What I did to lose fat pounds

[ Note: This article was written by fitness and nutrition author Jon Benson. I have his permission to share it with you. ]

There’s a club you should join.

It’s called The Insider’s Club.

It is that club whose membership is based only on what secret goodies the members possess.

In our case, this is the Fatloss Insider’s Club. Only those in the know can join…. freee to them of course… : )

So, if you want to get rid of some lbs…

FATLOSS TRICK 1
Eat Pizza?

Today I went for some New York-style pizza here in Austin, Texas.

Do I feel ‘guilty’? No way… in fact tomorrow I will feel LEANER.

What the what?

I had to set up my body for this bit of metabolic trickery of course. You cannot just “eat pizza” and shed the pounds… I wish you could!

But my personal System for fatloss not only “allows” pizza (and all my other favorite foods)… it DEMANDS that I eat it.

Here’s another true story: I blew off my “feed meal” (that’s what it is called in my System) four days ago. I have been on a massive fatloss roll for weeks now and frankly I just did not feel like eating a lot.

That’s another benefit of my System… it really cuts your appetite and food-cravings down.

Anyway, the next day in the gym I fell on my face! I was weaker and not any leaner. I went home, ate literally about 6000 cals and presto: Leaner than ‘ever’ the next day and ready to train hard.

Learn how to use this System here:

The Every Other Day Diet     Click For More Tricks!

FATLOSS TRICK 2
The 10-Minute Cardio Trick

If you want to just get into good heart health, you only need GXP Cardio (covered in the System mentioned above) 2-3 days per week for 9-15 minutes. That’s it.

However if you want to use “smart cardio” (not long, boring cardio) then you need a bit more. Just a bit.

It’s my 10-minute trick.

Start with just every other day. Then move to 4 days… and then 5.

If you are pressed for time, this is ideal. Even if you are not, it works like magic.

10 minutes in the morning ‘before’ you eat. Just make sure your heart rate is only about 65% of your max… in other words, you are not breathing super-heavy at all, but you are working up a sweat. That’s it.

10 minutes ‘before’ lunch. Just cut your lunch hour short by 10 minutes… that’s all. You don’t sweat enough to need a shower… don’t worry. Walking stairs works great, or walking outside… be creative!

Then 10 ‘harder’ minutes about 2 hours before you go to sleep. Get your heart rate up to where you are breathing a little harder.

That’s it.

You can even start with just two sessions of 10 minutes (morning and night) if lunch is out.

FATLOSS TRICK 3
Increase Your Fat?

Yep. I want you to eat more dietary-fat…. but I want you to replace some of your carbohydrates (starch like rice, potatoes, etc.) with healthy fats like olive oil, coconut oil and almonds.

Fat dulls the appetite and all three of the fats above actually help your body get rid of its fat-stores if you decrease carbs.

I have the plan laid out for you. More here:

The Every Other Day Diet     Click For More Tricks!

FATLOSS TRICK 4
Think Resistance

Far better than cardio will ever be. That would be resistance training.

Either weight training or in-home resistance training using bands and bodyweight. Studies confirm what we fitness pros already know: Resistance training not only sculpts the body (cardio cannot) but it also burns 9-12x more bodyfat over the long-term than cardio.

But you need both. And both cardio and resistance training (in-home or in the gym) is worked into my book “7 Minute Body.”

You can get it when you pick up “Every Other Day Diet” for 75% off-retail… it is all detailed here…

The Every Other Day Diet     Click For More Tricks!

Welcome to the Club!

Yours In Fitness,

J O N B E N S O N

P.S. I’m still giving away “Radical Fatloss Blueprint” along with EODD for a few more days. And I’m giving a lucky few the chance to pick up the Supplement-Kit that comes with Radical Fatloss for almost 100 bucks off… the video and details are here:

The Every Other Day Diet     Click For More Tricks!

Sorry… EODD Readers Only…. so pick it up today.

[ Note: This article was written by fitness and nutrition author Jon Benson. I have his permission to share it with you. ]

Ever heard of Rowdy Gains?

Rowdy was swimmer and Olympic gold-medalist in the 1984 Olympics.

But that’s not what made Rowdy special.

And certainly not what makes his story worth reading when it comes to muscle-shaping secrets.

Over the next few days I’m going to be sharing 5 Tips for putting on lean muscle. If you want to put on a 2 lbs or 20lbs of muscle, these 5 Tips will help you do it faster than ever.

Remember: Muscle burns calories at rest… the more lean muscle you have the less bodyfat you’ll have if you eat the way I suggest. It’s as simple as that.

