You may have noticed, as it caused a lot of buzz on TV and the internet, that the Biggest Loser weight loss/reality TV show started up a couple days ago. Some people like the show, some people hate the show – personally I’m entertained by it, but only will watch it recorded on my DVR as there is a lot of the show that is worthy of being fast forwarded through.
Photo by vovva
If you watched the most recent episode and could look past…
- The screaming trainers Jillian and Bob
- The fact that they had a bunch of extremely overweight people who never moved (let alone exercise) race a mile sending two people to the hospital
- All the F-bombs that Jillian now drops (this has to be crafted by the production crew to make her seem more abrasive).
If you can look past all that then you would see what I think is the important message of the show – your mind is the only thing holding you back and you can lose as much weight as you want. A topic that I commonly discuss is the constraints that have been artificially set in regards to weight loss – particularly the speed in which people lose weight. I’m talking specifically the golden rule of losing 1-2 pounds a week.
Whenever you start talking about losing more than 2lbs a week issues of safety always arise but there is no real reason for these concerns. Similar to the ‘protein is dangerous’ argument, losing 3-5lbs of body fat during the course of a week (when done right) isn’t unhealthy. In fact it is the total opposite. You’d be healthier at the end of the week.
Back to the Biggest Loser. You’ll see people on that show losing 10, 15, and sometimes 20lbs in one week! That’s amazing. Is it unhealthy? Aren’t they better off 20lbs lighter?
At some level there is a time issue that we all need to deal with. The contestants on the Biggest Loser live to workout and eat. I remember reading somewhere that that Biggest Loser contestants burn between 6,000-7,000 calories per day. Most of us don’t have that luxury. So how can we maximize the time we spend in the gym in order to burn the most calories possible and how can we construct our diet to further enhance these effects?
Just the other day I wrote about ways to guarantee that you don’t lose any muscle while dieting; those tips will also maximize your weight loss. To recap, you need to:
- Reduce the amount of carbohydrates that you eat.
- Increase the amount of protein that you eat.
- Add heavy weight training to the beginning of your workout.
There are two more pieces that you can add to your training to get your over the ‘losing only 2lbs a week hump’.
Metabolic Circuits and Fat Loss Finishers
Today’s we’ll look at Metabolic Circuits and tomorrow Fat Loss Finishers.
Metabolic Circuits are essential to really crank up your weight loss because they have been shown in research studies to increase the total number of calories that you burn over the 38 hours following your workout. Since you aren’t on the Biggest Loser and probably can’t workout 5-7 hrs/day tweaking your metabolism so that you burn calories when you aren’t exercising is key.
We use metabolic circuits in Warp Speed Fat Loss but as with the how to lose body fat and not muscle tips, I’ll show you how you can use it with just about any training program.
Here are the 4 important characteristics.
- You want to lift ‘heavy’. By heavy I mean that you aren’t going to use the pink dumbells and go through the motions like you are doing a circuit at Curves. This is very different. You’ll do sets of 8 or 12 reps; at the end of each set you want to be almost going to failure (lifting until you can’t lift another rep). This is not the time to save anything for the next set. Treat every set as if it were the only set you are going to do and stop one rep short from not being able to do anymore.
- Do at least 2 exercises in sequence. In Warp Speed Fat Loss we use metabolic circuits that contain 2 exercises. But you can also do circuits with 3 or 4 exercises.
- Go for time. Metabolic circuits are ‘self regulating’ in that you do as much work as you can. Do as many sets as you can within a give time frame. 10 minutes is a good place to start.
- Do better each time. While there isn’t a target number of a sets that you should do, strive to do more sets/reps each workout. Push yourself to burn more calories each workout and you will be greatly rewarded by burning more calories after each workout.
Add Metabolic Circuits to your training program. Follow these 4 guidelines combined with a solid fat loss diet and you will be rewarded with weight loss of 3-6lbs per week. If you would like a professionally designed program (containing metabolic circuits) with a matching diet optimized to help you lose 20lbs in a month then check out my Warp Speed Fat Loss Program.
Have you used this type of training before? Do you like/hate the Biggest Loser? Post a comment and let me know what you think.
Mike–
I like your stand and appreciate you putting out there. Good stuff that will definitely
help kill the dogma and ultimately help our people lose body fat!
How do you incorporate the metabolic circuit. As replacement for cardio or as a replacement for traditional resistance training?
Mike,
You wrote that "Metabolic Circuits are essential to really crank up your weight loss because they have been shown in research studies to increase the total number of calories that you burn over the 38 hours following your workout." Is this the same as when people speak of EPOC or a separate phenomenon? I ask this because I have read that EPOC is about 8-15 percent or so (depending upon activity intensity) of the total kcal expenditure during the chosen activity. As such quite a number of writers claim that any metabolic boost is not nearly as significant as it is made out to be. Not being engrossed in all of the research leaves me slightly confused as to which is closer to the reality of the situation.
Just curious if you can add some more clarity. I do not mean to come across as argumentative, I am just somewhat confused by what seems to be a back and forth between claims about significant metabolic boosts for 1+ days after certain types of activity and other claims that such impacts are largely overblown.
Hi Mike,
Thank you for posting this. You philosophy totally resonates with mine and have been telling people for years the exact same thing. Now I have another article to back it up.
Aloha,
Kathy
I am with you on "The Biggest Loser"! I have a friend who's a trainer and she loves the show. I can't get past the way people are treated. And NOW the language…there is no need for that kind of treatment for anyone…
I have never done the Metabolic Circuits but I am a fan of resistance training…just my 2 cents.
What do you know/think of HCG for weight loss?
Good Post Mike as always. My one complaint with the Biggest Loser is that it focuses on weight loss as opposed to body composition. It reinforces the old "success by scale" mentailty. We'd all be a lot better of if we used the mirror and did simple bofy fat analysis (plus a journal).
EPOC might be slightly overblown. . .or as Mike and Alwyn like to call it, "The Afterburn Effect." I agree with Jack, EPOC, "as studies test it" doesn't seem like it would be as beneficial as we make it out to be. However, MET does work. Some say that the lactate produced during these MET Circuits can trigger GH which is lipolytic. Not sure exactly what happens, but they do work. I'd say it's more of a hormonal advantage that you get when you do MET, and remember, hormones govern fat loss. . .