Josh Hillis' Fat Loss and Fitness

What about Body-For-Life?

Body for Life is an interesting phenomenon.

Trainers hate it.  Why?  Because the workout programs are mediocre.  Sure they aren't the worst ever, but there are many smart trainers that could improve upon the workouts significantly. 

But...  People keep getting results.  Amazing results.  Using Body For Life's mediocre workouts.  Why?

The reason is that Body For Life inspires people.  It stirs something in them that causes them to do the workouts with intensity and vigor.  It causes people to follow the program 100%.  People follow the eating program 100% and the workout program 100%. 

And that's the thing.  Most people have half-assed every workout program they have ever done.   And then they get somewhere near to zero results.

Body For Life is proof - You'll get better results going all out on a mediocre workout program than you will half assing a good one. 

Now if you go all out on a great workout program - the results are nothing short of magical.

By Josh Hillis
Author of How To Lose The Stubborn Seven Pounds: Take Your Body from Good to Rockstar.
National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer (NASM-CPT) and Performance Enhancement Specialist (NASM-PES)
Russian Kettlebell Challenge Certified Instructor (RKC) and Combat Applications Specialist (RKC/CAS)

Jessica Alba got her body through smart workouts, not genetics

Of her last eight films, Jessica Alba has been nearly naked in seven of them.  Makes you wonder - What  kind of workout and diet would you do if you had to go to work in a bikini every day, while millions of people watched? 

Jessica is 5ft 6in, 34-25-34, and weighs around 125lb, depending upon her training schedule.  Now I don't know her exact bodyfat percentage, but from the calculations I can do, and knowing clients, friends, and other trainers who have a body like hers - I'd put it right at about 17-18%. 

I think Jessica looks awesome at that bodyfat percentage.  I never recommend for women to go any leaner than that because I think down around 15% women start looking like boys.  Girls should have girl parts.  In fact I think most girls look awesome at about 21%, and some girls even look better at 22-23% than they do at 17%.  It all depends on the woman and her body.

Jessica Alba has talked about how most of her family is overweight, and how she started cooking for herself in her early teens.  I think this is the coolest thing ever.  Most people would assume that Jessica Alba is one of the most genetically gifted women in the world.  She wasn't.  It's awesome to know that she defied her genetics - she built her movie star body on good food and smart workouts.

What that means to you is that if you want it a body like that, go out and get it.  Smart workouts: Squats, lunges, full body movements, short and intense cardio.  Smart eating: Lean proteins, low glycemic carbs, veggies, and little or no sugar. 

By Josh Hillis

author of How To Lose The Stubborn Seven Pounds: Take Your Body from Good to Rockstar.

National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer (NASM-CPT) and Performance Enhancement Specialist (NASM-PES)

Russian Kettlebell Challenge Certified Instructor (RKC) and Combat Applications Specialist (RKC/CAS)

© Joshua Hillis 2007

Kettlebells for Fat Loss

Why would you want to work out with kettlebells? 

The kettlebell swing is probably the most effective fat loss exercise that there is.  As I've written about before, Tracy Reifkind lost over 100lbs of fat by changing her diet and doing kettlebell swings.

Also check out Lisa Shaffer's Article on Kettlebell Training for Women.

Kettlebells are not a fad or a gimmick. Kettlebells are cold, hard, iron.  Kettlebell swings are a cold hard, unforgiving exercise!  Kettlebell swings and snatches hit the glutes hamstrings and quads like nothing else.  If you've never done any big compound (lots of muscles working at the same time) movements before - that could be the biggest reason that your fat loss program has stalled. 

If you've been reading my articles for any length of time at all, you know what a fan I am of squats and lunges - they are high intensity, full body movements.  They have a major impact on your body composition.  Kettlebell swings and snatches are the only exercises that I could call more effective for fat loss than squats and lunges.   

I know most people come here to read about what's effective for fat loss, but I also have to point out that kettlebells are really really fun. 

Check out Missy Beaver's "MisFit's Kettlebell Basix" DVD

and Andrea DuCane's "Kettlebell Goddess Workout" DVD

By Josh Hillis
Author of How To Lose The Stubborn Seven Pounds: Take Your Body from Good to Rockstar.  It's a kettlebell fat loss book, but doing traditional kettlebell movements with dumbbells instead of kettlebells.
National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer (NASM-CPT) and Performance Enhancement Specialist (NASM-PES)
Russian Kettlebell Challenge Certified Instructor (RKC) and Combat Applications Specialist (RKC/CAS)

Use filtro solar - Everybody is free to wear sunscreen

What about other people's fat loss books?

There are some really good ones, besides mine.  Not many mind you, but a few.

Alwyn Cosgrove is one of the best in the world at fat loss, and his book Afterburn contains some great, smart training for fat loss.  Seriously, this guy has turned fat loss into a science.  Light years ahead of 99% of the stuff out there.  Alwyn creates programs that WORK.

