What is the perfect rep range for fat loss?

How do I calculate my rep range for fat loss?

This is a very common question, and it’s not the first time I’ve touched on this subject.

Let’s get straight into it.

High Reps (12-15):

Burn more calories 

Medium Reps (8-12):

Optimise muscle building 

Low Reps (4-8):

Strength

Okay, so if my goal is fat loss, then it makes sense for me to perform a higher amount of reps to burn more calories, correct? Well, not really!

If you want to lose fat, you should be trying to develop a decent amount of muscle tissue (in the gym), the more muscle you have, the faster your metabolic rate. 8-12 reps are gold when it comes to hypertrophy (muscle development). You can very effectively hit all three mechanisms of hypertrophy (three mechanisms of developing muscle):

- Mechanical tension (high resistance)

- Metabolic stress (pump/cell swelling) 

- Muscle damage (stretch)

Okay, so if my goal is fat loss, then it makes sense for me to perform between 8-12 reps, correct? Well, not really!

Possibly the biggest factor when it comes to muscle building is mechanical tension, putting enough resistance through your muscles to force them to develop. You will need to use heavyweight; therefore, you’ll need to perform fewer reps (4-8 reps) to optimise this mechanism.

Okay, so if my goal is fat loss, then it makes sense for me to between 4-8 reps and lifts heavier, correct? Well, not really!

You’ll need to have plenty of rest between sets when lifting very heavy, so you won’t be burning a high amount of calories.

I can hear the shouts....”Andy……I’m confused…..How many reps will help me to lose fat??’

 

Well, you need an element of all three. You can include each element in each of your gym sessions e.g heavier at the start, or a more effective plan would be to incorporate this through phases /cycles. 

Example: 

- Month one mainly higher reps with the odd strength session

- Month two mostly medium reps with the odd bit of strength work

- Month three should be strength-focused, I don’t mean spending the full session training between 4-8 reps, instead start the session with heavy compound exercises like squats or deadlifts (after your warm-up of course), then increase the reps through the session. Once you come to the end of this phase you should have increased strength, that would be the goal of this phase.

Here is an example of how you could structure these sessions:

Month one full body example session:

A1 - Leg press - 12 reps x 3

B1 - Cable row - 12 reps x 3

C1 - 45 degree hip extension - 12 reps x 3

D1 - Seated shoulder press - 15 reps x 3

E1 - Lateral raises - 15 reps x 3

Month two full body example session:

A1 - Front squat - 10 reps x 3

B1 - Bent over row - 10 reps x 3

C1 - Lying leg curls - 10 reps x 3

D1 - Military press - 10 reps x 3

E1- Horizontal cable pull - 12 reps x 3

F1 - Dead bugs - 15 (each side) x 3

Month three full body example session:

A1 - Barbell back squat - 6 reps x 5

B1 - Cable pull down - 8 reps x 4

C1 - RDL’s - 8 reps x 4

D1 - Barbell bench press - 10 reps x 4

E1 - Cable tricep push down 12 reps x 3

F1 - Rowing machine 200m x 5

Now, a big thing you need to consider when putting your training plan together is how likely you are to stick with that plan, if you do the same session every single day then this will be completely soul destroying. You need to consistently mix it up (month by month) allow every workout to take you one step closer to where you want to be.

My number one best piece of advice

My number one best piece of advice

A guy in the gym asked me a really good question today“Andy if you could give once piece of training advice, what would it be?”

Now, tons of things came to my head, train hard, stay consistent, eat plenty of protein, don’t use Herbalife, lift heavy things, train your legs, don’t buy stupid fitness products like those weird abs stimulator things just because someone like Cristiano Ronaldo says he uses it……….All of these would have been good bits of advice……… but I didn’t say any of those, after about 3-5 seconds of thinking I said: “Track your training and nutrition”.

After I said it I was wondering if it was actually the best answer……. what is the best answer???

The more I think about it the more I think it was a good answer….. great answer in fact.

When you track you can see progress, before you see progress...let me explain. A lot of people get disheartened when they don’t look a certain way after a couple of months of training. This is because they are measuring their progress/success by body composition alone, they forget how much stronger, faster and how much their diet has improved. This is because they haven’t tracked their nutrition or their training, they don’t know how much fitter they are.

You see, training is a lot more enjoyable when you’re can see progress, if you focus a lot on getting stronger and getting faster, trust we when I say you’ll have a decent change in body composition. 

Do athletes train to look like athletes? No, they train to be athletes and their inspirational body composition is just a by-product of their hard work and consistency.

Most of us are naturally quite competitive, and although it might not be a good idea to try and compete or compare ourselves with other people, I truly believe we should always be competing with ourselves and constantly trying to better ourselves both psychologically and physiologically.

Why is the fitness industry so contradicting?

