Stair Training and Fat Loss

Can taking the stairs at work help you burn off excess fat? Let's take a look. Now if you are talking about the politically correct garbage about walking up the stairs, parking your car farther away from the door, and so forth....

This WON'T get those extra 20 pounds or more off your body. If you are currently exercising and use these strategies to help increase your overall calorie burn, however, this can certainly help.

My office/studio, which is set to open soon, is located on the first floor of an old brick school building. The restrooms are located in the basement, which requires me to go down a long flight of stairs to the entrance and then down a shorter set of stairs.

After being there for several hours, I go up and down these stairs several times throughout the day. Glad I'm not on the second floor!

In addition to my normal workouts, this stair climbing adds up at the end of the week, as far as extra calories burned.

Athletes have long done stair workouts as part of their training routines and now fitness bootcamps have incorporated stairs into their fat loss workouts. Taking two steps at a time as you walk or run up the stairs, can be a great exercise for the hips and thighs.

For those of you on the fast track to fat loss, the overall intensity of the workout is going to boost your metabolism and help you burn fat after you are done exercising. Programs like Turbulence Training will help you get the job done.

For others, your overall activity, such as doing a lot of walking all throughout your day, like a mail delivery person, can help burn calories. If this sounds more like your speed, you might want to read my article on Obesity and the Amish in the April portion of my other blog.

To go to my blog Posture and Movement, click here.

Fat Loss Q'n'A

By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
www.TurbulenceTraining.com

Q: How fast can I lose weight while using a truly effective fat loss program? Can I lose 10 pounds in a weekend like some of the diet plans claim?

Answer:
Doctors recommend losing fat at a rate of 1-2 pound per week. At the end of a good 12 week program, you can expect to lose 12 pounds of fat. But since you didn't gain the fat overnight, you also won't lose the fat overnight. Commit to long term goals and enjoy the process of developing proper nutrition and exercise habits.

With one of those "10 pound weight loss juice diets", you might lose some weight, but it won't be fat. And you'll quickly gain it back. Those are just too good to be true.

Q: Do I have to do crunches and sit-ups while on this program?

Answer:
No you don't. Crunches and sit-ups are not the best way to lose fat. To lose fat, you simply need to eat properly, avoid excess calories, and use fat blasting intervals/cardio. In fact, crunches and sit-ups can stress your spine, so I like to use "spine-friendly" core training exercises (the Ab curl, plank, side plank, and bird dog) as an alternative method for training your mid-section. And you can do those all at home without fancy pieces of equipment. All you need is your bodyweight.

Q: But I'm a full-time worker and mom. How do I fit exercise into my day?

Answer:
Try to commit to at least 30 minutes of exercise per day.

If you are a beginner and stressed for time, simply do three 10-minute bouts of exercise per day. Heck, you could even do six 5-minute walks per day. Everyone can fit that in...

If you can devote a full 30 minutes straight to exercise, you can alternate between strength training and cardio training days if you are limited to 30 minutes. However, if you can get an hour of time 3 days per week, perform both cardio and strength training together.

Beginners should start with several 5-minute blocks of exercise each day. After all, everyone can make room for 5 minutes of exercise. Once you move into more serious workouts, you might need to experiment with different exercise times so that you can workout without disrupting your family's events. Fortunately, there is no magic exercise time. As long as you are consistent, you will get results.

Many people have had great success by getting up early and doing the workout before everyone else gets up. Alternatively, you can do it after the kids go to bed or during a break in the day. Schedule your workout like any other important appointment so that you don't neglect the exercise sessions. You'll find that the exercise will give you more energy throughout the rest of the day.

Q: What do I do if I can't get to the gym?

Answer:
You won't even need to go to the gym to lose fat. There are dozens, if not hundreds of bodyweight exercises you can do at home. And the workout potential is exponential if you have a couple of dumbbells at your disposal. There are hundreds of dumbbell exercises you can use to sculpt your body.

Q: Hi, I'm an overweight woman (180 pounds) and I was wondering if I should still eat 1oz of protein per pound?

Answer:
Hi, first, just to clarify its grams per pounds, not ounces. Second, here are the limits from Dr. Chris Mohr found in the TT Nutrition Guidelines...

"Since women have less overall lean body mass than men, they won't require as high an amount of protein each day (0.8g of protein/lb of body weight will suffice). This value is still in line with the recommendations for strength trained athletes. For obese individuals, just as with the calorie estimations, the protein calculations will also be over-estimated.

