The Truth About Your Six Pack Exercises

Have you made any change in the abdominal area for all the time, sweat and sacrifice you have endured?
Exercise can be misleading to say the least, different kinds of exercises can have a different effect from one person to the next. One of the most common believes is that sit-ups or crunches will give you a six-pack because you are targeting the necessary muscles.

Take the religious gym user for instance; they do a six-pack workout regularly in the hope of reaching body transformation glory. Only to discover a few months or even years later they have made very little change in the abdominal area for all the time, sweat and sacrifice they have endured.

On the other hand some people of the same nature will look fantastic and their abs will compliment the time invested. This scenario translates to all types of exercises and workout routines.

Lets attempt to clear up why this happens. For starters people have different body shapes when they begin on any given exercise routine. Some may be a few pounds over weight and some by a few stone. This is one of many reasons why some people progress quicker than others.

Breaking this down further, some people may look the same shape but could have totally different body compositions. In other words you could have the same size clothes as your friend but have a greater percent of body fat and fat in more stubborn to shift areas on your body. It is even possible to weigh the same as your friend and still have a different body shape. The point I am trying to make is what seems like the same sometimes isn’t. It isn’t as clear-cut as we would like to think it is.

Other considerations to why some people achieve results quicker than others are to do with the levels of commitment to exercising. The perception of effort and intensity may differ from person to person giving some people a false sense of achievement with what they are doing. If you aren’t pushing yourself hard enough then you will probably never change your body shape with exercise. Contrary to that doing too much can be counter-productive to your goals.

Finally the most important piece of the puzzle is paying too much attention to the exercise regime and not enough to the diet. How many times do people rush in to a six-pack workout routine and neglect their diets? Wishing exercise will cancel out a poor diet is a disappointing experiment. Exercising on a whim and stuffing the face with the wrong foods for fat loss is something that will never work no matter how long or hard you exercise.
Have you made any change in the abdominal area for all the time, sweat and sacrifice you have endured?

Honest Diet Advice - Tips to Overcome Diet Obstacles

How to get automatic fat loss!
Do you have a history of yoyo dieting and putting weight on easily? Unable to lose stubborn body fat? Does the diet and exercise thing haunt you and are you tired of it? I have observed peoples diet weaknesses and compiled a few tips to help you with issues and hard times.

Fuel the body with natural dense foods
Banish the cocktail of processed foods from your diet and begin to reap the benefits of real foods. Real foods are foods you find in the ground or on the tress, swim in the ocean or run in the wild. Real foods are heaving with natural goodness that your body needs for optimal health. No amount of processed foods in your diet dressed in synthetic vitamins is ever going to replace what you can get from nature. Once you replace all your processed foods with natural foods you will begin to unlock one of the first pathways to automatic fat loss.

Burn fat with weights - not with a hamster wheel
Muscle tissue is metabolically active, for every pound of muscle you add to your body you will burn an additional 50 calories. Don’t make the mistake of thinking low calorie diets and loads of cardiovascular exercise will help you drop weight or fat. It will make your situation worse in the long term because you risk losing calorie hungry muscle tissue. It isn’t possible to build muscle tissue with the type of cardiovascular exercises health clubs have made popular. Training with resistance is very important for your success and needs to be the priority in your exercise regime.

Forget calories - think nutrients
Your body only knows nutrients contrary to what you may believe. If you eat a slice of cake your body doesn’t scream oh no here comes 500 calories, then says to itself, not to worry because if I only get fed another 500 calories today everything will be all right. If this were the case there would be a lot more thin people especially those who live on low calorie diets. Listen very carefully to what I am saying here, calories in versus calories out is out of date science. It looks like the right thing on paper but in reality it doesn’t work.

Your body sees foods as chemicals and nothing more. If you get the balance wrong with processed foods or too many carbohydrates, proteins or fats then everything changes.

Before you know it the nutrients don’t get to where your body needs them and hormones are released to cope with the biological stress. This leads to muscle loss and a slow metabolism ending with you piling on the pounds.
How to get automatic fat loss!

Beer Belly Solutions – the Easiest and Quickest Way to Get Rid of a Beer Gut

High levels of visceral fat also cause the beer belly look. Visceral fat is internal fat. It is actually underneath your six-pack muscles and covers your organs!
Pints of beer drunk frequently are going to swell up and distend the stomach regardless of an individual’s body fat levels. Some men regularly drink at least half a dozen pints in one drinking session. The pressure of retaining pints of high calorie fluids is going to swell even the leanest person’s belly.

High levels of visceral fat also cause the beer belly look. Visceral fat is internal fat. It is actually underneath your six-pack muscles and covers your organs. People who have high levels of visceral fat are also insulin resistant and need to avoid sugary, processed and starchy foods.

Obviously the best way to lose a beer belly is to stop drinking beer!

If you don’t drink beer and still have what looks like a beer belly then you will need to lose the visceral fat. Given that visceral fat is an indication of severe insulin resistance then the first step is to manage insulin levels by limiting certain carbohydrates in the diet and sugary processed foods.

Eliminating breads, pastas, ready-made meals and basically anything that comes in a fancy packaging with unpronounceable ingredients including so called healthy cereals is the fastest way to drop fat. Then it can take as little as a couple of weeks to see a major change in the size of your beer belly.

Beer is a terrible choice of drink for someone who wants to lose body fat. Beer has empty calories and has an estrogenic effect. Hops are highly estrogenic and are considered the main causes for beer bellies and man boobs on men.

Exercise recommendations for beer bellies and man boobs should be something that gets your heart rate high and panting like a dog. Resistance type training is the most effective way to exercise for someone wanting to burn fat. Weights burn more calories than cardiovascular exercises such as the treadmill and rowing machine. You need to approach resistance training with a view to sweat and work hard in order to get the best results.
It can take as little as a couple of weeks to see a major change in the size of your beer belly!

Shred Fat at Work

How to increase your calorie demand at work!
Are you looking for a way to burn more calories without it interfering with your day-to-day work schedule? There are a number of ways to move around differently at work that will increase your body’s demand to use more calories. Thinking outside the box and changing some lazy habits can make all the difference between storing your last meal as fat and burning the fat from your body.

Lets take a look at some ways to increase your activity output at work.

Commuting
If you don’t live far from work how about walking to work? If this sounds too overwhelming at first thought how about walking one way and getting a lift back? You could even break this down even more by walking alternative days until you get used to the idea. Not only is it good exercise for you but you are doing your bit for the environment too.

Talking of saving the environment, if you live several miles away from work and walking to work is out of the question you could opt for cycling to work instead. The same principles apply, you could try alternative days until you get used to the idea. Once you get into moving your body more the sooner you will crave more exercise.

For those who can’t avoid using transport to get to work don’t worry because there are ways to use more calories by using your feet more.

If you travel by bus you could get off at the stop before work and walk the rest of the way. The same applies when going home as well; get off the stop before home. This simple strategy could give you up to 3 hours more exercise each week.

If you drive to work you could leave your car a mile from work and walk the rest of the way. Or at least park it a few streets away. The best thing you could do with driving to work is organising a car sharing scheme where you take it in turns to drive a colleague to work and vice versa. The crunch is when it is your colleagues turn to pick you up you arrange to be picked up a mile from home and dropped off a mile from home at the end of the day giving you a reason to walk.

5 Ways to burn more calories at work
1. Take the stairs every time.
2. Get out and walk at lunchtimes.
3. Get on your feet when talking on the phone and walk.
4. Volunteer at every opportunity you get to get out of the office and take the stairs.
5. Volunteer for strenuous jobs whenever possible, in other words don’t be afraid to break into a sweat at work.
How to increase your calorie demand at work!

Lose a Pound a Day – You’ve Got To Be Joking

Do you want numbers or do you want to look better?
Whenever I see an advert promising extreme weight loss in a short amount of time it makes me cringe at the thought of someone stepping on the scales each day and expecting weight to quickly drop off.

It is possible to transform your body shape without ever stepping on the scales. Regular weigh-ins doesn’t suit certain personalities. It takes a strong willed person to get weighed everyday and not let it faze them in any way shape or form. Everybody’s weight can fluctuate from day to day and from morning to night causing a negative impact on the person’s mind who regularly gets weighed.

The kind of people that have a history of daily weigh-ins and an addiction for wanting the pounds to drop off at all costs needs to stay the hell away from weighing scales. I would strongly recommend throwing them away for your own good.

Getting weighed everyday is not beneficial at all. If you do get weighed everyday, taking an average over a ten-day period is the most reliable way to do it. But this is only applicable if the variables are consistent.

So what is a better alternative? If you have the personality type that steers towards obsessive and living by numbers then you have to be completely honest with yourself, do you want numbers or do you want to look better?

The absolute best way to measure progress is to measure different parts of the body. Always take the measurements over the largest part of the body to keep the readings consistent. If you can’t be bothered to go through the motions of measuring different body parts every week or so then my next best recommendation would be to use the mirror for feedback or even taking photographs to track changes in your body shape.

