Column 29 | Fat Loss Made Easy

ANSWER

In order to successfully follow a diet, you have to take several variables into account, which are explained in detail using the following 6 diet building blocks.

BUILDING BLOCK 1: NEGATIVE CALORIE BALANCE

The body only loses weight (especially fat) when less energy is supplied than consumed, which leads to a negative energy balance. The level and extent of the ENERGY BALANCE is therefore instrumental in the breakdown of body fat and determines whether we lose fat, maintain our weight or even gain weight.

In order to achieve a negative energy balance, only the carbohydrate content in the diet should be reduced, while the proportions of proteins and fats should always remain constant, but more on that later.

BUILDING BLOCK 2: THE COMMUTER DIET

The pendulum diet, as the name suggests, moves like a pendulum, up and down. If we change something - for example, eat more or less - the body needs about four days to notice and counteract it. It is not concerned with a beautiful and muscular body, but with sheer survival. If it notices that the food intake has been drastically reduced, it regulates the metabolism down so that less valuable energy is wasted.

This means that on the fifth day you should eat more again to deceive your body and its natural regulation system. The organism now registers that more food is being consumed and sees no reason to slow down the metabolism - the optimal prerequisite for a successful diet.

For this reason, the pendulum diet is always successful if followed correctly and strictly. For your diet, I calculate a value of an average of 3000 kilocalories per day in order to lose fat consistently. The pendulum diet should therefore look like this:

On Monday, calories are deliberately increased drastically to signal to the body that there is an abundance of food and no reason to slow down the metabolism. There is no danger of gaining weight as a result, as it is not the daily calorie balance that is important, but the weekly one.

If your weekly average is slightly negative, everything is fine. You can find more detailed information about the pendulum diet in the article THE COMMUTER DIET (AFTER A. FREY) .

BUILDING BLOCK 3: INCREASE PROTEIN CONTENT

By reducing carbohydrates, the body increasingly attacks its own proteins in order to convert them into energy. It gets these proteins from the hard-earned muscles (muscle tissue is less important for survival than fat, which provides twice as many calories as protein). Protein not only prevents catabolic processes, but also directly intervenes in the metabolism and increases it - depending on the foods chosen. After a meal, there is what is known as postprandial thermogenesis, i.e. an increase in heat in the body that depends on the food consumed. With a high-fat meal, the body temperature rises by just four percent. With a high-carbohydrate meal, the increase is around seven percent, and with a high-protein meal, 20 to 30 percent - four times as much as with carbohydrates and seven times the heat development after a high-fat meal!

* please refer STUDY: PROTEIN INCREASES BASIC VALUE

This metabolism-boosting effect can be used in a diet. BRANCHED CHAIN ​​AMINO ACIDS (BCAAS) , which are best taken in capsule form before and after training and as tablets with meals (so that they can supply the muscle cells for several hours). CASEIN-BASED PROTEIN is also recommended for a diet, as casein stays in the stomach for a long time and supplies the muscles with protein for five to six hours - it is the optimal protein for the evening hours and in between meals when a protein deficit needs to be compensated.

BUILDING BLOCK 4: ADEQUATELY HIGH FAT INTAKE

Many people make the mistake of cutting out all fat when they are dieting - fat makes fat and if you want to lose weight, you should reduce fat as much as possible. I used to think the same way and wasted a lot of diets as a result. The body reacts to the reduction in dietary fat by storing body fat because, as I said, it is concerned with survival and not with the ideals and goals of a bodybuilder.

For this reason, fat consumption is not reduced in a diet, but is kept at about one gram per kilo of body weight The maximum should be around 100 to 120 grams per day.

It is important that primarily polyunsaturated vegetable oils such as safflower, rapeseed and linseed oil are used. Rapeseed oil can be used for frying, but safflower and linseed oil cannot! Linseed oil is a special oil among the three types mentioned and, due to its highly unsaturated content, provides valuable energy that is not used to store fat, but to stimulate the metabolism. FISH OIL is rich in omega-3 fatty acids and is also one of the very high-quality, healthy and metabolism-activating fats. In the article THE BIG FAT REPORT you can read more interesting facts about fats and their sensible intake. If you want to learn more about the properties of omega-3 fatty acids, I recommend the article FISH OILS AND FAT BREAKDOWN .

BUILDING BLOCK 5: SHORT, HARD AND INTENSIVE TRAINING

All too often you hear, "I'm going on a diet and I'm sticking to a rep range of 15 to 20 reps per set so I can burn more calories." But when you're on a diet, it's not about burning as many calories as possible while lifting weights, it's about maintaining as much muscle mass as possible.

Muscle substance is active mass and increases metabolism. Someone who has a lot of muscle mass uses many times more energy, i.e. calories, than an average athlete - the best conditions for successfully following a diet.

For this reason, especially during a diet, emphasis should be placed on heavy and intensive training - with a repetition range of eight to twelve. Advanced athletes can also use the holistic Hatfield principle, but this requires some experience. In the article about the TRAINING METHODS you will find further background information about the Hatfield system as well as other well-known training systems.

Another important point is the length and frequency of training. Many bodybuilders train too often and for too long, following the motto: "If you want a lot of muscles, you have to train a lot!" However, this is a fallacy: after about 60 minutes of training, the catabolic hormone cortisol increases and catabolic processes are initiated. For this reason, training should be short - between 45 and 60 minutes ? be heavy and intense.

BUILDING BLOCK 6: REGULAR CARDIO TRAINING

Cardio is an elementary component of a diet phase. Cardio is also advisable during the build-up phase to strengthen the heart. If you build muscle mass and neglect cardiovascular training, your heart will grow with it, but will not become more efficient. At some point, heart failure can occur - the heart is no longer able to supply the body with its own strength.

However, during a diet phase, aerobic exercise can achieve even more. It can increase metabolism 24 hours a day, seven days a week, even with little metabolically active mass.

It is not about burning fat during the cardio session, but rather to increase metabolism and burn fat afterwards . You don't have to cycle for an hour and a half every day, a well-dosed unit of intensive cardio is enough, which is gradually increased from the first week of the diet.

If you do two 15-minute sessions in the build-up phase, you can increase it to two 30-minute sessions in the diet phase. After one to two weeks, increase it to three 30-minute sessions, after two to four weeks, increase it to four 30-minute sessions, and so on.

A maximum of seven hours a week is not necessary for any bodybuilder - provided that you keep your heart rate between 140 and 160 beats per minute during the session. This means that you have to really sweat during the sessions to achieve anything.

Cardio training can be done either directly after weight training, on days when you don't train, or in the morning before breakfast. If it is done after weight training, it should not last longer than 30 minutes to counteract catabolic processes and the associated muscle loss. In the article AEROBIC TRAINING & FAT LOSS An effective cardio workout is explained using examples and existing myths are dispelled.

Using the 6 diet components from this column and the numerous information on this website, you should easily be able to burn fat effectively and maintain this long-term and healthily until you reach your desired weight. I wish you every success!

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