Back “in the day” when I was a full time personal trainer and I met with weight loss clients in person at my New Jersey Health Club, the first thing I would always ask during the initial consultation was:

“Tell me what you want… and I’ll show you how to get it.”

Typical reply from client:

“I want to lose 20 pounds fast.”

My reply:

“Are you SURE that’s what you want? …If I can show you how to lose 20 pounds REALLY fast, will that make you happy?”

They nodded their head affirmatively as their eyes lit up in anticipation of the rapid weight loss secrets I was about to reveal…

Their face went white when – with a totally straight face – I pulled out a hacksaw and started walking towards them…. menacingly.

Not sure whether to laugh or run in sheer terror, they said,

“What the heck are you doing?”

“You said you wanted to lose 20 pounds fast. This is the easiest, surest, most effective way I know to take 20 pounds off you FAST! In fact, I figure that right leg of yours might even weigh 25 pounds!”

I kept walking closer and started to get into sawing position, wielding my fast, effective and guaranteed weight loss tool…

“Bear with me because this IS quick, but sometimes it takes a few minutes for me to cut through the bone.”

By this time, my client (and I) are either completely cracking up, I have seriously scared the living you know what out of them, or they just think I’m a complete lunatic… (depends on whether I was able to keep a straight face or not)

Finally, the light bulb goes on, and my client would see where I was going with this:

“Okay, smart alec,” I get it… I don’t want to lose WEIGHT, I want to lose FAT.”

Sometimes I would be having so much fun, I would just keep on playin’…

“But why not? This is easy, fast and guaranteed – just what everyone wants these days… it’s even better than taking a pill! Come on… let me hack it off! You’ll be my next testimonial: ‘I lost 20 pounds in 5 minutes!’ Imagine what that will do for my business!”

“Very funny. I told you, I get it! I want to lose FAT, not muscles and bones. I need my leg!”

Naturally, of course, I don’t always have to pull out my trusty blade. Every once in a while… about as often as a total solar eclipse… a client answers my question like this:

“What do I want? Tom, I want to lose 20 pounds of body fat in the next 12 weeks. I want to do it slowly, safely and healthfully and then keep it off permanently. I want all the fat around my hips and thighs completely gone and I want a firm flat stomach. I want muscle all over my body while still looking feminine. I’d like to see myself at about 16% body fat and maintain all my muscle or gain a few pounds of lean mass if I can, especially in my arms. This is important to me because I want to set a good example for my kids, I want to be healthy and live to at least 90 and I want my husband to look at me and say, “I love your body,” and I want to be able to *honestly* say back to him, “me too!”

It is on these rare occasions that I know there is still intelligent life on this planet.

If you could answer the question, “What do you want” with the lucidity, clarity and specificity that this woman did, I don’t think you would ever have any difficulty reaching your health and fitness goals… or any other goal in your life, for that matter.

Her answer was what you call a very “well-formed” goal, backed up with lots of emotional motivation-inducing “reasons why.”

“I want to lose weight” is a poorly-formed goal.

“Weight” is not the same as “fat.” Weight includes muscle, bone, internal organs as well as lots and lots of water.

If you only learn ONE thing from all my newsletters, articles and books, PLEASE learn this:

WHAT YOU REALLY WANT IS TO BURN THE FAT, WHILE KEEPING THE MUSCLE!!!!

FAT LOSS is what you want, not weight loss.

If your body were 100% rock-solid muscle, with absolutely nothing that jiggled (unless it was supposed to), would you care how much you weighed?

I bet you wouldn’t! And if that’s true, then…

STOP WORSHIPPING THE SCALE AND START MEASURING YOUR BODY COMPOSITION!

By measuring your body fat, you take the guesswork out of your health and fitness plan and you get an accurate picture of what’s really happening in your body as a result of your diet and exercise program.

Instead of worrying about whether you are losing muscle, or wondering if you are losing fat, you can measure it and KNOW for sure. (I always get a good chuckle when someone tells me they’re worried about losing muscle when they don’t even measure how much muscle they have!)

Instead of being confused by all the “opinions” from weight loss and exercise “experts” who are all telling you something different, you can MEASURE your body composition and based on the results, you can KNOW for sure whether your program is working.

