The 3 Hidden Keys To Rapidly Burning Stubborn Fat

Copyright 2005 Faisal Khetani

You’re about to learn three “power tips” for burning fat
that fitness models, athletes, & high profile personal
trainers use to bring out those sexy abs, arms, & thighs in
no time…

Honestly, I’m a little sick and tired of hearing the same
old “top ten fat loss tips” circulating in magazines and on
websites…

You’re smart enough to realize that regular exercise and
dieting will help you lose fat, but you’re looking for
better advice, something powerful yet easy to follow. The
following tips offer the solution you’ve been looking for:

Tip 1:
Replace breads, pastas, & rice with fruits and vegetables.
No, this is not the atkins diet, because you are not
avoiding carbs, you’re just replacing the “types” of carbs
you eat.

Fruits and vegetables provide a very fast burning source of
carbohydrates, which means that they are used up by your
body for energy rather than being stored and converted to
fat.

Basically, by eating fruits and vegetables, you’ll have a
lot of energy throughout the day…

Conventional sources of carbs, such as breads, rice, &
pasta, are notoriously slow burning sources of carbs, and
eventually convert to fat if not fully utilized for energy.

Additionally, most breads and pasta are highly processed
and un-nutritious, so its not a good idea to consume them
for proper nutrition reasons anyways.

Lastly, fruits and vegetables are 70-80% water, which means
that by eating them you’ll stay properly hydrated
throughout the day. Also, they are high in fiber and
enzymes, so consuming them throughout the day literally
causes the fat to “melt away”.

As a general rule, eat at least 10 servings of fruits and
vegetables a day! Whenever you have a craving for something
sweet, grab a fruit! Don’t underestimate the power of this
tip, it is one of the well-kept secrets of fitness models,
bodybuilders, and celebrities worldwide.

Tip 2:
Drink at least 16 glasses of PURIFIED water a day.

The truth is, 8 glasses is okay for the average person, but
if you want to burn fat as quickly as possible, 16 glasses
will get the job done.

Water helps to supercharge your cells, flush out harmful
toxins, and boost your metabolism.

Consuming a lot of water makes it hard for the fat to
“stick” to your body. However, this doesn’t mean that you
can pig out and expect the water to flush away all the fat.

Additionally, by drinking 16 glasses of water a day, you
most likely won’t have a need for coffee, since your energy
and concentration levels will rise.

Be careful, because tap water is not a good choice.
Ideally, you want to drink purified water, either through a
commercial filter or boiled. Your very best bet, by far, is
natural spring water, since it has the balance of minerals
that mother-nature has perfected.

Boxers and athletes drink tons of water a few weeks before
“game time”, to get as lean as possible…

Tip 3:
Do 20 Minutes of Light Resistance Training Before Your
Cardio…

If you want to burn up to 200% more fat during you aerobic
or cardio workout routine, then you must do a light session
of weight lifting or resistance training for about 20
minutes.

Your body does not burn fat for the first 20 minutes of any
exercise! Thats right, if you run for 20 minutes without
doing any exercise before-hand, you will only be burning
glycogen, not fat. Glycogen is the source of energy used by
your muscles.

Basically, you have to elevate your heart rate for at least
20 minutes before your body starts burning fat…

The best way to elevate your heart rate and kick-start your
metabolism is to do light resistance training for about 20
minutes before your cardio routine. What this does is two
things:

1) You break that 20 minute “plateau” your body needs to
start burning fat.
2) You raise your metabolism 100-200%, which means that
while you do your cardio/aerobic routine, you’ll literally
burn up to twice more fat.

Resistance, or weight training boosts your metabolism like
no other form of exercise, often for a period of 24 hours
or more. So, your body will burn fat even while you sleep,
as your muscles recover overnight.

Now you know why all those successful “aerobic videos”
usually make you use resistance bands or small dumbbells as
part of the workout routines.

You can use resistance bands, free weights, or machines.
Keep in mind that you must do “light” resistance training
so you still have plenty of energy to run or do cardio.

To see fast results from your workout routines, definitely
follow this strategy for maximum fat loss.

RECAP: Okay, so lets summarize the three “power tips” for
rapid fat loss:

1) Replace breads, pasta, & vegetables with fruits and
vegetables
2) Drink 16 glasses of purified water or spring water a day
3) Do 20 minutes of light weight lifting (resistance
training) before your cardio routine

The only thing left now is for you to go out and “get em’
tiger”. These specific strategies will drop the pant sizes
and bring out the curves faster than you can buy a new
wardrobe.

—————————————————-
Faisal Khetani is a health and fitness consultant, and
editor of the Dream Body Fitness Newsletter. Check out his
website for scientific workout routines that deliver fast,
maximum results:http://www.weight-lifting-workout-routines.com/Fat-Loss

Weight-loss Secrets: The 3 Meal Lie/The Fat Maker&Heart Killer

Weight-loss Secrets: The 3 Meal Lie/The Fat Maker&Heart Killer

Copyright 2005 Jarvis McCrary

Welcome to Weight-Loss Secrets. This article series is
going to consist of common sense conclusions that can be
derived from current research and generally accepted facts.

I won’t waste your time like the scientists that took 2
years to determine that eating fast food makes you fat
(duuuh). At times you may find a lot of these topics VERY
theoretical but since I don�t have millions to dump into
proving the obvious we’ll just have to act ahead of science
and wait for the studies to catch up to common sense 20
years from now.

Want a sample of these common sense health conclusions?

Sure you do……

COMMON-SENSE CONCLUSION: Eat 3 Meals get Fat FAST!
———————————————————–
3 meals sounds logical. You’ve heard it all your life.
Hell, you’ve eaten 3 square meals all your life. But Why!?

Bet you’ve never really given it any thought have you?
What�s more natural than bacon, eggs and sausage with
some flapjacks in the morning? A hamburger for lunch and a
nice steak for dinner?

That doesn't sound sooooo… bad does it?

Except for the fact that it’s the exact opposite of YOUR
nature!!

Think about it. Humans have been around for millions of
years (or 6,000 depending on your religious beliefs) and
for the majority of that existence it required you to catch
your own dinner or you wouldn’t eat.

Think about that for 1 second and the natural eating plan
starts to become clear. If you were a caveman you would get
up in the morning and prepare to hunt for today�s dinner.
Meat was planned to be that evenings feast.

Meat wasn�t there for breakfast or lunch and dinner was a
real maybe. Until the lucky hunter caught meat he ate
things that were a lot easier to catch - fruits and
vegetables!

So a typical day would have the hunter rising and eating
nuts, berries, veggies or fruit (slow-release carbs that
provide continuous energy for the hunt).

During the day the hunter could turn to these same items to
stave off hunger and keep him fueled for the fight without
making him sleepy.

An end of day successful hunt would provide meat and a
feast!

And so it basically went for millions of years….

Can you imagine teleporting a caveman raised like that to
present day America and letting him eat at your table? What
do you think would happen to him when fed your diet of
non-stop meat and between meal snacks? Of course he’d get
fat as a pig!

We’ll the jokes on you. You are that caveman. Your genes
and his share over 99% of the same DNA. You body reacts
just like his would in today's toxic environment.

If I was a caveman you’d better believe that I wouldn’t be
getting up 3 times a day and chasing down some animal just
because its time to eat. My family line probably discovered
that plants were edible.

I know I would have. When cavewife tried to get me up for
the breakfast hunt I’d have snatched the nearest plant ate
it, took a couple chews, taste it. Ummmmm, tastes good. I’m
not sick. Here baby, eat this and give some to the kids.
Wake me up for the next hunt….

See? It doesn't make sense. It really seems natural that
we would only have to hunt and eat meat once a day and
really the body is probably adapted to comfortably going
without meat for days at a time.

Evolution hasn't adapted us to live in today's food
world and probably wont for another couple million years.

The answer is to eat more like our genetic ancestors if we
want improved weight control energy and health.

Heart disease is the #1 killer - 98%+ of those deaths can
be attributed to plaque buildups that cause blockages
leading to heart attack and stroke. - You were born with
clean arteries how did they get so blocked?

Maybe it has something to do with the food we eat. Which
raises another point. In the early 1900’s a doctor could go
his entire career and never see a heart attack.

Huh! Well, what’s so different today? Could processed and
fast-food have anything to do with it? Hmmm…..

America on verge of obesity epidemic - Heart blockages #1
killer

Hmmmmmmm………

Think there’s a link?

Could it be that we’re eating too much meat with saturated
fat that’s clogging our arteries and leading to heart
disease and stroke?

Especially when you consider that primitive man (you)
wasn’t built to processed massive amounts of meat and
chemicals that don�t exist in nature.

Seems logical, it just hasn�t been studied and proven
yet.

I have decided not to wait for the study (and the
possibility of becoming a fatal statistic) and draw logical
conclusions and take pro-health action.

I have seen the positive results of these steps in my own
life and this blog is my way to share these findings with
you.

Common sense science you can live with.

In my next article I’ll show you how I easily work this
tidbit of info into my daily life. Follow natures plan and
you can practically eat all day to keep your energy up and
avoid hunger without having to do anything weird like count
calories, carbs or fat grams.

