Fitness vs. Fat Loss Training

Fitness vs. Fat Loss Training By Grant Lofthouse

Hey, what’s up?  Grant Lofthouse here; I hope you’re doing super!

Firstly, I want to thank Craig for letting me share this interesting story with you about how I had an ‘ah ha’ moment.

Basically, I discovered the difference between fitness and fat loss training, and what you should do to avoid making the same mistakes as I made.

For the past 6 months I have been training for a certification; it’s a 3 day intense certification, with each day starting at 8am and finishing at 6.30pm. The pass rate varies from certification to certification depending on the quality of the group, however, the rate currently stands at approximately 80%.  This proves that passing is not as easy as turning up on the day and paying the fee.

Oh by the way, another great certification you can obtain is the Turbulence Training Certification. You can find out more about it here

Anyway, the point is that you cannot assume that you will pass simply because you have trained before.  You must be super fit because on the third day you will be required to perform 100 kettlebell snatches in 5 minutes (24kgs for guys and 16kgs for girls).

For the past 6 months leading up to my certification, I moved away from Craig’s time efficient and research proven turbulence training workouts which consist of 3 x 30-45 minute sessions a week with little to no cardio, and moved towards training 5-6 times a week for about an hour with a significant amount of cardio.

I want you to keep in mind that before I started my training, my body fat was between 10-12%, and I had visible abs.

Approximately 6 weeks into my new, let’s call it ‘fitness based’ training, I experienced the following 3 problems:

1) I Looked Worse!

You would think that by completing almost double the amount of training that I was originally doing, that I would look better than ever before, right?  Well, I didn’t!

After about 6 weeks, I noticed that my visible abs began to disappear!  Along with the abs went the muscles and the reason for this was due to cortisol levels.  Elevated cortisol production can lead to muscle and strength loss.  When lean muscle mass drops, so does metabolism, and up goes the body fat.  So, the first thing I learn was even though I got ‘fitter’, ‘fitness training’ made me look out of shape.

2) I Craved Carbs

Due to my excessive training I craved carbs more than ever before.  This is not necessarily a bad thing because I needed those carbs to keep my training going.  However, as you probably already know, there needs to be some form of carbohydrate restriction when it comes to losing body fat.  So remember, if you have an endurance event coming up, you’re going to have to carb up; there are no two ways around it!

However, keep this in mind…

Fitness training:  Your cravings for carbs increase = More body fat
Fat Loss training:  Your body doesn’t crave carbs = Low body fat

3) Intensity Dropped

When training duration goes up, intensity goes down.  No matter how hard you try, the intensity must drop because you only have so much gas in the tank.  It’s sort of like a car; if you plant your foot on the accelerator, you will fly, but you will chew the gas as opposed to simply cruising which would result in the gas lasting much longer.

Training at a higher intensity will always blast body fat more effectively when compared to lower intensity training.  Be careful because you don’t want to train at a high intensity all the time as this will cause you to burn out.  However, hitting up one really high intensity session a week will do you good.

So as you can see, over the past 6 months I’ve learnt more about my training than ever before, as this was the first time I ever really had to train for an event and a fitness based goal.  My goals have always been much like yours and most of the other Turbulence Trainees’ out there; we train for a physical goal…to look good naked

Remember, if you have to prepare for an endurance/fitness event or a particular goal, your body fat is probably going to increase due to the excessive training.  However, if you don’t want this to happen, stick with the short, higher intensity workouts just like the ones you can find in Turbulence Training.

Grant Lofthouse is a RKC and the founder of Cardio Haters Training.  Yes, he hates cardio so much that he built a business around it.   He has a current mission to help 100,000 cardio haters set themselves free from the treadmill grind.  Grant is Australia’s Women’s Health & Fitness “weight training advisor” and has also featured in Muscle & Fitness and Oxygen magazine.  For more info visit www.CardioHaters.com

Grant Lofthouse, RKC