Intermittent fasting is one of the most popular health programs for individuals who want to lose weight by controlling when they eat. While this program introduces a big change to your lifestyle as you get to eat fewer calories and skip meals during fasting periods, it still provides room for exercising. Here are five exercising tips while intermittent fasting.

1. Do the right type of exercise

What is your motivation for exercising? Would you love to lose weight faster, or are you keen on building muscles? Depending on your fitness goals, you need to choose the right type of exercise that will enable you to fulfill your objectives. If you want to stay fit and lose weight quickly, light workouts like yoga, walking, and low-intensity cardio sessions will suit your needs.

On the other hand, high-intensity workouts are your best bet if you aim to build muscles and attain a strong core. One of the most fantastic cardiovascular exercises you can opt for is the plank jacks, and mastering the tips for doing them will see you attain desirable results quicker.

2. Properly time your exercises

Once you have decided on the right type of exercise, the next crucial step is determining the best times for exercising. There are three considerations that you should carefully analyze, and these are:

• Training before your fuelling window. This is an ideal option if you can perform best on an empty stomach. It is an excellent choice if you want to burn more fat as your body will turn to your stored fuel, which happens to be glycogen and stored fat for energy and calories.
• Training during your fuelling window. This is highly recommended if you will be engaging in high-intensity workouts and are keen on building your muscles. It is equally viable for individuals who cannot perform well on an empty stomach, even for low-intensity exercise.
• Training after your fuelling window. If you have shorter fasting hours, exercising after your fuelling window is a great way to have the energy for more intensive exercise without worrying about overstraining your body.

3. Stay hydrated

Never undermine the importance of staying hydrated while exercising, especially while intermittent fasting. You need to regain the fluids you lose while sweating as fast as possible, and for extra energy, natural electrolyte drinks are a great option over sugary sports drinks.

4. Complement your exercises by eating proper meals

One of the reasons intermittent fasting works is it helps you to regulate the amount of calories you consume naturally. If you include exercises in your program, your body’s calorie demands change, and it is vital to make up for these new body demands. This is especially critical if you will be engaged in high-intensity workouts as you will need a meal that contains more carbs, proteins, and unsaturated fats.

5. Listen to your body

You need to adjust while intermittent fasting by constantly listening to your body. If you feel dizzy or weak, you need to stop exercising to avoid harming your body.

Endnote

Following a proper exercising guideline while intermittent fasting is the safest way to make the most out of this program, and these tips will help you develop a foolproof schedule.

It’s been almost exactly a year of doing Progressions for me, so I thought I’d share some updates with you…

As a recap, in April of 2017 I decided to re-focus on my training towards getting stronger SLOWLY. The goal was SLOW and CONSISTENT gains in strength as estimated using an equation to calculate my estimated one rep max.

The true motivation was to make sure that I was always training with a high level of effort, the effort was what drove the gains in strength.

I trained 3 times per week (typically Monday, Wednesday, Friday) and as usual fasted twice per week, eating around 100 grams of protein per day…

Squats, bench presses, chins, shoulder presses, and dips, weren’t the only exercises I did, but the only ones that I used Progressions with. (I also did dumbbell rows, harrop curls, hamstring curls, shrugs, rear delt flyes, and some triceps pushdowns.)

I started conservatively, by testing my strength on several key lifts, making sure my form was exactly the form I wanted to use – slow and controlled, with a very defined full range of motion.

I started with bench press – one of the lifts I’m naturally good at. I started with 185 pounds for 10 reps (an estimated one rep max of 246.6 pounds). Last week, I did 250 pounds for 8 reps (an estimated one rep max of 316.6).

While this is not my all-time best (I was able to bench press 365 pounds for 1 when I was 25 years old) but it’s the best I’ve done in over a decade!

[[ I gained less than 1.5 pounds of strength per week, but did so consistently over 52 weeks. ]]

Next, I used progressions on of my worst lifts: the front squat.  I started with 80 pounds for 6 reps (an estimated one rep max of 96 pounds), last week I did 165 pounds for 8 reps (an estimated one rep max of 208.9 pounds).

[[ This is an all time best for me. ]]

This was a much larger increase than bench press, but I did start very conservatively.

This equated to a bit more than 2 pounds a week, (higher than I think is sustainable over the long term)

Next weighted dips and weighted chins.

