There are basically 3 kinds of body fat:

1) Structural Fat

2) Normal Fat

3) Abnormal Fat

Structural fat is the fat the cushions your internal organs, and cushions the heels of the feet, etc. and is NOT the kind of fat you want to get rid of.

Normal fat is the stored fat your body uses when the normal store of energy available to your body is depleted (i.e. blood sugar)

ABNORMAL FAT is locked away in your body and is NOT available as fuel at all and will not burn UNTIL all of your Normal and Structural Fat has been burned first.  Additionally, your body will start to burn up MUSCLE in addition to Abnormal Fat, so in effect, you can’t ever get rid of this Abnormal Fat by regular diet or exercise, even the Tabata Protocol.

In other words:  Your Screwed if you think you are ever going to look like a fitness model if you are plagued by these Abnormal Fat stores that won’t ever go away.

UNLESS…

There is a miraculous hormone called hCG that will actually burn up this Abnormal Fat, and from what I’ve researched, this is THE ONLY WAY to get rid of the Abnormal Fat if you have it.

After making more progress with Tabata Protocol workouts than any other workout in terms of getting rid of fat and getting into the best shape I’ve been in for EVER, it was driving me crazy why I couldn’t get to the ‘6-pack abs’ goal I originally had, no matter what I did with my diet and exercise.

Now I know, and it is nothing short of amazing what you will find out at this site: HCG Diet.

Unfortunately, hCG is a controlled substance and requires a prescription, but you can find an hCG provider at: HCG Clinics

Maybe you’ve heard about it - eat 5-6 meals per day, at least 30% protein, etc. It worked for a time, but I plateaued and stopped making progress and got very frustrated.

I don’t even remember how I stumbled upon the Warrior Diet, but after a month of following this diet, I have lost considerable body fat (this in conjunction with doing the Tabata Protocol workout on a recumbent bike 3 times per week) and have retained muscle.

I highly recommend this diet program after seeing the results I got from it and how easily it fits into my lifestyle. Having to eat 5-6 meals per day and calculating nutrient ratios of everything I eat is a pain in the butt. With the Warrior Diet, you basically cycle between ‘controlled fasting’ during the day (I have coffee in the morning, a piece of fruit around noon, another piece of fruit around 3-4pm, and drink a lot of water) and eating whatever I want at night (around 7-7:30pm).

The explanation for WHY this works is in the book. All I care about is results, and this diet works!

Fitness

Jam-packed with everything you need to know about diet, cardio, weight training, etc.

What I’ve noticed after working out with the tabata protocol for the past couple weeks is I now have more energy than I’ve had since I was a little kid (and I’m 40 yrs. old now).  I’m not joking.  It’s actually pretty hard to deal with - I spend most of the day bouncing off the walls!

My wife and 13 yr. old daughter have also both been doing the Tabata Protocol, and they have noticed the same thing, so it seems to be a universal effect across ages and sexes.  My daughter told me today that she can’t sit still in class now - she has to go out into the hall and run around during class breaks.  Nothing shocking about a young teenager having youthful energy, but she was ALREADY hyper - now she is so full of energy she can’t sit still!

My wife wants to run around the house to let off some energy during the day.  And I want to do something like lift weights or SOMETHING because I have too much energy.  (I DON’T lift weights even though I want to because it would interfere with my recovery between my MIT workouts, which currently require 30 days between workouts - more on that in another post)

You may think I’m making this up…I assure you this is VERY MUCH real.  Yeah - some problem to have!

So, if you find yourself low on energy and want to get your energy levels back to where they were when your age was in the single digits, start up with the Tabata Protocol - just don’t say I didn’t warn you!  You may need to start taking barbituates to settle down…

Body Fat: 15.3% (Starting 12/23/07 @ 16.3%)
Weight: 210 lbs. (Starting 12/23/07 @ 210 lbs.)

Lean Mass: 177.87 lbs. (Starting 12/23/07 @ 175.8 lbs.)

Fat Mass: 32.13 lbs. (Starting 12/23/07 @ 34.2 lbs.)

Total Fat Loss to date: 2.07 lbs.

I had no idea it would make it so much harder!  My max. heart rate went up to 181 BPM (from a previous high of 176) and my recovery heart rate was 117 (last workout it had dropped down to 110, which is why I increased the tension on the bike this time).

The workout was signicantly harder.  Same number of intervals (5) but harder to pedal.

Start Date: 12/23/07 - Weight=210 lbs, Fat=16.3%, Lean Mass=175.8 lbs, Fat=34.2

10 Days: 1/3/08 - Weight=211.6 lbs, Fat=15.8%, Lean Mass=178.2 lbs, Fat=33.4

That’s 0.8 lbs of fat less, and 2.4 lbs of muscle gain.

To be honest, I attribute the muscle gain to my MIT workout on my Explosive Fitness equipment, since there isn’t much going on with Tabata that would stimulate muscle growth and the MIT workout is all about stimulating muscle growth, so no surprise there. I am only doing the Tabata workout to burn off the stubborn fat that I haven’t been able to get rid of any other way.

Plus I look and feel thinner, and have more energy and can tell my heart/lungs are stronger too!

That’s after 10 days. I am now at 5 intervals and will be doing another workout today and will see if my Recovery Heart Rate goes back down, at which time I will increase the bike tension on my next workout.

I added another interval (taking it up to 5 now) since my last workout saw my recovery heart rate go from 113 to 104.

This workout my recovery rate is back up to 110.  When it drops back down again, as per the instructions I was given, I will next crank up the bike tension from 8 to 9.

My motivation to continue this workout has not waned which is a very good thing.  Since there is only currently 2.5 minutes of actual ‘hard’ exercise, one can see how maintaining this program isn’t difficult.  Even at 8 intervals (instead of my current 5) amounts to only 4 minutes (don’t think for a second these are EASY minutes - far from it!)

Therefore, I will NOT be adding another interval tomorrow when I do my next workout.

Of particular note, and I should have posted about this before: My heart rate definitely goes up a few ticks when I enter the rest interval. This is desirable and Dr. Sears says this phenomena is an indication that one has created an oxygen deficit. In other words, after the 20 seconds of hard-and-heavy, as soon as one starts pedaling slower during the rest interval, one’s heart rate is supposed to go up a few beats per minute. This is the body compensating for an oxygen deficit whereby the heart pumps faster to get more oxygen to the muscles.

Even though the PACE workout is supposed to cause this elevated HR too, I never saw it happen. I thought it was because my heart rate was already very high and had no where to go. I am pleased to report that with Tabata, every single time I went from the exercise interval to the rest interval I saw my heart rate go up a few notches.

I did my weekly weigh-in today and I am down 1.2 pounds from last week. Hopefully, that is fat and not muscle (I feel thinner and my pants feel a little looser, so when I do my Accumeasure fat caliper pinch tonight we will see if I lost mostly or all fat, or if the weight drop is some muscle). I suspect it is all fat loss, because I can actually FEEL this Tabata workout doing exactly what it is supposed to do - melt away the fat!