In the future I’ll share other health vanity issues like
how to eliminate/reduce puffy eyes, EZ exercise programs
and more.

Stay-tuned…

—————————————————-
Jarvis McCrary researches and writes extensively about
natural weight-loss and anti-aging techniques. His latest
book ‘The Science Diet’ and article archive is available at
http://www.the-science-diet.com

How to Eliminate Weight Loss Failure by Lifting Weights: The Secret Everyone Ignores

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

What Are The Best Exercises For The Golfer?

With all the talk about the players on tour getting stronger
and more flexible, we hear a lot about exercising for golf from
television commentators and read about it in the golf
publications. But what exactly are the best exercises for the
amateur golfer?

A great question that has a good answer, but before we give you
the answer let us provide some background so the answer makes a
little more sense to you. First of all, discussing the golf
swing for the time being will get us rolling.

What exactly is the golf swing? The golf swing is an athletic
movement that requires using of the entire body from “feet to
fingertips” in order to complete the swing. Realize that the
golf swing is not about the club, not just about your grip, or
where your head is during the swing. The golf swing is a
movement that requires your entire body to move through a
sequence of movements with the correct timing. To perform the
“athletic movement” of the golf swing requires the body to
begin at address, move through the actual phases of the golf
swing and complete it with the follow through. In order to
perform this activity with efficiency and repetitively, the
body must have certain physical parameters.

These parameters, as I call them, are actual physical
categories of the body that need to be developed to a certain
level. These categories of the body are the platform from which
the body is able to perform the athletic movement of a golf
swing efficiently. The categories are probably familiar to many
of you, but for the purpose of this article let us briefly run
through them.

The body is required to have certain levels of flexibility,
balance, endurance, strength, and power to complete a golf
swing. If the body lacks in any of the above categories, then
the results will be seen in the golf swing. The results are
usually in the form of poor mechanics, bad shots, or poor
scores on the course. So, now that we know what the connection
is between the “body” and the “swing” let us address the
question about the best exercises for golf.

The Best Exercises for Golf

Let’s say you walk into your local health club and see all the
fancy machines and aerobic machines at the facility to get you
shape. What ones would choose? Would you choose running on the
treadmill for 30 minutes, or would it be better to push out a
couple sets of bench presses? Well, the answer to our question
really lies within the connection between your swing and your
body.

I will tell you that exercises meant to “pump you up!” or give
you that “six pack” are not necessarily the correct exercises
for your golf game. Neither is that weight training program you
used back in high school. So, with those thoughts in mind what
do you think the best exercises for golf are?

Right now we know, in general terms about the golf swing, what
is required of the body for the golf swing and what exercises
are not good for the swing. Armed with that knowledge we can
decipher what the best exercises for golf are for you.

Beginning with flexibility, we know that the entire body must
move through certain ranges of motion to perform an effective
golf swing. And what happens if your body is not able to move
through the required ranges of motion of the golf swing? The
answer: the golf swing will mechanically suffer resulting in
shots that are less than optimal. So part of the exercises that
are good for golfers are flexibility exercises and, even more
so, flexibility exercises that work the muscles used in the
golf swing through the movements involved in the golf swing. So
first and foremost flexibility exercises should be on the top of
your list.

The second category of exercises that would be conducive to the
golf swing would have to do with balance. We hear about balance
in reference to the golf swing all the time. “Stay balanced
through the swing; transfer your weight to maintain balance
during the swing…” But what does balance exactly mean? Balance
is the ability to control your body through a specific movement
pattern. The movement pattern we are discussing just happens to
be the golf swing. We know the importance of balance in
relation to the golf swing, so how do we train our body for
better balance in the golf swing? Before we answer that
question we need to know a little more about balance. Balance
in relation to the body has to do with the connection between
your nerves and muscles. Essentially your nervous system, as a
result of messages sent from your brain, tells your muscles how
to move to maintain the body’s balance. The more efficient your
nerves and muscles are to these messages the greater balance
abilities the body develops. So balance exercises train both
the nervous system and muscular system to become more efficient
at this function. Summing it all up, balance is the second
category of exercises that will assist your golf game.

The third category of exercises that are beneficial to golf
have to do with your muscles. The golf swing requires the
muscles of your body to move through a specific range of motion
(flexibility) and help with your balance capacities. In order to
perform these actions and others, your body needs certain levels
of strength and endurance. The definition of strength is the
ability of the muscles to exert force for the given “athletic
action” (simplified definition but a good working definition
for us). Endurance is the ability of your muscles to do the
same activity over and over again for a specific amount of
time.

First off, let us discuss strength. The golf swing has one
intention of developing club head speed while maintaining
balance through the swing. The muscles in your body must have
enough strength in them to do both. Now, when we discuss
building strength for the golf swing it is NOT the type of
strength needed to bench press 250 lbs. Or squat 500! It is
strength geared towards the improvement of your swing. I refer
to this type of strength as “golf strength.” So when you get to
the gym, performing strength exercises like bench press will not
help your swing. Exercises that train the body in the positions
and through the movements of the golf swing will help your
swing.

In addition to strength, we need to develop endurance in your
muscles. Think of how many swings you may take over the course
of 18 holes. In order for you to be able to swing the club the
same way on the 18th hole as you did on the 1st hole. Your body
has to have high levels of endurance. This will allow your body
to perform the golf swing without getting tired. You develop
endurance similar to how you develop “golf strength.” Utilize
exercises that train the body in the positions and through the
movements of the golf swing. Lighter loads with higher
repetitions will be used for these exercises. The end result
will be the development of “golf endurance.”

The final segment of exercises beneficial to your golf swing is
power training. Power training is geared towards the ability of
your body to generate high levels of club head speed. Power
development by the body is what allows for greater distance on
your shots. Clubs help, golf balls help, but it really comes
down to the piece of machinery, your body, swinging those club
and hitting those golf balls. Development of power for the golf
swing is very similar to the development of “golf strength and
endurance.” It is the utilization of exercises that place your
body in the positions and move you through movements similar to
the golf swing.

Summary

So there you have it, the answer to the types of exercises best
for the improvement of your golf swing. I think you now realize
it is not one exercise, but a group of exercises that
incorporate flexibility, balance, endurance, strength, and
power. A combination of these exercises is what will enhance
your golf swing. Looking for specific exercises? Take a look at
our website NutriFitness


About The Author: Sean Cochran is one of the most recognized
golf fitness instructors in the world today. He travels the PGA
Tour regularly with 2004 Masters Champion Phil Mickelson. He has
made many of his golf tips, golf instruction and golf swing
improvement techniques available to amateur golfers on the
website http://www.bioforcegolf.com. Check out his manual and
DVD, Your Body and Your Swing, on BioForceGolf.com. To contact
Sean, you can email him at support@bioforcegolf.com

Woman and Working Out.

http://thenutrifitness.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For Online Personal Training Programs go to NutriFitness

Bootcamp



NutriFitness Boot Camp includes running, strength training, hill training, stretching, nutrition and more. The NutriFitness secret to shaping up is combining traditionally female aerobics with macho weight training, as well as good nutrition.

Essentail Keys To Losing Weight

One of the most important ways to improve your chances for
long-term health is to keep your weight in a “healthy” range.
It is now well known that excess weight is correlated with a
number of health problems such as cardiovascular disease, some
types of cancer, sleep apnea, adult-onset asthma, diabetes, and
many other medical problems.

When discussing weight, three key questions should be posed.
How much do you weigh in relation to your height? What is your
waist size? And, how much weight have you gained since your
early 20s? Your answers to these questions may strongly
influence your risk for a number of health concerns.

So, what is a healthy weight? It is not always easy to
determine. For example, someone who is tall can carry more
weight than someone who is in the shorter side. One measure
that takes into account varying body heights is the body mass
index (BMI). Calculating your BMI is fairly easy. Begin by
dividing your weight in pounds by your height in inches. Divide
that number by your height in inches. Then, multiply that number
by 703. Unless you are an extremely muscular body bulder, if
your BMI is between 25 and 30 you are considered overweight. If
your BMI is over 30, you are considered obese. Further, many
people who have a BMI between 23 and 25 are not at their
healthiest weight.

There is a good chance that you now weight more than you did in
your 20s. However, you should realize that gaining weight as we
age is not inevitable. It is also not without risk. If you have
gained more than five pounds since your 20s, you have a greater
risk of chronic illnesses such as heart disease, high blood
pressure, type 2 diabetes, and gallstones. If you have gained
more significant amounts of weight, you have an even higher
risk for these diseases. These facts point to one of the major
problems of the BMI. If you were relatively thin when you were
younger, you may be able to gain a good deal of weight and
still have a BMI that is considered relatively healthy.

There are a number of possible reasons for your weight gain.
These include eating larger amounts of higher caloric food and
living a relatively inactive lifestyle. But your genes may play
a role. And, don’t discount cultural factors, such as feeling
compelled to eat all the food that has been placed on your
plate.

