By John Romaniello, CPT, Fitness Author More at:

I’m sure none of the items in the title of this article sound like terms of endearment, or ways you’d like your body parts described; but if one of them applies to you, then you KNOW it. And if any of those DO apply to you, then you’re likely dealing with regional fat storage issues.  While we all store fat all over, it’s often most noticeable in certain areas – we call these the

Now, if you’re storing fat in one or all of the three areas
mentioned in this article (your hips, thighs, or if you’re a guy,

You see, ALL problem areas are influenced heavily by your
hormonal environment, and where you store that last bit of
fat is determined by which of your hormones are out of whack.

High levels of estrogen are awesome for enjoying Grey’s
Anatomy and makin’ babies, but terrible for fat loss, which explains

However, anyone — male or female — with high estrogen
levels will have trouble losing fat, especially from the
lower body. In essence, the higher your estrogen levels, the
greater the likelihood you’ll store fat in your lower body;
mainly in the hips and thighs.

And yes, it IS possible for men to have high estrogen
levels. Unfortunately, outside of having to deal with a
declined rate of fat loss and lower body fat, these guys
ALSO have to deal with those terrible man-boobs.

Rather than try to correct this through medication or
steroids, it’s possible to address the issue through training.

That is, it is possible to utilize training that will
produce hormones which OFFSET estrogen.

And how else would you combat estrogen but with testosterone?

Being clear, you are going to increase testosterone levels
naturally, through training. Not only will this increase the
net fat-burning effect of all exercises, but more
appropriate to our purposes here, it will also facilitate in
getting rid of lower body fat.

I should mention something here to alleviate any concerns:
it is NOT possible to produce a detrimental amount of
testosterone through training. So ladies, you don’t have to
worry about any masculinizing effects.

Instead, training produces what we would term a ‘high’
amount of testosterone from a physiological perspective,
relative to what your body normally produces. For the guys,
this means that such training will help you put on a bit
more muscle-just not steroid muscle.

Got it?

At this point, I know you’re thinking, “all right Roman, get
to the point, what do I do?”

Great question. And the answer is DENSITY TRAINING.

Training in a way that seeks to increase training density is
one of the best ways to spur your body to produce and
release more testosterone, which will (obviously) help you
lose that estrogen related fat storage.

Training density can be defined as the amount of work you do
in a given amount of time during a training session. If you
want to increase density, you can do more work (sets, reps,
or both) in the same amount of time, or do the same amount
of work and decrease the time in which you do it.

However, I’ve come up with a method of density training that
is specific to RADICAL fat loss, and this means that not
only will you produce the testosterone necessary to mitigate
your regional fat issue, but you’ll also lose more fat on
the whole.

Pretty cool, eh?

As an example, let’s pick 3 exercises: the overhead press,
the dumbbell row, and the squat.

Setting these up in a circuit fashion, you perform them one
after another with little rest in between.

Instead of having a set number of reps, we’re going to be
forming each of these exercises for TIME-you simply have to
do as many as you can in a given time period.

To make it easy, let’s say you did each of the above
exercises for 30 seconds. In performing such a circuit, your
results might look like this:

Overhead Press: 25 pound dumbbells for 20 reps DB Row: 40
pound dumbbells for 18 reps Squat: 100 pound barbell for 22
reps

Not too shabby. Now, HERE is where it gets crazy.

We’re going to take advantage of some cool things that
happen in the body; triggers that happen which will make you
more efficient and more capable.

To do that, we’re going to INCREASE the weight by 10-20% and
try to do MORE reps.

Does that seem impossible? It isn’t. Due to neuromuscular
junction and neural activation, in almost ALL cases, you’ll
be able to do just that.

Your second attempt at that circuit might look like this:

Overhead Press: 30 pound dumbbells for 23 reps DB Row: 50
pound dumbbells for 20 reps Squat: 120 pound barbell for 25
reps

Density training is fun, challenge-based, burns a heck of a
lot of fat, and — most importantly — is one of the best
training modalities around for increasing testosterone
production and release.

If you want to fight your estrogen issues, you NEED more
testosterone. And for that you need density training.
Utilizing this method, you’re one step closer to fighting
off your stubborn hip, thigh, and god forbid, “manboob” fat
for good.

