Weight Loss

Let’s start with weight loss since most people are focused on the scale.  Some days the scale can be your best friend; other days it’s your worst enemy.  Personally, my weight fluctuates by up to 3-4lbs day-to-day.  Why is there so much variability?  It’s all about water retention.  If you perform carb cycling like I do, then be prepared to weigh more after high carb days and less after low carb days.  If you have a simple weight loss goal, you could follow the Atkins approach, reduce carbs, and watch the pounds (of water weight!) melt off.  Guess what though, when you inevitably start eating carbs again, your weight will spike back up.

The other problem with focusing exclusive on weight loss is that you don’t account for muscle gain.  This is especially true for those who are new to resistance training.  Just because your weight goes up doesn’t necessarily mean you’re getting fatter.  In fact, if you replace fat with muscle, you’ll find that your weight remains unchanged despite a positive change in health and appearance.

Fat Loss

Hopefully the above flaws make it obvious that weight loss shouldn’t be the primary goal…it should be fat loss.  While there may be a general correlation between weight loss and fat loss, it’s far better to focus on fat loss to the extent possible.  How can you effectively track your fat loss though?  You could start by trying a body fat scale or caliper.  The problems with body fat scales are that they are also influenced by water retention and a variety of other factors.  I’ve seen my body fat fluctuate by 1-2% day-to-day because of this.  Calipers are marginally better.  The challenge is that you’re measuring within millimeters and it’s hard to measure the same exact area every time.  What about using a tape measure?  Again, a tape measure can be just as inaccurate as anything else because you’re trying to measure within fractions of inches sometimes.

With all these flawed methods, it’s often best to gauge yourself by looking in the mirror, taking before/after pictures, and/or seeing how your clothes fit.  If you’re training for looks, this is probably what’s most important to you anyway.

BMI vs. Body Fat Percentage

What if you’re training for health purposes though?  Is BMI or body fat percentage more important?  You might think that BMI is more important since it seems to be used as a general indicator of potential health risks.  However, the use of BMI is prevalent because it’s an easy calculation.  It only requires your height and weight.  The problem is that two people could be the same height and weight but have different levels of body fat.  Those people probably don’t have the same health risks, especially if one has extra body fat stored around the waist.

So maybe body fat percentage is more important then.  How many times has someone ever told you to have your body fat measured though (vs. the number of times that you’ve been weighed)?   Personally, I don’t ever recall being asked about my body fat percentage so it may not be the most critical determinant of overall health either.  In my opinion, a better determinant than BMI or body fat percentage may be waist circumference.  It’s a pretty simple measurement and really does account for both weight and fat since a decrease in those factors tends to lead to a smaller waist.  Additionally, excess stomach fat, especially visceral fat which surrounds your organs, can result in a higher risk of heart disease or diabetes.  If you’re male with a waist in excess of 40” or a female with a waist in excess of 35”, you have an elevated risk.  If you have a high BMI in conjunction with a large waist, you have an even higher risk.

Weight Loss vs. Fat Loss

Summing everything up, it’s good to focus on weight loss since there is a correlation between losing weight and losing body fat.  However, if you have a reasonable means to track your body fat, it’s really best to put your effort toward losing fat since the scale may be deceptive.  With either method, it’s best to track trends over time.  Frankly, as long as you’re happy with your appearance, don’t be overly concerned with arbitrary readings from a scale or body fat tester.  Finally, if health is your focus, BMI, body fat percentage, and waist circumference can all be used in conjunction with each other to determine your overall health and risk factors.

As for my wife, based on the methods above, it actually appears that she lost around 2lbs of fat while adding 2lbs of muscle in 3 weeks which makes sense because she’s relatively new to resistance training and has been eating well and performing cardio in line with the recommendations from Visual Impact for Women.  It’s early but with this knowledge, it’s much more encouraging for her to feel like she’s making progress rather than focusing on the scale and worrying that her hard work isn’t leading to any results.

Can you provide any sample workout plans?

This is one of the more popular questions since people are always looking for a well laid out plan.  Personally, I think every person is unique and should develop the knowledge to create their own workout routines.  Absent that, I’m happy to assist in creating something that meets your goals.  First I’d recommend checking out the following resources where I provide some sample workout routines and diet plans:

Fitness in a Flash
How to Get a Beach Body in 2 Months or Less
Six Pack Abs Workout Routine, Diet Plan & Exercises
Intense Home Workout
Workout Routines for Beginners
Pushing Exercises & Pulling Exercises

How many calories should I eat to lose weight?  How many calories should I eat to gain muscle?

This is a tough one because counting calories is such a challenge.  If you’re confident in your ability to approximate your caloric intake, I would recommend eating 10x your target weight if you’re trying to lose weight and 15x your target weight if you’re trying to gain muscle.  Those are just starting points.  I recommend adjusting week to week.  Additionally, I find that when and what you eat can be just as important as how much you eat.  Eating a clean, healthy diet with limited refined sugar will go a long way toward helping you lose fat or gain muscle.  Additionally, using a strategy like calorie cycling where you eat more on days that you exercise can help you achieve either goal as well.

Why am I not losing weight?
Weight Loss Math
Calorie Cycling

How can I gain muscle mass?

Train to failure and eat at a slight caloric surplus.  Cumulative fatigue by utilizing training to failure (sarcoplasmic hypertrophy) is the real key to getting bigger muscles.  I only recommend a modest caloric surplus to limit fat gain.  Per my comment above, the cleaner you eat, the more likely you’ll gain muscle instead of fat as well.  Eating your biggest meal after a workout is another great strategy to supply your muscles with all the nutrients they need to grow.

