From Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
Fat
Loss Coach,
Certified Personal Trainer,
Certified Strength & Conditioning
Specialist.
QUESTION:
Tom: I need to
drop some pounds, but I really hate exercise. Will a program like your
BURN
THE FAT, FEED THE MUSCLE be suitable for me? I've been reading a
lot
of your articles and I admire your honesty, so please tell me the truth.
Mike R.,
Rhode Island,
USA
ANSWER:
The truth? In a word, the
short answer would be "no", the BURN THE FAT
program would not be
suitable
if you "really hate exercise." I don't sugar coat or modify my
recommendations to what people want to hear. My mission is
to teach
people what they need to hear... and what people need to hear is that
exercise is the answer, not "diets."
However, let me qualify that
answer and explain why BURN THE FAT,
FEED THE MUSCLE would be a good
choice for you anyway, and why exercise is superior to diet for
permanent fat loss.
The entire premise behind BURN THE FAT,
FEED THE
MUSCLE is that conventional diets don't work because your body is
an
adaptive mechanism that simply decreases
metabolism and energy
expenditure as a response to eating less, and that it's
more
physiologically and hormonally correct to eat more and BURN THE FAT
than
it is to eat less and starve the fat.
There's only ONE WAY to lose fat
- and that is to create a calorie deficit. However, there are two ways
to create a calorie deficit - one is to decrease your food intake so
you
are eating less than you burn, the other is to increase your exercise
and activity so you are burning more than you eat. Of the two ways to
create a calorie deficit, burning the fat is far superior to starving
it. You see, cutting calories too much causes weight loss at first,
but
it also causes muscle loss and it eventually leads to a decrease in
metabolism, so the fat loss stops.
This is very common on
conventional diets, right? You take off pounds in the beginning, but
then you hit a plateau that you just can't break through. Even
diets that
have been proven effective over 6 months or 12 months, have dismal
track
records after one year. Eating more of the right foods (up to a
certain point) actually increases your metabolic "heat" like putting
wood on a fire. Food is energy; food is fuel, and it produces
(metabolic) heat. Exercise burns calories and creates a calorie
deficit, but the real advantage of exercise over diet is that exercise
increases your metabolism, dieting slows it down.
So if you eat more
(healthy foods) and exercise more, you get a double increase in
metabolism. If you eat less and exercise less you get a double decrease
in
metabolism. Does this make sense?
I have been preaching this concept
for years, "Burn The Fat, Don't Starve the Fat." Or, stated
differently,
"eat more, exercise more." Some people criticized me and said it was
overtraining.
Other people said
it's better to just use diet and not
bother with the exercise. And of course, the marketing mavens just kept
cranking out the same old B.S. - get muscles
in minutes, get leaner with
less, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Well now it's 2006 and we have some research
and some PhD exercises scientists starting to talk about this concept
called, "energy flux."
Energy flux is simply consuming more energy and
burning more energy in order to stoke metabolism and improve body
composition. Different name, same concept: eat more, exercise more.
I told you so. So, if you hate exercise, you have a conundrum.
You
can certainly lose body fat with diet alone, as long as you have a
calorie
deficit, but stacking the odds against you because ultimately,
restrictive low calorie diets always cause metabolic slowdown. No
matter
how hard you try, you'll almost always hit a plateau before you reach
your long term goal and you're likely to gain it all back!
My
solution to your conundrum:
I'd suggest you re-examine your definition
of "exercise." Fitness means different things to different people.
Sitting on a bicycle in a health club might not be your
cup of tea, but
if you think hard enough, I'm sure that you can come up with some type
of physical activity that burns calories which you can enjoy.
The
IDEAL exercise program for fat loss has a combination of cardiovascular
(aerobic) training and strength training. But ultimately, you're not
likely to stick with exercise long term unless you choose activities
you
enjoy - so pick something you enjoy, even if it doesn't follow the
guidelines of "traditional" fat loss programs. It's better to do
something than nothing, and all exercise counts.
All physical
activity has health benefits too, and while it takes some
effort to reach
the level of exercise necessary to transform your body shape,
it doesn't
take much exercise at all to get health benefits, and that is a proven
fact. Like I said, any exercise is better than no exercise.
Some people
may have orthopedic problems which limit the type of exercise they can
do. But nearly everyone can walk. So if you can walk, then walk.
Almost everyone can do some type of strength training. Instead of
focusing
on what you can't do or what you don't like to do, direct your
attention
to what you CAN do and what you would like to do.
Maybe you don't
like being couped up inside all the time. Maybe you'd prefer hiking or
jogging outside. Or maybe boxing or martial arts sounds fun to you.
Maybe you like basketball or tennis. Maybe you'd enjoy classes, or yoga
or
pilates. Your options are nearly unlimited, but you have to do
something
or
your body will continue to deteriorate. The human body does not
stay the same or "maintain" when you don't move it
and utilize energy.
The body falls apart from disuse. Anti aging researchers today are even
admitting that genetics is only responsible for 30% of the effects of
aging and that aging would be better described as the "disuse
syndrome."
Yup... Use it or lose it. The biggest factor that causes people to go
downhill as they get older is the loss of muscle that occurs over time
from inactivity, a process called "sarcopenia." However, that muscle
loss is 100% preventable with strength training. Human beings were
meant to move. Bodies don't lose their function by being used too much
and "wearing out", they lose their function by not being used enough
and
"rusting out."
So if the POSITIVE benefits of exercise don't motivate
you enough, then just picture yourself 10, 20 years from now and
imagine
what will NEGATIVE things will happen to you if you DON'T start
exercising now. That's called "dual-direction motivational propulsion"!
One last tip: Be careful what you say to yourself over and over because
that tends to program your subconscious mind and create your self
image.
If you've been repeating to yourself for years, "I hate exercise" or
"I'm not an exercise person", that eventually becomes a part of your
identity.
You always tend to behave in alignment with your identity and
your self image in order to stay "true to yourself."
If you've never
exercised consistently before, then HOW DO YOU KNOW you're not an
exercise person? Did you "try" once briefly and quit? Maybe you'll like
it.
It's often hard in the beginning and sometimes doesn't feel so good -
especially if you haven't worked out in years or you've let yourself
slip physically. But it gets easier and starts feeling better the more
you do it.
Maybe when you look in the mirror after just a few weeks of
it and see your body start to change, you'll begin to like it a LOT. It
can get addictive, you know. The endorphins that are released when you
exercise are like opiates. Ever hear of "runners HIGH?" Exercise can be
fun and FEEL GOOD.
BURN
THE FAT, FEED THE MUSCLE lays it all out for
you and will help you get started. The exercise recommendations are
explained in detail in chapters 16 and 17, including sample workouts.
But even if you don't use my exercise programs and you use your own,
you'll find value in the e-book because of the nutrition information.
BURN
THE FAT is sipmly the most detailed, "one-stop" guide to fat
burning
nutrition you'll ever find.
That's why so many people call it "the fat
loss bible."
Search the net for yourself and see what other people are
saying. Or just go straight to my site at (click
here) to
get the details and read
some of the hundreds of success stories.
Train hard and expect success all-ways,
Tom
Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
Fat
Loss Coach
Certified Personal Trainer
Certified Strength & Conditioning
Specialist