John Romaniello, CPT, Fitness Author

Pretty cool, huh? John is a MASTER at pinning “good”
hormones and specific exercise up against the “bad”

And in his new program (which is available at a full 52% OFF

1. Estrogen, “man boobs” and lower-body fat

2. Insulin, and your “love handles (combatted with

3. And of course, Cortisol and belly fat (combatted with

If you struggle with “problem area” fat storage, this is THE

WARNING:

However, if you’re struggling with those last 5-10 lbs.,
have lost “some” phat, but have hit a major plateau, or you
continue to suffer from too much butt/hip/thigh/belly phat or

So here’s what to do:

Head over to: ==> http://theelitebody.com/last-10-pounds

The following is an excerpt of an interview I did for The Elite Body, with Vince Delmonte, author of No Nonsense Muscle Building.

Jim:    So going with the hormone thing and not doing steroids, what are the alternatives to that?  What are the natural ways to stimulate those hormones?

Vince:    That’s a great question.  Let’s look at the three things – training, lifestyle and nutrition.  Let’s start off with things people might miss on lifestyle.  The reality is that when training, you’re only in the gym a couple of hours a week.  The majority of the time you’re outside of the gym.  So sleeping eight hours a night is very important.  These are the things that can’t really get dressed up as sexy and they can’t market on the cover of a magazine, “Sleep Eight Hours a Night.”

People underestimate this stuff.  Going to bed earlier I found was one of the big things for me in recovery and being able to train harder the next day.  I would let that kick in.  So I recommend that everybody – I’m just painting a perfect situation.  Whether you can do this or you can’t, that’s up to the person listening to the call to make that commitment and lifestyle change.

If you can get to bed closer to 10:30/11:00 each night, that’s going to help a lot.  They say for every hour of sleep you can get before midnight, it’s almost like the equivalent of two hours sleep.  I tested this out.  I know it’s amazing.  You wake up earlier and you’re able to start your first meal earlier.  You’re able to finish your last meal earlier.  Everything just seems to work a lot better.  Your body is able to start building muscle quicker.

That’s going to produce growth hormone.  That’s one of the hormones that are going to allow you to build muscle.

Also minimizing stress in your life.  Looking at the relationships you’re in; the career you’re in; the social settings you’re in; how late are you staying up – all those little things – the one isolated incident might not make a big difference.  It’s what happens when going to bed at 2:00/3:00 in the morning occurs two or three nights a week over a course of six to nine months.

That’s where the damage is.  So that’s lifestyle.  Alcohol too – that’s another thing.  A lot of people ask me, “Vince, can I drink on the weekends?”  Of course you can drink, but is it going to get you closer to your goal or further from your goal?  It all comes down to how serious you are.

If I’m getting ready for a show, the booze has got to go.  If I’m just wishy washy; I’m happy with how I look and I’m just trying to relieve some stress and that, well then sure.  A drink here and there isn’t going to be a big deal.  So you have to ask yourself how serious you are and then you’ll be able to start answering these questions better for yourself.  That’s lifestyle.

If you want to learn more about Vince’s amazing muscle building program, visit No Nonsense Muscle Building.

Jim Katsoulis: Talk a little bit about  the Tabata protocol, if I’m pronouncing that right. Talk a little bit about – explain what the Tabata protocol is and how it influenced 7 Minute Muscle and your ideas of training.

Jon Benson: Okay, yeah. Tabata is a Japanese researcher that a lot of fitness guys were quoting in the ‘90s especially when this study first came out in the early 2000, that Tabata, he just – he came up with this ridiculously intense protocol which later just became high intensity interval cardio, interval training that basically pushed people well beyond their lactate threshold for only periods of time, like brief periods of time, 30 seconds sometimes, the protocol for that are that short, followed by duration periods where you’re at – where you’re exercising at a normal pace.

So, it’s just basically – it’s a glorified version of interval cardio. And what the studies where he was most impressive, and that these studies had been duplicated, is the actual – the O2 increase, in other words, your oxygen, how much oxygen can your system use efficiently. And he was seeing just rapid, massive increases in the body’s ability to process oxygen, which means your cardio – it means that your cardio health is increasing basically. And since then a lot of guys had tried to apply that fat burning and it does work for fat burning if you do it right, and if you’re willing to do a little bit of low-intensity walking, things like that, along with it.

But I’ve always believed that fat burning was 80 percent nutrition and so the cardio is just on top of this. So, I have a version of – it’s just totally different than Tabata, to be honest with you. But it’s based – Richard’s study – Dr. Richard Winett came up with a protocol called GXP or Graded Exercise Protocol actually before Tabata if I’m not mistaken and he’s had four different university tests done, and that’s the protocol I suggest that people use.

