Lean Bodies Consulting

Newflash!

I just wanted to point something out about nutrition and training with the end goal of fat loss. (and I emphasize fat loss since that’s what we’re concerned primarily with; not just losing ‘weight’ for the sake of losing weight …. right? RIGHT?)

You know, the only way for nutritional strategy to work for you is if you actually follow it. Make sense? I sure hope it makes sense.

You can’t expect a diet, no matter how well designed it is, to work, if you don’t follow it - whether that means changing it in such a way that you’re eating too much, not eating enough/skipping meals, secretly cheating and eating off plan too much, etc.

Same goes with exercise - if you have a plan you’re following, follow it. Don’t go adding 2 hours of extra cardio when it’s completely unnecessary. and arguaby stupid.

And then when you do all that (the deviations that is), don’t stop and think your plan, whatever that may be, doesn’t work. It’s you that doesn’t work.

A plan is useless without execution.

So remember that vet appointment Dexter had on Saturday? The $300 one? Well, it turns out he had a reaction to one of the drugs they gave him. The skin around his eyes started drooping, his head was swelling and he was getting these little bumps all over his face/head. Plus he was throwing up. Of course, the vet was closed by the time this happened so we had to take him to the animal emergency (another $100). They gave him a couple shots and the reaction seemed to subside. That was a bit of a scare. He’s still throwing up today though so whatever they gave him sure didn’t agree with him. Poor guy.

So a few days ago I talked about ‘doing it a little differently’ in terms of my current approach to training for fat loss – for myself. You can either scroll down a bit or read it here.

Today I’m going to continue along those lines and talk about what I’m doing with my nutrition right now. Now, when I say I’m doing it a little differently right now, this just refers to my previous dietary approaches to fat loss – again, in myself. However, the doing it a little different angle is definitely applicable to what seems to be the common and current nutritional ‘wisdom’. Basically I’m referring to the prevailing practice of low, or at least lower, carb diets.

Now in myself, I am neither a low-carb guy, a high-carb guy or even a carb-cycling guy. I don’t believe in the labels as I feel nutrition needs to be catered to the individual and this is based on a proper assessment of the individual’s needs, circumstances for lack of a better word, dieting history, etc.

If I were to label what I typically tend to do in myself, it would be that of rather moderate carbs, with training days getting more than off days, which for me is a reflection of the fact that on days I’m training, and when I say training, I am only referring to lifting weights, my carb requirements are higher. Remember that carbohydrates are not essential per se, but they are conditionally essential with the condition being exercise intensity. I also ‘time’ my carbohydrates to periods of the day that are typically characterized by a heightened responsiveness to carbohydrates – namely the morning hours and the hours surrounding my workouts.

As I mentioned above, it seems that most people equate eating for fat loss with a low-carb intake these days. Even those who say it doesn’t matter what you do, still tend to be on the lower side of carbohydrate intake. And then you also hear that you need a certain amount of fat (I’ve seen all sorts of recommendations per pound of bodyweight) as well.

What am I doing? Not that. My diet is high carbs and very low fat. In fact, with the exception of six 1000mg fish oil capsules per day, I am not consuming any direct fat – no oils, no nuts, nothing. Of course, I get incidental fat in things like oatmeal, chicken, etc., but again, no direct fat. While I don’t particularly care for macronutrient percentages, (since they’re truly irrelevant and you can read my general thoughts on them here), to give you an idea, my diet is nearly 50% carbs. And to be honest, when you stop and think about it, it’s still not THAT high; it’s just that it’s not low. I eat carbohydrates in every single meal of the day, except for my final meal of the day.

