There is a common belief in the mainstream, that for maximum (or even effective fat loss) you need to do some form of regular cardio to lose fat. This is simply wrong of course because many people have just dieted to lose fat, without any form of excercise. Of course this is a bodybuilding site, therefore dieting only is not ideal, since it doesn’t preserve muscle that well.

The next decision when going on a cutting phase, is whether or not cardio is even necessary? Weight training is actually more effective than low intensity cardio. Then there is HIIT cardio, which is much tougher to do, but is about as effective as weight training for fat loss. You would still have to do weight training for either form of cardio, to help preserve lean muscle preservation and strength.

So who should do cardio and when?

Most bodybuilders would agree that cardio is a pain. It is a nuisance and most would just rather stick to weight training only for their excercise. It is perfectly O.K no matter if you’re a newbie, or a veteran to start your cutting phase without any cardio. When you first start dieting, the act of restricting calories will be enough to start causing fat loss, even without cardio.

Eventually everyone will hit a fat loss plateau, which is when cardio will be a necessity. You can only restrict your calories so much, before you cause your metabolism to crawl to a halt. The cardio will allow a phenomenon called energy flux. Basically what that means is, you will lose fat more effectively if you eat more, but also burn more calories simulatenously. In other words, it is better for fat loss if you eat more calories and burn more, than to eat less calories and burn less simulatenously.

If you don’t want to do cardio while cutting, your fat loss will be slower. But bodybuilders often don’t want to hassle with the time and effort cardio takes and wouldn’t mind, even if the cutting phase took a little longer. You shouldn’t increase weight training to overcompensate for lack of cardio, that would cause more harm than good. You would wind up overtaxing the body putting you into overtraining state.

For further reading, You can read a previous article of mine:
Fat loss effect of weight training vs. cardio

The Stubborn Fat Protocol is a cardio routine developed by Lyle McDonald, a respected author of multiple excercise and diet books. The routine is innovative, but it is based on scientific research.

You will break up your cardio into 2 seperate sessions. The first session will be high intensity interval cardio for 10 minutes. The purpose of this firt session is to manipulate the adrenaline/ noradrenaline levels to mobilize the fat out of your fat cells. You then take a 5 minute rest after the first session.

Next you do 45 minutes of low intensity cardio. Afterwards you wait one hour before having a protein only meal. Then 2 or 3 hours later you can go back to normal diet, with carbs and fat included in the meals.

The reason why Lyle McDonald says it has to be done this way is because the high intensity portion gets the fat out of the cells, but there is a reduced burning effect at the muscle. It is then that you do the low intensity to finally be able to burn the mobilized fat in the muscle. Mcdonald recommends this workout 3 times a week.

Who should do the stubborn fat protocol?

The routine will be highly catabolic (muscle wasting). Ideally it should be for those who are at a plateau and low bodyfat percent trying to get that last bit of fat off. Overweight people should just stick to traditional routines as they are easier to stick to, require less time, and work well anyways. Only when you start to plateau, will a more aggressive cardio plan make sense.

You can learn more about the author Lyle McDonald at his site bodyrecomposition.com

The average person and many novice bodybuilders, don’t know that regular low intensity cardio is not the most effective form of cardio for fat loss. Low intensity cardio burns calories during the activity, but it doesn’t increase your metabolism rate afterwards.

HIIT (High intensity interval training) cardio on the other hand, has the ability to raise your metabolism and fat burning capability. This makes HIIT much more valuable then just a simple calorie deficit. You will burn calories from the excercise and for many hours post excercise and more of it will be fat compared to low intensity cardio.

HIIT Cardio Studies:

Post excercise metabolism changes is measured by researchers by EPOC (Exercise Post Oxygen Consumption). When our metabolism increases, our cells in the body require more oxygen.

Two studies done by the same researchers, were published in Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2001 Mar;25(3):332-9. The first study was done on two groups of 352 total men, those who did High intensity activities regularly and those who did not. The study showed that men who were more likely to be in high intensity activities not only had lower bodyfat and subcutaneous fat, but even when they ate more than the sedentary group. The 2nd study was more direct, measuring the effects after a high intensity excercise. They found that oxygen consumption and fat oxidation increased afterwards. They also found that the oxygen consumption effect was much greater in the high intensity group compared to low intensity. In other words, the high intensity group not only had increased metabolism and fat loss abilities for hours post excercise, but the metabolism increasing effect was much higher over the low intensity group. Interesting part is they found these effects to stop with the addition of propranolol, researchers concluded that beta adrenergic stimulation, may be the major role in the after effects from high intensity excercise.

