The Verdict on Green Tea & Fat Burning

Hopefully you’re a couple days into your Transformation. I recorded a great call for you here:

Click here for this week’s fat loss podcast

Now the first thing we talked about was goal setting. Here’s what I want you to do…

Write down your goals

• 3 short term
• 3 long term

And you should do this for not only your transformation, but also other areas of your life, including financial, relationships, etc.

Personally, some of my long term goals for this year include:

1. Getting my weight back up to 195 (pic is of me at 194 in 2006 in Dubai)
2. Getting my deadlift up to 455
3. And reading 100 books

I also have plans to move to NYC, visit more of Europe, and create 25 TT programs, and more.

Check out all of my big plans here & the new TT workouts here

Now let’s get back to your transformation tips…

Monday – Jan 4th

Transformation Tip: 7 Tips for Success

1. Sit down and plan out your complete body transformation – everything from end goals, to getting started with nutrition changes, to overcoming all of the obstacles in your way. Sit and daydream about this for 15-30 minutes.

2. Spend time planning your workouts to save you time when you go to do you workouts.

3. One of the biggest mistakes people make is not having a plan. That leads to wasted time (“what should I do today”) and no results.

4. Surround yourself with social support to have people do the work for you. Surround yourself with people who are smarter and fitter than you.

5. Script your day.

6. Be ruthless with your time. Time spent on cardio robs your family of you.

7. Get in to your workout, get out, and get on with your life.

Click here for more tips on how to do the body transformation contest

Alright, so crazy time of the year in the gym…well, no worries, here’s the solution.

The TT 15-Minute Express Workouts

You can do these workouts at home. I highly recommend getting a gymboss interval timer for this program.

Beginner Workout A

• Start every workout by going through the circuit once at a moderate intensity.
• Perform the workouts as circuits doing one exercise immediately after another.
• Do not rest between exercises or before repeating the circuits.
• Train conservatively and do not hesitate to take rest if needed.
• Repeat the circuit workout as many times as possible in 15 minutes.
• Do each exercise at a controlled pace, taking 2 seconds to lower your body or lower the weight, and 1 second to return to the start position.
• Do each exercise for 30 seconds and then switch. For single leg exercises, do 30 seconds on one leg and then 30 seconds for the other leg.

Workout A

1. Stability Ball Leg Curl – 30 seconds
2. Kneeling Pushup – 30 seconds
3. W & T on Ball – 30 seconds each exercise
4. 1-leg Hip Extension – 30 seconds each side
5. Plank – 30 seconds
6. Jumping Jacks – 30 seconds

Finish with static stretching.

Here’s a video of W’s and T’s (along with Y’s, I’s, and L’s)…

Tuesday
30 minutes of fun activity and now let’s look at the verdict on Green Tea and fat loss…

Reference:
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 91, No. 1, 73-81, January 2010
Effect of green tea catechins with or without caffeine on anthropometric measures: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

• Researchers reviewed 15 Green Tea studies.
• GTCs (Green Tea catechins – the supposed metabolism boosting component of Green Tea) helped reduce bodyweight an average of 3 pounds in the studies – HOWEVER – this only worked when the GTC’s where combined with caffeine.
• Studies that evaluated GTCs WITHOUT caffeine did NOT show benefits.

Therefore, in THEORY, if you combined enough GTC’s with caffeine, you might lose more fat…

The researchers concluded…

1) The clinical significance of these reductions is modest at best.

2) Current data do not suggest that GTCs alone positively alter anthropometric measurements.

And my conclusions are:

1) The results are not that impressive.

2) If your Green Tea supplement is caffeine-free, it definitely won’t work. Green Tea catechins do NOT work unless combined with caffeine.

3) You never really know how much GTC’s are in the supplements you buy…do they put in a “pinch” or the necessary dose for results?

Interesting stuff…let me know if you’ve had success with Green Tea and fat loss.

Wednesday

Beginner Express Workout B

Remember: Start every workout by going through the circuit once at a moderate intensity.

1. BW Squat or Lying Hip Extension – 30 seconds
2. Dumbbell (DB) Chest Press – 30 seconds
3. DB Row – 30 seconds per side
4. Step-up – 30 seconds per side
5. Side Plank – 30 seconds per side
6. Run in Place – 30 seconds

Finish with static stretching.

Thursday
30 minutes of fun activity – to keep you mentally healthy as well.

Reference:
Br J Sports Med 2009
Dose-response relationship between physical activity and mental health

UK researchers wanted to see how important physical activity is for better mental health. They studied 19842 men and women and found:

• Any form of daily physical activity was associated with a lower risk of psychological distress.
• The more activity you did, the greater the reduction in distress.
• And while low-intensity activities like housework and gardening helped, the best results were from sports.

So get vigorous activity with friends and you’ll be happier and less stressed.

Friday

Beginner TT Express Workout C

1. Prisoner Squat – 30 seconds
2. Kneeling Close-Grip Pushup – 30 seconds
3. DB Rear-Deltoid Raise – 30 seconds
4. 2-leg Stability Ball Hip Extension – 30 seconds
5. Bird Dog – 30 seconds
6. Jumping Jacks – 30 seconds

Finish with static stretching.

Social Support Saturday!
Get 30 minutes of fun activity, and then have a friend to help you take measurements.

I askedBrad Pilon, author of Eat Stop Eat, for the #1 thing he learned in 2009, and he said:

“This year the main thing I learned was that you can’t judge results by scale weight.

You HAVE to record circumferences if you want to know whether you are improving.

Use circumferences to judge your progress.

Also, if you are not making progress… change something. Don’t keep doing what your doing…”

*********
Great advice.

So get a friend, get a tape measure, and get records. Get pictures. Get your weight. And maybe body fat. But that’s in order of importance…

Sunday – Plan, Shop & Prepare
Do your 30 minutes activity and then plan, shop, & prepare…

One food I’ve added recently to my mainly vegetarian diet have been “Organic Sunshine Burgers” (250 calories, 8g protein, 15g fat per burger)…here’s the ingredient list:

– organic raw sunflower seeds, organic brown rice, organic carrots, organic black beans, organic bell peppers, organic cilantro, organic garlic, organic jalapeno peppers, organic ground cumin seeds, organic onion, sea salt

Pretty good stuff.

That’s it for this week, so Happy New Year…

Next week!
TT 15-min express – Advanced
New Research – Milk, resistance training & fat loss!

Until then, stay strong and start transforming,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Creator, TT Transformation Contests