Tuesday 26 July 2011

How To Lose Tummy Fat With A Two Pronged Approach

When it comes to getting in shape, especially for a lot of women, there is one question that comes high in every list - how to lose tummy fat? Maybe you've had kids, or you just got so busy with life that you didn't have time to workout. Perhaps you got into a relationship and fell victim to the comfort living factor, or maybe you just have a sweet tooth that won't rest. It's even possible that you eat well, and find time to exercise here and there, but since you hit your thirties you have noticed that tummy fat growing a little bit each month...

There are many possible causes for why you have extra tummy fat, and unless you have a medical condition causing it, the good news is that the same solution - outlined below - will work for both, and should answer the question of how to lose tummy fat.

How To Lose Tummy Fat: The Two-Pronged Approach

You are probably sick to death of hearing it, but no amount of exercise or diet alone will totally get rid of your tummy fat - the only real long-term effective strategy is to combine both diet and exercise and form a two-pronged approach.

As you age your metabolism slows down, happens to all of us. For women, once they pass the 30 year old mark, the difference becomes quite noticeable. You can't eat the same foods as before and stay slim, you maintain the same diet and workout routines that worked just fine in your twenties, but you still find the odd pound creeping it's way in here and there.

Around this time your body is changing and what used to work no longer works. Your body is changing, and you need to change too.

How to Lose Tummy Fat - Prong 1: Diet

Quite simply, if you eat the wrong foods in the wrong balance (or even eating the right foods in the wrong balance) you are going to put on weight. If you consume more calories than you burn in any given day, your body will convert the remainder to fat and store it for use later on... guess where?

Here are some simple, yet effective, diet tips that will help.

Avoid processed foods where possible. Your kidneys play a major role in calorie use in the body, but they are also responsible for processing all the junk you consume from processed food, which takes priority. If your kidneys are working all the time to filter junk, they can't properly function to burn calories.

Focus on eating low sugar foods (less sweets, candies, desserts, and soda) - sugar is your worst enemy when it comes to tummy fat, so cutting back as much as possible will help prevent you gaining excess tummy fat, and help you get rid of what you already have faster.

Manage portion sizes, and make sure you get a balance of proteins and carbs to keep your body healthy and energized, but without eating more than you need - remember where the excess goes!

How to Lose Tummy Fat - Prong 2: Exercise

The lean tissue - your internal organs and muscles - in your body is what actually burns calories, and this happens all day long, even during periods of rest. So it makes sense that if you have more lean tissue, your bodies ability to burn calories is higher.

Now, the more active your muscles are, the more calories they burn. Let me repeat that - the more exercise you do the more calories you burn, it's simple mathematics.

Additionally, exercise helps promote a higher metabolism, can improves muscle health, cardiovascular functions, and even help maintain a healthy heart.

If you are feeding and fueling your body correctly - eating the right balance of proteins, carbohydrates, and healthy fats - when you exercise you start working right where you need to - your muscles go to work and burn calories. A good workout is going to have you tapping into your bodies stored energy reserves (remember that tummy fat?) before you are done.

The net effect of regular working out is that you improve muscle health and muscle mass, which means that even during rest periods you are burning more calories than you were before - double win.

How to Lose Tummy Fat In Summary

Each of the two approach's outlined here for how to lose tummy fat will help keep your weight in check. You can eat less and lose weight, but you won't get that flat tummy unless you work the underlying muscles. Conversely, it doesn't matter how much exercise you do, how many sit-ups or crunches you perform - if your diet is poorly balanced you won't ever see those muscles.

Wednesday 13 July 2011

Seven Reasons Why Healthy Eating For Weight Loss Is For You

Healthy eating for weight loss doesn't just consider your weight problem, as the phrase suggests. It is also concerned about your health. Many common diets lack this consideration.

Everyone knows that carrying too much weight is unhealthy. Therefore, by default, a loss of weight means better health. Although this is true to some extent, it is by no means the whole story.