I started DIPS with an added 50 pounds to my body weight for 7 reps, and ended with 105 pounds of added weight for 13 reps.

[[A gain of about 1.7 pounds per week. ]]

I started CHINS  with an added 60 pounds for 6 chins, and ended with 110 pounds of added weight for 7 reps.

[[ A gain of about 1.2 pounds per week. ]]

None of these are “elite” strength levels by any means, but they are all vast improvements over where I was a year ago.

And these improvements were made consistently with small gains in strength realized week over week.

In the same time I’ve seen small increases in muscle mass, and circumferences. (My thighs are up almost 3/4 of an inch.)

I’m going to continue Progressions for another year, keeping my focus on the front squat, and possibly moving to incline bench press.

[[ I’m also going to play with the frequency of my lifts. ]]

I’ll continue to update you as I go.

Progressions is one of the best ‘discoveries’ I’ve ever made. However I know that logically, at some point everyone will hit a wall and will not be able to lift the next progression weight.

If that weren’t the case everyone would eventually be able to bench press 1000 lbs for 10 reps assuming they had enough time to follow progressions to that point.

I will say that had anyone told me 10 years ago that instragam would be full of relatively lean men dead lifting 600, 700 even 800 pounds, I would not believe you. So we are making strides in human strength development, I just don’t know where the cut off is…

Luckily, I’m about a year ahead of everyone with progressions so I’ll have time to deal with it then advise on a best approach.

When I do hit a plateau with my progressions I would not starting doing ‘more work’ by adding extra workout days or exercises (recipe for disaster), instead I would take the following steps:

1) I’d assess the extra exercises I do after the progressions exercise, see if they are too taxing or not helping.

2) I’d assess the exercises I do on the other days, am I taxing a joint too much on Wednesday to hit a progression on a similar movement on Friday?

3) Do I simply need a break from that specific exercise for a week or two?

4) Am I done progressing on that exercise for now and should I move to something different?

And finally

5)  Is there any need to continue to progress on that exercise? Could picking a different exercises be better for me?

I will say, that from experience, if you really assess honestly you will see that ‘cheating’ the exercise comes long before failing with progressions. Cheating gave you quick gains in progressions and you ‘owe them back’ which is what I find causes some to hit the wall.

So remember, be absolutely as strict as possible with your form and range of motion with your progressions. It keeps you honest and progressing at an appropriate rate.

If you do find yourself stuck on an exercise, go through the 5 questions above to help guide you on the proper steps to take.

If you want to check out the exact workout program I’ve been doing for the last year, you can check it out here –> PROGRESSIONS

If you want to see the RESULTS I’ve achieved with progressions you can go to my instagram account here –> Gratuitous Shirtless Pics

It was in 2010 that I launched the idea of a style of weight training called ‘compound cluster cycles”.

Since then I have tried over and over to:

A) Make Anabolic Again even better.

And,

B) Make it so everyone could use it (The original program was only for advanced lifters).

While I still have not been able to best the results I got with Anabolic Again, I have made the exact same gains using much less volume (less sets and less exercises per workout), and I’ve found ways to make Compound Cluster Cycles work for everyone, beginner or advanced, men or women.

The actual concept sounds pretty scary – you train upper body or lower body for a week at a time, alternating weeks.

As an example:

Week 1: Upper Body
Week 2: Lower Body
Week 3: Upper Body
Etc…

As scary as it sounds, it’s not nearly as hard as it’s made out to be, and the results have been nothing short of amazing for me, and I’m finally happy enough with the program to release it to you.

To give you an idea, here is my progression since January:

The 1st Number is the weight I used in pounds.
The 2nd Number is the amount of reps I completed in my first Attempt.
The 3rd Number is the amount of time I took me to complete 30 controlled reps.

*The goal is to increase the second number while decreasing the 3rd number.
*Every time I reached 20 reps in my first attempt, I upped the weight.

Obviously, I started off very poor at high rep squatting, but as you’ll see it only took 8 weeks to get to a level that I’d consider to be respectable.

