Review Burn The Fat

Okay, I did quit, but not the fault of Burn The Fat

2008-10-29T18:24:00.000-07:00

Contrary to my last post I did quit!

Through no fault of Burn The Fat, but instead it's my own fault for getting busy in other areas of life and ignoring my goals. On the good side, I've only gained back 4 lbs.

The great thing about this program is I can just resume where I left off instead of restarting some complicated diet.

Goals
1. Resume blogging Burn The Fat.
2. Resume healthy eating according to Burn The Fat guidelines.
3. Resume exercising at Court South.
4. Get to bed earlier.
5. Stop late night TV garbage munching, but have healthy food available at this time.

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No, I did not quit!

2008-10-01T13:32:00.000-07:00

WOW, it has has been a long time since I added to this blog. Burn The Fat has been working for me. I have now lost 10 lbs. I would have lost more, but I had family in town all last week and ate a lot of junk and did not exercise. I will be back on track with the strategy that I outlined earlier in this blog.

I will update my reading also.

Chapter 13 / Water, Water, and More Water

2008-09-08T20:20:00.000-07:00

What would you say if I told there was a substance that could almost instantly
increase your muscle contractile strength by 10-15% and increase your capacity for
prolonged aerobic exercise by 20 to 30%?

Burn The Fat has the secret that it is plain old water. Okay they say it is not a secret because everybody knows this, but too many people ignore it!

Chapter 12 How to get bodybuilder lean with a twist on the low-carb diet.

2008-09-08T19:53:00.000-07:00

Well it looks like there is a place for the low-carb diet.
Burn The Fat does not recommend a low-carb diet for long periods but does support a type of low-carb diet for certain circumstances.

When would you consider a low-carb diet?
Only after mastering the basics.
1. Eating fewer calories than you burn
2. Properly balancing your macronutrient ratios
3. Eating five or six meals per day, properly timed
4. Eating lean proteins with every meal
5. Eating the right types of carbohydrates and avoiding refined sugars
6. Eating low fat and choosing the right types of fat
7. Drinking plenty of water
8. Eating natural, unrefined foods

If you have mastered the basics, still need a boost then you might be ready for lowering your carbs to kick in extra fat loss.Burn The Fat explains why this is helpful and how to go about properly dieting for maximum results. There are only 3 reasons to diet this way and you will get it in this chapter.

There are some pretty strong cons for this type of diet and 8 of them are listed in chapter 12.

Ketosis results from extremely low-carb diets, but is that safe? Bodybuilders use low-carb diets for short periods of time and only for exteme reasons.

Learn how calorie-tapering may be one of the best eating methods for losing fat.

What is carbohydrate cycling and why does Tom believe it is probably the most
powerful fat burning strategy on the planet.

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Chapter 11: Are Carbohydrates Fat Loss Friends or Fat Loss Foes?

2008-09-03T13:20:00.000-07:00

Should I go high-carbs, or low-carbs, or balanced carbs, or no-carbs? There is so much confusion about carbs and how much you should eat.

So what does Burn The Fat have to say about carbs?

How much should I eat? What exactly are carbs and what do they do for me? Are some carbs better than other carbs?

There are fibrous carbs , processed, natural, simple, and complex carbs. How am I supposed to keep all of this straight? Very nice and detailed breakdown explains all these questions and much more.

Carbohydrates are the bodies fuel, but according to high-fat diet experts, fat is a better fuel. It is true that fat is more concentrated, but is not nearly as healthy as good carbs. Fat is stored in the body as FAT. Carbs are stored in the body muscles and liver as glycogen. Your body uses a mix of carbs and fat for fuel. If you are low on carbs and high on fat you will have less energy.

An active person simply cannot maintain activity with too few carbohydrates.

If you don't know the difference between carbs, then you will definetely benefit from the detailed information on food types. A number of food types are discussed to show you what is healthier.

This is a really great chapter! I've only touched on the subjects he discusses. There is pages and pages of good info on carbs.

You do not want to skip this chapter!

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Chapter 10 What You Need To Know About Protein.

2008-09-03T12:22:00.000-07:00

Want to know the difference between essential and non-essential amino acids?
Me neither, but if you do you will get the details right here in Chapter 10.

How much protein do you need daily? Did you know that your body does not store protein and if you do not eat enough then your body will take the protein from your own muscles. This is why bodybuilders eat protein every three hours. They do not want any muscle to disappear after all the hard work gaining muscle.

