From low-calorie diets in part 4 to transformation contests today – we’re moving right along in my interview with Scott Colby, the abs expert. Read on as I reveal why you should participate in a transformation contest if you really want to lose fat.

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Scott Colby: Now Craig, this morning I wrote on my Facebook page – I was trying to start a little bit of a discussion.

I said a great way to stick to your fitness program – and as we go into a new year and a new decade, a lot of people have that as their goal, something fitness related – I said a great way is to enter a TRANSFORMATION CONTEST, and I listed things like there’s usually a nice prize at the end.  There’s a specific starting and ending point.  There’s usually some sort of program to follow.  And I know you’re big on transformation contests; you’ve done them in the past, and you’re about to start a new one.

Can you just give me your thoughts on WHY TRANSFORMATIONS WORK SO WELL, and maybe a little info about the one that’s about to kick off?

Craig Ballantyne: Yeah.  Well, we’re starting one right now, and you go to transformationcontest.com/rules – or just go to transformationcontest.com, and there’s a link to the rules.  And you’ll see the winners of the past contents, and should be slightly motivating.

Now the weird thing is some people get really excited by these contests for no logical reason.  Some people have said to me in the past, “I wouldn’t have even tried to lose weight if it wasn’t for this contest.  I don’t expect to win, but this contest was the thing that I needed.”

So I don’t know if it’s just the fact that there’s a start and end point that some people need.  Some people need the big event in order to kick them into gear, and if somebody doesn’t have a big event – like no one’s getting married or there’s no vacation – they don’t see any end point.

Maybe that’s too abstract for people if there’s no end point, but you give them this transformation contest, and now there’s a 12-week end point.  And they were frustrated and struggling before, but they wouldn’t have made the change unless the contest was there.  So it’s been a very interesting study in human psychology just to see what people will do, what motivates people.

But the main things that people get out of contests – and you can have one at work, you can have one online with the transformation contest, you can find them in magazines now – they’re all over the place.  And for good reason, because they do get people involved.  They get people MORE RESULTS than they would get if they were just following a 12-week program just to follow a 12-week program.

Because of the END POINT, because of the deadline, it SPURS THEM to action.

Certainly the prizes are important.  We give out some fairly significant cash prizes – $1,000.00 for the winner, 500 for second place, and third place gets 250, and there are men’s and women’s categories.

So there’s something to be said for that, but I don’t think that it’s all about the money.  Certainly I don’t think it’s all about the money.  I think it’s far more important that there’s some type of deadline and end point.

And also with the transformation contest, if you’re doing it at work or at your gym or online, with ours we have the aspect of social support.  There’s other people doing it.  Therefore it fosters a sense of positive community.  Otherwise, if you’re not doing one at work and you’re the only person trying to lose weight at work, the first two weeks of January might be fine, when other people are kind of half-involved in some type of fitness.

But more people DROP OUT if they’re not in a contest, and then you’re left on your own and you’re doing it yourself.

And then everybody’s going to Pizza Hut and they’re having Super Bowl parties and all this stuff, and you’re the only person trying to keep it going.  So if you institute some type of contest, then that will keep more people involved and it will – on a selfish note for you – keep fewer people getting into that NEGATIVE PEER PRESSURE where hey, you gotta come to lunch with us.  It’s so-and-so’s birthday, we’re having a huge cake and you gotta have a huge piece.

And that type of stuff, which really just brings so many people’s progress down because they have to keep up with all these other people and they don’t wanna say “no”.  And really you should say “no” and be selfish, and there’s nothing wrong with that; but it’s a lot easier when everybody else is on the same page.  So contest in person or contest online – I don’t think it really matters where you do your contest.

I just think that it’s really important to get involved in one.

Scott Colby: Awesome.  And so for yours, Craig, one of the things that you’re supposed to be doing is to follow your Turbulence Training program?

Craig Ballantyne: Yeah, and in our program you have to use the Turbulence Training workouts, of course.

Like you mentioned at the start of the call, there’s over 60 different programs now and different levels. There’s women’s, there’s men’s, there’s body weight, there’s beginners, there’s advanced, there’s the hard-core ones, so there’s something for everybody in the system.  And they have to use something.  Of course you can choose the one that suits you best and go from there.

