Well, if you’re like just about every person I’ve trained or advised on the subject of weight loss, then the Hawaiian’s crab analogy is indicative of how literally all of your friends, family, and acquaintances will view your newly shrinking exterior.

If you’re like just about every person I’ve trained or advised on the subject of weight loss, then your so-called friends will not only minimize the significance of your efforts, but they will do everything in their power to sabotage your success! Continue reading

Head for the Hills and Strip Off the Fat in 12 Minutes! By Michael Collins

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As I wrote about earlier, high intensity cardio is the most effective and efficient cardio method for fat loss. What better way to get a quick and powerful cardio workout is there than sprinting? Sprinting uphill!

Why choose hill sprints?

Not only do hill sprints increase the intensity of sprinting, but they also give you a chance to add variety to your workout.

When sprinting uphill, you're shifting the emphasis of work on the muscular system, increasing the demand on different muscles that normally wouldn't be emphasized.

Obviously the name of the game here is to lose weight (more specifically, fat). The biggest benefit, weight loss- wise from uphill sprinting is the increase in EPOC. continue reading

Carb Manipulation: Your Simple Guide to Looking Good Naked (Pt. 2) By Michael Collins

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In part one of Carb Manipulation: Your Simple Guide to Looking Good Naked, I spoke about how the biggest factor in how you look is your carb intake. Protein, carbs and fat all contain calories, but carbs have the biggest direct effect on your waistline (and how you feel).

From there, we hashed out that carbs can generally be divided into two categories: Starchy and Fibrous.

Starchy carbs being the "tasty, fattening" carbs. Bread, pasta, rice etc.. Starchy carbs generally taste good, and are extremely easy to over- eat.

Fibrous carbs are the "not-so-tasty, good for fat loss" carbs. Broccoli, spinach, lettuce, asparagus, etc...

(By the way, if you haven't read part 1, go read it now, and get the free fat burning foods chart that we have put together.)

Here, in part 2, I'll tackle which carbs you should be eating and when.

Speeding Up Your Time In The Weight Room For Maximum Fat Loss By Eugene Thong

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Want to make your weight training program better? We’ve got the ways. It’s time for another MCNewsletters Fat Loss Hack!

This week’s Hack is a little trick you can do without changing a single exercise in your routine: Implement Parkinson’s Law.

Parkinson’s Law (coined by Cyril Parkinson, a naval historian) states “that work expands to fill the available time.” What implications does this have for your current program?

Well if you’re like most people, you take breaks between work sets – long ones.

You probably do multiple exercises for each body part, and you’re convinced that if you don’t do 5 sets for your chest, your pectoral muscles will simply deflate into a gelatinous blob of protoplasm.

Well, we’re going to change that thinking around right now. Continue Reading

Carb Manipulation: Your simple guide to looking good naked (Pt. 1) By Michael Collins

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We're all looking for the magic bullet of fat loss. We'll as you've probably heard and read a million times before, "there ain't none".

That being said, there are many things you can do to change the way you look. I'm going to serve up one of the most powerful ways for you here. It has to do with the way you eat. More specifically it has to do with manipulation of carbs in your diet.

Now, before you click off this article and say "screw it" and go order some Cortislim, hear me out. continue reading

The Dreaded Spiral of "Yo-Yo Dieting"

By Eugene Thong

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How come every time I go on a diet, it gets tougher to lose weight each time?

Because dieting - if done improperly - will stomp your metabolism into the ground!

How?

Simply stated, your body has learned to become “thrifty” and adapted to its situation.

Let me use a real-life illustration to make this perfectly clear: Right now, you’ve got a job and living expenses. You’re accustomed to a certain standard of living, and the rent and bills get paid.

Well, what would happen if you suddenly lost your job?

Hopefully, if you’re an intelligent and resourceful person, you’d find another way of obtaining income. In the meantime, you’d cut back on some or all of your spending (or find ways to hack away the “non-essentials”) to make sure that the rent and bills still get paid, so that you don’t end up with the electricity cut off or out on the street. continue reading

7 Sure-Fire Strategies To Guarantee Failure in Your Fat Loss Program By Eugene Thong

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The longer I'm in this business, the more apparent it is that successful fat loss is less about the "doing" and more about the "not doing." In other words, you should seek to eliminate mistakes and modify old behaviors instead of trying to generate completely new patterns for yourself.

