Fitness Affiliate Articles | Fat Loss | Muscle Building

by Christian Finn 

If you’ve been reading this newsletter for any length of time, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of any workout routine that combines cardiovascular (e.g. cycling, walking or sprinting) and resistance exercise (e.g. weight-training).

In fact, I’ve talked about this subject so often that I’m worried you’re getting annoyed at me right now for bringing it up again. That’s why the headline about cardio and weights not being the best way to lose fat might have come as a surprise.

Part of the reason I wrote it was to get your attention. But I also wanted to emphasize the fact that exercise is only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to burning fat and building muscle.

Before I explain exactly what I mean, here are two examples to illustrate my point.

STUDY #1: In this study, conducted at Penn State University, a group of women took part in a 12-week program of diet and exercise [2]. The women were assigned to one of four groups:

• The first group served as a control group, and did nothing.

• Group two followed a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet.

• Group three combined the same diet with regular aerobic exercise.

• The fourth group also followed the same diet, but added aerobic and resistance exercise (weight training).

As you might imagine, all three groups lost weight.

• The diet-only group lost 13.6 pounds.

• The diet plus aerobic exercise group lost 15 pounds.

• The women combining diet with resistance and aerobic exercise lost 15.4 pounds.

However, the loss of fat was greatest in the women who combined a low-calorie diet with aerobic exercise.

In fact, the women who trained with weights actually lost 3.7 pounds of muscle.

STUDY #2: The trial, published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, tracked a group of 31 women during a six-month exercise program [1].

At the beginning and end of the study, body fat levels were measured using a sophisticated technique called dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA for short).

The program consisted of 90 minutes of exercise (weight-training, running and military drills) five days each week.

Despite the fact that the women exercised for more than seven hours each week for six months, they lost only 5.7 pounds of fat. That’s just 0.2 pounds per week.

What do both of these studies have in common?

None of the women in either trial were following a decent diet.

In study one, total calorie intake was too low (7 calories per pound of body weight). What’s more, 70% of those calories came from carbohydrate, leaving just 15% for fat and 15% for protein. It’s no surprise they lost so much muscle.

In study two, the women were not told to change their diet, and could eat what they wanted.

The bottom line

If you want to lose stubborn fat, then exercise alone — be it weight-training, cycling, Pilates, or the so-called “core-stability” workouts that seem so popular at the moment — won’t be enough. You’ll need to eat right too. If you want to make this the year when you finally get the body you want, now’s the time to take a closer look at your diet.

For more information, see How to burn fat without losing muscle in the Members-Only Area. Alternatively, download a copy of Tom Venuto’s excellent book Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle. There’s some great information in there about what and when to eat, as well as easy-to-follow fat-burning exercise programs that work.

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