Scott Colby: Very cool.  And you’re running for the week before New Year’s, which is this week, I guess, right?

Craig Ballantyne: Yeah.  We kicked it off on Sunday, so I just found that a lot of people like to get going right away.

I mean our very first one we actually started before Christmas in 2007, and a lot of people still got great results, so that didn’t bother anyone.

And then last year we started it the day after Christmas, and this year we started it two days after Christmas.  And a lot of people are just really gun-ho and they don’t wanna wait till January 1st, so that’s why we’re doing so much this week.  And then the last day to enter this contest I believe is January 15th, which is the third Friday in January.

So then everyone has 12 weeks, and so some people finish earlier than others, obviously.  But it gives a lot of people who didn’t hear about it to get started; we don’t wanna put too short of an entry time on it.  And then it’s 12 weeks, and then we finish up in April some time, and then we share the winners with everybody.

Scott Colby: Awesome.  And you’re running a half-price special on the TT this week, correct?

Craig Ballantyne: Yeah, definitely.  Just to get more people involved, give them the resources and tools and everything they need to get involved in the program.

Scott Colby: Cool.  Yeah, so anybody, if you don’t have Turbulence Training yet you can go to www.theabsexpert.com/TT, and then you could pick up Turbulence Training this week at half price.  You gotta order it by Friday, and then Craig had other bonuses in there.  And I’m gonna throw in my own bonus if you grab Turbulence Training this week.  I’ll let you know what it is at the end of the call, so that’s just about 20 more minutes – stick around.  But again, it’s www.theabsexpert.com/TT.  You can grab Turbulence Training this week for half price; that helps kick off the seventh transformation contest.

Alright, so now you know that if you’re looking to lose fat, joining a body transformation contest will increase your chances of getting the results you’re after….but what about if you don’t have a lot of time to workout, what type of workout will get you maximum results in minimum time?  Read part 6 of the interview to find out.

Alwyn Cosgrove is a SUPERSTAR in the world of physique transformation for men and women. He’s trained champions in multiple sports and winners of multiple 12-week body transformation contests. Alwyn owns and operates a training facility in Santa Clarita, California and he’s also written his own fat loss book called “Afterburn” available at www.alwyncosgrove.com.

CB:  Alwyn, I think that for men and women with a lot of body fat to lose, that doing some LONG DURATION CARDIO will help them get started on their fat loss goals. But you are totally against aerobic work in this case, right?

AC: (I just want to clarify that we are talking about otherwise healthy individuals – because steady state aerobic work definitely has its place in certain populations).

I’m not totally against it – but I still PREFER interval work. I mentioned in an earlier interview with you that there was a study (Jones et al – can’t remember the date) that showed that the intensity required by a sedentary person who is trying to improve their cardio respiratory fitness level, might create an excessive muscular overload

Jones et al, noted that in the initial 6 weeks of training there was a 50-90% injury rate. This occurred in training programs specifically designed to minimize risk of injury. The bottom line is that the musculoskeletal system is very easily OVERTRAINED when it is de-conditioned. So anything I can do to keep volume in cardio training low (ie less reps right?) I’ll do it.

So even with beginners I will do some form of interval training. But that just means maybe walking a little faster for a minute, then backing off for two. It doesn’t necessarily mean sprinting or anything like that.

CB:  Alwyn, you like to use what are called hybrid exercises. But I don’t and I think you are BETTER OFF super-setting the two exercises rather than combining them into one. My belief is, you try and do two things at once, you end up doing them half-assed. Lets say we do a curl and shoulder press…well, the intensity of the shoulder press is not optimal. Therefore, why not do them in a superset instead.

AC:   A) Well that example is weak and wouldn’t work .  A curl shouldn’t be a part of a hybrid because it is such a low level strength exercise. It limits everything. But you could just do two reps of a shoulder press in that example if you wanted to. A better example would be a front squat push press hybrid. The metabolic cost of that type of exercise is HUGE.

B) A hybrid is just one tool in my box. I also use supersets. I also superset hybrids .  It’s back to the Bruce Lee philosophy of never ignoring anything that works.