Here, in no particular order, are the most common mistakes I see people making when embarking on fat loss program.

1) Trying to be perfect. A great way to drive yourself crazy is to never touch, look at, smell, or think about a "bad food" ever again. Realistically, it's not going to happen.

The surest way to put the kibosh on your diet efforts is to immediately forbid yourself from ever cheating – your cravings will come to consume your every waking moment until you give in, then curse yourself in an orgy of self-flagellation and guilt.

This doesn’t have to be you! The simple solution is to schedule in specific cheat meals so that they are planned into your diet. That way, you can have a taste of the foods you love (right now) while consuming the fuel your body needs to fire up its fat-burning furnace.

2) Immediately cutting out all fat. Fat adds two majorly important accents to your daily food intake: flavor and satiety.

Satiety is the feeling of being full. Fat in foods aids satiety by continue reading

Cortisol Blocking Supplements for Weight Loss?

By Michael Collins

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I was thinking about buying CortiSlim- the weight loss pill. Do you think it’s worth it?

No. It sucks. Really.

About a month ago, a client I’m training also asked about CortiSlim. I told her it sucks.

She bought it anyway!

Why? Probably because I just left it at “it sucks” and didn’t undo the brain washing from the commercial she had seen. It’s funny how sometimes bullsh*t wins out over reason- just because you WANT the bullsh*t to be true.

Let me clear some up some of this garbage spewed by the commercials. continue reading

The 3 Foundations of Fat Loss (Part 3 of the 3 part series) By Michael Collins

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Scrap everything you've heard about fat loss and start with the Foundations!

In the first part of the Foundations of Fat Loss Series, we explored the exercise portion of fat loss which builds your natural fat burning furnace, resistance training. In the second part of the Foundations of Fat Loss series, we covered the other half of exercise- the extra calorie burner- Cardiovascular Training.

We learned how adding muscle fiber is crucial to fat loss, and how intensity trumps all in fat loss during cardiovascular exercise.

In the 3rd part of this series, we will discuss the most crucial step of the fat loss process- your nutritional program.

The bottom line in fat loss is managing your caloric intake. Specifically taking in less calories than you're burning each day; and over a period of time.

I've often heard people apply the 80/ 20 rule to losing fat- "nutrition is 80 percent of the battle". continue reading

The 3 Foundations of Fat Loss (Part 3 of the 3 part series) By Michael Collins

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Scrap everything you've heard about fat loss and start with the Foundations!

We learned how adding muscle fiber is crucial to fat loss, and how intensity trumps all in fat loss during cardiovascular exercise.

In the 3rd part of this series, we will discuss the most crucial step of the fat loss process- your nutritional program.

The bottom line in fat loss is managing your caloric intake. Specifically taking in less calories than you're burning each day; and over a period of time.

I've often heard people apply the 80/ 20 rule to losing fat- "nutrition is 80 percent of the battle".

The Forgotten Art of Food Journaling for Fat Loss By Eugene Thong

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I’m here today to teach you about the long-lost, forgotten art of food journaling. This seemingly arcane practice is actually one of the master keys to your success in fat loss.

What is food journaling?

Simply, writing down everything you consume with as much detail as possible. It doesn’t have to be done with anal precision, but the more detail you can include, the more useful and valuable an exercise it is. (... And The better the results you’ll get.)

Food Journaling is a difficult exercise because of the mental hurdle it represents. Most people won’t want to share the details of their food life with you. Or themselves. It’s akin to asking them about their sex life.

“So, Mrs. Jones, how was the hubby last night? Did you try out those positions I talked to you about?” continue reading

The 3 Foundations of Fat Loss (Part 2 of the 3 part series) By Michael Collins

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Scrap everything you've heard about fat loss and start with the Foundations!

