Base Obesity On Body Fat, Not BMI

To fully understand obesity, you need to know your body fat percentage and not just your body mass index (BMI).

Your body composition is what you need to know. Your BMI would be a good starting point.

BMI looks at overall body fat, whereas body composition reveals where you are fat. Abdominal fat (visceral) is the worst kind of fat and it has been proven to spread toxins into the internal organs which leads to health problems such as heart disease and cancer.

Check out this study reported on in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Here are the basic methodologies the researchers used to compile their results and my assessment:

1) This obesity study is misleading, if you believe the numbers. It is true that you can make numbers say whatever you want them to say.

Mathematically, the numbers are correct according to the way the research was performed. But, they did not reveal the whole truth about obesity and its effects on your health.

The research claims that your chances of dying from cancer or heart disease does not increase if you carry up to 25 extra pounds. The study DID NOT consider all of the relevant factors. DON'T BELIEVE THESE RESULTS.

1) The study was based on BMI and not body composition.

2) The study accounted for total deaths instead of accounting for specific causes of death. As I just mentioned above, abdominal fat has been proven to lead to serious health problems.

3) The study was limited to death and did not examine the other problems caused by obesity. The physiological, sociological, and psychological effects of obesity have a great effect on your health.

4) The researchers didn't consider physical fitness and diet in their methodology. Fitness and diet affects everything, including how overweight or underweight we may be.

My message to you is this: It's always wise to take the safest route in any situation. Common sense tells us what "complete research" has already proven: if you are overweight and overfat, you will eventually have health problems (and other problems) which could lead to your death.

Learn how to lose weight the right way and get My Fitness Hut's 7-Day Weight Loss And Fat Loss e-Course! The e-Course is FREE!

"Exercise is not my life.....exercise makes my life better!"

Check out my other great blogs:

Her Fitness Hut Blog Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women! Her Fitness Hut has also been named in the Top 50 Personal Training Blogs by Physical Therapy Assistant Schools!

Sports Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as the #1 Sports Fitness Blog and NursingDegree.net as one of the Best 100 Health and Nutrition Blogs for Athletes! The blog has also been named as one of the "50 Best Sports Medicine Blogs by Masters In Healthcare! It is an honor to be recognized by those in the health and academic fields! Afterall, health is number one for everybody---including athletes!

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Your 30-Day Weight Loss Only Diet In January?

Did you try a "30-Day weight loss only" diet in January? How did it work for you? If you lost weight, now what are you going to do? Another 30-Day diet? You still have a lifetime to go!

Being fit is much more than going on a diet. Fitness is a lifestyle designed to improve your energy, your health, your mood, your self image and your body composition (among other benefits).

Did you check your body fat percentage after your 30-Day diet? Fat loss is more important than your weight loss. Burning fat is what really changes your body to lean and toned. Its possible to be skinny and still have high body fat. Belly fat, in particular, is dangerous to your health.

A “30-Day weight loss only” goal is a short-term fix for your weight problem and will not ultimately help you attain your goals! Establish eating and exercise habits that will help you burn fat and lose weight for a lifetime.

The type of food you eat and timing of what you eat is very important for your metabolism to work properly. Your body needs adequate amounts of the macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins, fats) to function properly.

Increasing muscle mass is critical to permanently speed up your metabolism. Your body has to work harder to maintain muscle mass. And, increasing muscle mass will burn the fat off of your body.

Here is your February challenge:

1. Do full body circuit weight training 3 days a week (30-45 minutes a session).

2. Do interval cardio training 2-3 days a week (20 minutes a session).

3. Follow a nutritious meal plan based on your basal metabolic rate and calorie needs. You will never starve. You will eat enough to maintain your energy throughout the day and during workouts.

4. Compare your body fat percentage at the end of February to your percentage at the end of January. Let me know the answer.

If you need to know how to lose weight the right way, get My Fitness Hut's 7-Day Weight Loss And Fat Loss e-Course! The e-Course is FREE!

"Exercise is not my life.....exercise makes my life better!"

Check out my other great blogs:

Her Fitness Hut Blog Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women! Her Fitness Hut has also been named in the Top 50 Personal Training Blogs by Physical Therapy Assistant Schools!

Sports Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as the #1 Sports Fitness Blog and NursingDegree.net as one of the Best 100 Health and Nutrition Blogs for Athletes! The blog has also been named as one of the "50 Best Sports Medicine Blogs by Masters In Healthcare! It is an honor to be recognized by those in the health and academic fields! Afterall, health is number one for everybody---including athletes!

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Muscle Sugar: Train Low and Compete High

Muscles use carbohydrates, fats and proteins for energy. You can improve both endurance and speed in athletic competitions lasting more than a couple hours by training your muscles to burn more sugar and less protein and fat during competition.

The most efficient fuel for muscles during exercise is carbohydrates (sugar). The limiting factor for how fast you can move is the time it takes to move oxygen into muscles. Since sugar requires less oxygen than protein or fat, you move faster when your muscles burn primarily sugar. How far you can run, cycle, ski, or skate depends on how much sugar you can store in your muscles before you start exercising and how long you can keep the extra sugar there. When muscles run out of their stored sugar, muscles hurt and you feel tired.

Advantages of Training on Depleted Glycogen
You can teach your muscles to burn more sugar and less fat by starting some of your workouts with muscles that are low in their stored sugar, called glycogen. This forces muscles to burn a higher percentage of fat. However, muscles move faster when they use sugar for fuel, so they try to burn more sugar. They increase the concentration of the many enzymes that help to convert sugar to energy. This allows muscles to burn a higher percentage of sugar during competition so athletes can go faster and improve their chances of winning.

Ways to Deplete Muscle Glycogen
You can start your workouts with low muscle glycogen by: *training after skipping breakfast; *training twice a day, so your muscles have low stored sugar during your second workout of the day; *restricting carbohydrates in your diet during training; *taking prolonged workouts that empty your muscles of stored sugar, or *withholding carbohydrates after a hard workout. The key is to train with low amounts of stored muscle sugar and race with muscles full of stored sugar (Exercise and Sports Science Reviews, October 2010).

How to Increase Sugar-burning Enzymes in Muscles
You can't start all your training workouts with low muscle sugar because it will slow you down, reduce the amount of miles you can do in training, and increase your chances of injuring yourself.

Knowledgeable athletes train by stressing and recovering. They take a hard workout on one day, feel sore on the next, and then take easier workouts until the soreness disappears. They do very intense workouts up to three times a week, rarely on consecutive days. These intense workouts should be taken with muscles full of sugar, so you should eat before your intense workouts and even take sugar during the workout.

However, on your four recovery days, try starting your workouts without eating breakfast. If you feel excess fatigue, your muscles hurt or you have little energy, shorten your workouts and immediately eat extra carbohydrates such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, and even whole grain bread or pasta.

