You know what an "AH-HA" moment is right?

It's one of those times where you come across something that causes a fundamental shift in how you see the world and perceive reality.

Recently I polled some of the members of the Burn The Fat Inner Circle about their Burn The Fat "AH-HA's"...

I asked them this: "Have you ever read a particular paragraph of Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle, came across an interesting idea in an article on the Inner Circle, picked out a piece of 'Venuto-Wisdom' in one of Tom's interviews, or came across any other 'nugget' that caused you to experience an "AH-HA" moment?

I certainly have had multiple "AH-HA's" from reading BFFM and being involved in the Inner Circle.

Here are a few of mine AND some of the top 'Ah-Ha's' from our Inner Circle members:

The Goal Card, for example, has been an ultra-powerful AH-HA for me and I use it every single day. (To read an article Tom wrote about the power of the Goal Card Click Here.

Tom gave me a greater appreciation for the 5 Elements necessary to achieve killer results (the right mindset, resistance training, cardio, BFFM nutrition, and Social Support).

Tom also introduced me to Psycho Cybernetics which has provided me with SO MANY "AH-HA's" that have helped me change my life. By improving my Self Image I have experienced leaps and bounds in my physique development, in my business, and personal life.

I have been reminded of the fact that you can learn something from everyone over and over again. Throughout many of the times I have had the opportunity to interview Inner Circle members in our "Success Stories" section I have taken away multiple Gems and experienced multiple "AH-HA's"!!!! Thank you to YOU because I have learned so much from all of you.

I came across Tom's Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle and downloaded it immediately. I read the entire book in pretty much one sitting (it became a very LATE night!). While a lot of the principles were familiar to me, I loved how Tom really broke down the whole calories in vs. calories out principle. I have religiously been logging in every morsel I take in on a diet journal since January.

The calorie principle keeps me on track to make sure that I do my diet journal logs DAILY. The nice thing is sure, when calories are too high, I need to taper back for the rest of the day. But sometimes, due to the craziness of the day, I realize I need to eat MORE -- and that's a nice bonus! (doesn't happen very often though!) Interestingly, because I do keep such accurate logs of my food, it really isn't a burden -- in fact it gives me more freedom because I know exactly if and when I can afford a "cheat meal" on a given day.

I also love the substantial amount of content Tom devotes to the MENTAL aspect of this. In 2003, I was following a book or a coach's plan. Sure I wanted to achieve a great transformation, but I don't believe I ever fully embraced the lifestyle mentally. I was still VERY MUCH looking forward to cheat meals or free days which I definitely overindulged in and that I know definitely hindered my progress. I think the reason my hormones became so out of whack towards the end is because I dieted down so drastically before our Hawaii trip. Had I embraced the mental aspect more fully, I would have been able to curb my free days and cheat meals so that the weight would have been lost more gradually in a more healthy manner.

I review my goals daily. Actually a few weeks after I bought BFFM, I decided to enter my very first figure competition for this September 2007. It was a difficult decision but it's something I've always wanted to do for the past few years and I've finally committed to do it. My husband is currently training for a marathon and I decided I wanted to do something spectacular for myself this year as well.

Once I decided to make this my 1 goal, everything else became so clear. With every workout, with every meal I have to ask myself, "Is this taking me closer to my goal or farther away?"

With the thought of competition as the first and foremost goal right now, it consumes my thoughts constantly. With every difficult rep, with every cardio session, I envision myself on stage as if at the competition -- with the physique of my dreams.

Sure there are times, especially right now as I am early in my competition prep that I look at the amazing photos of figure competitors on stage and wonder if I could EVER look that good. So I have to work twice as hard to push those negative thoughts away. Which leads me to:

The MENTAL workouts of this are harder than any session at the gym. But like with any training session, the more you do it, the easier it gets and the stronger you become.

Since I decided to compete, I hired a personal trainer -- the only competitive bodybuilder at my local YMCA who also happens to have a couple of titles himself. His workouts have definitely pushed me to new levels of strength that I never thought possible. With every single workout, I am stronger and I can lift heavier. The 5th Element is definitely a significant part of this. My trainer has access to all of my diet logs so whenever I eat, it's like he's sitting right next to me. Whenever we meet for a training session I know I have to be well rested and well-fed because I need the energy to complete a successful workout.

Also, attitude is everything. My trainer compliments me because I don't complain during the workout -- unlike some of his other clients who are always "negotiating" with him the number of sets / reps / weight level. Although some of the weights he sets up for me look extremely daunting, he says "Do it" and I just do it. Sure he needs to help me or spot me at times but the feeling of overcoming and accomplishing what seemed like an impossible task is well&empowering.

I listened to Tom's recent interview today about how to get super-lean lots of things are covered in BFFM but the one statement from the interview that stuck out in my mind was that: We live in a reciprocal universe. You get what you put into it. And in only 3+ months, I'm already seeing that,

Since January, I've lost 20 lbs of fat and have gone from a size 10 to a loose size 6. I'm currently sitting at around 20% bodyfat (down from about 30%). I know I have a lot of work to do before September but I'm enjoying the journey and looking forward to what my body is capable of. With all of the knowledge I've gained so far and continue to gain as well as having a wonderful support system of my family, friends, and trainer, I KNOW I CAN DO THIS.

Originally I decided to get lean and get healthy and then ultimately compete on stage for ME. Now that I've been doing this lifestyle for over 3 mos now, I'm starting to inspire others&family, friends, strangers, staffers at the gym. This is an effect that I never really expected but I believe that through my example of hard work and good nutrition which of course yields the great results, others will follow suit and choose to live healthier.

P.S. Tonight I just took that same kickboxing class that I took in January. The last time I took it was that first time in January. Tonight, I ROCKED it! I couldn't believe how much energy and endurance I had as opposed to the first time! It's truly amazing what can happen in only 12 weeks.

The mind is the missing key for most. Honest truth ... I bought the book in '04, and skipped straight past the goal setting to read about nutrition and training. That was all I thought I needed from the book. I did not write goals and I just set out to follow the plan. Some short success followed but ultimate failure. When I revisited the book in 2006, the early chapters on goal setting really hit home with me. I set my first goals and a lot of early success followed. It is so critical.

Track Results Frequently. This came at the same time as moment 1. Seeing results on a spreadsheet or in pictures will always help motivate you to improve or worst case, help you to not fall too far off the wagon.

Bodytyping ... Accept it and get over it. I am an endomorph. No one in my family tree is lean (or ever has been). I can whine about my inherited genetic barriers or I can turn around and make them be my biggest blessings. The fact I have to overcome more than many may mean I have to do more cardio, be more careful with cheat meals and train on weights harder than others but it is the greatest thing that could have happened to me because it is forcing me to overcome. This was an incredibly powerful realization.

A quote from the book ... "People often underestimate the amount of effort it requires to develop a lean body.". Maybe the fourth time through the book this quote really struck a chord with me. After early successes that seemed to come easily, as you get leaner it gets more challenging I think. This quote reminds me to examine my food intake, change workout routines, change intensity, work harder, visualize more, drink plenty of water, etc.

The body loves nutrient rich food. Improving my diet has taken a lot of time and self examination. Due to my body type I realized maybe a tuna sandwich on wheat bread would not be as good for me as a tuna on a bed of greens and other vegetables. I have no history of ever being able to eat salads with any consistency. Now I absolutely crave them and eat them twice a day. This was an impossible thought to me a year ago and not something I strived for necessarily but I eat salads with protein and good fats and the effect on energy levels, immune system, mental health is nothing short of miracle.

Do not approach this as a diet. Make lifestyle changes at a pace that you are comfortable with. Different than anything I have tried to get lean in the past ... this has become a lifestyle. It really took time to get to this point but my body enjoys this so much that there is no missing processed foods. I go out and it is easy to eat right. The body is happy.

There are many more but I will stop here. I am leaner, stronger and happier at 37 yrs old than I have ever been in my life by far. I look forward to more ah-ha moments as I go forward.

A reaction from Tom about the AH-HA's Above...

Wow, you really know how to focus in on the important stuff.. Great example of making use of that good old 80-20 principle. (20% of the stuff will get you almost all of your results... the other stuff is useful, but is mostly minutia... focus on the fundamentals and important stuff first and you will always succeed...

I had "learned" motivational thinking in the past, but the context in which I originally learned it was very manipulative. The reason for teaching goal setting was always for me to produce results for others despite what it might cost me. And the so-called benefit I would receive was so closely identified to what they wanted produced, that it really wasn't any kind of a benefit. Needless to say motivational talk and thinking has a tendency to fill me with a great deal of trepidation.

