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© 2010 Joel Marion Fitness Solutions LLC and XtremeFatLossDiet.com.

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Xtreme Fat Loss Diet
TRAINING MANUAL

By JOHN ROMANIELLO, CPT

© 2010 Joel Marion Fitness Solutions LLC and XtremeFatLossDiet.com.


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Legal Disclaimer
The information presented in this work is by no way intended as medical advice or as a substitute
for medical counseling. The information should be used in conjunction with the guidance and
care of your physician. Consult your physician before beginning this program as you would with
any exercise and nutrition program. If you choose not to obtain the consent of your physician
and/or work with your physician throughout the duration of your time using the
recommendations in the program, you are agreeing to accept full responsibility for your actions.

By continuing with the program you recognize that despite all precautions on the part of Joel
Marion Fitness Solutions, LLC, there are risks of injury or illness which can occur because of your
use of the aforementioned information and you expressly assume such risks and waive, relinquish
and release any claim which you may have against Joel Marion Fitness Solutions, LLC, or its
affiliates as a result of any future physical injury or illness incurred in connection with, or as a
result of, the use or misuse of the program.

© 2010 Joel Marion Fitness Solutions LLC and XtremeFatLossDiet.com.


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Greetings, Salutations to you!

Welcome to the Training Manual for the Xtreme Fat Loss Diet! This document
contains all of the information for all 8 individual training sessions that
accompany the Xtreme Fat Loss Diet.

As mentioned in the Diet Manual, each specific day of XFLD is strategically


paired with a corresponding workout.

Or, more accurately, each “type” of diet day is paired with a specific “type” of
training.

Before we get into the specifics, a bit of


introduction on how that came to be.

My name is John Romaniello, and outside of being Joel’s best friend, and I have
also been working alongside him as a colleague for nearly ten years.

A lot of people reading this document will recognize my name from either my
blog (www.RomanFitnessSystems.com) or from my well-known fat loss program,
Final Phase Fat Loss.

That program has helped thousands of people shed fat while building or
maintaining muscle; the workouts in FPFL are, quite simply, some of the best fat
loss workouts ever written.

Not necessarily because of the specific exercises therein, but more so because
the fact that those workouts were created following a series of “rules” that all

© 2010 Joel Marion Fitness Solutions LLC and XtremeFatLossDiet.com.


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work together to help pull fat from your body whether the fat wants to go or not.

In many ways, it’s the training equivalent of the Xtreme Fat Loss Diet.

And so, when Joel decided to make this program available, he and I decided that
the ONLY POSSIBLE way to make it MORE effective was to add in the workout
styles from my system.

Initially, Joel asked if he could use some pre-existing workouts that I’d had
written. After trying XFLD with a number of our clients (both shared and
respective), we decided to create new ones that fit in even more in effectively.
These two things work synergistically together to make the diet even more
effective, and facilitate the process for the most radical fat loss possible.

How do I know all of this?

Well, you see, as I mentioned I’ve known Joel for ten


years, and over that time we’ve had the obvious
opportunity to test out each other’s programs.

In fact, I’m Joel’s Number Three guinea pig.

Joel, of course, is his own Number One guinea pig.

Guinea pig Number Two, by the way, was an actually Stephan on his Moderate Carb Day

guinea pig. His name was Stephan (pronounced “Steff-


ON” because Joel named him and Joel is a bit strange), and unfortunately, he is
no longer with us.

To be clear, Stephan is not dead. However, for reasons I can’t get into here

© 2010 Joel Marion Fitness Solutions LLC and XtremeFatLossDiet.com.


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because they are a bit beyond the scope of this document, we’re just not working
with him any longer. Suffice it to say that it had something to do with the Animal
Rights and Lactic Acid workout number 2.

But all of that is neither here nor there.

That is not what we’re here to discuss. Although he is quite cute.

We’re here, of course, to give you an overview of the training methods. I’m going
to tell you a little bit about them, how and why they work, and of course how to
perform each specific one. So, without further delay, let’s get into it.

Lactic Acid Training

This is the training style I tend to get the most questions about, so it makes
sense to start with Lactic Acid training.

Of course, this merits some discussion on what lactic acid is.

Without getting overly scientific about it, lactic acid is a waste byproduct that
occurs when you perform exercise (specifically the concentric or lifting phase,
which we’ll touch on below). On overly scientific discussion of the production of
lactic acid is a bit past where we need to be to explain how to do it, so I’ll skip
ahead to WHY we do it.

