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Last updated: Aug 5 2001 Adding Yohimbine to the e/c/a Fatloss Stack

***IMPORTANT UPDATE! For increased fatloss, INCREASE PROTEIN intake to at least 33-50+% of your diet--drop as much carbs as you can for increased fatloss--it's carbohyrdrates that cause a large insulin rise in your bloodstream--insulin is the hormone that causes your body to STORE whatever you eat (good when you want to shuttle protien into growing muscle(after a workout) & get bigger muscle but bad if you want to burn fat)--especially bad for fatloss is any refined white flour products, white rice, rice cakes, pastry, etc. Your body will find it very hard to burn fat when insulin levels are high. If you can go on an all-protein or mostly protein diet, do it as you will burn the most fat that way :) Once you're satisfied with your fatloss, you can resume eating normal levels of carbs (for me, that's about 33-50+% protein, 33-40% carbs, 10-20% fat as part of my normal caloric intake) I'll explain more later or just pickup a copy of Dr. Atkin's New Diet Revolution with more scientific documentation for high-protein diets for fatloss***

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IMPORTANT: You must WEIGHTLIFT-EXCERCISE to build muscle tissue for effective, permanent fatloss! It is muscle that burns fat--someone with 80 pounds of muscle will burn twice as many calories as someone who has only 40 pounds of muscle doing any and every activity such as sitting, walking, aerobics, flipping, running, vegging out, etc.

Think of your muscles as furnaces and your fat as tons of coal. The trick for getting rid of all that coal(fat) is'nt to burn it all day using only one furnace (doing aerobics until the cows come home), but to build as many furnaces(muscle tissue) as you can so that you burn tons of more coal(fat) when you do aerobics or any other activity. What's quicker, more effective and efficient--building 20 furnaces to burn the coal(fat) or staying put with only one furnace to burn the fat in vain?

It's much easier and less work to stay slim with muscle than it is to lose fat doing aerobics. Aerobic exercise is great, but only as a supplement to weightlifing, not as a replacement. (Do you notice that most people year-in and year-out in aerobics classes who don't weightlift are not much slimmer than last year?) I cannot emphasize it enough, so click here to go to my EXCERCISE section.

Regular aerobics/cardio and dieting will cause you to lose fat, but also almost as much as precious muscle (that's right, if you lose 20 pounds, almost 10 pounds of it is cannibalized muscle). That's because your body (unless it's in ketosis) always uses a fuel mix of (in order of preference: glycogen/muscle/and fat(last to be used). You need muscle (and weightlifting to build/maintain it) because it is the furnace that burns the fat--the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn doing any and every activity--even if you're just lying around!

Additionally, to further lose fat, you can supplement it with high intensity interval training as well as low-to-moderate-impact aeorobic/cardiovascular excercise such as cycling, walking, stairmaster,etc. (this assumes you're also INTENSELY WEIGHTLIFTING (which you should already be doing)--if you aren't INTENSELY WEIGHTLIFTING, you should do high-intensity aerobic/cardio as a next-best option).

Remember: Best choice is intense weightlifting+aerobic/cardio(moderate or high-intensity-interval), 2nd best by far is intense interval cardio. Don't do both intense weightlifting and intense cardio for prolonged periods(longer than 90 minute sessions) or you'll overtrain.

Contrary to what you've been taught by supposed experts (who are still using outdated research from the '60's), aeorobic/cardio exercises should be done *AFTER* weightlifting if you want to lose fat! Why?

Because your body normally burns glucose/glycogen for fuel. It takes about 20 minutes of exercise for your body to make the biochemical/hormonal transition to burn fat for fuel. Weightlifting for at least 20 minutes first in your workout will nicely prime your adrenal glands to secrete adrenalin so your body is primed to use fat for your later aeorobic/cardio workout (doing your aeorobics before compromises your weightlifting). Yes, weightlifting is anaeorobic but it also is aeorobic to a point (your body always trys to use oxygen first but continued intense activity causes it run out of oxygen and it thus becomes anaeorobic) but you still have to do aeorobics for at least 20 minutes for significant fatloss). You also want your muscles "fresh" for weightlifting for optimum muscle/strength gains.