Another way, which is the easiest and most unavoidable way to track whether or not you are losing weight, is to use the fitting of your clothes. Don’t forget to stay away from routine weigh-ins if you fall into the obsession category. That way you will be able to continue doing what you need to do to lose weight without any negativity getting in the way.
Do you want numbers or do you want to look better?

What’s The Quickest Way To Lose Weight & Fat?

You can't out train a bad diet – forget the gym membership if you’re not planning on changing your diet!
Your diet is probably responsible for the way you look right now. Having excess body fat and being over weight is not a symptom of not using the treadmill a few times a week. If you don’t believe me just look at all the gym members the world over that quit everyday because they never achieve any results. They hit the treadmill in their droves religiously and still never get anywhere. The next time you are down the gym take a closer look at all the dedicated gym members that continue to exercise week after week and year after year yet still don’t look any different for their efforts. The majority of these people spend their workout time doing cardiovascular exercises. The type we have been led to believe is the answer to all over weight problems.

The mainstream media and the diet and exercise industry have programmed people to believe exercise is the answer to fat loss. How many people head straight into exercise routines without bothering to change their diet? A lot I can tell you.

From years of experience training people I have discovered the people who eat a bad diet are looking for a quick fix with exercise. They are hardly ever willing to change their diet without waiting a few months. This is to see if their exercise regime will give them the body they want. Then after all their invested time spent exercising fails to deliver the fat loss they want they more often then not throw in the towel.

Investing in eating a clean balanced diet from the beginning is the quickest way to get healthy and lose fat. You can’t out train a diet full of bad calories. If you live on processed junk foods and fail to get the right balance of nutrients everyday from natural foods then it is highly likely that you will feel lethargic and not look as good as you should. The effects of eating well show up on your body and keeps you feeling energised all day long. A far cry to what a few workouts a week on the treadmill can give you.
You can't out train a bad diet – forget the gym membership if you’re not planning on changing your diet!

How to Lose Muffin Tops & Love Handles

The more muscle groups involved in an exercise the greater the calorie demand!
Muffin tops is a slang word to describe the overhanging flesh over waistbands. The unsightly look has become more noticeable in recent years due to fashions and the increase in obesity levels. The biggest part to losing the muffin top look and reducing the size of your love handles is the diet. If you make the right changes to your diet it will speed up fat loss and shrink the muffin top quicker than any stand-alone exercise.

When exercising, in order to drop body fat and change the shape of your midsection the best types of exercises are those that involve using as many muscles at once as possible. If you are unfamiliar with exercises there are different types of exercises, some work just one muscle group at once (isolation exercises) and others work multiple muscle groups. If you are moving just one joint in an exercise it is most likely going to be an isolation exercise.

You may be wondering why exercising using all of your body at once is going to work at reducing your muffin top. The more muscle groups involved in an exercise the greater the calorie demand. This has a knock on effect to speeding up your metabolism. That means after you have finished your exercises you will be burning more calories at rest.

Once you begin to reduce fat from around the waist there are some abdominal exercises that work better than others for toning the sides of the waist. These exercise involve you bending sideways. The muscles beneath the love handles are responsible for bending the body sideways. With this information in mind it is important to note that the popular abdominal exercises where you crunch your body forwards and back again will do very little to tone the muscles on the side of your waist.
The more muscle groups involved in an exercise the greater the calorie demand!

Are You Running Out Of Motivation & Steam?

A problem shared is a problem solved!
Are you running out of motivation and steam? Let me tell you from experience having a good set of friends and family around you is essential for successful fat loss. You need to tell those closest to you what your intentions are so you can gain their support during your journey. Sharing conversations about your goals and the difficulties you face can be the best thing you can do to motivate yourself towards the fat loss you want. More often than not a problem shared is a problem solved.

The more open you are the more support you will receive; you may even encourage and gain a diet buddy along the way. Those that try and do things on their own and shut themselves off from the outside world are more likely to fail due to the lack of support. Don’t be a statistic, be a success and share your goals.
A problem shared is a problem solved!

Burn Fat with 15 Minutes Exercise

More beneficial than 97% of gym member’s workouts I’ve seen!
The thought of doing any kind of exercise turns many people off because of the impression it can have. If you don’t know any different then you would assume it is a long drawn out process only suited for nut cases with nothing else better to do. What if I told you that exercise doesn’t have to be long and boring? Would you be interested if I showed you a way to make exercise challenging but over before you knew it? Better still, what if I told you the way I’m about to show you to exercise is more beneficial than probably 97% of what anybody else is doing in the gym right now. It only takes 15 minutes so even the busiest people can’t make excuses with this one.

This exercise routine is really simple, once you are fully warmed up this is what you do.

Choose two exercises
Decide which areas you need to prioritise and choose the exercises accordingly.

Tip: choose multi joint exercises when applicable. This will burn more calories and give you a better response.
E.g.
Legs = squats, lunges or leg curls using a ball.
Back = dead lifts, bent over rowing or alternating superman.
Chest = press ups, dumbbell press or presses and chest fly on a ball.

Considerations for the abs only workouts
You may decide to use this routine format for just training the abs. In which case be careful not to opt for the same movement pattern.

Tip: there are three planes of movement, make sure to include 2 different ones when training the abs so you achieve a balanced look.
E.g.
Crunch type exercises = forwards and backwards.
Side bends and other oblique exercises = moving sideways.
Wood chops = rotational movement.

Once you decide which exercises you are doing this is how to work them to their fullest potential for 15 minutes.

Do the first exercise for 30 seconds followed immediately by the second exercise for another 30 seconds then take a rest for 30 seconds. Repeat this 10 times which will give you a 15-minute workout. Beware it looks easy on paper but is very challenging.

Tip: use a digital stopwatch to time yourself. I have found it to be easier to monitor where you are and you don’t need to count how many rounds you have done because you simply stop when the clock reads 15 minutes.
More beneficial than 97% of gym member’s workouts I’ve seen!

What Kind of Diet Do You Need?

The keys to healthy eating!
Eating a well-balanced healthy diet can become a bit of a chore especially when you have to fit all the recommended nutrients and the five a day into a normal busy day. It can be difficult to say the least even for the most dedicated individual. Most of us are aware that cutting calories to a ridiculously low level and skipping meals isn’t the right way to lose weight.

Eating the right type of calories frequently is essential to weight loss programmes. The more calories you cut the more stress it is for your body. Did you know your body would eat itself if you didn’t feed it? All your hormones would become out of flux, fat-storing hormones would increase and the body would tell your thyroid to slow down, as a natural protective mechanism for the body to keep what little fuel it has to live on and survive.

The choices of foods are just as important as the amounts you eat. Time constraints and practicality can tempt many of us to live on processed junk food. So what is the best solution? Planning the next day’s meals in advance is the key, preparing the night before if necessary and using the convenience of food supplements in your daily diet if and when you need to. To help keep hunger at bay until meal times a meal replacement drink mid morning or mid afternoon is practical and achievable for just about anyone. That is just one way you could get nutrients your body needs and help keep the metabolism fire burning.

Caution needs to be applied to food supplements; many contain high amounts of sugars and artificial sweeteners. Choose one with low sugar contents. Only rely on food supplements when time doesn’t allow you to eat a solid meal, food is more thermogenic than liquid meals. Always favour a liquid meal over skipping a meal though as it is more likely to prevent you from heading over to the vending machine.

When planning meals careful selection is necessary with food quality and also with the amounts you eat. The ratio of protein, fat and carbohydrate per meal is dictated by your response to that meal afterwards. Unwanted side effect such as feeling tired, bloated or hungry should be recorded in a food log so adjustments can be made the next time you eat that meal. From there you will be able to modify the meal and keep fine-tuning it until you get a positive response and a sense what works best for your body. Everyone responds differently at a biochemical level to the same foods so it is important to discover what works best for you.

The key is to try and eat a wide selection of foods every week, eating the same meals day in day out can be boring and detrimental to your digestive system. The correct selection of foods that suits your body and passes on a good response after the meal is highly recommended.
The keys to healthy eating!

Exercise Tips For Quick Results

It is time to shock your body!
#1 Rotate exercises
Think of exercises a bit like your diet, the more variety the better. I once learnt in a lecture that a typical person eats no more than 12 different kinds of food in a typical week. Do you do the same with exercise selection by doing the same exercises week in and week out? If so, then it is time to shock your body by going for a response, this involves rotating your exercises frequently. Keep in mind that there are many alternatives to the standard exercises; although you are basically doing the same movement you can change the response by using different tools and methods. There are less chances of suffering from ‘overuse injuries’ if you regularly rotate your exercises.

