Frustrated because you're not losing fat? Work out like a man!

Frustrated because you're not losing fat? Work out like a man! A man can learn a lot from observing women in a book club for five minutes. I would know because my wife is part of a one, and every time I spend a little time with those ladies I come away much wiser and more convinced that men and women could not be much more different-unless you're talking about exercise.

You see, the exercise techniques that work best are universal to men and women. And yet most women wouldn't dare approach the gym like a guy. How do I know? Because the 10 women at my wife's book club told me so last night, and it's the same thing I've heard for the last 10 years in the fitness industry. The reality is that training "like a man" will actually make you leaner, sexier, and have your friends dying to know your secret.


So forget gender differences for a moment. Here are three tips that are part of the foundation of my New York Times best-selling book, Man 2.0: Engineering the Alpha. They work well for men, but like most things in life, by following these simple rules, the end result will look even better on a woman.

Rule 1: Stick to the Basics
Everyone loves to create exercises that make working out more fun. And that's fine; your workout should be enjoyable. But thinking that Bosu ball balancing acts or one-legged plié jumps while holding a kettlebell will get you fitter faster just isn't accurate. If you want results, you have to stick with what we know works. And that's classic, multi-muscle exercises like squats and deadlifts. These exercises work because they force you to use multiple muscle groups at once. And the more muscles you activate, the more fat you'll slash.

These may seem like exercises for guys, but not all squats are done with a barbell loaded with lots of weight. (Although women shouldn't fear heavier weights; they don't make you bulky.) Variations of these exercises are timeless and extremely effective. Grab a pair of dumbbells and try Bulgarian split squats (Click here to see a how-to video). Your legs and butt will thank you.

Rule 2: Less Cardio
More women perform cardio as a means to lose weight than men. This is not a stereotype-it's reality. That's not to say men aren't equally guilty. (We spent part of an entire chapter in Engineering the Alpha busting the cardio-fat loss myth.) It's true cardio helps you burn calories… but so does eating. So that's not the issue; you want to find the most efficient ways to burn calories and more importantly fat. And you want to build a body that makes it easier for you to enjoy the foods you love, right?

That's why cardio isn't the answer. Or, at least, it's not the primary solution. Cardio will burn calories, and weight training is more likely to burn fat. If you're going to do cardio, make it secondary to weight training. That means either doing cardio on separate days (if you have the time) or after a weight training workout. The best thing about lifting weights is that your body adapts to the new muscle mass you'll build, which means your metabolism will be higher, you'll burn more calories, and you'll change your hormones (like insulin) to be able to handle the foods you love.

Rule 3: More Intensity
I've spent enough time in the gym to know that making fitness social is a great idea. Few things are better than going to gym with friends or being part of group fitness, whether it's bootcamp, Crossfit, or Zumba. What's not okay is focusing on the social aspect more than the workout itself. Most guys go in with a "go big or go home" mentality. While this can lead to injuries, it's closer to the right mindset in terms of getting results.

When you go to the gym, you want to get in and get out. Longer workouts are not better workouts. Intense workouts are what works. Your heart rate should be elevated and you should be sweating and feeling your muscles work. Completely transforming your body does not take a lot of time-but it does take a lot of effort. If you want an idea of what all out effort feels like, try this simple two-exercise sequence. It's called a countdown. It might only take 10 minutes, but it might feel like the hardest workout you've ever performed. Use this as a baseline for how hard you should be pushing to get the body you want.

Countdown Workout
Perform 10 reps of a kettlebell (or dumbbell) swing
Without rest, do 10 reps of burpees
Still without resting, do 9 reps of the swings
Now do 9 reps of burpees

Continue this pattern until you do just 1 rep of each exercise, trying to rest as little as possible (or not at all) between moves. 
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What Happens to Body Fat When You Cleanse?

May 17, 2013

Fat loss involves complex metabolic processes that begin at the cellular level.