A very wise man once said,

“A single measurement is worth a thousand opinions.”

So, how do you measure body fat?

Thanks to technology, there are some methods today that are so accurate, they can tell you whether your left pinky has more fat than your right pinky! Unfortunately, many of them are either too expensive or they are inaccessible, being found only in hospitals or research facilities

If you want to learn a LOT about various body fat testing methods, chapter 3 of my e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle (www.burnthefat.com) goes into great detail about the pros and cons of all the various fat testing methods. Instead of re-hashing it all here, let me give you three quick and easy, practical suggestions:

Suggestion 1: Have a trainer or fitness professional measure you if this service is available at your local health club. Sometimes, there’s a charge – usually $15 – $25, although some clubs offer the service for free to all their members.

Suggestion 2: Purchase an Accu-measure skinfold caliper. Do a google or yahoo search to find a reseller.

The Accu-measure was designed to allow you to measure your own body fat in the privacy of your own home (you don’t need someone else to measure you)

Some people wonder if this is really accurate. Truth is, it’s not quite as accurate as a multi site skinfold test from an experienced tester, but what’s most important is not the “accuracy” per se, but the reliability and consistency of your measurements so you can track your progress. Skinfold calipers in general are not accurate or inaccurate, it’s the person doing the test that is accurate or inaccurate.

Suggestion 3: If you have a spouse, roommate, or friend who can measure your body fat, you can purchase a Slim Guide body fat caliper (or just about any brand of caliper) from Creative Health Products: chponline.com

The Slimguide is the best inexpensive caliper available (about $20), but it wasn’t designed for you to measure your own body fat like the Accu Measure. You’ll need someone to measure you with this caliper. Other models of body fat calipers (if you want to splurge), range from $150 to $450. (At our health clubs, I use the electronic “SKYNDEX” caliper with the 4-site “Durnin formula.”)

The calipers come with instructions, or you can use these formulas, which I have used and found to be very accurate:

4 Site formula for men (abdomen, suprailiac, thigh, tricep)

% fat = .29288(sum of 4 skinfolds) – 0.0005(sum of four skinfolds squared) + 0.15845(age) – 5.76377

4-Site Formula for women (abdomen, suprailiac, thigh, tricep)

% Fat = (.29669)(sum of 4 skinfolds) – (.00043)(Sum of four skinfolds squared) + .02963(age) + 1.4072

[Source: Jackson A S, Pollock, M (1985) Practical assessment of body composition. Physician Sport Med. 13: 76-90.]

Body fat percentages vary based on age and gender, but 20-25% body fat is average for women (15-19% is ideal), while 15-20% is average for men (10-14% is ideal). I have detailed charts for body fat charts in my e-book if you’re interested.

Once you know your body fat percentage, then weigh yourself and record your weight and body fat on a progress chart such as the one found in my Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle Program (a fat loss program, not a weight loss program). This chart is how you will track your progress and “keep score.”

You can calculate your lean body mass (muscle and other fat free tissue) very easily just by crunching some numbers:

For example, if you weigh 200 pounds and you have 10% body fat then you have 20 pounds of fat (10% of 200 = 20). That means you have a lean body mass (LBM) of 180 pounds.

Now we’re talking! With this data, you can get a really clear picture of how your exercise and nutrition program are affecting your physique.

Losing weight is very easy. Losing fat – and keeping it off without losing muscle – is a much bigger challenge. If you simply wanted to lose weight, we could just chop off your leg.

Or, (slightly less painful), I could show you how to drop 10 – 15 pounds over the weekend just by dehydrating yourself and using natural herbal diuretics. Wrestlers do it all the time to make a weight class. But what good would that do if it’s almost all water and you’re just going to gain it all back within days?

You don’t have to “throw away your scale” like many “experts” tell you to. By all means, keep using the scale, the tape measure and even photographs and the mirror – the more feedback the better – but body fat is where it’s at.

By the way, I recently bought a chain saw and a shiny new axe from Home Depot, and I’ve been practicing my “American Psycho” and Jack Nicholson, “The Shining” impersonations… so if you want to come to my office any time soon for personal consultation, you’d better have the right answer to my question, “What do you want?”