#2 Do not rush but do not daydream either
How many people rush their reps? Have a look around the next time you’re in the gym; chances are they are lifting more weight than they are capable of lifting or practising sloppy manoeuvres because they haven’t been shown the proper way. Don’t get me wrong there is a place for fast reps in strength training programmes but they must be performed in a safe and correct way. Now take a note of how long people rest in-between sets, even if this is a woman that looks like she needs to lose weight; I can bet you that she is resting minutes before doing the next set. It surprises me how many people on weight loss and toning programmes do this, they are resting far too long. They are taking the same amount of rest needed to achieve a 3-5-rep max. In other words they are having the same rest as someone following a power lifting routine. To achieve more intensity in your workouts decrease the rest time between sets. It is normally the first variable I introduce in a programme to increase the overall intensity.

#3 Train hard and rest hard
Workouts should be intense and short; whatever method you use it should keep your heart rate elevated and breathing increased whilst resting between exercises. Workouts should also be structured and have a purpose. Rest outside the gym is just as important as the workout in order to progress and reach your goal. Rushing around all day stressed will do you no good especially if you are training the same day. How can you train hard if your body hasn’t had the chance to rest from the last workout you did? For best results never allow your mind to be preoccupied full of stressful issues before a workout.

#4 Use tricks for a rapid response
There are many principles to use to make a workout more beneficial and generate quicker results. But how many people actually think of using them? Those that do probably overuse them and spoil the impact they can have. When response to a workout isn’t progressing as quick as it should then different principles like supersets, drop sets, pre-exhaust, negatives and rest-pause can make a massive difference to overall results.
It is time to shock your body!

The Reasons Why Women Must Train with Weights & Why They Will Never Get Big Muscles

Resistance training is the best type of exercise for getting rid of body fat!
Most women who want to get in shape will normally stay clear from doing any resistance type exercises involving weights because they believe training with weights will turn them into muscle freaks. I hear this exercise myth all the time from women; it’s probably the most common myth out of all the misunderstandings about training with weights to improve appearances in females. Many women think if they touch a weight they will end up with arms looking of sinew and bulging veins. Images of the pop singer Madonna everywhere don’t help to reassure women’s confidence to train with weights for a better body. The misconceptions women have of training with weights have driven them to cardiovascular type exercises and away from the many benefits training with weights can have. Instead they prefer activities like running, biking or any piece of CV equipment that takes their liking in the hope it will transform the way they look.

There are some things to consider before running away from dumbbells and barbells and why they won’t turn you into the next Miss Universe.

#1 – Big muscles or a ripped physique don’t happen overnight. It isn’t a case of going to the gym and lifting a few weights and waking up the next day with irreversible big muscles that you are stuck with for life.

#2 – Someone with a body that has bulging muscles and looks toned and distinguished has attained it with years and years of hard training and strict nutritional control or with performance drugs or both.

#3 – Women have less muscle building hormones then men and it is rare for a woman to develop big muscles even with a strict bodybuilding-training regime and strict diet.

#4 – I always reassure a women’s misconception of training with weights by telling them that if they were able to easily build big muscles they would just as easily be able to decrease the size of the muscles by resorting back to doing nothing.

The advantage of resistance training over traditional cardio training is significant. Done properly, resistance training will create a cardiovascular response; killing two birds with one stone and saving heaps of time. One of the numerous benefits includes the functional benefit, which has a carry over effect to daily living, and most sports. But more importantly for most women is that it will shape the body making it more aesthetically pleasing at the same time as toning muscle tissue. As soon the muscles begin to work frequently under resistance it speeds up the rate you burn calories and it makes it easier to reduce body fat levels.
Resistance training is the best type of exercise for getting rid of body fat!

10 Quick Breakfast Options For Fat Loss

Recipes for a simple and quick breakfast!
Eating breakfast is very important for fat loss goals because it helps break the fast and kick-starts the metabolism. Maintaining a healthy metabolism so it keeps running smoothly is essential for burning calories. Here is a rundown of my favourite recipes for a simple and quick breakfast for fat loss. They contain friendly ingredients that work with your body and not against it. Note the absence of processed foods and sugar.

1. Smoothie- natural yoghurt with a scoop of vanilla whey protein powder, add hand full of any berries and a tablespoon of flaxseed oil or hand full of almonds. Blend with a little water.

2. Egg omelet served with raw spinach.

3. Cottage cheese served with blueberries.

4. Smoked salmon served with watercress, tomato and sliced cucumber.

5. Gluten free pancakes with ghee butter on top, served with blueberries and double cream.

6. Boiled eggs served with lightly steamed asparagus wrapped in ham.

7. Scrambled eggs served on wheat free toast.

8. Crab meat and shrimp mixed with sour cream and wrapped in an egg omelet. Serve with wheat free toast.

9. Duck liver pate served with wheat free toast and watercress.

10. Cold cuts of meat served with salad.

I used to be sick of eating the same boring breakfasts for years because I thought it was healthy for me. I didn’t know any better because the foods I was eating were all classed as health foods. I fell into the trap of eating grains, and then more grains until I was eating a massive bowl of porridge oats every morning just so I wouldn’t feel hungry soon after my breakfast.

I researched nutrition quite intensively and discovered that each individual burns calories at different speeds and our ability to digest different foods differs from person to person. That means you could eat the same diet as your twin and one of you could be overweight and feel rubbish whilst the other looks and feels a picture of health.

Most grains are difficult to digest for most of the population and consequences to this start an uphill battle for weight control. Imagine putting something in your body everyday that your digestive system is unable to digest properly. What do you think happens when you do this? What normally follows are stomach distension, wind, gas and an inability to digest other nutrients and a battle of the bulge.

Take my advice and try eating a breakfast away from the traditional commercial variety to see if it makes a difference to your waistline.
Recipes for a simple and quick breakfast!

Why Low Calorie Diets Will Never Work For Long-Term Results

Low calorie diets are destructive to fat loss goals and will psychologically damage your relationship with food!
There are many reasons why low calorie diets will never work for long-term results but very few people ever get to know about them. A low calorie diet is probably the first thing that pops into the head of someone wanting to lose weight or tone up the abdominal area. For many people it can be frustrating to think how a low calorie diet could fail to lose weight and reduce fat. This is only because they haven’t had the opportunity to learn about the inner workings of the human body and how different foods can influence the ability to lose fat.

Every time we eat something it has an effect on our metabolism, metabolism is the rate at which your body burns calories. The quicker your metabolism runs the more calories you burn. Eating regular meals increases metabolism and so does exercise. Some exercises are more beneficial than others for burning calories during and after the workout.

Skipping meals and restricting calories disrupts the metabolism and slows down the rate your body burns calories. This kind of lifestyle is destructive to fat loss goals and psychologically damages your relationship with food at all sorts of levels. It is essential to get a good balance of nutrients and let go of any fear you may have about eating certain foods because they are high in calories.

It is not just calories that make people fat it is the type of calories that matter. Counting calories won’t make any difference if your diet is made up of mostly processed foods, sugar, alcohol, caffeine and grains.

Your body is nature’s most ingenious design that has developed and adjusted itself for the sake of surviving through evolution. That is why when you begin to restrict calories it automatically assumes there is a famine coming and stores what little food you do eat into the fat cells. In other words the good news is if it didn’t do this we wouldn’t have survived for so long as a species but the bad news is it is at the expense of more and bigger fat cells. Following a diet with restricted calories will make it very difficult if not impossible to lose fat from problem areas on your body.

Every time you imitate a famine you make it harder in the future to restore your normal metabolic rate. You are also more likely to develop sweet cravings because of the poor blood sugar management caused by the infrequent eating. You can quickly see how one thing leads to another and a viscous circle of yoyo dieting is inevitable. Every time you put your body through this ride you end up with more fat storing hormones.

To reduce fat and lose weight permanently it is important to start looking at the type of calories you consume. Gone are the days of starving yourself in the hope of a quick fix solution. Everyone needs a good selection of essential fatty acids, organic vegetables, free-range meats and proteins in their diets. You need to move towards the opposite side of malnourishment and eat frequently to be on a fat loss winner. Never allow yourself to go hungry in between meals; eating a well balanced diet doesn’t qualify you to eat low calories. Doing that wouldn’t keep the metabolism running optimally to see fat loss.
Low calorie diets are destructive to fat loss goals and will psychologically damage your relationship with food!

How To Get Perfect Abs – Alternative Quick Fix Methods

Doing abdominal exercises may not be the quickest way to get a six-pack!
If you are on a mission to get perfect abs you will need to start following some key strategies outside the box of conventional training methods. Millions are spent annually in marketing the latest gadgets for training abs and food supplements for fat loss with the objective to tempt the vulnerable into thinking there is a quick fix to achieving six pack abs. The quick fix solutions for perfect abs are to stop relying on gimmicks and begin to look at your own lifestyle habits.

Believe it or not doing abdominal exercises isn’t the quickest way to get a six-pack. As you read on you will discover it isn’t as straightforward as tiring yourself out doing tons of crunches. It is also worth noting that anyone can transform a flabby tummy into a set of toned abs as long as they follow certain actions.

