The Magic Potion For Fat Loss

By Holly Rigsby, CPT
http://www.loss-natural-weight.com/burn-baby-fat.html

If there were ever a magic potion for fat loss – it would be water. Our bodies are comprised of about 70% water. We lose about a liter (34 ounces) of water per day under normal circumstances and when the temperature in our body rises, as during exercise, we lose higher amounts of water through sweat. It only makes sense that we need to continually replenish this supply for water is necessary for nearly every function in our body. Water regulates our temperature, supports and protects our organs, helps with digestion, transports nutrients to our muscles and helps move along waste by products.

Water is, in essence, the key to fat metabolism. Here's why: one of you liver's primary functions is to metabolize stored fat to be burned for energy. If you are dehydrated, the kidneys cannot function properly and the liver begins to take over – as a result of working overtime, the liver metabolizes LESS fat so MORE fat remains in your body.

Sometimes we mistake mild states of dehydration for hunger. If we don't get enough fluids, our bodies give us indications that are similar to hunger pains. When this occurs, we start eating because we misunderstood what are bodies were telling us. Unnecessary calorie consumption can lead to excessive fat!

Water is a natural appetite suppressant. Drinking lots of water throughout the day helps to keep you feeling full. If your stomach feels full – you are less likely to overeat!

A constant supply of water is vital before, during and after a workout. Dehydration leads to a lack of energy, muscle fatigue and cramping. Even small amounts of water loss can hinder exercise performance.

Remember that alcohol and caffeine are diuretics, making you lose even more water, so be sure to compensate for the additional loss.

How to do it: You can replace the water lost during a typical day by drinking a minimum of 6-8 8 oz. glasses of water a day. Begin by drinking your first big glass of water right when you wake up. Drink a full glass of water with each meal. Keep water with you at all times.

To prevent dehydration, make sure you're drinking adequate amounts of water before, during and after a workout. As a rule of thumb, drink 8-12 ounces of water at least an hour before beginning to exercise, 8 oz during exercise and 8 oz when finished. If you are hungry about an hour after eating, try drinking a glass or two of water- you maybe misreading thirst for hunger. If you are still hungry after 15-20 minutes then proceed with a supportive snack to tide you over until your next meal.

Here's a ‘success strategy' to get you started: Make drinking water more fun by adding a slice of lemon or lime. Drink water out of a frosted mug or colorful glass. Grab-n-go flavor packets add variety to water between meals. Keep a bottle of water in the car at all times. At work, pack an allotted number of bottled water and set a goal to finish the pack by the end of the day.

For those who tend to prefer carbonated beverages to plain water try sparkling water. Not only is it crisp and refreshing, it satisfies the need for carbonation. Just make sure you choose a sparkling water that does not contain sugar or fruit juice to avoid additional calories.

So if your goal is fat loss, combine a total body strength training program, supportive nutrition and some interval training with your magic fat loss potion and you're destined for success!

About the Author

Holly Rigsby is a nationally recognized women’s fitness coach, certified personal trainer (CPT) and the author of the internationally popular e-book – Fit Yummy Mummy - Burn Your Baby Fat & Get Your Body Back. Go to http://www.loss-natural-weight.com/burn-baby-fat.html to get your FREE copy of her special report: "The Five Ways To Boost Your Metabolism."

The Problem with Weight Loss: Your Body Will Do The Opposite.

By Alwyn Cosgrove
www.WarpSpeedFatLoss.com



Homeostasis is the property of a living organism, that regulates its internal environment so as to maintain a stable, constant condition.


When you don't drink enough water in the short term -- often the body retains water. It attempts to maintain homeostasis by counteracting the stresses we put on it.


When you drink a lot of extra water - your body excretes more water to maintain balance.


When we weight train -- we actually break down muscle tissue. And the body responds by building new muscle. It attempts to maintain homeostasis by doing the reverse of the stimulus we placed on it.


When a male takes supplemental testosterone -- the body shuts down its own production in a bid to maintain homeostasis.


When we immunize children against disease -- we actually inject them with a small dose of that disease. The immune system recognizes the vaccine as foreign, destroys it, and 'remembers' it. When the virulent version of an agent comes along, the immune system is thus prepared to respond. In order to prepare the body to defend against a disease - we expose it to the disease - and it responds by doing the opposite - it destroys the disease.



In almost every situation I can think of, the body tries to maintain homeostasis by "doing the opposite" of the stimulus.


How does this apply to weight loss?


Now we know that while you are doing it -- low intensity exercise burns primarily fat.


Higher intensity exercise actually burns more carb stores than fat.


But in every head to head comparison, high intensity exercise results in more fat loss than low intensity exercise - even though the more intense work may burn a lesser percentage of fat during the exercise session.