One last thing – If you found this information useful, then you’ll be very interested in the new e-book I recently wrote about body fat testing, called “How to Measure Your Body Fat In the Privacy Of Your Own Home.” Normally the retail price is $19.95, but you can get it for FREE at www.burnthefat.com with the purchase of my fat loss program, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle (BFFM), and it won’t be available much longer. (Note: BFFM is a FAT LOSS program, not a WEIGHT LOSS program!)

“Big Ernie,” one of my old lifting buddies from Pennsylvania, e-mailed me last month after reading the articles on my website about proper nutrition for weight gain. In his usual sardonic tone he wrote, “Seeing all the scientific stuff on your web page reminds me – here is a good formula for you:

HM = BC + HW

HUGE MASS (HM) = BIG CALORIES (BC) + HEAVY WEIGHT (BW).”

I was rolling on the floor laughing when I read this, but afterwards I got to thinking that he was absolutely right – the formula for getting big isn’t anything overly complex or scientific – it’s actually very simple; just eat big and lift big on basic exercises. This may seem like an oversimplification, but that’s really all there is to it. I’ve already discussed eating to get big in the first two parts of this series, so now I’d like to discuss the third and final component; how to train big to get big. A successful approach to gaining muscle involves choosing basic, compound exercises, progressively adding resistance, allowing enough recuperation and keeping workout sessions brief and intense.

Get “Back to Basics”

When Vince Lombardi took over the Green Bay Packers everyone asked him what he was going to do: “Are you going to change the playbooks?” “Are you going to change the players,” “what are you going to do differently?” To these questions he replied, “I’m not going to change anything, we’re just going to get brilliant on the basics. Our opponents may be able to predict exactly what we’re going to do, but we’re going to be so good at the basics that they won’t be able to stop us.”

When your goal is to gain muscle, your training mantra must become “back to basics.” I believe there are three reasons why people fail to get back to basics. The first is because they have been on a fat-reducing plan for so long that they become locked into a fat-burning training and nutrition mentality and they simply refuse to shift gears for fear of getting fat. You should stay reasonably lean all year round, but trying to stay ripped all the time will severely limit your size gains. When you’ve finished dieting to lose weight, shift gears, get back to basics and get focused on a mass-building mentality.

The second reason people fail to get back to basics is because the basics seem so basic. What I mean is that people don’t see the forest for the trees. People are always looking for some exotic, esoteric, magical formula, theory or program. Meanwhile, the answer is right in front of their face, but they overlook it because it seems too obvious.

The third reason people fail to get back to basics is because the basics are so darn hard! It never ceases to amaze me how people always gravitate towards the easiest exercises while avoiding the harder, more result-producing exercises. Let’s face it, squats are tough – real tough! But if you don’t learn to love heavy, basic exercises like squats, you’ll never join the ranks of the massive.

Muscle to Die 4 Recommends: Tom Venuto’s Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle
Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified personal trainer and freelance fitness writer. Tom is the author of “Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using secrets of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle
Click here for Tom’s Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle program.

Choose Compound vs isolation movements

First and foremost, “back to basics” means using compound, multi-joint exercises over isolation movements. Compound movements are those that involve the largest muscle groups as well as smaller, stabilizing muscles. Because they utilize a greater muscle mass, they allow you to lift the heaviest weights possible. There is a direct correlation between the amount of weight lifted in an exercise and the size of the muscle. Therefore, it is logical that a compound exercises like squats have a greater potential for building mass than isolation movements like leg extensions because squats allow the utilization of much heavier poundages, resulting in much greater hypertrophy.

The Best Mass Building Exercises

Here is a list of the best basic mass building exercises for each body part:

Quads: Squats, Front Squats, Leg Presses
Hamstrings: Stiff-Legged Deadlift, Lying Leg Curl
Back: Deadlift, Bent Over Row, One Arm Dumbbell Row
Chest: Barbell Bench Press, Dumbbell Bench Press, Weighted Wide Grip Dips
Deltoids: Press behind Neck, Dumbbell Press, Military Press, Shrugs
Triceps: Lying Tricep Ext., Close Grip bench Press, Pushdowns, Seated Tricep ext.
Biceps: Standing Barbell Curl, Seated Alternate Dumbbell Curl, Preacher Curl
Calves: Standing Calf Raise, Donkey Calf Raise, Seated Calf Raise

If you don’t Squat, You Ain’t Squat!