So, the 7 Minute Muscle protocol, obviously, I developed but I quoted everyone that I actually said this is the guy who influenced me here, this is the guy who influenced me here, but the 7 Minute Muscle is totally different in the way that protocol is put together but it’s influenced by guys like Vince Geronda, it’s influenced by EDP training, by – there’s just a myriad of different influences that come into it. But the cardios are like Dr. Richard Winett’s and – so, Ageless Athletes. It’s a very, very good website. And it’s nine minutes long and I used it for years. I had used it for years. And it’s by far and away more effective than trying to do something ridiculous like the 45 minutes of cardio a day. It is, you know, unless I’m four weeks away from a photo shoot, there’s no point in it.

Jim: Let me ask you this. With organic food, people see it out there and sometimes think it’s too expensive, is organic food worth the extra money and investment, you know, nutritionally?

Isabel Delos Rios:    It really, really is because — and I’ve done extensive research on the strain of conventional food versus organic food. And I did that because when I started eating organic food, I was living in New York City, barely making any money, and it was really a struggle to buy organic food.

But the amount of pesticide and herbicide that are sprayed on the conventional food, may be a little bit on an apple, a little bit on some broccoli, a little bit on some celery, but all of that little bit adds up to such an incredible amount. Now, adults can handle it a little bit better because our livers are fully functioning and can detoxify some of these things. It’s much, much worse for children, and they’re still developing, their livers are still developing, they don’t need these toxins inside their body, so it’s well, well worth it.

Now, for my clients who, this is a difficult transition, financially, they need to do this one step at a time, I always give them the guidelines. If something has a very thick skin and you’re not going to eat it, well, then, you can keep those conventional until you can get those organics.

So, avocados, if I can only get them conventional, I’ll do that. Bananas, if I can only get them conventional, okay, that’s okay. But things like celery and strawberries and apples and pears, things that I’m actually eating the skin, if it’s not organic, I will not even go near it.

If you want to learn more about Isabel De Los Rios amazing book  The Diet Solution, click here.  You can also download a sample 6 week meal plan for free here.

Jim:   You talk about more multi-joint movements; more big movements.  How do these big movements help boost metabolism and burn fat?

Michael:    There are actually a couple of things here.  A lot of the big movements indirectly work your abs and more importantly, the big movements are what really changes your body’s metabolism and burns the most calories; stimulates your fat burning and muscle building hormones.  All of that is so much more important than just trying to target your abdominals.

I do include in my programs a little bit of direct ab exercises, but really 95% of my programs are based around multi-joint full body movements that really change your whole body.  Once people get this, you see the results fast because I remember working with people in the past where I would see them for months and months every day in the gym on the ab mat.  They would be on the ab mat for a half hour doing eight different variations of crunches and ten different variations of leg lifts.

To be honest, I spend about two minutes on my abs.  99% of my workout is these big full body movements like squats and dead lifts and snatches and Cuban presses and stuff like that – lunges; any upper body pressing or pulling; things where you are using most of your body’s musculature instead of just your abs.  I think that’s such an important concept to grasp.

Jim:    What you’re saying and you’ve seen this is that literally you can change your metabolism and that a lot of the way to do it is actually doing these big movements.  I don’t know if you can go into this a little bit because I’m a little new to this idea, but how do those movements affect your body physiologically where it helps to burn fat?

Michael:    Consider this – let’s throw out an example and say that you have a 20 minute workout to do.  Well the typical person if they had to choose a workout and they want to lose stomach fat and get six pack abs will choose to do crunches, leg lifts, leg raises, side bends, torso twists – things like that that are all ab and core exercises.

They haven’t done a whole lot in reality.  At the end of those 20 minutes, maybe you burned a few calories.  Maybe you worked your abs pretty hard.  They might be sore the next day.  They might feel like you actually did something.

But instead of that, let’s forget about all ab exercises.  For that 20 minutes, and I’m not saying this is an ideal workout or anything.  I’m just giving an example since you asked the question about the different in how it affects your body.  Instead of that, let’s spend those 20 minutes doing nothing but squats, lunges, pushups and pull-ups.

Four simple full body exercises that work pretty much every muscle group in your entire body plus you are also indirectly working the abs with a lot of those as well.  Try and do a pull-up without having your abs contracted – it’s not going to happen — the same thing with a pushup.

So those are four body weight exercises.  We haven’t even gotten into weight training.  Just doing those four body weight exercises for that 20 minutes instead of all the ab exercises, you’re not only going to burn a lot more calories during the actual workout, but now you’ve worked every single muscle in your body practically.
So now your metabolism is elevated for hours and hours.