The biggest problem or COMPLAINT I get from clients who use commercial facilities is that it’s really HARD for them to tie up two pieces of gym equipment at peak hours.  You can use hybrids or combinations instead and use only a bar or one pair of dumbbells.

(Let me define the difference between combination lifts and hybrids)

Combination lifts (performing one rep of an exercise and then another with a brief pause), hybrids, (the same as combination lifts but without any rest between reps – no discernible pause) and complexes (performing all the reps for one exercise and then performing the next exercise – e.g. 6 reps front squat, 6 reps push press) allow us to technically perform supersets with ONE piece of equipment.

But the key is to be sensible. You can’t do a hybrid of Deadlifts and curls for example – the difference in loading is too great.

As for “two things at once” meaning you do them “half –assed”. Olympic lifters doing a clean and jerk might take OFFENCE to that

But to summarize: Here are the four main reasons to consider combos or hybrids.

1. Time / Space / Equipment

• Small facility + large group
• Lack of equipment….got DB’s and/or barbells??
• Only have your clients / athletes for limited time periods or sessions per week

2. Increase training volume

• Add volume to your Olympic variations
• A 5-movement complex x 6 reps has a total volume of 30 repetitions per set!. At only 100 lbs., this comes out to 3000 lbs. of total work…per SET!

3. Change-up…Break-up monotony (this is more for athletes)

• Long in-season cycles
• Off-season loss of focus
• Break-up a long microcycle phase (i.e. hypertrophy…high volume)
• Unloading phase

4. Metabolic / conditioning effect

• Increase work demand, use more muscle groups
• Increase caloric expenditure in fat loss programs
• Increase work capacity

And again, I doubt that it’s an either/or scenario. You don’t need to choose between the modalities.

CB:  Let’s discuss intervals. I prefer that people do their INTERVALS immediately after the weight training component, so that they have more days off from the gym. Do you like to do them on off-days instead?

AC: I don’t really have a preference. Often my clients do the intervals immediately after their workouts and they have more “off days” from the gym. With others, they tend to come in more frequently for shorter workouts.

Interestingly, with some clients I see better results if I can get them in the gym more often – it changes their mindset. Keeps them focused. But in reality I doubt over the course of the year that there would be much difference in results if total work done was the same.

I’m not stuck on one method over the other.

CB:  In a recent newsletter, you also recommend the Tabata protocol for intervals (20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest). I think this approach is OVER-RATED. What are your thoughts on using these intervals? Is this the best?

AC: For fat loss – I’m not sure that it is.

It’s just a very time efficient way to improve your cardio (based on the research).

I haven’t read anything putting it head to head with other forms of interval training though.

I just think for energy system work for athletes it’s EFFECTIVE and extremely TIME EFFICIENT. The biggest problem I think people run into, is a lack of time. Anything that solves that problem in terms of efficiency is worth having in your toolbox.

Not convinced that it’s as effective for fat loss though.

I just don’t want people to think that I PREFER the Tabata protocol over others.

I’m just a big believer in the “Absorb what is useful” Bruce Lee philosophy.

Below is the last installment of my interview with fasting and nutrition expert, Brad Pilon. If you happened to miss last day’s excerpt where Brad divulged a number of key dietary nutrition tips to catapult your fat loss results, then make sure you go back and read it through.

To finish off the transformation interview series, Brad, based on his own experience, reveals a few key mistakes to avoid if you want to look your best.  He then summarizes the 3 most important areas you should focus on that will ensure you’re peaking for your big day – whether that be a transformation contest, a wedding photo, or just looking good for summertime….

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Craig Ballantyne:  Okay.  There’s a topic that you brought up at the very start was something that you did in the last couple days before the actual competition.  So why don’t you take us through the last seven days what you heard you were supposed to do, what you did and then what you would do now.

Brad Pilon: Yeah.  All right.  So it was kind of common knowledge in the people I was doing the contest with that certain bodybuilders did certain things before and after a show.  One was for the last two weeks you’re at super LOW calorie and you should feel weak was sort of – everybody kind of talked about how their numbers drop off and my PROBLEM was that they weren’t.

