4HB Exercise Routine for fat loss
The Four Hour Body slow carb diet is excellent for losing weight, but what is the best exercise routine to go along with that and really lose fat fast? Here’s the best option for you, and you don’t need to live in the gym!
The book includes a variety of different exercise options, but it doesn’t really make clear what the best is for losing fat in a fast way. There are the kettlebell swings, the floor exercises, and the weights, but what’s really a great way to get started losing fat quickly?
This is a challenge lots of my clients have, and a big reason that people become members in my video course Complete Bodyfat Control (it has videos and complete workout sheets to help).
In this article, I’ll explain a little bit about why certain exercise works well, and then give you a sample workout to do. That way you can make great decisions about working out, and get results!
Workouts for fat loss
The key to maximizing fat loss with workouts is to achieve two things from each workout:
- burning out glycogen
- breaking down muscle
Burning out glycogen is all about using up the stores of sugar that your muscles have. When you do this, what you eat later goes into muscle storage and your body’s energy requirements. This helps you avoid storing anything as fat, and also means your muscle cells are more accepting of energy, which in turn helps to prompt fat cells to release some of their stored energy. This is all good news for fat loss!
Breaking down muscle means you’ll need to build it back up again. This means your muscles will be hungry for energy and protein, which you can get from your fat cells (energy) and your food (energy and protein). Again, this is great news for fat loss. The added bonus is that lean muscle mass and the amount you have is a pretty great indicator of general health, so it’s like insurance for the future. Again, an awesome benefit!
This is not about calories
Notice how there’s nothing above about burning calories? That’s because calorie burning is an unwinnable game. You’ve probably seen the comparisons to eating a Mars bar and how far you’d have to run afterwards to burn it off? Or perhaps a Big Mac. So then, how can I eat a Snickers bar occasionally and not go for a 2 hour run afterwards, but still maintain a strong, lean body? It’s because calories aren’t the be-all and end-all of fat loss or working out. Counting calories with food or exercise is a little bit like only counting the number of steps taken if you’re trying to compare hiking the Andes Mountains or strolling along a beach. Quite obviously, steps is just one finite detail of a bigger picture.
The best workouts to do
To burn out glycogen and break down muscle, you need to be challenged to a high level. But that doesn’t mean pounding out a 45 minute run on a treadmill. It also doesn’t mean setting the elliptical to 60 minutes.
The best workouts for fat loss are:
- Short
- Intense
- Cycling in difficulty
- Challenging to your muscle strength, not endurance
Why is that? Because the above will burn out glycogen, break down muscle, and prompt the body to release fatty acids from your fat cells to energize you after the workout.
Kind of workouts
The kind of workouts you want to do are ones where they are very intense moments, and less intense times. Ones that use various muscle groups and ones that push you to your limit a number of times, preferably while using muscles that include more than your lower body.
An example workout
A circuit workout is a great example of a high quality fat burning workout.
Here’s an circuit that’ll get your heart going, get you sweating, and turn on your fat burning engine:
- Warm up with 5 mins walking on treadmill, or elliptical trainer
- Repeat this sequence 4 times and do it as quickly as you can with good form, at a challenging weight (not going to failure, but only able to do a few more than the number of reps indicated):
- Dumbbell overhead presses (15x)
- 60 seconds moderate cycling
- Dumbell/kettlebell squats (15x)
- 60 seconds moderate cycling
- Pushups (15x)
- 60 seconds moderate cycling
- 1-arm row (10x each side)
- 60 seconds moderate cycling - Repeat this sequence 3 times as quickly as you can with good form:
- Glute hip raises (12x)
- 30 seconds rest
- Myotatic crunch (10-12x) This is a crunch done on a BOSU ball, with arms ideally overhead like you’re a swimmer diving in for a race
- 30 seconds rest
- Standing lunge (12x each side)
- 30 seconds rest
- Mountain Climbers (10x each side)
- 30 seconds rest - 5 minutes on the bike:
- 30 seconds easy
- 30 seconds hard
Repeat 5 times - 2x 30 kettlebell swings (double-handed)
- Easy 3 min walk on treadmill to cool down
This workout will probably leave you feeling pretty tired, but the key is to re-hydrate, and relax for a while. Resist any urges to eat immediately afterward, but instead have a complete slow carb meal scheduled for 1.5-2 hours after this workout. Repeat a 2-3 times per week for optimum fat loss results. Doing this workout more than 3 times per week will slow fat loss results.
You might be interested in reading these too:
- The Golden Rule of Slow Carb Fat Loss: The Right Amount of Exercise "Find 30 minutes a day", "raising our heart rate is healthy", "try to get 45 minutes in the fat burning zone", "make it a daily habit". Sound familiar? It should, as generally speaking,...
- 4HB for college students: Improve practically everything including fat loss We get lots of questions from all kinds of different people, old and young alike. And the 4 Hour Body can help people in all age groups. In this article, you will discover...
- Slow Carb Fat Loss – Secret Weapon Number 2 This secret weapon isn't exactly a food, but it's definitely not a supplement. It's dosage is more like something you'd see on a medicine bottle, but it's totally natural. Recently it's been hyped...
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