10 Minute Fat Loss Challenge

If you're looking to lose weight you might think about going to the gym. Losing fat is, in fact, the number one reason people go to the gyms — but it is not the number one thing that actually happens there. If you've been having trouble losing fat at the gym, you're not alone. However, there is still a really simple, and fast, way to lose fat, that does actually work!

By using a simple training plan the emphasizes intensity, you can torch fat and fix your body composition issues — and without a treadmill in sight! Are you interested yet? Keep reading and we'll tell you all about it.

Weight loss programs are really fat loss programs.  

They’re meant for people who are struggling to lose fat – their issues are to do with body composition, not ‘weight’ as such. 

The reason is partly bad diet design. 

You reach for a faddy diet, like the cabbage soup diet or the grapefruit diet, and don’t stick to it. These diets are designed to be impossible to stick to, so don’t feel bad. The fault is with the design of the eating plan, not with you.

It’s partly bad exercise design. 

Setting out programs based on what they've learned in their weekend courses, fitness professionals at commercial gyms give out cookie-cutter programs based around teaching you how to use the machines in their gyms rather than really caring about your goals.  They tailor their programs to the lowest common denominator. They work – for about six weeks, because everything works for six weeks. Then your progress stalls, often permanently.

In this piece we’ll go over a plan that really does work and that increases your chances of success.

Faddy diets are hard to follow.  They’re often exciting on paper and boring once you have to actually eat them.  

Whatever they claim to be based on – blood type, star sign, and so on - they’re all based on extreme calorie restriction. You can stick them for maybe six weeks – if you have the iron discipline of a monk – and you’ll lose a few pounds and put them right back on again when the diet ends.

When they’re paired with undemanding, ineffective and dull cardio workouts you have a recipe for a trashed metabolism and a catabolic endocrine environment that will make your fat loss stall, even if you can stick at it. But who has time to train like a pro athlete?

Read More: Can You Improve Your Fitness In Just Five Minutes?

The Program

You’ll use either basic kettlebell moves or basic bodyweight moves. The training session needs no warmup and isn’t technically challenging – the challenge is not stopping when it gets hard.  It’s simple, not easy.

Evidence shows that negative rest interval training causes increases in Human Growth Hormone (HGH) and testosterone levels, which means an anabolic, fat-burning endocrine environment, and your resting metabolism will be raised for as much as 72 hours after a training session; that means it will be raised all the time if you train four times a week. 

You’ll get an elevated metabolism all the time, for forty minutes’ exercise a week that you can do on the floor at home.

And ladies, don’t worry about that testosterone increase. Testosterone in women doesn't do the same thing as it does in men. Testosterone not used for anabolic purposes in women is recycled into estrogen, and women simply don’t produce enough testosterone to appear ‘manly.’ For that you need testes or a syringeful of exogenous anabolic steroids.

If you’re good with the kettlebell, use whatever seems right to you. I’d recommend the snatch if you’re looking for a really hard session. 

If you’re fairly new to kettlebells, use the swing. 

The main thing should be a move that uses the whole body and doesn't require so much technical skill that you can’t do it for high reps. Overhead presses are out. Snatches, clean and presses, swings, squats, are all great choices. If you choose to use a barbell, I’d recommend that you use front squats or deadlifts.  In this piece I’ll focus on kettlebell snatches.

Burpees are like grown - up squat thrusts. 

Start in the push-up position and draw the feet sharply into a squat. Make sure your feet are outside your hands and your heels are on the ground. Now start from the floor and stand up into a jump. Don’t stand up and then jump, move through standing up and into the jump in one movement. Land and catch yourself back in the bottom position of the squat, and jump the feet back to the push-up position. If you find these too easy, try adding a push-up in here.

Split lunges are also known in gymnastic circles as ‘killers.’ 

To find out why, stand in a split squat position, jump and land in the opposite position. Repeat. The first few are relatively easy but after a few reps the name will start to feel eerily appropriate.

Get as many reps as you can in 10 minutes, any way you like. Sets of ten, sets of twenty, sets of five, one huge rest-pause set, whatever you like, just get as many reps as you can. I’d say if you can’t do fifty reps the kettlebell you’re using is too heavy, and with practice you should be shooting for 200 snatches in this ten minute period.  

Read More: 3 Minutes Of Exercise Is All You Need

It is horrible. 

The effects last for as much as 72 hours and over time you’ll see your body lean out and strengthen, your fat melt away and the body you want to see showing through. 

For men, aim for 150 to 200 snatches with a 16kg to 32kg bell, depending on size, strength and experience. 24kg is right for most. For women, go for the same numbers with a lighter bell. Start out with 12kg or even less if you’re inexperienced, and build from there.

Add in a 30 - minute light cardio session once a week to see the best results. That can be walking the dog or treadmill time, whatever’s right for you.  Playing light social sports works great here too.  Whatever you choose, it will help to fill in the gap between your anaerobic and aerobic energy system.  That will help with both general health and fitness and in developing fitness.