REFOCUS Fat Loss Goals After 6 Months

REFOCUS your fat loss and weight loss goals...the mid-point of the year is a good time to do this (really, every week is a good time)....Anyway, if you're frustrated and overwhelmed from the whole exercise/fitness/meal plan/fat loss/weight loss puzzle, make some changes! REFOCUS, re-evaluate and make changes! There's a reason your exercise program isn't working! Some reasons could be:1. You have been haphazard with your workouts and eating habits.2. You have the wrong workout routine and you're stuck doing the same workout week after week (with little or no results).3. You're not working hard enough. It takes hard, smart work to change your body composition.4. You're depending on a fat-burner supplement, powder or weight loss patch...

Read more »

Protein for Muscle Recovery and Growth

Many athletes believe that they can grow larger muscles by taking protein supplements rather than by eating protein in ordinary foods. However, protein powders come from food, and extracts cannot be more efficient than the foods from which they are extracted.All athletes train by stressing and recovering. They take a hard workout, damage their muscles, feel sore the next morning, and then take easy workouts until the muscles heal and the soreness goes away. The athlete who can recover the fastest can do the most intense workouts. Eating a high carbohydrate-high protein meal within a half hour after finishing an intense workout raises insulin levels and hastens recovery (Journal of Applied Physiology, May 2009). Another breakthrough study reported...

Read more »

Half-Way To Your Fitness Goals After 6 Months?

Are you making any progress with your fitness, health, fat loss and weight loss goals after 6 months of exercise this year? Is your health better? If the answer is not yes to both questions, you need a better exercise program or you need to commit to consistent exercise (or both)!Six months is plenty of time for you to see progress with fitness, health, fat loss and weight loss! Your clothes should be fitting looser, your body should be more toned, you should be able to do some type of interval cardio (instead of slow-paced cardio), you should be able to get through a 40 minute circuit weight training workout, etc.Are you feeling overwhelmed from the whole exercise/fitness/meal plan/fat loss/weight loss puzzle? Don't think you will ever get...

Read more »

Beach Workout In The Sand

If you're hanging out at the beach alot this summer, here's a good fat-burning workout for you:Do one exercise after the other with little or no rest between exercises. Do this workout in the sand!1. Jump squats, 10 repetitions, fast2. Walk 1 minute3. Sprint 15 seconds4. Walk 30 seconds5. Bentover dumbbell rows, 10 repetitions6. Plank, 10 repetitions, 15 second hold7. Walking lunges, 10 steps each leg8. Seated knee ups, 15 repetitions9. Pushups, 20 repetitions10. Side lunges, 10 repetitions each legRest 2 minutes and repeat this circuit one more time. If you're at the beach this weekend, try this sand workout!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...

Read more »

Hip Fracture Usually Requires Hip Replacement

The most-feared injury among serious bicyclists is a broken hip. The femur hip bone is shaped like a shepherd's crook. The blood supply to the ball at the top of the hip bone comes in through the neck just below the ball. If the neck or ball are broken, the blood supply is usually shut off and the top of the hip bone dies. To prevent this from happening, fractures of the ball or neck of the hip bone are usually treated with immediate hip replacement. Try to avoid this drastic surgery by keeping your bones as strong as possible.1) All exercise strengthens bones. Bicycling strengthens bones, but not as much as sports that exert greater forces on bones such as running or lifting weights. (Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, March...

Read more »

Fat Loss And Weight Loss--Sooner, 4

Reach your fat loss and weight loss goals---sooner! Shorten and intensify your workouts with jump training (plyometrics)! Short, intense workouts also burn more fat and calories during and after your workout!If you're having trouble sculpting your butt, hips and thighs then you need to do more plyometric training. Plyometric workouts are advanced workouts. You need to perfect jumping and landing techniques or you will injure yourself. And, if you have knee and low back problems, high-speed plyometric training is not for you. Try this jump training workout (take little or no rest between exercises):--jump rope, two feet, full speed, 1 minute--squat jumps, 10, full speed--lunge jumps, 10, full speed--depth jumps (off knee-high platform),...