Another study published in Metabolism. 1994 Jul;43(7):814-8 They compared a group (8 women 9 men) doing 20-week endurance-training compared to a group (5 men 5 women) doing HIIT. The decrease in subcutaneous skinfolds when adjusted for energy expedenture were 9 times greater than the endurance group! Researchers concluded that higher intensity, was not only superior for metabolism and fat burning effects, but also for skeletal muscle adaptions.

The study published in (J Appl Physiol (December 14, 2006). doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.01098.2006) done on moderately active women for 2 weeks. Results showed increased capacity in fat burning in muscles and whole body, during HIIT cardio sessions.

Why doesn’t every bodybuilder do HIIT cardio then?

HIIT is very intense cardio and is only recommended for very fit people. Even physically fit people should find it very exhausting. Many bodybuilders would just rather walk on a treadmill or bicycle at a steady pace and watch the T.V than do HIIT. HIIT cardio sessions are about 1/3 as long as long as lower intensity cardio sessions. Another consideration is that for hardgainers (naturally fast metabolism), they may find HIIT cardio too catabolic(muscle wasting). HIIT cardio done with leg excercises such as the bike or running, should also be beneficial for helping to maintain leg muscle mass. Doing low intensity cardio instead of HIIT, may cause changes in your muscle fiber type composition, causing your leg muscles to shrink. Weight training during fat loss cycles however, might help ward off these muscle fiber type changes with low intensity cardio.

HIIT cardio should always be done after a meal, since your body will start eating into your muscle, when glucose levels drop during the excercise. Your body needs quick energy to perform HIITand when glucose runs low, then it moves to protein as an alternative quick fuel source. Since low intensity cardio doesn’t have much of a metabolism burning effect, it is recommended to be done in the morning upon wakeup. This is because your glycogen stores will have been depleted and you will be ripe for a state of fat burning during the excercise. Doing low intensity cardio in the day will mostly result in burning carbs. You will create a calorie deficit either way, but it won’t be as effective as if you had done it in the morning. In the morning you will be taking advantage of fat burning instead of carb burning. Whether you burn fat or carbs it won’t make much of a difference in the long run, since fat loss is mainly about calories in vs. out, but every bit does help.

There is a common belief among many, that cardio is better than weight training for fat loss. Is there any research to back this up or could even the opposite actually be true?

Low intensity cardio vs. weight training studies:

Unlike low intensity cardio, weight training has a significant boost on post-workout metabolism. A study published in Eur J Appl Physiol. 2002 Mar;86(5):411-7. Epub 2002 Jan 29. showed that weight training caused a significant increase in metabolism for 38 hours post-workout.

Another study Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., Vol. 31, No. 9, pp. 1320-1329, 1999 was done comparing diet, diet and cardio, and diet plus cardio plus resistance. Guess who lost the most fat? The one who combined weight training with the other two factors. In fact, the cardio group only lost one more pound of fat than the diet only group.

The best study I have found was in published J Am Coll Nutr. 1999 Apr; 18(2):115-21, directly compares resistance only to cardio only. The cardio group did 4 hours of low intensity cardio a week. The resistance group did 2-4 sets of 8-15 reps a excercise for 10 excercises, 3 times a week. Both groups were on a 800 calorie deficit. Both lost fat, but the weight training group lost far more fat and unlike the cardio group, they maintained all their lean muscle.

As you can see from the studies, weight training is far superior to low intensity cardio, for burning fat and raising metabolism. The main importance we can see from these studies, is that weight training and diet, are the main factors behind fat loss, not low intensity cardio.

HIIT cardio vs. low intensity cardio:

The article has been discussing only low intensity cardio, but HIIT cardio on the other hand, is a much more effective at fat burning than low intensity cardio.  HIIT cardio can be just as effective as weight training for fat loss.

