If you’ve turned on any chat show in the last two years you would know that women love Michelle Obama’s toned arms. And trainers all over the world have tried to capitalize on this fascination by teaching us how to get arms like the First Lady. But as I read through a whole bunch of articles about her toned arms I noticed a distinct lack of clear instruction. Sure, there are some amazing pieces that give general tips on how to get toned arms but no one really wrote about what you should do in terms of diet, exercise, etc.

In this post I am going to do an in depth look at how to get toned arms like the very beautiful Michelle Obama. I will try to include as much information as possible so you can begin your workout today.

Toned arms in 4 weeks?

The title of this post indicates that you will have nice toned arms in four weeks time. And while that might be possible for some of our readers it won’t be possible for everyone. It is, however, a very good goal to keep in mind.

Why won’t it be possible for everyone? The fact of the matter is, if you want to have a toned body you need to lose body fat. And this is a very long term affair. Some of you might already be at a level where you can just do a few little tweaks and wind up with the definition you want, others will need more time. So while I want everyone to keep the four week goal in mind, don’t be too disappointed if you don’t see final results in that time.

One thing is for sure, if you do four weeks of proper diet and exercise according to this post, you will be well on your way to success. I’m betting you will be well ahead of your friends who are still dabbling around.

Spot reducing fat from your arms

The first thing you need to know is that you cannot spot reduce fat from your arms. A lot of women out there think that if you want to get toned arms you need to do some magical exercise that will burn fat just off of the arms. It doesn’t work like that. If you want to get toned arms you need to lose fat off of your whole body. If you want to get toned abs you need to lose fat off of your whole body. There is no easy way out.

And that leads us to the first and most important part of this post – your diet.

Dieting for toned arms like Michelle Obama

photo credit: garryknight

Without any shred of a doubt the most important part of getting toned arms is your diet. It is what you put in your mouth that determines how toned your arms are, even more so than how much you exercise. If your diet is not on track you will not get the arms that you desire.

The maths of arm toning
In our epic article on how to lose weight for good we talked about the mathematics of weight loss. This is a very important concept that I urge you all to read an understand for it will change the way you think about diet and exercise. I will not explain it all again but here is a quote from the article to give you an idea:

If you have a can of Coke with lunch everyday of the week you are taking in 155 calories x seven days a week. That is 1085 calories a week. Now, there are 3500 calories per pound of body fat. So, if you take in 1085 calories from one can of Coke per day in three weeks you have added a pound of fat. That is 17 pounds per year. Just from your daily Coke.

You can see from this little bit of maths that your diet is going to have a much bigger impact on your weight loss than the exercise that you do. Just one Coke will take you 30 minutes to burn off on the treadmill. So what about all the other excess calories that you eat every day? How long must you need to burn all of them off? It is vital that you get your diet in order if you want to tone up.

What to eat for arm toning
So what exactly should you be eating if you want to get toned arms like Michelle Obama? The most important thing is to stay away from man made processed foods that are full of our three main enemies:

• refined sugar
• salt
• saturated fats

These foods are full of empty calories. An empty calorie is basically energy that comes from food that provide no nutritional benefits. For example, if you have a can of Coke you get 150 calories but no minerals, vitamins or nutrients. On the other hand, if you have a salad you get the same amount of calories but a nice amount of protein, fiber, minerals, etc. You need to be avoiding the man made foods that are just full of empty calories. These are a disaster for any woman who wants to lose weight.

A long term approach to short term gains
The main point here is that you don’t want to go on another diet. You aren’t trying to lose weight by eating just lemons. What you want is a lifelong change in your eating habits that will allow you to lose weight, get toned and then stay toned as the years go by. Most women revert back to their old shape and weight. We don’t want that to happen.

Some of the foods you want to be eating on a daily basis include:

• green leafy vegetables
• milk and small amounts of cheese
• unsalted nuts and some seeds
• free range eggs
• lots of fresh fruits, the more colorful the better

I’m not a big advocate of meat but a lot of trainers and dietitians will tell you to take in lean proteins from animals. My personal experience has been that I have lost weight faster eating a vegetarian diet. I also feel better. A lot better. Meat tends to weigh me down and make me feel depressed. It is also a thoroughly unethical industry that I don’t really want to be supporting. But that is another story.