My numbers –the numbers of the weights I was lifting – were doing great.  They just kept going up so I kind of thought uh oh.  I must be doing something wrong.  If everybody else was getting weak maybe I’m eating too much.  So I cut the calories back a little bit and that didn’t really do much.  The numbers stayed the same.

And really looking back at it, it was just because I had a really good workout program.  I wasn’t wasting time on anything I shouldn’t be wasting time on.  It was a very purposeful training program.

So I cut the calories down and then a couple days out it looks like I cut my water and so I wasn’t drinking any water for it looks like a day and a half beforehand.  And then I added in rice cakes and I hate rice cakes so that didn’t make a lot of sense.

Again, obviously right now looking at it was COUNTERINTUITIVE but you get into areas where you’re going to see a lot of self-talk and making things look awesome and convincing yourself that things are drastically going to change.

And then after the rice cakes it looks like the day of the contest I was eating a lot of high sugar stuff and that again doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

I happened to overhear that other people were eating jam.  They were drinking maple syrup and some dude ate a cheesecake.  A full cheesecake.  And really I have notes here saying none of them looked any different and I don’t really think I looked any different.  I didn’t see any value to it at all.  I can tell you that my stomach did not feel awesome a couple hours after the contest so that wasn’t much good either.

I think most of that is USELESS.

The one part I will note is that the grooming stuff that bodybuilders do in terms of the tanning and the shaving and making sure your skin is well moisturized has a massive, MASSIVE EFFECT.  But this dieting stuff here over these days just didn’t do much for me at all and if anything was counter productive but I just think it was more not productive than it was counter productive.

Craig Ballantyne:  Okay.  And so you wouldn’t cut the water out if you did it again?

Brad Pilon: No.  I don’t think I would.  I don’t think it made a giant difference.  And I have pictures too and when I look at them I don’t really look that much different from four days out as opposed to one day out so why bother?

Craig Ballantyne:  Okay.  And then let’s take that down a notch and say let’s say someone has been dieting maybe six, eight, ten, 12 weeks and is just doing this to look great on their wedding day or their daughter’s wedding day or whatever.

What of those grooming techniques can someone use?  Obviously they’re not going to get a fake tan like a body builder.  What are the types of things that someone might be able to do to peak for their big day?

Brad Pilon: I am a solid believer that a good tan, not a crazy dark tan but just a bit more color in the skin, well-moisturized skin, and for guys, I mean I hate doing it as much as anybody else but getting rid of the chest and stomach hair.  You can easily add the look of ten pounds of muscle and dropping five pounds of fat just by having well-moisturized skin, a bit of a tan and trimming down the body hair.

In fact, I will take a shot of me tonight and then in two days I’ll go and grab a couple tans, moisturize the skin a bit, get a workout in to get a pump and I’ll take some other pictures and I’ll throw them up on my blog and I bet you the difference will be noticeable.

It’s hard for a wedding but if it was for a photo shoot or for a day on the beach or whatever, the actual effect of just the PUMP AFTER WORKOUT I think is quite noticeable.  But just tan, trimming the hair and making sure the skin is well moisturized can make a world of difference.

Craig Ballantyne:  Okay.  Well, let’s go back to somebody’s going through the transformation and they’ve started to run into problems.  How can they troubleshoot their problems if things aren’t going as well as had been planned?

Brad Pilon: Right.  The key there is if you’re recording everything because you can look back and see what you’ve changed.  The one thing you have to look out for is that if you’re eating a certain amount of calories right now and that’s the amount of calories it takes to maintain the body weight you’re at right now.

Let’s say you cut 500 calories out.  You’re going to lose weight to the point where that new calorie intake you’re eating is the amount it takes to maintain that weight.  So if you just take 500 calories out of your diet right now you’re not going to just continue to lose weight forever and ever and ever.  You’re going to get to a point where you balance out.

So the one point is really tracking your diet and going okay, I’ve been the same weight now for two weeks.  I have an option.  I can either cut the calories down a bit more OR I can look at my workout and maybe restructure my workout to burn a bit more calories.  And those are the two options you have.