For further reading here is another article of ours: HIIT cardio vs. low intensity cardio for fat loss

Bodybuilders have long argued whether, heavy weight low reps or lower weight higher reps for your weight training routine, is better during a cutting cycle.

The arguments:

One group advocates heavy weights because they believe that it will help preserve lean muscle during low calorie dieting. The more muscle they believe, will also help keep the metabolism higher, which automatically slows during cutting.

The other side advocates that heavy weight is too much and can lead to overtraining, causing more harm than good. They also believe the high reps with quick repetitions, lead to metabolic and hormonal changes such as Growth Hormone production, that help aid in fat loss.

Who is right?

There is only one study I found comparing rep ranges of resistance training on calorie burning. It was published in 2001 Thornton, K., et al. A comparison of two different resistance-training intensities on exercise energy expenditure and excess post-exercise oxygen consumption.. One group of females did 2 sets of 15 repetitions on 9 excercises. The 2nd group did 2 sets of 8 repetitions for 9 excercises. The study concluded the low repetition group had burned more calories post excercise than the high rep group.

Another study I find relevant is Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol. 1990;61(1-2):37-41. They showed that endurance resistance training for a few weeks reversed all the hypertrophy gains from a few weeks worth of heavy strength training.

Trying to make your weight training workouts more “cardio like” with less weight and higher reps, is faulty logic to me anyways. On one hand you are trying to stimulate your muscles to preserve them, yet you are also not giving them what they need to be stimulated adequately. People who do high reps during fat loss, are trying to stimulate the most fat burning, while maintaining their muscle simulataneously. Sorry, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. One is going to have to be sacrificed for the sake of the other. The higher reps is going to cost you muscle, due to the lack of stimulus. If you believe that high reps light weight and short rest maintains muscle, then tell that to any 220 lb muscle bound bodybuilder and he will laugh in your face. If muscle is important to you, then lift heavy.

The argument in response of course to this argument will be, that you are then susceptible to overtraining from doing heavier weights while in a calorie deficit. This may be true if you keep your workout volume the same, but you should have a much lower volume workout routine anyways. The goal should be to only briefly stimulate the muscles with a heavy weight. Your goal is not to build them up or give them a “good workout”. You will not overtrain if your weight training is heavy, but very brief. You should also focus on the major compound excercises and eliminate isolation excercises.

One heavy exhausting set on a muscle part, should be adequate in helping to maintain muscle, during
cutting. For some reason everyone seems to think you have to hit the muscle 3 sets just to stimulate it when cutting. With all the cardio and the low calories, that is a recipe for overtraining and more muscle loss than is necessary. Just do one or 2 sets and move on. Drop all isolations out too, they aren’t necessary to maintain muscle. Even the common 3 day split is overkill during cutting I believe. A 2 day split, one day upper and one lower body should be all that is necessary to get the muscles worked out enough.

Recent research has shown a chemical in the body called IL-6 interleukin-6 is a important hormone in regulating fat gain. IL-6 is a pro-inflammatory hormone. It promotes the same inflammatory cascade that is seen as a result of excercise. The inflammatory cascade results ultimately in increased cortisol production, which as we know increases muscle breakdown and fat gain.

British Journal of Nutrition (2006) published research done on 67 overweight people(45 women and 22 men). They were put on a weight loss program for 10 weeks. There was no statistically significant differences in weight loss between those with high or low IL-6 levels in the body. The interesting results came one year later on follow up testing. They found that those who had gained the weight back , had higher levels of IL-6 naturally than those who kept the weight off.

Researchers concluded that IL-6 may trigger regain of weight by inflammation at the fat cell. This means that bodybuilders should realize, that some people will have a harder time keeping the fat off. This is more of a concern for inconsistent amateur dieters than for experienced bodybuilders. Research also shows that a may help reduce IL-6 and control insulin levels, both beneficial for bodybuilders. You can read more about it in a previous article of mine Whole grain diet effects inflammation & insulin

We always hear bodybuilders and fitness gurus tout how diet is the most important factor in fat loss. What does science say?

A study was done in 2002 at Harvard University on 36 rats to measure their fatty acid profiles. There was a control, low intensity excercise, and high intensity excercise. Each rat was then put into high carb diet or high fat diet. The study showed macronutrient changes were more important than the excercise differences.