Visual Impact Muscle Building Results: Phase 1
What is the best way to gain muscle mass?
Skinny Guy Workout
Low Weight High Reps Training to Failure
Best Muscle Building Diet

How can I increase my strength?

Perform heavy weight, low rep training while avoiding failure.

Strength Reps vs. Muscle Mass Reps
High Weight Low Reps Superset Workout Routine
How to Increase Bench Press
How to Increase Pushups and Increase Pull Ups

If I can’t do pushups or pull ups, how can I start bodyweight training?  Are there more advanced bodyweight exercises?

Utilized a progressive training routine in which you start with a very basic movement and gradually increase the difficulty until you can perform pushups.  For example, you may start out by doing wall pushups.  There are plenty of highly challenging bodyweight exercises but I find the ones outlined in Convict Conditioning to be the best.  You could also incorporate gymnastics or rings training to increase the difficulty of bodyweight training.

Bodyweight Calisthenics Workout: Progressive Training Routine
The Best Bodyweight Exercises
Convict Conditioning 2
Rings Training

Can you recommend a good cardio routine?  When should I perform cardio?

My preferred cardio routine is as follows:

2 minute warm up
8 minute short interval HIIT (15 second sprint, 45 second rest, repeated for 8 sets): this increases HGH levels and releases fatty acids into the bloodstream
25 minute steady state cardio: this burns fatty acids
10 minute long interval HIIT (1 minute fast jog, 1 minute slow jog repeated for 5 sets): this reduces glycogen levels and provides for an increased after-burn effect

To the extent possible, I recommend performing cardio in the morning on an empty stomach.  If you perform HIIT along with a weight training routine, I would either perform on separate days or do HIIT after weight training.  Watch out for overtraining as I wouldn’t recommend performing HIIT more than 3 days per week and would always take at least one day off between sessions.  You can perform low intensity cardio for extra calorie burning as needed.  Note that I don’t perform any weight training for my legs either.  HIIT give my legs the strength and definition I desire.

Don’t forget to switch the routine up from time to time.  You can vary the length of sprint intervals, the ratio of sprint to recovery time, or even the type of machine or exercise you perform.  From time to time, I like to utilize the Tabata Protocol and plyometric training exercises.

The Best Cardio For Weight Loss
Advanced HIIT Training
Morning Cardio on an Empty Stomach (Fasted Cardio)
Cardio Before or After Weights
Benefits of a Low Intensity Cardio Workout
Tabata Protocol
Plyometric Training Exercises

What is circuit training?

Circuit training involves moving from one exercise to the next with little to no rest.  Doing so provides a nice cardiovascular workout that helps burn fat in addition to preserving muscle.  In essence, circuit training can serve a similar purpose as HIIT as it increases HGH levels and releases fatty acids into the bloodstream.  I recommend HIIT for leg training and ending weight training days with upper body circuit training.  My circuits include weights, bodyweight exercises, kettlebells, and even boxing.  For some bonus fat burning, add 15 minutes of steady state cardio after circuit training to burn the fatty acids in your bloodstream.

Circuit Training Exercises
Circuit Training Workout Routine
Kettlebell Workout Routines
Boxing Workouts

How can I spot reduce belly fat?

Despite what infomercials would have you believe, you can’t.  Unfortunately many people think crunches will help them reduce belly fat and get better abs.  The truth is that you can’t spot reduce any fat.  Losing fat takes place across the entire body.  This myth predicates from the fact that you can increase the size of specific muscles through resistance training.  Therefore it seems logical that you should also be able to reduce fat in specific areas.  This just isn’t the case though.  Belly fat in particular is very stubborn and requires a good diet and high intensity exercise to eliminate.  Training your abs is of no value for reducing belly fat but is important for increasing core strength.  Crunches are not the best exercise though as they can cause back problems over the long term.  Instead, focus on exercises like planks.

How to Lose Stubborn Body Fat
How to get washboard abs?
Best Ab Workout
Best Core Exercises

What is intermittent fasting?

Intermittent fasting is where you go without calories for a set amount of time, generally between 14-24 hours.  My first exposure to intermittent fasting came through Eat Stop Eat.  It allowed me to lose a lot of weight without giving up my favorite foods.  Essentially I skipped breakfast and lunch two days per week.  This created enough of a caloric deficit to allow me to eat what I wanted the rest of the week and still lose weight.  Since I’ve gotten in better shape, I’ve embraced more of a daily fasting approach where I try to go 15-16 hours without eating.  In this case, I stop eating after dinner and simply eat a later breakfast the following day.  This type of approach has proven helpful in reducing stubborn belly fat.

Intermittent Fasting Results
Intermittent Fasting Weight Loss Approaches

Do you recommend any supplements?

I don’t think supplements should be a requirement of any fitness program.  However, if you’re trying to get every advantage possible, there are a few to consider.  For gaining muscle, creatine has been proven effective for gaining strength and muscle mass.  I also utilize BCAAs when I perform fasted training to ensure that I don’t lose muscle.  For losing weight, I recommend natural substances like caffeine, capsaicin, cinnamon, and green tea.  Finally, for overall health, I recommend a multi-vitamin and essential fatty acids.  If you’re eating a healthy diet with plenty of nutrients, then you may be able to skip the multi-vitamin.  Same goes for essential fatty acids if you eat enough fish.