Why is the fitness industry so contradicting?

This is what happens to a lot of people…… Something happens that makes you want to get your shit together, maybe you try and fit into some clothes that used to fit and are now screaming.

You decide to take things seriously, a quick google search makes things seem relatively simple, but the next article you read completely contradicts the first one, now you’re confused and it doesn’t stop there, the more you read the more confusing its gets.

So why is this?

Well, as you know a large part of the worlds main objective in life is to make a shed load of money, and the way they do that in the fitness industry is by adjusting the facts slightly in an attempt to sell their products……or they just have no clue about human physiology.

You see, fat loss and muscle building is very simple, the confusing stuff is not that important and half the time it’s just marketing. It’s cool to know, but it’s not needed for 95% of gym-goers.

Let’s look at the facts:

Fat loss goals - Train hard, eat clean, make sure you’re in a slight caloric deficit (tracking is key). STAY CONSISTENT AND GIVE IT TIME.

Muscle building: Lift weights, make sure you’re progressively lifting more than you could in the prevues month (tracking is key). Make sure you’re eating a sufficient amount of food in order to put you in enough of an anabolic state to build muscle tissue, you need to fuel muscle building. STAY CONSISTENT AND GIVE IT TIME.

Often a muscle-building plan can look very similar to a fat loss plan, the main difference is the calorie intake and macros nutrient ratios. Regarding actual exercise choice, someone with a fat loss goal would likely need to do more cardio, but it’s not essential.

If you want to learn more that’s great, personally I’m always trying to progress my knowledge further, but you need to make sure you’re nailing the basics, STAYING CONSISTENT AND GIVING IT TIME.

Why walking is the best exercise you can do

Why walking is the best exercise you can do

How do I set myself specific calories for fat loss?

How do I set myself specific calories for fat loss?

Someone emailed this question today, but it’s not as straight forward as some simple maths.

First of all…. what is a calorie?

Calories are tiny creatures that live in your wardrobe and sew your clothes a little bit tighter every night……or specifically, a calorie is the amount of energy, or heat, it takes to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water 1 degree Celsius.…… So basically its a unit of measurable energy.

Here is what you need to do to set your specific calorie requirements for fat loss.

Track food for one week (include the weekend)

Find your average amount of calories (Use My fitness Pal to track this)

Example week: 

Monday - 1600 Calories 

Tuesday - 1800 Calories

Wednesday - 1750 Calories

Thursday - 1900 Calories

Friday - 2200 Calories

Saturday - 2500 Calories

Sunday - 2400 Calories

Now this gives us an average of calories, in this case it’s 2021. Ask yourself how you feel on this amount of calories, full, satisfied, normal or hungry?

I imagine most of you would feel satisfied, unless you are already on a fat loss programme or are one of these insane people that ‘forget to eat’!!

If you’re gaining fat by eating this amount of food then it’s obviously too much, there is more fuel going into your body than is actually needed, in this case you’ll need to drop your daily calories by about 200-300 calories (dependant on current size and current intake), then assess changes in body composition and weight.

If you’re maintaining your body fat on this amount, then again it’s likely too much if your goal is to lose fat. You’ll need to drop your daily calories by about 100-200 calories then assess changes in body composition and weight (if the goal is in fact fat loss).

If you’re dropping fat on this amount then it’s about right. Keep doing what you’re doing!

One big thing to consider is how hungry you are, if you are feeling really hungry then you have obviously dropped your calories too far and you need to up them or you will lose muscle tissue along with the fat, this will obviously inhibit your performance and potential in the gym.

Simple Macros - Make sure you have a decent amount of Protein (1.3 grams per kg of body weight or more…..lots more), a respectable amount of healthy Fats and don’t kick the ass out of the Carbohydrates, you’re trying to lose fat not carb loading to run the London marathon.

Also, you can use online calorie calculators to work out your calories, but these base the calculations on your height, weight, age, gender and don’t take into consideration your current muscle tissue or the fact that everyone is different, but they can give us an idea of about how much food we should be eating, it’s a good tool.

Alternatively, sometimes you just need to add in an extra conditioning session to give you that slight caloric deficit your body needs to drop fat.

Here is an example of a quick conditioning workout you can utilise:

——————

Treadmill - 1.5km x 1

Cross Trainer - 4min

Bike - 40 seconds x 4 sets (20 seconds rest between each set)

Rowing machine - 250m x 4 sets (30 seconds rest between each set)

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If you found this useful then please like and share.

Fat Loss Tip - Eat Plenty of fibrous vegetables

Fat Loss Tip #5 - Eat Plenty of fibrous vegetables

F- Fullness
I- Insulin control
B- Beneficial bacteria
E- Expectancy
R- Regulation

I’m not going to go into any great deal about the science of vegetables, I’m not that boring. Just eat your damn vegetables!