Excess weight puts a strain on your body and especially your heart. Excess weight means you have less energy, less motivation. Excess weight means you have a lower immunity so can succumb to infections and virus' much more easily. This becomes a vicious circle as you are tempted to eat more.


So by losing weight you will definitely improve your health, to some degree, depending on where you were to start with.

But once the weight is off, then you need to keep it off. And remain healthy. These factors are both important and difficult to maintain. Not many common diets have enough consideration for this permanent ideal that everyone should aim for.

Let's look at why healthy eating for weight loss is the plan for you:

   1. First and foremost it considers you and your needs. Your choice of food is normally moulded by your family background. This is important to consider when deciding on the best foods for you.
   2. There are no rigid rules to apply other than avoiding the unhealthy foods and eating the healthy foods, all of which are explained in great detail.
   3. There is nothing complicated to follow, no calories to count, no charts to follow.
   4. It is one of the most inexpensive food plans to follow. Most people find that they pay less when eating according to this method, than when on their previous diet.
   5. Your long term health is considered as a priority. If you are really healthy, you will always have an ideal weight.
   6. You are not expected to starve. In fact, you can eat as much as you want, as long as you only eat the healthy foods.
   7. All the suggested foods are readily available.

Healthy eating for weight loss is a revolutionary concept that looks beyond your current needs. You need to look at the deeper picture of why you are overweight. The causes of weight gain are also more often than not the causes of ill health. Make sure your weight loss plan is primarily about your on-going health and the weight will fall off on its own.

Sunday 3 July 2011

You Can Lose Weight Through Enhanced Health and Wellbeing

Taking strides to improve your health and wellbeing will dramatically enhance your quality of life. In return for implementing a few changes into your lifestyle, you can reap the benefits of better health and well-being no matter what your age.

1. Meditate: Regular meditation benefits health and wellbeing, which many people underestimate. Sharpened concentration, controlled levels of stress, better sleep, and heightened mental focus are just a few of the benefits of regular meditation The good news is meditation is not as difficult as it may seem. Guided meditation CD´s and instant downloads enable you to experience the many health benefits of meditation immediately.

2. Avoid Crash Diets: Crash Diets are quite popular, but rarely bring long-lasting benefits to your health. Crash diets often result in temporary weight loss; however, lasting weight loss can only be achieved by making lifestyle changes, like cutting out junk and processed foods, along with maintaining a healthy balanced diet. This is your best long term solution.

3. Sunlight: Sunlight promotes health and wellbeing, so make sure that you receive at least 30 minutes of sunlight per day. Lack of sunlight can lead to the blahs, depression, seasonal affective disorder and Vitamin D deficiency. Consider investing in a light box if you reside in an area that prevents you from getting a daily dose of sunlight.

4. Sleep: Lack of sleep can cause irritability, inability to concentrate, headaches, accidents and even death, which is why getting enough sleep is critical to your health and well-being. Men need to sleep 7 hours per night on average, while women need to sleep an average of 8 hours. Young children and teenagers need far more.

5. Exercise: Regular exercise is vital to your health and well-being. Make sure to choose an exercise program that you will enjoy. Aerobics, pilates, yoga, and joining a health club are a few options Adding a daily 20 minute walk, for example, is a great form of exercise especially when combined with interval training, in which you walk briskly for periods of time during your walking routine.

6. Listen to Music: Research conducted by Mexican and Canadian scientists hypothesized and proven that health and wellbeing can be improved simply by listening to music you like. This is because it increases your levels of dopamine - commonly known as the happy hormone. The studies showed that rock, classical, and jazz music had the greatest effect.

7. Lose Weight: Your health is compromised when you are overweight or obese. Being overweight can lead to diseases like heart disease, diabetes and certain types of cancer. And according to the World Health Organisation, almost 3 million people die each year as a result of being overweight.

Choose 1 or all 7 methods to improve your health and wellbeing. You´ll be glad you did. Not only will you enhance the quality of your life, you may also live longer.