Sometimes the studies you see from an intense resistance training workout your metabolism can be elevated for up to two days following the workout.  So now while your body is trying to repair what you’ve done because you’ve worked your muscles so hard it is using extra calories compared to what you barely had any effect on your body just wasting time doing all those crunches and twists and stuff.

There is no only the caloric effect where you’re burning more calories, but also when you do big exercises like that it stimulates the release of more growth hormones, testosterone.  Hormones like that are also going to indirectly help fat burning and muscle building.

Jim:    Speaking of that, sometimes women get a little nervous when they hear that these masculine hormones are released.  Is that going to affect them?  A woman isn’t going to get bulky from that when a woman does those big lifts.  She’ll be all right.

Michael:    Exactly; it’s going to help balance things out in the body whether it’s a man or a woman.  To be honest, over the years the women that I’ve seen train the heaviest are the ones that have the leanest best bodies.  It’s the women that are afraid to use the heavy weights and won’t use anything more than a three or five pound dumbbell or won’t do weight training at all and will just do cardio – those are the ones that typically struggle with their bodies.

When I can convince them to just give in and start doing some heavier training, I’ve pretty much never seen someone bulk up.  I’ve never seen someone look like a body builder.  But the important thing is that you’re finally actually training your body under heavy enough resistance to stimulate its change; to increase your metabolism; to force it to change.  That’s so important for the women as well.
Jim:    That makes sense.  As far as base metabolism goes, if you have more muscle is it true you’ll naturally consume more calories because there’s more muscle there and that burns more calories than fat?  Is that true?

Michael:    Well yeah.  The more muscle your body has, it’s an active tissue in your body so it is consuming calories compared to fat.  If you added 10 pounds extra muscle on your body you’d have an increased metabolic rate.  Your body would need to burn more calories to maintain that muscle.

That effect is going to be a lot lower if you just had 10 pounds extra fat.  Really the only extra calories you’re burning if you have the extra fat are just from carrying around that extra weight.  So yes, it’s a big difference.

“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.

In this call you’ll hear Mike reveal some of the most common mistakes that people make when it comes to getting a six pack and how you can the best results in the shortest time possible. You can listen to this seminar for a limited time by clicking here.

In this call you’ll hear Darin explain how he gets results like this from his clients (regardless of their age).  He also talks about his favorite 2 exercises, how to use your mind to maximize your results, and some motivation tricks for staying on track. You can listen to this seminar for a limited time by clicking here.

Jim: What are some rules people should follow for an effective workout?

Tom:    One of course would be form.  You have to learn the proper technique for the exercise.  That’s important because bad form can cause an injury.  If you’re injured, you can’t work out.  Second would be that poor form robs you of results.  For example, if you’re heaving a weight up and using momentum to lift the weight, the muscle’s not working.  Momentum is working.  If you’re dropping the weight, it is gravity working; not your muscle resisting.  Form is number one.

Number two, proper resistance – for weight training that means choosing the right amount of weight to give you the exact stimulus you need to get the response you want – strength and muscle growth.  If you don’t use enough weight, you don’t get the stimulus you wanted.  Outside of some calories you burn, your workout was ineffective.

What I’ve noticed is the advanced trainee gets a real instinct for this.  If you watch a pro in a gym, they might put the pin in the machine, do a couple of reps.  Immediately they stop and they pull the pin out and they adjust it.  They know instantly or they’ve been keeping a training journal and they’re tracking the exact poundages they used for the previous workout.  They’ve walked into the gym knowing exactly how much weight to use.

If you are a beginner, you need to work on this.  You need to develop a sense of the right load to use as early as possible in your training career.  One what that I like to help people do that is by instead of giving a fixed number of sets and reps, I use two things – a rep range and a rep max.  Now I’m sure you’ve heard a training program with a prescription “I want you to do three sets of ten; four sets of eight; five sets of five” and there’s nothing wrong with that provided you have load selection down to a “T”.  If you do that, you need to know how to pick the right weight.

I would prefer to figure out what your goal is, choose the right repetition range for that goal – for example muscle growth is typically a range of 8-12 reps – and instead of saying three sets of ten, I’m going to say “I want you to do three sets of 8-12.”  I’m going to give you a repetition max number of 12.  Your cue is that if you can do 12 reps in good form, that’s your signal to increase the weight.

