It Really Has Been A BIG, FAT Lie – The Real Science Behind Dietary Fat, Cholesterol and Your Health

I originally did this interview to help my clients maintain their fat-loss. On the nutrition side of things I use low-carb diets to help people drop a lot of body fat without being hungry. However, there is one huge problem with low-carb diets – other people’s ill-informed opinions.

Here’s a typical conversation:

Coworker: “WOW! You look fantastic – like you’ve dropped 40 pounds. You never even had a neck before. How did you do it?”

My client: “I’ve been eating low-carb and lifting weights and doing intervals.”

Coworker: “WTF!? Are you trying to kill yourself!? Low-carb diets are the most dangerous things ever – all that fat and cholesterol is going to make your heart explode!”

My client usually says nothing, and inside a very negative conversation begins. “Hmmm… What if they’re right? What if I am trading my health for a great body? What if all this steak and eggs really is going to kill me?”

The problem is that their coworker is sincere, BUT the information is sincerely wrong.

They literally have NO IDEA WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT whatsoever. They’ve probably never read and comprehended primary research on nutrition in their entire lives. (By the way, almost none of the students in my 400 level nutrition classes had ever read a single study on their own. They were just parroting what the food pyramid said.)

Very few people understand statistics, research design, biochemistry, or anything else that makes reviewing research worthwhile. As a nerd, I keep two different biochemistry textbooks in my office to read for fun.

Most people get their opinions from other people who get their opinions from other people who got their opinions from the media, and the people who report on health and exercise are not usually scientifically literate. They will write up whatever the spokesperson for the study has to say and will almost never critically evaluate the study. (For an example read this on red meat and this on a sham diet study.)

So what I did for my clients was arrange an interview with Gary Taubes. He’s one of the few people on planet Earth who has reviewed the entire field of literature on public health, nutrition and obesity.

He spent multiple full-time years with multiple assistants in multiple libraries – whose salaries he paid – and hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money to do this. If there is a study out there that was ever published ANYWHERE on diet and health he has read it and is great at helping people understand it.

So Gary, will the saturated fat and cholesterol in a low carb diet kill you?

This was actually my fear when I first started a low-carb diet 10 years ago as an experiment. I’d sit there eating scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast waiting for my heart to blow up, then I did some research.

I wanted to see how we came to believe this idea that saturated fat and cholesterol are bad for you, and whether or not our beliefs were justified. Believe it or not, I have actually read all of the field going back to the 1800’s. One of the things that I was looking for was the point when the idea that saturated fat and cholesterol were killers was still controversial. That was in the 1970’s.

The first thing I saw was… the rest of this interview is published at Primer Magazine.

OH, and please don’t forget to vote for me right here.  It only takes 2 clicks to vote and I would really appreciate your help.

Josef Brandenburg is 2010, Washington, DC  Personal Trainer of the Year Nominee for both Personal Fitness Professional Magazine and The Washington, DC Fitness Association, The DC Fitness Advisor and the Fitness Expert for the PCOS Challenge TV Show. He shows normal people with hectic lives and average genetics how to create the bodies they want in the time they actually have. To find out more about the 7-Day Free Trial click here. You can also pick up a FREE copy of his brand new CD – “Why Eat Less and Exercise More is The Worst Advice Ever” here.

Could You Use Some Inspiration?

I have a confession: I skipped my workout today. I told myself, “oh, I’ve been working so many hours. I worked out yesterday. I couldn’t sleep last night. I REALLY don’t feel like it at all, I can just skip it today…”

I really was just going to let it go, but I came across these inspiring words. So, I made a date with myself to hit my intervals at 10:30pm tonight.

I hope this helps you as much as it helped me today.

What Is A Workout? Read more

New, FUN, Killer Home Fat-loss Workout

My fiancé filmed this masterpiece from my luxurious home gym (my living room).  I was supposed to do kettlebells for my intervals today, but I came up with a “better” idea instead.  (I say “better” because it really kicked my butt and made me sweat like a pig, but it was a better workout.)  Besides not being able to breath it was actually a pretty fun 20min.

Watch the video – you want to catch my jokes and be sure that you understand how to do this correctly (safety and efficacy).

Here’s the workout and warm-up:

Warm-up

10 brides
10 squats
5 inchworms

The Goblin Squat/Squat Thrust Ladder (from hell)

10 Goblin squats, followed immediately by 10 squat thrusts
30sec rest

9 Goblin squats, followed immediately by 9 squat thrusts
30sec rest

8 Goblin squats, followed immediately by 8 squat thrusts
30sec rest

7 Goblin squats, followed immediately by 7 squat thrusts
30sec rest

6 Goblin squats, followed immediately by 6 squat thrusts
30sec rest

5 Goblin squats, followed immediately by 5 squat thrusts
30sec rest

4 Goblin squats, followed immediately by 4 squat thrusts
NO rest

3 Goblin squats, followed immediately by 3 squat thrusts
NO rest

2 Goblin squats, followed immediately by 2 squat thrusts
NO rest

1 Goblin squats, followed immediately by 2 squat thrusts

Rest 2 min

Repeat once more

Collapse in a pool of your own sweat!

Workouts like this will massively accelerate lypolysis (fat-burning) and enhance your fitness levels in just 20min.  Oh, and you will get both a better looking and fitter body in 20min of this kind of workout than you would in 60-90min of a regular workout like jogging.

