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Fast Weight Loss At Home? Here’s How To Start.

By admin on December 9, 2011 in

Fast weight loss at home isn’t some kind of pipe dream!

If you’ve taken a good look around this website and having familiarised yourself with our suggestions, you may find yourself on the same page as we are, and you may find yourself eager to give our suggestions a try. But there might be one problem which you feel stands between you and these fresh method of losing fat: and that’s money.

Economical Exercise – It’s Possible!

In the economy which the world has been experiencing over the past few years, disposable income is being squeezed from every possible angle – you might have even lost a few pounds because you just can’t afford to buy those six dollar cheeseburgers anymore. If your cash is this crunched, spending money on a monthly gym membership may seem like an unnecessary or unfortunate expense. Even if you can afford a gym, there are still other reasons why you might need to work out at home – if you’re working a busy schedule and can’t spend time maneuvering through traffic, for example.

Well, luckily for you, you don’t need to spend mountains of cash on a gym membership or buy a fleet of benches, slides, treadmills, and other things that look more like medieval torture devices than exercise equipment. In fact, you should be able to complete most of the most important workouts at home with nothing more than a pair of dumbbells.

Picking The Right Equipment

fast-weight-loss-at-home

How heavy should your equipment be? Well, this all comes down to your personal capabilities and strengths. Dumbbells are sold in almost all reputable sports stores, so it may be a good idea to visit one in person in order to try them out and decide on which weight is right for you.

Sure, it kind of defeats the purposes of never leaving the house or spending money, but there’s an upside – this is a one time investment, and once you’re done with it – you’re done with it!

Remember: they should be heavy enough to provide a challenge, but light enough so that you will be able to lift them for sets of up to 12 reps, depending on the exercise. As a rough guide, women should perhaps start out with weights at around 2 or 3 pounds, whereas men should start out with between 5 or 10 pounds. But, again, it is important to work out which weight is appropriate for you.

A Flexible Plan

If you are ordering from the internet or through a mail order service, here is a somewhat unusual tip. Get a pair of weighing scales, stack them up to a weight at which you would like to try out the dumbbells and then lift whatever you have placed on there. Perhaps the easiest way to do this is by using bags of food, which is often divided into usefully round numbers and can, therefore, be added up rather easily.

If your budget absolutely doesn’t allow for that kind of purchase, or you’re giving nervous looks to the exercise equipment that’s already littering your basement – you can get things done whether you’ve got a low budget or no budget at all. Grab a milk jug or a big canvas bag and fill it up with sand if you have to. What’s important is that you’re pushing your body to the limit. If it’s been a really long time since you’ve worked out, you can even get by lifting your own body weight!

The Workout

Once you have your weights and you’re at home, you will need something to do with them. But, don’t just dive straight into them. There a few things which you need to do in order to reduce your risk of injury and increase the effectiveness of your work-out.

  • Warm up before each work-out. e.g. jogging on the spot, stretching
  • Start with light weights: something you can lift at least eight times, but still provides some level of challenge.
  • Rest between sets for 1-2 minutes.
  • Work slowly and smoothly through the exercises.
  • Exhale when you lift; inhale when you lower.
  • If you feel pain during the exercise, stop immediately. Return only if the pain subsides, but with a lower weight.
  • Avoid arching your back when lifting a weight.
  • Work areas of the body with large muscles. e.g. chest, back and legs
  • Cool down after exercising
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Fat Burning Resistance Training

By admin on November 28, 2011 in

What kind of resistance training is fat burning resistance training? How does it work? Will it make me put on weight through muscle growth? Well, if you can give us a few seconds, we can give you a rundown on resistance training and its fat-burning capabilities.

Resistance Training Works Best

If you speak to your average health instructor or gym trainer about the most effective way to burn fat, they will often say that it is cardio-vascular training. Well, that’s not quite true. If you had questioned them on the subject, most would have said cardio-vascular training. Now? Scientific discovery is beginning to penetrate into the psyches of gym trainers and health coaches everywhere. More and more people are coming to the realization that there is, in fact, a better, more effective way to lose those excess pounds: fat burning resistance training.

Instead of spending an hour or more on jogging on a treadmill or cycling a stationary bike, turn your attention to those free weights: they can have a much bigger and better impact on your weight loss pursuits. What’s the theory behind resistance training? Well, short bursts of intense exercise are more effective for burning fat than longer sessions of cardio-vascular exercise are.

What The Science Says

The two main reasons for this are as follows:

  1. Weight training builds muscle, which raises the amount of calories you use up just to stay alive, which burns more calories;
  2. The recovery period for resistance training means that you will be burning calories for up to 3 days after the work-out, as opposed to only the training time period itself of cardio-vascular exercise.

