Lean. Ripped. Shredded. No matter what you want to call it, the process of stripping body fat from your frame and revealing the dramatic muscle beneath isn't easy. It requires patience, dedication, consistency and hard work.
Did we mention patience? Because damn, sometimes that scale will just not budge, despite what you'd rightfully consider superhuman effort.
In those moments of doubt—when you've hit the gym regularly, dieted religiously, avoided temptations, and otherwise applied the perseverance of a monk to your fitness efforts, all to no avail—sometimes an outside perspective is key.
Enter Sebastian Balcombe. With a degree in exercise physiology and a long resume in the arena of sports nutrition, Balcombe has dedicated his life to solving this very problem. As the founder and CEO of Athletic Edge, he has put his extensive background in the training and nutritional sciences to work in formulating products that help men and women achieve their physique transformation goals.
Here, he reveals the four most common and damaging mistakes people make. Balcombe will also show you how to fix those mistakes immediately, so you can fast-track your fat-loss efforts and eliminate the need for a bit of that aforementioned patience!
ERROR 1 YOUR CARDIO ISN'T GEARED TOWARD MAXIMUM FAT BURNING.
"More is better." It's the mantra that built America, right? So if 20 minutes of cardio is good, 40 must be even better. Heck, let's just round it up to 60, and I'll be ripped in a week!
Ah, if only it worked that way. Yet in reality, if you could plod your way to a great body—and catch up on your favorite shows in the process—everyone in your gym who camps out on the cardio equipment for hours at a time would be spectacularly lean.
In the case of cardio, more is not always better. In fact, it can be wasteful at best, and counterproductive at worst, as you often end up compromising your muscle mass without ever adequately tapping your fat stores for energy. Instead, you'll want to drastically cut down your cardio sessions while ramping up your intensity to maximum levels.
"If somebody really wants to drop and burn body fat in the quickest, most efficient way possible, and they have the drive to undergo it, there's nothing better than high-intensity interval training," Balcombe explains. "Nothing is as effective as HIIT. There's no exercise protocol I would recommend more to someone who wants to get lean."
ERROR 2 YOUR EATING IS OUT OF PROPORTION.
With HIIT in your repertoire, you'll have taken a great leap forward in your training efforts. But that's not even half of the equation if weight loss is your goal, Balcombe warns. "Exercise has a very small impact on fat loss compared to dietary changes," he says. "More than any training or supplementation changes you make, diet has by far the most major effect on weight loss. And the biggest mistake I've seen people make nutritionally is [eating] portion sizes [that] are so out of whack."
Blame it on restaurants—or your well-meaning family members—who heap dinner plates with food, throwing off our ability to eyeball a proper serving of just about anything, from steak and potatoes to breads and cereals.
"People may think they're eating a normal portion, but in reality they're eating 3-4 times what they should be," Balcombe says. "It's the most important part of weight loss, and it's the one part people have the least awareness of. They'll instead focus on the next level, which is looking at things like macronutrient ratios and food types. Of course, those other aspects have an effect, but when you're overconsuming calories, the ratios don't make much of a difference."
ERROR 3 YOU'RE NOT MINDING YOUR RATIOS.
"Once you have portion control down, you can start experimenting with macronutrient ratios," Balcombe says. He recommends that 15-20 percent of overall calories come from fat—mostly the healthy unsaturated variety found in foods like nuts, fish and avocadoes. The rest will come from protein and carbohydrates.
How much of each? Well, that depends on you. "It comes down to your lifestyle and training," Balcombe says. "For instance, if you're doing HIIT regularly, you won't be able to handle it if you're going low carb. When I first started HIIT, I was on a diet of no more than 50-70 grams of carbs per day, and I just couldn't pound out the interval sessions. So I had to crank up my carbs."
Balcombe suggests a 2:1 carbohydrate-to-protein ratio for people on a HIIT program, with the carbs consisting mainly of slow-digesting carbs. "I don't use the terms 'complex' or 'simple' carbs, because they doesn't really mean much," he says. "You have complex carbs like maltodextrin that break down fast and behave just like a simple sugar, for instance. So forget about simple and complex, and just rely on slow-digesting carbs as your main source." Options include sweet potatoes, brown rice, green leafy vegetables, and steel-cut oatmeal.
ERROR 4 YOU'RE NOT TAKING FULL ADVANTAGE OF SCIENTIFIC ADVANCEMENTS.
"Even though I run a supplement company, we don't pretend that these products are a magic bullet," Balcombe says. "We want people to have proper expectations, which is that they can lose weight from dieting and exercise. A well-designed supplement, meanwhile, will help give you an extra edge in propelling your results forward."
When it comes to choosing a fat-loss supplement, look for research-backed ingredients like green tea extract, caffeine, and yohimbine, all of which have been shown to increase energy expenditure and accelerate fat loss. "Green tea extract—specifically its level of epigallocatechin-3-gallate, or EGCG—has an impact on caloric expenditure, while caffeine improves energy and alertness," Balcombe explains.