WEEK 1 – SQUAT

135 14 / 3 min 30 sec

135 17 / 3 min 15 sec

135 19 / 3 min 10 sec

135 20 / 3 min 5 sec*

WEEK 2 – BENCH PRESS

185 17 / 3 min 33 sec

185 18 / 3 min 20 sec

185 21 / 2 min 51 sec*

195 15 / 3 min 50 sec

WEEK 3 – SQUAT

145 15 / 3 min 35 sec

145 17 / 3 min 22 sec

145 18 / 3 min 20 sec

145 21 / 2 min 51 sec*

WEEK 4 – BENCH PRESS

195 17 / 3 min 45 sec

195 18 / 3 min 22 sec

195 18 / 3 min 18 sec

195 20 / 3 min 05 sec*

WEEK 5 – SQUAT

155 21 / 3 min 10 sec*

165 15 / 3 min 50 sec

165 19 / 3 min 25 sec

165 20 / 3 min 20 sec*

WEEK 6 – BENCH PRESS

205 15 / 4 min 40 sec

205 15 / 3 min 20 sec

205 16 / 3 min 27 sec

205 17 / 3 min 15 sec

WEEK 7 – SQUAT

175 14 / 4 min 10 sec

175 17 / 4 min 0 sec

175 18 / 3 min 34 sec

175 21 / 3 min 22 sec*

WEEK 8 – BENCH PRESS

205 18 / 3 min 2 sec

205 18 / 3 min 0 sec

205 20 / 2 min 55 sec*

215 16 / 3 min 45 sec

WEEK 9 – SQUAT

185 14 / 5 min 0 sec

185 16 / 4 min 18 sec

185 18 / 4 min 10 sec

185 20 / 3 min 55 sec*

WEEK 10 – BENCH PRESS

215 18 / 3 min 45 sec

215 20 / 3 min 40 sec*

225 14 / 3 min 50 sec

225 15 / 3 min 45 sec

While these strength improvements are impressive, you may be wondering how they translate into actual muscle size… well here are my measurements:

Here are my measurements on Jan 1st

Fasted Bodyweight: 174

Neck: 16 inches
Shoulders: 49.5 inches
Chest: 42 inches
Waist: 33 inches
Hips: 39 inches
Thigh at 5 inches above kneecap: 20 inches
Thigh at 10 inches above kneecap: 23.5 inches
Calf: 15 inches
Right Bicep: 16 inches
Forearm: 12.5 inches

And here are my March 29th Measurements

Fasted Body weight :176.5
Neck: 16 inches
Shoulders: 50 inches
Chest: 42.25 inches
Waist: 33 inches
Hips: 40 inches
Thigh at 5 inches above kneecap: 21.5 inches
Thigh at 10 inches above kneecap: 24.5 inches
Calf: 15.5 inches
Right Bicep: 16 inches
Forearm: 12.5 inches

For me, these are some substantial improvements in my legs, and some decent improvements in my upper body…

This is the best evidence I can give you – a workout that kept my attention for over 10 weeks, and that kept me from getting injured, and that helped me make accelerated improvements that I am really happy with.

It’s designed for both men and women, and has programming for the beginner and the advanced lifter. You do need access to some weights (this is not a body weight training program).

To learn more about it, please => CLICK HERE

You know what happens when you try to ‘bulk up’ (AKA bulking) with intermittent fasting?

The same thing that happens when you ‘bulk up’ without intermittent fasting – you get fat.

The concept of eating as much as 10,000 calories a day to build muscle is perpetuated by a few small groups of people:

• 20 year old guys (because it works for them as they’re still kids)

• Supplement companies

• Writers affiliated with supplement companies

• People using steroids but who don’t want to tell you that they are using steroids

• And last but not least (and likely the largest group); people who have been influenced by the opinions of the aforementioned in group

…That’s it.

The most convincing evidence for grown men building muscle while bulking comes from guys I know who were using steroids and had to explain the new muscle growth to their friends/parents/loved ones/and anyone else who asked “how did you get so big?”

The standard answers you get from guys who use steroids who don’t want to admit it goes something like this: “I’m just eating a ton of calories and getting my protein”

So where does Intermittent Fasting fit into bulking?

In my extremely biased opinion, Eat Stop Eat is one of the absolute best ways to lose fat and keep the fat off for good… but bulking? I don’t see a connection.

Intermittent fasting, carb cycling, calorie cycling, protein cycling, high fat, high carb, they’re all different ways of desperately trying to make ‘eating for size’ actually work.