If you’re training with the right weight, the last rep or two is very difficult.  You are working to get the last rep or two.  You may even hit failure on that last rep on some of your sets.  It happens between 8-12 – no brainer way to figure out how much weight to use and it’s really important because I see a lot of people using light weights and they’re doing three sets of 12, but it was a 25 rep max.  They’ve selected absolutely the wrong weights.  You’ve got to nail down the poundages.

Number three would be progressive overload or some kind of overload or some kind of progression.  That’s the fundamental principle of making progress.  Here’s a rule to remember – do what you’ve always done; get what you’ve always got.  I have that on a little poster.  I’m looking at it right now up on my bulletin board.  That’s one that you should always remember.  To get something that you never got before like more muscle or a leaner body than you’ve ever had before or more strength than you’ve ever had before, you are going to have to do some work that’s above and beyond what you’ve ever done before.  Makes sense, right?

You have to work out of your comfort zone.  Safely but steadily you push a little bit past your previous workout.  A little more weight, another rep or two, the same workout completed in less time which is called density; a new exercise you have never done before; a new combination of exercises; a new workout program – something – anything you’ve never done before.

I could go on and on, but one more I think is really important is recovery because the growth takes place outside of the gym, not while you’re in the gym.  This one is so important.  It influences all the others.  Your volume, your frequency, your resistance, everything – if you’re not recovering between workouts you may have to change your frequency.  If you were training four or five days a week, you may have to come back to three days a week or you may need to put more rest days in between.  If you were doing 12 sets per body part and you’re feeling overtrained and you’re not recovering, you may have to cut back to 8 or 6 or 3.

The idea is that you have to overload your body and make it do work that it hasn’t done before, but you have to be able to recover from that.  The idea here is that training is a stress.  People have this idea that stress is bad.  Stress is not bad.  Stress is your stimulus for growth.  No stress, no growth.  You rot away and die.  What you need is stress, recovery, stress, recovery, stress, recovery and that would be a good thing to remember in terms of life stress as well with people’s work and with people’s career.
I mention this because your lifestyle is going to influence the results that you get out of the gym too.  If you have a high stress psychological level and you’re not sleeping well and your boss is driving you crazy and you’re overworked, it’s going to affect physical recovery.  You have to take the time to balance all kinds of work with stress and that’s what’s going to keep the progress coming.

Scott: When it comes to the mind, and you teach all the fantastic ways to reprogram it, what are some of the things that people are doing that are holding them back, in regards to their current mindset?

Jim: Well, that is a great question. I am going to kind of break it down, because, people do not realize that they are literally sabotaging their own success, with the way most people think about weight loss. Usually, when you ask a person how they’re going to lose weight, the answer is always they are going to go on a diet.

The problem with a diet is that the presupposition of a diet on a deeper level is that a) it is only temporary, and b) it is going to mean deprivation. Those two things do not create lasting results, obviously.

I spend a lot of time talking about the conscious and unconscious mind; so let me give you a little bit of foundational information on that.

Scott: That would be great.

Jim: We all have a conscious and unconscious mind. Your conscious mind is logical; it understands what you should do. Everyone knows what they should do to lose weight. I mean there’s not a person out there that doesn’t know that. Basically, eat better and exercise more.

Scott: Right.

Jim: The other part is the unconscious mind. And this is the part of our mind that truly runs the show. So we like to think that we’re consciously in charge of everything, but we’re not. There’s too much stuff going on in our lives to consciously think about every little thing.

The example I use a lot to describe this kind of difference in our minds is when we drive. When you first learned to drive, you understood how to do it. You saw your parents doing it most of your life, and it seemed pretty simple. Then you went and got behind the wheel. And you began gunning it, braking too hard, you couldn’t keep it straight. But as you continued driving, it just became completely automatic.So that when you get in the car now, you don’t even think about driving.

And if you look at all the things that are like this, all our lives become pretty routine. We don’t have to think about it, it just kind of happens. And that’s the unconscious part of our mind.

Scott: Sort of like what happens to me a lot, where I follow the same path to work all the time. And if I’m going down the same road with a different destination and my mind is somewhere else, I catch myself continuing along that path when I really should have turned a couple of miles back.

Jim: Sure, sure. That’s a common phenomenon. They call it “highway hypnosis, ” and everyone’s experienced where you’re driving and you kind of go past the exit. You’re just lost in thought. So, when you’re lost in thought, who’s driving the car? It’s your unconscious mind.

And if you look at reading and writing, at one point that was extremely difficult to do, but now it’s completely automatic. It’s so automatic that if I held a word up in front of you on a piece of paper you couldn’t even not understand it.

