Fat Loss for Mental & Physical Fitness

5 Cardio Workouts That Can Shred Fat in Just 12 Weeks

By Rich Hashimashi, CPT - Last Updated May 1, 2018

Yuck It Up or Cardio Workouts to Get Results?

What cardio workouts can you do that can shred fat in as little as 12 weeks?

If you want to take off some pounds before the New Year and wonder why you are not losing weight, despite doing cardio workouts every day or several times a week, it is time to take a closer look.

Have you been doing the same treadmill/elliptical/running cardio routine for many years?

Are you still doing the elliptical or treadmill for 3 or 3.5 mph every workout? That is why you are not seeing results.

You have to start training and demanding a bit more from your body than you are right now. That is when you will see changes. You can read more about the overload principle here.

My own experience provides some anecdotal evidence. Outside of walking, my cardio of choice is the elliptical, because I have a torn medial meniscus and was advised by a physical therapist to use the elliptical.

When I began to implement the cardio programming you are about to read, combined with other principles of the Fit Apprentice training program, I dropped over 100 pounds in just under a year.

If you are planning to use the elliptical as well, check out this extensive review of ellipticals by reviews.com for the best elliptical on the market today.

Cardio Workouts to Shred Fat — Do these **Cardio Workouts** and Start Moving. We Must Stop Standing Around Like Penguins If We Want Results.

5 Cardio Workouts to Have in Your Toolkit

Here are five types of cardio training that you might not be too familiar with:

Long slow distance
Pace/Tempo
Fartlek
Long Intervals
Short Intervals

Which of the above five cardio workouts can help accelerate your fat loss dramatically? Let’s look at each one of them before answering this question.

What is Long Slow Distance and it’s Benefits?

You might not have heard of long slow distance, but you sort of get the idea. You go slow, for a long distance. Perform Long Slow Distance cardio workouts once or twice a week for a duration of 30 minutes up to 1 hour. Use an intensity of 55 – 70% of your target heart rate. You can find your target heart rate here. Or, measure intensity by using an Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) of 5 – 7 on a scale of 1 – 10, where 1 is super easy and 10 is going all out. The benefits of long slow distance training are:

Improving your cardiovascular function
Enhanced thermoregulatory function, which means better temperature control of your body.
Increased utilization of fat.
Sparing of glycogen reserves in your muscles.
Increased endurance of all involved muscles.

Fartlek? – I did not Make that Up

What’s a cardio workout that you never heard of? For sure, you never heard of fartlek unless you know Swedish. Fartlek means – speed play. After you build up some cardiovascular fitness, you are going to play around with your speed. So, while you were doing long slow distance training at an RPE of 5 – 7, you are going to have some speed bursts up to level 8.

For example, run at 4.5 mph for 5 minutes and then run 5.0 mph for 30 seconds. Every 5 minutes, you can speed up to 5.0 or 5.5 mph or more, for 30 seconds to a minute or more. Everything depends on your level of fitness. The concept though of fartlek is to help you build up your cardiorespiratory endurance.

And, you do this by challenging yourself to run, walk, swim, cycle or row faster. The recommendation is to do Fartlek once or twice a week for a duration of 20 to 60 minutes. Fartlek is long slow distance with bursts of speed wherever you want them.

The Benefits of Fartlek

You will increase your VO2 max. VO2 max is a measure of the maximum volume of oxygen that you can use. The better your VO2 max, the greater is your cardiorespiratory endurance. You will improve your lactate threshold which means that you will not fatigue as fast. Your fuel utilization of fatty acids, oxygen and glycogen will all improve. Whichever activity you choose for cardiorespiratory endurance, your technique will improve.

Fartlek is the next progression after Long Slow Distance. Once you feel comfortable with Fartlek, which is an RPE of 8, a level 8 intensity, then you can move up to:

Pace/Tempo

Pace/Tempo is also likely to answer the question what’s a cardio workout you never heard of. Pace/Tempo is cardio training at a level 8 intensity. This type of cardio will feel ‘comfortably uncomfortable’. An RPE (rate of perceived exertion as explained above) of 8 is equivalent to a target heart rate of 70 – 85%. Perform Pace/Tempo once or twice a week for a duration of 20 to 30 minutes max. Do not do more than 30 minutes of Pace/Tempo or you will risk overtraining. Pace/Tempo will improve your cardio fitness beyond where LSD and Fartlek can take you.