If you find that you are fatigued too often and take too long to recover from workouts, abandon this training technique. It is not for you. You probably have to take in a lot of sugar during training just to keep up the intensity and volume of work that is required to be a competitive athlete.

What to Do Before Competition
Hundreds of research papers show that you can increase endurance and intensity in competition by filling your muscles with sugar before you compete and then taking sugar during competition. Athletes in endurance events should cut back on their training three days before major competitions and eat extra carbohydrates. This fills their muscles with extra sugar. They should eat a high-carbohydrate breakfast and take sugar during the competition to keep up a regular sugar supply for their muscles.

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Did You Burn Fat This January?

Did you burn any fat in January? That's my question for you one month into the New Year. If not, then you need to revise your exercise and/or nutrition plan.

I don't care if you haven't lost much weight yet. By now, your body fat percentage should have decreased! Lost inches and smaller body measurements will tell you that your body is shrinking and your program is working.

Don't place emphasis on weight loss instead of fat loss. Losing weight the healthy way is the only way! Health is more important than weight loss. Don't lose your health and self respect trying quick weight loss tactics.

Your goal should be to burn fat. Losing huge amounts of weight can be gained back quickly if you don't build muscle mass. Build muscle, burn fat, speed up your metabolism and lose weight (and keep it off)!

Make the needed changes to your exercise program and eating habits! That is the key to your success. Measure your body fat once a week to see if what you are doing is working.

Get help with your meal plan if needed! Get your nutrition mainly from food! Add in supplements like multivitamins and fish oil to support your meal plan and improve your health.

Get enough rest! If you don't sleep enough, your body won't function as well as it could--that means about 7-8 hours of sleep every night for most people.

If you want to lose weight the right way, get My Fitness Hut's 7-Day Weight Loss And Fat Loss e-Course! The e-Course is FREE!

"Exercise is not my life.....exercise makes my life better!"

Check out my other great blogs:

Her Fitness Hut Blog Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women! Her Fitness Hut has also been named in the Top 50 Personal Training Blogs by Physical Therapy Assistant Schools!

Sports Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as the #1 Sports Fitness Blog and NursingDegree.net as one of the Best 100 Health and Nutrition Blogs for Athletes! The blog has also been named as one of the "50 Best Sports Medicine Blogs by Masters In Healthcare! It is an honor to be recognized by those in the health and academic fields! Afterall, health is number one for everybody---including athletes!

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Weight Loss, Health And Wellness Fit Together

Credible personal trainers teach that fat loss, weight loss, health and wellness fit together. You can't really have one without the others. A balanced life is definitely your best chance for a quality life.

That is why quick weight loss programs, severe calorie-restricted diets and all other weight loss gimmicks are no-nos for the fit lifestyle. These tactics are short-sighted and lead to damaged health and self image.

At a minimum, you need to make a commitment to a lifetime of fitness. This commitment trumps all other fitness commitments. Without it, you will always fall prey to the inevitable obstacles and pitfalls along the way.

Included in this commitment is a willingness to change to healthy eating habits and to change your body's composition to more muscle mass and less fat mass. This commitment takes time and hard work.

At My Fitness Hut, we want to introduce you to a friend, Evita Ochel. She is the author and editor of Evolving Wellness. She is a Certified Holistic Nutritionist, a Registered Nutritional Counsellor and a Certified Natural Health Practitioner.

More importantly, she is one of the nicest people I've ever met. We met at a Nutrilite Health Bloggers Event in 2009. She is a writer, speaker and researcher dedicated to helping people achieve optimal health and wellness. Listen to her, she's smart!

Visit her site, Evolving Wellness and sign up for her free e-book, "Healing and Prevention Through Nutrition." I have downloaded the book for myself and its worth your time.

Invest in your health!

Mark Dilworth at My Fitness Hut

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Lose Weight By Making YOU A Priority

Maybe YOU can't lose weight permanently because YOU have not made YOURSELF a priority. You have to care enough about yourself to want the best for yourself. Be a little selfish and those around you will benefit.

Weight loss and fat loss is about what you really want. How badly do you want to have a healthy, lean body? Will you follow an exercise and nutrition program to reach your goals? Will you keep trying even if you have some failures along the way? With some help, you can have the body of your dreams---if you really want it!

We are motivated by different things. Read my article about motivation.

One type of motivation is Identified Regulation. This type of motivation comes from within you--you want the best health and a quality lifestyle. You care about you and want to take care of you. This type of positive motivation leads to lasting changes.

It takes perseverance to burn fat because its harder to achieve and takes more time. When you burn fat, it leads to permanent weight loss. It takes no perseverance to go on some quick weight loss program (which won't work).

Will you cut calories, eat healthy, burn fat and lose weight the right way? Will you follow a plan and make adjustments as you go to reach your goals? Will you?

This takes more than 2 weeks time! Experts agree that you are better off making manageable changes to your diet and workout routine. Some of your eating and workout (or no workouts) habits have been developed over a lifetime.

For example, severely limiting sugars from your diet would be a great start. Drink water instead of sodas and sugary drinks. Just this one change will slash tons of calories every day. And, you will be on your way to burning dangerous belly fat.

Make YOU a priority and YOU will change your body to lean and toned!

If you need to know how to lose weight the right way, get My Fitness Hut's 7-Day Weight Loss And Fat Loss e-Course! The e-Course is FREE!

"Exercise is not my life.....exercise makes my life better!"

Check out my other great blogs:

Her Fitness Hut Blog Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women! Her Fitness Hut has also been named in the Top 50 Personal Training Blogs by Physical Therapy Assistant Schools!

Sports Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as the #1 Sports Fitness Blog and NursingDegree.net as one of the Best 100 Health and Nutrition Blogs for Athletes! The blog has also been named as one of the "50 Best Sports Medicine Blogs by Masters In Healthcare! It is an honor to be recognized by those in the health and academic fields! Afterall, health is number one for everybody---including athletes!

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Keep Exercise Going All Year To Lose Weight

I'm taking advantage of "listening exercise ears" in January to encourage you to keep exercising all year to burn fat and lose weight. Don't stop exercising--your long-term health depends on it.

No matter what your "exercise and nutrition past" may be, you can start now and go forward with a committed attitude toward exercise and healthy eating.

You don't have to figure it all out today. Just make the commitment and get the help you need to make it happen. I recommend a consultation with a personal trainer to start you on the right path.

Here are some tips to keep exercise going throughout your life:

1. Surround yourself with positive people who will hold you accountable to your stated fitness goals. Research proves that those with social support have a better chance of succeeding with fitness goals such as fat loss and weight loss.

Personal trainers, workout partners, spouses and friend are all good candidates. Don't try to reach your fitness goals alone.

2. Schedule an appointment with a personal trainer to get valuable guidance and feedback. A trainer will help you to be realistic about goals and show you how to reach them.

