Boosting the Metabolic Rate

Some exercises can increase the metabolism for up to 15 hours after the workout. This normally happens when the intensity of the exercise is high, such as for many anaerobic exercises. It accelerates the metabolism because the muscles need to recover from the stress. Intense mechanical stress brakes down some of the structural elements within the protein filaments of the muscle cells, and it also degrades the chains of stored glycogen (carbs in muscles).

Repairing these elements requires the body to send more protein and nutrients to these exhausted muscles so they can restore the muscle back to their pre-workout state. The process to restore muscle elements (usually referred to as Anabolism) creates a greater need for energy, thus the metabolism is speeded up until the muscle cells are restored back to normal. As the oxygen consumption is back to normal, most of the extra energy can be supplied through excess fat stores.

For this reason, it is important to exercise regularly in order to lose weight faster than just dieting alone. However, the most important secret is to exercise early in the morning so your metabolism is elevated for the day ahead. This means your body can be in a fat burning mode for longer periods so you get the most out of every workout you do. Meaning you can exercise less for greater results than those who exercise mid to later in the day and then ruin it by resting at a time when they could be making the most of an increase in metabolism.

Putting Carbohydrates Into Perspective

One of the misconceptions about the food pyramid guide that's often repeated in many popular diets is that eating plenty of carbohydrates is recommended. yes, the idea is to build a base of grain foods but not an unlimited amount of them.

When fat became villainous in the 1990's, carbohydrate foods became known as a bit of free foods, because they're often fat free. That kind of thinking led to overconsumption of carbohydrates. For example, how many people does a one-pound box of spaghetti serve in your house? If it's fewer than four, you're eating too much. There are eight servings in a pound of cooked pasta; having two would be the equivalent of two servings, the same as a sandwich.

The other lost message in the guide to food pyramid is that most of the carbohydrate servings are whole grains. however, USDA data shows that we eat less than one serving of whole grains a day.

For more information on the Golden Rules to Healthy Eating

Answers to many weight loss questions

Eating Junk Food & Still Losing Weight!

Can we still eat junk foods and lose weight?

This is a question I have see a few times in the weight loss forums online. The answer is simple, YES.

It is possible to lose weight and eat junk foods. Losing weight is about making sure that for the majority of time, we are consuming fewer calories than the body requires. If this is achieved consistently, then weight will gradually fall off.

The problem is many dieters eating junk food, often end up consuming more calories than they should. Put it this way, even if you only consume a little less energy than required, such as 100 calories per day, you still won't see much in the way of weight loss. You need to cut calories by roughly 500 per day (made up of dieting & extra activity), in order to see significant results on the scales.

Junk foods generally provide more calories per serving than healthier foods, thus it's so much easier to go past calorie quotas.
So, yes losing weight while eating junk food is possible, but it may become much harder to see the results on the scales and in the mirror.

What are the pitfalls of eating junk when trying to lose body fat?

Ways to tackle over-eating when dieting to lose fat weight

More Weight Loss Tips & Tricks

Here are a few more dieting tips while I was just thinking them up in my head.

1. Buy a few dried herbs and spices so you can add them to the healthy "boring" foods to make them taste a little better. Don't be scared of experimenting with flavours too.

2. Try your best to drink more water over tea and coffee. Water has no calories in it so it's best way to fill up with before a meal to limit the amount consumed.

3. Eat higher fibre foods with each meal. These will fill you up quicker so we consume less energy at each meal, thus reduce total calories for the day.

4. Don't neglect protein foods. We need a steady supply of essential proteins sources to help maintain a good metabolism for losing weight effectively.

5. Exercising does not have to mean going to the gym or running about outside. ANY activity will burn calories and help with weight loss,
try:
more cleaning, playing with pets, general household chores or fixing things to increase your calories burned each day!

Good luck!

Weight loss Help Pages!

Move at the Hips Please!

I once had a client ask me how to burn a greater amount of calories when exercising. After seeing her exercise, I noticed she had a tendency to limit her movements. Yes, she moved continuously but, the movements were either limited, or she moved only the smaller muscle groups.

I informed her that to burn more energy during exercise, she really needed to use the bigger muscle groups of the body. For her, it meant moving more at her hips, and less at the shoulders and arms.

