“I really enjoyed the interview with Darin Steen of Fat Loss Lifestyle, but I am confused on what he meant by “do cardio in a fasted state, first thing in the morning”.    I have always heard how bad it is to do any form of exercise before you put anything in your system to start your metabolism for the day; your body will still think it’s starving and burn muscle rather than fat.  What should I do?

This is a great question, so I sent it to Darin and this is what he wrote. “First off, “we must get out on the table in the beginning that the reason why there is so much confusion on the topic of working out and losing fat while at least maintaining muscle (preferably gaining muscle) in a time efficient manner (4-6 hours per week) is because everyone is so different.

Two reasons why you should “do cardio in a fasted state, first thing in the morning” is;

* Your body does not have nearly as much fuel (glycogen and glucose) to supply energy for the session (cause you have not eaten carbs for about 12 hours.  Your body easily burns up all of the glycogen and glucose and then goes into the fat cells for the rest.
* The session is done, which leads to consistency.  Too many things come up when the session is planned for later in the day to interfere with consistency.

There are so many factors that determine when and how to do cardio & when and how much to eat to create 2- 3 lbs. of fat loss per week.  Losing fat slower or faster than that just does not work for the long term.  And for the long term is what we are looking for.  Cause I have seen so many people go “gung ho” and radically change their body in a short amount of time, only to see them a year later, sedentary and heavier than when they started.

If you lose at a slower rate, one will lose interest in the program and maybe not continue long term.  If you lose faster than that; either you are losing other things that you need (like muscle, water, anabolic hormones) or you are living a lopsided life spending too much time working out.

So now let me try to clear the confusion a little bit for you.  There is no one stop answer to this question.  But here it goes.  The best program that I have seen at losing fat that stays off forever is doing intense resistance training 2 or 3 days per week, and doing interval cardio training 2 or 3 days per week.

The #1 key for fat loss is something we call “carb cycling.”    In a nut shell “carb cycling” is eating more calories in the form of starchy carbs (brown / wild rice, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, whole wheat pasta) on days of intense resistance training, and eating only fibrous non-starch carbs (veggies, salads, green beans, apples, grape-fruits) on days of interval cardio performed first thing in the morning.

Now my mantra of “doing interval cardio first thing in the morning in a fasted state” applies to only those who are eating small meals often.  The key to not losing muscle is too make sure that you eat a small portion of protein right before you go to bed.  And if your metabolism is really running fast, consume a small amount of protein upon wakening up.

A few (3-4) egg whites and a tbls. of healthy fat (I use Udo’s oil) works well for me.  I consume the protein and the fat immediately upon wakening then start the cardio session within the next 30 minutes.

If my metabolism is running even faster, (my hunger levels are very high all the time even though I am eating protein and carbs combined together every 3 hours) then I might even wake up in the middle of the night to consume a small amount of cottage cheese or whey protein.

So, I hope this clears a little confusion about how to perform interval cardio first thing in the morning in a fasted state for fat loss.  Not only is interval cardio the best type of cardio to perform to lose the most amount of fat in the least amount of time, but it is proven to be the only form of cardio to actually strengthen the heart and lungs; which is incredibly important for longevity reasons.

If you want to start your own 12 week transformation with a Trainer of the Year, check out Darin’s Fat Loss Lifestyle.

Tom really put on a master class. He reveals which exercises are the best for boosting up your metabolism, his 10 rules for nutrition that keeps you lean, and the most common limiting beliefs that people have when it comes to transforming their bodies. This call is so good, that I’m going to keep the replay up througout the weekend for free.  You can listen to this amazing seminar for a limited time by clicking here.

Jim: Let me ask you this. What are some of the biggest misconceptions people have when it comes to burning fat and losing weight?

Shawn:    I think one of them and I mentioned part of it, but I’ll take it a little deeper which is that it’s kind of like we have this conditioned time and effort response.  It’s the same thing we get in our working.  We think sometimes that I need to put in more hours and work harder and more time and effort.  We live in a results economy today.  If you want to make more money; create more wealth; be in a more abundant life, it’s more focused results you need, not more time and effort.

Same thing stands true for your fitness.  You don’t need to be in the time and effort all the time.  You need to be more focused results which means being clear about what you want; being intentional about it; bringing your mind integrating it and doing the specific steps A, B, C with purpose and clarity and effectiveness.  That means (a) having a plan; (b) bringing your mind to the party.

Jim:    And you see that pretty regularly that people aren’t . . . it becomes just a physical thing where they kind of separate it.

Shawn:    I think they separate it.  I think that a lot of people take up fitness out of at least a subconscious resistance.  It’s an obligation and their obligation manifests them into doing it with reluctance not with passion.

Jim:    Great point.  I always make that point about dieting.  Most of the time when you hear someone talk about dieting and weight loss; they’ll talk about it like someone has a gun to their head.  They’ll be like “Oh I have to go on a diet.  I have to go to the gym.”  It’s true. It’s funny because willpower has been so attached to weightloss and exercise. But, willpower is too hard to maintain.