But the caveat there is that you really don’t want to second guess yourself.  So if you weighed yourself on Tuesday and weighed yourself on Thursday and the weight’s the same it’s just because it takes time.  It’s a slow process.  But if over the course of two, 2 ½ weeks you’re like hey, you know what?  This is not progressing the way I want.  Then it’s just a simple matter of looking at it and going I’ve got to (a) cut the calories down slightly or (b) up the amount of calories I’m burning slightly.

The other thing you gotta watch for is again FOLLOW YOUR INSTINCT is what you originally wrote down with your workout.  If you really start killing yourself on your workout and throwing in the extra two and three workouts in a day, it can become counterproductive because you can just become exhausted and sitting around the house, going to bed at 7:00 every night because you’re just so tired from your workouts actually becomes counterproductive as well.

So you really want to make sure you’re giving yourself enough time to adapt and you will hit slow downs and it will also speed up occasionally but the key is being able to look back at your record in the last couple of weeks and going what was I doing then that I’m not doing now and that’s probably the difference.

Craig Ballantyne:  So you would basically say that if you’re doing a 12-week transformation once you set what you’re going to do for your nutrition and your training for 12 weeks it really doesn’t change too much over those 12 weeks.  You just follow the plan and there’s no magic alterations you make at week 8 or week 4?  It’s just follow the plan.

Brad Pilon: Yeah.  My workout, with the exception where I messed up and second guessed myself and my workouts, they were just basically non-competing supersets the whole way through.  The weights went up the whole way through.  I didn’t even start backing off on the weights.

I like lifting a little heavier than most people so it was always between like four reps and eight to ten reps.  I never was doing that whole 20-rep definition work because we know it’s pointless.

And the diet, like I said it stayed basically the same and then as the diet progressed I cut little bits here and there out.  So I had my base of 1400 calories and I had the free calories that I had for my coffees and I slowly cut my coffees down and then some other of the extras I had, I think with my – like I said for my lunch I eventually got the guys to start measuring it and I think I cut it down a little bit too when I realized how much it was.

So little changes just to keep everything rolling.  But nothing drastic.  There were no swings.  No calorie cycling.  Just nothing crazy.  It was just realizing that the core concept of working out and dieting is going to work.  It has to.

So I just stuck with I knew what I was doing.  I wrote down my plan and second guessing myself is going to probably happen continually as you get closer to the contest.  And it did.  But I just stuck with it.

Craig Ballantyne:  Great.  Now does gender change anything from anything that you’ve talked about in the entire transformation program?

Brad Pilon: I think it’s HARDER for women.  I really do.

I mean on paper when you look at it, it probably shouldn’t be but I think it’s harder.  I think that the menstrual cycle makes it harder.  I think their bodies really hold water so I think they see more plateaus and more sort of weight popping up and down than guys do.

So they’re the ones who have to look at instead of the actual numbers of their weight, the trend.  Because while it may go up a pound on a certain week and all of a sudden they have actually not just stalled but gone up one, by the end of a three-week period okay, you’re still down two.  It’s all the trend.

And I think psychologically that makes their battle much harder.  So, for me, I was second guessing myself the whole way through.  I knew exactly what I was doing.  I had a great support group.  I had a fantastic nutrition plan, training program, and I was doing it.  And I saw consistent results the whole way through.

So I can only imagine what my brain would do if on week 7 I’m like huh.  I’m up a pound and a half.  It would probably be utter catastrophe.  And I would probably really gear in for changing something.  And I think that’s where women are going to have to be even more resilient than men and go you know what?  I bet you this will even out in a week or two and just keep plugging through.

Craig Ballantyne:  Great.  And then last but not least, Brad, let’s finish off with a minimalist approach.  If there were only three pieces of advice you would give someone who wanted to transform their body, what would it be?

Brad Pilon: Yep.  It would be eat to lose fat.  I mean I think that’s the No. 1 lesson I can say is “count on nutrition for the fat loss”.  Lift to build muscle.  You may just end up maintaining muscle but the goal should be in your head to lift to build muscle.  And then stay on track.

