Minimum Effective Dose

[noamnety]

Last edited Thu Feb 23, 2012, 01:51 PM - Edit history (1)

I've been following the "4 Hour Body Plan" for the last 6 months. One of the strategies in it is to figure out what the minimum effective dose of exercise is. Instead of doing hours of cardio on the treadmill or in spinning classes, which can slow down your metabolism and stall weight loss, we time exercises for maximum fat loss and do the minimum needed for the maximum payoff (like a cost/benefit analysis). I work full time (and I am lazy), so I've never had much luck trying to stick to hour long routines, and I've never belonged to a gym. When the weather is warmer I bicycle, but since it got cold about 4 months ago everything I do is indoors, no more than 20 minutes a day while I watch tv, which really amounts to 10-15 minutes of actual exercise because a lot is the resting on my ass on the couch between sets.

I have leg photos showing the progression from Aug (154 pounds, down mainly from biking from a high of nearly 170 a year ago), to Jan 3 (136 pounds), to today (130 pounds). The last 6 weeks have been entirely indoors, using fairly cheap home equipment (a kettle bell, a balance ball and a chin up bar). All of it is no-impact because my feet are messed up, so no crazy PX90 or insanity routines.



Also - I owe ZenLefty a huge thanks for the progress between the last two photos, for inspiring me to come up with a specific plan for the year/quarter with rotating exercises instead of randomly working out a little here and there when I felt like it. I feel very focused about my approach now!

Edit: I meant to add that I'm 47 years old.

[Melissa G]

1. Yay, You!

noamnety!

[noamnety]

2. Thanks!

I'm chomping at the bit to go for another killer bike ride with my daughter next time she visits. I can go a long ways in flat Michigan, but last summer about the time of the first photo she took me on a 20 mile ride in the Ozarks. At the end of it she was trying to encourage me up the hills by making up silly songs to distract me, like something a parent would do for a 5 year old! And I still had to walk the bike up the last few hills. Such a moment of shame in my life!

[Melissa G]

5. My daughter moved to Seattle

and I had to climb lots of hills to keep up with her. She was similarly patronizing of her old mother. I know the feeling.

[ZenLefty]

3. Right on!

Your efforts are paying off, and you're very welcome. Glad to know I had some positive influence.

I could never stick to any such 'minimum effective dose' plan. I usually tell myself "oh, just a half hour at the gym Zen. Just knock out some HIIT sprints and a set of deadlifts and you're done." And then I go and I'm in the gym for 2 hours. I can't help it; I see an available squat rack and next thing I know I'm gathering plates. I'm a freak, I know.

But for normal people (or non-freaks at least), having an effective workout that doesn't seem overbearing and doesn't stress their time and (most importantly) produces results is a really good thing to have.

[noamnety]

4. You definitely had some influence!

For some reason I was being incredibly disciplined and organized in my diet, my water intake and supplements. But when it came to strength training I wasn't logging anything or planning workouts in a scientific way until the new year's goals thread you started, and I saw how you had your plan laid out.

I understand what you mean about not sticking to the minimum needed, I'm like that on the bicycle. I KNOW I'd get better results with 20 minutes of tabata intervals, but I really like heading out for a couple hours instead. I'm not sure yet if I'll try a more efficient routine for that when bike season starts again.

[AllyCat]

6. Well done! Interesting plan.

I don't watch TV much, because I have a hard time sitting still (one of the reasons I find meditation and shavasana after yoga so challenging). This would be the kind of stuff I could do while watching the idiot box.

I like my long workout routines because it gives me new ideas and gives me a little break while the kids have fun in the gym daycare, but it's nice to know that some of the little bits of time we carve out can be so effective!

I've only been serious about working out for about 16 months, but the progress I have seen in my similarly "aged" body is enough to keep me going. I just feel so much better and my mental calmness is really the pinnacle of the whole thing.