Interval training (high-intensity bursts of cardio/aerobic exercise(such as sprinting) followed by low-to-moderate intensity) is pretty effective for fatloss (and the quickest method of losing fat when doing cardio) or you can just keep your aeorobic/cardio workout at a moderate pace equal to that of moderate jogging/cycling/stairmastering. High-intensity (defined as anytime you start panting) aerobic/cardio for prolonged periods (over 1.5-2+ hours) will cause you to cannibalize muscle tissue as fuel (as much as 15%-45% of your fuel will come from muscle instead of fat)--which is why you do high-intensity in short bursts followed by moderate intensity and then repeat (known as high intensity interval training). Keep your cardio under 90 minutes per day if you want to preserve muscle tissue. If you don't mind cannibalizing muscle, you can continue to burn fat by doing cardio/weightlifting for over 90 minutes per day (not recommended but if fatloss is your primary concern instead of preserving muscle tissue, you can try it )

Free-fatty acids(what your body breaks down your fat into) requires plenty of oxygen for your body to burn it as fuel--if you're panting, then you're not getting enough oxygen. However, high-intensity running/sprinting will give greater leg muscle tone/definition (building stronger/bigger leg muscles to burn fat) and higher growth-hormone output. You can do high-intensity for the first 30 minutes (you're burning mostly glycogen anyways :)

Also, your body burns MUCH MORE FAT if you exercise BEFORE eating breakfast after waking up. The overnight fast causes you to have low blood sugar levels so your body uses more of its fat stores instead of incoming calories (if you don't eat breakfast first) when you exercise. Ingest some caffeine (such as from coffee-- don't use any sugar but using a zero-calorie sweetener is fine) and/or ephedrine to make the fat-burning even more effective. This little tidbit will more than double your fatloss :)

After any exercise (weightlifting or cardio), your metabolism is increased for up to 15 hours so if you want to burn even more calories, do your cardio/exercises in the morning. You can do cardio up to 5 days a week for maximum fatloss (if you weightlift the same day as your cardio, do your cardio after weightlifting or at least 8 hours before weightlifting so your muscles are "fresh" for lifting).

With this system, you don't even need to diet. Just make sure you get enough protein to maintain muscle tissue which is the most important factor for maintaining a high metabolism--muscles are the furnaces in which fat is burned--biochemically, fat is transported from your adipose tissue into your muscle cells to be oxidized in your muscle's mitochondria. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn doing any and every activity.

If you feel that you must diet for quicker results, do it sensibly. Do not cut calories beyond 15%-30% of your daily caloric requirements (dropping down to under 1,200 calories per day) or you will trigger your body to go into "famine survival mode"--your metabolism will slow down, you'll become lethargic, and worst of all, you will cannibalize muscle tissue for fuel (as much as 45% of the calorie deficit will come from cannibalizing your muscles) and yourbody will start secreting hormones that will cause you to store/hoard whatever food you eat (after you finish dieting) as fat in preparation for the next "famine" period. The best cure for this is to weightlift (free weights or machines) so read the EXCERCISE section above.

Also, do not eat any calorie-containing food/beverage 1 hour before, during, or within 3 hours after your workout (except maybe for some protein only) (yeah, this "no carbs/no fat after workout" is opposite of the best strategy used for maximum muscle growth/strength). This does wonders for fatloss because it forces your body to rely on your fatstores instead of incoming calories and glycogen but is overtaxing and blah for your muscles (don't expect muscle growth/stength improvement--you will probably lose muscle and strength but you can regain them after your dieting phase--you can minimize the muscle loss by eating some protein within 15 minutes to 2 hours after weightlifting while slowing fatloss only a tiny bit).

P.S. One last thing about ephedrine (despite all the doom-and-gloom sensationalized by newsmedia who don't have a clue about sports biochemistry): it's easily tolerated if you're used to high-adrenalin activities such as gymnastics flipping, skydiving, roller coasters, and other thrillseeking. If you're not used to high-adrenalin surges, the stimulative effects of ephedrine might cause you to feel too jittery. If so, reduce or stop the dosage. On the other hand, if you're used to high-adrenalin sports, it'll feel like nothing more than a cup of cappucino :).

If you're healthy female (no heart/blood conditions, etc.) and want to accelerate the fatloss off your hips, thighs, & buns , adding yohimbine will hasten/enhance the fatloss off those areas.

The reason why women have a hard time losing fat from the hips, thighs, & buns is because those areas contain relatively high levels of alpha2-receptors--alpha2-receptors help prevent your metabolism/thermogenesis from going too high/fast (which slow/block fat-burning from those areas). Adding yohimbine to the e/c/a stack helps block the alpha2-receptors, accelerating/enhancing fatloss from those areas when combined with weightlifting, cardio (especially if done in the morning before breakfast). WARNING: Because yohimbine helps block the effects of the alpha-receptors (alpha receptors act as safety "brakes" in your central nervous system--your beta2 & beta3 receptors act as the "gas pedal" in fat-burning/metabolism), your heartbeat/blood pressure may go too high--DO NOT USE if you're sensitive or have a medical condition. For the rest of you high-adrenalin risk-takers :), try only one dose (5 mg. or 8 mg) of yohimbine with one dose of the e/c/a stack the first day to test how well your system can tolerate them in combination. Gradually increase the e/c/a+yohimbine dosage to 3 per day as usual over the course of several days. You're fatloss will be greatly enhanced and you'll finally see the results of the fat burning off those otherwise burn off areas (make sure the yohimbine you use is standardized extract or better yet get the prescription version) :)