Ah, the visual joy of weight loss—your face is more defined, your belly no longer protrudes over the waist of your pants, and parts that used to jiggle are now toned. On the outside, fat loss seems like a fairly simple process. However, what happens in your body during weight loss involves an intricate web of metabolic changes that include structural transformation of fat cells, the breakdown and use of fat for energy, as well as changes in hormone production.
Performing Isagenix Cleanse Days—a combination of intermittent fasting with herbs and vitamins that support detoxification—is an effective approach for weight loss, especially for targeting fat loss. In fact, the UIC study using Isagenix products found that those who follow the Isagenix system had more fat loss and twice as much visceral fat loss than those who followed a “heart healthy” diet.
How does fat loss occur when you incorporate Cleanse Days into your routine? To understand, we’ll have to start with the basics, or Fat 101:
Getting to know fat
Adipose tissue—or body fat—is comprised of millions of fat cells, also called adipocytes, with the average adult having around 40 billion. The weight of adipose tissue is about 20 percent of body weight, making it one of the biggest organs in the body.
Fat can be defined by where it’s found in the body: subcutaneous fat is located just below the surface of the skin while visceral fat is found in the abdominal cavity, surrounding the internal organs. Furthermore, there are two types of adipose tissue: white and brown. White adipose tissue is primarily used as an energy reserve and brown adipose tissue functions to generate heat.
Adipose tissue is a metabolically active organ rather than just an inert mass as many may have guessed. In fact, each depot of the organ even receives its own vascular and nerve supply.
Adipose tissue has been identified as an endocrine organ because of its production of hormones known as adipokines. These signaling proteins influence several important functions including glucose and lipid metabolism, blood coagulation, insulin sensitivity, blood pressure, and steroid hormone modulation (1). Excessive adipose tissue has been shown to disrupt the normal endocrine functions of fat cells and can negatively affect health through insulin resistance, abnormal blood lipids, and even increased cardiovascular disease risk.
Leptin is an adipokine that regulates hunger and appetite by telling the brain, “I’m full!” Although intuition may assume that leptin levels would be low in obese individuals due to chronically excessive food intake, the opposite is true. Leptin has been shown to be tightly related to fat cell size: the bigger the adipocyte, the greater the expression of leptin (2).
This would mean that obese persons are constantly feeling full, right? Wrong. Obesity is associated with resistance to the effects of leptin on the brain appetite centers, so they actually end up having an impaired response that doesn’t indicate fullness. This exemplifies how complex the relationship is between adipose tissue and the endocrine system.
Fat cells increase in size, then in number
When energy balance becomes positive (meaning there are more calories consumed than burned), the adipose organ increases, particularly in the amount of white adipose tissue. White adipocytes undergo hypertrophy (increase in volume) followed by hyperplasia (increase in number).
It’s been proposed that adipocytes have a maximum volume, referred to as “critical cell size” that may be genetically determined (3). This means that fat cells can only get so big. Once they reach their critical cell size, they trigger production of new adipocytes. In other words, your existing fat cells are filled until they reach their capacity (much like a balloon) and then signal the body to make more fat cells.
You are more likely to make additional fat cells at certain times in your life. Research has shown that the natural production of fat cells steadily increases during childhood and levels off in early adulthood (4). Although more research is needed, this could indicate that children who are obese are more likely to be obese as adults and experience greater difficulties in trying to achieve weight loss.
How the body burns fat
When energy balance is negative in the body (meaning there are more calories being burned than consumed), the hormones that access stored fuel are increased, namely glucagon. In short, the body flips from an energy-storing state to an energy-burning state.
First, the body will burn stored carbohydrate, also known as glycogen, which is found mostly in the liver and muscles. Once the glycogen energy reserve has been exhausted, the body breaks down fat in a process called lipolysis.
What happens to fat cells during weight loss?
During negative energy balance such as on Cleanse Days, the body will use the fat for fuel causing the fat cells to shrink in size. As fat cells decrease in size, so too does the amount of signaling molecules produced. Over time, this reestablishment of normal endocrine function can be immensely beneficial for health including decreasing the molecules that induce inflammation.
Additionally, fat loss accompanied by adequate intake of optimal nutrition—such as  vitamins (B vitamins, vitamins C and E), minerals (selenium, zinc, copper), and other bioactive nutrients including coenzyme Q10 and polyphenols—support the detoxification systems of the body in the removal of toxins. (Read more in The Basics of Detoxification.)
It is interesting to note that fat cells have the ability to shrink but rarely decrease in number. However, during fat loss, cells can decrease as much as 400 percent in size! For many, this morphological transformation supported by dietary interventions such as Cleanse Days means more than just a slimmer appearance; it can improve health and even add years of quality life.