Thank you so much for posting this. It's hard to "put yourself out there" sometimes, but how nice to show everyone your great progress!

[NMDemDist2]

7. tell me (or point me) to more info on the 4 hour body plan

please??

and good job!! congratulations!

[noamnety]

8. The name comes from the hours per month you need to work out.

That was a major selling point for me! There are a few components, and it's fine to start incorporating them gradually or leave some out altogether. There's basically diet, exercise, supplements, cold therapy, and cheat days.

The diet is very similar to paleo for 6 days a week. The meals are a 30 grams of protein (eggs, meat, fish or vegetarian alternatives), vegetables except the starchy potato-like ones, and for breakfast and lunch 1/4 - 1/2 cup legumes. I do a lot of curries, chili, roasted veggies, scrambled eggs with veggies, chicken, and salads with roasted chicken breast or bacon. No soda, no real or artificial sweeteners, no dairy except coffee cream or butter which are both low is lactose, no grains, no fruits. (Unless my berry bushes or pear trees are ripe, I pigged out on those during harvest season.)

Exercise is 3 days a week for about 15 minutes. The emphasis is on exercises that work the entire body and core. If you've ever watched Alton Brown, he talks about how cooking implements should serve multiple purposes - this is the same idea. If you do basic two handed kettlebell swings - about 70 if you can work up to it, the bird dog exercise (10 for 20 seconds each), the cat vomit exercise (10 of 10 seconds each), three times a week, that's enough for a minimum. Personally I'm doing a little more than that, 7 days a week and I do pushups, planks and some other balance ball type things, but still very limited and just one set of anything I do.

Supplements: these aren't a requirement, but it's based on natural supplements that increase your metabolic rate and prevent insulin from doing crazy things. The basic stack is breakfast - garlic, green tea, and alphalipoic acid. Lunch is the same but I skip that. Dinner is policosanol, garlic and alphalipoic acid. (No green tea because of the caffeine.)

Cold therapy: Being cold burns calories. The 4 Hour Body book advocates cold showers and even ice baths. I tried the showers, I don't like it and I know I'm not getting into an ice water bath. Cold also activates the brown fat (as opposed to white fat) in your body. If you chill it, it goes into hypermode and burns other fat for fuel. It's concentrated around the back and sides of our neck. Putting an ice pack on the back of your neck for 15-30 minutes at night while you watch tv or read is enough to kick it into action. I do that most nights. More on that: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/health/brown-fat-burns-ordinary-fat-study-finds.html

Cheat days: once a week, eat the normal diet breakfast of protein, beans, and vegetables. The rest of the day is a free for all. That could mean pizza, cheese, yogurt, fruits, cheesecake, doughnuts, whatever. I've eaten an entire tray of costco cookies (1350 calories), a whole jar of homedried pears, a box of easter malt balls in addition to my three regular meals. Last Sunday we had deep dish pizza, yogurt, cereal, a cream cheese filled pastry. Cheat day is like a "refeed" that weight lifters do, it keeps leptin levels where they should be: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/sclark60.htm

To limit the cheat day damage, a half hour before a big meal I take a Cissus quadrangularis pill. A few minutes before the meal I do about 90 seconds of exercise like squats or kettlebell swings, and again 90 minutes after the meal. That does something with muscles and glycogen that I can never keep straight in my head, but they say to do it so I do. And I drink a boatload of water in general (12-16 cups a day), but most importantly on cheat day. It's normal to gain a few pounds from cheat day each week, but it drops off in a few days. For me, cheat day also makes the diet sustainable long term, so I can plan for birthdays, holidays, indian buffets, chocolate, etc. without feeling deprived.

[rosalgustren]

9. try this one

I think you need to know more about the Peak 8 exercise. Here it it
http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2010/12/24/a-fountain-of-youth-in-your-muscles.aspx
Considering not too much intensity and achieving what you want is more important. When I did this one, I feel a lot of change and tis is just my suggestion.