Don’t start second guessing yourself.  Don’t start doing a program specific to core strengthening when your goal is to change your physique.  Just stay on track with my goal in the gym is preserve muscle mass while I’m dieting.  I’ll work on my 40-yard sprint or my bench press once I’m done with this amazing transformation.  But for now my goal is weight loss.

And those are the three things.  Eat to lose fat.  Lift to build muscle.  Stay on track.

Craig Ballantyne:  Okay.  Great.  And you mentioned before you have a blog, Brad?

Brad Pilon: Yeah.  My blog is www.nutritionhelp.blogspot.com.  I basically cover all things nutrition.  It’s slanted a fair bit towards fasting obviously because that’s my main area but I do cover just about everything to do about nutrition from different diet books and recipe books to just everything food.

And I think I will take some shots tonight and throw up a picture of a two-day before and after just to show the difference of workouts and tans and some moisturizer.

Craig Ballantyne:  Great.  Thank you very much Brad.

Brad Pilon: No problem.

If you have ever considered fasting as a means of burning fat for a transformation contest or just to reshape your body, then you’ll definitely want to go back to part 4 of my interview with Brad Pilon, author of Eat Stop Eat.

Today, Brad covers a number of nutrition-related questions to help you quickly transform your body.  If you’re deciding between fasting and multi meal diet strategies for fat loss, wondering which foods to eat before and after a workout, or just want to know dieting tips for beginners versus advanced individuals, then stick around because Brad spills the beans on it all.

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Craig Ballantyne:  Now let’s go back to when you did your transformation and you talked a little bit about how we have to plan ahead.  How are you planning your meals and what’s the easiest way to plan meals in advance and most effective way to plan stuff if you’re really going to do the multi-meals per day and focus on not eating crap?

Brad Pilon: Right.  The key to the multi meals a day, like I said, every diet’s going to work and I did use multi meals a day to lose weight for my transformation.  I’m never going to say that didn’t work.

But the key is that if you’re going to be eating six, seven times a day you gotta make sure you don’t mess up because that gives you seven times to add just a little bit of calories in.  If you add an extra 50, 100 calories a meal, that’s an extra 350 to 700 a day and your diet’s shot.

So the KEY for me was each week I wrote down exactly what I was going to eat and I measured it so I knew exactly how many calories it was and then like I said I gave myself that little bit of leeway and then I went for it.

So my first week was literally two scoops of oatmeal, one scoop protein, one cup milk.  And then one protein, a can of protein, one V8 to go, six fish oil caps.  And lunch was meat and vegetables and that was open.  I had a cafeteria at my old work so that’s where I left that kind of free area of calories just because I couldn’t measure that directly although by the end of this transformation I actually had the chef measuring stuff for me.  That’s how great it was when you have a good support group.

Then it went on.  It was one can of tuna.  It was before bed it was two eggs and two scoops of egg whites but everything was to the “t”.  And to keep you from going crazy because no one could eat the same food day-in and day-out for 12 weeks, I would rotate through every week.

I’d sit down on Sunday.  Okay.  What am I going to do this week? And I would measure everything out and make sure it was legit and if I needed to go shopping then I would go shopping and get all the food and just go.

But it’s making sure that – obviously if you’re going to write down what you’re going to eat, you better make sure you have that food available to you.  And then the other thing I noticed is if I go through my records on weeks where I am like I cannot – like right after this week I cannot do a can of tuna every day for the next “x” amount of weeks.  So I scratched off tuna.  That’s something I just did on occasion.  It was just a little too hard.   http://www.ttfatloss.com/wp-admin/post-new.php

I notice that towards the end of it I got sick of oatmeal and switched to apple sauce during the mornings because it’s a little lighter on the calories so there’s more volume there.  A lot of TRICKING yourself and not being hungry is dealing with the VOLUME of the foods you eat.

So it was – again, really I’m just saying it comes back down to recording and also recording what you liked and didn’t like so that you can move forward from there.

Craig Ballantyne:  Now let’s do pre and post-workout nutrition.  What are your recommendations here for somebody on a transformation?