But here’s the truth:

Calories are permissive to the muscle building process. The driving force behind muscle growth happens in a gym, in a syringe or the combination of the two.

Yes, Protein is also important. If you are not eating ‘enough’ you can hinder muscle growth. But once you start eating just ‘enough’, eating any more on top of that will not FORCE more muscle growth.

The point is calories are permissive, but not a driving force for muscle growth in adults. Protein is essential (that’s why I wrote a book on protein), but still can’t force muscles to grow faster.

The simple art to ‘eating for muscle growth’ is discovering exactly how many calories are ‘enough’ to allow for muscle growth, and for that the answer will always be ‘it depends’.

Depends on your age, training status, training program, training goals, and level of body fat among other things.

So ‘simple’ but not ‘easy’.

Most guys (and girls) over 40 can remember one time (long ago) when they could eat a lot and gain a significant amount of muscle. Most likely they were between 17 to 25 years of age when it happened.

I was there, and I remember it – it was awesome.

This doesn’t mean it’s going to happen again.

There’s a big difference between

A) Eating ‘enough’

vs

B) Bulking – adding weight at all costs in hopes that it builds muscle

Eating enough can EASILY be done with intermittent fasting.

“Bulking” can be done too…there just doesn’t seem to be any benefit, unless you are young, on steroids, or your goal is to be a sumo wrestler.

Here’s the other issue I have with bulking, and it’s probably the most controversial thing I’ve said in a while.

I am not convinced that putting on 50 pounds of body fat so you can hopefully gain 15 pounds of muscle is any less dangerous than taking steroids to gain that 15 pounds of muscle.

In fact, it could even be worse (especially since chances are you won’t gain those 15 pounds of muscle with bulking).

Large amounts of excess fat are associated with many disease states, and it doesn’t matter if the fat was added out of laziness or the goal of adding muscle. Fat is fat.

Also, please remember that the metabolic consequences of bulking include a hormonal profile that PREVENTS muscle growth. From low testosterone to insulin resistance and growth hormone resistance, bulking does NOT set you up for some sort of super anabolic metabolism, in fact, it’s just the opposite – it sets up a metabolism that prevents an unneeded increase in lean body mass.

So those guys telling you to eat 10,00 calories a day to build muscle are not doing you any favors.

Here’s the other thing – I have no idea why people are continually bringing up bulking being a ‘weakness of intermittent fasting’ but there is one thing I do need to point out – Not all styles of intermittent fasting are the same.

Eat Stop Eat isn’t fasting every day. It’s not even fasting every other day. It’s fasting once or twice a week, and you still eat EVERY SINGLE DAY.

So, try not to lump ESE in with the rest.

Eat Stop Eat is a great way to lose fat and it’s a fantastic way to maintain that fat loss. You can absolutely build muscle while following Eat Stop Eat.

That being said, I should say that other forms of Intermittent fasting are also find for losing fat and building muscle. People get great results because calories are permissive, anyone who tell you otherwise are just perpetuating a myth.

Finally, remember – fat is fat, and gaining excess amounts of fat, no matter the reason, is never a good idea.

Eating enough to build muscle is an essential part of optimal muscle building (obviously), but anything above that is just excess.

Try to eat the right amount of protein, and track your measurements. If your weight is going up, but your waist measurement is staying the same you are doing something right. If your weight is going up AND your waist is going up… the weight your gaining is most likely fat.

I’m going to try something a little different today. Instead of diet advice or reviewing research, today I’d like to share with you what I’m currently trying on myself, and give you some of the rational behind my personal approach.

As usual, I’m experimenting. It’s still Eat Stop Eat, but I’m also going to tell you what I’m doing on the days I’m not fasting.

Firstly, I do two fasts per week. My fasts are usually 20-24 hours long, depending on how I feel and time commitments.

At the end of each fast I do my main weight training sessions. So twice a week I weight train for about 1 hour, consisting of about 50-70 reps divided between 2 to 4 exercises per muscle group.

During my first workout I train my legs and my shoulders, then during my second workout I train my chest back and arms.

Once I’m done my workout I view the next 2-3 days as ‘muscle growth support’ so I eat to support the muscle repairing process.

This means eating 20-30 grams of protein every 4-6 hours, while keeping my calorie intake at roughly 14 times my current body weight (roughly 2,500 calories). Since about 500 of those calories come from my protein intake, the other 2,000 come from carbs fat and alcohol. I really don’t track any of these number as I only really care about ‘protein in’ and ‘calories in’.