Green tea as a bonus food
Green tea is something that I often talk about on this website as something that all women should be drinking. It is amazing for your health and studies have shown that people who drink green tea daily have a smaller chance of getting caner and heart disease. There is also some evidence to suggest that it can help you burn fat at a faster rate. I strongly recommend that everyone who reads this take up drinking a nice pot of green tea every day and see how it makes you feel.

Exercises to get toned arms like Michelle Obama

photo credit: lululemon athletica

Now that we have covered some of the important dietary points we can move on to a bunch of exercises and workouts that will help us get those coveted arms. Remember, when you do any exercise you need to make sure you are doing it with proper technique and according to your level of fitness. I always encourage my friends and readers to meet with a trainer for your first session and learn exactly how to do each exercise so that you don’t end up with an injury that lasts the rest of your life.

Burning fat is the way to toned arms
Let me tell you something that you might know, you might not. You already have toned arms. They are there right now. The problem is that they are being hidden under a layer of fat. So if you want to tone your arms you need to burn the fat that is covering them. That is the point of eating right and that is 80% of the exercise. If you want toned arms you need to exercise so that you are burning fat at a proper rate.

High intensity workouts are the best
One of the things we try to do here at FWF is educate women on the benefits of high intensity workouts. For too long now we have been told the slow jog on the treadmill for an hour is the best way to lose fat and get toned. It isn’t. Not by a long shot. The best way to get into the shape of your life is to workout at an intense pace. Some of the absolute best ways to do this include:

• Kickboxing classes
  I know a lot of women will groan at this and think that they will never try it but I guarantee you it is one of the best ways you can burn fat and get toned in a really quick time. Three kickboxing classes a week will absolutely change the way you go about your fitness. When kick a bag you use your entire body; your legs, abs, hips and arms. The same goes for punching. You will get your heart rate up to super high levels and you will find that your body changes very quickly.
• Skipping
  Here she goes about the skipping again I can hear you all say. But it really is one of the best ways to burn fat and tone your arms – you get the worst burn! Bruce Lee once said that 10 minutes of skipping was the same as 30 minutes of running and I tend to agree. Get yourself the best skipping rope and go for it!
• Circuits
  One of the most intense workouts you will ever do is a circuit. These focus on resistance and cardio exercises and are a great way to get the fat burning and the muscles working. So how do you do them? Simply choose one exercise for each body part and perform them one after the other with no break in between. Once you finish them all, take a short rest and then start again. Try to do the whole circuit as many times as you can.

It is really important not to overdo it though. A high intensity workout should not be done every day as your body needs time to recover and heal. Try and aim for three times a week with a few more gentle workouts in between. If you can do that for four weeks you will see some incredible results.

The importance of weight training and resistance exercises
Women seem to hate weight training because they are worried that it will make them bulky and manly. Well it won’t. I have said it before and I will say it again. Weight training and resistance exercises only help to make you thin and toned and healthy. They will not make you muscly because women, for the most part, do not have enough testosterone to grow big muscles. When you look at women in the gym who weight train they always have thin and hard bodies – never bulky manly ones.

It is time for all women reading this to add some weight training to our regular cardio workout. Mixing weights with cardio has some major advantages including:

• Elevating your metabolism
  When you weight train you elevate your metabolism. This is a very good thing because it means you will be burning calories even when you aren’t at the gym.
• Burns more calories
  Mixing weight training with cardio actually burns more calories than if you just did one slow cardio workout. The lifting of the weights is a very hard motion and it takes up a lot of energy.
• Your body becomes fitter and healthier
  There have been scores of studies that show that weight training makes you extremely healthy and a lot fitter. Basically, without getting too technical, when you weight train you turn your body into a fat burning machine. The more weights the more fat burning.

How often should you weight train?
If you want to get into weight training you should start slowly and work your way up to about three times a week. If you can mix it in with your kickboxing or other high intensity workouts you will be on the way to a very quick set of toned arms!

