Comments on: Fat Loss Secret – How To NEVER Stall Again

By: Mark McManus

Mark McManus — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:08:00 +0000

@Ethan. I talk about, and give evidence for this in ‘Total Six Pack Abs’. You actually don’t come out of fat burning during or after the carb-up, which is good news.
Also, if you do stop low-carbing for weeks at a time, yes the body will make the switch faster the second time.

By: Ethan

Ethan — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:49:00 +0000

Hi again. I was wondering about this. If it takes me 5 days for the fat burning to kick in, and then on the 7th day I spike the insulin and carb up, Is it going to take me 5 days everytime? Or does our bodies adapt and make the switch quicker? Is there a way to make it go quick in the first week?

By: Andy Zee

Andy Zee — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:30:37 +0000

I am cutting at the moment, using this ‘staircase’ method of gradually making slight improvements weekly (improvements being reduced calorie intake, move toward lower GL foods, increase in caffeine, more cardio etc) while maintaining workout intensity and keeping daily protein intake high.

Seems to be going well four weeks into my twelve week plan. I started at around 15-17% body fat, taking weekly photos to track the progress. Hope to ripped before Christmas!

By: Sunil

Sunil — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 06:15:43 +0000

Great article….keep it up…

By: Nick Andrade

Nick Andrade — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 11:25:55 +0000

Great advice…I really think that it’s important to take things one step at a time, whether your goal is to build muscle or burn fat. When you try to make too many changes to your lifestyle at once, it’s a surefire way to sabotage your long term success. Figure out your plan of attack, simplify your plan and implement the plan with consistency this really is the key to achieving your fitness goals!

By: Brandon

Brandon — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:00:23 +0000

I totally agree with your post, but I had one question. You say to cut artificial sweeteners, and I am not opposed to that I just wanted to know why.

Thanks in advance!

By: mic

mic — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:46:53 +0000

Hi Mark,
Thanks for the info, will let you know how she goes.
Cheers
Mick

By: Mark McManus

Mark McManus — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:09:03 +0000

@mic. Tell her to multiply her starting number for dietary fat (first formula in the book) by 0.9. Keep her fat and protein the same. These are her starting numbers.
Tell her to start with 2-3 x 10minute cardio sessions per week. Adjust numbers and cardio as necessary as weeks progress, you know the drill by now.
If she’s doing it to get a six-pack she will at least have to do the abdominal routine in the book.
Mark
P.S. tell her she made a good choice 😉

By: mic

mic — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:40:39 +0000

Hi Mark,
My wife is interested in following TSPA however is not interested in any weight training, how should she go about structuring a cardio routine? Should she follow the standard format of TSPA or will she need to implement extra sessions to compensate for the lack of weight training?
Regards Mick.

By: FitNews

FitNews — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 08:18:27 +0000

Thanks Mark and Simon, it certainly makes sense that fat would become more precious to our bodies than muscle, but I had just finished reading Fitness Black Book’s article on starving yourself releasing HGH which stops muscle from catabolizing and promotes fat loss, so I was confused.

I’ve never been a believer in this HGH stuff, so I’m more likely to believe your theories, though FBB does have scientific studies and some very convincing writing.

Would you say that “starvation mode” over powers the HGH release caused by starving yourself?

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:15:30 +0000

hey Mark, thanks for posting.

very informative article

By: Mark McManus

Mark McManus — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:57:00 +0000

Thank You, Marie 🙂

By: Marie

Marie — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:47:37 +0000

Hello,

I read you everyday!

I’m a female that is using your website as guideline for weight loss and muscle tone.

I would like to thank you for the explanations regarding the two subjects and how you get rid of the ‘myths’ surrounding these two areas.

Thanks a bunch!

By: Beatchica

Beatchica — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:29:25 +0000

Thought I would add my input on your article.
I am a certified personal trainer with about 20 years of experience under my belt.

Having said that, your article really nailed the cutting guidelines to a T… Excellent work!

If I might add a few additional points that I have found helpful while cutting.

– Sleep

– Make tracking your nutrients easier by using an online site. I use the one below, as it has a solid database of the type of food I eat.

https://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/users/myplate/?when=&mid=0

– Timing of protein intake, for me this has been a key discovery for keeping the cutting phase humming along. I have had good results with taking in 10-20 grams of protein every 3-4 hours. I am small, so you will need to carefully calculate your intake based on your nutritional data.

Once again thanks for the quality article.

