Showing posts with label weight loss. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weight loss. Show all posts

Thursday, June 19, 2008

How To Lose 6 Pounds of Stomach Fat in 11 Days With This Weight Loss Plan

How To Lose 6 Pounds of Stomach Fat in 11 Days With This Weight Loss Plan

by Nicole Brown

People who are overweight tend to think it's impossible to lose the weight they gained. Anything is possible and the proof is all around us. The only reason why it seems impossible is because there is too much contradicting weight loss advice. On one end experts are talking "low carb dieting" and on the other end "high protein dieting". Well there are defiantly not only 2 diets in the world; more like a few thousand. So who do you listen too? Listen to those who have a reputation in the weight loss industry.

"Someone wanting to uphold a positive reputation won't risk it on bad advice".

How do you lose 6 pounds in 11 days!?

In order to achieve something you need to know what it is. In this case you may want to lose 6 pounds of stomach fat in 11 days, but you might want to lose more in the long run. Knowing this we need to put a plan into action so you can begin to achieve weight loss. Losing weight becomes more of a lifestyle rather than just a 11 day commitment. Losing weight begins with a decision. You need to be ready to lose weight and you need to know why you want to lose the weight. The "why" needs to be powerful enough to keep you from giving up to soon! Your why you want to lose weight might sound something like this; I want to lose weight because I know how much better I will look and feel. I know that losing weight will help improve my overall appearance and internal health.

Setting realistic weight loss goals;

Most people don't know how to goal set, and aim for goals that are too unrealistic. Don't get me wrong loosing 6 pounds in 11 days is very possible, but only if you have a lot of weight to lose. If you only have 5 more pounds too lose its quite unlikely you can do it in 11 days. In this case aim for sound moderate goals. Here is an example of an unrealistic short term goal (short term goal 4-12 weeks); lets say you are 40 pounds overweight and you want to lose that weight in less than a month I would agree this goal is too unrealistic and unattainable, but if you said you want to lose that weight in 12 weeks than it would make more sense. If you haven't set goals before try setting ones that you know you can easily achieve and then work your way up!

Weight loss is all about knowledge. You need to know how to do it. You need to follow a plan that can show you how to do it; one that has been proven to work for many people. Click HERE to discover how many people have lost an average of more than 6 pounds of fat in 11 days!!!

About the Author

Nicole Brown is in the business of making people thin. She exposes the truth and reveals the 10 rules you must know if you ever want to lose weight and keep it off forever...Learn the 10 rules to weight loss by clicking here and begin losing weight immediately!

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

3 Reasons For Your Weight Gain

Reason #1

You think that not eating will make you lose weight

Not eating is what will get you fat in the first place. This drastically slows your metabolism and puts your body into hibernation. Your body is designed to protect you and it will do anything to keep you alive. In this case it's keeping you alive from you staving yourself by storing fat and slowing your metabolism. The basic trick is to start eating. You can start by eating a few portions a day. A portion serving size can be measured by a closed fist. Be sure to include lean protein sources, complex carbohydrates, and essential healthy fats!

Reason #2

You try to lose weight with the newest fad diet

Fad diets are designed to make you lose weight almost drastically. The real method to losing weight is long term. About 1-3 pounds of fat loss is ideal. The overall goal is to implement healthy life style choices rather than dieting.

Reason #3

Your metabolism is too slow

Why your metabolism is Slow!

  • You don't eat
  • You skip breakfast
  • You don't eat the right foods
  • You eat one big meal before you go to bed
  • You don't move around
  • Your thyroid may be sluggish
  • You're toxic
  • You're too stressed out
  • You don't get enough sleep

You can increase your metabolism by just doing the opposite listed above. With some exceptions of course. Review my other articles on weight loss to further assist you!

What foods make us Fat?

There are plenty of foods that make us fat, but they can be easily put into category.

