08.06.08
Review: Fat Loss Troubleshoot
Ever wonder why you “hardly eat” but can’t lose weight? Why you work out like a maniac but don’t lose weight? Why you follow Program X but see no results?
What secret forces are conspiring to prevent your weight loss? (Genes? Hormones? Aliens?)
The answers to those questions and more are in Leigh Peele’s e-book Fat Loss Troubleshoot. Leigh’s main goal is to get you in, get the weight (fat) off, and get you on with your life; dieting should not be a way of life but rather a brief phase. She looks at common misconceptions and “advice” and shows you why that isn’t right and what, instead, is. She also includes case studies from her clients that shows how she was able to find and fix what they were doing incorrectly.
A lot of the advice, you might be tempted to think, “Oh, I knew that already.” Oh, really? Then why aren’t you losing the fat? Sure, you might know a lot of this, but you haven’t quite put it all together. Leigh lays it all out; you get no more excuses by the time you finish reading.
The section that really hit me was on training & eating for your goals and getting enough recovery. If your goal is strength, you need to eat for strength and rest & sleep for strength. But if your goal is fat loss, you need to eat for fat loss (that is, in a deficit) and train for fat loss (that is, not so intense that you can’t function) and make sure your body is recovering. So sure, do the fat loss thing — and just the fat loss thing — until you’re at your goal, and then change goals.
FLTS is mostly a breakdown of the how’s and why’s and why not’s of fat loss. It includes calorie calculations for maintenance and deficits and an activity quiz to determine how much you’re really moving. In addition to FLTS, though, Leigh also offers “OPT for Fat Loss,” which is a workout and calorie deficit program based on everything you learn in FLTS so you don’t have to do it all yourself, and the “Metabolic Repair Manual.”
MRM is for people who have dieted for years and who may have created a slow metabolic response and/or other intestinal problems. (There’s a quiz in the manual to see if you qualify.) MRM takes you through a process of resting and slowly eating more until your metabolic response and digestion is normal. A plan that makes you eat more? Sounds crazy and like a recipe for massive weight gain, right? Except Leigh’s plan works and with little to no weight gain, and sometimes even weight loss! (See this thread in the JP Fitness Forums for one lady’s experience with MRM.) I’m only a Level 1 (little to no damage) mostly because I haven’t been able to stick to any “diet” for more than two weeks. =P
And, as if she hasn’t written enough yet, Leigh answers questions in the Fat Loss Troubleshoot forum at JP Fitness, and her blog has more info, articles, and comments. Subscribe to her podcast; sign up for the Subscribers’ section. Also, watch her Fat Loss Tips video. (Btw, the answer to the question “What secret forces are conspiring to prevent your weight loss?” is found in that video.)
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I really started following Leigh’s advice at the end of June (July 4th holiday not included!). With BJJ/MMA only 3 days/week and injured toes, I had the time to pay attention. And it made a huge difference. In the last month, my clothes have started to fall off as I’ve lost weight. I have progress pictures taken back in May and some taken last weekend, and the difference is amazing. In the last month I’ve started to get “You’ve lost a lot of weight!” comments. (And one hilarious addendum: “Did you do it on purpose?” Erm, yes.)
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Update 08/15/08: Skwigg has reviewed both FLTS and MRM. (As for the grammar issues, yes, they’re there (and I had to hide all my red pens), but Leigh explained that she hired an editor who did a bad job. She’s the Fat Loss Troubleshooter, not the Grammar Queen, after all.)
04.25.08
HIIT vs. SSC
HIIT: High-Intensity Interval Training. Sprint, recover, repeat.
SSC: Steady-State Cardio. Long slow distance.
Which is better for burning fat? (That’s all anyone cares about when these two are mentioned in a single post, really.)
How about “both and neither” for an unambiguous answer? 
There are benefits to both HIIT and SSC. They both get you moving. They both involve your heart and lungs and muscles. They both challenge your body (though in different ways). They both require mind over matter.
HIIT takes less time; SSC won’t make you puke (usually). HIIT, you’ll likely be feeling for a few hours after; SSC, you can do again tomorrow. HIIT, you think bad thoughts about the person who told you to do it; SSC, you invite your friends for a trail run.