Best Supplements for Weight Loss and Muscle Gain
Creatine Benefits
BCAA Benefits
Krill Oil Benefits

What are your thoughts on protein and post workout nutrition?

I think the amount of protein a person needs is overblown by the fitness industry…primarily because there’s a lot of money to be made from supplement companies that produce protein.  If you’re aggressively trying to gain muscle, I think 1g/lb is more than enough.  If you’re trying to lose fat, you could probably eat as little as 0.6-0.7g/lb.

As for post workout nutrition, it’s an optimal time to eat your biggest meal if possible.  Your body is primed to absorb nutrients.  While protein shakes are great for post workout nutrition, I prefer to simply eat a real meal.  I used to drink chocolate milk after a workout but found that the refined sugar led to cravings that resulted in overeating post workout.  In other words, while I should have just had 1-2 glasses of chocolate milk, I’d either end up drinking a carton or eating other foods which resulted in a caloric intake that was too high.  Don’t forget that carbs are just as important as protein after a workout.  In general, I eat within an hour of a weight training workout to provide my muscles with nutrients but wait 1-2 hours after HIIT before eating to maximize the HGH release.

How Much Protein Do I Need Per Day?
Post Workout Nutrition

How do I measure body fat percentage?

This is a real challenge.  Obviously the best way is to be professionally measured but that can get expensive.  A simple approach is to compare your body to pictures of people online.  Despite their inaccuracy, I tend to use bioelectrical impedance devices along with a skinfold caliper.  Additionally, I track my body measurements with a measuring tape.

Measuring Body Fat Percentage & Measuring Muscle Mass Percentage
Best Ways to Measure Body Fat Percentage

How can I look like XYZ celebrity?

The truth is that you probably can’t.  Let me rephrase, you can but it requires an extreme level of dedication and hard work.  Remember that it’s a celebrity’s job to get in shape for a movie role.  Also remember that they don’t necessarily maintain the same level of physical fitness after the movie is completed.  Some simply get in event shape and then let themselves go.  Another challenge in looking like a celebrity is that you might not have as much free time to exercise or might not have the ability to eat as healthy as they do.  It doesn’t hurt that many have personal trainers and nutrionists to ensure that they stay focused.  That being said, if you aspire to look like a certain celebrity, try your best to achieve that goal.  Just realize the challenges in doing so.

Are Celebrity Workouts and Diets Effective?

I plan on updating these fitness questions from time to time so if you’d like me to add more frequently asked fitness questions and answers, please leave your comment or question below.  I hope you find success with your fitness routine in the New Year!

Free Workout Program and Diet Plan

Before I review the best workout programs, I’d like to do a little self promotion.  My fitness guides are far from the best, but I’d like to think they offer a number of useful tips for people both new and old to exercise.  The best part is that they’re free.

Fitness in a Flash: my free diet and exercise guide to help you get lean, defined muscles without spending hours in the gym

How to Get a Beach Body in 2 Months or Less: my free book on fat burning workouts and diets for men and women

Best Fitness Tips: I’ve categorized all my best articles to help you easily find the information you’re looking for

Hopefully these resources help guide you in developing your own fitness program.  On to the best programs!

Best Workout Program for Men

Hands down, I think Visual Impact Muscle Building is the best workout program for men.  While it’s technically a muscle building course, there’s so much knowledge strewn in here that you can use the strategies for whatever goal you’re trying to achieve.  Trying to gain as much mass as possible?  Do Phase 1.  Want more of a maintenance approach to gain some muscle while burning some fat?  Do Phase 2.  How about a focus on reducing body fat while maintaining lean muscles?  Do Phase 3.  Of course, the best choice is to go through all these phases.  I did so two years ago with good results and I’m now working through again (read about my Phase 1 results).  Bottom line, Visual Impact Muscle Building is a solid 6 month program and also gives you all the tools you need to develop your own routines for the future.

Best Workout Program for Women

Workout programs for women don’t always focus on the right areas.  That’s why I like Visual Impact for Women.  It was designed to help women get the slim, feminine look rather than the muscular bodybuilder look.  There are a lot of unique tips and strategies that you won’t find in other workout programs.  Additionally, the 12 week cardio course is exceptionally well designed and serves as a great routine on its own.  Of course, I recommend that women incorporate resistance training as well and Visual Impact for Women offers plenty of guidance on the best way to get toned, not bulky.

Best Diet Plans

It’s tough to recommend a best diet plan since everyone’s needs are so unique when it comes to eating.  Any diet plan can simply recommend that you eat less calories than you burn.  It’s managing to do that in a way that doesn’t adversely impact your lifestyle or result in rebound weight gain that is most challenging.  That’s why my preferred approach is intermittent fasting.

For beginners, I would recommend Eat Stop Eat.  This diet plan helped me get back in good shape a few years ago while still allowing me to enjoy the foods I loved.  It involves fasting for 24 hours for 1-2 days per week.  It might sound challenging but once you get used to it, it’s a phenomenal program.

If you’re looking to get really lean, I would recommend the Leangains approach.  This involves daily fasting for 16 hours and also includes calorie cycling and meal timing components.  A unique aspect of the Leangains approach is that it can help a person lose fat, gain muscle, or do both.

For those who can’t handle intermittent fasting, I think the best diet plans allow for flexible eating.  Calorie restrictive diets ultimately fail in the long-term since your body can only go so low for so long.  Additionally, restrictions are psychological torture as well.  Both Cheat Your Way Thin and the Anything Goes Diet offer ways to lose weight without restricting what you eat.