This chapter explains why animal proteins are much better than vegetable protein. You will also find out here why food protein is so much better than protein supplements.

Can a vegetarian become a bodybuilder? Bill Pearl became Mr. America and Mr. Universe and never ate meat. A true vegetarian probably could not have done that, but Bill was a lacto-vegetarian, so he did eat dairy products.

Burn The Fat explains in detail exactly the amount of protein you should be taking in daily and explains the formula for getting the answer.

I have always thought that high-protein diets were very bad for you, but according to Tom there is absolutely no proof to support this. If you already have kidney problems then a high-protein diet is problematic, but NO studies have been done to support this with people who have healthy kidneys.

It is true that too much protein will dehydrate you, so it is recommended to increase your water intake if you are taking more than 30% of your diet in protein.

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Holiday Binge!

2008-09-02T16:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Labor Day and that means lots of BBQ! I worked out in the morning and then ate a ton of smoked sausage at night. Drank way too many cokes. I quit alchohol years ago so that didn't factor in. I probably doubled my calories yesterday, but am back on track today.

Calorie Counting

2008-08-30T12:51:00.000-07:00

I asked my library for the book recommended by Tom Venuto for counting calories, but it is not in yet. In the meantime I have been using Calorie King. Pretty cool website. Google it.

End of Week One

2008-08-30T12:12:00.000-07:00

I've hit the end of week one following Burn The Fat, and I haven't even finished reading the whole book yet. A serious amount of reading, but also a serious amount of excellent information.

I posted my personal body stats at the beginning of the week and have already had improvements.

Start 228 lbs
One Week 224 lbs
I did not tape measure. I'll wait one month for that.

I have been eating 6 small healthy meals a day consisting of carbs 50%, Protein 35%, and fat 15% as close as I can count. I've been keeping my calories at about 2000 per day. Today I cheated with 24 oz of Coke and 3 oz of Pringles. That's a suprising 800-1000 calories, and all junk calories. Even one week of eating right is enough to feel the "yuck" that you get after one junk meal.

My energy has gone up and my blood pressure has gone down. I have stopped taking tums because I don't have heartburn.

Blood pressure last week 142 over 92
Blood pressure this week 130 over 80

I went to the gym 4 days this week and did 20 minutes each time of machine weight lifting the major muscle groups. I did 20 minutes of treadmill doing one minute of walk, then one minute of jog, then switch. The last day I did one minute of walk to two minutes of jogging.

Next week I will start with a split program.

Monday and Thursday
30 min cardio
Abs/ Chest / Triceps / Shoulders / Calves

Tuesday and Friday
30 min cardio
Abs / Legs / Biceps / Forearms / Back / Calves

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Chapters 8 & 9. More on food and metabolism.

2008-08-26T16:00:00.000-07:00

A calorie is not just a calorie. Why can one person eat 2500 calories a day lose fat and another person eats 2500 calories per day and gets fatter? Because the type of calorie you take in is just as important as how many calories you take in. So what calories are good calories and what calories are bad calories? Burn The Fat goes into extensive detail on the type of calorie you should be eating and how you should mix the different food types for maximum benefit for losing fat.

- Why are high carb diets bad?
- Why are low carb diets also bad?
- Should I mix protein and carbs with each meal?
- Why the Atkins diet is no good.
- What is the ultimate meal combination for muscle gain and fat loss?

Learn the 8 Reasons Why You Must Eat Protein and Carbohydrates at each meal.

What are “Macronutrient ratios” and why should I care?
The “Zone Diet” made meal ratios a household word, but was it correct? No according to Tom an other experts. Find out why.

Find a better alternative to the ratios set by the “Zone Diet”.
- Find the right mix of carbs and protein.

Great discussion on the “Eat to Win”, “Atkins Diet”, “Protein Power”, “Sugar Busters”, and many more.

Burn The Fat show how to get the right meal ratio for your particular body type using the “3, 2, 1 Method”

Chapter 9. How To Speed Up Fat Loss.

Did you know that there are fats that heal and there are fats that kill?
How do I know which one is which? Read Chapter 9.

This is great chapter with examples of specifically what fat to eat and what fat not to eat. Are “Fat Free” snacks good for you? What about the sugar and calories?

Why does a low fat or no fat diet send us into binge mode and we down a whole gallon of ice cream? No fat or too low fat will cause your body to increase insulin output and you will crash to low sugar levels. At that point willpower goes out the window and Krispy Cream is the only answer.