Burning glycogen results in a larger amount of fat lost than burning fat directly.


The body responds by "doing the opposite"...


Break down muscle to grow more muscle. Burn glycogen to lose more fat.


I designed Warp Speed Fat Loss training program to specifically take advantage of this law of nature so that when your body does the opposite you'll end up with faster and greater fat loss.

About the Author/More Info:

Warp Speed Fat Loss is a complete 28 day diet and training system crafted to help you lose 10,15, or 20lbs of body fat in just 28 day. To start losing weight fast visit www.WarpSpeedFatLoss.com. Alwyn Cosgrove, M.S., C.S.C.S. is a nationally renown weight loss expert whose work has appeared in magazines such as Men's Health, Men's Fitness, Muscle & Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Men's Journal, Self, Oxygen, and Muscle & Fitness HERS. His Warp Speed Fat Loss system is a complete Done-for-You A-Z Fat Loss Blueprint that gives you exactly everything you need to eat and exactly what to do for exercise to lose weight in record time.

Lifetime Fat Loss

Lifetime Fat Loss

By Mike Roussell Phd(c)

This past weekend I got to catch up with a friend (Jack) whom I hadn’t seen in several months. Like most people Jack hadn’t really changed in appearance since the last time we saw each other (around the 1st of the year). Jack and I talked for a while about stuff (Mario Kart for the Nintendo Wii, the increasing price of corn, how summer TV is really bad, you know the usual) then as many of my conversations seem to go Jack started asking me about nutrition and fat loss.

Basically Jack was pretty frustrated. He said that he had been dieting for “as long as I can remember” but somehow he still had 15lbs to lose. Some further interrogation (okay I wasn’t interrogating my friend) Jack ‘fessed up that while he was a lifetime dieter his compliance to his fat loss diet was pretty bad.

This resulted in something that I find with a lot of people. Because Jack was supposed to be “dieting” he would never feel like he could enjoy non-clean foods or foods in normal/larger quantities, so he’d feel guilty when he ate them, get discouraged, fall off the wagon, wait until Monday, and start dieting again.

This cycle would repeat week after week, month after month. The end result was Jack wasn’t losing the weight he wanted and he was burnt out and discouraged because he felt like he had been dieting forever and not getting anywhere.

* Have you found yourself in this situation?
* Do you find yourself in this situation?

The best cure for the lifetime dieter that I have found is an all out blitz. Jack has been getting lost in 12 week fat loss programs, so shorter (and more extreme) program is better for him. I told Jack about Warp Speed Fat Loss and explained that there were a couple rules he needed to follow if he was going to do the program.

1. No Cheating - He needed to stick to the diet 100%

2. No Skipping Workouts - There are only 24 workouts so he has to do everyone

3. Completed Focused Effort - No training for a marathon, spinning classes 3x a week, etc. All his efforts needed to be focused on losing as much weight as fast as possible.

4. He Had To Let People Know - Tell people about what he was doing would put the pressure on Jack to really make the 28 days fat loss sprint work. 28 days isn’t that long and if he told friends and coworkers they were sure to check in with him to see how he did (plus most people would assume that losing 15lbs in 3-4 weeks isn’t possible so they would be intrigued enough to find out what happened).

He agreed that rapid weight loss was what he needed to end his lifetime of dieting, he agreed to my 4 stipulations, and he started Warp Speed Fat Loss on Monday.

Now, have you been dieting forever?

If you are tired of 12 week diets and just want to get the weight off and get it over with then check out the complete rapid weight loss system I put together with expert trainer Alwyn Cosgrove at www.WarpSpeedFatLoss.com.

But you need to agree to the above 4 rules too.

The time to end a lifetime of dieting is now and you deserve to be in the best shape of your life.

Let’s make that happen together.

About the Author/More Info:
Warp Speed Fat Loss is a complete 28 day diet and training system crafted to help you lose 10,15, or 20lbs of body fat in just 28 day. To start losing weight fast visit www.WarpSpeedFatLoss.com. Mike Roussell is a nutrition doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania. Mike’s writings can be found in magazines such as Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, and Testosterone Nation. Mike specializes in fat loss nutrition and diets for busy men and women who need to lose weight fast without it interfering with their lives. Warp Speed Fat Loss is a complete Done-for-You A-Z Fat Loss Blueprintthat gives you exactly everything you need to eat to lose weight in record time.

Listen to Maintainers, Not to Losers: 5 secrets to keeping the weight off for good

By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.BurnTheFat.com

I have very little interest these days in all the media-hyped stories of dramatic, rapid losses of body weight. “Big losers” don’t impress me, for numerous reasons. For example, weight is not fat. “Weight” could be composed of mostly lean tissue, or it could be mostly water weight. In fact, I would go a step further and point out that rapid loss of bodyweight correlates very highly with a greater chance of relapse, weight re-gain and long term failure.

