Losing fat shouldn’t be as hard as many people try to make it. People who are desperate to lose fat are often prone to take more risks (something that I try to help you avoid). The truth is that with some basic principles you can make some serious progress toward fat loss without any major effort. Often a client will come to me looking for some hints that will help them shed some weight quickly. I am always happy to tell them my “secret” tips that are always surprisingly effective. In fact, many people have found these tips to make an easy ten pound difference as they get started on a new program. You might thing that these suggestions are really hi-tech or mysterious, but in reality, they are basic principles that I’ve seen successful over and over again. Here they are.
Avoid “white” food. This includes white breads, pastas, many cereal products, and even cracker-type snacks. Think about some other white things too like flour, potato products, rice, and even processed milk and cheese products. Some white foods that are OK for you to eat are cauliflowers, fish, and chicken.
Ditch the sodas and other drinks that have calories, sugar, or even artificial sweeteners. I don’t want you to drink much coffee either. Creamer? No. It’s white, isn’t it? I want you to take in at least half the weight of your body in ounces of water. This means that if you weigh 250 pounds, you should be consuming 125 ounces of water every day. This will be essential for getting the fat loss process in gear.
I’ve already taken you off white products, now you need to do away with wheat products. I don’t care if the package says “whole wheat” on it or not: it has to go. Check the ingredients of everything you’re eating and if it has wheat in it, don’t eat it.
These three tips are pretty easy to follow, aren’t they? Sure, you’ll have to adjust your habits a little bit, but it really won’t be very hard once you get started. If you consistently adhere to these hints, you will be surprised at the progress you make in just a couple weeks.
Begin making even more progress in your fat loss program: get the Fat Loss Factor today.
Discover Something to Motivate You to Exercise
Even though most people are aware of how significant exercise is to weight reduction, many have trouble making themselves do it. There are others who never can seem to find the time. Reality is that developing an exercise routine can be difficult when you are starting out. The key is developing a lifestyle that is accommodating to an exercise routine.
One thing is for sure: you need to get involved with an exercise plan that will keep your attention. In other words, I want you to be involved in exercises that you enjoy. This will make it natural to get into the daily routine since you want to do it.
You can even stay home and exercise. For many people this is key because the time and effort it takes to go to a gym often precludes participation in an exercise program. I use a spare bedroom, but I don’t have fancy equipment as you might expect. I don’t need it and neither do you. What you do need is a balance ball and weights that can be adjusted. A mat helps as well as a stationary bicycle. That’s it. You don’t need a lot to get a fat loss program going. By having a way to exercise at home, you will find that it is easy to work out when you don’t have to go across town. The truth is that many people don’t exercise because they don’t like where they exercise.
What I want you to think about is what might make your exercise time more fun. Whatever you do, you will find that building it on the foundation of activities you enjoy is the key to developing a lifetime of fitness.
As we mention in Can You Burn Fat And Build Muscle At The Same Time? ”Now, if you want to burn fat, you have to create what is called a calorie deficit. That is, you must ingest less calories than your body is burning on a daily basis. Of course, your training regiment will have to change but to alter your body fat levels, you will need to cut down on calories to burn the maximum amount of body fat.”.
Can You Burn Fat And Build Muscle At The Same Time?
If there is one question that I’ve been asked the most, it’s how to burn fat and build muscle at the same time.
There seems to be a lot of confusion about whether or not this can actually be done. On top of that, who actually knows how to do it?
Well, it’s no wonder. Just take a look around the internet and you’ll find 101 different answers to this question. Some sites say you can build huge amounts of muscle while reducing fat and others say you can’t.
Others say you need to bulk up first and build a large muscle base after which, you can cut the body weight and fat to show the “new” muscle.
So, who’s right?
Where do I stand on this issue? Well, I find myself caught in the middle of this question. That is, it is sort of like a balancing act when it comes to building muscle and burning fat. You see, it all depends on what you want and where you currently stand with your training program. Now, there are a whole lot of you out there who want the best of both worlds – Including me, but can it be done?
However, I can’t possibly say that you can actually build the maximum amount of muscle while at the same time, losing the maximum amount body fat. I tried this and it doesn’t work. Well it worked when I first started training but that soon stopped.
Now, I mean, when a person is training hard and heavy, their body is relying on a huge supply of nutrients to fuel and build their bodies. In order to grow, you need to feed your body the correct amount of nutrients that is required for growth. You cannot grow by reducing your overall caloric intake that is needed to lose weight and burn fat.
However, with that being said, there is a very fine line between gaining muscle and gaining body fat. You see, in order to build your muscles, you need to get strong first. When you are training, your muscles start to get strong and when they start to get strong, they get bigger and bigger to meet the demands of more weight being stressed upon them. Once this happens, they need more and more nutrients to keep growing. This is the the cycle of building lean muscle tissue.
As you get stronger, your muscles will start to get larger and your body will actually demand that you feed them a certain amount of nutrients to sustain this new growth. If you don’t feed your body the nutrients that it demands, it will get weaker. Once it gets weaker, your muscles will start to get smaller and it will draw on other sources of energy.
The general line of thinking is this. To build muscle, you need to create what is called a calorie surplus. That is, you need to ingest more calories than your body is burning per day. Let’s say you need 2,500 calories on a daily basis, taking into account your exercise levels, to sustain your current body weight.
Now, if you want to add body weight and build the maximum amount of muscle, you will need to adjust your training schedule to exert new demands on your body but more importantly, ingest more calories to support these new demands. You will need additional calories on a daily basis to support new growth.
Now, if you want to burn fat, you have to create what is called a calorie deficit. That is, you must ingest less calories than your body is burning on a daily basis. Of course, your training regiment will have to change but to alter your body fat levels, you will need to cut down on calories to burn the maximum amount of body fat.
