About the Author of this report. Ryan Toth is the founder of Total Core Fitness Boot Camp LLC
www.totalcorefitcamp.com. He is a certified personal trainer, core specialist, functional exercise
specialist and a youth and adolescent fitness trainer.
Ryan has trained hundreds of clients who have learned the right mix of exercise and nutrition that
have transformed their bodies and mind.
Disclaimer: The information contained within this report but rather represents the authors.
opinions and is solely for educational and informational purposes. The author is not responsible
whatsoever for any injury or health condition that may occur from following the programs and
opinions expressed herein. Dietary information is presented for informational purposes only and
may not be appropriate for all individuals. Consult with your physician before starting any exercise
program or altering your diet.
You are not going to like what you are about to read, but here it goes.
You have probably heard about Jim Karas’ book The Cardio Free Diet. There has also
been a lot of controversy over it for many reasons. I will cover one of the big reasons
today and why I agree with Mr. Karas’s basic premise of his program.
Now if you have read my articles before you know where I stand with steady state
cardiovascular exercise and its effectiveness of fat loss. Let’s review the hierarchy for
effective fat loss:
Nutrition- the MOST important part of your weight loss program is by far nutritional
habits. You can exercise your tail off, but if you go home and eat a whole pizza after
your workout, you will not lose fat. It is very common to hear exercisers say they are
doing extra exercise so that they can have what they want to eat later. Unfortunately that
doesn’t work. Solid food choices with a
caloric deficit are the best way to lose fat.
The Thermic Effect, or the amount of energy it takes to digest foods. You see, not all
foods are created equal. Some foods will provide instant energy, some will support your
bodily functions, and some will be used to help you leaner than you ever imagined. Now
before I continue I must warn you that there are no magic tricks here, just smart choices.
And keep in mind that supportive exercise is always part of the plan (unless of course
you want half the results you really
could be getting).
When looking to boost your metabolism and erase any memory of body fat, you want as
much help as you can get. Knowing about the Thermic Effect of foods is one tool you will
definitely want in your tool box. If we look at Carbohydrates, Fats, and Proteins and their
Thermic Effect, it is obvious right off which food we should focus a bit more on:
Carboydrates: 6-8% of total energy is used for digestion
Fats: 2-3% of total energy is used for digestion
Protein: 20-30% of total energy is used for digestion
Protein would be the obvious choice based on its Thermic Effect. This does not mean,
however that you should eat nothing but protein. Carbohydrates and Fats both have their
very important rolls in the body and successful fat loss will not happen if these are not an
important part of a daily nutrition plan. But based on the clientele I have had in the past,
protein is severely lacking our daily food intake. So much that it is shutting down our
metabolism, simply because we are
taking in too much carbohydrates and fats with a low Thermic Effect and we aren’t
maximizing the benefit of eating for a purpose.
Now this may sound a little confusing so let me simplify it a bit. When planning a daily
menu or weekly menu, it might be wise to start with protein sources at each meal and
work around them. This will help you get closer to reaching the amount of protein daily
so that you are starting to see changes in your physique. Taking this tip and adding it to
eating five to six small meals per day rather then two or three larger meals, will go a long
way to helping you reach your bodies potential.
After a workout it is imperative to get more nutrients into your body. Deprive your body of
the nutrients it needs immediately after your workout, and you may as well flush your
training efforts down the toilet. Your performance will suffer the next time you train, you'll
likely lose muscle along the way, plus you risk destroying your fat-burning metabolism,
losing 20% of the gains you otherwise would have made. The simple fix is to consume
a precisely calculated meal immediately after your workout to support your goals whether it's burning fat, building muscle, or dramatically improving your athletic
performance. One way is to have a post-workout drink/shake like the Prograde Workout
Shake at http://totalcorefitcamp.getprograde.com
Weight Training- The second most important aspect of a weight loss program is weight
training. Tremendous strides can be made to increase your metabolism through weight
training. Muscle tissue utilizes much more energy than fat tissue, so it is logical to
believe that if you are able to increase the muscle tissue in your body, you will increase
your metabolism.
Cardiovascular Training- Third in importance is cardiovascular training. Now this may
be a shock to you based on what you have been told for years about the benefits of
aerobic exercise. Well I’m going to shock you further and say that cardiovascular
exercise and Aerobic Exercise are two very different entities. When I speak of
Cardiovascular Training, I mean interval training or training at a high intensity to increase
your lung capacity and endurance. There is no place for
Aerobic training in a fat loss program. This is why my boot camps focus on tabata and
high intensity interval training.