Josef Brandenburg is Washington, DC’s top personal trainer for busy people. He shows normal people with hectic lives and average genetics how to create the bodies they want in the time they actually have. To find out more about the 7-Day Free Trial click here. You can also pick up a copy of his brand new CD – “Why Eat Less and Exercise More is The Worst Advice Ever” here.

$60 or $2,699? The Cheaper, More Fun Home Interval Workout

Time has become really, really tight for me lately.  With the new book, new web sites, the new CD-club, new writing gigs, a rapidly expanding training business, etc I am finding it very, very, very difficult to get all of my workouts in.  This is funny because I work at a gym 5 days per week and specialize in time efficient workouts.

At this point in my life I am not able to spare the time to walk or drive to the gym, go do my intervals, then walk or drive home.  Can’t do it.  I’m just too busy, or I’m just not up to it at the end of a 16 or 18 hour day.  HOWEVER, I am NOT one to let something like that get in the way of me being super fit.  Necessity is the mother of adaptation, so I adapted!  (This is what I meant by resourcefulness.)

Here’s what I’m doing now:

#1.  I bought a kettlebell (KB) from here.

By the way this place has THE best prices for quality products AND the fastest, least expensive shipping of any place that I found.  I bought my mother a 12kg KB for Christmas for $60 + shipping.  Shipping was a LOT, but I love my mommy.

It turns out that I could have gotten my mom’s KB for just $39 at this place.  I actually bought myself a 24kg (twice as much weight) KB for the same price as my mom’s and the shipping was the same!  I won’t be buying from that other place again!

#2.  I bought DVD’s from Target (yes, Target!) and from Perform Better. (I like the Art of Strength DVD’s that they carry.)  I go to town at home for 20min and I am completely done.  Now my “commute” is right down the hall from my office, and I can do it midday when I have more energy.  And, I get a BETTER workout that’s actually more fun, and has unlimited variety!

The Not-So-Good Alternative

This home elliptical trainer has an MSRP of $2,699!  And would devour my living room!  No good option.  Plus you can only do ONE thing on it.

Josef Brandenburg is Washington, DC’s #1 fat-loss expert for busy people.  He shows normal people with hectic lives and average genetics how to create the bodies they want in the time they actually have.  To find out more about the 7-Day Free Trial click here.

A New Year, A New Body

Happy New Year!

You asked for it, you got it.  Many of you all have asked for:

• Help with motivation
• Help with energy
• Help with finding the time
• More samples of my programs
• More exercise guidance
• Help with dropping belly fat, arm fat, back fat, thigh fat, butt fat…

Here it is. With the good folks at Primer Magazine, I have laid out a complete 12-week, 3-phase program that addresses ALL of the above points and spells out the nutrition AND exercise program to get you MAXIMUM results in MINIMUM time.

For the ladies, yes, Primer is a men’s magazine, don’t worry about this.  This is a fat loss program NOT a muscle growth program.  While almost everyone will gain some muscle on this program, the women just won’t gain that much and what you do gain will be sexy and feminine.  It takes a lot of a different kind of work to turn into a she-man, and this isn’t that program.  (Not to mention that there really isn’t that much demand for the she-man look.)

There are only 2 differences between men and women when it comes to body-composition training (improving ratio of fat to muscle):

#1.  Women usually need fewer carbs.  So just eat more fruits and veggies and use a Whey recovery drink intead of a carb + protein one (i.e. Surge)

#2.  Sometimes women need extra cardio.  Occaisionally women need to add 10, 15 or 20min of hard steady-state work AFTER their intervals.

However, I don’t see this very often.  I have plenty of ladies in their late 50’s who look great without any steady-state work.

So, 1st follow the plan as written and track results.

2nd If results are not as desired, check that you are eating on-point and lifting heavy enough weight.

3rd, if #2 doesn’t fix (it almost always does), then tack on 15min.

Here is part one of the road map to a brand new you.

Josef Brandenburg is also the author of The Body You Want, and a Washington, DC based nominee for 2009 Personal Trainer of the Year from Personal Fitness Professional Magazine. Click here to find out more.

Quick Home Fat-Loss Blast

The cold is officially here and people start to slack off because:

- its too cold to do intervals outside

- it takes too long to go to the gym just to do intervals

-its too expensive to buy a treadmill for your house.

Solution: The Dumbbell Matrix.

All you need for this fat incinerating interval workout is:

-a pair of dumbbells (preferably adjustable)

-5′x5′ space

-This video

How To Use This Workout

1. Pick a weight that lets you do the whole matrix in about 2min

2. Start your timer and GO! Stop it when you’re done.

3. Rest twice as long as it took you to complete the matrix, and repeat 2 more times (3 total)

4. Try to beat your time from the last workout

5. When you can do the whole thing in 90sec you can move up in weight

Why Use This Workout

1. Burn a lot of calories quickly

2. Boost metabolism after your workout

3. Increase your body’s use of fat for fuel for the next 24hrs

4. Its fun

5. You can do it inside where its nice and warm

Josef is also the author of The Body You Want, and a Washington, DC based nominee for 2009 Personal Trainer of the Year from Personal Fitness Professional Magazine. Click here to find out more.