Question 2 How has your approach to fat loss changed in the past few

years?

Fat Loss Roundtable With The Experts

Layne Norton How has your approach to fat loss changed in the past few years?

“I think the biggest thing is I space my meals much further apart.

When I was younger I bought into the dogma that more frequent meals 'stimulate' metabolism and improve muscle retention. This is simply not true and eating too frequently may actually impede fat loss.

When I switched to 4-5 meals per day compared to 7-8 I actually maintained more lean body mass and lost more bodyfat and felt more satisfied after meals. This is also in line with recent data showing that large boluses of protein are better than smaller doses that are spread out.”

Alan AragonHow has your approach to fat loss changed in the past few years?

“It's been the same for quite some time now (I've been at this since the early 90's).

However, I'd say that within the past decade or so, I've been more conscious of having people take maintenance breaks from their dieting.

Roughly every 4-8 weeks depending on the individual circumstances, I'll have clients take a full week off of the diet. ”

“Well, no major changes, but I would say the most significant has been less cardio and more carb-based approaches. I can start someone out with low carbs/high fat approaches depending on starting point and training volume/activity levels, but as someone gets very lean and their insulin sensitivity improves, I find it more productive to add in carbs and go easy on the cardio vs. the opposite strategy.

How many of you haven´t noticed that 1-2 weeks after your diet (as long as you avoid the massive overfeeding binges some partake in) you actually look a lot better? Not only did your muscles fill out, but a lot of times bodyfat actually dropped as well... Timing this gradual increase in carbs and reduction in cardio to a couple of weeks before the end date (competition, photoshoot or vacation) instead of after will give you a pleasant surprise - even if it seems counter-intuitive.

Oh, and I also rely less on stimulants/fat-burners, and high-rep depletion work these days.”

Borge FagerliHow has your approach to fat loss changed in the past few years?

“It hasn't really changed and I've stuck to the core fundamental principles.

Marketers are always coming up with new ways of presenting the principles. They may talk about different hormones and training methods.

I don't really buy into the 'cheat meal' idea as just using that term sets your normal diet up to be a negative and you are somehow depriving yourself for 6 days a week.”

Gavin AllinsonHow has your approach to fat loss changed in the past few years?

“It’s not really changed – same approach -insulin sensitization, carbohydrate cycling, high intensity interval training – let the diet do a lot of the work for you rather than over training….

I did the foundations of the 4 week fat loss system about 25 years ago! It worked then it works now.”

Matt LovellHow has your approach to fat loss changed in the past few years?