Therefore, in my opinion, I would put women at a maximum of 150g of protein per day and men at a maximum of 200g of protein per day. Because being obese does put them at risk for diabetes, this would also impact kidney health, so obese individuals don't need the additional urea being filtered through if in fact they do have diabetes."

Q: I'm new to the whole "working out thing". What is Turbulence Training? How would you describe the workouts?

Answer:
Turbulence Training is combination of more effective methods (Strength training and interval training) to help men and women get more effective fat loss results in less workout time.

TT uses supersets and interval training because they are time-saving methods. The workouts also only use the best exercises so that clients don't spend more than 3 hours per week in the gym.

Get in, get out, get lean,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training

About the Author

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men's Health, Men's Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines and all over the Internet, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit www.TurbulenceTraining.com

The Top 5 Fat Loss Myths

I recently attended a weekend seminar with fat loss expert Craig Ballantyne, where I learned plenty of great information. I can also say that Craig is an awesome person, as well.

Here is an article written by him.

By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
www.TurbulenceTraining.com

There are so many fat loss myths out there in "exercise-land" that I was hired by Men's Fitness magazine to write about one myth each month.

After all, by now you've probably heard that if you don't do
60-minutes of cardio in your fat burning zone on an empty stomach while Venus is in line with Jupiter, you'll never burn fat.

The problem with myths is that not only are they wrong and give false hope to millions of people trying to lose weight, but they also waste your time and mental effort.

I have also seen these myths used as justification for cheating on
a diet, watching countless men and women justify their "treats"
because they believe they are on some type of magical exercise
program or nutrition plan.

I could go on for days about fitness myths, but I cut my list from
30 down to the Top 5 Fat Loss Workout Myths today. I'll save the other 25 for future newsletters.

Myth #1: You have to do cardio first thing in the morning on an
empty stomach.

Relax. You don't have to hop on the treadmill at 4:30am every
morning. Let's allow common sense to dictate when and how you exercise.

If you want to work out first thing in the morning, and I know that is the best time for many TT readers, by all means, go ahead and do it. There's nothing magical about this time - although it is often the only time many of day many people have to themselves.

We need to think "outside of the hour" of exercise and realize that calorie burning and fat burning goes on for 24-hours. Forget about the theories and look at the big picture.

It doesn't matter when you exercise - as long as you exercise
intensely and consistently. Focus on relatively high-intensity
workouts to increase your metabolism for as many hours after
exercise as possible. That is best done with interval training and
resistance training.

Myth #2: You have to do your cardio in your "fat burning zone".

Again, nonsense.

While you might burn a larger proportion of total calories as fat
when you exercise in your fat burning zone, you burn fewer calories overall by exercising at such a low intensity.

When you increase your workout intensity and get out of your
so-called "fat burning zone", you burn more total calories, and as a result, more fat.

In addition, the "fat burning zone" training doesn't put
"turbulence" on your muscles...so you don't burn many calories in the post-exercise time period. But with interval training, you burn a significant amount of calories for hours after training, and
that leads to more fat loss.

I've worked with hundreds of people that have avoided the fat
burning zone while still managing to lose dozens of pounds of fat.
The "fat burning zone" is one of the biggest fitness myths of all
time.

Myth #3: You have to do cardio for 20 minutes before you burn fat.

When I hear this, I picture a fat-burning switch in my body that
turns on only after I've been doing "cardio" for 20 minutes. But
what if I only exercise for 19 minutes and 59 seconds? Are
you telling me that I won't have burned any fat? That's ridiculous.

What if I did it on an empty stomach in the morning and in my
target heart rate zone? (read that one sarcastically!)

I'll say it one last time. We need to be more concerned with our
24-hour metabolism, not how much fat or even how many calories are burned during the workout.

Myth 4: Drinking ice cold water will help you burn calories and
lose fat.

Standing in line at the grocery store is a great place to pick up
the latest fat loss myths. You'll also find this one all over the
Internet.

This myth often comes along with some calculations showing that by drinking 8 glasses of ice-cold water you can burn 70 calories per day. I don't believe that actually holds true in real life. Regardless, drinking cold water is not going to burn any more fat off your body than drinking room temperature water.

Don't get me wrong, I strongly believe you should drink 12 glasses of water per day, but the temperature of your water won't have any effect on your overall fat loss success.

Myth #5: Adding one pound of muscle will burn 50 extra calories each day.

Uh-oh, now I'm cutting down a myth that supports my use of strength training in a fat loss program. But I have an obligation to set the record straight about this extremely prevalent myth (even though I just saw a big name fitness expert perpetuate this myth in a recent article!).