You will also get a fitness and nutrition assessment. You may also need to schedule a doctor's appointment before beginning an exercise program.

3. Be willing to change your way of exercising and eating, if it hasn't worked for you. If you haven't burned the fat and lost the weight you need to, there is a reason. A personal trainer can customize your training program to make it work for you.

4. If you fail 100 times, get back up 100 times and try again. You will not always exercise right and eat right. But, you can keep trying until you succeed. Believe that you are worth the effort!

I don't know if you make New Year's fitness resolutions. Maybe you make them each year and fail each year. Here is a solution for you: make a New Life fitness commitment and keep it going no matter what.

Learn how to lose weight the right way and get My Fitness Hut's 7-Day Weight Loss And Fat Loss e-Course! The e-Course is FREE!

"Exercise is not my life.....exercise makes my life better!"

Check out my other great blogs:

Her Fitness Hut Blog Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women! Her Fitness Hut has also been named in the Top 50 Personal Training Blogs by Physical Therapy Assistant Schools!

Sports Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as the #1 Sports Fitness Blog and NursingDegree.net as one of the Best 100 Health and Nutrition Blogs for Athletes! The blog has also been named as one of the "50 Best Sports Medicine Blogs by Masters In Healthcare! It is an honor to be recognized by those in the health and academic fields! Afterall, health is number one for everybody---including athletes!

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Two 'Must Dos' To Burn Fat And Lose Weight

You must do these to burn fat and lose weight (and keep it off): 1. find exercise you enjoy and 2. persevere--you won't quit (this assumes you are complying with your meal plan most of the time).

Your workout program is important to reach your goals. But, if you hate your workout program, you will stop doing it at some point. If you love your workout program but have no perseverance when it comes to changing your body, you will find a reason to quit. You need both perseverance and enjoyment of exercise to reach your goals (and keep working to improve even more).

I find exercises and workouts that I enjoy. There are tons of exercises to choose from. Why do something you hate? I have never stopped doing something that I enjoy.

Do you hate 60-minute cardio sessions? Stop doing them. Twenty minute interval cardio sessions are more effective for fat burning anyway.

Just look at all the types of cardio you can do: running, bodyweight cardio, jumping, power walking, biking, machines, etc. Find some types of cardio that you enjoy and do those. You will be more successful.

The same rule applies to weight training exercises. On the days you don't "feel like exercising," you are more likely to do exercises you enjoy.

What motivates people to do what they do? I'm not a psychologist so I looked at myself.

There's alot of things that have motivated me to do certain things: fear, peer pressure, not wanting to let others down, searching-for-answers, enjoyment, determination, etc.

Why did I start exercising at a young age? We knew nothing about childhood obesity. Here is my exercise program growing up: playing games after school every day at the Boys Club or in the neighborhood until dark and playing sports year-round (and we pretty much walked or biked everywhere we went)!

The common thread? I enjoyed both activities---probably too much! I didn't think about heart rates, exercise technique, repetitions, cardio or any of that stuff. Just having fun.

When it comes to exercise, research has proven that you are more likely to stay with your exercise program if you enjoy it. But, no matter how much you enjoy exercise, you still need perseverance to "keep it going."

Its the "bulldog mentality" that nothing is going to keep me from reaching my fitness goals. When you have those "bad days," its determination that will pull you through. A GREAT COMBINATION TO STAY CONSISTENT WITH YOUR EXERCISE PROGRAM---ENJOYMENT AND DETERMINATION! Mix in a well-designed exercise and nutrition program and you will succeed.

Learn how to lose weight the right way and get My Fitness Hut's 7-Day Weight Loss And Fat Loss e-Course! The e-Course is FREE!

"Exercise is not my life.....exercise makes my life better!"

Check out my other great blogs:

Her Fitness Hut Blog Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women! Her Fitness Hut has also been named in the Top 50 Personal Training Blogs by Physical Therapy Assistant Schools!

Sports Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as the #1 Sports Fitness Blog and NursingDegree.net as one of the Best 100 Health and Nutrition Blogs for Athletes! The blog has also been named as one of the "50 Best Sports Medicine Blogs by Masters In Healthcare! It is an honor to be recognized by those in the health and academic fields! Afterall, health is number one for everybody---including athletes!

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Be Active In 2011, Burn More Calories

Get active in 2011 and it will help you burn more calories, burn more fat and lose more weight.

Burn calories all day--this is one key to burning fat, losing weight and maintaining weight.

Stay active as much as possible and you will reach your fat loss and weight loss goals sooner.

You don't have to wait until your workout to start burning calories. Your body is actually burning calories all day to maintain itself (your metabolic rate).

But to burn major calories every day, you must be active. Its pretty easy to do. Just make it a habit to move around more during the day.

Here are some ways to burn more calories:

1. Stand as much as you can during the day. No one said you had to sit down while typing on your computer! Put your laptop on a platform that allows you to stand up and work. Just make sure you don't slouch over while typing.

Research proves that when you sit, your fat-burning enzymes basically shut down. So, when you stand during the day, those fat-burning enzymes go to work for you!

At the very least, you can walk around for 2-3 minutes every hour. It will definitely get your blood flowing better and you will be more alert.

2. Along the same theme, walk during your work breaks. This is a great way to get in 30 minutes of brisk walking.

3. Instead of walking during work breaks, you could do bodyweight exercises in your office.

Pushups, planks, bridges, squats, lunges, triceps dips, tube rows and jumping jacks are some examples.

4. Ride your bike to work. This might not be practical for some of you. That's okay. Ride your bike after work (or walk)!

5. Yoga or pilates anyone? These exercises would be perfect for work breaks. Just keep an exercise mat at work.

6. When you get home, clean the house. Household chores are natural calorie burners!

Now, go and do your workout!

If you need to know how to lose weight the right way, get My Fitness Hut's 7-Day Weight Loss And Fat Loss e-Course! The e-Course is FREE!

"Exercise is not my life.....exercise makes my life better!"

Check out my other great blogs:

Her Fitness Hut Blog Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women! Her Fitness Hut has also been named in the Top 50 Personal Training Blogs by Physical Therapy Assistant Schools!

Sports Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as the #1 Sports Fitness Blog and NursingDegree.net as one of the Best 100 Health and Nutrition Blogs for Athletes! The blog has also been named as one of the "50 Best Sports Medicine Blogs by Masters In Healthcare! It is an honor to be recognized by those in the health and academic fields! Afterall, health is number one for everybody---including athletes!

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A Fad Diet Is Not Your Diet Solution

A fad diet is not the solution to your diet troubles and will never work for you long-term. Actually, fad diets will place you further away from your weight loss goals as you yo-yo back and forth with glee (lose 40 pounds) and dispair (gain back 60 pounds)!