In the first part of the Foundations of Fat Loss Series, we explored the exercise portion of fat loss which builds in your natural fat burning furnace, resistance training. In the second part of the Foundations of Fat Loss series, we cover the other half of exercise- the extra calorie burner- Cardiovascular Training.

Cardiovascular Training. Cardiovascular training is another foundation of fat loss. Given that the majority of gyms have an abundance of cardio equipment- treadmills, bikes, Stair Master's and elliptical machines, cardio is the most popular fat loss modality.

But here's the catch- if you truly want to lose fat, it's not what machine you use, but how you use it.

The number one factor in using cardio for fat loss is intensity.

Whether you're sprinting around the park, riding the recumbent bike, or cranking out on the elliptical machine, the amount of fat you lose in in proportion to the intensity you put forth. Intensity can be increased in various ways, and can be applied to all forms of cardio exercise. continue reading

What’s the most important factor for weight loss?

By Eugene Thong ....................................................................................

Saturday night, my buddy and jiujitsu sempai Francisco had the good graces to invite my wife and I over to his apartment to watch (Ultimate Fighting Championship) UFC 71.

What a great night, exciting fights full of action, and all my picks came through (which never happens).

One of the other guests was a relative newcomer to mixed martial arts and as such had a lot of questions for us both, such as:

“So what’s a submission?”

“How do they figure out who wins?”

“How come that guy on the bottom won the fight?”

“How can they tell that a guy’s knocked out?”

Like I said, a first-time watcher. But you gotta love her curiosity.

It was actually one of her later questions that got me thinking. She asked:

“So what’s more important – height, weight, or reach?”

It’s a good thing Francisco chimed in right away because I honestly didn’t have an opinion. As he eloquently answered her question, something hit me.

I didn’t have any opinion about those things because I didn’t think any one thing was more important than the other.

What’s more, none of those things are the most important factor(s) that determine the outcome of the fight.

The same thing happens when clients and trainees ask me about fat loss. I probably get asked,

“What’s the most important factor for weight loss?” continue reading

The 3 Foundations of Fat Loss

(Part 1 of the 3 part series)

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Scrap everything you've heard about fat loss and start with this article!

For the last 9 years myself and Eugene have been getting dirty, in the trenches, training clients. Over those 9 years, we've worked with thousands of clients. Everyone from supremely conditioned athletes to the elderly with special needs. As you can imagine, we've fielded questions about everything under the sun.

"Does water count towards my water intake?"

"Is mashed potatoes a carb?"

"Do I have to do legs? I just want to get big."

"I've been doing 20 sets of concentration curls how come my arms aren't getting any bigger?

"I've been doing crunches every day and I still can't see my abs. How come?"

Of course, the majority of questions stem from the desire to lose fat:

"What diet can I follow that will let me eat as much of whatever I want?"

"How come I'm not losing weight? I ate a salad yesterday"

In recent years, most questions have started with "I was reading on the internet that..." Uh Huh.

This is a problem. Although the internet is a fast way to access good information, some of it is out right crap. continue reading

Weight Loss for Swimsuit Season:

How to limit Calorie Intake When Eating Out

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Q: I'm trying to shed some pounds to get ready for swimsuit season, but my job requires that I entertain clients 4 nights a week. How can I limit my calorie intake when I'm ordering in a restaurant?

A: Here are some time-tested strategies that have worked well for our clients that are on a weight loss program:

1) Substitute sides: Ask for healthier, lower calorie side dishes, such as steamed vegetables instead of French fries, or a side salad instead of a pasta bowl.

2) Choose lean meat and fish or skinless chicken as your entree instead of higher calorie cuts of meat. Most restaurants will accommodate your request if you ask for a specific item.

3) Preparation style: Scan the menu to see how the entrees are prepared. Rather than having an entree that is fried, choose one that is broiled, baked, grilled, steamed, or poached.

4) Remove temptation to snack prior to your meal. Ask your waiter to send the bread bowl back.

The Beach Day Program: Lose 10- 20 pounds in 10 weeks

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Here's a simple to use fat loss program you can use to get ready for the Summer...

