Brought to you by Craig Ballantyne &
http://www.TurbulenceTraining.com
My interview with one of the most famous fat loss
trainers in North America, Alwyn Cosgrove. I recently saw Alwyn
speak at a personal trainer’s seminar, and Alwyn showed study after
study supporting his fat loss programs.
Today he will focus on the nutrition and the psychology of weight loss.
Alwyn Cosgrove is a superstar in the world of physique
transformation for men and women. He’s trained champions in
multiple sports and winners of multiple 12-week body transformation
contests. Alwyn owns and operates a training facility in Santa
Clarita, California.
CB: Where do people go wrong with meal frequency when trying to
lose fat?
AC:
Two primary mistakes.
One is trying to eat very little all day in a bid to keep calories
low (and then blowing it every single night when they get home).
Two is actually the opposite — putting too much faith in the “6-8
meals per day” theory.
As usual the truth is somewhere in between.
For a 200lb male eating 2400 cals per day - 6 meals is 400 calories
per meal. If a couple of these meals are 200 calorie shakes - he
can actually eat some decent size portions.
But for a 135lb female trying to drop a little more fat, who is
eating closer to 1350 calories per day - 6 meals per day ends up
being 250 cals each. It’s hard to get in decent sized meals. They’d
do better on 4 meals per day.
So it’s a sliding scale.
Almost every new client that walks into our facility usually skips
breakfast, maybe has a coffee mid-morning, eats lunch, eats nothing
all afternoon and eats a big dinner. They ARE only eating two meals
per day. By switching their macronutrients around a wee bit,
cleaning up their diet and getting them on 4-5 feedings per day -
we really do notice a difference.
CB: You have an impressive list of low-carb studies cited in your
arguments. What’s the take home message about this issue?
AC:
At this point - a reduced carb, higher protein diet is superior for
fat loss. Period. And probably superior for health.
There are several studies comparing the SAME caloric intake of
higher and lower carb diets and a) the low carb groups lost more
fat and more importantly b) there was a significantly greater
client compliance with the low carb groups. Greater client
compliance is huge. This is real world value again.
I don’t know the threshold that a diet becomes “low carb” at, and
I’m not convinced that a diet that was 70% carbohydrate with all
carbohydrate sources coming from vegetables would hurt fat loss at
all. Adam Campbell of Mens Health shared a study with me that
showed individuals on low carbohydrate diets tended to eat more
vegetables than prior to beginning their program.
I guess a very low REFINED carbohydrate diet is what I recommend.
CB: In my opinion, the role of hormones in fat loss has been
ignored. Do you do anything to manipulate hormone levels to get
greater fat loss in your clients?
AC:
Insulin is the only hormone we really have control over. The main
thing is keeping insulin in check. Here’s how I explain it to
beginners - insulin is a fat storing hormone - if we can keep our
insulin levels reduced around the clock (reduced carb diet) then we
can effectively increase total fat oxidation.
Obviously that’s an oversimplification and elevating insulin is
useful around workouts - but that’s the only thing I’ve been
concerned about.
CB: In addition to the “three keys to fat loss” that you covered in
your presentation, how important are motivation and social support
to success? How do you address these attributes with your clients?
AC:
Yeah - the three keys I presented are all physiological. But
psychology trumps physiology every single time. There’s a reason
why Weight Watchers and Curves are making more money than the
majority of personal trainers: Social support. And social support
drives motivation.
In our center we tend to get motivated people anyway - so that’s
less of an issue - but one of the things we always ask is “does
your family/significant other support you on this journey?”
It makes a huge difference. That’s the difference between a
successful trainer and an unsuccessful one.
But I’ll tell you one thing without going into too much detail -
switching to semi-private training increased results across the
board. Probably because of group dynamics and social support.
CB: Most relatively good trainers can handle the physical
components of fat loss, but how does a trainer succeed at the
mental game? Any resources you can recommend? And is the “mental
component/mental drive” something you can immediately tell that a
client has or is missing?
AC:
Well I’d question that most trainers can handle the physical
components of fat loss but I won’t get into that right now.
As far as the mental component goes - my resources came from being
exposed to a great coach at a young age.
We all remember the coach in our youth, who left us on the bench,
or had us running laps in the rain. We also remember the coach who
inspired us, picked us up and made our young lives a little better.
Which type of coach are you? That’s the secret.
I instill in my clients that we are a team. I work for them. I
deliver the best service I can in the position of their fitness
coach. Once they put their faith in you - never betray that. But
their results will increase when they realize this is a coaching
relationship - not just a trainer - client.
Some very general psychological tricks: most females will only
respond to positive reinforcement and don’t respond at all being
compared to others or to ‘norms’.
Occasionally they want comparisons but generally they respond
better to comparisons to themselves.
Males in general will respond better to having to “prove”
themselves and always need to know “what’s good? Is this a good
number for me to be lifting?” etc.
Girls just don’t want to be intimidated. Guys just want to be “one
of the guys”.
A poor coach uses the same personality when working with all his or
her clients.
A good coach recognizes that his or her personality only works with
certain clients.
A great coach can change his or her personality TO the client.
CB: Bottom line: How do you help someone be more disciplined -
especially with their eating and their habits outside the gym?
AC:
It’s an understanding of the entire picture. It’s not the workout.
It’s not the diet. It’s not the intervals - it’s the synergy
between all of these things.
At any one time a client is either getting fatter or leaner. If
they get fatter this week - they haven’t failed - they have just
found and executed the perfect system for increasing fat! All we
have to do is to change that system (which we know doesn’t work
now) and we can’t fail.
Clients have to make the mindshift that it’s not about “will this
piece of cake really hurt me that much?” to “is what I’m doing
getting me closer to my goals or not?” Just a little shift in
thinking can reap huge rewards.
Yeah it’s true - if you dieted and trained all week, a glass of
beer and a few chicken wings won’t hurt you that much - but it damn
sure isn’t getting you closer to six pack abs.
One thing I really liked was John Berardi’s compliance grid - where
we see overall compliance to the plan, as opposed to details. It
helps clients see the big picture. A 90% goal is what we shoot for.
So let’s say the plan is 5 meals per day, and 3 workouts with
post-workout nutrition per week. So we’re looking at 38 meal
opportunities.
If a client misses a meal, or doesn’t eat a meal that’s part of the
program, then they lose a “point”. Our goal is a minimum of 34-35.
It lets a client see that if they eat perfectly on Sun-Fri, but
miss a couple meals on Sat, and eat a couple of cheat meals that
day - in their head they were “on” the whole time.
But when we do the compliance grid we see that Sat alone cost them
5 points. So despite what they think or perceive to be happening -
they are NOT compliant - just an important distinction to teach
them.
CB: And finally, can you leave us with some of your best results or
case studies?
AC:
I prefer to talk about average results - we all have star clients
and testimonials that we can talk about. Generally across the board
with a client who is doing everything right we see a consistent
loss of 24 to 32 lbs of fat in our initial 16 week program. Some
people out perform that, or lose more over a longer period of time.
Some do less than that - but that’s a fair average that I don’t
mind quoting.
But I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention one girl who I worked with.
This girl’s brother paid for her training sessions before being
shipped to Iraq. Unfortunately he never made it back.
But he’d be proud of his wee sister. She trained her ass off,
gained a ton of muscle, cut 20lbs of fat in about 12 weeks and now
holds the record for kills as a freshman in D1 Volleyball at Idaho.
Haley Larson - an amazing athlete - watch for her name.
CB: Alwyn, Thanks so much for your expertise and motivation.
Go here: >> Alwyn’s Warp speed Fat Loss
Sincerely,
Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training