Imagine the difference between squat thrusts, and performing arm lateral raises? The arm raises will burn much less energy because the muscles involved are small groups. Squats thrusts will burn more because she would be using the muscles of the thighs, buttocks, and all the torso together.

I think this is one reason why doing tons of sit ups will never beat performing aerobic workouts to burn more energy and help lose fat around the belly. Aerobic workouts include a whole host of general movements which require more effort; such as, standing, bending at the knees, lunges and squats, as well as twists of the torso.

Burning large amounts of energy can be acieved quicker if we put more effort into all our movements, whether exercising or doing daily chores!

Learn How To Lose Weight Permanently

Metabolism Talk

I was talking to a client the other day, and she asked about the metabolism.

I pointed out that I believe it would be much better to increase the metabolism a month or so before starting any new diet.

The reason is because a diet low in calories will inevitably lead to a decrease in lean muscle, which in turn causes a lower metabolic rate.

Exercising before a low calorie diet helps raise lean mass as there will be sufficient calorie intake to enable anabolic processes to occur. This means you would be burning many more calories just to maintain normal weight. At this stage she would be able to reduce food intake a little but get some good results quickly. Plus, she will have much more room to decrease intake further once she hits a plateau in weight loss.

Continuous weight loss requires the ability to adjust diet / exercise at regular intervals, if a person drops calories too low then they would have no room to adjust when the body adapts to the intake.
A higher metabolism gives the ability to adjust without starving oneself!

Learn more about the body and how to lose weight at weightlossforall

Does eating little and often really help lose weight?

Many weight loss experts have stated that eating regularly helps burn off more energy within the body. This is due to the extra energy costs involved with digestion and absorption. In fact, as much as 10% of the energy within each meal can be lost through these processes, meaning there's less that can be stored in the fat cells.

However, there is a downside to eating regularly.
Every time we eat our blood sugar levels rise. This means we have more carbs available for fuel. Carbohydrates are our body's preferrred energy source and thus will use up carbs more readily than stored fat. Keeping this in mind, the more carbs available, the less chance the body gets to burn up further amounts of fat. So if eating frequently is good for weight loss, then how are we supposed to get rid of the stored fat?

Obviously, the answer is in the number of calories used, to those ingested. It's ok to eat regularly as long as the number of total calories consumed each day is less than we burn off. In this case our body has no choice but to tap into energy reserves in the fat cells. The trouble for many dieters is that if they need to eat only 1800 calories per day in order to lose weight, then it would be ingedibly hard to eat 6 or 7 times during the day without going over this small calorie intake.

When we are hungry our body is telling us that blood sugar is low. Thus if carbs in the blood is low, then this is one of the best times for our body to tap into fat burning mode. This doesn't happen for long because many of us don't like hunger pains so we relieve them by eating. This means there isn't much time for burning the fat!

Maybe there needs to be a happy medium, it may be best to eat at least 3 times per day, but I also believe it's important for a dieter to push through the hunger phase, not to starve oneself, but to get used to feeling hungry for up to an hour before actually eating any food.

For more ideas on how to lose weight click here!

Do Calories Still Count?

Yes, the rule is still true: If you take on more calories than you burn you will gain weight, and if you burn more calories than you take in you will lose weight. Seems simple, doesn't it?

Well, it's not quite that simple. Recent research suggests that there may be more to it than just calories in and calories out.

Learn more about how to lose weight correctly for your type of body by visiting our site and diving into the articles we have.
Lose Weight for Good!

Getting Good 6-Pack Abdominals

3 keys to 6-pack abs and the fat burning formula
By Tom Venuto

One woman recently wrote to me and said she would do anything to have a body like Miss Fitness Olympia, Monica Brant.

The very next day, another woman e-mailed me and said, “I wanna look like Demi Moore, Sheryl Crow, Halle Berry or Jennifer Aniston, NOT Miss Olympia.”

A 19 year old wrote to me and said he wanted to get huge – absolutely massive – like the pro bodybuilders.

Other guys tell me they don’t want to get too big – they want to fit into their business suits nicely and they just want to take a few inches off their waist, and get that “Men’s Fitness” look.