Consider where you store your excess fat. If it tends to
gravitate to your waist and chest, you may be labeled an
“apple.” Or, if it is clustered around the hips and thighs, you
are a “pear.” Fat that accumulates around the waist and chest
increases the risk of high cholesterol, high blood sugar and
heart disease. However, it is probably most useful to test your
waist measurement. If your waist has been expanding, it is time
to evaluate your diet and level of exercise.

If you have determined that you need to lose weight, I would
advise a three-pronged strategy. Start by prioritizing
exercise. There is no real way around it; if you want to lose
weight and maintain the weight loss, you need to participate in
regular exercise. Exercise burns calories that might be
converted into fat, and it builds muscle. An inactive 50-year
old person who has gained 10 pounds has often lost five pounds
of muscle and gained 15 pounds of fat. With this increase in
weight will come a deceleration in the resting metabolism; the
body needs less energy for basic needs and increasing amounts
of food become fat stores. Thus, as more muscle is converted to
fat, it is easier to gain weight.

I highly recommend a daily walk of at least 30 minutes. If you
have the time and inclination, walk even more. To keep yourself
motivated, walk with a friend or listen to books on tape. If you
have a treadmill, watch a video or DVD. In addition to regular
walking, include more activity in your everyday life. Park at
the far end of the lot. Take the stairs instead of the
elevator. Also, consider trying other forms of exercise such as
tennis and swimming.

While beginning your exercise program, you will need to take a
closer look at your diet. I generally recommend a
Mediterranean-type of diet with lots of fruits, vegetables and
whole grains and smaller amounts of meat, poultry and fish.
Most fat should be obtained from olive oil or other vegetable
oils as well as small amount of nuts.

And, you need to practice what I have termed “defensive
eating.” It is best to stop eating before you are stuffed. Of
course, you don’t want to walk around with constant hunger
pains. But, you should stop eating before feeling overly full.
And, do not eat everything that is put before you. So, if your
waiter serves a basket piled high with various breads, do not
feel that you must eat every last morsel. Replace the butter
with olive oil. Since they are likely to have far more calories
than you think, always be careful of desserts. Close your meal
with a bowl of fresh fruit.

Defensive eating entails eating more slowly and gaining greater
awareness of what you are eating. Try keeping a journal that
tracks your food consumption. It may be quite revealing. Have a
snack or appetizer before a meal. It will quell your hunger.
And, to reduce temptation, eliminate foods you should not be
eating from your home.

As I wrote in my book, Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy, “Weight
control isn’t impossible, not does it need to mean deprivation
or a boring, repetitious diet. With conscious effort and
creativity, most people can successfully control their weight
for the long term with an enjoyable but reasonable diet and
daily exercise. A longer, healthier life is definitely worth
the effort.”

Walter C. Willett, M.D./DrPH
Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Chair, Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health
Author, Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School
Guide to Healthy Eating

Copyright © 2005, by Weight Loss Buddy Press


About The Author: Joey Dweck is the Founder & CEO of
http://www.WeightLossBuddy.com. a website committed to 24/7
support, expert advice and helping people find a buddy(s) who
will not only help them lose weight but who also help them to
change to a healthier lifestyle. And it's all Free.

Weight Loss Myths -- Test Your Fitness IQ

You've tried virtually every "diet" you can think of andstill haven't lose weight. Or, perhaps you've lost weight only toquickly gain it back. You feel like you are in a never-ending battle that you just can't win. Does this sound familiar? Stop beating yourself over the head in frustration! More than likely you just aren't armed with the right informationto help you be successful in reaching your weight loss goals. There are so many diet misnomers floating about that it's easy to feel like your drowning. The first step toward success is distinguishing fact from myth and using the power of knowledge.To help you get started on the path to permanent weight loss and health living read below to learn what's true and what'sfalse in the world of dieting. Take the quiz below to test your knowledge and you'll learn what it really takes to beat the scale. Read each question and answer true or false. Then read below to find out whether or not you guessed right.
1. Skipping Meals Is a Good Idea
2. You Can Spot Reduce Certain Parts of Your Body
3. Eating Late At Night Makes You Fat
4. If Something Is Fat Free, You Can Eat As Much As You Want
5. Eating Less Than 1200 Calories Will Accelerate Weight Loss
6. Salads Are Always A Great Eating Out Choice
7. You Can Lose and Maintain Weight Without Exercise
8. If You Only Lose One Pound A Week You Need A New Diet
9. You Shouldn't Exercise Every Day
10. You Should Wait To Strength Train Until You've Lost Weight
1. False. The idea behind this myth is that you'll consume fewer calories in the entire day. The reality is that you probably will consume at least the same amount, if not more. Skipping a meal lowers your blood sugar. Low blood sugar usually makes you very hungry. In return you end up eating quickly and probably making poor food choices when those hunger pains come a knocking. Eating several small meals per day helps you stabilize blood sugars and control your appetite.
2. False. If you slave over 200 sit ups a day, it still isn'tgoing to get rid of your spare tire. Fat is lost evenly throughout the body. You can't focus on one body part and only work it in an attempt to reduce that fatty area. To help a trouble spot you must focus on overall fitness – aerobic workouts, strength training,good nutrition and more. That's the only way to reduce extra fat.
3. False. Your body doesn't determine your weight based on WHENyou eat. It just cares how much you eat. What's important isdetermining how many calories are coming in versus how many are going out. You need to find the right balance based on how much your eating and exercising. If you take in more calories than you burn, then the extras will be stored as fat. That's true whether you eat atnight or not.
4. False. For the most part, a calorie is a calorie is a calorie. Sure, it is a little more complex than that but just keep in mind that for every extra 3,500 calories that you take in and don'tburn off, you will gain a pound. Does it matter if all of those 3,500 calories are fat-free. No! Your body just cares that the extra calories were consumed. Plus, fat makes you feel full. If youdon't eat enough of it, you may find yourself constantly hungry and you may end up consuming more calories than if you had eaten something with fat in it.
5. False. In fact, it may have the opposite effect. Too few calories per day causes your body to adapt to a minimal amount of food, and slows down your metabolic rate. The body may think it's"starving" and actually hold onto every bit of food to ensure survival. Then, when you begin to eat normally, your calorie needs are reduced and you end up gaining more weight even though you are consuming less food.
6. False. Sometimes you'd be better of eating a burger than asalad. Many restaurant salads are dripping in high calorie, high fat dressings. Plus, they often add fatty toppings like croutons and bacon bits. If you are going to choose a salad, be sure the dressing and extras don't sabotage your calorie counting.
7. True. When it comes right down to it, weight loss is about the difference between intake and output. As long as you are burning more calories then you are consuming, then you should be able to lose weight. So, exercise isn't a necessity but it certainly isthe best approach. Study after study has proven that groups that both maintain an appropriate calorie intake and also exercise have better weight loss successes and are better at keeping it off. Plus, exercising provides SO many health benefits it would be crazy not to include it as part of a healthy lifestyle.
8. False. Losing 1 – 2 pounds per week is actually an excellent weight loss rate. If you lose more than that, then it's verylikely that it won't be permanent. You'll just end up gaining itback. When you lose at rapid paces, typically you end up losing water weight and muscle weight. You want to lose fat. So, even thought the scale may show less, you won't be as healthy and won't look as good.
9. True. It's not necessary to exercise every single day of the week. Sure, it's great if you can get some type of physicalactivity in on a daily basis. But, it also is important to give your body rest time to recover and improve. For example, you don't want to lift weights every day working the same muscles. They need time to rest. And, intense cardio workouts daily can wear you down. Resting one day a week can actually help you.
10. False. Strength training is an essential part of good fitness. Virtually everyone should include some type of strength training in their weekly workouts regardless of whether they are wanting to lose weight, just maintain it, or build muscle. And, muscle actually helps your metabolism (e.g. helps you burn calories), so you should do it as part of a weight loss program.


About the author: Lynn Bode is a certified personal trainer specializing in Internet-based fitness programs. She founded Workouts For You, which provides affordable online exercise programs that are custom designed for each individual.

