Friday, November 30, 2007

Get Rid of Stubborn Body Fat With Interval Training

By Rusty Moore

Losing body fat is tough at times, but it doesn't have to be. The widely popular steady state cardio typically only works for a short while, then people get stuck at a certain body fat percentage. If you want to burn off as much stubborn body fat as desired, then interval training is the answer.

Interval Training Burns a Massive Amount of Calories in a Short Time

Although it seems logical to use traditional cardio, there are problems. With traditional "target heart rate" cardio you typically only burn calories when you are engaged in the workout. With interval training you are boosting your metabolism for many hours after the workout. It has been shown that interval training can burn up to 6 times the calories compared to traditional cardio. I suggest choosing interval training to drop body fat at much quicker rate than traditional aerobic exercise.

Here is an interval training workout that works very well. I have used several variations of this workout for 6 years and it keeps me at 6 to 8 percent body fat year round.

1) Hop on a treadmill, exercise bike, or elliptical machine

2) Walk at the typical "target heart rate" pace for one and a half minutes

3) Jog or peddle fast for 30 seconds (set the resistance higher)

4) Go back to the same Steady State Cardio Pace for 1.5 minutes

5) Jog or peddle fast for 30 seconds (higher speed/resistance than the first time)

6) You are going to repeat this cycle of intense and moderate for at least 20 minutes

Note: Start off the 30 seconds sprints at a moderate pace and go a bit faster for each of the remaining sprints. The last 30 second sprint should be your toughest. It is a good sign if you are short of breath, your skin is hot, and you are sweating. This is what will cause an increase of HGH in your body. Some people call this the "HGH flush"...this is what you are aiming for. Interval Training is tough, but you will love the results!

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Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Is Diet The Key to Burning Body Fat or Is Exercise the Answer?

By Rusty Moore

So when it comes to losing unwanted body fat, is diet or exercise more important? If you were to ask me 20 years ago, I would have told you that exercise was the key to a sexy body. While exercise is important, I think the real key to burning body fat and looking great is the result of a clean diet. If people ate properly, there would be many more toned people in gyms all over the world.

In a Perfect World You Should Combine Diet and Exercise

Everyone knows that exercise along with a good diet is a great approach to losing weight. The challenge with exercising is that often times life gets busy. There isn't always time to exercise, but you always have time for a proper diet. My suggestion is to keep your diet clean at all times, and exercise when time allows.

"You Can't Out-Exercise a Big Mac"

A Big Mac has 540 calories. Do you realize how much exercising it takes to burn those calories? Well about an hour on the elliptical trainer at a moderate pace would do the trick! So after an hour of boring cardio, you are back to square one. You probably won't lose weight at all especially if you added the fries and soft drink. Large fries would be an extra 570 calories and a large non-diet soft drink would be an extra 310 calories. So how much exercise would you have to do to burn 1,400+ calories? Let's not even go there!

It Is Much Easier to Create A Large Calorie Deficit With a Clean Diet

The best way to lose weight is through creating a large daily calorie deficit. The goal is to for your body to use more calories each day than what it consumes. If you wanted to lose a pound of fat on your body, you have to create a 3,500 calorie deficit over time. If you wanted to lose 2 pounds per week that would be a deficit of 7,000 calories over a week...or a daily calorie deficit of 1,000. Do you know it takes close to 2 hours of moderate cardio to burn 1,000 calories. The best plan is not to eat those calories in the first place!

Fat Loss Isn't Quite This Simple

The body is actually much more complex than simply responding precisely to a calorie deficit. There are WAY more variables that come into play when it comes to fat loss; the type of food you eat, the timing of your meals, the metabolic effect of exercise, the muscle sparing effect of resistance training, etc. There are a lot of things that come into the fat loss picture that I'm not addressing here.

Diet Play a Bigger Role in Fat Loss Than Most People Realize

Want to "spin your wheels" and not make any progress in the gym? The answer is to eat a terrible diet. Working out can be tough, so why waste all that time by eating a terrible diet? If you pick up any fitness magazine, over 80% of the articles are dedicated to exercising...the funny thing about this is that diet is the quickest route to a slim body. Don't get me wrong, I am a HUGE believer in regular exercise! I just think it is sad that people don't ever hit their goals, because their diet is poor.

Your Will Get WAY More Out of Cardio When Your Diet is In Order

Show me an overweight person who works outs hard 5 times a week and I will show you a person who doesn't eat well! The mistake people often make in gyms is that they copy the workout routine of a person who is in great shape. The real reason that person is in great shape is because of their clean diet. True weight loss happens "behind the scenes". Working out speeds along the process, but the foundation of a great body is in a clean diet.

Bonus: Here is a Way to Increase Your Self-Discipline

The crazy thing about self-discipline is that it all depends upon the "way you think about things". We are impressed when we see someone who has strong self-discipline, but you would act the same if you thought like that person thought. Hope that makes sense. Here is the way I think about cardio exercise and diet that works for me. If I know I am going to workout hard later in the day, I will eat strictly. The reason I do this is that I actually want my exercise to mean something and burn body fat. During the day I will eat low calorie foods to prepare for my early evening workout. Often times the evening rolls around and I don't feel like exercising. Since I skipped the unhealthy food and spent all day getting my body ready to exercise, it would be foolish if I skipped a workout. I force myself to exercise, since I stuck to a strict diet during the day. This is a great way to make diet and exercise play off of each other.

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Monday, November 19, 2007

What Women Should Do To Lose Weight

By Natasha Cesare

Are you ready to shed some unwanted, unbearable weight? Why is it that weight loss for women is always put on the backburner? Between, the kids, the job, the housecleaning and everybody else's wants and needs sometimes your needs are shoved to the side. The bottom line is that women are selfless but unfortunately there is some suffering that comes along with the ability to put everyone else first.