That’s how quick your unconscious mind is. So that’s what runs most of our lives. Now, we can obviously make decisions. Our conscious mind matters. But most of our behaviors are automatic. They’re kind of programmed into our unconscious mind so that we don’t have to think about them.

When you get up in the morning, you go through the same routine. It just becomes a process. You don’t have to be thinking about it. But the problem is that our eating behaviors, our exercise behaviors, those are in the unconscious mind as well.

The important part is this. The conscious mind is logical. We all know what to do, right? I mean if we could run everything consciously, no one would smoke. Everyone knows it’s bad. But the unconscious mind is in control, and the unconscious mind is not logical. It works by association.

The classic example is, you’ve heard of Pavlov’s dogs, right? He was a Russian scientist, he was studying dogs, and he came up with this experiment where he put the food in front of the dog and they would salivate. And every time he did this, he would have someone ring a bell. Put the food in front of them, salivate, and ring a bell, over and over and over again. Eventually, all they needed to do was ring the bell and the dogs would salivate. Because in the dog’s mind, the sound of the bell and the food had become one, and now elicited the same response.

So, that’s called associative conditioning, and that’s how our unconscious mind begins to work.We can’t approach it in the same way that we do consciously.

That’s why when people do dieting, they know what’s good, they know what they should do and all the rest of it, but they never go to the unconscious level where they begin changing up their association for what these things mean. They’ll say, “I know I need to eat healthy food, ‘ but on a deeper level, they think healthy food is boring, gross, not fun.

So, they’re constantly fighting against these associations that they have. That’s how most people start. They rely completely on willpower to do this.”

Willpower is not the most effective way. I say if your willpower is so strong, do you want to take your breathing and let your conscious mind be in control of that? Or your heartbeat, do you want to consciously control that?” So, the most powerful part of your mind is your unconscious mind, and you need to learn a few basic techniques on how to influence it and how to program it so that you have the connections and the associations that you want.

So, that’s kind of the beginning on the conscious and unconscious mind.The next two things I want to point out, and this is kind of the foundation that we will keep referring to, is that the unconscious mind, first of all, does not understand negatives. Now this is very important.

What I mean by this is, most people, when they start dieting, are totally focused on everything that they can’t have.Now if I tell you… Use all the will power you guys have got. Get all your will power in your body, because I want you to not think about what I’m about to say. And everyone who is listening to this: get ready. Don’t think about what I’m about to say. Don’t think of a yellow banana. Don’t think of a yellow banana. Yellow banana.

Scott: [laughs]

Jim: All right, what happens? [laughs]

Scott: Total banana in my head right now.

Jim: It’s impossible not to, because your unconscious mind needs to think about it first in order to understand what I’m even saying. So it’s very difficult not to think about what I’m saying. There’s very little difference between your experience when I say: “Think of a yellow banana. Don’t think of a yellow banana.” “Think of sundae. Don’t think of a sundae.” “Think of a cookie. Don’t think of a cookie.” “Don’t think of a cookie.” [laughs]

But this is what people do themselves on diets constantly. They keep telling themselves what they can’t eat, and then they are unintentionally focusing on exactly what it is that they want to reduce in their lives.

Scott: Right.

Jim: That’s one problem. And the other thing is this, and this is very important. The unconscious mind cannot tell the difference between vivid imagination and reality. The unconscious mind will respond to vivid imagination.This is why horror movies exist, because you can go watch a horror movie, you’re in a theater with a hundred other people and you’re safe, but you’re sitting there and you’re all tense, you’re nervous, you’re not breathing, because you’re living through the movie. You’re vicariously living in that movie, pretending you’re the character or in that situation, and you start to actually have the physical response like you would have if you were in that situation.

Scott: Right.

Jim: So when you add these two things together, what people on diets are doing is… I mean, think about it right now. Think about your favorite dessert. Think about it in really vivid colors. Think about the most enjoyable time you ever had it, and you might find your mouth start to salivate.

Scott: That’s right.

Jim: Now this is what people are doing to themselves 24 hours a day when they go on a diet. And they’re actually increasing this. They’re increasing, physiologically, their desire for these foods [laughing] that they want to avoid. So you can see how it’s almost like self-torture.

Scott: Totally!

Jim: And this is why a lot of times people find it very difficult to stay on a diet, because they’re concentrating exactly on what they don’t want.

This interview was an excerpt from the MP3 audio interview program, Unstoppable Fat Loss . To  get the complete interview and many more, click here