Stop doing cardio??? Yup… That’s what “the experts”are telling us now – on national TV no less. Can you believe this drivel? Who would have ever thought the day would come when “exercise professionals” would tell us to stop exercising? First was the down sizing of exercise… 8 minutes in the a.m., the 4 minute circuit, 30 second abs, 6 SECOND abs… heck, what else was left? STOP EXERCISING! But of course…

A Tom Venuto “rant”…

tom_venuto_rants_sm.jpg

Yes, I know, I know… “cardio is not necessary to lose weight, all you need is a calorie deficit and you can get that calorie deficit from food reduction and if you add in weight training, you go a long way towards keeping the lean tissue and increasing metabolism… ”

Well DUH about the weight training – we bodybuilders have known for years that weight training is critically important! And we’ve already beat the exercise vs food restriction debate to death numerous times RIGHT HERE on this blog, and we made our case for the superiority of a creating a calorie deficit by increasing activity, not just slashing calories.

Remember what Jack Lalanne said, “EXERCISE IS KING, nutrition is queen, put the two together and you have a kingdom.”

Ah, but the modern diet industry marketing machine rolls on like a Sherman tank…

And where does that leave me and other people who are trying our best to dispense the harsh fitness truth (while living it at the same time?) It leaves us with in-boxes clogged with emails that say, “Hey Tom, what do you think about this new diet that says cardio is a complete waste of time and might even be BAD for you???

Sorry, but I shall not dignify those emails with a personal reply anymore. It’s not worth the trouble when a simple examination of ones results – an introspective study of past experience and the laws of cause and effect – will give anyone the answers they are looking for.

However, I will give one answer here today – one sweeping swath of wisdom that will help anyone tune down a low signal to noise ratio amidst the diet marketing cacophany and tune in to the the message that matters.

But before I do, I hope you have all read my interview with Dr. John Berardi about “G-Flux” which discussed this very topic: Why higher activity levels – and a higher intake of nutritous food along with it (eat more, exercise more) – is the OPTIMAL approach.

I posted excerpts and highlights of the interview right here on this blog:
The G-Flux Interview Highlights – Dr. John Berardi With Tom Venuto

And the full length, uncut interview was published at my members only site at:
G-Flux – The Complete Interview, With Dr. John Berardi

Its the same message Ive been preaching in my “Burn The Fat” system for years: eat more, exercise more = burn more fat, gain more muscle, get healthier, faster, more efficiently.

Can you lose weight with low activty or with no cardio? Of course you can. Just slash your calories to the point where you have a severe enough deficit. (ummmm, that’s called starvation, by the way). Is this the optimal approach for an able-bodied person? a resounding NO! See:

Can you really exercise less and lose more weight?

and

New Study says “exercise doesnt matter for weight loss?

With more and more fad diet books coming out, hoping to capitalize on your confusion and uncertainty, or hoping to CREATE uncertainty in you by “debunking” things that should be just plain common sense, this information is more important than ever.

I said I would give ONE last sweeping, definitive answer here, and I will do so below with a quote from Dr. John Berardi. John wrote something in a recent article that brilliantly highlighted a point which I have been speaking about for years:

MODEL SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE!

If you are getting confused with conflicting messages from so-called”experts” and even from the scientific community, then STOP for a momentand forget the latest study, forget the latest diet book, turn off theTV, put down the newspaper and look at what the successful people are doing! Study them. ModelTHEM. Mentor with THEM if you can.

If there are differences among those successful people, then look for the commonalities and model that.

IGNORE the fad diets, and the new-fangled contrarian theories, which deep in your own gut, you know are too good to be true. IGNORE the attempted “debunking” of things you already know, which only cause you to doubt your own personal experience.

It doesn’t matter if “the new breakthrough” gets featured on national television… that means nothing… the wheels of the diet book publishing PR machine will keep turning and you can count on new diet fads to keep coming and coming and coming.

RESULTS are what count and results come from the fundamentals.

Fundamentals never change, and hard work on the fundamentals will give you 80% of your results.

Pay attention to results, and model what works, by people who have been there, done that…

THAT is how you cut through the noise, clutter, confusion and continuous media barrage of “The next big thing” – model the success of others.

Here’s what Dr Berardi had to say:

“I never cease to be amazed by the typical response of the average forum reader or seminar attendee when people who’ve gotten real results come around. There’s either a dead silence or a profound antagonism. This always makes me laugh. Seminar attendees will hang on every word of some “expert” they believe strongly in. Yet when someone who’s actually gotten it done themselves comes around, they’re skeptical.

Weird.

Does anyone know why this is the case? Either way, I recently grilled an audience recently for doing this. A female physique competitor gave a great talk about how she got into shape for competitions. And at the end of her talk there wasn’t a single question. NOT ONE.

Yet, the questions directed at the other presenters – some personal trainers, some nutrition educators, etc were abundant. And the funny thing is that in most cases, the presenters HAD NEVER ACHIEVED the level of leanness or muscularity of the female physique competitor. And most of the attendees were all interested in getting leaner and/or more muscular.

Weird.

The simplest (and sometimes fastest) way to cut through the confusion is to “mentor”, “apprentice”, whatever you want to call it, with someone who’s gotten it done – who’s gotten the results you’re looking to accomplish.”

Weird indeed.

People won’t pay attention to what the leanest men and women on earth have to say about how they actually stripped their bodies of fat, but they will perk right up and throw away everything they’ve ever learned when a single report appears on the news wires about how to lose all the weight you want and get ripped abs with “just 12.7 minutes of exercise per week.”

… Or when a new diet book comes out and says that if you stop exercising that’s the secret to fitness.

Yeah… really weird.

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