Josh Hillis' Fat Loss and Fitness

"Skinny Fat"

Sometimes people have a hard time grasping what I mean by "skinny fat".  It's the difference between losing weight and losing fat.  Here is a visual:

On the left is Lindsay Lohan circa Mean Girls.  She looks awesome.  I'd say she doesn't have any fat to lose, she looks like a rockstar.  Flat stomach, everything tight, and she still has breasts and curves.

On the right is Lindsay Lohan in 2006.  Clearly she's lost all of her muscle - all that she has left is fat.  Where did her breasts go?  Where'd her muscle go?  Seriously, she took something perfect and ruined it.  She's "skinny fat".  Or I could say "skinny gross".

I like to use Lindsay Lohan as an example because she is so recognizable, and had such a striking change that was so clearly unhealthy.  And also because she looked SO GOOD to start with.  These days she doesn't look quite that skinny, but she still just looks...  sick. 

Lindsay, I've said it before and I'll say it again - I'm a huge fan.   After you get what your issues worked out, If you need a trainer I can get you back to rockstar shape in about 8 weeks.

In my gym it's usually something like this - a girl who runs marathons who gets skinnier and skinnier but always feels fatter.  What's going on?  She's running so much she's going past the point of burning fat, and she's burning muscle.  She's burning muscle and holding on to fat.

The vegan who gets skinnier but keeps feeling fatter.  She isn't eating enough protein to hold on to muscle.  She's losing muscle and holding on to fat.

Most of my clients are working out already.  They are dealing with "stubborn" fat.  Sometimes the reason that the fat is stubborn is just because they are burning so much muscle. 

The answers -
1.) The marathon runner should stop marathon training (from a body composition perspective).  She should start training to run a really fast 5k.  Adding a couple days per week of strength training would also do wonders for her holding on to lean muscle.
2.) Have the vegan eat more tofu and tempeh and nuts than she ever thought was possible.  Protein.  If I could get some fish or eggs into her diet, that would be even better, but not necessary.   I use vegans as an example because for them it's a little more challenging to get enough protein.  If you eat fish, poultry, meat or dairy, you've got no excuse not to get enough protein  - Go eat some cow.

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)

*RKC certified 2004-2006, registered to recertify 2007

© Joshua Hillis 2007

 

iPod Workouts!

You asked for it, you got it!  iPod versions of all of the workouts in my book The Stubborn Seven Pounds. 

People have asked me - if I can only get one, should I get the book or the iPod workouts?  I would definately get the book first and the iPod workouts second.  The book has all of the nutrition information, even more detailed exercise descriptions, and "how" and "why" of everything.

That being said, the iPod workouts are super cool.  Or as one of my old cleints used to say, they're "super gucci"!

Eva Longoria talking about her butt workout

Eva Longoria says she credits her toned behind to working with her trainer, Patrick Murphy.  She said: “With all the lunges, squats and leg presses, I’ve gained an inch of muscle in my butt.”

Patrick said: "Each session we [Eva Longoria and I] do between 25 and 30 total-body exercises--lunges with torso twists and one-legged squats with clean and press, for example--with 30- to 45-second rests in between."

Hmmm, sound familiar?  I've said it before, and I'll say it again - squats and lunges are the best thing ever.  Eva Longoria's trainer knows his stuff.  When it comes to having a major impact on your body composition, there is a certain level of intensity we are looking for.  You aren't going to get that kind of intensity from muscle isolation with easy machines.  You need exercises that use lots of muscles in coordination.  You need to do some real work.  You need to learn how to move. 

Squats and lunges (in all of their different variations) are just what we are looking for, and the cornerstones of any good program.  Squats and lunges use the quads (top of the legs), hamstrings (back of the legs) and glutes (butt) all at the same time.  No combination of leg curls (hamstrings only) and leg extensions (quads only) would have the same effect - the sum is more than the parts. 

Do an experiment - one day do all machines.  The next day do all squats, lunges, and free-weights.  Notice the heart pounding full body difference after a good set of lunges or one legged squats.   This is what we are going for.  This is what produces results.

Squats and lunges are going to give you the hot Eva Longoria butt - rockstar body you want.  You need to be doing them, and it's worth learning how to do them right.

You may have noticed that Patrick also mentioned that Eva does "Clean and Presses".  The clean and press is another full body exercise standard to kettlebell training.

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),
and currently studing the Corrective Exercise Specialist (NASM-CES)˚ credential.
Russian Kettlebell Challenge Certified Instructor (RKC)* and Combat Applications Specialist (RKC2/CAS)

*RKC certified 2004-2006, registered to recertify 2007
˚NASM-CES will be completed 2007

© Joshua Hillis 2007

Lean and Strong: Weights WON'T Make You Bulky - Part 2

I was taking the first set of after pictures for one of my clients, Kendra.  In five weeks, Kendra has started working with me at 23% bodyfat (most girls in the gym would love to be at 23%).  Now she's down to a really rockstar 19.5% bodyfat.  These are the "first" after pictures, because Kendra's ultimate goal is to go to 18%.

Immediately after these pictures we did a workout that included pullups ("free" pullups, no assistance at all), pushups on gymnastics rings (much harder than normal pushups), and one leg squats (Russian Navy Seal style, not the pansy one leg squats you normally see in the gym).   These are all really really hard exercises, and require a level of strength uncommon in the gym.  At 19.5% bodyfat, Kendra also has a body uncommon to most girls.  In fact, you'll find that most of the girls that have the strength to do these exercises are really really hot.  This is not a coincidence.

Later that day, I was breaking down the workout program for one of my new clients.  Like many of women when they first start doing resistance training, she was really concerned that with all of the strength work we were going to do she was going to "bulk up and look like a guy".  Look, for you to "bulk up", it takes HUGE amounts of calories.  Now a huge amount of calories isn't always an enormous amount of food; There are some really popular mexican food chains here that serve 1250 calorie burritos, a couple of those will do the trick.  Girls that swear that they "bulk up easily" must eat huge amounts of calories  Kendra, not surprisingly, keeps an extremely accurate food journal and follows her meal plan (and hits her calorie goal) perfectly 9 out of 10 meals.  The tenth meal is considered a "free meal". 

Fit, lean, toned girls lift heavy and hard.  They usually eat somewhere about 1200-1500 calories per day.  It's extremely rare to find a girl who is really lean who doesn't lift heavy and do hard workouts.  It's also rare to find a girl who is really lean who doesn't keep a food log and know how many calories she is consuming per day.

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),
and currently studing the Corrective Exercise Specialist (NASM-CES)˚ credential.
Russian Kettlebell Challenge Certified Instructor (RKC)* and Combat Applications Specialist (RKC2/CAS)

*RKC certified 2004-2006, registered to recertify 2007
˚NASM-CES will be completed 2007

© Joshua Hillis 2007

Food for Thought: Calories

9 out of 10 Americans have no idea how many calories to consume to lose fat. 

8 out of 10 Americans who think they know how many calories to consume are wrong.

"Average gym goers" underestimate the calories they consume by 21-47%.

People who "claim they can't lose weight" underestimate their calories by 58%.

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)