processed and absorbed is fed training. • Exercise done during periods where insulin is at a low, baseline level and food is no longer being processed and absorbed is fasted training. Let’s now look at how fed and fasted states relate to fat burning and storage.
YOUR BODY DOESN’T BURN FAT WHEN IT’S FED — IT STORES IT Insulin does more than just shuttle nutrients into cells — it also impairs the breakdown of fatty acids.2 That is, the higher your insulin levels are, the less your body is going to use fat for energy (both the fat in your body and the fat in the food you eat). This makes sense physiologically. Why burn fat when there’s a surplus of energy readily available via the food we just ate? Thus, when you eat food, your body basically shuts down its fat-burning mechanisms and lives off the energy provided by the meal, and it also stores a portion of the excess energy as body fat for later use. As your body processes and absorbs the food, insulin levels decline, which tells the body to start going to fat for energy as the fuel from the meal is running out. Finally, when the absorption is complete, your body is fully running off its own fat stores for energy. Here’s a simple figure to illustrate this process:
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As you can see, if the amount of fat stored and fat lost remains balanced over time, our weight doesn’t change. If we burn more fat than we store, we lose weight. And if we store more fat than we burn, we gain weight. So, that’s how fed and fasted states work without considering exercise. What happens when we throw that into the mix?
THE SCIENCE OF FASTED CARDIO AND WEIGHT LOSS Fasted cardio is often recommended as a way to speed up fat loss but usually without an in-depth explanation of how this might actually work and how it fits into the bigger picture of weight loss. Well, just telling someone to train fasted with no other advice almost certainly won’t make a difference in terms of losing weight. The first thing you should know about fasted cardio is that it won’t help you lose fat faster if you don’t also follow a proper diet. Fasted cardio does not let you somehow cheat the laws of energy balance. At the end of the day, fat loss requires an energy deficit, and that means you have to burn more energy than you eat. That said, fasted cardio does offer some unique fat-loss benefits when used properly. As you would expect, if your insulin levels are elevated before exercise due to a pre-workout meal, your body will mobilize fewer fat cells during the workout (lipolysis will be blunted). Research has proven this true both with trained and untrained individuals.3 Lipolysis is only one part of the fat-loss process. The other part is fat oxidation, which is the actual use (burning) of the fatty acids mobilized. Your body could break down every fat cell it has into usable fatty acids, but most would go unused (your body only burns so much energy) and wind up reconverted back into body fat. This is where some people criticize fasted cardio as worthless. They say that while it’s true that exercising in a fed state means less lipolysis during the workout, fat oxidation rates aren’t affected by fasted training, so all that happens is that your body mobilizes many more fat cells than it can actually oxidize (burn). This is wrong for several reasons. Research shows that the total amount of fatty acids available regulates fat oxidation rates.4
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While your body may not be able to burn all the fatty acids mobilized during fasted cardio, the more it has available, the more it burns. Thus, it’s not surprising that... Research also shows that ingestion of carbohydrate reduces fat oxidation rates while at rest and during exercise.5 I’ve scoured the literature. Based on what I’ve found, it’s very clear: total fat oxidation is just higher with fasted cardio than fed. The following graph from a study conducted by scientists at The University of Melbourne shows this nicely:6
CC had carbs 30 minutes before and during exercise. PC had a placebo drink 30 minutes before and carbs during exercise. CP had carbs 30 minutes before and a placebo drink during exercise. PP received a placebo drink both before and during exercise (this was the fasted group). And as you can see, PP burned the most fat throughout the entire workout. Now, ingested before exercise is a key phrase here, because the study most commonly cited as “proof ” that fasted cardio is a waste of time showed that
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when carbohydrates are ingested after exercise has begun (30 minutes after, in this case), then fat oxidation rates aren’t changed until after 80 to 90 minutes of exercise.7 Researchers noted that this effect is likely because moderate exercise heavily suppresses the insulin response to carbohydrate ingestion.8 Thus, insulin levels remain more or less unchanged from their pre-workout (fasted) levels, and fat oxidation rates stay the same. That’s interesting, but who starts their workouts fasted and then eats carbs 30 minutes in? Nobody. We eat our carbs anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes before we exercise, and as you now know, this reduces both lipolysis and fat oxidation rates and thus reduces the total amount of fat we lose in the workouts. So, when we consider all the available research, it’s clear that fasted cardio results in at least slightly more fat loss than fed cardio and thus is worth considering. It’s especially valuable if you combine it with supplements known to accelerate fat loss like caffeine, synephrine, green tea extract, and yohimbine. Total fat loss isn’t the only reason I like fasted cardio, though. It also helps eliminate stubborn fat in particular.
HOW FASTED CARDIO HELPS GET RID OF STUBBORN FAT If you’re a woman, your hips, thighs, and butt are probably the last to tighten up when you’re losing weight. If you’re a guy, it’s almost certainly your lower abs, obliques, and lower back. This isn’t a genetic curse — it’s just a physiological mechanism. You see, your body uses chemicals known as catecholamines to break fat cells down into usable energy.9 Catecholamines travel through your blood and attach to receptors on fat cells, which then trigger the release of the energy stored within the cells so it can be burned off. Fat cells have two types of receptors for adrenaline and noradrenaline (also known as catecholamines): alpha and beta receptors.10 The physiology is quite complex, but what you need to know is that when catecholamines bind to beta-receptors, fat cells mobilize for burning.11 When the chemicals bind to alpha-receptors, however, the cells don’t mobilize. This is the physiological explanation for the “stubborn fat” phenomenon and the reason it’s so hard to lose those last few pounds in your lower abs (most guys) or hips and thighs (most girls). The fat cells in these areas of your body are high in alpha-receptors and low in beta-receptors. Another problem with these stubborn fat areas relates to blood flow.12
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You may have noticed that fat in areas like the lower back and thighs is slightly colder to the touch than fat in other areas of your body like the arms or chest. This is simply because there’s less blood flowing through these areas. Less blood flow to an area means fewer catecholamines are able to reach the stubborn fat cells, which means even slower fat loss. So we have a double-whammy of fat-loss hindrance here: large numbers of fat cells that don’t respond well to catecholamines and reduced blood flow to keep the catecholamines away. Now, how does fasted cardio help? Well, blood flow in the abdominal region is increased when you’re in a fasted state, which means the catecholamines can reach this stubborn fat easier, resulting in more mobilization of it.13 This is where I’ve noticed a difference in cutting with and without fasted training. When I include fasted training (both cardio and weightlifting), the journey from about nine percent to six percent body fat, where the majority of the fat you’re losing is the stubborn stuff, is noticeably faster than when I don’t.
WHAT TYPE OF FASTED CARDIO IS BEST? As you know, I’m a big fan of HIIT, both for fed and fasted training. Some people say HIIT performed in a fasted state is silly, because fat oxidation rates are much lower during HIIT exercise. Well, while it’s true that fat oxidation rates decline as cardio intensity increases (as glycogen then becomes the fuel of choice), there’s more to consider.14 • Research shows that as you continue to perform regular high-intensity interval cardio sessions, your muscles learn to use less glycogen during workouts (thus increasing fat oxidation rates during the workouts), and your muscle cells also get better and better at oxidizing fats.15 • This latter point is particularly relevant to fasted training as, over time, HIIT increases the total amount of fatty acids your body is able to metabolize during workouts.16 • Research shows that the post-exercise afterburn effect (EPOC) is greater with HIIT than with LISS cardio (about double, actually: 13 percent vs. seven percent).17 • Research shows that high-intensity interval cardio is particularly good for getting rid of stubborn abdominal fat, including dangerous accumulations of visceral fat.18
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Given all the above, I think it’s just a no-brainer to choose high-intensity interval cardio over LISS, fed or fasted.
WHAT ABOUT FASTED WEIGHTLIFTING? Weightlifting causes a dramatic spike in plasma catecholamine levels, and as catecholamines are better able to mobilize fat when you’re in a fasted state, fasted weightlifting is also a worthwhile fat loss strategy.19 I do all of my exercise — both weightlifting and cardio — fasted when I’m dieting for weight loss. As I said earlier, the stubborn fat disappears faster when I’m fasted than when I exercise in a fed state. A caveat, though, don’t be surprised if you’re noticeably weaker during your first couple of weeks of switching from fed weightlifting to fasted. You will lose some reps on your big lifts, if not across the board. This isn’t because you’re losing muscle. It’s simply because eating a significant amount of carbohydrate before you work out dramatically improves your performance in the gym.20 Take the carbs away, and you lose the boost. Add them back, and it returns. That said, as I noted earlier, your body slowly adapts to training in the fasted state, learning to preserve glycogen stores and thus preserve performance. Nevertheless, I’ve found that my lifts while fasted are just never as good as my lifts while fed.
THE DOWNSIDES TO FASTED TRAINING Fasted training is a double-edged sword. It’s good for losing fat faster but not so good for maintaining muscle and enjoying your workouts. The first problem is that it significantly increases muscle breakdown rates.21 This is undesirable, because if you damage and break down too many muscle cells in your workouts, your body won’t be able to keep up with repair, and you can lose muscle over time. The next problem is lackluster workouts. Many people find they have less energy and focus when training in a fasted state and thus aren’t able maintain the level of physical and mental intensity they’re used to. Now, most people familiar with how fasted training works use branchedchain amino acids (BCAAs) to counteract the muscle loss. This is a workable solution but not my preference.
THE DOWNSIDES OF BCAA SUPPLEMENTATION BCAAs are one of the most popular — and overrated — supplements on the market today.
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Consumers are often told that BCAAs are as effective as creatine at helping build muscle and strength and as fundamentally useful as whey protein. The marketing works, too. Go to just about any gym, and you’ll see at least a couple of guys and gals lugging around a jug of neon BCAA-infused water. The reality, however, is that BCAA supplements aren’t nearly as special as they’re made out to be. To understand why, let’s first talk about what these supplements consist of. BCAAs are three vital amino acids that your body must get from your diet: leucine, isoleucine, and valine. • Leucine activates an enzyme called the mammalian target of rapamycin, or mTOR, and this directly stimulates cell growth (protein synthesis).22 • Isoleucine increases glucose uptake in the muscles, improves glucose metabolism, and weakly activates the mTOR enzyme.23 • Valine is underwhelming in all respects and is the least potent and important of the three. Research shows it may increase insulin secretion and promote glycogen synthesis in muscle cells and, like isoleucine, it can weakly stimulate the mTOR enzyme.24 There are large amounts of BCAAs in high-quality sources of protein like eggs, meat, and dairy. For example, a 6 oz. serving of chicken gives you about 6.6 grams of BCAAs. The same amount of beef gives you about 6.2 grams, and turkey and various types of fish also provide about 1 gram per ounce. The point is this: eat enough of these foods rich in amino acids, and you’ll get all the BCAAs you need. The reason BCAA supplements are so popular is that they’re easy to sell. If I wanted to jump on the BCAA bandwagon, I could cite a handful of studies that (apparently) demonstrate an impressive array of benefits, including more muscle growth, endurance, and recovery. What I wouldn’t tell you, however, is that the studies’ findings just aren’t practical to the average physically active person following a sensible workout routine and high-protein diet. What I also wouldn’t tell you is that you can give your body all the BCAAs it needs to recover and build muscle through food alone. In fact, there’s research that indicates this is more effective than supplementation.25 That said, an argument could be made for the value of BCAA supplementation with athletes training several hours per day, but for the rest of us, it’s way more sizzle than steak. BCAAs do have one legitimate use that we’re interested in, however, and it relates to fasted training. As BCAAs include leucine, and as leucine suppresses muscle breakdown, a BCAA supplement is useful for preserving muscle while training in a fasted state.
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Why not eat protein instead, you wonder? Because food will spike your insulin levels, and you will no longer be in a fasted state. In fact, whey protein is more insulinogenic than white bread.26 BCAAs, on the other hand, have a smaller impact on insulin levels than food, which allows you to remain in a fasted state while you train.27 This is why many people in the know supplement with them before fasted exercise. While BCAAs are good for preserving muscle, they have two significant drawbacks: • You’re paying for three amino acids, but leucine is the only one of the trio that effectively suppresses muscle protein breakdown. You could save money and achieve the same results by buying pure leucine instead (but be warned — leucine tastes really, really bad). • You need to take a lot to get enough leucine. Most BCAA supplements consist of two to three parts leucine and one part isoleucine and valine, which means you need to take quite a bit (about 10 grams) to get the three to five grams of leucine required to counteract the muscle loss that results from fasted exercise. This means you burn through bottles quickly if you’re training fasted five to seven days per week. Thus, I’m not too excited about BCAAs. You just don’t get much bang for your buck, so to speak. The molecule I like most for preserving muscle while training fasted is called HMB. Let’s talk briefly about it.
