How I Lost 15 Pounds Of Fat Without Sacrificing Any Muscle – Guest Post by Chad Howse

Burning fat and losing weight is hard enough. But for most of us, losing those last 10 or 15 pounds – and keeping them off – seems nearly impossible. And let’s not forget that we want to keep the muscle we’ve built along the way, right?

OK, time to drop the word “nearly” and just call it impossible?

Not so, says personal trainer and fitness blogger Chad Howse.

Chad has a great personal story of his own which includes boxing and putting functional muscle on his skinny frame, but today he stopped by to share 3 tips for burning fat and how he went from fighting at 165 lbs to 152 lbs without sacrificing any muscle.

Here are Chad’s tips for dropping those last pounds and making sure they stay gone.

3 Tips for Burning Fat Without Sacrificing Any Muscle by Chad Howse

I started my brief fighting career at middleweight, which is 165lbs in amateur boxing, and soon found it tough to keep that weight with all the training I was doing.

So, I had a decision to make. Do I stay at 165lbs and just eat more or do I cut weight all the way down to 152lbs and give welterweight a go?

The thing with fighting is you want to pack as much power and muscle into whatever weight you’re fighting at as possible. So it’s not just a weight loss thing, it’s completely about fat loss.

I had to burn as much fat as I could while sacrificing as little amount of muscle as I could, which is a hard thing. So how did I do it?

1. No distance running

For over 100 years boxers have been running first thing in the morning to cut weight and to stay in shape. Everyone’s seen Rocky right? Remember when Balboa drinks the eggs in the morning, one of the greatest training sequences of all time?! Well that’s pretty typical, minus the eggs maybe.

The problem with long runs is that you burn too much muscle and not enough fat. Your body doesn’t feel the need, because of the lack of intensity, to tap into its fat-stores for energy. Instead you end up burning proteins and carbohydrates, much of which are found in the muscles you’re working to keep going.

Have you ever heard of a hormone called cortisol? It’s a stress hormone that’s triggered in response to stress, anxiety and prolonged exercise. It has multiple negative effects on your body, including the weakening of your immune system and the ‘burning’ of bone and muscle. This is why prolonged bouts of exercise can result in the storing of fats and the burning of muscle rather than the opposite which is the intended result.

So, I focus only on High Intensity Interval Training. Things like sprints, stairs, and plyometric circuits. Because of the intensity of the workouts your body needs to tap into its stored fats for energy. Quick bursts of power, like sprints, also release growth hormone throughout your body which aids in the building of muscle, yet another bonus.

2. Lifted more weights

This may sound a bit odd, especially when boxers have shied away from weights for years because it gets you too bulky, too stiff, and can actually take away power and speed. But I did things differently and it allowed me to increase my power and speed and hold on to my muscle.

I focused all my lifting around power, explosiveness, and muscular endurance.

I’d mix up my reps and sets as much as possible, which I recommend for you to do as well, and did all my lifting in circuits of 3 or more exercise, doing each circuit 2-4 times, with rests going from 30 – 60 seconds.

Here’s an example:

Cleans – 6 reps

Box jumps – 15

Burpees into a pull-up – 10 reps

I also stayed away from all concentration exercises and focused only on compound exercises. If your goal is to burn fat, which I’m betting it is as you’re reading articles on thefatlossauthority.com, then stay away from concentration exercises as much as possible, especially if they’re focusing on your smaller muscles – arms.

You’re not going to burn as many calories because you’re not activating as much muscle as you are if you’re working more than one muscle group at a time (compound exercises).

3. I ate early and often

I’d get a big meal in at around 6am, then taper down for the rest of the day. And by big meal I mean big!

8 eggs, 1 slice of toast + peanut butter, salsa, avocado, salmon oil and multi-vitamin.

Making that first meal a big one sets you up to burn a boat load of extra calories during the day. After that first meal I’d eat every 3-4 hours, always having protein, good fats, and good carbohydrates with every meal.

Not only did I want to boost my metabolism through my workouts, but I also wanted to give it a boost through my diet as well which is why I ate every 3-4 hours, and which is why I made that first meal such a big one.

****End of Post****

A big thanks to Chad Howse for sharing his experience with fat loss. If you have any questions for Chad, please don’t hesitate to drop one in the comments section and by all means travel over to Chad’s Fitness Blog where his focus is about getting a great body with a busy schedule.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, March 7th, 2010 at and is filed under Lose Belly Fat, build muscle, personal training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.