How does raising the amount of calories used to stay alive burn more fat than muscle? That lies in the fact that muscles require between 30 and 50 calories to sustain themselves, whereas fat only requires 9 calories. That means that the calories you consume will be used up far more by muscle than by fat.

So, let’s go into more detail about resistance training. How exactly does it build muscle? It builds muscle by pushing the muscles worked in the exercises to their limit. This breaks down muscle tissue, which is then rebuilt over the next 2-3 days, much stronger (and bigger). And don’t worry : doing this isn’t going to make you injure yourself. It’s a normal mechanism within the body, and it’s the most effective method of gaining muscle mass.

fat-burning-resistance-training

You're going to need to lift a little more than that, ladies.

If you’re a woman, you may be concerned that you will gain weight and perhaps even look manly if you focus on gaining muscle. This is not the case. Primarily, this is because a woman’s body typically does not have the type of hormones that a man’s body does, so it will not develop into a bodybuilder-like physique. What it will mean is that your body will be more defined – it will be more shapely, so that you and others will really be able to see the difference which your fat loss has made. And, again, you will also burn fat, more quickly.

While gaining muscle will initially add to your body weight, eventually, once your body has adapted to this training, your muscle mass will plateau and you will be able to watch the non-lean pounds drop off you. You will just need to be patient and persistent. It may take a few weeks to see results on the weighing scales. But trust me you’ll be losing fat all the while. And that’s not all: your appearance will be constantly improving, and so will your energy level.

Fat Burning Resistance Training – The Proper Method

So, we’ve all reached the same page concerning the power that a fat burning resistance training program can have in store for us. But what sort of resistance training works best? There’s just a deluge of information out there that tells us to “trim” and “tone” our bodies. But this method, usually comprised of doing countless reps with some single joint exercise – curls, etc – isn’t the most effective thing we can be doing with our time, especially if we’re working out to lose weight.

If you want fat burning resistance training, you’ll want big movements that stress as much of your body as possible.

Check out that squat – it’s stressing plenty of different muscle groups. Everybody doesn’t do the squats correctly, but once you take time to learn, it’s a dynamite, fat burning, resistance training dynamo! Lunges, power cleans, even bench presses are all part of that same principle.

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Eating Before Your Workout? You Might Be Sabotaging Yourself!

By admin on November 22, 2011 in ,

If you’re looking for something to eat before your workout, stop. Fitness gurus can argue about carbohydrates, protein, vegetables, or some miracle supplement, but medical science has delivered a definitive answer to the question of what you should eat and when. It’s like nothing you’ve ever heard before.

What should you eat before exercising?

Well… how about nothing?

While it is true that starchy carbohydrates, found in snacks such as bananas and oats, do provide slow-releasing energy which can enhance performance during a high intensity work-out, this is not actually relevant when it comes to losing fat.

Peter Aspel, Professor of Exercise Physiology at the Leuven University in Belgium, has found that those who fast before exercising lose more fat through that exercise than those who do not.

Mr. Aspel conducted an experiment wherein he instructed a team of seven people to cycle three days a week, followed by an intense exercise regime, one hour later, fasting in between. He then instructed a further seven people to complete the same program of exercise, but without fasting. The results of the experiment show that those who fasted prior to each exercise session lost more fat than those who did not.

If the body has modest resources of carbohydrates to draw on in order to fuel exercise, it will soon move on to burning (or “oxidizing”) the body’s fat reserves. Aspel recommends as much as six hours of fasting before such an exercise regime, in order to achieve optimum results. Therefore, the long-held belief by many athletes that a run before breakfast is a great way to burn fat holds steadfast, and has finally gained scientific support from a highly reputable source. If, due to your schedule, you are unable to fast for such a long period of time before exercise, it is still wise to maximize the amount of time that you go without eating before your exercise, anywhere up to the previously-mentioned six hours. In short, this will all mean that any exercise which you then do will have the best chance of burning fat.

What’s The Catch?

Want Peak Performance? Step away from the snack bar!

You’re so cynical!

But there are two. First of all – this is really hard. If you’re exercising on an empty stomach, it stands to reason that’s when your reserves of energy are at their absolute lowest!  Ron Maughan, is a sports professor at Loughborough University in England, and USA Today interviewed him on this very subject. Here’s what he said. “That might help you get very good at burning fat, but you won’t be very good at whatever exercise it is you are doing. Without enough fuel, you won’t get the intensity of training you need to get improvements.”