Shawn:    I always say that willpower and discipline are failing strategies.

Jim:    They really are and I think for a lot of people this is new.  So many people say “Well how come I can start off in the first week and I’m great but then I lose it?”  Well it’s because you’re relying solely on willpower to make the weight loss happen. But willpower isn’t going to work once you get tired; once you get bored; once you get sick or depressed or whatever.  It falls away.

Shawn:    That’s the power of something else I want to bring which is a problem which is that people use a negative motivation to get rolling.  There’s nothing wrong with fear and negative motivation.  I’ll take any kind of catalyst that gets action.  But “I hate my before picture” or “I hate myself forward” has a short lived energy.  It will carry you so far, but it’s not going to carry you the distance.

Jim:    Great point.  Everyone listen and take that one to heart.  So much in this culture is unconscious.  We don’t recognize a lot of the things that motivate us and drive us forward with our behaviors.  The hating ourselves – that’s usually what happens is that people look in the mirror; their clothes don’t fit; they step on a scale and then they get really depressed and sad. That’s where they get their motivation from.

So what would you suggest?  How do you develop that kind of drive that pulls you forward in a better way without hating yourself?  How do you do it?

Shawn:    I break it down in Chapter 14 of my book where I take you through the path which I call “Path to Mastery.”  Most people start from an obligation or an “I should” conversation; the gun to the head.

Motivation – I take people through this and I say “Okay, look.  Whatever it takes to get moving; but if the hating yourself forward is your primary driver, take that” and I give you this practice of really creating a powerful vision.  I think vision is long term.  Vision is inspiring.  Vision is mountaintop.  Then a goal – goals are real and measurable right?

So you have to have both of those because I think we can set great big visions and they’re like Jupiter.  They’re huge, but they’re too far away to have any gravitational pull on us here.  You have to have something that may not have as big a mass, but has a good distance where it creates tension to pull you forward in life.

If you can go from “I should”  and “I have to” into the conversation to “I want to” and start bringing some joy into it; that’s where the presence and mindfulness practice and doing something that gives you feedback.  I start to feel better.  I do yoga when I’m carrying my tray.  There are specific steps to take you from “I should,” “I have to” to “I want to.”  “I want to” is your first step one step away from the ultimate freedom which is “It’s who I am.”  I now am not doing fitness.  I’m expressing who I am.

People don’t look at me or know me or talk to my wife and go “Are you on or off a diet?  Are you going to go and train?”  They know I train.  They know I eat well.  That’s who I am.

Jim:    I love that.  One of the metaphors I use sometime to describe the type of motivation I think you’re talking about – and you understand this as a parent, is beyond willpower, like if your kid when they’re a baby is crying and it’s 3:00 in the morning and you’re sleeping.  It’s not willpower.  There’s something way deeper there.  It’s who you are.  You are a parent and you’re going to get up and you’re going to do it.  It sounds like when you’re training; when you eat the way you are; I love that.  That’s who you are.  That’s who you’ve become.

Shawn:    I tell this story in the book.  Just like that it’s people stand there and they look at what I’m eating and they think there’s willpower.  How do you do that and how do I do what?  How do you brush your teeth every day?  Is it because you willpower yourself to brush your teeth every day?  No, it’s just what you do.”