A "quick weight loss only goal" is a short-term fix for your weight problem and will not ultimately help you attain your goals! Establish eating and exercise habits that will help you burn fat and lose weight for a lifetime.

The type of food you eat and timing of what you eat is very important for your metabolism to work properly. Your body needs adequate amounts of the macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins, fats) to function properly.

Increasing muscle mass is critical to permanently speed up your metabolism. Your body has to work harder to maintain muscle mass. And, increasing muscle mass will burn the fat off of your body. So, start doing your regular weight training workouts 2-3 days a week.

Again, your body needs the macronutrients at all times to function properly. When your body functions properly, your metabolism will also function properly.

That's why you should eat every 3-4 hours to give your body what it needs and to protect your vital muscle mass. If you are a person who skips breakfast, stop doing that! You are sabotaging your fat loss and weight loss efforts and throwing your metabolism out of wack!

Eat for health, fat loss and weight loss. You should not ever try a fad diet program to reach your long-term goals.

If you want “The TRUTH” when it comes to losing fat with proper nutrition, you have to check out my friend's site.

Isabel De Los Rios is one of America’s top nutrition experts and educators and the author of TheDietSolutionProgram.com.

She has helped hundreds of people lose weight. Don’t miss her Free Report “The Top 5 Essential Truths You Must Know Before You Go on Any Diet Ever Again.”

Isabel is the owner of New Body – Center for Fitness and Nutrition in New Jersey where she has personally educated and coached hundreds of people to realize their weight, health and fitness goals.

As a nutrition specialist and lifestyle coach, it is Isabel’s passion to educate, motivate and inspire people of all types to take daily action in order to realize their physical and personal dreams and goals.

Stop the guessing game when it comes to your eating habits and start shaping the body you always wanted! There are no fads, no pills and no starvation.

Visit Isabel's site now and start burning fat!

Mark Dilworth at My Fitness Hut

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Total Body Toning Burns More Fat

Tone your total body with the right training methods and you will burn more fat. In other words, "muscle up" and the fat will melt away! Make the commitment to full body strength training from now on....it will improve your body's composition and overall health (including bone density).

Don't just start lifting weights and running with no guidance. This can often lead you to little or no results and a host of injuries. Here's a client question:

Question: Some muscle areas on my body are more developed than others. How can I correct this problem?

Mark's Answer: We all have a body type due to heredity and lifestyle choices. A fitness assessment is important because the personal trainer identifies postural weaknesses and muscle imbalances. The fitness program is then tailored to fit your needs. Without this assessment, you are "shooting in the dark."

Achieving optimal muscular fitness requires flexibility, strength, endurance, power, and speed. These components should be included in an integrated training program.

Because of lifestyle habits, the dominant side of the body develops more than the non-dominant side. And, if certain patterns or muscular actions are performed repeatedly, muscles develop more in either the front of the body or the back of the body. As a result, some muscles become tight, lengthened or weak.

An integrated training program focuses on 3-dimensional muscular balance. This will help overall strength, burn more fat, prevent injuries and enhance everyday living.

Opposing muscle groups should be in balance. Focusing more on exercises like squats, deadlifts, rows, shoulder presses and bench presses will help you do this. Using more unilateral (one-leg, one-arm) exercises also improve muscular balance. Lunges, step ups and dumbbell exercises fit this category.

For example, the quadriceps group/hamstring group should be in balance (or the quads should not be significantly stronger than the hamstrings).

Research has proven that inadequate hamstring strength contributes to knee anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries.

To avoid developing muscular imbalances or to correct muscular imbalances, you should do the following:

1) Have a postural assessment performed by a fitness professional. This assessment will indicate where your muscles are tight, weak or lengthened.

It will also indicate patterns of postural dysfunction called postural distortion patterns. Distortion patterns occur because the structural integrity of the kinetic chain (human movement system) is compromised due to the misalignment of one or more of its components.

2) Develop a comprehensive flexibility routine.

3) Weight training should focus on the total body to burn more fat and avoid muscular imbalances.

Get FREE Training and Nutrition Insider Secrets for a Lean-Body with Six Pack Abs! This ebook, created by Certified Nutrition Specialist & Certified Personal Trainer, Mike Geary, details over 27 specific metabolism-boosting secrets that you can use to strip off your stubborn body fat faster and easier and get your six-pack abs! Contains unique workout methods and nutritional strategies to slash body fat and take your body to a whole new level of leanness. Get Your FREE Book Now!

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Change Workouts For Fat Loss Progress

I am surprised at how many people hardly ever change up their workout routine. This is a recipe for stalled fat loss progress.

If you have your name on a certain treadmill or weightlifting machine, you need to change up your workout! Your body adapted to your routine long ago and you're stuck in neutral.

One of the best ways to jumpstart your fat loss progress is to ramp up the intensity of your workouts. So, instead of doing 1 hour of steady-state cardio, do 20 minutes of intense interval cardio.

You will burn more calories, more fat and lose more weight with this method of cardio. Even so, don't do the same type of interval cardio forever. Change up interval types to keep your body guessing.

Other ways to change up your workouts include (but not limited to):

1. alternate lifting light weights and heavy weights,
2. adjust the number of repetitions and sets,
3. do different exercises for the same muscle groups,
4. alternate routines such as circuit training, superset training and complex training and
5. change the speed of your sets such as using slow, moderate and full speed repetitions.

You could also use combinations of all the above to break through plateaus.

Here's an example of how to do cross training with your cardio exercise:

Cardio cross training will burn more fat and keep you from getting bored! Cardio is a naturally monotonous exercise that can bore you to tears, unless you change it up and keep it short. This is where interval training comes in.

The good thing about interval cardio cross training is that it doesn't require long sessions to be effective. And, it gives superior calorie-burn, fat-burn and heart-heart when compared to steady-state cardio.

I usually do my interval cardio sessions in 20 minutes or 2 separate 10-minute sessions (about 5 minutes apart). Research has shown that 2 separate workouts will give you more calorie-burn and fat-burn.

How do you do regular interval cardio? Here's an example:

1. Sprint for 30 seconds
2. Walk for 1 minute
3. Repeat this rotation for 20 minutes

To do interval cardio cross training, just mix up the exercise modes to get even more fat-burning benefits. Here is an example of an interval cardio cross training workout that I do:

1. Step Ups, 15 repetitions each leg
2. Walk 1 minute
3. Jumping Jacks, fast, 1 minute
4. Walk 1 minute
5. Sprint Intervals for 6 minutes (run 1 minute, walk 1 minute)
6. Mountain Climbers, fast, 1 minute
7. Repeat this circuit 1 more time

You can use any exercises you like. I like to mix in at least one strength exercise. You could do squat jumps instead of jumping jacks. Or, you could do bodyweight squats instead of step ups.

