ebook 5 Fat Loss Mistakes

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2 5 Fat Loss Mistakes That You Need to Stop Making by Will Owen Disclaimer: You're smart and you KNOW this, but... I offer no representations, warranties or guarantees verbally, in writing or otherwise regarding specific results. Results for each person may significantly vary. None of the individuals represented have been paid or otherwise compensated. None of the case studies, testimonials or reviews have been scripted and are true and accurate to the best of my knowledge. Published by Travel Strong 2016 Travel Strong

3 Why You Must Fix Each of These Mistakes Today I'm Will Owen, and I'm the founder of Travel Strong. My mission is to help you lose fat and get a toned physique as quickly as possible. But for that happen, you need to avoid making each of the five mistakes in this ebook that prevent people from getting a physique that makes them feel proud and confident. I made every single one of these mistakes when I was starting out and sabotaged my efforts for close to 2 years. But here s the thing: As soon I fixed them I was quickly able to turn it all around and get into the best shape of my life. And avoiding these mistakes has worked for countless others too. Some examples:

4 Example #1: Anne, the office manager who travels frequently for business, lost 30lbs in 3 months, and had four people in one day tell her how amazing she looked. Example #2: Dan, a medical student who, while working in Africa, went from 21% body fat to 8% (low enough to have visible abs) and added 15lbs of muscle. Example #3: Mary, a retired teacher from Minneapolis who had been yoyo dieting her entire life, got her confidence and energy back after losing the last 15lbs. I m not telling you these stories to brag. I m telling you them to show you that you are not alone. Everybody who has successfully reached their goals was struggling at one time or another, but eventually they broke through and got the physique they had always wanted. But the first step on the journey was stop making these 5 mistakes. So let s jump in

5 Mistake #1 Program Hopping (aka Shiny Object Syndrome ) I wasted 2 years of my life trying to find the perfect workout routine and diet. I wanted to find a program that would give me the endurance to run a marathon, make me strong like a powerlifter, fast like an Olympic sprinter and look like the cover models that you see on the front of magazines. I would start a program and stick with it for a few weeks, and occasionally make some progress. But even when I did, I would switch to a new program before I ever gave it chance to really start working. I had a bad case of shiny object syndrome. The problem was that at the time I believed there was a perfect program out there that was better than the one I was currently doing one that would make it quick and easy to reach all those goals I mentioned.

6 It was made worse by the fact that every day I would see a hottest new workout or workout of the day in magazines and online. I was sucked in by the promise of amazing results in a short amount of time. So instead of sticking to a program for a few months and then re-evaluating, I was switching programs week-to-week. And guess what? I was going round in circles and made no real progress at all. My breakthrough only came when I started following a plan consistently with a friend. The results were incredible. In just under 6 months I got leaner and stronger than I had in the entire 2 years before. What made all the difference? That I stuck to the plan. The real reason that so many people fail to reach their goals is that they lack consistency. I was program hopping because I believed that a perfect workout existed. It was like chasing a carrot on a stick.

7 Other people lose motivation when they don t see immediate results. Some end up program hopping because doing the same workouts for months on end sounds boring. Maybe it does to you too. But here s the thing: It won t seem boring when you re steadily losing fat and building a lean, toned physique. It won t seem boring when you experience the confidence boost you get from looking your best and feeling fit. And it won t seem boring when, rather than wasting your time and money on the latest trends, gimmicks and fads, you re avoiding stress and getting your life back. Obviously, for all that to happen you need a sound plan that fits in with your lifestyle (so you can actually stick with it). How do you get that plan? More about that later. For now, let s look at mistake #2

8 Mistake #2 Doing Toning Exercises (aka Spot Reduction ) For a lot of people, this is going to be a tough pill to swallow, but here goes: So-called toning exercises are a TOTAL waste of time. (by toning exercises I mean doing 15+ reps with light dumbbells or easy bodyweight exercises) Of course, you can look toned. But targeting a particular muscle with toning exercises does NOT work. In other words: doing ab exercises like crunches and sit-ups won t help you get a flat stomach. Nor will special arm exercises get rid of a jiggly set of bingo wings. Why not? Simply put, you can t turn fat into muscle. Fat and muscle are two completely different tissue types and exist independently of each other.

9 One can t magically turn into the other. So while doing hundreds of sit-ups each day can strengthen your abs, if they re covered by a layer of fat they still won t be visible. And that fat isn t going anywhere: the idea that you can remove fat from a particular area of your body with toning exercises often called spot reduction is a myth. Countless studies have shown that you can only lose fat by burning more calories than you consume. And unfortunately, you can t choose where the fat you lose comes from. On a side note: the last place men lose fat from is their belly and lower back, and for women it s the hips and thighs. Now of course, you can look toned by having a lean and defined physique. But the process of getting that look is very different to what you might think. To shed some light on the matter, let s take a look at the next mistake

10 Mistake #3 Only Doing Cardio I did a lot of running when I started out. I figured that it would definitely help me lose weight and probably help me build some muscle too. It seemed like the perfect type of exercise to get toned. But running medium to long distances doesn t build muscle. In fact, it can have the opposite effect: actually breaking down muscle. You only need to compare sprinters to marathon runners to see what I mean So while I did lose weight, I still didn t look the way I wanted to. I was skinny, but somehow still holding on to fat.

