I’m not a personal trainer. I’m not a nutritionist…In fact, I’m a nobody. I’m a guy who works for a living, who has a job, a family, and who doesn’t have time to waste in the gym running on treadmills for 3 hours everyday. I don’t have a personal chef and a nutritionist at my beckon call. And weight loss has never come easy for me.
What I am is a guy who has struggled losing his belly fat, struggled trying to get rid of that extra weight, that quite frankly, makes me feel unhealthy and unattractive. When I was younger, I took pride in the fact that I was athletic and fit…and at the age of 40 I decided I wanted to get that feeling back. I was determined to lose the weight I had gained around the middle…On me, that’s where it all collected. But, believe me, this is was not an easy task….
Why Belly Fat Is The Most Stubborn of All Fat
Crunches, sit ups, and other ineffective workouts, just don’t get the job done when it comes to getting rid of belly fat. Abdominal fat, sticks to the body like it’s holding on for dear life. That’s because, in a way, it is. Our bodies are programmed to hold on to our fat, to protect us through times of famine…yes, it’s old outdated programming, but it is biologically what your body will do to “save” you.
It’s not natural for us to have six pack abs. That’s why we have to do a little bit of trickery, in order to reach low levels of body fat…And, that’s really what you’re after, low levels of body fat. For me, I had over 30% body fat…Yep, a full third of my weight was unsightly fat. Now, I hang around 12-15% most of the time.
But, let’s take a look at what it takes to get the six pack.
• Women body builders have less than 10% body fat.
• Male body builders have between 5-10%
• A male running back might have 10-15%
• A female sprinter, might have in the area of 12-18% body fat
• A male cyclists would be around 5-12%
• A female cyclist would be around 15-20%
Other than low body fat percentages, what do these people have in common….Great abs. You will find that these athletes are toned and fit. But, I can gaurantee you that the last thing on their mind when they train is how their abs look. They train for performance, yet still have great abs. This is due to the fact that they have low body fat…The moral of the story focus your goals on reducing your body fat, if you want great abs.
But I don’t want a six pack
Maybe you don’t want a six pack. Maybe you just want to shrink that belly a bit a fit into your jeans a little better. The approach is still the same, it’s just the intensity and the duration of your efforts you need to adjust…For the guy who wants those abdominal muscles to really pop out when he’s at the beach, he’ll have to be a little bit more careful with his diet and exercise program. For the person who wants to shed some inches from their midsection, but doesn’t plan on doing a a swimsuit commercial, you won’t have to work as hard and you can cheat on your diet a bit more, or not be so perfect with your exercise routine. It all comes down to a matter of what you want to achieve. Because quite frankly, even a middle aged mostly sedentary individual like myself can turn it around and get six pack abs.
Do you have to spend hours in the gym to get rid of your belly fat?
I used to think endless hours in the gym were required to get fit. That’s just a myth…And this myth is perpetuated by shows like The Biggest Loser…These people on that show workout for hours everyday, some days they spend up to six hours training. Add to that, they have chefs who prepare their food exactly to their requirements.
You and I don’t have that time or those resources available to us, if you follow this Biggest Loser Model of weight loss, you will fail… You will fail because like me, you gotta go to work. You gotta see your family. You gotta take care of your responsibilities. Time is not on your side.
With enough time to do long workouts and to count calories, shop for food, and prepare endless meals – most of which you hate to eat anyway – takes a lot of time…More than must of us have. That’s why it’s so hard to lose weight the “traditional” way.
I know, because I tried and I failed on numerous occasion. In fact, I worked damn hard at trying to lose my weight, and I was getting burned out in the process. My work was suffering, my family wondered why I was at the gym instead of at home having dinner with them…The worst part was, I was hardly losing any weight despite my herculean efforts.
I still had a mountain of stubborn belly fat despite doing all the right things. I have to tell you, I was completely frustrated. In fact, I gave up…And, of course, I put on more weight. Then, six months later, I tried again….But this time, things were different…Here’s why.
Two Simple Discoveries And The Belly Fat Started Melting Off
Here’s what I decided. I knew I couldn’t force fit a weight loss plan into my life. It had to work with me, on my not-so-flexible schedule. I had to be able to at least occasionally eat foods that I like, because I’m not giving up on the enjoyment of food, and I couldn’t spend hours each day counting calories, finding foods that matched, and preparing meals. So, it had to be easy to follow.
I came across a concept that’s called cyclical dieting, or also know as shifting calories. Simply put, some days I ate more, some days I ate less. I started seeing results within the first week, and it was easy to follow. But, a little tweak to the diet and my results really exploded. I noticed that if I shifted my carbs, some days eating low carb, some days eating higher carbs, I got even better results.
The reason this works so well is that it fools your body into burning fat by confusing your metabolism and taking advantage of some very specific fat burning hormones. The results were great and I found this new approach so easy to follow. I got to satisfy some of my cravings while I lost weight. On my higher calorie days, I could have some foods I love, like pizza. Yep, I was actually losing weight eating pizza…Now, don’t get me wrong, I didn’t eat it everyday. But I did get to indulge every week.
Generally, though, my diet was pretty good. In fact, if I could give you a few of the most effective weight loss tips, it would be this:
- Eat 4-6 meals a day
- Try to incorporate a lower carb approach (you still need to eat carbs, just moderate your amount)
- Stay away from high glycemic index foods
- Avoid sugars and hidden sugars like high fructose corn syrup
- Add vegetables or fruit to every meal
- Limit white flour
Pretty soon, people started noticing. I even had a few people at work ask me about the diet…In fact, one of the girls at work jumped at the chance to do the diet. I don’t know exactly how much she lost, but in a few weeks she was complaining about having to buy newer, smaller clothes…Don’t think she really minded much especially since she was getting a lot more attention from the UPS driver.
How To Exercise To Burn Fat
So, at this point, I was so happy with the way things were going, but I still wanted to see better results. Well, the same girl in my office, the one who joined me on the diet, she told me about an exercise program she was doing that was really helping her get lean.
So, I went I decided I would try the same approach. It’s really quite simple. The idea is to do short intense workouts that involve your whole body. Three to four days a week is all you really need, but the key is, you have to challenge yourself. You can’t just work your arm muscles and think you’re going to get a benefit. To maximize fat loss, you want as many possible muscles involved in the exercise.
Within a few weeks following this approach, you could see a huge transformation in my body. I dropped another few pounds, but I was also getting a lean muscular look. My love handles were shrinking, and I could see my abdominal muscles starting to show.
And, the best thing was, I wasn’t wasting hours at the gym. I didn’t need to get on a treadmill and go for as long as I could take it. I simply went to the gym and worked out three times a week, each time was less than an hour.
So, that’s how I lost over 20% of my body weight, almost all fat I might add. I’m confident that you’ll see results following this kind of plan. You’ll find a whole lot more information at this site that will help you reach your goals and some diet program and workout program recommendations that will help you put it all together.
Wishing you the best in your quest for your best body.
Wayne Lance