To build muscle, you need to get strong – This is a fact. Once you start getting stronger, your body will demand more nutrients to sustain these new strength and muscle levels. However, this is where the balancing act comes into play.
You know that in order to build muscle you need more and more nutrients to support new strength levels That means more and more food. Let me be very clear about this. You need clean, powerful, muscle building food to support this new growth. All increase in calories should come from clean, whole foods.
You see, muscle is a very active tissue and once they start working, they turn into mini metabolism machines that are constantly going. Once they start to get strong, they crave more and more nutrients to keep that machine going. And if you feed them the right nutrients and in the right order, they will keep on going.
However, this process depends on a variety of factors such as age, gender, training styles, and so forth. But, all things being equal, the process of building muscle stands the same which is:
• Get strong with hard and heavy weight training;
• Muscle gets larger to sustain strength levels;
• Body needs more nutrients to sustain new growth;
This is the basic process of growth. Now, this is very important for you to remember. The foods you choose to sustain new growth will have a direct impact as to how much fat you gain as compared to how much muscle you build. Yes, the foods you choose will be one of the deciding factors as to the kind of mass you want to gain. I’m a firm believer that calories are not all created equally. And this is where most people get confused when it comes to building the maximum amount of muscle while losing or maintaining current fat levels.
You want to eat just enough calories to help with the growth process. If you ingest more calories than your body can use to sustain new growth, some of it will go to fat. This is the trick. By gorging yourself with high fat foods, you will ultimately ingest too many calories to sustain new growth. However, if you eat clean, whole foods, your body will use up most of those calories for fuel and growth.
Yes, there are some sites on the internet will insist that all calories are created equally and the body doesn’t recognize one calorie from the next. I totally disagree with this statement. Eating 3,000 calories from cheeseburgers and haagan daaz is not the same as eating 3,000 calories from whole foods such as lean meat sources and complex, fibrous carbohydrates.
If you want to eat fatty, high calorie foods, you will gain a lot more fat than muscle. I think this is where most people get confused. When you get right down to it, it will come down to the foods that you choose that will be the deciding factor when trying to build the maximum amount of muscle while maintaining current body fat levels.
A diet high in quality nutrients will produce much better results than a diet high in fat and processed foods. Don’t believe me? Try cutting out all high fat foods and sugars from your diet and replace them with lean protein sources and complex carbohydrates. Do this for a week and see how it impacts your training. I can say with 100% certainty that you workouts will improve drastically and your body will take on a whole new look.
Now, there is an exception to this rule. It is during this period of growth that certain individuals can actually experience a certain level of body fat reduction while building muscle. However, before you get confused with this statement, let me explain. For beginners and those of you who are already out of shape, this is very possible.
That is, your body is in a state of growth from the weight training and your testosterone levels are increasing. Since your body is using up everything to build muscle, your fat levels are actually being reduced. For those of you who have been training for awhile, you can probably remember how fantastic those times were. You could eat just about anything and still build muscle without getting fat.
But, this happens only for a certain period of time before your body needs more and more food to sustain strength levels and where most people experience plateaus. By not feeding your body the necessary nutrients to grow, it will stop growing. That means no more strength gains and why a lot of you reading this page now, are not getting stronger and bigger.
The following point I’m about to make is very important. Building muscle and burning body fat is all dependant on:
- Somatotype (Your body type)
- Genetics
- Gender
- Activity levels
- Age
A naturally heavier person is going to require a different amount of nutrients, weight training program, and cardiovascular regiment than someone who is naturally thin and lean. Body specific nutrition and training will take most of the guess work out of building muscle and burning fat.
I’ve written a more detailed article about this subject at:
Now, most sources on the internet and other fitness publications will say that you have to choose one or the other - Build muscle or lose fat. However, you have to be smart about this . Increasing caloric intake, doesn’t mean increasing your consumption of cheeseburgers and chili fries. You have to increase calories from high powered, clean whole foods.
This is what I suggest. You don’t want to consume so many calories that you become fat. You want to consume just enough calories that will support new growth but keep fat levels to a minimum. If you simply gorge yourself with food, it can be difficult to get rid of those extra pounds when it comes to stripping off body fat. I suggest you do the following:
1) Find your starting point;
Multiply your body weight by 18 to get your base starting caloric intake for adding mass. If you weight 165 pounds, multiply that by 18 to get 2,970 calories. This will be your base, daily caloric intake.
You will monitor your progress with a mirror, skin calipers, measuring tape, and weight scale. Remember, this is a starting point, since you want to monitor how your muscles are growing. If you find your adding too much body fat, cut down on your daily caloric intake by 500 and monitor on a weekly basis.
Keep in mind your body type. If you are a naturally heavier person, you will need to keep a very close eye on your calorie intake and possibly start with a lower calorie intake. You may need to cut body weight and fat in order to start seeing results.
If your a naturally thin person with a high metabolism, you may need to increase your calorie intake in order to start adding muscle mass.
2) Decide who much protein, carbohydrates, and fat you need;
You should be consuming at least 1 to 1.2 grams of protein per pound of body weight. That is, if you weight 165 pounds, you should be consuming anywhere between 165 grams to 198 grams of protein per day. You should also be consuming about 3 to 5 grams of quality complex carbohydrates per pound of body weight. Keep fat down to about 15% to 20% of your overall caloric intake.
You will also need to eat, at the minimum 5 to 6 meals per day. If you skip breakfast, this won’t work. If you wait 4 to 5 hours in between meals, this won’t work. If you skip a meal or two, this won’t work. You must, eat 5 to 6 meals per day, spaced 2 to 3 hours apart. No questions about this part.
3) Decide on what kinds of foods you want to eat;
Cut out all junk foods! This is a priority. Cut out all sugars and processed foods. Eat only high quality protein, carbohydrate and fat sources. Remember, you don’t want to add a lot of fat but you do want to grow muscle. I can guarantee all of you who are reading this page now that if you cut out all junk food and sugars, and replace them with whole foods such as lean protein sources, fibrous carbohydrates, and clean fats, your workouts will shoot through the roof and you’ll notice a difference in your appearance within a couple of weeks.
