Quiz: The Theory of Absolute Intensity

As a way to test your knowledge on fat loss, I have put together this brief quiz for you to take. Let me know in the comments section how you did!

How to Stay Thin During the Holidays

I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving and are enjoying time with your family, friends, and college football. We all know that between Thanksgiving and New Year's, people tend to put on a ton of weight. It is difficult to avoid it. Eating is very social. We stuff ourselves every chance we get, and there is more dessert than we know what to do with. Not only that, but there are ALWAYS leftovers.

The best way to avoid gaining weight during the holidays is to stop eating so much during every sitting and to avoid all those pastries. For most of us, however, that is not likely going to happen due to a combination of social pressure, convenience, and amazingly tasty treats.

So, I wanted to write this quick blog post today to share with you an experimental technique that I think will do wonders for people who just can't seem to avoid eating all the cake, pie, cookies, and brownies in sight during the holidays. Before you read this simple trick, you might need to educate yourself a little bit by reading this post on post-workout nutrition. If you don't, it won't make as much sense.

The Mobile Performance Enhancement Seminar

Timothy Ward, author of The Theory of Fat Loss, is organizing the very first Mobile Performance Enhancement Seminar. It will be held on January 29th at Bishop State Community College in Mobile, AL. If you live anywhere near Mobile, AL, this is an event you won't want to miss! For more information and to register for this event, check out:

http://alsportsperformance.blogspot.com/

Theory of Fat Loss Book Update

Update: 1/2/2011
Apparently the google search term for The Theory of Fat Loss brings people to this page before the home page. So, I've decided to update this entry. The book was released on 12/15/2010, and you can learn more about the book (and get a 15% discount) by visiting its official facebook page: http://facebook.com/thetheoryoffatloss ... and don't forget to click on the bonuses tab at the top of this page after you invest in your copy... there is a TON of free stuff for you.


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I received the final edit of my book back from my editor, Harvard graduate David D. Aguilar, and I am just about ready to publish. I am just waiting on the foreword to be completed by one of my book contributors, and then I should be good to go. I also need to design a cover for the book. I'm thinking just a straight up black cover with text. Sleek and simple. I hate those books with pictures of thin and shapely people because they are models that likely didn't even follow the methods described in the book. It's a little too fake for me. I'll let the jet black void draw people in. After all, wearing black makes you look thin. Of course my other option is putting this guy on the cover:

That is one fat monkey. I didn't know anything could eat that many bananas. Anyway, if everything goes according to plan with the publishing and there are no unexpected delays or other snafus... the book should be out by mid-December. Cheers!

One final note: I just finished up creating all the "Bonuses" that you can get access to for free after you purchase the book. There are 6 program templates, a 6 month (5 phase) training program that one of my clients actually followed exactly, an assessment and programming form, and a sample "done-for-you" 3x per week hypertrophy program. Typically, I charge 50 dollars for an assessment and a training program, and you get 12 all for free (with your book purchase of course). Anyway, that's all I have for you today. Look out for a post soon about P90X.

Bodybuilding Splits and Body Part Splits are Not Conducive to Fat Loss

I have seen the pollution of "bodybuilder" style training (aka muscle isolation training, body part split training, etc.) across all areas of exercise. It is most commonly done by high school kids and college students who simply do not know what they are doing, but unfortunately, I have seen it in many other situations as well. This includes high school and collegiate strength and conditioning programs, physical therapy, and fat loss programs. Of course, this blog is about optimizing fat loss, so this entry will cover why a body part split is absolutely the wrong option for burning fat.

For some reason, I doubt this will help you lose that gut

The Shake Weight Certification!

This has absolutely nothing to do with anything, but it was just so amazing that I had to post it.

Saturated Fats for Health and Fat Loss?

Have you ever heard that saturated fats are bad for you? Do you think they are the cause of clogged arteries and heart disease and all sorts of health problems? If somebody suggested that you need more saturated fats in your diet, what would you think?

The Twinkie Diet is Awesome for Weight Loss

I've written about nutrition before but also know that I am by no means a nutrition expert, but I wanted to comment on something that just came out. Apparently there is this new article on some pseudo- diet study performed by a professor of human nutrition at Kansas State University who wanted to show that calorie counting was the only important factor in weight loss. Basically he ate a bunch of Twinkies. The article can be found here. Before I go into detail of why this case study is meaningless, I just want to say one thing. "Really?"

Twinkie Burger

I couldn't think of anything healthier either

Low Back Pain (Part 2): Injury Limits to Fat Loss

Low back pain is a common and often a debilitating condition. The good news is that most cases of low back pain are preventable or easily treated. If you remember from Part 1, the lumbar spine is meant to be stable and in a neutral alignment (see anterior pelvic tilt), and the hips and thoracic spine are meant to be mobile. Thus, abdominal exercises that promote movement around the lumbar spine may actually be the cause of low back pain! Likewise, inactivity and prolonged static postures (such as sitting in a classroom all day or having a desk job) tend to decrease the mobility of our hips and thoracic spines causing people to compensate by moving at their lower backs.

Deadlift: Good hip mobility

Deadlift: Poor hip mobility with low back compensation

Anyway, exercises for the core should be designed to promote stability, and a quality mobility warmup should be completed before every training session. The rest of this entry will discuss what may be done to address these two topics.

Low Back Pain (Part 1): Injury Limits to Fat Loss

If you have been following this blog for a while, you have undoubtedly read the anterior pelvic tilt post, my most popular page to this date. Anterior pelvic tilt is a prevalent posture that is a common cause of low back pain in anybody that sits for long periods of time throughout the day. Today, I am sharing with you my knowledge about low back pain in general.

Having a strong, healthy lower back is essential for just about every aspect of life. Unfortunately, an estimated 80% of all Americans have suffered, at one time or another, from lower back pain. Sometimes it is as simple as a an acute episode that lasts only a couple of hours. Other times, low back pain can be chronic and debilitating. Either way, low back pain will be a major hindrance to your fat loss exercise program. If you can't train, you can't optimally burn fat! Even more importantly is that low back pain might leave you out of commission for a long period of time. Any positive exercise adaptations you may have gained from exercise might be lost when you aren't training, AND inactivity is probably going to cause you to put on fat... which is probably the opposite of what you want to do!

So, what you might want to know is if there is anything you can do about preventing or self-treating low back pain without having to spend thousands of dollars on a doctor, physical therapist, or chiropractor.

Post-workout Nutrition

Hello everyone. I just wanted to share with you a FREE special report that Prograde Nutrition is giving away entitled "What to NEVER Eat After You Workout."

Post-workout nutrition is critical to the success of any training program regardless if the goal is to burn fat or put on muscle mass. Two things are important regarding post-workout nutrition, the timing and the composition. You already know that when you train, your body's resources are depleted. What you may not know is that when you are done training, your body actually continues to break down muscle protein! But it doesn't have to be that way!!!

Can you Eat Out and Still Lose Weight?

Many people think that when it comes time to changing their diets to burn more fat that they have to stop eating out. Oftentimes this is the deal breaker. People do not like having to give up eating at their favorite restaurants. Those that understand what fat loss dieting is really about, however, realize that eating out is not the enemy and that it can be done intelligently and effectively. Jake "Sausage Link" Skrabacz is one of those people. So today I bring you a guest post (and another small book excerpt) from him with some helpful suggestions for how to manage eating at restaurants when you are dieting.

Cheeseburger, nuggets, and fries pizza

Probably not the most intelligent fat loss diet decision