It’s the time of year when every one is looking to lean up. The weather is just about to break and the season of shorts and tank tops will be upon us before we know it! Bottom line? The time is now to start thinking about fat loss.
Most people probably feel they have a good grasp on how to lose fat. Just add in a few hours a week on the treadmill and reduce caloric intake and boom you will start dropping weight. Not so fast, the kind of fat loss we want is not quite that simple. I know you and I know what you want. First, you don’t want to spend hours on the treadmill. That sounds like the worst possible thing to do with your time. Second, you want to lose fat while maintaining all of your muscle and even gaining strength. Yes, I did say gaining strength. Lastly, you want all of this to happen in the most efficient time possible. All of that can happen as long as you avoid the following 4 fat loss mistakes.
1- Too Much Low Intensity Cardio
We all know the people who go to the gym religiously, spending hours on cardio machines and look exactly the same (if not worse) year in and year out. You also probably know the physique athlete who does hours of cardio leading up to a show only to look less than impressive on stage. The similarity here is too much low intensity cardio, and it’s a problem.
Before you get the wrong idea, there is a time and place for low intensity cardio. However, it should not be the only cardio you are doing. The first issue with low intensity cardio stems from a progressive overload stand point. Similar to any type of training adaptation the human body is able to make adjustments internally to match the adaptation being performed on it. For example, when you start lifting weights a relatively light weight will feel heavy and cause an adaptation to occur. After a few weeks however, that weight is no longer heavy for you and in order to get the same adaptation you must add weight or do more reps with the current weight. This is progressive overload. Cardio is no different. When you start performing low intensity cardio initially you cause an adaptation. After a short period of time the same amount of cardio will no longer cause the same adaptation and you will have to make a progression. With low intensity cardio there is only one thing to progress – duration. If you keep this going before you know it in order to get a metabolic response from the low intensity cardio you will have to be doing two hours or more a day! That is insane, not only because of the time demand but also because it will interfere with your resistance training.
Interference refers to a reduction in strength, power and/or hypertrophy when cardio is added to a resistance training protocol. A meta analysis conducted back in 2011 by Wilson, J.M, et al took a look at 21 studies where resistance training was combined with endurance (cardio) training. They found there to be a negative relationship between frequency and duration of endurance training on hypertrophy, strength and power [1]. With this being said, it would be advantageous to try and keep endurance training as short and infrequent as possible while still reaching ones goals. Since HIIT is more closely related to resistance training (than endurance training), interference seems to be avoided when HIIT is utilized.
2- Not Enough High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)
High Intensity Interval Training is a savior for those who hate long boring cardio. HIIT is short, high intensity, and typically is a lot more entertaining then its low intensity counterpart. However, we must understand what high intensity interval training means:
High Intensity = brutal ALL OUT effort.
Interval = 10-30 seconds of all out effort, corresponding with 30-90 seconds of rest or slow pace.
Training = I think you know this one…
Notice the interval duration 10-30 seconds. I hear of people claiming to do high intensity cardio with intervals of a minute, or even worse claiming to do high intensity cardio for 10 minutes straight! It is impossible to truly do any high intensity cardio that is longer than 30 seconds. Can you sprint all out for longer than 30 seconds? I know I can’t. It’s only a matter of time before the sprint turns into a jog and jogging is considered moderate intensity not high intensity. I think if people mess up HIIT it is for this reason. High intensity must be all out effort.
When compared to low intensity cardio HIIT takes less time to burn the same amount of calories, has a greater metabolic effect so you actually burn more calories after training, and unlike lower intensity cardio it does not interfere with resistance training. Seems like a big win for HIIT. However, the goal is actually to find a nice balance between HIIT and LISS. Let me explain.
The reason why HIIT is so effective is because it is creates a lot of stress. It doesn’t interfere as much with resistance training because it closely resembles resistance training and like resistance training, HIIT needs to be recovered from. In most circumstances when the goal is fat loss, HIIT should be the cardio modality added in first. But just like you wouldn’t train a muscle group every day of the week, it’s not a good idea to do HIIT every day either. Start with 2 days ideally separated by 48-72 hours. The next step would probably be to add in some low or moderate intensity cardio and continue that structure working up to a max of 3-4 days at 30 minutes of HIIT. With all that being said, when fat loss is the goal diet is more important than cardio.