This applies especially to your lactate threshold adaptation, which means that you will fatigue much less. You will move easier throughout the day, climb those subway stairs with greater ease. Besides walking and running for the bus when you need to or playing touch football. You will be fitter for your kids and/or grandkids, nephews or neices. Give LSD, Fartlek and Pace/Tempo a shot, and then try out the last two cardio workouts that you probably did hear of.

Long Intervals

Long intervals will improve your anaerobic capacity and yes, long intervals are uncomfortable. Because they are above the lactate threshold, so long intervals will feel uncomfortable. The recommendation for long intervals is once or twice a week for a duration of 3 to 5 minutes. Long intervals are uncomfortable because the intensity level is a 9. This means that the target heart rate is 90 – 95% of your heart rate max.

Long intervals are very close to your VO2 max. As a result, you will increase your VO2 max, speed and anaerobic adaptation. Anaerobic adaptation means that your cells will become better at producing energy without oxygen. How is that for a magic trick? You can do sets of long intervals, for a maximum of 30 minutes total. Do one set for 3 to 5 minutes at level 9, then rest for at least the time of the set. Therefore, in a 30 minute workout, you can do 2 to 5 sets of 3 minute intervals with at least 3 minutes of rest between sets.

By the way, whenever you see a range in this ‘what’s a cardio workout’ that you never heard of guide, always start with the lower number. So, if you have never done long intervals, start with once a week and build up to twice.

Short Intervals

As opposed to 3 – 5 minutes for long intervals, short intervals are for 30 – 90 seconds. This means that beginners should start with 30 seconds. The rest ratio for short intervals is 1 to 3 or 1 to 5. This means that if you do a short interval of 30 seconds, then rest at least 3 x 30 seconds or 1.5 minutes. You can even rest 5 x 30 seconds or 2.5 minutes between intervals. You need a longer rest time between short intervals, because the intensity is all out. This means that you will be going at a level 10, an RPE of 10, the maximum effort that you can do.

The benefits of short intervals are to improve your speed, your technique, and your anaerobic metabolism, the ability to produce energy without oxygen.

Which of These Cardio Workouts Have You Never Heard of Before?

Fartlek is probably one, Pace/Tempo is another, and even Long Slow Distance might not be a typical cardio workout that you think of, especially at a level 5 to 7 intensity. We have all heard of intervals, but maybe not short and long.

The point is that all 5 of these cardio workouts can get you into better shape faster than you would ever believe. And, just doing long slow distance, fartlek and pace/tempo at the recommended intensity level, is enough to help you lose 20 to 25 pounds over 12 weeks. Of course in combination with a better nutrition plan like eat real food daily or the secret sauce for weight loss. You can follow a cardio plan like this if you are a beginner:

Saturday or Sunday – Long Slow Distance for 30 to 60 minutes (rest up one of these days) @ RPE Level 5
Monday – Fartlek 20 to 30 minutes @ RPE Level 5 to level 7/8
Tuesday – Pace/Tempo for 15 to 30 minutes @ RPE Level 8
Wednesday – Long Slow Distance for 20 to 30 minutes @ RPE Level 5 – 6
Thursday – Fartlek for 20 to 30 minutes @ RPE Level 6 to level 8
Friday – Long Slow Distance for 30 to 45 minutes @ RPE level 5 to level 7

Just mix up your cardio programming as shown above using whatever cardio you like best, walking, running, swimming, etc, and you will see amazing results!

AUTHOR BIO

Ben Isaac is founder of the Fit Apprentice™ Blog at https://hashimashi.com, which is dedicated to the natural treatment of obesity and depression. The Fit Apprentice™ training program can help you improve your overall fitness, even if you think it is hopeless or too late.

Ben learned the hard way. He spent many years trying to manage depression with antidepressants that had catastrophic negative side effects. He was also obese, near diabetic, felt invisible and hopeless.

Out of desperation, he began to implement a nutrition and exercise plan based on real food, and physical activity like walking, squats, deadlifts and pushups.

Not only did he experience a more stable mood without antidepressants, his body also responded and transformed, losing close to 100 pounds in under a year, getting fitter than he thought possible over the age of 50.

