Author Jonathan Bailor of the Smarter Science of Slim
I recently read the great book, The Smarter Science of Slim by Jonathan Bailor. I gave the book my strongest endorsement and considering I’m rather stingy with my endorsements that’s saying something. The book covers over 1,000 studies to break down the real facts to living well through proper nutrition but also through exercise.
The book (affiliate link) makes a bold statement. That you only need 20 minutes of exercise per week to boost metabolism and burn fat. Yep, just 20 minutes, nothing more … and guess what? The science supports this, it appears to be true.
The Program
Bailor suggests that you do an intense HIIT style training on a Spin bike or by doing eccentric muscle stimulation to get to the deepest muscle fibers in your joints. What this means is … pedal intensely standing up on a Spin bike for 30 second intervals, do four or five total with recovery in between. The bike should be so hard to pedal that you’re out of breath and can’t do anymore by the end of 30 seconds.
For eccentric muscle stimulation think of it as the down … when you do a bicep curl you contract the muscle by lifting a weight in your hand to your shoulder. For eccentric if would be the return of that weight. Bailor actually only stipulates four moves as being necessary, a leg press, a seated row, a chest press and an overhead shoulder press (he has 4 complimentary at home moves too).
Doing this training will kick the body’s metabolism up a notch because you’re placing such a high demand on it. The result is increased muscle, fat loss, and more energy. The science backs this all up.
BUT … I know what you’re thinking, what about cardio, regular weight training, all the other stuff we’re supposed to be doing.
According to Bailor an active lifestyle will keep you fit, healthy and limber, but over-training can actually backfire so that you gain more weight. For instance, if you do a lot of cardio you body will “eat” calorie hogging muscle first and preserve it’s fat stores because it thinks it’s in starvation mode. You will actually slow your metabolism down as your body tries to conserve energy because you’re placing greater demands on it.
Let me say that again, over exercising forces your body to conserve fat and breakdown muscle. The exact opposite of what you want.
An Active Lifestyle
Bailor does say (in one paragraph) that this should not be all the activity you do per week. He is actually an advocate of 10,000 steps a day and he strongly wants you to keep moving and doing activities that you enjoy. So if you like to run, keep running but don’t think that training for a marathon will help you lose weight (it won’t). If you like to do a Zumba class for the energy then by all means keep attending, but going 6 times per week is overkill and will leave you up a dress size, not down one.
His mantra is “smarter science,” using what we know (what over 1,000 studies say) to maximize our bodies metabolism. A healthy metabolism means you’ll be lean, energetic and strong. I think it’s safe to say that we all want that.
So what do you think? Are you skeptical of the 20 minutes per week? Would you try it? Do you think heavy bouts of cardio and/or weight training has helped you in the past?
Here’s a link to the first Science of Slim post I did recently.
Cheers,
Lisa