Being that I'm in the gym a minimum of 5 days per week, I see the trends. I see how the masses come and go depending on the season. I get to see the highs and lows of motivation and I get to see the fluctuations in body composition.

The gym is relatively quiet from October through December. People are busy with family, the holiday's and eating.

And... taking a hiatus from the gym.

I'd estimate an average gain of 10 pounds of fat is put on during the winter hiatus.

Back to that in a minute... Continue Reading

The Quickest and Easiest Way to Lose Fat From Your Waistline

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I need to lose about 10 pounds. What’s the quickest and easiest way to lose this fat off my waist line?

Well, the “quickest” and “easiest” is relative to what you consider quick and easy. While there are no true quick fixes, there are definitely strategies you can apply to get to your goal efficiently (the best way).

First of all, lets start off with Rule Number One: To lose weight you MUST create a caloric deficit. In plain English- you must eat less calories than your burning in a 24 hour period.

Rule Number Two: Get good at Rule Number 1 and you won't need anything else.

Calories are burnt doing everything. Working, brushing your teeth, eating, hitting the delete button on spam... EVERYTHING.

Even thinking even burns calories. Thought requires glucose transfer and neurochemical production and synapses to fire. All require calories to be burnt to make it happen.

Does that mean I recommend thinking your way to fat loss? No. Although you are burning calories, it's not an efficient way to lose fat. Efficiency is time spent vs. results received. Similar to the Return On Investment (ROI) that you read about in business and finance books. You want the best results in the shortest time possible.

The Secret of Breaking the

Dreaded Fat Loss Plateau

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Take a look at your hands. Turn them over and take a good look at the palms of your hands. What do you see? Chances are that if you're reading this article, you work out. If you work out, you probably have calluses on the palms of your hands.

Calluses are part of the body's adaptation mechanism. The body recognizes extra punishment on the skin cells in the palms of your hands, and bolsters the protection by adding many more skin cells to toughen them up.

Keep in mind, the body knows everything that happens to it. No matter where or when. It knows, and consequently, it adapts.

Now, I know you're asking what do calluses on your hands have to do with fat loss?

Hold that thought, this will all come together in a minute

Every day I get a virtual boatload of email asking questions about fat loss, and every other topic under the sun related to fitness. I do my best to get back to everyone, I post the questions and answers I feel would suit the masses here on the site.

Today I got one from a female in Florida. Normally I would put this in the Reader Mail Q and A section, but I wanted to get a bit deeper.

Her question was long, so I'll sum it up with this- she works out hard and diets. She's doing great, losing a few pounds, tightening up, starting to see some real progress.

The Green Apple (mini) Project

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I was at a Christmas Party this past weekend in NYC. It was held at a friends house who I've given countless fitness tips to over the years.

Of course we ate, drank and had a good time.

The best part came when he went to the kitchen and pulled out a bag of green apples to show myself and the group. He went on to explain that he had read about how they can help quell cravings in black book of secrets. Awesome.

He said he tried it last week for the first time. He was going out with his wife for dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant- his favorite.

When he was getting dressed in his "going out gear", he noticed his pants fit a bit tighter than before.

Needless to say this frustrated him.

But he turned that frustration against itself and made some wise choices.

He remembered what I had said, that if you eat a green apple or two before going for a meal, you'd have less desire to binge. So sure enough, on the way down town to the restaurant in the West Village, he picked up 2 green apples at the stand on the corner. He chomped them both down in the cab.

Down and Dirty High Intensity Cardio Secrets Part I

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Oddly enough I'm going to start this series of articles off with the biggest paradox of fat loss- inefficiency.

I get tons of questions about cardio each day and I'm going to have a lot of people re- thinking their battle plans after reading this.

Sit tight and learn something.

There's a tendency us human beings gravitate towards. This tendency is not just prevalent in fitness, but it infiltrates every pore of our being.

Hell, it's an outright HUMAN NEED.

But...

If you allow this tendency to infiltrate your workouts, your calorie expenditure (and subsequent fat loss) will come to a grinding halt.

The tendency is comfortability.