For instance anything that can be bought at the convenience store is most likely packed with sugars, artificial sweeteners, and is highly processed. So I would stay away from anything that is created for convenience. Avoid foods that are refined, and processed. Foods like white rice, white bread, pretty much anything white. Switch to alternatives like whole wheat bread, and brown rice. The obvious fast food chains make us fat too, and don't be fooled with their salads because the dressing can send that into a high calorie meal. The main objective is to avoid highly processed foods, which are loaded with simple sugar. Therefore you should acquaint your self with whole foods that haven't been modified, processed or contaminated with pesticides. In this case anything that Mother Nature makes, not what science makes!

Dean Boukaras is a person who has dedicated his life to educating and helping as many individuals as possible reach their absolute physical best. I truly want to impact one person at a time by spreading the health and fitness truth.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Why Some People Can Drink Alcohol Without Getting Fat

Why Some People Can Drink Alcohol Without Getting Fat

By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.BurnTheFat.com

Alcohol has been implicated as a factor that may hurt your efforts to lose body fat. Whether alcohol is "fattening" has been a very controversial subject because technically speaking, alcohol is NOT stored as fat; it is oxidized ahead of other fuels.

Whether moderate drinking is healthy has also been a subject of controversy. Many studies show that cardiovascular health benefits are associated with moderate beer or wine drinking (which has been of particular interest lately with reservatrol in the news so much), while other studies show improved insulin sensitivity. Some experts however, say that alcohol has no place in a fitness lifestyle.

A recent study published in the journal Obesity adds new findings to our knowledge about alcohol, insulin resistance and abdominal obesity. Analysis of the results as compared to other studies also gives us some insights into why some people seem to drink and get fat while others seem to drink and get thin!

The truth about the beer belly phenomenon

This new study, by Ulf Riserus and Erik Inglesson, was based on the Swedish Uppsala Longitudinal cohort. The researchers found that alcohol intake in older men did not improve insulin sensitivity, which contradicted their own hypothesis and numerous previous studies.

They also said there was a very "robust" association between alcohol intake, waist circumference and waist to hip ratio. They pointed out that a high alcohol intake, especially hard liquor, was closely associated with abdominal body fat, not just overall body mass.

Abdominal fat accumulation is not just a cosmetic problem, it can be a serious health risk. Abdominal fat, also known as "android" or "central" obesity, increases the risk for cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, high blood lipids, glucose intolerance and elevated insulin levels.

Many other studies have also found a link between alcohol intake and abdominal fat, but this too has been controversial. A study that was widely publicized by the BBC in 2003 dismissed the concept of the “beer belly.”

Nevertheless, it looks like there’s some scientific support to it after all (or at least a “liquor belly” according to this newer study).

Hormones may be strongly involved because high alcohol intake has been shown to decrease blood testosterone in men, and also increase cortisol levels, which can lead to visceral fat accumulation.

Why is there so much controversy? Why the discrepancy in research findings about alcohol’s influence on obesity, abdominal fat, and insulin sensitivity?

Well, here’s the real story of why some people don’t get fat when they drink:

A lot of the confusion is because epidemiological research cannot show cause and effect relationships and mistakes can easily be made when drawing associations based on limited data.

With the nature of these longitudinal studies, you have to look at the lifestyle and nature of drinkers in general (or in this study, hard liquor drinkers). Also, the Swedish study focused on older men, so age may have been a factor. You may be more likely to deposit alcohol right on your belly as you get older.

When you hear that alcohol increases belly fat, you also have to look at what else is going on in the life of the drinker, particularly what the rest of a person’s diet looks like, and how alcohol intake affects appetite and eating habits.

Research says that alcohol can mess up your body’s perception of hunger, satiety and fullness. If drinking stimulates additional eating, or adds additional calories that aren’t compensated for and which lead to positive energy balance, then you get fat. You may also get fat in the belly, no thanks to what booze does to hormones.

Another thing that confounds the reports on whether alcohol contributes to weight gain is the fact that the game changes in heavy drinkers. We know that alcohol contains 7.1 calories per gram and these calories always count as part of the energy balance equation… or do they? With chronic excessive alcohol consumption, it's possible that not all of these calories are available for energy. Due to changes in liver function and something called the microsomal ethanol oxidizing system (MEOS), alcoholism may be a real case of where some calories don’t count. Many alcoholics also skip meals and eat less with increasing alcohol consumption.

