IKFF

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Lose Fat Gain Muscle??? Impossible they say...



One of the most common concerns people who have been working out have about losing weight is…

While losing fat they will also lose their hard earned muscle. You will become a smaller

weaker version of your self. We have always been told you can either lose fat or gain muscle, not both.

Muscle gives shape, so this concerns women as well as men.

Well a change has come.

Tom Venuto, author of “Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle”, has come up with a new program which will blow away these myths ~~~ “The Holy Grail”

I received any early copy and I have to tell you it blew me away. The detailed explanations and information are tremendous. It even comes with a 4 day a week workout designed to facilitate the muscle growth even further. I’m on my 2nd week and can already see and feel the changes.

Here is an article by Tom Venuto about this:

“How can I gain muscle and lose fat at the same time?” That’s right up there with “How do I get six pack abs” as one of the most frequently asked fitness questions of all time. The problem is, when you ask it, you get all kinds of conflicting answers – even from experts who are supposed to know these things. So what’s the deal? Is it really possible to lose fat and build muscle simultaneously?

Short answer: Yes it’s possible to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time.

Long answer: It’s difficult and it’s complicated, unless you really know what you’re doing. Allow me to explain….

First we have the issue of whether you really lose fat and gain muscle at the “same time.”

Well, yes, if your definition of the “same time” is say, a month or 12 weeks. But in that case, you’re probably not gaining muscle at the “same time” literally speaking, as in, right now this very moment you are reading this, or 7 days a week, 24 hours a day for months in a row.

The best explanation for what’s really happening is that you alternate between periods of caloric surplus (anabolism) and caloric deficit (catabolism) and the net result is a gain in muscle and a loss in body fat.

You see, if you stay in a calorie surplus, it’s the body’s natural tendency for body fat and lean body mass to go up together. And if you stay in a calorie deficit, it’s your body’s natural tendency for body fat and lean body mass to go down together.

There may be exceptions, but the general rule is that it is usually very difficult to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time – the mechanisms are mostly antagonistic to one another. When big increases in muscle and big decreases in fat are seen at the same time, it’s almost always the result of “unusual conditions” – I call them X factors.

The 4 X-Factors

The first X-factor is “training age” . Ever hear of “newbie gains?” The less trained your body is and the further you are from your genetic potential, the easier it is to gain muscle. The reverse is also true – an advanced bodybuilder with 20 years experience would be thrilled just to gain a few pounds of solid dry muscle in a year!

The second x factor is muscle memory. It’s easier to regain muscle you’ve lost than it is to gain new muscle in the first place (ergo, the fat out of shape semi retired bodybuilder who starts training again and blows up and gets ripped “overnight”).

The third X factor is genetics (or somatotype). Ever heard of the “genetic freak?” That’s the dude who sprouts muscle like weeds even when he’s on the “50-50 diet” (50% McDonald’s and 50% pizza)… and he never gets fat. (That dude chose the right parents!)

The fourth X factor is drugs. It would stun (or sadden) you if you knew how many people take performance and physique-enhancing drugs. I’m not just talking about pro bodybuilders, I’m talking about “Joe six pack” in the gym – not to mention those fitness models you idolize in the magazines. How did some of them get large muscle gains with concurrent fat loss? Chemicals.

I’m not a gambling man, but I’ll place a wager on this any day: I’ll bet that in 99% of the cases of large muscle gains with concurrent large fat losses, one or more of these x factors were present.

That’s not all! There are actually 5 more X factors related to your body composition and diet status (the X2 factors). I talk about those in my new program, the Holy Grail Body Transformation System. More on that later.

So you’re not a beginner, you don’t take roids, you’re not a genetic freak and you have no muscle memory to take advantage of. Are you S.O.L? Well, I do want you to be realistic about your goals, but…

There IS a way for the average person to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time.

The Secret: You have to change your “temporal perspective!”