Best Rapid Fat Loss Diet Plan

Finally, for those who want to rapidly lose a lot of weight, I would recommend the Xtreme Fat Loss Diet.  In essence, it combines fasting with strategic re-feeds and a lot of exercise.  This is a hardcore approach that I would only recommend to people who are looking to get in the best shape of their life for an event (read about my results).

Best Workout Programs and Best Diet Plans

So there you have my list of best workout programs and best diet plans.  With most people highly motivated by the start of the new year, I’d recommend starting one of these plans and sticking with it.  The key is finding a workout program and diet plan that you actually enjoy doing…or at least one that doesn’t feel burdensome!

My Approach

While I could have performed Phase 1 exactly as laid out in Visual Impact, I chose to somewhat tweak the routine.  That’s the beauty of the program; there’s enough knowledge to let you customize the program to meet your own goals and constraints.  For me, I preferred to do 3 sets of 12 reps rather than perform the scheme outlined in Visual Impact.  I also performed different exercises than recommended and added in bodyweight training, rings, kettlebells, and boxing.  On the diet side, I chose to follow the Leangains approach as closely as I could.

Visual Impact Muscle Building Results

So what ultimately happened during the 2 months of phase 1?  As you can see from the above graph, I gained 7.75lbs.  I only gained 0.25lbs of fat meaning I gained 7.5lbs of lean muscle.  By definition, lean muscle includes everything but fat (i.e. water weight).  I was just as concerned with gains in skeletal muscle, which is what you increase through resistance training.  I gained 4lbs of skeletal muscle during the 2 months.  You can read more about Measuring Body Fat Percentage & Measuring Muscle Mass Percentage if you’re interested in how I track results.

Let’s dive a little further into my results.  You can see that I only gained 2lbs during the first month while losing 1.5lbs of fat.  Because of prior experience with “bulking” in which I ate way too much food and ended up gaining way too much fat, I was very cautious in adding calories to my diet.  I slowly added in foods like fruits and nuts and expanded portion sizes at dinner rather than drinking protein shake after protein shake like the old days.

As you can see, I started gaining a significant amount of weight during the second month, primarily muscle but with some fat gain as well.  This happened because I finally found a good balance of how many excess calories to eat.  Unfortunately, there was some fat gain during this time period due to the holiday season.  Thanksgiving combined with a holiday party resulted in some bad eating habits and far more cheat days than I wanted.

At the end of the 2 months, I was thrilled with the results since I gained a significant amount of weight and only a small amount of fat.  More importantly, my wife actually noticed.  About a month into the program, she commented on how muscular I looked.  That was due to “the pump” after I exercised though.  Right before Thanksgiving, she actually thought my abs were as defined as they’ve ever been which makes sense because I had lost some fat.  I’d remind you that this came during what was supposed to be a muscle building program…muscle gains are usually accompanied by fat gains.  Finally, after I told her the final results from Phase 1 of Visual Impact, she told me that it looked like all the weight gain was in my upper body.  That’s the other key feature of Visual Impact…I didn’t want to put on weight in my lower body or abs.  The 8lbs I gained was targeted toward my upper body.

Lessons Learned

1. Forgot about muscle building approaches that advocate eating thousands of calories above maintenance.  It’s better to take a slow approach and put on muscle without putting on fat.  Where you add the muscle is just as important as how much muscle you add.

2. Get really lean before starting a muscle building program.  The first time through Visual Impact, my results were good but not nearly this good.  By being near my lowest body fat level ever, my body was primed to add muscle without adding fat.  Use the tips from Phase 3 if you need to reduce your body fat.

3. Eat clean to avoid fat gain.  When keeping my body fat between 10-12%, I can be pretty lenient on my diet and have plenty of junk food.  In other words, it’s about the quantity of calories, not the quality.  Now that I’m trying to stay between 8-10% body fat while gaining muscle, the quality of calories is just as important as the quantity.

4. My muscles don’t like to fail.  About 6 weeks into Phase 1, my strength gains pretty much came to a screeching halt.  When you train your muscles to fail, they eventually adapt and learn to fail.  I much prefer heavy weight strength training with adequate rest, ensuring my muscles don’t fail.  Good thing Phases 2 and 3 are right around the corner!

5. The holidays are a good time to start a muscle building program.  You’re going to be eating excess calories anyway, so you might as well try to turn them into muscle.  Unfortunately, unless you’re really disciplined, fat gain is inevitable.  For me it’s all part of the fitness-lifestyle balance.  I’m willing to accept some fat gain if it means I get to enjoy time with family and friends.  There will be plenty of time to burn off the fat later.

What’s Next?

I’m moving onto Phase 2 of Visual Impact Muscle Building.  I’ll continue the Leangains approach for eating.  I suspect that I’ll gain some fat and muscle during the first month since I have more holiday lunches, dinners, and parties than I can count.  I’ll likely maintain my weight during the second month but reduce my body fat percentage by focusing on converting fat into muscle and increasing overall definition.  I’ll plan on reporting my Visual Impact Muscle Building results from Phase 2 after that before going into fat burning mode during Phase 3.