Ben’s Fit Apprentice™ plan can help you fight depression without antidepressants and build a leaner and stronger body at the same time.

He is a graduate of the Integrative School of Nutrition and the American Academy of Personal Training in New York City.

The Fit Apprentice™ at https://hashimashi.com has been awarded Top 15 Fitness Over 50 Blog for 2017.

Lose Body Fat Fast – The 10 Commandments to Fat Loss

By Rich Hashimashi, CPT - Last Updated July 26, 2017

How to Lose Body Fat Fast - A Pound of Fat — Lose Body Fat Fast – This is one pound of fat – time to learn how to burn it off your body!

So, you want to lose body fat fast? Aren’t you sick and tired of ‘trying to lose weight’? Have you had enough of ‘dieting’? Isn’t it just time to live your life without being ruled by the scale? Well, not to rain on your parade, but, do not expect to lose body fat fast.

How long did it take you to put on the body fat? Ten, twenty or thirty years? You finally looked at yourself in the mirror and realized that you must do something fast? The best advice is to take it one day at a time. Improve your daily habits, one day at a time. Learn about the most powerful tools you need to lose body fat fast from experienced sources. This is the best way to lose body fat fast.

Do not try to lose body fat fast in one day, one week or one month. Ten pounds in a month is more than enough. Crash diets are just that, they are going to lead to a crash in your metabolism and mood. The most effective way to lose body fat fast, is the long term slow approach. You do not need to count calories, you need to eat real food and start moving like a human being was designed to move.

Here is a more detailed plan on how to lose body fat fast.

The Ten Commandments to Lose Body Fat Fast

1. Start Walking

Start moving 30 minutes to an hour a day

Can there be an easier way to lose body fat fast? No. Compared to running, swimming, weight lifting, doing karate or gymnastics, no other exercise is as easy as walking. Why? Because we are built to walk! Do you have thirty minutes to one hour a day to invest in your health? You better! How many hours a day do you spend watching TV and being hypnotized by commercial advertising?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Watching TV was the leisure activity that occupied the most time (2.8 hours per day).
TV accounts for more than half of leisure time, on average, for those age 15 and over.
Socializing, such as visiting with friends or attending or hosting social events, was the next most common leisure activity, accounting for 43 minutes per day.

Source Credit: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/atus.nr0.htm

On average, you are most likely watching between 2 and 3 hours of TV a day. Do you want to lose body fat fast? Are you serious about finally losing the weight that your doctor or wise self is telling you? Is it obvious that you need to lose weight before you even begin to wonder about how to build more muscle? If you answer yes to any of those questions, you have to start moving that body of yours. You must start to move every day. And walking is the easiest way to begin.

For most of human history, we got places by walking or running there. Even horse riding takes some physical effort. But these days, we sit most of the day, from morning till night. At the kitchen table, on the couch, in a car, on the sofa, at your desk. Sitting and sitting does not a lean strong body make. Don’t think that you will be healthier if you just eat protein, no carbs and don’t move. That is not the way to success. We need to work with nature, not against it. Walking is the most natural way to get from one place to another. Start using your human power to move.

Make a commitment today to spend at least one hour walking outside if weather permits, walking on a treadmill or walking on the elliptical. Because we are built to walk, the first commandment to lose body fat fast is to start walking! No special skills involved, no equipment needed other than walking shoes or sneakers. How does walking an hour a day help you to lose body fat?

If you are approximately 200 pounds, and you walk for an hour a day, you can lose up to 20 pounds in just five months. How? If you walk or do the elliptical for that same amount of time at about 3 mph, which is a moderate speed, you will burn about 600 calories in an hour. Over the course of just six days you will have created a net deficit of 3600 calories and if you make no other changes to your diet, you will lose approximately one pound of fat a week.

A pound of fat in our bodies stores 3500 calories, so burning 3600 calories above and beyond what you normally do will require your body to use at least one pound of fat for fuel. Over the course of 20 weeks which is just five months, you will walk off twenty pounds! Do you have an hour a day to improve your health dramatically? You better! Walking is a perfect exercise to lose body fat fast. Over six months, you can lose 25 pounds by just walking. Walking is a great example of focusing on burning fat and building muscle rather than starving yourself.

