Are you having trouble losing belly fat? You probably often say to yourself that you have tried every fat loss method out there to get rid of belly fat. That fat still seems to stay there… doesn’t it?

You also probably end up coming across a lot commercials and TV ads that make all sorts of claims that you can get rid of stomach fat in just a few days with their special pills, and other supplements. Oh and I won’t forget to mention those gadgets that you strap to you your stomach, and all the sudden your tummy turns into this all star abdominal physique, I will also not forget to mention the ab rollers.

Hopefully after you are done reading this article you will see that these magical things that these companies have come out with are a complete insult. You cannot lose weight and have a toned body overnight, nor in a few days. That’s just the truth. There is no magic pill.

The only pill that I know of that has made people lose weight is amphetamines. Do you really want to be putting amphetamines in your body? Ugh I don’t think so. When people do consume these they eventually stop taking them, and then go back to their old habits and become even fatter.

So lets navigate away from all these scam products, and get to scientifically proven ways of getting rid of stubborn belly fat for life.

1.) The first thing we are going to talk about is how you manage your workouts. To get rid of stubborn belly fat, you need to stop wasting your time and effort doing exercises that are focused on the stomach. Crunches, sit-ups, leg lifts etc… are all a waste of time.

You do not lose stomach fat by doing workouts or exercises that target your stomach area. That is the truth. Most people know this, and they still end up focusing on their stomach area.

Now… I am not saying to fore go all of these things. In fact these abdominal workouts can strengthen the core of your stomach. However they should only be a small part of your workout routines. You need to spend more of your time focusing on workouts that work the larger muscle groups of the body, such as the legs, back, and chest.

Are you really interested in getting rid of your tummy fat? Well you need to start doing what I am about to tell you NOW. Get yourself a barbell and start doing squats, dead lifts, step-ups, and some chest and back exercises. Also when doing this, keep the rest periods to a minimum. This means no more five minute resting periods between sets.

Getting rid of your stubborn stomach fat requires you to focus your intensity on your exercises. The people that tell you that you can just sit down and watch the television, while wearing some ab belt, or popping some pill are straight up lying to you.

2.) The second thing we are going to talk about is how that belly flab you have revolves around your nutrition. Diets only work against you, if you keep following all these trendy low carb diets, you are losing certain nutrients that you are going to need, such as proteins, carbs, and fat.

You know what is healthy for you. Humans were meant to eat a variety of all types of foods. As long as you are not filling yourself with junk food all the time, you are still able to get rid of your belly fat by using what we talked about before.

Only a small amount of people are aware that lifting weight is one of the best exercises to lose body fat and even a smaller amount of people are aware how to do it right. Weight training increases your lean body mass and this speeds up your metabolic rate. Your basal metabolic rate increases with other words you burn more calories at rest. This is the beauty of weight lifting for fat loss you burn the most calories after the workout. In this I don’t give you a list of weight lifting exercises. You get a much better deal I show you how to lift weights in such a matter that you see maximal results.

First of all let me tell you that lifting weight is not the answer to lose fat properly, you think it is cardio, you are also wrong. What you need is a combination of these two. Lifting weight and doing cardio together with a solid nutrition plan are the answers for maximum fat loss without muscle loss. This is by far the best method to lose fat permanent and save. Most people don’t do this because it takes time and self discipline to achieve the results.The duration of the best weight lifting exercise is about forty-five minutes.

Don’t try to train with weight longer than one hour if you train to long you will ee the opposite result. If you train to long you will increase your level of cortisol and that is catabolic hormone that breaks down muscle.As said before even the best weight lifting workout won’t get result without cardio. The question is should I lift weight first or should I start with a cardiovascular exercise. If your time schedule allows it split your routines into separate sessions. Split testing your routines minimizes the risk of overtraining Perhaps it is not possible to split your routines then do your cardio immediately after your weight training.

Muscles are not growing during the workout but after the workout. You should give your muscles enough time to recover so it is not recommended training more then two days in a row without giving yourself a day rest. If you are a beginner start to train with three days a week but never train more then five days a week even if you are more advanced.Most people don’t know how much repetitions they must do and giving a correct answer is nearly impossible. A repetition between 6 and 12 is ideal however how much exactly depends on your goal. Is your primary goal fat loss or muscle loss? Which muscles do I want to train. But one thing is sure high reps don’t mean that you burn more fat. Resting between sets is also an important factor and again it plays a role if your main goal is to burn fat or to increase muscle mass.