How to Get in shape without going to the gym

You can get back into shape without the embarassmentof going to a gym or a fitness center.You can lose weight, get stronger and become fit withoutgoing to a fitness center or doing exercise videos at home.The solution is hill walking and bodyweight exercises.Don't stop reading because it sounds too good to be true.Your body was designed to move, so all yo need to do isto make it move by doing simple things that are a naturalpart of what God intended you to do before TV and videogames were invented.Don't know where to start? Try this simple program to getyou started. It only takes 12-14 minutes per day.Find a hill near your home that is not too steep and isabout 400 feet long. Walk briskly up the hill and back downto make 1 repetition. Do this 5 times, up the hill and downand you will get your heart rate up. Once you are done, youwill have walked around 3/4 of a mile. Can't do 5 reps? Doas many as you can, but be smart. Listen to your body andstop if you get light headed.Your hill walking should take you around 15 minutesdepending on your fitness level and how fast you can walk.Once you can do the 5 repetitions without being winded, youshould start jogging up the hill and then eventuallyrunning. Finally you will want to sprint at 3/4 speed upthe hill.Something about sprinting up a hill releases HGH into yourbody and helps you lose weight faster.Walk the hill every other day and be sure to take off oneday per week from exercise completely.On the days that you don't walk the hill, do some pushupsand some deep knee bends. Take your time on both and onlydo 4-5 of each, if you can. Take it slow, if you are likeme you haven't exercised in a while so it will be hard. Ifyou are having a hard time with either the pushups or theknee bends, don't go down as far.Don't understand what I mean? On knee bends only go down5-6 inches like you are getting ready to sit down in achair and then go back up. Very quickly you will noticeyou are getting stronger. Wait a week or so and startfocusing on going a little deeper each week.Only do the pushups and knee bends twice a week.After a week or two, you will start to feel better and seesome changes to your body. They will not be dramatic atfirst, but very soon, everything will start to tighten up.In review, it doesn't matter what exercises you do, juststart doing anything. But start slowly and build. And bepatient. You did not get out of shape overnight and youwon't get back into shape overnight either.Adestratore Didoneita is the author and president ofAllen Fitnesswhich is one of the best websites on the internet forinformation about getting fit. If you want moreinformation please go to: http://www.allenfitness.com

How Muscles Respond To Various Training Protocols

The primary difference between the effects of rep ranges on the adaptive response depends on whether the load affects neural factors (low reps) or metabolic factors (higher reps).When you train with low reps (1 – 5), the adaptations that make you stronger are mostly neurological: You develop an increased ability to recruit more muscle fibers, you stimulate the higher threshold fibers that are not activated with high rep, low weight sets, you decrease neuromuscular inhibition, and there is increased coordination between the muscle groups. However, with low reps, the hypertrophy (size increase) of the muscle fibers is minimal. In other words, reps under 6 make you stronger, but they don’t necessarily make you bigger because the strength gains come from adaptations in the nervous system – the muscle fibers and other muscle cell structures do not hypertrophy (enlarge). This explains why certain athletes, powerlifters and Olympic lifters can be wicked strong but they don’t look as strong as they are. When you train with medium reps (6-12) the adaptations are more metabolic and cellular and only moderately neurological. This is why 6-12 reps is the range most often recommended for bodybuilding and hypertrophy. You get bigger and stronger in this rep range, but your strength gains are not maximal. This explains why some bodybuilders look stronger than they are (and why they are often the brunt of jokes made by powerlifters and weight lifters; i.e. “big, weak, slow, useless muscles”, ha ha). When you train with higher reps (13-20+), the adaptations are mostly metabolic and cellular. This rep range produces local muscular endurance, a small degree of hypertrophy in certain cellular components such as the mitochondria and the capillaries, and very little strength. There is not a distinct line where neural adaptations end and structural/metabolic adaptations begin; rather it is a continuum, like temperature or colors of a rainbow. For example, when you train in the 6-8 rep range, the adaptations are still somewhat neural, but also metabolic/structural: In this rep range, you get excellent strength gains and also excellent hypertrophy. In the 8-12 rep range, there is still some neural adaptation, but less than the 6-8 range and much less than the 1-5 range. The advantage of the 8-12 rep range is that you get maximal hypertrophy (this is the best rep range for pure size increases when strength is not the number one concern). You will also get stronger, of course, but not nearly to the degree as you would training with lower reps. Now, what exactly happens inside the muscle to make it get bigger and not necessarily stronger? Quite simply, ALL the structures inside the muscle cell grow when exposed to the appropriate training stimulus. Remember back in high school when you had to memorize those diagrams of cellular anatomy (or you would get an F in the class)? There were all kinds of organelles and cell structures such as the endoplasmic reticulum, the mitochondria, the golgi complex, ribosomes, centrioles, Lysosomes, and cytoplasm. Remember all that stuff? If you’re anything like me, you defied your biology teacher to explain the reason why you had to memorize all that crap and what good it would do you in the "real world." Well, now that you're in the "real world" and you want strength and muscles, here you go: A muscle cell has all the same cell structures as other body cells, and they all take up space. When speaking of the muscle cell, you mostly hear about the mitochondria (the cellular powerhouse where energy production takes place), the myofibrils (the actual muscle fibers themselves) and the fluid inside the cell (called cytoplasm in other body cells, or in the case of the muscle cell, its called sarcoplasm). Myofibrillar hypertrophy is caused most effectively in the 6-8 rep range. This contributes to the most visible increases in muscle mass and cross sectional width. However, that doesn’t mean you should only train in the 6-8 rep range. If you want to make the other "stuff" in the muscle cell grow as well, you should train in all rep ranges. The mitochondria and sarcoplasm also take up a substantial amount of space in the muscle cell and they are best stimulated with high reps. High rep training can also stimulate increased capillarization in the muscle (just ask former Mr. Universe and Mr. Legs himself, Tom Platz, about the effectiveness of high rep leg training done in addition to the low and medium rep training). In addition, there is more than one type of muscle fiber: you have slow twitch (type I) and fast twitch (type IIa and IIb). Slow twitch muscle fibers also hypertrophy from higher reps (although they have the least potential for size increases, which is why you should spend more time below 13 reps if it's muscle mass you're after). So here’s the take home lesson: If you’re an athlete and your primary goal is strength and power for improved sports performance, then a good majority of your training is going to be in the 1-5 rep range. This will help make you stronger, faster and more powerful without adding muscle bulk. If you’re a bodybuilder and your primary goal is muscle mass, then the majority of your training should be done in the 6-12 rep range, but you should also do a little bit of training in the 3-5 rep range for power and strength, which will later facilitate hypertrophy (and prevent the powerlifters from making fun of you), and you should do a little bit of training in the 13-20+ rep range to facilitate the development of slow twitch muscle fiber, build mitochondrial density and increase capillarization.
For Tom Venuto's Complete Muscle Building,Fat Burning System CLICK HERE!

Those Last Ten Pounds

Weight Loss - Fighting off those last 10 pounds can bring up mixed feelings. On one hand, you're happy and proud to be just a step away from the weight you'd wanted to reach. On the other hand, you face the potentially depressing prospect of having to unload yet another 35,000 calories (otherwise known as 10 pounds). Weight loss is all about changing behavior, and that is most true when you're fighting off those last 10 pounds. "There is evidence that the individual has to have a great desire to get to their goal weight, and that desire has to be backed up with real changes in behavior to maintain a healthy weight over time," says Catherine Fitzgerald, RD, a dietitian in the weight-loss program at the University of Michigan Health System. Here are seven tips to help you through the home stretch of your diet. And get support year-round when you sign up for the Weight Control Newsletter.

Lift weights
----------------------------------------------
You can't beat muscle mass when it comes to losing weight and keeping it off, says Nancy Spaulding-Albright, RD, a nutritionist and dietitian at the Sunrise Outpatient Center of the HealthSouth hospital group. "Everyone knows muscle burns more calories, even at rest, than fat or other tissues," she says. If weight lifting isn't for you, try swimming, yoga, or Pilates. It's true that muscle weighs a bit more than fat, but it also burns more calories. In the long run, you'll stay trimmer with muscle than without it.

Focus on better health, not fewer pounds
------------------------------------------------------
Sure, dropping weight will, by itself, improve your health. But if you want to stay motivated while you're losing weight and beyond, think long term. "Tell yourself, 'I want to live to see my grandchildren,' rather than 'I want to look good at my class reunion,'" says Spaulding-Albright. The approaching class reunion may motivate you to lose weight today, but it may also set you up to fail later. "Patients who can stay focused on better health tend to reach their weight goals and keep weight off over time," she says.

See a dietitian
---------------------------------------------------------
When you sit down with a trained dietitian or nutritionist to look at your diet, "you may be amazed how many hidden calories you eat," says Fitzgerald. "I see patients who forget to add those half dozen tablespoons of sugar they put into their coffee each morning or don't realize how many calories their three-sodas-a-day habit adds up to. And those are the kinds of calories, the ones you don't even think about, that make weight loss harder." Contact your doctor or local hospital to get a list of dietitians or nutritionists in your area.
Know your metabolic rate
---------------------------------------------------------
Do you know how many calories you need to eat each day for your body to function? The government-mandated food content labels you see in stores assume you have a need for 2,000 calories a day. But that's an average, and it's not specific enough for someone working to lose weight or keep weight off. "Your size and gender have a lot to do with your calorie needs," says Spaulding-Albright. "Dieters don't want to be eating 2,000 calories when they only need 1,800." Your resting metabolic rate (RMR) is simply the minimum number of calories you need each day to support your body's functions. If you get a lot of exercise, your calorie needs may be much higher than your RMR. So how do you estimate your RMR and your real-world calorie needs? The best way, says Spaulding-Albright, is to contact hospitals or clinics in your area; they have sophisticated equipment that can give a good assessment. You can also sit down with a dietitian or personal trainer, who know how to make reliable estimates by calculating your age, height, gender, and other measures. You'll also find many free RMR calculators on the Internet. These are helpful, but not the most accurate. If you chose this route, try several RMR calculators to get a good approximation.

