Fat Loss Activation by Ryan Faehnle was created as an easy approach to weight loss management that does not require complicated calorie counting and strict meal planning.
It is a flexible plan with varied nutritional guidelines, even allowing for moderate food cravings and treats, but it also includes very short, intense home workouts and specific appetite hormone management.
The program is split into three 30-day phases with a 5-day per week compact workout schedule, it is completely natural, can be followed thereafter for life, and does not require supplements, unless you want to.
Below a detailed analysis of the program’s workings and contents with its pros and cons.
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Who Is Fat Loss Activation For?
This plan is for everyone, men and women of any age, particularly those with a busy and/or sedentary lifestyle with little time to spare, so many of us indeed.
The workouts are very short and can be done at home, albeit with basic gear, while the nutritional guidelines are very much common sense and moderate, nothing too drastic.
Here is a list of people who may find this program suitable:
The Fat Loss Activation plan is a 3-point strategy allegedly designed to burn fat, control your appetite hormone, and get lean and fit with just 15-minute workouts a day.
This means that it is not a simple diet plan or a minimalist workout program. It is both. It was created to be as easy as possible to be implemented by busy people with little time to spare for training or complicated meal planning.
It revolves around hunger management, muscle activation, and nutritional flexibility.
Hunger And Ghrelin
According to the author, hunger is the main culprit when it comes to achieving sustainable fat loss and a lean physique. The feel of hunger is caused by the hormones ghrelin and leptin.
Leptin kicks in on a full stomach to suppress hunger, while ghrelin kicks in on an empty stomach to increases hunger. It makes sense and works until ghrelin goes into overdrive and keeps asking your body to overeat, when in fact leptin should take over and stop you from eating.
According to the plan, this is a typical occurrence when you start exercising but at the same time, you follow a too restrictive calorie plan.
What happens is that the more restrictive your diet, the more ghrelin is produced and the more hunger experienced. The result is over-eating.
What is worse is that this state of hunger sends your body into survival mode, forcing it to slow down the metabolism and keep its fat storage intact.
Ghrelin is found in the lining of the stomach and kicks on an empty belly. However, when you also workout here is where the problems start.
With exercising your body also needs more calories and food to stand up to the new demands, but your body secretes too much ghrelin leading you to overeat.
The solution is to get the balance right. If a diet is a too restrictive hunger will spoil all the hard work making you overeat, if it is too slack, you still won’t shed pounds.
What the plan is describing here is really a typical yo-yo scenario. Nothing new about it. Ghrelin or not ghrelin, the way to sustainable and safe fat loss is moderate calorie deficit so that your metabolic rate stays high and you keep burning fat while working out, without risk of muscle depletion.
The bottom line is that while ghrelin and leptin highlighted in the Fat Loss Activation program have their time and place and their mechanism is well documented and the author offers plenty of scientific references, you do not need to be a doctor to know that for progressive and safe fat loss all you need is moderate calorie deficit and not an extreme diet regimen that can only result in a metabolic slowdown and yo-yo rebounds.
However, the plan gives useful practical tips on how to keep ghrelin and appetite under control, such as:
Eating more protein at breakfast time – This is because proteins take longer to process and you’ll feel hungry later and less than if you had eaten a carbs-only-based breakfast.
Increase Fiber Intake – Broccoli, apples, vegetables, fruits and other foods rich in fiber make you feel full sooner, slowing down ghrelin production and stopping hunger.
Sleep Longer – Sleep is allegedly supposed to reduce ghrelins levels. It goes without saying that the benefits of good sleep do not stop at ghrelin but extend to your central nervous system, growth hormone, lower cortisol levels, and much more.
Muscle Activation
This is the second most important piece of the puzzle. Again no surprise here. Exercising brings a host of benefits that perfectly complement any diet you may follow.
What is good about Fat Loss Activation is that these workouts are intense but short, really short. The training regimen has been designed for sedentary people who work long hours but have little time to work out, let alone going to a gym.
These 15-minute workouts are designed to give a full workout impact at a fraction of time, so you can perform them easily without wasting time.