I’m not sure what your idea of a “perfect body” looks like because everyone has different goals and different standards of physical attractiveness.

But there is one thing that everyone wants …

ADBOMINALS!!!

I’ve never met a single person, male or female, young or old, who didn’t want a lean, flat stomach with a “six pack” of abs.

Abs are the one “defining” part of the body considered universally attractive and desirable… abdominal flab is always an unwanted guest.

Ironically, getting great abs is the one goal that seems to elude most people.

How many people do you know – maybe even yourself – who have successfully reduced their body fat percentage, taken in their belt a few notches, dropped a few pounds, and yet still, they don’t have that rock-hard, flat-stomach six-pack look?

When you flip through the fitness magazines, you see awesome abs everywhere, but when you go to the beach, the pool or the park in the summer, how many sets of six pack abs do you actually see in public?

You have to agree – a truly impressive set of six pack abs is a rare sight.

Why is it so hard to achieve the ripped abs look, and how do you get it? There is an answer and explanation.

Most people are either going about it completely wrong, or they are on the right track, but their approach is incomplete.

The first place they stumble is that they believe abdominal exercises alone will get them a six pack. Abdominal exercise strengthens and develops the abdominal muscles but it does not necessarily remove body fat.

You could have great abdominal muscle development, and abdominal strength, but if your body fat percentage is too high, then you still will not be able to see them.

This is because most of your fat is “subcutaneous” – which means the fat is stored right UNDER your skin, but ON TOP of your muscles – covering up your muscle definition.

A good example of this is when a competitive bodybuilder “bulks up” after a competition, gaining excess body fat. This bodybuilder already has impressive muscle mass and awesome abdominal muscle development. The muscles are still there – underneath - but when they get covered over with fat they simply are not visible.

So, the #1 key to getting great abs is body fat reduction.

If your body fat is not low enough, you will never see your abs. You need a method for reducing body fat to a level low enough that allows your abdominals to show through.

And if you’re ambitious and you want truly “ripped” abs, then your body fat level has to be so low, that your skin literally lies right on top of your abdominal muscles (imagine the skin tightly clinging to your abdominal muscles like saran wrap!)

The ideal fat reduction method must include nutrition, cardio training and strength training. Ask yourself, are you leaving out any one of these critical components?

Are you dieting without exercising? Are you doing cardio, but not weight training? Are you training hard, but eating poorly? If you answered yes to any of these questions then you are going to have difficulty getting the six pack abs look until you get all three into place at the same time.

The research has proven without a doubt that diet alone is very ineffective at keeping fat off permanently. When strength and cardio training are added, results are not only improved but also maintained long term.

Key #2 is to diet properly in a manner that is hormonally and physiologically correct, in order to make sure you avoid hitting a fat loss plateau.

It is extremely common to get great results initially, but then you hit a fat loss plateau within 4-12 weeks. Sound familiar?

This occurs because there is a lag time before your body recognizes a severe calorie deficit and when it does, your body fights back to maintain homeostasis

Once your body starts getting clear signals that there is a food shortage, your metabolic rate will decrease. Fat burning hormones like leptin and thyroid will also decrease and the appetite center in your brain will get turned on full blast.

This explains from a physiological point of view, why “the last 10 pounds” is so hard to lose – it’s because your body went into “starvation mode” before you got lean enough to see your abs.

How do you avoid starvation mode? It’s simple – don’t starve yourself! My entire Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle program is based on this premise:

It’s better to burn the fat than to starve the fat (eat more, burn more)

Key #3 to 6-pack abs and the body you want is to use the right combination of cardio and strength training.

There are actually three different types of training you must do to get great abs.
One is cardio vascular training to assist with the fat burning process.

The second is weight training - for your entire body – which will increase lean body mass. Lean muscle is the engine that drives your metabolism.

The third is the specific abdominal exercises.

Ab exercises alone don’t work.

“Diets don’t work” is more than a cliché, it is a physiological truth.

Exercise combined with nutrition is the answer, not one or the other.

When I developed my Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle program, I based the program on all three of these keys… plus the motivational tools you need to put these keys to work in your life. Burn The Fat is not merely a diet program and not just an exercise program. It’s both.

