Pretty much every person who has ever gone on a weight loss diet is actually trying to get rid of body fat instead of body weight. The weight isn’t what’s important, it’s that pesky fat that makes us look lumpy and round that we all hate with a passion!
The whole purpose of the weight loss diets is to target fat, burn it, and leave us looking fit and svelte, right? That’s pretty much what the Xtreme Fat Loss Diet promises to do, but much faster than any diet you could come up with on your own.
Keep reading this Xtreme Fat Loss Diet review to find out what I think of it.
What is the Xtreme Fat Loss Diet?
The Xtreme Fat Loss program is all about helping you to burn fat as effectively as possible. Pretty clear based on that title, right?
The diet uses a unique structure of dieting and workouts to help you reach your target weight and body fat percentage in as short amount a time as possible.
The Mind Behind Xtreme Fat Loss: Dan Long, Shaun Hadsall, and Joel Marion
According to my research, the creators of this program are two bodybuilders: Dan Long and Shaun Hadsall. These two are supposed to be famous nutrition authors, but I could find ABSOLUTELY NO INFORMATION on Dan Long. My research into this man yielded nothing.
Searching for Shaun Hadsall yielded very little, but I found on one site:
Shaun Hadsall began his fitness journey in 1998 when he joined the renowned Body For LIFE™ transformation contest. Shaun ended up beating more than 22,000 people to walk away with the 1st Runner-up Grand Champion prize.
This amazing win led to Shaun becoming the owner of one of the top 10 personal training studios in the world. In 2008, he was voted America’s “Most Fit” Health & Fitness Pro by Club Solutions Magazine.
Whether or not that’s true, it’s hard to know.
When you open the PDF files, you see the name Joel Marion Fitness Solutions at the bottom as the company that owns the program. Doing a bit of research into Joel Marion yielded better results. His “About Me” page reads:
With regards to his professional education and credentials, Joel holds Bachelor of Science degrees in both Exercise Science and Health Education from The College of New Jersey, where he graduated with honors, Magna Cum Laude. He is also certified as a sports nutritionist and personal trainer through the nation’s premiere certification agencies, the International Society of Sports Nutrition and National Strength and Conditioning Association, respectively.
In the last 7 years, Joel has authored numerous articles for popular newstand and web-based health and fitness publications including, Men’s Fitness, Muscle Media, Woman’s Day, SELF, Muscle & Fitness Hers, MuscleMag International, Oxygen, T-Nation.com, BodyBuilding.com, and LifeScript.com.
So, at least there’s one certified expert behind this program, or one we can find out about!
A Look at the Xtreme Fat Loss Diet Program
With no ado, let’s dive right into the diet plan that makes this program a very unique one!
Xtreme Fat Loss Diet Manual
The diet manual describes the meal plan that you will be following over the 25 days that the course lasts.
First off, it lists reasons why regular dieting sucks so much:
- It’s boring and there is little or no variety.
- It requires you to ditch all of your favorite foods.
- It doesn’t give you the results you want.
All pretty good reasons to try something different, right?
Understanding Leptin
The entire diet concept is based around the way your body burns fat and perceives hunger, and leptin is a hormone that plays a huge role in your appetite.
Leptin essentially tells your brain how hungry your body is. People with higher levels of body fat tend to have higher leptin levels, ergo lower hunger levels. This is because leptin is secreted by fat cells, and there is a correlation between leptin levels and the amount of body fat you have.
The problem is, once you start to burn fat, your body lowers the level of leptin it sends to your brain. The brain detects this as a sign of hunger, and sends out hunger signals to your stomach and mouth. This happens when you reduce your calorie intake or burn fat.
The drop in leptin levels doesn’t just mean that you get hungrier, but it causes your metabolism to slow down and burn fewer calories per day–the exact opposite of what you want!
Adding more leptin to your diet is difficult, which leads us to the first day of the Xtreme Fat Loss Diet: cheat day!
Day 1: Cheat Day
Cheating means eating a whole bunch of food in order to give your leptin levels a boost. With your leptin very high, you reduce hunger, promote a fast metabolism, and keep your body working well.
Day 1 is cheat day, which means you eat as much of whatever you want. You eat until you’re satisfied, not stuffed, and you eat throughout the day. You are allowed one beer, but no other alcohol because it screws with the hormones that make the diet work.
There are no limits or restrictions to what you can eat, but you eat with the goal of boosting fat burning, provide surplus calories, and sending lots of nutrients to your muscles.
Day 2: Fast Day
You just primed your body to start burning fat at top speeds, and all of a sudden you limit its calories drastically. You drink a lot of water–filled with Branch-Chain Amino Acids (BCAAs)–and do three workouts throughout the day.
By the end of Day 2, you’ve no doubt burned off all of the calories you ate the day before, and you’re exhausted! Doing the workouts prevent your metabolism from slowing down, and ensure that you burn off all of the calories you consumed.
Day 3: Shake Day
The purpose of this day is to give you all the protein you need as you recover from the highly intensive Fast Day. It helps you to get back into eating regular food, and you get all the nutrients your body needs. You consume shakes made with either protein and carbs or protein and fats.
The book explains how to make the right shakes, but that’s secret stuff you have to read for yourself!