Back to Rowdy Gains…

His story is golden because of “how” he won the medal.

You see, Rowdy was an underdog. He was considered too old to be a legitimate threat in the race, despite being a world record-holder. He has missed his prime due to the boycott of the 1980 Olympics.

But Rowdy had a good coach (more on that tomorrow)… and his coach knew the power of “distinctions”…

Distinctions are the subtle things that turn average into excellence and losers into winners. Often distinctions are so hard to spot that even the smartest people miss them.

The men and women who succeed massively rarely miss them.

Rowdy was focused on the race… but his coach was focused on the distinctions.

“What can Rowdy do that no one else is doing to give him an edge?”

Well, his savvy coach noticed that the guy who started the race was calling “on your marks…” and then quickly firing the starting-gun. Very quickly in fact.

His coach came up to him moments before the race and said, “Rowdy, jump early.”

And jump early he did. He was first off the blocks and never looked back.

Turns to find out that his time off the blocks was the difference between winning and losing. And the second place guy was furious! He was hitting the wall and yelling about the “false start”… but there was not a false start upon reply.

Just a savvy start! A start based on one, small, tiny… actually monumentally huge distinction.

The first thing you need to ask yourself when it comes to your weight-training goals is this:

“What small distinctions can I make to turn an average workout into a super-productive workout”?

Again, these are small distinctions… little things that add up to huge gains.

Here’s an example:

When doing a chest press exercise, I have two distinctions that have made all the difference in my chest gains.

First, I turn my palms inward, rather than facing out, when pressing with dumbbells. Obviously this does not work with barbell presses, but I use mostly dumbbells.

The result? No rotator cuff or shoulder injuries.

This alone has allowed me to train three more months out of each year. That’s how much time I used to lose before an orthopedic surgeon gave me this tip.

Second, when pressing, I explode up. Then I slow DOWN… I always lower the weight slower than I lift it up. This gives me TWO growth factors rather than just one in the same movement, and without one second difference in the gym.

Again… distinctions.

If you want my book on the best distinctions I’ve ever used for gaining lean muscle, then go here:

7 Minute Workouts <– go.

Think about it next time you plan your workouts.

Before I begin this post, I want to say that I am trying to write an unbiased review of FatLoss4Idiots. This is not a sales page, so if you are interested in their product , please check it out here.

I had been looking for the best way to lose weight for a long time, and Atkins had been close for me. Exercising to burn fat was also something I was not afraid of, but low fat diets, and jogging weren’t fun options for me, and I knew that I had to try something different.

I just wanted to lose belly fat without ’speed eating sunflower seeds’ and keep it off. I wanted to be able to hang out with my friends once a week and not be the reclusive ‘unsweetened ice tea with no lemon’ guy who spoiled the fun.

A friend of mine who lives in Sasebo tried FatLoss4Idiots and lost a lot of wieght. I’m actually embarrassed to say that I found myself chiming in with all of the nay-sayers and saying ‘It’s gonna bounce right back’ (god I hate it when people do that to me, and I noticed, many of the people saying it could stand to lose some pounds of fat themselves.)

but it didn’t bounce back. So I did what I think anybody would do in that situation. I asked her to let me read her copy (didn’t want to pay). She told me that that wouldn’t be possible, as the system is tailored to each user. Plus, she said if I wasn’t willing to spend a few dollars on the system, I probably wouldn’t use it. (the aerobics DVDs that I copied from my mom and are now collecting dust on my shelf do lend some credibility to that)

So I took about a week to decide if I was ready to really try something new. I knew that the plan seemed like a healthy way to lose body fat, but THEY ALL DO.

Long story short. I bought the system, and was VERY surprised. It wasn’t what I thought it would be at all.

Without writing so much as to anger the authors, I can tell you that this diet allowed me to become slimmer by shifting calories. Some days would be like a low fat diet, others low carb. It really made sense to me once I was using it to lose weight. The first few days of any diet always tend to be the most effective, and I was burning calories by confusing my body into thinking I was on a new diet every few days.

I will admit that there are still going to be restrictions on what you can and cannot eat (on ANY diet) but the fact that many of the restrictions shift with the plan, they didn’t feel so oppressive.

If you are looking for a healthy way to lose weight, a way to burn fat pounds quickly, then I would suggest you try FatLoss4Idiots for a spin.

Their home page can explain it better than me, so tried Click here to check it out now.

And hey, if any of you know how to make that excess skin go away any faster, I’m ALL ears

I’m writing on a topic that is very close to me right now, as I am going through a very stressful time in my life.