So as you can imagine it was with bated breath that I read and listened to the goal setting and motivational information. There would be times where the words sounded too familiar and I wouldn't be too sure if I should continue reading/listening, then the next sentence would put everything in perspective and the information would become usable.

And the BIG Ah-Ha:

It's just for me, and all this information is solely for me to be used by me to be how I want me to be ~ or really, anyone who buys the book or participates in the Inner Circle

Also anyone I've ever come across who gives this kind of information charges an INSANE amount of money, especially the people with ulterior motives. So I had to ask myself, "What does Tom get out of all of this?"

I hope the answer to my question is an incredibly good living, since what he wants me to achieve is really all for me.

Maybe it seems like a simple thing, but at the same time it's extraordinarily magnanimous.

Last year I got Tom Venuto's book. Before that, I never knew a book like that existed. Anyway after reading the book i already knew about half of the information, but tom corrected the other half for me. I received the book really in a crisis time as I had 5 consecutive injuries and i spent already one year in reeducation physiotherapy and i was about to waste another year.....

I was an athlete, a basketball player, but I wasted nearly my half life in dieting. From 15 years old i was somehow successful in losing a lot weight but that never was enough, i was really going crazy and was also interested in how to increase power and athletics by studying plyometrics and different type of exercises that existed, but one thing that I've never mastered was NUTRITION.

That was a really important term for performance; In other words, Venuto's book was like a dream for me after my 5 years research and now I'm dominating and mastering nutrition like never before.

But the biggest AHA thing that ended with me was the "MIND" perspective... that bounced me and opened the door for me; it was like an enlightenment! TOM touched in deep with this whole thing which is the mind and the key for the universe that opened all my neurons - it was really FANTASTIC!

And if i remember, the last article that Venuto posted about mind was everything. If people know how to absorb it, they will just know the way to never name something with "Failure" ... and again Tom here rocks.

Boy oh boy! So many aha moments to choose from. Well here are some of my biggies... There is one phrase that Tom uses that has really stuck in my head, and that is "Succeed On Purpose"

So many people go after their dream body without setting out any type of plan to get there. It's not enough to know that you need to eat better, lift weights, and do cardio to lose weight.

You need to have a solid plan. When you lay out that plan to get you to your dream body you will get there. It's when you steer away from it that you get into trouble.

Don't just change your behaviors...change your thought behaviors as well.

In order to change your body, you do need to do physical training and eat well, but you in order to change your body you must also change your thoughts.

Stepping outside your comfort zone.

Nearly everyone has set up some sort of limitation for themselves simply by deciding what level of discomfort they are willing to put up with. Achieving your dream body takes a lot of work and discipline. Yet so many people come up with excuses to avoid a workout, or indulge in junk food, or neglect writing out their goals on a daily basis because of lack of time.

Even though they really want a lean and health body that provides them with loads of energy and opportunities, they are not willing to take one simple step outside of their comfort zone and endure a bit of pain (not physical) in order to achieve it.

...This is why the quick fix mentality is so strong. If you haven't already listened to the 1st Burn The Fat Show, stop reading this post and go listen to it NOW!

This leads to my next aha and that is that all progress and growth occur against resistance. (Go read Wedge of Discouragement in the article section)

The majority of people will look at obstacles, setbacks, or so called 'failures' and decide that it's just not possible to achieve their dream body because they always seem to sabotage themselves.

Successful people on the other hand, look at these obstacles and setbacks as an OPPORTUNITY for growth and progress. If they fail, they fail forward!

Others don't even need to experience a setback in order to give up. If they don't see the results they were hoping for, even though it has only been a few short weeks, they pack in the bags.

This is always a shame because unknowingly to them, success could have been one week away, one day away, one workout away, or one meal away. Plus they neglect to look at all the small accomplishments along the way.

Then there is the "Amazing Nino Savona".

This story really touched me and forced me to push myself even harder than ever. Hearing how he feeds off of people telling him what he can't do is really inspiring.

How many times has someone told you that your dreams and goals were unrealistic and you actually believed them. You allowed them to shoot down your dreams. If someone tells you that you can't do something, use it as fuel to achieve your goal.

When you have your passion and drive for achieving your dream and you add onto it the fact that someone told you that it's impossible and you want to prove them wrong...you can become 'unstoppable'.

Geez, I guess I could keep going, but I think I've given enough food for thought.

One last thing is that I have learned a tremendous amount from the non experts in this Inner Circle community. I have just as much to learn from each of you as I do from Tom and the others.

There have been many AH-HA moments but the one that changed my life was learning that Tom had a similar body type to my own. Let me explain...

I've been in fairly good shape from time to time in my life but I was never able to reach the super lean body fat levels -- 4 to 6%. I always gained fat very quickly as soon as I stopped doing whatever I was doing to stay lean.

Throughout my entire life, I was under the impression that there was no way I'd ever be able to reach those super lean levels and maintain them. Because of my somatotype (body type), which is endomorph/mesomorph, I felt I would always be doomed to carrying a layer of fat that hid any muscularity I developed.

After all, the bodybuilders in the magazines had 2 distinct advantages over me. Most had much superior genetics to mine and most used drugs to get that that super lean, muscular look. I felt I'd never be able to achieve a look like them due to having somewhat poor genetics and being unwilling to use drugs to get there.

Then I found Tom. I learned that he has a similar somatotype to my own and he was able to reach those super low body fat levels and he did it naturally. In addition, Tom kept his body fat percentage below 10% all the time.

THERE WAS HOPE! Could I actually reach those super low body fat levels? This was a huge AH-HA moment for me. I absorbed his eBook like a sponge absorbs water. For me, it was a quick read. I read it cover to cover in a day. I had seen most of the info in Tom's book before so most of the concepts weren't new to me. Most of it was scattered throughout other books I had read and in various places on the internet but NOWHERE could I find it all in one place. Not until BFFM.

I was on a high for weeks. I now had a role model that had reached the goals I've only previously dreamed of. My role model had written the outline for me to achieve these goals in BFFM. It was that day that my life changed forever. AH-HA!

The main AH-HA that would come to mind would be from the Get go in Tom's book. Let me back up a step and be brutally honest with you first. I am one of those people that doesn't get excited about much of anything. I have spent my life researching anything that I enjoyed and approaching whatever the task from an extremely analytical view. I made sure I wasn't blind sided with the unknown if that makes sense. 37 years later or actually 35 years later when I found BFFM, I read something in Chapter one that changed my very foundation in life. No diets, or training manuals, or School books ever discussed goals, affirmations or subconscious programming. I had never encountered this in anything I have done in my life. After digesting chapter one then reading Maltz's Book I felt like a kid in the candy store. For once in my life I was realizing things about myself that I could never quite figure out.

There is a black and white area that I lived by and now I have the gray for the entire package. When I was in my High school days , I was a huge Remote control Airplane Fan. I loved flying and building model gas powered airplanes. I was inundated (SP), with everything from the physics of flight, history, design, and concept. I collected engines and custom built many Model planes from Cubs, to Jets. I made sure whatever I did was to the best of my ability and always Better then the competition. I made darn sure that if there was a competition coming up I was going to win it whether it had to do with Model design or Flying special maneuvers. My competition in life was the Other person! Be the best at all costs, no matter what it takes.This all backfired on me as it has in other areas of my life. How so you ask? I ended up having no real competition that would challenge me and my drive in life. Back then I have to say *drive* because something was burning inside me to achieve things but I had no idea what this mechanism was and how it was firing. I ended up getting burned out of the hobby/sport because the High of winning and being all I could be was not good enough anymore. I had hit a brick wall and had no clue what to do to spice things up and make the sport interesting again.

I did this in so many areas of my life and what I would do is go cold turkey and switch over to a new Hobby/Skill/Sport and do my analytical manipulation all over again then achieve great things and toss it aside for the next new fangled thing to come along. I needed new highs, and new ways to define my potential in life. I have finally learned a BIG AH-HA after starting BFFM in regards to my competitive nature. I learned that its Not about the other guy. Life has Nothing to do with The other person! It has to do with setting goals to beat your very own personal bests. It has to do with competing against yourself and being better then you were the year, month, day, minute before. Its about having compassion for your fellow competition and enjoying not only your experiences and success but theirs as well. This was the edge I needed all my life and its totally redefined my entire outlook on everything I do. My vision is now measurable in the form of goals, affirmations and with subconscious programming. I have been working on these things with my 10 year old son and I can see a great difference in his relation with himself and those around him. This is the kind of core information I would love to see the educational system incorporate.

that's an awesome story and I can so relate with the part about not competing with others. I do that all the time and I THINK I should be able to complete with people half my age who are not overweight, never have been, and have trained to run or triathlon all their lives (and I've only done them for 3 years and I'm mid forties!). I don't know where this comes from and actually it's kept me from competing at all last year cause I just didn't want to awaken that competitive beast AND I was so discouraged about gaining a bunch of weight in the off season. I am so wanting to come to that AH HA as I re-read BFFM again after several years and really setting goals and following ALL of the instructions, not just the work outs.