Conclusion

Getting toned arms like Michelle Obama is a long process. Sure, it can be sped up but please don’t think that it is an easy road. You need to be committed to a near perfect diet and a workout routine that doesn’t quit when it gets boring. Remember, if you have any other tips you can leave a comment below as it might really help someone out there on their journey.

photo credit: Claudia Castro

The morning walk is one of the most common forms of weight loss exercise. When I sit at my table in the morning and look out the window I see scores of women going for walks with their dogs, husbands or a group of friends. And while we have approached the question of “does walking burn fat” before, in this post I want to give you a few ways to super charge your morning walk so you can burn more fat in less time.

How to burn more fat on your morning walk

While I think walking has its merits (it is relaxing, low impact, etc.) I do think there are a lot better ways to burn fat. High intensity exercise like sprinting, skipping, hill climbs, kick boxing classes and weight training are all far superior in my opinion. But for some women these choices just aren’t options. And sometimes a walk is a nice start to the day – it is definitely a lot better than doing no exercise at all. Here are a few ways to super charge your morning walk.

1. Walk for at least 45 minutes
There have been several studies done on the topic of whether walking actually burns fat. In these studies it was found that you need to walk for at least 25 minutes before you actually start burning fat stores in your body. And while I am not so sure if this science still stands up, the principle remains the same. You need to walk for more than 25 to 30 minutes if you want to burn a good amount of fat.

Why is this so? Well the main theory is that when you walk before breakfast you have no available energy from food and as such you will tap into stored fat reserves. Apparently you need to walk for at least 25 minutes before this process begins to take place. This is not entirely true because glycogen energy remains ready for action for a long time. A more likely reason, in my mind, is that walking is not very likely to lift your heart rate and as such you need longer to get to a point where you are actually doing some damage to the energy stores in your body.

Whatever the reason, make sure you are walking at a good pace for at least 45 minutes in the morning. If you can’t bare to be out for that long at least try to get half an hour.

2. Hit the hills
Walking, as we mentioned, is a very low impact form of exercise that doesn’t do much in the way of pushing your boundaries. For this reason it is a great idea to change the terrain a little bit so that your muscles are doing some work that they might otherwise miss out on. The hills is a great place to start.

Walking hills has been one of the best forms of exercise for a long time. It is an exercise that tones your butt and legs, gets your heart rate up a lot higher and is far more interesting and challenging than just walking on the flats. Now, you don’t have to find some gigantic mountain in order to get a good workout. Most of you don’t live near mountains. But almost all of you will have some form of hill near your house. It might be an actual hill in a park or reserve or it might just be a sloped street that you can walk up and down. Hit it.

At the end of the session you will feel more energetic and vibrant because you would have actually worked out a large part of your body. Hill walks are a really good way to super charge your morning walk and burn more fat.

3. Drink a black coffee before you leave
I can hear all of you breathing a sigh of relief. A fitness website telling us to actually drink coffee! What a great idea. In fact, if you want to burn more fat on your morning walk you should drink a cup of black coffee. Isn’t that great news? The bad news – you aren’t allowed to have any milk or sugar. Just coffee and water. Add anything else and you won’t get the benefit.

photo credit: e.asphyx

So why does coffee help you burn more fat? Well many people believe that it allows you to access fat stores instead of carbs. Others believe that the stimulant aspect of coffee assists in its fat burning. To be honest, however, neither of these things makes much scientific sense. In fact, talking to nutritionists and doctors who have looked at studies around this issue and not many of them agree with the above assertions. So why am I recommending it? Because I have seen results in myself and my workout buddies. A bit of caffeine before a morning workout seems to have a positive effect on our weight loss progress. Bodybuilders have been saying the same thing for years.

One last reason; a morning coffee can help to wake you up and get your head in the right place for a workout. I can’t tell you the number of times I got up for a workout and then went straight back to bed because I couldn’t wake myself up. A coffee can help to prevent that. Give it a go and see how it works for you. If you don’t see any results after a couple of weeks chuck it in.