I’ve experienced it before. When the stress piles up, the pounds of fat that had melted away so easily before would come rushing back with a vengeance.

Taking a good look at myself, I decided that I am not going to let that happen this time and see what steps I could take to keep the weight off. The most obvious was beer. When in times of stress or depression, I tend to go out much more often than normal. Being in a happy social atmosphere helps with stress and sadness, but the presence of beer, almost always accompanied by some kind of snack, makes this a nightmare from a weight loss perspective.

The diet I have been following doesn’t really have any allowances for frequent drinking and eating out, so I decided to go back to an old friend.

ATKINS

I’ve spent the past week or so doing basically the maintenance phase of atkins. While I can’t have beer, it does allow distilled alcohols, and doesn’t restrict meat or cheese. So I’ve been ‘dieting’ at a Japanese izakaya a lot lately.

Japanese Izakaya

I’m happy to say that while I’m not losing any weight, I haven’t started going up either, which is also important for long term weight loss.

[ Note: This article was written by fitness and nutrition author Jon Benson. I have his permission to share it with you. ]

There’s stuff you know.

Then there’s stuff you don’t know.

But the key to success in anything is the discovery of one other variable:

The things you don’t know you don’t know.

Think about that.

So many people ask me questions like…

– How can I get rid of my stubborn bodyfat?
– How fast can I do it?
– What’s the best dietplan for me?

These are good questions, don’t get me wrong.

But there are at least 10 questions most people never know to ask.

It’s the stuff they didn’t know they didn’t know… make sense?

Today we’ll cover 3 of the 10…

HIDDEN QUESTION 1:
“What’s The Best Dietary-Fat To Eat To Get Rid Of Bodyfat?”

Sounds nutty, doesn’t it?

The media loves to deceive you when it comes to dietary fats… and I’m here to set the record straight:

You absolutely must consume dietary fat in order to burn-off your bodyfat.

There’s an old saying: “Fat burns…but in the presence of dietary-fat.”

It’s true.

There are actually two “Best Fats” you should be eating:

Coconut Oil
CLA

Coconut oil is ideal to cook with. Use that in place of all the starchy foods you may be eating. You’ll get leaner faster… and you’ll be a ton more healthy too.

Coconut oil keeps you satisfied longer, lubricates your joints, and yes… actually helps you get rid of stubborn bodyfat.

Use 1 tablespoon per 50 lbs per day, but be sure to decrease your starchy carbs (breads, rice, potatoes, etc.)

CLA is a form of (gasp!) transfat… but it’s a healthy form that helps your body get rid of bodyfat. You can only get it in supplement-form… well, that’s the best way.

I personally take 4 grams per day. Jarrow is my favorite brand. You can get it at most health food stores.

I cover several other fats you need to eat in my video and book, found here:

The Every Other Day Diet     Click-Here

HIDDEN QUESTION 2:
“Why Is Cardio Bad For Me?”

Okay… that’s an over-statement. It’s not ‘bad’ for you… it’s just not nearly as ‘good’ for you as the media and magazines want you to believe.

Especially if you do it the way they suggest: Too long, too frequently.

Do it the way I suggest and watch what happens.

First, spend 80% of your exercise time doing ‘resistance’ training, not cardio… but rest very brief between sets.

My newest update to “7 Minute Muscle” is called “7 Minute Body”. It combines both “7 Minute Muscle” and an additional 100 or so pages of in-home ONLY workouts.

That way you can train in the gym… or in your home… and get it done in 7 to 14 minutes a day. Done!

You will be shaping your body and burning-off some major calories at the same time… all without boring cardio.

Then when you “do” cardio, do it the way I detail in “7 Minute Body”… use the 9-minute GXP Cardio Workout.

Add simple walking to this several days a week and your cardio is set.

GXP works because it is progressive and does not over-tax the recovery system. You warm up, then hit about 85% of your max effort, then cool down.

But the key is ‘when’ to do it… and that’s covered in my book.

I still enjoy sitting on my bike and watching TV, but I do that just to burn-off those last bits of bodyfat. Most of you do not need to do this.

It’s a waste of time for the masses… but resistance training is not.

Oh, one more thing: Runners have a far higher degree of heart attacks than non-runners. So cardio ‘can’ be bad for you if you over-do it.

NOTE: You can pick up “7 Minute Body” at 77% off…
but only if you get EODD…

More here:

The Every Other Day Diet     Click-Here

HIDDEN QUESTION 3:
“How Does Pizza Help Me Shed Bodyfat?”