The Best Muscle Building Diet Plan

Most muscle building diet plans focus on eating a lot of calories.  However, this subjects you to potential fat gain.  Whenever I’ve previously tried this approach, I always ended up eating too much and adding a good deal of fat to go along with muscle mass.  Then I would have to work really hard to eliminate the fat while trying to preserve muscle.  Generally known as the bulk and cut method, I personally hated this approach.  I prefer an overall lean look and bulking up by adding both fat and muscle just doesn’t appeal to me.  That’s why I think the best muscle building diet plan focuses on adding lean muscle without adding fat.  The Leangains approach utilizes a number of advanced strategies to optimize this.

Leangains Guide

You could spend hours reading the Leangains site but here’s a brief overview of the strategies I try to implement from Martin Berkhan’s Leangains Guide:

• Intermittent fasting: 16 hour daily fast followed by 8 hour feeding
• Fasted training
• Calorie and macronutrient cycling
• Majority of calories ingested in post workout meal
• Mostly clean eating
• No set number of meals during feeding window: 2-3 meals generally preferred

Delving deeper into some of these recommendations, you’ll find that a 16 hour daily fast is great for fat burning.  Ensuring that you get high quality calories during the 8 hour feeding window, especially after training, is great for muscle building.  So you have a “best of both worlds” scenario where your body is in a fat burning state when it’s less active and a muscle building state after exercising when it needs nutrients the most.

Ideally you’ll eat more carbs on days that you exercise to optimize mass gains.  Furthermore, it’s best to eat your biggest meal after working out when your body is most anabolic.  Shifting gears, exercising in a fasted state results in a greater level of fat burning.  Ingesting BCAAs prior to fasted training will help preserve muscle mass while still allowing you to remain in a materially fasted state.

Martin Berkhan of Leangains

The great thing about the Leangains approach is that you can tailor it to fat burning or muscle building.  You can simply increase or decrease your caloric intake while sticking to these core principles.  Ideally you’ll be able to get really lean without losing muscle mass or gain a good deal of muscle mass without gaining fat.  The best part is that it’s a perfect maintenance approach as well since it’s relatively lenient as far as a diet plan goes.

My Approach

I utilize a hybrid of the protocols laid out in Martin Berkhan’s Leangains Guide.  In general, I fast from 6pm to 9am or 10am (15-16 hours).  I like to have my largest meal at dinner since that’s family time.  On weekends, my approach involves eating a light breakfast at 9am or 10am, training around 1pm, and then having my largest meal around 5pm.  Weekdays are more challenging because of my work schedule.  Two days per week, I do early morning fasted cardio after ingesting BCAAs.  Two other days I do nighttime resistance training after dinner.  On those two nights, the eating window is extended to 9pm so I only end up fasting 12-13 hours after.  I also employ calorie cycling and carb cycling where I eat the most on days that I exercise.  Combining this approach with the Visual Impact Muscle Building workouts provides an optimal way to gain lean muscle mass.  In fact, I’d argue that these programs respectively constitute the best muscle building diet plan and the best muscle building workout routine.

Intermittent Fasting to Lose Weight

In general, there are two broad Intermittent Fasting Weight Loss Approaches.  There’s weekly fasting where you go 24 hours without eating for 1-2 days per week and there’s daily fasting where you go 16-20 hours without eating every day.  From my personal experience, I successfully lost a lot of weight using weekly fasting (Eat Stop Eat) but switched to a daily fasting approach (Leangains) to achieve my lowest body fat level ever.  Ultimately, if you want to successfully use intermittent fasting to lose weight, you’ll have to create a caloric deficit.  Fasting days just make that easier to achieve and allow flexibility to have cheat days as well.

Intermittent Fasting Results

Let’s jump right to Dr. Berardi’s results.  He lost 20lbs and reduced his body fat from 10% to 4% with no discernable loss of muscle mass or strength.  That’s impressive on its own and consistent with the experience of others who have tried intermittent fasting.  Take a look at his before and after photos:

Before: 190lbs at 10% body fat

After: 170lbs at 4% body fat

Dr. Berardi started with the weekly fasting approach.  He found the most success when fasting one day per week.  When he tried to do two days per week, it was too difficult for his body to adjust.  Remember though, Dr. Berardi was already really lean and ate a very clean diet.  If you have a lot of weight to lose, fasting twice per week might just be what you need to create a significant caloric deficit.  I liked fasting twice per week because it allowed me to indulge in more of my favorite foods and still lose weight.

For the next part of his experiment, Dr. Berardi performed daily intermittent fasting, specifically utilizing the Leangains approach, developed by Martin Berkhan.  This approach is more than just fasting for 16 hours per day as it involves fasted exercise, meal timing, carb cycling, and mostly clean eating, amongst other things.  I’ve found that this approach is highly successful for both adding lean muscle mass and cutting fat.  In fact, some research suggests frequent short term fasts like this can help reduce stubborn body fat.  That seemed to be the case for me as I was able to reduce my body fat to 8-9% by utilizing as many Leangains tactics as my work and family schedule allowed.  I continue to use a lot of these methods even while I’m going through Visual Impact Muscle Building and have seen some excellent gains in muscle mass with little to no fat gain.

Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

Aside from using intermittent fasting to lose weight, Dr. Berardi describes other potential benefits of intermittent fasting.  A few highlights include:

• Reduced triglycerides, LDL cholesterol, blood pressure, and inflammation
• Increased fat burning, growth hormone release, and metabolic rate
• Improved appetite, blood sugar control, and cardiovascular function

As Dr. Berardi points out, most of these intermittent fasting benefits are achieved with a longer fast of 20-24 hours.  There are indications that you can achieve these same benefits in 16-20 hours if you exercise in a fasted state.  More studies need to be done before any ultimate conclusions can be drawn.

