Lose Body Fat

The Truth About Stubborn Body Fat - Pt. 2
by Tom Venuto

Spot Reduction STILL Doesn't Work

You might have the desire to remove the fat on these concentrated, localized fatty spots first, but unfortunately, that’s not how human physiology works. In fitness lingo, we call this “spot reduction.”

It’s the idea that you can do certain exercises, rub cream on one part of your body, or take a certain drug, and it will melt the fat off one part of your body and one part only. The idea is wrong - spot reduction is physiologically impossible.

Not only do most people believe in stubborn fat, they also believe in spot reduction. Unethical marketers, without a shred of integrity, have taken advantage of this fact for years by selling worthless gimmicks which claim to remove fat from a specific area.

Every year, promotional articles and advertisements come out claiming that a breakthrough has been made and spot reduction is “now possible.” The infamous “cellulite cream” is one spot reduction scam that never seems to go away – it keeps popping up with a new name wearing different clothes.

Other spot reduction scams include abdominal machines, ab rollers, ab wheels, electronic stimulators, pills, soaps, wraps, girdles, and so on – all of which claim to remove fat from the stomach, thighs or other specific areas first. Some of the exercise machines are effective at developing the muscles underneath the fat, so they aren’t totally worthless, but the claims of local fat loss are where they fail.

No matter how many times we fitness professionals give this speech: “Spot reduction doesn’t work – it’s a myth,” the public still wants to believe so desperately that it IS possible, that they keep plunking down their hard-earned cashola, scam after scam after scam, hoping that science has finally produced the real McCoy.

I’ve read the ads for these new topical fat burners and they can be EXTREMELY persuasive. They quote scientific studies and get testimonials from big names, some of whom you would assume are very trustworthy. But ethics often melt quickly in the rays of big money endorsements.

Let me save you a lot of time, money and frustration: “Spot reducing” products are not effective for permanent fat loss and never will be. Do not waste your money! Even if some brilliant biochemist invents a legitimate transdermal gel or cream that really does mobilize body fat from storage, you would only be treating a symptom (fat) and not the cause (inactivity and poor nutrition). Keeping the fat off for life still boils down to burning more calories than you consume and changing your lifestyle.

The good news is that if you learn the physiology of fat loss –which is really quite simple – and if you work with your body naturally, you can lose ANY fat. All you need is a little bit of patience, persistence, some strategy and good old-fashioned hard work.

The Truth About "Stubborn" Fat

For example, if a you’re a guy with a total daily energy expenditure of 2800 per day and you stay on 1500 calories per day for 90 days (starvation diet), then according to the mathematical calories in versus calories out calculations, you’ve accumulated a 117,000-calorie deficit. With 3500 calories in a pound of fat, that means you should have lost 33.4 pounds of fat. But you didn’t!! You lost maybe 19 pounds and then got stuck at a plateau with that last bit of lower ab flab still defiantly clinging to your waistline. Why? Because you’re no longer BURNING 2800 calories per day!!! Your metabolic fire has dwindled to a weak flicker. There is no longer a 1300 calorie per day deficit.

In other words, you hit a plateau – metabolically and hormonally. Your fat-burning hormones and enzymes have decreased. Your metabolic rate is depressed. You’ve lost lean mass, which has slowed your metabolism even further (and permanently so until you put that muscle back on through weight training and eating like a human being instead of a mouse). Last, but certainly not least, your appetite has gone haywire and you seem to get constant cravings that are practically irresistible.

If you had not slowed down your metabolism and created an unfavorable hormonal environment due to improper dieting and lack of exercise, you would not be stuck and that last bit of fat would just continue to come right off just like the rest of it did – it would be the very LAST place to come off, but it WOULD come right off.

Your solution for losing the last bit of localized fat is to avoid metabolic slowdown in the first place and then to patiently and persistently follow through until you’re as lean as you want to be. In part two, I’ll reveal the all natural Venuto methods for losing even the very last bit of localized fat – even if you’ve tried everything and have never been able to lose it before. Stay tuned. (In the meantime, you can get more information on my complete natural fat burning system here: www.burnthefat.com)

SIX FLAB BUSTING STRATEGIES THAT NO FAT CELLS CAN RESIST

There are six strategies you must use to lose every bit of flab - the natural way - without plateaus, metabolic slowdown or lingering fat pockets:

(1) LOSE FAT SLOWLY

Here’s where most of the problems begin: Most people have no patience. How many times have you been told to lose no more than two pounds per week? How many times have you ignored that advice? All the time, right? The American College of Sports Medicine told you this, your trainer told you this, your dietician told you this, your doctor told you this, etc. Almost everyone agrees: 2.0 pounds per week is usually the maximum rate for safe, permanent weight (fat) loss. But few people want to listen – they’re ecstatic when the scale registers a 5 or 7 pound weekly loss.

I advise my clients to lose 1-2 lbs per week. Naturally, most go for the two pounds (and often ask if three is okay). Personally, I go for one pound per week before competitions. If I lose more than one pound per week, I eat more. Losing too much weight too quickly always causes muscle loss, which in turn causes metabolic slowdown.