Eat a bigger breakfast
-------------------------------------------------------
The idea here is to get your major calorie load in earlier in the day rather than later," says Spaulding-Albright. "There's that old saying, 'Eat breakfast like a king, eat lunch like a prince, and eat dinner like a pauper,'" she says. "That's actually a help for dieters." When you eat more of your daily calories earlier, it gives your body a better chance of burning those calories over the course of a day. Eating a really heavy dinner is a bad idea, she says, because those calories have little chance of being used.

Eat five small meals a day
------------------------------------------------------
Eat small, eat often. You may have heard this bit of advice before, but it is one of the dieting maxims most easily brushed aside in the course of a busy day, says Spaulding-Albright. "When weight loss plateaus, which is not unusual when you've lost a significant amount of weight, this can sometimes help kick in some additional weight loss," she says. "It makes you feel more satisfied and helps deal with cravings."

Think positive thoughts
-------------------
"Always go with the dieting positives, rather than the negatives," says Fitzgerald. "You're actively adding good things to your life. You're eating more good foods, which improves your overall health. You're getting daily exercise, which improves your mood, burns calories, and makes you stronger."

For your Personal Training workout programs and Diet Plans go here: Nutrifitness


Source: WebMD
About The Author ---------------- Michael Lewis is a staff writer for www.ageforce.com and several other websites. If you would like to contact Michael you can e-mail him at Michael@AgeForce.com or if you would like to know more about Weight Loss, HGH (Human Growth Hormone) and related health topics please visit us at http://www.ageforce.com.

A Cellulite Cure That Works

by Naweko San-Joyz



Cellulite is not a medical condition or an aesthetic mutiny perpetrated by your thighs. It’s just excess fat that we’ve relegated as unsightly. Not all women have cellulite. All women of course have fat, but cellulite is simply excess fat bursting through the connective tissues holding the fat layer in place.Mitchel Goldman, MD, an associate clinical professor at the University of California at San Diego regularly informs the dermatological community about cellulite treatments. On one such occasion in 2002, at American Academy of Dermatology's summer scientific meeting in New York, Dr. Goldman offered bleak hope for women with fat dimples while asserting that there is no “cure” for cellulite.Perhaps Dr. Goldman has never visited a women’s figure competition, Gold’s Gym or any placed packed with women who know how to take care of their bodies. If he did frequent such places, Dr. Goldman would find that there is indeed a three-step remedy for cellulite which follows:1. Eat a macronutrient rich diet that maintains your ideal body weight;2. Exercise at least 60 minutes daily to promote circulation and increase the skin’s elasticity and tone; and 3. Do resistance training to increase muscle size, boost fat metabolism, and increase structural support for the skin’s fat layer.I assure you that women who pose as models for cellulite creams and services already do these things.Notwithstanding, Dr. Goldman rests convinced that "Foods really do not have an impact on whether a woman has cellulite or not." He further doubts dietary interventions by stating, “Even a woman who radically changes her diet from high fat foods to low fat foods would still have cellulite. Consumers should be wary of any diet plan that claims to reduce the appearance of cellulite -- it is simply not credible."So how do women in the advertisements for cellulite creams get rid of their cellulite? Not by using a cream, of course. One may answer that Adobe Photoshop editing cleverly erases the smiling fat dimples. That’s not always the case. Women can and do shrink their cellulite bubbles using a sensible diet and exercise program.1. Eating to eliminate cellulite.Enjoy five to six meals/snacks a day. Frequent eating keeps the blood sugar level balanced so that your body does not resort to fat storage. This predictable food intake also keeps the metabolism burning calories at a consistent rate.2. Strategic exercising for cellulite eliminationA study issued by the National Academies' Institute of Medicine in 2002 recommends an hour of cumulative exercise each day to maintain a healthy weight. Cellulite is an aesthetic issue and not a grave health threat. So while climbing the stairs here, and washing the car there, may help your heart, it does nothing for cellulite.If you want to get rid of cellulite, you need to exercise for at least 45 to 60 minutes consistently to reap the fat burning benefits. Yet, you need not exhaust yourself.Make your body tingle with energy Just try walking briskly at a rate fast enough to make your thighs and rear-end tingle. That way, you know you are stimulating the fat while simultaneously massaging the skin. Moreover, you are raising your external body temperature. You can spend $100s of dollars at a spa trying to get the same effect in some body wrap or massage machine. Spare yourself the hassle and get real results from the gym or on the trail.3. Make the most of weight trainingThe most ridiculous fear that arises from women when I suggest weight training is the unfounded cry, “But I don’t want to get bulky and muscular!” Please. Too many women in the gym today are hardly in any danger of developing muscle simply because they are not properly training or eating to gain muscle.The only way to get “bulky” with muscle is to consistently train for years lifting heavy weights and eating a generally bland diet that’s rich in protein. With that, it’s critical to make the most of your muscle training minutes in the gym. Granted the variety of weight lifting techniques remains endless, here’s some basic steps for increasing your muscle mass:Eat before liftingEat at least 45 minutes before lifting weights. While, your stomach should not fill bloated with food, having some nutrients in your stomach will ensure that you have enough energy to actually lift the weight and perform enough repetitions to promote muscle growth.Lift enough weight to feel your muscle burn after 8-10 repetitions.The whole point of lifting weights is to tear down the muscle you have so that it will repair itself and grow back stronger and more plentiful. If you are not burning, it’s likely that you are not breaking down muscle.Refuel your muscles with protein and carbohydrates immediately after lifting weights. Professional bodybuilders strategically plan their day to ensure that they get their protein within at most 45 minutes after having lifted weights. This is because the muscle needs fuel to repair itself. If you skip feeding a repairing muscle, it will not grow, or at best you’ll reap minimal results.Moreover, a resent study published in the June 2004 edition of the International Journal of Sport Nutrition & Exercise Metabolism confirmed that after resistance training, a meal containing protein and carbohydrates produced more muscle growth than a meal consisting purely of carbohydrates.Consistent dieting habits, exercising and resistance training effectively eliminate cellulite. This three-tiered strategy reduces excess fat and tones the skin- collectively revealing a smooth, bump-free backside. Though you may hate the method, it produces visible results four to six weeks with regular usage.





Health author and Stanford University graduate Naweko San-Joyz lovingly writes from her home in San Diego. Her works include “Acne Messages: Crack the code of your zits and say goodbye to acne” (ISBN: 0974912204) and the upcoming work “Skinny Fat Chicks, Why we’re still not getting this dieting thing” (ISBN: 0974912212) for release in June of 2005.

For more on Cellulite see Http://thenutrifitness.com click on Nutrifitness E-Books for "Conquering Cellulite Guide"

Walk, or Run, to Achieve Weight Loss

Walk, or Run, to Achieve Weight Loss

Walk or run, going the extra mile -- literally -- in hopes of greater weight loss may be something of an exercise in futility. A new study suggests that the typical American dieter can lose as much weight with moderate workouts as with more intense bouts. This research shows that along with dieting, when overweight women started a new exercise routine after years of being inactive, it didn't really matter whether they came out of the gate running or walking briskly. After a year, there was only a total weight-loss difference of 1 1/2 pounds between them. "It appears that intensity is not the main factor impacting long-term weight loss," says researcher John M. Jakicic, PhD, director of the Physical Activity and Weight Management Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh.

Exercise As Little as 10 Minutes

It's consistency -- doing some exercise on a regular basis, "even accumulated in bouts of as little as 10 minutes at a time," he tells WebMD. Jakicic reports that women who started to exercise 200 minutes a week at vigorous levels -- such as running or another activity to leave them panting and sweaty -- shed an average of 19 1/2 pounds after a year, compared with the 18 pounds lost by those spending the same time in more moderate workouts such as walking. Women who exercised 150 minutes a week lost about 15 1/2 pounds with vigorous workouts and 14 pounds at a moderate pace. Men weren't studied, but Jakicic says there's no reason to believe results would differ in them. The take-home message: Whatever pace you exercise, do it regularly. "It's best if individuals develop a pattern of exercise that's performed on a daily basis," he tells WebMD.

The Right Exercise

His findings, published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association, reinforce the often-prescribed recommendations for better health from getting at least 30 minutes of exercise at least five days a week, even if it's at a moderate level. That's important because most dieters give up on exercise programs after a few months, often because they find them too difficult. But by engaging in less strenuous activities such as walking at least a 20-minute-per-mile pace, they may be more likely to continue. Of course, Jakicic's findings also support that other factor crucial for successful weight loss -- cutting calories. The 200 women he evaluated, typically 5-foot-4 and weighing 192 pounds when his study began, all cut their calories to 1,200 to 1,500 a day and fat intake to no more than 30% of total calories consumed. "In this study, they cut calories by almost one-third their previous levels," says I-Min Lee, MBBS, ScD, of Harvard Medical School, who wrote an accompanying editorial to Jakicic's study. "It's a balance issue. You can exercise very little but eat nothing and still lose weight. It comes down to how much you are willing to sacrifice, in terms of what you eat and what you do to burn it off. Most people don't want to cut their food intake by too much." Still, Lee tells WebMD that this study shows that a little exercise, done consistently, can do a lot of good.