One-legged exercises (unilateral) are more intense than that two-legged (bilateral) exercises. If you don't want to run on a particular day, just do all bodyweight strength exercises.

Cross training will make you less prone to repetitive stress injuries. Cross training will also tone more muscle groups, especially if you include strength exercises.

Be sure to also change up your strength training routine.

To get better fat-burning results, change up your routine at least every 2-3 weeks.

Get FREE Training and Nutrition Insider Secrets for a Lean-Body with Six Pack Abs! This ebook, created by Certified Nutrition Specialist & Certified Personal Trainer, Mike Geary, details over 27 specific metabolism-boosting secrets that you can use to strip off your stubborn body fat faster and easier and get your six-pack abs! Contains unique workout methods and nutritional strategies to slash body fat and take your body to a whole new level of leanness. Get Your FREE Book Now!

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Your Fat Loss Diet For 2011?

You don't have a fat loss diet? Get one ASAP! A fat loss diet plays a huge part in the success of your fat loss and weight loss efforts.

Don't confuse a fat loss diet with a quick weight loss diet. They are totally different animals. How different? Check this out:

1. A quick weight loss diet leaves you hungry and sometimes starving. You might lose weight in the beginning but you will have low energy, slowed metabolism, a weakened immune system and your body will begin to store fat (starvation mode).

Ultimately, you will regain more weight than you lost when you start to eat normally again (yo-yo effect). You don't want to live like that, right?

2. A fat loss diet will help you maintain your energy. You will never be hungry or starving because you will eat every 3-4 hours. The food items will be nutritious and help you burn fat.

You will eat enough to fuel your intense weight training and cardio workouts. Without these workouts, its impossible to build muscle mass and lean out your body.

If your basal metabolic rate is 1800 calories a day, 1000 calories of food intake is not enough food for you to function properly!

Doing this will turn your body into a total wreck! The most important thing in your life IS NOT to lose weight! Having a healthy body at a healthy weight and acceptable body fat percentage is important!

Quick weight loss motivation focuses on pounds lost instead of body fat burned and inches lost. Fat loss is more important than weight loss.

If you want “The TRUTH” when it comes to losing fat with proper nutrition, you have to check out my friend's site.

Isabel De Los Rios is one of America’s top nutrition experts and educators and the author of TheDietSolutionProgram.com.

She has helped hundreds of people lose weight. Don’t miss her Free Report “The Top 5 Essential Truths You Must Know Before You Go on Any Diet Ever Again.”

Isabel is the owner of New Body – Center for Fitness and Nutrition in New Jersey where she has personally educated and coached hundreds of people to realize their weight, health and fitness goals.

As a nutrition specialist and lifestyle coach, it is Isabel’s passion to educate, motivate and inspire people of all types to take daily action in order to realize their physical and personal dreams and goals.

Stop the guessing game when it comes to your eating habits and start shaping the body you always wanted! There are no fads, no pills and no starvation.

Visit Isabel's site now and start burning fat!

Mark Dilworth at My Fitness Hut

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Shape Your Body Faster In 2011

Shape your body faster in 2011 by working harder for a shorter period of time. By doing this, you'll get more fat burn and calorie burn during and after your workout!

Do as many compound strength exercises (with weights or bodyweight) standing up as possible. These types of exercises work major muscle groups and many times are full-body strength exercises.

Squats, deadlift, lunges, standing bentover rows, squat-to curl-to press and bench press are great examples. Full-body core exercises like planks and side planks work well also. Spend less time posing on "mirror exercises" like bicep curls, calf raises and tricep extensions.

Here is a good fat-burning strength workout:

Do each exercise one after the other with little or no rest between exercises. Rest 3 minutes between circuits. Do the circuit 3 times.

1. Bulgarian Split Squats, 15 repetitions each leg
2. Plank, 15 repetitions, 5 second hold
3. Pushups on Medicine Ball, 20 repetitions
4. Step Ups with Knee Lift, pictured above, (knee high platform), 10 repetitions each leg
5. Pullups, 10 repetitions
6. Clock Lunges, 5 repetitions each leg
7. Standing dumbbell shoulder press, 10 repetitions
8. Repeat circuit 2 more times.

Also, shorten and intensify your cardio workout! Long, slow cardio sessions wastes time and eats away at your muscle mass. Short, intense cardio sessions also burn more fat and calories during and after your workout!

I'm talking about interval cardio sessions that are 20 minutes or less!

If your cardio sessions are 45 minutes to 1 hour, stop doing your cardio that way (if you want to make progress sooner)! You will attain more fat loss and weight loss sooner with short, intense cardio sessions.

Here is an interval cardio session (or something similar):

--Jump rope, fast, 1 minute
--Walk 1 minute
--Mountain climbers, fast, 30 seconds
--Walk 30 seconds
--Jumping Jacks, fast, 1 minute
--Walk 1 minute
--Run-In-Place, fast, 30 seconds
--Walk 30 seconds
--Bodyweight Jump Squats, fast, 15 seconds
--Walk 1 minute

Rest 2 minutes between circuits. Repeat this circuit 2 more times.

If you don't like these types of exercises, then pick exercises that you like. I know that jump squats won't work for those with knee or back problems. As long as you change it up and keep it interesting, you will will make progress--sooner!

Learn how to lose weight the right way and get My Fitness Hut's 7-Day Weight Loss And Fat Loss e-Course! The e-Course is FREE!

"Exercise is not my life.....exercise makes my life better!"

Check out my other great blogs:

Her Fitness Hut Blog Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women! Her Fitness Hut has also been named in the Top 50 Personal Training Blogs by Physical Therapy Assistant Schools!

Sports Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as the #1 Sports Fitness Blog and NursingDegree.net as one of the Best 100 Health and Nutrition Blogs for Athletes! The blog has also been named as one of the "50 Best Sports Medicine Blogs by Masters In Healthcare! It is an honor to be recognized by those in the health and academic fields! Afterall, health is number one for everybody---including athletes!

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Spot Body Fat Reduction Won't Work

Are you concerned about excess ab fat, butt/hip/thigh fat or back fat. That's great if you are. If you are trying to do spot body fat reduction alone, it won't work.



Build Muscle, Burn Fat and Shrink Your Body!

Burn total body fat by doing full body strength training and eating healthy food. This will help you burn dangerous belly fat. Doing 1000 ab crunches a day won't get the job done. If you want to do some extra work on your stubborn body fat areas (in addition to your regular workouts), that okay.

One tactic that will work to help you burn fat is mixing up your cardio workouts. Don't just do running on a treadmill or elliptical machine. You could do a different cardio workout every session to avoid boredom and repetitive stress injuries. Try these cardio workouts to blast fat:

--Bodyweight cardio
--Sprint intervals
--Jump exercise intervals

Mix up your strength workouts between heavy weight sessions (3-5 repetitions per set) and lighter weight circuit training sessions (10-12 repetitions per set).

