Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Don't Cheat Your Metabolism!


You can't cheat your metabolism if you really want to lose weight. No amount of cayenne pepper and lemon juice will speed up your metabolism, if you aren't taking care of your metabolism correctly.
First of all, do not starve yourself. Deprivation and hunger will not force your metabolism to work harder; it will simply cause your metabolism to stop working altogether. Your body needs routine and regularity, and six to eight small meals a day is the best way to provide that. Do not binge one minute and starve yourself the next.
Keep your body well-maintained and healthy by eating six to eight small and well-balanced meals per day. If this seems like a lot of food, then your meals are too large! Slow down a bit, and eat smaller portions more often. Your body will learn to burn fat and calories for energy, allowing your metabolism to balance out and do its job.
Metabolic rates are very important to understand when trying to lose weight. It is your metabolism that allows your body to convert the foods that you eat into energy. This energy is what allows you to continue with your day, be active, and feel less fatigue. However, this energy is also being used by your body when you are resting to help you breathe, circulate blood, and generate cells throughout your body.
Metabolic rate is the amount of calories that your body consumes in order to accomplish these tasks. Different factors determine how fast your metabolic rate works, including body type and size, and age. Younger people burn more calories than older people in general, as do men compared to women.
Larger people will burn more calories, at a faster rate, but they will also require more calories to stay sustained. This includes both those who are larger as a result of excess body fat, and those who are larger because they have large amounts of muscle.
Movement and exercise increase your metabolic rate, and allow your body to burn more calories. This is the reason that professional athletes need to consume what may seem like an excessive amount of calories when they are in training. The more you exercise the more calories your body will require to stay healthy. If you consume too few calories, you will have little energy and feel very fatigued.
It is extremely important to balance out your metabolism if you want to lose weight. You must burn more calories than you consume in order to lose weight, or consume the same amount of calories that you burn through physical activity if you are trying to maintain your weight. Starvation diets will reverse this process, forcing your body to work harder to burn fewer calories. If you do not consume enough calories to sustain your body, then your body will start to store calories for future use. This is neither healthy nor beneficial to your body in any way.
Do your body a favor, and reduce your calories to a healthy level, while increasing your activity level. You will look better and feel better, and your body will function as it was designed.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

How To Lose Belly Fat - 3 (Anti-Captain-Obvious) Ways To Easily Melt Away Fat!


Looking to learn how to lose belly fat without the typical "captain obvious" methods you hear so much about (such as just eat better and do some exercising)? Continue reading to learn 3 easy and highly effective techniques I practiced to help flatten my stomach and lose a lot of weight... quickly and naturally...
Have quality protein with every meal.
Please take note of the word QUALITY. Quality protein means lean meats (such as chicken breast and turkey breast), nuts, dairy (such as Greek yogurt), beans, and healthy protein shakes.
When you eat quality protein with EVERY MEAL, you will get fuller quicker, your digestive system will work efficiently, you'll improve your metabolism, and this will all help shrink that stomach in no time!
70/30 fitness.
Quickly, what's the first thing that comes to your mind when I say the word "exercise". Was it some type of cardio routine? If so, don't worry, this is very common. Most people when getting in shape, spend WAY too much time doing cardio to "try" and lose belly fat and lose weight. Now don't get me wrong here, doing cardio is fine, but doing it in excess is not going to be effective for getting amazing results.
What I recommend you do instead is to approach fitness with a 70/30 mix. 70% muscle building activities and 30% cardio activities. In other words, the bulk of your time should be spent building lean muscle. When you build muscle, your body becomes an AUTOMATIC FAT BURNING MACHINE! This is because in order for your body to build and maintain muscle tissue, it MUST burn fat... even while you are resting!
Drink the "miracle drink" 3 times a day.
There is a mixture drink I have everyday that has done some pretty amazing things with my body. I've lost body fat, lost weight, increased my energy levels, improved my internal health, and so much more. This drink is a mixture of 8 ounces of water, 3 tablespoons of ACV (organic apple cider vinegar), and a freshly squeezed lemon.
BONUS TIP: Improve your digestive system!
Most people don't realize this, but improving your digestive system can have a gigantic impact on how quickly and consistently you can lose weight and body fat. When your digestive system is running strong, your metabolism is running strong and you are getting rid of toxins in your body. And a faster metabolism means faster fat loss, and getting rid of toxins means less bloating, less waste buildup, more energy, and more!

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Healthy Roads To A Slender You