This is what I do every Sunday. I get out a piece of paper and a pen and I write down all the meals I plan to have for the following weak. Once I get down all of the ingredients, and head to the grocery store and pick up all the food I will need for the following week. I cannot stress how important this simple process is!! If you truly want to gain the most muscle while maintaining current body fat levels, you have to follow this step. I’m not going to lie to you, you must know exactly what your putting into your body at each meal. Sorry, no getting around this fact.
Also, go to this page and download to your desktop, training diary’s, nutritional logs, and body evaluation logs. I use the same logs and they can come in very handy. Print out as many copies as you want and put them in a binder that you can bring to the gym with you or put them in your pack sack.
Remember, you will need to gauge your progress on a weekly basis. For this, I recommend you get a weight scale, tape measure, and maybe a skin fold caliper (to measure body fat). Take your measurements on a weekly basis and record them in the body evaluation log provided at the above noted address.
Alright, now you know that you can actually build the maximum amount of muscle while maintaining current fat levels. You also know that in order to do this, you need to keep close tabs on what you eat and the kinds of foods you choose. If you can do this, I can assure you that you will build the kind of muscle your looking for without getting really, really fat.
Now, the weight lifting part is another story. If your looking for great workout routines, try going to the following page:
You CAN gain muscle and lose fat at the same time and I will show you how. Common wisdom is that you have to gain some fat to gain muscle, its the whole bulking and cutting mentality. I’m here to tell you its wrong, at least for most people. Because of many peoples unrealistic expectations about adding muscle they come to the incorrect conclusion that you can’t gain muscle while losing fat.
Gaining muscle. Most mature adults can gain a maximum of 15 pounds of muscle in a year but many can only gain 5lbs of muscle a year. That’s only 1.25 pounds of muscle gain per month maximum – pretty slow whether you are losing fat at the same time or not. In rough numbers, to gain that 1.25 pounds of muscle each month while maintaining your current bodyfat you should eat an additional 3125 calories more a month, that’s about 100 more calories a day – not much of a calorie surplus.
Losing fat. Now lets look at losing fat, its much faster than gaining muscle. You lose fat when you consume fewer calories than you burn off in a day (the TDEE). For an average person losing weight, they will eat about 400 calories a day less (12,000 calories a month) than their TDEE to lose a pound of fat a week, or 52 pounds of fat in a year.
The first important thing to note is that the calorie surplus to gain muscle is very, very small when compared to the calorie deficit required to lose fat.
To gain muscle and lose fat at same time. Now lets try to put the two together – losing fat and gaining muscle. Now, your first thought is probably that it can’t be done because to gain muscle, you have to eat 100 calories more per day and to lose fat, you have to eat 400 calories less per day. How can you eat less and eat more at the same time? The secret to this is that our assumption that you need to eat more to gain muscle is incorrect for most adults.
Lets look at what your body does with its calories, please look at my body on left side of the above diagram. A whopping 25% of your energy goes to your brain. 50% is housekeeping stuff to keep us alive – breathing, pumping blood, maintain body temperature, replacing dead cells, etc. Its only down here where it gets interesting. About 20% is actually spend DOING stuff – walking, lifting, moving and only about 5% is spent adding muscle. Don’t get hung up on the exact numbers, the important thing is that exercise and building muscle uses very little of the calories we consume.
Now look at the right side of the above diagram, the sources. To keep you alive, your body needs two things, plain energy to burn in the form of carbs or fat and then amino acids in the form of protein. Your body has an amazing series of emergency backup system to keep you alive should food be scarce. Your stomach is the gas tank for ordinary use. Your bodyfat is the backup up generator to be turned on when food is scarce. And your muscles are the emergency backup, your body wont turn on this nuclear power plant to cannibalize muscle unless its a DIRE emergency. Energy can come from any of the three systems but amino acids can only come from the stomach or the muscles.
Lets talk about this nuclear reactor here and how to stop if from turning on and burning up our muscles. Our bodies are really smart, they know muscle is really important and they wont burn it unless they absolutely have to. There are three occasions your body will fire up the nuke in the above diagram:
It needs energy to stay alive that is not available in the stomach or fat stores (the barrel or the portable generator in the above diagram)
It needs amino acids to stay alive that are not in the stomach (the barrel in the above diagram)
Its afraid you are starving. If you cut calories more than 10% under TDEE, risk burning muscle.
40% of energy from protein eaten
50% of energy from fats and carbs eaten
10% of energy from stored bodyfat
So YES, you can gain muscle and lose fat and here’s how:
Constant influx of protein. 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight per day taken 5-6 equal portions spaced evenly through out the day – otherwise your nuclear power plant will have to turn on between meals and burn muscle, you don’t want that.
Consume enough calories to keep your body from thinking its starving but not so many calories that you gain fat, 10% under your TDEE is a good value to use. My calorie calculator will tell you exactly what that is for your type metabolism. Make sure to set your goal in step 6 to “10% calorie reduction”
eat less than 30% of your calories from fat and eat only good fats like olives, nuts, and avocados
eat whole grains and low G.I. carbs – no simple carbs like sugar, alcohol, or white flour
eat omega-IIIs daily, flax or salmon are great sources
Hardcore, consistent weight workouts. You can use my custom workout plan generator to design a workout plan appropriate for you.
Daily cardio, 30-40min. Cardio will not burn muscle, it will help you gain muscle while losing fat at the same time.
Many beginners to fitness ask if they should lose their fat first or start lifting to gain muscle first, the answer is that they should do BOTH at the same time!!! Especially for beginners, it is very easy to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time!