HMB: BETTER THAN BCAAS HMB, which stands for -hydroxy -methylbutyrate, is a substance formed when your body metabolizes the amino acid leucine, which is an amino acid that directly stimulates protein synthesis.28 HMB is often sold as a muscle-building aid, but the research purported to demonstrate these benefits is shaky at best, hindered most by design flaws.29 Thus, I’m not comfortable making any claims about muscle growth. There is one benefit of HMB that’s well established, however: it’s an extremely effective anti-catabolic agent.30 That is, it’s very good at preventing muscle breakdown, which means you will recover faster from your workouts and experience less muscle soreness (and the free acid form shows the most promise in this regard). It also has no effect whatsoever on insulin levels, which means it can’t break your fasted state.31 This makes HMB perfect for use with fasted training. Its powerful anticatabolic effects and nonexistent insulin effects mean you reap all the fat-loss
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benefits of training fasted without any of the problems relating to muscle loss or insulin secretion. It’s also worth noting that HMB is superior to leucine in suppressing muscle breakdown because it’s more anti-catabolic than its “parent” amino acid.32 This means it’s also more effective than BCAA supplements because they rely on leucine for their anti-catabolic effects (isoleucine and valine are very weak in this regard).33 Clinically effective dosages of HMB range between 2 and 3 grams, and you should take it 15 to 20 minutes before exercise.
SUPPLEMENTS THAT CAN HELP YOU BURN MORE FAT WHILE TRAINING FASTED As you know, the fat-loss benefits of fasted training relate to increasing the magnitude and effectiveness of certain hormones and signaling molecules related to fat burning. Certain supplements work best in this physiological environment as well and, when combined, they work so well that I feel it’s a mistake to train fasted without also using them. If you’re going through the trouble to train fasted, you might as well get as much out of it as you can. Let’s go over each one here.
Caffeine As weight loss boils down to energy consumed vs. energy expended, caffeine helps you lose fat mainly by increasing your body’s energy expenditure and by increasing fat oxidation rates.34 Caffeine also improves strength,35 muscle endurance,36 and anaerobic performance,37 and it reverses the morning weakness experienced by many weightlifters.38 I like to get my caffeine in the anhydrous (dehydrated and concentrated) form because research shows that this form is more effective for improving performance than what is naturally found in beverages like coffee.39 Part of maximizing the fat-loss benefits of caffeine is preventing your body from building up too much of a tolerance. The best way to do this is to limit intake, of course. Here’s what I recommend: 1. Before training, supplement with 3 to 6 mg caffeine per kg of body weight. If you’re not sure of your caffeine sensitivity, start with 3 mg/ kg and work up from there.
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2. Keep your daily intake at or below 6 mg per kg of body weight. Don’t have 6 mg/kg before training and then drink a couple of coffees throughout the day. 3. Do one or two low-caffeine days per week and one no-caffeine day per week. A low day should be half of your normal intake, and a no day means less than 50 mg of caffeine (you can have a cup or two of tea, but no coffee, caffeine pills, etc.).
Yohimbine Yohimbine is a substance that comes from the Pausinystalia yohimbe plant, and it blocks the activity of alpha-2 fat receptors (the ones that prevent lipolysis).40 This, in turn, allows fat cells — and stubborn fat cells with large amounts of alpha-receptors in particular — to be mobilized more easily.41 There’s a catch, though: post-meal elevations in insulin negate yohimbine’s fat-burning effects, so it should only be used in a fasted state.42 In terms of how to properly use yohimbine, research shows that 0.2 mg per kg of body weight is sufficient for weight-loss purposes.43 Some people get jittery when they take yohimbine. If that happens to you, simply reduce the dosage or stop using it altogether. Furthermore, research shows that yohimbine can raise blood pressure, so if you have high blood pressure, I don’t recommend that you use it.44
Green Tea Extract Green tea extract is an herbal product derived from green tea leaves, and it contains high concentrations of substances known as catechins. Catechins are responsible for many of tea’s health benefits, and they help accelerate exercise-induced fat loss by degrading an enzyme that breaks down catecholamines.45 The longer the catecholamines are in your blood, the more fat cells they can mobilize. Furthermore, research shows catechins help reduce abdominal fat, in particular, so it’s great for when you’re looking to get rid of those last bits of belly fat.46 Based on the studies cited above, you want to take 400 to 600 mg of catechins per day to realize their full weight-loss benefits. The average green tea extract product contains about 150 mg of catechins per pill. If you take green tea extract on an empty stomach, you may get nauseous. If that’s the case, save it for when you eat food.
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Synephrine Synephrine is a mild stimulant found in high concentrations in the bitter orange fruit. It functions similarly to ephedrine and thus is useful for fat-loss purposes.47 Specifically, synephrine helps you lose fat faster in three ways: it increases lipolysis activity and basal metabolic rate,48 it blocks the activity of alpha fat receptors (like yohimbine),49 and it increases the thermic effect of food.50 Clinically effective dosages of synephrine range from 25 to 50 mg..
THE BOTTOM LINE While fasted training isn’t necessary for losing fat and getting lean, it’s an effective way to speed up the process. This is especially true for people who are lean and looking to get really lean, and it’s especially effective when combined with the supplements listed above. So the next time you’re dieting for fat loss, give fasted training a try and see how your body responds. When training fasted, don’t be surprised if you’re not as strong or energetic as you’re used to feeling. This doesn’t mean that you’re losing muscle or that anything is wrong. It just illustrates how much of a difference pre-workout carbohydrates affect performance. Some people get dizzy or nauseous during fasted training. If that happens to you, simply go back to fed training. Fasted exercise isn’t worth suffering for.
CHAPTER SUMMARY • Exercise done during periods where insulin is at a low, baseline level and food is no longer being processed and absorbed is fasted training. • As your body processes and absorbs the food, insulin levels decline, which tells the body to start going to fat for energy as the fuel from the meal is running out. Finally, when the absorption is complete, your body is fully running off its own fat stores for energy. • When we consider all the available research, it’s clear that fasted cardio results in more fat loss than fed cardio and thus is worth considering. It’s especially valuable if you combine it with supplements known to accelerate fat loss like caffeine, synephrine, green tea extract, and yohimbine.
HOW I USE FASTED CARDIO TO LOSE FAT FASTER
• Fat cells have two types of receptors for adrenaline and noradrenaline (also known as catecholamines): alpha and beta receptors. The physiology is quite complex, but what you need to know is that when catecholamines bind to beta-receptors, fat cells mobilize for burning. When the chemicals bind to alphareceptors, however, the cells don’t mobilize. • Weightlifting causes a dramatic spike in plasma catecholamine levels, and as catecholamines are better able to mobilize fat when you’re in a fasted state, fasted weightlifting is also worthwhile. • Fasted training is a double-edged sword. It’s good for losing fat faster but not so good for maintaining muscle and enjoying your workouts. • HMB is perfect for use with fasted training. Its powerful anticatabolic effects and nonexistent insulin effects means you reap all the fat-loss benefits of training fasted without any of the problems relating to muscle loss or insulin secretion. • Certain supplements work best in the fasted physiological environment and, when combined, they work so well that I feel it’s a mistake to train fasted without also using them. If you’re going through the trouble to train fasted, you might as well get as much out of it as you can.
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6 7 CARDIO WORKOUTS THAT DON’T SUCK Indeed, the real question is not, “Why greatness?” but “What work makes you feel compelled to try to create greatness?”
— JIM COLLINS
Now that you have a good understanding of the key principles of diet, nutrition, and exercise, let’s start looking at your best options for cardio workouts. As much as you may currently dislike doing cardio, it doesn’t have to suck. And it doesn’t have to suck up a bunch of time, either. As you’ll see, I’ve laid out a wide variety of workout options that you can choose from. Some are definitely more effective than others when it comes to improving conditioning and losing fat, and I’ve noted that where applicable. I recommend that you try as many of these workouts as you find appealing and settle on those that you enjoy the most. This will help you actually stick to the routine, which is equally if not more important than what you actually do. You see, when we look at the bigger picture of getting and staying fit, training methodologies and workout programming mean nothing if you miss workouts regularly and eventually give up. In a way, the best diet and workout routines are the ones you can stick with over the long term. So, just because HIIT is best for losing fat doesn’t mean that’s your only choice. If, for whatever reason, HIIT doesn’t work for you, find what does. A big part of the fitness experience is learning about you: your mental and physical preferences, tolerances, and strengths and weaknesses. Treat it as a journey, not a popularity contest.
7 THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO HIGH-INTENSITY INTERVAL TRAINING 400 to 650 calories burned per hour As you know, high-intensity interval training, or HIIT for short, is a method of exercising where you alternate between periods of (almost) all-out intensity and low-intensity recovery. The idea is simple: during your high-intensity bouts, you’re pushing yourself almost as hard as you can, and during your low-intensity periods, you’re trying to catch your breath in preparation for the next all-out exertion. This basic description leaves you with some important questions, though, such as... • How intense do the high-intensity intervals need to be in terms of effort and length? • How restful and long should the rest periods be? • How long should the workouts be? • How frequently should you do HIIT workouts? Basically, what actually qualifies as a HIIT workout, and how do you get the most out of this type of training? Well, let’s find out. When you start looking into research on HIIT, you’ll often find that exercise intensity is discussed in terms of percentage of VO2 max. This is the maximum rate of oxygen consumption during exercise. It is a major factor in determining one’s endurance during longer bouts of exercise. What you’ll find in most studies that demonstrate the advantages of HIIT is that subjects reached between 80 and 100 percent of their VO2 max during the high-intensity periods of the exercise routines. This is nice to know but not very useful because VO2 max is hard to approximate while exercising. It’s tough to know with any certainty whether you’re at, let’s say, 60 or 80 percent of VO2 max without being hooked up to a metabolic cart.
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A more practical way of prescribing intensity in your HIIT training is thinking with your Vmax. This is the speed where your breathing becomes labored and where you feel like you can’t bring in as much air as your body wants. It’s about 90 percent of your all-out effort. The first thing to know is that your goal during your high-intensity intervals is to exercise at your Vmax. That is, you need to get moving fast enough that your breathing becomes labored and that you can’t quite suck in air as quickly as you want to, and you need to hold that speed for a period of time. As you can imagine, this requires a pretty significant amount of effort. Think sprinting, not jogging. Repeatedly achieving and sustaining this level of exertion is the whole point of HIIT. If you don’t do this — if you can chat away on the phone during your high-intensity periods — you’re not doing HIIT. The second thing to know is that the total amount of time you exercise at your Vmax determines the effectiveness of the HIIT workout.1 If your workout racks up just a couple minutes of Vmax exertion, it’s not going to be as effective as one that involves double that amount. This is just a matter of proper workout programming, and the factors at play are the duration and intensity of both your high- and low-intensity intervals and of the workouts as a whole. We’ll talk more about how to create an effective HIIT routine soon, but first, let’s talk more about the advantages of this style of training.
HOW TO MAXIMIZE FAT LOSS AND MINIMIZE MUSCLE LOSS There are four simple steps you can take to maximize fat loss and minimize muscle loss: 1. Use an aggressive but moderate calorie deficit. 2. Eat a high-protein diet. 3. Do three to five hours of resistance training per week. 4. Keep cardio to a minimum. The reasoning behind point #4 is this: generally, the less cardio you do, the more muscle you’ll preserve while in a calorie deficit. You can do no cardio whatsoever and lose fat, but this will only get you so far.
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If you want to get really lean (sub-10 percent for men and sub-20 percent for women), there’s a point where you have to include cardio in your routine to continue losing fat. And the leaner you want to get, the more help you’re going to need from cardio. And so the predicament: you need to use cardio to bolster your daily energy expenditure and fat loss, but you also need to keep it to a minimum to best preserve muscle. How do you go about this? Many people want to be lean more than they want to preserve muscle and, unaware of any other alternative, choose the dark side: hours and hours of grueling cardio every week to burn both fat and muscle away. Combine this with very low-calorie dieting, which is all too common, and you have a perfect storm of misery and muscle loss. Well, you can have the best of both worlds with HIIT. You don’t need to do more than a couple of hours per week to significantly increase fat loss, with each session lasting only 20 to 30 minutes.