So I guess I would say my AH HA so far is to SET GOALS!!! It's been my missing link this whole time and I've just gone around and around in a circle as a result. SET GOALS FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS these are my current take aways.

This quote hits home, "I don't know where this comes from and actually it's kept me from competing at all last year cause I just didn't want to awaken that competitive beast AND I was so discouraged about gaining a bunch of weight in the off season."

I know the feeling about waking the beast. The stress, and pounding that we put on ourselves in prep for a competitive situation is unreal. If I wasn't all with it, I would rather not show up at all then to show up and get knocked down a few notches. Whats funny about all this, is that we set all these boundaries and impositions in our heads of how we perceive things to be in our environment and in the minds of others. In doing so, we limit our growth potential and capabilities so much! How can we possibly know what others think or feel! Its all in our heads, and that's whats so great about moving all the focus from the people around us and putting it on yourself. Once you think about competition from this vantage then your whole experience will change with your event and you will come to enjoy those around you so much more!

Glad to read that others understand the struggle and have been there and how they have overcome. That's the beauty of the boards and real world wisdom! My brain is not always my friend!!

The most important AH-HA moment for me is a BFFM basic. Eating small frequent meals "is by far the most effective way to speed up your metabolism". I have to be honest, when I read that I thought BS...I "eat" those words now, and humbly admit my arrogance.

I have anorexia and brain washed myself for years around food and body issues. I wasn't skinny fat, I was skinny. It took two decades for my metabolism to just shut down, (lots of other damage prior to that) so to take a step of faith that my metabolism would work by eating small frequent meals was one of the most frightening things I've ever done.

To understand all that I had done to damage my body was a result of my thoughts, how I had formed the beliefs that could of (miraculously didn't) killed me and that I had the choice & ability to live differently from now on. So, when I continually say BFFM is the best and Tom ROCKS...well, now you know why.

There is a very strong mind body connection. So it IS all in your head!

That this is not easy. No pain, no gain was not just a cute saying. No way around it, work and dedication, no quick fixes.

My metabolism is probably not slow, just my couch potato or computer potato ways. That actually is the best news. I am not stuck here because of some physical deformity but from a extensive library of misinformation!

Hooray BFFM!

BFFM is the roadmap to weight loss for everyone no matter what their circumstances&&.. BFFM shows everyone can loose weight and that it works for everyone&&it's how you go about it. BFFM is not just one type of person, not just fit people, strong people, not just men, not just women. It works for everyone, once you follow it. The goal setting and explanations of what works and why, as well as the feedback loops are brilliant.

A bad weeks results are not failure but feedback&. This is huge for me, no more wondering why something didn't work&. Recording what you do enables you to identify what went well and why, what went bad and why&. I was a typical person before reading BFFM. I always thought I can't loose weight, I'm trying but it doesn't work (the chocolate, bad food and no exercise might have been a factor!!!). Now the self sabotage is visible and this means I can deal with it&.

The Inner Circle -- the support, advice and help from Inner Circle, the motivation from the Inner Circle is fantastic. Also Tom's interest in everyone in Inner Circle -- that he personally is involved and posts is very motivating.

BFFM has helped me understand where I am and why I am overweight. Weight loss wise I have am not a BFFM success in the normal sense of the word. I am about 7 lbs down from when I started in November but am much fitter and healthier. I have lost about 10% body fat and added this in muscle. Where BFFM has worked for me is that I know it can be done& Tom has explained it, give the scientific explanation. There is no reason for anyone not to loose weight. So, why haven't I lost weight? Well, here is where the gremlins start&. My problems are some unresolved issues in my past& I won't go into them but suffice to say as I started to work out my goals I found I had all these mental blocks in place. I didn't realize they were there or what a hold they had on me. I am currently fighting why way though them and believe me, its hard. However I know it will work and I will get there eventually...

My main "AH-HA" is similar to John B's where he said he realized Tom V is a similar body type to him and was able to get incredible lean, giving John the mentality that it is possible.

My "AH-HA" is very mental and has to do with the fact that although we say there are different somatotypes and everyone falls within this scale from endo to ecto with meso in the middle, to actually BELIEVE IT and know others are in the same shoes that are successful!!! What I mean is this...I would see and read how others were becoming successful (sometimes the right way, sometimes not) and think, "Well, that's their body, mine is TOTALLY different and will never respond the same way". The key was realizing our bodies are different, but not TOTALLY different. The majority of time I see this is when someone cuts their calories to a point that it's so low that their metabolism slows and they justify it by saying their body's genetics is worse than anything you've ever seen. That's just not true!!! It's easy to say that, but to believe it is the hard part. What cutting the calories too greatly leads to is a slower metabolism and hurting yourself. Then, after mentally convincing yourself that your body is so different, you continue to cut calories, hurting your body even more.

When I realized, I may have poor genetics but I can overcome this and my body will response how BFFM teaches, as long as I follow it properly, then mentally your body lets go a lot of that stress puts your body in a survival mode, which also may hurt your metabolism just as bad as the incredible cal deficit. I believe in BFFM Tom discusses muscle loss from cardio and says something like, "Actually, the stress caused from worrying if too much cardio is causing muscle to be burned is probably more harmful than the cardio itself" is along this same point.

To summarize, when I realized everyone's body is different, but we're all humans and the main principles will all be similar, with small adjustments due to genetics, that's when I knew any body fat percent is possible!

Actually, my greatest AH-HA came from reading the "Venutoisms" ... much of what is in BFFM is logic, instinct put into system and words, things I'd felt were right but hadn't found anyone to actually say; then there is the training and goal setting :) but the biggest AH-HA was that one Venutoism, nr 7 if I remember correctly. About getting away from negative people as fast as I would run from a burning house.

This may sound strange, or "not good", but thanks to that one little sentence, I got the guts to do what I should have done years before. I left my husband. Sounds terrible, but he is your typical negative person, in fact I've never met anyone so thoroughly negative and criticizing as he is. He would even take just one look at some unknown person on TV and state "he's a jerk" before the guy even opened his mouth ...

The worst of it was, that I began noticing myself acting more and more in the same way, a way that just wasn't the real me. I'm an optimist, an "everything is possible" person; not a "what's going to go wrong today" type at all. Yet there I was, sharing a house with someone who would look for 10 solutions to a potential problem (and having to find an 11th when and if that problem even occured anyway) ...

Thanks Tom, for that statement :) even though I'm certain it wasn't your intention to have anyone leave their spouses over your comments :D

The biggest "ah-ha" for me doesn't even have a close second competitor... Nothing great was ever achieved by being realistic! Most people get scared when setting goals and ask only for what they think they can get, not what they really WANT. This is a mistake because puny, "realistic" goals are NOT motivating. WANTS are motivating. -T.V.

Within a minute of reading that, I wrote down what I wanted rather than what I expected and have been driven by it ever since. Had I written down what I expected, the motivation would have lasted about 10 days (the average lifetime of the typical "New Years resolution.")

Here's the cool thing: my expectations have now changed. The fire lit by that one paragraph produced success and that success proves the goal will be reached. I expect it. All I have to do is be patient and wait. And, as long as I'm waiting, I might as well work my butt off to have something to do.

I find the titles chosen for the Progress Journals very interesting and often wonder if they reveal whether the person is working towards expectations rather than dreams. Titles like "Another try" suggest a focus on expectations and self-fulfilling, undesired outcomes. (I tried to make up that title so that it did not match any existing journal. I'm not trying to pick on anyone).

Dream it
Want it
Write it
Do it

There you have it!

55 'Burn The Fat AH-HA's'!

This is the type of discussions and powerful information Inner Circle Members have access to when they become a part of our community. If you're not a member yet, click on the link below to learn more about Inner Circle Membership

Train with purpose,

"Drink wu long tea and lose a jeans size every 7 days!" "Burn 20 lbs of fat in 30 days with wu long tea!"

Maybe you even watched Oprah a few years ago when Dr. Perricone said that switching your coffee for green tea would help you take off the pounds.

