Lose Belly Fat Fast

You can lose weight by simply being more active. That’s right, forget exercise or diet, you can lose weight by simply being more active! Of course, diet and exercise are great and would greatly speed up your weight loss, but you can still lose some weight by simply changing the things you do in your free time from passive to active. So instead of watching TV you’d go to a museum, instead of watching “Danceing with the stars” you’d go to a club and dance yourself!

There are two reasons why this works. The first one is obvious – by increasing the amount of physical activity you do you will burn more calories. The more physically demanding something is, the more calories you’ll burn. Which is why dancing is a great way to have some fun and burn some calories!

The other reason for it works is because you will eat less if you are more active. I am not sure what the reason for this is, but it’s true. If you are doing something actively and enjoying it, you don’t feel hungry. Think back to when you were a kid, when you played basketball with friends, you didn’t feel hungry in the middle of the game did you? Chances are you didn’t even feel hungry after the game. On the other hand if you are doing something passive, like watching TV, then you just seem to gravitate towards the kitchen for a snack now and then. Even though you don’t really feel hungry, it just seems to happen!

So become more active and lose some weight! It’s quite simple too, just go for a walk a few times a week, take some dance or yoga classes, check out a locale museum or gallery etc etc. By making these simple changes you could lose a surprising amount of weight!

Weight lifting is an excellent method for building muscles, getting a nice toned body and losing weight. It has many pros compared to other methods (like running for weight loss) a work out can be pretty short yet very effective, it’s easy to scale up or down depending on your fitness level. There are many different exercise so you will never get bored of doing the same thing. Different exercise allow you to target different muscle groups – letting you sculpt your body the way you want it.

Yet for all it’s pros there is a major con – weight lifting can be dangerous! The danger comes from the fact that many of the most effective exercise involve compound movements, and require good technique to perform. Do them with bad technique and you risk suffering an injury, either right away or eventually (depending on the weight you use and just how wrong your technique is.)

Also, unlike body weight exercise, where you can get injured by in most cases you will see a potential injury coming a long way before you get injured. And most injuries are some variation of pulling a muscle and comes from doing many repetitions of a given exercise. In contrast with weight lifting you can potentially get a serious injury in just one move. It doesn’t even have to be a heavy lift, even moderate amount can cause a serious injury if your technique is wrong enough.

This shouldn’t stop you from incorporating weight lifting into your work outs, as it is very, very effective. It does however mean that you should learn the technique before you jump in, this is especially vital for guys who have a tendency of going for heavy weights to “see how much I can lift.” So learn the technique first, using very, very low weights to practice moves (a broomstick is a popular replacement for barbell to learn technique.)

If you are serious about using weight lifting as your main exercise method, then joining a gym that has a weight lifting program or joining some classes where a certified instructor will teach you the correct technique is a good idea. Although you can teach yourself fairly well by watching instructional videos on youtube just try to learn why the move is done a certain way, in addition to learning how to do it.

It’s almost the end of the year which means it’s that time again – time for a new year’s resolution! If you are like most people then chances are your resolution is little more than some dream or wishful thinking and you highly doubt it will actually happen. But there is a way to actually not only accomplish your resolution but to also use this symbolic time to give a boost to your motivation. After all accomplishing a goal is all about the mind set, especially when it comes to weight loss.

I was talking about this subject with a friend recently, I jokingly asked him if he had any resolutions for the upcoming year, to which he replied that those resolutions were a waste of time since they never come true. I told him that the reason for that is due to people choosing end goals as their resolutions instead of a way to get there. In order to make your new year’s resolution more than just wishful thinking you have to focus on a way to get to your goal, not the goal itself.

For example, if your goal is to lose 50 pounds in the coming year, than instead of making that goal your resolution for 2010 your resolution should be to take steps to get to your goal. Ie. you’ll join a gym and work out twice a week before the end of January, you’ll stop eating (some of the) junk food you eat today and switch to a more healthy diet, you’ll be more active and spend more time outdoors during the summer, etc. etc.

Not only is a resolution like that gives you a step by step guide as to what you should be doing, but it also gives you mini goals to accomplish to help keep you motivated. Sure it may not be as exciting as focusing on the end goal, but if your resolution is to “lose 50 pounds this year” yet you have no plans to make any steps towards actually accomplishing that goal then it’s not a goal, it’s a dream.

I wish you all a Happy New Year! Make this year the one where you accomplish your new year’s resolutions, whatever they might be!

It only seems natural that I am writing about this topic seeing how I’ve just spent half an hour shoveling snow! Pretty nice work out let me tell you. I am sure we have all herd that you can lose a pretty impressive number of calories if you just change a few things in your every day life. The most popular and well known of which is probably the “Park your car at the far end of the parking lot and walk to work.” The second most known advice is the “Take the stairs instead of waiting for a lift.”

Those are two good suggestions, doing this will result in some calories burned and over time it could add up. But it doesn’t have to stop here. You could change your lifestyle to be more active. Instead of watching TV for fun why not go explore your city or visit an art gallery? Instead of sitting on a couch you will spend a few hours walking. Spend too much time playing video games? Get yourself a wii. Now it doesn’t come close to replacing real exercise but it certainly beats sitting in a chair playing PS3 or Xbox.

If that doesn’t appeal to you, and I am not too big on art galleries myself, why not take up some sport as a hobby? Yoga is a popular option – you get improved flexibility, relax mentally and lose some weight – not bad at all. Or how about taking a dance class or some other group class? You’ll meet some new people and make some new friends, all the while losing weight.

OK, so this is going beyond the more common “park far and walk” advice, but losing weight and staying fit is a long journey and it helps if your life style supports it. Besides, you might enjoy taking dance classes just as much as you enjoy watching “Dancing With The Stars” so why not give a more active life style a try?

Weight training is great for weight loss, in fact it’s one of the best methods to lose those last few pesky pounds. It is also great for getting a toned body with lean muscles. Unfortunately many women don’t take advantage of this excellent training regime. Dare I say it many women are afraid to even touch weights! I guess it’s a combination of the media telling women that they need to look like a walking skeleton to be considered “beautiful” size 2 super modles being photoshoped to look even thinner. And last but not least the believe held by many women that by just touching weights they will immediately become as muscular as Schwarzenegger.

The last point is the one I wish to examine more closely. Although suffice to say that you don’t need to have a body of a runway model to be considered beautiful, if anything having some lean muscle mass will make you more beautiful. But back to the last point, why are so many women afraid that that will look like professional body builders if they do any exercise with weights? I don’t know. I mean you have a whole gym full of guys who want to “look big” and most of them don’t look big at all. Combine it with the fact that men have much higher testosterone levels than women, and I am truly at a loss as to where women get this notion.

None the less it is a concern to many women and one that keeps them away from using and reaping the benefits of weight training. So it’s probably a good idea to address it – Ladies, unless you are working out with weights 3 hours a day or more, 5 days a week you will never look too muscular. Even if you are working out 3 hours a day 5 days a week chances are you won’t get anywhere close to pro female body builders (What are steroids, Alex.)

So stop being concerned about becoming too muscular and give weight training a try. Of course, I mean real weight training not those pink 1 pound dumbbells. You want to do compound exercise with about 70-80% of your max. This will both give you a great work out that will burn a lot of calories and stimulate your body to build lean muscles.

Weight training is a great method, don’t be afraid to use it in your work outs and reap the benefits it provides!