Question:

I am professional dancer and I have recently change my eating and exercising habits and dropped 20 lbs. I do 40 minutes of cardio first thing in the morning 5 days a week and I do the ab wheel every night and some push ups pull ups and dips 3x a week. I still have a little bit of fat around my lower abdominal area. I know diet is 80% of the battle and I eat fruits and vegetables everyday along with lean protein and a little bit of carbs. Are there any little tricks I can do to lose the last little bit of fat? Otherwise I am quite happy with my body… Thanks Doug!

Congrats on your weight loss and getting a body you’re happy with. And props for addressing the major issues like exercise and nutrition and for realizing their importance before worrying yourself with the smaller details.

Here is what I noticed you’re doing right:

• Nutrition–eating lean protein, fruits, and vegetables every day-keeping carbs to a minimum.
• Exercise
  • Frequency- This is how many times per week you exercise. I haven’t stressed this very much on this blog, but frequency is crucial. You’ve built a lifestyle that incorporates exercise so you can get your work in 5+ days a week–way to go!
  • Strength Training- You’re doing 3 days/week of some sort of strength work with your dips, pushups, and pull-ups.
  • Cardio- You’re also incorporating cardio 5 days per week (though I recommend interval training).
  • Core-Training-Keep it up with the pushups and ab wheel exercises.
• Mindset–You realize the importance of nutrition and consistent exercise, are not looking for shortcuts, and you’re obviously willing to put in the necessary work.

That being said, there is one thing I noticed from what you told me about your program that jumped out at me.

Where’s the lower body strength training?!!!!!

Ya know, for your ass and legs—You missed a few BIG muscles here.

Remember, you want to build muscle so that your body burns fat more efficiently. And believe me-if you’re not yet incorporating resistance training with your lower body, you still have a lot of room to grow.

I know you’re doing cardio (and a lot of it), but you’d be better off replacing 20 minutes of cardio with some squat, deadlift, and lunge variations on your three strength training days. This will allow you to keep the ball rolling with your results.

This will ensure that every part of your body will be constantly in a state of building new muscle and burning Calories, (which is what you want in order to lose that last bit of fat.)

So go do some squats and let me know how it goes!!!

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ok so i’ve heard if you run early in the morning you shouldn’t eat breakfast before because if you do then you’re just burning what you ate, but if you don’t your stomach is empty so you’re burning fat. I’ve also heard that you should eat breakfast before because it gives you energy and helps you burn more calories. So which is better eating breakfast or not before you run(if you’re trying to loose weight)?

Answer:

If you’re trying for to maximize fat loss, there are SO many more important factors that come in to play.

Such as.. Meal frequency, types of foods eaten, number of calories eaten per day, type, intensity, frequency, and duration of exercise.

It is more important that when you exercise, you’re at peak performance in order to get the best workout. Getting a good workout allows you to burn Calories during exercise, and also elevates your metabolism afterwords (google ‘EPOC’)

So to answer your question, find a time to eat that you’re comfortable with — listen to your body.

For me, I would eat something smaller 20-30 minutes before the workout, but it would depend on other things like how long I’ve been up, etc.

Hope this helps!!

P.S. I added some audio to this post, so be sure to check it out by clicking play below.

Technorati Tags: breakfast, cardio, diet, fat loss, meal timing, weight loss