You may have also read or watched countless news stories which say how healthy it is to drink green tea.

The odds are good that if you're interested in improving your health and losing fat, you probably either drink tea, take a green tea supplement or you've at least thought about it.

But what if I told you that most of the fat reducing claims for green tea were absolute, total BS, based on misinterpretation or deliberate misreporting of the research?

Unfortunately, it's true. If you've bought green tea based on the claim that it causes large reductions in body fat, then you have been scammed.

Here are the facts:

Green tea DOES stimulate your metabolism.

However, the research is very unclear about what kind of impact this small, short term increase in metabolism will have on your bodyweight in the long term.

In the most often quoted study (Dulloo, 1999), A swiss research team found that 270 mg of green tea extract 3X a day increased metabolic rate by the equivalent of about 79 calories on average and increased the oxidation of fat as the fuel source.

If you do the math, it appears that 79 kcal a day would add up to an extra pound of fat lost every 44 days. Not much, but you'll take it, right? Hypothetically, that would add up to an extra 8 pounds lost per year.

What advertisements quoting this study don't tell you is that this and other similar studies did not even measure long term change in body fat percentage or bodyweight. They only measured a 24- hour increase in energy expenditure.

One study which is used as marketing ammunition to claim that wu long tea burns 2.5 times more fat than green tea was based only on a 120-minute increase in energy expenditure! (reminds me of that Mark Twain quote: "There are lies, damned lies, and then there are statistics.")

Numerous follow up studies have confirmed the short term increase in metabolism, but the studies are mixed on whether green tea improves weight reduction or maintenance in the long term.

The research IS compelling, but not conclusive.

As for ad claims that say you'll lose a lot of weight just from drinking green tea& absolute BS! Hopefully the Federal Trade Commission will catch up with these scammers sooner rather than later, as the marketing messages on the Internet are getting louder and bolder every day.

As for health benefits - green tea is certainly a champ. It's high in antioxidants and there are more than 2,000 research citations about potential health benefits of green tea (not to mention a 5,000 year history of use in China and the far east).

Even if you're a skeptic, green tea is hard not to like and it's hard to dispute that it's a good idea to add green tea to your nutrition program as one part of a well-balanced fitness lifestyle.

But when it comes to claims for large and rapid losses in bodyweight and bodyfat, (especially the wu long tea ads that are currently all over the internet), buyer beware.

The science we do have says that the thermogenic effect of green tea - while very real - is also very small.

Train hard and expect success always,

Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
Fat Loss Coach
www.BurnTheFat.com

PS - Tom Venuto has recently released the definitive guide on Green Tean and fat loss. If you are a member of the Inner Circle you can download Tom Venuto's E-book entitled "The Truth About Green Tea and Weight Loss" by Clicking Here.

PPS - If you are not yet a member of the Inner Circle you can learn more about this e-book by Clicking Here.

Here is the great exceprt from the "Physique Formula" interview that I mentioned in my audio message. After you read this excerpt be sure to listen to my 'Boiled Down Fat Loss Bullets' by hitting the play button at the audio button below the excerpt:

Jimmy Smith: Tom how do you structure your training differently from someone who's trying to bust through that 10% body fat plateau? Suppose you have someone stuck at 10% body fat and they can't seem to get through it, what do you do training-wise?

Tom Venuto: That's really going to depend on the person. It's very individual, because if you ask me, "Tom, what do you do personally in your own training, being that you're a competitive bodybuilder?" I might give you a completely different answer compared to what I would recommend for Suzy the soccer mom who's trying to break her fat loss plateau. Jimmy Smith: Ok, alright, well let's compare both of them. Let's start with Suzy the soccer mom, then go to Tom the bodybuilder.

Tom Venuto: Ok, well Suzy the soccer mom, she's got three kids running around, plus a husband (sometimes that makes four kids!) Maybe she's a housewife and that alone keeps her hands full, or maybe it's a two income home and she's working full time, but either way she's busy, so time efficiency is going to be a big concern. You're going to have to create a plan that's time efficient but also gets her the results that she wants. Sometimes there is a compromise because on one hand you have the ideal program that would give great results and on the other you have the realistic program that will give good results, but there's no way she will follow the ideal program, so the good realistic program is the right choice. It doesn't have to be perfect because she's probably not trying to get shredded and she has no intention of doing a figure competition, but maybe she does want to put on a bikini.

So we have to take all of these things into consideration. What we're seeing with most of the weight training program trends right now in dealing with time efficiency issues is using a lot of super sets for one thing. If they're not doing super sets they're doing some kind of high density training, and by "high density," I just mean that they're putting a whole lot of work into a short period of time. They're not doing a traditional bodybuilding workout where they hit a set, a rest of two minutes, hang out, hit another set and so on. The workouts are fast in terms of the work to rest ratio and we may even use increasing density as a progression tool. I think a super set program is a great way to do that. Supersets are used a lot in bodybuilding -- I love em'. The difference in the time restricted situation is you might do fewer exercises, only compound exercises, not many isolation exercises. And you might do unrelated body part supersets like back supersetted with legs which is something bodybuilders usually wouldn't do. Your soccer mom could explore circuit training too if she wanted to, but I'll tell you, I really like the super sets because I think circuit training sometimes dilutes the strength training and muscle building benefits a bit too much.

The next thing you'll do for Suzy soccer mom is be sure to choose the highest bang for your buck exercises like squats, lunges, deadlifts, Romanian deads, presses, chins and rows. Maybe that's not what Suzy had in mind, but she's not going to get there if she stays on the inner thigh machine and in pink dumbbell "toning" classes and never gets under a barbell. Again, this is good advice for everybody, but especially for the time efficiency scenario. If you take a compound exercise, it's going to knock off more muscle groups in one fell swoop. You do a chin up, you can call that a back and bicep workout, right, and you're going to save time. These exercises are also going to give you a higher energy expenditure, so if you stay with an 8-10 rep range or so with enough resistance, you can build muscle, stimulate metabolism and burn fat at the same time. You might burn more calories lifting than you do in your cardio.

The way it's different with a body builder like myself is I'll stay with the split routines and hang on to some of my isolation exercises. There has actually been a lot of negative sentiment towards that type of bodybuilding training from the main stream training community today and they're not wrong, if that kind of training is used in the wrong context, but I have absolutely no objections to staying with body part specific training for the body builder because that's how bodybuilders get the best results for their goals.

The way I approach my training different: Obviously there are major fat loss benefits to all weight training programs, but I don't even look at my weight training as fat loss training, I look to nutrition and cardio for breaking fat loss plateaus and when I'm in the gym lifting weights, fat loss is the furthest thing from my mind. I'm training that muscle, like a sculptor slapping clay on a statue. I'm trying to slap on muscle in this place and that place to develop the right symmetry because bodybuilding is about physical appearance and aesthetics. Some trainers say form always follows function, and everything has to be functional, but I don't necessarily agree completely. What would the definition of function or functional training be for a bodybuilder anyway? To look like a bodybuilder, you train like a bodybuilder. Basically it's all a matter of picking the right program based on each person's goals and taking in some lifestyle and time efficiency considerations as well.

Jimmy Smith: Right. I think about how many people do not understand the context thing like you said and you are a hundred percent correct, bodybuilding at the contest level is about physique and it's about sculpting and I think that's where the notion of lift the weights to build the muscle, and do the cardio to burn fat comes from. Like everything else, when taken out of the context it came from, it gets misunderstood when it's generalized to the masses. You just gave a great little illustration of how fat loss training would differ and the similarities in it between you know, a housewife, or regular average Joe and a bodybuilder, that was a great example.

------------------ End Of Excerpt... ------------------

Here are my 'Boiled Down Bullets...'

Just hit the Play Button below to listen to my take-aways from this excerpt:

The word "Intensity" has been given many meanings in the context of weight training and bodybuilding. Some strength coaches say the only true definition of intensity is the total amount of weight you lift or the amount of weight you can lift relative to your one repetition maximum ("load" intensity).

Kyle Battis: Hello, this is Kyle Battis, Site Manager of the "Burn The Fat Inner Circle" and we're back again today with another "Burn The Fat" Success Story, actually two Success Stories. The brother and sister team of James LeMoine and Terri Topraset. And we are really pleased to have James and Terri with us today, because they have a great story and some great tips to share with you today. James and Terri got our attention because we were looking at the Photo Gallery on the "Burn The Fat Inner Circle" recently and we saw their before and after photos. They really stood out because we see two photos, one before and one after. Occasionally someone posts a series of photos in a sequence, but all of the photos are one person. These before and afters were a little different. There were four photos: two befores and two afters, because James and Terri decided to tackle this challenge as a brother and sister team. We thought that was great because we believe that social support can be very powerful and we have even more proof of that. Your pictures speak for themselves, but James, why don't you get us started, by telling us about your results, the results that you got, that you've achieved so far? You know, pounds, body fat, measurements, strength, health, how you feel or anything else that you want to share?

