Fat Loss 101: How to Lose Fat with Fat Loss Workouts- Part 3

Exercise is the other factor of creating energy expenditure from the fat loss equation.  There are many different ways of training and working out for fat loss.  I'm going to recommend you focus on shorter workouts using the high intensity interval methods with strength training/weight lifting, body weight exercises, and cardiovascular workouts like running, biking, and swimming.

Go back to the fat loss equation from part 1 of Fat Loss 101.  You see the term exercise modalities in the equation.  It's all about using different ways of training.  Using variety.  And then linking that variety into high intensity interval training, HIIT.

What is HIIT?

High intensity interval training is what it says and you can probably tell what HIIT means by its name.  You simply do high intensity exercise at intervals.  You alternate short bursts of high intense exercise and movement (work phase) with short periods of very low intensity exercise (active rest).  You alternate back and forth between the work phase and the active rest phase.

Intensity, in this case, is defined as your perceived effort.  Read more about HIIT for fat loss in the 2-part series, "Lose Fat Easily with High Intensity Interval Workouts."

For example, take running intervals,

• run fast for 20 seconds, this will be your work phase, then walk or slowly job for 20 seconds as the active rest phase, this is one interval, repeat the interval 8 times for a total of 320 seconds or a little over 5 minutes.  Short workout.  But highly intense.  Your average speed is maintained throughout the workout since you're taking brief periods of 20 seconds rest by walking or jogging very slowly.

Benefits of HIIT

• Increased metabolism for up to 48 hours.  HIIT workouts supercharges your metabolism to help you burn more calories after the workout, when you're not doing any strenuous activity.  You burn more fat while sleeping, reading, and doing nothing.  This is one advantage over traditional long slow distance cardio.

• Improved work capacity as you build up your aerobic and anaerobic strength endurance to work out longer and harder.  You'll find that your aerobic fitness level and conditioning  has improved over time with HIIT.  You'll be able to do longer intervals and shorten the active rest periods within the HIIT workouts.

• Improved strength and endurance.  You'll be stronger and able to handle heavier weights.

• Shorter workouts.  Most HIIT workouts can be done in under 20 minutes.  Anything longer and it won't be a high intensity workout session anymore.  Who wants to spend hours in the gym every day anyway?  You save more time, work out less (but with more intensity) and double your fat loss results.  Always a plus.

You can apply HIIT with cardio, strength training, and bodyweight conditioning workouts.  Check out Dr. Stopanni's take on maximizing HIIT cardio for extreme fat loss,

HIIT with Cardio

Refer to the above interval running example.  You're alternating running fast and slow for repeated intervals in a short 5 minute workout.  Here's another example using distance measured as opposed to time,

- Biking on the Airdyne Schwinn resistance stationary bike,

• bike fast (20 + mph) for 400 meters, bike slow (10-15 mph) for 400 meters, this is one interval, repeat 6 times.  For this workout, you're using a 1:1 work to rest ratio

Alternatively, you can use time instead,

• bike fast for 1 minute, bike slow for 1 minute, repeat 4 times.

And if you're really conditioned, you can use longer intervals and shorter rest periods, for example,

• bike fast for 2 minutes, bike slowly for 1 minute, repeat 4 times.  Here, you're using a 2:1 work to rest ratio.  Your work rate of 2 minutes is twice as long as your active rest (biking slowly) phase of 1 minute.

And you can do this with whatever cardio equipment you're on; elliptical, jump rope, upright stationary bike, rowers, etc.  You can also use this for running, sprinting, swimming, jumping, and even punching the bag as competitive fighters and boxers do.

HIIT with Strength Training and Weight Lifting

Strength training will help you lose more fat.  Remember we talked about the benefits of muscle tissue to maintaining a high metabolism?  Lifting weights will help you maintain and even build some muscle.

Strength training is crucial to losing fat because it maintains and may even build some muscle mass.  For the ladies out there, don't be intimidated with building muscle and weight training.  You won't build those big bulky muscles you see on bodybuilders and olympic lifters.  Rather, you'll be slimmer, thinner, and more toned.

The bottom line is that muscle mass allows for the maintenance of a high metabolism.  The more muscle you have, the more calories you'll burn while at rest.  The goal of this program and fat loss in general is to program your body to be a fat burning machine.  This is why metabolism management is so important.  Muscle preserves metabolism.

A calorie deficit diet also puts your muscles in danger of being wasted away.  So you're going to lift weights to maintain that muscle you already have and maybe even build some.  You'll build strength and endurance.  You'll be focusing on the best compound exercises for your strength training workouts.  These are exercises that work more than one major muscle group at the same time.  Some of them even work the entire body in one go.  This way, you'll burn more calories, build more strength and muscle, and reap greater benefits.  A better use of your time.