Traditionally nutritionists and fitness pros have only looked at calorie balance in terms of 24 hour periods. At midnight, you could tally up the calories like a shopkeeper closing out his register, and if the balance were positive, you’d say you were in a surplus for the day. If the balance were negative, you’d say you were in a deficit for the day.

But it’s entirely possible that you might pass through periods of “within-day” surplus where you were in a highly anabolic state (for example, you eat the biggest, highest carb meal of the day after your workout), and you were in a deficit the rest of the day.

Furthermore, exercise changes everything. certain types of training will alter your hormones and physiological response to how you handle calories and nutrients.

If you did intense weight training, and you timed your nutrient intake just right,isn’t it possible that you could gain a small amount of muscle during those anabolic hours, while losing fat the rest of the day? Granted it might only be grams or ounces – but what if you kept that up for a week? A month? Three months?

As you pan out and look at the bigger picture, what if most days of the week you were in a deficit for the entire day, and on some days of the week you were in a surplus? If so, then isn’t it possible that over the course of the week, you’d have a small net gain of muscle and loss of body fat as a result of the caloric fluctuation?

These within-day and within-week phases are what I refer to in my new body transformation program as nutritional microcycles and mesocycles. If you also had a primary goal with a longer term focus of several months, say 12 weeks or 16 weeks, that would be a nutritional macrocycle.

What I’ve just described is nutritional periodization. Some people call it cyclical dieting. It’s where you manipulate your calories (primarily by fluctuating carbohydrate intake, hence “carb cycling”) in order to intentionally zig zag your way through periods of surplus and deficit.

The end result: muscle gain and fat loss during the same time period!

I know that someone out there is having a hissy fit because I’ve only talked about calories: deficits and surpluses. Rightfully so. Calories matter but there’s more to it than calories – most importantly, hormones and “nutrient partitioning.”

If you’re in a calorie deficit you are going to pull energy from your body. The question is: From WHERE? If your hormones are out of whack because you’re eating crap and you’re living an unhealthy lifestyle, you could lose more muscle than fat in a deficit and gain almost pure fat, not muscle, in a surplus!

But WHAT IF you could manipulate within day energy balance, use nutritional periodization AND control your hormones with food and lifestyle strategies?

NOW we are seeing how concurrent muscle gain and fat loss are starting to look possible!

Make no mistake – concurrent muscle gain and fat loss is a difficult goal to achieve. It’s the “Holy Grail of Fitness Goals.” The good news: difficult does not mean impossible. Or as George Santayana said, “The difficult is that which can be done immediately, the impossible, that which takes a little longer.”

If you’d like to learn more about losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time, I just recorded a fantastic introduction to the subject in a one hour interview and you can get it for free as a gift from my new website because I want to get the word out about my brand new Holy Grail Body Transformation System.

In my new program, you’ll hear all the details about nutritional periodization, cyclical dieting, hormonal manipulation, within day energy balance, nutrient partitioning, AND the all the X factors, including the 5 “X2-Factors” – which are the keys to gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time.

You’ll also get my new “TNB” training system, which was originally published as a workout in Men’s Fitness magazine. Then I expanded it into a total program that has never been seen before except in my member’s only inner circle.

My new free report that you can download now in MP3 and PDF (transcript) is available for a limited time this week over at The Holy Grail website. It’s a great introduction to the program and you’ll pick up some great tips just from this free report alone.

Gaining Muscle and Losing Fat At The Same Time: Is It Possible


I’ve continued my weight loss from the HCG diet, decreasing body fat, and building strength/muscle, all as a result of “Holy Grail”!


You can sign up for a FREE MP3 and Reports here!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

What the heck is In-Set Supersetting????










I've got something VERY cool to share with you today...this is a great superset technique by the "mad scientist" himself Nick Nilsson (author of that Mad Scientist Muscle book I told you about yesterday). I tried it with a couple of bodyparts the other day and WOW, does it work.