James Lemoine: Well, at my heaviest, I weighed in at 277 pounds and had around 37% body fat. I'm now 198 pounds and in the neighborhood of 14% body fat. That's a drop of 79 pounds and about 23% body fat. I used to wear very tight pants, with a 44 inch waist. Now I'm comfortable with a 34-inch waist. I feel fantastic. My self-confidence has improved and I have all the energy I need to get through the day.

Kyle Battis: That's awesome James and congratulations. Please tell us about your achievements Terri. I know you're also a lot leaner today than you were eight months. So would you tell us about your results, please?

Terri Topraset: In May I started off at 149 pounds, and I now weight 124. I wasn't keeping the exact track of my waist measurement, but I know I've gone down at least 2 sizes and I've lost 3 inches off my thighs. I feel more confident because I'm stronger and healthier than I was before I started this program.

Kyle Battis: That's awesome, congratulations to both of you, and your results, and great teamwork on your part. Let's backtrack a minute, so you can tell us a little bit about yourselves. We'd like to get some perspective on what your lifestyle is like. Because some people might see your results and figure, "Oh, well, they must have unlimited time to work out, no stress, no kids running around; someone that makes all their food, etc., etc., and there's something that makes it easier for them or makes them different than everyone else." It's just a little conversation that might be going on in the back of some people's minds, when they hear about these Success Stories sometimes.

So please, just give us a short bio about where you're from; your age; if you have any other family; what you do and anything else personal that you want to share about yourself. So Terri, do you want to go first?

Terri Topraset: Sure. I'm a married 30-year-old mom with a very active 11-year-old son. I'm owner and operator of my own barber shop in Boise, Idaho and between running my business and taking care of my family, I've got a pretty busy schedule.

Kyle Battis: Okay. Cool. So you manage the shop, and I'm sure that comes with a lot of stress, and being an entrepreneur and all that fun stuff, so I'm sure it's not easy.

Terri Topraset: Yeah.

Kyle Battis: A lot of hours go into something like that I imagine?

Terri Topraset: It sure does!

Kyle Battis: Absolutely. Obviously you're still getting great results despite all of that. That's awesome. Yeah, that's a common complaint we hear from a lot of people, is, "I just don't have the time." "I'm a business owner." "I'm a busy mom," etcetera, etcetera. But you are all those things and you're still making it work right?

Terri Topraset: I am.

Kyle Battis: Okay, James. Your turn, my friend. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

James Lemoine: Well, I'm 31 years old and a single father with a 12-year-old son. In addition to raising a child on my own, I work as a software engineer and I'm a full-time student working on a business degree. Finding time to exercise and prepare my meals does put stress on my schedule but I found it necessary to make time for something that is so important to me.

Kyle Battis: That's awesome. So you're a single father, with a 12-year-old son and you've got a full-time job. As a software engineer, I'm guessing you spend a lot of time sitting in a front of a computer. Right?

James Lemoine: All day.

Kyle Battis: All day, okay. And that's a complaint we hear from people too. It's like, "I can't get in shape because I have a desk job. I'm bound to my desk all day long." But somehow with all the demands and you're getting a full-time degree on the side, and you're still able to live the "Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle" Lifestyle and get in shape. That's just squashing a lot of the excuses right from the start. Congratulations to both of you guys. James, how did you find out about the "Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle" program? Let's start there.

James Lemoine: Well, originally, I was scouring the Internet looking for a quick and easy fat loss solution. Reading reviews for various dietary supplements and other gimmicks, I came across a review for Tom Venuto's "Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle." The review talked about Tom's philosophy and natural methods to lose weight and keep muscle without the use of supplements, but with hard work and proper nutrition. I forget the details but the article had me intrigued so I clicked on the link to go to the BFFM site. I hesitated purchasing the book at first because $40 seemed like a stretch for what I thought could be another gimmick, but I was desperate and took the chance, and as they say, the rest is history.

Kyle Battis: That's great. So you found Tom's E-book and you got through it. Did pull right through it? Did you just pick over it, over time? How did you jump into his program?

James Lemoine: The first, I'd say couple of months after I bought the book, I just kind of picked over it and I didn't read it front to back. Then one day, I decided, "Now is the time" and I read it cover to cover and then I understood that there was no other way for me to lose weight. That was exactly what I needed and it took off from there.

Kyle Battis: Okay, Terri. So did you go right along with James' recommendation and trusted judgment on this program? Or did you have any other hesitations, thinking that, "This program might be more for men then woman?" What were your thoughts on that?

Terri Topraset: I didn't hesitate to start the program at all. I read "Burn The Fat" on James' recommendation. But the book speaks for itself. As soon as I started reading, I knew that my life was going to change. There's nothing in the book that suggests it's more for men than women. In fact, Tom does a good job of pointing out the areas of difference for men and women.

Kyle Battis: Great. Okay, cool. That's a big concern out there. I've heard it 100 times, women might look at this and say, "Okay, that's really not the kind of training that's right for me. Because a lot of the popular media is talking about something totally different. So that's great to hear.

Okay, now here's one of the big questions we've been dying to ask you guys. What we've been teaching for a long time, that one element of a fitness program that most people are missing is support, and that you need to take a close look at the people that you associate with and get into a positive social environment is absolutely crucial. So Tom Venuto published a report on this subject, called "The Fifth Element." We published some articles for our members about social support. So I have a couple of questions about this topic. First, how did you benefit from having an accountability and support partner? So Terri, let's start with you. What did you think on that topic?

Terri Topraset: Well, being accountable to James kept me on track. Without his support, I would have given up on balancing my meals and I would have more than one cheat meal per week. If I didn't have to call James every week, I would have eventually given up on the program. Having a support partner really kept me going.

Kyle Battis: Great. Okay, James. I'm going to put you on the spot a little bit here for a sec, if you don't mind. Was there any competitiveness or friendly sibling rivalry? I had two younger brothers growing up and we were always competing with each other. So what was the brother/sister dynamic like in your weight loss challenge together?

James Lemoine: I do have a competitive personality and I'm sure there was some friendly rivalry. If Terri had better results than I did on any given week, that would push me to do a little better the following week. I think being accountable to my sister is easier than being accountable to anyone else. In the beginning, I was more comfortable discussing the details of my poor physical condition with a family member and since she is on the program, she knows exactly with I'm going through and can provide the support I need to keep going with the program.

Kyle Battis: Yeah. There's some great wisdom in there. You talked about "someone that knows what I'm going though" and that's such a big piece of the social support. But sometimes when people are tackling a weight loss challenge or really looking to make a serious change in their physique, a lot of the people that are normally surrounding them have no idea what they're going through. You and Terri were going through this challenge together and had a direct perspective on what you're both going through. So you had each other to lean on which is awesome.

So you were checking up on each other, keeping each other accountable. Did you have a formal meeting at regular intervals to check each other's program? Whether in person or by phone, or email? And if you did, what happened at those meetings?

James Lemoine: Every Friday morning, we would call each other to discuss our weekly results. First, we would go over the total weight loss and how much of that was fat or lean mass. From there, we would discuss our separate workout routines and energy levels. Then we would also go over our mean plans and propose to each other, if we thought it might improve results. If the weekly plan wasn't working, one of us might call the other midweek, to talk about what changes need to be made. This type of accountability worked well for us.

Kyle Battis: Cool. Terri, is there anything you want to add to that? Or is that pretty good?

Terri Topraset: No, sure. There were a couple of times, I get into old habits and had a second cheat meal midweek. When Friday came around, my results were not as favorable as I would have liked. Of course, James wanted to know my weekly numbers were not as they should be so I had to confess. James reminded me not to sacrifice a week's worth of hard work for a badly timed cheat meal. By honest with James, we were both able to learn from those experiences.

Kyle Battis: That's great. So you confessed up and there was a couple of times where you feel off the wagon, and that's normal. James, did you have any times like that? Did Terri help you in those similar situations? Or were you pretty good at staying on track?

James Lemoine: Well, I would start making the same mistakes that I would correct Terri for doing. For example, there were four occasions where I hit a weekly plateau, and each time my instinct was to cut calories even though I knew better, Terri would still need to remind me that I should increase my calories with my activity level. Sure enough, that would kick start the fat loss again.

