A Fat Loss Post by Cambridge Personal Trainer Callie Durbrow
You think that you’re doing all the right stuff….you’re eating healthy, you’re doing your workouts regularly and you’re mixing in some good strength training and doing a little bit of cardio here and there. It feels like you’re on the right path based on what everyone says, but you’re STUCK…your body hasn’t changed.
So what gives?
Our bodies are really, really efficient machines and can adapt quickly to anything thrown at them. When you are training for fat loss here’s what you’ve got to do….
Nutrition
1. Eat a nutrition plan based on high quality proteins, veggies, fruit and healthy fats (nuts, avocado, greek yogurt)
2. Avoid starchy foods and CUT OUT the sugar….sugar is the killer when it comes to losing fat
3. If you really want an extra boost in your results, consider intermittent fasting. Basically 2-3 times per week you will take 12-16 hour gaps and fast. Pretty simple and very effective.
Strength Training
1. Strength training does not mean lifting weights like a body builder. Set up your workouts so you are training in a circuit format with 5-6 exercises that will work your entire body.
2. Lift with kettlebells. Kettlebells are one of the best ways to help you burn fat because they train every muscle in the body, they are dynamic in nature and force you to engage your core, legs and hips. All of these factors combined force a HUGE calorie burn, plus an “afterburn” which is a serious metabolic boost and that’s where you actually burn fat.
3. Lift weights heavy and with perfect form. Heavier lifting increases the amount of calories burned, the number of muscles recruited and also makes you feel pretty bad-ass.
Conditioning
1. Notice I didn’t say “cardio.” Cardio sucks, seriously.
2. Focus instead on metabolic conditioning. This doesn’t even have to be running or biking. Sprints, hill sprints or bike sprints are awesome options but you can also perform movements like Kettlebell complexes (3-4 exercises back-t0-back)
3. You can also put together 3-4 exercises in succession and perform them for speed and power. Some of my favorites for this are jump squat variations, Kettlebell movements, Battle Ropes and Prowler Sprints.
I wanted to show you a quick video of a workout I did last week….you’ll see two powerful movements back to back and this is creating a huge caloric burn for me, plus my metabolism is elevated for 36 HOURS after I train like this. Remember, that’s the key to fat loss…..what your body does AFTER the training session has been completed.
[pro-player width=’530′ height=’253′ type=’video’]http://www.youtube.com/user/CallieDurb#p/u/2/2uVBtyMXW-k[/pro-player]
Leave me a comment about how you’ve changed your view of cardio, and if you haven’t I hope you see the benefit of metabolic conditioning 🙂