The LiveFit Fat Loss Hierarchy

As the owners and operators of LiveFit, Holly and I are constantly asked about our approach to fat loss, body transformation and generally "getting in shape". Whether it's our current clients, prospective clients, people we meet socially, or people who literally stop us in public (this happens to Holly a lot more frequently than it does me:), many folks want and ask about our fat loss recipe.

More often than not, people want to know what workout they should be doing. They usually tell us what they are currently doing, ask what we think, and then want to know what they could change about their workout to get better results. They are often perplexed when we tell them the "working out part" accounts for about 10% of their results (or lack thereof). It's not that their workouts are unimportant or that their program couldn't use some tweaks, or, more commonly, a complete overhaul, but getting a body which turns heads has little to do with whether or not they are using an elliptical trainer vs. a treadmill, doing 15 reps instead of 8, or doing seated dumbbell curls vs. standing dumbbell curls.

With the above in mind, Holly and I wanted to share our "Fat Loss Hierarchy" with you so you can make sure you are focusing your efforts in the right areas-in order of importance-and not wasting your time spinning your wheels. In order of importance, here is the LiveFit fat loss hierarchy:

1. Nutrition

As hinted at above, nutrition is what primarily drives fat loss, and we feel it accounts for about 90% of one's results. Everyone seems to want to try to "exercise off" body weight and body fat, but this is a misguided and extremely inefficient approach which typically does nothing more than frustrate the hell out of people and leave them with a bitter taste in their mouth when it comes to exercise.

If one were to strength train for an hour 3 days/week, and perform moderate intensity cardiovascular exercise for an hour on the other 4 days, in the end, they'd burn about 3000 calories. That's a 7 hour time commitment for what equates to less than one pound of body fat burned (their are 3500 calories in a pound). It's no wonder people give up on exercise.

Contrast that to eating correctly. It doesn't take you ANY time not eat 500 calories, but it can take up to an hour to burn off 500 calories. Eating in a slight calorie deficit is the fastest way to burn body fat. Period. If I asked you to drive a nail into a board, would you use the handle of a hammer or the head of the hammer? When it comes to fat loss, exercise is the handle and nutrition is the head. You could use the handle to drive that nail, and if you banged away long enough, you might get that nail started into the board and drive it in a little bit. But why not just flip the damn thing over, use the head, and drive the nail all the way in with just a couple strong hits? Get it?

2. Nutrition

Yes, it's that important to warrant including it twice in the LiveFit hierarchy. If you are not on a meal plan which puts you in a modest calorie deficit, are not quantifying how much you are eating, and are not eating nutrient dense, unprocessed foods which support lean muscle and overall health, you are going to be very disappointed with your results. If you are not already on board, it's time to warm up to the power of proper nutrition.

At LiveFit, we believe in the power of proper nutrition and have seen the results it can produce. If you asked me 5 years ago, I would have said we were a fitness training business which gave a little bit of nutrition advice. Basically, the focus was on the exercise side of the equation (the output) and we paid little attention to the input side (nutrition). Fast forward 5 years-and Holly joining the business drove this-and now I'd say we are a fat loss nutrition/meal planning business which provides some exercise programming along with it. It used to be nutrition was an adjunct to the workouts...but now it's reversed. 

3. Strength Training

Most people not only want to lose weight and fat, but also want to look athletic, toned and contoured. For the guys out there, change those terms to muscular, "ripped" and "jacked". Unfortunately, simply dialing in your nutrition and eating in a deficit won't cut it. You also have to strength train to support and build lean muscle. Strength training is what gives your muscles shape, development and contour. If you don't have any muscle, you'll never look "fit" no matter how much weight or body fat you lose. If nutrition it 90% of the body transformation process, strength training makes up about 8% of what's left.

So, while strength training is rather insignificant when it comes to weight and fat loss, it is absolutely essential to developing and maintaining muscle tone, strength and shape. Holly and I have come across plenty of people who have lost a lot of weight by eating right and doing a ton of cardiovascular exercise, but they typically are still unhappy with how they look and honestly just look like smaller versions or their former selves: no muscle tone, shape, development or contour to their bodies.

There are a thousand ways to structure and implement a strength training program. When it comes to our clients, how we program is dictated by how much time they have to devote. If someone can train 5 days/week, we split their workouts up differently than someone who can only devote 2 days/week. Regardless of how it's organized, we stick to the principle of progressive overload, and, if you are working out on your own, so should you. Lift heavier weights or do more volume (sets and reps) over time. Perform harder exercise progressions and variations over time. Stick to mostly multiple joint exercises like squats, deadlifts, chin-ups, rows and presses. Most importantly, BE CONSISTENT. Haphazard, inconsistent training will get you no where. If you can only hit the weights 2 days/week, you can still get great results if your diet is in line...just be consistent with those 2 days.

4. "Cardio"

If diet makes up 90% of the body transformation and fat loss process, and strength training makes up 8%, then cardio type activities make up the the final 2%. As you can tell, we don't particularly value "cardio stuff" or place any real emphasis on it. It's really just the icing on the cake. If you are not eating right and lifting weights, doing bike sprints for 20 minutes or plodding along on a elliptical while watching TV for 60 minutes makes little difference.

With the above being said, I will say that if you have purely aesthetic and health goals (which 95% of our clients do), good old fashioned walking on all or most days of the week for 30-60 minutes is a good plan of attack. This is enough to enhance and/or maintain heart health, burn up a few calories, and get the circulation going. What's great about walking is that it's low intensity enough not to interfere with your recovery from weight training or increase stress hormones like cortisol. With interval training or traditional moderate intensity steady state cardio, you run into these problems. We do implement a small amount of higher intensity interval work at the end of our clients' workouts, but this is done more as a "finisher" and for conditioning purposes than it is for fat loss. Also, the type of interval work we do with our clients during their workouts has a strong muscular strength component to it, and serves as a compliment to the workout itself (body weight exercise circuits, dragging sleds, resisted bike sprints, kettlebell circuits, etc.)

If you are interested in performance, obviously, the cardio prescription changes. If you are competing in a field sport, want to run a 10 K, finish a triathlon, etc, then the type and amount of conditioning must prepare you for the demands of your sport or event and develop the appropriate energy systems. In these scenarios, doing cardio is unavoidable because, without it, you won't be able to compete or complete. However, again, if the goal is body transformation and general health, the type and amount or cardio is largely insignificant. If you want proof of this, check out the before and after pictures of our friend (and fellow fitness trainer) Matt Kasse:

Matt lost 30 lbs. and got down to single digit body fat in 4 months doing nothing more than adhering to a meal plan Holly put him on and continuing with his normal weight training regimen. Matt is a life long lifter, so he already had the muscle you see displayed...it was just "covered up" (which goes back to the point I made earlier about strength training giving shape, tone and contour to the body). He did probably what amounted to less than hour of "cardio" over the 4 month transformation.

That about wraps things up. We hope you put this information to good use and use it to help re-prioritize and tweak your current approach. If you are interested in our body transformation and meal planning service, please visit the link below and fill out the form at the bottom of the page to receive more information on how we can help you reach your goals:

http://www.livefitcincinnati.com/fitness-services/meal-plans/