3- Not Having Your Nutrition Dialed In
Cardio should not be the main vehicle for fat loss. In my opinion the majority of fat loss should come by way of nutrition. In order to achieve fat loss by mostly nutrition intervention, you will have to avoid a few pit falls.
It is important to understand that calories and macronutrient ratios matter. Eating for fat loss is not just about “eating clean”. The type of foods you eat is not the only thing that matters in terms of fat loss. It is actually possible to gain weight only eating lean means, complex carbs, fruits and vegetables. How? It comes down to caloric intake. If you are eating more calories than you need to maintain your weight, you will gain weight. On the flip side all it takes to lose weight is to eat at a caloric deficit. Obviously this is overly simplistic. If you need more information about caloric intake I suggest you check out my article How to Calculate Calorie and Macronutrient Requirements.
When the goal is fat loss most people do three things that are crucial mistakes:
1- Reducing calories too much: The goal is always to maintain a healthy metabolism. Any fat loss phase is going to cause a reduction in metabolic activity. However, the best way to avoid crushing your metabolism is to slowly and gradually reduce calories over an extended period of time. Do not crash diet. Give yourself enough time to lose the fat. Also a slow gradual reduction in calories has been shown to cause the least amount of muscle loss. There is a reason most natural bodybuilders do six or more month prep phases. Twelve week drastic cuts are a great way to lose muscle.
2- Eliminating carbohydrates: Carbs are the most metabolically active macronutrient. You do not need to go low carb to lose body fat. With my clients I try to keep carbs as high as possible while still hitting weekly fat loss goals. However, carbohydrates are NOT an essential nutrient. What that means is your body can survive without any ingested carbohydrates but the adult brain can only use glucose or ketones for energy. When following a no carb diet, the body must enter a state of ketosis. I talk about why I don’t like Keto Diets here. Bottom line is, keto diets work but keeping carbs in your diet is more effective at maintaining muscle and metabolic rate.
3- Eliminating fat: Fat on the other hand is an essential nutrient which means there are certain fatty acids that your body needs in order to survive. The main problem when fat intake becomes too low is the direct hit on ones hormone production. This leads to lowered hormone levels, which in turn leads to greater muscle loss. Remember our goal is to keep muscle loss to a minimum during a fat loss phase. Have enough fat in your diet to cover the essential fatty acids (supplementing with fish oil can help) and maintain hormone function.
4- Stopping Heavy Lifting
Resistance training performance is the most critical aspect of maintaining muscle when dieting. In order to maintain as much muscle as possible training intensity must be kept high. On top of that progressive overload must still be the priority. The fact is the training program that builds the most muscle will also be the one that maintains the most muscle. The idea that when in a fat loss phase one needs to switch from lifting heavy to lifting light is completely false. High reps do not necessarily cause more fat loss than lower reps. Besides you should not be trying to lose fat via resistance training.
One of the things people worry about when losing fat is losing strength. Yes, when getting ridiculously lean (bodybuilding lean) you will lose some strength. However, you should not lose much strength at all when just dieting to lose a little body fat. In fact, it is possible to GAIN strength while getting leaner. Gaining strength is not the same as gaining muscle. You can get stronger without gaining muscle. This will come down to your training program. As long as you are on well designed strength training program, strength gains can be made, and at the very least maintained.
Conclusion
In conclusion here is my recommendations to lose fat in the most effective way possible:
- Put a priority on HIIT cardio but also keep in mind the stress it causes. A mix of HIIT and Low/Moderate may be most effective.
- Use your diet to facilitate fat loss. Cardio should just be a means to enhance the diets results. Diet smarter not harder.
- Always train to be strong. There is no reason why you need to stop lifting heavy.
Referenced Literature
1. Wilson, J.M, et al., Concurrent Training: A Meta Analysis Examining Interference of Aerobic and Resistance Exercise. J Strength Cond Res, 2011.
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