5 Ways to Burn Calories to Lose Weight

5 Ways to Burn Calories to Lose Weight

widido   1 comment  

Let’s be honest with ourselves.  If we want to lose weight we need to try to find ways to burn calories and hopefully burn fat as well.  Now it would be ideal if we could burn calories and lose weight by watching television.  After all, I am a big sports fan and and I do get rather worked up during certain games, so shouldn’t it be enough to watch others burn calories.  Unfortunately, watching sporting events won’t help me lose weight.  Maybe it has something to do with the bag of chips sitting to my right.

So the question is what are some good ways to burn calories, lose weight, burn fat or whatever else you want to call it?  I have a few suggestions and some of them are a little different.   Each one will stoke the fires of your fat burning machine and have you losing weight in no time.  That is if you stop eating a bag of chips while you watch a football game.

Plyometrics

Some of you are asking, “What is plyometrics?.”  To put it simply it is basically jumping your butt off.  And if you have a butt that needs a little reduction then plyometrics is one way to burn calories at a fairly rapid pace.  I am not going to go into an extensive discussion of plyometrics in this post.  I will reserve that for a future one.  But suffice it to say plyometrics will speed up your ability to lose weight.

Plyometrics involves explosive jumps.  Often times it involves jumping onto a plyometric box.  If you have never done this you don’t know what you are missing.  Broad jumps, squat thrusts, side hops are all forms of plyometric exercise.  Each will get your heart rate elevated and place you squarely in the fat burning zone.  Stay tuned in the near future for an extensive post on plyometrics.    However, for now focus on side hops, broad jumps and jumping in place.

Tabata

The Tabata Protocol is an exercise protocol named after Dr. Izumi Tabata of the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo, Japan. The Tabata protocol is 4 minutes of exercise alternating between short periods of intense exercise and rest.  It consists of eight rounds of 20 seconds of exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest.  This as I said is repeated for 8 rounds.  Four minutes later you will be done.  You may be asking yourself how tough can that be and how will this type of exercise ever burn calories and help me lose weight?  Well, it is amazingly tough.  I like to refer to it as a four minute trip into hell.

Now what you are going to do is to take 5 mini trips into hell back to back.  Twenty minutes later you will have burned more calories than you can imagine.  You can do a variety of exercises in a Tabata fashion but here are some that I would recommend:  push-ups, body weight squats, pull-ups, sit-ups, box jumps, jumping in place, dumbbell overhead press, dumbbell curls, and handstand press.  You can mix and match them to come up with 5 exercises to work into your Tabata Exercise Protocol.  You will be pleased with the weight you lose and the fat that you shed.

Sledgehammer Training

Alright, I know this is an odd fitness tool.  If you need to break up some concrete this is good but to exercise with?   Swinging a sledgehammer is exhausting.  Your heart rate will climb, your will burn calories and ultimately lose weight.

You can stop by a flea market or go to a used tire store in your area and come up with a larger truck tire.  Take it home, lay it in your backyard, break out your sledgehammer and go to work on the tire.  I would recommend swinging for 1 minute at a time and then taking a 1 minute break.  If you cannot swing it for one minute then break the time periods down into more manageable segments.

It does not have to be a 12 lb sledgehammer.  Start with a 6 lb one and then work your way up and your are better able to handle it.  If you scour yard sales, garage sales, flea markets, etc you can probably come up with a sledgehammer (or should I say calorie burning, fat burning, weight losing fitness equipment) pretty cheap.

Burpees

For my money Burpees are the best fat burning exercise around.  If I could only do one exercise for the rest of time then this would be it.  It is truly a full body workout.  And if you haven’t figured this out yet allow me to let you in on a little secret.  Full body workouts burn calories and prompt you to lose weight at an incredibly quick rate.  If you are unsure of what a Burpee is then you can view the video below.  That is enough said about Burpees.  You need to incorporate these into your fat burning workouts.  They are a must.