Specifically comfortability in your cardio routine- getting attached to a favorite machine, a time frame of doing your cardio, a comfortable level of intensity. Continue Reading

Down and Dirty High Intensity

Cardio Secrets Part II

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"Getting your engine running hot for fast weight loss"

In the first article of the Down and Dirty Cardio Secrets Series I spoke about the biggest paradox of fat loss- inefficiency.

By avoiding the trap of falling into the "groove" during your cardio by constantly changing it up, we keep the body challenged by changing variables and exerting in ways it is unaccustomed to. This should be a staple in any weight loss program.

In this article I'm going to tackle the biggest key to cranking the dial up on your fat burning abilities by pushing your body into the "heat zone".

If you were to take a look at the dashboard of a car, you'd see many gauges. They are there to measure how much fuel is in the tank, how much oil you have, RPM's, and how hot the engine is running.

I want you to focus now on the temperature gauge- the one that tells you how hot the engine is running. What happens when you're driving around town, going stoplight to stoplight at a leisurely pace?

Not much, right?

The temperature gauge stays relatively low, RPM's stay low and not much fuel is used.

I equate this to long, slow cardio. You know, the stuff they tell you to do in the average fitness magazine- 40 minutes on the treadmill at a 2.9 speed. Continue Reading

Getting that Elusive "Six- Pack"

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My training partner says we should do abs every day. I'm doing 3 sets of 100 crunches every day, but I still can't see my abs. Should I aim for more reps?

You have a specific result you want. You want to see your abs. The "6- pack" look.

We can break this down to 2 factors.

1) You must have a relatively low amount of fat stored in the abdominal region.

2) You must build the muscle fiber of the abdominal muscles

Model: Eugene Thong, President of ETF Wellness

Check out his Personal Training Blog

There have been countless magazine articles on gaining the elusive 6- pack. There have been hundreds of infomercials pimping out products touting the latest gimmick to help you get "abdominized".

Most of them are a bunch of crap.

Should We Blame the Caveman for Our Love Handles?

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This morning I was blasted awake by my alarm clock at 6am.

I showered, shaved and had a bowl of oatmeal with slivered almonds and an omelet made of 6 egg whites and a handful of mushrooms.

For lunch I had a delicious low-fat grilled chicken Caesar salad and some unsweetened green tea.

For dinner I had a mouthwatering piece of pecan-crusted salmon w/ brown rice, and broccoli on the side.

Of course, I had a few healthy snacks in between meals, such as a green apple and a protein muffin.

I’m very grateful for my personal chef Wolfgang who prepares each of these meals for me.

Our ancestors weren’t so lucky!

They didn’t have personal chefs!

No, no, no, I’m kidding. I don’t have a personal chef either. Maybe the Caveman DID have protein muffins and pecan-crusted salmon though, I just don’t know.

Here’s the deal…

Generations ago, our ancestors were hunters. They would go days, even weeks when times were tough, with no food.

How to turn your body into a fat burning furnace: The Bodyweight Workout

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Here's a quick sample body weight workout with

example's performed on the links to videos.

Read the prelude to this article:

How to turn your body into a fat burning furnace

Body Weight Squat x 15 reps
Flag Pushup x 10 reps
Burpees x 5 reps
Plank 30 seconds
Trunk Rotations x 5 reps
Split Squat x 10 reps

Rest interval for 1 minute.

Repeat for as many circuits as you can in time (12 minutes) or a minimum of 3 circuits.

Exercise descriptions:

How to turn your body into a fat burning furnace

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I keep hearing about how I should add muscle if I want to lose weight. If I'm already overweight, why would I want to keep or build muscle?

First off, let’s start with this exercise. Let’s get that ugly image of the big, veiny, overly-muscular bodybuilder OUT of your head.

Now, replace that picture with the lean, toned body of your choosing - the one you aspire to achieve.

That's what will happen when we add muscle - more specifically, when we add muscle fiber, or their constituent parts, muscle filaments. Filaments are tiny strands, just like the filament in your average light bulb. In order to build a better body, I'm talking about maximizing the number of muscle fiber filaments.