Now lets talk about the exceptions to this, those who can’t gain muscle and lose fat:
Losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time is very difficult for advanced bodybuilders. Many of them are close to their genetic limits so adding muscle is very difficult and slow for them even under the best of circumstances. Losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time is something that only beginning and intermediate bodybuilders can do. (By my somewhat arbitrary definition, an advanced bodybuilder is someone who can do 8 flawless, ultra slow-motion pullups and 20 flawless, ultra slow-motion pushups.)
Skinny teens who can’t gain either fat or muscle even when they eat as much as they can.
Advanced bodybuilders with low bodyfat (under 8%).Your body needs some fat so when you get to a certain point, your body will start choosing to burn muscle instead of fat if you have a caloric deficit. If you are 8% bodyfat and want to get down to 4-6% bodyfat you wont be able to add muscle while you do this, at best you can do is to maintain your muscle mass. With regular dieting, its tough to drop down to 4-6% without losing muscle mass but carb cycling seems to really help for this specific purpose.
Building your muscles is one thing; being able to see them is another. What’s the point in owning a set of strong, shapely muscles if you can’t see them? It’s like having a mint-condition vintage car that never leaves the garage. In the space between your skin and the underlying muscle lies a layer of fat. Fat owns that space; we rent it. Unless your body fat percentage is below 10 percent, that insulating layer of lard will obscure your hard-earned muscle mass.
The human body contains 20 to 30 billion fat cells. As well as providing a layer of insulation from the cold, body fat serves as an energy savings account; instead of money, the currency in this account is calories. The more calories you feed into the bank, the bigger the account gets.
Fat is a potent source of energy. Each gram of fat contains nine calories, compared to four calories per gram of protein or carbohydrates. So it’s understandable that our bodies prefer to invest energy funds in a fat account. Fat storage is a survival mechanism; the swollen fat cells provide a savings account of calories to draw on during lean times. Fat cells are also resilient—they love to stick around and hate to get too small.
Not all fat is the same. A fat cell’s precise qualities vary according to which fat deposit in the body it resides in. Fat from the belly, for instance, will lose and gain lipid more quickly than fat from the thighs and buttocks. When you’re ridding your body of lard, the thighs and buttocks are the last areas that shed fat. In many people, these stubborn fat deposits won’t disappear until body fat percentage slides below 6 percent.
So, how do you get rid of body fat and deflate that spare tire of blubber? You must stop feeding excess calories into the savings account. Stop making deposits and start making withdrawals. When you withdraw calories from the savings account, the fat cells shrink in size, and their number decreases.
In the fight against flab, the points on the scorecard are calories. Calories are the units of energy contained in food and are a measure of how much energy your body uses. When you consume more calories each day than you actually need, the excess is put into storage, and your body fat savings account grows. On the other hand, if you don’t consume enough calories each day, the deficit is taken from savings—-you burn body fat to provide the extra energy.
Each pound of body fat contains 3,500 calories. If your average daily calorie intake is 2,000 calories, you’d have to starve yourself for two days to lose that pound of fatty flesh. Even if you starved yourself for a week, you’d lose only four pounds of body fat.
Starving out the army of fat cells is a tough battle to win. The good news is that we have a secret weapon—exercise. Exercise requires energy. To provide this energy, your body taps into its fat reserves. Exercise forces fat cells to give up their ammunition, their calorie stores. As the fat cells lose lipid, they shrink in size and decrease in number.
Remember that losing fat depends on the balance between calories consumed and calories used. To kill off the fat cells, you either consume fewer calories, burn more calories, or both. As the fat melts away, your muscles come out to play, visible for all to see.
It’s true that metabolism slows as we get older. The aging process depletes muscle while increasing fat deposits. Fat burns fewer calories than muscle, so as your body’s proportion of muscle shrinks your metabolism slows down. In the older years, fat tends to accumulate around the midsection, which poses more health risks than, say, thick thighs.
Women feel the effects of this body mass transition more so than men. To begin with, women tend to have less muscle mass than men. Age-related weight gain may also be linked to menopause. Some researchers posit that the hormonal shifts that accompany the change of life affect the way the body breaks down and stores fat, leading to weight gain. Generally, this weight increase begins in perimenopause, a pre-cursor to menopause lasting two to eight years. On average, women gain a pound a year during perimenopause. These pounds can be more difficult to lose compared to weight that might have been gained earlier in life.
A third explanation for weight gain as you age is genetics. Due to genes, some people are simply pre-disposed to be wispy or wide. Your relatives may some offer clues as to what’s in store for you. For example, if your family is on the thin side, you may have inherited a tendency to be slender as well. On the other hand, if your clan is a bit hefty, that doesn’t necessarily mean you will balloon up after your thirtieth birthday. Weight gain triggered by menopause usually appears after age 40, giving you at least another two decades before extra pounds may emerge.
Although many sources of weight gain are out of your control, one cause — excess calories — is possible to keep in check. If the number of calories you consume is greater the number you burn, weight gain will probably result. Eat too much, and your body stores the energy as fat. Exercise, and the body burns fat for fuel. One way to stay trim is to keep up your healthy eating and exercise habits. Keep in mind that you will need to adjust these habits as you age. Older folks generally need fewer calories due to their decreased muscle mass and lower activity levels. However, many people continue to eat the same amount resulting in a calorie surplus and weight gain.
Continuing to exercise regularly and eat well is the best way to stay healthy overall. However, you can’t stop the clock, and it’s also good to have reasonable expectations about growing older, even if that means adding a few pounds. Here’s to building healthy habits for life!
Understanding Your Body Fat Percentage
Body fat measurements and the measuring tape are recognized as superior methods for measuring “weight loss”. When one declares that they want to “lose weight”, what they often mean is that they want to lose fat. So, now that you’ve had your body fat percentage measured, what does the number really mean?
First, your body fat percentage is simply the percentage of fat your body contains. If you are 150 pounds and 10% fat, it means that your body consists of 15 pounds fat and 135 pounds lean body mass (bone, muscle, organ tissue, blood and everything else).