Pump Up Your Fitness, Too

The researchers also found that all four levels of exercise had the same effect on improving fitness level. Looking at increases in oxygen consumption -- a measure of how well the body uses oxygen for energy -- the researchers found that all four groups had similar improvements after 12 months of exercise.

The Greatest Weight Loss

You will get the greatest weight loss from changing your caloric intake in the short run," says Jakicic. "However, it appears that without the exercise, the initial weight loss is less and the long-term maintenance of weight loss becomes extremely difficult. So, diet without exercise will make the maintenance of weight loss very difficult." Conversely, he says that exercise without dieting makes weight loss slow and probably less effective -- especially if you're looking to drop serious poundage. His recommendation for the ideal combination: "If an individual reduces their current level of intake by 500 to 1,000 calories per day and exercises 30 to 60 minutes a day, the weight loss will be around two pounds per week, on average."

Source: WebMDAbout

The Author : Michael Lewis has been collecting articles and information on Weight Loss and HGH (Human Growth Hormone) and related health benefits. He has created and edits numerous web sites about this subject. Michael is a staff writer for www.ageforce.com and several other websites.

"Are Low Carb Diets The Best Way To Lose Body Fat?"

"Are Low Carb Diets The Best Way To Lose Body Fat?"
By Tom Venuto

These days, the carbohydrate issue seems to be the burningquestion on the minds of nearly everyone who is interested in getting leaner. Not a single week goes by that I don’t receive an e-mail with a question about the low carb/high protein diet.Last week I got this one: Dear Tom, Are you a proponent of the low-carb diet for bodybuilders?Although this is hotly debated, I don't know many "ripped"bodybuilders that have not tried such a diet. Thanks. It’s no wonder why there's such a buzz about these diets:everywhere you look lately there are low carb bars, low carbdrinks, low carb meal replacements, low carb frozen dinners and so on. In the bookstores, The Atkins diet, Protein Power andSugar-Busters have all been best sellers. Even though there has been a huge resurgence in the interest in low carb/high protein diets, the low carb vs. high carb issue is still the subject of much controversy. For every "low carb guru" who says that low carbs are the ultimate diet, there is a "high carb guru" with the opposite opinion. This has caused a lot of people a lot of confusion. So what’s the deal? Is the low carb/high protein diet the best way for bodybuilders to get ripped or just another fad? From a bodybuilding standpoint, the answer is an unequivocal yes; reducing carbohydrates really works! Most bodybuilders can't get that "ripped" look without some degree of carb restriction.Almost every bodybuilder or fitness competitor I’ve ever metuses some version of the low carb diet when getting ready for competition. The problem is, most people fail to take into account their goals and their unique body type, so they follow the advice of the latest "low-carb guru" and take the carb restriction too far. Zero carb or close to zero carb diets are in my opinion, TOTAL INSANITY! The other extreme; the high carb, very low fat diet, isn’t the best approach for bodybuilders either. These diets (60-70% carb, 20-30% protein and 10% or less fat) were trendy with bodybuilders for a while, especially back in the 80’s and early 90’s (Remember Nathan Pritkin, Dean Ornish and Robert Haas?), but their popularity quickly faded. Those who tried it discovered that it wasn’t nearly as effective as the low to moderate carb, high protein diet. Why does dropping your carbs help you lose more fat? There are several reasons, but to avoid getting into a complicateddiscussion of nutritional biochemistry, let’s just say thateating less carbs forces your body to burn fat for fuel instead of sugar. Reducing carbs and increasing protein accelerates fat loss by controlling your insulin and blood sugar more effectively. The high protein in these diets also speeds up your metabolism because of the "thermic effect" of protein food. It also helps eliminate water retention, giving you the "hard" and "dry" look you need onstage to win contests. In my opinion, a moderate carb diet, with slight carbrestriction (especially at night) is the most effective (andmost "sane") way for bodybuilders to get ripped. For xample, my contest diet is about 175 -200 grams of carbs with most of the carbs eaten early in the day. Every 4th day, I have a high carb day (350 grams) to replenish my depleted glycogen stores. By contrast, my off-season diet is 350- 450 grams of carbs. With 175 - 200 grams of carbs, that is just enough fuel to provide the energy I needed to train hard and to prevent me from losing muscle. Would dropping carbs even further to 30 or 50 grams a day (like many fad diets recommend) get you more ripped or get you ripped faster? Maybe. But the problem is, without carbs, you’ll have no energy to train hard. Sure, tuna fish and water will get you ripped alright, but if your workouts suffer because your diet is "killing you," you aren’t going to look or feel your best. Another big problem caused by very low carb diets is loss oflean body mass. The lower you drop your carbs, the more likely you are to lose muscle along with the fat. A third problem with very low carb diets is the rebound effect. The lower you drop your carbs, the faster you will rebound and gain the fat back when you add the carbs back in. I swear I’ve seen guys blow up 30-40 lbs in a matter of DAYS after their contest because they went on a carbohydrate and fat binge after a four-month zero carb diet. It wasn’t a pretty sight! When I experimented with a very low carb diet, (about 40-70grams a day), I lost huge amounts of lean body mass and looked very "flat" and "stringy." I was also one irritable, grouchy SOB. My friends nicknamed me "fog boy" because (sez them) I stumbled around in a fog-like daze. One friend who hadn't seen me since the previous year when I was a "bulked up" and carbed up 208 lbs, saw me 48 lbs lighter after the low carb diet (yes, 160 scrawny pounds) and he said, "holy sh** Tom, what happened to you? You're HALF the man you were last year!" That was the last time I ever tried an extremely low carb diet. Nutrition is a highly individual issue. Some people can’t seem to lose weight unless they reduce their carbohydrate intake. Other people can eat bagels and pasta all day long and they have six pack abs. How many carbs you eat therefore, depends on your body type. Are you an endormorph or an ectomorph? Do you have a fast metabolism or a slow metabolism? Are you naturally lean or naturally heavy? Depending on your genetics, you might thrive on high carbs or you might need a high protein, low carb diet to get results. But beware: even if you think you are the carbsensitive, slow-metabolism type, the middle path (moderate carb restiction) is the most sensible way to go. The only way to determine how many grams of carbs is right for YOU is to experiment until you find your "critical level." If you start dropping body fat rapidly at 200 grams a day, then why on earth would you subject yourself to the torture of going even lower and doing one of those 30-40 grams a day "ketogenic" diets? Why kill yourself? Remember, there is no single diet that works for everyone. There are certain universal nutritional laws that apply to everyone, but be very careful of "gurus" who use the words "always" and "never" or who make sweeping statements like "carbohydrates make you fat." If you want to get ripped, you should also pick the type of carbs you eat carefully - it’s not just the quantity, it’s the quality. In addition to moderating total daily carb intake, I also recommend getting off ALL processed carbs including bread, crackers, pretzels, pasta, bagels and switching only to natural, unprocessed carbs like vegetables, oatmeal, yams, rice, potatoes, etc. That single change will go a long wayin helping you get leaner (and healthier too!) The bottom line is that it’s not correct to say, "carbs arefattening," but there IS some truth to the assertion that a low carb diet will get you leaner compared to a high carb diet – you just have to approach it in a sensible and individualized way. As in most areas of your life, going to the extreme with your diet will usually do you more harm than good. About The Author Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, freelance writer, success coach and author of the #1 best-selling e-book "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle" (BFFM): Fat Burning Secrets of the World's Best Bodybuilders and Fitness Models. Tom has written over 170 articles and has been featured in IRONMAN Magazine, Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development, Muscle-Zine, Olympian’s News(in Italian), Exercise for Men and Men’s Exercise. Tom'sinspiring and informative articles on bodybuilding, weight loss and motivation are featured regularly on dozens of websites worldwide. For information on Tom's "Burn The Fat" e-book, visit Http://thenutrifitness.com and click on "Our products". page

