Gear Reviews

REVIEW: Fat Loss Pros

Why in the world would I review a fat loss product when nearly all of my readers are endurance athletes? Shouldn’t I be exploring high performance methods on how to improve performance, run longer, bike faster and increase our VO2 max? Yes, I should and that’s why I’m telling you to give Fat Loss Pros a serious consideration for adding to your training library.

Let’s face it. Most of us got into endurance sports for one of two (or perhaps a combination of) reasons:

1. To boost our ego (e.g., I can run a marathon, complete an Ironman, etc.)
2. To look good naked (e.g., I just want to get in shape…which translates to I want to get rid of these extra Krispy Kremes hanging off my ass)

Please save the hate mail for someone else that you’re different and are doing this for loftier reasons. That may be true once you’ve been in the sport for a while, but I bet your original motivation can be boiled down to those two goals. As a side note, I was talking to a local triathlon retailer a few months ago about the new trends for 2008 and guess who the tri-industrial complex is banking on for the 2008 season? Athena athletes…those women tipping the scale at 150 pounds or more.

Personally, I think this is a great new development for our sport. But the sad truth that many of these new athletes will discover is that while endurance athletes may do well at accomplishing the ego boost, most of us are in a sorry state of affairs when it comes to looking good naked. Our physiques seem to run the spectrum from the Olson twins to Rosie O’Donnell. There are very few Desiree Fickers and Steve Ilgs out there.

Before you accuse me of being a shallow bastard (I really am), put down that Gatorade and bagel and think for a moment. Would looking good naked also boost your performance on race day?

You bet your sweet bippy it does and I’ll get into that a bit later in the review.

For each endeavor, seek the counsel of experts
When you want to improve your swim times, you turn to a swim coach, right? You would be an idiot if you called up Dave the local powerlifting coach to help you improve the finer points of your stroke. Then why in the world would you hire a triathlon coach to help you burn off extra fat and make you look good in a Speedo? Your tri coach will help you get to the podium, but who’s going to make you look good for all of your adoring fans?

A physique coach. In other words, when you want to change your physique, seek the counsel of a bodybuilder.

Jen Heath (whom we’ll meet later in the week), sought out the advice of some of the country’s top physique experts, from science geeks to bodybuilding and performance coaches, to learn the secrets of fat loss. She’s assembled quite the collection and one could argue that she has provided too much information. With 18 different experts, there are bound to be 18 different opinions and methods, especially when you see who the experts are:

• Dr. Eric Serrano
• Dr. Lonnie Lowery
• John Parrillo
• Roger Riedinger
• Alwyn Cosgrove (seen on our site from time to time)
• Scott Able
• Cassandra Forsythe
• Dr. Mauro DiPasquale
• Erik Ledin
• Kelli Calabrese
• Don Alessi
• Charles Staley
• Chad Ikei
• Krista Scott-Dixon
• Craig Ballantyne
• Paul Chek
• Chad Waterbury

Fat Loss Pros is a downloadable collection of MP3 interviews that you can listen to on your iPod or computer. Ranging from 35 minutes to over an hour, each interview brings some fascinating, and humorous, information to the table.

Alwyn Cosgrove, for example, discusses how wonderful low intensity steady state aerobics is for conditioning, but how it sucks for losing fat. “It’s about as useful as eating donuts.” From my perspective, Cosgrove’s interview alone is worth the price for the entire series. He’s a Scot and has a great accent which just underscores his advice. I’m particularly fond of a discussion he was having with Heath on the theory behind a particular performance model. “I don’t give a shiiit why. I just know it works better and that’s what I use.”

Another Cosgrove gem comes out of the discussion about how most people try and copy the pros and spend all of their energy and time doing fine-tuning exercises. “Most people don’t have stubborn fat, they’re just fat.”

He then describes a fascinating study comparing interval and steady state (low intensity) training where the steady state athletes ran an hour a day, five days a week while the interval athletes ran 20-minutes a day, four days a week. Although the interval athletes burned half the calories of the steady state group, they burned more fat. Adjusting for the average caloric burn between the two groups, the interval training group had nine times greater reduction in subcutaneous fat than the steady state group.

Krista Scott-Dixon, on the other hand, takes a more gentle approach and gets into a lot of the psychological and nutritional concerns specific to women. She has a great view when it comes to helping women overcome their fear of looking too muscular if they lift weights. Scott-Dixon encourages her clients to change their perspective from looking at a body part’s appearance to it’s function. For example, rather than thinking that “My hips are too big,” you should see “My hips are my power center.”

Big difference in mindset.

While I won’t go into all of the interviews here, one of particular note is the conversation with Don Alessi and the significant impact that body fat has on V02 max. While Alessi has a rather kooky theory on the relation of body fat distribution and hormones, his discussion on subcutaneous fat and its direct relation to V02 max is eye opening.

Pros

• This is an advanced course in cutting body fat, exercise design, human performance, and nutrition.
• There are several approaches to reducing fat and they all work. Just pick one that resonates with you.
• If you’re an endurance athlete who has limited experience in this area, by the end of the series, you’ll be amazed at what you’ve learned about the capabilities of the human body.
• Heath does an amazing job of keeping the interviews on topic and soliciting the best that these experts have to offer.

Cons

• While the information is fantastic, it is varied and the experts do contradict each other at times. While this is to be expected in any athletic endeavor, it could lead to someone being confused as to which approach to take by the end of the series.
• The audio quality can be tinny. While Heath sounds like she is talking into a soup can at times, the experts came across pretty clear. You’ll have to crank up the volume on your iPod.

So should you buy Fat Loss Pros? Only you can really answer that question but I’d give it some consideration depending upon the level of your experience and success cutting body fat. The program is set up in a great format and provides a wealth of knowledge. I consider myself to be quite educated in this area, albeit admittedly shitty when it comes to execution, but I learned quite a bit that I will be putting to use in the months ahead.

My advice is to listen to all 18 interviews, find the common ground they share, and then incorporate that information in your fat loss/performance program. Then again, you may find one coach’s advice that just clicks with you and your experience. Either way, this audio series is a fantastic bargain at $97. Hell, if you paid the hourly rate just to talk to these professionals, you’d have to mortgage your house. But, if you move quick, Heath has sweetened the pot with a New Year’s special that gets you all 18 interviews for $47. At this price, it’s a steal.

Once you get the series, you’ll also have access to 11 bonus items which give you the nuts and bolts, step-by-step, instructions on how to incorporate many of the lessons learned from the audio series.

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