The first step is to get a reality check on your lifestyle. If you wake tired and drink coffee all day then the first thing you need to do is go to bed earlier. A good nights sleep is one of the most beneficial things you can do for your health, it is often overlooked for achieving optimal physical condition and may be the missing link in getting the abs you desire. It is a necessity rather than an option to have a good night sleep; we release certain hormones for physical repair between 10pm and 2am and specific hormones for psychological repair between 2am and 6am. If you fail to refill your energy account every night with undisturbed sleep you greatly enhance the aging process and reduce your chances of being able to lose body fat.

Drinking adequate amounts of water ranks in number one position for nutritional importance for fat loss and perfect abs. Drink mineral water everyday, drinking water in-between meals and at room temperature is the best way.

The next step then is to stop eating processed foods. The next time you pick up food in a packet look at the ingredients and see if you can pronounce the ingredients, if you can’t don’t let it inside your body. Processed foods contain artificial ingredients and additives that can make you toxic and give your digestive system a hard time. The last thing you need if you want low body fat levels.

Other foods to eliminate for perfect abs is sugar, wheat, alcohol and all caffeine. Once your diet if free from these kinds of foods then you can worry about exercise selection for your abs. The best exercises to get perfect abs are the ones that enable you to progress with levels of difficulty with either your bodyweight as resistance or resistance from some kind of exercise equipment.

For best results it is best to concentrate on only a few abdominal exercises in any one workout. Don’t make the mistake of spreading yourself out too thinly by doing too many exercises and only putting in half the effort.
Doing abdominal exercises may not be the quickest way to get a six-pack!

The Myths About Cardio Training & Fat Loss

I have personally done cardio training in the past under strict conditions whilst keeping my calorie intake and non-cardio training frequency consistent!
If you asked any group of people including doctors, physical therapist and most personal trainers which type of exercise is the best for burning unwanted body fat 99% would say cardiovascular training or cardio for short. Cardio training are exercises like jogging, running, bike riding, rowing and other repetitive movements you see people doing on pieces of fancy looking gym equipment. I have years of experience witnessing the lack of results people achieve doing cardio workouts for fat loss goals. I also have dozens of opinions through research and personal experience to back it up.

I have personally done cardio training in the past under strict conditions whilst keeping my calorie intake and non-cardio training frequency consistent. The cardio workouts I have tried and tested were training at 60% of my maximum heart rate, training at 80% of my maximum heart rate and interval training. All the cardio workouts lasted for at least 20 minutes. I need to emphasise that I gave each type of workout a chance by giving them ample time by doing them for months at a time rather than for weeks. I did this to see if I got any sort of response and waited to see if my body fat levels or body weight would change but it never did. In other words I spent years wasting my time and effort on different kinds of cardiovascular workouts when all I needed was strength training and quality nutrition rather than focus on calories and miles.

What does this tell you about cardio training for your goals? If someone with a calorie controlled and healthy diet exercising six times a week can’t achieve any kind of results with cardio workouts how do you think you will do?

Just to prove I was working hard enough all the cardio workouts I did always made me sweat giving me a false sense of security that something positive was happening to me. The interval training workouts were extremely challenging and always leaved me in a state of heavy and out of controlled breathing halfway through the workout till the end. But unfortunately for me I never saw any results for all the hard work I was putting in.

You have to ask yourself where the cardio myth originated and who perpetuated it. Cardio training is actually out of date science, it works to a degree in theory but when you study it carefully it is only marginally successful for weight and fat loss and for many of us can have a reverse effect on body fat levels.

Health clubs and gyms have helped to add fuel to the cardio myth for years and even decades. When you walk into any gym in the world all you will see are rows and rows of cardio training equipment neatly presented. These are there for the clubs benefit and not yours. They give an image that the gym has an answer to your goals and all you have to do is use them. If all they had were dumbbells, Swiss balls and other functional equipment on the gym floor no one would want to join the gym because they wouldn’t have a clue what to do with them. It is in the gyms best interest to encourage its members to use the cardio equipment because they are easy to use and they can spend as little time as possible on customer service. This works a treat for keeping gyms and health clubs overheads down with staffing and makes their job a lot easier. But it also has an advantage on a psychological level too, gyms know if their members spend their visit using cardio equipment they will feel like they have done something strenuous just like I used to feel after a cardio workout.

Maybe the fitness industry ended up like this because of pressure from the equipment manufacturers. The manufacturers could be behind the biggest fat loss myth in history. To name just a few different pieces of cardio kit like the treadmills, bikes and stairmaster they all have one thing in common, they all have moving parts and eventually need replacements giving the manufactures recurring revenue. The recurring revenue from barbells, weight plates and functional equipment is much more infrequent then that of cardio equipment. New and updated models of cardio equipment are released every year and the once new treadmill with the TV screen can very quickly look outdated a bit like used cars. No up and coming gym wants to show a potential member around their facilities with old-fashioned looking cardio equipment or equipment showing a lot of wear and tear. They want the latest brand new hi tech designs to give the impression they are more modern and more effective than their rivals.

I hope you can now see how this vicious circle will be hard to break and how the cardio myth gets perpetuated in the industry. In part 2 of this article I will compare the effectiveness of cardio training versus strength training for weight and fat loss goals.
I have personally done cardio training in the past under strict conditions whilst keeping my calorie intake and non-cardio training frequency consistent!

How to Tone Your Legs, Arms & Abs at Home

Learn how to exercise & make the most of what little time you have!
Time constraints used to leave me feeling I had no time for exercise. It is only natural to think in order to be fit and healthy you have to spend hours sweating it out in the gym. I discovered a way to make the most of what little time I had and designed a way to exercise intensely in a fraction of the time I used to spend in the gym.

The approach consists of just two exercises for the workout and involves exercises that train the whole body. The style of the workout forces the metabolism to speed up and depending on the resistance you use will develop as well as tone the overall body head to toe.

I start the workout with a warm up for about 5 minutes, sometimes this is fast walking, skipping, jogging on the spot or some movements with light dumbbells. As long as the body temperature is elevated it doesn’t matter how you warm up. What does matter is to remember to stretch any tight muscles before the start of the workout. The last thing you want is a muscle injury to keep you away from exercise.

The rules for the workout is to do 10-12 reps on both exercises straight after each other followed by a rest of no more than 30 seconds. The aim is to strive for as many rounds as possible in 15 minutes without breaking form and dropping below 8 reps.

With exercises using resistance the same resistance must be used on all the sets for the workout. Opt for a weight that allows you to achieve 12 reps on the first set, if you can only manage 2 or 3 rounds before dropping below 8 reps stop the workout and continue to progress the next time with a little less weight. For intermediates and advanced trainers a 10-20-rep window is an option. Whichever rep window you choose make sure you select the correct weight that allows you to perform the target reps with safe and proper technique.

Exercise #1 Squat and Curl to Overhead Press
Before you begin, a warm up set for the first exercise is recommended, this should be around 50% of the weight you will be using for all your sets. Strong individuals using heavy weights should do a staggered warm up, for example 50%, 65%, and 75% of the working weight.

Begin the starting position standing with a good posture holding the dumbbells at the sides with the palms facing the thighs. Take a deep diaphragmatic breath and initiate the squat by bending the hips and knees keeping the shoulder blades down and together. Squat down as far as you can without breaking form. Slowly rise back to the standing position breathing out slowly. When in the standing position curl the dumbbells towards the shoulders and press the dumbbells above the head turning the palms forward. Reverse the arm action until the dumbbells are by the side of your thighs. This completes one rep.

Exercise #2 Swiss Ball Hamstring Curl
Start by lying on your back on the floor with the arms at the sides with palms facing up; place the heels on top of the ball with toes pointing up. Squeeze the glutes and draw the tummy in as you bring the hips of the floor. Bend your knees to bring the heels towards the glutes and slowly return to the starting position. Don’t allow your hips to drop and maintain the level of your hips throughout the set. Also keep the toes pointing up when bending the knees.

The options to progress on this type of workout would be to either shorten the rest time in between rounds enabling you to achieve more rounds in the 15 minute window or to increase the resistance so the desired reps are more challenging to reach on every round. It is best to swap and change training principles as often as possible to keep the workout demanding. Work as hard as you can on every workout to force the body to change.
Learn how to exercise & make the most of what little time you have!

Diet Advice for Vegetarians & Why You May Struggle to Lose Weight

If you want to achieve fat loss it is essential to eat good quality protein!
Today there are many vegetarians in our society as well as other groups that eliminate meat for spiritual or ethical reasons. My awareness of the high numbers of people practising a vegetarian lifestyle or some level of vegetarianism came about from doing my job as a personal trainer. I was surprised with the different misconceptions people had about eating meat and dieting. Animal meats get bad press because of the commercial farming methods used; this is a shame because this gives all animal meats a bad name. Some people are happy to follow misconceptions and myths without backing it up through research to confirm if their motives are safe, healthy or just plain necessary. This article is for people who live a vegetarian lifestyle but who isn’t vegetarian.