When you add the “mental training” component into the mix, which includes setting goals properly, visualizing, affirming, and focusing your mind on what you want (not what you want to avoid), this gives you the motivation to stick with your exercise and nutrition program more easily and consistently.

And there you have it… the fat burning, ab revealing formula:

weight training + cardio training + mental training + nutrition
Check out Tom Venuto's new 4-part Audio tele-seminar


www.weightlossforall.com

Raise Metabolism with little Exercise

Raising the metabolism is the best way to burn body fat stores, and experts will agree that exercising more will help raise your metabolism. The problem is many people don’t want to be exercising for hours in the gym just to speed up the metabolic rate. People want to spend less time exercising. So how little exercise needs to be done in order to boost the metabolism rate?

Can you raise the metabolic rate without long exercise sessions?

Is it possible to it with very little exercise, and without the need to exercise aerobically such as jogging, cycling or doing an hour of this or that?

The answer is yes! It is possible to raise the speed of metabolism without lots of exercise. I know this because my metabolism rose quickly when I first started weight training many years ago. At the time I wanted to build strength and muscle and I knew it was important to start light and gradually build strength without trying to do it within the first few workouts.

I started weight training by performing only 3 main exercises; squats, dead lift and bench press. These are multi-joint exercises that target the major muscle groups of the body, thus I was getting a whole body routine with only 3 exercises. When performed correctly these three exercises tax the major muscles and stimulate muscular growth quickly. This is how I was able to raise my metabolism quickly without doing many exercises. By training all the biggest muscles of the body I was also burning a lot of energy within a small time span.

I performed the 3 exercises twice each week for a total workout time of around 30 minutes, that’s one hour per week to raise the metabolism quickly. I performed the routine in a progressive manner, starting off very light for the first few workouts then gradually worked at building up the resistance every session. If I managed to do ten repetitions with my regular weight I would raise the resistance for the next session and again keep trying to complete ten repetitions before increasing the resistance.

This routine helped speed up my metabolic rate within a week or two, but the only problem was it did take some effort and determination. In the beginning the workouts seemed far too easy, but after a few weeks when the weights started getting heavy I had to dig deep and keep pushing myself. I believe this is NOT a routine for obese people as it requires a certain degree of fitness; hard training places a lot of strain on the heart. For this reason I would recommend you consult with your doctor and a qualified instructor before attempting a routine of high intensity weight training. If you have a slow metabolism when dieting you should try to learn more about why this happens, then you can increase your metabolism quickly.

For more information on how to lose weight!

Stretch Both the Stomach & Muscles When Losing Weight!

There is some research showing that when the stomach is stretched the nerves send messages to brain to stop eating because it is now full. An overweight person who has gained weight through regularly overeating will have a large, stretched stomach. If the research is correct then, the stretched stomach could be causing problems when they attempt to lose weight. Ingesting fewer calories by eating smaller portions means the stomach walls don’t get stretched enough after each meal. This means there will be no trigger to cause a halt in the appetite. The result is the dieter will have a constant feeling of hunger, and this may hinder the possibility of losing weight successfully over the forthcoming years.

Getting Fat From Muscles

There are some scientists that are claiming some obese people have muscles that are "programmed" to collect fat.

The phenomenon, dubbed metabolic memory, could explain why slimmers find it difficult to lose weight AND keep it off.

Instead, dieters would be better off exercising, as this seems to be more effective at reprogramming the muscle memory syndrome.

The scientists claim that a fat-building enzyme was three times more abundant in muscle taken from obese people than that taken from thinner people. It showed there was a link between obesity, diabetes and fat build-up in muscle.

The cells of obese people seemed to remember their metabolic programme, which explains mostly why people with obesity find it so difficult to lose weight from dieting alone. Experts believe its possible to reprogram the cells and their metabolic memory through regular exercise.

Learn more about losing weight here!

A New Recipe with Low Calories

I have found a new recipe this week, it's chicken soup. I feel I have to tell others about it because its low in calories and tastes delicious.