I’m sure you have some ideas know how to select the best weight lifting exercise for fat loss. No matter if your goal is fat loss; gaining muscles or both you still need a good nutrition plan.

It can be a little difficult to build lean muscle and lost fat – especially when you are not sure exactly how to go about it. Many people try either diet or exercise and sometimes both, but it can be a little tricky figuring out just the right combination. If you really want to gain more lean muscle mass and burn excess fat, it will take some determination on your part. Sometimes, it can be a bit frustrating trying to get it right, but you will be rewarded for your diligence in the end.

It is easy to sabotage yourself by following the latest fad diets and erroneous muscle building tips. In order to achieve your goal, it is essential that you follow proven advice. Here are five tips that will help you get lean muscle and shed fat more quickly than you may have imagined.

Tip #1 – Drink More Water

Your body is approximately 80% water and needs to water for all of its functions – including building muscle and shedding fat. This means that you will need to consume at least eight glasses or more of water per day. Though the liquids you consume do not have to be pure water, it is best if they are. Stay away from caffeinated drinks and sugary drinks like soda. If you do not like the taste of pure water, add a twist of lemon or lime or try one of the non-carbonated flavored water drinks. Remember, clear liquids are best.

Tip #2 – Eat Frequent, Small Meals

To keep your body energized and burning calories at an optimum rate, you need to keep your metabolism stoked. You can accomplish this by eating small meals at regular intervals – every 3 to 4 hours. In this way, you keep encourage lean muscle mass and fat loss.

Tip #3 – Add Weights/Strength Training to Your Workout

Doing tons of aerobics will help you somewhat with your fat loss goals. However, it is essential that you are also building lean muscle, and the best way to do this is by adding strength training exercises to your routine. Though muscle weighs more than fat, it takes up less space (making you smaller) and gives your metabolism a needed boost. You will burn calories for hours after a workout. This is why programs such as Curves are such a phenomenal success.

Tip #4 – Perform Compound Exercises

Try to perform free weight exercises that work combinations of muscle groups with each exercise. In this way, you will work your body more effectively than if you used standard isolation exercises.

Tip #5 – Allow Recovery Time between Workouts

Many people miss the boat on this one. In order for you to facilitate lean muscle in your body, you MUST allow your muscles to rest between workouts. Allow at least a day of rest between workout routines for each muscle group.

It may be wet outside, but don’t let that get you off track. So we thought we could help you get a head-start with losing those extra kilos before the winter months quickly fade into the spring and summer months. Here are our top 10 tips that you can start incorporating into your day from today:

TIP 1:

Start minimising bread, pasta, rice and fruits. This will lower your carbohydrate intake, helping you lean-up. This is particularly important if you spend most of your day behind the desk (you just DON’T NEED all that energy when your not moving much during the day).

TIP 2:

Increase your protein (chicken, meat, eggs, fish, PROTEIN SHAKES, etc), good fats (nuts, avocado, olive oil, etc) and green veggie (broccoli, spinach, asparagus, green beans, etc) intake.

TIP 3:

Eat regular small meals throughout the day (every 3 hours) and make sure you have protein in each meal.

TIP 4:

BE PREPARED – Have a small bag of nuts and a protein bar in your bag for the desperate times. It will save you!

TIP 5:

Make fish-oil your best friend! Fish oil is another form of good fats which assists in stored-fat loss, balances blood sugar (helps with the sugar cravings throughout the day), elevates mood, helps lower cholesterol, stimulates growth hormone release and many more benefits. Just make sure you select a good quality fish oil!

TIP 6:

Have a good quality multi-vitamin. You will see a boost in energy, it can assist in minimising stress, and provides the body with nutrients which most of us may be missing from our diets. This will help your organs function better and therefore your body will perform better.

TIP 7:

Use L-Carnitine to stimulate the use of stored fat as your source of energy when training or during daily activities. On training days, take it 30-40 minutes before training, on non-training days, take it first thing in the morning before eating.

TIP 8:

Get rid of MILK from your diet… this includes SKIM (it is full of lactose which most people are intolerant. Lactose is also a form of sugar, therefore a carbohydrate!). You can still eat cheese, within moderation. What about soy milk? Soy can increase estrogen, meaning looking more bloated/soft rather than toned. And if you’re worried about calcium, then do what cows do. Eat green veggies.