HIIT HELPS CURB CRAVINGS Overeating is the biggest enemy of fat loss, and the biggest temptations to overeat are hunger and cravings. This becomes particularly problematic as you get leaner and your margins for error with your calorie intake become very slim. Well, while the claim that low-intensity cardio stimulates the appetite and leads to greater food intake is probably not true, research shows that HIIT in particular can cause changes in the brain that decrease hunger and the desire to eat and increase fullness from food eaten.2 Anything that improves dietary compliance is a boon to your fat-loss regimen, and HIIT does just that.
HOW TO CREATE THE OPTIMAL HIIT ROUTINE Let’s now talk about creating the right HIIT workout for you. There are five aspects to this that we need to consider: 1. the type of cardio, 2. the duration and intensity of the high-intensity periods, 3. the duration and intensity of the rest periods, 4. the duration of the workouts, and 5. the frequency of the workouts. Let’s look at each point separately.
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The Best Types
of
HIIT Cardio
While you can use HIIT principles with any type of cardio, if your goal is to preserve muscle and strength, your best choices are biking, rowing, and sprinting. Research shows that the type of cardio you do has a significant effect on your ability to gain strength and size through weightlifting.3 What scientists found is the more a cardio exercise mimics the movement used in hypertrophy movements, like the squat or barbell row, for instance, the less it impairs strength and muscle growth. In the study cited above, the subjects who bicycled in addition to the weightlifting program gained more strength and size than those who ran or walked, and they suspect this was because the cycling movement imitates the squat. Keep in mind that this is a minor point of optimization. If you can’t or don’t want to bike, row, or sprint, use whatever method of cardio you enjoy most: swimming, jump roping, Stairmaster, and so forth. It’s not going to whittle your muscle away. It’s also worth noting that you want to adjust your speed in your training more than the resistance settings offered by various machines. The goal of HIIT is to go fast and hard, not slow and hard. I do my HIIT on a recumbent bike and do raise the resistance slightly for my high-intensity intervals, but only enough to give me something to pedal against.
How Long
and Intense
Your High-Intensity Intervals Should Be
As you now know, the total number of minutes spent at Vmax is the key factor in determining the effectiveness of your HIIT workout. Too little time at this almost-all-out level of exertion results in a kinda highintensity workout, and too much can lead to exhaustion and overtraining. So let’s make sure you get both of these things right. First, just to reiterate, the intensity target is Vmax, which is the speed where your breathing becomes labored and you feel like you can’t bring in as much air as your body wants. It’s about 90 percent of your all-out effort. Don’t build up to this effort when you launch into a high-intensity interval. Give it everything you’ve got right out of the gate. You should be breathing hard within 10 to 15 seconds. In terms of the duration of your high-intensity intervals, shoot for 50 to 60 percent of the amount of time you can move at your Vmax speed before having to stop. (This is known as your Tmax.) Most people new to HIIT will find that their Tmax is around 60 seconds, which is why I recommend “newbies” start with 30-second high-intensity
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intervals. If, however, yours is higher (you can test it with a stopwatch to know for sure), you can start with longer high-intensity intervals. If your goal is also to improve your conditioning, then you will need to make your workouts progressively tougher. The reason for this is that as you get fitter, your Tmax is going to improve. And as it improves, the duration of your high-intensity intervals will need to increase if you want to continue improving your cardiovascular capacity. As you can imagine, these workouts can get pretty damn intense for experienced athletes. In three HIIT studies conducted with highly trained cyclists, highintensity intervals were 5 minutes long (and improved their performance).4 In contrast, other research conducted with endurance athletes found that 2- and 1-minute intervals weren’t enough to improve performance.5
How Long
and Intense
Your Low-Intensity Intervals Should Be
Start out with a 1:2 ratio between high- and low-intensity intervals: for example, 30 seconds at high-intensity and 1 minute at low. As you get fitter, you can work toward a 1:1 ratio. Your rest periods should also be active recovery, where you keep moving and aren’t at a standstill. Studies have shown that active, not passive, recovery is advantageous for reaching Vmax during the high-intensity periods and eliciting the adaptive response to the exercise that we’re after.6
How Long Should Your HIIT Workouts Be? The great thing about HIIT is how much you get out of relatively small amounts of it. That said, it can be stressful on the body, which means you don’t want to overdo it. Start your workouts with two to three minutes of low-intensity warm-up and then do 20 to 25 minutes of intervals followed by two to three minutes of warm-down, and you’re done. There’s just no need to do more than this in each workout.
How Frequently Should You Do HIIT Workouts? This depends on what your goals are and what other types of exercise you’re doing. I’ve found that four to seven total hours of exercise per week is plenty for losing fat quickly and efficiently. Optimally, you will combine resistance training and HIIT, which is best for both losing fat and preserving muscle.
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When I’m cutting, I like to do four to five hours of weightlifting and 1.5 to 2 hours of HIIT per week. This allows me to get as lean as I’d like without burning out and suffering the consequences of overtraining.
THE BOTTOM LINE ON HIGH-INTENSITY INTERVAL TRAINING Whether you want to lose fat or improve athletic performance or both, you want to include HIIT in your workout routine. Follow the advice in this chapter, and you’ll reap all of its benefits and avoid its only drawback, which is the potential for overtraining due to the added stress it puts on the body.
CHAPTER SUMMARY • A more practical way of prescribing intensity in your HIIT training is thinking with your Vmax. This is the speed where your breathing becomes labored and where you feel like you can’t bring in as much air as your body wants. It’s about 90 percent of your all-out effort. • Your goal during your high-intensity intervals is to exercise at your Vmax. That is, you need to get moving fast enough that your breathing becomes labored and that you can’t quite suck in air as quickly as you want to, and you need to hold that speed for a period of time. • The second thing to know is that the total time you exercise at your Vmax determines the effectiveness of the HIIT workout. If your workout racks up just a couple of minutes of Vmax exertion, it’s not going to be as effective as one that involves double that amount. • You can take four simple steps to maximize fat loss and minimize muscle loss: use an aggressive but moderate calorie deficit, eat a high-protein diet, do three to five hours of resistance training per week, and keep cardio to a minimum. • Well, while the claim that low-intensity cardio stimulates the appetite and leads to greater food intake is probably not true, research shows that HIIT in particular can cause changes in the brain that decrease hunger and the desire to eat and increase fullness from food eaten. • While you can use HIIT principles with any type of cardio, if your goal is to preserve muscle and strength, your best
The Definitive Guide to High-Intensity Interval Training
•
• •
•
•
choices are biking, rowing, and sprinting. Keep in mind that this is a minor point of optimization. If you can’t or don’t want to bike, row, or sprint, use whatever method of cardio you enjoy most: swimming, jump roping, Stairmaster, and so forth. It’s not going to whittle your muscle away. In terms of duration of high-intensity intervals, 50 to 60 percent of Tmax is sufficient if your goal is losing fat and improving metabolic health. In case you don’t remember, Tmax is the amount of time you can move at your Vmax speed. If your goal is also to improve your conditioning, then you will need to make your workouts progressively tougher. Start out with a 1:2 ratio between high- and low-intensity intervals: for example, one minute at high-intensity and two minutes at low. As you get fitter, you can work toward a 1:1 ratio. Start your workouts with two to three minutes of lowintensity warm-up and then do 20 to 25 minutes of intervals followed by two to three minutes of warm-down, and you’re done. I’ve found that four to seven total hours of exercise per week is plenty for losing fat quickly and efficiently. Optimally, you will combine resistance training and HIIT, which is best for both losing fat and preserving muscle.
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8 GET YOUR CARDIO UP WITH STAIR SPRINTS 550 to 700 calories burned per hour Want a firmer backside? More powerful thighs? Want to burn fat like never before? If so, stair sprints, also sometimes referred to as “tower running,” are an excellent exercise choice for HIIT. This workout session will be just as intense, if not more intense, than a very fast-paced run. The main muscles that you’ll be hitting each time you launch up the stairs for another sprint will include the glutes, hamstrings, squads, and calves as well as all the muscles in the core and those running along the spinal column. If your calves are slow to respond to training, this type of cardio training can help. Those stubborn little bastards will be engaged with every step, so do enough of this form of cardio, and they’ll become more and more defined. So, what does stair sprinting consist of? Find a very long staircase somewhere (10 to 15 floors is plenty to start with). This could be an apartment building, an office building, or stairs outside, such as those in a sports stadium. Start at the bottom of the stairs and, once ready, run as fast as you can to the top. Once you reach the top, simply walk back down, using this as your rest period for the interval session. Once you’re able to do this 10 to 15 times consecutively (depending on how long the staircase is), you’ll want to start making it more challenging. For example, try going up the staircase using only one leg. Once at the top, come back down and then reverse it, so you’re using the other leg. This might sound odd, but it’s an incredible strength builder and is quite tough — don’t be surprised if you need to stop and rest halfway up when you first get started. Another variation is double jumps. Try taking two stairs at a time rather than just one. This increased stride demands more stamina and hamstring strength.
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Finally, if you want something really different, consider going up sideways or, if you’re very skilled, backward. Just be sure to have someone watching out for you, and take note of others around you before you start going up the staircase. Stair sprints are a fantastic way to tone and firm up your lower body while also helping you get into the best cardiovascular shape of your life. Try them the next time you’re heading for a cardio workout and need something fresh and challenging.
9 THE ULTIMATE BOXING WORKOUT 400 to 550 calories burned per hour Boxing is a fantastic way to stay in shape, have some fun, and build upperbody speed, quickness, and muscle endurance. It involves the coordination of many muscle groups and demands all-out intensity with very limited rest periods, making it a highly challenging yet entertaining form of interval cardio as well. Many people shy away from boxing workouts because they’re afraid of the technical aspects of the sport. Don’t let this stop you. A few quick YouTube lessons on basic punches are all you’ll need to get started. Now, there are three types of boxing workouts that you can do that don’t need a partner or coach: speed bag, heavy bag, and shadow boxing.
SPEED BAG A speed bag is a small punching bag attached to a platform that’s used to help a fighter improve hand-eye coordination, learn to keep his hands up, and discover how to shift between feet when punching. You hit a speed bag by balling your hands into fists, raising them to ear level with your elbows above your chest, and striking with the butt end of your fists. Focus on the hinge of the bag (focusing on the bag itself will make you dizzy) and let it hit the platform three times — forward, back, forward — until you strike it again. Mastering this rhythm takes practice. Many boxers learn by closing their eyes and listening rather than looking. As you get better on the speed bag, you can start mixing it up by hitting it once with one hand, and then twice, and then thrice, and then back to once, and so forth.
HEAVY BAG A heavy bag is a large punching bag usually suspended from the ceiling by chains or ropes that’s used for practicing powerful body punches.
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Many people think the heavy bag is just for throwing hard shots — for trying to shove your hand through the bag — but experienced boxers know otherwise. Heavy bag work is all about throwing snapping, flowing punches and practicing good footwork. A snapping punch is what it sounds like: you hit the bag and let your fist rebound and snap back to you. It takes practice to get a feel for it, but once you get it down, you’ll be able to throw faster, stronger punches while using less energy. Flowing refers to throwing connected, flowing combinations of punches while continually moving around the bag. Small breaks punctuate combos while you move into a new position, but there’s never more than a few seconds between flurries of punches. Most punches are at 50 to 70 percent power, with the emphasis on speed and snap, but the occasional hard punch is included.
SHADOW BOXING Shadow boxing is a method of practicing that involves moving around by yourself and throwing punches at the air. It’s a way to hone your punch technique; work on your speed, rhythm, and footwork; condition your muscles; and warm up or down during workouts. Effective shadow boxing usually works on one goal at a time. If technique is the focus, then you train a specific punch or punches repeatedly. If improving coordination is the goal, then you will work on throwing various punches from various points in your footwork. If you want to work on rhythm, then you want to practice stringing together and repeating several punches and movements.
BUILDING YOUR BOXING WORKOUT A good boxing workout can involve one or more of the methods discussed above. Here’s a standard one to get you started: 1. Start with three to five minutes of shadow boxing to warm up. First, warm up for one or two minutes by moving around and shaking your limbs out by throwing some punches. Then move on to a minute or two of practicing punches like jabs, hooks, crosses, and uppercuts. Then finish with some work on your rhythm by throwing various combinations of punches. 2. Move on to 10 minutes of speed bag work. Learning to work a speed bag is tricky at first. Be patient and persistent, and you’ll get the hang of it. Take rests every three minutes if necessary.
