A mixed week this week.


If go by the Scales, it looks good. I lost 1 kilo, so just over 21lbs, on target you may say. Well yes apart from my body fat only went down to 17.5% so basicly no change. Whats the problem ? let me explain.
MY current weight standing is as follows

Weight 89 Kilos approx 196 llbs


Body Fat 17.5% = approx 15.6 kilos or 34lbs.


This means from last week i only last about half a kilo of fat or 1llb, so if i lost only 1Llb of fat,whats the other kilo ? .. well it has to be muscle, so i need to watch this for next week.


Possible causes for this are i have only really got up to full speed on the weights this week, today will be the first week i have manged 3 times weights in a week.


Also i will need to check that my food intake has enough protein for the workouts i am doing.


On the plus side , 3 weeks in and i have lost 7lbs of fat so i can't complain too much.

Todays results are as follows


weight 90 kilos or 198Llbs


BF 17.6


body is now 15.84 kilos approx 35Llbs. which means i lost another 1.4 kilos of fat.


This is a good example of where you can't just go by the scales. My loss on the scales is only 1 kilo, but the body fat % is higher. This means that i gained .4 of a kilo of muscle.


This week , i need to concentrate more on making sure my meals are on track. I have not been able to follow my 6 small meals a day as easy this week. I will neeed to be more carefull with portion control, becuase now my body is used to the routine, if i slip, i will not lose weight, like i have the first 2 weeks.
You can do the same fat loss programme, but getting Tom Venuto's book.


I am still not up to weights 3 times a week, but this should be accomplished next week.

As I actually do fasted morning cardio, I am posting this article from an e-mail from Tom Venuto in his 'Burn the Fat' feed, The Muscle Newsletter.
From my personal perspective I am seeing results in fat loss, so will continue with it.




Dear Tom,


I've read a few of your articles on the web. Of particular interest is the one about doing Cardio in a Fasted State in the morning. I enjoy doing that, as I am a morning person anyway. However, I've run across an article on the 24 hour fitness website under "fitness myths" that is contradictory to your thoughts as well as Body-For-Life (which I follow). The article claimed that cardio in a fasted state causes the body to go into survival mode and save the fat - which means you burn muscle. Both theories sound right to me depending on the angle I look from. Any thoughts? Thanks and keep up the very good writing.


Bill Gillin






First of all, let me say that the fasted cardio in the morning theory IS controversial, and everything I write about it is strictly my personal opinion. However, I think my opinion is probably worth something because it's founded on 19 years of experience - both academic and "in the trenches" experience.


You're right that both theories have merit. Muscle loss could be an issue depending on the intensity and duration of your morning cardio session as well as your nutritional status. But why sit around a table and argue about it? Why not tackle the issue of muscle loss head on? Simply measure your body fat and calculate your lean mass, then you'll know if you're losing muscle or not. Why guess?


Does morning cardio burn a greater amount of fat than cardio done at other times? Well, the bottom line when evaluating any training or nutritional practice is results - period! I don't care what any "expert" says or what any research study says - I measure my results carefully and if I'm getting results training or eating in a certain manner, I'm going to keep doing it. And so should you. I suggest you base all your decisions about your training and nutrition on results and results alone.


Speaking of results, I've reached 3.4% body fat with no drugs and no supplements and part of my strategy on "cutting" programs has always been morning cardio. My clients have also achieved great results. And since you brought up Body for Life (which also recommends early morning cardio), regardless of many people's mixed feelings about the program or its creator, Bill Phillips, plenty of people have gotten great results on Body For Life. (And Phillips is no slouch in the physique department himself).


Although most academic types don't believe in the morning cardio theory, there's plenty of research that supports it. I found it especially interesting that Dr. Mel Siff, Author of Facts and Fallacies of Fitness and moderator of the Supertraining Yahoo forum, included a brief section in his book called "Slim Before Breakfast." He quoted a study lending support to the a.m. cardio theory. Dr. Siff wrote;


"A study carried out at Kansas State University (Wilcox, Harford & Wedel Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise, 17:2, 1985), indicates that a kilogram of fat will be oxidized sooner when exercising in the fasted condition in the morning than when doing the same exercise in the afternoon. By measuring respiratory gas exchange, caloric expenditure, and carbohydrate and fatty acid metabolism, these researchers showed that the mass of fat burned during aerobic exercise amounts to 67% of the total energy expenditure achieved when the same exercise is done later in the day or in the fed state."

The reason I mention this is because Dr. Siff is known as one of the most logical and scientific minded (skeptical?) experts in the field.


Courtesy of Burn The Fat

... and The Surprising Truth That The Low Carb Gurus Don't Want You To Know About



With the Interest in Low Carb Diets, i wanted to draw peoples attention to this excellent article written by Tom. I think anyone looking at Atkins or any other low carb diet, will be better informed by reading this.


By Tom Venuto


Low carbohydrate diets such as Atkins have always been controversial, but with the recent wave of new research and publicity, the controversy is now raging hotter than ever. One headline in the San Francisco Chronicle said that the battle between the low and high carbers had become so heated since mid 2002 that "Knives had been drawn."


From my vantage point (as a health and fitness professional down in the trenches), it looks more like tanks, artillery and machine guns have been drawn! Tragically, the people being hurt the most by these "diet wars" are not the experts, but the dieters.


After its original publication in 1972, The Atkins Diet was regurgitated in 1992 as "Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution," creating a new surge of interest in low carbohydrate dieting. Then, in July of 2002, the controversy reached an all time high when the New York Times Magazine published an essay by Gary Taubes titled, "What if it's all been a big fat lie?" The article suggested that new research was now proving the late Dr. Atkins had been right all along.

Read more »

I could not agree more with this article over at diet blog


5 Diet Cliches That Never Come True
We read these claims so often, that they become like wallpaper. Do these dieting clichés that adorn our books and web sites really come true?


Eat Your Favorite Foods and Still Lose Weight

Great - that means I can still eat 3 BK Triple Whoppers a day!


Watch the Pounds Melt Away
Since when does fat melt?


Lose Weight Fast

Rapid weight loss is rare, and often never lasts.


Lose Belly Fat First
Tummy fat normally hangs on for dear life. There is no such thing as spot reducing.


No More Hunger Pangs

Let's see, if you go from eating 4,000 calories per day to 1,500 per day - I suspect there might be the odd hunger pang until your body adapts.