4. Take some weights
Another great technique to super charge your morning walk to to take along some hand weights to give your arms something to do. While your legs do all the walking it is great to do some work for your upper body. This effectively means you will get a full body workout which will, of course, burn more calories.

So what do you do with the weights? Well, if you are a little self conscious you could just hold them by your sides to provide some resistance for your arms. This is good enough and will give you a little mini bicep workout. But if you want to spice up the walk a bit more and perhaps even do some arm toning then why no do some full on bicep curls or slow punches or overhead presses? That way you can workout your shoulder, biceps and triceps – all on your morning walk!

Give it a try and see how you go. If you feel stupid, embrace it!

5. Wear a backpack with some weight in it
You have to be a little bit careful with this one because it can produce some back and shoulder injuries. This tip is only for super hard women who are not afraid of a little bit of pain. Be warned though, if you don’t take it easy and do this one carefully you are probably going to wind up with some sort of injury.

This idea actually comes from the army. One of the main things you do in the army is walk. In fact, you walk a lot. And I’m not just talking about walking around in the park. No sir. These guys carry massive guns that weigh as much as your upper body, ammunition that would squash your dog and, you guessed it, backpacks full of supplies. And they burn a lot of fat. You will never see a fat person in the army on active duty.

Fill up your backpack with some light weights and go for a walk. If you have any pain you should stop but over time you will find that your legs and butt get a good workout and you have to push yourself extremely hard just to finish the walk. It is an army style workout that also helps you become very tough mentally.

Any more ideas?

We loving hearing your ideas and experiences. Talking on the blog is a great way to meet new people and learn new things. If you know of any other ways to super charge your morning walk please leave a comment and let us know.

photo credit: Tobyotter

If you stand in a room with 10 women it is statistically probable that six of them will be fat. That is a very frightening image considering the health implications of being overweight; heart disease, diabetes and, yes, even cancer. In this post I want to look at seven reasons why you are fat and then talk about why you will never change.

Fat Lies: size zero vs plus size

Some of you who are still reading might be a little bit offended at the use of the word “fat”. I can understand why you feel that way. I too used to be upset when women called other women fat. These days there is a lot of work going in to helping women feel better about their body image. A lot of women now consider “bigger” to be better than the old runway stick figures that everyone used to aspire to look like. And this is a good thing.

Sort of.

While we may be feeling a little bit better about our body image there is also something else to remember. Being overweight is unhealthy. In fact, the diseases that relate to obesity and being overweight and unfit kill more people in America every year than anything else. Yes, it is unhealthy to kill ourselves with diets that make us look like a size zero, but it is also unhealthy to let ourselves go in the name of loving our body more. I think it is important to accept what your body looks like, but to recognize that certain fat levels are unhealthy. The point is not to get upset and worried about it, but to help you change your diet, exercise and living habits.

7 reasons you are fat

photo credit: j.reed

Now that I have finished my little political correctness disclaimer we can get into the juicy part of the post. Here are seven reasons why you are still fat, often despite some of your best efforts. After this I will look at the hard stuff – why you will never change.

1. You don’t exercise, really
Okay so you go to the gym twice a week. That’s a good start. That will give you a nice base level of fitness. But if you want to really lose weight and get healthy you need to be exercising every single day. Period. Science is now showing that in order to lose weight and maintain that weight you need to give yourself about an hour a day. It doesn’t matter what exercise you do, but you aren’t doing enough of it.

Write down exactly how much exercise you do for the next two weeks. At the end of it I think you will be surprised that you aren’t really doing as much as you thought you were. We need to change this habit fast.

2. You go back for seconds
I have been really pushing this idea lately because I know a lot of women out there who just don’t respect the idea of portion sizes. In this post on losing weight I talked about the fact that over time those second helpings and large portion sizes make you fat. Really fat. Why? Because every time you eat a bigger meal than you should or go back for a second helping you are taking in calories that you can’t burn off. And over the months and years those extra calories add up to kilos and kilos of fat.

Again, write down how many second helpings you have in a two week period. Take note of how many meals you eat that are much bigger than they should be. You will notice that these amount to hundreds and hundreds of extra calories that you just aren’t burning off at the gym.

