At the end of September I’m going to LA for a few fat loss seminars.

One of the speakers I’m most excited to see is Chad Waterbury:

Chad is a neurophysiologist, so everything he says is backs by MOUNTAINS of research and I’ve always found it spot on.

Today’s blog is a guest post by Chad about the biggest mistakes he sees people making with their fat loss plans.

Without further ado, here’s Chad….

Fat Loss Myth #1: Low intensity cardio is great for burning fat and boosting endurance.

Jogging for an hour is a complete waste of time. So is any form of cardio that forces you to do the same repetitive movement over and over. When your muscles have to continuously contract for 30, 45, or 60 minutes, that energy has to come from somewhere. The body is stubborn and doesn’t want to burn fat for energy so it eats up your muscle instead. This immediately kills your metabolism and it robs your body of strength and athleticism.

The key to quickly getting ripped is by doing exercises that stimulate your metabolism all day long. Research by Tremblay shows that high intensity cardio is significantly more effective than low intensity cardio because it forces your body to keep burning fat and calories after you stop training. And research by Tabata proves that just a few minutes of intense cardio will boost your anaerobic and aerobic conditioning.

Solution: Do short, quick circuits of body weight exercises such as split jacks, jumping jacks, and burpees.

Fat Loss Myth #2: You should lift for high reps to failure to burn fat.

It’s easy to think that lifting weights for a ton of reps is making your body burn fat, but it’s not, and research tells us why. You see, the key to really cranking up your metabolism hinges on recruiting as many muscle fibers as possible with each set by following the law of Henneman’s size principle. When you do high rep training you’re only working the smallest, weakest muscle fibers that have little to no impact on boosting your metabolism. You must target all your muscle fibers when you lift weights or you’ll never get results.

Solution: Do full body circuits that consist of an upper body pull, an upper body push, and a squat or lunge because they’ll stimulate all your muscle fibers. Also, keep the rest periods short and accelerate all lifts.

Fat Loss Myth #3: You don’t need to get stronger to get leaner.

The stronger you are, the more muscle fibers you can recruit. Stimulating all your muscle fibers with each set catapults the metabolic cost of your workouts. Metabolic cost is a measure exercise scientists use to determine how many calories you’re burning through exercise. The higher the metabolic cost, the better.

Furthermore, recent research by McBride et al proves that getting stronger makes you run faster. And the faster you can move, the more fat you’ll burn through exercise. That’s because research by Mazetti et al shows that people who lift fastest burn the most calories.

Solution: Lift weights that don’t allow more than 12 reps per set. For body weight exercise circuits, move as quickly as possible to stimulate your metabolism.

Myth #4: Just eat less and you’ll lose weight.

Your metabolism is primarily stimulated by nutrients, not just calories. When you drastically cut calories it brings your metabolism to a screeching halt because your body is not getting the essential nutrients it needs: amino acids, vitamins, minerals, omega-3s, etc. If you just eat less, the only thing you’ll lose is muscle, and this destroys your metabolism so you end up fatter than you were before. Sound familiar?

Solution: Replace low-quality foods such as bread, pasta, and rice with nutrient-dense foods such as berries, green vegetables, and fish. Be sure the berries and vegetables are organic (preferably from a farmer’s market) and only eat wild fish, not farm-raised, since they all contain the most nutrients.

Myth #5: You must workout every day to see results.

Training every day doesn’t allow your body the time it needs to recover, so you get overtrained very quickly. You know what happens when you’re overtrained? Fat-storing hormones flood your system! Now you know why the people you see in the gym every day aren’t getting results. Plus, being overtrained zaps your motivation and makes you more susceptible to illness and injury.

Solution: Train no more than four days per week. If four workouts per week doesn’t change your body fast, your program stinks!

You can get Chad’s whole body transformation system here: Body Of Fire