If you want to achieve fat loss it is essential to eat good quality protein, but protein isn’t just protein. You have what’s classed as complete and incomplete proteins that are found in different foods. The complete proteins have all the essential amino acids and the incomplete proteins have some missing or not enough to be classed a complete protein. Complete proteins can be found in animal foods including meat, poultry, seafood, eggs and dairy. It is these complete protein foods that provide all the 8 essential amino acids. Very briefly, amino acids are the building blocks of the body and a necessary part of every cell in the body and vital for health. Specific amino acids have been linked to greater fat loss and known to correct brain chemistry deficiencies for food cravings and depression.

If you don’t consume complete protein foods such as animal foods it is very important to combine different types of plant foods to make up a complete protein to ensure you get all the essential amino acids in your diet. Anything termed essential in the diet means that it is necessary for proper functioning. As a matter of interest the other food group that is termed essential is fat, there are essential fatty acids that must be acquired in the diet or serious health problems can occur. It is handy to note that carbohydrates aren’t classed as essential but protein and good fats are.

This is where it can get difficult to lose weight and fat for the person on a vegetarian diet. In my opinion the drawback to relying on food combing to get all the essential amino acids is that insulin resistant people would find it hard losing weight with combining different carbohydrates. What you have is a diet made up of mainly carbohydrates with little first class protein and essential fat to stabilise blood sugar levels. The reason why many vegetarians can become addicted to sweets is because of their poor blood sugar management following a high carbohydrate diet. Not an ideal habit to have if you want to lose fat and drop the pounds in a hurry.

In summary it is essential to eat good quality protein everyday that provides you with all the essential amino acids for optimal health. If you decide to combine different plant foods otherwise known as carbohydrates then you need to realise these foods have an insulin provoking effect that can lead to fat storage. On the other hand if you choose to eat animal protein make sure it is organic and free range. Eating organic meats makes a massive difference to the state of your health because you are eliminating the pesticides and drugs conventional meats contain, organic meats also have more nutrients and are easier for the body to assimilate. Consider this, commercially raised cattle are one of the unhealthiest animals on the planet.
If you want to achieve fat loss it is essential to eat good quality protein!

The Carbohydrates To Avoid if You Want Six Pack Abs

There are two main problems concerning carbohydrates you should know about if you want fat loss results!
Believe it or not, the body has no physiological need for a carbohydrate unlike it has for protein and fat. Despite this fact most of the population overeats these types of calories everyday because they are easily available and more convenient than healthy alternatives. This daily habit contributes to an increased waistline and poor health. The drawback to the convenience food culture is the likelihood that the calories will be highly processed. Processed foods usually contain bad fats and artificial ingredients with loads of sugar.

There are two main problems concerning carbohydrates. The first problem is that most peoples total daily calorie intake comes from eating carbohydrates with hardly any protein and good fats in the diet. The second concern is that the bulk of these commonly consumed carbohydrates will almost be guaranteed to be processed and full of artificial sweeteners instead of natural carbohydrates found in vegetables and fruit.

Common foods that contain carbohydrates:
Breakfast cereals
Bread
Biscuits
Noodles
Pasta
Spaghetti
Jellies & jams
Ice cream
Cakes
Pies
Confectionary
Gravies & sauces
Beer
Wines
Fizzy drinks
Sugar

The quicker you learn which foods are carbohydrates and understand the impact they can have on insulin the quicker you will achieve fat loss with six pack abs and better health. If high levels of insulin are raised frequently and for long enough it contributes to diabetes, heart disease and aging.

The reasons why carbohydrates can be bad for fat loss
When we consume food & drink our blood sugar rises and insulin is released to bring it back down to a normal range. This is done by pumping the sugar out of the blood and into the cells to be used for energy or stored for later. Fat has no impact on insulin and protein very little; carbohydrates have the greatest reaction on insulin release. When we eat any kind of carbohydrates they are converted into sugar in the body, the more carbohydrates eaten equals more blood sugar, which in turn means more insulin needed to pump the sugar out of the blood and into the cells.

Insulin is a storage hormone and if you don’t eat the right balance of foods at each meal you get a repetitive cycle of insulin release and fat storage. Eating carbohydrates by themselves will make the fat storing sequence worse. With this going on every mealtime other hormones (fat burning hormones) are inhibited and prevent you from losing fat and weight.

It doesn’t stop there; excess carbohydrates are not only bad for your waistline but bad for your health too. The more insulin released more bad cholesterol is produced. Insulin is the only hormone you can control and this is done with good eating habits.

Excessive insulin has got extensive research linking it to numerous diseases. Choose your carbohydrates wisely in future and always eat good quality protein and good fats with your meals. You will see fat melt from your abdominal area in no time.
There are two main problems concerning carbohydrates you should know about if you want fat loss results!

How to Start Your Own Weight Loss Club with Cash Prize Incentives

Lose more weight without paying Weight Watchers or Slimming World!
Weight loss clubs can be intrusive for a lot of people or just plain boring. Below are two examples on how to start your own weight loss club; one is for discreet dieters and the other for more outgoing people.

Option #1 – If You Don’t Like Weight Loss Clubs Find A Support Partner

If you don’t want strangers to know you are on a diet then it is wise not to join a slimming club. It is also a good idea not to surround yourself with negative people that offer no support to you or your goals whether if it’s at work or socially. The most practical way to help you to commit to a diet is to go on a diet with a friend so you can give each other support. But if you can’t find anyone who wants to join you I would recommend seeking a support partner in either your closest friend or partner. The support can be set at different levels depending on how much you require. For example, you could write down goals to give to your support partner for them to monitor your progress and make sure you achieve your goals. You could make it as formal as you like by arranging days and times to meet and review your food diary and plan the days or weeks ahead. This would make your diet serious but fun by making it feel like you have your own personal coach at hand to motivate you and help you with any problems you may be facing. Your support partner could also provide you with meal ideas and even take your body measurements to track your progress.

Option #2 – Your Very Own Weight Loss Club With Cash Prize Incentives

Here is a great way to make losing weight fun and competitive. The more people that join the more fun you will have. I will take you through each step on how to set up a biggest loser club and contest.

1. Set a membership fee of how much each member pays each week. This is for the prize money awarded to the biggest loser at the end of the contest.

2. Set the time frame.

Tip: This could be a yearly contest with the big cash prize at the end of the year. The winner is the person who has lost the most body weight and cm/millimetres from the hips, bum, waist, chest, thighs and arms. However you could also have a monthly prize for the biggest loser of the month. The club treasurer could buy grocery vouchers for each monthly prize to help the dieter stay on track rather than award cash.

3. Everyone gets a support partner.

Tip: Put everyone’s name in a hat for each person to pick out a name, whoever’s name they draw out is their support partner throughout the contest.

4. The role of a support partner is to motivate the other person and take measurements. Before and after photographs are optional, these could come in useful later on.

5. Have a recipe pool where everyone has to contribute at least one healthy recipe a month so others can benefit.

Tip: If you are doing this at work this could be on the notice board.

6. Arrange group meetings at least once a month.

Tip: You could arrange for a personal trainer or nutritionist to visit for a Q&A session.

7. When the contest closing date is in sight invite the local press to cover the story and publish a photograph of the winner.

Tip: This is where a before photograph comes in handy. Having the story in the press will give your workplace free publicity and the winner public recognition.

Don’t forget the more people that join your biggest loser contest the more prize money up for grabs.

Lose more weight without paying Weight Watchers or Slimming World!

The Two Biggest Dieting Mistakes

Most people make these common mistakes when they want a flat stomach!
Just spent a week reading about the latest diet crazes where they all recommend cutting calories or fasting. So I decided to join a slimming club where I saw different people that seemed to be wasting their time and effort. They were allowed to continue to eat certain junk food. This sounded appealing at first but the members of the slimming club didn’t look the way I aspired to look like so I was left confused and worried.

And that's really sad. After all, almost everyone goes on a diet to get a flat stomach, but almost everyone never achieves his or her goals!

In fact, most people make the same common mistakes.

Mistake #1 - Routinely getting weighed

The biggest mistakes a dieter can make is setting their minds to reaching a number on the weighing scales every week or in some crazy cases every day! This repetitive behaviour is heavy on the mind making the participant feel incarcerated. It’s common for them to just focus on numbers without considering health & fitness or the quality of the food they are eating. This behaviour leads to frustration and unnecessary pressure.

Tip: The above system is nothing more than a marketing tool to help sell a diet; it has no benefit whatsoever. Getting weighed regularly doesn’t tell you if you are losing fat or which area of the body is changing shape. The best way to measure progress is using the mirror and/or to take tape measurements around the bum, hips, thigh, waist, chest and arms.

Mistake #2 - Counting calories

Ha! I wish it were as easy as just that. Eating X amount of calories will make you look like so and so. If this was true how come over 90% of dieters never achieve permanent results on calorie controlled diets? I will tell you why, it is because the quality of calories and which food groups these calories come from are missing from the picture. The most valuable piece of information a dieter needs always seems to be conveniently missing so not to upset the recurring revenue stream.