3. You don’t eat natural
As long as you are eating man made foods you are going to be overweight. The human body has been evolving for thousands of years to function perfectly on natural foods like fruits and vegetables. And then, all of a sudden, about 40 years ago everything went processed. We stopped eating the things that grow in the wild and started eating processed foods like chips, pastas, take away, frozen dinners and so on. The body doesn’t know how to handle these things.

The level of sugar, salt and preservatives in these man made foods make it impossible for you to stay at a healthy weight. If you are serious about long term health and staying at an ideal weight you need to get back to eating a natural diet.

4. Your emotions control you
Don’t worry, we all do it. Food becomes a comforter on those days that are just a little hard to get through. There is nothing more satisfying than driving to KFC for a big packet of fries when we are feeling depressed or stressed. But if we are realistic, our emotions control us. And if you want to lead a successful and healthy life you need to turn that around, you need to control your emotions.

photo credit: _K_E_E_G_A_N_

A lot of women are just never told that they are in control of their own mind. The emotions that arise and the feelings that depress you are nothing but your own thoughts that you can work on and control. Don’t let your emotions control you, control your emotions. If you can do that you will eat a lot less of the food that makes you overweight.

5. You don’t weight train
A lot of women are afraid of weight training because they think it will make them bulky. Well, as I say almost every post, it won’t. In fact, weights will burn more calories than you can imagine, keep your metabolism cooking during the day and help to shape and tone your muscles. It is high time that the women of the world realized how beneficial weight training is for weight loss and muscle toning. If you can mix weight training with your cardio session you will, in a few short weeks, look better than you ever have before. Essentially you are turning your body into the perfect fat burning environment.

6. You watch too much TV
I reckon if you interviewed 1000 people about their post work habits 900 of them would say they spend the night watching the TV. And while I understand that TV is a great way to unwind after a hard day, I also understand that it is a complete waste of time. You get nothing done except for passing the hours. And you know one thing that is better for de-stressing and winding down? Exercise. An hour at the gym after work will do more for your happiness, productivity and relaxation than five hours of television.

If you are overweight I want you to take a look at how many hours of TV you watch per day. If it is more than one or two then it is time to turn off the box and get out and do something for your body. Don’t waste your life away watching gossip and bad plots with a bigger tummy than you deserve.

7. You haven’t read enough
Here it is. The final straw. Now I am attacking your education. Well, not really. The thing about this point is that most of the information out there today is wrong. Most of what we are being told in the media about weight loss is just incorrect. For example, the idea that fat makes you fat. It doesn’t. Some fats are 100% essential to your health. Without them you will end up sick and unhealthy. The sad thing is that I see so many women attempting to lose weight based on false information. They haven’t done enough reading and as such they are suckered into the latest fad diet or the latest sound bite that they hear on some talk show.

If you are serious about weight loss you need to study. A lot. Don’t just read this site either. Read studies that have been done by scientists and look at information that is independent – that is, it isn’t trying to make anyone any money. And that doesn’t necessarily mean Government studies either because, as happened Australia, one Government diet book was sponsored by the Beef industry. If you read a lot I guarantee you will discover a lot of diet mistakes that you have been making.

Why you won’t change

photo credit: soaringbird

Here is the clincher. Around 98% of people can’t lose weight because of bad habits. And if they do, they revert back to their old weight within a year. This is a devastating statistic for many weight loss hopefuls out there. Science has shown that the human body gets “comfortable” with being overweight and struggles to lose it. When you starve yourself of calories you make it even worse because your body goes into “famine” mode and starts to store as much as it can.

But there is good news, 2% of people can lose weight and don’t go back once they lose it. And it is my firm belief that that figure can go up and up with the right information. You see it is mostly about information because, like I mentioned, many of us are doing the wrong things to lose weight. This makes progress hard.

The main reason people revert back to their old weight is habit. We have been eating the wrong things and doing no exercise for such a long time that once we reach our ideal weight we go back to the old easier life. If this is what is happening and you aren’t prepared to change your habits then there is nothing that can be done.

