How To Fit Into That New Dress

With most of my clients wanting to lose weight this issue has been a frequent topic. Most women hire a personal trainer to look better. This often doesn’t require the loss of weight. What is really most important is the loss of inches. If you starve yourself you will lose weight. The problem is however that you will often have the same proportions, only smaller. While the truth remains that you can’t spot reduce (except with Liposuction). There is a principal called “last on first off”. What this means is, if you gained weight and it made your hips and thighs bigger. When you lose weight it will come off your thighs and hips first. The best way to accomplish the sculpting of a more desirable body is the addition of muscle and the loss of fat. You can ask 100 Personal Fitness Trainers and they will have a wide variety of opinions on weight loss. Fortunately the one thing that all weight loss coaches agree upon is consistency. If you stick to a plan of eating better and becoming more active you can’t help but succeed. What I’ve found in my 20 plus years as a certified fitness trainer is, make it doable and make it fun. I can give anyone a program that will work but if it becomes too laborious and uninteresting most people will quit. Body Mastery is different because you never do the same exercise twice. You never starve yourself and you never feel hungry. Small changes yield big results if you stay consistent!

TOP FITNESS MYTHS

Myth #1. You want to make a body part smaller so you do a million exercises to make that happen. It makes better sense to eat better and move more. Spend more time on the treadmill or just walking. You can actually make the stomach or hips bigger by adding muscle. #2 Women will become bulky. The truth is women have less testosterone than men. A lady will first become tone than defined. Even if you could become bulky you would know when to stop. #3 You need to exercise hard and often. The truth is, even moderate exercise can improve your fitness. Two half hour sessions a week can improve tone and even increase muscle mass.#4 You burn more fat if you go longer at a lower intensity. While you do burn a higher percentage of fat at a lower intensity, you burn more calories at a higher intensity. It all comes down to math. Burn more calories than you consume and you'll lose weight. Finally #5 No pain no gain. If you want to look like a body builder this is definitely true. Most people just want to look healthy and maybe defined. Listen to your body and if something hurts...STOP. You should stop lifting before it becomes uncomfortable. A rule of thumb is, stop a few reps before you have to stop. This way after 15 reps you could of done 17 or 18 if you pushed it. When you walk, make sure you can talk. This will help you to continue and still help you get more fit.

Easy Weight Loss Tips

Most people know why they don't lose weight. They don't move enough and they eat what ever they want. This blog isn't for them. For those of you who are making an effort and not having success, read on.

#1 Don't eat after 8 PM. 2# Don't snack on anything that has over 100 calories. Look at the label and measure out 100 calories (14 chips). #3 You eat too much fruit. Even though its healthy, you can supercharge your system with sugar. #4 Most people don't eat enough fiber. Fiber will make you feel full, help you to eat less and keep everything running smoothly. #5 Drink water and water with caffeine doesn't count. #6 A lack of physical activity. When you cut calories it will slow down your metabolic rate and make you lose muscle. You may lose weight in the short run but chances are you'll gain it back. #7 Skipping breakfast has been shown by every authority to slow down you metabolism and frustrate weight loss. Finally #8, not getting enough sleep will also slow down weight loss. Try melatonin a natural sleep aid. It cost almost nothing and has no side effects.

How to Start an Aerobic Program

Most people have heard the term aerobic. This basically means keeping an elevated heart rate for a certain period of time. If you want to get specific, take 220 minus you age and then stay between 60-85% of those numbers. If you want to make it easier, get a heart rate monitor or just walk, bike or step until you breath becomes slightly labored. If you can talk you're not working too hard.

The trick I've found if to do something that you like or at least don't hate. Walking seems to be a good fit for most beginners and ellipticals for those who want a little more of a challenge. The first thing to do is to start small with 10 or 15 min. sessions. Try two to three times a week and build your times up from there.

If you want to kill two birds as they say, try circuit training. This is what most of my clients prefer because you tone and burn fat at the same time. All you have to do is follow up a few exercises with a min or two of walking or stepping. You'll keep the heart rate up, tone your body, burn fat all at the same time. The best thing is how fast the time goes.

Little Bits to Get More Fit

With the biggest obstacle to working out being a lack of time, here are some tricks to help you along. Forget the all or nothing attitude. If you only have 10 mins. this can help speed up your metabolism and when you add a few additional clips of 10 it may equal a real workout. The trick is to treat the 10 mins. like a regular workout. Warm up for one to two mins. followed by 10-15 exercises and then cool down for a min. or two. You can also try to do three 10 min. sessions that hits either strength, cardio and flexibility. For cardio you can use the treadmill, elliptical or just walk for ten mins. For strength try some light dumb bells or just a few sets of push ups or chair dips. Stretching is easy to do. It feels good and you can do it every day and helps you feel younger.
The idea is to do something if you can't fit in a full workout. Sometimes the little workout go longer and become the bigger workout you were trying to avoid.

What Burns More Fat - Cardio or Weights

If you have time do both cardio and lift weights. If you are limited and only have time for one, lift weights. This is contrary to what most people may think. The main reason, the more muscle you have the higher your metabolism is even at rest. Another factor is muscle loss when dieting. When you lose weight you often lose up to 30% muscle with the fat. If you do strength training while reducing your calories you can keep your muscle loss down to 3-5 percent. All you need to do to maintain muscle and speed up your metabolism is strength train at least two times per week for 30-40 mins. What I have my busy clients do is combine cardio with weights. By wearing a heart monitor (which now have gotten pretty cheep), we lift weights while keeping within the target heart zone. It's a nice way to kill two birds with one stone and it really makes the time fly by.

Lose 2 Pounds a Week

The first thing to do if you want lose weight is eat breakfast every day. If you do you'll speed up your metabolism. Make sure to have 20 grs. of protein if you want to build muscle. Drink at least 10 glasses of water per day. It will not only curb you appetite but also help your liver to process fat right out of your body. This may be a hard one but the payoff is huge . Stop eating excess sugar. You can't burn your own body fat if your have to process all that sugar you've eaten. Sugar also raises your insulin level. What ever insulin isn't used for energy is stored as fat. That's why insulin is called the fat hormone. Add fiber and veggies to your diet. It will help you feel full and give your body the much needed energy it needs to burn calories. Finally, start a regular exercise routine. Walk a little every day and pick up some hand to tone up. With a few hours of instruction, anyone can learn how to tone up, feel younger, and speed up their metabolism. It may be the best two hour a week investment you make in your life.