Not only do I feel great, I am finding dieting to be an absolute piece of cake right now. Carbs are fun. Results? I’m getting leaner, and maintaining, if not gaining strength. Bodyweight is stable and in fact slightly up. Muscles are always full, gym pumps are great, my arms are more vascular, etc. My carbs are coming from oatmeal/berries, shredded wheat, potatoes, sweet potatoes, flavoured rice cakes and my favourite - the mini rice cakes that come in all sorts of super salted flavours. Piece.Of.Cake. Coupled with my high training volume, my carb intake pretty much suits what I’m currently doing. My off day (yeah, I’m only taking one right now) is just as high in carbs as my training days as well.

My point is simple - don’t get locked into the rigidity of the ‘established’ rules. Low carb is popular right now and has been for a while now, but there was a time when low fat was just as popular. It’s not how everyone has to do it. Individual assessment. How do you handle carbs? Do you feel great? Energetic? Sluggish and lethargic? Bloated? There are clues as to what approach to take in the answers to those questions. Where do you store your body fat? Relatively evenly distributed? Lower body dominant? Abdominal dominant? There are clues there as well.

I believe it was Lyle McDonald (although I could be wrong) who said that any diet that’s not retarded should work. Generally speaking of course.

The basics:

Set calories at a deficit (the most important element of any successful nutritional approach)
Set protein based on bodyweight or lean body mass
Get your EFAs (ie. fish oils)

From there, the X factor is what to do with your carbohydrates and fats, and this is where the fiddling, tweaking and adjusting based on your own feedback is important.

Carbs for the win!

Heavy chest and light quads up tonight.

Ok, I’m going to start being more regular with the blogging now - since I’ve gotten on the cases of some friends for not keeping theirs updated. For the times I don’t really have much of interest to say I’ll just talk to myself and journal my training/dieting, etc.

So as I mentioned in a previous post I’ve been dieting for a while. Came down from the mid to high 230s and was sitting at 220 when I went on vacation. As you might recall from my vacation summary I hammered those buffets and hit a high of 232.5 post vacation, which settled down a few pounds lighter a few days back into the more normal eating. So at this point, I’ve been back and ON for 2 1/2 weeks and as of today I’m back down to 220.

Normally I’m a once-per-week cheat type of ‘dieter’ and anyone who knows me, knows my cheat of choice is Friday night pizza. Well, over at Lean Bodies Fitness, we have a little informal ‘Five Weeks - No Cheats‘ thread going. A bit of an accountability challenge if you will. I of course am participating and am 100% still. Why five weeks? No specific reason. I chose that time frame because it was the time remaining from the day I started the thread until the Junior USAs, where Noel and some other clients and friends of mine are competing. What’s really neat is how many people jumped on board as you can see if you haven’t already seen the thread (over 700 replies already). Lots of mutual support there. And what I have found quite interesting is the results of committing to such a ‘challenge’. There are people participating who admittedly have adherence problems at times and to some degree … and yet, they are rocking their plans and showing NO signs of letting up. This to me simply proves that if you want it, and you try, you can stick to it. The proof is right there in that thread. Anyone and everyone can stick to their plans if and when they WANT to. To those that are kicking butt in that challenge, keep it up. Half way there.

For me, and a handful of other people that will be in attendance at the Junior USAs, it’s going to conclude with what will likely be a caloric onslaught. And then it’ll be right back on plan the next day. I’d imagine for our group there’s going to be tens of thousands of calories at our disposal as Amy, Noel, Cindy, Ileen, Lyn and I think even Kevin, are all baking and bringing stuff. I’d say Elizabeth too, but she admittedly doesn’t bake much (sorry Elizabeth :lol:) I doubt Scott (Noel’s husband) will be doing any baking either. His specialty is supposedly protein shakes, bu there will be no room for protein shakes on that day. I’m personally not one for sweets, although I’ll be sure to partake, but I’m simply looking forward to pizza! It’s been too long.