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3. Move on to 15 minutes of heavy bag work. As you’ll see, this gets very tiring very fast. Break this up into three five-minute rounds, with one to two minutes of rest in between each. Make each round as intense as you can, constantly circling the bag and punching. 4. Warm down with three to five minutes of shadow boxing. The warm-down can mirror your warm-up routine. The more boxing workouts you do, the more you’ll gravitate toward certain types of training than others and enjoy customizing your routines.
10 HOW TO MASTER THE KETTLEBELL SWING 500 to 700 calories burned per hour The kettlebell swing is one of the most versatile exercises you can do for your cardio workouts. It’s basically an aggressive, dynamic deadlift movement that has become a staple in the training of elite fighters and athletes. It has been scientifically proven to develop strength, explosive power, and endurance.1 The type of swing I recommend that you learn is the “hard style” swing, which is considered the center of the kettlebell training universe and a prerequisite for more advanced exercises. It’s fairly easy to learn but takes quite a while to master, so don’t be discouraged if you don’t get the hang (or swing) of it in your first go. Let’s look at how it works, starting with the finishing position first (this makes it easier to learn the overall movement).
THE FINISHING (TOP) POSITION 1. Stand with your feet placed slightly outside your shoulders and pointing straight or slightly out. 2. Raise your arms directly out in front of you, at shoulder height, and bring your hands together and make them into loose fists. 3. Bring your shoulders down toward your waist and engage the muscles under your armpits (your lats). 4. Tighten your core as if you were about to take a punch. Don’t hunch over — just bring everything into a tight, locked-in position. 5. Squeeze your glutes hard. If you’ve done these things correctly, your body should more or less be in a straight line from your head to your toes.
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This is the proper finishing position for a kettlebell swing, and here’s how it looks:
Practice getting into this position and holding it for 10 to 15 seconds at a time until it comes comfortably. Each time you move into it, you should feel your shoulders, back, core, glutes, and legs contracting, which helps explain why it’s such an effective exercise (it involves multiple major muscle groups). Now that you know where the movement ends, let’s look at how you get there.
THE STARTING (BOTTOM) POSITION The starting position for a kettlebell swing is similar to the starting position for a vertical jump. 1. Your feet should be in the same position as the finish — slightly outside your shoulders with your toes turned slightly out. 2. Look straight forward. With your head and chest up and out, hinge at the hips by pushing them back. Keep your weight over the middle of your foot as your knees bend. You should feel the stretch and tension more in your hamstrings than in your quadriceps. 3. Place your arms in between your legs without changing the angle of your body (just move your arms).
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This is the starting position, and here’s how it looks:
Like the starting position, practice getting into and holding this position several times until you’re comfortable with it. So, now that you know both the starting and finish positions of the exercise, it’s time to connect them with the swing itself.
THE SWING The basics of the swing are fairly simple. From your starting position, with the kettlebell on the ground slightly in front of you, grab it and “hike” it back between your legs until your forearms reach your inner thighs. Then, thrust your hips forward, sending the bell flying upward to your chest level, and finish the swing by strongly contracting your glutes. A key thing to know is that the kettlebell swing is not a squat or shrug. It’s a deadlift motion. That is, you’re not just standing the weight up or using your traps to raise it — you’re using the explosive hip thrust to move your arms and the kettlebell. Once you’ve completed a single swing, you simply guide the bell down and back to the starting position for another swing. Here’s how the sequence looks:
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As you can see, the kettlebell is slightly forward in front of the feet, and the spine is in a neutral position.
Here is the “hike” movement and, as you can see, the spine remains neutral. From here, the hips drive forward and the kettlebell is swung to the top position, which you can see in the following illustration:
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So, that’s how you perform a proper kettlebell swing. Before we move on to the workout portion of the chapter, I’d like to touch on a few important odds and ends. • Keep your spine in a neutral position the entire time, like the deadlift. You don’t want rounding or exaggerated arching. • Keep your feet planted on the floor and in line with your knees. Don’t let your knees buckle in. • Keep the shoulders “packed,” which is a weightlifting term for down and “connected” to your body as opposed to raised toward the ears. • Your arms should be straight in the bottom position. • Don’t set the kettlebell down in between swings. • Don’t shift your knees forward on the upswing. • Inhale on your way down and exhale on the way up. • The kettlebell should “float” for a moment at the top of the swing.
HOW TO BUILD A KETTLEBELL SWING WORKOUT If you’re a man, start with a 35-pound kettlebell for your swings. If you’re a woman, start with an 18-pounder. If those sound too light, trust me: when you do the swing properly, it gets hard fast. For the first several workouts, stick to about 10 minutes of swinging and 10 swings per set, with 30 to 60 seconds of rest in between each set. Your first goal should be 10 sets of 10 swings in about 10 minutes without coughing up a lung. Once you can do that, increase the difficulty by working on the following ladder scheme. First, do 5 swings, followed by a rest of double the reps in seconds (10 seconds in this case). Then do a set of 10 reps, followed by 20 seconds of rest. Then do 15 reps followed by 30 seconds of rest. Finally, do 20 reps followed by 40 seconds of rest. Then restart the ladder at 5 reps and work your way back up. Do this for 20 to 25 minutes, and you’ll be toast. When you’re resting, stay in motion. Walk around, stretch your limbs, and shake off the fatigue. If you find yourself struggling to maintain proper form on your swings as the sets continue, increase the rest times in between sets (an extra 5 to 10 seconds should be enough). Once you can do ladder swings for 20 to 25 minutes comfortably, increase the weight of the kettlebell. If you’re a man, increase the weight by 10 pounds. If you’re a woman, increase the weight by 5 pounds. Do three to four of these workouts per week (and you can do them in addition to your weightlifting), and within a couple of months, you’ll see just how effective this simple exercise is.
11 REAP THE REWARDS OF CROSS-TRAINING 450 to 500 calories burned per hour CrossFit is exploding in popularity and introducing millions of people to cross-training, which is an effective way to improve overall fitness. I’m not a fan of cross-training for maximizing muscle growth and strength, but it can be a very effective cardio workout and can help strengthen and condition your muscles. The idea behind cross-training circuits is that you do several strength moves back-to-back, with no rest in between. Training in this fashion is known as supersetting. Supersets keep your heart rate elevated and have similar effects as an interval training session because you’ll be exercising hard for about a minute (30 seconds for each set) and then resting for a minute before you start your next superset. When selecting the exercises to pair in your supersets, I recommend that you stick to compound movements (exercises that engage multiple muscle groups, such as the squat, bench press, deadlift, pull-ups, etc.) The more muscle groups you can work with any specific exercise, the more calories you’ll burn. I like to include five to six exercises in my cross-training supersets and always include at least two to three compound exercises that hit both the upper and lower body. For example, a simple but effective cross-training superset is the squat, deadlift, and overhead press. In terms of the amount of weight you should be using, you want to avoid heavy loads. A good rule of thumb is 50 to 60 percent of your one-rep-max (1RM), and you want to work in the 8- to 10-rep range. The goal with this type of superset training is to elevate the heart rate and stress the muscles, not to push yourself to muscular failure.
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Here’s a sample routine to get you started:
Superset #1: Squat
Deadlift Overhead Press Rest Superset #2: Bench Press Lunge Bent-Over Row Rest Superset #3: Pull-Up
Side Lateral Raise Cable Crunch Rest Superset #4: Squat
Bench Press One-Arm Dumbbell Row That should give you a 20- to 25-minute workout session to perform three times per week (one day off between sessions), which is something that even the busiest person should be able to handle.
12 BURN FAT FAST WITH TABATA TRAINING... IF YOU DARE 200 to 300 calories burned per 20 minutes “Four-minute fat-burning workouts.” That’s the big promise of tabata training, but is it actually possible? Can you really drop pounds doing just a few minutes of exercise per day? The short answer is no, you can’t. In fact, in the absence of a proper diet, no amount of exercise is going to help you achieve your weight-loss goals. (This is why research shows that regular exercise guarantees little in the way of fat loss.1) That said, if you know what you’re doing with your diet, tabata training can help you lose fat faster than many traditional types of exercise...if you know how to do it properly. And in this chapter, you’re going to learn exactly that. As you’ll soon see, people make two major mistakes in their tabata workouts that prevent them from getting the results they’re after. And you’re going to learn how to avoid these pitfalls and create tabata workouts that actually work.
WHAT IS TABATA TRAINING? In 1996, Dr. Izumi Tabata published a research paper on HIIT that changed the way hundreds of thousands of people exercise.2 The study compared the effects of 60 minutes of moderate-intensity steady-state cardio to four minutes of ultra-intense cardio intervals consisting of 20 seconds of all-out effort followed by 10 seconds of rest. Dr. Tabata and his team found that the shorter workouts were equally effective in improving aerobic capacity and more effective in increasing anaerobic capacity. This sparked a wildfire of publicity, and gyms and trainers everywhere started incorporating 4-minute workouts into their classes and with their clients. That was 20 years ago, and tabata training is still extremely popular today.
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There’s a problem though. The majority of people doing tabata training aren’t doing it for performance benefits: they’re doing it to help them lose weight. And while HIIT itself is extremely effective for burning fat, traditional tabata workouts aren’t for one simple reason: they’re too short. You can only burn so much energy in four minutes, regardless of how hard you push yourself. Research has quantified that number too. A study conducted by scientists at the University of Wisconsin found that tabata-style training burns about 14 calories per minute.3 So four minutes of tabata would burn around 70 calories, which just isn’t going to move the needle much in terms of energy balance. (And sure, there’s the post-exercise calorie burn as well, but it too won’t be anything substantial.) Most people haven’t gotten that memo, though, and instead have been sold on dropping pounds quickly with just four minutes of exercise every day. Another problem with the “tabata” workouts that many people do is that they aren’t intense enough to be true “tabata training.” The 20 seconds of all-out intensity in what scientists call tabata training is meant to be just that: all out. Specifically, subjects push themselves to 160 to 170 percent of VO2 max, which is the maximum rate of oxygen consumption during exercise. As you know, when you train at 100 percent of VO2 max, your breathing becomes labored, and you struggle to suck in enough air. Maintaining this level of intensity is tough; elite athletes can only do it for several minutes.4 So, as you can imagine, pushing yourself to 160 to 170 percent of your VO2 max requires everything you’ve got plus a high tolerance of downright exhausting effort (you couldn’t maintain this level of exertion for more than a minute or two). And many people just don’t get there in their tabata workouts. So, where does this leave us then? Many people think they’re doing tabata training, but they aren’t. Even when done properly, it can’t deliver on the promise of “four-minute fat loss.” That said, I think the tabata research and protocol itself have practical value for losing fat. Let’s take a look at how to make it effective.
HOW TO CREATE AN EFFECTIVE TABATA WORKOUT As you now know, tabata training burns a lot of calories per minute. This is great for aiding in weight loss...if you do enough. And therein lies the simple change you need to make to the traditional tabata protocol: you have to make your workouts longer.
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For example, the tabata study I cited earlier found that just 20 minutes of tabata training can burn between 240 and 360 calories.5 As you can imagine, three to five of those workouts per week can really make a difference, especially as you get leaner and rely more and more on exercise to drive your fat loss.6 That said, there’s a catch here. Twenty-minute tabata workouts are really, really hard — so much so that unless you can comfortably get through at least 20 to 25 minutes of regular high-intensity interval cardio, you probably won’t be able to make it through the tabata variety. And you don’t want to shorten the workouts too much either because, as you know, it reduces their overall effectiveness for fat loss. I wouldn’t recommend anything shorter than 15 minutes. So, this is why I generally recommend that people start with regular HIIT and work their way up to being able to do 20 to 25 minutes without issue before starting tabata training. With that in mind, let’s now look at how to best program your tabata workouts. The defining characteristic of tabata training is 20 seconds of all-out effort followed by 10 seconds of rest. Ideally, the rest periods are passive rest consisting of motion, not a standstill. In terms of exercise choice, your best bets are going to be those that mimic strength movements like biking, rowing, and sprinting, or body-weight movements like air squats, burpees, high knees, and mountain climbers. If you’d like to try circuits of body-weight exercises, choose six to eight exercises and do each according to the tabata protocol (20 seconds of all-out intensity on exercise 1, 10 seconds of rest, 20 seconds on exercise 2, and so forth). If you’re going to use a machine that has resistance settings, like a biking, rowing, or elliptical machine, you’ll want to raise the resistance settings during your 20-second high-intensity intervals and down during your 10-second rest periods.
