Interview
With Shane Dwyer - Author of Lazy Man's Guide
to Abs
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1.
What's your background and/or experience
in the fitness business?
I have
no formal qualifications when it comes
to fitness. I've never been a gym instructor,
I've never taken a formal course in
fitness. I do have a lot of experience
of being fat and not being able to change
it. A few years ago I decided to get
into shape. But being a uni student
meant I had all the time in the world.
I'd get
up early, go for a run, then hit the
weights in the middle of the day, followed
by another 45 minute cardio session.
I had plenty of time to prepare meals
and in a few months I got in the best
shape of my life. However, the next
year I dropped out of uni, got a job
and entered the real world.
It just
wasn't possible to train for a couple
of hours everyday. And I put on a lot
of weight. So I had to figure out a
way to get in shape without spending
forever in the gym. And that's kinda
how the Lazy Man's Guide came about.
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2. Why the "lazy man" in the
title of the book?
The
"lazy man" thing is a bit of a misnomer.
If you're lazy, then this program's not going
to work for you. It's just not possible to
get lean while sitting around on the couch
all day. The impatient man's guide probably
would've been a more accurate name, but I
don't think it sounds as cool.
Like
I mentioned above, this is the result of my
finding out how to get as lean as I was in
university, but without spending half my day
in the gym. It's more about how to get in
shape while spending as little time possible
actually working out. This doesn't mean it's
easy at all. Because the workouts are shorter,
they're more intense, which means you'll be
working really hard.
It's
not really suited for people who are obese.
If you think you'd drop dead after running
up a hill a few times, then you should probably
stay away from this until your fitness improves.
But if you are fit enough to do a few sprints
here and there, then it might be for you.
I know most people are busy these days and
getting to the gym can be tough, so by being
"lazy", it's a lot easier to squeeze
into a busy lifestyle.
3. What's the single most common thing
people mess up when training to get abs?
By
far the most common mistake I see is (interestingly
enough) too much emphasis on ab training.
While implementing crunches and other ab exercises
is good, it's not going to get you ripped.
If you don't have a six pack, chances are
it's because you're too fat. Men tend to store
a lot of fat around the midsection, which
means that in order to get a six pack, you'll
need to get really lean. For most guys, this
is around 10% or so, which is possible for
anyone who goes out there and trains hard
and sticks to a good nutritional plan.
So instead of doing crunches until the cows
come home, switch your focus to fat loss.
And note, I didn't say weight loss, I said
FAT loss. There's a difference. One of the
keys to getting ripped is to build, or at
least keep, as much muscle as possible. Building
muscle will help you burn more calories regardless
of how active you are.
Whether you're at the gym, or just sitting
on the couch, extra muscle will be burning
more calories. If you just wanted to lose
weight, you could just cut your calories and
up your exercise and watch the scales drop
quickly. The problem with this method (and
far too many people try to get into good shape
this way) is that while you will lose some
fat, you'll also lose a lot of muscle.
And the more muscle you lose, the slower your
metabolism becomes, so it's like a downward
spiral. People who diet this way often become
"skinny fat". Sure, they might look
skinny, but they still have a high body fat
percentage and if you're after the ripped
six pack look, then this isn't what you want
to be doing at all.
So focus on fat loss while trying to maintain
(or even build, if you're new) as much muscle
mass as you can. This method will require
you to eat more as well as train more and
you'll be much better off in a few months.
4.
What's one of your favorite fat loss "tricks"
for getting lean fast?
One
of the best tricks I know to get lean fast
would have to be carb manipulation. It's not
something that's really necessary from day
1, but if you're approaching your six pack
and you're finding that you're starting to
plateau, then carb manipulation can help your
smash through the plateau and get even leaner.
While
I'm not really a fan of long term low carb
diets, low carb works. And carb manipulation
is basically a way to get the best of both
worlds. You can lower carbs for a little while,
then bump them up again so that you don't
fall into starvation mode, which is the slowing
down of your metabolism after you've dropped
carbs for too long. And you don't want to
slow your metabolism down at all, we want
to get it raging.
The
details of how to manipulate carbs is going
to differ a little for everyone because everyone
reacts to carbs a little differently. Some
people can get away with eating carbs all
day, others have to cut back a little if they
want to get really lean. Chances are if you've
always struggled to get lean, you're one of
the latter.
And
a good plan looks a little like this. For
three days, cut your carbs down a little.
Instead of eating carbs all day, cut it down
to only eating carbs during the first half
of the day. So if you normally eat carbs 6
times a day, cut it in half to 3 meals a day.
Then, on the fourth day, bump your carbs up.
Eat about 1.5 times the carbs you would've
eaten normally.
This
is one way to really smash through fat loss
plateaus although it can be hard (psychologically)
the first time you do it. Eventually, you
might find that the 3:1 ratio no longer works
for you, in which case you need to increase
the ratio to 4:1. If you're struggling to
get past a certain point, give it a shot.