Alcohol metabolizing pathways notwithstanding, even if binge drinkers, daily drinkers or heavy drinkers consume most of their calories from alcohol, if they eat very little, and remain in a calorie deficit, they will not get fat. Compound this with the hormonal effects and you witness the skinny, but under-nourished, unhealthy and atrophied alcoholic (the person you'd think would be most likely to have a beer belly).

It's the calories that count

The bottom line is, the idea that alcohol just automatically turns into fat or gives you a beer belly is mistaken. It’s true that alcohol suppresses fat oxidation, but mainly, alcohol adds calories into your diet, messes with your hormones and can stimulate appetite, leading to even more calories consumed. That’s where the fat gain comes from.

If you drink in moderation, if you’re aware of the calories in the alcohol, if you're aware of the calories from additional food intake consumed during or after drinking, and if you compensate for all of the above accordingly, you won’t get fat.

Now, with that said, you might be wondering: “You mean I can drink and still lose fat? I just need to keep in a calorie deficit?”

Yes, that's exactly what I mean. But before you rush off to the pub for a cold one, hold that thought for a minute while you consider this first: The empty alcohol calories displace the nutrient dense calories!

When you’re on a fat loss program you have a fairly small “calorie budget”, so you need to give some careful thought to how those calories should be “spent.” For example, if a female is on a 1500 calorie per day diet, does she really want to "spend" 500 of those calories – one third of her intake - for a few alcoholic drinks, and leave only 1000 for health-promoting food, fiber and lean muscle building protein?

I realize some people may answer “yes” to that question, but then again, if some people spent their money as frivolously as they spent their calories, they would be in deep trouble!

To summarize this into some practical, take-home advice, here are 7 of my personal tips for alcohol consumption in the fitness lifestyle:

(1) Don’t drink on a fat loss program. Although you could certainly drink and “get away with it” if you diligently maintained your calorie deficit as noted above, it certainly does not help your fat loss cause or your nutritional status.

(2) Drink in moderation during maintenance. For lifelong weight maintenance and a healthy lifestyle, if you drink, do so in moderation and only occasionally, such as on weekends or when you go out to dine in restaurants. Binge drinking and getting drunk has no place in a fitness lifestyle (not to mention hangovers aren’t very conducive to good workouts).

(3) Don't drink daily. Moderate drinking, including daily drinking, has been associated with cardiovascular health benefits. However, I don’t recommend daily drinking because behaviors repeated daily become habits. Behaviors repeated multiple times daily become strong habits. Habitual drinking may lead to heavier drinking or full-blown addictions and can be hard to stop if you ever need to cut back.

(4) Count the calories. If you decide to have a bottle of beer or a glass of wine or two (or whatever moderation is for you), be sure to account for the alcohol in your daily calorie budget.

(5) Watch your appetite. Don’t let the “munchies” get control of you during or after you drink (Note to chicken wing and nacho-eating men: The correlation to alcohol and body fat is higher in men in almost all the studies. One possible explanation is that men tend to drink and eat, while women may tend to drink instead of eating).

(6) Watch the fatty foods. When drinking, watch the fatty foods in particular. A study by Angelo Tremblay back in 1995 suggested that alcohol and a high fat diet are a combination that favors overfeeding.

(7) Enjoy without guilt. If you choose to drink (moderately and sensibly), then don’t feel guilty about it or beat yourself up afterwards, just enjoy the darn stuff, will you!

To see a complete fat burning system that takes you by the hand, step by step and shows you what to eat, what to drink (and what not drink), how to exercise and how to stay motivated, visit: www.burnthefat.com

References:

(1) Alcohol Intake, Insulin Resistance, and abdominal obesity in elderly men. Riserus U, Ingelsson E., Obesity. 15(7): 1766-1773. 2007

About the Author:

Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS) and a certified personal trainer (CPT). Tom is the author of "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using methods of the world's best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: www.burnthefat.com

Monday, November 26, 2007

Top 5 Fat Loss Tips

Top 5 Fat Loss Tips

By: Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
www.TurbulenceTraining.com

Men's Fitness magazine recently asked me for 3 of my best fat loss secrets. Since most times the magazines just don't have enough space to run my full tips, I thought I'd give you a more detailed explanation of my secrets here (plus a few extra bonus tips that I didn't send to the magazine).