THE BOTTOM LINE ON TABATA WORKOUTS Tabata training is a powerful tool for burning fat, but it’s no easy way to shed pounds. You have to work your ass off to reap its rewards. If you already have good cardiovascular conditioning and want to push your fat burning to the max, give tabata training a go. If you’re relatively new to exercise, however, I recommend that you start with something a little easier like traditional high-intensity interval cardio and work your way up to being able to handle tabata training.
13 BLAST FAT WITH JUMP ROPING 400 to 800 calories burned per hour Jump roping is an often-overlooked form of cardio training that is surprisingly fun and effective. It not only burns a ton of calories, but it also improves your hand-eye coordination and challenges you to learn different variations of jumps. Jump roping is also incredibly convenient because you can do it in the comfort of your own home, and it doesn’t require any fancy equipment. You can pick up a rope from your local superstore or fitness store, and it shouldn’t cost you any more than $15 to 20. I recommend that you have a good pair of running shoes and that you jump on a surface softer than cement, such as carpet, grass, or a wooden floor (this is easier on your knees, ankles, and lower back). If you’re relatively new to working out, shoot for being able to jump rope for five minutes straight. Then take a breather and walk around the room for between three and five minutes, and then go for another five-minute round of jumping. Once you can do this four times, try to do 10 minutes of jumping in your next workout, followed by a rest, and then another 10-minute jumping period. If you get particularly good at speed roping, you can even use jump roping for HIIT, alternating between periods where you push yourself to the limit for 30 to 60 seconds and periods where you rest for the same amount of time. Once you’ve got the basic movement down, add in some variety! For example, you could do front jumps for a minute, back jumps for a minute, double jumps for a minute, and then one-foot jumps for the final two minutes. Knee-high jumps are also a great variation that will really get your heart pumping. Have patience while you’re learning. Jump roping can be tricky at first while you’re learning to get coordinated and fast. Here are a few tips: • Turn the rope using your wrists. Keep the shoulders and elbows quiet. • Hop over the rope with low, relaxed bounces. • Learn to turn first and jump second. Practice every day, and it won’t take long before you’ll have the coordination to ramp up the difficulty of your jump-roping workouts.
14 THE REAL “SIX-PACK SHORTCUT” 400 to 550 calories burned per hour Everyone wants it...the elusive “six-pack.” It’s the hallmark of the fitness elite and the proof that you know the inside “secrets” of getting ripped. With the number of people wanting six-pack abs, the amount of bad advice out there on how to actually get them is overwhelming. • Some people say you just have to do special types of ab exercises...and they’re wrong. • Some people say you just have to get lean...and they’re wrong. • Some people say you just have to do a lot of heavy squats and deadlifts...and they’re wrong. • Some people say you have to avoid certain types of foods and take weird supplements...and they’re really wrong. Like most things related to fitness, the real way to get six-pack abs — for both guys and gals — is pretty straightforward. And in this chapter, I’m going to break it all down for you. First, I want to address some of the wrong advice out there...
AB EXERCISES ALONE WON’T GIVE YOU A GREAT SIX-PACK. No matter how simple or fancy the exercises, they are not the “shortcut to six-pack abs.” Yes, ab exercises are necessary for developing a solid core (more on that in a second), but it takes more than ab workouts to get the look you desire.
JUST BEING LEAN ISN’T ENOUGH. It’s true that you need to have low levels of body fat for your abs to fully show. For us guys, they start really showing as you get under 10 percent body fat, and for gals, as you dro p under 20 percent body fat.
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But you can get very lean and still not have the six-pack look you want. How so? The answer is simple: nobody’s core is naturally developed enough to have the deep cuts and pronounced lines that make for a truly outstanding six-pack. The full six-pack look requires low body fat levels and well-developed core muscles.
JUST DEADLIFTING AND SQUATTING ISN’T ENOUGH EITHER. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard the following: “I don’t train abs; I squat and deadlift.” And these guys and girls usually have unimpressive cores. These two exercises, even when performed with heavy weight (80 percent+ of 1RM), just don’t involve the “show” muscles of the rectus abdominis, the tranversus abdominis, and the external obliques as much as people think.1 Now, don’t get me wrong. Heavy squatting and deadlifting do help build an all-around great core, but they aren’t enough on their own.
WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO GET A KILLER CORE THEN? Having an outstanding six-pack and core actually only requires two things: 1. Reducing your body fat percentage. For us guys, the rectus abdominis doesn’t really start showing until we reach the 10 percent range, and the rest of the core muscles don’t pop until we reach the eight percent range. For girls, 20 percent is where the fun begins, and 18 percent is where their cores really start to shine. Just know that no matter how great your core muscles are developed, you will not achieve the look you want if your body fat percentage is too high. 2. Regularly performing the right ab and core exercises. Building a great six-pack requires that you do both ab exercises that train your rectus abdominis and exercises that train the other core muscles that complete the look we want.
HOW TO DEVELOP GREAT ABS (RECTUS ABDOMINIS) The biggest mistake most people make with ab training is that they don’t perform any weighted ab exercises. The result is the ability to do a bazillion crunches or leg raises but with abs that look small and underdeveloped. The abs are like any other muscle: they require progressive overload to grow, and that can only be accomplished by adding resistance to exercises.
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You don’t have to add weight to all of your ab training, but you must add it to some if you want abs that really pop. My favorite ab exercises are as follows: • cable crunch, • captain’s chair leg raise (you can start with your knees bent, but you want to work toward keeping your legs straight), • hanging leg raise, • air bicycle, and • ab wheel rollout. I didn’t just choose these at random. Research has actually shown them to be the most effective for training the rectus abdominis and obliques (unfortunately, the study disappeared off the Internet, but it was led by Peter Francis, Ph.D., at the Biomechanics Lab at San Diego State University). I’ve found that abs seem to respond best to a combination of weighted and unweighted work. Here’s how I like to do it: 1. One set of a weighted exercise like the cable crunch, captain’s chair leg raise, or hanging leg raise for 10 to 12 reps (you can add weight to the latter two by snatching a dumbbell in between your feet) 2. Directly into one set of an unweighted exercise, to failure 3. Directly into one set of an unweighted exercise, to failure For example: • One set of cable crunches, 10- to 12-rep range • Directly into one set of captain’s chair leg raises, to failure • Directly into one set of air bicycles, to failure Do six to nine of these circuits two to three times per week, and your abs and obliques will develop. Let’s now look at how we can develop the rest of the core muscles.
HOW TO DEVELOP A GREAT CORE Heavy compound weightlifting trains your core better than special core exercises, particularly when performed with heavy weight (80+ percent of your 1RM).2 My three favorite core exercises are the deadlift, squat, and military press or overhead press. If you perform each of these lifts every week and perform them with heavy weight, you won’t need to do any other core exercises.
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HOW TO CREATE AN EFFECTIVE CARDIO AND CORE ROUTINE Now that you know how to train your core and abs properly, let’s talk about incorporating these exercises into an effective workout. One way to do this is simply to work ab training into your existing weightlifting workouts. It doesn’t exactly qualify as a cardio workout, but it’s effective nonetheless. Specifically, what I do is a 3-set ab circuit in between sets of a major muscle group that I’m training, followed by about 60 seconds of rest and then the next set for the major muscle group. For example, I might do this:
Chest set Abs circuit Rest 60 seconds Chest set Abs circuit Rest 60 seconds
And so forth. You can also use this approach to include abs training in your cardio workouts. One popular way to do this is to take a traditional HIIT workout and modify it like this: High-intensity interval (30 to 60 seconds, depending on your conditioning)
Abs circuit 60- to-120-second rest interval High-intensity interval Abs circuit 60- to-120-second rest interval
And so on. Both approaches are equally effective. It really just comes down to personal preference.
15 FROM HERE, YOUR BODY WILL CHANGE You must be slow in deliberation and swift in execution.
— NAPOLEON BONAPARTE
Congratulations! You now know more than most people will ever know about how to use diet and exercise to build the body you’ve always wanted. Just knowing what to do isn’t enough, though. And neither is just saying you’re going to do it (according to one survey, 88 percent of people fail to achieve their New Year’s Resolutions).1 You need to establish the right long-term habits if you want to reach your ultimate goal. And the good news is that you’ve already taken many steps to ensure that you’re on the right track. If habits are your strong suit, then you don’t need the rest of this chapter — you can just go on your merry way. If you could use some help bulletproofing your commitment to your fitness, however, you’ll be getting some tips and tricks to make it easier.
THE POWER OF MINI-HABITS When it comes to improving your life, you don’t have to come out of the gate with commitments to massive, sweeping changes, like completely overhauling your appalling diet, going all-in on your quest to get ripped or die trying, or taming your urge to accumulate as much debt as possible. Sure, resolving to tackle the whole enchilada is enticing. It feels good to puff your chest out, put your foot down, and know that this is the moment when you stop buying the junk food and start saying no to the doughnuts every morning. It’s when you begin showing up in the gym every day, kill your workouts like you own the place, and ritually sacrifice the credit cards to free your soul from their evil enchantment.
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It never goes like this, though. The pistol fires, the race starts, you close your eyes, and you run like hell until you’re breathing pepper spray and then open them back up to realize the horrible truth: you’ve moved about an inch. And you signed up for the ultramarathon. Ripping out some major unwanted part of us and neatly replacing it with something shiny and pretty is about as easy as swallowing the sun. And yet we keep trying it over and over, wondering why we can’t do the impossible. To be fair, there are people reading this who don’t know what I’m talking about. They just finished what’s sure to be their sixth best-selling novel, which they wrote while motorcycling through South America and running their multimillion-dollar online businesses with their four-hour workweeks. Bless their hearts. (If you’re one of them, just know your friends secretly hate you and can’t help but fantasize about small, bad things that God must have planned to restore cosmic balance.) But for the rest of us plebeians, we have to tame our appetites and go for sunmotes instead. That is, tiny, almost inconsequential acts of change are easily digestible, and, in time, a steady diet of them is just as nourishing as the feast. The easiest way to do big things is to learn to do and celebrate really, really small things first. Sun Tzu said that great warriors win first and then go to war, and that’s exactly what mini-habits let us do. They give us easy wins and a positive position from which to conduct the rest of our campaign. Want to write a book? Park that away and just commit to writing 50 measly words per day instead. Want to lose 30 pounds? Great. Start with sticking to a proper meal plan for just a week and see how you feel. Want to exercise more? You can start with 10 big ol’ pushups per day. These mini-habits get you in motion and put the first law of inertia on your side: once you’re moving, you tend to stay in motion. And then you realize that you can move a little faster. And a little faster still. And the wheels don’t fall off. In fact, everything is running more smoothly than you would have imagined. Another great thing about mini-habits is that you can do several at a time without getting overwhelmed. This puts you on the path to meaningful change on multiple fronts without requiring large reserves of time and motivation. Simply put, mini-habits let you succeed in numerous ways even on your worst days, and that’s powerful. Mini-habits can also fit into even the nuttiest of schedules and days. Andre Dubus III wrote the inimitable House of Sand and Fog in 20-minute daily installments in his parked car, longhand on a notepad, before driving home from work to join his family for the evening.
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Twenty minutes per day. House of freaking Sand and Fog. I love that and remember it whenever I feel like slacking off. Mini-habits can quickly and naturally grow in scope. Drinking one less cup of soda per day turns out to be quite easy, and you then feel brave enough to forgo another. Ten minutes of exercise feels so good that you don’t want to stop. Don’t harbor hidden higher standards for your mini-habits though. If the habit is 10 minutes of exercise and you do just that, you win. If you do more, you win bigger. Consistency builds willpower and self-confidence, or “self-efficacy,” as Guise calls it, which keeps us from getting entangled in the roots of procrastination and despair. Fail to be consistent, and you’ll eventually develop an expectation of failure in everything you do. Cherish and insist upon consistency, however, and eventually you can’t help but believe in the inevitability of your success. If a mini-habit isn’t working, it’s probably just too big. Make it smaller and let it grow organically. Committing to one workout per day might not sound like much, but it can easily get lost in the whirlpool of daily living. Trim it down to something stupidly easy, quick, and unskippable: a couple of sets of body-weight exercises to failure or a 15-minute walk, for example. The mini-habit tool is incredibly versatile. You can apply it to just about any endeavor and immediately reap the benefits. For example... • Read five pages of the book you want to finish. • Write 50 words on your project. • Do 10 minutes of that exercise DVD. • Lift weights one day per week. • Practice your yoga poses for 5 minutes. • Follow your meal plan for one day. • Cook one new recipe per week. • Give one compliment per day. • Replace one cup of soda with water. You get the idea. So, what major, scary change do you want to make in your life? And what’s the stupidest, simplest action you can take every day to nudge the needle in that direction? There’s your breadcrumb of a mini-habit. Pick it up and see where the trail takes you.