11 Now, I know that it sounds like I m bashing cardio and running, but that s not the point I m trying to make. Steady-state cardio should play a role (albeit limited) in everybody s exercise program for it s cardiovascular benefits, and of course, it can help you lose fat. But there is far more effective type of exercise that should be the foundation of your training program if you want to simultaneously lose fat and tone up. And unfortunately, it s a type of exercise that most people actively avoid. Why? Because companies trying to sell toning products (and yes, that includes mainstream fitness magazines) have successfully convinced people it will make them into a meathead, but that couldn t be further from the truth. Which brings us onto mistake #4

12 Mistake #4 Believing That Lifting Weights Will Make You Bulky This is easily the biggest myth in the fitness industry. The idea is that lots of reps of so-called girl push-ups - or using those little pink dumbbells - will help you get toned, while lifting heavy will make you big and bulky. But this couldn t be further from the truth. The truth is that you NEED to build muscle to look toned. It s muscle that gives your body shape and definition. To build muscle, you must force your body to adapt. The best way of doing this is with heavy weights or challenging bodyweight exercises like pull-ups and split-squats. Toning exercises give your body no reason to adapt. And here s the thing: Muscle grows incredibly slowly, so the chances of you waking up looking like The Incredible Hulk are precisely zero.

13 To give you an idea of just how slowly, check out the table below. Pay close attention to the absolute maximum amount of muscle you can build in a month (assuming you are following a solid program with challenging exercises): Years of Training Potential Rate of Muscle Growth Per Year pounds (2 pounds per month) pounds (1 pound per month) pounds (0.5 pounds per month) pounds (not worth calculating) Now, you may be thinking; if that s true then what s the deal with bodybuilders? The answer is simple: Both male and female bodybuilders openly use performance-enhancing drugs (aka steroids) that make it possible for them to build unnatural amounts of muscle. To put the level of steroid usage into perspective, there are special natural bodybuilding competitions for people who don t want to use steroids. In the normal bodybuilding competitions, steroid usage is permitted. Moving on

14 Not only does resistance training (which refers to both heavy weights and challenging bodyweight exercises) build muscle, giving you the shape your muscles need to appear strong and toned, but it also burns fat. In fact, the right kind of resistance training - the kind I use with my private clients and in the Member s Area - burns up to 35% more fat than traditional methods of cardio. And that s not even the best part Muscle needs energy to survive. So the more muscle you build, the more calories you can (and need to) consume. That means that done right resistance training builds muscle, burns fat and lets you eat more of the foods you love, all at the same time. If you re wondering what sort of workouts and exercises you should be doing, don t fret I ll share some of these workouts with you later in the week. For now, let s take a look at the final mistake

15 Mistake #5 Trying to Outrun your Fork This is a mistake that most people know about and yet one that I see people making all the time. People decide they want to change something about their physique so they start working out. Maybe they go to the gym, go running, or start doing fitness classes. Assuming they don t burn out or lose motivation first, they ll start asking questions like: What s the best exercise to get rid of love handles? Should I do interval training at the end of my workouts? How can I tone my thighs? They keep adding more and more exercise to their routine, but they aren t fixing the underlying problem: their diet. It s like trying to build a house on an unstable foundation.

16 Hopefully, you remember from Mistake #2 that targeted exercises to remove fat from a certain part of your body don t work. They are a myth. To reiterate: you can only lose fat if you burn more calories than you consume. Likewise, if you consume more calories than you burn then you will gain weight. This is a deceptively simple rule. Have you ever really stopped to think about how easy it is to eat 100 calories and how hard it is to burn 100? Take a look at this chart Now let s look at an example: You eat two donuts for breakfast, hit up Domino s for lunch, grab some fries and a drink from McDonald s on the way

17 home, and then eat a Taco Bell Fiesta Salad before bed. That adds up to roughly 3500 calories. Factoring in your BMR (which is how many calories your body burns just to stay alive) let s say 2000 calories a day you would need to run a half marathon to even things out. Now, I don t know about you, but I don t have the time or desire to run a half-marathon every day just to prevent excess weight gain. And fortunately, I don t have to. It s much easier to simply focus on my diet instead. Yes, exercise is important and certain workouts (like those in the Member s Area) will dramatically speed up the process and allow you to eat more. But, if your diet isn t on point, then you will always be fighting an uphill battle.

18 What to do Instead Most people spend their lives jumping from one program to another, looking for the perfect workout routine or diet. Fitness gurus and companies know that people love the idea of a quick fix, so they ll tell you their secret method or trick makes getting a lean, toned physique a breeze. That s why these mistakes are so easy to make. But the reality is that there isn t any single perfect solution or magic bullet. There are multiple solutions that work, and the BEST one is the one that YOU can actually stick with. Because the TRUTH is that there are only a few proven principles that will help you lose fat and tone up, and applying them consistently is all that matters. Later in the week, I m going to show you exactly how you can keep making progress even if you re short on time or motivation, but right now you need to get started by eliminating each of these 5 fat loss mistakes. Look out for an from me tomorrow. See you then, Will