A certain amount of fat is essential to bodily functions. Fat regulates body temperature, cushions and insulates organs and tissues and is the main form of the body’s energy storage. The following table describes body fat ranges and their associated categories:
*General Body Fat Percentage Categories
Classification
Women (% fat)
Men (% fat)
Essential Fat
10-12%
2-4%
Athletes
14-20%
6-13%
Fitness
21-24%
14-17%
Acceptable
25-31%
18-25%
Obese
32% plus
25% plus
*American Council on Exercise
Knowing your body fat percentage can also help you determine if your weight loss goals are realistic. Remember, weight loss doesn’t always mean fat loss. For example:
Let’s say you’re a 130# woman with 23% body fat, and you goal is to “lose 20 pounds”:
Initial body fat: 130# x 0.23 fat = 30 # body fat
Lean body mass: 130# total – 30# fat = 100# lean body mass (bones, organs and all else)
Goal: 130# – 20# = 110 pounds
As you can see, the goal of losing 20 pounds is not realistic or healthy. At 110 pounds, this woman still requires 100# of lean body mass (bones, organs, etc.), but would only be carrying 10#, or only 9% body fat. From the chart above, you can see that this is a dangerously low percentage.
A better goal might be for the woman to reduce her body fat from 23% to 18%. In this case:
130# x 0.18 = 23 # body fat
100# lean body mass + 23 # = 123# goal weight
So, for this individual to achieve a lean, but healthy 18% fat, she would need to lose only 7 pounds of fat, reducing her weight from her current 130 pounds to 123 pounds. Losing more than 7 pounds means losing lean body mass (usually metabolically-active muscle tissue), which is clearly not desirable.
So before you decide that you need to “lose weight”, remember to consider that “weight” consists of both lean body mass and body fat. Try to keep your weight loss goals realistic, and remember, keep the calorie-burning muscle, and lose only the fat.
Brad Pitt had seven months before Troy started filming to get into shape. During the shoot he maintained his physical appearance because the scenes weren’t shot chronologically. Pitt maintains that his workout for Troy was the most aggressive he had ever done. Through interviews and rumors on set we get some hints of Pitt’s workout. The rest we can reverse engineer.
To start, Brad’s character for Troy, Achilles, was well built but not overly muscular. He is not built like a bodybuilder. The key here is proportion. Many amateur bodybuilders and weightlifters have big arms and chests and small shoulders and backs. The problem exists because everyone feels the need to be a big shot on the bench press or impress the ladies with bicep curls. Look at some stills from Troy; Brad has very developed shoulders and an excellent back. His chest is built, but is in proportion. Also, you can notice that his upper chest is especially built, rather than the lower part that bench pressing emphasizes. Also, his legs are not overly muscular at all. In addition to his muscular development, Brad has very low body fat. Without low body fat, all his added muscle would look make him look bulky and slow.
Since Brad had seven month to get into shape for Troy, our workout will be over a seven month period. We will have a two step approach, as trying to get your body fat levels low to quickly would make it difficult to put on muscle. (note that if you have a lot of muscle you could skip to the second phase) The first step of our approach is a four month bulking phase but not in the traditional sense. We will completely avoid things like squats, deadlifts, and bench press. These will add mass in all the wrong places if you are going for Pitt’s look. Instead, we will focus on bulking up the upper and middle back, the shoulders (especially the read deltoid, because it is necessary for superlative shoulders and because it is underdeveloped in most people), and the upper chest. Only moderate amounts of cardio will be performed in step one, and this is only to get you ready for step 2.
The second step will be a three month cutting phase with an emphasis on getting a “hard” physique. I say “hard” rather than ripped because there is a difference. We are not necessarily concerned with how ripped you can get, or how many striations (or cuts) your chest can have. Instead, we want your muscle to simply be hard. The problem with many bodybuilding approaches is that, while size is indeed added quickly, muscular density actually decreases. This is because the number of muscle fibers stays relatively the same while there is more “fluid” in the muscle. Thus, as the muscle gets larger the resting tension or firmness decreases. We want to actually add density in the second step, and to do this we will choose exercises that will build the muscle fibers themselves and not the fluid around them, and we will also choose exercises that will increase capillary density. Capillary density is achieved through high rep bodyweight exercises. Think sets of pushups not endless curls with 5 pound dumbbells. Workouts with successive bodyweight exercises with little rest in between will also help you lose bodyfat, as they are similar to interval training workouts in the effect on your body. In addition to these pseudo interval workouts, you will also be doing pure running interval workouts. (While we usually don’t care what type of exercise you do for intervals, here you have to do running because the associated muscular development will give you the lower body similar to Pitt’s) Don’t fear losing muscle mass with all these intervals; Olympic sprinters do tons of interval training (otherwise known as a series of sprints) and their physiques aren’t exactly weak. Just one last point: the mechanics behind the second step might be confusing at first, but really what we are doing is avoiding the middle range of reps. We use low reps to work out the muscle fiber itself to gain strength and hardness, and we use high reps to gain the capillary density. The midrange of reps is ignored because we don’t want useless bulk or a pumped up look.