5. Nutrition plays a huge role in fat loss...what
are throughts on the role of protein in fat
loss diet?
Protein
is vital when it comes to a fat loss diet.
Like I mentioned above, fat loss is all about
losing as much fat, while maintaining as much
muscle mass as possible. So one of the things
you must be doing is eating enough protein.
A rough guideline is around 1.5 grams per
day for every pound of body weight.
By
doing this (and training with heavy weights),
you'll ensure that you keep as much muscle
as possible. And this is because when you
workout, you're actually causing tiny little
tears in your muscles. To repair your muscles,
your body needs protein. And without eating
enough of it, you're going to end up losing
muscle and I don't think I need to repeat
how important that is.
Another
great reason for eating lots of protein is
the thermic effect of protein. It takes a
certain amount of energy for your body to
process the food you eat. Fats are very easy
to process, carbs are a little harder, but
protein takes a lot of effort. Which is a
good thing! Around 20% of the calories in
protein are burned off just from digestion.
I
have had some people ask me about whether
high protein diets can lead to kidney problems,
but I've never seen anyone who was already
healthy get kidney problems from eating "high"
levels of protein. Unless you already have
kidney issues, there should be no reason why
you can't eat lots of protein.
6. How do you feel about fat-loss supplements?
Good, bad, anything worth taking?
Supplements
are always a good talking point. I think they
can be decent, but only when people use them
properly. If you're already training really
well and sticking to a great diet, then supplements
can be of use. They can help you get some
nutrients you might not always get from your
diet and there are a few products that are
great time savers.
The
problem arises when people see them as a magic
pill. They flick through the latest muscle
mag and see an ad for "Get ripped just
by sitting on your ass!" and because
it's in a publication, it must be true...
right? Well, no. Supplements aren't a magic
pill. There isn't a magical cure for getting
ripped except for hard work and dedication.
So
stop looking to supplements to solve your
problems. If you're fat, just accept it as
the truth for now and decide that you're going
to fix it with good diet and training. Yes,
it will take time, but that's life.
Once
you accept that, supplements can be of use.
There are a couple that I use regularly. The
first being protein powders. Now, they have
no magical properties, it's just food. I remember
getting an email from an angry mother who
wanted to know why I told her son to use steroids.
Knowing
that I'd never tell someone that, I asked
her if she could tell me exactly what I told
her son. Apparently in one of my emails I
recommended a protein powder to use, which
she thought was a steroid. They're not. It's
just like eating a chicken breast, only it's
something that's derived from milk.
I
like protein powder mostly because I'm lazy.
I don't really like cooking all the time.
I'd rather just pour myself a protein shake
than spend 15 minutes cooking some chicken.
Another supplement worth checking out is fish
oil. It's a great source of fat and it contains
some stuff that is hard to find in other foods
(at least in decent concentrations). It's
also really cheap, so it won't cost you a
fortune, unlike a lot of the magic pill type
supplements.
7. What are your thoughts on calorie counting
when it comes to fat loss? Necessary or can
you lose fat without it?
You
can definitely lose fat without it, once you
know how much you're eating just by looking
at your meal sizes. A few years ago I helped
a mate out who wanted to get in shape. I gave
him a few guidelines, told him which foods
to eat and so on. A few weeks later he gave
me a call and he wasn't too happy.
He
told me that he was training hard and eating
well, yet he hadn't lost a single kilo. My
first thought was that his diet was off, so
I asked him to write down everything he ate
for the next week. After that, I had a look
at his diet and immediately spotted a mistake.
One of the things I told him to eat for a
snack was nuts (which are great, when eaten
in moderation...).
But
because nuts are full of fat (good fat), they're
very dense in calories. So you don't need
to eat many in order to get a decent amount
of energy from them. Which was where my friend
was going wrong. Because he had no idea how
many calories he was eating, he was eating
half his daily requirements just in nuts.
Once
he realised this, he cut down his nut intake
and the fat dropped off him. So the moral
of the story is to count calories until you
know what your daily requirements look like.
A lot of guys will need to eat around 2000
calories per day, so if you don't know what
that looks like, write your daily food intake
down for a few days and input it into a site
like www.fitday.com.
See
how close you go and adjust accordingly. Once
you know how much you're eating just by looking
at it, you can stop "counting" the
calories and just go on eating, because you'll
be doing it right. It is a little bit of work
at first, but it's well worth it and it can
save you making a similar mistake to my friend.
8. Do you believe in that old "don't
eat after 6 pm" rule?
Yes
and no. While I don't recommend eating a huge
meal of pasta before you go to bed, there's
nothing wrong with eating a small, healthy
meal after dinner. The main reason I say this
has to do with insulin. Whenever you eat something,
your body releases insulin and glucagon. These
two hormones are responsible for regulating
your blood sugar levels.