Conclusion

The point of this post is not to depress you. It is to give you inspiration. It is to encourage you to become one of the 2% of people who lose weight and keep it off by reading the right materials, changing habits for the long term and maintaining a disciplined focus. Its time to make a change. A permanent one.

photo credit: egor.gribanov

Take a poll of 100 women who have strayed off the weight loss track and 90 of them will tell you they are just too busy. It is an extremely common problem in today’s modern world where women are expected to be super women; cleaning the house, caring for the kids, going to work and then trying to find time to exercise. But there are some solutions. All is not lost. This article is the busy woman’s guide to staying toned, sexy and healthy.

How busyness kills exercise

The first thing we need to look at, obviously, is why being busy kills your exercise, weight loss and health goals. Why is it that most of us aren’t able to maintain the routine when we are run off our feet. It is an interesting question that doesn’t have a straight forward answer. Some women find that by the time they are free to think about working out they are completely zapped of energy. Others find that they are just too busy to even put aside 20 minutes for a jog around the block.

But the thing that ties all of these problems (excuses) together is actually very simple. It is what Oprah would call and “ah ha moment”. The reason you aren’t working out is not because you are tired or don’t have enough time; it is because you have not made it a priority. If exercise, eating healthy, etc. was a priority you would make sure you had time for it, just like you do for other important tasks. And here’s the real kicker – your workout is one of the most important things you do because it plays a big role in your quality of life. Without exercise you will put on weight, become unhealthy and feel miserable. But it’s still not a priority.

Making exercise and health a priority

photo credit: gbSk

If you are a busy woman you need to make exercise a priority. If you continue to put everything else before your workout then you will never get toned, sexy and healthy, no matter how much you long for it. Making exercise and health a priority is a mental act as well as a physical one, it is important that we acknowledge that.

How to make exercise a priority
If you want to make these things a priority in your life in order to allow yourself to achieve them there are a few things you need to do:

• realize that you need to exercise
• realize that you need to exercise regularly
• realize that without exercise you cannot be healthy
• realize how important being healthy is to you and your loved ones
• realize that if you don’t make time you will never achieve the results you desire
• actually make time, today

The most important one here is the last one; make time today. Today is the time you need to start because if you don’t do it today, the word tomorrow will always be in your mind. So many women out there promise themselves that they will start their new life tomorrow. But tomorrow is too late because it usually means never.

How to stay toned, sexy and healthy

photo credit: marko8904

Now that we have looked at the important preliminary items of why busyness kills exercise and making exercise a priority we can get into the main ideas of this article. What follows is a bunch of ways that busy women can stay toned, sexy and healthy. Adopt as many as you can and you will be well on your way to success.

1. Do some exercise, whatever it is, every single day
At the beginning it is extremely important that you do some exercise, whatever it is, every single day. Even if you only work out for ten minutes it is so much better than doing nothing. Why? Because more than anything else you are creating new habits. More than getting fit and toned you are teaching yourself the discipline that will last you a lifetime. If you do some exercise every single day you will find that, over time, you will naturally increase the amount and push yourself further. You can do easy things like:

• 50 squats, push ups and crunches when you wake up in the morning
• a walk around the neighborhood after dinner
• a quick gym session on your lunch break
• park the car 20 minutes away from work and walk

All of these things are so easy you will hardly notice you are working out but they will make a massive difference to how you look, feel and how you approach your exercise. You have, all of a sudden, made exercise and fitness a priority in your life.

2. Control your portion sizes
When you don’t have a lot of time for exercise your portion sizes become extremely important. Why? Because over time those extra large meals add up. They are calories that go straight to your hips and thighs because you aren’t doing the exercise to burn off the excess energy. Let me explain.

In our guide to losing weight we looked at the mathematics of weight loss. This talked about the fact that in order to lose weight you need to burn more calories than you take in. And portion sizes play a massive role in this equation. For example, if you go back for seconds after dinner every night you might be taking on 150 extra calories. That works out to over 1000 calories a week. And seeing a there are 3500 calories in a pound of fat, that means you have put on one pound of fat in three weeks JUST from your seconds! Now add up all the other big meals you have; breakfast, snacks, lunch, etc. and you see why it is so hard to lose weight.