Kyle Battis: Great. Let me ask you guys, what did the rest of your family think when you first started on the program together? And what do they think now?

James Lemoine: At first, our parents were concerned, but this is to be expected with all of the unhealthy diets out there. They couldn't argue about the nutrition aspect of the program. But they didn't think it was realistic to eat clean food every three hours for any significant length of time. We both got the feeling that they dismissed our efforts as just another fad. After a few months, they couldn't deny the results we were both achieving. Our success has inspired both of our parents to take their own health more seriously.

Kyle Battis: That's awesome. That's great to hear. So they're both picking things up. You set up a great example for your parents and now they're carrying the ball. That's awesome. How about you, Terri? Overall, what advice would you give to every person listening, about how they can use accountability and social support to get the best results? I'd love to hear your thoughts on that, Terri.

Terri Topraset: The best advice I can give is to be honest with your results, and not make excuses. If you're not honest with those, you're holding yourself accountable, then you're sabotaging your chances for success. If you have a partner, you may get in the way of their progress as well.

Kyle Battis: Yeah, absolutely. Being honest and just sharing what the truth is and if you do that and take a good, hard, cold look at the results. Tom is always talking about the feedback loop, and it is so simple of an idea, that just test yourself every week, see where you're at and what your results are telling you. Then change what you're doing based on the results you're getting.

Terri Topraset: Absolutely.

Kyle Battis: So how about, anything that you want to add to that, James?

James Lemoine: Yes. I think it's important to have a method of accountability in place. Sharing your weekly results with another person is a good way to do that, but you need to make sure that that person won't let you off the hook when the results start to slide. Unless your family is going through the same program with you, I wouldn't recommend using family for accountability. It's better to find someone that will be disappointed if you fail. That way you're more likely to stick with the plan and reach your goal.

Kyle Battis: Yeah. that's a good point. There's no point in accountability, if they're going to let you slack and let you off the hook. You know? I was just talking-- In one of our recent Success Stories, I interviewed a woman named Rhonda, and Rhonda actually hired a personal trainer. She found that to be very, a powerful accountability tool because every week, the personal trainer was showing up and testing her and pushing her. She wanted to see progress every week. So that was Rhonda's accountability thing. You guys used each other. It's all about finding somebody that will hold you accountable and that is important, and that's why we have the Inner Circle, of course, is so you guys can have an easier time finding accountability partners and a group of people that are looking to achieve what you want to achieve.

So let's switch gears here and let's talk about food. Obviously it's an important piece of the fat loss puzzle. It's one of the five crucial elements. I think people tend to get a little overwhelmed pretty easily when talking about nutrition and food. In your opinion, what do you think are the top two or three most important food and nutrition changes someone can make in their diet, if they were to do it in order of priority, starting with the most important and then moving down from there? So either one of you, feel free to jump in on that question.

James Lemoine: |image4| Well, I think, people first need to change the way they look at food. Learning to view food as fuel for the body will go a long way in achieving the proper mindset for a dedicated nutrition program. Then everybody should start looking at the nutrition labels on their food. Reading and understanding these labels will give a better idea of what is exactly going into their body. Many people eat certain foods because they think it is healthy, when in fact it is not. Once you learn the labels, it is easy to see if a food can be easily incorporated into their nutrition plans. Then the next best thing is to start counting the calories. It can be tedious doing this on a daily basis, but this is a habit that is essential to achieving long-term results and working through the weight loss plateau.

Kyle Battis: Yeah, it's crucial stuff. It's simple, but understanding how many calories you're taking in, you know, knowing where you're at; understanding where you need to be to get that fat loss kicked in. And then understanding like what you're taking in on a daily basis. I think so many people are just unaware of how many calories are in certain foods. Doing the due diligence and picking up those labels and plugging in some numbers, even if you just do it once at the beginning, you find out, and it's really eye-opening. It was for me anyway. When I went though Tom's program originally, just pulling out labels and plugging all the math together, I was amazed at how many calories I was eating. I'm sure that was eye-opening for a lot of people. So Terri, anything you wanted to add into that? Terri Topraset: Yeah. The first thing I'd recommend is to get control of what you're eating, cut the refined carbs, sugar and saturated fats. Write everything down. Then it becomes easy to see where the nutrition problems are. From there, you can determine how many calories you're eating and make adjustments, if necessary. So I agree with you guys a hundred percent.

Kyle Battis: Awesome. You guys both mentioned earlier to me that you felt meal planning was one of your major keys to success. So would you explain specifically what you meant by "meal planning" and what the benefits were, and why taking the time to do it was so important for you guys?

James Lemoine: Well, for me, I sit down in the morning and plan all six of my meals for the day. This way, I know how many calories I'll be eating and how the meals will be balanced. Having this plan makes eating the proper foods idiot-proof. With all this in place, the hard work of figuring out what to eat is already done and then all I have to do is eat the food. Planning is important when counting calories. Eating six meals a day, a small calorie discrepancy in each meal could add up to 300 calories for the day. This can make the difference between losing weight or not.

Kyle Battis: Yeah, just those details, it's a small detail. But like you said, it can be the difference between not losing fat and losing the fat. So that's huge. That's the key right there. You don't know what you don't know. By tracking this stuff, you're taking all the guesswork out and you're making sure you're going to achieve the results you're looking for. You add that to the feedback loop and that's great. So let's talk about the journaling that you guys did. James told me that you kept food journals on spreadsheets almost daily. That would seem like a lot of work to some people listening to this. In fact, there's a lot of diet gurus telling people not to count calories or count anything for that matter. Just to eat certain foods and that's it. So why were you so meticulous about journaling? And looking back, what do you think the benefits of all that were?

James Lemoine: I could take that one. I kept records for a couple of reasons. When I reached a plateau, having dated meal plans allowed me to go back and see what food adjustments I made in the past to get through the previous plateau. If I found myself getting drowsy at work, I could go back through the previous week of meals to see if there was a nutritional change that caused me to be tired. Keeping the food records also served as another layer of accountability. It was very motivating, for me at least, to see the spreadsheet pile up on the computer one meal plan at a time.

If you are a current member of the Inner Circle you can read the Entire Success Story interview with James and Terri by Clicking Here.

If you are not yet a member of the Inner Circle and want to have access to this full interview and much, much, more than you can check out the link below to see what the Inner Circle has to offer:

Train with purpose,

Kyle Battis: Hey, this is Kyle Battis, site manager for Burn the Fat Inner Circle and today we're here with another success interview with Bob Pfeiffer, one of our members at Burn the Fat Inner Circle. We like to call Bob "Ranger Bob" and you'll find out a little bit more about that in a minute. I'm very pleased to have Bob with us today. He's got a great story. He's has some awesome success with the Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle program and I look forward to sharing his success with you. So really pay attention. He's got some great insights; some great tips that will help you improve your own health and fitness results. So Bob thanks so much for being here with us today.

Bob Pfeiffer: Okay. I'd like to thank you Kyle and I appreciate you and Tom for inviting me to share my story.

Kyle Battis: It's great. Getting a chance to share these stories with our other members is a real pleasure for me because I learn something every single time I interview one of our successful Burn the Fat customers that has taken the information and really applied it. That's Tom's passion is sharing that information and it really makes him feel great when people like you take that information and do something really special with it. So let's just jump right in, Bob. I understand that you're now about 48 years old and you've achieved a body weight of 172 pounds and a body fat percentage of around 8%. That's awesome.

Your pictures speak for themselves but I just wanted to say congratulations and great job. So I read the bio you sent me and you have a really interesting background in the military as a ranger, paratrooper and then in private military work that included a lot of world travel. So before we talk about your physique transformation will you just share a little bit about your background for our listeners?

Bob Pfeiffer: Sure. I spent 24 years in the Army as a paratrooper. I had 205 parachute jumps out Ft. _____, an Army ranger, drill instructor and my last duty assignment was as the Regimental Sergeant Major of the Old Guard at Ft. Meyer, Virginia sending of the International Cemetery. The majority of your readers will recognize that unit as the Tomb of Unknown Soldiers or Sentinels and recently participate in funerals like Presidents Reagan and Ford. My point is that in those types of units physical fitness and appearance are extremely important. So I knew what right looked like. After I retired in 2000 I went to work for a private military company and spent two years travelling back and forth to Africa and then May of 2003 I spent the year in Iraq, in Baghdad.

Kyle Battis: Yeah, that's great. So from what you told me previously you said that there was a single event that made a profound impact on you. Something that in your own words devastated you and was triggering event that made you swear to change. So could you tell us and the listeners about that event, Bob?