Pick a series of 4-6 exercises that work the entire body altogether. Use upper body, lower body, and ab exercises and string the exercises into a circuit.  Do each exercise after another back-to-back without any rest, then take a 1-2 minutes rest and repeat that circuit.

Here's a sample weights workout,

• barbell back squat  10-12 reps

• dumbbell bench press  8-10 reps

• weighted crunches  15-20 reps

• leg curls or glute ham raise 10-12 reps

• barbell rows 8-10 reps

• situps or crunches 20 reps

This 6-exercises circuit is one interval.  Do each exercise one after the other without resting more than 20 seconds between.  Then take a 1-2 minutes rest and repeat the circuit again.  Do a total of 3 circuits.  Work your way up to 5 circuits throughout the training cycle or when you get fitter and stronger.  The workout should take you no more than 25 minutes to finish.

Compound Exercises

Train with compound exercises.  These are the lifts that works multiple major muscle groups at the same time which saves you time and allows you get stronger easily.

Here's a list of the compound exercises and corresponding muscles worked,

- barbell back squats; quads, buttocks, hamstrings, lower back/abs
- deadlift; entire back, biceps, hamstrings, calves, lower back/abs
- barbell military press; triceps, shoulders, forearms/grip, core
- dumbbell shoulder press; same as military press
- pullups/chinups; entire back, grip/forearms, biceps
- dumbbell or barbell bench press; entire chest, grip/forearms, triceps, shoulders
- dips; same as bench press
- stiff legged deadlift; lower back, abs, hamstrings, calves
- barbell push press; shoulders, triceps
- barbell or dumbbell clean and press; entire body
- barbell or dumbbell rows; back, biceps, forearms
bench rows; same as dumbbell rows
- t-bar rows; same as dumbbell rows

And here are some of the variations of compound lifts,

- Squats; replace with front squats, hack squats, dumbbell squats, single leg weighted squats
- deadlift; rack/partial deadlift, dumbbell deadlift, single arm deadlift, suitcase deadlift
- leg curls; glute ham raises, good morning, band good morning
- barbell rows; dumbbell rows, bench rows, one arm dumbbell rows, t-bar rows
- bench press; dumbbell bench press, one arm db press, close grip bench press(can be done on incline, decline, and flat bench)
- dumbbell shoulder press; barbell military press, db arnold press, db clean and press
- dips; v-bar dips, weighted dips wearing weight vest and weight belt
- pullups, chinups, one arm pullups/chinups, ring pullups, rope pullups

HIIT with Bodyweight Exercises

Bodyweight exercises is really just another form of weight lifting.  Weight lifting is basically resistance training since you're overcoming a resistance when lifting a heavy object.  With bodyweight exercises, the resistance is your own body weight.  By using your body weight, you can better train another strength quality, strength endurance.    Improving your strength endurance improves your conditioning allowing you to work out much harder and more intensity with HIIT.  The result is more fat loss.

Here are examples,

Straight set circuits of 5 body weight exercises

• pushups 20 reps

• chinups 10 reps

• bw squats 20 reps

• pullups 10 reps

• crunches 50 reps

Here, you'll do all 5 exercises back-to-back without rest, then after one circuit, rest for one minute and repeat the circuit for a total of 4 times.  You're maintaining a high work rate here, a high intensity approach, then resting briefly and repeating a few more times.  Very effective, very powerful.

Density circuit of 3 exercises

• pushups 20 seconds, do as many reps as you can in 20 seconds

• chinups 20 seconds, do as many reps as you can in 20 seconds

• situps 20 seconds, do as many reps as you can in 20 seconds

As you see, the purpose of the density approach is to do as many repetitions as you can in the alloted amount of time.  That time in the above workout is 20 seconds.   The trick is to crank out those reps fast without rest.  Do not rest between each exercise.  Complete one circuit first.  It'll take one minute.. Then rest one minute and repeat for a total of 4 circuits.  We have a high intensity work rate here.    This whole workout only takes 8 minutes.  8 minutes!  And it's much more effective for burning fat than those hour long jogging sessions at the treadmill.  So  you'll be incorporating body weight exercises into your fat loss workouts.

Here's a density circuit with longer work and rest periods,

• burpees 30 seconds

• crunches 30 seconds

• mountain climber 30 seconds

• bench dips 30 seconds

• pullups 30 seconds

• jumping jacks 30 seconds

- rest 3 minutes, repeat for a total of 4 times

Get the picture here?  These workouts are short, convenient, fast, effective, and fun.  You don't need any fancy exercise equipment or gadgets.  You don't even need a gym membership if you buy yourself a simple bench or pullup bar.  And if you're really motivated, you can build your own home gym.

Additionally, you can also combine body weight exercises with weight lifting movements into a workout program.  For more information on body weight training, see the bodyweight training primer series.