The Truth About Counting Calories

I just received an e-mail from Tom Venuto who is also co-auther of the e-book Fit Over 40.In many popular diet books, “Calories don’t count” is a frequently repeated theme. Other popular programs, such as Bill Phillip's "Body For Life," allude to the importance of energy intake versus energy output, but recommend that you count “portions” rather than calories…
Phillips wrote,
"There aren't many people who can keep track of their calorie intake for an extended period of time. As an alternative, I recommend counting 'portions.' A portion of food is roughly equal to the size of your clenched fist or the palm of your hand. Each portion of protein or carbohydrate typically contains between 100 and 150 calories. For example, one chicken breast is approximately one portion of protein, and one medium-sized baked potato is approximately one portion of carbohydrate."
Phillips makes a good point that trying to count every single calorie - in the literal sense - can drive you crazy and is probably not realistic as a lifestyle for the long term. It's one thing to count portions instead of calories – that is at least acknowledging the importance of portion control. However, it's another altogether to deny that calories matter.
Yes, calories do count! Any diet program that tells you, "calories don't count" or you can "eat all the food you want and still lose weight" is a diet you should avoid. The truth is, that line is a bunch of baloney designed to make a diet sound easier to follow. Anything that sounds like work - such as counting calories, eating less or exercising - tends to scare away potential customers! But the law of calorie balance is an unbreakable law of physics: Energy in versus energy out dictates whether you will gain, lose or maintain your weight. Period.
I believe that it's very important to develop an understanding of and a respect for portion control and the law of calorie balance. I also believe it's an important part of nutrition education to learn how many calories are in the foods you eat on a regular basis - including (and perhaps, especially) how many calories are in the food you eat when you dine at restaurants.
The law of calorie balance says:
To maintain your weight, you must consume the same number of calories you burn. To gain weight, you must consume more calories than you burn. To lose weight, you must consume fewer calories than you burn.
If you only count portions or if you haven't the slightest clue how many calories you're eating, it's a lot more likely that you'll eat more than you realize. (Or you might take in fewer calories than you should, which triggers your body’s "starvation mode" and causes your metabolism to shut down).
So how do you balance practicality and realistic expectations with a nutrition program that gets results? Here's a solution that’s a happy medium between strict calorie counting and just guessing:
Create a menu using an EXCEL spreadsheet or your favorite nutrition software. Crunch all the numbers including calories, protein, carbs and fats. Once you have your daily menu, print it, stick it on your refrigerator (and/or in your daily planner) and you now have an eating "goal" for the day, including a caloric target.
That is my definition of "counting calories" -- creating a menu plan you can use as a daily guide, not necessarily writing down every morsel of food you eat for the rest oof your life. If you’re really ambitious, keeping a nutrition journal for at least 4-12 weeks is a great idea and an incredible learning experience, but all you really need to get started on the road to a better body is one good menu on paper. If you get bored eating the same thing every day, you can create multiple menus, or just exchange foods using your one menu as a template.
Using this method, you really only need to count calories once when you create your menus. After you've got a knack for calories from this initial discipline of menu planning, then you can estimate portions in the future and get a pretty good (and more educated) ballpark figure.
So what’s the bottom line? Is it really necessary to count every calorie to lose weight? The answer is no. But it IS necessary to eat fewer calories than you burn. Whether you count calories and eat less than you burn, or you don’t count calories and eat less than you burn, the end result is the same – you lose weight. Which would you rather do: Take a wild guess, or increase your chance for success with some simple menu planning? I think the right choice is obvious.
For more information on calories (including how to calculate exactly how many you should eat based on your age, activity and personal goals, and for even more practical, proven fat loss techniques to help you lose body fat safely, healthfully and permanently, check out the e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle at theNutrifitness.com website.

Weighing-In On Low Carb Diets

With all of the conflicting studies and fuzzy interpretation of information, it's no wonder that confusion reigns when it comes to the value and safety of low-carb diets. It seems like heated debates are raging everywhere!

Whether it's Atkins, the South Beach or some other low-carb plan, as many as 30 million Americans are following a low-carb diet.

Advocates contend that the high amount of carbohydrates in our diet has led to increasing problems with obesity, diabetes, and other health problems. Critics, on the other hand, attribute obesity and related health problems to over-consumption of calories from any source, and lack of physical activity. Critics also express concern that the lack of grains, fruits, and vegetables in low-carbohydrate diets may lead to deficiencies of some key nutrients, including fiber, vitamin C, folic acid, and several minerals.

Any diet, weather low or high in carbohydrate, can produce significant weight loss during the initial stages of the diet. But remember, the key to successful dieting is in being able to lose the weight permanently. Put another way, what does the scale show a year after going off the diet?

Let's see if we can debunk some of the mystery about low-carb diets. Below, is a listing of some relevant points taken from recent studies and scientific literature. Please note there may be insufficient information available to answer all questions.

- Differences Between Low-Carb Diets

There are many popular diets designed to lower carbohydrate consumption. Reducing total carbohydrate in the diet means that protein and fat will represent a proportionately greater amount of the total caloric intake.

Atkins and Protein Power diets restrict carbohydrate to a point where the body becomes ketogenic. Other low-carb diets like the Zone and Life Without Bread are less restrictive. Some, like Sugar Busters claim to eliminate only sugars and foods that elevate blood sugar levels excessively.

- What We Know about Low-Carb Diets

Almost all of the studies to date have been small with a wide variety of research objectives. Carbohydrate, caloric intake, diet duration and participant characteristics varied greatly.
Most of the studies to date have two things in common: None of the studies had participants with a mean age over 53 and none of the controlled studies lasted longer than 90 days.

Information on older adults and long-term results are scarce.
Many diet studies fail to monitor the amount of exercise, and therefore caloric expenditure, while participants are dieting. This helps to explain discrepancies between studies.

The weight loss on low-carb diets is a function of caloric restriction and diet duration, and not with reduced carbohydrate intake. This finding suggests that if you want to lose weight, you should eat fewer calories and do so over a long time period.

Little evidence exists on the long-range safety of low-carb diets. Despite the medical community concerns, no short-term adverse effects have been found on cholesterol, glucose, insulin and blood-pressure levels among participants on the diets. But, adverse effects may not show up because of the short period of the studies. Researchers note that losing weight typically leads to an improvement in these levels anyway, and this may offset an increase caused by a high fat diet. The long range weight change for low-carb and other types of diets is similar.

Most low-carb diets cause ketosis. Some of the potential consequences are nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and confusion. During the initial phase of low-carb dieting some fatigue and constipation may be encountered. Generally, these symptoms dissipate quickly. Ketosis may also give the breath a fruity odor, somewhat like nail-polish remover (acetone).

Low-carb diets do not enable the consumption of more calories than other kinds of diets, as has been often reported. A calorie is a calorie and it doesn't matter weather they come from carbohydrates or fat. Study discrepancies are likely the result of uncontrolled circumstances; i.e. diet participants that cheat on calorie consumption, calories burned during exercise, or any number of other factors. The drop-out rate for strict (i.e. less than 40 grams of CHO/day) low-carb diets is relatively high.

What Should You Do? - There are 3 important points I would like to re-emphasize:

- The long-range success rate for low-carb and other types of diets is similar.

- Despite their popularity, little information exists on the long-term efficacy and safety of low-carbohydrate diets.

- Strict low-carb diets are usually not sustainable as a normal way of eating. Boredom usually overcomes willpower.

It is obvious after reviewing the topic, that more, well-designed and controlled studies are needed. There just isn't a lot of good information available, especially concerning long-range effects. Strict low-carb diets produce ketosis which is an abnormal and potentially stressful metabolic state. Under some circumstances this might cause health related complications.

The diet you choose should be a blueprint for a lifetime of better eating, not just a quick weight loss plan to reach your weight goal. If you can't see yourself eating the prescribed foods longer than a few days or a week, then chances are it's not the right diet. To this end, following a moderately low fat diet with a healthy balance of fat, protein, carbohydrate and other nutrients is beneficial.

If you do decide to follow a low-carb plan, remember that certain dietary fats are associated with reduction of disease. Foods high in unsaturated fats that are free of trans-fatty acids such as olive oil, fish, flaxseeds, and nuts are preferred to fats from animal origins.

Even promoters of the Atkins diet now say people on their plan should limit the amount of red meat and saturated fat they eat. Atkins representatives are telling health professionals that only 20 percent of a dieter's calories should come from saturated fat (i.e. meat, cheese, butter). This change comes as Atkins faces competition from other popular low-carb diets that call for less saturated fat, such as the South Beach diet plan. Low-carb dieting should not be considered as a license to gorge on red meat!

Another alternative to "strict" low-carb dieting would be to give up some of the bad carbohydrate foods but not "throw out the baby with the bath water". In other words, foods high in processed sugar, snacks, and white bread would be avoided, but foods high in complex carbohydrates such as fruit, potatoes and whole grains, retained.