TIP 9:

Keep water intake up. If you urine is dark, it means you’re dehydrated so drink more water! Check-it-out next time, it is the most accurate indicator. It should be almost clear if you are properly hydrated.

TIP 10:

DO SUPER-SET STYLE WEIGHT TRAINING to build muscle tissue and lean-up at the same time! It takes more energy to sustain muscle than fat, meaning you burn more fat in normal every day activity if you build muscle tissue… you don’t need to look like Arnie, just do some form of resistance weight training! Super-setting your weight training significantly increases the heart rate, which is what we all attempt to do when we do cardio training. An example of how you can super-set is as follows e.g. For a chest and back workout, you can super-set by doing a set of chin-ups (for your back), followed immediately by a set of bench press (for your chest) with NO REST IN BETWEEN. Repeat this set another 2 times.

Incorporate any or all of these tips, and you will see results within a week. These are lifestyle changes, so make them part of your everyday routine to get the most success most success, for now and the future.

Please note, each individual and circumstances may vary. Therefore, the information offered is intended for people in good health. Anyone with medical problems or injuries of any nature should see and consult a doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. In general, suggested tips can be very effective. It is advisable to consult your doctor(s) before making major changes in your lifestyle.

When you embark on a weight loss diet something strange happens. Your body is not entirely happy to shed its fat. Instead you start to lose lean tissue such as muscle and bone density.

A research study carried out in Denmark, and reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in May 2002 found that when men dieted less than 60% of the weight lost was fat. The rest was lean tissues. When men regained weight only 24% of the weight they put back on was lean tissue – over 75% of the weight regained after weight loss was more fat. That means for people who yo-yo diet – living in a cycle of losing weight and putting it back on again – the lean tissues in their body are gradually being replaced by fat.

The same research showed that the picture for women is even worse! During the diet 35% of the weight lost was lean tissue – initially less than for men. BUT on regaining weight only 15% was lean tissue. When women lost and then regained weight, lean tissue was not sufficiently restored – 85% of the weight regained was fat!

Do you find this surprising? I must say that when I first came face to face with this information I was astounded. So much so that I decided to check it out with a man who might be able to tell me just how difficult it is to maintain muscle, and how easily lean tissue can be lost. That man is an accomplished body builder: Stuart Garrington. Mr. World 2012. Current reigning Mr. Britain, and preparing for the Mr. Universe competition in October this year.

Stuart tells me that a top notch body builder will probably be able to gain a maximum of 8lbs of pure muscle in a year – and that’s with all the training, extremely high protein diet and creatine supplements that go with the sport. Furthermore, if a body builder takes their eye off the diet, and begins to introduce too many carbohydrates instead of protein, the muscle begins to disappear very quickly – he estimates that it would be easy to drop 2 or 3 stones of muscle mass very easily.

Simply – it’s hard work to gain muscle and very easy to lose it if your diet does not positively protect your body composition.

Body composition is intrinsically linked with health. Though research scientists reported this in 2002, it finally hit the mainstream media in 2011, becoming headline news in The Daily Mail. The logical conclusion is that diets that don’t protect your body composition do damage your health!

What is incredibly disappointing is that in the past decade (and more) since the facts emerged, the food and diet industries at large have failed to respond, and continue to perpetuate the same erroneous messages and promote the same products. This means that you continue to lose lean tissues instead of fat, and risk your health.

Daily Mail on adverse effects of weight loss diets on health article here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2026106/Being-fat-healthier-constantly-trying-diet.html

One can not lose weight healthily only by maintaining a diet plan. A dieter is also required to go for some weight loss exercises along with a low calorie diet. Ideally to reduce weight one must aim at burning out more amount of calorie than what he or she intakes. The greater the amount of calorie burnt the greater will be the amount of weight lost. Exercising is probably the best possible way to burn calories. Exercising also helps in toning of muscles and maintaining the basal metabolic weight. There are some weight loss exercises that can help you to reduce weight in an effective way.

Some Weight Loss Exercises

Only a small chunk of the dieters are able to maintain their once attained weight. It has been estimated that about 92% of the dieters gained weight without exercising while only 52% of the dieters gained weight with exercising. To perform exercises you might join gym or aerobics. You may even simply climb steps or some free hand exercises on a regular basis. The following are some weight loss exercises that you will not find them to be too exhaustive amidst your hectic schedule.