Day 4: Moderate Carb Day
This day calls for moderate amounts of food to be eaten, with the focus placed on consuming 30% carbs, 30% fats, and 40% protein. You eat five meals throughout the day, with the goal of replenishing the nutrients in your body so you can do the intense workouts.
Day 5: Protein-Only Depletion Day
This is the final day in the cycle, and it’s goal is to fill your muscles will amino acids while starving your body of triglycerides and muscle glycogen. You’ll get these nutrients the next day–Cheat Day again. You eat a whole lot of meat–2 grams per pound of lean body weight–along with all the veggies you can handle.
This diet is designed to help your body get the variety of nutrients it needs, but without starving it of the things it wants. It’s a unique diet plan that many people see as being extremely useful because they can enjoy their favorite foods on the various days.
Xtreme Fat Loss Workout Manual
The workout manual is highly detailed, and it explains the programs and types of training thoroughly.
Lactic Acid Training
The workout manual is about a specific type of program called Lactic Acid Training. I had never heard of this type of training, so it was highly intriguing for a fitness trainer like myself.
Lactic acid is the waste byproduct produced when your muscles burn glycogen for energy. The production of lactic acid increases the production of growth hormone, the hormone that helps your muscles grow. By increasing lactic acid output, you increase growth–according to the manual.
The acid is produced when your muscles contract concentrically (shorten) rather than eccentrically (lengthen). This means that it is produced for the “press” or “curl” part of the exercise, rather than the release part.
The workout manual focuses on prolonging the “lift” portion of the exercise, and reducing the “lower” part. You take 3 to 4 seconds to push or pull the weight, and just 1 second to return it to its original position. It is supposed to increase the production of lactic acid and makes the workout much harder.
Of course, to do this safely, you need to lift about 75 to 80% of what you regularly lift. You can increase it once you get used to the type of workout, but initially you start out with lighter weights.
Density Training
This is another type of workout promoted during Cheat Days, a circuit HIIT workout that uses alternating weights to promote muscle density rather than just growth.
An example of how the workout works:
- 30 second of bench presses doing 12 reps with 120 LBS
- 30 seconds of overhead press doing 15 reps with 100 LBS
- 30 seconds of curls doing 11 reps with 40 LBS
When you do the second circuit, you change up the workout:
- 30 seconds of bench presses doing 15 reps with 150 LBS
- 30 seconds of overhead press doing 18 reps with 120 LBS
- 30 seconds of curls doing 15 reps with 50 LBS
You’re not only adding more weight, but more reps as well? This means that you have to lift more weight AND faster in order to reach your goal.
An absolutely fascinating style of working out, one that is explained in the book.
Heavy Strength Training
With this workout, you have a goal of a certain number of reps you need to do per exercise. For example, you need to do 50 each of push-ups, squats, and pull-ups.
You do as many as you can the first round, say 10 of each. Come the second round, you do as many as you can, say 8 of each. That means you’ve finished 18 of each exercise. You continue doing rounds until you’ve reached your goal.
This means that you have both a heavy weight and a high workload, but you do this circuit-style workout that helps you to reach your goals.
Another amazing style of workout!
Dynamic Training
The goal of this style of training is to work hard, work fast, and go as intense as you can. It’s a high intensity training program that gets pretty great results. It explains more in the workout manual, and you’ll find that it’s a program that will leave you wiped out once you’re done!
The workout manual also gives you a laundry list of exercises you can do, with each exercise linked to a YouTube video where you can learn the proper form for the various exercises.
Bonus Material
There is a lot of other pretty awesome stuff you can find in the program, including:
- Tips on how to shop properly for the Xtreme Fat Loss Diet
- How to plan your weekly menu
- Tips for cooking your Xtreme Fat Loss Diet meals
- How-tos to help you stick to your diet
- Guidelines for doing the workouts as effectively as possible
- FAQs to help you understand the program
- Supplementation guide to inform you on the various supplements you will be using
- and so much more…
A lot of value in this program!
What We Think of the Xtreme Fat Loss Diet
I always have a healthy dose of skepticism handy whenever I start researching programs that claim to offer “extreme” results. When I couldn’t find anything on two of the program’s authors, my skepticism mounted. However, upon reading the manuals, I find myself convinced that this is actually a pretty great program!
We’re Not Fond Of
The Lack of Bona Fides
The fact that I couldn’t find ANY information on Shaun Hadsall and Dan Long leaves me just a bit skeptical that they know what they’re talking about, but at least Joel Marion is certified.
The Extremes of the Program
The diet is pretty extreme, what with the loading days, fasting days, and extreme workouts. However, without digging deeper into it, I can only say that the risk of injury and health problems is much greater with this diet program than with others.
We Love
The Extremes of the Program
Yes, it sounds a bit odd, but the truth is that the extreme nature of the program makes it an interesting option. You have diet options that few others allow you, and the supremely intense workouts make it an interesting choice to consider.
The Completeness of the Information
You get all the information you need to help you get started with the workout and diet. It walks you through the steps until you are well on your way.
The Bonus Material
Even if you don’t buy the premium package, you get a good amount of value for your money.
Conclusion
All in all, the Xtreme Fat Loss Diet program offers a pretty unique way to lose weight and get in shape. On the face of it, I cannot be sure that it is safe and healthy, but the information presented makes it look like a decent option to consider.
Final Verdict: 4 Stars
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