[0:00] Do you ever see that cartoon of the two
[0:01] diamond miners? One's only about halfway
[0:03] there, but whereas the one on the bottom
[0:05] is quitting. You don't want to be that
[0:06] guy. Any discussion of losing body fat
[0:10] or specifically what's going on down
[0:11] here in terms of the love handles is
[0:13] going to have to start not down here,
[0:15] but up here. We're talking about what
[0:17] you're putting in your mouth. That is to
[0:19] take two simple numbers, 12 and 15. If
[0:22] you look in the mirror, if you have
[0:23] visible abs, then what you're going to
[0:25] do is take your body weight and multiply
[0:27] it by 15. If you do not have visible
[0:30] abs, you take your body weight and you
[0:32] multiply it by 12. And what that gives
[0:34] you is a simple starting point, a
[0:36] caloric total that you should be
[0:38] targeting each day. So, how long does
[0:40] this last? Just two weeks. If you follow
[0:42] an eating plan, which should roughly be
[0:44] the same types of foods every day or so
[0:47] for the next two weeks, you can identify
[0:49] a caloric starting point that you can
[0:50] now start to make adjustments to that
[0:53] will give you the confidence of knowing
[0:54] you're moving in the right direction to
[0:56] ultimately losing those love handles and
[0:57] getting the physique that you want. I
[0:59] mentioned eating roughly the same foods.
[1:01] There's a reason why. Because all foods
[1:03] are not created equally. If you eat a
[1:06] steak at home, but then you go out to
[1:08] Applebees and eat steak, the one you had
[1:10] at home is probably 500 calories or so,
[1:12] grilled nicely on your backyard grill.
[1:14] The one at Applebee's with all the extra
[1:16] butter and sauces they throw on it is
[1:18] probably closer to 1,800 calories. So,
[1:20] in order to be very accurate in
[1:22] determining what that maintenance level
[1:23] of calories is, you want to make sure
[1:24] you're giving it accurate information.
[1:26] The other thing is something called the
[1:28] thermic effect of food. Proteins come at
[1:30] a higher cost calorically for our bodies
[1:32] just to even break them down. So if you
[1:34] start to shift the amount of protein
[1:36] that you eat versus carbohydrates during
[1:38] this time, you're going to maybe lose
[1:39] some of that accuracy. So again, trying
[1:41] to eat the same type of foods during
[1:43] this twoe testing period is really
[1:45] crucial. Once you have that number, then
[1:47] the only thing left to do is just watch
[1:49] and see what happens. Now, if you find
[1:50] that you're not losing weight, you just
[1:52] adjust your calories down by 10%. So if
[1:54] you're at 2,000 calories, drop them by
[1:56] another 200 and then once again
[1:58] reassess. Once you've reached a level of
[2:00] maintenance where you're not gaining or
[2:01] losing weight over the course of the two
[2:03] weeks, well, then you can start to
[2:04] adjust from there. Whether it be very
[2:06] aggressive by about 500 calorie deficit
[2:08] or so, or maybe less aggressive 200 or
[2:11] 300 calories. The point is you can start
[2:13] to ensure that you're actually getting
[2:15] into that hypocchloric state required to
[2:18] lose the body fat to put you on the
[2:20] right path to losing those love handles.
[2:22] Hey guys, real quick, I want to give you
[2:23] something for watching this video. If
[2:25] the love handles aren't really
[2:26] determined by the exercises that you do,
[2:28] what else might be? Well, if you have a
[2:30] stomach that sticks out further than you
[2:32] wanted to, it could be that you're
[2:33] actually doing the wrong exercises
[2:35] because there's a specific muscle that
[2:36] will help that to be pulled back in. And
[2:38] I put together a complete routine, 22
[2:41] days to a flat stomach that you can have
[2:42] for free just by going over ax.com/flat
[2:45] stomach. I think you're going to find it
[2:46] helpful. And again, it's yours totally
[2:47] free. Now, back to the video. Now, the
[2:49] good news is creating that deficit
[2:50] that's capable of giving you that
[2:52] tapered waistline isn't all the
[2:54] responsibility of what you put in your
[2:55] mouth, but actually the activity that's
[2:57] going on down here.
[3:00] No, Jesse, not that kind of activity.
[3:04] You actually don't have to run. As a
[3:06] matter of fact, you might want to start
[3:08] walking some more because that's much
[3:10] more effective when we're talking about
[3:11] creating fat loss. Why? Because it's
[3:14] more sustainable. A lot of us find the
[3:16] task of running to be either too hard on
[3:18] our joints or too demanding to repeat
[3:20] multiple times during the week. But
[3:22] simply taking an extra walk throughout
[3:24] the day or multiple times in a week is
[3:26] actually much more obtainable and
[3:28] achievable. So what are we talking
[3:29] about? Well, a 180 lb person can burn an
[3:32] extra 300
[3:34] calories by walking for an hour at a
[3:36] pace of just 3 and a half miles hour.
