Fight Fat With These Weight Loss Tips

Keep your goals realistic when planning a diet. Always have a goal that is attainable to reduce the chance for failure. For instance, if you want to lose 20 pounds, giving yourself a month to reach your goal simply sets you up to fail. Be wise, set a weekly goal that can be achieved. Try not to look at your ultimate goal too much. Focus instead on losing smaller amounts of weight each week.

One way to chart your progress when losing weight is to compare pictures of yourself at various stages of weight loss. Rather than concentrating on the number of pounds or inches lost, you can see for yourself how the changes have affected your appearance. You also have something to show your friends so that they can see your progress.

Lack of motivation is a major destroyer of weight loss routines. Although it may be easy to be motivated during the first few weeks, it normally becomes more challenging as time goes on. It is important to look for new ways to generate excitement and commitment to your goals.

Eat more slowly to allow your level of fullness to register with your brain. Try chewing food longer, taking smaller bites and involving yourself in some dinner conversation as you enjoy your meal. This can help you to feel full faster, which can be a beneficial component towards realizing weight loss.

Look for a buddy who can be your exercise partner. It will make exercise more fun for you because you have the opportunity to socialize while doing it. Both of you will be able to push each other and tell your stories of success. You'll be having such a good time while exercising that you will feel motivated to lose more weight.

Weight loss will work better for those that know what works best for them and their body. If you are more of a morning person, get up a little earlier and exercise when you first get out of bed. If you work best at night then choose exercise times that are in the evening. Time your workouts for hours that work with your natural daily rhythms.

Be cautious of foods advertised as low-calorie or low-fat. A lot of times these products do not have essential vitamins and minerals and contain chemicals like artificial sweeteners; these sweeteners affect your metabolism and make it harder to lose weight.

Examine the dishes that you eat and cut them in half when you are dieting. You're more likely to accidentally overeat if you use large dishes. Your dinner should fit on a 9-inch plate. Any bigger and you are using a plate that is too large.

There is a lot of strength in groups; if you want to lose weight, think about getting a weight-loss friend to assist you in staying on course. You can do your exercise routines together, plan meals together and share the triumphs and defeats along the way. If you are accountable to your partner, it will be more difficult to skip a workout or eat a slice of cake.

When you are losing weight, you need to stay on top of what you consume. Studies have shown that people who log everything they are consuming are statistically more likely to shed pounds. The difference in how much weight they lose is actually astounding when compared to others who do not write down their food consumption.

Cut stress down in your life. There's a lot of temptation to consume unhealthy food when you're stressed out. Living a happier and stress-free life can help you focus on your goals and keep you on track.

One easy way to make sure you stick to your exercise routine is to recruit someone else to exercise with you. Knowing another person who has goals similar to yours, participates in the same workouts and follows a similar diet can really keep you dedicated. As you work together, you can show each other support when times get tough and someone wants to quit.

The powerful advice in the article above can be an effective guide to reaching your weight loss goals. It is crucial that you find self-motivation so when things get tough, you can push yourself to reach the goals you have set.

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Cardio Tips & Tricks for Fat Loss

Tom Venuto is an NSCA-certified strength and conditioning specialist, lifetime natural bodybuilder, freelance writer, and personal coach. Today, I interview Tom about how we can get more fat loss results in less training time.

Craig B.: Tom, you've written about the "Risk to benefit ratios of extreme and controversial fat loss techniques". Have your thoughts changed on any of the rankings since you wrote that article?

Tom Venuto:
That article pretty much sums up my current thoughts about fat loss. The article looked at techniques for fat loss that are controversial, like not eating for 2-3 hours before going to bed or not eating carbs after a certain time of day, or doing early morning cardio on an empty stomach. Some experts recommend these methods; others strongly recommend avoiding them. Some say they work well; others say they don't work at all.

The main message I wanted to get across is that when you generalize by saying things like, "This technique is good", "that technique is bad", or "never do this," "always do that," you're limiting yourself. I believe in the philosophy that the person who has the most flexibility and the most choices is the person with the most power to get results and to break past barriers (which unfortunately, are often self-imposed by all or none thinking).

Instead of making generalizations, I prefer to approach training and nutrition from the viewpoint of personalization and risks versus benefits. If you think about it, all exercise has risks. Squatting has risks. Running has risks. Competing in sports has risks. You can't avoid risks. Heck, being alive has risks! The idea is to manage risks, not to try and eliminate them.

Take fasted cardio in the morning for example. Are there risks in using this technique in an attempt to accelerate fat loss? Yes, absolutely. Cortisol is higher in the morning, so you are more catabolic and you might lose muscle. Does that mean there are no benefits and you should never use this technique? Not necessarily. Does doing cardio on an empty stomach guarantee you're going to lose muscle? No, it only increases the possibility. Yet many trainers, strength coaches, athletes and bodybuilders approach techniques like these with "It's good" or "It's bad" with no shades of grey in between.

The truth is, the value of each technique depends very much on the context. I remember reading something Charles Poliquin wrote about how ridiculous it was to think about his "manly men" athletes (as he called them), such as a 6 foot 5 inch 250 pound hockey player, doing any kind of conventional "aerobics." That makes complete sense to me - in that context. If the athlete shows up after the off season carrying some undesired body fat, that weight can easily be shed with strength training and nutrition. Combine that with energy expended from practice time and no aerobics are necessary.

But does that mean "All aerobics are bad" or "Cardio is completely worthless." Well, again, it depends on the context. Bad or worthless when? How much? How intense? What kind? Under what circumstances? And for whom? Are we talking about a 55 year old sedentary woman with 35% body fat, an elite shot putter or a bodybuilder six weeks out from a competition?

I think these rigid all or none beliefs get formed gradually over a whole lifetime of experiences. We tend to collect our own personal biases and carry them along with us - I know I had to overcome my "pure bodybuilder" mentality and develop more flexibility in my approaches in order to really serve my non-bodybuilder clients the best. I specialize in fat loss - including nutrition, exercise and the psychological/emotional aspects - and my personal interest is bodybuilding.

I don't train people for sports, so I don't have the perspective that most strength coaches do. Similarly, I imagine that many top strength coaches have developed an anti-cardio bias from their experience working with power, speed and strength athletes who have always been told that aerobics kills your strength, and perhaps they generalize their beliefs to apply to everyone.

Bottom line and the whole point of my article was that there are no absolutes, everything is context dependent.

CB: You rank "fasted cardio in the morning" as a high risk, high benefit activity for fat loss. Is this something that you use yourself or with clients?

TV:
Because it's high risk, it's not necessarily a fat loss technique I recommend for everyone all the time. But I'm not afraid to use it and I believe it has benefits that can outweigh the risks, depending on the circumstances. I usually do fasted cardio in the morning about 8-12 weeks before a competition. But it depends on my weekly results. If I'm losing fat quickly and easily, I don't need to use any high-risk techniques. Sometimes I'll still do cardio in the morning, because I like doing it then, but I'll have a whey protein drink or even a whole meal shortly beforehand.

I like to have an enormous amount of flexibility in my approach. If there's a plateau in fat loss, I want to be able to dig into my bag of tricks and have a lot of stuff in there to pull out when I need it. If you only have one way and you get stuck, you have a problem. I don't like rigid formulas. I like freedom to choose my approach according to how things are going.

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men's Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit www.TurbulenceTraining.com

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