Sounds like a dream, doesn’t it?

Think again.

My dietary plan not only “lets” you eat pizza (or whatever your favorite foods might be) every week, several times a week… it DEMANDS that you do it.

What the…. ?

Yep. Here’s why.

First, I have you eat less on certain days and certain times. If done the way I suggest your metabolism (the rate you use fat, energy, etc.) will not slow down that much.

Then… at a specific time… boom! You eat a lot more food… and the best way to do this is eating your favorite foods.

First, they usually have more calories.. duh! Second, you’ll ENJOY the freakin’ process! Most “diets” fail because people hate them… too restrictive.

So I created my System from the ground up to ensure I never got bored with my eating… and the extra cals from pizza (or my favorite… Mexican… or Key Lime Pie… yum) actually boosts my metabolism sky-high.

Here’s an example:

Last week I ate the normal Every Other Day Diet-way… for me it’s the “Extreme Plan” (there are 4 Plans, each for different goals.)

So, after several days of lower-cal, lower-carb eating, I ate about 5000 calories of Mexican food (so good!) But the TIMING is crucial. You just can wing it. Don’t worry… I tell you exactly when to do it.

The next morning I saw more of my abs.

I went back to EODD-style eating, which I love btw… and then later had some Key Lime Pie… and what do you know? Leaner the next day.

Now I’m doing this as I “peak” — I have to be in top shape in December. The only time I stop this is 4 weeks prior to a photoshoot… but unless you want to be 5% bodyfat (and you probably do not) you never have to stop it.

Works like a charm.

Watch this and find out why:

The Every Other Day Diet     Click-Here

Yours In Fitness,

J O N B E N S O N

P.S. Special freebie to those who watch my entire presentation on the page above… very nice… : )

[ Note: This article was written by fitness and nutrition author Jon Benson. I have his permission to share it with you. ]

Want to be leaner?

Good deal… here’s 5 tips that will help you along…

TIP 1
Ditch The Starch

Starches, such as rice, potatoes, some veggies, oats, etc. are often considered “health foods.”

While they can be healthy, they can also pack on stomach bodyfat like crazy if you overdo them.

As you may know, my “Every Other Day Diet” System (EODD) actually encourages you to eat starches and even sweets several days a week to get rid of excess weight:

The Every Other Day Diet     Click Here!

( Some of you may see a survey here on how best to help with your bodyweight goals. )

Well… how does THAT work?

Simple: Timing is everything.

And we take a “weekly” approach to foods rather than a daily approach. This keeps your metabolism guessing. If your body cannot figure out what you’re up to, fatburning is that much more powerful. And you can get by with eating starches… at least a specific times on specific days.

But if you’re not going to do EODD, then you’ll have to wing it. And the best way to wing it is to simply cut starches out entirely for 4-8 weeks. Then slowly add them back a few days per week.

This is no where near as effective (or as fun) as the EODD method, but it will get you pointed in the right direction.

TIP 2
Can The Sodas

This one is really hard for me. I’ve been hooked on diet-soda on and off for years. When I go to get into top shape (like I am now) I have to get rid of the diet-sodas… yes, DIET-sodas. Need I say “real” sodas too? They are loaded with sugar.

Why diet-sodas? A recent study revealed that people who drank diet-sodas actually increased bodyfat when compared to those who drank sugar-sodas. What the… ??

Yep. Your body cannot be fooled by aspartame and chemicals. Sorry, but that’s the truth.

Here’s a personal story: When I cut out the diet-sodas my bodyfat drops like a rock in a pond of clear water.

And that’s what you need to be drinking: A quart of pure water per 50 lbs of bodyweight a day.

I mix it with lemon and a bit of Stevia (an herbal sweetener) and make lemonade. It’s wonderful!

TIP 3
Stay Hungry

Arnold’s first movie was “Stay Hungry” (well, after “Pumping Iron” that is). You cannot rest on your butt and stay hungry. You cannot think you’ve “arrived” and stay hungry.

It takes a special person to be hungry… and an even greater one to stay that way.

I want you to stay hungry in two ways: In how you workout and literally… stay a bit hungry before you go to bed. Not “starving”… just a bit hungry.

For your workouts, I have a great solution. If you pick up EODD you’ll get a limited shot at “7 Minute Body”… my combination of “7 Minute Muscle” and “The 7 Minute In-Home Workout” in one book… and for more than half off… but that’s a very limited deal. Gotta have EODD… you’ll need them both…

The Every Other Day Diet     Click Here!