Basically, you're going to take two exercises that work a single bodypart and combine them into ONE set, alternating reps of each. It hits your muscles from two different angles during the same set, kicking off an emergency reaction in your muscles.

Finish a set of these and the muscles you worked will swell up like balloons.

This link below will take you to a page that gives you full details on it so you can exactly what I'm talking about. It's very cool stuff.

Nick has also posted VIDEOS of this technique for every bodypart and a sample workout that you can take to the gym with you to try this technique out.

==> Mad Scientist Muscle (click here to see this in action)

I have to say, if you've not worked with some Nick's unique training techniques and exercises before, you're going to be in for a huge SHOCK. This training may look different than what you're used to but it's INCREDIBLY effective.

Nick is all about developing new exercises, techniques and programs not just for the sake of being different but because it just works BETTER. This is the kind of stuff that can build muscle on just about anybody...hardgainers included. And if you're not a hardgainer, even BETTER!

The "Mad Scientist Muscle" book is based on proven, scientific training principles sprinkled with BIG doses of unique (and yes, sometimes insane!) training concepts. Definitely worth picking up.

==> Mad Scientist Muscle (click here to see this in action)




Just so you know up front, "Mad Scientist Muscle" is on sale this week for a special "launch" price of 43% off. This is going to be on until Friday, Sept 17th at midnight, then it goes up to the normal price, so read this technique and try it out in the gym ASAP so you can experience the kind of information you'll be getting.

Then take action and grab it while it's cheap!

==> Mad Scientist Muscle (click here to see this in action)

Saturday, September 04, 2010

How To Gain Muscle And Lose Fat At The Same Time






How To Gain Muscle And Lose Fat At The Same Time
by Tom Venuto, author of the Holy Grail Transformation

“How can I gain muscle and lose fat at the same time?” That’s right up there with “How do I get six pack abs” as one of the most frequently asked fitness questions of all time. The problem is, when you ask it, you get all kinds of conflicting answers - even from experts who are supposed to know these things. So what’s the deal? Is it really possible to lose fat and build muscle simultaneously?

Short answer: Yes, you can gain muscle and lose fat at the “same time.”

Long answer: It’s difficult and it’s complicated. Allow me to explain….
First we have the issue of whether you really lose fat and gain muscle at the “same time.”

Well, yes, if your definition of the “same time” is say, a month or 12 weeks. But in that case, you’re probably not gaining muscle at the “same time” literally speaking, as in, right now this very moment you are reading this, or 7 days a week, 24 hours a day for months in a row.

The best explanation for what’s really happening is that you alternate between periods of caloric surplus (anabolism) and caloric deficit (catabolism) and the net result is a gain in muscle and a loss in body fat.

You see, if you stay in a calorie surplus, it’s the body’s natural tendency for body fat and lean body mass to go up together. And if you stay in a calorie deficit, it’s your body’s natural tendency for body fat and lean body mass to go down together.
There may be exceptions, but the general rule is that it is very difficult to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time - the mechanisms are mostly antagonistic to one another. When it does happen, it’s almost always the result of “unusual conditions” - I call them X factors.

The 4 X-Factors

The first X-factor is “training age” . Ever hear of “newbie gains?” The less trained your body is and the further you are from your genetic potential, the easier it is to gain muscle. The reverse is also true - an advanced bodybuilder with 20 years experience would be thrilled just to gain a few pounds of solid dry muscle in a year!

The second x factor is muscle memory. It’s easier to regain muscle you’ve lost than it is to gain new muscle in the first place (ergo, the fat out of shape semi retired bodybuilder who starts training again and blows up and gets ripped “overnight”).

The third X factor is genetics (or somatotype). Ever heard of the “genetic freak?” That’s the dude who sprouts muscle like weeds even when he’s on the “50-50 diet” (50% McDonald’s and 50% pizza)… and he never gets fat. (That dude chose the right parents!)

