Romaniello, New York’s Premier Fat
Loss Expert and the creator of the Final Phase Fat Loss program
As you may have heard me say before (and if
you haven’t, you’re going to hear it now!), when
you are breaking through a fat loss plateau or
trying to get to the Final Phase of leanness,
things get a bit murkier than they do with
traditional fat loss.
Rather than dieting excessively in order to
create a calorie deficit, we are now looking to
enter into energy debt…and we do this with
intelligently designed training protocols. That’s
because keeping energy intake high ensures
that Leptin levels don’t drop and throw another
hormonal monkey wrench into the machinery.
You see, when you’re getting very lean or
you’ve hit a plateau, fat loss is not just about
calories in vs. calories out. It’s about your
hormonal environment and the way that affects
fat storage, and thereby fat loss.
When you’ve lost the first 20 or 30 or whatever
pounds, you’ve lost the “easy” fat. What you’ll
notice about your body is that you’re now
holding fat specifically in your trouble areas;
and those trouble areas are determined by your
specific hormonal environment.
It’s not just about energy debt or cardio or to a
lesser extent, diet (although all of those things
do factor in quite a bit, obviously). When your
fat loss has stalled and you’re trying to break
through that wall, or when you’re trying to rid
yourself of those last stubborn 5-10 pounds, it’s
a hormonal battle.
And there is only one way to win:
fight hormones with hormones.
So, let’s look at the three specific hormones that
cause the most common types of regional fat
storage.
1. Estrogen – The female sex hormone
responsible for lower body fat storage patterns.
2. Insulin – Or rather, insulin resistance. This
nasty little dude heavily influences fat storage in
the love handles and lower back area.
3. Cortisol – The appropriately dubbed “stress
hormone” is part of the reason you’ve got more
flab than ab.
There you have it…those are your enemies!
Now, I want to talk to you about how you can
actually increase the production of other
hormones through the manipulation of training
methods in order to offset the above mentioned
“bad” hormones.
In this corner…
Estrogen vs. Testosterone
Now that we’ve established estrogen is the main
reason lower body fat storage occurs, we need
to know how to work around that.
Well, how else would you combat estrogen but
with testosterone?
To put it bluntly, when it comes to fat loss and
muscle gain…
Testosterone GOOD – Estrogen BAD
It’s for that reason that professional athletes,
bodybuilders, and the juicers down at the
derivatives of testosterone.
Of course, that’s not an option for us – and
certainly not desirable.
Instead, we are going to increase testosterone
levels naturally; through training. Not only will
this increase the net fat-burning effect of all
exercises, but more appropriate to our purposes
here, it will also facilitate in getting rid of lower
body fat.
I should mention something here to alleviate
any concerns. It is NOT possible to produce a
detrimental amount of testosterone through
training. So ladies, you don’t have to worry
about any masculinizing effects.
Instead, training produces what we would term
a “high” amount of testosterone from a
physiological perspective, relative to what your
body normally produces. For the guys, this
means that such training will help you put on a
bit more muscle – just not steroid muscle.
Got it? Okay, moving on.
At this point, I know you’re thinking, “All right
Roman, get to the point, what do I do?”
Great question! Well, the answer is Density
Training.
Training in a way that seeks to increase training
density is one of the best ways to spur your
body to produce and release more testosterone,
which will (obviously) help you lose that
estrogen related fat storage.
Training density can be defined as the amount
of work you do in a given amount of time during
a training session. So, if you want to increase
density, you can…
(1) Do more work (sets, reps, or both) in the
same amount of time
OR
(2) Do the same amount of work and
decrease the time in which you do it
Howe
ver, I’ve come up with a method of Density
Training that is specific to radical fat loss! This
means that not only will you produce the
testosterone necessary to mitigate your
regional fat issue, but you’ll also lose more fat
on the whole.
Pretty cool, eh? So here is how we do it…
As an example, let’s pick 3 exercises: the
overhead press, the dumbbell row, and the
squat.
Setting these up in a circuit fashion, you
perform them one after another with little rest
in
between.
Sounds like just about any circuit training
protocol, right?
WRONG!
Instead of having a set number of reps, we’re
going to be performing each of these exercises
for TIME – you simply have to do as many as
you can in a given time period.
To make it easy, let’s say you did each of the
above exercises for 30 seconds. In performing
such a circuit, your results might look like this:
Overhead Press – 25 pound dumbbells for 20
reps
DB Row – 40 pound dumbbells for 18 reps
Squat – 100 pound barbell for 22 reps
Not too shabby. Now, HERE is where it gets
crazy.
We’re going to take advantage of some cool
things that happen in the body; triggers that will
make you more efficient and more capable.
So, to do that, we’re going to INCREASE the
weight by 10-20% and try to do MORE reps.
Does that seem impossible? It isn’t.
Due to neuromuscular junction and neural
activation, in almost ALL cases, you’ll be able to
do just that.
Your second attempt at that circuit might look
like this:
Overhead Press – 30 pound dumbbells for 23
reps
DB Row – 50 pound dumbbells for 20 reps
Squat – 120 pound barbell for 25 reps
Now, I know you’re having trouble believing
that
outcome is even possible (much less common),
but I implore you, try it for yourself!