Erik

Now that you’ve decided to take control of your metabolism and have adjusted your calories to maintenance levels, you want to maintain this level of calories for at least two weeks. Then once things are humming along again, you can return to a caloric deficit. Might you gain some weight at maintenance? Maybe, but some will surely be water, muscle glycogen, etc. Basically nothing to worry about – easy come, easy go. Again, long term versus short term thinking. You need to correct the problem before you can move past it. Two weeks at maintenance will make further fat loss much more likely when you return to your caloric deficit. Chances are you’ll start feeling a lot better though, and you’ll have some great workouts.

There are many great, yet underused fat-loss strategies out there. Planned periods at maintenance eating can be found near the top of that list. Remember, the purpose of the two weeks at maintenance calories isn’t to maintain; it’s to make the subsequent calorie deficit more effective at fat loss. Think of it as a ‘resetting of the system’. Then you hit your deficit again and presto, more fat loss.

With a slow metabolism you can generally assume somewhere in the neighbourhood of 14x bodyweight is going to approximate maintenance calories. It might even be a bit lower depending on how severe your caloric deficit has been and for how long, but keep in mind that metabolism is only going to slow so much. It doesn’t shut off. These maintenance numbers are an approximation, but so are the more complicated equations that can be used to determine caloric requirements.

After the two weeks at maintenance are up, you return to your caloric deficit. However, this time take a moderate approach and shoot for approximately 12x bodyweight in calories. If you’re female and a bit lighter in bodyweight to begin with, you might need to start lower in order to create a sufficient fat-burning caloric deficit. Stay there for a couple weeks, assess your progress, and make adjustments as needed. If you’re getting leaner and your measurements have decreased, stay there. If you’re not, try decreasing calories by another 10% and reassess again two weeks later.

Remember, these caloric recommendations are just approximations; they’re starting points. Everyone is a bit different, so the key to long term success is being able to trouble shoot your program. A quick closing note on that very topic. If what you’re doing isn’t working, doing it longer isn’t going to make it suddenly start working. If it’s broken, fix it. If your program is not netting you any fat loss, you need to make some adjustments to your program. Don’t keep spinning your wheels doing something that is no longer working for you. Getting the results you’re after? Stay the course. Not getting the results you’re after? Make changes.

There is no reason to continually suffer the effects poor prior fat-loss efforts have had on your metabolism. There is no reason you should have to suffer a permanent sentence of stalled fat loss. Planned periods at maintenance calories are the key. However, there’s more to this strategy than simply repairing a slow metabolism. They can and should be used periodically throughout your fat-loss phase to promote continue fat loss. A periodic resetting of the system will go a long way to maintaining healthy metabolism and and continued fat loss.

Do you find that no matter what diet you try or how much exercise you do, you just can’t seem to lose fat anymore? Were you once pleased with your fat-loss progress, but now find yourself staring this big, ugly plateau in the face?

Nothing seems to work for you anymore and you’ve tried it all - high carbs, low carbs, fat burners, low calories, session after session of mind-numbing cardio. That flab isn’t going anywhere.

Frustrating, isn’t it? It’s like a brick wall standing in your way.

Your problem may be a damaged metabolism–a very real phenomenon - caused by prolonged dieting. I know that may sound scary, but it’s not as bad as some people make it out to be. With all the extremely low-calorie eating and hours of cardio that some people do day in and day out, it’s actually very commonplace. Rest assured, you’re not alone.

And I’ve got some good news for you. There’s a pretty simple way to repair your sluggish metabolism. Contrary to popular–albeit ill-informed–opinion, metabolic “damage” is not permanent and metabolism does not shut off. Yes, it can slow down, but this is actually a normal and expected response when you’re eating sub-maintenance calories.

There is a physiologically-based adaptive response that the body undergoes when eating in a caloric deficit. The hormones that govern metabolic rate and fat loss respond in a way that serves to preserve bodyfat. And the effect is magnified the leaner you get (which is often associated with the longer you’re trying to lose fat). End result? Slower, if not altogether stalled, fat loss. No matter how good your nutritional program, if you’re eating in a caloric deficit, your metabolism will attempt to adjust accordingly.