3. Walk First Thing in the Morning

After a good sleep at night, your glycogen stores in your muscles will be depleted. As a result, whatever exercise you do in the morning will take energy directly from your fat cells. Timing your workout for first thing in the morning can stimulate greater fat loss. Get your walking shoes or sneakers on after you wake up and do something great for yourself first.

4. Eat the Best Fats

You do not need a degree in nutritional science to know that a Reese’s peanut butter cup is the wrong type of fat! No offense to Reese’s, as this applies to all junk food. Do you need a doctorate to know that junk food creates a junk body? To lose body fat fast, you need to eat the best fats and the best carbs. If you turn off your TV and stop watching the fake processed food commercials, you can figure out which are the best fats and carbs.

Avocado, nuts, olive oil, organic free range eggs, now we are talking about good fats that are found in nature. These are the fats that your body will recognize and use to make you fitter and healthier. The wrong fats, the junk fats, are going to end up in your fat cells a lot faster than healthy fats. Good fats like omega-3 fats can have a fat burning effect, as they improve your metabolism.¹

5. Eat the Best Carbs for Fuel

You know what complex carbs are. Complex carbs are all the good carbs that grow from the earth. Complex carbs do not usually come in packages. They grow, from the earth. They are your best friend when you want to get healthy, lose body fat fast or even get ripped. The best time to eat your complex carbs are after a workout, when your muscles are hungry for fuel.

What kind of carbs grow in the ground? Sweet potatoes, white potatoes, yellow potatoes, red potatoes, beans, rice, oats. The worst carbs are just about any carb in a wrapper. Like snickers, white bread, brown bread, black bread, any bread. Avoid bread like the plague. I know that hurts, it hurt me too until I finally said that I had enough and was going to see if it was possible to live without bread.

Stop eating bread if you want to lose body fat fast. You can live without processed bread. You can experience dramatic reduction in your body fat percentage just by cutting out the heavily processed breads and pastas. What else can you eat when you miss that starchy feeling? Try sweet potatoes, potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, spinach and arugula and fresh corn instead. When you go out to eat at a restaurant, do not give in to the bread basket. Have a soup as an appetizer, get a salad, and you can order a sweet potato, salmon and veggies as an example.

6. Stop Eating Junk Food

You know what junk food is. Manufactured food, artificial food, processed food. Just stop putting this mess into your body.

7. Drink More Water

Water is critical for fat loss because water is important to help your liver metabolize fat. You have certainly heard of many successful weight loss stories that revolve around drinking more water. Fitness models and bodybuilders have been seen toting their water bottles along with them during the day for years. Success leaves clues. Drinking enough water will help you lose body fat fast. Make a goal of drinking at least a gallon of water per day.

8. Start deadlifting

You would rather go in the gym, sit in a machine and lift a bit. Right? Well, haven’t you done that before? Maybe you have been going to the gym and using machines for years. Still no big change in your body, right? Do you want a major body transformation?

Deadlifting is a great exercise because it works so many muscles of your body at one time. You can also deadlift even if you are a bit overweight. Think of the many deadlifters that you see in the Olympics who look quite large. You do not need to be a gymnast to deadlift. Building muscle will increase your metabolic rate as long as you maintain the muscle. The more muscle you have, the more body fat you will burn. Deadlifting is a natural movement, picking up a weight off of the ground. To learn more about the many benefits of deadlifting, read this.

9. Make a Plan or Follow a Plan

Getting to your destination is always easier when you follow a roadmap or a plan. Having no plan is like setting out on a trip with no route in mind. More than likely, you will get lost. Most people have no plan, and therefore never reach their goal. And you will be left still ‘trying to lose weight’ as every new year eve resolution time rolls around. Except you will probably be heavier every year with even more weight to lose.

So, either make a plan, or follow a plan. Fortunately for you, The Fit Apprentice™ program here is a free plan which can help you to lose body fat fast. Everything you need to lose weight and get fitter than ever before is at your fingertips. Follow a proven plan to get you to where you want to go. Start today!

10. Get a Weight Loss Coach or Personal Trainer

Even after having a plan to follow, you can only gain with a good coach. Having a coach, especially someone who has travelled the same road as you, will help to motivate and inspire you. When you have support and experience that can guide you, this can make all the difference when you want to lose body fat fast. The best coach is someone who has both knowledge and can empathize with your goals.