Interested in the Best Cleanse available: www.22s.com/weightloss



References
1.    Rossmeislova L, Malisova L, Kracmerova J, Stich V. Adaptation of human adipose tissue to hypocaloric diet. Int J Obes (Lond) 2013;37:640-50. doi: 10.1038/ijo.2012.80
2.    Skurk T, Alberti-Huber C, Herder C, Hauner H. Relationship between adipocyte size and adipokine expression and secretion. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2007;92:1023-33.
3.    Cinti S. The adipose organ at a glance. Dis Model Mech 2012;5:588-94.
4.    Spalding KL, Arner E, Westermark PO et al. Dynamics of fat cell turnover in humans. Nature 2008;453:783-7. doi: 10.1038/nature06902

Don't give up on your success

Don't give up on your success

Fitness is filled with frustrations. Mainly because results do not come as fast as we want. This is mainly because we fall for the weight loss gimmick crap posted everywhere. The sad part is we give up right before our breakthrough. Throughout our history we have heard of stories of people giving up because a task appears too hard or too complicated. Oftentimes, we quit right before success shows up at our doorstep.

It is human nature for most people to quit or "take a break" right when they do not see the light at the end of the tunnel. The problem is at that moment we are about to achieve the biggest breakthroughs of our lives.

One story stands out in my mind. There is a great story in the best book of success ever written. If you are familiar with the iconic success book "Think And Grow Rich", you might remember the story in that book about a man who gave up his quest for gold too soon, during the California Gold Rush of long ago.

The story goes like this. For months upon months this man went about prospecting for gold in the hills. Somehow he just knew that he would strike gold.

Every day he got up early in the morning and walked to the hills in search of his "fortune". He dug and dug with his simple tools. He found some gold here and there. But never anything to write home about.

The story goes that he finally gave up digging because he was convinced that he could not find the "mother lode" he was searching for.

Hearing this, another prospector came to him and offered to buy all his tools. The man agreed and sold all his tools for whatever money he could get for them.

This prospector then went on to hire a land surveyor, an engineer and geologist, all whom combined their knowledge and went to work on the mine where the first man had been digging without results.

It is told that upon studying the area and the mine, the men discovered that the first man had been literally three feet from where the real gold deposit was. Literally 3 FEET! The poor prospector who had given up was so close to the gold, he could reach out and touch it. But there was no way he could know this because he gave up too soon, and he did not have the proper tools for the job.

When he heard about the discovery, the man could do nothing but wonder what might have been.

What about you? Are you "three feet from gold" and just don't know it? Are you one burpee away from melting 10 inches from your waist? Do you give up at rep number 8 when rep number 10 is waiting to transform you? Giving up too soon could be costing you your dreams of becoming the person you envision. You cannot fail as long you do not give up and have the proper tools and training. On this page we try to equip you as best we can but this page is no substitute for good training. Seek out professionals to help you get the results you desire. If you can't locate one consider one of our 6 week online clean eating and fitness programs or challenges. Inbox us for details. Someone once said success is when preparation meets determination. (I think that’s how it goes LOL) Go for the gold or die trying!

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