The first is Tom Venuto, whose 'Burn Fat, Feed Muscle' is a bit of a fat loss bible. Tom also has an ebook about, as the title suggests, 'The Holy Grail Body Transformation Program' of achieving gaining muscle whilst losing body fat.
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The other person in this conversation is David Grisaffi, whose 'Firm and Flatten Your Abs' is a great read for those looking to both lose fat around the midsection to achieve a six-pack and improve core stability.
Here's the interview which contains a few great tid-bits of info about achieving ideal body composition...
Source: http://www.FlattenYourAbs.net
TOM VENUTO: You're a familiar name in strength and conditioning circles, but a
lot of the people listening to this interview may not be familiar
with you, so I just wanted to emphasize that we have a pro here on
the call today. Well, let's jump right in and start talking about how
our listeners can flatten their abs, because that's what you do best.
I don't like to spend a lot of time on problems because I found that
what you focus on, you tend to get more of. I like to focus on
solutions, but before you can solve the problem, you must at least
realize you have one and try to identify the real cause so that you
can correct it. If you do what most other people do, you're basically just
treating symptoms. So before we talk about the specifics of ab training,
let's talk about some of the causes.
Why do so many people have trouble with their abdominal region?
Specifically, the muscles being weak and out of condition, and
why is belly fat so common? What are the biggest causes of this
problem?
DAVID GRISAFFI: I would have to say lifestyle. Lifestyle perpetuates the entire
gambit of being able to be healthy and well. People say, "Okay, I
want the six-pack of abs," but they're not willing to adjust part of
their lifestyle that would contribute to the improvement in that
area. A lot of people seem to be focused on one thing while not
understanding that abs and health and life are holistically
connected in different ways. Much of the problem is a sedentary
lifestyle, which contributes to different modules of body fat, like
belly fat.
One of the things that I think people really need to know is that
there are two different kinds of fat. One is visceral fat and one is
subcutaneous fat. As someone starts to gain weight, a lot of the fat
collects around their body organs, so the belly tends to grow from
the inside out. Then they go on a diet, or they try to lose weight
through exercise and diet, which is the smartest way to do it. They
may lose weight, but they find themselves looking down there and
seeing that they don't look all that different. Most of the time, it's
the visceral fat. It doesn't like to leave your body for numerous
reasons, and some of them are lifestyle related. A lot of it comes
down to lifestyle factors associated with insulin insensitivity and
over-consumption of processed carbohydrates.
TOM VENUTO: I think what you just said is really important. Basically, you're
saying that it's the big picture. It's the whole lifestyle and not one
thing. People too often will pin it down to one cause and they'll try
to solve a body fat problem with just a single approach. But if you
don't tackle the entire lifestyle situation, then you're not going to
succeed.
DAVID GRISAFFI: I would agree 100% on that. You also have this type of
subcutaneous stubborn fat where you have too many alpha
receptors and not enough beta receptors, and combined with visceral fat,
these factors start to manifest themselves and the body
just becomes a big fat-producing machine. And a lot of times,
people are very deficient in minerals and vitamins, especially
alpha-linoleic acid, which comes from not eating enough fish,
which provides the Omega-3 fatty acids. This also contributes to
less than optimal insulin sensitivity and compromises fat
metabolism in the cells and the mitochondria. So when you're
thinking about having to lose weight, you've got to understand
that there's a lot of factors that go into reduction of body fat. It's
important to understand every little step and not just do one thing
like cardio and say, "Okay, I'm going to jump on this treadmill and
go." If you don't also address nutrition and you get done with that
cardio and you go slam that Gatorade or sugar drink down, you've
just done yourself a disfavor.
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TOM VENUTO: And that's one of the things that impressed me about your
program too, is that it is a lifestyle program. Even though your program is
focused on core conditioning and abdominal training, you don't
leave the lifestyle aspects out of it. So you created an entire
program; a structured system with distinct elements and action
steps that addresses all these causes and helps to fix the problem
from a more holistic point of view.
Let's talk about one more thing before we get into those individual
action steps. A big problem that we face today is the amount of
misinformation and myths, and they just never seem to die. You
and I both keep hearing the same things pop up, the same
questions over and over again. You go into 14 of those myths in
your book and we won't have time to cover them all on this call.
But could you name just maybe two or three of the biggest myths
about either abdominal training or abdominal fat reduction that
really hold people back, or even get them injured?
DAVID GRISAFFI: First thing that holds them back or gets them injured is a lack of
total function of their entire body. And then also there's that
myriad of different aspects of health and fitness, and not
understanding them all holds people back as well. Like the fact
that sleep has a lot to do with body weight. Water consumption
also has a lot to do with body weight. So does eating over processed
foods. I also find that people do way too many reps. Women especially
tend to do a ton of reps. But 100 reps of crunches or sit-ups isn't
advisable for losing any body weight let alone working the muscle
tissue, because it leads to what? You're going to get an over facilitated
hip flexor and then you'll have low back pain. I think
your body is designed to be strong, so reducing reps and
increasing resistance is going to help if you've been doing endless
reps.
If you need help with flattening your abs, nutrition and lifestyle
improvements you'll need to make in order to reach
you goals, you'll find the http://www.FlattenYourAbs.net
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