I recently discovered Craig Ballentyne's Turbulence Training.  Not only his is book awesome, I also look forward to his emails every week.  It's amazing how simple, clear, and EFFECTIVE this guy is.

Ever since I stumbled onto the training program I use, I've known the training I did with my clients works amazingly well for burning fat.  I knew it worked three times better than what the other trainers in my gym were doing with their clients.  But until I ran into Alwyn Cosgrove, I honestly didn't know why the stuff I was doing worked.

Tom Venutto's Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle could make a strong claim to be the "encyclopedia of weight loss".  Tom is a brilliant fat loss trainer, and his stuff is awesome.  The only downside of his "encyclopedia of weight loss" is that at 350 pages, it's a pretty monster read.  Everything that I have read out of it is phenomenal, but I still haven't finished reading it.

My book, The Stubborn Seven Pounds: Take Your Body From Good to Rockstar is a quick and fun read - just at 100 pages - with lots of great pictures that make all the concepts really simple and easy to understand.  If my book has any  advantage, or unique selling point, I think it's that my book has some really fun stories.  My book is very conversationally written, and it's a really easy fun read. And of course my clients also lose lots of fat, lean up, and basically become hotties.

You couldn't go wrong with any of these books.  They are all jam packed with really intelligent information and workout programs that produce results in the real world. All of the best trainers are more alike than they are different.  The principles are very similar, if not the same.  A good homework assignment would be to read all of these books and make a list of what they all have in common.

By Josh Hillis
Author of How To Lose The Stubborn Seven Pounds: Take Your Body from Good to Rockstar.
National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer (NASM-CPT) and Performance Enhancement Specialist (NASM-PES)
Russian Kettlebell Challenge Certified Instructor (RKC) and Combat Applications Specialist (RKC/CAS)

 

Don't Just Lose Weight, Lose Weight and Look Hot

The trick to losing weight AND looking hot is making sure that the weight you lose is fat weight.  Too many  people lose muscle weight and fat weight at the same time.  Sometimes people lose muscle weight and keep the fat weight - then they look "skinny fat", how does that sound?

When you lose muscle weight, you look gross.  "Hey look!" you say as you jump on the scale, "I've lost WEIGHT!"  You're so excited!  And you still don't have abs.  In fact, seems like no matter how much weight you lose, you never really look any hotter.  Well maybe you look ok with your clothes on...  but if you want to look hot naked, just loosing weight isn't going to be enough.  You need to lose fat and hold on to some lean toned sexy muscle.

My job as a trainer in helping people lose "stubborn fat" is actually pretty easy.  Most of the time people who come to me are burning muslce and holding on to fat.  It's not that the fat is "stubborn", it's that they are burning muscle instead.  They are losing weight, the wrong kind of weight. 

The most obvious way to burn muscle is too much long slow cardio, and not enough protein and weight training.  That's why marathon runners are always skinny fat.  They are really skinny...  but they aren't lean.  Most of them tell me that the more they run the fatter they get.  Not that they get any bigger, they've lost tons of weight...  they just get fatter.

It's pretty simple - the body is smart.  The body adapts primarily to survive.  Being lean and sexy isn't top on it's list.  It just wants to live.  So lets say you run and run and run, and never lift weights.  Your body is burning all these calories running...  so what does it do?  Well of course you lose weight.  But where does that weight come from?  Your muscles?  WHAT!  Why does it come from muscle and not fat?  Simple, you aren't using your muscle, so your body gets rid of it.  Hey, the fat it can use to live if you get stranded on a desert island.  But the muscle...  if you haven't used it in years, why would your body think you need it?

What about the runners who aren't even losing weight anymore, what's up with that?  The body develops a mechanical efficiency to running.  Which makes you a better running competitor.  But it means you burn less and less calories doing the same activity.  So you should change it up.  Try swimming.  Or rowing.

Sorry to pick on runners.  Hey, I used to be a runner.  I just go with what I see the most of.  I could say the exact same thing about the people who spend an hour and a half on the eliptical machines every day.  Or people who do super long biking.  Anyone who does super long duration cardio, and no weight training at all.

By Josh Hillis
Author of How To Lose The Stubborn Seven Pounds: Take Your Body from Good to Rockstar.
National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer (NASM-CPT) and Performance Enhancement Specialist (NASM-PES)
Russian Kettlebell Challenge Certified Instructor (RKC) and Combat Applications Specialist (RKC/CAS)

I'm in the Denver Post!

http://www.denverpost.com/lifestyles/ci_4963898

It's an article about kettlebell training, and I talk about why I use kettlebells for fat loss programs.

You Are NOT Your Calories

Ok, I do a lot of writing and speaking, and one of the most powerful tools that I am always talking about is food logs / food journals.

Something that I talk about often with my individual clients that doesn't always come up in my writings or speeches is the concept of good and bad.  There is no good and bad.

You are not bad when you go over on your calories.

You are not bad when you eat something with lots of sugar or trans fat.