Is intermittent fasting for you?

I really think everyone ought to give intermittent fasting a try.  If a lifelong six meals per day advocate like Dr. John Berardi can do it, then you can too.  His intermittent fasting results speak for themselves.  At a minimum, download and read his free Experiments with Intermittent Fasting book so you can see the benefits of intermittent fasting for weight loss.  After that, if you have a lot of weight to lose, I’d recommend reading Brad Pilon’s Eat Stop Eat.  If you’re already in great shape, then consider the Leangains approach.  Either way, you should be able to use intermittent fasting to lose weight and build a lean, defined body.  I can honestly say that both approaches worked well for me.

Feeling Hungry After Cardio

If you’re performing steady state cardio where you jump on your favorite exercise machine and go at a low to medium intensity for 30+ minutes, it’s likely you’ve felt hungry after exercise.  You’re burning calories and your body’s natural instinct is to replace that lost energy.  Are you destroying your entire workout by eating more than normal after?  According to a study done by the Journal of Endocrinology, you aren’t.  While it was a small sample size, researchers found that even though people who did moderate intensity cardio ate more than people who performed no exercise at all, the amount of calories they burned exercising more than offset the excess calories they ate.  In other words, while your appetite may be elevated after performing traditional cardio, you’ll still be generating a net caloric deficit which leads to the ultimate goal of weight loss.

Feeling Hungry After Intense Exercise

While you may feel hungry after cardio, do you feel that same hunger after intense exercise?  Personally, I’m too exhausted to feel like eating after an intense workout routine.  This is a common phenomenon for most people as well.  What happens in this scenario is that acids build up within your body resulting in a feeling of nausea.  Since most people don’t enjoy eating when they feel nauseous, the body’s natural instinct is to suppress appetite.  Ultimately, once that feeling subsides, you may feel hungry because your body does eventually want to replace the lost energy.  The feeling may simply be delayed and at that point you will probably just want to have a normal-size meal.

Rewarding Yourself After Exercise

While it’s natural to feel hungry after exercise, it’s important to differentiate between increased appetite and rewarding yourself.  If you’re simply eating bigger meals and going out more often because you’ve been exercising, you shouldn’t be surprised if you find that weight loss slows…or if your weight starts to increase.  Stick with eating when you’re hungry and be cognizant of how much you’re eating.  The reward will show up when you step on the scale.

Bottom Line

Anyone else feel hungry after exercising?  If so, then try to perform intense exercise and see if it suppresses your appetite.  Otherwise, just be sure to stay hydrated and avoid too much overeating or rewarding yourself too often.  Don’t use the increased hunger level as an excuse for not working out.  Surprisingly, you’re better off exercising and eating more since you’ll likely generate an overall caloric deficit.  Ideally, if you perform an intense workout, you’ll get the best of both worlds by burning calories without generally feeling hungry after exercise.

How to Get Six Pack Abs

The fundamental key to getting six pack abs is that your body fat has to be very low.  Everyone is different, but generally for men, you’ll start to see your abs around 10% body fat.  You’ll look completely ripped if you get under 6% body fat.  For women, you’ll start to see a nice six pack when your body fat is around 16%.  Anything under 12% and you’ll have ripped abs.

What’s the best way to reduce your body fat?  I take a multi-pronged approach that combines a proper diet, cardio, and circuit training for fat loss along with a strength training routine for muscle maintenance.  On top of that, I incorporate a modest number of six pack abs exercises to get more defined abs.  Unfortunately, a lot of people tend to focus too much on abs exercises rather than on their diet and workout routine which are the biggest components in getting six pack abs.

Six Pack Abs Diet

In my opinion, the key to fat loss is a strong diet plan.  What works best for me is eliminating as much refined sugar as possible from my diet and eating healthy foods like lean meats, fruits, and vegetables.  I combine this strategy with intermittent fasting, cheat days, and calorie cycling.  For my six pack abs diet, I decided to spread my meals out as well.  Contrary to popular opinion, I don’t do this because of some belief that more frequent meals lead to an increased metabolism.  The main reason is that I like to eat fruit on its own (avoiding other foods for at least 30 minutes before and after) to maximize absorption of nutrients.

For intermittent fasting, I generally prefer the Eat Stop Eat approach of fasting for 24 hours for 1-2 days per week.  However, for the past couple months I’ve been using an “eating window” approach where I fast for 15 hours and eat for 9 hours.  This is perceived as more effective in eliminating stubborn body fat (lower belly fat for men; waist, hips, and thighs for women).

Cheat days are a nice psychological break from a standard calorie restrictive six pack abs diet but also serve a role in accelerating fat loss.  Levels of the hormone lepin, which controls appetite, fall by 50% after a week of a calorie restrictive diet.  This results in a decreased metabolism.  By having a cheat day, leptin levels are replenished and your metabolism is preserved.  Joel Marion covers this in great detail in Cheat Your Way Thin.  During maintenance mode, I allow myself to go all out one day per week and indulge in whatever I want.  However, for my six pack abs routine, I did more of a “clean cheat” where I ate plenty of calories but tried to focus on higher quality food and less junk food.

Finally, for me, calorie cycling involves eating higher calories and more carbs on workout days and lower calories and fewer carbs on non-workout days.  I discuss this strategy in more detail in my article about calorie cycling.