So what does impress me? What gets my attention?

I pay attention to what the “long term maintainers” have to say - those are the people who have maintained an ideal weight for over a year… preferably even 2-5 years or more.

The difference between losers and maintainers

As I was researching the subject of long term weight maintenance recently, I was surprised at the huge amount of research that's already been done in this area.

One paper that caught my interest was published by Judy Kruger and colleagues in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, titled,

“Dietary and physical activity behaviors among adults successful at weight loss maintenance.”

This was not an experimental study, but a compilation of data from the “Styles Survey” which was representative of the U.S. population and asked respondants questions about strategies to aid with maintaining an ideal weight.

In this particular survey, only one-third (30.96%) of the respondents said they were successful at keeping their weight off. The researchers wanted to know the difference between the small group that was successful and the majority that were not.

Both groups reduced the amount of food they consumed, they ate smaller portions, more fruits and vegetables, fewer fatty foods and fewer sweetened beverages.

Not really any surprises there, but what we want to know most is not what losers and maintainers have in common, but what the maintainers did that the losers didn't.

Some major differences emerged between losers and maintainers:

First, a significantly higher proportion of successful maintainers reported exercising 30 minutes or more daily, and they also reported adding other physical activity to their daily schedules (recreation, sports, physical work, etc). In addition, more of the successful maintainers included weight training in their exercise regimens than did the losers.

Reducing sedentary activities (TV watching, etc) was also a significant difference between those who successfully maintained and those who did not.

The next big difference that separated the successful maintainers from the unsuccessful was in their “self-monitoring behaviors” including:

• tracking calories
• tracking body weight
• planning meals
• tracking fat
• measuring the amount of food on their plate

Unfortunately, these types of self-monitoring behaviors, especially weighing and measuring food and counting calories, are among the most avoided and even criticized weight control techniques. Some weight loss “experts” even claim that it's detrimental to count calories, weigh yourself or measure and weigh your food.

However, these self monitoring behaviors are being identified more and more frequently in the research as part of “the difference that makes the difference.” I agree, and they have always played a major role in my own Burn The Fat program.

A final difference was that people who reported self-perceived “barriers” to their success were 48-76% less likely to be a successful maintainer.

For example, they said they had no time to exercise, they were too tired to exercise or it was too hard to maintain an exercise routine. I interpret this as: the unsuccessful losers were excuse makers!

THE TOP 5 STRATEGIES TO BE A SUCCESSFUL MAINTAINER

So let’s recap and turn these research findings into some practical action steps you can apply today.

1. Increase your total daily activity level, including formal exercise as well as sports, physical work or recreational activity. Exercise improves weight loss, but more importantly, it is critical for weight maintenance.

2. Decrease sedentary recreational activities by cutting back on TV watching, computer games and web surfing. Take up physical recreation such as sports, boating, biking, walking, hiking, gardening, physical hobbies and playing with your kids, if you have them.

3. Include weight training as part of your formal exercise program, throughout the fat loss phase and even more seriously during maintenance.

4. Track and monitor everything! Count calories and nutrients, measure your portion sizes, weigh your food, plan your menus in writing and monitor your body weight and body fat percentage.

5. Avoid excuses and maintain positive beliefs and attitudes towards your environment and what you perceive as “barriers.” For example, say, “I can always make time for what is most important to me” instead of, “I don't have time to exercise.”

If you're currently on a fat loss journey, and you want to know how good your odds are for being a successful maintainer, it's pretty easy to predict using these 5 strategies. If you're not using all 5 of them yet, then when would be a good time to start today?

There are limitations to survey results such as these, including the fact that they are cross sectional, and therefore cannot prove causality. However, I believe these findings are important and significant.

Not only do they confirm previous similar studies and agree with the findings of other groups of successful maintainers (such as the National Weight Control Registry), I found that these results match precisely what I've seen among my most successful “Burn The Fat” clients.

THIS is the type of advice I'd suggest you listen to the most: Advice about how to lose body FAT, not body WEIGHT, and how to maintain an ideal bodyweight and body composition over the long haul, not how to lose weight as fast as possible.

Your friend and coach,

Tom Venuto
Fat Loss Coach
www.BurnTheFat.com

P.S. There was one more “difference that made the difference,” in this study, and this one may surprise you (although it didn’t surprise me). Successful maintainers were LESS likely to take over the counter diet products (pills, etc).

About the Author:

Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified personal trainer and freelance fitness writer. Tom is the author of "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using secrets of the world's best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: www.burnthefat.com