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Lesson 5 - How Long Does it Take to Lose Belly Fat and GetSix Pack Abs?How long does it take to lose belly fat and get a nice defined stomach? The answerdepends on a couple of factors. We’re going to talk about 4 main factors today that aregoing to influence your ability to lose weight and lose it quickly.1)2)3)4)Your body type, which is going to be heavily influenced by geneticsFat cellsDietExerciseThere are three main classifications of body types: ectomorphs, mesomorphs andendomorphs. Ectomorphs have a tendency to be naturally slim and have high energylevels. They never really have a problem losing weight. I am more of an ectomorph. Ihave a tough time gaining weight and a tough time putting on muscle. It’s easy for me tolose weight, especially if I miss any meals. Ectomorphs are, well, ectomorphy!Mesomorphs are your 100 meter sprinters, your Arnold Schwarzenegger. They have ahigh metabolism like the ectomorphs but they have an easier time putting on musclemass.Gaining weight is very easy and gaining muscle is very easy for mesomorphs whichmeans that losing weight is very easy for them too because they have a lot of musclewhich means they have a higher basal metabolic rate and they burn more calories. It iseasiest for the mesomorphs to gain muscle definition.The endomorphs have the short end of the stick when it comes to losing fat. I will behonest with you, if you are someone who is a little more round, have an easy timeholding onto weight and a tougher time losing it, it’s not going to be an easy road tomuscle definition.There could be an association with low thyroid functioning that decreases yourmetabolism which compounds the issue. If you are an endomorph then pay specialattention to all of these lessons.It is important to realize that depending on which body type you most dominantly exhibit(and we are not one or the other, but really a combination of all three) if you are more ofan endomorph, it is going to take a lot more work and diligence than someone who ismore of an ectomorph or a mesomorph to lose fat and see more definition. 2009 Fitter U FitnessFitterUFitness.com
You can see my muscles no problem. If I want to lose fat it takes me no time at all, but ifyou ask me to put a couple of inches on my biceps then we’re talking about me being inthe gym 24/7 doing serious workouts. It would take a lot of hard work. It’s the samething with an endomorph.If you want to lose weight as an endomorph it is going to take a lot of hard work becauseyou are working against your body’s nature to some degree. But, it can be done andmillions of people are doing it right now. So if you are in that category, keep your chinup and know that you can do it. We’re going to show you in these lessons how it can bedone.In regards to getting where you want to go as far as muscle definition, it’s going todepend a lot on where you are right now. In the second lesson we talked about fat cellsand fat cell receptors.Today I want to talk about the fat cell itself. Fat cells are known as adipocytes. Theyhold onto fat as stored energy. Certain receptors on the fat cell allow hormones toinfluence them such as hormone sensitive lipase and break down the fat into fatty acids tobe taken out of the body through the blood and used for energy.I think it was as recently as 2007 that researchers discovered the adipose gene. This is agene that determines your fat cell makeup. Generally, an adult has about 30 billion fatcells. Common thinking used to be that you were born with a set number of fat cells, butthis might not be the case.In general, if you are at a healthy weight as an adult, you acquired all of your fat cellsbefore you hit puberty. Puberty is the closing window for any new development of fatcells. If you are a fairly lean adult, you will have the same number of fat cells throughoutyour lifetime.Now, if you put on excessive weight even in your adult years, new research shows thatthese fat cells can grow up to 4-fold and begin to multiply. That is a very scary concept.Instead of having 30 billion fat cells, if you gain excessive weight you can have 40 or 50billion or more fat cells in your body.This is just another reason to lead an active lifestyle and stay fairly fit and healthy. Youdo not need more fat cells. Fat cells operate much like a balloon. If you fill a balloonwith water it will expand and as soon as you release it, the balloon will contract back toits very small size.When you lose weight, fat cells shrink. Fat cells do not disappear but they can multiply –so be wary of that. You don’t want any more fat cells, so the key is diminishing fat storesby using fat for energy purposes. 2009 Fitter U FitnessFitterUFitness.com