Brad Pilon: I didn’t have pre-workout and I did have post-workout which was 50 grams of carbs, 15 grams of protein and 5 grams of creatine so I’m guessing I had two cups of chocolate milk and five grams of creatine after every workout.  Just looking through the records here.

Now really my personal opinion is it’s NOT a large deal.  I’ve come to the conclusion that if you’re training four or five times a week for a physique transformation, every single meal you eat is post-workout and pre-workout at the same time so the key is consistency through your eating.  

Even if you’re following Eat Stop Eat and the days and times you’re not fasting you should be making sure that the meals you eat are sound and are moving you towards your goals.  So really on any transformation consider every single meal you eat as post-workout and pre-workout and just make sure that they’re balanced. The best way that makes you feel the best about what you’re doing.

Craig Ballantyne:  So more focusing on the daily intake than really getting too hung up on slamming something down within ten seconds of your last repetition?

Brad Pilon: I know the research behind the idea of five seconds after your workout is when you should be pounding everything back and I have my own opinion in that data and how people sort of came to it.

Craig Ballantyne:  Well, let’s hear it.

Brad Pilon: Oh, okay.  Any acute trial, which is when they study somebody sort of once, you get fantastic results from amino acids and carbs pre, post-workout.  And these results never seem to translate to when you do six, eight, 12-week long trials.

And one of the things I noticed in my graduate work was that in any trial where it’s acute like that, where you’re looking at the effect of one dose of amino acids after a workout or before a workout the subjects have typically fasted from anywhere from 12 to 18 hours and then they have their one dose of amino acids and they continue to basically not eat again.

So I believe that the effect of the fast tends to magnify the effect of the amino acids after a resistance training program.  Not to get really complicated but I think it has to do with amino acid cycling.

Long story short is that I think it might make us a little over hyped over the effect of pre and post-workout meals and really it tends to make us neglect the fact that long-term muscle growth is chronically happening when you’re training.  I mean it’s a very slow process so EVERY single meal you eat should be geared towards the idea of putting on muscle and losing fat.

So my personal opinion is if you’re really going for this contest and you really want to make a physique transformation to just last your whole life, then I wouldn’t put any more importance on meals two and three than I would meals one, four, five, six.  They’re all vitally important to the process.

Craig Ballantyne:  And I think that comes to a very similar point about where you read these studies on supplements that increase metabolic rate whether it’s caffeine or green tea, these are often just done once but when you do, you give the supplement for eight weeks there’s no change in body fat. So do you ever recommend any supplements for people that are in transformations?

Brad Pilon: No.  I have no problems with them.  I have no problem with the idea of some people if they like the idea of a high protein diet and if having a protein shake in your house makes it easier to follow your diet, no problems.

But in terms of a diet supplement or a fat-burning supplement, I didn’t use them for my program and I think for your first – if this is your first time don’t.  See how well you can do without any sort of crutch.  Just nail it through and see all the benefits of just hard work and proper planning.

Craig Ballantyne:  Okay.  Now would your recommendations on training or nutrition change for someone that’s at a more advanced level?  For someone that’s maybe done a transformation before?  Or even if they’re doing their first transformation, or competition, figure competition is what I mean.  Is that any different than just giving regular transformation advice?

Brad Pilon: I’ve talked with and even trained with people who’ve done 50 transformations and numerous times and I’ve actually even trained with people who compete.  I think for the average non-pharmaceutically enhanced person, the CORE CONCEPTS behind the process are always going to be the same.

And I think the only difference is someone who’s done it more than once or twice knows best how their body responds so they may be able to get results a little bit quicker and they know exactly where they’re going to slow down and they know where a plateau is going to happen and they know not to freak out.  That over a two-week period they didn’t lose anything because they know it always happens to them.

But the core concepts of eating to lose fat, training to maintain or build muscle, and recording everything, it pretty much stays the same no matter your experience level.

Craig Ballantyne:  So if you went and did another one now what would you know to expect or what would you change?

Brad Pilon: Yeah.  I know for me that the weight loss is fairly slow.  I mean it was constantly about 0.6, 0.7 pounds a week.  And that was the whole time.  It stayed that way.  I had sometimes where it was a little bit more or sometimes a little bit less but it was always right around there.  And so it’s nothing to freak out at if you’re not seeing massive losses because you know they’re coming.

