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Loading...Controversial Fat Loss Theory, Program Customization, & Exercise Selection Explained
You’ll often hear conflicting views on fat loss. Some people will claim that the only way to lose fat is to build muscle and affect your muscle to fat ratio (muscle:fat); others will insist that it’s a matter of alternating intensities and high repetition-based exercise.
I’d like to put this fire out, once and for all, and then talk about the newest discovery I’ve seen in fat loss: Fat Loss Metamorphosis
The easiest way to understand if you should concentrate on building muscle or doing high rep-based exercises is to ask yourself the following question:
“Am I a ‘skinny-fat person’ or am I just overweight?”
If you are thin, but you have high body fat percentage, it’s a solid bet that you’ll need to build muscle to see a demonstrable fat loss result. You’ve probably tried dieting, eaten less calories, and done tons of cardio. Unfortunately, your metabolism has fallen as your body fat percentage has stayed about the same while your muscle dwindled away.
In order to lose fat, you’ll need to first prioritize your metabolism. Build muscle to lose fat, and watch it melt much faster.
Example two: You are just plain overweight. In this case, your body is well-adapted to carrying the extra weight, you’re fairly strong already, but your body hasn’t adapted well to fast-paced movements and repetition. This is where interval-based training comes in really handy.
On the topic of interval-based training, please don’t limit yourself to training only on a cardio machine or on a walk/run outside when interval training. Instead, consider following this specific sequence of exercises, alternating high and low intensity with each one and then changing the order:
- Squat
- Push
- Lunge/Bridge
- Pull
- Plank
On Day #2, for example, this would become:
- Push
- Lunge/Bridge
- Pull
- Plank
- Squat
Thus, you’d always be alternating the high intensity muscle groups with each workout.
For a great example of a Giant Set that follows this format, please check out the first video that comes up on this page:
Fat Loss Rehab Videos
You’ll notice that we need to adjust the intensity with each exercise in order to sustain energy output. The key is to go slower on your low intervals, drop the weight dramatically, but keep moving. You’re not trying to reduce your heart rate, necessarily, but you are trying to reduce your respiratory rate as much as possible.
Think about recovering your breath on every other exercise, and then sprinting. By pushing hard and then going easy, you’re naturally building an interval-based workout program, but your exercises are much more dynamic and practical.
Enter Fat Loss Metamorphosis…
Fat Loss Metamorphosis is a specific-training process I’ve been experimenting with, through which you purposely periodize your program to change your point of emphasis and ‘shock’ your body even further. Allow me to explain…
Instead of saying, “Well, I guess I’m a skinny fat person, so I have to do muscle building exercises to lose fat,” you’d say something like this:
“Since I’m skinny-fat, I’m going to trick my body into thinking it’s building muscle, and then shave fat off every time I sense growth.”
In the second example, your program becomes periodized around intensity-alternation based fat loss, with intervals. However, in order to get to this point, you undergo a short period of intensive muscle building, followed by alternating workouts.
Let’s chart this out:
- Name: Jenny
- Age: 32 years
- Gender: Female
- Weight: 125 pounds
- Height: 5′ 5″
- Bodyfat %: 32%
Obviously, we’ve got a problem. The only way to raise Jenny’s metabolism is by building a bit more muscle. However, we’re only going to prioritize ‘muscle building’ for the first 6 weeks, instead of 16. Here’s how we can periodize Jenny’s program with the use of the Fat Loss Metamorphosis concept:
- Weeks 1-6: Build Muscle (4-5 days/week)
- Weeks 7-12: Alternate Interval-Based Workout & Muscle Building Workouts x 2 each/week (4 total workouts per week)
- Weeks 13-16: Alternate interval-based workouts for one week, and then muscle building workouts for the next week. (4 workouts per week)
Phase I is pretty straightforward. Work on your priority.
Phase II is where we mix things up a bit… instead of switching goals entirely, we’re not alternating. This is providing a ‘muscle growth stimulus’ every other workout to enhance testosterone production, growth hormone production, and the initiation of muscle repair. While the muscle is repairing, we are challenging it with high-intensity, high rep-based exercises that hit it from all different angles and force an increase in lactic-acid production, but relative to a lesser amount of trauma to the muscle. Instead, lactic-acid production is happening by reaching your whole body VO2 max, or maximum oxygen uptake.
Phase III we change things up again and really hone in on what’s possible through an entire week of interval-based training. Your bodyfat sheds like crazy, but then you pump yourself up for another week of results by resuming your normal muscle building activity every other week. In this case, your body is constantly confused, so it grows muscle and leans out at the same time.
3 Phases to Fat Loss Metamorphosis.
It’s yours for the taking.