One of the cool things that happens when you product lactic acid is a
corresponding increase in Growth Hormone—in fact, you can think of it as a
direct relationship: as lactic acid is created, the production and release of Growth
Hormone increases. This is important because Growth Hormone is THE single
most powerful substance your body can naturally produce to directly increase the

© 2010 Joel Marion Fitness Solutions LLC and XtremeFatLossDiet.com.


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rate of fat burning and muscle gain.

Which basically means that the sole reason to create lactic acid training is to
produce GH. Interestingly, that is NOT the only reason to perform lactic acid
training.

Of course the increased production and production and release of growth


hormone is, obviously, of great benefit; however, it’s also extremely important to
not that lactic acid training in and of itself great for fat loss and depletion of
muscle glycogen because it is so demanding.

So, how do we do it?

Remember when I said that more lactic acid is produced during the concentric
(lifting) phase of exercise? Well, that’s a very important facet of how we set up
the lactic acid training workouts in both Final Phase Fat Loss and the Xtreme Fat
Loss Diet.

Because we know that more LA is produced when we lift and not so much when
we lower, the idea is to EXTEND the amount of time it takes to LIFT a weight,
and DECREASE the amount of time it takes to LOWER a weight.

So, for most exercises, you’ll be lifting the weight(s) over a period of 3 or 4
seconds, and lowering quickly but safely—usually about 1 second. By doing this,
we extend the concentric time under tension and drastically increase the
production of lactic acid.

Not to mention making the workout extremely hard.

An important thing remember when performing lactic acid workouts is that


because you are lifting slowly, you MUST reduce the weight quite a bit below

© 2010 Joel Marion Fitness Solutions LLC and XtremeFatLossDiet.com.


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what you are normally accustomed to. Generally, I recommend a decrease of
20-25% below your normal lifting weight.

That is, if you normally use 100 pounds for an overhead press, drop it down to
about 75-80 pounds, at least for the first few workouts. As you get the hang of it
and your body adapts, you’ll be able to bump it up as you go.

Lactic acid isn’t easy, but it is one of the most effective fat loss training methods
around, from both an immediate physiological and a long-term hormonal
perspective.

During the Xtreme Fat Loss Diet, you’ll be performing Lactic Acid Training on
your Depletion Day before your Cheat Day, and on the Fast Day immediately
following the Cheat Day.

Density Training

Speaking of Cheat Days, that’s a great segue for a discussion about the training
modality you’ll be using on those days: Density Training.

Originally developed for hypertrophy (building muscle) density training is the


perfect modality to utilize when you have a caloric surplus on Cheat Days.

Training Density refers to the amount of work you do in a given time frame, or
over the course of your training session. The idea of increasing the density of a
training session is not new, but I’ve put my own spin on it to make it more
effective for fat loss as well as muscle gain.

Traditionally, you were able to increase density in one of two ways: either do
more work in the same time period, or do the same amount of work in the same

© 2010 Joel Marion Fitness Solutions LLC and XtremeFatLossDiet.com.


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amount of time.

With the version of density training in XFLD, we take it a step further and have
you do MORE work with MORE weight in the same time before. That’s where
the muscle gain comes in.

To help facilitate fat loss, we set things up with fast paced circuits.

To be more specific, you’ll have a circuit of 3-5 exercises, each of which is to be


performed for a predetermined period of time.

Instead of having a predetermined number of reps, you're going to be performing


each of these exercises for time—you simply have to do as many as you can in a
given time period. That's where general density comes in. The idea is to perform
more reps on each exercise, and that's where the increase in density becomes a
factor.

Now, here's where it gets kooky: for your second circuit, you'll be using heavier
weight—substantially heavier weight. Rather than just create density circuits, I
also took advantage of some other cool things that happen when your body
adapts and seems to get instantly stronger.

Not only are we seeking to increase reps, but also increase weight before we
repeat a given exercise. Again, this is applied to all exercises within a circuit.

Here's an example to illustrate:

Let's say you did each of the following exercises for 30 seconds* each: overhead
press, bent-over row, squat.

© 2010 Joel Marion Fitness Solutions LLC and XtremeFatLossDiet.com.


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In performing such a circuit, my personal results might look like this:

Barbell Overhead Press: 100 pounds for 12 reps

Barbell Bent-over Row: 165 pounds for 15 reps

Barbell Squat: 185 pounds for 11 reps

Your second attempt at that circuit might look like this:

Barbell Overhead Press: 110 pounds for 15 reps

Barbell Bent-over Row: 190 pounds for 18 reps

Barbell Squat: 200 pounds for 14 reps

How is this possible? Simple: your nervous system is firing like crazy.

