The hierarchy of fat loss
Emmet Louis
Posted: July 17, 2012
All successful physique transformation follows a simple hierarchy.
By following this simple hierarchy and making sure you’re spending your time wisely you’ll be guaranteed results
The hierarchy is:
Diet>Sleep>Resistance training>Cardio>Supplements
Diet:
Is the peak of our Hierarchy, if your diet isn’t up to scratch then no amount of the others will help
example if you take in more calories then you burn you simply won’t lose fat or conversely the results of a diet that is 80% carbohydrates and minimal protein and healthy fats vs one that is higher in protein, healthy fats and uses carbohydrates correctly will be drastically different
Sleep:
I see this regularly with clients who work high stress jobs or have poor quality of sleep their fat loss just grinds to a halt and when we re-establish a good sleep pattern the fat loss starts right back up. Bottom line do your best to get 8 hours of good restful sleep a night.
Resistance training:
Resistance training comes with an afterburn effect, when you do reistance training for say an hour you’ll burn about 300-450 calories depending on the type of training but also which is much more important for physique transformation you’ll have an "afterburn effect" where your metabolism is raised for 12-36 hours afterwards during this time you’ll burn significantly more calories.
The other benefits of resistance training is you’ll hold onto more lean mass giving you that elusive shape
Cardio:
Cardio differs from resistance training in that it doesn’t come with an "afterburn effect" while it can be an efficent tool for fat loss the way most people use it is converse to their goals. My next blog post will cover in details the strategies I use to successfully burn fat with cardio. Also if your gym time is limited spending that time on resistance training will lead to better results.
Supplements:
In my experience fat burning supplements are the icing on the cake, if you haven’t respected the hierarchy you probably won’t notice any difference from using one but if you’ve respected our hierarchy then they’ll help speed up the process.
If you need help to sort out your hierarchy feel free to contact me for your free consultation Emmetlouispersonaltraining@gmail.com 07794632106
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Hi, thanks for the post - and I try and follow the above Hierarchy to build muscle and keep fat % low. However what do you think of the latest research into suppliments? (See linkhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18...) I think the Panorama program tonight on BBC1 about suppliments will be interesting.
I currently take:
1 x multivitamin
1 x Cod Liver Oil
4 x BCAA
Creatine once a day
Optimum Nutrition Weight once a day
I think these help on top of a healthy diet, but are most supplements a placebo? Or is it worth the price vs. just having a good balanced diet?
Thanks,
Michael
Hi Micheal,
I think what it falls down to is too many people go straight for the supplements rather then sort out their diet. If they spent the time sorting out their diet and nutrition they’d get the results they were looking for much quicker.
I treat supplements as the icing on the cake and use them as a tool rather then just throwing them into some one plan with a shotgun approach.
Emmet
Amazing how most people currently act as if this hierachy goes from bottom to top!! Great article :)
Great article - I realised my diet needed sorting out, but didn’t appreciate sleep being so important! Clearly my 5 hours a night aren’t really enough ;)
I’m never quite sure where resistance training ends and cardio begins though. I do a lot of classes, as I find it difficult to motivate myself, so really need an instructor to scream at me. I also avoid the freeweights room as it’s invariably packed so I can’t get bench or the weights I want, and I worry about having no one to spot for me, and doing myself an injury (I’ll be honest, I find the freeweights room pretty intimidating too). But, I’m wondering if my classes will be sufficient - I generally do a bit of boxing, circuits and kettlebells - would you say these provide sufficient ’resistance’? If not, do you have any classes that you’d recommend for that side of things?
Thanks
Chris