Bob Pfeiffer: Well in 2004 after the Iraq deployment I took some time off, played lots of golf. I joined a golf club where I live down in Prince William County, Virginia. So every morning being not working at the time I'd be on the first tee box usually with a cigar and a beer in my hand. I continued doing this throughout the spring and the summer until we had an old guard reunion down at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia. It was a golf tournament. I was playing the annual tournament and one of the older guys came up to me and slapped me in my belly and he said, "Hey Sergeant Major, you look just like us."

Those words, even though I don't think he meant them to be mean did devastate me because I had always had a lot of pride in what I looked like. I swore that from that moment on I would change. His words had more of an impact on me than anything I think I've ever been told in my entire life. That night I weighed myself. It was 246 pounds, 29%, probably 30% body fat and a size 40 pants which I owned one set of khakis at the time, Dockers. Triple chin, looked disgusting in the mirror and on and on.

Kyle Battis: Yeah, it's amazing how a simple off-handed comment like that can just really change things sometimes in a huge, huge way. So thanks again for sharing that. I know it's not always easy to share that kind of experience but obviously you've taken that and done some amazing things with it. So we've heard similar stories time and time again from people who suddenly turn their lives around with just one emotional trigger like that. For some people unfortunately it was a health crisis or what they had called lost bottom experience. What advice would you give to our listeners to help them get motivated and take action immediately, right now without waiting for some negative trigger experience or getting bad news from a doctor?

Bob Pfeiffer: Well for some of us it helps us to remember what we used to be like like for me. For others maybe it's looking at others that they would like to be like like a role model. Maybe we know people that are close to us especially at my age where we're seeing some of our friends start experiencing some health issues related to weight and lack of physical fitness and we can learn from their situations. The main thing that I would tell anybody is to take action immediately. Start today. Begin with that goal.

|image5|Make a goal card just like Tom talks about, commit and then start. I think everybody would be surprised how easy it is once they can get their mind focused. I think we live longer in good health and we'll be around for our loved ones. I have a couple of kids who are young adults now, one 18, one 17 and I'd like to be physically active when they have kids. Living an unhealthy lifestyle of course tears you down and being fit, active and healthy keeps you going for a very long time.

Kyle Battis: Very true my friend, very true. So you have mentioned the very next day after you had experienced that kind of negative comment or that comment from one of your colleagues that you looked for a diet program on the Internet. Can you share how you learned about the Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle program and why you decided to start using Tom's program in particular out of all the options that are out there?

Bob Pfeiffer: Sure. The very next day I got on the Internet, I got on Google and I typed in "Diet". Of course thousands of things start appearing. A lot of them I'd heard and probably even had tried a couple of them before. So I think all of diets pretty much will work but it's how long can you stay on it. How long can you live like that? But then I noticed that Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle popped up, Renegade body builder Tom Venuto. I thought to myself, "Who better than a body builder than to get the kind of body that I wanted."

So I ordered it right then and there. I read it numerous times, made sure I understood it. Had a copy, carried it with me. The first thing I did was just like you said, "Start from the beginning," and pay particular attention into making that goal. So I made myself the goal card. My original goal started was to once again fit in my Army dress blue uniform which is the one with all the little medals and all that that I had bought. I started to condition my mind to think of food as fuel, not entertainment or enjoyment. I kind of relayed it to high octane fuel going into your vehicle versus some cheap stuff that will make it jump and skip. So I was conditioning my mind. So that's how it all started.

Kyle Battis: That's great. So real quick, Bob, would you just give our listeners a summary once again where you started the day you started the program and where you are now with body weight, body fat, waist measurements, how you look, overall health, blood pressure, everything just to give people a good picture of where you started and where you are now?

Bob Pfeiffer: September 2004 when I started I weight 246 pounds. Today I'm 172. My body fat was pushing 30% and now it's 8% to 9%. My waist was 40 inches and now it's 31. My cholesterol today is around 143. My blood pressure was 145/90 which is mild hypertension and is now 118/60. My pulse was 81 and my resting heart rate today is around 48. I haven't had any illnesses in the last three years and I feel great.

Kyle Battis: That's awesome. Great. That's just fabulous results so far my friend. Awesome work. You're probably very inspiring to people listening to this I hope. So let's talk about the training you did to get these kind of results. So the Burn the Fat program is based on body building style of nutrition and training. I know that a lot of people in the military are conditioned to do a lot of calisthenics and body weight exercises as opposed to a traditional body builder type of workout. So seeing how muscular your physique is I'm curious about whether you followed the body building style of progressive resistance weight training or if you simply used the Burn the Fat nutrition guidelines and you did a more military style conditioning workout?

Bob Pfeiffer: Well I believed in what Tom stated which is the nutrition is the most important thing. I think our bodies are actually made in the kitchen. If you want the six pack of abs it's what you're putting in your body. The working out I do the cardio and I do strength training. So it's more the body building. In the Army we did a lot of cardio of course running everyday but our muscular was more towards endurance versus strength type of exercise. Today I lean more towards the weight but I still incorporate the pull up and the push ups...

If you are a current member of the Inner Circle you can read the Entire Success Story interview with Ranger Bob by Clicking Here. (You can you also listen to the complete audio version of the interview there as well).

If you are not yet a member of the Inner Circle and want to have access to this full interview and much, much, more than you can check out the link below to see what the Inner Circle has to offer:

Train with purpose,

I recently had a chance to interview a Burn The Fat Inner Circle member who has lost 120 pounds...

Today I'm posting an excerpt from one of two recent teleseminars featuring fat loss excerpt Tom Venuto. Tom had them transcribed and turned into ebooks and MP3 audios that he's actually giving away for free as part of a 3 day special promotion ending February 14th. Go to www.Burnthefat.com for more information on that.

I wanted to share this excerpt from the seminar with you in particular (I got permission from Tom to reprint this). I think you'll find it fascinating because it explains the real reasons why people hit fat loss plateaus. It happens especially when you get down to that "last 10 lbs" or when you drop a lot of weight, and you hit the "good" body fat category, but you're an "overachiever" and you still want to get even leaner& all the way to "ripped", or at least lean enough to see your abs.

Breaking through plateaus is a challenge, but there IS something you can do about them... read on and see what Tom says about it.

EXCERPT FROM THE 2-PART "SUPER LEAN" SEMINARS QUESTION: "Our first question says, "Tom, I know you often say that to get to the point to be able to see your abs, you need to get to single-digit body fat. What if I hit a plateau at about 12% body fat? What do I need to do to break the plateau and get my fat% down to single digits? Should I do more cardio, more weight-training, manipulate my diet somehow?" ANSWER: "You could do any of the above. You could manipulate your calories, change type of cardio, add cardio duration or frequency. You could increase cardio intensity. You could change your weight-training. You shouldn't limit yourself. One of the problems I see with quite a few programs is that they're too dogmatic. If you hit a plateau, the person with the most flexibility in their approach is the person who's going to be most likely to get through that plateau.

The first thing though is to understand what a plateau really is. This is important, because if you were losing weight, but now you're not, there's only one thing that that could mean; you were in a calorie deficit but you're no longer in a calorie deficit.

You may be wondering why that happens.

There are four primary reasons you hit a plateau:

The first reason you hit a plateau is because your metabolism decreases. While this does not completely stop fat loss, it does slow down fat loss. If you've been cutting calories, especially if you cut them severely, your body adapts by decreasing the metabolic rate. That's sometimes known as the "starvation response" or "Adaptive thermogenesis."

The second reason is that you need fewer calories after you lose weight. Calorie needs are directly tied into your body weight. One problem is that after people lose a lot of weight, they tend to keep eating the same way they were eating when they were heavier.

So they're feeding a smaller person the way they were when they were a bigger person, but when you're a smaller person, you don't need as many calories, even at rest (your basal metabolic rate is lower).

A third reason is that when you move that smaller body, you're not burning as many calories. If you strap on a weighted vest or heavy backpack and go out and hike up a hill, you can tell, obviously, that if you're lugging around extra weight, you're burning more calories. So now can you see why, after you lose weight, you burn fewer calories?

The fourth reason is that most people either cheat on their diets or they forget to record part of their food intake. This one requires a little bit of honesty with yourself. Even if you don't do it intentionally and you don't "cheat" per se, unconsciously, we're all terrible at estimating how much food we eat.

Some studies have even showed under-reporting calorie intake as much as 50%. In other words, you say, "I'm only eating 1,200 calories a day, but i'm stuck at a plateau!" but you're really eating 1,800 calories a day which doesn't give you much of a deficit.