And I would definitely looking back at this actually I think you helped me put the program together.  I’d follow almost this exact same weight training program because it worked really well for me.

And I even have a period here where I think I talked myself into probably about five weeks out from the actual show trying out like a body part split and then after about two weeks of it I have a note here to never ever do that again.  So I mean who else can I trust but me?  If I say don’t do that, I’m not doing it again.

So I would go right back to the exact same workout program that worked so well.  I would use the Eat Stop Eat only because right now it’s keeping my body fat very low regardless so I don’t know why I’d change that.  And then I’d just read through this book and find out what I did and didn’t like and go with it again.  And that’s the BENEFIT again of doing it once before and recording everything.  Now you know.

Let’s finish off this interview with Brad’s tips on how to peak for your big day.

Ooops, I screwed up and didn’t explain a few things about the Turbulence Training Body Transformation Contest.

So here’s a complete Q’n'A of everything you need to know.

Q: When does the next contest start?

Answer:
The current body transformation contest began Dec 27th, and today is the last day to enter if you want to complete a full 12 weeks.

You must submit your before and after photos before Friday, April 9th, 2010 to be eligible to win the $1000 grand prize.

Click here for more details and rules about the TT contest

Q: Where do I send my before photos?

Answer:
You do not have to submit your before photos until the end of the contest.

To submit your before and after photos at the end of the contest, you can post them on the TT Member’s forum, or simply reply to this email with your entry.

You also need to submit a 300 word essay detailing your experiences, results, and successes with the body transformation program. I also recommend sharing the workouts and nutrition programs that you used to achieve your amazing results.

For examples of essays, visit www.TransformationContest.com and click the link under the photos so that you can read what past winners have submitted.

Q: Do you have any tips for taking before and after photos?

Answer:
You bet.

First, you must have a newspaper to document the date of your photo.

HOWEVER - for folks who live in remote areas, it is permissible to print off a website from the internet that includes the date on the website.

NOTE: Please include a close-up photo of your newspaper or website print-out in your final body transformation submission.

Q: What are the prizes?

Answer:
Prizes are as follows:

There will be a male category and female category. Each category will reward the following prizes.

1st Place Grand Prize - $1000 plus a 3-Year Platinum TT Membership

2nd Place - $500 plus a 2-Year Platinum TT Membership

3rd Place - $250 plus a 1-Year Platinum TT Membership

Q: What workouts do you recommend using?

Answer:
You must use Turbulence Training workouts for the body transformation.

For beginners, I recommend following the order of the workouts delivered in the main Turbulence Training program. Start with the beginner, then intermediate, and then the TT Original program.

Click here to try out Turbulence Training

For advanced folks, I recommend including these two programs in your plan:

1) Turbulence Training for Buff Dudes and Hot Chicks (Feb 2009)
2) TT Transformation (Jan 2010)

Click here to browse the entire TT workout library

So many programs! Just comment below if you need help picking one out…

Q: What nutrition programs do you recommend?

Answer:
Fortunately, Turbulence Training comes with a solid guide to fat loss nutrition from Dr. Chris Mohr.

But if you are looking for even more nutrition advice, I recommend the following two programs – which have been used by many past TT body transformation contest winners:

1) Isabel’s “Diet Solution Program”

2) Brad Pilon’s “Eat-Stop-Eat” program

NOTE: Brad’s program has been used by the greatest number of winners according to their essays.

If you want to learn more about Brad’s program, check out this interview I did with him and posted on my blog:

=> Brad Pilon Eat Stop Eat Interview

*************************************

Please let me know if I missed answering any of your questions.

Can’t wait to see your results.

I also want to thank you in advance for being a part of this amazing experience.

There is nothing more rewarding to me than reading the Body Transformation Contest entries. I can’t say enough about your commitment, your bravery, your persistence, your strength, and your emotion when you write in about your success.

It humbles me to see the effort you put in and to think that so many of you are using the programs written by a simple farm-boy from a small town in Canada.

I can’t thank you enough, and I wish that you reach all of your goals in the body transformation contest.

Your friend,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training