Read more »

Fat Loss And Weight Loss--Sooner, 3

Make needed changes to your eating habits and reach your fat loss and weight loss goals---sooner! Don't ruin great workouts by eating bad food with a million calories! Its possible to hide those hard-earned muscles with a thick layer of fat! Don't fight against yourself! We are kings and queens of "too large" servings of food and that's without even "super-sizing" anything! Keep your daily food journal to track what, how much and why you are eating! This will help you with portion control.MAKE THE COMMITMENT TO CHANGE YOUR EATING HABITS AND DON'T "GIVE UP" EVEN IF YOU "GIVE IN" AT TIMES! PERSEVERANCE IS THE KEY TO BEING SUCCESSFUL WITH ANYTHING!It will be easier to keep your commitment if you plan your meals for the week. And, instead...

Read more »

Fat Loss And Weight Loss--Sooner, 2

Reach your fat loss and weight loss goals---sooner! 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 that I often do (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...

Read more »

The Hygeine Hypothesis: Hot Debate

The Hygiene Hypothesis proposes that you need to have certain infections to have a healthy immune system. If you are not infected with various common germs, your immunity does not have the chance to practice killing germs and learning the difference between invading organisms and your own cells. For example, does Helicobacter pylori, the bacteria that causes stomach ulcers, also prevent diseases such as eczema? Nobody knows. Being infected with Helicobacter is associated with decreased risk for eczema (Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, July 2007), but it is also associated with an increased risk for asthma (Gut, May 22, 2008). Your immunity protects you from certain infections by searching out and killing foreign germs in your...

Read more »

Fat Loss And Weight Loss--Sooner, 1

Reach your fat loss and weight loss goals---sooner! To do this, you need to make some changes to your program! Here's an example:I have a friend who insists on working out for 2 long, dragging hours with little or no results! My answer to her is always the same: shorten your weight training workouts to 50 minutes or less and ramp up the intensity! In other words, work harder for a shorter period of time and 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...

Read more »

"Quickie Cardio" Is Perfect For Summer!

"Quickie Cardio" works great! "Quickies" are short, sweet and effective! That's all you need your cardio exercise to do for you---burn calories, burn fat and tone your body. For the record, all of my personal cardio workouts are "quickies!"If your cardio sessions are taking 45-60 minutes, you need to change to "quickies!" Long, slow cardio sessions will eat away at your muscle mass! I define "quickies" as 20 minutes or less....If you have to break down the "quickie cardio" into two 10-minute sessions, that's even better. Research proves that you get even more fat-burning benefits from two separate workouts.Its summer, right? Relax, and get in a quickie or two today! Your body will love you for it!I have the best "quickie cardio" workouts...

Read more »

Why Do Cardio Exercise?

Why do cardio? Get the right answer and your fat loss frustrations will end! The goal for cardio exercise should be to improve heart health (and overall health) and blast the body fat. And, don’t let your cardio exercise cause you to lose muscle mass! I have seen too many people lose valuable muscle mass while doing too many long, boring cardio sessions of 60 to 90 minutes! Personally, I don’t have the time (or patience) to devote to 3-4 sessions a week of lengthy cardio! The take home lesson is this: don’t waste time with lengthy cardio sessions and you will burn fat and spend more time building muscle mass. And, you don't need a treadmill or elliptical machine to do cardio exercise! All you need is 20 minutes and an activity that you...

Read more »

What should you do if your doctor tells you that you have blocked coronary arteries? A recent study shows that in people who have blocked arteries and diabetes, the chances of dying or having a major heart attack are the same whether they undergo surgical procedures (bypass or stents) or just take medication to treat cholesterol, blood pressure and diabetes. Death rate was also the same whether or not they took insulin (BARI 2D study, New England Journal of Medicine, June 10, 2009).Patients who had bypass procedures had fewer heart attacks than those who had stents, even though both had the same chances of dying (also reported in the BARI-1 trial). I think that stents are less effective in preventing heat attacks because stents are foreign...

Read more »

Surgery for Blocked Arteries Questioned

What should you do if your doctor tells you that you have blocked coronary arteries? A recent study shows that in people who have blocked arteries and diabetes, the chances of dying or having a major heart attack are the same whether they undergo surgical procedures (bypass or stents) or just take medication to treat cholesterol, blood pressure and diabetes. Death rate was also the same whether or not they took insulin (BARI 2D study, New England Journal of Medicine, June 10, 2009).Patients who had bypass procedures had fewer heart attacks than those who had stents, even though both had the same chances of dying (also reported in the BARI-1 trial). I think that stents are less effective in preventing heat attacks because stents are foreign...