Now don’t let me confuse you here: Is aerobic training beneficial to those starting out in
an exercise program? Yes it is, for those severely under conditioned; the safest mode is
aerobic exercise (steady state), in order for their bodies to become accommodated to
physical activity.
To further drive this point home here’s some proof: One study tested individuals in 20
weeks of endurance training versus 15 weeks of Interval Training. The energy cost of
endurance training was 28,661 calories. In Interval Training the energy cost was 13,614
calories (less than half). However the Interval training group showed 9 times greater loss
in subcutaneous fat (layer under skin) than the endurance group!!
Now rather than bore you with further studies on the subject lets look at a math equation
for a minute: If you trained steady state aerobic exercise on the treadmill for 30 minutes
every day (five days a week) for 48 weeks out of the year and you burned 300 calories
each session, you will have burned 1,500 calories per week or 72,000 calories for the
year. Your body must have a caloric deficit (calories in vs. calories out) of 3,500 to burn
1 pound of fat. So in that year you lost 21 pounds provided nutrition is a constant. Does
that sound a little low to you? To give you an idea of how low that is, in my last Boot
Camp, I had four people lose 10+ pounds in 4 weeks, not to mention the inches they
also lost!
Another point I would like to make concerning cardiovascular training and Aerobic
Training is that fat is not burned while you are working out. During a workout you are
stressing your body and it is constantly trying to accommodate the stress you are putting
on it. After your workout is finished, recovery begins. Your body will burn calories here
also. This is where your body will burn fat, as it is stabilizing itself by utilizing the energy
it needs to recover. The reason interval training (Cardiovascular Training) is so effective
is that it takes much longer to recover from an alternating high/low intensity workout then
it does from a steady state intensity workout. This also allows you to workout for a
shorter amount of time since the body is highly stressed during Cardiovascular Training.
Start thinking outside your training session.
Now back to The No Cardio Diet. It is my understanding that Mr. Karas is referring to
steady state cardio free diet. Is his program completely free of cardiovascular training?
No, he institutes Interval training using weight which is a fantastic way to drastically
enhance your lung capacity and heart strength as well as burn fat. His program is free of
the steady state aerobic exercise that, some studies have shown subjects to gain
weight!
Secondly, Mr. Karas’s diet recommendations, which include taking in 1,200 calories has
some valid points. However, individualized programming based on current bodyweight
and activity level are more effective rather than generalizing a goal number for everyone
to follow. A caloric deficit, as I have mentioned earlier, is essential to fat loss, but the
starting point must be specific to the individual.
To calculate your caloric needs you can use the following two step formula.
Step 1: Calculate BMR
Women:
655 + (4.3 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) – (4.7 x age in years)
Men:
66 + (6.3 x weight in pounds) + (12.9 x height in inches) – (6.8 x age in years)
*Please note that this formula applies only to adults
Step 2: Calculate Activity
Step two: in order to incorporate activity into your daily caloric needs, do the following
calculation:
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If you are sedentary: BMR x 20 Percent
If you are lightly active: BMR x 30 Percent
If you are moderately active (you exercise most days a week):
BMR x 40 Percent
If you are very active (you exercise intensely on a daily basis or for a
prolonged periods): BMR x 50 Percent
If you are extra active (you do hard labor or in athletic training):
BMR x 60 Percent
Add this number to your BMR.
(BMR x Activity %) + BMR = the result of this formula will be the number of calories you
can eat every day and maintain your current weight. In order to lose weight, you’ll need
to take in fewer calories than this result.
Tip: Calculate the calories needed for the desired weight you would like to be. This will
help in knowing just how many you will need. Be honest with yourself on your activity
level.
As you lose weight, you can re-calculate the formula to assess your new BMR.
My purpose of this article wasn’t to support or criticize Mr. Karas’s book, but rather to
open some eyes to the possibility that change is in order. America is a fat country. What
we think we know isn’t working or we wouldn’t be fat. It is time to shift our thinking and
actions to what staring at us right in the face. There is no easy way to lose fat. But there
is a roadmap to success if you choose to take it.
Are the rewards worth it to you?
Now you have 2 choices:
Continue to run for 30 minutes on a treadmill like a hamster and see little loss in fat, or
get into one of my boot camps now and lose some serious fat! With the New Year
coming up, why not meet all your goals before that resolution.
You better hurry though, many others like you, have already learned of our workout
secrets and have been losing tons of inches they have to keep buying new clothes.
Space is always limited in camp, so register right away at www.totalcorefitcamp.com.