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CHALLENGE, IDENTITY, AND ACTION What’s your biggest challenge in getting fit? This can be anything from cheating too much on your diet to not knowing what to do to missing workouts. Chances are, there’s something that’s on your mind most of the time. Write it down:
Every challenge has a solution, and the first step is adopting the right mind-set. And the right mind-set is the assumption that you have everything you need within you to succeed. For example, “I find it easy to stick to my diet,” “I am loving my workout routine,” “I feel excited to get into the gym every day,” and “I have the body of the my dreams.” What are your mind-set statements? Write them here.
What are three major obstacles that would stop you from reaching your fitness goals? Write them down.
What are two actions you can take per obstacle to make sure they don’t get in the way? Put them on paper.
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GOODBYE FOR NOW! My goal is to help you reach your goals, and I hope this book helps. If we work together as a team, we can and will succeed. So, I’d like you to make a promise as you begin your transformation: Can you promise me — and yourself — that you’ll let me know when you’ve reached your goal? Here’s how we can connect: Facebook: facebook.com/muscleforlifefitness Twitter: @muscleforlife Instagram: instagram.com/muscleforlifefitness G+: gplus.to/MuscleForLife And, last but not least, my website is www.muscleforlife.com. If you want to write me, my e-mail address is
[email protected]. (Keep in mind that I get a lot of e-mails every day and answer everything personally, so if you can keep your message as brief as possible, it helps ensure that I can get back to everyone!) Thanks again. I hope to hear from you, and I wish you the best!
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BONUS MATERIAL You now know things that most people will never understand about how to lose fat and get fit and healthy eating foods you love and doing workouts you actually enjoy. And if you’re ready to start your journey to a leaner, fitter, healthier you, then I want you to have three things that will help you get to your goals even faster. First, I want you to have 10 examples of custom meal plans that my team has created for clients. These meal plans will show you exactly how we use flexible dieting principles to help people get into the best shape of their lives. Second, I want you to have two other books of mine: Maximum Muscle, which is for men, and Fit is the New Skinny, which is for women. In these books you’ll learn things like... • A simple solution to “metabolic damage” that easily and painlessly speeds your metabolism back up to where it should be. • The “deadly” weightlifting mistakes most people make once their “newbie gains” are spent and how to avoid this pitfall. • The most effective exercises for building and strengthening every major muscle group in your body. • A “paint by numbers” weightlifting program that will force your body to get bigger and stronger. • Why most “six pack” advice is completely wrong and what it really takes to get a lean, defined core. • A no-BS guide to supplements that will show you what works, what doesn’t, and what’s just outright fraudulent. • And a whole lot more. So, download your bonus material now and let’s get you eating right, training right, supplementing right, and building the body of your dreams!
Visit http://bit.ly/cs-bonus to get your bonus material now!
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WOULD YOU DO ME A FAVOR? Thank you for buying my book. I’m positive that if you just follow what I’ve written, you will be on your way to looking and feeling better than you ever have before. I have a small favor to ask. Would you mind taking a minute to write a blurb on Amazon about this book? I check all of my reviews and love to get feedback (that’s the real pay for my work — knowing that I’m helping people). Also, if you have any friends or family who might enjoy this book, spread the love and lend it to them! Thanks again. I hope to hear from you, and I wish you the best! Mike P.S. If you’d like professional help with your meal planning to make sure you reach your fitness goals, turn to the next page!
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INTRODUCING THE MUSCLE FOR LIFE CUSTOM MEAL PLAN HOW TO BUILD MUSCLE AND LOSE FAT EATING FOODS YOU LOVE
IF YOU WANT TO TAKE ALL the thought out of dieting and get a meal plan built specifically for you, one that is guaranteed to work if you simply follow it, then you want to read this page. The first thing I want you to know is that when I say “custom” meal plan, I mean it. Nothing is more annoying than paying for a meal plan from a “guru” and receiving a bland, copy-and-paste job that doesn’t take into account foods you like and dislike, your schedule, your ideal training times, or your lifestyle. That’s why we do our custom meal plans differently. Not only do we build each one from scratch, but we can work with any budgetary and dietary needs as well: vegan, vegetarian, Paleo, food availabilities, sensitivities, allergies, and any other food preferences or restrictions. What this means is that you’ll actually enjoy your diet. You’ll look forward to every meal, every day, which works wonders for compliance. It’s easy to stick to a diet full of foods you love! We don’t just shoot you a plan and send you off on your way, either. We’re always available to help via e-mail to make sure you actually get results.
HERE’S HOW THE PROCESS WORKS Step 1: You pay and create your account, and then you fill out a detailed questionnaire that tells my team about your fitness goals, exercise schedule, food preferences, and everything else we need to make your meal plan.
Step 2: We use your answers to create your meal plan and upload it to the website within five to seven days of receiving your completed questionnaire.
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Step 3: You’re notified via e-mail that your meal plan is ready, and you access your account to download it. You check it out and let us know whether any tweaks are needed. If not, you get rolling.
Step 4: If, at any time along the way, you run into any issues, we’re always available via e-mail to answer any questions you might have and to ensure that everything goes smoothly for you.
So, how much fat would you like to lose? Or how much muscle would you like to build? Working out isn’t enough. Let me show you exactly how to eat to get there! VISIT WWW.MUSCLEFORLIFE.COM/MP NOW TO GET YOUR CUSTOM MEAL PLAN!
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I WANT TO CHANGE THE SUPPLEMENT INDUSTRY. WILL YOU JOIN ME? THE SUPPLEMENT INDUSTRY COULD BE BEST described by Obi-Wan Kenobi’s famous words: “a wretched hive of scum and villainy.” Here’s the bottom-line truth of this multibillion-dollar industry: While certain supplements can help, they do NOT build great physiques (proper training and nutrition do), and most are a complete waste of money. Too many products are “proprietary blends” of low-quality ingredients, junk fillers, and unnecessary additives. Key ingredients are horribly underdosed. There’s a distinct lack of credible scientific evidence to back up the outrageous claims made on labels and in ads. The list of what’s wrong with this industry goes on and on. And that’s why I decided to get into the supplement game. What gives? Am I just a hypocritical sellout? Should you grab your pitchfork and run me off the Internet? Well, hear me out for a minute and then decide. The last thing we need is yet another marketing machine churning out yet another line of hyped-up, flashy products claiming to be more effective than steroids. I think things should be done differently, and I believe in being the change I want to see. That’s why I started LEGION. You see, I created LEGION not only to bring unique products to the supplement world but also to start a movement. Here’s what sets LEGION apart from the rabble: • 100 percent transparent product formulas. The only reasons to use proprietary blends are fraud and deception. You deserve to know exactly what you’re buying. • 100 percent science-based ingredients and dosages. Every ingredient we use is backed by published scientific literature and is included at true clinically-effective dosages. • 100 percent naturally sweetened and flavored. Research suggests that regular consumption of artificial sweeteners can be harmful to our health, which is why we use stevia, a natural sweetener with proven health benefits. Not only are LEGION supplements a better value and better for your health...but they also deliver real results you can see and feel.
LEARN MORE AT WWW.LEGIONATHLETICS.COM!
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OTHER BOOKS BY MICHAEL MATTHEWS VISIT WWW.MUSCLEFORLIFE.COM TO LEARN ABOUT THESE BOOKS!
Thinner Leaner Stronger: The Simple Science of Building the Ultimate Female Body If you want to be toned, lean, and strong as quickly as possible without going on crash diets, needing “good genetics,” or wasting ridiculous amounts of time in the gym and money on supplements... regardless of your age... then you want to read this book.
Bigger Leaner Stronger: The Simple Science of Building the Ultimate Male Body If you want to be muscular, lean, and strong as quickly as possible without steroids, good genetics, or wasting ridiculous amounts of time in the gym and money on supplements... then you want to read this book.
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The Shredded Chef: 120 Recipes for Building Muscle, Getting Lean, and Staying Healthy If you want to know how to forever escape the dreadful experience of “dieting” and learn how to cook nutritious, delicious meals that make building muscle and burning fat easy and enjoyable, then you need to read this book.
Eat Green Get Lean: 100 Vegetarian and Vegan Recipes for Building Muscle, Getting Lean, and Staying Healthy If you want to know how to build muscle and burn fat by eating delicious vegetarian and vegan meals that are easy to cook and easy on your wallet, then you want to read this book.
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Muscle Myths: 50 Health & Fitness Mistakes You Don’t Know You’re Making If you’ve ever felt lost in the sea of contradictory training and diet advice out there and you just want to know once and for all what works and what doesn’t — what’s scientifically true and what’s false — when it comes to building muscle and getting ripped, then you need to read this book.
Beyond Bigger Leaner Stronger: The Advanced Guide to Building Muscle, Staying Lean, and Getting Strong The best-selling sequel to Bigger Leaner Stronger that teaches you how to transition smoothly from an intermediate to an advanced lifter and continue making gains.
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Awakening Your Inner Genius If you’d like to know what some of history’s greatest thinkers and achievers can teach you about awakening your inner genius and how to find, follow, and fulfill your journey to greatness, then you want to read this book today. (I’m using a pen name for this book as well as for a few other projects not related to health and fitness, but I thought you might enjoy it so I’m including it here.)
The Know Your Bill of Rights Book Are you comfortable letting crooked politicians decide what your rights are? I’m not, which is why I wrote this book. It helps you easily reach a deep understanding of the Bill of Rights by walking you through the historical context needed to grasp fully the spirit and importance of key amendments.
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RECOMMENDED READING VISIT WWW.MUSCLEFORLIFE.COM TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THESE BOOKS! If you want to further your health and fitness education, I recommend that you check out the following books. I found each extremely helpful and think you will, too.
Becoming a Supple Leopard This book teaches you common movement errors that cause injury and rob you of speed, power, endurance, and strength, and it gives you hundreds of techniques you can use to correct them and thus optimize your athletic performance.
Starting Strength This is the book that finally fixed my squat, deadlift, and bench press, which enabled me to accelerate my strength and muscle growth greatly over the years. It should be on every serious lifter’s shelf.
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Strength Training Anatomy Strength Training Anatomy is a great resource for diving into anatomy and the biomechanics of exercise, and it’s also a great encyclopedia of exercises.
The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding This is a book we should all just own on principle. Arnold truly was a bodybuilding phenomenon. In all seriousness, this book has several plusses: Arnold’s story is truly inspiring, and his take on the history and profession of bodybuilding is good reading; it has a ton of exercises for training various body parts; and it’s huge and glossy — it’s just a nice product.
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REFERENCES CHAPTER 1 THE GREAT “ONE TRUE DIET” HOAX 1.
Gregory A. Hand, Robin P. Shook, Amanda E. Paluch, Meghan Baruth, E. Patrick Crowley, Jason R. Jaggers, Vivek K. Prasad, Thomas G. Hurley, James R. Hebert, Daniel P. O’Connor, Edward Archer, Stephanie Burgess, and Steven N. Blair, “The Energy Balance Study: The Design and Baseline Results for a Longitudinal Study of Energy Balance,” Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport 84, no. 3 (2013): 275–86. doi: 10.1080/02701367.2013.816224.
2.
Madison Park, “Twinkie Diet Helps Nutrition Professor Lose 27 Pounds,” CNN.com, last modified November 8, 2010, http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/.
3.
Samuel Mettler, Nigel Mitchell, and Kevin D. Tipton, “Increased Protein Intake Reduces Lean Body Mass Loss during Weight Loss in Athletes,” Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 42, no. (2010): 326–37. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e3181b2ef8e.
4.
John D. Bosse and Brian M. Dixon, “Dietary Protein to Maximize Resistance Training: A Review and Examination of Protein Spread and Change Theories,” Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 9, no. 1 (2012): 42. doi: 10.1186/1550-27839-42.
5.
Eric R. Helms, Caryn Zinn, David S. Rowlands, and Scott R. Brown, “A Systematic Review of Dietary Protein during Caloric Restriction in Resistance Trained Lean Athletes: A Case for Higher Intakes,” International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism 24, no. 2 (2014): 127–38. doi: 10.1123/ijsnem.2013-0054.
6.