Don’t ever confuse weight loss with fat loss. You can lose weight quickly, but you can’t lose fat quickly. If you think you can outwit Mother Nature and you’re dead set on losing 4, 5, 10 pounds a week, you’re going to lose fat in the beginning, but not all of it – you will plateau before the last “fat pockets” are gone. Set your goal to lose one or two pounds per week, but also set your goal to lose this fat weight consistently every week. When there aren‘t any plateaus, the steady losses really add up over time.

2) REFEED REGULARLY– DON’T STAY ON LOW CALORIES ALL THE TIME

I guarantee you are going to hear a lot more about the refeeding concept in the near future. It’s not it’s not a new idea, however. Fred “Dr. Squat” Hatfield was writing about this in the late 1980’s! He called it “Zig Zag” Dieting.

“Carbing up”, “Cyclical Dieting,” “zig-zag” dieting, “re-feeding”, call it whatever you want, but to me, it’s so obvious that increasing calories for a short periods while you’re dieting is the best way to avoid metabolic downgrade, that I can’t see how anyone would dispute it. But of course, die hard academics often demand concrete undisputable scientific evidence before anything is deemed true.

I would suggest you don’t wait for such “evidence” and you begin using this technique immediately! You don’t need to know the science behind it any more than you need to know how electricity works to light up your room – you just flip the switch. All you need is to understand this basic principle:

If staying on very low calories for a long time is what causes your metabolism to slow down… and if the metabolic slowdown is the reason you have a difficult time losing that last bit of “stubborn” localized fat, then it’s only logical that the way to lose the “stubborn fat” is to avoid metabolic slowdown by not staying on low calories all the time!

The re-feeding concept can all be boiled down to this simple advice; raise your calories every few days instead of staying on low calories all the time. This is the method smart bodybuilders use to diet all the way down to low single digit body fat and lose the last fat pocket without hitting a single plateau.

3) DIET IN “CYCLES” OR “SEASONS” USING “NUTRITIONAL PERIODIZATION” - CHRONIC DIETING IS DANGEROUS

In sports training, a big buzzword is “periodization.” This refers to a cyclical approach to training, so the athlete peaks at his or her best performance level on the day of an event, or maintains optimal performance for the duration of a season.

In periodization training, there is an off-season and an in-season. Training continues year-round, but the programs are quite different during these two cycles. The long major cycles are called macrocycles. Smaller weekly and monthly cycles within the larger cycles are called mesocycles. There are even tiny day-to-day variations in sets, reps, poundage, intensity, duration and tempo called microcycles.

Nutrition can be periodized too, and this is another topic I predict will become very hot in the near future. Re-feeds are like nutritional mesocycles while the annual seasons are like nutritional macrocycles.

I’ve always claimed that the bodybuilder’s method to fat loss is the superior one, and isn’t cyclical dieting exactly what bodybuilders do? Don’t they diet strictly in a deficit for a period of months, then train for muscle growth for a period of months? Doesn’t a really astute “physique artist” cycle the calorie levels throughout the year? Of course. That’s why bodybuilders who use this strategy are the supreme examples of effective permanent fat loss.

Bulk too long, you gain too much fat and get completely out of fat burning mode. Diet too long, you lose muscle and downgrade metabolism. Cycle the two every year in a seasonal fashion, whether you compete or not, and you have the perfect balance.

Three time Mr. Olympia Frank Zane continued to diet once a year after he retired, exactly as if he were still going to compete. As a personal challenge to himself, each year he continued to attempt to beat his previous best – or at least strive to be the best he could be at any given time of his life. Smart guy. And now in his 60’s, he has a body that would make men half his age green with envy.

Cycle your nutrition and your training. Diet strictly at times and relax your diet at times. Train with everything you’ve got at times, and train to maintain at other times. Don’t listen to “experts” who constantly warn of overtraining and say things like “daily cardio is catabolic and unnecessary.” Daily cardio, as part of a short term fat loss cycle, supported with the proper nutrition and weight training, is the best way in the world to lose body fat. Of course you can do cardio daily! What you can’t do is continue with a high volume of daily training all year round.

There’s no such thing as a “double winter,” so why put your body through severe dieting “weather” two seasons in a row? Diet strictly for a while, then slowly ease back for a while... eat more… relax… then go back at it even harder, pushing this time for an even higher peak. Be like the athlete trying to beat last year’s record. And continue with this approach for the rest of your life.

4) DEVELOP A LONG TERM TIME PERSPECTIVE AND SET LONG TERM GOALS

If you have a lot of fat to lose and you want to lose it permanently, you need to set up some long-term goals for your nutritional “seasons.” Otherwise, your body is going to fight back.

I know dozens of people who did phenomenally well on before and after “transformation programs,” only to quickly gain back all of the fat they lost. Do YOU want to diet for 12 weeks, look great for a week or two then slip right back where you started from, or do you want to get lean and stay lean?

Here’s the reason so many people gain weight back: They only had a 12-week goal... Short-term time perspective... No long-term goals... Failure to develop goal setting as a lifelong continuous discipline... Failure to develop nutritional and training disciplines as habits… All fatal errors.