Enough said; let’s get to the workout, which we have broken down into two phases:
Phase 1: Bulking
Day 1: Upper Chest/ Shoulders, Triceps, Abs
3 sets x 10 reps Inclined Dumbbell Press
2 sets x 10 reps Military Press
2 sets x 12 reps Arnold Press
2 sets x 12 reps dumbbell flys (make sure your arms are bent slightly)
2 sets x 12 reps bent over dumbbell flys (these will work your rear delts; bend over as much as possible so you stress the rear of your shoulder as much as you can)
2 sets x 8 reps skull crushers
Day 2: Back/Traps/Biceps
3 sets x 12 reps Pullups
3 sets x 10 reps seated rows
3 sets x 10 reps upright rows
2 sets x 15 reps dumbbell shrugs
3 sets x 10 reps preacher curls
Day 3: Cardio
30 minutes running at moderate pace
Day 4: Shoulders/ Upper Chest
2 sets x 10 reps Military Press
2 sets x 12 reps Arnold Press
2 sets x 12 reps dumbbell flys (make sure your arms are bent slightly)
2 sets x 12 reps bent over dumbbell flys (these will work your rear delts; bend over as much as possible so you stress the rear of your shoulder as much as you can)
3 sets x 10 reps Inclined Dumbbell Press
Day 5: Back/Cardio
3 sets x 12 reps Pullups
3 sets x 10 reps seated rows
3 sets x 10 reps upright rows
2 sets x 15 reps dumbbell shrugs
30 minutes running at moderate pace
Day 6: Cardio (note if you want the weekend off do this cardio on day 2)
30 minutes running at moderate pace.
Day 7: Rest
Phase 2: Cutting (“hardening”)
Day 1: Shoulders/Upper Chest
2 sets x 6 reps Military Press
2 sets x 8 reps Arnold Press
2 sets x 8 reps dumbbell flys (make sure your arms are bent slightly)
2 sets x 10 reps bent over dumbbell flys (these will work your rear delts; bend over as much as possible so you stress the rear of your shoulder as much as you can)
3 sets x 10 reps Inclined Dumbbell Press
Day 2:
Part 1:
Perform these exercises in succession, then rest for 30 seconds. Repeat this until you can’t anymore. Note that I say ½ max for each exercise. This means that before you start this phase you need to find out the maximum number of each exercise you can do, and then do half as many in this routine. Eventually you will need to increase the amount because your endurance will improve.
½ max Pushups
½ max Pull ups
½ max Sit ups
½ max Triangular pushups
30 seconds rest
Part 2:
20 Minutes of intervals. Do the cycle of sprint and rest for 20 minutes. Make sure to warm up and warm down for at least 5 minutes.
30 seconds sprint (run as fast as you can for 30 seconds)
1 minute rest
Day 3:
Part 1:
30 minutes running at a moderate pace.
Part 2:
20 Minutes of intervals. Do the cycle of sprint and rest for 20 minutes. Make sure to warm up and warm down for at least 5 minutes.
30 seconds sprint (run as fast as you can for 30 seconds)
1 minute rest
Day 4: Back/Traps/Biceps
3 sets x 12 reps Pullups
3 sets x 10 reps seated rows
3 sets x 10 reps upright rows
2 sets x 15 reps dumbbell shrugs
3 sets x 10 reps preacher curls
Day 5: Cardio
1 hour of running at a moderate pace
Day 6: Perform the same workout as Day 2. Don’t do the sprints if you feel very worn out.
Day 7: Rest
Note for this workout if you start to feel burned out cut out Day 4 or Day 5 until you feel better.
The 2004 epic war movie, Troy directed by Wolfgang Petersen stars Brad Pitt as Achilles and the events surrounding the Trojan War. The hit blockbuster made over 497 million dollars internationally. However, Troy has been labeled as one of the most expensive movies made in modern cinema with a production bill of over 175 million dollars. To transform his physique for the role of the warrior in Troy, Pitt trained for seven months and had a team of professionals that included a personal trainer, strength coach, stretching coach, masseuse and a yoga coach.
The actor went from a light 150-160 pounds in Fight Cluband beefed up to a solid 185 pounds
in the movie Troy. Brad’s training routine was divided into two phases, a bulking phase and cutting phase. Obviously, his bulking phase focused on packing lean muscle mass on the actor’s body. Once the desired amount of muscle was developed, Brad began the cutting phase to maintain muscle mass while reducing his body fat.
Brad Pitt Troy workout and bulking phase training program consisted of heavy compound or multi-muscle group exercises like bench presses, pull ups, deadlifts, and squats which loaded the actor with lean muscle mass. His repetition range remained low, using a 6 to 12 rep count. Low repetition, heavy weight movements allow for the most muscle-building results possible. During the actor’s bulking phase, cardio was completely taken out of the program to promote weight gain and muscular development. Once the bulking phase concluded, it was time to cut body fat and get lean and defined for the war film. The three-month cutting program included circuit resistance training workouts along with challenging high intensity interval training workouts. Low intensity cardio training was also introduced into Brad’s cutting program to further help with burning the actor’s excess body fat.
In order for Brad to make the astounding 20-pound jump in weight he consumed four meals a day. His diet plan consisted of high amounts of protein and lower carbohydrate amounts. Each meal consisted of at least 30 grams of protein and 20-45 grams of carbohydrates alongside 10 to 15 grams of healthy fats. Food sources like eggs, chicken, tuna, protein shakes, and steak provided the actor with plenty of protein for muscle development. His carbohydrate sources included whole grain breads, brown rice and oats that fueled his body through the grueling workouts. Brad also consumed a variety of fruits and green vegetables that provided energy. To further enhance his success, Brad quit smoking, drinking and eating junk food during the training, which in my opinion greatly increased his results
20 Plus pounds With the Brad Pitt Troy Workout
Pitt continued to live up to his attractive-male reputation in the movie Troy. The
successful actor packed on an amazing 20 plus pounds of lean muscle in seven months. It’s no doubt that the key to Brad’s success was the split focus of his training. Many people too often make the mistake of trying to achieve too many goals at once. Pitt’s training was designed intelligently and focused on one aspect at a time, the bulking phase and the cutting phase. Anyone who wishes to pack on lean muscle and cut fat like brad pitt in troy workout should follow this same routine for their success.
Please click here to check out Joe Manganiello workout for True Blood as it may be also helpful.
