Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Stephen Dutra on September 13, 2009 at 5:10pm

Might I suggest doing your weight training first. This gives you the benefit of being at full strength for all lifts and allows you to spend the majority of your energy on lifting. When your done lifting your body is of course warmed up and the blood is flowing. This would be the time to hit the cardio as you already burned up a decent (depending on how you lift) amount of energy, your body will still need fuel and should turn to fat reserves.

Another thing is to do cardio first thing in the morning without eating anything (water is fine). Because your body is still in a fuel deprived state from not intaking any nutrient for 8 hrs it will have to turn to fat to burn for fuel. There's a reason the military does all their PT in the morning upon waking up.

Might I ask what do you normally do for cardio?

Permalink Reply by Mark Cannon on September 13, 2009 at 7:25pm

Thanks Stephen. For cardio, I will do the tread mill for 30 minutes. (Includes warm up and cool down time.) Also, when I said alternate, I meant that I do one on one day, the other on the next. I haven't been doing them together. I'll have to try that. I don't have a lot of time in the mornings, I may have to make some adjustments. Good suggestion though; thank you very much.

Permalink Reply by Dutchman on September 14, 2009 at 2:42pm

Mark in my experience the only way to truly lose fat is proper Diet and exercise.
I would suggest you follow a Strict method of eating... Pick up the book called Fat Flush
http://www.annlouise.com/fat-flush/overview/the-fat-flush-plan-over...

I followed her diet after losing 40lbs from 200lbs to 160lbs. But I still had a bit of a spare tire above my belt line on my back. I did the fat flush...STRICT... and lost the rest. I was in the zone of eating right and exercise so I gave it a shot. It is not easy. It is very difficult to follow it strictly.
This diet is also a cleansing diet.
It is a four week plan:
No Salt
No Alcohol
No Caffeine
No Sugar
You basically cook with low salt veg broth or low salt chicken broth and you eat alot
of course vegetables along with fruits. You also eat a surprising amount of hamburger.
Afterwards I felt great.
After the initial four week cleansing diet, you bring in healthy carbs. The author also has a great website
to continue to eat properly.
The reason I suggest this is that if you are working out as much as you claim... then its what you eat that is keeping the fat on you.

Permalink Reply by Mark Cannon on September 14, 2009 at 4:19pm

Thanks for the suggestion Dutchman. I'll take a look at that web site. I have cut back on fats & sugar, but I haven't cut out the salt and caffeine. (I don't drink alcohol to start with.) I will take a look at it. Thanks.

Permalink Reply by Sean O Donovan on February 27, 2010 at 3:56pm

Check out 'Eat Stop Eat' by Brad Pilon, Book about fasting...
These days I fast once a week just to keep healthy and it feels great!
If you have doubts, read the book, its worth it if you ask me

Permalink Reply by Ed Reynolds on March 1, 2010 at 1:53pm

I have seen Brad's philosophy on TurbulanceTraining.com. The first time I tried it, I felt physically sick and shied away from it. But on the second time, did not feel as bad and am thinking about giving it another go. I don't think I can go a full 24+ hours without anything (I might take down a smoothie shake or some grapes or whatever halfway through).

I'm also looking to drop a few more pounds.

Permalink Reply by Mike Norris on March 2, 2010 at 11:38am

Mark,

You may also want to get you testosterone levels checked. In fact it's not a bad idea to get checked for and vitamin or mineral deficiency as well. All of this can contribute the problem that you are having.

Permalink Reply by John M on March 2, 2010 at 3:57pm

Mark,

I had great success doing the P90X DVD routine for losing bodyfat. At a conservative estimate, I dropped around 20lbs. I've been able to maintain that with a powerlifting routine which emphasizes compound exercises (many muscle groups firing at the same time), and eating a clean diet (minimal processed foods, eating good quality fats, minimal empty calories etc..) As far as cardio, I tend to do low intensity cardio post lifting (15 minutes or so). I used to run a whole lot, but found it was limiting my gains in the gym, so I have decreased it significantly. A good source for tweaking your nutrition in order to get the recomposition you are looking for is a gent named Alan Aragon. He has some rather simple but effective strategies around getting the right mix of protein/fat/carbs to get yourself to the shape you are interested in. He has a thread at bodybuilding.com that I have been following for some time.

Permalink Reply by Mark Huband on April 2, 2010 at 12:59pm

Hey Mark, I agree with a lot of the points people have made in reply. I would also like to add that if you are holding a lot of fat around your stomach and lower back the problem may be hormonal. The two main hormones im talking about are cortisol and insulin. If you have low insulin sensitivity it is difficult to burn the fat in that area. Good foods to improve insulin sensitivity are cinammon, apple cider vinegar and fish oils. In terms of cortisol try and reduce stress as much as possible and make sure you are getting quality sleep. In terms of workouts I would try a resistance circuit with short rest periods. An example would be weighted lunges followed by chin ups followed by planks followed by squat thrusts. Of course there are many further examples. If you would like more let me know. I also like the previous poster's idea of early morning fasted cardio maybe 3 or 4 times a week. Finally your general diet should be mostly comprised of lean proteins, healthy fats and low glycemic carbohydrates. Avoid starchy carbs and estrogenic producing substances like alcohol and soy should also be avoided. Hope this helps

Permalink Reply by Michael Duncan on May 20, 2010 at 8:26am

You should also work on eating foods that won't spike you insulin, and create a tolerance. Insulin is the hormone that controls your fat storage, a constant flux of insulin cause by foods like, sugar, grains, and legumes will create a tolerance in your fat storage to insulin, thereby making it very dificult to use your fat for energy. Basically the body is sending the message (via insulin) to release your fat stores for energy, but the storage facilities never get the message!

Try this and see, go for a week or two eating mostly meat and veggies, no beans, starches, grains, or sugars. With sugars I'm even talking about limiting your fructose intake. Maybe an apple a day, or orange a day but not with every meal. This fructose restriction, BTW, is only temporary for while you're trying to loose fat, fructose while more easily metabolised and with less effect on your insulin levels is still sugar.

It's been mentioned that estrenogenic foods like soy can also prevent you from loosing fat. If you're eating traditional 'health' foods you're probably eating way to much soy (any soy is to much IMHO), soy contains copious amounts of limiting capacities that will severely hinder your ability to loose fat AND gain muscle. Check out this article at food renegade on soy.

Permalink Reply by Pete Noy on April 2, 2010 at 1:08pm

Mark - I'm right there with you (49). It definitely seems to be harder as we age since our metabolism tends to slow down. Basically food that we ate just 10 years ago is heading to our fat stores now since we are burning less calories during the day. The best method is to increase the amount of calories you burn. Two schools of thought I've heard is that building muscles will help since the same amount of muscle burns more calories than a like amount of fat. Other school is that increasing cardio will help burn these excess calories. While you cannot be expected to run all the time or live on a treadmill, there are things that will definitely help throughout the day. For me it is taking the stairs instead of the elevator and talking a quick 15-20 minute walk during lunch. This has definitely helped.

Permalink Reply by Paul Corvid on May 13, 2010 at 10:12am

Just turned 45 and my gut is nearly gone, I am ecstatic! Low-carb, cycling, isometrics and improvised weights. I am reading up on more advanced stuff. Once I started getting real results motivation was no problem.