Exclusive Interview with Dr. Thomas Halton, PhD., ACE-CPT, Author of The Weight Loss Triad.
Hi Tom, err, Dr. Tom,
Beautiful day to you and thank you for being open to this interview. My clients, readers, family, friends and I appreciate it.
Dr. Thomas Halton (TH)
TH: No problem, thanks for the opportunity.
Q: Now your book, The Weight Loss Triad, you started before we met and would work on while in between clients at our old sports club. What are you most proud of?
TH: Probably receiving emails from people I’ve never met who thank me for writing the book and helping them change their lives. That is pretty special.
Q: Dr. Tom, why the title, The Weight Loss Triad and what does it mean?
TH: A Triad is simply a group of three and to lose weight you need to focus on three areas: Diet, Cardiovascular exercise and Resistance training. The book focuses on all three areas in detail based on my years of research at Harvard and my 15 years of helping clients lose weight.
Q: The Weight Loss Triad is like a secret weapon in its effectiveness and it’s simple like water in that it supplies pure evidence based facts and results-proven formulas. I’m not yet a fast reader, but I blazed through your book and find myself quoting and going back to it often. Did you intend for it to be as simple and full of substance as it is and did you expect for it to become a go to resource?
TH: Most weight loss books I’ve read over the years have been about 100 pages of substance and 200 pages of fluff. I vowed mine wouldn’t be like that. People are busy, if I can say something quickly and to the point, I tried to do it. So what is left is 168 pages of what you need to know.
Q: In your book you talked about not having sugar at all, especially during splurge meals. Why?
TH: Ironically, it is easier to give up sugar 100% then 70 or 80%. Sugar is highly addictive, if you have it, you want it. If you give it up in the context of a blood sugar stabilizing diet, after 2 weeks you’ll never really want it again. I used to eat tons of sugar but after giving it up, I haven’t had it now for 14 years.
Q: Can you consume a shake consisting of a protein, fat and carbohydrate source in place of a traditional meal?
TH: Not a great idea, eat whole foods whenever you can. It takes no longer to make a simple breakfast than it does to make a shake.
Q: T-guns, uh excuse me, Dr. Tom, you listed a whole lot of foods for people to avoid if they wanted to lose weight. This was pretty scary, even for a health professional like me. BUT, you provided and enormous and multiple page list of foods you could eat. Why did you do this?
TH: There are a lot of foods out there that people forget about, seeing them in black and white and knowing they are good for you will help increase the variety of the diet which is extremely helpful in getting a spectrum of vitamins, minerals and phyto-chemicals which will help reduce the risk of today’s most deadly diseases.
Q: You didn’t talk to much about nutrient timing. Is the timing of when to eat your meals in relation to your workouts important?
TH: Not unless you are an elite athlete, and even then, the research is pretty sparse.
Q: Dr. Tom, you gave gender based cardiovascular exercise guidelines for weight loss. How come women have to do more cardio than men?
TH: Women have less muscle and therefore slower metabolisms so they have to work harder. I know ladies, it’s unfair!
Q: I love how you termed cardio as weight bearing vs non-weight bearing. My clients are always asking about what to do for cardio and you narrowed it down to a certain category of best choices and secondary choices.
TH: Why weight bearing? The more weight you are lifting when you do your cardio, the more calories you’ll burn. While biking and swimming are wonderful exercises for your health, you won’t burn as many calories with them since the bike and water are supporting your weight. With an elliptical trainer or stairclimber, you are supporting your weight so you burn far more calories.
Q: The thing I noticed about your resistance training section were the light weights, short to no rest breaks and how few days per week and how little actual time per workout you needed to strength train to lose weight. Why does this work?
TH: Building muscle and losing body fat are mutually exclusive goals. You really can’t do both at the same time, since you lose muscle as you lose weight. The program in the book covers the basics to minimize muscle loss. Also it’s a time issue. Most people are busy and if you only have x amount of time to work out, more cardio and less weight training is a good idea.
Q: Dr. Tom, seriously this book is simple and amazing. It’s like the ultimate oxymoron for weight loss. Not only did you teach us how to eat, tell us what do for cardio and strength training, but you gave us specific, direct guidelines for weight loss that you backed up. Then, you gave us lifestyle factors. Why are these important?
TH: The lifestyle factors can either enhance weight loss or slow it down so you really need to pay attention to them.
Q: TH, uh, shoot, bad habit, Dr. Tom, my favorite thing and there are innumerable favorites, might be the summaries at the end of each chapter. We might not be able to eat chicken nuggets any more, but these summaries sure are golden delicious nuggets. Like the ultimate cheat sheet. How, why did you include these?
TH: These are the take home messages for each chapter, also when looking back at the chapter as a reference, these are designed to remind you of the most important parts of the chapter.
Q: Second question. Would you just ramble off a bunch of reasons why people shouldn’t consume dairy products like milk,cheese and yogurt and follow up with the cool things that could happen if you reduced or eliminated these from your diet?
TH: We were never meant to consume large amounts of dairy. #1) It was designed for another animal that has 4 chambers to its stomach #2) We are the only animal to drink another animals milk. #3) We are the only animal to drink any milk at all after 6 months of age. A serving of dairy or so a day won’t do much harm but I have none unless I’m splurging (which is only twice a week).
Q: 2nd to last question. You have a famous quote. “If you want to lose weight…” either do blank or don’t do blank. Would you give us a, “if you want to lose weight” golden nugget.
TH: If you want to lose weight…..go out and get the Weight Loss Triad and do everything it says and then tell all of your friends J
Q: Last question and thank you so much for your time today. How can our readers get in touch with you for a consult, private training, seminars or speaking engagements.
TH: My website www.tomhalton.com has all of my contact info if any one has any questions or would like to set up a time. Thanks to you Mike and keep up the good work with your clients!
If you’ve read Dr. Tom’s book, please comment below on what you thought of it and how well it worked for you. If you haven’t read his book yet, what are you waiting for? (joke, but not really) Go ahead and click on the picture to purchase it.
C’mon it’s like $20 to lose weight, change your life forever, lower your healthy insurance costs and look & feel sexy everyday. $20. This is a steal. And like I always tell the Golden Boy (another nickname for Tom, err, Dr. Tom) he’s gonna be on Oprah, it’s only a matter of time.
Your coach,
Mike Alves
Personal Trainer Boston (Newton)