Muscles are funny things. They respond to just about any type of training, as long as it’s hard and as long as it’s not the same damn thing you’ve always done. That’s the beauty of density training: It’s a whole lot of stuff you haven’t tried yet. And best of all, it’ll hit your major muscles in a fraction of the time. Instead of counting reps and sets, you’ll focus on the total amount of work you can accomplish in a fixed amount of time. As you progress, you’ll naturally increase your sets and reps, be able to use more weight, and perform exercises that are more challenging. Try this plan, created by David Jack, director of Teamworks Fitness in Acton, Massachusetts, to increase the intensity of your workouts. In only 4 weeks, you’ll create a lean physique that looks like the product of hours at the gym.
THE PLAN: Do three density workouts a week, with at least 1 day off in between. Start with the first workout, and each day move on to the next option. At the end of 4 weeks, you’ll have completed all 12 workouts.
Pushup
Assume a pushup position, with your hands slightly beyond shoulder-width apart, feet together, and body in a straight line from head to ankles. Lower your chest until it’s an inch above the floor, and then push back up. That’s 1 rep.
If done correctly, the push-up can strengthen the chest, shoulders, triceps, and even the core trunk muscles, all at one time.
Here’s how to do a perfect push-up: From a face-down position, place your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Place your toes or knees on the floor, and try to create a perfect diagonal with your body, from the shoulders to the knees or feet. Keep the glutes [rear-end muscles] and abdominals engaged. Then lower and lift your body by bending and straightening your elbows, keeping your torso stable throughout.
There are always ways to make it harder. Once your form is perfect, try what he calls the “T-stabilization” push-up: Get into push-up position, then do your push-ups with one arm raised out to the side, balancing on the remaining three limbs without rotating your hips.
Reverse Lunge and 1-Arm Press
Stand holding a pair of dumbbells next to your shoulders. Step back with your right leg (as shown). Then press the dumbbell in your right hand straight above your shoulder. Lower it, and stand back up. Now repeat with your left side. That’s 1 rep.
Like squats, lunges work all the major muscles of the lower body: gluteals, quadriceps, and hamstrings.
A lunge is a great exercise because it mimics life, it mimics walking,” only exaggerated, says Petersen.
Lunges are a bit more advanced than squats, says Cotton, helping to improve your balance as well.
Here’s how to do them right: Take a big step forward, keeping your spine in a neutral position. Bend your front knee to approximately 90 degrees, focusing on keeping weight on the back toes and dropping the knee of your back leg toward the floor.
Petersen suggests that you imagine sitting on your back foot. “The trailing leg is the one you need to sit down on,” he says.
To make a lunge even more functional, says Rufa, try stepping not just forward, but back and out to each side.
“Life is not linear, it’s multiplanar,” says Rufa. And the better they prepare you for the various positions you’ll move in during the course of a day, the more useful exercises are.
Inverted Row
Lie underneath a secured bar. Grab the bar with an overhand, shoulder-width grip, your arms and body completely straight, and heels on the floor. Pull your body up (as shown), and return to the starting position.
Prisoner Squat
Place your fingers on the back of your head, pull your elbows and shoulders back, and stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Lower your body as far as you can (as shown). Pause, and return to the starting position.
For perfect form, keep feet shoulder-width apart and back straight. Bend knees and lower your rear, says Cotton: “The knee should remain over the ankle as much as possible.”
“Think of how you sit down in a chair, only the chair’s not there,” suggests Gotlin.
Physical therapist Adam Rufa, of Cicero, N.Y., says practicing with a real chair can help.
“Start by working on getting in and out of a real chair properly,” he says. Once you’ve mastered that, try just tapping the chair with your bottom, then coming back up. Then do the same motion without the chair.
Gotlin sees lots of patients with knee pain, and says quadriceps weakness is the cause much of the time. If you feel pain going down stairs, he says, strengthening your quads with squats may very well help.
Explosive Pushup
Perform a basic pushup. After lowering your body, push back up with enough force that your hands leave the floor.
“I’m very much into planking exercises, almost yoga-type moves,” says Petersen. “Anytime you have the pelvis and the core [abdominals and back] in a suspended position, you have to rely on your own adherent strength to stabilize you.”
Push-ups can be done at any level of fitness, says Cotton: “For someone who is at a more beginning level, start by pushing from the kitchen-counter height. Then work your way to a desk, a chair, the floor with bent knees, and, finally, the floor on your toes.”
Reverse Lunge with 1-Arm Press
Perform a reverse lunge with your right leg as you simultaneously press the dumbbell in your right hand straight above your shoulder. Stand, and then lower the weight. Repeat the move with your left side. That’s 1 rep.
Elevated-Feet Inverted Row
Perform an inverted row, but first place your feet on a box or bench.
Goblet Squat
Hold a dumbbell vertically in front of your chest, cupping one end of the dumbbell with both hands. Keep your elbows pointed down toward the floor, and perform a squat. Then push back up.
Squats, which work the quadriceps, hamstrings, and gluteals, are an excellent example.
“They give you the best bang for the buck because they use the most muscle groups at once,” says Oldsmar, Fla., trainer David Petersen.
Isometric Explosive Pushup
Perform a pushup, but hold your body in the down position for 3 seconds and then push your body back up explosively.
Isometric Reverse Lunge and Press
Do a reverse lunge, but after you lower your body, pause for 3 seconds. Then press both dumbbells above your shoulders. Lower them and return to a standing position, and repeat with your other leg. That’s 1 rep.
Isometric Elevated-Feet Inverted Row
Perform an elevated-feet inverted row. But after you pull your chest to the bar, pause for 3 seconds at the highest point. Lower your body and repeat.
Isometric Goblet Squat
Perform a goblet squat, but pause for 3 seconds at the lowest point of your squat. Then push back up to the starting position and repeat.
Basic Workout
Perform each workout as a circuit, completing one exercise after another and resting as indicated.
Do three workouts a week, with at least 1 day off in between.