Every season or "nutritional macrocycle", you must strive to improve on your previous best by setting new goals. Goal setting is not an event; it’s a never-ending process. Isn’t this what any world-class athlete does? Doesn’t the Olympian strive to beat his record at the last Olympics? Run faster, throw farther, jump higher? Doesn’t that require a very long-term time perspective? Can’t you apply this concept in your own training – even if its just for health, fitness and recreation? Wouldn’t this keep you motivated for years at a time instead of just doing ONE “12 week program” and then slipping backwards to square one? Couldn’t this mindset for constant and never ending improvement in a seasonal fashion keep you motivated for LIFE? Of course.

5) RE-SET YOUR SET POINT (AKA, TURN DOWN YOUR “FAT THERMOSTAT”)

One day, I finally got wise and I decided to set a LONG TERM GOAL to get better every year and MAINTAIN a lower off-season body fat every year. First 14%, then 12%, then 10%, and finally, today, I don’t allow myself over 9.9% at any time. I refuse to go to double digits and I'll tighten up my diet or add cardio the second I notice myself slip.

In contest season, I decided that 6-7% wasn’t lean enough, and I strived to beat that, which I did, hitting 6%, 5%, 4% and eventually as low as 3.4%.

Basically, I raised my standards of what was body fat level was acceptable to me during the off season and for competitions. I vowed to improve both.

I disciplined myself and stopped "bulking up." After I made this commitment, then each year it got easier to lose the fat because I wasn’t putting myself under prolonged periods of dieting stress to get there; I was already close, and starting closer every year because what I had done - unbeknownst to me at the time - was re-set my set point.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the “set point” theory before. This is the genetically pre- determined level towards which your body fat tends to naturally gravitate. The good news is, you can lower your set point through nutritional discipline, increasing your lean body mass, dieting in seasons/cycles, setting long term goals, and raising your standards in terms of how much body fat you are willing to carry.

A lowered set point won’t happen over night. It doesn’t happen by the day or week, it happens by the month and year, and is achieved by setting higher standards for how lean you’re willing to stay for prolonged periods of time.

6) WATCH YOUR INTERNAL DIALOGUE: YOU BECOME YOUR “I AM’S”

If you want to lose body fat, then why would you walk around all day long saying over and over again, “I cant, I cant, I cant, I can’t lose this stubborn fat?” Why say, “I’m fat?” Why affirm the negative? Why would you do that to yourself? Over and over the tape plays in your head… programming your subconscious… building your belief systems… forging your paradigms… directing your behavior… creating your own reality.

Why not visualize your ideal and affirm the positive?: “I am getting leaner and leaner every day!” Do not dwell on your present condition. Dwell on your future vision. Refuse to use the term “stubborn fat” again. Never say, “I can’t lose this fat.” Do not look at localized fat as any different than other fat on your body. Understand that it was the first place on, and will be the last place to come off – but it WILL come off – IF you do it the right way.

CONCLUSION

Usually articles on “stubborn fat” discuss “breakthroughs” in transdermal delivery systems, adrenergic agonists, alpha-2 receptors and lots of other scientific stuff. I’ve read papers on this subject that were so scientific, you'd need a medical dictionary to translate them. The so-called experts list dozens of references and write overly technical articles for an audience they know damn well has only a seventh grade reading level and couldn’t give a whiff about anything except seeing their abs. However, they do it anyways to make themselves look like almighty, all-knowing “gurus” and to sell worthless products. The reality is, these really aren’t even articles – they're advertisements for “spot reducing” gimmicks

Listen; there is nothing complicated or overly scientific about the process of fat loss – even the last 10-15 pounds. Sure, there are proven products such as (the now-banned) thermogenic ephedrine-caffeine supplements, but they don't work miracles, nor are they spot reducers. There’s no such thing as spot reduction. There’s no such thing as stubborn fat – it only appears that way for lack of understanding about the way the human body and mind work.

To lose fat steadily without plateaus - right down to the very last fat cell - all you have to do is work with your body’s inherent nature, not against it. It may not be easy, but it’s simple and 100% predictable. Embrace the challenge, expect success, use what you've just learned, and in the long run, you’ll agree that the rewards were worth the effort.

To get more information about my complete fat burning system, visit my new fat loss website here: www.burnthefat.com

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Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, freelance writer, success coach and author of the #1 best-selling e-book "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle" (BFFM): Fat Burning Secrets of the World's Best Bodybuilders and Fitness Models. Tom has written over 170 articles and has been featured in IRONMAN Magazine, Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development, Muscle-Zine, Olympian’s News (in Italian), Exercise for Men and Men’s Exercise. Tom's inspiring and informative articles on bodybuilding, weight loss and motivation are featured regularly on dozens of websites worldwide. For information on Tom's "Burn The Fat" e-book, click here: www.burnthefat.com. To subscribe to Tom's free monthly e-zine, visit the Fitness Renaissance website here: www.fitren.com/subscribe.cfm

 

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