Click here for the full written transcript of this podcast episode.
Almost every day, I get an e-mail, comment, tweet or Facebook message about how to become a fat burning machine. And the fact is, become fat-adapted goes way above and beyond adding a stick of butter to a cup of coffee or eliminating carbohydrates from your diet.
So in today's podcast, I've brought back Greenfield Fitness System's performance nutritionist Barry Murray, who was originally a guest on the episode “The Ultimate Guide To Combining Fasting and Exercise: Everything You Need To Know. In this episode, Barry gives us five simple steps to becoming a fat burning machine, including:
-How to increase your ability to use your body's own fat stores…
-Why it's actually a good thing for your muscles to have fat stored in them…
-The best menus, recipes, meal plans and all the “coping” strategies you need to make the shift into fat-burning…
-The best way to time your meals for fat oxidation…
-How to structure your diet so that you can trigger the adaptations you need to increase the rates of fat oxidation…
-How to benefit from depleted training and intermittent fasting…
-How stress or inflammatory factors inhibit overall physiological fitness, and which hidden lifestyle factors keep you from becoming a fat burning machine…
-How to compete or do hard workouts in a fat adapted state…
-And much more!
Do you have questions, comments or feedbacks about these steps to becoming a fat burning machine? Leave your thoughts below, and click here if you'd like to hire Barry for a consult or nutrition coaching!
44 Responses
I tend to have to workout in the early mornings 3x boot camp style or orange theory with 2-3 x light run/yoga. Ifni do intermittent fasting and fast training is this detrimental since its more than 2 x of 60 min higher intensity workouts?
Can you do a fasted training for your regular everyday 60-min workouts? Like interval training (orange theory) or 60 min light run?
I have been doing IF for 4 yrs with great success. I have been doing low carb (primarily vegs) for a year with great success. I’m beginning to try to move from low carb/high protein/med fat to low carb and high fat and low protein.
Question: Currently after an intense weight lifting session or HIIT/Tabata workout, I consume 20-40 gms of white rice and 40 gms of whey protein.
Ben, should I change me post workout meal? If so, can you please recommend what I should be taking for optimal recovery?
Hi Al, This is a great question for the Kion community! Because I get so many questions like this and it's impossible for me to respond to everyone individually, I built this community of like-minded people who both have advice and are seeking advice! Facebook.com/groups/getkion/
Here's some more information about post-workout nutrition though: https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/article/post-wor…
Also, I would need to know more about your health, diet and general level of fitness before I can make diet recommendations. That's why for something like this I recommend more personalized coaching. You can learn more about that here: https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/coaching
Additionally, if I'm "out of your price range" (yes, yes, I know I can be a spendy guy to access) I have a team of coaches I've personally trained who can help you here: https://greenfieldfitnesssystems.com/product-cate…
The cardinal sins: article is only in a video or audio, not text format, audio does not allow fast forwarding past slow, plodding sentences, advertisement in audio cannot be fast forwarded. Pass.
Digging my own grave? I am concerned about what you and Barry said about fasted work outs. I am using Mark Devine's SealFit program to train for Obstacle Races and workout Tu-Fr morning at 5am before work. I don't eat before because I don't feel the need nor do I want too much in my belly while working out.Then on weekends I eat when I wake up and then work out later usually long runs, rows, etc. Then I have eggs and some Ezekiel toast afterwards, big salad with fat and protein and a low carb dinner. Should I eat before my early morning workouts? If so, what? Thanks for the podcasts and thanks for Obstacle Dominator as well. Great stuff.
I think this article will help you out – https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/2013/07/what-…
Perfect thanks. I have enough problems without making things worse by trying to make them better.
This was a fantastic "catch all" podcast, and it very clearly answers the difference between nutritional ketosis and fat adaptation.
My question is that once you have achieved a high level of fat adaptation, what are your thoughts on how quickly you can destroy or down-regulate your fatty acid beta-oxidation by reintroducing too many starchy carbs so your body switches back into carb-burning mode?
It seems to me that becoming well fat-adapted is a gradual, long term process, while going the other way and switching from fat to carb burning can be done very quickly, and once you have done so then your fat-burning mechanism will very quickly down-regulate. Life is unfair like that..
Going back to a high carb diet does down-regulate things, it doesn't destroy the adaptations however. So having a day or two of high carbs, will reduce the rate of lipolysis/beta-oxidation and certainly ketosis for maybe a few days, but back to LCHF/IF etc.. and the adaptations switch on again. Also remember, carbs and fat adaptation and even ketosis (see Peter Attia's article on this) can co-exist
It all depends on the context… like everything
Hi Ben and thank you for that AWESOME podcast. :)
I am 23, and go to the gym like 3 times a week for intense cardio or light weight muscle-toning training, and whenever I'm not at work I love walking and keep moving. Actually I also hacked my working space to turn my miserable intern desk into a kinda standing desk (and feel so much better now!).
Now; I have been living in Bangkok for the past 6 months and I discovered the wonderful feeling of refreshment and rehydration you get from sipping a young coconut (I mean: This http://www.rawguru.com/html/coconut7.jpg is a young coconut, right?) . I also happen to love the meat and am starting to feel guilty about getting one to two every day… Am I getting healthy fats and enhancing my metoblism or simply putting a lot of fat in my body? Do you think I can gain weight from that? Also: I was wondering if there is a “most strategic” moment to get a coconut? I go to the gym after work so I would usually grab one as a pre-workout snack; should I wait for after the training? Is it such a good idea to get one as a dinner dessert, or before sleeping?
Well. I sound like a damn addict, don’t I? x)
Thanks again and keep it up, I love your podcast so much I would even give up on a coconut in a hot hot Bangkok day for that! :P
You should take a look at this http://blog.ehealthinsurance.com/2014/03/ben-greenfield-coconut-oil-fact/ … it'll help you out.