Now far be it from me to disagree with a doctor (very far be it), but I think he’s only half right. During times like this, you’re going to have less energy – but speaking from personal experience, your body is just going to find a way to help you when times get tough. Think about the guys in the prehistoric ages who woke up hungry and had to chase down a giant saber-toothed tiger or something! Think they were tired? You bet. But did they find a way to survive? You bet.  That extreme  burst of energy comes from something Ori Holfmeker calls “The Sympathetic Nervous System“, and when you munch on a donut before your morning workout, you’re wasting that sympathy like a guy prank calling from his hospital bed.

An Incoming Danger?

Needless to say, this approach takes discipline the first few times. It’s often the case that if one puts oneself through a lengthy period of self-discipline, then one is more susceptible to blowing it at a later time. If someone is to fast six hours prior to exercising, this person will be more likely to indulge in what they have been depriving themselves of later on in the day. What we’re saying here is: don’t start gorging yourself as soon as the workout is over! Of course, this adds to the argument that the best time to fast is the time that people normally and most naturally fast, anyway: during sleep. If you fast during your sleep, you will be far less aware of such – if at all – and less tempted to indulge, later in the day.

In other words, a short, intense, early morning workout before you eat is often the best way to start your day.

At this stage, you may be feeling as if this plan might not be for you: that it is too difficult or that it is simply not suited to you, whether that be due to concerns over your age or any health concerns which you may have. But the truth is that this is a useful way for people of all ages, shapes and sizes to organize their exercising. In fact, Professor Aspel asserted that this process of exercising will even help people who are suffering from diabetes. This is because fasting before exercising produces muscles which are better suited to absorbing glucose, a process which is essential for the treatment of diabetes.

This might seem like a drastic change to your current regime, but it’s really important that you not dramatically increase the workload that you’ve already got going. Take this program and tailor the ideas to your individual needs. Why? Because you’re going to maximize the benefits of whatever system you’re following. That means there’s no need to overwhelm yourself with a program which does not reflect your current needs, strengths and weaknesses. Following this method will be a great step in achieving your weight loss goals!

Ever done a big workout while hungry? Is it harder or easier than we’ve made it sound? Let us know in the comments!

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How Many Calories To Burn Per Day? It’s Simply Science!

By admin on November 22, 2011 in

Listen up. If you’ve spent any time at all either trying to lose weight, learning how to do so, or even knowing somebody who’s trying to do it – you’ll probably come across some kind of calorie counting aspect. And of course, most of the really popular weight loss programs revolve around counting and controlling your caloric intake. But there’s something these programs don’t seem to tell you while they’re cashing your monthly check, and that’s how easy counting calories can be.

You don’t need a calculator, a big poster sized chart chart,  or any of that other stuff. Read on and I’ll tell you (almost) everything you need to know.

Think Energetically

If you want to know how many calories to burn per day, you need to think in terms of energy, because that’s what calories measure.

I know, you probably learned most of this stuff in middle school, but some of your less educated peers must have been dozing off and getting that post-recess nap or something. Because people tend to “freak out” when they hear that other “c-word” bandied about. But the truth is, calories keep us healthy, and we need those calories in order to live!

How do we get that energy? From food and drink. Whip out your chalkboard, it’s math time. Don’t you groan at me!

Let’s say that someone has a calorie intake of 3,000 per day. In order to maintain their current weight, they would also need to burn (or “oxidise”) exactly that amount. In order to gain weight, they would need to burn less than 3,000 calories per day.

For example, in order to gain weight at a rate of 1lb per week, they would need to burn around 2,400 calories. And, in order to lose weight, they would need to burn more than 3,000 calories. So, flipping the previous sum around, this person would need to burn approximately 3,600 calories per day, in order to lose weight at a rate of 1lb per week.

So, in mathematical terms:

Calories burned – Calories taken in = Calories lost (weight lost)
 e.g. 3,600 – 3,000 = 600 (1lb)

 And, that’s basically it. If you’re trying to make a weight loss plan that reaches some “target” you’ve set in your mind, you shouldn’t have a problem setting realistic goals. Obviously, foods have different quantities of calories in them. Whilst a chocolate bar or an energy drink will be high in calories, root vegetables will be low in calories. There has been a large amount of legislation over the past couple of decades which now means that the amount of calories contained within food is frequently displayed on packaging: especially on food and drink items where calorie content is particularly high.

The Three Ways To Burn Calories

How Many Calories To Burn Per Day?

You don't need to take fitness as seriously as this dude to drop a few pounds.

