High intensity training can help reduce visceral abdominal fat.

High Intensity Training Reduces Visceral Abdominal Fat

There is an irony to our current health situation here in the United States and in developed countries. At a time in our history when more people than ever before are overweight the exercise and fitness industry is a multi-billion dollar giant that continues to grow even in times of economic contraction. We spend more money on exercise programs than ever before- most do little and some are so extreme that any weight loss derived cannot be realistically sustained so waistlines are not going down and staying down. The conventional approach to losing fat around the abdominal area has always been primarily aerobic exercises and most can attest that you don’t exactly get a six pack from running or being on the bike/treadmill/StairMaster/Elliptical Machine for hours and end. What has been proven time and time again by those in the trenches for reducing abdominal fat and creating the elusive toned and sculpted physique is weight training or more precisely high intensity training.

High Intensity Training As A Time Efficient Solution To Reducing Visceral Abdominal Fat & Improving Your Health

With an obesity rate of nearly 34% here in the United States and with most of those individuals suffering from the cluster of metabolic syndromes associated with a high body mass index and high visceral abdominal fat levels such as hypertension, Type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease, society as a whole need simple and long term solutions to being able to help people lower their body fat levels. The small time commitment of high intensity training is certainly a major part of the solution and more and more studies are pointing in that direction. High intensity training for a long time has been associated solely as a means toward increasing strength and muscle mass, but as more and more studies are conducted, researchers are discovering that high intensity training can not only help increase your endurance but also have a significant effect on the reduction of your body fat- specifically that layer dangerous layer right around your midsection. Read our article- The Dangers of Visceral Abdominal Fat.

Effects Of High Intensity Training On Body Composition & Visceral Abdominal Fat

A study published in Medicine & Science In Sports Exercise- the  journal of the American College of Sports Medicine found that high intensity training was far more effective than conventional prolonged low intensity training programs in reducing overall body fat and quite importantly- reducing abdominal visceral fat. It has been firmly established that high visceral abdominal fat levels not only present a cosmetic problem, but significantly increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and hypertension.

The study examined the effects of exercise training intensity in middle aged obese women with metabolic syndrome. The women were split into three groups-

• Group One maintained their regular levels of daily activity with no exercise added and served as a control for the experiment.
• Group Two engaged in a conventional low intensity prolonged exercise program five days a week similar to recommended protocols.
• Group Three engaged in brief high intensity training sessions three days a week.

To accurately determine body composition changes, researchers used single slice computed tomography scans to observe abdominal fat and thigh muscle cross sectional areas. Body fat percentages were calculated using air displacement plethysmography.

Conclusions: High Intensity Training Is More Effective At Reducing Visceral Abdominal Fat

The findings from the study: The high intensity training group significantly reduced their total abdominal fat and subcutaneous abdominal fat whereas there were no statistically significant changes in any of these parameters in the control group or the low intensity exercise group.

Conclusions: Data from the study found conclusively that body composition changes are indeed affected by the exercise intensity and that high intensity training is far more effective at reducing visceral abdominal fat and subcutaneous abdominal fat.

So if you are serious about getting your midsection into shape and improving your overall health, you might want to give high intensity training another look!

Kevin Richardson is one of New York City’s most sought after personal trainers and the creator of Naturally Intense High Intensity Training 10 Minute Workouts. Get a copy of Kevin’s award winning free weight loss ebook here and visit his official website at www.naturallyintense.net. 

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How To Build Your Lower Abs: The Problem Area

For most- both men and especially women,  the lower abdominal region is their trouble spot. Even for those in relatively good shape the question always seems to arise on how do you build your lower abs and make that region right under your belly button flat and tight. Firstly, I should explain the structure of the abdominal muscles. The upper region of your rectus abdominus is relatively heavily muscled and can be easily developed which is what gives you that unmistakable six pack when the area is low in subcutaneous fat. Most people that diet properly and are able to reduce their overall body fat will start seeing their upper abdominals even if they are marginally developed but not their lower abs.

You can clearly see that your lower abs are not thickly muscled like your upper abs

The problem is that your lower abdominals are more of a thin sheath of muscle as opposed to the thickly muscled blocks of your upper abdominals. Thus you can do all the exercises in the world, but to have prominently visible abs, you must have low body-fat levels in your stomach region. Since there is so little to the lower region, in terms of protruding muscle, you really have to get your overall body fat levels down to the lowest levels in order to see them. In fact when I work with bodybuilders and fitness models preparing them for contests that way that you would determine whether or not they are competition ready and at their best is when you can see the ridges of their lower abs and some vascularity in that area as well.