Walking – Walking is perhaps the simplest form of exercise and it would help you to reduce weight in a healthy way. Walk every day for at least 40 minutes. If you can not manage to walk on a regular basis, you must aim at walking for at least three to four days a week.

Swimming – Those who know swimming must also be enjoying it. Swimming is a good way to reduce weight. To maintain a healthy weight you may swim for 20 to 25 minutes for 3 days a week. Start swimming at a slow pace; concentrate on the strokes that you know. Gradually learn and include new styles of swimming to improve your weight.

Water Aerobics – The water aerobics are quite effective way of reducing weight. Though it seems to be quite simple to perform but it is a good exercise for reducing weight. The exercise allows the performer to face resistance in every movement of motion.

While maintaining a balanced diet and a perfect exercising schedule you are advised to drink ample amount of water. Drinking of plenty of water will rather energize you to perform exercises regularly. Both in take of water and exercising help to detoxify the body and promote a healthy body weight. Try to monitor the progress of your weight loss program by noting down your body weight and body measurements from time to time.

According to Consumer Report, Volumetrics is the best diet plan. This does come as a surprise, doesn’t it?, especially when there is a whole lot of hype and hoopla around low fat diets, low carbs diet and high protein diets. The reason why Volumetrics was given the highest rating was because it is a well grounded diet plan that does not overpromise. Even Webmd which is one of the most trusted health websites, gave a favorable review for this diet plan.

The other diet plans that were quite highly rated are Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig and Slim Fast with very little to choose in between them as the ratings were quite tightly highly ranked. Midratings were given to eDiets, Zone Diet, Ornish Diet and Atkin’s Diet took the last place.

According to Metcaf the things that worked into these ratings were as follows, “The things that go into the rating are the nutritional analysis – we analyze a week’s worth of menus straight off the book or Web site – and we also rate them according to how well they conform to the 2005 U.S. dietary guidelines, which we think is a good consensus on a healthy diet.”

However these ratings should be taken with a grain of salt but they serve as a good guideline nevertheless. Following this publication, several disgruntled authors/creators of diet plans who did not receive high ratings as they anticipated voiced their disappointment.

In short, no diet can work miracles. It is entirely up to you to make sure that you have a good diet plan along and exercise regularly to lose and maintain your weight.

In an effort to lose fat, some individuals have resorted to extremes and fad diets, but they are often disappointed with the results. If you would like to lose some weight, here are some fat loss tips that will start the process for you and help you to lose weight fast while still maintaining your health.

Not Low-Carb, Slow Carb – One of the most popular diets that is out there is the Atkins diet. Yes, this will help you to lose weight rapidly but it is also very unhealthy and the weight that you lose will soon come back because the diet is unmaintainable for the long term. Instead of getting rid of carbohydrates altogether, why not eat the right kind of carbohydrates in order to achieve weight loss. The glycemic index is an indicator of how quickly sugars that are available in carbohydrates are dumped into the bloodstream. If you eat high on the glycemic index, you will be putting sugar into your system which will cause your pancreas to dump too much insulin into your blood to compensate. If you stick to slow carbohydrates that are low on the glycemic index, however, your blood sugar will be stable and you will lose weight naturally.

Eat Your Beans at Every Meal – Although this is a quote from a famous joke poem, it is a very good idea for you to take advantage of beans and other type of legumes at every meal. Not only are they very filling, they also will help you to keep your blood sugar stable and to last over from meal to meal. So eat your beans or your lentils or any other legume with every meal and you will experience weight loss surprisingly quickly.

It’s the lifestyle that many of us keep which is busy and full of sugary snacks and fast food restaurants. Not only that, stress can add a lot to our waistline, not only in the form of snacking but also in some of the chemicals that it dumps into our system that promotes weight gain. But as long as you’re eating a balanced diet that is low on the glycemic index, you will lose weight and lose it fast. The best part about it is that it is a diet which is healthy and maintainable for a lean lifetime.