Ok, enough of the whys. How do we get that metabolism humming again? First off, you need to lose the short term thinking and adopt a longer term mindset. This is critical.

Even though this might go against ‘common wisdom’, you’re going to have to eat more, at least for a little while. Yes, you read that right – eat more, not less. You might find it hard to wrap your head around this concept, but trust me, it’s necessary. However, just ramping right up to an appropriate caloric intake isn’t necessarily the right approach for everyone. There is more than one way to approach the repair but I’d suggest you do it in steps - systematic and regular increases. This has the benefit of one, allowing you to gradually get used to eating more food, two, potentially preventing some fat regain, and three, maybe even causing some fat loss. So one approach is to determine how much you’re eating on an average day and then take your present intake and just add 10-20% to it every few days until you hit maintenance calories.

Christmas Holidays. What’s one of the first things that pops in your head when you think of the Christmas holidays. I don’t know about you, but besides the obvious quality time spent with family, it’s good food, baked goods, and Christmas dinners.

There’s always the jokes about the 5-10lbs people gain over the holiday season. Some people simply adopt an attitude of ‘hey, it’s Christmas. I’ll get back on the wagon in the New Year.’

What about you? Do you have a strategy for finding the balance between your physique goals and the holidays? A way to balance out your fat-loss focused eating strategies with enjoying the holidays? The key to long term success is adopting a lifestyle mindset. That is, this is not a ‘diet’ that ends. You’re eating for a way of life and doing so means being able to incorporate holiday eating into your plan.

There’s no doubt that the holidays present a unique set of challenges what with all the delicious holiday baking that goes on in so many households. And I bet that a number of you go through the whole guilt trip set of feelings when you eat a little more than you should.

You not only feel guilty for allowing this to happen - you might even fear that these choices will undo all the hard work you’ve put into getting in shape. Sound familiar?

Let’s just put that one to rest right off the bat. Unless you really go to town, you’re simply not going to have to worry about doing much, if any, damage to your progress. Remember, we want to adopt a lifestyle approach and that means learning ways to enjoy the fun of holiday eating.

My most oft given advice when it comes to vacations, holiday eating, and all events similar is to first control the meals that you have control over. So, just because there’s a lot of freshly baked cookies in the house, doesn’t mean you have to have cookies to wash down every meal. Just because there’s a lot of Christmas food made doesn’t mean that you have to throw your whole day of eating out the window because you know that come dinner time, you’re going to be feasting.

Control the meals you have control over. Stick with your plan for the meals you can.

The second part of the advice I give is to simply control the portion sizes of the meals you can’t control. It’s that simple. As I wrote about in my Top 10 Not-So-Obvious Fat-Loss Mistakes free report, one of the most often made dieting mistakes is not respecting the fact that quantity trumps quality when it comes to calories. So, even if you’re enjoying some off-plan food, how much of it you eat will be the biggest determinant of the effect that off-plan eating has on you. Exercise portion control? Have a normal serving? You’ll be fine. Overeat more often than you should be? You’re going to experience a step or two back as a consequence.

Be mindful of how much you’re eating.

Go in with the intention to adhere to your plan for the majority of your meals. However, since it’s the holidays, make sure you also allow for both flexibility and forgiveness while also being realistic and the expectations you place upon yourself.

No matter how well you may have something planned - there is always the chance that something may happen to offset your plans. Over the holidays you have to have a plan. If that means factoring in and planning to have a few extra cheat meals, then so be it.

What about your results? Again, a few meals here and there aren’t going to do anything to negate the results of all your hard work. Especially if you’re paying attention to the size of your portions and how much you’re eating as I suggested above.

It’s the constant partaking in large quantities of holiday treats that’ll catch up to you. And you end up here only when you allow yourself to by ignoring the choices you are making and the impact it is having on you physically and emotionally.

Give yourself permission to enjoy yourself. When it’s well thought out and logical you’re less likely to overeat as when you feel as if you’re actually caving in and cheating and doing something forbidden.