Interval Training

Interval training is a must is you want to lose weight and burn calories at a rapid pace.  Interval training has proven itself in studies to be much more effective than “steady state aerobics.”  Inteval training is similar to to tabata in that it is a period of high intensity exercise followed by a period of low intensity exercise.  An example woud be sprinting for 30 seconds and then walking for 30 - 45 seconds.  Then you will repeat the cycle over and over again.  In a future post I will go into the science behind the effectiveness of interval training.  But for now understand that you need to incorporate it into your workouts if you hope to burn fat, burn calories and lose weight.

If you work all five of these ideas into your fitness program it will have a dramatic effect on your health and your weight loss.  Try them out. But as always, (especially due to the high intensity nature of the suggestions above) seek out your doctors approval.

How to Burn Belly Fat and Get a Flat Belly

How to Burn Belly Fat and Get a Flat Belly

widido   Comment  

Everyone wants a flat belly. We want the washboard abs and the ripped midsection. There are a multitude of programs designed to get you exactly that: a flat belly. Many have created gadgets or exercise tools to get you there. I hate to tell you this but if you have excess fat around your midsection the you can do crunches, sit-ups, ab rollers, ab chairs, ab balls or any other ab exercise until the cows come home and it won’t make much difference.

I understand the desire to get rid of belly fat and concur with the obsession with it. Belly fat is more dangerous than any other type of fat. Belly fat is considered a contributing factor to heart disease and other diseases. Not to mention the fact that you don’t look so great in a bikini or swimsuit.

But losing belly fat is dependent on your ability to burn calories and lose weight. If you want to lose belly fat then it is imperative that you diet and exercise. The exercise with help you burn calories, the diet will enable you to restrict calories and the combination of the two will begin to make war on the fat around your belly.

Stop falling for the gimmicks and buckle down and stick to what works. Eat sensible smaller meals about four times per day and exercise at least four times per week. I would recommend at least a 45 minute brisk walk on the days that you are not exercising.

Weight training should be a part of your exercise program as well as some form of exercise that gets your heart rate up. This can be cardio, body weight exercise, interval training or some program like Turbulence Training.

So if you want to burn belly fat get out there and dedicate yourself to a sensible diet and consistent exercise program and you will begin to see results.

Just one final word. It has been my experience that belly fat is one of the last areas where the fat will leave. You will probably lose fat in other areas first but stay dedicated and and the fat will begin to disappear from your belly.

2 Simple Food to lower cholesterol naturally

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2 Simple Food to lower cholesterol naturally

I am Julak   Comment  

Heart disease, stroke, erectile dysfunction and high blood pressure are some typical problem associated with high cholesterol. These are disease affects our life adversely and may even cause death. You have to address your high cholesterol before it hits you badly

The easiest way to do this is through your diet. Foods that are high in saturated fats can greatly contribute to the amount of cholesterol that you have. This includes fried foods, fattier cuts of meats, different cheeses, and processed foods like cookies, cakes, and cold cuts.

A strict diet is require for people with very cholesterol. It requires total calories to be limited as obesity is a man contributor to high cholesterol. Such diet will also limit the amount of cholesterol intake to not more then 300mg and that the calories derive from fat is not more then 7%. Typically 140 of 2000 calories of daily required calories. However for some lucky few, cutting back on the saturated fat foods is all that is require to lower their cholesterol to a optimal level.

Exercise and diet goes hand in hand to lower cholesterol naturally, especially if diet alone is not enough to bring the cholesterol level down. Doctor may also advise cholesterol lowering drugs if your cholesterol is extremely high.

When you are considering controlling your cholesterol with a diet plan, there are two "super foods" that you should consider adding to your diet. One is fish, and the other is fiber.

Fish is a good choice for anyone that is looking for a healthier diet. High in protein, it can be used as a substitute for fattier red meats as one of your protein choices. Fatty and cold water fish also contain omega 3 fatty acids. Omega 3s have a variety of health boosting benefits. One of these is the fact that Omega 3s ca help with your cholesterol problems. Omega 3s naturally boost your HDL cholesterol level. HDL cholesterol is the cholesterol that is carried away from your heart to the liver where it can be used, which in turn helps and prevents heart disease. This can help you naturally lower the levels of bad cholesterol, bring down your blood pressure, and reduce your risk of clots that could cause heart attacks or strokes.