The coaches here at the Fit Apprentice are Certified by the School of Integrative Nutrition. Contact us today for a free consultation.

10 Percent Body Fat – 22.8% BMI 25.4 196lbs

By Rich Hashimashi, CPT - Last Updated September 15, 2016

How to Become 10 Percent Body Fat Day 2

Today I was pretty sore from the hour on the elliptical yesterday, so I had to take a break. I know, that is a far cry from tumbling on mats, the elliptical should not take that toll physically, but it did. I know I have to stretch more as well.

I had tremendous cravings today for junk food, but was able to keep them contained. I just kept thinking to keep my eyes on the goal of reducing body fat.

How to Become 10 Percent Body Fat Day 1

I have wanted to achieve 10 percent body fat for too long. I really want to focus on how to become 10 percent body fat and thought that the best way to do it would be to log my results daily. We all have to start somewhere. This is where I am starting as of today. No excuses. No complaining. These are the facts. Face the facts and start to improve.

When I competed in gymnastics a very long time ago, I was discouraged when my coach told me that I had 4% bodyfat. I thought that fitness meant that I had no bodyfat at all. How wrong I was. During those teenage years, I ate what I wanted, never thought twice about it and worked out about 7 to 10 hours a day. I had no clue that 4% bodyfat was actually quite low, and as I got older, the body fat kept going up and away like a hot air balloon. Several years ago, I was already over 30% body fat, which is a huge problem in so many ways. How I felt, how I looked, health, we are just so affected by what we eat on a daily basis. Or at least I should say I, because this has been my experience.

I have taken that body fat percentage down from over 30% to my lowest over the last couple of years has been 19%. I have found it hard to sustain that with the way I have been eating, mainly vegetables and protein with very little complex carbs other than the vegetables. Over the last year or so, I have gone up in body fat percentage to where I am now, 22.8%.

I am taking on a new challenge. I want to learn how to become 10 percent body fat and succeed at it. I am not sure how long that will take, but I think it is a good goal.

Today, I started with an hour on the elliptical. The main reason that I am doing an hour is due to the recommendation of physicians who state that even though 30 minutes would be great, an hour will give your heart a really good workout, even promoting development of additional capillaries to feed the heart muscle. Being a monday, I started up with squats and pushups again. I did two sets of 25 pushups and five sets of squats with just the bar. This is a great lesson for me to see how difficult it is to get back into shape.

Starting at 196 is alot better than starting at 250 pounds. That said, it would be alot easier to maintain the gains.

Food wise I am concentrating on keeping it real.

Six Pack Abs in Six Weeks – Day 5

By Rich Hashimashi, CPT - Last Updated August 23, 2015

Strength Training for Your Mind - Body Too! Hashi Mashi — Strength Training for Your Mind – Body Too! Hashi Mashi

This is a continuation of my experiment to see if it is possible to drastically lose fat over a period of six weeks, maybe I should not say drastically, but if the goal of 180 pounds and 15% body fat is met by July 4th, then I think that would be pretty incredible.

As of today , I went down another third of a pound, from 201.9 to 201.6 and my body fat percent from 24.0 to 23.9%. Even the BMI was down as well from 26.2 to 26.1.

All in all I am making progress and even if it is a pound every 2 or 3 days, fine, hopefully I am retaining mostly muscle and just losing the fat.

For workout today I did cardio only, 2 miles on the treadmill alternating between 3.5 mph to 4.0 mph and then up to 5.0, 6.0 and 7.0 mph for the last minute. That took all of 28 minutes. The only strength that I did today was 26 consecutive pushups, I think I will be able to do 30 tomorrow because as I am getting lighter, it will be easier to do more pushups.

For the meal plan today, breakfast was the same as most of the other previous days, a whole grain rye tortilla wrap with scrambled omelette made with one whole egg and three egg whites and a tablespoon of flax, with slices of tomato, onion and spinach on top as well as an ounce of turkey.

Snack was a half cup of cottage cheese and some grapes and almonds and walnuts.

Lunch was a tuna sandwich. Here I messed up a bit because instead of the whole grain rye wrap, I had 2 slices of whole wheat bread and bam, back came the heartburn, so I see that even as little as 2 slices caused me to feel fire in my throat, very uncomfortable and disappointing.