Stop Wasting Money On Silly Fitness Gadgets That Don't Work!

You don't need fitness gadgets to burn fat and lose weight! And, don't spend any more money on fat loss and weight loss pills. You don't need those supplements either. And finally, forget about quick weight loss programs. They don't work long-term and that's why they are called quick!

I hope your fitness year is off to a great start! Keep it going throughout the year!

Get FREE Training and Nutrition Insider Secrets for a Lean-Body with Six Pack Abs! This ebook, created by Certified Nutrition Specialist & Certified Personal Trainer, Mike Geary, details over 27 specific metabolism-boosting secrets that you can use to strip off your stubborn body fat faster and easier and get your six-pack abs! Contains unique workout methods and nutritional strategies to slash body fat and take your body to a whole new level of leanness. Get Your FREE Book Now!

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Osteoporosis in Men

All men and many women with osteoporosis need to be evaluated to find the cause. More than 75 percent of men with osteoporosis have a serious cause (Osteoporosis International, published online October 9, 2010). Common causes include *low levels of the male hormone, testosterone, *vitamin D deficiency, *excessive loss of calcium through the urine, *an overactive thyroid, *being given too much thyroid hormone, *an overactive parathyroid gland, *smoking, *drinking too much alcohol, *not getting enough exercise, or *taking certain drugs, such as cortisones, that weaken bones.

All people with weak bones should get the following tests: 25-hydroxyvitamin D, testosterone, luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, thyroid-stimulating hormone, parathyroid hormone, and spot urinary calcium-to-creatinine ratio, calcium, phosphorus, and creatinine. If that doesn't tell you why your bones are weakened, you may need to be checked for inability to absorb calcium from your intestines (celiac panel), bone disease (such as multiple myeloma), or taking glucocorticoids, which are often prescribed to transplant patients and those with autoimmune diseases.

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Weight Loss Failure Or Success In 2010?

Did you fail or succeed with fat loss and lasting weight loss in 2010?

The only way to improve is to know where you went wrong (if that's the case). The truth behind your weight loss and subsequent weight gain can sometimes be painful.

If you want a healthy, lean body that will give you the best chance to live healthy for a long time, you need to know the reasons why your weight loss and fat loss efforts failed.

As a personal trainer, I have seen many reasons why people fail at weight loss and fat loss. Some are:

1. You MUST make a real commitment to change eating habits and exercise habits. A real commitment always includes willpower to succeed.

That means you won't quit even if you lose some battles along the way. One bad day or bad week won't stop you---you will get back up and keep trying. Its also called perseverance.

2. You try to lose weight all by your lonesome. You need help to accomplish your weight loss goals. That could be a trainer, a friend, a spouse or other family member.

Research proves that those who have weight loss buddies are more likely to succeed.

3. Some people are haphazard with workouts and eating habits. Consistency is critical if you want to succeed.

4. You have the wrong workout routine and you're stuck doing the same workout week after week (with little or no results). It matters how you workout. A personal trainer can offer valuable guidance and feedback.

5. You're not working hard enough. It takes hard, smart work to change your body composition. Unfortunately, some people are kind of lazy.

6. You're depending on a fat-burner supplement, powder or weight loss patch to change your body! Stop wasting your money! See number 5.

7. If you are afraid to set goals for fear of not reaching those goals, then you will find some way to sabotage your efforts. For example, you set low goals or no goals and that's what you achieve---very little!

8. If you have low self worth, it will affect everything you do (including your efforts to change your body and lose weight). Somehow, you must workout because you're worth it and its good for your health and lifestyle. This is a very positive behavior and will lead to permanent lifestyle changes.

9. You experienced quick weight loss without exercise and without fat loss. In other words, you didn't change your body. You didn't build muscle. You lost muscle mass. The weight came back on with a vengeance when you started to eat again (and not starve yourself).

10. You can write down your own weight loss and weight gain adventures. It will be well worth your time. Ultimately, you will succeed if you learn from your failures and successes.

Learn how to lose weight the right way and get My Fitness Hut's 7-Day Weight Loss And Fat Loss e-Course! The e-Course is FREE!

"Exercise is not my life.....exercise makes my life better!"

Check out my other great blogs:

Her Fitness Hut Blog Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women! Her Fitness Hut has also been named in the Top 50 Personal Training Blogs by Physical Therapy Assistant Schools!

Sports Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as the #1 Sports Fitness Blog and NursingDegree.net as one of the Best 100 Health and Nutrition Blogs for Athletes! The blog has also been named as one of the "50 Best Sports Medicine Blogs by Masters In Healthcare! It is an honor to be recognized by those in the health and academic fields! Afterall, health is number one for everybody---including athletes!

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Fish - Yes; Fried Fish - No

Eating oily fish, like salmon, herring or mackerel, twice a week helps to prevent heart attacks and strokes. Eating oily fish more often than twice a week has not been shown to be any more protective. On the other hand, eating fried fish may increase risk of stroke (Neurology, published online December 22, 2010).

The most popular fried fish are frozen fish sticks, fast-food fish sandwiches and other inexpensive fish products. Most of these are made with farmed tilapia or catfish that are not good sources of omega-3 fatty acids. We don't know whether this is the reason that fried fish are linked with increased risk of strokes, or whether the unhealthful cooking method cancels out the benefits of any fish.

Polyunsaturated fats in fish are classified by their structure into omega-3s and omega-6s. Omega-3s form prostaglandins that help prevent inflammation that causes heart attacks and strokes. Omega-6s have not been shown to prevent heart attacks and strokes. The fish that are rich sources of omega-3s are those that eat plankton or other fish that have eaten plankton. Almost all deep water fish are rich in the healthful omega-3s.

Of the four most commonly farmed fish (Atlantic salmon, trout, tilapia, and catfish) only trout and Atlantic salmon contain relatively high amounts of omega-3s. In contrast, tilapia (the fastest-growing and most widely-farmed fish) and catfish have much lower concentrations of omega-3s, and their fatty acids are the same as chicken (Journal of the American Dietetic Association, July 2008 and December 2008).

Whether or not a farmed fish contains omega-3s depends on what the fish are fed. Catfish and tilapia can thrive on corn. Since corn is cheaper than fish meal, they are usually fed omega-6 -rich corn, instead of omega-3 -rich fish meal, and thus they have insignificant amounts of omega-3 fats in their bodies. However, salmon and most other farmed fish cannot live on just corn, so they must be fed fish meal that is loaded with omega-3s. All salmon (farmed and wild-caught) are high in omega-3s.

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Don't Do A Quick Weight Loss Program This January!

Just because its January, you don't have to resort to another quick weight loss program (that ultimately won't work again)! You deserve better than that! Make your weight loss goals long-term. Then, you won't have the same weight problem next January!