There are proponents and opponents for both HIIT and SSC, and you can find lots of debates around the internet, with some claiming one is superior to the other, an “either/or” approach. There are studies that seem to back up one or the other. I prefer a “both/and”. Both HIIT and SSC have their place.
Which helps you lose fat/weight better? Both. In different ways, for different reasons, through different processes. But still, both.
We humans are made to move, and to move both fast and slow. Mix in both.
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03.10.08
Too Many Variables
I did my undergrad in chemistry. I learned many things are coming in handy now as I try to monitor my food and exercise. But one of the most important things I learned is to change as few variables at one time as possible.
If you change more than one thing at a time, how do you know which change gave the result? Or if it’s only that combination that produces the result?
You don’t, because you’ve changed too many things.
The same principle holds in diet and exercise. Let’s say you start a new exercise program with an accompanying sound diet program (or at least a way to calculate suggested calories), but you decide that you don’t want to do the diet program because it looks like a lot of work. You’re tracking your food now and regularly eating about 1400 calories, and that seems like a good idea to you.
Let’s say that, in four weeks, you lose 4 lbs of fat. How do you know if the weight loss is from the new exercise program, your old diet, or a combination of the two? Or let’s say that you gained 4 lbs of fat. Again: new exercise plan, old diet, or both?
I started The New Rules of Lifting back in January. I hang around the book forum and watch for references to the program on SparkPeople. I notice a lot of questions that ask, “Can I change X? What about Y? Can I eat less than recommended?” Some of the questioners have legitimate reasons for asking (injury, limited equipment, moral/religious reasons), but some think they know a shortcut or a secret that will boost the workout or diet advice to rocket their fat loss.
Maybe their solution will work. Maybe it won’t. Which will they blame, the workout/nutrition advice or their “fix”? Probably not what they did. What will they do? Probably change something else, always assuming that they can fix it on their own. And soon, they’ll be doing something that doesn’t get them results and that doesn’t resemble the program they started on at all.
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03.05.08
Short-term Mentalities
Some of us doing NROLFW and posting on the jpfitness forums have noted that we have seen weight/size gain in our hips and thighs. And since we’re women, this is not where we’d like to see gains.
One of the women who’s about to start NROLFW also read another book by one of the NROLFW authors which recommended that pear-shaped women not do heavy lower-body weights. NROLFW, on the other hand, tells us to use weights as heavy as we can all the time. The author herself chimed in on that thread.
It came down to time and audience. NROLFW is a 6-month program. The other book, 8 weeks. You can and will see results and changes in 8 weeks on NROLFW. But they may not all be yippee-skippy, jump-around-all-day changes. (For example, gaining mass in your butt = not a happy camper.) On the other program, the other book company wanted an 8-week program, so she gave them an 8-week program. That is, a program that will produce positive results in an 8-week timeframe.
Then there’s the audience. NROLFW seems targeted at women who want better results but are afraid of strength training. But after reading the book, we understand that this process of reorganizing our body takes time and hard work, and so we grunt at weight gains, check our diets, and add more plates. The other program is targeted to a different group of women, who want fast results and who will probably give up on a plan that allows temporary weight gains.
Yes, I’ve gained weight and size in my hips since starting NROLFW. Water weight, muscle gains, resetting my metabolism–there are many explanations why this may happen. I seriously considered panicking at first. But I know that, in the end, lifting heavy and eating enough will get me the results I want. And NROLFW is a 6-month program. So I stick with it.
That’s not to say I ignore these things. However, I assume that the problem is with me first, not with the program. I’ve decided to trust that Lou, Cassandra, and Alwyn know what they’re talking about. So, first, I make sure that I’m following the program. I can’t blame a program for not working if I’m not following it. Second, I check my diet. Am I really eating enough? Am I eating the right macro ratios? Third, I check my rest. Am I sleeping enough? Am I taking enough time to recover between lifting sessions?
Do I want immediate but short-term results, or do I want slower but permanent results? When you put it that way, I don’t think there’s any more question.
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03.03.08
Getting fat in a low-fat world
The more I read, the more I’m becoming convinced that it isn’t eating fat that makes us fat.