The fourth X factor is drugs. It would stun (or sadden) you if you knew how many people take performance and physique-enhancing drugs. I’m not just talking about pro bodybuilders, I’m talking about “Joe six pack” in the gym - not to mention those fitness models you idolize in the magazines. How did they get large muscle gains with concurrent fat loss? Chemicals.

I’m not a gambling man, but I’ll place a wager on this any day: I’ll bet that in 99% of the cases of large muscle gains with concurrent large fat losses, one or more of these x factors were present.

That’s not all! There are actually 5 more X factors related to your body composition and diet status (the X2 factors). But I’ll have to talk about those later.
So you’re not a beginner, you don’t take roids, you’re not a genetic freak and you have no muscle memory to take advantage of. Are you S.O.L? Well, I do want you to be realistic about your goals, but…

There IS a way for the average person to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time.
The Secret: You have to change your “temporal perspective!”

Traditionally nutritionists and fitness pros have only looked at calorie balance in terms of 24 hour periods. At midnight, you could tally up the calories like a shopkeeper closing out his register, and if the balance were positive, you’d say you were in a surplus for the day. If the balance were negative, you’d say you were in a deficit for the day.

But it’s entirely possible that you might pass through periods of “within-day” surplus where you were in a highly anabolic state (for example, you eat the biggest, highest carb meal of the day after your workout), and you were in a deficit the rest of the day.

If you did intense weight training, and you timed your nutrient intake appropriately, Isn’t it possible that you could gain a small amount of muscle during those anabolic hours, while losing fat the rest of the day? Granted it might only be grams or ounces - but what if you kept that up for a week? A month? Three months?

As you pan out and look at the bigger picture, what if most days of the week you were in a deficit for the entire day, and on some days you were in a surplus? If so, then isn’t it possible that over the course of the week, you’d have a small net gain of muscle and loss of body fat a a result of the caloric fluctuation?

These within-day and within-week phases are called microcycles and mesocycles. If you also had a primary goal with a longer term focus of several months, say 12 weeks or 16 weeks, that would be a macrocycle.

What I’ve just described is nutritional periodization. Some people call it cyclical dieting. it’s where you manipulate your calories (primarily by fluctuating carbohydrate intake, hence “carb cycling”) in order to intentionally zig zag your way through periods of surplus and deficit and create specific hormonal responses.

The end result: muscle gain and fat loss during the same time period!
I know that someone out there is having a hissy fit because I’ve only talked about calories: deficits and surpluses. Rightfully so. Calories matter but there’s more to it than calories - most importantly, hormones and “nutrient partitioning.”

If you’re in a calorie deficit you are going to pull energy from your body.The question is: From WHERE? If your hormones are out of whack and you’re eating crap, you could lose more muscle than fat in a deficit and gain almost pure fat, not muscle, in a surplus!

But WHAT IF you could manipulate within day energy balance, use nutritional periodization AND control your hormones with food and lifestyle strategies?
AHA! NOW you can see how concurrent muscle gain and fat loss are starting to look possible!

Make no mistake - concurrent muscle gain and fat loss is a difficult goal to achieve. The good news: difficult does not mean impossible. Or as George Santayana said, “The difficult is that which can be done immediately, the impossible, that which takes a little longer.”

The Holy Grail Body Transformation Program: How to Gain Muscle and Lose Fat at The Same Time

You can learn more about gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time in Tom Venuto's new e-book called, "The Holy Grail Body Transformation System."
You’ll learn all about nutritional periodization, cyclical dieting, hormonal manipulation, within day energy balance, nutrient partitioning, AND the all the X factors, including the 5 “X2-Factors” - which are the keys to gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time.
You’ll also get Tom's new “TNB” training system, as seen in Men’s Fitness magazine (the complete, expanded version that Men’s Fitness didn’t have room to print).

To learn more about the Holy Grail Body Transformation Program Click Here {SALE PRICE!!!!! ---LIMITED TIME}