Maybe your plan is to simply maintain over the holidays. If you typically put on a few pounds of fat over the holidays, then even this is a huge victory for you. Keep active with your workouts, spend most of the time eating what you’re supposed to be eating, and then factor in some extra off-plan food. Factor it in. Don’t try to be perfect or near perfect over the holidays, because it’s an unreasonable expectation and it doesn’t fit into looking at this as a lifestyle.

That said, I do firmly believe that even with the planned holiday eating, you can still continue on the course and continue to see some nice results over the holidays. Again, it all comes back to going in with a plan and making a commitment to yourself. Go in prepared.

Take responsibility for your actions! If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. If you go in without a plan, if you don’t exercise some degree of self control, if you don’t control the meals you have the control over, and you subsequently put on more holiday pounds than you should, then it’s your own fault and you’ve got no one to blame but yourself.

Merry Christmas

I’m sure many of you, who have signed up for the 12 days of fitness promotion, already have received a copy of the 22-page report I did on the Top 10 Not-So-Obvious Fat-Loss Mistakes, but if by chance you haven’t, you can get it here,

Top 10 Not-So-Obvious Fat-Loss Mistakes

I think you’ll enjoy this report as it serves as a very good overview of my philosophy on fat loss.

Once you get through it, I’d appreciate any feedback you may have. I hope you find it beneficial. If you do, perhaps share the link with some friends as well.

One of the biggest dieting mistakes a person can make is not using an ‘outcome-based approach’.

Think about it. If something is broken, you fix it right? Well, what do you do if your training and nutrition program stops producing the desired results? You think you’re doing the right thing; you’re eating well, you’re lifting weights, you’re doing cardio, and everything seems correct on paper … but for some reason, the results just aren’t coming like you thought they were. Or maybe they were, but they’re not now.

What do you do? Keep plugging away? Common sense would seem to say no. Why continue on doing something that’s not working? Yet, this is what a lot of people do; they just keep plugging away, and they keep spinning their wheels.

Listen, if what you’re doing isn’t working, doing it longer isn’t going to make it suddenly start working. Your program needs some trouble shooting and you need to make some changes to it.

What’s an outcome-based approach? It’s really quite logical. What you do is based on the results of what you’re doing. Getting the results you’re after? Stay the course. Not getting the results you’re after? Make changes. See? Common sense, and yet oddly in practice, not a strategy many people in pursuit of fat loss pay attention to. I’ve come across many people who have been dieting and training for months with little to no results. Barring some undiagnosed physiological issue and assuming your adherence to your program is above 90%, this shouldn’t happen.

I think the best time line to monitor your results is biweekly (every two weeks); it’s long enough to see if what you’re doing is promoting any physical changes but not so long, that if you’re not getting results, you’ve wasted a lot of time. If there are no changes in two weeks, adjust your program. Reassess your caloric intake. Perhaps you need to lower calories by another 10%. Perhaps you’re actually undereating and need to raise your calories.

Look to your diet first; don’t automatically assume you’re not doing enough cardio because more than likely, you already are. Nutrition will trump exercise every single time. Remember, you can’t ‘out-exercise’ a bad diet.

Ok, as I said yesterday, I was going to try to update frequently and figured my training updates would serve as some easy ones.

I’ve been on my current plan for about 6 weeks now. Strength gains have been good and consistent, but my overall size gains have been less than optimal. I chalk that up to the inability to eat enough food. Being in the mid to high 220s generally means I need to be eating a lot of food to see the scale start to move up, and I haven’t been doing so on a consistent basis; partly due to a lack of appetite and partly due to simple laziness. So in a sense, for no good reason at all, so the lack of gains are my own fault. I’m committing to eating enough *every* day now.