How To Build Your Lower Abs: Exercises That Target The Region

From an exercise standpoint the lower abs serve to rotate the pelvis inwards towards the ribcage so any movement such as reverse crunches or leg raise type exercise will focus on that area- but it more a matter of strengthening the region that building it up as there really isn’t that much to build. At the end of the day it comes down to how much you can reduce your body fat levels and the same holds true for your upper abdominals as well. You can do sit ups until you are blue in the face, train your abs everyday and still not see much of anything as such movements only work the muscle but do little to get rid of the layer of fat obscuring your abs.

How to Build Your Lower Abs: Too Many Abdominal Exercises May Cause A Protruding Stomach

That being said, train your abdominal muscles the same way that you train any other body part and don’t overdo it. Your goal should be to ensure that your midsection is strong and balanced and by training them everyday with a slew of exercises you are only over-training the area and may in some instances even over develop your abdominals. Once problem that I have seen happen with people that go too far is that they develop very blocky type abs- which may look impressive when their shirt is off but the blocks protrude outwards and give the appearance of a big gut when they are wearing clothes- which is certainly not what most people are looking for and is almost impossible to completely reverse. You see it as well with individuals that use anabolic steroids as their abdominals become far bigger than they ordinarily would be and thus they have to suck their stomach in to not look like they have a beer gut- which isn’t really a pretty sight.

Having Great Lower Abs Comes Down To Your Diet & Your Bodyfat Levels

The author

For the record- I don’t train my abdominals directly on a regular basis and haven’t done so seriously for over ten years now and they still look exactly the same- lower abs included. It might surprise you as well that the majority of natural athletes with great abs don’t really do much to keep them that way besides watch what they eat. If you follow a properly executed high intensity weight training routine your abdominals get a real workout in the process stabilizing your midsection during heavy movements and again you don’t want to over develop them by doing too much. So less is more if you have been training for several years doing more abdominal work isn’t going to do very much to make them come out more.

Diet is the key and keep in mind that for your lower abs to be really tight, (especially for women) you really have to work hard to reduce and maintain your body fat to the point where they are visible. Training wise you’ll have a better chance at seeing your lower abs come out from high intensity resistance training rather than conventional aerobic type workouts but the onus still is on your diet. That being said having great lower abs shouldn’t be the be-all-and-end-all of any fitness program. Remember that having a low bodyfat percentage doesn’t always mean that you are healthy and you can have a six pack and still suffer from health related problems. Instead keep your eye on eating well at all times, always have a good and wholesome breakfast and be on guard to avoid processed and refined foods in your diet and of course always eat in moderation. If you train hard and stick to that philosophy in time you just might start seeing your lower abs coming out!

Related Articles:

Six Pack Abs- It’s All About What You Eat

Get a copy of Kevin’s free award winning weight loss ebook here! Kevin Richardson is one of New York City’s most sought after personal trainers and the creator of Naturally Intense High Intensity Training 10 Minute Workouts. Visit his official website at www.naturallyintense.net. 

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Diet soda weight gain? Not only possible but highly likely.

Is Diet Soda Bad For You? Diet Soda Weight Gain.

In my early years in the health and fitness field, nothing changed the landscape as much as the onset of diet sodas. Even more popular than diet supplements, diet soda has become a ubiquitous addition to everyone’s attempts to lose weight- but is diet soda bad for you and can you end up with a weight gain from diet soda? Like so many others, growing up as a teenager in my native island of Trinidad, I saw diet sodas as a perfect solution to the problem of not having anything sweet in my diet while trying to get into peak shape. A sugar free, and almost zero calorie drink that I could have guilt and worry free seemed almost too good to be true and in the eyes of my bodybuilding coaches at the time, old timers all of them, it was.

Several of my coaches surmised that if the brain perceives what is being consumed as sugar, then the body will respond with a concurrent spike in insulin levels; An insulin spike that thus sets in motion the body’s fat storage mechanisms and a potential for weight gain. At the time, I was not completely convinced by his argument but I heeded their advice nonetheless- after all, I had seen first hand what their personal training clients looked like and they had dispelled many a myth I had held in the past about health and fitness so I saw no reason to distrust their instincts.

Diet Soda Weight Gain- Studies Show That Diet Soda Can Increase Insulin Levels

As the years went on, studies indeed began to surface that even though there is no actual glucose in a diet soda, the body still secretes insulin in response to consuming what it perceives as a sugary  drink, much in the way that Pavlov’s dog would salivate at the sound of a bell after being fed a tasty treat every time a bell would ring. So in the end, the old timers were indeed on to something!