A “30-day Weight Loss Only” goal is a short-term fix for your weight problem and will not ultimately help you attain your goals! Instead, you will be setting yourself up as a prime "yo-yo dieter" candidate. Establish eating and exercise habits that will help you burn fat and lose weight for a lifetime.

The type of food you eat and timing of what you eat is very important for your metabolism to work properly.

Your body needs adequate amounts of the macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins, fats) to function properly.

Increasing muscle mass is critical to permanently speed up your metabolism. Your body has to work harder to maintain muscle mass. And, increasing muscle mass will burn the fat off of your body. So, start doing your regular weight training workouts 2-3 days a week.

Protein's main role in your body is to repair and rebuild body tissues (especially so after an intense weight training workout). When your body doesn't get enough protein, it will take protein from other sources--mainly your muscles! Obviously, you don't want that to happen. Including foods with protein in every meal will help you eat less during the day. This happens because it takes your body longer to digest protein.

Carbohydrates, in the form of glycogen, are your body's preferred source of energy. Glycogen is stored in your liver and muscles and it is broken down into glucose. Glucose is then used by your body to make energy.

As a result, when your glycogen stores are low, your body's performance will suffer. When your body doesn't have enough carbohydrates, it uses energy mainly from proteins. As stated above, protein has another primary role in the body. And, again, your muscle mass will take the hit. Carb cycling can be useful in some situations, but don’t start with this method. Establish your eating foundation first.

Fat is important for your diet because it helps you feel full for longer periods of time and keeps skin, hair and nails healthy (among other things). You should limit your intake of saturated fats (usually solid at room temperature, such as butter) and trans fats ( partially hydrogenated fats found in packaged foods and fast foods).

Instead, increase your intake of heart-healthy unsaturated fats, such as olive, canola oil, fish, nuts, seeds and avocados. Fats should not exceed 30% (closer to 20%) of your total caloric intake. Again, fats should not be used as your primary energy source.

Your body needs the macronutrients at all times to function properly. When your body functions properly, your metabolism will also function properly. That's why you should eat every 3-4 hours to give your body what it needs and to protect your vital muscle mass.

If you are a person who skips breakfast--don't! You are sabotaging your fat loss and weight loss efforts and throwing your metabolism out of wack!

Eat for health, fat loss and weight loss. You should not ever try a “30-day Weight Loss Only” program to reach your long-term goals.

If you need to know how to lose weight the right way, get My Fitness Hut's 7-Day Weight Loss And Fat Loss e-Course! The e-Course is FREE!

"Exercise is not my life.....exercise makes my life better!"

Check out my other great blogs:

Her Fitness Hut Blog Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women! Her Fitness Hut has also been named in the Top 50 Personal Training Blogs by Physical Therapy Assistant Schools!

Sports Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as the #1 Sports Fitness Blog and NursingDegree.net as one of the Best 100 Health and Nutrition Blogs for Athletes! The blog has also been named as one of the "50 Best Sports Medicine Blogs by Masters In Healthcare! It is an honor to be recognized by those in the health and academic fields! Afterall, health is number one for everybody---including athletes!

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Being Slightly Overweight Shortens Life

A review of 19 studies covering 1.5 million people shows that being even a little bit overweight shortens your life and the heavier you are, the more likely you are to die of cancer and heart attacks (New England Journal of Medicine, December 2, 2010). Two-thirds of North American adults are overweight or obese.

Doctors measure overweight with a Body-Mass Index (BMI) number: your weight in kilograms divided by the square of your height in meters. A normal BMI is 22.5 to 25. Having a BMI of 27.5 increases your chances of dying from a heart attack by 50 percent, and a BMI over 40 increases risk by more than 400 percent. Similar increases in BMI apply to death from cancers.

No Such Thing as Healthy Overweight Men
"There appears to be no such thing as metabolically healthy obesity," said Dr. Johan Arnlov, author of a 30-year follow up report of 1800 Swedish men showing that overweight middle-aged men are at increased risk for death and heart attacks, even if they do not have metabolic syndrome or diabetes (Circulation, January 19, 2010). Arnlov and his colleagues checked all the men for metabolic syndrome: high blood sugar, high blood pressure, high blood triglycerides (fats), low HDL ("good") cholesterol and a broad waist size (40 inches for men, 35 for women). Metabolic syndrome is the presence of three or more of these risk factors. Follow-up for 30 years showed that the risk of a heart attack was 52 percent higher in overweight men without metabolic syndrome, 74 percent higher in overweight men with metabolic syndrome, 95 percent higher in obese men without metabolic syndrome and 155 percent higher in obese men with metabolic syndrome.

Reducing Overweight a Little Prolongs Life
Being overweight shortens lives because full fat cells produce immune cells that turn on your immunity to promote inflammation that causes diabetes, heart attacks, cancers, arthritis and other diseases. Losing as few as 10 pounds can reduce an over-active immune system to that of a thin person (The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, June 2010).

Exercise Helps to Prevent Weight Gain
The average person spends a lifetime gaining weight and exercise helps to prevent weight gain with aging. Researchers measured BMI and waist circumference in more than 3,400 men and women and followed them for 20 years. The most-active men gained 5.7 pounds less than those least active, and the most-active women gained 13.5 pounds less than the least-active women (JAMA, December 15, 2010). Many other studies show that exercising regularly helps to protect even those who continue to be overweight.

Message: Being even a little bit overweight shortens lives, and exercise helps to prevent weight gain with aging.

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Burn More Belly Fat In 2011

This is the year for you to burn more belly fat! Make it a priority and it will happen. You will have to limit foods filled with sugars (among others) for this to happen. If you have a sweet-tooth like me, that's not easy to do! Bottom line: you will have to eat healthier and that's a good thing for you going forward.

Shrink your waist size. Doing so will reduce your risk of dying from diseases like cancer and heart disease. Don't just take my word for it....researchers from the American Cancer Society warns us about the deadly risks of having too much belly fat. Read my article about waist-to-hip ratio.

In the research study led by Eric J. Jacobs, PhD, American Cancer Society strategic director, Pharmacoepidemiology, researchers examined the association between waist circumference and the risk of death among 48,500 men and 56,343 women age 50 and older who had taken part in the Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort, a subset of the larger Cancer Prevention Study II (CPS-II).

Participants filled out detailed questionnaires about their health and lifestyle, and also measured their waist size with a tape measure. They were then tracked for 9 years.

“We were interested in looking at waist size because it’s strongly correlated to fat tissue in the abdomen, which is the most dangerous kind of fat issue,” said Jacobs.

What The Research Found:

Jacobs and his colleagues found that people with very large waists (47 inches or larger in men, 42 inches or larger in women) had approximately twice the risk of death compared to those with the smallest waists (35 inches in men, 30 inches in women) during the study period.