On that note, contrary to what many seem to think, muscle gain is not an easy process. Well, technically I suppose it is from a requirements standpoint - sufficient tension with adequate volume, and enough calories to support the muscle building process. I think it’s that last part that makes it difficult for many and is why more people don’t make bigger gains in size and strength. Add to that the fact that it’s a slow process, often annoyingly slow. Even a 1-2lb of gain of actual muscle tissue a month is a solid 12-24lbs a year. Sounds huge over the course of a year doesn’t it? But in the span of a month? It almost sounds disappointing.

A lot of people - people who talk about wanting to gain muscle and lose fat simultaneously - fail to realize that building muscle is an extremely energy-intensive process. You’re eating in a caloric deficit, which to your body is a stress in itself, as evidenced by the fact that your body adjusts levels of the various regulatory hormones in an effort to adapt to your lower caloric intake and preserve bodyfat. Yet in many cases some of these people are after big strength and size gains as well, and are confused when they’re not coming. Your body is simply not going to go wasting calories to support an energy costly muscle building process … all the while trying to survive an energy shortage.

Now this isn’t to say it’s not possible, but if you’re reasonably lean, it likely isn’t going to happen unless you’re brand new to lifting heavy, focusing on compound lifts, etc - basically lifting properly. If you’re carrying a significant amount of bodyfat, your chances however, are greater.

Having a great body isn’t always about just getting the fat off. You could diet down, have a nice low bodyfat percentage, and suddenly realize that while you’re definitely in shape, you’re in dire need of some muscle - maybe some bigger shoulders, wider lats, bigger legs, etc.

And here’s when it gets difficult. You’ve finally gotten all the fat off, and now you can give yourself an honest assessment. You realize, ok, I need more muscle. Alright, so let’s get to it. Time to hit the gym hard and get strong. But wait, what about my food? And here’s the road block. If you’ve been dieting for a long time, focusing on fat loss, shifting gears and raising your calories - in many cases significantly higher than what you’re used to - is tough. BUT, it’s necessary. There are simply no two ways around it. If you want to grow, you need to eat. Period.

Maintenance calories … maintains, so that doesn’t cut it. Now that’s not to say you should just go hog wild and eat an unreasonably high amount of calories, but you definitely need to be eating enough to support the muscle building process. So, calories need to be over maintenance and yes, that means you’re going to gain weight. It’s not a bad thing, it’s necessary. Muscle is weight. And likely the hardest part for some people? Women especially? The fact that yes, you’re likely going to gain at least some bodyfat. I know, you’ve just worked so hard to get it off. I’m not saying you have to get sloppy, but if you’re not eating enough to gain at least some bodyfat, you’re likely not eating enough to gain any muscle (I believe I first read that comment from Kelly Baggett). No one’s partitioning ability is so good that their body diverts all extra calories towards muscle growth; some will head on over and take residence in your fat stores.

Again, just to reiterate, that’s not to say you ever have to get sloppy. Everyone has their limits and their degree of comfort. So eat, and gain until you’ve reached your limits of comfort and then simply shift gears and diet some of the fat back off and then get back to the muscle building process. Just like you’re not going to wake up one morning, look in the mirror and find yourself suddenly shocked by how big and jacked you are with all that new muscle you built over night, you’re also not going to wake up one morning and suddenly be too fat.

Anyway, that turned into a lot more than I planned …

The take home point is that if you want to get bigger and stronger, you simply have to make sure that you’re eating enough to allow for it to happen. It’s simply not going to happen to any significant degree while you’re trying to lose fat.

I think I’ll take my own advice and go eat now.

Here’s a Q&A I recently did for a website called www.ptonthenet.com

It was about Female Fitness Competitions

Question:

I am looking for information on training programs and requirements on fitness competitions for women. I would like to know how to prepare routines for maximum results to be achieved along with some diet tips for caloric intake to maximize the “shredded” yet toned physique.