This myth sounds so good. Add a pound ouf muscle, boost your
metabolism 50 calories. That doesn't seem out of line at all.

But do the math for a guy that puts on 30 pounds of muscle. Does his metabolism really increase by 1500 calories? Absolutely not. For an average guy, that would require his resting metabolism to increase from 2500 calories to 4000 calories per day. How would he be able to keep any of that muscle with a metabolism like that? He'd have to eat like a pig forever.

So when you look at the big picture, you can see this little myth
start to fall apart.

That's not to say you should stop your strength training, but just don't use this myth as an excuse to cheat on your diet.


Bonus Myth: Negative Calorie Foods Cause You to Lose Weight

According to the "experts", a negative calorie food requires more energy to digest than it provides you when you eat it. And included in the negative calorie food list are apples and bananas.

So by this logic, I would actually starve to death if I had nothing
to eat but apples (because I would have a net energy loss from
eating a so-called "negative calorie" food).

There is no such thing as a negative calorie food.

It's a shame that people are out there promoting this stuff, and
it's too bad that so many people fall for it.

Remember the old phrase, "if it sounds too good to be true, it
probably is."

Instead, let the common sense fat loss principles apply. It's going to take consistent effort, working hard at your workouts and with your nutrition to get the results you want.

I guarantee you that Turbulence Training will successfully
guide you to the fat loss you deserve and desire.

Sincerely,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training

About the Author

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men's Health, Men's Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit www.TurbulenceTraining.com

Interval Training for Fat Loss:

What's interval training and how does it help you burn more fat? Glad you asked. Interval training involves doing brief periods of work at a fairly high intensity, followed by short rest breaks and repeated periods of work.

For example, running hill sprints. You would sprint up a hill at a reasonably fast pace, walk back down the hill and after a brief rest, sprint back up for the desired number of repetitions.

How does this burn more fat? Simple, when you do interval training, you work at a higher intensity than traditional jogging, where you usually run at the same speed.

This higher intensity increases your oxygen intake greatly, as you breathe deeply to supply oxygen to your muscles in between bouts of activity. This type of activity creates an effect known as EPOC - Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption.

Meaning, after you are done exercising, your muscles continue to burn calories at an increased rate. You turned up your fat burning furnace - increased your metabolism.

When you do traditional steady state cardiovascular exercise, whether jogging or walking on a treadmill, when you are done, your metabolism goes back to its pre-exercise state soon after. Almost all your calorie burn comes during the actual exercise.

However, when you do interval training or strength training, your metabolism can remain elevated for several hours afterwards, on up to about 24 hours for a particularly intense interval or weight workout.

But what about the fat burning zone you ask? Doesn't exist! It is a misinterpretation of the research that says that you burn a higher percent of fat at a lower percentage of your max heart rate.

At higher intensities, your overall calorie burn is greater and that is what is more important - overall calorie burn. So interval training can help you burn more calories and thus reduce your fat levels, unless you enjoy those 60 minute sessions on the treadmill or stationary bike.

Thats so boring that healthclubs have to put TV screens in front of you and give you access to headphones to try to make you forget how mind-numbing it is!

When doing steady state aerobic work, your body adapts to this fairly quickly and becomes more efficient at it. You don't want this kind of efficiency when you are trying to burn the most calories possible.

Think of it this way, does your car burn more gas in town, when you are constantly stopping and starting, or on the highway, when you are driving at the same speed most of the time? Efficiency is a good thing on the highway, but not what you want when trying to lose fat.

You can also perform your weight training in an interval fashion, where you perform two exercises back to back, with little or no rest in between. This would allow you to get more work done in a shorter period of time, increasing the number of calories burned and keeping your metabolism high for several hours afterwards.

If you do your weight training and your cardio together, just make sure that you do the resistance work first and then do the cardio. If you do the cardio first you will burn stored carbohydrates for fuel and then during the weight training, you will use protein from your muscles for energy, which is not what you want to do.

If you are exercising more than 4 hours a week and you are not training for competition, you are exercising ineffeciently if your goal is fat loss.

Several studies in the last few years have backed up the fat burning claims of interval training. One which was just published looked at one group that did steady state cardio 3 times a week for 15 weeks versus a group that performed interval training for the same time period.

The steady state group lost no fat, while the interval group did much better. Both groups probably would have done better though, if strength training was added to their fat loss programs.

If you would like more information on fat loss workouts, click here.