Normally 15 minutes would be just a warm-up time, but here it’s all over in this short time frame. As the plan targets those who lead a sedentary lifestyle, these exercises borrow also from rehabilitation and physical therapy.
The reason for this is that inactivity produces in the long term similar effects to those experienced by injured athletes. So the plan includes workout movements that the authors define as “activation exercises”.
These exercises are designed to remove the typical stiffness of muscles while restoring strength and improving coordination and flexibility through improved neural engagement.
The exercises are the same that the author has used with his pro athletes and regular people to help them improve performance in as little time as possible.
Food Craving Management
This is where the program shows its practical approach and becomes psychological. The reasoning behind certain flexibility toward personal treats that we love is that most programs out there are too restrictive.
The reasoning is that with sudden restriction comes failure because it forces you to stick to a dramatic change in your eating guidelines. The typical scenario is that after an initial success, you inevitably give up in despair, as the plan requires a too radical change in personal habits.
The Fat Loss Activation solution is managing your existing habits rather than trying to suppress them. So if you love cookies or ice cream it’s still all right providing you do not go overboard with it.
This is very much common sense, if you get your diet and workout right, the occasional treat won’t change the whole picture but it will help you stick to the plan instead.
What Makes It Different From Other Fat Loss Plans?
Fat Loss Activation is organized in a sensible and practical way for the majority of people by managing your diet and hunger in a realistic way.
Rather than simply eating less and exercising more, it tells you “how” to eat less without unrealistic restrictions while exercising in a more effective and time-efficient way.
You do not need a gym for the workouts, but you may still need basic equipment like a bench, dumbbells, and bands.
This program is sustainable in the long term and can be followed as needed after the standard 90-day duration.
Who Is Ryan Faehnle?
Ryan Faehnle holds a Bachelor’s in Exercise Science and is an NCAA Division Strength and Conditioning Specialist who has trained athletes in many different sports at all levels, from high school guys to professional, like NFL Super Bowl Champions.
Today he is now a renowned authority in fat loss, muscle building, and performance for athletes as well as regular folks, but before that, he also worked with the Poliquin Group under the tutelage of legendary Charles Poliquin himself.
Aside from coaching, he also travels to lecture trainers and coaches on strength, conditioning and body composition.
Today his main focus shifted on hunger management, ghrelin hormone, and fat burning and with very good results, judging from his physique, but only after a long learning curve that saw him transform from a puffy looking guy to a shredded and jacked specimen.
To sum up, he is the real deal and top authority in the fitness industry.
What’s Inside The Program?
The program is electronic, available instantly online with PDF manual downloads, and a private Facebook group with coach Ryan. There are two main components and two bonuses.
Main Program
Fat Loss Activation Training Manual and Workout Charts – The core of the program with the 5-day a week short workouts and all the theory part with information on resistance, repetition range, time under tension, physical therapy techniques, adaptation times, and more. These exercises can be boosted for those with greater strength with specific “intensifier” techniques. All movements are explained with pictures.
Bonuses
Eat To Activate Manual – An additional manual centered around ghrelin. This manual expands the information on the main manual to give you a detailed explanation of nutrition and a detailed meal plan. It tells you what to eat and when and how to control your hunger.
Supplement Stacks Manual – Supplements are totally optional, the plan works as it is without the need for any, but the author also gives a detailed list of which ones are worth your investment and which ones are a waste of your money, should you choose to get some.
Fat Loss Activation is a very practical and efficient fat loss management program that can be done with little free time without a gym.
It is based on good old fashioned common sense with an extra-scientific edge in the nutrition and workout departments.
The nutritional guidelines are designed on hunger management and focus on flexibility and controlling your existing eating habits, rather than on drastic changes and restrictions.
The workouts are compact and intense, can be done in 15 minutes 5 days a week, and can be stepped up for greater intensity.
Fat Loss Activation is not a quick-fix at all plan and requires a 90-day default period of commitment as per its guidelines, itself a testament of its safety and sustainability.
My name is Jay Fielding. I gained an interest in fitness since I was a child, and eventually developed my passion into a career path. I am now a Certified Personal Trainer with a natural ability to program customized body recomposition and motivate people in achieving their goals, be it gaining muscle or losing fat.