You are not good when you hit your calorie goal.

You are not good when you eat really healthy.

There is no good or bad with food.

There is only what works.

And what works for you is different from someone else.  If I had a client that needed to gain weight (I've had clients that came to me underweight because of an illness or injury) they could be totally indescrimant about where their calories came from.  Sometimes they are so not used to eating that I will recommend simple sugars - because they can eat a lot of them.  I'd also recommend a lot of protein.  My point is, what works for her may be different from what works for you.

If you have a fat loss goal, it would work for you to eat less calories than you are burning.  It would also work for you to burn more calories than you are eating.  But it's not "good" in a moral sense.  It just works.

If you have a weight loss goal you are not "bad" in a moral sense if you eat a twinkie.  Now if you eat a twinkie five times a day, it won't work for your goals.  But it's not bad.

But lets say your food log is rocking, you hit your calories all of the time.  You are eating foods that work for your health - fruits, vegetables, lean meats, chicken, nuts, ect.  Then lets say you plan in a "free meal", and for that free meal you have McDonalds and you top if off with a Twinkie.  Is that bad?  No.  In fact, it probably works for you to have a free meal once in a while.  Usually when people plan free meals into their schedule, it makes it easier to eat healthy the rest of the time.  So in that instance, it's not bad, and it's not even that it doesn't work - in this case it definately works.

Don't think in terms of good or bad.  Think in terms of if it works / doesn't work.  Don't let yourself get wrapped up, self esteem wise, in your calories.  Don't beat yourself up if you have a day that doesn't work in your food log.  Everyone does.  Perfection is not required.

I took a really emotionally draining leadership class once.  It stretched every inch of who I was, called me out for all of my bullshit, and forced me to be the man I always wanted to be.  Most of the time.  The expectation was greatness, and I often fell short of that.  But the things I achieved in my life just shooting for greatness was unbelievable.  Through all of the ups and downs of the course, I met someone else in the course who shared a quote with me - I think it's from AA

"Just for today I will have a plan.  I may not follow it exactly, but I will have it."

I'm getting slightly off-topic.  It's starting to lead into, "don't beat yourself up", which is very important.  But it's a different conversation from "Don't moralize food".  And "Don't get wrapped up emotionally in your calories."  Which is more what I really wanted to talk about today.

By Josh Hillis
Author of How To Lose The Stubborn Seven Pounds: Take Your Body from Good to Rockstar.
National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer (NASM-CPT) and Performance Enhancement Specialist (NASM-PES)
Russian Kettlebell Challenge Certified Instructor (RKC) and Combat Applications Specialist (RKC/CAS)

Where do skinny people eat? Where do fat people eat?

Homework assignment:

1.) Go to three local fast food restaurants.  Notice how many people there look overweight, and how many people there look fit.

2.) Go to three local health food stores.  Notice how many people there look overweight and how many people at there look fit.

The results of your study won't shock you.

I often talk about the difference between losing weight and losing fat.  I like to talk about how losing fat is the goal, not just losing "weight".  Right now 400,000 people per day are searching the internet for how to lose weight.  5000 people per day are searching for how to lose fat.  The truth is, most of the people I see eating at the fast food restraints, and sadly could stand to lose either one - weight or fat.

66.3% of Americans are overweight or obese.  32% of Americans are obese.  These are pretty sad numbers.

Most of my clients are actually pretty fit when they come to me.  They just want to lose that last stubborn fat.  But clearly, 2/3 of America is not in that situation.  They just straight up need to lose weight.  We'll sort out the rest later. 

For someone who needs to lose weight, for real, the answers are actually very simple.  Eat fast food and simple sugars once a week only.  Eat from the outer edges of the supermarket (the deli and the produce section) as often as possible.  You'll lose tons of weight just eating clean.

Go for a walk every day.  As soon as you can, run.  Then run every day.  Do pushups and situps.  For the pushups, do your pushups with your hands on a wall (instead of on the ground).  As soon as you can, do your pushups with your hands on a table instead of the wall.  Work your way down to the floor.  You'll lose tons of weight developing a base level of fitness.  This fitness is your foundation.  Your mantra: "I worked out today."

Once you get comfortable with activity:  Join a kickball league.  Join a boxing gym.  Learn Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.  Anything that is fun and will keep you active.  If it's fun, you'll keep the weight off.

I specialize in helping people lose the hard weight - the stubborn fat.  If you are overweight, then take the simple solutions.  Notice I said "simple", not "easy".  The hardest part, usually, is staying accountable.  You may want to get a personal trainer or join Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig just for the accountability.

By Josh Hillis
Author of How To Lose The Stubborn Seven Pounds: Take Your Body from Good to Rockstar.
National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer (NASM-CPT) and Performance Enhancement Specialist (NASM-PES)
Russian Kettlebell Challenge Certified Instructor (RKC) and Combat Applications Specialist (RKC2/CAS)
www.joshsgaragedenver.com

© Joshua Hillis 2007