I continue this process until it’s time to fast again. I view my fasts as a reset, my workout as the ‘start’, the next 2-3 days as the eating to support that workout, then I repeat.

I also rock climb twice a week, and do some gymnastics training whenever I feel the urge, but my weight training workouts are currently limited to these two times.

The other thing you need to know is how I tweak calories. I’m normally able to maintain my weight by eating about 2,500 calories on the days I’m not fasting, but if I want to bring my weight down a bit, here’s what I do:

I start with my ideal waist (Height x 0.447 = my ideal waist) <— that number only applies to men, women should use 0.382

I measure my waist at my belly button (women would be above belly button at narrowest point of your ’true waist’). For every 1 inch I am over my ideal, I subtract 1 from 14

So if my ideal waist is roughly 31.5 and I have a 33 inch waist then my daily calories are roughly my current weight multiplied by (14 – 1.5) or current weight x 12.5

**Since I never let my waist circumference reach over half my height (35 inches) this is never more than a 300 or 400 calorie reduction per day.

No matter what happens with calories, protein stays the same, roughly 4-5 protein meals per day, 4-6 hours apart, 20-30 grams with each meal.

And that’s it, that’s my entire approach. Simple, uncomplicated, and hopefully effective. Yes I eat breakfast most days, and no I don’t know how many grams of carbs or fats I eat, but I can tell you I eat them both 😉

Really, other than the eating, this approach takes up two 24 hour periods of my life, not a big deal to me, and fits perfectly with my schedule.

The only real differences between this and what I normally do is the lowered frequency of workouts and their timing.

This new low training frequency is new to me, I’ve trained as much as two times per day, and usually train around 5 times a week, but I want to experiment with doing less…

The timing is based off my work with inflammation and muscle growth, and a guess that in the long run training at or near the end of a fast may help.

Over the next couple months I’ll let you know how it is going, so if you’re interested in following along, you can save this post as a reference.

I just made the decision to install some Stahl bars in my home gym.

They’re hard to describe (googling them is best) but if I had to describe them, I’d say they look like a giant floor to ceiling magazine rack.

The reason for this addition is because I’m relying on body weight exercises more and more in my workouts, and Stahl bars are a cool way to add in some extra variety.

Truth be told, the older I get, the more I love body weight training.

The best part about body weight exercises is that you don’t really need any equipment (the stahl bars are really just a treat for me), and you can do them anywhere.

Now, I’m not talking about just jumping jacks, pushups and squats – these are a great starting point, but I think that body weight exercises eventually have to become body MOVEMENT exercises… They should become more complex as you get stronger.

In fact, the big issue I have with Body Weight Exercises is if the movements don’t progress, then you end up doing a super high amount of reps in order to properly challenge yourself, and if you’re not careful this can lead to overuse injuries.

This is very similar to what happens with runners, only now it’s your shoulders, elbows or wrists. This is why you need a TON of variety in your exercise repertoire – You can’t just do push-ups, squats and chins.

But if you have enough of the RIGHT exercises – then your body is actually the BEST piece of home gym “workout equipment” in the world for helping you GAIN muscle and BURN fat without spending tons of money.

…and for a little extra money there is basically nothing you can’t do with your own body weight (my Stall bars are going to cost 1/10th of what I paid for my squat rack, and you can pick up a chin-up bar for dollars).

Here’s a quick example – the next time you do pushups, squeeze your butt and flex your thighs for the entire time you are doing your push ups. You can also try spreading your shoulder blades at the top of your pushup to make them even more complex, and you can play with your hand positioning.

People like to neglect bodyweight training, but when done properly you can get an impressive workout completed in around 20 minutes.

When it comes to making body weight exercises ‘work’ it’s all about execution – it’s how you do them that matters (actually, this is probably true for ALL exercises)

If you are interested in body weight training and / or body weight exercises you can check out BODYWEIGHT BURN (YES, it is a video infomercial… and an amusing one at that, however the product is excellent).

PROMOTIONAL LINK → BODY WEIGHT BURN

Most of us believe that exercise is a great way to burn extra calories for fat loss goals. However, we tend to be less active throughout the rest of the day if we do strenuous exercise. This decrease may be very slight; for example less shifting around in your seat, less fidgeting, maybe one or two less trips up and down the stairs.

