Conquer the Fat-Loss Code

Wendy Chant's new book, "Conquer the Fat-Loss Code," is a follow-up to her bestselling "Crack the Fat-Loss Code." In the new book she explains how the body's natural response to eating can be influenced by specific diet and fitness strategies.

Fat-Loss Code
She says we need to break the code with numbers 72 and 48, the body's 72 and 48-hour response pattern to eating. Chant claims that every 72 hours your body examines the energy you ingest, then calculates how to reserve it to keep you functioning. Every 48 hours, your body slows or recalibrates how much energy it burns up, to make sure reserves are full based on projected energy expenditure.

Macro-Patterning
Still with me? Here's the next part. Chant then teaches you how to crack your metabolism code through "macro-patterning," a style of carb-up, carb-down, baseline. There's grapefruit, zero starch and even cheat days of eating to maximize fat loss fast. According to the book, macro-patterning best positions your body to tap into fat instead of glycogen by reducing carbohydrates (glycogen stores) a few days a week. Then on carb-up days you replace the glycogen stores enough so you don't enter starvation mode and start storing fat.

Timing of Exercise
Chant says your exercise routine is another key player in maximizing fat loss, which seems obvious, but she has a particular schedule in mind. By pairing the macro-patterning schedule with the right type and intensity of exercise, glycogen stores stay low, and your bod burns away fatty flab, not precious muscle. A few tips:

• Exercise every 48 hours to offset your body's tendency to conserve energy every 48 hours.
  
• Don't do the same routine more than 10 days in a row.
• Take off every fifth day -- it won't hurt your metabolism.
• Do cardio upon waking on an empty stomach -- glycogen stores are at their lowest, a fat-burn guarantee. Mickey Rourke ran every morning, then went back to bed to shed the fat for his role in "The Wrestler."

Final thoughts -- this program's rigid, fairly complicated style of eating and moving is not easily attainable unless you like to micromanage your diet and fitness. However, the book includes an eight-week planner that's a bonus for ultra-organized, highly-disciplined number crunchers. But for the rest of us, old-fashioned moderation in meals coupled with moving more might be an easier plan to stick with.