Tip: A basic understanding of food groups needs to be learned for best results, don’t worry because it is simple and quick to learn. There are 3 main food groups, Carbohydrates, Protein and Fat. Once you learn which type of foods comes from each food group it is easy to lose weight and fat. This is because you can begin to use ratios for your meals. The benefits of ratios are to monitor the amounts of carbohydrates you need versus protein to lose weight and fat. Calorie controlled diets fail to recognise this important step, that is why you see overweight people unable to lose weight and fat on low calorie diets.
Most people make these common mistakes when they want a flat stomach!

HOW TO BE A BODY TRANSFORMATION WINNER

Are you playing Russian roulette at the gym?
All different kinds of success and achievements are born out of a goal. Goals are behind the worlds leading business tycoons and winning sports teams, and without a goal you are playing Russian roulette with your fat loss efforts. Success stories that happen by chance are few and far between. Every one of us needs a plan and needs to follow directions in order to get to where we want to go. This is regardless of whether the goal is for fat loss or other personal reasons.

The best fat loss transformations of the year don’t become slim and lean by accident. It starts with a goal. There’s no doubt that this sounds overwhelming at first to the overweight and out of shape person, but by breaking down the desire to become slim into little achievable goals it is easier to achieve each little step one at a time until the goal is achieved.

All it takes is a goal, not having a goal is one of the biggest mistakes anyone can make when embarking on any kind of diet. You have to be specific in order to get the best value from your time and effort. There has to be a reason for wanting to get in shape and change, the reason is your number one motivational tool that you can continuously refer to and remind yourself where you want to end up. By writing it down you can carry it around with you and use it to your advantage when the going gets tough.

Think about it for a few moments, what do you really want? A six-pack? Better health? Lose overall weight? Look great naked? Lose flabby body fat? Get rid of man boobs? Look younger? Feel fitter? Look more attractive? Feel confident? Live longer?

Whatever you want to achieve and change write it down and don’t forget to state the reasons why you want it. This is a powerful tool that can help you more than you realise. Once you have a goal in front of you all you will need to do is plan the steps required to reach it. Keep the steps as simple as possible or you will be more likely to fail. Remember you don’t need luck on your side because you are in control of what you want and what you get.
Are you playing Russian roulette at the gym?

Exercise Tips for Fat Loss

Some of my favourite training tips guaranteed to carve you a better body with less body fat in less time!
Just because you regularly clock in at the gym doesn’t mean you are on the road to fast fat loss results. Marathon type workouts and going at it half-heartedly isn’t the way to train to look your best in the shortest amount of time.

It is time to stop guessing and livings in hope of miraculously waking up with a perfect body because it doesn’t work like that. What follows are brief excerpts of some of my favourite training tips guaranteed to carve you a better body with less body fat in less than a fraction of the time you currently spend.

Before embarking on regular exercise it is important to assess which muscles are tight and need stretching. The reason for this is because a tight muscle could compromise the technique of an exercise and over compensates other parts of the body causing overuse problems. Learning proper stretching techniques and investing time in holding the stretches in the areas you can feel stretch when you perform them will benefit your posture and help prevent injuries.

When you exercise you need to train intense but smart. This means training within your capabilities that allows a minimum of a good technique on everything you do. This mainly points to lifting a weight that is too heavy for you. Doing only part of the range of a movement or trying to force more reps than you can manage safely will probably result in quick and poorly performed repetitions. Properly performed reps are real reps; they are more demanding and achieve greater results. Poorly performed reps will take the stress away from the body part making it easier but less effective.

Exercise selection is important if you want fat loss too. Big movements are essential. The multi joint exercises works more muscles and burns more calories, whether if you want to body build, tone or reduce fat the big exercises will get you there quicker. Performed correctly they will also have the best carry over effect to functional ability to help you in work, sports and day to day tasks.

Think of exercises a bit like your diet, the more variety the better. I once learnt in a lecture that an average person eats no more than 12 different kinds of food in a typical week. Do you do the same with exercise selection by doing the same exercises week in and week out? If so, then it is time to shock your system. Train to achieve a response from your workout with the method of rotating your exercises frequently. Keep in mind there are many alternatives to the standard exercises; although you are basically doing the same movement you can change the response by using different tools and methods. You also have less chance of suffering from ‘overuse injuries’ if you regularly rotate your exercises.

To get the best results you will need to move quick between exercises without rushing the reps. The next time you are in the gym take a look around; chances are there are people lifting more weight than they are capable of lifting which will mean poorly performed fast sets of exercises. Now take a note of how long people rest in-between sets, I can bet you that the average time is a few minutes before doing the next set. It surprises me how many people on weight loss and toning programmes do this, they are resting far too long. They are taking the same amount of rest needed to achieve a 3-5-rep max. Decrease the rest time between sets for more intensity in the workout, it is normally the first variable I introduce in a programme to increase the overall intensity.

If you can’t make it to the gym don’t worry because you can achieve fat loss without any gym equipment. Have you noticed the physiques of gymnasts? You will never see overweight or out of shape gymnast, that’s because training against gravity is one of the best things you can do to look your best. The feedback I get from clients after doing bodyweight exercises is always that they are surprised how hard they are and how much effort is needed to perform them. Make sure to include gravity-based body weight exercises in your fat loss workout.
Some of my favourite training tips guaranteed to carve you a better body with less body fat in less time!

Diet Advice for A Lean Six Pack

Nutrients from natural food always take a back seat with the recommendations you see in some magazines!
There’s a fine line between dieting for weight loss and building a good physique. Some bodybuilders have reverse anorexia and will compromise the quality of food just to get their desired daily calorie intake in the hope it will pack on the muscle. It’s not that easy and is one of the many misconceptions that dominate the thinking of a typical bodybuilder, especially the beginner bodybuilder.

Calories are not just calories; there are bad calories and good calories and even the good calories need to be properly balanced for best results. The same diet can have an effect on different people in different ways. Each and every one of us is unique in the ability to digest and assimilate nutrients; our individual genetic make up determines this.

Bodybuilding magazines are guilty of publishing diets with the inclusion of food supplements for building muscle and stripping the fat. Sometimes you have to look hard to see food on the list because there are so many recommended shakes and tablets for this and that. Nutrients from natural food always take a back seat with the recommendations you see in these mainstream magazines.

The bodybuilding-publishing world gets the reader to believe that certain supplements are essential and the most important aspect of a bodybuilder’s daily nutritional intake. These days there are food supplements crafted to any goal. It’s not hard to realise there is a hidden agenda to these magazines; they are all trying to sell something. If the magazine isn’t financially connected to the food supplement company that it recommends you could bet they need the advertising revenue from them to stay afloat.

The quality of nutrition will determine the speed of progress and the amount of results you achieve with bodybuilding. Lifting weights doesn’t and can’t turn a bad food into a good food. It’s impossible to reverse the effects of a bad diet with exercise. It is also impossible to cancel out the bad effects from poor nutrition by using food supplements.

Food supplements are designed to supplement the diet and not take over it. A few of the top brands can be beneficial for convenience and nothing much more. A closer look at these supplements and you would find a list of cheap processed ingredients mixed with artificial sweeteners. My recommendation is no more than 10% of your daily diet should be from food supplements. Food from organic and free-range sources is far more superior then powdered and tablet concoctions.
Nutrients from natural food always take a back seat with the recommendations you see in some magazines!

Eat & Move Like A Caveman

Eat natural & become slim - push, pull, bend, squat, lunge & twist to burn fat!
Have you seen the film Castaway starring Tom Hanks? This isn’t a film review but rather a review of how we live our lives today compared to our primitive ancestors. On the film Castaway the character played by Tom Hanks ends up stranded on a remote island for four years, having no choice but to fend for himself for survival just like a Stone Age man.

He didn’t sit around all day waiting to get fat, he was forced into doing exercise by needing to hunt for food for survival. There was no processed food, no soft drinks or limitless calories on hand. He was forced to work his body the way it was designed to by pulling, pushing, bending, twisting, squatting, lunging, throwing and even climbing his way through a typical day so he could hunt food and eat to stay alive.

This tells us a few things about our modern day existence.

1. We don’t need to do any form of exercise in order to make it through a typical day.

2. We have unlimited supplies of calories at our disposal without needing to exert our bodies for them.

3. The food choices we have are not all from nature.

4. The most convenient foods we eat today and over consume are man made. These contain added artificial concoctions, which are almost impossible to pronounce.

Compared to our ancestors we move less, eat more, have higher stress levels and eat poorer quality foods. The majority of us do very little exercise daily, sedentary lifestyles take over our day to day existence leaving our bodies under worked and over fed with the wrong fuels. Put all this together and you have an obesity problem.