By the end of the day it can add up and represent a couple hundred less calories burned throughout the rest of the day. This will lower your daily energy expenditure simply because you are less active and erase some of the calorie deficit created with exercise.

For example: If you burn an extra 500 calories during an intense workout, but you end up having a nap and avoiding some housework and a short walk you would normally have done that day, you could easily end up right back where you started. You may just shift your normal daily calorie burn from household activities and running errands to a workout.

But the total amount of calories burned for the day could easily just end up the same, and even worse you might not get some important work done around the house or errands that you were planning on getting done.

This is not to suggest that you should never exercise (far from it) but it’s to ensure that you understand what exercise can and can’t do for weight loss. Now we will determine what the different kinds of exercise are and what they do.

There are many different forms of exercise that can be divided into two general categories:

1) “Cardio”

2) Resistance Training

Cardio

“Cardio” is slang for “Cardiovascular Exercise”. This is the type of exercise that is recommended for general health and strengthening the heart muscle. These days many people do cardio to lose weight and burn fat, but it’s important to realize that the original reason people did cardio training was for heart-health.

You can do cardio in many forms like:

Low intensity – walking, slow jog, biking.

Medium intensity – Jogging, biking, cross training, running, interval training High intensity – Usually in the form of intervals such as ‘sprint-walk-sprint’

This type of exercise can help improve health and conditioning but it will have a minimal effect on the shape of your muscles, in order to actually shape and grow your muscles you have to do some form of “Resistance Training”.

Resistance Training

Resistance training is different from ‘cardio’ because it requires you to lift much heavier weights and can only be done in short bursts for a few seconds at a time (this is what we call a ‘set’).

Resistance training can also incorporate all of the following styles in some form:

Weight Lifting – this includes bodybuilding, Powerlifting and Olympic style lifting

Bodyweight training – Push-ups, lunges, chin ups etc…

Resistance bands – You can get rubber bands with varying degrees of tension to perform all kinds of exercises to work the full body

Plyometrics – This is a very high intensity style of training based on jumping and ballistic movement

Resistance training is essential to building, shaping and tightening the muscles all around your body. This is important because your muscles are what give shape to your body, and you can change that shape with resistance training. This is a critical step that many people forget about when they are trying to lose weight and ‘get in shape’.

Once you’ve lost the weight and you’re sporting a new leaner body you will likely have a new sense of excitement and motivation to take your body to the next level. This is where a well designed resistance training program can help you shape your body and muscles into a that ‘beach body’ look that garners ooh’s and ahh’s from your friend on facebook when you post a new profile pic from the beach!

If you start a resistance training program you can build and shape all the muscles on your body into any form you want. This way you can take even more control of the look of your body when you’ve finally lost the weight. Underneath our fat is just muscle, so building and shaping that muscle is a critical step in getting into the final shape that you really want.

Here are a few training programs that I highly recommend:

If you are looking for weight lifting program, you can try John Barban’s Adonis Golden Ratio.

If you are interested in body weight training and / or body weight exercises then check out ‘Body Weight Burn‘ by Adam Steer.

Cardiovascular exercise is something you can gradually incorporate into your lifestyle as you progress. At the start you may not be able to handle it at all (or very little). I’ll be honest; it will most likely be really challenging until you’ve lost some initial weight. This is why I recommend starting with something with very low intensity like walking. If you feel like you’re not ready for cardio training, don’t worry; you can lose a significant amount of weight without exercising at all. Once you feel ready you can start slowly and build up over time. Your cardiovascular endurance and strength will build up much faster than you think once you start exercising.

I have worked with people who have lost between 80-100lbs, some of them didn’t do any exercise until they lost the first 50-60lbs simply because they didn’t feel they were ready yet. And this is an extremely important point I need to make – cardio training is not essential for weight loss. In fact, depending on how much weight you have to lose it may actually be a detriment to your weight loss efforts. So it’s really up to you. Some people enjoy doing exercise and jump right into a resistance training program mixed with some cardio, others like to wait until they feel ready.