Losing weight isn’t rocket science; eat less, weigh less, sounds easy. Unfortunately, there are many variables that determine how quickly or slowly you will lose weight. While there are thousands of weight loss tips available to you, not all of them work. Here are some everyday tips that are known to make a difference to your weight loss efforts:

1) Raise Your Metabolism By Eating More

It is true. Cutting your calories back too drastically will actually slow your metabolism and slow your weight loss efforts. Diets providing less than 1000 calories per day may actually provide too few calories to keep your weight loss rate up. You are likely to lose more weight if you graze, eating five or six small meals daily. Eating small meals frequently throughout the day also keeps your insulin levels steady so that you do not get blood sugar crashes that sabotage your best intentions.

2) Drink Water, Eliminate Soda.

One of the easiest things you can do is to take soda, even diet soda, off your menu, and replace it with water. Replacing soda with water is a double advantage; you forgo the calories in the soda and drink enough water to keep your metabolism running high. Water helps you to feel full, as well as flushes out toxins and keeps your kidneys running well. When your kidneys are working well, your liver can stick to its job of metabolizing fat. Without enough water, your liver has to pick up the kidneys slack, filtering blood rather than metabolizing fat. If you hate the taste of plain water, consider bubbly water (seltzer) with lemon or lime. Some of the new flavored water works well also, but you will be drinking quite a lot of it, so make sure that you are comfortable with the flavoring additives used.

3) Plan Your Snacks.

Snacks are everywhere; in the office, at the gym, at school. If you do not have a plan before you head out, it is likely that you will succumb to the temptations, especially if you get tired or bored. Plan ahead so that you have tasty snacks comparable to the temptations found in the vending machine. Finally, make sure that you eat something small at least every four hours to keep your hunger under control.

4) Add Some Weights

Cardio is the easy part. Well, not exactly easy, but certainly familiar. Most of us have no problem jogging or doing aerobics for our exercise routines, but lifting weights will actually ramp your metabolism up for longer than your cardio routine. Add two-20 minute weight sessions a week, working with a qualified fitness professional at first if you have never used weights before. Remember that muscle weighs more than fat, so do not get upset if you initially see the scales nudge upwards a bit. As you add the muscle your resting metabolism will raise, and in no time you will see the results not only on the scale, but in your clothes also.

5) Buy a pedometer.

Studies have shown that people that take 10,000 steps a day lose weight without having to make extensive changes to their eating habit. Just think how quickly you will tone up if you do both.

Intervals: Efficient & Effective

Intervals are the single most results producing exercise that I’ve ever found for boosting your metabolism, helping you burn inches off your body, and giving you a tight, lean, strong shape.

Here’s an excerpt from my latest article in Men’s Fitness showing you how to use intervals for fat loss (Men’s Fitness, Page 114, April 2005).

Interval training is the fitness world’s equivalent of a visit to the in-laws. The shorter and more intense the visit, the better.

An interval is a short period of exercise performed at a given intensity for a specific length of time. Each interval is separated from the next interval by a short rest or lighter activity. There are no strict rules on how long or how intense the interval must be, however, changing the interval length or intensity changes the way your body works and responds to exercise.

Never sacrifice the quality of rest between intervals because this will only reduce the benefits. To succeed with intervals, you must first shake the mindset of traditional continuous cardio training.

No matter where you start with intervals, heed this warning. The high-intensity nature of the exercise can cause muscle soreness you’d associate only with weights, and can cause your legs to feel like j-e-l-l-o.

What most people don’t know is that intervals are the best cardio method for fat loss. Most guys in the gym are hung up on doing excessive amounts of work, but shorter, more intense intervals get the job done better.

Intervals continue to burn calories and fat after the training session, and that’s something you won’t get from slower, longer sessions of cardio. When Canadian researchers compared interval training and long, slow cardio training, it was interval training that was shown to be more effective for fat loss.

Use this workout 3-5 times per week to blast fat.

Start with this beginner protocol:

Warm-up for 5-minutes.

Work for 30 seconds at an 8/10 level of intensity.

Follow that with “active rest” for 90 seconds at a 3/10 level of intensity.

Repeat for 3-8 intervals.

Finish with 15 minutes of traditional cardio for “transition” and cool-down.

As you become accustomed to intervals, progress to the experienced protocol:

Warm-up for 5-10 minutes.

Work at a 9/10 level of intensity for 30 seconds.

Follow that with “active rest” for 60 seconds at a 3/10 level of intensity.

Repeat for 4-10 intervals.

Finish with 5 minutes of low intensity exercise for a cool-down.