Read more »

My Fitness Hut's 20-Minute Fat Blasting Cardio Workouts

If you want to blast the fat in the minimum amount time, get My Fitness Hut's 20-Minute Fat Blasting Cardio Workouts! There are 8 different types of challenging workouts for you to do this summer and they all burn fat like crazy! I do these workouts all the time and so do my clients! And, as always, the workouts are based on my proven Fat Blaster Athletic Training System! Long, slow cardio sessions wastes time and your precious muscle mass also wastes away! Anaerobic cardio sessions like sprint intervals have been proven to give superior heart-health and fat-burn! So, stop wasting your time and start building your lean, mean fat-burning machine! Devote more time to strength training and less time to cardio! That way, you will build...

Read more »

Exercise And Eat Right During Summer Travel

Everything is looser in the summer so keeping up with exercise and eating right is a huge challenge! Since the clothes are looser, you want to look good, right?! Well, take some steps to stay in shape during the summer. Your months of hard work can take a big hit in just 2-3 weeks if you're not careful!While you are busy doing your travel and running around this summer, don't forget your summer workout schedule! You can still exercise and do everything you need to do this summer! You just have to be a little creative. For me, summer is my favorite time to workout because I love to workout in 100 degree heat.....I'm a little wacky so I realize this doesn't work for many people. For one, allergies are a big problem for many people so outdoors...

Read more »

Do Low Carb Diets Work?

Do low carb diets work? A better question would be: What are you trying to accomplish with your low carb diet? If you're trying to lose weight fast, your low carb diet can work to do that (especially if you cut bad carbs like sugars). But, just about any fad diet out there will help you do that. Cutting the carbs short-term can be an effective weight loss tool.But, low carb diets are hard to maintain because your body depends on carbs for energy, especially during intense exercise. So, its easy for low carb dieters to "fall off the wagon" and begin to binge on carbs. And, the weight comes back on with a vengeance (yo-yo diet effect)!Your ultimate goal should be to burn fat through regular weight training (including bodyweight exercises),...

Read more »

Burning During Exercise Differs from Muscle Pain After Exercise

The burning you feel in muscles during intense exercise is different from the burning and pain you feel after exercising. Burning during intense exercise is caused by the acidity from accumulation of lactic acid. When your muscles cannot get all the oxygen they need to convert food to energy during intense exercise, lactic acid accumulates in muscles, makes them more acidic, and the acidity causes a burning feeling. Excess lactic acid is cleared from the muscles within seconds after stopping exercise.Lactic acid is good because it is the most efficient fuel for muscles during exercise. It requires less oxygen for energy than virtually all other fuels. Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) neutralize lactic acid in muscles during intense exercise...

Read more »

Top 5 Fat Loss Ab Exercises

Limiting fat loss ab exercises to only 5 is tough but I will do it! My Fitness Hut’s Athletic Abs Training System trains movements and not just muscles! You will get the sculpted, toned abs that you want and you won't walk around like a stiff robot! You will build those abs for every day movements! We all kneel, stand, walk and run, so your abs and overall body strength and stability should be trained for you to live an active life every day!So, based on that information, here are my Top 5 Fat Loss Ab Exercises:1. Plank on Ball (rotate plank variations). These are important for foundational core strength. Variations include side planks, planks with leg lift, plank with hip abduction, etc. 2. Ab Ball Rollout/Ab Ball Jackknife. Do these...

Read more »

Top 5 Fat Loss Strength Exercises

Strength exercises for fat loss should focus on maximizing your time at the gym...build more lean muscle mass to speed up your metabolism and burn more fat. To recruit more muscle fibers during workouts and improve your success, focus more on MULTI-JOINT OR COMPOUND EXERCISES. COMPOUND EXERCISES will help you burn more fat because you are working large muscle groups in your body. For example, the largest muscle in the body is the gluteus maximus and squats/lunges would target this area (among other areas). You will also burn more calories after your workout. Examples of SINGLE-JOINT EXERCISES are biceps curl, seated calf raise, leg extension, leg curl and triceps pushdowns. Spend less of your time on these exercises. Here are my Top 5 Fat...

Read more »

Top 5 Common Sense Fat Loss Tips

Like alot of things in life, fat loss comes down to you applying common sense like:1. If you severely limit candy, donuts, cookies, sugary drinks, calorie-packed desserts and other sugary products (while continuing to exercise), you will burn belly fat and lose weight.2. Walk as much as possible (i.e., stay active during the day), exercise 4-5 days a week, stay with your meal plan at least 90% of the time and you will burn fat and lose weight!3. If you don't replace bad foods (like sugary foods) with good foods like fresh fruits, you will probably continue to eat massive amounts of sugary foods. Try the replacement method--it works!4. If you don't REALLY COMMIT to improve your quality of life with exercise, healthy nutrition, active lifestyle,...