Here are the ingredients:

2 Chicken breasts
2 tablespoons olive oil
Half chopped onion
Half crushed garlic clove
Half stick celery
1 teaspoon grated ginger
4 cups hot water
2 beaten egg whites
Chopped flat leaf parsley
salt & pepper

Method for cooking low calorie chicken soup

Firstly, cook the chicken in order to shred it into the soup later. I heat up some oil in a frying pan, add chicken breasts (small pieces) and cook for several minutes until browned and cooked through. Once they reach this stage I then remove them from the pan using the correct utensil and leave to cool a little ready to shred up into soup soon.

Then I add separate olive oil to the pan, along with garlic and onion and cook until the onions are soft. I add the celery and ginger and continue to cook for a further 5 minutes. I then add the water and I shred in the chicken(providing its cooled a little so I can handle it). Continue to heat it up and then stir in the egg whites, parsley and salt pepper.

Here are a few more low calories recipes to try out for free!

Numerous different common foods with revealing calorie content.

More info on losing weight here!

Weight loss Q & A

Q: What are the best thermogenic fat burning foods for burning body fat?

A: That depends on your definition of a "fat burning food." When you say "thermogenic," many people instantly think of supplements or exotic herbs, hot spices or foods like cayenne, chili pepper, mustard, cider vinegar, guarana, green tea, etc., which "magically" ramp up your metabolism and burn off body fat.

There might be some science behind some of those things, but focusing on tiny details (especially before you’ve mastered the fundamentals) is putting your attention in the wrong place. It’s like getting excited by the idea that drinking enough ice cold water is "thermogenic" and is going to get you ripped because the body has to "warm it up" and that expends energy... when meanwhile, you're skipping meals, drinking beer every weekend and working out sporadically or not at all. That makes no sense.

I agree that details are important and that little things matter, but when you give too much attention to small stuff (and "weird stuff"), before you know it, you’ve fallen for the latest cabbage or grapefruit diet. Focus on the big stuff first - the fat burning fundamentals - only then begin to "nit-pick" and take advantage of those "little things" that might help an extra percentage here and a percentage there.

Actually ALL foods are "thermogenic" because the body must use energy to digest them. This is known as the "thermic effect of food" (TEF) or "specific dynamic action of food." When you say "thermogenic food" to me, I think of REAL, WHOLE FOODS, and the most thermogenic fat burning food (my "favorite") is lean protein from solid foods, especially lean meats. Protein powders are great for convenience and some - like whey - even have functional properties (as antioxidants and immune boosters), but powders aren't as thermogenic as real food.

It’s commonly known that of all the macronutrients (protein, carbs and fat), lean protein has the highest thermic effect. Personally, I believe the thermic effect of protein is even higher than most people realize.

Combine thermogenic lean protein foods with the right amounts and types of essential fats, add in plenty of green vegetables and just the right amount of natural starchy carbs and whole grains (at the right times), and your body will literally turn into a fat burning machine - without drugs, supplements or weird diet gimmicks.

You can learn more about this entire process of natural thermogenesis using real food (not pills or powders) in my Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle e-book. You'll also learn all the fat loss fundamentals, which are responsible for 80-90% of your results. Also, for a limited time, you can get two three free reports about fat burning foods when you order the Burn The Fat, Feed the Muscle e-book: (1) Foods That Burn Fat, (2) Foods That Turn to Fat, and (3) The A Food B Food Lecture: How To get Good Grades on Your Food Choices. Visit the home page for more details - click here: Tom's Website:

www.weightlossforall.com

Eating 2 to 4 servings of Fruit

I find breakfast is a good place to start building up my fruit servings. I start with a glass of juice, then add some fresh blueberries or strawberries to my breakfast cereal. With a small piece of fruit around 12 midday, I have already completed half my quota!

I try to make at least 1 serving from citrus fruit. Orange and grapefruit juice are standard options.

When possible I select fresh fruit in season. In the Northern hemiphere, strawberries are available in February and apples in May. If they are not in season they must be flown into the market from other climates or placed into storage.
out of season fruit tend to be grown for longevity rather than flavor. it's no wonder so many people are turned off by fruit when it means red but flavorless winter strawberries or mushy melons!
instead choosing oranges or grapefruit in winter and berries in spring, means there's a better chance that the fruit was grown locally and will end up tasting juicy and fresh!

For more information on how healthy Fruit can be, check out Foods rich in Vitamin C