What about High Fat Diets” The Eskimos live without fruit and vegetables, eat huge amount of fat, and seem to be very healthy. Logic says that if it works for them then it will work for us. Well, it might if we were willing to eat large amounrts of fish and whale blubber. I’ve never heard of an American willing to make that sacrifice. Instead we choose foods that are hydrogenated, deep fried, and highly processed till nothing of nutritional value is present.

Next Action Item

2008-08-22T19:14:00.000-07:00

Now I know that I need to eat between 5-6 small meals per day at about 3 hour intervals. Each meal must have protein at about 400-450 calories per meal. I should have my calore book by tomorrow and will set up a meal plan for next week to eat 5-6 meals per day. I need about a total of 2300 calories total per day.

I'm going to try and change my schedule also. Usually I go to bed around midnight and get up by 6 am. I'm going to shoot for bed by 11pm and get up at 5am.

I will be going to the gym Mon, Tue, Thu, and Fri.
30 min of weight lifting and 30 min of aerobic for the first week.

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Chapter 7. How often should I eat?

2008-08-22T18:38:00.000-07:00

Why is it that some people can eat all day and seem to get skinnier and other people eat only 3 times a day, do aerobics like crazy, and seem to stay the same or even get fatter? Doesn't seem fair does it?
Burn The Fat, says that the reason is because you are not paying attention to your metabolism. Eat smaller meals every three hours and watch your metabolism go through the roof! Eat larger meals only 3 times a day and watch your metabolism go turtle slow. Get your body into shape and you actually become a fuel burning machine, like Michael Phelps who was reported to eat 10,000 to 15,000 calories a day during the 2008 Summer Olympics. Tom says that eating 4-6 healthy meals a day will be the single best thing you can do to lose the fat. Eat every 3 hours and you will see serious fat loss! The key is in the time it takes to digest the food which allows your body to use the food to its maximum benefit and will speed up your metabolism. Eat more than 7 times a day and you will not get proper digestion and your body will not use the food to maximum benefit. Bottom line is if you spread out your calorie intake you will burn he calories more effectively.

Look for the 7 reasons why frequent meals are critical?. Very detailed!

Did you know that a Big Mac, Fries, and Coke will be over 1000 calories in one meal?
Eat solid foods instead of supplement liquid meals. Why? Read the book.

Great advice is given on how to plan your meal schedule ahead of time to account for a busy schedule. Even a few recipes for healthy foods that you can prepare ahead and eat when you want or need.

Very Important Tip: Never skip the protein! You may not get enough calories that adding carbs would get, but don't skip or you will lose muscle.

What's interesting is that eating more frequent smaller meals is not a new concept, but Burn The Fat does a great job of explaining why and how to do it.

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What did my personal trainer say?

2008-08-21T11:33:00.000-07:00

Okay, I don't have a "personal" trainer, but I did meet with one today at Court South. We talked about my goals and then determined how we would reach them if I hired him to be my trainer. Ronnie was very personable and very detailed on what my goals are and what would be important to my success. He measured my body fat digitally and I am at 28.3% body fat. That's a lot of fat in my book! I told him that quick burst activities is my weakest area and that I will get winded in minutes. He put this to the test by having me do just a few plyometric exercises. I would rather run 10 miles than do 10 minutes of Plyometrics. They are tough! My son can do them for hours thanks to sports and years of martial arts. Not his old dad. :-)
Ronnie is with a company called Custom Built and seems to really know his stuff. He also made it clear that at the club was another trainer who could help if he couldn't. I did not choose to sign up for a program with them at this time since I am doing Burn The Fat, but I will keep his card in case I need someone to kick my butt if I slack off.

WEll,.. now back to the book!
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My Next Action Item!

2008-08-20T07:38:00.000-07:00

Buy a book to help me count calories.

Counting calories sounds about as much fun as having my teeth pulled. But,...I will follow the system because I want the results!
Burn The Fat recommends
Corrine Netzer's, The Complete Book Of Food Counts".

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Chapter 6. Calories, Calories, And More Calories

2008-08-20T07:19:00.000-07:00

Do you really know what is a calorie and how it affects losing fat?
You will after reading chapter 6!

The Law of Energy Balance:
To lose weight, you must burn more calories
than you consume each day.
To gain weight, you must consume more calories
Than you burn each day.

Oh that's simple,...duh!!
Well, not really. I think everybody knows this law, but has a really hard time finding the balance that leads to healthy living.

-Can I eat ALL the food I want as long as it is healthy food?
-Will I burn more calories eating 3 regular meals or 5 smaller meals?
-How many calories should I be eating every day?
-Is counting portions just as good as counting calories?
The answers are in Burn The Fat.