Regular intake of oatmeal has been shown to reduce cholesterol naturally. Nutrients from fruits and vegetables has the effect of increasing the good cholesterol thereby reducing the bad cholesterol and helps fight the high cholesterol problem. Furthermore the fiber in grains, fruits and veggies keeps you full and regulate the digestive system. Most importantly the fiber absorb the fats in the guts before it gets absorb by the body in the small intestine. All these will help lower cholesterol naturally.

A healthy level of cholesterol can be achieved by some simple changes to your diet.

Training Secret for Lean Muscle And Flat Abs

Fat Loss Fitness Tips Flat Abs HIIT Interval Training

Training Secret for Lean Muscle And Flat Abs

widido   Comment  

HIIT training has really exploded in popularity in the last few years. And with good reason. High intensity interval training works! But if you want HIIT training to work for you, you need to know how to make it part of your exercise routine.

You see, long, slow, boring cardio isn’t the best way to lose fat and bring out that sexy, lean muscle you have hidden under there. Don’t get me wrong, old fashioned cardio can be part of an overall program that helps you burn fat, but the “bang for your buck” isn’t as great as hiit.

If you don’t know what hiit is, in its most basic form, you performs short bursts of high intensity exercise (like sprints), with brief periods of rest. For example, you might sprint the straightaway of a track and slow jog the turns and repeat for 8 or 10 “sets.”

It’s not an easy way to work out, but your workouts will be shorter and you’ll love the results. IF you do HIIT correctly. And this is where a lot of people run into problems with interval training.

Regular cardio doesn’t burn nearly as many calories as most people think it does. Want to know how many calories are burned during a marathon of 26.2 miles? Sure, it varies from person to person based on body weight, lean muscle mass, how fast you run, etc. but on average a marathoner burns about 2,500 to 3,500 calories running one marathon.

There are 3,500 calories in a pound of fat. Let’s say that’s how many calories you would burn running a marathon. So if you eat the exact number of calories your metabolism burns off in a week all you have to do is add a marathon every week and you’ll drop a pound a week!

Image by Huffinftonpost

That sounds great, doesn’t it? There’s also the small problem that a good percentage of that weight would be muscle, you wouldn’t lose just fat. Have you seen what a marathon runner looks like? Is that the body you want? I didn’t think so.

And that’s assuming that your calorie intake and calorie burn are equal. Most people start exercising because they’ve gained weight, ie, are eating more calories than they are burning off.

And let’s face it, if you did run a marathon every week, we both know you’d be eating a lot more than you are right now!

So if you don’t want to run a marathon or two every week AND you actually want to get results from your exercise program, what’s left? HIIT Training, of course!

With interval training, you get a one two punch of calories burned DURING your workout, as well as calories burned AFTER your workout (up to 39 hours!)!

Due to the high intensity nature of HIIT training, you will see an increase in excess post exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). What this means is that your metabolism will stay elevated for many hours after you are finished the exercise, allowing you to burn more calories even while doing nothing.

There is little to no EPOC from a low intensity session, meaning your metabolism does not rise, and you burn few, if any calories after the exercise session is over (R. Bahr, et al., “Effect of Intensity on Exercise and Excess Post-Exercise O2 Consumption,” Metabolism 40.8 (1991): 836-841.)

Another study had individuals perform either an endurance training (ET) or interval training routine for a period of 15 weeks.

The interval training group experienced 9 times as much fat loss as those performing the endurance training program (A. Tremblay, et al, “Impact on Exercise Intensity on Body Fatness and Skeletal Muscle Metabolism,” Metabolism 43.7 (1994):814-818)

Numerous studies have shown that hiit increases both one’s aerobic and anaerobic workout capacity while endurance training just improves the former. It has also been shown that intense interval training actually increases aerobic capacity to a better degree than traditional low intensity aerobics (G. Rhodas, et al, “A Short Training Programme for the Rapid Improvement of Both Aerobic and Anaerobic Metabolism,” European Journal of Applied Physiology 82.5-6 (2000):480-486)

So how do you use HIIT training effectively?

This is very important, because improper training will lead to over training, burn out, injury, a loss of muscle mass and a slower metabolism!