Also, make your workouts fun.  Here's a short tip by Dr. Clay on why you want to make your fat loss routines fun and dynamic,

Check out this sample "Marine Quarterdeck" HIIT routine for some more ideas,

Putting Your Workout Program Together

Now how do you put this together?  I didn't give you a very strict routine to follow because no single routine for suitable for everyone to follow.  I can only give you the basic template and guidelines to go by so you can come up with your own workouts.  There's no one size fits all program for everyone.  Rather, understand the high intensity interval approach and use it in any exercise or workouts you currently enjoy.

If you like the treadmill, then incorporate some intense intervals into treadmill running.  If you like the elliptical, then use intervals on the elliptical machine.  The same goes for swimming, jumping rope, or whatever exercise activity you can think of.

Here are some general guidelines for coming up with a workout program,

1) If you like cardio workouts, then do them.  Sprinting, running, jogging, swimming, biking, it's all up to your choice.  For time intervals, go with a 20 seconds to 60 seconds work phase and match the active rest phase with the same time, a 1:1 work to rest ratio.

2) If you like body weight workouts, then do them.  Pick a series of 4-6 exercises that covers the entire body and work them into a circuit.  Use the straight set or density method as discussed above.  Alternate upper body, lower bod, and ab exercises into the circuit.  Do 3-4 of those high intensity workouts a week but vary the exercises.  Assign the rest periods between intervals according to your fitness level.  If you're just starting training this way, then take longer rest periods.  Use a 1:1 or 1:2 work to rest ratio.  Keep the body weight workouts under 30 minutes.

3) If you like weight workouts and strength training, then pick a series of 4-6 exercises and string them into a circuit, like the body weight approach.  Alternate upper and lower body exercises with abdominal movements.  You can split your training into body parts on different days or use 2-3 full body workouts, with each strength workout using different exercises, per week.  Keep the workouts under 45 minutes.

4) You can also combine bodyweight and weight workouts like the example above.  If you get bored easily with workouts or like to train dynamically (see dynamic workouts/training), then the combination would be a perfect fit for HIIT.  Keep these combo workouts under 45 minutes.

5) If you have no preferences, then I recommend selecting one day to do cardio training, one day for bodyweight workouts, and the third day for strength training and weight lifting.  This keeps your workout program dynamic with HIIT.

6) You can also fit in some fun and sports-specific activities into your training program.  Basketball, soccer, handball, tennis.  It doesn't really matter as long as you're doing some resistance training (either using your body weight or weights) with the high intensity interval protocol.  Though I do recommend at least 1 direct weight lifting workout a week.

The basic idea is to take what you enjoy doing and turn it into a HIIT workout by using intervals and circuits.  Recognize what HIIT is and use it in your workouts.  Think high intensity, then low intensity.  Do something intense, then relax and repeat.

And in my opinion, many people looking to lose weight need to work out more.  They need more exercise.  Remember, exercising is another way of creating energy expenditure.  Exercise factors into managing your metabolism for greater fat loss.

If you still enjoy long cardio workouts, you can do those too.  Any exercise is better than no exercise.  But you would greatly enhance your fat loss results if you throw in some high intensity training into your workouts.  Just one 10-15 minute high intensity interval workout will almost double your metabolism for 2-3 days after that workout.  So you would be doing yourself a disservice if you were to ignore HIIT.

A simple way to sneak in some interval training into your 45 minute long slow distance cardio is to do the short  interval session towards the end.  For example, finish your 45 minute jog and then end the workout by doing 30 seconds of sprints between 30 seconds of rest repeating it 4-6 times.

Rest and Recovery: Sleep

Finally, we've come to the last part of the fat loss equation, rest and recovery. This just simply means sleep. Sleep is where the body undergoes most of its changes. You actually lose the most fat during sleep. The body repairs itself, repairs its muscles, and rejuvenates your mind for the next day's workout. Get at least 6 to 8 hours of full sleep a night. Make sleep a priority because you have to sleep in order to see the changes. You've worked hard in the gym and stuck to your diet. So give the body some rest. It needs it. If you can't get at least 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep, then take several smaller 5-10 minute naps a day.

Make sleeping a priority at get those ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz. It's effortless, painless, and highly enjoyable if you ask me.

This is what fat loss exercise consists of.  Now in the last part of Fat Loss 101, I'll introduce a 5-steps action plan to walk you step by step to setting up your fat loss plan and give you some additional pointers for fat loss success.

Train Hard.  Train Safely.  Train Smart.

• Fat Loss 101: The Dieting Dilemma- Part 1

• Fat Loss 101: Fat Loss Nutrition- Part 2

• Fat Loss 101: Fat Loss Workouts- Part 3

• Fat Loss 101: Putting Your Fat Loss Program Together- Part 4

If you have any questions or comments, don't hesitate to leave a comment below or email me at ZQH245@gmail.com or ZQH250@gmail.com

photo credits:
dariuszka
mike baird
vox_efx
Juan Christophe
zoetnet
daveapple

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