Here’s what a typical day looked like for my six pack abs diet:
9:00 – Fruit
10:30 – Fruit
12:00 – Sandwich with pretzels
2:00 – Fruit
4:00 – Raw vegetables
6:00 – Salad with fat free dressing; lean meat with vegetables; sugar free/fat free Jello/pudding

Six Pack Abs Workout

With a fat burning diet in place, it’s time to shift focus to a six pack abs workout routine.  The main goal of strength training during such a time is to preserve muscle while maximizing fat burning.  I performed weight training and bodyweight exercises to preserve muscle and utilized circuit training and cardio for fat burning.  In total, I exercised 5 hours per week, more than 3-4 hours I usually do but well worth it for the results I got.

For strength training, I did a hybrid approach utilizing principles of Visual Impact Muscle Building for weight training and Convict Conditioning for bodyweight training.  For my six pack abs workout, weight training was done with 3-5 reps with heavy weights.  In the interest of time, I only rested 1 minute between sets.  I followed that up by performing bodyweight exercises, many of which involved EXF rings.

For fat burning, I ended workouts with circuit training and steady state cardio, time permitting.  Circuit training is simply doing multiple exercises one after another with little to no rest in order to increase your heart rate.  After increasing your heart rate and releasing fatty acids into your system, it’s best to use steady state cardio to burn those fatty acids.  I added 30 minutes of these components on the weekends when I had more time to exercise.  I separately performed morning cardio involving 15 minutes of HIIT and 15 minutes of steady state cardio 2 days per week.

Here’s what my weekly six pack abs workout routine looked like:
Saturday: pushing exercises (30 minutes); circuit training / boxing (15 minutes); steady state cardio (15 minutes)
Sunday: pulling exercises (30 minutes); circuit training / rowing (15 minutes); steady state cardio (15 minutes)
Monday: morning six pack abs exercises (20 minutes)
Tuesday: morning cardio (30 minutes); night time pulling exercises (30 minutes)
Wednesday: morning six pack abs exercises (20 minutes); night time pushing exercises (30 minutes)
Thursday: morning cardio (30 minutes)
Friday: morning six pack abs exercises (20 minutes)

Six Pack Abs Exercises

Everyone loves to train their abs.  However, this is the least critical component of getting six pack abs.  Too many people waste time on crunches when they could get a more effective workout by doing planks.  Start by getting your body fat low enough with diet and exercise and then start incorporating six pack abs exercises to increase definition.

I combined abs exercises with back exercises and forearm/grip strength training.  Back exercises tend to balance out the effect of ab exercises that cause your spine to flex forward.  I do a lot of hanging ab exercises which is why I do forearm/grip strength training simultaneously.  I superset ab, back, and grip exercises together for a faster workout.  Many of these ab exercises are taken from the free Abs Blueprint report.

Warm Up Gripper: 10 reps regular; 10 reps inverted

Feet to the Bar Bent Leg Raises (Advanced): 10 reps
Hanging Leg Raises: 10 reps
Stand to Stand Back Bridge (Convict Conditioning): 5 reps
100 Grip Regular (Heavy Hand Grips): 3 reps

Feet to the Bar Bent Leg Raises: 10 reps
Ab Twist: 10 reps each side
Neck Bridge: 1 minute
100 Grip Inverted: 3 reps

Swinging Side to Side Bent Knee Ups: failure
Captain’s Chair Leg Raises: 10 reps
Back Bridge: 1 minute
150 Grip Regular: 1 rep

Stomach Flattener: 10 reps
150 Grip Inverted: 1 rep

Stomach Vacuum: 10 reps
200 Grip Regular: 5 reps

Elevated Plank: 2 minutes
200 Grip Inverted: 5 reps

Side Planks: 1 minute each side
250 Grip Hold: 5 seconds

Lying Leg Raises: 10 reps
Lying Leg Hold: 30 seconds
Hip Bridge: 1 minute
Bar Hang: failure

Cat Vomit (from Tim Ferriss’ 4-Hour Body; essentially a stomach vacuum on all fours): 10 reps
Front Neck Bridge: 1 minute
Warm Up Gripper: 50 reps regular; 50 reps inverted

Get Six Pack Abs

So there you have it.  Those are the best tips I can offer on how to get six pack abs.  The six pack abs workout routine and diet plan I shared above helped me reduce my body fat from 11-12% to around 8-9% over the past couple months.  Combined with the six pack abs exercises I listed, my abs are as defined as they have ever been.  It’s not going to be easy, but with time and determination, you can get six pack abs.

Convict Conditioning Update

First of all, I would recommend reading about my Convict Conditioning results and why I believe the “Big 6” are some of the best bodyweight exercises.  Whereas I used to exclusively perform the Convict Conditioning exercises, I now perform them after weight training.  It’s much harder to do these exercises after lifting, but I just couldn’t go without weights forever!  Here’s an update on my progress (note that each exercise has 10 steps).

• One Arm Pushups: 15 reps of step 9 (lever pushups)
• One Leg Squats: not doing these any more since plyometrics and HIIT give me the leg strength and definition I desire.
• One Arm Pull Ups: 4 reps of step 9 (assisted one arm pull ups)
• Hanging Straight Leg Raises: 10 reps of step 10
• Stand to Stand Bridges: 5 reps of step 10
• One Arm Handstand Pushups: 8 reps of step 6 (close handstand pushups)

Convict Conditioning 2 Review

Right from the start, I realized that Convict Conditioning 2 was not merely an add-on to the first book.  It tackles a completely different set of muscles.  Whereas the first Convict Conditioning helped build overall strength across the entire body, the second book is focused on a few areas that are often underutilized in workout routines.