And, this is the interesting part about the study: it didn't matter if the person was normal weight, overweight or obese (according to body mass index).

“We found a pattern showing that expanding waist size was linked to a greater risk of dying regardless of body weight,” said Jacobs. “Similarly, people with the smallest waist sizes had the lowest risk. The take home message here is watch your waist size regardless of your weight.”

Spot Reduction Won't Work

Spot reduction won't work. Burn total body fat by doing full body strength training and eating healthy food. This will help you burn fat off your waist. Doing 1000 ab crunches a day won't get the job done.

“There’s no evidence that doing a particular set of abdominal moves will reduce belly fat. The best thing you can do is to eat better and exercise more,” says Jacobs.

Build muscle, burn fat and shrink your body!

If you need to know where to start, just get your 14-Day Accelerated Fat Loss Program!

"Exercise is not my life.....exercise makes my life better!"

Check out my other great blogs:

Her Fitness Hut Blog Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women! Her Fitness Hut has also been named in the Top 50 Personal Training Blogs by Physical Therapy Assistant Schools!

Sports Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as the #1 Sports Fitness Blog and NursingDegree.net as one of the Best 100 Health and Nutrition Blogs for Athletes! The blog has also been named as one of the "50 Best Sports Medicine Blogs by Masters In Healthcare! It is an honor to be recognized by those in the health and academic fields! Afterall, health is number one for everybody---including athletes!

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Burn Fat, Sculpt Your Body This Year

Don't just lose weight. Burn fat and sculpt your body this year. This way, the weight will stay off because you will have increased muscle mass. You won't hear this message on weight loss infomercials and magazine ads.



Why? Because they want you to buy their quick weight loss program. What you do after their program is your problem. Don't settle for less than a lean body. That takes more time to achieve.

Don't sell yourself short and settle for just another fad diet designed to give you short term weight loss. Fad diets don't work because you can't maintain them---you need a healthy meal plan that you can maintain over time.

You may need to change up your exercise routine. You can't do the same things and expect different results. If it failed last year, you need a change.

You might need to change your same old cardio workout? Ever tried bodyweight cardio? Its a great change up from the same old cardio machines.

Do you workout at a slow pace most of the time? Speed it up and see more results. In my opinion, sprinting is one of the least used exercises done by general exercisers. Sprints help you burn fat faster! Sprinting is one of the best ways to help get your total body lean and toned.

What were your eating habits like last year? We can always improve our eating habits. There's been more than one good workout erased by bad eating habits.

Wherever you are in your fat loss and fitness trek, make a commitment to burn more fat than ever this year.

If you need to know where to start, just get your 14-Day Accelerated Fat Loss Program and get after it!

"Exercise is not my life.....exercise makes my life better!"

Check out my other great blogs:

Her Fitness Hut Blog Her Fitness Hut is featured on EmpowHER, a great health issues website for women! Her Fitness Hut has also been named in the Top 50 Personal Training Blogs by Physical Therapy Assistant Schools!

Sports Fitness Hut Blog has been recognized by Stanford University Wellsphere as the #1 Sports Fitness Blog and NursingDegree.net as one of the Best 100 Health and Nutrition Blogs for Athletes! The blog has also been named as one of the "50 Best Sports Medicine Blogs by Masters In Healthcare! It is an honor to be recognized by those in the health and academic fields! Afterall, health is number one for everybody---including athletes!

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Accelerated Fat Loss Program at My Fitness Hut

It's all about fat loss folks! Get your fat loss year off to a great start with My Fitness Hut's 14-Day Accelerated Fat Loss Program! Many of you need a huge change from your regular workouts in order to make progress. And, some of you just need a jumpstart.



If you have been doing the same workout for months, you need a change to break through your plateau. If your workouts are 2 hours long, you are spending too much time in the gym. You can get better results with less time. You don't need a gym membership. You can do this program at home or anywhere you like.

With this program, strength workouts don't exceed 50 minutes and interval cardio workouts don't exceed 20 minutes! You will have to work out VERY HARD but you will be rewarded.

Start out this year the right way and don't stop! Get off the yo-yo weight loss and regain wagon. You can stop the weight loss/weight regain cycle with regular exercise and healthy menus. Its that simple.

Visit this page and learn how to get started building your lean body

Mark Dilworth, Certified Personal Trainer

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Exercising on an Empty Stomach Can Both Prevent and Treat Diabetes

One of three North Americans will become diabetic because they eat a high-calorie, high-fat diet that *blocks insulin receptors *to prevent cells from responding to insulin (insulin resistance) *to cause high insulin levels *that constrict coronary arteries *to cause heart attacks. Failure to respond to insulin causes *high blood sugar levels *that cause sugar to stick to cell membranes *to permanently damage the affected cell *to cause blindness, deafness, heart attacks, strokes, amputations and all the terrible side effects of diabetes.

After just a few days on a high-calorie, high-fat diet, cells fail to respond adequately to insulin, blood sugar levels rise, fat deposits in your body, even in muscles, and you gain weight. This causes your muscles to start to lose their ability to store glycogen, the major source of efficient fuel for exercise, and you tire much earlier during exercise.

If you exercise vigorously BEFORE breakfast, you can reduce and even prevent these side effects. Exercising after fasting prevents fat from being deposited in muscles and helps muscles to make more stored sugar (glycogen), the primary efficient fuel for exercise. A study from Leuven, Belgium shows for the first time that "fasted training is more potent than fed training to facilitate adaptations in muscles, and to improve whole-body glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity" (Journal of Physiology, November 2010). So you are able to exercise longer and harder. If you do not exercise during this period, you gain none of these benefits. If you exercise after eating, these benefits are reduced markedly (Journal of Physiology, April 15, 2005).

When you exercise after fasting, you burn primarily your own body fat for energy. The fat is removed from fat cells and muscle cells. Muscle enzymes burn fat more efficiently and clear further fat from your muscles and fat cells to make your cells more sensitive to insulin. This reverses the cascade described in the first paragraph.

However, fasting before exercising harms training and competitive performance in athletes. The limiting factor to how fast you can move your muscles is the time it takes to move oxygen into muscles. When you fast before exercising, you burn more fat and less sugar. Since sugar requires less oxygen than fat to be converted to energy, your needs for oxygen are greater to burn fat. This slows you down and tires you earlier.

The basic research that showed how muscles convert sugar to energy was done in the 1930s by Diana's father, professor Donald Purdie of Cambridge University in England. He worked with Hans Adolph Krebs, who won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1953.

It is not established whether athletes should train on a low carbohydrate diet to teach their muscles to burn sugar more efficiently. This would help them to compete at a faster pace. Several studies show that training after fasting increases enzymes that turn sugar into energy. However, training with reduced sugar stores (glycogen) can limit workouts, and this may counteract the gains of fasting before working out.

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