Many of the weight loss methods that are on the market today that consumers love involve crash dieting and pills that are not regulated nor effective. Millions flock to them in the search of quick results without knowing or minding the longer term results. If you want to drop your unwanted pounds in a natural and healthy manner, keep reading for some longer term tricks that actually work.
Make water your beverage of choice. It is highly unlikely that you will ever drink nothing but water, and that is actually not a great choice. You can do it briefly off of sheer willpower, but the bland taste and lack of flavor variety will eventually do you in. Instead, just focus on making the majority of your liquid servings water. You get the advantages of staying hydrated, which range from being able to sweat during exercise, detoxify and have good internal chemistry, while still enjoying the beverages you do like.
Enjoy your exercise. Getting regular exercise is better than not getting any, and even if you do the exercises that seem "right", you will not continue them long term unless you find them enjoyable. So, try out as many different things as you can and then form a plan that centers around activities that you find joy doing. To keep things going over the years, have a seasonal rotation.
Try every nut, seed, fruit, vegetable and lean protein you can. These are the things you want to focus on to have a diet that is natural, high in nutrition and low in calories. Write down every food that has a taste you love. Then get online with your favorites and find recipes that include them. It only takes about a dozen recipes to come up with your own cooking rotation where you are eating foods that you love and that are good for your body. Some recipe websites help you find recipes just by typing one or more ingredients as a search filter.
Shop the outside perimeter of your grocery store. The aisles are where the packaged and processed foods are. Try focusing instead only on the produce section and manned counters for the foods that are healthy and fresh.
Stop drinking soda. These drinks have no nutritional upside, and are full of disadvantages to your health. They either are full of sugar and calories that pack on the pounds, or they are absolutely zero calories and sweetened with aspartame. Aspartame itself has no calories obviously, but it tricks your body only for a while into thinking calories are coming through, so that you get hungrier later.
Getting to your target weight is not something that you should try and run to quickly. Even if you hit it, the chances of you staying at that weight are not good, as you can recoil back into weight gain just as fast. You got where you are on the scales largely due to lifestyle. Change your lifestyle to a one that supports being slender or toned, and that body will result just as much.

Friday, September 7, 2012

Six Simple Ways For You To Lose Weight


Everywhere you look in magazines and on the television, people are thin. You may think this is out of your reach, but the truth is that people are losing weight everyday. If they can, you can too. Here are six simple ways for you to shed extra weight.
1. Enjoy your food. A lot of people these days eat in a hurry. They eat in their car or on their way to work, and they eat quickly before taking their kids out for the little league games. When you take the time to sit back and enjoy your food instead of watching television as you eat, you are going to be more likely to eat slower. As you eat slower, your tummy will fill more quickly and therefore eat less.
2. Drink enough water. Drinking enough water is critical for losing weight, because water is necessary for so many healthy body functions. Not only will drinking more water help you with that "bloated feeling", if you have a glass of water before you eat, your stomach will feel fuller and you will eat less. In addition, at times when you think you might be hungry, it is actually that you are thirsty. Your body is unable to differentiate between the two.
3. Load up on veggies and fruits. The great thing about these foods is that they are full of water and don't have as many calories as other foods. That means you can eat as much broccoli and spinach as you want and never gain a pound! If you eat more of these foods, you can cut down on others, which reduces the unhealthy calories going into your body.
4. Watch your sugar levels. Sugar causes cravings, which means you want to eat more. If you want to get serious about your weight loss, cut down the amount of sugar you eat. You will discover that your cravings disappear. If you can stick to fruits and complex carbohydrates for your sugar intake, you will be on the road to weight loss.
5. Cut down on the alcohol you drink. You have likely heard that alcohol is full of empty calories, which is true. Alcohol doesn't really have that high of a nutritional content, so it really is just plumping you up for its own sake. Not only that, many alcoholic drinks convert into sugar in your blood, making you crave food. When you drink, your decision to lose weight may not be the first thing on your mind, so you may find yourself snacking as well.
6. Watch your calories. Use one of the many free tools out there to determine how many calories you should have each day. Also, beware not to eat too few calories. A lot of people figure that just slashing their diet will help them, and in the long run that is not true. You need a certain number of calories to sustain yourself, so make sure you eat what you should.
Being thin is celebrated in our culture. You can be thinner by simply using the suggestions in this article. Good luck!

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Finally Losing That Stubborn Extra Weight


Many people have successfully lost weight, therefore it is possible for you to do so as well. Of course packing on those extra calories was much easier than it will be to take them off, but with a little hard work and determination, it is totally achievable. If you have been dreaming about losing weight, it is time to be proactive and make it happen. The following article will give you some great tips to help you finally lose that stubborn extra weight.
Try to look at the word "diet" as any other four letter word. Diets are restrictive and in fact set you up to fail. Many diets produce short term results but are not realistic in the long run. There are many diets which are just plain unhealthy for you. Instead of dieting, make a lifestyle change. Add more fruits, vegetables, proteins and lean meats to your diet and limit your sugars, carbohydrates, fats and steer clear of processed foods. Just eating healthier and being more conscious of the foods you consume can help you to lose weight and keep you from gaining it back. Don't beat yourself up too much if you end up going overboard with your favorite "no-no" food. Just chalk it up to a bad day and move on; remember that you are only human after all.
There is nothing quite like having people in your corner who are rooting for you to succeed. Tell your friends, family and coworkers about your intentions and plans to lose weight. Having people supporting you can really make a huge difference. You might find others who want to join you in your weight loss journey. Others, knowing that you are trying to lose weight, can also help to hold you accountable because you won't want to disappoint them. This can help to motivate you at times when you are feeling weak. The support of loved ones can carry you a long way.
You can not expect to lose all of your weight in the blink of an eye, so be realistic about how long it will actually take. Set a main weight loss goal and then smaller ones that will help you to get there. Having a plan can really help you to be successful and reaching your smaller goals will keep you motivated. Celebrate each milestone you meet and let it keep propelling you forward. Focusing on losing one or two pounds a week is realistic and will keep you from becoming discouraged. It will also excite and give you an extra boost when you lose more than what you expect to. Staying motivated and being a realist will help you to achieve your weight loss goals without giving up.
It is a fact that gaining weight is a lot easier and more enjoyable than trying to lose it. Hopefully you now feel better prepared and motivated to finally lose that stubborn extra weight. Believe in yourself and you will be a slimmer and healthier version of yourself in no time!