Fat Burning Tips:
An Interview with Chad Waterbury
About three or four years ago Chad Waterbury and I connected for the first time through our mutual friend, Alwyn Cosgrove. Over several Jack & Red Bulls at a bar in Santa Monica, we discussed training for hours on end. Despite the fact that we went into the meeting with seemingly very different views and theories, we concluded that we agreed much more than we disagreed. Since that night Chad’s become one of my good friends and we discuss training on a weekly basis. He’s one of the guys I trust most and I’m always interested in hearing what he’s been experimenting with as of late.
Since summer’s in full swing and a large number of people are in fat loss mode I grabbed Chad last week for a few minutes to sit down and share some of his top fat burning tips.
Here’s how it went…
Jason Ferruggia: Chad, the majority of people reading this site want to get bigger and stronger but many of them would also like to be learner as well. The problem, however, is that when most people embark on a fat burning phase the first thing that happens is they start losing muscle faster than King Kong Bundy pinned S.D. Jones at WrestleMania I (which I was at, BTW) How can this be avoided?
Chad Waterbury: You’re right. I’ve lost count how many guys I’ve seen who’ve lost almost half the muscle they gained once they try to get six-pack abs. It’s not easy to build muscle, but it’s definitely easy to lose it.
There are three keys to avoiding this. First, stimulate as many muscle fibers as possible with full-body workouts comprised of strength and cardio strength exercises that are performed at top speed.
Second, follow a systematic progression plan in order to make your body do more work over time.
Third, feed your muscles the nutrients it needs at the right times.
JF: What are the three biggest mistakes you see people making when trying to lose fat?
CW: The first mistake is performing long duration cardio at a low intensity. Nothing wastes muscle tissue faster than jogging for an hour. When muscles are forced to continuously contract for 45 minutes or an hour, that energy has to come from somewhere. The body is very stubborn and doesn’t want to use fat for energy because it’s much easier to break down muscle tissue instead. This is why marathon runners are skinny and weak.
Second, when people try to lose fat they drop too many calories, too fast. Your anabolic hormones are fed by certain, key nutrients. When people go on a low-calorie diet they end up giving their muscles fewer nutrients for support and recovery. This quickly puts the body in a very catabolic state.
The third biggest mistake guys tend to make is choosing the wrong exercises and workouts to lose fat. Most people end up lifting light weights for a ton of reps. This is the exact opposite of what they should be doing because they’re not recruiting the muscle fibers they’re trying to keep: the biggest, strongest ones.
Think about it. When people try to burn fat they instinctively do the three worst things possible to maintain muscle. I’ve seen guys lose 10 pounds of muscle in a matter of weeks when they combine low-intensity cardio, high rep weight training, and a low calorie diet. This is a travesty.
JF: What are your top three fat burning tips? Actually, let’s start with three for training and then we’ll go into three for nutrition.
CW: The first step is to make your cardio training short and intense. Tabata’s research taught us that high intensity cardio is the way to go because you’ll boost your anaerobic and aerobic power at the same time, and you’ll stimulate your metabolism to burn calories long after you leave the gym. Low-intensity cardio only burns calories while you’re doing it. High intensity cardio stimulates your metabolism to keep burning calories long after you stop.
Next, for every other workout it’s important to lift weights that are heavy enough to recruit your biggest, strongest muscle fibers. A 6-10 rep maximum is enough to get the job done when you accelerate the lift. There are two reasons why this is important. First, you’ll keep the muscle you have because you’re recruiting all of your muscle fibers. As I’ve mentioned in my books and articles, when you recruit the largest muscle fibers you’re also recruiting all of the other muscle fibers because of the size principle. As the saying goes: if you don’t use it, you lose it. Second, when heavy weights are performed in a full-body circuit with short rest periods, it drastically increases the metabolic cost of a workout. That’s essential for burning fat. But you can’t do much heavy training while cutting fat, so that’s why the next step is so important.
Third, you must perform cardio and cardio strength exercises at top speed. There are no typical cardio exercises in my world. Instead of jogging on a treadmill I have my clients perform a circuit of, say, split jacks, jumping jacks, and burpees for multiple rounds as fast as possible. Then I have them do exercise pairings that don’t require a lot of weight, but still recruit all your muscle fibers when performed at top speed. I call this “cardio strength” training. A good example is the kettlebell swing and push-up pairing. Start with 13 swings, then immediately drop to the floor and do 13 push-ups. Jump back to your feet and do 12 swings followed by 12 push-ups. Then do 11 swings and 11 push-ups. Continue with this sequence until you reach one rep of each exercise.
Tomorrow I’ll be back atcha with part 2 where Chad discusses his top fat burning nutrition tips, shares some real life examples of what he’s doing with his current clients and reveals who won when he and I raced in a hundred meter dash…