You see the first set serves as what we might call a neurological primer; that is,
while it is certainly hard and helps you burn fat, that set is really preparing your
body to move more weight your second set.

As is probably obvious, lifting heavier weights requires a lot more effort, and
providing that effort a greater expense of energy. Lucky for you, that energy is in
the form of calories, and so density training is also a great fat burning routine,
particularly the second set of any circuit.

You may be wondering why it would be necessary—or even beneficial—to


perform a fat-burning type workout on a Cheat Day, when you’ll probably be in a
caloric surplus.

The answer, my friends, is Excess Post Exercise Oxygen Consumption, or


EPOC. EPOC is what is responsible for extended calorie expenditure, or what
© 2010 Joel Marion Fitness Solutions LLC and XtremeFatLossDiet.com.
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we like to call “the afterburn” effect. That is, you’ll continue burning calories long
after you’re done working out—for up to 36 hours.

That means that performing density training on your Cheat Days will not only
help you build a bit of Lean Body Mass, it will ALSO keep your metabolic rate
elevated during your FAST Day, while you’re already in an extreme caloric
deficit—it’s not hard to see how that leads to Xtreme Fat Loss!

Overall, I’d say Density Training ranks very high on the Scale of Awesome.

In fact, as a frame reference, I’ve provided a Scale of Awesome for those of you
who don’t have it.

10 – Unbelievably Awesome: Flying cars, time travel, sarcasm


9 – Awesomely Awesome: Rocky 4, the Internet, Arnold Schwarzenegger
8 – Very Awesome: Fight Club, my abs, first kisses, Density Training <=====
7 – Quite Awesome: Graduating college, 1st edition books, Craig Ballantyne
6 – Pretty Awesome: Rocky 3, puppies, the iPhone, ice cream, the NY Jets
5 – Standardly Awesome: When cute girls ask for my number, motorcycles
4 – Almost Awesome: Winning your fantasy football league, my facebook
3 – Not Awesome: Blackberry’s, blow-out haircuts, over-cooked steak
2 – Un-Awesome: Getting dumped, swine flu, Denzel Washington
1 – Awesomen’t – Computer crashes, Rocky 5, being too lame to have a sense
of humor and appreciate my list.

© 2010 Joel Marion Fitness Solutions LLC and XtremeFatLossDiet.com.


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Heavy Strength Training

Training with heavy weights is, to my view, an extremely essential and


unfortunately frequently overlooked aspect of fat loss programming.

To begin with, as we’ve already discussed, lifting heavy weights is extremely


calorically expensive, and therefore great for burning fat. Further to that, training
with heavy loads is THE single most effective way to MAINTAIN lean body mass
while on a fat loss program.

The last thing anyone should seek to do is lose strength during the leaning out
period. You’ve spent a lot of time and effort building up both fat-burning lean
body mass, and to sacrifice it while getting leaner isn’t just shameful, it’s
downright counterproductive.

In addition to losing your precious LBM—which will have a negative effect on


your metabolic rate (and therefore your fat loss)—you’ll also lose strength if you
don’t train with heavy weight from time to time. Which means you’ll be “playing
catch-up” as you transition away from a fat loss phase.

And, as I ALWAYS say: there is simply NO drawback to being stronger, at all.

Finally, as if all of that wasn’t that wasn’t enough to convince you, lifting heavy
weights makes you LOOK better.

Huh? How’s that?

Muscle tone, my friends; you see, lifting heavy weight helps to increase both
neurogenic and myogenic muscle tone. Neurogenic muscle tone is the amount
of tension in a muscle while it’s working, or in a flexed state.

© 2010 Joel Marion Fitness Solutions LLC and XtremeFatLossDiet.com.


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For you guys out there, that means when you make a muscle, it will be harder
and denser to the touch, helping you to impress the girls at the beach (Vince Del
Monte), bar (Jon Benson) or Barnes and Noble (Joel). I’ve heard. If you’re into
that.

Probably of greater interest is myogenic muscle tone is what we can describe as


residual tension in a resting muscle. Which means, not only will that muscle
FEEL a little firmer without flexing, it will also LOOK firmer.

So, say, for example, you’re sitting around randomly on the floor of a gym, not
flexing, and someone decides to snap a photo of you…. probably come your
arms will come out pretty nice in that photo if you have a high level of myogenic
muscle tone.

© 2010 Joel Marion Fitness Solutions LLC and XtremeFatLossDiet.com.


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Of course, it’s not as simple as picking up weights you can barely lift. Not only is
that unsafe, it’s just not effective. You need to have some sort of plan.

