Most people that come in to the gym or sign up for this site want one thing: The Secret to Fat Loss Training.
They want to lose body fat.
To look better naked!
I’ve been in this business for a long time, 30 years.
In that time, I’ve seen a lot of things come and go and I’ve seen a lot of things stick around. And I’ve tried to learn new things, improve on old things and innovate training to give the maximum results with the minimum time investment to my clients. Finding the Secret to Losing Body Fat in order to better serve my clients has been like searching for the Holy Grail.
Fat Loss training is one thing that is not going away.
Just about everyone wants the secret to Fat Loss Training, the tips and techniques of the Pro’s and the shortcuts to Fat Loss.
Believe me, I’ve tried just about every method you can think of in my Personal Training business, and in my group program, the TPS Method.
I’m happy to tell you now that I’ve finally figured out the secret to fat loss training.
Are you ready for the “Secret”?
There is no such thing as Fat Loss training. There is just training.
Go ahead and let the comments troll, but before you do, read on and let me explain.
Let’s get completely away from training for a moment and look at the biggest factor in your success.
It’s the calories dummy.
At my gym, Total Performance Sports in Malden, Massachusetts, and on this very site, we run a very successful group training program-the TPS Method. We get great results in many areas, including Fat Loss, but we also see many of our clients lose no fat at all after the first few months.
They all get stronger, more mobile, in better cardiovascular shape, and most of them add lean muscle mass.
Some of them lose fat, a lot of it.
But some don’t.
Why?
Just like you can’t outrun a Cheetah, you can’t out train a shitty diet.
It’s as simple as that. If you want to lose body fat, you have to eat less calories than you burn.
The clients in our programs that take the advice they paid for and have a hierarchy of goals (and stick to them) achieve great success.
Losing body fat is arithmetic. You need to burn more calories than you eat.
- If you eat 2500 calories but only burn 2000 a day, you will get fat.
- If you eat 2500 calories and burn 2800, you will lose fat.
- If you eat 2500 calories and burn 3800, you’ll probably lose muscle and fat.
No one wants that.
So, you don’t need a huge caloric deficit, you need a small one, just a few hundred calories a day.
And you can’t stay on a low calorie diet for a long time or it can backfire.
I’ll address this more in future articles.
Let’s move back to Fat Loss Training and I’ll explain why it isn’t a real thing even though the experts, including me said it was.
As trainers and coaches, we are always looking for the best ways to give our clients and athletes results, and for decades we searched for the secrets to Fat Loss Training.
Over a long period of time I figured out there is no secret and there is no one, best way of training to get the job done.
Here’s why:
Your body adapts to the stimulus placed on it over time therefore the stimulus must change in order to keep getting results. If you keep doing the same things over and over your body adapts and the changes (results) stop.
In Trainer terms this is known as the GAS Principle, or General Adaptation Syndrome.
It simply means what I said in the paragraph above.
It is a very simple concept.
Why did it take me and the rest of the industry so long to figure it out?
Training Explained Simply
There are many types of training that are geared towards fat loss and they work well, but they only work well if the calories in/calories out equation is in order. Too many calories in and not enough out, and it does not work.
This is why I said that people in my program don’t get the results they want all of the time. It’s not the training, it’s not the program, it’s the calories they consume.
Many of them simply do not change the way they eat, or drink!
Circuit training has been espoused for decades as a superior method of fat loss and it can be.
Look at Curves.
Remember Curves?
It was a fitness center for women based on circuit training, and it worked.
For a while.
Then it stopped.
Why?
Was it that the training wasn’t any good or was it that the stimulus didn’t change, ever?
You guessed it, it’s the stimulus, and the calories.
The stimulus at Curves was always the same, it never changed.
Therefore, the results decreased, or stopped.
That’s why they are not around anymore.
What about PHA, or Peripheral Heart Action training?
This was bandied on as the ultimate type of Fat Loss Training, and it may be!
PHA training is a type of circuit training designed for Fat Loss that has you perform an upper body exercise followed by a lower body one, then do two more in the same sequence but with different exercises.
EG:
- Squat
- Pushup
- Back Raise
- Pullup
Repeat a few times, then do a different circuit in the same fashion a few times.
This gets blood moving throughout the body and allows the fatigued area to rest while a fresh one works. It builds incredible endurance and burns a lot of calories, making it very effective for Fat Loss.
BUT.
If you always do it, the effectiveness goes away.
Periods of high intensity must be balanced with periods of lower intensity to prevent over training and adaptation.
That is training 101.
So, instead of listing every possible combination of training styles, I’ll tell you what I’ve found works best for consistent Fat Loss.
Consistent training is best done with a lot of different “styles” and a good diet plan that has you in a caloric deficit sometimes and a mild surplus sometimes.
Eat well 95% of the time and eat a little less than you need. Occasionally eat a little more than you need. Not a lot. A little.
As far as training goes, here is the magic bullet.
Always keep a primary strength exercise in your program.
Squats, presses, pulls for strength.
Sometimes for 1-3 reps, sometimes for higher reps.
This is simply using high intensity, heavier weights for lower reps (1-3) for a period of time, and then using lower intensity, lighter weights for higher reps (5-12) at other times.
Follow this with an Assistance exercise. This will be a second multi joint movement done to make you stronger at the big lifts. The Assistance lifts can be done for lower or higher reps just like the primary.
EG:
Squats first, then Good Mornings.
Follow this with bodybuilding style exercises done either as straight sets, supersets, or circuits.
Vary this over time.
EG:
- 2 weeks of straight sets
- 2 weeks of super sets
- 2 weeks of circuits
- And then back to straight sets.
This isn’t gospel, it’s a very basic idea of how to keep the progress coming.
You must change the stimulus.
You can also add in days where you only do bodybuilding work for extra volume and strength.
And don’t forget cardio/conditioning!
Your body needs it.
Cardiovascular training is good for your heart, it’s good for your blood profile and it burns more calories than sitting on your ass.
This type of training also needs to be waved.
Sometimes you will do long, slow distance, sometimes do higher intensity interval training and so forth.
It’s not rocket surgery.
In order to have consistent Fat Loss you need to do a lot of work, but none of it should be killing you.
Vary the stimulus, eat well 95% of the time and move more.
See a theme?
There is no secret, no magic bullet, no special Fat Loss miracle.
Just common sense, hard work and a good meal plan.
I know, I know, you wanted a secret.
I did give you one, I actually spilled an industry secret that the best coaches and trainers know:
There is no secret!
Here’s the easiest and best way to figure out how to do it:
Don’t figure it out at all.
The TPS Method has already done it for you.
Our Training for Life (TFL) programs are done for you and they take all of this into account.
Our clients who follow our programs and advice make consistent and incredible progress in strength, addition of muscle mass, and loss of excess body fat.
I encourage you to give it a try, it’s free and has no risk.
Take advantage of our 7 day free trial here.
You’ve got noting to lose but excess body fat and a lot to gain.
Please leave a comment and share this with friends and family.
C.J. Murphy
Founder TPSMethod.com
July 17, 2019
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