Read more »

Which Blood Pressure Number is More Important?

The higher number (systolic) measures pressure when your heart contracts, and the lower (diastolic) reading measures the pressure when your heart relaxes. A recent study followed people with high blood pressure to see which people developed heart attacks (Hypertension, May 26, 2009). The authors found that the best predictors for future heart attacks are the systolic (heart contraction) blood pressure and pulse pressure (the difference between systolic and diastolic blood pressures). Evidently the higher your blood pressure rises when your heart contracts, the more likely you are to have a heart attack. Normally, the aorta is supposed to widen when the heart contracts to send a large amount of blood to your arteries. Those with the stiffest...

Read more »

Top 5 Fat Loss Cardio Workouts

You can do my top 5 fat loss cardio workouts in 20 minutes as interval cardio....each workout will burn fat like crazy!1. Run sprint intervals on grass or in sand if you're at the beach! Sprints are absolutely one of the best ways to blast fat and sculpt your body. You don't have to be fast, just run as fast as you can! To make it more challenging, see #2.2. Run uphill, stadium steps or step mill. You might need to start on the step mill machine and work your way up!3. Jump training or plyometrics. This is high intensity and high risk. Perfect your jumping and landing techniques before advancing to full speed jumps. You may want to start with exercises like jump rope, jumping jacks and squat jumps. 4. Bodyweight cardio. Try rotating...

Read more »

Top 5 Fat Loss Snacks

One sure way to blow up your meal plan is to snack your way to excess pounds....what you eat between main meals can make the difference in you reaching your fat loss and weight loss goals. I eat foods that I like. Another person's menu won't work for me. Find healthy foods that you like...here is my Top 5 Fat Loss Snacks:1. Popcorn is my favorite snack of all time! I can eat popcorn anywhere, anytime! Its high-fiber and low calorie. Skip the butter and excess salt! I like to pop it on the stove in canola or olive oil. On the run, I eat natural, microwaved brands. 2. Nuts.....my second favorite snack. Peanuts, pistachios, pecans and almonds are my favs....it doesn't take much either (a handful will do). They are high-calorie so be...

Read more »

Top 5 Fat Loss Lies!

There are alot of lies about fat loss out there! Why? Because people are trying to make money off of you and they'll lie to you to get your money! Here are my Top 5 Fat Loss Lies (Federal Trade Commission backs me up on this): 1. "LOSE WEIGHT WITHOUT DIET OR EXERCISE!" This is idiotic! Achieving fat loss and weight loss takes work! Take a pass on any product that promises miraculous results without the effort. Buy one and the only thing you’ll lose is money. 2. "LOSE WEIGHT WITH OUR MIRACLE DIET PATCH OR CREAM!" You’ve seen the ads for diet patches or creams that claim to melt away the pounds. Don’t believe them. There’s nothing you can wear or apply to your skin that will cause you to lose weight. 3. "BLOCK THE ABSORPTION OF FAT, CARBS,...

Read more »

Top 5 Metabolism Boosters For Fat Loss

If you want permanent fat loss, you have to continually boost your metabolism....metabolism is basically the rate at which your body burns calories. Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the number of calories you'd burn if you did nothing all day (or the amount of calories your body needs to maintain itself).Here are my top 5 metabolism boosters:1. Do not skip meals (eat 4 to 6 small meals a day). Eating regularly keeps your metabolism humming during the day. Starving yourself or severely cutting your calories will only slow your metabolism.2. Regular exercise (cardio 3-4 days a week/weight training 3 days a week). Building muscle mass will speed up your metabolism because your body has to work harder to maintain muscle. The more intense...

Read more »

Older People Need More Sunshine

A study from the University of Warwick in England shows that more time in the sun can help older people avoid diabetes and heart attacks (Diabetes Care, July 2009). They evaluated 3,262 people aged 50-70 years old in Beijing and Shanghai, China, and found that 94 percent were low in vitamin D and 42 percent of those had metabolic syndrome: abdominal obesity, high triglycerides, low HDL and high blood sugar levels. This is consistent with world- wide studies that show that as people age their skin atrophies, reducing their ability to make vitamin D from sunlight. Seniors also usually exercise less so they do not go outside as often. Since they are more susceptible to cold, they usually wear more clothing when they do go outside. Inadequate vitamin...

Read more »