The first part of Convict Conditioning 2 looks at hands and forearms, the lateral chain, and the neck and calves.  I already perform hand/forearm training as well as neck/calf training.  That being said, there are some excellent recommendations that I will be including in my current routine to further increase hand/forearm strength.  Being a former wrestler, neck training is something I’m reasonably well versed in.  Convict Conditioning 2 provides a great baseline for how to properly develop a stronger neck.  I do calf training as part of my plyometrics routine.  This is one muscle that I’m not certain requires as much focus, but there’s nothing wrong with having stronger calves.  Finally, the lateral chain progressions are reminiscent of the first Convict Conditioning book.  Paul Wade teaches you how to perform both the clutch and press flag.

The second part of the book focuses on building stronger joints.  I partake in flexibility training so didn’t get quite as much value as I might have from this section.  However, I really enjoyed the “Trifecta” that Wade outlined and will be adding all three exercises to my routine.

The third part of Convict Conditioning 2 is just some general insights into drugs, dieting, healing, and mental focus.  This was the least interesting part to me because much of my fitness philosophy is already ingrained in me.  Still, there were a few good insights, and I agreed with Paul Wade’s thoughts in most areas.  It’s certainly an interesting look at the prison system as well!

Convict Conditioning 2 Recommendation

While I highly recommend the first Convict Conditioning book for anyone, Paul Wade’s Convict Conditioning 2 is probably best for those who have in interest in developing stronger hands, forearms, neck, calves, laterals, and joints.  That’s why I’d say martial artists or wrestlers would have the most interest.  Even though it’s not as revolutionary as the original book, I’m personally incorporating a number of tips from Convict Conditioning 2 into my workout routine.

What are Essential Fatty Acids?

Essential fatty acids include omega 3s and omega 6s.  The body cannot produce these on their own, and it is therefore necessary to ingest these through food.  The problem is that the typical diet consists of plenty of omega 6 fatty acids but not enough omega 3 fatty acids.  While the optimal ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 should be less than 6:1 for disease prevention, it’s estimated that we are closer to 15-20:1 meaning that we’re getting far too many omega 6 essential fatty acids and too few omega 3s.  Why is this a problem?  Because omega 6s generally lead to inflammation while omega 3s tend to reduce inflammation which means you may be subject to a host of heart problems if you’re lacking omega 3 essential fatty acids.

To solve this problem it’s best to find a way to ingest more omega 3 fatty acids.  What are the Top 5 Omega 3 Food Sources?

1. Cold water fish such as salmon
2. Seaweed
3. Essential fatty acids supplements like fish oil and krill oil
4. Omega 3 eggs
5. Foods fortified with DHA

Essential Fatty Acids Supplements

While you can get omega 3 essential fatty acids from the foods listed above, it can be highly challenging to get enough on a weekly basis.  If you’re eating oily cold water fish like salmon, you only need two 4oz servings per week to get the recommended EPA and DHA intake.  However, if you’re eating non-oily white fish, you need nine 4oz servings per week.  That puts you at risk of ingesting too much mercury or other contaminants.

Personally, I love salmon and could easily have two 4oz servings per week.  However, my wife can’t stand the smell which means I don’t generally get to eat it at home.  That’s why I’ve gone the essential fatty acids supplements route.  I can get all the health benefits of omega 3 fatty acids without inconveniencing my family.  My go-to essential fatty acid supplement is krill oil.

What is Krill Oil?

Krill oil is made from krill, a small shrimp like crustacean that is eaten by whales, seals, and penguins, amongst other animals.  Krill are abundant in omega 3 essential fatty acids as well as the antioxidant astaxanthin.

Krill Oil Benefits

Krill oil has a number of health benefits including:

• Reduces inflammation leading to a healthier heart
• Increases good cholesterol
• Decreases bad cholesterol
• Prevents blood clots and high blood pressure
• Decreases joint pain
• Relieves PMS
• Enhances lung function leading to longer, more intense exercise capacity
• Controls hunger leading to weight loss

Read this article to learn more about the Health Benefits of Krill Oil.

Benefits of Krill Oil vs. Fish Oil

Fish oil offers many of the same benefits as krill oil.  However, when you compare the two, I think krill oil is the clear choice.  Here are some of the benefits of krill oil vs. fish oil:

• Good cholesterol rose 10 times more
• Bad cholesterol dropped 16 times more
• 47 times greater antioxidant power
• Astaxanthin (contained in krill oil) stimulates mood, memory, and clearer thinking.  Some studies have shown this antioxidant increases the use of fat as an energy source and improves exercise endurance, both of which may be beneficial for weight loss.
• Phospholipids (contained in krill oil) filter out toxins
• 500% better absorption (lose 80% of listed DHA and EPA from regular fish oil)
• No fish burps, aftertaste or digestion problems

Consider Krill Oil Supplements

While I don’t ever think supplements are necessary, I would highly recommend omega 3 essential fatty acids supplements.  The studies about how few omega 3 fatty acids we intake relative to omega 6s and the potential heart problems stemming from this deficiency are compelling enough to take action.  Ideally, you’d eat cold water fish a couple times per week but for whatever reason, most people are unable or unwilling to do that.  Personally, I’ve chosen to use krill oil supplements to get all the health benefits of fish oil along with the additional benefits of krill oil.  Check with your doctor and consider taking a preemptive strike against heart disease and other health problems.