Jim:    I’m curious to hear what your answer is to this.  How do you suggest that people measure their progress?  What have you seen work?  I know there’s weight, but what other things?
Rob:    I think the number one measurement, and this is the truth, is body fat percentage — the percentage of your body that is lean and the percentage of it that is fat.  Unfortunately, it’s kind of tough sometimes to get an accurate measure of that.
What’s most important is that the measuring system that you use is the same one that you use every time so the result is consistent.  It might be 4% higher than your actual body fat or 4% lower, but if it’s consistent in terms in terms of always being 4% lower, which it would be if you’re using the same measuring device typically, then you’re fine.  So measuring your body fat percentage is number one.
This again is something that has to be relearned because what do most people do when they get up in the morning?  They go and they weigh themselves.  The scale is in every single house in the planet.  Which is great – body weight is part of it and seeing the scale drop is a great feeling.  Again, as I mentioned earlier, I dropped 42 pounds on the scale, but I lost more fat than that because I gained muscle.  A lot of time people when they use the right type of workouts where you’re adding muscle to your body they may not see the scale drop as much as they want.
We actually just did a transformation challenge for my newsletter and had a lot of great successes.  We’re actually in the process of getting all the pictures on the site.  People I think are really going to dig it.  Some people just made amazing changes and you can see how important body fat percentage is in some of these pictures.  One of the guys lost 15 pounds of fat, but he also lost 5” off his waist.  Most people think, “How did you lose 5” off your waist when you only lost 15 pounds?”  You’d think that probably wouldn’t be possible.  The reality is that the guy built a bunch of muscle too.  If you look at his picture, you can tell.  He looks solid, strong and athletic and his waist looks like some other guy’s waist.  The scale only showed a 15 pound loss.  He lost like 9 or 10% of his body fat.
That’s where the real number is, so you have to look at body fat percentage.  We actually provide a tool for anybody who signs up for our newsletter a free body fat analyzer.  It just asks you for a few pieces of information like – I think the male one is different from the female one – just two or three – well I think it’s three or four measurements that you plug in and you plug in a couple of other small statistics that they’re easily attained.  It will give you a rough estimate of your body fat percentage.  Again, the error margin is plus or minus 3 or 4%.  But if you continually use that measurement, you’ll be able to measure your loss or gain.  You could actually use that.
The best way to measure your body fat is to do underwater weighing, but good luck.  There are not a lot of facilities around me that do that.  I don’t think anybody wants to go do that.  Use the calculator that I provide.  You can also get one of those bio-impedance scales.  One thing I’ll warn you there is that those typically only send the signal through your lower body and it usually dies around your waist level.  You really only get an accurate body fat reading of your lower body.  What you want to is get hand grippers too and you could get one of those that uses the same method of measuring your body fat.  That will typically only do your upper body so you can combine those two numbers, average them out and you’ll get a more realistic body fat percentage number.
That sounds like kind of a long process to go through, but I wanted to mention to people that scales do work, but they typically only measure half of your body.
Jim:    Great point.  They are so tied in with motivation where so many people and you see their body transforming, but because they’re building up muscle while they are burning fat, they get discouraged.  What you are saying again is very important.
Rob:    Jim the scale can be deceiving too because again, you go on those low carb things and you’re going to lose a bunch of water weight initially.  People are like, “Wow I lost 10 pounds.”  I have a buddy that loses 10 pounds once a week every three months because he goes low carb.  “I lost 10 pounds again.”  Then he gains 15 pounds because his body freaks out and he starts eating cake.  Again, the scale is a tricky old animal.  You want to watch out for the scale.

How to Start an Exercise Habit Audio

Craig Ballantyne, creator of Turbulence Training: “I came up with this in the late 90s.  I was finishing graduate school, and  was doing a lot of research in the cardiovascular area.  We were actually looking at . . . in my Master’s degree study, we were looking at what happens to power and performance in young men when they do a lot of endurance training.  So, we expected to see a decrease in their power and performance.

So I was taking a look at a lot of cardiovascular research; a lot of internal training research; this in addition to me working with a lot of athletes and in addition to me working with people to lose body fat.  At the time, I was training a lot of athletes with interval training.  I’ve been using this for quite a long time now for performance, and, you know, we noticed that some of the research is also showing that fat loss would be increased by the interval training.  It’s really come out in a lot of recent studies.  Well, not a lot of recent studies, but a few recent studies in the past couple of year, so we were a little bit ahead of the curve.

When I was doing all that studying, you know, that fun lab work, I was really, really busy.  I mean I was in there 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. some nights where I just, you know, running this blood through these fancy schmancy machines and, you know, this was in the hospital at my university.  So I’m halfway across campus to the gym, and I didn’t want to not work out during this time.

I had about 45 minutes while this one what’s called a gamma counter; so we’re talking about radioactive isotopes going on counting; so, it had 45 minutes for this machine to do its thing on some blood work that I had put together.  I had time to zip over to the gym, do my work out and get back.  That’s all the time I had for it, and, you know, I’ve been body building since I was 16; then moved into a bit more – I wouldn’t say power lifting, but more like athlete strength training type stuff – my own personal work outs.

Again, with the athletes I was working with, I basically I just put it all together.  I like to use the phrase, “I put all this information together in my mental blender” and came up with what I call Turbulence Training which was simply the supersets that I stole from the body building world combined with the interval training which I stole from the athletic world and together if you take a look at . . . if somebody; a body builder and athlete used that type of training, they would be very lean, very fit, very Men’s Health/Women’s Health type body.

That was in 1999 I was doing that.  In 2000, I started working with Men’s Health, so I kept getting more and more into the fast workout – the dumbbell – the stuff you can do at home in your basement sort of thing, not have to go to a fancy gym.  Then over the years, it’s evolved into a lot more body weight training as well, because that’s just been what people have wanted.

That’s the evolution of it.  The philosophy behind it is simply to work the way you were used to and work less as frequently your sets – well, fewer repetitions per set, generally fewer exercises than the body building stuff I grew up with; and, obviously, cutting back on the cardio volume and just doing interval training.  It’s an increased quality of training, decreased quantity of training.

Our whole purpose is to put the body into what I call turbulence.  That just means putting it outside its comfort zone like a plane going through turbulence in air.  I came up with that actually on a flight, I think if my memory serves me correctly.  That’s the whole philosophy.  That’s the mindset, the imagery I want people to do.  It’s getting outside their comfort zone, you know, training hard but of course training safe.  We’re not doing anything unsafe here, so there’s definitely a progression in building up to this stuff.  That is how it goes down.”

If you’d like to hear more of Craig’s interview, sign up for the F*ree Elite Body Expert Series.