It’s really up to you to decide if/when you want to add in exercise. I can say that almost everyone who has lost a significant amount of weight eventually started to add in exercise to their lifestyle simply because it started to feel good to get up and move around more. This is something you’ll have to discover for yourself, but I’m sure at some point sooner or later you’ll likely just want to start moving.

For ‘cardio’ I only do low intensity stuff like walking and some elliptical machine work. I just go to the gym and zone out watching tv for an hour or so while I’m walking.  For a weight training program I follow the Adonis Index workout as it’s designed for my exact goal of getting the best shaped body possible.

Both ‘cardio’ and resistance training have numerous health benefits and are what I would consider essential to a ‘healthy’ lifestyle. If you have a capable body and mind, I see no reason that you shouldn’t partake in both at some point.

BUT, and this is a big BUT, as I said before – neither of them are essential for you to lose weight!

This is a big distinction I’m making right here.

You can lose weight without doing any exercise at all. And in fact it’s not even advisable for people with a lot of weight to lose to even attempt exercising until they’re at a manageable weight to start doing so (I’m talking about people who have 100lbs to lose or more). Now I know you’ve probably seen television shows that have people weighing almost 400 pounds doing intense exercise sessions, but I’m guessing they have doctors and paramedics on site at all times – something most regular people probably don’t have at their gyms.

It would appear that the more weight you have to lose the easier it will be to simply focus on diet to take off the first big chunk of weight. For people with approx 70lbs or more to lose it seems easier to focus solely on diet at the beginning for three reasons.

1)        If you’ve never worked out before it’s difficult to start two new things at once (diet + exercise) and manage them both. It’s much easier to focus on one thing (diet) and master it before you take on the challenge of starting a workout program as well.

2)        If you have more than 70lbs to lose you might find it very difficult to start any kind of workout program simply because of the physical limitation of your current body size. A workout program might be too much for your system to handle until you lose some initial weight.  Going for a walk when you 70lbs overweight is much more difficult than when you’re only 20-30lbs overweight.

3)        For some people exercise may distract them from the real issue of eating less. People will try to exercise the weight off without changing their dietary habits. This almost always ends in failure as we’ve already discussed with the calorie compensation effect and rest compensation effect of exercise.

For people with more than approx 70lbs to lose it’s perfectly fine to cut the first 20-40lbs with diet alone. Once this initial weight is lost you will have built some momentum and feel very good both physically and mentally and then you can start incorporating exercise to help you get rid of the final 20-30lbs. You’ll likely find that it’s much easier to start working out with a lighter body than when you were at your heaviest.

In fact, if you’re new to working out and you try to workout too soon, it might sour you to the idea of working out all together because it’s going to feel much more difficult when you’re heavy than when you’re lighter. The last thing you want to do is start a workout program and hate it. Exercising should feel good, so you need to be in the right mindset when you start a new program. The following picture is a much better way to view how dieting and exercise fit together for your overall weight loss, health and body shape.

This is a much more accurate way to view what diet and both forms of exercise (cardio and resistance training) can do for weight loss, getting in shape, and improving your overall health.

The bottom Line

Exercise can be used to build and shape your muscles, and improve your overall health, but it’s not essential for weight loss. If you want to use exercise then by all means add it in (and I really encourage you to do so), but if you really don’t want to, don’t worry.

One of the biggest misconceptions about me is that people think I hate cardio.

Now truthfully, I don’t do cardio myself, but I do think cardio can have a place in a weight loss program…. I don’t think it works nearly as well as people would like it to, especially when it comes to burning calories, but it can have a place.

My theory is that 4-6 weeks of cardio training 2-4 times per week used specifically to ramp up fat burning enzyme activity may be beneficial for some people, especially if done at the beginning of a weight loss program.

The thought is that those 4-6 weeks would cause changes that would carry through the next 6-8 weeks of dieting. So you’d do your cardio for a month or so, then drastically reduce it for the next two months.

Mind you, 4-6 weeks in a row is all I would ever recommend for weight loss, but it’s still 4-6 weeks MORE than Craig Ballantyne would EVER recommend.

Craig has basically turned his back on Cardio saying that it is responsible for:

X Fat Gain (especially around the waist)

X Premature Aging

X Sudden and Unexpected Death

Sounds Crazy, but Craig is my friend and he’s also a world-famous fitness expert who designs great workouts. Plus, he’s taken a hard look at the research behind these controversial claims.

What he’s saying may shock you…

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