Taking a leaf out of a castaway like Tom Hanks would dramatically reduce body fat in no time at all. Doing a little daily exercise and eating natural food is the quickest way to a six-pack and reduced fat on the body. But above all it is a healthier way to live your life.
Eat natural & become slim - push, pull, bend, squat, lunge & twist to burn fat!

Want Fat Loss Results? The Questions You Need to Answer

The guidelines for successful fat loss are all free!
Ever wondered why diets never seem to work for permanent results? Have you tried and failed to lose weight or shift stubborn body fat in the past by counting calories, weighing food, eliminating food groups and exercising like mad? I recommend the first and one of the most important actions to take to fight the fat is to set goals and ask yourself the reasons why you want fat loss.
If you want guaranteed results in a speedy fashion you need to know which direction to take and avoid making the same mistakes other dieters make by not setting clear goals. After all you wouldn’t dream of going on a road trip to a brand new destination without turning on the Sat Nav in your vehicle would you? So why should it be different when embarking on a body transformation journey?

These are the main questions you need to ask yourself in order to succeed.

1. What Do You Want To Look Like? Write this down; describe everything in the finest detail and compare it to where you are now, don’t forget to describe your feelings now and how you will feel like once you reach your goal. Once you write down the changes you would like to see it is easier for the mind to accept and become comfortable with in order to make the steps to make it happen. I believe if you do this you will be using a very powerful psychological leap forward and according to my research is a routine almost all self-made millionaires and successful people have used.

2. What Time Frame Do You Want This To Happen? Be realistic but don’t be too conservative, a bit of pressure is good. If you fail to set a time on your goal you are less likely to accomplish what you set out to achieve because you haven’t any need to rush which could make you lazy. Never throw away the chance of an extra motivational tool. Weeks and months up to a wedding, birthday or holiday are all great targets to aim for.

3. Who Are You Doing This For and Why? Is it for your health & happiness, family/partner or for your career? Once you find the trigger point you have another motivational tool. There is no better motivation for doing something than to do it to impress someone you care about. But the bottom line is if you don’t want fat loss for yourself then you are not ready to take the steps needed to succeed. You must genuinely want it enough to take the action required.

The above guidelines for successful fat loss are all free. They are overlooked by the quick fix culture but very powerful when used and applied to your goals.
The guidelines for successful fat loss are all free!

How to Train to Look Lean & Strong

Combining circuit workouts with bodybuilding workouts for fat loss & shape!
I thought I’d write a quick article about the workouts I’ve been doing lately. I have got some awesome results training in the circuit style with a few modifications to suit my goals.

Three and a half weeks in and I had gained six pounds with a noticeable difference to my physique. The six pounds have come from increased muscle tone and not body fat. I have to tell you these workouts are aerobically tough and challenging for me.

These are the guidelines I’ve been following:

I rest 30 seconds between exercises and 120 seconds between rounds.

I keep the reps between 8 and 12, dropping no lower than 6 on the last round. I’ve been keeping the weight the same for all the rounds so I don’t lose technique and this also helps me keep the reps in the bracket I want. I always perform a warm up round with lighter weights prior to beginning the main workout.

I do 3 workouts per week and change the workouts after 3 weeks.

These are some of the workouts I did for the first 3 weeks:

Monday:
Rack Chest Press
Weighted Pull Ups
Weighted Dips
One Arm Cable Row (in a lunge position)
Dumbbell Squats

Wednesday:
Deadlift
Incline Dumbbell Chest Press
Wide Chin Ups
Split Squats with Dumbbells
EZ Bent Over Row

Friday: (2 smaller circuits)
Squats
One Arm Dumbbell Row
One Arm Standing Dumbbell Press

Calf Raises
EZ Reverse Curl
Rope Pushdowns (single arm) – I keep the movement at the side of my body doing it this way instead of in front. With this second circuit I don’t rest 120 seconds before repeating- I get straight in to it.

Week 4 to 6 went like this:
Monday: (5 rounds) – I increase weight on this workout as I go along.
Deadlift
Weighted Dips
Weighted Pull Ups – I keep the reps at around 5 on this exercise only

Wednesday: (2 smaller circuits - 3 rounds on each) – I keep the weight the same and reps 8-12. When I get 3 rounds of 12 - I can increase the weight.
Squats
Flat Dumbbell Chest Press
Wide Pull Ups

Shoulder L Raise
Arnold Press
Upright Row

Friday: (2 smaller circuits - 3 rounds on each)
Romanian Deadlift - into a Shrug and Calf Raise at top of the movement
Lunges
Leg Curl

Incline Chest Fly
Swiss Ball Preacher Curl
Decline Dumbbell Triceps Extension

I’ve started doing 2 circuit workouts a week now i.e. Monday & Wednesday. On Friday’s I do an isolation workout that involves single joint exercises. I do this in a non-competing superset fashion in the 8-12 rep bracket with 30-60 seconds rest between the two. I feel that this type of workout focuses more on feeling the movement and squeezing the contraction more than the circuit workouts. I limit the exercises to single joint movements only and choose the areas I feel get missed with the circuits. Combining the two types of workouts is proving to be a winning formula for achieving results.
Combining circuit workouts with bodybuilding workouts for fat loss & shape!

How to Win the Battle of the Fat

The best tips & answers almost all dieters want to know!
It’s never too late to get in shape and zap the fat away.

What follows are some of the best tips to help get in shape.

Do you drink enough water?
Water is your daily detox Doctor. Aim to drink mineral water daily, in-between meals at room temperature is the best way in my opinion. This will help improve overall health. Always start your day with 2-3 glasses of water. Try and have 2 glasses of water 20 minutes before each meal. Generally most people do best on between 2-3 litres a day.

It is important to point out that it is better to listen to your body to tell you how much you need rather than follow someone else’s advice. There is no magic number but too little will likely be detrimental to fat loss goals and maintaining good health.

Do you eat carbohydrates by themselves?
Just think how common and easy it is to eat carbohydrates by themselves. Vending machine snacks, sandwiches and fruit are readily available and overly consumed in today’s fast paced world. They are all carbohydrate rich foods and don’t contain anywhere near enough protein for most people to keep their blood sugar levels balanced afterwards.

Poor blood sugar management is the culprit for fat gain and it also speeds up the aging process.

Are you overloading on gluten?
Wheat and foods containing gluten can be very hard to digest and intolerance to this can cause gut inflammation as well as other allergy troubles.

Try eliminating gluten for 30 days to see what difference it makes to the way you feel and look.

Avoid sugar
Avoid sugar especially artificial sweeteners found in processed foods and drinks, always check the labels. Eating sugar creates a never-ending roller coaster ride for hormones such as insulin and cortisol, both fat storing hormones.

To help wean off sugar try natural alternatives like stevia, a natural herb you can find in health food shops.

Are you drinking yourself fat?
Drinking alcohol has some of the same traits has eating sugar, it is rapidly absorbed and effects blood sugar levels. You are drinking empty calories that have no nutritional benefit whatsoever to your body, and if consumed near meal times can serve as a blocking agent to certain vitamins and minerals.

If you want the best results and quick then you must stay away from alcohol. Otherwise eat fat and protein with alcohol to slow down the absorption and balance the ratio of carbohydrates (the alcohol) to proteins and fats.
The best tips & answers almost all dieters want to know!

The Reason Why You May Be Fat – Is Your Lifestyle To Blame?

Do you want to look healthy and be fat free?
Let me give you an example of a typical day of a busy person and the unhealthy habits that go hand in hand.

A typical day for most people begins with a stampede to make sure they get to work on time; this is normally after failing to wake up after hitting the snooze button multiple times. If there is enough time, they may grab a quick coffee whilst rushing to get ready for work. There’s no time to have anything else because the extra time is needed for the rush hour traffic ahead.

Constant deadlines at work prevent eating before lunchtime, which probably at best would be a sandwich from the shop. This would likely be a highly processed sandwich full of additives and preservatives and followed by a packet of crisps or a chocolate bar. Everything needed to create an insulin response and kick-start a natural cycle to store the calories into the fat cells right under the belt line.

The day passes slowly with drink after drink of coffee to prevent drowsiness and to help keep alert. That unknowingly masks the hunger from the nutritionally deficient diet. By mid-afternoon when the eyes are heavy and the stomach is rumbling a trip over to the vending machine to grab a sugar laden quick snack is on the cards. This is only inevitable because a ‘pick me up’ is needed. The options are not good; everyone knows you can’t get anything fresh or healthy inside a vending machine no matter what it says on the packet. This type of snack will help keep them ticking over until the evening when a massive meal awaits them.

Without a doubt this will be washed down with a reward or two of a glass of wine in recognition of the stressful day behind them. By this time it will be bedtime to repeat it all over again tomorrow.

Does this sound familiar? Rushing around stressed all day shovelling processed food down your neck whenever you get a minute and finishing the day with a bottle of your favourite wine to help release some tension?