Do you often look and the mirror and wonder why everything looks so out of place? As a mom myself I realize that time just flies by and the pounds just pile on. Getting in shape may be the most prominent thing on your mind but sometimes there just isn't enough hours in the day. I know from experience that it doesn't have to be that hard. Simply put, you just need to have a plan and then you have to force yourself to stick to you. Over the next few minutes, I am going to give you five ways to get yourself healthy all over again.

Eat Healthier. My first weight loss for women tip is to start eating right! Let's be realistic, none of us cook or have the time to cook exactly like Rachel Ray. But eating healthy does not mean you have to prepare two hour meals three times a day. Really, that would be ridiculous. Breakfast, lunch and dinner can be healthy without an insane amount of effort. Plan these meals by shopping specifically for them. If you have the right food in your home and through the wrong ones out then you are taking the first step in the right direction.

Putting yourself first is a must. I by no means want you to neglect your family but take the time to let yourself relax. Weight loss for women can only be achieved by putting yourself first and staying health and happy. Keep in mind that in the end, your family will be the one who benefits more than anyone! Make yourself healthy things to eat, read a good book, take a long bath or just sit in silence and meditate. Whatever it is that you do to make yourself happy then make yourself do it. Ever heard the saying if mamma's not happy, nobody's happy? Well, isn't that the truth?

A Strong Desire for Self-Improvement. You have got to really want this to achieve it! Just thinking about weight loss for women is not going to get you there. You need to put yourself in a place in your life where you have had enough of the old ways and you are ready for the new way. It is easy to get sidetracked, especially with busy lives like ours. I was sick and tired of not fitting into my clothes, feeling utterly exhausted and just wasting away. So, I took action and nipped the problem at the bud because I desired it more than anything.

Unfortunately, wanting to lose weight and get into shape is only half the battle. There has to be some sort of lifestyle change on your part. This lifestyle change is going to require two things, healthy eating and a fitness program. I understand that a fitness program does sounds intimidating but believe me, I don't mean an hour and a half of exercise starting at 4 a.m. In reality, all you need to start out with is 15-30 minutes every other day of whatever you want. The goal is to stay active and this includes, walking, bike riding, swimming, dancing, you take your pick. The most important part of your fitness plan is going to be your sleep. Turn off the TV. at night and get some really great sleep so you feel invigorated for the next day!

Lastly, Go to http://www.weightlossformoms.net for a free report and guide on how to achieve the weight loss you have been waiting for. Here you will find information on any topic relating to weight loss for women. Whatever questions you may have, there is an answer, you just need someone who has had experience achieving the goals you want to set.

Don't make your new goals unattainable because you will fail. Start out slow and make sure you are ready to stick to your self commitments. After the first week or two of eating right and working out you will develop a habit of it. And then eventually you will start feeling so great that it will just come naturally to you!

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Tuesday, November 6, 2007

The Big Myth about getting Flat Abs

If you've been doing crunches forever and are upset that you still don't have flat abs, you're no doubt operating under what I consider the biggest myth of weight loss in existence. Despite the facts, many people still think they can get flat abs if they just keep doing enough ab exercises. That said, if all you want is to lose a little belly fat, and not necessarily to have flat abs, you should be able to significantly cut down on the ab exercises that you have to do. Just remember this is only if you want to lose a little belly fat, not if you want to achieve great looking flat abs.

The most effective way of flattening your stomach is a combination of strength training (with a extra focus on mid-section), cardiovascular exercise (short, hard workouts), and stable blood sugar (which keeps you from adding additional fat and makes it easier for the body to use body fat for fuel). This means you are less likely to store any excess calories as body fat because they are more likely to be used by your elevated metabolism. Therefore, strength training, cardiovascular exercise and stable blood sugar are by far the most important factors when it comes to burning away that excess body fat and keeping it off. So the goal is to essentially reduce your body fat percentage.

Exercise and proper diet are necessary to achieve and maintain weight loss and muscle definition. Aerobic exercises target specific areas of body. Weight training increases the body's overall metabolic rate, so in actuality it enhances the action of aerobics. Sure lots of crunches and other ab exercises may give you great tone and definition, but to see the best results you need to reduce the layer of body fat covering up those visible cuts referred to as 'six-pack' abs. Whatever exercise you do, it is extraordinarily important that you do the exercises correctly and on a regular basis whether it is biking, rowing, stair-climbing or dog-kicking. However to get great abs you need more than just exercise.

You need to create a diet that burns slightly more calories than consumed. For flatter abs, make carbs 45-65 percent (202-292 grams based on a 1,800-calorie diet) of your total daily calories. If you eat an extremely high-carb diet, you may store excess water, experience bloating and gain temporary water weight, this is why people who go on no- or very low-carb diets can initially lose weight so quickly. Begin by reducing your portion sizes and maintaining a balanced diet of carbs, protein and fat. From now on, think of 'diet' as a general eating 'lifestyle' rather than as the thing you see Richard Simmons trying to sell you.

You must get exercise, diet, and supplements (especially your diet) right on a consistent basis in order to even get close to flat abs. And, If you've lost body fat and you still don't have flat abs, don't be terribly upset not everyone are supermodels, it takes time and lots of effort. Many of us will never see those flat abs because of the constant energy, rules, and positive attitude needed to succeed, but don’t give up you’ll get there!!

Welcome

Welcome to How to get Flat Abs Fast. This site provides tips and techniques for individuals looking to lose some weight and get flat abs. If you have questions not covered in How to get Flat Abs Fast please feel free to email your question to rmcvay42.flatabs@blogger.com