Anssi H. Manninen, “High-Protein Weight Loss Diets and Purported Adverse Effects: Where Is the Evidence?” Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 1, no. 1 (2004): 45–51. doi: 10.1186/1550-2783-1-1-45; William F. Martin, Lawrence E. Armstrong, and Nancy R. Rodriguez, “Dietary Protein Intake and Renal Function,” Nutrition and Metabolism 2 (2005): 25. doi: 10.1186/1743-7075-2-25.
7.
Wieke Altorf–van der Kuil, Mariëlle F. Engberink, Elizabeth J. Brink, Marleen A. van Baak, Stephan J. L. Bakker, Gerjan Navis, Pieter van ‘t Veer, and Johanna M. Geleijnse, “Dietary Protein and Blood Pressure: A Systematic Review,” PLOS One 5, no. 8 (2010): e12102. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0012102; Mary C. Gannon, Frank Q. Nuttall, Asad Saeed, Kelly Jordan, and Heidi Hoover, “An Increase in Dietary Protein Improves the Blood Glucose Response in Persons with Type 2 Diabetes,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 78, no. 4 (2003): 734–41.
8.
Jean-Philippe Bonjour, “Dietary Protein: An Essential Nutrient for Bone Health,” Journal of the American College of Nutrition 24, no. 6 Suppl. (2006): 526S–36S. doi: 10.1080/07315724.2005.10719501; Jane E. Kerstetter, Anne M. Kenny, and Karl L. Insogna, “Dietary Protein and Skeletal Health: A Review of Recent Human Research,” Current Opinion in Lipidology 22, no. 1 (2011): 16–20. doi: 10.1097/ MOL.0b013e3283419441.
9.
Oliver C. Witard, Sarah R. Jackman, Arie K. Kies, Asker E. Jeukendrup, and Kevin D. Tipton, “Effect of Increased Dietary Protein on Tolerance to Intensified Training,” Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 43, no. 4 (2011): 598–607. doi: 10.1249/ MSS.0b013e3181f684c9.
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Erin Gaffney-Stomberg, Karl L. Insogna, Nancy R. Rodriguez, and Jane E. Kerstetter, “Increasing Dietary Protein Requirements in Elderly People for Optimal Muscle and Bone Health,” Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 47, no. 6 (2009): 1073–79. doi: 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2009.02285.x. 10. Mettler, Mitchell, and Tipton, “Increased Protein Intake Reduces Lean Body Mass Loss,” 326–37. 11. Petra Stiegler and Adam Cunliffe, “The Role of Diet and Exercise for the Maintenance of Fat-Free Mass and Resting Metabolic Rate during Weight Loss,” Sports Medicine 36, no. 3 (2006): 239–62. 12. Jo Smith and Lars McNaughton, “The Effects of Intensity of Exercise on Excess Postexercise Oxygen Consumption and Energy Expenditure in Moderately Trained Men and Women,” European Journal of Applied Physiology and Occupational Physiology 67, no. 5 (1993): 420–25. 13. Tyler A. Churchward-Venne, Caoileann H. Murphy, Thomas M. Longland, and Stuart M. Phillips, “Role of Protein and Amino Acids in Promoting Lean Mass Accretion with Resistance Exercise and Attenuating Lean Mass Loss during Energy Deficit in Humans,” Amino Acids 45, no. 2 (2013): 231–40. doi: 10.1007/s00726-013-1506-0. 14. Donald K. Layman, Richard A. Boileau, Donna J. Erickson, James E. Painter, Harn Shiue, Carl Sather, and Demtra D. Christou, “A Reduced Ratio of Dietary Carbohydrate to Protein Improves Body Composition and Blood Lipid Profiles during Weight Loss in Adult Women,” Journal of Nutrition 133, no. 2 (2003): 411–17; Mettler, Mitchell, and Tipton, “Increased Protein Intake Reduces Lean Body Mass Loss during Weight Loss in Athletes,” 326–37. 15. Carol S. Johnston, Sherrie L. Tjonn, Pamela D. Swan, Andrea White, Heather Hutchins, and Barry Sears, “Ketogenic Low-Carbohydrate Diets Have No Metabolic Advantage over Nonketogenic Low-Carbohydrate Diets,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 83, no. 5 (2006): 1055–61; Shane A. Phillips, Jason W. Jurva, Amjad Q. Syed, Amina Q. Syed, Jacquelyn P. Kulinski, Joan Pleuss, Raymond G. Hoffmann, and David D. Gutterman, “Benefit of Low-Fat over Low-Carbohydrate Diet on Endothelial Health in Obesity,” Hypertension 51, no. 2 (2008): 376–82; Frank M. Sacks, George A. Bray, Vincent J. Carey, Steven R. Smith, Donna H. Ryan, Stephen D. Anton, Katherine McManus, Catherine M. Champagne, Louise M. Bishop, Nancy Laranjo, Meryl S. Leboff, Jennifer C. Rood, Lilian de Jonge, Frank L. Greenway, Catherine M. Loria, Eva Obarzanek, and Donald A. Williamson, “Comparison of Weight-Loss Diets with Different Compositions of Fat, Protein, and Carbohydrates,” New England Journal of Medicine 360 (February 26, 2009): 859–73. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa0804748; Cynthia A. Thomson, Alison T. Stopeck, Jennifer W. Bea, Ellen Cussler, Emily Nardi, Georgette Frey, and Patricia A. Thompson, “Changes in Body Weight and Metabolic Indexes in Overweight Breast Cancer Survivors Enrolled in a Randomized Trial of Low-Fat vs. Reduced Carbohydrate Diets,” Nutrition and Cancer 62, no. 8 (2010): 1142–52. doi:1 0.1080/01635581.2010.513803. 16. Susan C. Wooley, “Physiologic Versus Cognitive Factors in Short Term Food Regulation in the Obese and Nonobese,” Psychosomatic Medicine 34, no. 1 (1972): 62–68. 17. Jameason D. Cameron, Marie-Josée Cyr, and Éric Doucet, “Increased Meal Frequency Does Not Promote Greater Weight Loss in Subjects Who Were Prescribed an 8-Week Equi-Energetic Energy-Restricted Diet,” British Journal of Nutrition 103, no. 8 (2010): 1098–101. doi: 10.1017/S0007114509992984.
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18. Sigal Sofer, Abraham Eliraz, Sara Kaplan, Hillary Voet, Gershon Fink, Tzadok Kima, and Zecharia Madar, “Greater Weight Loss and Hormonal Changes after 6 Months Diet with Carbohydrates Eaten Mostly at Dinner,” Obesity 19, no. 10 (2011): 2006–14. doi: 10.1038/oby.2011.48. 19. Alan A. Aragon and Brad J. Schoenfeld, “Nutrient Timing Revisited: Is There a Post-Exercise Anabolic Window?” Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 10 (2013): 5. Doi: 10.1186/1550-2783-10-5. 20. Hiroyasu Mori, “Effect of Timing of Protein and Carbohydrate Intake after Resistance Exercise on Nitrogen Balance in Trained and Untrained Young Men,” Journal of Physiological Anthropology 33, no. 1 (2014): 24. 21. Helms et al., “A Systematic Review of Dietary Protein,” 127–38.
CHAPTER 2 HOW TO GET THE BODY YOU WANT WITH FLEXIBLE DIETING 1.
Corby K. Martin, Leonie K. Heilbronn, Lilian de Jonge, James P. DeLany, Julia Volaufova, Stephen D. Anton, Leanne M. Redman, Steven R. Smith, and Eric Ravussin, “Effect of Calorie Restriction on Resting Metabolic Rate and Spontaneous Physical Activity,” Obesity 15, no. 12 (2007): 2964–73. doi: 10.1038/oby.2007.354.
2.
Leanne M. Redman, Leonie K. Heilbronn, Corby K. Martin, Lilian de Jonge, Donald A. Williamson, James P. Delany, and Eric Ravussin, “Metabolic and Behavioral Compensations in Response to Caloric Restriction: Implications for the Maintenance of Weight Loss,” PLOS One 4, no. 2 (2009): e4377.
3.
Jillon S. Vander Wal, Alok Gupta, Pramod Khosla, and Nikhil V.
CHAPTER 3 HOW TO EAT RIGHT WITHOUT OBSESSING OVER EVERY CALORIE 1.
Jillon S. Vander Wal, Alok Gupta, Pramod Khosla, and Nikhil V. Dhurandhar, “Egg Breakfast Enhances Weight Loss,” International Journal of Obesity 32, no. 10 (2008): 1545–51. doi: 10.1038/ijo.2008.130.
2.
Jillon S. Vander Wal, Jorene M. Marth, Pramod Khosla, K-L Catherine Jen, and Nikhil Dhurandhar, “Short-Term Effect of Eggs on Satiety in Overweight and Obese Subjects,” Journal of the American College of Nutrition 24, no. 6 (2005): 510–15. doi: 10.1080/07315724.2005.10719497.
3.
Wendy A. M. Blom, Anne Lluch, Annette Stafleu, Sophie Vinoy, Jens J. Holst, Gertjan Schaafsma, and Henk F. J. Hendriks, “Effect of a High-Protein Breakfast on the Postprandial Ghrelin Response,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 83, no. 2 (2006): 211–20.
4.
David S. Weigle, Patricia A. Breen, Colleen C. Matthys, Holly S. Callahan, Kaatje E. Meeuws, Verna R. Burden, and Jonathan Q. Purnell, “A High-Protein Diet Induces Sustained Reductions in Appetite, Ad Libitum Caloric Intake, and Body Weight Despite Compensatory Changes in Diurnal Plasma Leptin and Ghrelin Concentrations,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 82, no. 1 (2005): 41–48.
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5.
Margriet S. Westerterp-Plantenga, “The Significance of Protein in Food Intake and Body Weight Regulation,” Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care 6, no. 6 (2003): 635–38.
6.
Laura C. Ortinau, Heather A. Hoertel, Steve M. Douglas, and Heather J. Leidy, “Effects of High-Protein vs. High-Fat Snacks on Appetite Control, Satiety, and Eating Initiation in Healthy Women,” Nutrition Journal 13 (2014): 97.
7.
Ying Rong, Li Chen, Tingting Zhu, Yadong Song, Miao Yu, Zhilei Shan, Amanda Sands, Frank B. Hu, and Liegang Liu, “Egg Consumption and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease and Stroke: Dose-Response Meta-Analysis of Prospective Cohort Studies,” BMJ (2013): 346. doi: 10.1136/bmj.e853; Christopher N. Blesso, Catherine J. Andersen, Jacqueline Barona, Jeff S. Volek, and Maria Luz Fernandez, “Whole Egg Consumption Improves Lipoprotein Profiles and Insulin Sensitivity to a Greater Extent Than YolkFree Egg Substitute in Individuals with Metabolic Syndrome,” Metabolism 62, no. 3 (2013): 400–10. doi: 10.1016/j.metabol.2012.08.014; Gisella Mutungi, David Waters, Joseph Ratliff, Michael Puglisi, Richard M. Clark, Jeff S. Volek, and Maria Luz Fernandez, “Eggs Distinctly Modulate Plasma Carotenoid and Lipoprotein Subclasses in Adult Men Following a Carbohydrate-Restricted Diet,” Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry 21, no. 4 (2010): 261–67. doi: 10.1016/j.jnutbio.2008.12.011.
8.
Peter C. Elwood, Janet E. Pickering, D. Ian Givens, and John E. Gallacher, “The Consumption of Milk and Dairy Foods and the Incidence of Vascular Disease and Diabetes: An Overview of the Evidence,” Lipids 45, no. 10 (2010): 925–39. doi: 10.1007/ s11745-010-3412-5; Zaldy S. Tan, William S. Harris, Alexa S. Beiser, Jayandra J. Himali, Stephanie Debette, Alexandra Pikula, Charles DeCarli, Philip A. Wolf, Ramachandran S. Vasan, Sander J. Robins, and Sudha Seshadri, “Red Blood Cell Omega-3 Fatty Acid Levels and Markers of Accelerated Brain Aging,” Neurology 78, no. 9 (2012): 658–64. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0b013e318249f6a9; Ying Bao, Jiali Han, Frank B. Hu, Edward L. Giovannucci, Meir J. Stampfer, Walter C. Willett, and Charles S. Fuchs, “Association of Nut Consumption with Total and Cause-Specific Mortality,” New England Journal of Medicine 369 (2013): 2001–11. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1307352; Satoko Yoneyama, Katsuyuki Miura, Satoshi Sasaki, Katsushi Yoshita, Yuko Morikawa, Masao Ishizaki, Teruhiko Kido, Yuchi Naruse, and Hideaki Nakagawa, “Dietary Intake of Fatty Acids and Serum C-reactive Protein in Japanese,” Journal of Epidemiology 17, no. 3 (2007): 86–92. doi: 10.2188/jea.17.86.