Hey Ben – listened to this podcast this morning (in Seattle), and towards the end Barry touches super-lightly on fueling for ultra-endurance, relatively-constant effort racing. He notes that his 20-30g natural CHO strategy isn't designed for bike racing – either multi-day events or one day intense efforts. So it begs the follow-up question: what *would* be a good in-race fueling strategy for that?
I ask because I'll do another Leadville 100 at some point in the future but will do it fat-adapted this time. And I have a very good friend hitting the Cape Epic next year in a very fat-adapted/fasted-trained state – he was a top 100 rider when we rode together, then a top 50 rider for the past two or three Epics, and I'd be curious to hear your/Barry's take on fueling for something like that.
That would make a great podcast question! Would you mind calling it in as an audio question? http://www.speakpipe.com/bengreenfield
Done – but it stalled on the "send" page. Let me know if the question came thru.
Did you ever answer this question on a podcast? If so, which one? Thanks!
That was like 5 years ago… but here are some great resources to help you dive in: http://bit.ly/2wdjWWQ and http://bit.ly/2wdkOuC
Have been on this diet/lifestyle change for about 1.5 months now and loving it, you're podcasts are very helpful! I am not a high volume exercise athlete. I am wondering, and I know this will vary from person to person, but how do you determine your fat intake to exercise output ratio? In my mind if I take in loads of fat cals to help burn fat, I need to put in some sort of equivalent in low intesity and high intensity exercise. But how do I determine what that should be/look like?
This page should help you out https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/2013/07/how-m… if you still have questions, I would be happy to go over it all in a one-on-one consult https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/coaching.
Sorry for the rambling… Mine is not a case that can be explained in a short paragraph! :) Do you think Barry works with many women? I need to know that he does. I guess I'll reach out… If nothing else, my firsthand experience is proving, beyond a doubt, that there is significant difference in men and women, and what their bodies need in terms of nutrition, and how their body responds to particular ways of eating, not eating, etc. – especially women are age 40-50…
Thanks for your suggestion though.
interesting post – you may want to check out Bob Seebohar at Fuel4mance.com He may have the expertise you need
Would you consider doing a pod on Ketones / going "ketonic," in a drop-dead format, e.g., feel free to use a lot of analogies and illustrations
The term "Ketonic" is thrown all about with the assumption "I" know what the term means
I have read and watched YouTubes on this, but the assumption is I have a background I do not
For example, training a dog, these beginning assumptions work: you do not have to explain what a dog is
Jimmy Moore, who is gun-ho on this topic (and eating sticks of butter) has done tons of pods on the subject with the assumption I am grounded in certain basics
What, for example, are these foundational basics????
Whether I agree with it or not, I get the basics behind eating a stick of butter, which I lack with "Ketonics"
Help!!!!
I think you might find what you are looking for in these podcasts: https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/2013/10/deep-… and https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/2014/05/ketos… If you still have questions, feel free to call that in as a question for the podcast http://www.speakpipe.com/bengreenfield
I think we all look in the wrong directions. I`m also LCHF eater i have between 1.5 and 3 ketons in my urine. But i have a lot of fats around my belly. So this is not all. I think at first every person must make a full hormone testing and check in all hormones are ok. I think i have some problems. Because Most people in LCHF do not have fats. What you think?
Yes, you absolutely have to add the fats in when you go low carb. People who miss that step often add in too much protein, which can cause a lot of issues. Take a look at this – https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/2013/07/how-m…
Thanks Ben, that's what Skylar mentioned when he told me that Barry was unavailable.
I think a consult with yourself combined with some testing like you recently explored with the Organix bloke would be great however what I liked about Barry's approach was that it was a 6 month plan. I can see how there are many ways to run into problems trying to implement big changes! Maybe that's something you and your coaches could consider instead of one-off consults?
Duncan
The coaches are all very flexible. Get Skylar to hook you up with the coach of your choice and explore your options directly with her/him.
Hi Ben,
Great interview. I contacted Barry through your website a couple weeks ago unfortunately he is at full capacity and not accepting new clients, any other recommendations for similar "nutrition coaching"?
Cheers, Duncan
Yes, I'd be happy to help you via a personal one-on-one consult. Just go to https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/coaching. and then choose a 20 or 60 minute consult, whichever you'd prefer. We can schedule ASAP after you get that.
I was wondering… Barry mentioned the importance of decreasing EMF exposure. Couldn't agree more. I have found though when trying to convey these concerns to friends, colleagues and family, there's a lot of resistance. Could someone recommend a couple of good articles/studies proving the danger of EMFs? I have read Davis's Disconnect and I plan to check out Gittleman's Zapped, but any other resources would be super handy. Really appreciate it!
Ben, If there is interest in this topic, why not go to the source: Drs Stephen Phinney and Jeff Volek? The test of a good interview is whether the listener come out with clarity (not confusion) and actionable items. This interview sounds "sciency" but didn't have much clarity. Sorry!
Fair enough, I guess. Have you seen this? https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/2014/05/how-m…
So appreciate the information. Love this one!
Two questions:
Should we be turning off our wifi routers at night?
If we are unable to find a grass fed source of meat and poultry are we screwed?
Sincerely Ben, thank you.
Turn the wifi off any time you can! Also, take a look at this https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/2012/09/is-yo…
Got a connection in Canada?Sent from my iPad
Every coach at https://greenfieldfitnesssystems.com will work with anyone, anywhere in the world. So yes. ;)
If you are dealing with lot of inflammation in your gut and exercising, what can you to correct the problem and will it help you lose the fat and weight.
This would be a great place to start! https://greenfieldfitnesssystems.com/product/detox…