What can you possibly accomplish in a 7 minute workout? This is a good question that actually does have a good answer. There is a short answer and a long answer and the devil is in the details.
The short answer is that you can accomplish muscle mass gains while losing fat without starving yourself. Of course the short answer creates even more questions. That is probably why the long answer was invented in the first place.
The long answer is that a 7 minute workout can accomplish much if done correctly. By correctly I mean that you must meet the following conditions:
1. The muscle building exercise must use a maximum amount of the 7 minutes. This means that the rest period has to be kept to a minimum. There also cannot be a large number of different exercises during each 7 minute workout. These conditions are met by concentrating on only one body area per workout. Examples would be concentrating on the chest one day and the shoulders the next.
This is best accomplished by using two different exercises. Exercises combined this way allow for variety during the routine while limiting time spent switching from one exercise to the next. These exercises must use the same muscles in different ways or use opposing muscles.
2. A sensible eating plan should be used to maximize the fat loss while still supplying nutrients for muscle building. The approach that I have found success with allows for more flexibility and less guilt. Any eating plan followed has to allow for lapses in that eating plan or it just becomes too much trouble. Willpower seems to be able to fight off urges for only so long when it comes to food.
I have tried to steer clear of the word diet as you really need to adopt a new approach to eating for the long term. Otherwise you will probably lose the weight only to gain it back and more in the long run. That at least has been the cycle with me personally before now.
3. There is a mental component to weight loss that is not talked about as much as dieting and exercise. A change in the way that you think about food and health can make the attempt at long term changes more likely to be successful.
A successful plan, whether it is for a 7 minute workout or any other fitness regimen will have a greater chance of success if there is a mental focus on what you are attempting to accomplish. Whether simple goal setting, visualization or other techniques the mental part of fitness should not be ignored.
4. Though I am talking about a 7 minute workout your results with any workout will be faster if you include an aerobic component. Resistance exercises such as weight lifting can actually have an aerobic benefit when done at a quicker pace. I still feel that at least brisk walking should be added to your exercise regimen. It has been shown in studies that great benefit can be seen from as little as 12 miles of brisk walking per week. This is also where you end up taking longer than 7 minutes to complete the workout. But if you were spending 45 minutes to 90 minutes lifting weights in a traditional manner you would still need the additional walking time as well.
Ok, it technically takes longer than 7 minutes a day when you include the walking to get a complete workout. The point is that with the right approach you can get closer than you might have thought to a 7 minute workout that creates muscle gains while generating fat loss.