by Tom Venuto
1) Lose Fat Slowly: 1-2 lbs per week.
2) Don't Do Low Calories All The Time - Use a Refeed Day Regularly (carb cycling)
3) Use Nutritional Periodization - Do seasons of bulking up followed by seasons of fat loss dieting .
Now, I will present certain strategies that will allow you to keep the lost fat off permanently!
4) Develop a Long Term Perspective and Set Long Term Goals. If you have a lot of fat to lose and you want to lose it permanently, you need to set up some long-term goals for your nutritional "seasons." Otherwise, your body is going to fight back.
I know dozens of people who did phenomenally well on before and after "transformation programs," only to quickly gain back all of the fat they lost. Do you want to diet for 12 weeks, look great for a week or two then slip right back where you started from, or do you want to get lean and stay lean?
Here's the reason so many bodybuilders gain weight back: They only had a 12-week goal... short-term time perspective... No long-term goals... Failure to develop goal setting as a lifelong continuous discipline... Failure to develop nutritional and training disciplines as habits… All fatal errors.
Every season or "nutritional macrocycle", you must strive to improve on your previous best by setting new goals. Goal setting is not an event; it's a never-ending process. Isn't this what any world-class athlete does? Doesn't the Olympian strive to beat his record at the last Olympics? Run faster, throw farther, jump higher? Doesn't that require a very long-term time perspective? Can't you apply this concept in your own bodybuilding training - even if it's just for health, fitness and recreation? Wouldn't this keep you motivated for years at a time instead of just doing one "12 week program" and then slipping backwards to square one? Couldn't this bodybuilding mindset for constant and never ending improvement in a seasonal fashion keep you motivated for life? Of course.
Six Fat Burning Bodybuilding Strategies that No Fat Cells Can Resist (Continued)
5) Re-set Your Set Point (a.k.a, turn down your "fat thermostat"). When I was in college, my body fat usually hovered around 15-16%. (Yes, I confess… I did drink my share of beer in college). I lost the "beer belly," of course, dropping my fat down to the mid single digits. However, I always seemed to slide back where I started (16% or so). It seemed like that was a natural "set point" for me…kind of like my "fat thermostat" had the dial locked in at 16%.
One day, I finally got wise and I decided to set a long term goal to get better every year and maintain a lower off-season body fat every year. First 14%, then 12%, then 10%, and finally, today, I don't allow myself over 9.9% at any time. I refuse to go to double digits and I'll tighten up my bodybuilding diet or add cardio the second I notice myself slip.
In bodybuilding competition season, I decided that 6-7% wasn't lean enough, and I strived to beat that, which I did, hitting 6%, 5%, 4% and eventually as low as 3.4%.
Basically, I raised my standards of what was body fat level was acceptable to me during the off season and for competitions. I vowed to improve both.
I disciplined myself and stopped "bulking up." After I made this commitment, then each year it got easier to lose the fat because I wasn't putting myself under prolonged periods of dieting stress to get there; I was already close, and starting closer every year because what I had done - unbeknownst to me at the time - was re-set my set point.
I'm sure you've heard of the "set point" theory before. This is the genetically pre- determined level towards which your body fat tends to naturally gravitate. The good news is, you can lower your set point through nutritional discipline, increasing your lean body mass, dieting in seasons/cycles, setting long term goals, and raising your standards in terms of how much body fat you are willing to carry.
A lowered set point won't happen overnight. It doesn't happen by the day or week, it happens by the month and year, and is achieved by setting higher standards for how lean you're willing to stay for prolonged periods of time.
6) Watch Your Internal Dialogue: Become Your "I Am's". If you want to lose body fat, then why would you walk around all day long saying over and over again, "I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't lose this stubborn fat?" Why say, "I'm fat?" Why affirm the negative? Why would you do that to yourself? Over and over the tape plays in your head… programming your subconscious… building your belief systems… forging your paradigms… directing your behavior… creating your own reality.
Why not visualize your ideal and affirm the positive?: "I am getting leaner and leaner every day!" Do not dwell on your present condition. Dwell on your future vision. Refuse to use the term "stubborn fat" again. Never say, "I can't lose this fat." Do not look at localized fat as any different than other fat on your body. Understand that it was the first place on, and will be the last place to come off - but it will come off - if you do it the right way.
Conclusion
Usually articles on "stubborn fat" discuss "breakthroughs" in transdermal delivery systems, adrenergic agonists, alpha-2 receptors and lots of other scientific stuff. I've read papers on this subject that were so scientific, you'd need a medical dictionary to translate them. The so-called experts list dozens of references and write overly technical articles for an audience they know damn well has only a seventh grade reading level and couldn't give a whiff about anything except seeing their abs. However, they do it anyways to make themselves look like almighty, all-knowing "gurus" and to sell worthless products. The reality is, these really aren't even articles - they're advertisements for "spot reducing" gimmicks
Listen; there is nothing complicated or overly scientific about the process of fat loss - even the last 10 pounds. Sure, there are proven products such as thermogenic supplements, but they don't work miracles, nor are they spot reducers. There's no such thing as spot reduction. There's no such thing as stubborn fat - it only appears that way for lack of understanding about the way the human body and mind work.
To lose fat steadily without plateaus - right down to the very last fat cell - all you have to do is work with your body's inherent nature, not against it. It may not be easy, but it's simple and 100% predictable. Embrace the challenge, expect success, use what you've just learned, and in the long run, you'll agree that the rewards were well worth the effort.
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