Answer:

While the judging criteria for fitness and figure competitions continues to evolve, a few of the common denominators that all judges look for are symmetry, proportion and a certain degree of muscularity and conditioning. It’s in these latter two areas that the criteria seems to be constantly changing, which sometimes makes it hard to know exactly what “package” to present. The move has been towards women who carry slightly less overall muscle yet are still muscular and who are lean but not as lean as their bodybuilding counterparts. From a development standpoint, the key areas for this class of competitor are the shoulders, lats, glutes and legs. Of course, everything should be developed appropriately, but these are the key muscle groups that optimize that “illusion” the judges seek.

Much of what goes into successful training programming for a competitive fitness or figure competitor is similar to what goes into effective programming for dieting and training for a physique competition in general. Assuming the individual already has the development she needs, the goals of resistance training while dieting are to preserve muscle mass and strength while allowing the nutritional strategy and cardio programming to drop body fat. To that end, there needs to be a strength focus in training.

When training for fat loss, it’s a good idea to stick to upper/lower splits or full body programs. Even for the competitor, there is no great reason to use a bodybuilding split when you stop and think about the goals for resistance training while dieting for fat loss – namely, to keep the muscle and strength you’ve built.

You’ll also want to avoid a lot of high rep, low load training while dieting. Your body already has a limited capacity to recover due to a lack of fuel when on reduced calories. Light weights while in caloric deficit will likely run the risk of more muscle loss, especially the leaner you get. What builds muscle is what keeps muscle, and if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it. A person trying to lose fat needs to give her body a reason to hold onto the muscle, and this requires her to be training above a minimum intensity threshold.

To sum up training a competitor for a physique competition, the basic points to be cognizant of are:

• Focus on maintaining (or building) strength in the big, compound exercises. This will go a long way to preserving muscle mass in a caloric deficit.
• Keep a strength focus to your training. Make sure there is work being done in the four to six rep range (again, with compound exercises). Even just a few sets (two to three) in this range will go a long way.
• As recovery is impaired on reduced calories, resist the urge to do more when you should be doing less. Avoid a lot of the high rep, low rest, isolation/fluff type exercises. Contrary to popular media, this is not a good strategy, and dieting and trying to maintain muscle mass is not the time for this type of training. It tends to result in muscle loss. Let the nutrition plan and the cardio plan take care of fat loss.

Keep the following points in mind with cardio programming:

• Cardio is an adjunct therapy. Much of the fat loss should come from nutrition. Don’t overdo it. Look to optimize nutrition before adding more cardio.
• Do not over use low intensity steady state cardio. It is a good way of topping off the energy expenditure, but don’t fall into the trap of endless steady state sessions.
• Utilize sprint intervals. They’re great for reshaping the lower body and are both a superior and more efficient means of achieving fat loss than steady state cardio.

Nutritional points to be aware of include:

• The most important thing is caloric intake. There has to be a caloric deficit to lose fat. This deficit can come from exercise, nutrition or a combination of both. So, the first thing is to set calories appropriately. A good place to start generally is 12 times total bodyweight. Monitor the person for two weeks, and if she is progressing at a satisfactory rate, stay the course. If fat loss is not occurring, reduce calories by about 10 percent and reassess two weeks later.
• Set protein anywhere from one to one and a half grams of protein per pound of bodyweight.
• Ensure adequate omega-3 fat intake (six grams of fish oils a day is adequate).
• The rest of the calories (beyond getting protein and your EFAs) are variable. But generally speaking, lifting days get more carbs and rest or cardio days get less carbs.
• Use nutrient timing strategies. Time carbohydrate intake to the periods when they’re best utilized (i.e., in the early hours of the day and the exercise and post-exercise period). At other times, keep carbohydrates low (as they’re not needed) and focus more on protein, vegetables and healthy fats.
• Continue adjusting calories as the individual gets more lean. Reducing carbohydrate intake can be one effective strategy in the latter parts of a contest diet.
• Don’t cut calories too much or too soon.

Good luck!

Erik