This isn’t the most favourable way to live especially if you want to look healthy and be fat free. This is just one example I would call a poor quality lifestyle with a poor body to show for it. Do you really expect to look, feel and do your best when living and eating like this? I could go on and on with similar examples but this one is typical of many in today’s society and is one of the reasons there is a fat epidemic.
Do you want to look healthy and be fat free?

Do You Have Food Intolerance? Eat Too Many Bad Calories? Eat Too Soon After A Meal? Fail To Balance Protein & Carbs?

You can eat a diet full of mainstream healthy foods and still get fat!
My ethos is this, if you are not getting any results with your diet you drastically need to change something quick.

From the many years trying to get the look I wanted I overlooked my eating habits, this doesn’t mean to say I didn’t know what good foods were and ate unhealthily. The opposite was true. The problem I had was that I didn’t know how to eat for my body. I ignored the way I responded to the foods I was eating. After a long battle with my fat levels it finally dawned on me that the type of foods and how I was eating them played the major role in acquiring a toned fat free physique.

You can eat a diet full of mainstream healthy foods and still get fat. This can be down to:

Food intolerance
This leads to poor digestion and bloating. Grains, dairy and processed foods to name a few can be responsible for this.

Too many calories
Over eating is particularly bad for your fat levels if you eat infrequent meals and the wrong kind of calories.

Not balancing the ratio between the carbohydrates and protein
This habit provokes the fat storing mechanism and will keep you piling on the pounds regardless of your energy expenditure.

Eating nutritionally poor foods
If you eat processed food your body doesn’t get the nutrients from the food you eat therefore you will keep eating until you are satisfied because your body is looking for the nutrients.

Eating too soon after a meal
Not allowing ample time between meals is one way to stress the digestive system, good digestion is essential for fat loss.

My research took me to a place I would never have dreamed. The wholemeal bread, milk, low fat foods, anything processed, wheat and all the carbohydrates eaten without protein had to stop. These foods were causing havoc with my hormones and contributing to fat storage and poor digestion.

I didn’t change everything overnight because if I am completely honest I was a little sceptical. The information I was researching was new to me, so I decided to change a little at a time and couldn’t believe the response that followed.

I quickly developed more energy, tighter looking skin and a lot less overall body fat. I soon acquired the taste for other foods I hadn’t eaten for years and the variety of foods I included in a typical week sharply began to rise. This made me enthusiastic about eating and got rid of any fear I once held about certain foods.
You can eat a diet full of mainstream healthy foods and still get fat!

The Truth About AB Exercises

Tips about your favourite six-pack exercises!
Exercise can be misleading to say the least, different kinds of exercises can have a different effect from one person to the next. One of the most common believes is that sit-ups or crunches will give you a six-pack because you are targeting the necessary muscles.

Take the religious gym user for instance; they do a six-pack workout regularly in the hope of reaching body transformation glory. Only to discover a few months or even years later they have made very little change in the abdominal area for all the time, sweat and sacrifice they have endured.

On the other hand some people of the same nature will look fantastic and their abs will compliment the time invested. This scenario translates to all types of exercises and workout routines.

Lets attempt to clear up why this happens. For starters people have different body shapes when they begin on any given exercise routine. Some may be a few pounds over weight and some by a few stone. This is one of many reasons why some people progress quicker than others.

Breaking this down further, some people may look the same shape but could have totally different body compositions. In other words you could have the same size clothes as your friend but have a greater percent of body fat and fat in more stubborn to shift areas on your body. It is even possible to weigh the same as your friend and still have a different body shape. The point I am trying to make is what seems like the same sometimes isn’t. It isn’t as clear-cut as we would like to think it is.

Other considerations to why some people achieve results quicker than others are to do with the levels of commitment to exercising. The perception of effort and intensity may differ from person to person giving some people a false sense of achievement with what they are doing. If you aren’t pushing yourself hard enough then you will probably never change your body shape with exercise. Contrary to that doing too much can be counter-productive to your goals.

Finally the most important piece of the puzzle is paying too much attention to the exercise regime and not enough to the diet. How many times do people rush in to a six-pack workout routine and neglect their diets? Wishing exercise will cancel out a poor diet is a disappointing experiment. Exercising on a whim and stuffing the face with the wrong foods for fat loss is something that will never work no matter how long or hard you exercise.
Tips about your favourite six-pack exercises!

Advice About Losing Weight & Toning Up

Are you tired of the diet and exercise thing?
Do you have a history of yoyo dieting and putting weight on easily? Unable to lose stubborn body fat? Does the diet and exercise thing haunt you and are you tired of it? I have observed peoples diet weaknesses and compiled a few tips to help you with issues and hard times.

Fuel the body with natural dense foods
Banish the cocktail of processed foods from your diet and begin to reap the benefits of real foods. Real foods are foods you find in the ground or on the tress, swim in the ocean or run in the wild. Real foods are heaving with natural goodness that your body needs for optimal health. No amount of processed foods in your diet dressed in synthetic vitamins is ever going to replace what you can get from nature. Once you replace all your processed foods with natural foods you will begin to unlock one of the first pathways to automatic fat loss.

Burn fat with weights
Muscle tissue is metabolically active, for every pound of muscle you add to your body you will burn an additional 50 calories. Don’t make the mistake of thinking low calorie diets and loads of cardiovascular exercise will help you drop weight or fat. It will make your situation worse in the long term because you risk losing calorie hungry muscle tissue. It isn’t possible to build muscle tissue with the type of cardiovascular exercises health clubs have made popular. Training with resistance is very important for your success and needs to be the priority in your exercise regime.

Forget calories, think nutrients
Your body only knows nutrients contrary to what you may believe. If you eat a slice of cake your body doesn’t scream oh no here comes 500 calories, then says to itself, not to worry because if I only get fed another 500 calories today everything will be all right. If this were the case there would be a lot more thin people especially those who live on low calorie diets. Listen very carefully to what I am spelling out here, calories in versus calories out is out of date science. It looks like the right thing on paper but in reality it doesn’t work.

Your body sees foods as chemicals and nothing more. If you get the balance wrong with processed foods or too many carbohydrates, proteins or fats then everything changes.

Before you know it the nutrients don’t get to where your body needs them and hormones are released to cope with the biological stress. This leads to muscle loss and a slow metabolism ending with you piling on the pounds.
Are you tired of the diet and exercise thing?

The Best Exercises and Tips to Lose Muffin Tops and Love Handles

There are some abdominal exercises that work better than others!
Muffin tops is a slang word to describe the overhanging flesh over waistbands. The unsightly look has become more noticeable in recent years due to fashions and the increase in obesity levels. The biggest part to losing the muffin top look and reducing the size of your love handles is the diet. If you make the right changes to your diet it will speed up fat loss and shrink the muffin top quicker than any stand-alone exercise.

When exercising, in order to drop body fat and change the shape of your midsection the best types of exercises are those that involve using as many muscles at once as possible. If you are unfamiliar with exercises there are different types of exercises, some work just one muscle group at once (isolation exercises) and others work multiple muscle groups. If you are moving just one joint in an exercise it is most likely going to be an isolation exercise.

You may be wondering why exercising using all of your body at once is going to work at reducing your muffin top. The more muscle groups involved in an exercise the greater the calorie demand. This has a knock on effect to speeding up your metabolism. That means after you have finished your exercises you will be burning more calories at rest.

Once you begin to reduce fat from around the waist there are some abdominal exercises that work better than others for toning the sides of the waist. These exercise involve you bending sideways. The muscles beneath the love handles are responsible for bending the body sideways. With this information in mind it is important to note that the popular abdominal exercises where you crunch your body forwards and back again will do very little to tone the muscles on the side of your waist.
There are some abdominal exercises that work better than others!

Fat Loss Blueprint for Desperate Dieters

Here’s how I do it and countless others who have achieved amazing results!
I have thousands of hours experience witnessing what works and what doesn’t work with different kinds of diets. Those who achieve the best results all have the same things in common and take action.

The top dieters have a clear idea of what they want. This ranges from the way they want to look like to how they want to feel once they have achieved their goal.

The most successful dieters decide how many weeks/months they want to achieve their goal in and set their minds to achieving it.

The dieters that get the quickest results know the exact reasons why they want to achieve their goal and then use the reasons to motivate themselves.

The dieters who seem to effortlessly lose fat are all familiar with the obstacles that could potentially stop them from achieving their goal and set about avoiding them at all costs.

You need to have substance, clarity and a clear-cut plan of action towards your goal. No one is going to get out of this world results plodding along at their own pace without any direction.

Here’s how I do it and countless others who have achieved amazing results in the shortest possible time. If you are not seeing results after 10 days then you need to change something. In my opinion if you don’t feel or look any different after following a certain approach for 10 days then you must be doing something wrong or not trying hard enough.

Divide your timescale into 10-day cycles and assess your speed of progress every 10 days. The more you do this the more you will become in tune with what works for your body and what works against it. You eventually end up with your very own blueprint for fat loss.
Here’s how I do it and countless others who have achieved amazing results!