[3:38] That's not really that fast, but again,
[3:40] it's something that we could easily do.
[3:42] You can take the stairs or you can park
[3:44] your car further away. We can
[3:46] deliberately try to get more steps in
[3:48] our day, realizing that with every extra
[3:50] step we take, we're burning a few
[3:52] additional calories that will help to
[3:54] contribute to that deficit that is
[3:56] required to help you to get to those
[3:58] leaner levels of body fat. Now, I know
[3:59] what you're thinking. But Jeff, doesn't
[4:01] the extra intensity of the HIT training
[4:03] actually lead to more calories burned?
[4:05] That's actually not how it works.
[4:06] Because even if you took a hard
[4:08] exercise, one of the hardest, a burpee,
[4:10] and performed it for a minute, you're
[4:12] going to burn 15 calories, which is much
[4:14] more than you do in a minute of walking,
[4:16] but how many minutes are you sustaining
[4:18] burpees for? Like, could you even do
[4:20] burpees for 10 minutes straight? Likely
[4:22] not. So, the 10 minutes at 15 calories
[4:25] burned is only 150 calories burned,
[4:28] whereas again, we talked about 330 in a
[4:30] more sustained, low intensity effort
[4:32] like walking. And this is actually
[4:34] easier work, so it's more likely you're
[4:36] gonna actually do it. Now, what if there
[4:37] was a cheat code or a hack that allowed
[4:40] you to visually attack that waistline of
[4:42] yours through exercise that didn't
[4:44] involve a single exercise for your
[4:46] waistline? Specifically, no side bends.
[4:49] Don't ever do a side bend. What I'm
[4:50] talking about here, guys, is actually
[4:52] fixing the appearance of that waistline
[4:55] of yours by visually creating a wider
[4:58] physique through the use of exercises
[5:00] that target your shoulders, specifically
[5:02] your middle delts and your lats. So, you
[5:04] get more of that visible vtaper from the
[5:06] top to the bottom. You actually create
[5:08] what we call this dorito chip shape. And
[5:10] the reason we get this is because we get
[5:12] the middle delts becoming more prominent
[5:14] and we get that tapering with down
[5:17] towards the waistline from a
[5:19] well-developed set of lats. Well, you're
[5:21] going to need to do some exercises that
[5:22] do that. And some of my favorite ways to
[5:24] target the middle delts are simply with
[5:26] lateral raises. And there's a lot of
[5:28] ways we can do this. We can either do it
[5:29] with lighter weights with more focused
[5:31] tension on the delts by performing
[5:33] slower repetitions with really good form
[5:36] and no substitution with other muscle
[5:38] groups. or we can do something more
[5:40] explosive and powerful like a cheat
[5:42] lateral. When it comes to the back,
[5:43] you're going to want to focus on the
[5:45] exercises that actually train more of
[5:46] the lats rather than the upper back or
[5:48] the thickness of the back. And these
[5:50] exercises are really more of those
[5:52] vertical pulling exercises like a lat
[5:54] pull down or an underhand pull down or
[5:58] even a pull-up or a variation of a
[5:59] pull-up. You can even do exercises like
[6:02] the row as long as you're keeping that
[6:04] elbow tucked tight to your side or even
[6:06] something more lat specific like a
[6:08] straight arm push down. All these
[6:10] exercises do a great job of training the
[6:12] lats to give you more of that visible
[6:15] vtaper and again create that illusion at
[6:17] least while you're working on the rest
[6:19] of the steps here to get a more broad
[6:21] top and more tapered waistline that will
[6:24] get you liking more of what you see in
[6:25] the mirror while you move on to step
[6:27] four. And so step four is where a lot of
[6:30] you, let's face it, probably skip
[6:31] forward to because you wanted to find
[6:33] out how do I deal with this right here.
[6:35] Again, it starts with all the stuff we
[6:37] discussed already. But if this was in a
[6:39] museum, this would be the part you'd
[6:41] likely focus on. Your eyes would go
[6:43] right here. And there's a reason for it
[6:44] because the six-pack kind of tends to do
[6:46] that. Look, even somebody with
[6:47] definitive love handles looks instantly
[6:50] better when you start to etch in some
[6:51] abs because visibly they actually happen
[6:54] to soften the appearance of those softer
[6:57] love handles by giving you something
[6:58] else to look at. But they also do
[7:00] something much more important than that.
[7:02] This right here becomes the inspiration
[7:04] to keep going in order to get to the
[7:07] point where you can actually lose those
[7:09] love handles. See, what men experience
[7:11] is something called top-down fat loss.