My guess is you aren’t working out and eating right to get those kind of results!

Interval training is intense, and while you will improve your aerobic and endurance capacity, you also highly tax your anaerobic system as well.

It’s much more like a weight training workout, as far as how it affects your muscles.

This means you shouldn’t do interval training workouts more than 3 or 4 times per week, you shouldn’t do them two days in a row, and these interval workouts should NOT be long!

Interval training focuses on quality over quantity. Forget 45 minute or 60 minute sessions. Now with hiit you don’t.

Heck, the most famous study done on interval training, by Dr. Tabata on speed skaters, involved all out work for 20 seconds, followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated 8 times. Yes, that’s a FOUR MINUTE WORKOUT!

And the speed skaters all significantly improved their aerobic and anaerobic capacity. One of the other great things about hiit is that you do not need equipment.

Sure, you can do it quite well on a stationary bike or treadmill but you can also go outside and do sprints (hill sprints rock!), perform jump rope workouts (okay, technically that’s a piece of equipment) or do bodyweight exercises, either in a circuit training routine, or just one killer exercise like burpees for a number of intervals.

And if you follow the rule above about limiting your hiit workout sessions so you don’t over train, you also won’t have to worry about burning away your lean muscle mass, wreaking havoc with your metabolism and looking like a marathon runner. Wouldn’t you rather look like a sprinter? What type of workout do you think sprinters do? That’s right! HIIT training!

Add two or three HIIT training sessions a week, along with a good quality weight training program and you’re on your way to fat burning, lean muscle building success!

How To Do Deadlifts The Right Way

How To Do Deadlifts The Right Way

widido   Comment  

How To Do Deadlifts The Right Way.

And before I get started here Yes women should do deadlifts and I am about to show you why.  A properly executed deadlift works all of the major muscles in the lower body, including the lower back, legs, and butt. The deadlift is one of my favorites.

The main reason is the functional strength you get from doing it. What I mean is unlike any other lift the dead builds strength we use in our everyday lives. Think about how many times you bend down to pick things up off the floor (mom’s I know you know what I mean), picking up your kids etc. The total body strength gains from doing deads are like no other exercise.

Benefits Of Doing The Deadlift:

1) Core Stability – It builds core stability. The deadlift directly targets all of the major muscle groups responsible for correct posture and core strength. The deadlift will also strengthen all the surrounding supporting muscles of the waist, backside, hips and, of course, lower back.

2) Total Body Exercise – it works more muscles simultaneously than any other exercise.

3) Cardio Fitness – It helps to develop cardio respiratory fitness. Like the squat, deadlifts will severely tax the cardio respiratory system if done with enough intensity, high intensity deadlifts aerobically tax the body big time.

4) Functional Real World Strength – ( I mentioned it above but again) Carrying the grocery bags, moving a piece of furniture, picking up your kids the master the deadlift and with your added strength gains common everyday tasks will be easier.

5) Burn More Fat – (see #2) The more muscles an exercise uses the more of a metabolic response in the body equalling more fat loss.

 

 How To Deadlift:

1. When starting out, practice with a light weight until you get the right form.
2. Brace your abs. Breathe out on the way up. Never hold your breath.
3. Use the mixed overhand-underhand grip for heavier weights. This grip provides some reassurance that heavier weights will not slip from the hands.
4. Keep the back straight with no rounding at the shoulders and spine. Keep those hips down, butt out.
5. The bar should travel close to the body for maximum lift efficiency and safety.
6. The key to the lifting process for beginners is to lift with the legs and not the arms and shoulders, although their stabilizing role is no less important. What you want to do is drive through your heels on the way up.

The deadlift is too often ignored in general fitness weight training, especially by women. For men and women wanting to build good looking legs and backside, the deadlift joins the squat as a premier exercise and can go some way toward replacing the squat for those who find balancing heavy weights on inflexible shoulders not to their liking.

Give it a go. Deadlifts are one of my favorite lifts. They have been a key exercise in my workouts for as long as I can remember.Yes they are that good.

If you are still skeptical about using exercises like Squats and Deadlifts I want you to go read