Everything you need to know about calories is in Chapter 6!

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Chapter 5. What Body Type Am I?

2008-08-20T06:39:00.000-07:00

Time to talk about Body Types. I already know mine, it's the "I'm completely out of shape,fat belly, skinny legs, run out of breath going to the mailbox" type. According to Burn The Fat that makes me pretty much average joe.

Chapter 5 has a great discussion on the "10 major genetic variables that affect fat loss, muscle development, and athletic ability". Did you know that how our muscles attach to the bone explains why some people are naturally stronger than others? I didn't, but I do now.

Tom Venuto explains the 3 basic body types:
Endomorphs
Mesomorphs
Ectomorphs

Because few of us actually fit exactly in one body type there is a 7-point scale to show us the combination of body types we are. This is great information to better understand why we all respond differently to the same exercise and food. Burn The Fat gives detailed training tips and nutrition advice for the different body types.

Pages and pages of great tips on maximizing your fat loss depending on your specific body type. According to this chapter I would be considered an Endomorph with Ectomorph limbs. If you don't know what that means,...get the book!

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Gentleman, start your engines!!

2008-08-19T15:08:00.000-07:00

Let's get this thing rolling! This is where the rubber meets the road!

I have a long way to go to read this whole book, but at this point I have enough to start following the advice already given.

1. Eat Right. I know that starving myself is not good. I don't yet know what Tom recommends I eat since that won't come till a later chapter. He did recommend what he calls (grazing) or eating smaller meals more frequently during the day. No specfic food type recommendations yet, so I will eat much of the same foods I already eat.

2. Exercise. Discussions on what exercises to do and how often will come in a later chapter, so I will go with what he has already suggested. 30 minutes of aerobic exercise and I will do it 4 times a week to start. I will use a treadmill and bicycle and keep track of my heart rate so that I will know what level I need to keep it at. It hasn't been discussed in the book yet, but I peeked at a later chapter.

3. Record Progress. I have an appointment with a personal trainer at Court South to evaluate my present condition and what I need to do to get into shape. I'm hoping that he will be able to determine my body fat. I'll learn in a later chapter what body measurements are important, but here is what I know at this point.
Weight 237lbs
Height 6 feet
Bicep 15"
Neck 17 "
Forearm 12"
Chest, 47"
Waist at belly button 45"
Waist below bellyroll 38"
Thigh 23"
Calf 16"

Goals I only have a few goals at this time.
1. Lose 40 lbs of body fat.
2. Increase exercise endurance. I get winded right away.
3. Reduce fast food intake and eat more whole foods. Eat 4-5 smaller meals per day instead of the 2-3 big meals with a junk food binge at about 9pm.

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What do I think about Chapter 4 of Burn The Fat

2008-08-19T13:55:00.000-07:00

Tom Venuto details 7 Steps for a fat loss success system that never fails. Once again he relies heavy on psychology and uses Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) as the inspiration for the 7 Steps. Despite that, this is a very important section for getting yourself pointed in the right direction to reach your goals.

Step 3 discusses in detail the importance of "modeling" your fat loss plan after successful people and not on the 95% of the dieting population who lose weight only to gain it right back. This seems like common sense and probably ALL of us who have been on a diet knew that it was temporary and would not have lasting results. Then why did we do it!
Burn The Fat stresses throughout this chapter the importance of recognizing if something you are doing is not working, then change it to something that does. Staying in an unsuccessful pattern can be prevented if you practice recording your results. 10 Ways To Measure Your Progress shows you ways to keep track of the progress you are making so that you can adjust for better results if needed.

What do you do if you reach a point where your progress plateaus or just seems stalled? An incredible amount of time is spent detailing many methods to break past this and continue towards your personal goals. The methods described are not easy and will require a commitment that a lot of people will not be willing to pursue. Most of the tips involve increasing your exercise instead of decreasing your calories. Tom says "It's better to burn the fat than to starve the fat". Sounds like good advice since starving yourself will slow your metabolism and cardio exercises will increase your metabolism, thus burning more fat.

Included with the book is a weekly progress chart which Tom claims is one of the most important steps to follow if you want to succeed with ane fat loss program.

The rest of the chapter deals with how to fill out your progress chart and extensive information on how to interpret your progress chart. Lots of detail to show you how much fat you are losing and how much muscle you are gaining, or possibly losing. Since burning the fat is the focus of this book than keeping or gaining muscle is crucial to the success of this program and a lot of time is spent here on just how to know if you are having real success.