[7:13] Meaning when we start to lose weight, we
[7:15] start to see it first in our face and
[7:17] then in our neck and then usually
[7:19] through our chest and then it starts to
[7:21] work its way down into that upper row of
[7:23] abs. And when you can even start to see
[7:25] just that top row, you become inspired
[7:28] to keep going because a lot of us stop
[7:30] long before that point. Do you ever see
[7:32] that cartoon of the two diamond miners
[7:34] where they're digging away trying to get
[7:36] to the diamonds? One's only about
[7:38] halfway there, but he's really eagerly
[7:39] going and chopping away. Whereas the one
[7:41] on the bottom is quitting not knowing
[7:43] that he was only about six inches away
[7:45] from finally hitting pay dirt. You don't
[7:47] want to be that guy. So what does that
[7:49] mean? We need the inspiration. Nobody
[7:51] keeps going without something that
[7:53] continues to drive them. And as you
[7:55] start to see that top row of abs, it
[7:56] really behooves you to make sure that
[7:58] you're doing something to train the abs
[8:00] so they actually look good. So this is
[8:02] where you want to start doing some ab
[8:03] exercises. So, we're talking about
[8:04] exercises like a classic crunch where
[8:07] you're moving those shoulders towards
[8:08] the fixed pelvis or maybe a crunch pull
[8:10] down where once again you're using some
[8:13] additional weight here but you're moving
[8:14] towards a fixed pelvis or even something
[8:16] like a power up which requires more of a
[8:19] situp but you're doing it once again
[8:21] with just moving your shoulders towards
[8:22] the fixed pelvis. And if you're looking
[8:23] to get rid of those love handles, guess
[8:25] what? You're going to have to train the
[8:27] obliques. Because if we look at that
[8:29] picture of art once again, what would
[8:30] happen if I actually got rid of the
[8:32] frame around those abs?
[8:35] It just doesn't look as impressive.
[8:37] Because when it comes to the artwork,
[8:39] your obliques are framing in your abs.
[8:42] They're actually giving you that visual
[8:43] tapering that makes your abs look a lot
[8:45] more impressive. But as I said, you're
[8:47] going to have to train them. But this is
[8:48] where we have a problem because a lot of
[8:50] people think the big myth out there that
[8:52] training your obliques gives you a big,
[8:54] thick, blocky waist. No, that's only if
[8:57] you're building your obliques up and you
[8:59] still have them covered by a lot of fat.
[9:00] Because you can see right here, when you
[9:02] get rid of that fat, those obliques look
[9:05] really, really good and really
[9:06] impressive. So, when we're talking about
[9:08] training the obliques, you have to do
[9:09] rotational exercises. And I'm going to
[9:12] tell you this, the faster you can move
[9:14] away from just the body weight exercises
[9:16] and add some resistance, the more these
[9:17] muscles in here are going to respond to
[9:19] start shaping up and carving in and
[9:21] giving you that really tapered
[9:22] waistline. So, I'm talking about
[9:24] exercises like this to start where
[9:26] you're just using rotation either from
[9:28] the bottom up or from the top down, but
[9:32] then moving into some form of resistance
[9:34] like a band where you could do
[9:35] rotational work like this or even using
[9:38] the weight of your own legs and doing
[9:41] hanging leg raises like this. Again,
[9:43] building up to this if you can't start
[9:45] here is fine. You could actually do this
[9:47] exercise laying on the ground and still
[9:48] getting that rotational work in.
[9:50] Anything we can do to incorporate the
[9:52] rotation of the pelvis while we're
[9:54] moving is going to help us to start
[9:56] training those obliques. Now, here's the
[9:58] other thing I don't want you to do.
[9:59] Don't be one of those diamond digger
[10:01] quitters, right? Because remember what I
[10:04] said. It's this area that's the last to
[10:06] come off. You could lose all the fat
[10:08] from here and it starts to work its way
[10:09] all the way down. It's that stubborn
[10:11] area around your waistline that's so
[10:12] hard to get rid of. But don't quit. Use
[10:15] the motivation you got from starting to
[10:17] see some of the progress elsewhere and
[10:19] some of these tricks to visually
[10:20] tapering that waistline to keep you
[10:22] motivated to keep going, to keep digging
[10:24] and chipping away until you hit that pay
[10:26] dirt. Because ultimately, there's nobody
[10:28] walking the face of the earth that's
[10:30] genetically disposed to always having
[10:32] fat all around their waist. If you stick
[10:34] to the plan, this fat is not unlike any
[10:36] other fat in your body. It will
[10:38] ultimately come off, and when it does,
[10:39] you'll look much better for it. If
[10:41] you're looking for more help on
[10:42] nutrition, then make sure you check out
[10:43] this video over here where I cover two
[10:45] strategies to help you actually speed up
[10:47] your fat loss. And if you're looking to
[10:48] pair down those ab exercises to just
[10:50] two, then check out the only two ab
[10:52] exercises you need here. Guys, remember
[10:53] to turn your notifications and subscribe
[10:55] if you haven't already done so. Check
[10:56] out our full programs and meal plans
[10:57] available over at athletex.com. All
[10:59] right, guys. Good luck.