By: Simon

Simon — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:20:18 +0000

Also originally meant to comment on the article, I came to the same conclusion regarding not going all out from the onset a couple of months ago before slimming down, although my rationale wasn’t as scientific.
My reasoning was simply that any small positive change (diet or exercise) will give a positive result so I can keep as many tricks up my sleeve as possible to pull out when results slow. Knowing myself, I knew that if I tried drastically cutting calories, doig HIIT 3 x week etc, I’d burn out pretty quickly so I built up slowly.
Interestingly the diet I’ve got into (similar to your MANS really), I’ve recently increased the amount I eat and REDUCED my cardio to concentrate on muscle building. Down to HIIT once per week, high intensity body weight circuits once per week and the fat is still dropping off, pretty amazing stuff.

By: Mark McManus

Mark McManus — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:08:29 +0000

@Simon – great to hear!
@Fitnews – Firstly, you won’t lose a pound of fat per day (maybe you meant per week).
Fat tissue becomes increasingly precious as you lose more and more of it. The body WILL protect it if you go about dieting all wrong.
Your body will burn muscle tissue and if taken to extremes will actually eat internal organs in preference to your own fat tissue – scary!
You must remember that fat loss is hormonally regulated, calories don’t tell the whole picture because fat tissue isn’t the only place your body can get some much-needed energy.
Long-term low-calorie, high cardio, dieting will have a detrimental effect on leptin (and ghrelin) which control where your body is going to get those deficit calories from.
My book Total Six Pack Abs takes care of all this though 🙂
All the best,
Mark

By: Simon

Simon — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:17:40 +0000

@FitNews, the body burns muscle as a SURVIVAL mechanism, i.e. a last resort to stay ALIVE.
Muscle is expensive, it requires a lot of calories to maintain, if you’re not getting enough calories then the body tries to use less calories, getting rid of muscle and using it for fuel is a good way to do this.
The body thinks energy is scarce so that unwanted fat now becomes a valuable resource which the body will try to hold on to.
Also if you’re not consuming enough protein the body will have to ‘recycle’ existing protein stores, i’e. muscle.
Remember your body isn’t trying to keep you in the best possible shape for your exercising, it’s trying to keep you alive. You need to ‘hack’ your metabolism to burn fat and build muscle.
Mark, good site, been doing the THT workouts for just over 2 weeks and really enjoying them. Been doing pure strength training over the winter followed by maintanance/cutting/HIIT over spring, now doing some mass building, haven’t felt soreness like this for a while!
And really good week on week progression. Thanks.

By: FitNews

FitNews — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:13:43 +0000

I’ve got a question relating to the idea that your metabolism slows down if you try to lose weight too fast.

You said:
“The body wants to keep you alive. It sees the above as a signal to SLOW your metabolism and PRESERVE energy. When your fat loss stalls in 2 or 3 weeks, where can you go from here?”

So if I do 3 hours cardio for a day and start losing a pound of fat a day. Let’s just say after 3 days my body goes into this “slow metabolism” mode.

From then on, even though I’m STILL DOING the same 3 hours cardio a day and still eating the same food, I’m now going to be burning through muscle at the same speed I’m burning through fat?

I don’t get it…I mean, why would the human body do that? Is it self sabotaging it’s muscle to make you weaker so you cannot possible exercise??

What’s the meaning behind this?

By: Mark McManus

Mark McManus — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:47:36 +0000

@Ste – great to heat man 🙂
@Bill. What you need to do now is stop cutting and go back to maintenance calories for 3-4 weeks. This will let your metabolism ‘reset’. From here you can employ the ‘step-down’ approach and lose fat continuously until goal. Hope that helps.

By: Bill Giovannetti

Bill Giovannetti — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:21:15 +0000

An eye-opener. I’ve been stalled, literally, for 2 months at the same weight, and haven’t been able to shed fat. I started w/a bang (like you said), and had nowhere to go… but into a land of unreasonableness that I couldn’t live with.

So, now what…. cut way back, and increase intensity and cardio gradually?

That’s gonna be my plan, unless you suggest otherwise.

Thanks for the great information.

By: ste potter

ste potter — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:08:48 +0000

another inspiring article mark! been following mans now religiously for 4 week now and every new article helps me keep on the straight and narrow. this is the longest i have really sat down and been determined to reach my goals. i will be purchasing tspa very soon! but at the mo mans is giving me great results! thanks again mark! keep up the good work!

By: Mark McManus

Mark McManus — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:36:27 +0000

@Speed. Thanks man – always appreciate positive feedback.

By: Speed

Speed — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:24:36 +0000

Awesome Tips dude! I really Appreciate this site and you man. I been visiting the site everyday for the past couple of weeks and i tell ya i learn something new everyday. I also subscribe to your email blast(that’s how i got this article). Going to get the book in support of what you are doing for people. Keep it up dude, this site freakin ROCKS!!!