Politically Incorrect Fat Loss Works
By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
www.TurbulenceTraining.com
You know who is your worst enemy in the fight against fat?
Well-meaning fitness professionals that don’t want to make you feel
bad for being lazy and eating crap. That’s who.
They write articles about how “diets are bad”, how you can lift
soup cans and get fitness model arms, and how you should exercise
in the nice and easy “fat burning zone” to get results. Basically,
they give you what want to hear – plenty of excuses for avoiding
hard exercise and strict nutrition (the real keys to fat loss).
But I don’t. You’ll get no such excuses from me.
Here’s the real deal on fat loss. You have to work hard in your
workouts and even harder on your nutrition if you want results. Or
you can take the politically-correct easy way out and have the same
body in 3, 6, and even 12 months from now.
Love me or hate me, I promise you results. Let’s take a look at why
the PC-solutions don’t work…
Q: I’ve been told to exercise in my “fat burning zone”. What’s the
best cardio method for weight los.
Answer:
Cardio is not the only solution.
Clearly it adds to the energy deficit and overall calorie balance
that favors fat loss.
BUT it’s not the “be all & end all” of fat loss success – and that
is anecdotally supported by the number of overweight distance
runners.
I almost never recommend long, slow cardio…simply because no one
I train or consult with has the time for this, and it doesn’t work
any better than shorter, less frequent, more intense interval
training sessions.
Five or six days of 45-minute cardio sessions in my fat-burning
zone? Yeah right, like anyone has time for that.
If I told you that you could get the same results (or better, as
recent research suggests) in three 20-minute interval sessions
each week as you could from three or five 45-minute slower cardio
sessions each week, which would you choose?
Yes, intervals feel about 10x’s harder than regular, slow, boring
cardio. And yes, you won’t be able to read your people magazine
when doing intervals. And you might breath a little heavy. So if
you’re worried about sweating, than maybe fat loss isn’t for you.
But if you don’t mind going against the crowd, intervals are worth
every second for the superior results.
Q: Should men and women train differently for fat loss?
Answer:
Nope. Next question.
Seriously, the answer is no, but just to add to that, men and women
don’t have that many differences when it comes to fat loss, so they
both do well with the Turbulence Training style workouts.
Now here’s one reason why TT may actually work better for women
than men…
More women tend to start Turbulence Training after having spent
months or years using slow cardio and light (if any) weights. And
selfishly, I could not be any happier – because when these
dedicated women start using the shorter, more intense strength and
interval sessions they make rapid progress and make me look like a
genius.
The accolades come pouring in…I have dozens of testimonials from
women thanking me for saving them TIME while helping them finally
breakthrough stubborn fat loss plateaus (and eliminating the pain
from their overuse injuries that occurred due to high volumes of
cardio). Their words make me feel like a million bucks because the
TT workouts are making these women feel like a million bucks.
That being said, I sometimes make small changes in TT workouts to
adapt to a woman’s pre-conceived notions about strength training.
Some women are very hesitant to lift weights. But you and I know
that is necessary for bodysculpting, fat loss, and health benefits
such as building bones.
So what I do is sub a few (not all!) of the weight exercises out
and replace them with equal intensity bodyweight exercises. Some
bodyweight exercises can be classified as traditional strength
exercises (i.e. for a woman that can only do 5 full pushups, the pushup
exercise is almost a max strength exercise). But women “mentally” deal
with this type of strength training better than putting a dumbbell in
their hands.
On the other hand, some bodyweight exercises provide more of an
interval training effect (i.e. bodyweight squats). Either way,
bodyweight exercises can put turbulence (i.e. “stress”) on the
muscle and boost metabolism and help female clients get the results
they want and deserve.
Q: What differentiates Turbulence Training from other programs?
Answer:
That’s a tough question to answer, as there are other systems out
there that give impressive results in an acceptable time frame.
I will say this however, I am extremely dedicated to Turbulence
Training and the entire “fat loss” cause.
One of the factors behind my dedication is that I find the general
concept of fat loss to be so simple, and yet millions and millions
of people around the world have an incredibly difficult time
achieving their goals.
I want to give them every possible resource available to them to
help them succeed.
So I am constantly tinkering with new workouts, exercises, and
interval methods, and interviewing other trainers and nutritional
experts for every single little fat burning advantage I can find.
And that comes through in what I offer to the readers of my
newsletters and clients that use my programs.
I said in a past newsletter that “Fat loss is easy, once you
realize how hard it is.” You have to respect that it’s not
something you put on “auto-pilot”. Taking the stairs at work
instead of the elevator, parking 100 extra feet away from the door,
and subbing 1% milk for 2% milk is not going to help you lose 13
pounds of fat in a year like the politically correct articles
suggest.
You need a politically-incorrect plan to eat right 90% of the time
(i.e. saying “no” when an office-mate brings in doughnuts) and you
have to have the best workout plan available to you if you want to
get the most results in the least amount of time.
And then you still have to have a plan to help you stick to those
plans – and that should involve a social support group. There are
many tricks and tips to success, so you always have to keep
learning and trying to improve. And that’s what I help with in my
programs and newsletters.
About the Author
Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist
and writes for Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and
Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training
fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness
and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and
women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than
45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence
Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio
sessions or fancy equipment, visit www.TurbulenceTraining.com