9.
Qibin Qi, Audrey Y. Chu, Jae H. Kang, Jinyan Huang, Lynda M. Rose, Majken K. Jensen, Liming Liang, Gary C. Curhan, Louis R. Pasquale, Janey L. Wiggs, Immaculata De Vivo, Andrew T. Chan, Hyon K. Choi, Rulla M. Tamimi, Paul M. Ridker, David J. Hunter, Walter C. Willett, Eric B. Rimm, Daniel I. Chasman, Frank B. Hu, and Lu Qi, “Fried Food Consumption, Genetic Risk, and Body Mass Index: Gene-Diet Interaction Analysis in Three US Cohort Studies,” BMJ (2014): 348. doi: 10.1136/ bmj.g1610; Federico Soriguer, Gemma Rojo-Martínez, M. Carmen Dobarganes, José M. García Almeida, Isabel Esteva, Manuela Beltrán, M. Soledad Ruiz De Adana, Francisco Tinahones, Juan M. Gómez-Zumaquero, Eduardo García-Fuentes, and Stella González-Romero, “Hypertension Is Related to the Degradation of Dietary Frying Oils,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 78, no. 6 (2003): 1092–97; Michael J. A. Williams, Wayne H. F. Sutherland, Maree P. McCormick, Sylvia A. de Jong, Robert J. Walker, and Gerard T. Wilkins, “Impaired Endothelial Function Following a Meal Rich in Used Cooking Fat,” Journal of the American College of Cardiology 33, no. 4 (1999): 1050–55. doi: 10.1016/S0735-1097(98)00681-0; Carlotta Galeone, Claudio Pelucchi, Renato Talamini, Fabio Levi, Cristina Bosetti, Eva Negri, Salvatore Franceschi, and Carlo La Vecchia, “Role of Fried Foods and Oral/Pharyngeal and Oesophageal Cancers,” British Journal of Cancer 92, no. 11 (2005): 2065–69. doi:10.1038/
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CHAPTER 4 HOW MUCH CARDIO SHOULD YOU DO, AND HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH? 1.
Lluís Mont, David Tamborero, Roberto Elosua, Irma Molina, Blanca Coll-Vinent, Marta Sitges, Bárbara Vidal, Andrea Scalise, Alejandro Tejeira, Antonio Berruezo, and Josep Brugada, “Physical Activity, Height, and Left Atrial Size Are Independent Risk Factors for Lone Atrial Fibrillation in Middle-Aged Healthy Individuals,” Europace 10, no. 1 (2008): 15–20. doi: 10.1093/europace/eum263; Jawdat Abdulla and Jens Rokkedal Nielsen, “Is the Risk of Atrial Fibrillation Higher in Athletes Than in the General Population? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” Europace 11, no. 9 (2009): 1156–59. doi: 10.1093/europace/eup197.
2.
Daniel Bos, M. Arfan Ikram, Suzette E. Elias-Smale, Gabriel P. Krestin, Albert Hofman, Jacqueline C. M. Witteman, Aad van der Lugt, and Meike W. Vernooij, “Calcification in Major Vessel Beds Relates to Vascular Brain Disease,” Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology 31, no. 10 (2011): 2331–37. doi: 10.1161/ATVBAHA.111.232728.
3.
Lorena Duca, Alessandro Da Ponte, Mariarita Cozzi, Annalisa Carbone, Maura Pomati, Isabella Nava, Maria Domenica Cappellini, and Gemino Fiorelli, “Changes in Erythropoiesis, Iron Metabolism and Oxidative Stress after Half-Marathon,” Internal and Emergency Medicine 1, no. 1 (2006): 30–34.
4.
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5.
Ralph S. Paffenbarger, Jr., Robert Hyde, Alvin L. Wing, and Chung-Cheng Hsieh, “Physical Activity, All-Cause Mortality, and Longevity of College Alumni,” New England Journal of Medicine 314, no. 10 (1986): 605–13. doi: 10.1056/ NEJM198603063141003.
6.
Brandon J. Sawyer, Dharini M. Bhammar, Siddhartha S. Angadi, Dana M. Ryan, Justin R. Ryder, Elizabeth J. Sussman, Farryl M. W. Bertmann, and Glenn A. Gaesser, “Predictors of Fat Mass Changes in Response to Aerobic Exercise Training in Women,” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 29, no. 2 (2015): 297–304. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000000726.
7.
Edward L. Melanson, Sarah Kozey Keadle, Joseph E. Donnelly, Barry Braun, and Neil A. King, “Resistance to Exercise-Induced Weight Loss: Compensatory Behavioral Adaptations,” Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 45, no. 8 (2013): 1600–09. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e31828ba942.
8.
Diana M. Thomas, Claude Bouchard, Timothy S. Church, Cris Slentz, William E. Kraus, Leanne M. Redman, Corby K. Martin, Analiza M. Silva, M. Vossen, Klaas Westerterp, and Steven B. Heymsfield, “Why Do Individuals Not Lose More Weight from an Exercise Intervention at a Defined Dose? An Energy Balance Analysis,” Obesity Reviews 13, no. 10 (2012): 835–47. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-789X.2012.01012.x.
9.
Ibid.
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23. Jacob M. Wilson, Pedro J. Marin, Matthew R. Rhea, Stephanie M. C. Wilson, Jeremy P. Loenneke, and Jody C. Anderson, “Concurrent Training: A Meta-Analysis Examining Interference of Aerobic and Resistance Exercises,” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 26, no. 8 (2012): 2293–307. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e31823a3e2d. 24. Vassilis Mougios, Menia Kazaki, Kosmas Christoulas, George Ziogas, and Anatoli Petridou, “Does the Intensity of an Exercise Programme Modulate Body Composition Changes?” International Journal of Sports Medicine 27, no. 3 (2006): 178–81. doi: 10.1055/s-2005-865625. 25. Wilson et al., “Concurrent Training,” 2293–307. 26. Michael L. Pollock, Glenn A. Gaesser, Janus D. Butcher, Jean-Pierre Després, Rod K. Dishman, Barry A. Franklin, and Carol Ewing Garber, “ACSM Position Stand: The Recommended Quantity and Quality of Exercise for Developing and Maintaining Cardiorespiratory and Muscular Fitness, and Flexibility in Healthy Adults,” Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 30, no. 6 (1998): 975–91.
CHAPTER 5 HOW I USE FASTED CARDIO TO LOSE FAT (AND STUBBORN FAT IN PARTICULAR) FASTER 1.
Denise M. Surina, Wolfgang Langhans, Ruth Pauli, and Caspar Wenk, “Meal Composition Affects Postprandial Fatty Acid Oxidation,” American Journal of Physiology — Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology 264, no. 6 (1993): R1065–70.
2.
Sarah M. Choi, David F. Tucker, Danielle N. Gross, Rachael M. Easton, Lisa M. DiPilato, Abigail S. Dean, Bob R. Monks, and Morris J. Birnbaum, “Insulin Regulates Adipocyte Lipolysis via an Akt-Independent Signaling Pathway,” Molecular and Cellular Biology 30, no. 21 (2010): 5009–20. doi: 10.1128/MCB.00797-10.
3.
Isabelle De Glisezinski, Isabelle Harant, François Crampes, François Trudeau, A. Felez, Jean-Marie Cottet-Émard, Michel Garrigues, and Daniel Riviere, “Effect of Carbohydrate Ingestion on Adipose Tissue Lipolysis during Long-Lasting Exercise in Trained Men,” Journal of Applied Physiology 84, no. 5 (1998): 1627–32; Gunvor Ahlborg and Philip Felig, “Influence of Glucose Ingestion on Fuel-Hormone Response during Prolonged Exercise,” Journal of Applied Physiology 41, no. 5 (1976): 683–88.
4.
Jeffrey F. Horowitz, Ricardo Mora-Rodriguez, Lauri O. Byerley, and Edward F. Coyle, “Lipolytic Suppression Following Carbohydrate Ingestion Limits Fat Oxidation during Exercise,” American Journal of Physiology 273 (4 part 1): E768–75. doi: 10.1097/00005768-199605001-00443.
5.
Riccardo C. Bonadonna, Leif C. Groop, Kathleen Zych, Myron Shank, and Ralph A. DeFronzo, “Dose-Dependent Effect of Insulin on Plasma Free Fatty Acid Turnover and Oxidation in Humans,” American Journal of Physiology — Endocrinology and Metabolism 259, no. 5 (1990): E736–50; Mark A. Febbraio, Alison Chiu, Damien J. Angus, Melissa J. Arkinstall, and John A. Hawley, “Effects of Carbohydrate Ingestion before and during Exercise on Glucose Kinetics and Performance,” Journal of Applied Physiology 89, no. 6 (2000): 2220–26; Ching-Lin Wu, Ceri Nicholas, Clyde Williams, Alison Took, and Lucy Hardy, “The Influence of High-Carbohydrate Meals with Different Glycaemic Indices on Substrate Utilisation during Subsequent Exercise,” British Journal of Nutrition 90, no. 6 (2003): 1049–56; Juul Achten and Asker E. Jeukendrup, “The Effect of Pre-Exercise Carbohydrate Feedings on the Intensity That Elicits Maximal Fat
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7.
Jeffrey F. Horowitz, Ricardo Mora-Rodriguez, Lauri O. Byerley, and Edward F. Coyle, “Substrate Metabolism When Subjects Are Fed Carbohydrate during Exercise,” American Journal of Physiology — Endocrinology and Metabolism 276, no. 5 (1999): E828–35.
8.
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9.
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CHAPTER 7 THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO HIGH-INTENSITY INTERVAL TRAINING 1.
L. Véronique Billat, “Interval Training for Performance: A Scientific and Empirical Practice. Special Recommendations for Middle- and Long-Distance Running. Part I: Aerobic Interval Training,” Sports Medicine 31, no. 1 (2001): 13–31.
2.
James A. King, Masashi Miyashita, Lucy K. Wasse, and David J. Stensel, “Influence of Prolonged Treadmill Running on Appetite, Energy Intake and Circulating Concentrations of Acylated Ghrelin,” Appetite 54, no. 3 (2010): 492–98; Daniel R. Crabtree, Edward S. Chambers, Robert M Hardwick, and Andrew K Blannin, “The Effects of
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Gergley, “Comparison of Two Lower-Body Modes of Endurance Training,” 979–87.
4.
Fiona H. Lindsay, John A. Hawley, Kathryn H. Myburgh, Helgo H. Schomer, Timothy D. Noakes, and Steven C. Dennis, “Improved Athletic Performance in Highly Trained Cyclists after Interval Training,” Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 28, no. 11 (1996): 1427–34; Adele Weston, Kathryn H. Myburgh, Fiona H. Lindsay, Steven C. Dennis, Timothy D. Noakes, and John A. Hawley, “Skeletal Muscle Buffering Capacity and Endurance Performance after High-Intensity Interval Training by Well-Trained Cyclists,” European Journal of Applied Physiology and Occupational Physiology 75, no. 1 (1997): 7–13. doi: 10.1007/s004210050119; Christopher Westgarth-Taylor, John A. Hawley, Scott Rickard, Kathryn H. Myburgh, Timothy D. Noakes, and Steven C. Dennis, “Metabolic and Performance Adaptations to Interval Training in Endurance-Trained Cyclists,” European Journal of Applied Physiology and Occupational Physiology 75, no. 4 (1997): 298–304.
5.
Nigel K. Stepto, John A. Hawley, Steven C. Dennis, and Will G. Hopkins, “Effects of Different Interval-Training Programs on Cycling Time-Trial Performance,” Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 31, no. 5 (1999): 736–41; Paul Laursen, Michelle A. Blanchard, and David G. Jenkins, “Acute High-Intensity Interval Training Improves Tvent and Peak Power Output in Highly Trained Males,” Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology 27, no. 4 (2002): 336–48.
6.
Billat, “Interval Training for Performance,” 13–31.
CHAPTER 10 HOW TO MASTER THE KETTLEBELL SWING 1.
Jason P. Lake and Mike A. Lauder, “Kettlebell Swing Training Improves Maximal and Explosive Strength,” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 26, no. 8 (2012): 2228–33. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e31825c2c9b.
2.
Brandon J. Sawyer, Dharini M. Bhammar
CHAPTER 15 FROM HERE, YOUR BODY WILL CHANGE 1.
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