All of these reasons for plateaus get amplified in the later stages of a diet, because biologically speaking, your body is doing everything it possibly can to get you to go off your diet and to get weight to stabilize.

After a long period of dieting and after a large weight loss, your body cranks up the appetite, stimulates cravings and tries to trick you into eating more.

The leaner you get, the longer you've been dieting and the more aggressively you cut calories, the more your body tends to defend its weight, and hold on to remaining body fat.

So it's really common to hit that plateau when you're dieted down and leaner. Usually it's nowhere near as difficult for the overweight person to start losing weight as it is for the lean person to get even more lean. The last 10 lbs is usually a lot harder than the first 10.

If you think about it, it's pretty unnatural from a biological perspective to walk around with really low single-digit body fat. It's not beneficial from a survival-of-the-species point of view to have low body fat. So this metabolic adaptation becomes more pronounced the leaner you get.

you're also at a higher risk of losing muscle, because extra muscle is not economical when there's a calorie shortage. Having extra muscle is like having an engine that's bigger than you need - It's like a gas guzzler.

The ultimate answer to why you plateau, why that last 10 pounds is so hard to lose and why it's hard to break into those single digits is that you were in a calorie deficit but for all of the reasons mentioned above, you're no longer in deficit.

The Way To Break The Plateau Then Is To: (1) re-stimulate metabolism and re-set fat-burning and starvation hormones, and (2) re-establish the deficit. (3) KEEP AFTER IT!

The question was, "How do I do that? More cardio, more weight training, manipulate my diet?"

You could do all of the above. Eating less or exercising more can both increase a deficit. But one thing you might want to do first, is give yourself a little break. Take your calories up to maintenance level, maybe for a week.

The idea there is not to try to accelerate fat loss, because what you're actually doing is removing your calorie deficit for a short period of time. What you're trying to do is facilitate the fat loss when you jump back into it.

It gives your body a physiological break from the stress of dieting; it resets some of those starvation hormones and stimulates your metabolism so when you go back to the calorie deficit, your body responds again.

You also get mental break from the diet as well, which makes it easier to stick with the program when you go back to it.

You could also use a calorie cycling approach, to help prevent yourself from hitting another plateau, and we already covered calorie and carb cycling in the last call.

I also recommend, because so many people underestimate how much they eat, don't take any chances. Count your calories, or at least become really aware of the portion sizes and maybe even consider keeping a journal.

You've probably been told many times by a lot of different "experts" that you don't have to count calories. But when you're in a plateau, I'd recommend that you stop guessing and really get serious about what you're taking in.

Then what you need to do is reestablish that calorie deficit using every tool at your disposal.

Use nutrition by pulling back your portion sizes. Or use cardio. And by increased cardio, I mean increasing energy expenditure. You could increase your frequency. You could increase your duration.

But increasing energy expenditure is not necessarily doing longer workouts, just burning more calories. You could also take the same amount of time that you're spending right now and increase your intensity.

The whole idea is just burn more calories and stimulate metabolism, which gives you your deficit back again or you can pull back your food intake and give yourself a deficit again from the food side.

There's more than one way to do it and I don't think that you should lock yourself in. Use all of the variables and remember that there are TWO sides to the energy balance equation, not one."

(End of Excerpt)

I hope you enjoyed this excerpt, and mostly, I hope you put the information to good use!

This was just one short excerpt from almost two hours of audio in Tom's new 2-Part "Super Lean" seminar. Tom is giving away the entire seminar for free with the purchase of his ebook Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle, but only until February 13th."

If you are already an Inner Circle member you can download the Part1 Written Interview Here, Part 2 of the Written Interview Here, Part 1 of The Audio Interview Here, and Part 2 of The Audio Interview Here!

If you are not yet an Inner Circle member or an owner of what, is in my opinion, the best fat loss book ever written, then you can get more information on Tom's Burn The Fat program AND his new "Super Lean" seminar at: www.BurnTheFat.com

Train with purpose,

Kyle Battis, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
Burn The Fat Inner Circle Site Manager

 

This audio excerpt reveals Tom's 1 Fat Loss strategy for getting to super-low body fat percentages and you 'MUST' hear it if you are
at all interested in getting super lean yourself (or even if you are just looking to shed a few pounds)...

You can listen to this audio clip for Free by clicking on the Play Button below:

If you are a current member of the Inner Circle then 'skip the clip' and get the full 20 minute audio by Clicking Here!

Train with purpose,

Kyle Battis, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
Burn The Fat Inner Circle Site Manager

Craig Ballantyne: Tom, we've talked nutrition before, and we've debated exercise, but this might be our most important interview yet, because you're going to help our readers finally put it all together and become more compliant! That's right, you're going to help them stick with the program, through good times and bad. First, why don't you tell us what YOU do when you are tempted to go off track, especially during your diet phases for competitions.

Tom Venuto: I'm almost never tempted to go off track when I'm training for competition. I'm more committed and disciplined than ever at that time. If anything, I go the opposite direction and border on being obsessive-compulsive. It's when I don't have an important goal like competition that I might lose focus or not train as hard. Why would I train as hard as possible if there were no reason to do so? I think that's the valuable lesson: If you don't have big, exciting goals and a big reason why you must achieve them, that's when you start to go off track.

Your goals have to be compelling. Just "staying in shape" or "staying healthy" is not motivating. Those are not good goals. This is the reason that I don't think I will ever retire from bodybuilding. As long as I'm a bodybuilder, I'll have an avenue where I can set and pursue an endless number of new goals that will keep me motivated and excited.

Bodybuilding is more than goals though, it's a sport, a discipline and a lifestyle that I can include in the vision for my entire life. Being a bodybuilder is also a part of my identity. It's part of who I am and how I see myself, not just something I do. How you identify and define yourself has a lot to do with why you do the things you do. As long as I can call myself a bodybuilder, my behavior is always going to be congruent with what a bodybuilder should be. On a subconscious level, I'm always saying to myself, "would a bodybuilding champion eat that?"

So that's my overall philosophy and the big picture, but let me give you something more specific too. One trick I use to stay on track is my "contest countdown calendar." I either use a desk or wall calendar or I type up a chart that shows a week per row with an open block of space for each day. I start by marking the competition date on the calendar. Then I start counting backwards from my deadline to the present day& T Minus 94 days& T Minus 93 days& and so on. I also write down what I will be training each day and what time.

Most people say they start strong but lose motivation as they go along. I actually find myself getting more motivated and focused with each passing day as I see the deadline getting closer. If you don't quantify and feel the time pressure, it's really easy to say, "I have plenty of time, so this one cheat meal doesn't matter& it doesn't make much difference at this point if I skip this one workout -- I'll have time to make it up." But it does matter.

When you read your goals every day and also use a countdown calendar, it's a great way to give instructions to your subconscious mind. It may seem like an impossible task to nail your condition on one day of the year, but when your subconscious can take over, you automatically self-correct your course and everything seems to fall into place easily and come together perfectly on contest day.

Craig Ballantyne: Okay, that's great, but you're a dedicated veteran to the health and fitness scene. What about people that are new to a healthy lifestyle? For some people, they spent all last week on the couch and eating take-out. How can they start being more consistent with their nutrition and training plans? Basically, how can they prevent the wheels from falling off the program?

Tom Venuto: Everything starts with setting well formed goals and putting them in writing. You answer the question, "what, specifically, do you want? Ironically, the best that most people can say is, "I want to lose weight," or "I want to get in shape." Those are poorly set goals because they're not specific. The more clarity you have, the better.

The second step is to get leverage on yourself and get emotionally involved with your goal by answering the question, "Why do you want it?" The reason why is what creates lasting drive from within and keeps you going strong. Why is it important to you? What will it do for you? How will your life change? What will be the consequences if you don't achieve it?

The third step is to create an action plan -- in this case a menu and a workout program -- then put it in writing and take action on your plan every day.

The fourth step is to stay focused on your goals and action plans constantly. Read your goals as affirmations every day with desire and faith and belief. Visualize them every day as if you had already achieved them. People who are successful think about what they want and how they're going to get it, all day long. People who are unsuccessful think about their problems and what they don't want, all day long. You move towards what you focus on.

That's as simple a formula for getting off the couch and getting started as you can get. As long as you're clear about your goals, you know the reasons why you want to achieve them, and you stay focused on them constantly, that will keep your wheels on the track and rolling in the right direction.

To read the rest of this insightful interview Inner Circle Member's can Click Here!