Dinner which I had at 6 pm was a vegetable soup, made from broccoli, brussel sprouts and spinach with some raw garlic and chick peas in the soup. I know it sounds gross but it is really awesome. Some white chicken meat on the side.

I am not sure if I will have any more than this tonight as I am feeling basically full at this point. If I did, it would be a protein shake or a yogurt, but in general, I am doing my best to not eat after 8pm, so maybe I should hold it at this point.

What this means to you is that if you are looking to drop 20 pounds as well, then you might get some useful ideas from all of the posts that I have put up about this project so far.

Six Weeks to Six Pack Abs – Day 1 & 2

Six Weeks to Six Pack Abs – Day 3

Six Weeks to Six Pack Abs – Day 4

Let me know if any of this is useful and if not what else would you like to see included in each post. And if you have more information to add about how to lose fat fast, please let me know. Today I was just told by a friend that he has a 30% blockage in his artery and failed a stress test and he is only 50! Getting rid of the spare tire and extra layers of fat that pad our bodies and internal organs is critical. Thank you!

Six Pack Abs in Six Weeks – Day 4

By Rich Hashimashi, CPT - Last Updated January 17, 2016

Weight fluctuation either up or down can be an indicator of depression, especially when there is no specific diet accompanying the weight gain or the weight loss. I have noticed weight fluctuation as a factor when checking out different depression tests online which I want to make available. It made me wonder if my life long preoccupation with weight loss and weight gain is related to depression or not.

Whatever the case might be, I am into day four of this experiment to see if I can halve my body fat percentage and take off 25 pounds in the span of six weeks. At this point, I have no complaints, I was 201.9 this morning which is down from 211.4 when I began, but the rate of loss as expected was just about half a pound from yesterday, so it has slowed down quite a bit which is fine.

The main principles that I have been following are to have ideally six meals a day and to do strength training and cardio as well.

Here are the six meals that I am going to shoot for today and for most days, they are going to be very similar so that I do not have to think too much about it. Who needs more stress?

Breakfast: Half of a grapefruit. Whole grain rye wrap with scrambled eggs of 1 whole egg and 3 whites mixed with a tablespoon of flax. Tomato, onion and spinach and 4 slices of turkey added into the wrap. Drink with 16 oz glass of water.

Drink 16 oz glass of cold water.

Snack: Handful of red grapes and a handful of nuts, today I went for almonds and some peanuts.

Drink 16 oz glass of cold water.

Lunch: Whole Grain Rye wrap with can of tuna with tablespoon light mayo and tomato, onion, olives, pickles and spinach. Drink 16 ounces of cold water.

Snack: This snack will be interesting cause I am going to be on the road which is when mine or anyone’s eating plan typically falls off. So I need a bit of planning here. I will go for a fruit and a greek yogurt I believe as they will be the easiest go get on the road.

Dinner: Planning on okra with chickpeas and some salmon.

Another snack? Not sure if I can do it, but if yes, maybe I will go for a shake at this point in the evening. If I do that, then I will go for vega one chocolate, if not, then some cottage cheese and orange, or I might just hold off on any additional snack because frankly feel pretty full by the end of the day.

Workout

Squats

Pushups

Pullups

Curls

Upright Rows

rinse and repeat

On squats today I went up to 100 pounds, pushups have done 4 sets of 15 so far and plan more before every meal, pullups went down to assistance of 55lbs, curls 30lbs 5 reps and upright rows used 45lbs.

Topped off with 2 sets of deadlifts of 135lbs for 5 reps and 155lbs for 5 reps…

How can this help you?

If you are looking to help someone in depression, either yourself or someone else, then you can consider the meal plan as well as the workouts as additional weapons at your disposal, besides whatever psychotherapy you are engaged in or if you are using medications.

If you are just here because you want to learn how to lose fat fast and your mind is just fine, then you are still in the right place because since losing fat is important in the combat against depression, less fat, less estrogen, more testosterone and a better chance at least for a man to cope with depression, so I am continually searching for the best ways to lose fat in order to fight depression. But you can just latch on to the lose fat fast component.

And finally, if you are over 40, or even 50, or 60 and you still want to do your best to get into shape or back into shape, then the is the place for you because we are in the same boat and whatever I find that works, I am going to let you know and I would greatly appreciate the same.