Know Thy Food Label

Whether you're concerned about cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or simply losing weight, you want to eat a healthy diet and focus on foods that are high in vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients, and balanced in fats, carbs, proteins. There is only one way to incorporate healthy foods into our diet and that is to make the decision to do it! Practical information about the nutrition and safety of the foods we consume is absolutely vital in making this decision. One way to learn more about what we eat, is to snoop around the supermarket. Check-out package labels to see what manufactures are adding (or removing) from the foods we eat. Read the information on the package and start making comparisons to determine which foods are the best for YOU. Know about nutritional labeling and the sometimes sneaky ways that manufacturers have of hiding what is in the food. Know and understand ingredient declarations, how they are used, and what a few of the "technical" terms mean. Are the unfamiliar ingredients good or bad for your health? Since 1994 food manufacturers have been required by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to include food labels (or Nutrition Facts labels) on product packaging so that consumers have accurate nutritional information about the food they purchase. But food labels are more than just a federal requirement – once you understand the information they provide, you can use food labels as a guide to planning healthier meals and snacks. Food labels are required on almost all foods, except those that don't provide many nutrients such as coffee, alcohol and spices. Although some restaurants provide information about the food they serve, they aren't required to have labels. The FDA recommends that sellers provide nutritional information on produce, meat, poultry and seafood, but it's strictly voluntary. What Is a Serving? At the top of a food label under Nutrition Facts, you'll see the serving size and the number of servings in the package. The rest of the nutrition information in the label is based on one serving. Calories, Calories From Fat and Percent Daily Values This part of a food label provides the calories per serving and the calories that come from fat. If you need to know the total number of calories you eat every day or the number of calories that come from fat, this section provides that information. Remember that this part of the label doesn't tell you whether you are eating saturated or unsaturated fat. On the right side of a food label, you'll see a column that lists percentages. These percentages refer to the percent daily values (%DV). Percent daily values tell you how much of something, whether it's fat, sugar or vitamin A, one serving will give you compared to how much you need for the entire day. It will help you gauge the percentage of a nutrient requirement met by one serving of the product. One way to use this section of the label is when you comparison shop. For example, if you're concerned with sodium, you can look at two foods and choose the food with the lower % DV. Are you trying to eat a low-fat diet? Look for foods that have a lower percent daily value of fat. The %DV is based on how much or how little of the key nutrients you should eat whether you eat 2,000 or 2,500 calories a day. So if you eat a 2,000-calorie diet, you should eat less than 65 grams of fat in all the foods you eat for the day. If you're eating 12 grams of fat in your one serving of macaroni and cheese (remember that's one cup), you can calculate how much fat you have left for the day. You can use the bottom part of the food label in white to compare what you are eating to the % DV you're allowed for that nutrient, whether it's fat, sodium or fiber. If you need more or less than 2,000 or 2,500 calories, you'll need to adjust this accordingly. Nutrients Fat, Sugar, Sodium and Carbohydrate The sections on a food label shows the name of a nutrient and the amount of that nutrient provided by one serving of food. You may need to know this information, especially if you have high blood pressure, diabetes or are eating a diet that restricts certain nutrients such as sodium or carbohydrates. Food labels also include information about how much sugar and protein is in the food. If you are following a low-sugar diet or you're monitoring your protein intake, it's easy to spot how much of those nutrients are contained in one serving. Vitamins, Minerals and Other Information The light purple part of the label lists nutrients, vitamins and minerals in the food and their percent daily values. Try to average 100% DV every day for vitamins A and C, calcium, iron and fiber. Do the opposite with fat, saturated fat, sodium and cholesterol. Try to eat less than 100% DV of these. Common Mistakes to Avoid When Reading a Food Label Until you become accustomed to reading food labels, it's easy to become confused. Avoid these common mistakes when reading labels: -A label may say that the food is reduced fat or reduced sodium. That means that the amount of fat or sodium has been reduced by 25% from the original product. It doesn't mean, however, that the food is low in fat or sodium. For example, if a can of soup originally had 1,000 milligrams of sodium, the reduced sodium product would still be a high-sodium food. -Don't confuse the % DV for fat with the percentage of calories from fat. If the % DV is 15% that doesn't mean that 15% of the calories comes from fat. Rather, it means that you're using up 15% of all the fat you need for a day with one serving (based on a meal plan of 2,000 calories per day). -Don't make the mistake of assuming that the amount of sugar on a label means that the sugar has been added. For example, milk naturally has sugar, which is called lactose. But that doesn't mean you should stop drinking milk because milk is full of other important nutrients including calcium. Reading Label Lingo In addition to requiring that packaged foods contain a Nutrition Facts label, the FDA also regulates the use of phrases and terms used on the product packaging. Here's a list of common phrases you may see on your food packaging and what they actually mean. No fat or fat free - Contains less than 1/2 gram of fat per serving Lower or reduced fat: Contains at least 25 percent less per serving than the reference food. (An example might be reduced fat cream cheese, which would have at least 25 percent less fat than original cream cheese.) Low fat - Contains less than 3 grams of fat per serving. Lite - Contains 1/3 the calories or 1/2 the fat per serving of the original version or a similar product. No calories or calorie free - Contains less than 5 calories per serving. Low calories - Contains 1/3 the calories of the original version or a similar product. Sugar free - Contains less than 1/2 gram of sugar per serving. Reduced sugar - at least 25% less sugar per serving than the reference food. No preservatives - Contains no preservatives (chemical or natural). No preservatives added - Contains no added chemicals to preserve the product. Some of these products may contain natural preservatives. Low sodium - Contains less than 140 mgs of sodium per serving. No salt or salt free - Contains less than 5 mgs of sodium per serving. High fiber - 5 g or more per serving (Foods making high-fiber claims must meet the definition for low fat, or the level of total fat must appear next to the high-fiber claim). Good source of fiber - 2.5 g to 4.9 g. per serving. More or added fiber - Contains at least 2.5 g more per serving than the reference food. With a little practice, you will be able to put your new found knowledge about food labeling to work. Reassess your diet and decide what needs to be changed. Start by eliminating the foods that don't measure-up to your nutritional wants and needs, and replacing them with more nutritional substitutes. And while you're at it, visit the FDA website and learn about the new labeling requirements, including those for "trans" fat. Like saturated fats, trans fats can raise levels of low-density lipoproteins (LDL) and increase your risk of heart disease. The "Nutrition Facts" panel on food packaging must provide this information beginning January 1, 2006, but most manufacturers will start providing it sooner.

LIVING A HEALTHY LIFE

People are obsessed with dieting and weight loss! Don't believe me? Just tune-in to any source of advertising...you're instantly bombarded with the latest diet schemes and "Hollywood" food fads. Here in America, we have built a thriving industry trying to control our weight and treat the consequences of over-indulgence. The cost of weight loss and obesity related health care treatments is staggering...Americans alone spend around $114 billion every year! And even with all this interest in losing weight, we continue to pack on the pounds like never before... - A whopping 64 percent of U.S. adults are either overweight or obese...up about eight percent from earlier estimates. - Among children and teens ages 6-19, 15 percent or almost nine million are overweight...triple the rate in 1980! - Nearly one-third of all adults are now classified as obese. For Americans, modern life may be getting TOO easy. Our cushy lifestyle means we expend less energy and consequently need fewer calories to sustain our normal body weight. Think about it for a moment... Entertainment no longer requires energy expenditure. In fact, it's usually quite the opposite. We now entertain ourselves in the comfort of our own home while watching TV and munching on our favorite snack. Whether it's television, computers, remote controls, or automobiles, we are moving less and burning fewer calories. Common activities that were once a part of our normal routine have disappeared...activities like climbing stairs, pushing a lawn mower or walking to get somewhere. And please do not misunderstand me...I appreciate comfortable living just as much as the next person. But, here is the problem... With all of our modern day conveniences and "cushy" style of living we have not adjusted our caloric intake to compensate for our decreased caloric expenditure. We consume more calorie rich and nutrient deficient foods than ever before. Consider a few of the following examples comparing what we eat "today" vs the 1970's (U.S. Department of Agriculture survey): - We are currently eating more grain products, but almost all of them are refined grains (white bread, etc.). Grain consumption has jumped 45 percent since the 1970's, from 138 pounds of grains per person per year to 200 pounds! Only 2 percent of the wheat flour is consumed as whole wheat. - Our consumption of fruits and vegetables has increased, but only because French fries and potato chips are included as vegetables. Potato products account for almost a third of our "produce" choices. - We're drinking less milk, but we've more than doubled our cheese intake. Cheese now outranks meat as the number one source of saturated fat in our diets. - We've cut back on red meat, but have more than made up for the loss by increasing our intake of chicken (battered and fried), so that overall, we're eating 13 pounds more meat today than we did back in the 1970's. - We're drinking three times more carbonated soft drinks than milk, compared to the 1970's, when milk consumption was twice that of pop. - We use 25 percent less butter, but pour twice as much vegetable oil on our food and salads, so our total added fat intake has increased 32 percent. - Sugar consumption has been another cause of our expanding waistlines. Sugar intake is simply off the charts. People are consuming roughly twice the amount of sugar they need each day, about 20 teaspoons on a 2000 calorie/day diet. The added sugar is found mostly in junk foods, such as pop, cake, and cookies. In 1978, the government found that sugars constituted only 11 percent of the average person's calories. Now, this number has ballooned to 16 percent for the average American adult and as much as 20 percent for American teenagers! Unfortunately, it would seem that the days of wholesome and nutritious family dinners are being replaced by fast food and eating on-the-run. We have gradually come to accept that it's "OK" to sacrifice healthy foods for the sake of convenience and that larger serving portions equate to better value. It's time recognize that we are consuming too many calories and time to start doing something about it! Each of us can decide TODAY that healthy eating and exercise habits WILL become a normal part of our life! We can begin by exploring our values, thoughts and habits... slowly and deliberately weed-out the unhealthy habits and activities and start living a more productive and rewarding life. And remember, it has taken a long time to develop bad habits, so be patient as you work toward your goal!

NutriFitness Boot camps coming soon!

stayed tuned for information on our Fitness and Nutrition BootCamps!
where: Kirby park, Kingston, Pa,
when: soon

nutrition rant

Finally a place for me to rant about nutrition, fitness and more!