At the same time, the old standby of static sets and reps isn’t really ideal,
because if you can lift a heavy weight for the same number of reps on your last
set as your first set, then chances are that weight really wasn’t heavy enough to
challenge you on that first set, and you’re losing out on some benefit.

So what to do? There is a solution.

In the Heavy Strength Workouts in XFLD, you’re going to ignore the sets, and
instead just focus on the total number of reps; as I’ve been known to say, let the
sets take care of themselves.

If you’re assigned to do 40 each of push-ups, squats, and pull-ups, you just


rotate through the exercises.

Let’s say on your first round, you get 13 push-ups, 9 squats, and 8 pull-ups. In
that instance, you have 27 push-ups, 31 squats, and 32 pull-ups to go.

Your next set, you get 13 push-ups, 10 squats, and 8 pull-ups. Now you’re got
14 push-ups, 21 squats, and 24 pull-ups left.

Next you bang out 10 push-ups, 10 squats, and 7 pull-ups. So far, you’ve done 4
sets of each exercise, but you’re way ahead on one of them. You now have 4
push-ups, 11 squats, and 17 pull-ups to go.

You do another set, get 4 push-ups, 8 squats, and 9 pull-ups (there’s that
neurological efficiency again). Now you’re done with push-ups (5 total sets) and

© 2010 Joel Marion Fitness Solutions LLC and XtremeFatLossDiet.com.


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just have 3 squats and 8 pull-ups to go.

This time, you go right into squats and get all 3 (6 total sets), then only get 5 pull-
ups. Now you’re done with 2 exercises, so your next set, you just do pull-ups.
You get all 3 that you have left. Circuit done.

It took you 5 sets to do the push-ups, 6 sets to get the squats, and 7 for the pull-
ups. And that’s IDEAL.

You see, you were using heavy weight, and had a high workload. Overall, you
were working hard enough each set that you were able to maintain both strength
and mass.

After all that, you’d move on to another circuit curse my name, and enjoy the rest
of your Shake Day—which is when you’ll be training in this way.

Dynamic Training

This training modality my bread and butter, so to speak. Dynamic Training is my


name for what I assume you’ll recognize as metabolic circuits or fast-paced
circuits or whatever you want to call that.

While it’s certainly not a groundbreaking protocol, it’s incredibly effective.

For my part, I’ve put my own spin on circuits when it comes to exercise selection.
You see, I am a huge believing that you’re going to get the best fat loss result by
moving your body through as much space as possible as often as possible—so
when it comes to training back, it’s better to use a pull-up or an inverted row over
a pull down.

© 2010 Joel Marion Fitness Solutions LLC and XtremeFatLossDiet.com.


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Even when it comes to exercises that are traditionally “the best” exercises like
lunges, there are ways to modify them to make them even better; like using multi-
directional training (a 3-way lunge) or even combining a lunge with another
movement like a Romanian deadlift. It’s good stuff.

And so the thrust of dynamic training is to move fast, work hard, and get as much
out of each exercise as possible—it’s using movement to get better at moving.

Outside of being a great fat loss training modality, it’s also going to help you
increase flexibility, mobility, and endurance.

You’ll be performing Dynamic Training on your Moderate Carb Days.

The Dynamic Interrupt

For both the Lactic Acid workouts and the Strength workouts, you will something
between each of the prescribed circuits called a “Dynamic Interrupt.” This is a
little invention of mine that was born out of training multiple athletes in a crowded
facility, and needing to keep them moving when equipment wasn’t available. I
wasn’t prepared for the results when I first developed this.

In the beginning, it was intended as a way to increase conditioning. And then the
fat started dropping off. Since then, I’ve incorporated it into workouts with so
many different kinds of clients, and all of them have enhanced their results.

This is how it’s done.

After your last set of a prescribed circuit, the Dynamic Interrupt takes place.
Usually a series of bodyweight exercises, the Dynamic Interrupt gets your heart
© 2010 Joel Marion Fitness Solutions LLC and XtremeFatLossDiet.com.
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rate going and helps you to burn more calories and fat. The generally low reps of
the strength training are offset by the activity of the Dynamic Interrupt, and the fat
burning workout effect becomes even more profound.

In the case of the Lactic Acid workouts, performing the Dynamic Interrupt is
intended to help clear the lactic acid from the limbs between circuits. Keep in
mind it is not the lactic acid that burns fat, it’s the lactic acid that encourages the
production of growth hormone, and THAT helps to burn fat.

Clearing lactic acid from the limbs allows you to be more productive on the
subsequent circuit, and have a more effective workout overall.