This is why exercise is so important.Something you must know about fat is that stores acid in the body. This is why alkalinityis so important in the diet. If your fat cells are holding into a lot of acid, it’s going to bevery tough for your body to get rid of your fat stores because they need to be there inorder to hold onto the acid. But that is a topic for another day.If you are an ectomorph, you have most likely been able to get away with eatingwhatever you want during your life. You may be able to eat fast food every day and notput on weight, but the problem is that you can be fit without being healthy.If you are eating garbage foods, you are not doing your body any good on the inside.You may not physically show any weight gain but to be healthy and fit you must eat theproper nutrients. Trust me, you will look and feel much, much better than you do rightnow if you start eating whole foods.As an endomorph you have to be very strict and diligent with your diet. As you mostlikely know, if you have the wrong foods in your diet such as refined carbohydrates forinstance, you will tend to retain water and put on weight easily.Hopefully you are listening to your body enough so that you can relate the foods you eatto how you feel. It is important to have that body awareness. If you don’t have a cluehow foods affect the way you feel, now is a good time to start making those connectionsbetween food and mood.As an endomorph who wants to lose belly fat and really start to see some definition, youneed to pay attention to your diet. You need to make sure that you are in that caloricdeficit that we talked about earlier.You need to make sure that you are eating nutrient dense foods and you need to stayaway from strictly carbohydrate-rich, nutrition-less foods such as chocolate bars, pastries,refined bread, sodas, etc. Eat lots of vegetables. Vegetables are very high in nutrientsand they act to burn calories because of their thermic effect.They have a lot of fiber which means that the body has to spend a lot of time digestingthem which means that your body burns calories doing so.Mesomorphs can pretty much eat more or less how ectomorphs can – but it doesn’t meanthey should! In general, everyone should stay away from refined carbohydrates. Even ifsomething is made with 100% whole wheat, it is no good.Stick to the pseudo-grains such as amaranth, quinoa, millet, spelt, etc. Those grains areeasier for your body to digest. Wheat is very difficult for your body to digest and a lot ofpeople have issues digesting wheat which can lead to bloating. 2009 Fitter U FitnessFitterUFitness.com
One of the reasons it is difficult to have a flat stomach is food sensitivity. If you removethe foods to which you are sensitive, you will have an easier time seeing a flat stomach.Whether of not you obtain that flat stomach depends a lot on where you are with yourdiet. If you are an endomorph, again, you’ve got to do a bit more work and be morediligent than an ectomorph or a mesomorph.If you are a man with less than 10% body fat, you should see muscle definition. If youare a woman, any body fat % lower than the mid-teens should show muscular definition.You don’t want to go too low with your body fat percentage. A certain amount isimportant to have for energy purposes.Let’s talk about exercise. If you are an endomorph you will want to spend more timedoing cardio as well as strength training. Your body demands more effort if you arelooking to burn fat. Endomorphs are looking at 3-4 cardio sessions a week and aminimum of 3 strength training workouts per week.The goal in your workouts should be intensity. Your workouts should be no longer thanan hour at high intensity. If you are an ectomorph, you don’t need to go crazy on thecardio because you are already fairly slim.The tough thing for ectomorphs is building muscle, so spend more of your time doing fullbody strength training workouts to build a bit of size and maintain your lean musclemass. If you are going to do cardio, which you should, keep it short and intense and keepit intervals. I would say 20 minutes three times a week is fine.Mesomorphs have a bit of leeway because they are naturally blessed. Mesomorphsshould incorporate both cardio and strength training in one fashion or another.I wish I could tell you exactly how long it will take. I wish I could tell you that if youfollow my advice you will see results in exactly 7 days, but it doesn’t work like that.Anyone who makes those ridiculous claims is someone that you should run away from.A given program is not going to produce the same results for two different people.Everyone is unique.The way that you respond to your food intake and your exercise is going to be verydifferent from someone else. There are so many factors involved. With exercise, there isthe intensity, how long you are working out for, what muscle groups you are targeting,etc. There are all sorts of variables.The goal is to maintain that long-term vision of what you want to achieve and becommitted to achieving it. Realize as we talked about in earlier lessons that it is going totake time. 2009 Fitter U FitnessFitterUFitness.com
From a general fat loss perspective, 1-2 lbs of fat loss per week is healthy. Over theweek, you must create a 7000 calorie deficit to lose 2 lbs. It’s not easy, but it can bedone.Stay committed no matter what. And don’t rely on the scale.Pay attention to how your clothes fit. Some people may not notice a difference on thescale but they notice a lowering of body fat percentage in the mirror and in their clothes.That is the true mark of improving your health and your fitness.CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO FOR LESSON 5 2009 Fitter U FitnessFitterUFitness.com
Six Pack Abs? How long does it take to lose belly fat and get a nice defined stomach? The answer depends on a couple of factors. We’re going to talk about 4 main factors today that are going to influence your ability to lose weight and lose it quickly. 1) Your body type, which is going