Weeks 1 and 2
Do 5 reps of each exercise, going from move to move without any rest. For weighted exercises, select a weight that you can lift 10 times. Keep repeating all four exercises until the workout time is up.
Workout 1
Perform for 10 minutes.
Workout 2
Perform for 15 minutes.
Week 3
Perform each exercise for 20 seconds, and rest for 10 seconds. That’s 1 set.
Workout 7
Perform 2 sets. Rest for 1 minute. That’s one cycle. Complete two more cycles.
Week 4
Perform each exercise for 20 seconds and then rest for 10 seconds. That’s 1 set. Complete 4 sets, rest 1 to 2 minutes, then move on to the next exercise. Advance to the more difficult versions after you can complete at least 8 reps of each exercise in 20 seconds.
Workout 10
Advanced Workout
Perform each workout as a circuit, completing one exercise after another and resting as indicated.
Do three workouts a week, with at least 1 day off in between.
Weeks 1 and 2
Do 5 reps of each exercise, going from move to move without any rest. For weighted exercises, select a weight that you can lift 10 times. Keep repeating all four exercises until the workout time is up.
Workout 3
Perform for 10 minutes.
Workout 4
Perform for 15 minutes.
Week 3
Perform each exercise for 20 seconds, and rest for 10 seconds. That’s 1 set.
Workout 8
Perform 2 sets. Rest for 1 minute. That’s one cycle. Complete two more cycles.
Week 4
Perform each exercise for 20 seconds and then rest for 10 seconds. That’s 1 set. Complete 4 sets, rest 1 to 2 minutes, then move on to the next exercise. Advance to the more difficult versions after you can complete at least 8 reps of each exercise in 20 seconds.
Workout 11
Expert Workout
Perform each workout as a circuit, completing one exercise after another and resting as indicated.
Do three workouts a week, with at least 1 day off in between.
Weeks 1 and 2
Do 5 reps of each exercise, going from move to move without any rest. For weighted exercises, select a weight that you can lift 10 times. Keep repeating all four exercises until the workout time is up.
Workout 5
Perform for 10 minutes.
Workout 6
Perform for 15 minutes.
Week 3
Perform each exercise for 20 seconds, and rest for 10 seconds. That’s 1 set.
Workout 9
Perform 2 sets. Rest for 1 minute. That’s one cycle. Complete two more cycles.
Week 4
Perform each exercise for 20 seconds and then rest for 10 seconds. That’s 1 set. Complete 4 sets, rest 1 to 2 minutes, then move on to the next exercise. Advance to the more difficult versions after you can complete at least 8 reps of each exercise in 20 seconds.
Workout 12
Some more tips abc
Interval training
Whether you’re a beginner or an exercise veteran, a walker or an aerobic dancer, adding interval training to your cardiovascular workout will boost your fitness level and help you lose weight.
“Varying your pace throughout the exercise session stimulates the aerobic system to adapt,” says Cotton. “The more power the aerobic system has, the more capacity you have to burn calories.”
The way to do it is to push the intensity or pace for a minute or two, then back off for anywhere from two to -10 minutes (depending on how long your total workout will be, and how much time you need to recover). Continue doing this throughout the workout.
6. Abdominal Crunches
Who doesn’t want firm, flat abs? Experts say that when done correctly, the familiar crunch (along with its variations) is a good choice to target them.
For a standard crunch, says Cotton, begin lying on your back with feet flat on the floor and fingertips supporting your head. Press your low back down and begin the exercise by contracting abdominals and peeling first your head (tucking your chin slightly), then your neck, shoulders, and upper back off the floor.
Be careful not to pull your neck forward by sticking the chin out; don’t hold your breath, and keep elbows out of your line of vision to keep chest and shoulders open.
For his part, Petersen teaches his clients to do crunches with their feet off the floor and knees bent. He says that with feet kept on the floor, many people tend to arch the back and engage the hip flexors.
“Crunches can be excellent, but if they’re not done correctly, with the back arching, they can actually weaken the abdominals,” Petersen says.
To work the obliques (the muscles on the sides of your waist), says Cotton, take the standard crunch and rotate the spine toward one side as you curl off the floor.
“Twist before you come up,” he says. “It’s really important that the twist comes first because then it’s the obliques that are actually getting you up.”
But keep in mind that you won’t get a flat stomach with crunches alone, says Cotton. Burning belly fat requires the well-known formula: using up more calories than you take in.
“Crunches work the ab muscles; [they're] not to be mistaken as exercise that burns the fat over the abdominals,” he says. “That’s the biggest myth in exercise going.”
7. Bent-over Row
Talk about bang for the buck: This exercise works all the major muscles of the upper back, as well as the biceps.
Here’s how to do it with good form. Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, then bend knees and flex forward at the hips. (If you have trouble doing this exercise standing up, support your weight by sitting on an incline bench, facing backward.) Tilt your pelvis slightly forward, engage the abdominals, and extend your upper spine to add support. Hold dumbbells or barbell beneath the shoulders with hands about shoulder-width apart. Flex your elbows, and lift both hands toward the sides of your body. Pause, then slowly lower hands to the starting position. (Beginners should perform the move without weights.)
Technique
These seven exercises are excellent, efficient choices, the experts say. But with just about any strength or resistance exercise, says Petersen, the question is not so much whether the exercise works as how well you execute.
“Done with good technique, all exercises do what they’re supposed to do,” says Petersen.
The trouble is that poor form can change the whole exercise, putting emphasis or even strain on different areas than intended. This can hurt, rather than help you.
So especially if you’re a beginner, it’s a good idea to seek the advice of a fitness trainer – whether it’s a personal trainer or a trainer at your gym — to be sure your form is safe and correct.
Upper Body Exercises
Chest Exercises to Help Tone and More
Strong chest muscles are for more than filling out a guy’s shirt. Women benefit, too! Find out why a strong chest is so important and then learn how to build those pecs.