When
your blood sugar levels get too high, insulin
swoops in and removes the sugar and shuttles
it off to your muscles and liver to store
as energy. And this is what we want. However,
if those stores are already full, then insulin
will take the sugar and turn it into fat.
Now, at the end of the day, because you probably
haven't been that active, chances are your
glycogen stores are already full or fullish.
So
eating a massive bowl of pasta (carbs release
lots of insulin) will cause your body to end
up storing a lot of those calories as fat.
Whereas if you were to eat that bowl of pasta
first thing in the morning, those calories
would be stored as energy instead. But this
doesn't mean you have to stop eating at 6pm
or anything.
If
you have your dinner at 6pm and you go to
bed at say 11pm, there's nothing stopping
you from eating a small, protein based, meal
at 8:30pm. What I recommend is a protein shake
because it's easy to make and it is almost
pure protein. Protein releases more glucagon
(has the opposite job of insulin) than insulin,
so you won't store a huge amount of your calories
as fat.
9. What are some of your favorite fat loss
foods and why?
I
have a whole bunch of foods that I like to
eat. The better fat loss foods are generally
more natural. The less human interference
the better. When it comes to protein, I eat
a lot of whey powder, chicken breast, turkey
breast and lean beef. I'm a bit of a carnivore,
so eating lots of meat isn't a problem for
me.
When
it comes to carbs, I generally break them
up into two categories: starch and fibrous.
Starchy carbs are foods like oats, brown rice,
wholemeal bread etc. Stay away from anything
that has been highly processed like white
bread and obviously stuff like biscuits (also
known as cookies) and junk food.
Fibrous
carbs are those green leafy vegetables that
we hated eating as children (and often as
adults:)). You can't really eat too much of
this type of carb since they are pretty low
in calories. They are full of fibre and contain
lots of good nutrients, so you do need to
eat them. They also help lower insulin spikes,
which means that less of the food you eat
is going to be stored as fat when you eat
lots of veggies like spinach, broccoli and
beans.
As
for fats, you'll find that you get some fat
from the meat you eat, even when it's lean.
But you'll also want to get lots of other
good fats in your diet as well. Natural peanut
butter is a great example and some vegetables
like avocados are also a great source of fat.
I also recommend eating some cheese as it's
a decent source of fat as well as protein,
although it's something I cut out of the diet
as I get really lean.
The
thing about fat loss foods is that they don't
have to be boring. While eating chicken breast
6 times a day will get you ripped, no one
wants to eat like that for the rest of your
life. What I recommend is eating as clean
as you can until you get to the point where
you are happy about how lean you are.
At
that point, just concentrate on maintaining
your physique. You don't have to eat lettuce
leaves in order to get (and stay) in good
shape. So choose foods that are not only good
for you, but also taste pretty good too. It
is possible to find a balance.
10. Where does cardio fit in to your fat
loss program?
Cardio
is hugely important. I think of weight training
and diet as ways to make sure your metabolism
is high, but cardio is there to burn off all
the extra calories. I'm not a big fan of long
cardio anymore mostly because it takes up
too much time. You can get lean with long,
slow cardio, but I prefer high intensity cardio
because it's quicker and helps you preserve
more muscle.
Interval
training is my favourite way to do intense
cardio. It's the only way you can actually
perform intense cardio for a long enough period
so that you can actually burn enough calories.
And there are loads of ways of doing this.
One method I've been using lately involves
a hill...
There's
a small hill just down the road from where
I live that has around 100 steps. I go for
a jog to warm up, then I sprint up the hill
as fast as I can. Then I walk down and do
it again. I do this cycle about 4-5 times
and I'm stuffed. Yet I've burned a lot of
calories doing it, because of the effort involved
in sprinting up a hill.
I
also play squash every Monday night with a
mate who is at a very similar skill level
to me. As a result, we have a lot of rallys
that are very taxing on our bodies. But because
after each point, we stop for a few seconds
to grab the ball and serve again, we can play
for about an hour without passing out with
exhaustion :)
Last
year I lived in Thailand for a while and took
up Thai boxing. Although it involves a lot
of long running, they also spend a lot of
time inside the ring doing interval style
training. Every morning we'd jump in the ring
with a trainer and do 5 x 3 minute rounds
on the pads. It was pretty intense, but because
you get a small break after each round, you
can do this for 15-20 minutes.
So
my advice is try and think up some ways that
you can perform intense cardio that you actually
enjoy. If you like riding a bike, jump on
it and do some time trials. If you like squash,
find a partner at a similar level and play
at least once a week. Just about any martial
art is great for this, but after my experience
in Thailand, I definitely recommend Thai boxing.
Three
sessions like this is enough to get you ripped
up in no time. If you combine this style of
cardio training with a good diet and a solid
workout regime, you'll get ripped, that's
certain.
Hope
your readers got something out of that Nick!
Shane
Dwyer
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"The Lazy Man's Guide to Abs"
