3 Secrets To A Lean Body

3 Secrets to a Lean Body By Joel Marion Copyright © 2009 by Joel G. Marion All rights reserved. You have the right to use, reproduce, or transmit this in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including fax, photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system by anyone but the purchaser for their own personal use. The contents of this file may not be modified in any form without the express written permission of Joel G. Marion. For more information, please contact: Address: 42 Wesley Ln Burlington, NJ 08016 Need Help: support [at] joelmarion.net Websites: http://www.CheatYourWayThin.com http://www.BodyTransformationInsider.com http://www.FreeFitnessGiveaways.com http://www.JoelMarion.net About Joel Marion, CISSN, NSCA-CPT Joel Marion has been recognized by Men’s Fitness magazine as one of America’s top 50 personal trainers, and even more, America’s #1 “Virtual” Trainer. When it comes to getting results with clients, regardless of location, Joel delivers, time and time again. As a nationally published author and fitness personality, Joel has appeared on such television networks as NBC, ABC, and CBS, is a frequent guest on SIRIUS satellite radio, and has been featured in the pages of more than 20 popular national newsstand magazines including Men’s Fitness, Woman’s Day, Maximum Fitness, Oxygen, Clean Eating, MuscleMag International, and Muscle & Fitness Hers. His other accomplishments include winning the world’s largest Body Transformation contest for “regular” people, the Body-for-Life Transformation Challenge, as well as graduating Magna Cum Laude from a top-20 Exercise Science program and being certified as both a sports nutritionist and personal trainer through the nation’s premier certification agencies. http://www.CheatYourWayThin.com - Learn the secrets to losing weight faster than ever before by eating MORE of your favorite foods! http://www.BodyTransformationInsider.com - Joel’s FREE members-only blog where he delivers daily “insider” body-changing tips and strategies. http://www.BodyTransformationInsider.com/coaching - Learn how you can work oneon-one with Joel for less than the cost of a local personal trainer. http://www.FreeFitnessGiveaways.com - Totally FREE gifts from the industry’s leading fitness professionals. 3 Secrets to a Lean Body SECRET #1 – HIGH-INTENSITY EXERCISE TRUMPS “SLOW-GO” ANYTIME, ANY DAY, ANYWHERE. You know, just the thought of spending an 45 minutes to an hour staring at the wall in front of me while on the stationary bike or treadmill is enough to make me cringe. Fortunately, I haven’t done that kind of cardio workout in about 8 years, and as a matter of fact, I don’t ever plan on sitting/standing through one again. “But I thought cardio was one of the fundamental keys to fat loss?” Well, cardio is a loose term and when used generally refers to the type of exercise I mention above. Slow-go, low-intensity, “fat-burning zone” cardio. Unproductive. Inefficient. Ineffective. For years now, and I’m not sure when the mainstream media or general fitness population is going to catch on, we’ve known that steady-state, slow-go cardio burns minimal calories and minimal fat. But we’ve also come to known a thing or two about high-intensity, interval-based workouts – they burn considerably more calories and considerably more fat, all while taking half the time or less. How? Well here’s the thing about high-intensity exercise. Because the sessions are so short (generally anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes), cardio done for 45 minutes in the “fat-burning zone” may actually burn a bit more fat and calories during the actual exercise session. But this the important part—despite burning a bit less fat and calories during the session, high-intensity exercise has been shown to elevate metabolism for up to 48-hours post workout. This means that with high-intensity exercise, you’ll continue to burn fat for up to two days just by going about your own business. Heck, you can be sitting there watching TV or helping your kids with their homework, and you’re still burning calories from an itty, bitty 15-minute exercise session you did yesterday. If you ask me, that’s pretty darn cool. I made the switch to high-intensity cardio back in 2001, and I’ve never looked back since. I encourage you to do the same. Now for some practical advice: If you’re not quite too sure what high-intensity interval-based cardio is or if you’re looking for a sample workout, no worries, I’ve got you covered. Grab some tennis shoes, walk outside, and run “hard” for one minute. Then, slow things down with a slow jog or brisk walk for one minute. That’s one “interval”. Now repeat that 7 or 8 times for a 15-minute workout. Of course, you can do these types of intervals on regular cardio equipment at the gym as well. And once you get pretty comfortable with the approach, there are literally countless ways you can mix things up by switching the type of exercise, work to rest ratio (in the example above, the work to rest ratio is one to one as we are running hard for one minute and then “resting” for one minute), and the length of each portion of each interval. Say goodbye to slow-go boring