While the study was done for fat loss, one could conclude logically that during bulking phases, macronutrient profiles in the diet would probably have a major impact on muscle gains.

Ever notice some people are more susceptible to eating lots of food? They just don’t know when to stop. Most thing its just bad habits, and I also believe binge eating is a learned behavior over the years. However, studies by the new England Journal of Medicine a couple years ago pointed to a possible link between binge eating and a gene mutation.

Interesting enough, out of 495 in the study, only 5% had this gene mutation. What this means is, most people who are overweight are because of their habits and lifestyle and not because of this so called binge eating gene. I think most just need to stop looking for an excuse to feel pity. No one in this world is going to feel sorry for you, so stop feeling sorry for yourself.

The mainstream folks often point to the BMI table as a way to calibrate bodyfat. The BMI doesn’t factor in muscle, frame, or how you distrubute your fat. A 250 lb ripped pro-bodybuilder is “obese” according to the BMI scale.

Bodybuilders instead use bf% as a way to accurately measure their bodyfat. 15% is the average bodyfat of most males. Over 20% is considered overweight. Everyone will store their fat differently for a given bodyfat %. Around 12% most will start to see good ab definition when flexing their abdomen.

Most accurate bodyfat % measure?

There are many gadgets and fancy methods to measure bf%.

Hydrostatic weighing: Also known as the water test. You will be completely submerged in the water and breath out all your air. It takes about 4 to 5 attempts.

Pros: The most accurate test of your true bodyfat percent.
Cons: Not widely available, expensive.

BodPomTM: This measures your body density like Hydrostatic weighing. It however is not underwater, but instead in a air chamber.

Pros: Almost as accurate as hydrostatic weighing.
Cons: Equipment is even more harder to find than hydrostatic.

BIA: BIA (Bioelectrical impedance analysis). This is the method many common machines use such as the TanitaTM and OmronTM. It measures by passing a painless electrical current through your bodyfat.

Pros: Cheaper than the more technical options.
Cons: Less accurate.

Fat Caliper: You will use a fat caliper to measure the thickness of the subcutaneous fat. Then you will add up the measurements and calculate your bodyfat %.

Pros: Cheap.
Cons: Won’t be able to measure all areas yourself. Not very accurate to your true bodyfat %. Takes time to learn consistency in measuring.

Spot reduction is the belief that you can target fat loss in certain areas of your body. For example, they often think the more ab excercises you do, the more fat you lose on your abdomen. You probably have heard many fitness experts mention that you cannot spot reduce.

Is spot reduction really a myth?

Yes, under most conditions. To reduce fat locally, you must use a proven fat loss herb called Yohimbine and deliver it in a lotion delivery system called a transdermal. Yohimbine transdermals absorb the yohimbine directly through the skin to your fat cells. Yohimbine is a stimulant used for years by bodybuilders in fat loss stacks and has a lot of research to back it up. It is even sold as a prescription for treating mens erectile dysfunction.

How Yohimbe Transdermals works on fat spot reduction:

In the body, all fat cells have A2 receptors. Yohimbine works on these receptors as an antagonist. The hardest fat to get off, is the fat cells that have high concentrations of A2 receptors. They are very resistant to fat loss. The Yohimbine antagonizes the A2 receptors from having adrenaline bind to them and inhibit(block) fat loss. The cause of high concentrations of A2 receptors in certain locations of your bodyfat is because of genetics and estrogen. High estrogenic fat locations, such as the butt, thighs, lower back, chest, will be particular effective with Yohimbine transdermal use. Transdermal Yohimbine allows a concentrated amount to get to the targeted location , making it more effective then just taking it orally. It would not be possible to get the same effect on a targeted bodypart, without overdosing because Yohimbine is a strong stimulant.

When is Yohimbine Transdermal use appropriate?

Yohimbine works best for those with low bodyfat. Those above 12% would be better off just worrying about general fat loss and taking Yohimbe orally in the beginning. Once you dip below 12%, most of the fat left will be high A2 type fat. This is when you will need Yohimbine transdermal to help get rid of large amounts of stubborn A2 receptor rich fat leftover.