Everything on our shelves is marketed as “low-fat” or “non-fat”, and yet they tell us that more Americans are fatter than ever. Possibly we’re just eating too much, thinking that if the food is “low/no fat” then we can’t get fat from eating it. But if we’re eating too much “no fat” food and getting fat, then the problem can’t just be from fat.
Besides, fats are actually important in our bodies. Vitamins A, D, E, and K can only be absorbed in the presence of fats. Fats are also used to keep our hair and skin healthy. The essential fatty acids (EFAs) are very important to processes in our bodies and cannot be manufactured by our bodies; we must eat these.
But if we’re not eating fat, how do we get so many pounds of fat in our bodies? Our bodies interconvert amino acids (from protein), glucose (from carbs), and fatty acids (from fat). That is, if you have a shortage of glucose but aren’t eating carbs, your body will create glucose from amino acids or fatty acids.
On the other hand, if you have an abundance of any of those three, your body packrats it away as fat. “Just in case,” your body says. “I’ll use it someday. It’s too good to just throw away.” (This is a slight tangent and fodder for another post, but check out Skwigg’s latest post about clutter and fat.)
Eating fat doesn’t make you fat. Eating protein doesn’t make you fat. Eating carbs doesn’t make you fat. Eating more than your body needs makes you fat.
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02.28.08
And rest, 2, 3, 4…
You workout, you eat right–and you’re still not losing weight (fat or otherwise). What gives?
Check your recovery and rest.
How often do you exercise? Every day? Too much, most likely. Your body needs time to rebuild what you tore down the last time you worked out. It’ll usually take your body 36-48 hrs to strengthen a muscle and have it ready for tearing down again. Take a day off between lifting or intense cardio sessions (HIIT, kickboxing or spinning classes, etc.). Some people say you can do LSD (long slow distance) in between, but I think that may still be too much, especially if you’re already burned out.
What about sleep? For me, even 8 hours isn’t always enough. While you’re asleep, your body can get even more work done because you’re not interrupting it. Get to bed an hour earlier to recover, or sleep in instead of throwing in another LSD session. Grab a nap, if you can.
Resting is one of the things I have a hard time with. I want to lift every day just because it’s fun, and, while I do like to sleep, I also have so many things I want or have to do. I use my lifting hour on non-lifting days to get things done. And I’m trying to get that extra hour of sleep each night, even though it’s hard to quit the video game, put down the book, get off the internet, or stop studying. I even started setting one of my alarm clocks to go off at night, to tell me to shut everything down and go to bed.
While it may seem that “not lifting” or “not exercising” is counter-productive and not logical, in reality, it’s an essential part of getting stronger. Purposely add rest & sleep to your schedule.
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02.07.08
Less is More
I log my food over at SparkPeople. I also belong to some of the groups, so I read over the messages people write. And sometimes, I want to reach through the internet and smack them around.
Sometimes, it seems as if people are replacing an obsession with eating too much of the wrong stuff and not exercising with an obsession of counting calories and exercising. Cardio 5-6x/week and strength training 3-4x/week. It’s a wonder they’re not all injured from overtraining! (Well, from some of the topics, I suspect that some of them are–and undernourished.)
I read over The New Rules of Lifting For Women every once in a while, either when I can’t lift because it’s a rest day or when I need a little motivation. The other night, I read a section about how some people might think the workouts in the book aren’t challenging enough or aren’t hitting all of their muscles (I admit, I was one of them, but I’ve repented), so they’ll add an extra exercise for this or more cardio or the move they saw in a fitness magazine… On and on until they’ve created a monster that doesn’t resemble the program Alwyn created and that doesn’t give the results of the program.
- Lift 3 days/week for ~30 minutes.
- Eat more calories.
- Do HIIT instead of LSD.
- Rest.
It doesn’t seem like it will work. It doesn’t sound logical. It doesn’t seem like muscles will grow and fat will burn. And yet…
And yet, perhaps it will. If I do it the way it wants to be done and don’t try to overthink it.
So I’ll do it. I’ll do less than I think I should do, I’ll eat more than I think I should, and I’ll ignore all the voices that would distract me. And I’ll wait and see if it works.
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