Density Training is fun, challenge-based, burns
a heck of a lot of fat, and most importantly, is
one of the best training modalities around for
increasing testosterone production and release.
And that’s why training for increased workout
density will help you shed stubborn lower body
fat AND more fat on the whole.
Insulin Resistance vs. IGF-1
Insulin resistance is combated very nicely by a
hormone called IGF-1, or Insulin-like Growth
Factor One.
Producing extra IGF-1 via training will help you
(and me!) improve insulin sensitivity and begin
to rid ourselves of our love handles and lower
back fat.
We know that insulin resistance is very
common, particular in people who were
previously overweight. So, if you have lost
some fat and you’re now struggling to lose a bit
more (and that fat happens to be in your love
handles), I’m willing to bet you’re suffering from
some degree of insulin resistance.
In order to get rid of that fat, we need to do fat
burning workouts (obviously) and increase
insulin sensitivity to the greatest degree that we
can. As a result, we need to employ what I call
Dynamic Training.
Dynamic Training is pretty much the over-
arching concept of how I design fat loss training
programs; it consists of using fast-paced
movements to teach the body how to move
more efficiently.
Because this style of training is extremely
expensive in terms of energy (calorie) demand,
Dynamic Training is excellent as a general fat
loss modality.
Perhaps more importantly however, is the fact
that utilizing these types of exercises and
setting them up in a non-competing circuit
fashion under the Dynamic Training umbrella is
an incredible way to produce IGF-1. And doing
that is one of the most effective methods to
mitigate insulin sensitivity.
Take it from someone who knows!
Nothing is better for combating love handle fat
than increasing insulin sensitivity – and like I
said, one of the most effective ways to do that is
to produce more IGF-1 through Dynamic
Training.
Cortisol vs. Growth Hormone
And now we come to our final bout of the
evening–the main event, as it were.
We have touched on cortisol a bit, so I won’t
rehash that too much. Suffice it to say that the
higher your cortisol levels are, the more fat
you’re going to be storing on your belly. Given
that fact, it stands to reason that if you store fat
primarily in the abdominal region, you’re a
victim of high cortisol.
Never fear, though: Growth Hormone is here!
Also known as the “Fountain of Youth”, growth
hormone is the single most effective compound
your body can produce to affect both fat loss
and muscle gain. The more of it you produce,
the faster you’ll lose fat and build muscle. It’s
just as simple as that.
Now, in addition to that awesome little fact,
growth hormone is going to whoop cortisol’s
butt AND help you burn belly fat.
Also, you’ve probably heard that one of the
ways to reduce your cortisol levels is to get
more sleep. That’s something you hear on
nearly all of the medical TV shows. What you
don’t hear is the reason.
You see, sleeping is one of the main ways by
which your body produces growth hormone. In
other words, while you’re sleeping, it’s your
body’s primary opportunity to produce growth
hormone. And, as I stated previously, growth
hormone is one of the main hormones that
reduces the effects of cortisol.
So, sleep more and you’ll produce more GH!
Produce more GH and you’ll have less cortisol!
Therefore, sleeping more, results in lower
cortisol levels. Got it?
Of course, I’m not suggesting you can just sleep
your way past a fat loss plateau (although
getting more sleep does help). I’m merely
illustrating the relationship between cortisol and
growth hormone.
Which leads us to the production of growth
hormone as it relates to training…
While nearly all forms of exercise produce both
growth hormone and cortisol, some types are
better than others.
For example, cortisol is heavily produced in
long duration cardio sessions. But let’s not do
that.
Instead, we’re going to utilize a style of training
that produces more growth hormone…Lactic
Acid Training (in order to get to the growth
hormone, you must first produce lactic acid).
By definition, lactic acid is a by-product of the
chemical reactions that take place during
exercise. This substance is wildly irritating to
the nerves, and your body responds. Think of
lactic acid as a type of oil…igniting fires as it
flows through you. Your body will put those
fires out by dousing them with soothing,
cooling growth hormone.
Okay, maybe I’m being a little simplistic with my
metaphor, but it gives you a general idea.
In any event, we must structure training to
produce the most lactic acid possible. And
because lactic acid is primarily produced in the
concentric (positive) phase of anaerobic
exercise, we will extend that period, and
decrease the eccentric period.
What that means is that we lift the weight very,
very slowly. And then we lower it very, very
quickly so that we can have a fast turn around.
As an example, if you’re doing a squat, you’ll
descend to the bottom of the squat very quickly
(drop down fast, but still controlling the weight
somewhat) and then lift the weight sloooowly,
oh so sloooowly – over a period of 4-6 seconds.
This will create tremendous amounts of lactic
acid, which will in turn send GH production into
overdrive.
Now, I must mention that training in this way
necessitates the use of lighter weights than you
would normally use on any given exercise.
Therefore, if you’re interested in Lactic Acid
Training, I suggest you reduce the weight you’d
use on any exercise by about 30% in order to be
both safe and effective.
With traditional training methods, you’d lift the
weight pretty quickly and lower it slowly. Here
we’re doing the opposite, in order to produce
the most lactic acid possible…which will then
lead to a corresponding increase in the
production of growth hormone.
This will result in not only reducing cortisol, but
also reducing cortisol related fat storage in your
belly. And on top of it all, it’s great for fat loss in
general!
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