Out of all these basic mass building exercises, no exercise is better for packing on pounds of quality muscle than the squat. Ironically, however, no exercise in more ardently avoided either. I’ve heard just about every excuse in the book for not squatting, and believe me, after rupturing a lumbar disk, I’ve had every reason not to squat myself. Despite my injuries, I squat any way. Why? Because barbell squats are positively the single most result producing exercise you can do. I’m not suggesting that you ignore the advice of your physician if you have an injury, but if you are physically capable of squatting and you’re not doing them, you are compromising your results. Squats hype your metabolism, pump up your legs and make your whole body grow! Leg presses are OK, but they just aren’t the same.

Rest and Recuperation

Muscles don’t grow during a workout. They grow between the workouts – if you allow them to rest, that is. All too often, the over-enthusiastic trainee works out longer and more often under the impression that more is better. Over training is the arch-nemesis of the bodybuilder. Training by itself does not necessarily translate into growth; training plus recuperation does.

Proper recuperation includes two separate components; specific recuperation and systemic recuperation. Specific recuperation refers to how much time you allow between training a particular body part. The rage these days seems to be training every day and hitting each muscle group once per week. This is not a bad idea, but if you’re training six or seven days per week, you’re defeating the purpose of one body part a week training. Individual muscle groups need to rest between training sessions, but so does the entire body. Systemic recuperation means allowing your entire body to recuperate by not training too many days in a row. If you train too frequently, this places excessive demands on your nervous system. Two or three days of weight training in a row is the most you should ever do. If you are a “hard-gainer” then an every other day routine might be even better. A two on, one off schedule where you work each muscle every five to seven days is extremely effective. This allows individual muscles and your entire body sufficient recuperation for maximal growth.

Progressive Resistance – The # 1 key key to gaining mass

There are many factors involved in building a muscular physique, but in the long run the only thing that really matters is that you progressively overload your muscles. There are many ways to overload a muscle such as decreasing rest intervals, increasing volume, slowing rep speed, increasing time under tension, doing more repetitions, and using stricter form, but the granddaddy of them all is simply adding weight on the bar. The more weight you can lift in strict form, the bigger the muscle will get, period. Constantly adding weight at every session can seem like an insurmountable task at times, but the best way to achieve this goal is to make tiny, incremental increases consistently over time. Don’t attempt large jumps in weight loads too quickly. Aim for adding just 2.5 lbs to 5 lbs with every workout on the basic exercises. You may not always be able to increase the weight, but you must make progress in some form at every single workout or you are wasting your time.

Keep your workouts brief in duration and high in intensity

The definition of intensity is the degree of momentary muscular effort that you exert during a set. In other words, intensity is how hard you workout. Most people simply do not train hard. Most likely this lack of intensity is due to the volume being too high. There is an inverse relationship between intensity and volume. The harder you train, the less sets you’ll be able to do (and the less sets you’ll need to do). As a general rule, it’s most effective to keep your workouts brief and intense (under 60 minutes). More is not better, harder is better. Always train to the point of failure or just of failure.

Avoid excessive cardio work

The entire point of adding a 250-500 calorie surplus to your diet is to allow extra nutrients and energy to support the growth of new muscle tissue. If you continue to do cardio every day for prolonged periods as you do in a fat-reducing program, you’ll only be burning off those extra calories you needed for growth. Never completely stop doing cardio. Everyone should always do 20-30 minutes of cardio 3-4 days per week year round regardless of your goals – that should be a part of any healhty lifestyle. But too much is counterproductive.

Conclusion

Getting big is not the result of using some secret eastern bloc training program, a miracle diet or a super muscle building supplement. Gaining muscle isn’t rocket science. The formula for getting big is deceptively simple; it is just a matter of being “brilliant on the basics.” Do yourself a favor; stop wasting your time searching for an easy way, because it doesn’t exist. Just eat big, work hard, work heavy on the basic exercises and get plenty of recuperation and you’ll soon be adding pounds of lean body mass faster than you ever thought possible.