Very good chapter with more information than can be absorbed with one reading. Burn The Fat is focused intensely on getting our frame of mind right and understanding how fat is really lost before getting to a daily program of exercise and eating right.

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Chapters 2 and 3

2008-08-18T06:48:00.000-07:00

Chapter Two is getting to the good stuff. Excellent discussions on how our body responds to low calorie dieting and why it doesn't work. He goes into alot of easy to understand detail on how this type of dieting puts our body into "starvation mode" and actually reduces our muscle and increases our fat. He shows how low calorie dieting will actually make us fatter in the long run because so much of our weight loss is from lean muscle. He explains how muscle is actually the key to long term fat loss and healthy living. This chapter definitely sounds like it is written by a bodybuilder because of so much focus on maintaining muscle, but his reasoning is sound. I am not aware of ANY fat loss program or lifestyle that really works unless a regiment of exercise is also involved. NONE!

Chapter Three
This chapter is devoted to determining just how fat you really how. Tom explains in much detail the current methods used to determine body fat and why some methods are good and others not.
Did you know that checking BMI, (Body Mass Index), is misleading at best and useless for the most part?
Did you know that height and weight charts are obsolete?
Do you know how much you should weigh, or if it even matters. According to Tom it doesn't and that reducing body fat is much more important.
Did you know that checking your weight on your scale is probably hurting your efforts to get in better shape? THROW OUT THE SCALE!!!
Many, many pages are dedicated to finding the best tools for determining body fat, and to most people it may be pretty dry. Halfway through this I was tempted to skip ahead to the next chapter. I stuck with it instead and learned a lot of information that I didn't know before. I really want to get to the system! I'm getting closer!
I am ready to Burn The Fat.

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You won't like my opinion of Chapter 1

2008-08-18T06:45:00.000-07:00

Okay, I am now fully into chapter one and am actually a little disappointed. Tom spends a lot of time on the psychology of goal setting and explores the conscience and sub-conscience mind. I would have hoped that he would stick to science, but instead tries to convince us of programming the sub-conscience mind to respond positively. Unfortunately this is NOT science, but psycho-babble. Sift through the psycho-babble and you get to the actual subject which is the importance of setting goals. Now this I can agree with and work with. Let's be a little more pragmatic and a little less psycho-wishing. The first chapter is like reading a Napolean Hill book. I probably would not give my opinion of Pyschology, but since Tom spends a LOT of time trying to convince us of how important it is, than it is only fair that I give my opinion.

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So what's in the book?

2008-08-18T06:43:00.000-07:00

Time to get into the book! Burn The Fat is a really BIG book so it is going to take some time to finish it. I will start following his advise as I read and post the results here.

The book is not nearly as appealing to the eye as the web site. This is not that important to me since I really am concerned with the content and there is a LOT of content! It is mostly straight text in easy to follow outline form. With so much read I will be busy for a long time. Tom is very good at presenting his credentials and qualifies himself as an expert in the field of weight loss and exercise. He doesn't use hard to understand terms and keeps it very simple. I like someone who gets straight to the meat of the subject instead of walking around it a million times repeating the same fluffy garbage that a lot of books do just to fill in space.

Back to reading,....more to follow ->

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Intro to my review of Burn The Fat

2008-08-18T06:40:00.000-07:00

Today I started a program called Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle. I liked what I read online about this program or system and decided that it is time for me to take action.
I am 42 years old and overweight. I wouldn't mind being overweight if it didn't affect me in so many ways. I have fat clothes and skinny clothes in my closet. I used to switch between them throughout the year when I was in my 20's and early 30's. Now my skinny clothes have been sitting so long they are out of fashion and covered with heavy dust. What makes it worse is that my fat clothes now feel like my skinny clothes. I tend to wear shorts and t-shirts more often because they are so much more comfortable. I also suffer from heartburn that requires massive doses of TUMS, yech!
I actually have a pretty good understanding of what it takes to eat right and exercise right, but do not have the discipline I used to. Maybe I'm not as vain as I used to be, but I sure do love to sit in front of a good movie with a bag of doritos and a 2 liter mountain dew. That's just the appetizer.
I am starting this system for losing fat and gaining muscle called Burn The Fat. I have advertized the fact that I am doing this so I am hoping that peer pressure will give me the discipline I need.

The book has a LOT of information so I am going to start reading. I'll keep updating my progress.
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