cardio and start losing fat much, much faster with high-intensity exercise. Make the switch today. SECRET #2 – MORE MUSCLE = GREATER FAT LOSS Here’s a fact that you may not be aware of: Every pound of muscle you “own” adds an additional 50 calories to your daily calorie burn. In other words, 10 lbs of lean muscle equates to a real 500+ calorie increase in your metabolic rate. Here’s another fact: most people lose muscle while dieting. This can be the result of any one (or more) of the following factors: 1. Inadequate calorie intake – as mentioned earlier, not eating enough food and calories is the equivalent of metabolic suicide. Not only will it cause an immediate decrease in calories burned per day, but it will also cause your body to begin feeding on muscle tissue for energy (as muscle tissue is less important to survival than calorie-rich body-fat). 2. Excessive slow-go cardio – not only does regular “slow-go” cardio fail miserably at burning substantial body fat, it also is a great way to eat away at calorie-burning muscle tissue as you try to lose fat. 3. A lack of resistance training – most people who diet solely rely on cardio for exercise (if they even exercise at all). Unfortunately, cardio alone doesn’t do much to support lean body mass (i.e. lean muscle); for that, you’ll need to start incorporating some resistance training into your exercise regimen. 4. Inadequate dietary protein – protein should be the staple nutrient in every weight-loss diet, but unfortunately, it’s often comes in last place when compared to carbohydrates and fat. Simply put, if your goal is to have a lean, sexy body that you can be proud of, you need to be eating protein with every meal. To summarize, muscle tissue supports metabolism, makes fat loss easier, and ultimately leads to the “lean” look you’re after. Now, if you’re worrying about getting “too big”, believe me, that isn’t going to happen, especially while losing fat. But if you are careful to avoid the above four mistakes, you’ll make your fat-loss journey much easier and you may just add a few pounds of lean muscle in the process. SECRET #3 – REMOVE YOUR LIMITATIONS In this secret, I’d like to share a story with you. A story that I believe will challenge you, and if nothing else, show you just how much of a role the mental side of things plays in how much you are ultimately able to achieve. After finishing fourth, just out of medal contention, in the 1500 meters of the 1952 Olympics, British track athlete Roger Bannister set a new goal. A goal that according to many was not only lofty, but humanly impossible. At the time, no one had ever run a sub-4 minute mile. No one. In fact, many socalled authorities said it simply couldn’t be done. But Roger didn’t seem to care. His goal was to break 4 minutes, and in a 1954 meet at Oxford, he did just that. Since that time, thousands of track athletes have run the mile in less than 4 minutes, and what’s most interesting is that the sub-4 minute times came rolling in almost immediately after Roger first accomplished it. Why then had no one ever accomplished it before? For years and years, no one, not a single person, was able to do it. Was it because they lacked ability? I don’t think so. Nothing magical happened in 1954 to make human beings instantly faster. You see, the limitation was 100% mental. And it took someone like Roger who didn’t pay attention to what others thought was possible or impossible to remove that limit. And with that mental block removed, in came an influx of sub-4 minute times. In a more recent times, no one thought that a 6’5” lanky sprinter could ever be a true Olympic competitor (sprinters are naturally short and stocky). But although he didn’t fit the typical sprinter build, Jamaican Husain Bolt set his mind on being an Olympic Champion at a young age. And in the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing, Husain Bolt not only accomplished his dream of winning Olympic gold, but he did it while completely annihilating world records in both the 100 and 200 meters. Stories like this really inspire me, because they remind me that truly anything is possible. Sometimes we are surrounded by so much negativity with the people around us placing limits on what we can accomplish, achieve, or be. You may be someone who has always struggled with your body, and maybe even your family has a long history of obesity. But you don’t have to buy into that. Break the mold. Remove the limitations – those that others have tried to place on you, and most importantly, those that you’ve placed on yourself. I dare you. See what happens. Claim Your Exclusive Cheat Your Way Thin Discount! If you are tired of struggling and sacrificing only to achieve mediocre results at best, I promise my Cheat Your Way Thin program will literally change everything for you--and I’m even going to hook you up with a sweet discount! Visit the special link below for your exclusive discount: ==> www.CheatYourWayThin.com/special_offer Forget about restriction, forget about deprivation, and start using your favorite foods to literally TRIPLE your fat loss results! Just click on the link above to learn more about the program and how you can begin cheating your way thin today!