I would also add that diet sodas are just about as artificial a food product as is humanly possible and thus in no way could ever be a natural part of a human diet. My belief has always been that processed foods always create problems in the human body and our growing obesity epidemic here in the United States and in developed countries continues to highlight the fact that our modern food products are not compatible with our physiology. It’s hard to compare an apple, which we as humans have evolved over the course of over countless thousands of years to harmoniously derive essential micronutrients, carbohydrates and fiber with a diet soda. The term ‘diet’ may be a great marketing tool to help us not be wary of a potential long term health hazard but the more we reflect on where we are and where we are going as a species the more obvious it becomes that such food products are best avoided. Our great-great grandparents didn’t have soda of any kind, much less the diet variety and they also didn’t have problems with obesity and the slew of preventable diet related diseases that come with it.

Diet Soda And Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is estimated to affects one in five women over the age of 50 in the United States and among the potential causes is a high dietary phosphorous intake. Phosphates have been shown to deplete calcium and are considered a factor in osteoporosis. Where would such high levels of phosphorous come from- you guessed it- carbonated beverages. Other countries (usually poorer ones) where the populations does not consume as much dairy products or supplemented calcium as we do here in America do not have such alarmingly high rates of osteoporosis as compared does the U.S. and other developed countries. One theory lays the blame on squarely on America’s number one drink- soda, and its kissing cousin, the highly fashionable diet soda.

Diet Soda Long Term Weight Gain From Reinforcing The Bad Habit Of Consuming Sugary Drinks

There are other behavior related reasons why diet sodas can bring about weight gain and are bad for you without even touching on the health questions raised by the long term ingestion of artificial sweeteners and that is the fact that it prevents a progression towards healthy eating habits. I have in my own personal training practice that clients who trained consistently and avoided the use of diet soda had an easier time making the transition toward consistently better eating choices than those consuming diet sodas regularly (the same applies for those that drink high levels of caffeinated beverages as well- but that’s another article.) In order to stop consuming a particular food it is important that we learn to forget about it and replace their tastes with those of healthier varieties. By keeping diet soda in your diet that switch away from needing something sweet on a regular basis never has a chance to go away and thus it becomes all the more difficult to eat well on a consistent basis.

Even among my clients that ate well but still consumed diet soda, they never seem to make as much progress in terms of weight loss and body fat reduction as the ones that cut them out completely- an interesting piece of information for anyone serious about getting into their best shape.

Diet Soda Is Not Part Of A Long Term Strategy For Getting In Shape

It may not be a scientifically validated double blind study, but it is what I have seen over the course of almost twenty years as a personal trainer- and it makes sense. Being able to make good food choices requires a gradual movement away from things that are simply not good for you, and by drinking diet soda, you are continue the behavior of accepting that sugary taste as something positive as opposed to working to accustom yourself to the tastes of foods that are indeed good for you.

Get a copy of Kevin’s free weight loss ebook here!

Kevin Richardson- celebrity Personal Trainer New York City is the creator of Naturally Intense™ High Intensity Training, a lifetime natural bodybuilder, head of Naturally Intense™ Personal Trainers NYC and one of the most sought after personal trainer in NYC.

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Slow down to lose weight!

Want A Simple Way To Lose Weight- Eat Slowly!

Over my many years of studies in both traditional Easter medicine and traditional Japanese martial arts, the idea of eating your food slowly has been a recurring theme for weight control and optimal health. I think everyone is familiar with how often children are admonished to chew their foods slowly, and now thanks to recent research we know that this age old health tip does indeed have merit.

In a study published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, seventeen healthy male adult volunteers were observed to see whether eating the same meal at different speeds would bring about  any differences in hormonal response. For the study, volunteers were given a serving of ice cream and made to eat the same amount at different speeds. Blood samples were taken to measure both insulin and gut hormones and what they found was that the volunteers released more hormones that made them feel full when they ate the ice cream in 30 minutes as opposed to five minutes. The two particular hormones released glucagon-like peptide-1 and peptide YY are key components to signaling feelings of perceived satiety and fullness and thus leads to eating less.