Now, if you really, really only needed to know how many calories you should be burning, you’re set. But if you’re actually interested in how to keep those pesky calories off once you start putting them inside you, well then you’ve come to the right place. Calories are burned in three different ways.

A whopping 60% of calories is burned through your ‘Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)’. These are the calories which need to be burned simply for the function of staying alive. If you were to do nothing but lay in a bed all day, these calories would still be burned. They are needed in order to keep your body working. Now, what’s cool is that if you’re working out in the right way (ie, strength training) you’re going to naturally raise your BMR anyway. Pretty nice, huh?

30% of calories are burned through activity. This could be anything from dipping one’s hand into a bag of your favourite potato chips to a cross-country sprint. Obviously, these activities will bring about a different amount of calorie burning, but they still both burn calories. However, it must be made clear that, for people who live entirely sedentary lives – i.e. do not move very much – the amount of calories lost via activity can be as low as 15%. That kind of knowledge helps explain how a little bit of inactivity can easy lead to big weight gain.

10% of calories are burned through digesting food. This means eating, absorbing, digesting and using food.

Drawing from these three methods of calorie burning, it is clear to see which methods can be employed to burn more calories. And that’s activity! Listen, you really don’t need to be a basketball player or a rugby star  in order to increase the amount calories burned through activity. Once you’ve figured out how many calories to burn per day, you can burn them off just by making simple changes to your day.

  • Walking to the shop rather than taking the car
  • Having a wander around while waiting for an appointment to commence
  • Parking as far away from the building as possible, within the confines of the parking lot.

Also: eat regularly and lightly. Five small meals per day will keep your digestive system working harder, and therefore, you will burn more calories through digestion than you would by having two or three meals per day. Also, this will should help to prevent you from snacking, in between meals.

There are many other ways in which you can burn calories, all of which has already been or will be covered on this very website. However, the most important thing to remember is the following popular phrase: ‘Keep moving’. From drumming your fingers to tapping your feet, keep your body working, no matter what you may be otherwise be doing.

What’s the most hilariously bad calorie counting scheme you’ve ever been roped into? Share it and other calorie stories in the comments below!

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Does The Treadmill Burn Fat?

By admin on November 22, 2011 in

This week in our mailbox: “Does the treadmill burn fat?” — we get plenty of questions about treadmills, and it’s no big surprise why — they save space in your house, they’re cool looking, and they’ve got the little motor on the inside to keep them — and you — running. Running is generally an awesome way to increase your definition, increase your metabolism, and raise your overall cardiovascular fitness levels. But can working on a treadmill help you burn fat? Well… the answer is complicated.

Treadmill Exercises Are Slow

If you’ve been relying on cardio exercises to drop weight, you’re probably shocked at how slow the process is going. It’s easy to abandon every shred of confidence in your workout if you’ve been blowing yourself up every other day on a treadmill and not seeing any real results. It takes a lot of time – and I mean that in every sense of the word. Burning fat on the treadmill generally means you have to run on that thing like a caffeinated hamster for about 45 minutes if you want to see any serious, long-term gains. Well, serious in some sense of the word : 45 minutes on the treadmill will burn around 300 calories. That’s ONE TENTH of a pound of fat. So, hey, step on that treadmill for an easy ten hours a week and you might lose a pound.

Better have that Netflix subscription handy.

Let’s compare that same time investment to something I’m a big fan of — and that’s the Crossfit regimen. Much more stressful, but a kettlebell workout will burn about 400 calories… in just twenty minutes.  You can be tempted because a treadmill doesn’t feel as stressful, but in terms of burning fat on the treadmill, you can see a clear difference. Next?

It’s Boring

Does The Treadmill Burn Fat?

Treadmills are good for your health - but they're not always good for long-term fat loss.

OK, my own personal bias is coming into play here. Maybe there are some of you who want to put on the iPad, push your legs like a robot and leave your body. Good for you. I just wouldn’t feel great doing it, that’s all.

The Benefits Don’t Last

Long duration, low intensity cardio – the kind you usually get while running on a treadmill – doesn’t elevate your metabolism over an extended period. If you’re using a higher intensity workout, you’ll burn calories naturally for a couple days after your workout. So while a treadmill can help you lose fat eventually, interval training will help you lose weight fast – and that’s what most of us want. 

“Does The Treadmill Burn Fat?”

The verdict? Yes, but it’s not the most efficient way to do it. If you’re medically able, go for a fast, high intensity workout – they take less time, and they’re better for you! And remember that you can do something highly intense for you, whether you’re a housewife or a firefighter. It’s all about having the willpower to do it.

Do you even use your treadmill? Be honest, and do it in the comments.

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