( Some of you may see a survey here on how best to help with your bodyweight goals. )

You see, progression — “forced” progression — is the best way to stay hungry. 7 Minute Body forces you to progress without thinking about it. Progression is built into the System.

As far as staying hungry at night? Check with your doctor and if he/she okays it take 500mg of potassium and 1000mg of magnesium/calcium a few hours prior to bed. This helps with the hunger pangs. Also, keep hard-boiled eggs in the fridge. If you get really hungry, eat one with half the yolk (toss the other half.) It keeps me full for an hour at least.

TIP 4
Cardio Clarity

Hours and hours of cardio a day is not the answer. However, you can do “light” cardio (i.e. brisk walking, or riding the bike at 60% of your max) just to burn off calories. That’s okay… and personally I don’t find it that boring if I’m watching a TV show. It does not interfere with my main fatloss exercise (weight training… YES!) and it burns off about 400 calories an hour.

What does work is early morning fasting cardio… but you only need 9-15 minutes. I explain the GXP Protocol (Modified) in the 7 Minute Body book, available only if you pick up EODD, and you can get it at more than half off:

The Every Other Day Diet     Click Here!

( Some of you may see a survey here on how best to help with your bodyweight goals. )

TIP 5
Get Raw At Night

Raw veggies with your last meal and as a snack will really help your fatburning along. I started with red peppers because they’re sweet. Now I eat virtually every veggie raw at night without thinking about it. Give this a shot. The fatloss is well worth it.

I have had a few mails asking about the safety of quick weight loss.  I wish people would leave these in the comments section, but let’s get to it.

I haven’t had any adverse effects from losing 30 pounds in a single month except the loose skin.  I think that too assign an arbitrary number to pounds of fat lost is ridiculous , as each person has a different amount of weight to lose and a different level of metabolic resistance.

A key factor to think about is not how much weight you can lose quickly, but what you have to do to melt the pounds away.  If you are starving yourself to lose 5 pounds, then your body will go into conservation mode, and make the diet less likely to work and a rebound more probable.

If you lose 20 pounds while still eating 3 meals (or preferably 5 small meals) a day, then I say enjoy the speed at which your waist becomes smaller.

• Also remember to drink lots of water.  You want to lose body fat.  If you lose muscle or lose water, then your diet is actually hurting you.

Don’t focus on how to lose fat fast as much as how to lose fat permanently.

I have no real data to show you on this one, but I wanted to take a second and talk about mentality while dieting.

Sometimes when I was trying to lose weight, I was being overly negative. I HATED the fat. I Hated those extra inches on my waist. I Hated myself basically.

When you diet with a mindset that you hate yourself and your body, you tend to (at least in my experience) go overboard to the point that you are aost punishing yourself.

When you try to lose fat by starving yourself, the weight loss won’t be sustainable.

Today, let’s take the focus off the food, and put it on physical activity.

If you want to take inches off your waist, any diet worth doing will include exercise.

The question is:

What exercises will help me burn fat pounds and still preserve, or increase muscle mass.

Most people I talked to (even trainers at my gym) suggested lots of cardio, but I hated doing it and it never gave me the results I wanted.

Once I started resistance training, my weight loss became so fast that I was actually worried.

I’m not saying that lifting weights is for everybody. But if you really want to lose those 20 pounds quickly, the key is in building muscle

Lean body mass burns calories for maintenance, so by increasing muscle, we increase our base metabolic rate, and burn more fat even when we are resting.

You can definitely add muscle doing cardio, but be careful to keep it low key. Once you start panting and running out of breath, you’re no longer in the beneficial aerobic zone.

For a good book on this topic, I recommend Fit or Fat by Covert Bailey. I read it in high school. I wasn’t able to utilize it well at the time, but it gave me a good foundation.

and gained it all back…

For those of you out there who love Atkins diet, don’t worry.  This post is not going to say anything negative about the Atkins diet itself, but rather about my ability (inability) to stick with it long term.

I started Atkins on a Wednesday, and checked my weight and waistline every wednesday like clockwork.

In the first week, I had dropped about 8 pounds, and over a 4 month period of time, I had reached pretty close to my target weight.

I thought I could be less stringent about Atkins now, and drink beer every weekend with my friends, but the cravings for beer and carbs came back HARD.

I started ‘cheating’ more and more days each week.  the fat that had burned so easily away started coming back, but initially at such a slow pace I didn’t worry.  I figured I could always go back to induction.

But 1 year later, I was back to where I had been before atkins.  all of the pounds were back, and I was unhappy.

I really think Atkins is a great diet, but it didn’t work for me in the long term.