Several Studies Confirm That Eating Slowly Decreases Caloric Intake & Risk Of Being Overweight

Several other studies back this claim, including a very large scale survey published in the British Medical Journal. For this survey 3287 adults (1122 men, 2165 women) ages ranging from 3 to 69 years old participated in reports on cardiovascular risk from 2003 to 2006. The results found that those who self reported consuming their foods quickly and eating until they were full had three times the likelihood of being overweight when compared with others that ate at slower paces. Another randomized study of 30 women published in the American Dietetic Association found that participants reported greater feelings of satisfaction and consumed less calories when they ate at a slower pace compared to when they ate quickly.

Our Fast Food Mentality May Be Doing Us More Harm Than We Know

The ancient wisdom of eating slowly and enjoying your foods can indeed help you eat less and thus should be considered a simple and effective method of weight control but it also raises some questions about common practices that might be contributing factors to our obesity epidemic. Given the ever increasing numbers of children that are overweight in the United States and the small alotment of time given to children for lunch breaks in public schools one cannot help but wonder just detrimental this practice is to the health of our children. For adults the idea of eating on the run and for that matter the whole idea of fast food and rapid eating may be more of a problem than we think. So eat slowly and enjoy your meals!

Related Articles:

Controlling Your Eating Habits

Best Way To Lose Weight- Eat A Healthy Breakfast!

Kevin Richardson- celebrity Personal Trainer New York City is the creator of Naturally Intense™ High Intensity Training, a lifetime natural bodybuilder, head of Naturally Intense™ Personal Trainers NYC and one of the most sought after personal trainer in NYC.

Not eating a healthy breakfast is a overlooked contributing factor to obesity.

Best Way To Lose Weight? Eat A Healthy Breakfast

If you were to ask for my professional opinion of what is the single most effective strategy for long term weight loss I would say with no hesitation that it would be to always eat a healthy breakfast. We have all heard since we were kids that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, however despite studies showing its importance in ensuring a longer lifespan and its role in appetite control and optimal performance; it is still the meal most often neglected. A survey of 1000 adults conducted  by the International Food Information Council (IFIC) found that while 90% of Americans are aware that having breakfast is important for health and peak function, a little less than half of them admitted to eating breakfast every day. We can also see from the many studies done on the significant decrease in academic performance by schoolchildren that do not eat breakfast that not only is a good breakfast vital for ideal brain function, but sadly that many adults here in the United States simply don’t appreciate the importance of breakfast for their families.

Want To Stop Your Cravings- Eat A Healthy Breakfast

In the grip of today’s hectic lifestyles, breakfast in general has been relegated to an ‘on-the-run’ meal in the best of cases and a skipped meal in the worst of them. It’s my belief that this trend is an overlooked contributing factor to the pandemic of obesity in this country. Over the past two decades working as personal trainer helping people lose weight and get into shape, I have always found that people who skip breakfast or have a cursory meal consisting of a quick donut or a bagel with some coffee, tended to be the ones who had a very difficult time not consuming large amounts of junk food in the later part of the day. Going over my training notes over the past 5 years, I can also point out that 100% of those who reported their junk food urges as being uncontrollable did not eat a proper breakfast- this from a sampling of well over 200 individuals of varying ages and fitness levels.

A Healthy Breakfast Is An Easy And Inexpensive Way To Control Your Weight

As simple as it may seem, one of the easiest ways to really take control not only your midsection, but also your appetite is to simply eat a healthy breakfast, and then follow through by eating balanced meals throughout the day. The better your breakfast is, the easier it will be for you to continue eating well throughout the day. It has never been my practice to stand idly by while others struggle and so about two years ago I wrote and published a free e-book on my website, The Naturally Intense™ Breakfast Guide- Keys To Long Term Weight Management. It took me just about a night to put it together, and having seen how much of an impact it has had, I don’t regret a minute of sleep that I lost that night. With almost three thousand copies downloaded from people all over the world, I constantly get emails saying how much better they feel and how much weight they have lost after following the guidelines outlined in the book. It’s a quick read and there are no supplements to buy or specialized meals to purchase- just rudimentary information that I have gleaned over the years that you can use to lose weight and keep it off.

Get A Free Copy Of The Naturally Intense Breakfast Guide- Keys To Long Term Weight Loss

I invite you to download a free copy and share it with your friends, and please feel free to write me if it helps you in your own quest for a better quality of health and fitness. I am always happy to hear from everyone.

Download your copy here

Get a copy of Kevin’s free weight loss ebook here!

Kevin Richardson- celebrity Personal Trainer New York City is the creator of Naturally Intense™ High Intensity Training, a lifetime natural bodybuilder, head of Naturally Intense™ Personal Trainers NYC and one of the most sought after personal trainer in NYC.

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