Secret #1 - Focus on burning carbohydrate, not fat, during your
fat-loss workouts.

Sounds backwards, right? But not when you look at how I structure my workouts. Remember that Turbulence Training focuses on resistance training and interval training. Both of these use carbohydrate as the main source of energy. So it's obvious the workout is designed to burn carbohydrates during the training session.

I have no interest in you trying to train in your "target heart
rate zone" for fat burning (aka - the fat burning zone). The whole idea of a fat-burning zone is an over-simplified idea of how the body works during exercise.

Leave the inefficient fat burning zone to the mis-educated
trainers in the commercial gyms (that not surprisingly, also want to sell you a heart rate monitor so you can stay in your "fat
burning heart rate zone").

If you want to get the most results in the least amount of time,
focus on burning carbohydrates, not fat.

Why do my fat loss workouts focus on burning carbohydrate rather than fat? In order to burn more calories after the workout, that's why. When you exercise with intervals and heavy resistance training, your body uses more calories in the hours after exercise than it would if you did traditional cardio and lifted lighter weights.

Alwyn Cosgrove calls this 'afterburn', and I call it 'Turbulence'.
By any name it gives you the same results - maximum
improvements in your body composition (helping you lose fat while gaining muscle).

Secret #2 - Use a range of repetitions in your strength training
workouts.

In order to train more muscle fibers and burn more carbohydrates, I have clients use a range of repetitions within the same workout. My workouts now use 6, 8, and 12 reps per set in order to work the muscle the most effectively.

This will burn more carbohydrates and promote as much muscle growth as possible when you are keeping the calories low.

Secret #3 - Use the stationary cycle for interval training.

I choose the stationary bike for intervals whenever possible
because cycling against a resistance can help maintain muscle mass.

Cycling against a resistance also allows you to perform a large
amount of mechanical work, and that is a key determinant of the Turbulence in my training.

But please note: I don't use low-intensity, fast pedaling
'spinning' intervals as I'm convinced that the hard, resistance
based intervals are more effective for fat loss. My clients only
cycle against a strong resistance in their intervals.

I really like the bike, but there are many other ways to do
intervals. Use what works for you, but if you are at a plateau, try the bike.

Secret #4 - Increase meal frequency

Okay, so this isn't really a secret to anyone that has read about
fat loss. But a 2005 study from the American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition showed that eating 6 times per day was associated with eating fewer calories per day, lowering cholesterol levels, and lowering post-meal insulin levels.

Combine an increased meal frequency with an increased protein and fiber intake, and you'll see your body composition improve rapidly.

If you need more nutrition help, then you'll love the new
Turbulence Training Nutrition Guide for Men & Women - written by Dr. Chris Mohr, Ph.D.

See below for more details...

Secret #5 - My Synergistic Turbulence Training Workouts

My Turbulence Training Fat Loss workouts are fast becoming the most effective way to burn fat, build muscle, and get lean. The synergistic strength training-interval training workouts are
efficient and effective - getting you in and out of the gym in
under an hour.

Here are some tips that you can use for an advanced training phase

- use these tips for 2 weeks then return to your normal training
schedule:

a) Add 10 seconds to each interval but maintain the intensity

b) Add in some bodyweight circuits (10-20 minutes per day) done in the morning or evening (if you do your regular workout in the AM, do your bodyweight circuits after dinner; otherwise, do the bw circuits first thing in the AM, and then do your regular workout at lunch or later in the afternoon or evening)

If you are advanced, you can use squats, push ups, and bodyweight rows for your circuit.

If you are a beginner, you could use lying hip extensions, modified push ups, and stick-ups.

c) Add an extra set to each exercise in the first superset you do
in each workout.

Again, use these three tips for an advanced fat loss period of two
weeks, then return to a normal training schedule.


About the Author

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men's Health, Men's Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit

www.TurbulenceTraining.com

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