The XFLD Workouts


All of the Extreme Fat Loss Diet Workouts can be
found in the Workout Log file. Demonstration
videos for all exercises prescribed in those
workouts are provided below.

© 2010 Joel Marion Fitness Solutions LLC and XtremeFatLossDiet.com.


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The XFLD Exercise Library

Below, you’ll find a list of nearly all of the exercises included in the above
workouts. This list also serves as an entry point to a video database at my
YouTube Channel. Simply click on any of the links, and you’ll be taken to a video
of me, one of my athletes, or another fitness professional performing these
exercises in good form.

Now, I say “nearly” very intentionally, because some of them were not included.
I’m sorry, but I don’t feel it necessary to demonstrate a push-up or jumping jacks.
It’s not necessary.

When I released FPFL, 98% of people were absolutely thrilled with having
access to videos for references to various exercises. About 2% emailed me and
pointed out that they found pictures to be more convenient to print out and bring
to the gym. While that point is certainly not without merit or validity, clearly I have
to cater to such a vast majority. Further to that, it’s my personal belief that you
can learn about 100 times more from watching an expert on video ONE time than
looking at an exercise model on paper 100 times.

It’s really just better. So, if you fall within the 2%, I urge you to watch the videos
a few times, learn the exercises, and please know that this is ultimately the way
things are going from a socio-technological perspective.

Upper Body Notes (If needed) Lower Body Notes (if needed)
Exercise Exercise
Alternating DB Chest Hold one arm locked Alternating 3-way Hold DB “Goblet Style.” One
Press out while the other Lunge lunge to the front, side, and
works back.
Arnold Punch Push Explosively Alternating
Rev.Lunge
Bent Over Dumbbell Bulgarian Jump

© 2010 Joel Marion Fitness Solutions LLC and XtremeFatLossDiet.com.


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Row Squat
Bent Over Lateral Bulgarian Split Squat
Raise
Dive Bomber Push-up Obviously not me in Barbell Front Squat Use DBs if you need to
this video.
Dumbbell Curl-to- Depth Jump to Start on a low platform and
Press Jump Squat work up
Dumbbell Fly-Away Dumbbell Romanian Perform one RDL. Then,
Deadlift/Reverse perform a lunge with each
Lunge Combo leg. That’s one rep
Dumbbell Swing You may also use a Garhammer Raise
kettlebell
Facedown DB Row Goblet Squat Performed lactic acid style in
the video
Floor Press Use Dumbbells Goblet Stationary Traditional video shown.
Lunge Hold DB “goblet” style
Inverted Row Mountain Jumpers
Push-up Position Overhead Bulgarian Stabilize a weight over your
Plank Split Squat head; use a plate if possible
Push-up Walks Prisoner Squat Hands behind head with
fingers clasped
Rotational Push-Up Reverse Lunge with Press the Barbell overhead
Javelin Press as you lunge back. You may
also use a dumbbell.
Side-to-Side Walks Single Weight Perform all reps with one
Dumbbell Squat side, then switch
Upright Row Side Plank
Y-Press Single Leg Calf
Raise
Single Leg RDL Swing Lunge
Explosive Switch Rows Swiss Ball Leg Curl
Traveling Hand
Walkout
Walking Lateral
Lunges

© 2010 Joel Marion Fitness Solutions LLC and XtremeFatLossDiet.com.


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Closing Thoughts

With the above workouts paired on the corresponding diet days of the Xtreme Fat
Loss Diet System, you are going to go through the next 25 days in a blur of fat
loss and intensity. I cannot wait to hear about your results.

If you enjoy the workouts in this program, keep in mind they are based on those
that make up my 6-week fat blasting program, Final Phase Fat Loss.

If you don’t already have it, you can pick it up HERE an Xtreme discount (Normal
price 137!)

© 2010 Joel Marion Fitness Solutions LLC and XtremeFatLossDiet.com.


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About The Author

John Romaniello is one of New York’s most highly respected trainers, and one of
the industry’s most sought after fitness authorities. Working with professional
athletes, actors, and models in the gym Roman also runs an online coaching
program through which he helps people all over the works achieve incredible
results.

He is the author of Final Phase Fat Loss, on of the best selling fat loss programs
available on the Internet, as well as countless articles for Men’s Health, Men’s
Fitness, Oxygen, SHAPE, TMuscle.com, LiveStrong.com, and others.

For more information on Roman or any of his articles, you can check him out at
his website over at www.RomanFitnessSystems.com

© 2010 Joel Marion Fitness Solutions LLC and XtremeFatLossDiet.com.


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