If you don’t have a lot of time for exercise it is really important that you control your portion sizes. This will help keep you toned and at a healthy weight. Do not worry too much about eating more serving of vegetables and fruit, it is the pasta, rice, bread and sugars that you need to look out for.

3. Eat protein and fiber rich foods
You have probably heard this a million times but it is really important for busy women to remember as it relates heavily to controlling your portion sizes. Protein and fiber are extremely important for maintaining a healthy weight and keeping your body toned because they help to keep you full. If you have a high fiber meal it is very unlikely that you will feel hungry afterward. These foods are also very rarely high in calories so you can rest assured knowing that you are eating something healthy. Foods that are high in fiber include;

• Flax seeds
• Garbanzo beans
• Kidney beans
• Lentils
• Bran cereal
• Oats
• Avocado
• Carrot

Try to include one or more of these foods in every meal. For example, you might have oats for breakfast, avocado in your sandwich for lunch and carrots with your dinner. Easy! These foods do a lot more for you than just increasing your fiber, they are full of valuable vitamins and minerals.

4. Do resistance exercises often
Women often shy away from resistance exercises. Big mistake. Weights are extremely important if you want to keep your body toned and fit, especially if you don’t have a lot of time for working out. In our article will weights make women bulky we discussed some really important reasons as to why women need to weight train and one of them is that it burns a lot of calories and keeps your metabolism up during the day.

photo credit: lululemon athletica

So how can you fit in weight training if you are busy? Here are some simple ideas that will work no matter what your situation:

• do ten squats, push ups or crunches on the hour, every hour
• walk up the stairs two or three at a time every morning
• do bicep curls or weighted lunges with your heavy backpack or suitcase
• etc.

The possibilities are endless. All you need to do is find something heavy and lift it a few times using proper weight lifting technique. Your body weight exercises like push ups, squats, crunches, sit ups, lunges, etc. are really all you need. Take a few moments out of each day to do a few reps and you will see changes in your body in no time.

5. Meet with your workout girls daily
One of the most powerful ways to stay toned and healthy is to meet with a group of girls every day or a couple of times a week. This is an extremely potent tool for busy women as you come to depend and rely on each other. This means you will find it a lot harder to make excuses like being too tired because there are people waiting for you in order to do their exercises.

Exercising with other people is also a lot more fun and will probably prevent you from getting bored. Sure, it has its downfalls like the fact that we often stand around talking for 15 minutes, but if you can find a disciplines and focused bunch you will probably find it an extremely rewarding time.

The best thing to do is hire a personal trainer for a couple of weeks and get some ideas from them. Once you have learned the techniques properly and memorized the workouts you will be able to carry on without the trainer and just add your own little touches as time goes on. For example, some friends of mine recently adding boxing into their workout. One person holds the pads while the other does 100 punches then they both sprint to the other side of the oval and swap. Repeating this for 25 minutes and you get an amazing workout.

6. Enlist help
One of the hardest things for us women to do is ask for help. We hate it. We often see it as a sign of defeat or we don’t want to hand over the responsibility because we don’t think anyone else can do it properly. This attitude has to stop. You need help. There is nothing wrong with asking for help every now and then. In fact, you will appear stronger and more independent if you do – especially because you will get more energy and strength from doing a workout.

Help can come in many forms. If you have children you might need to ask your husband or boyfriend to watch them for 30 minutes three times a week while you go for a bike ride. Or, you might want to set up a fitness baby sitter group where each week you take it in turns looking after the kids while the other mums go for a workout at the park. All you really need to do is find someone to help you free up 30 minutes a few times a week and you are cooking with gas.

The most important person to ask for help, however, is yourself. You actually need to verbally ask yourself to help yourself. Everyone else could be bending over backwards for you but unless you acknowledge that you need to give yourself some time to take care of your fitness and health then you aren’t going to get anywhere. Do it now. Take a deep breath and then tell yourself that you need help achieving these goals. It is a very powerful exercise.

7. Learn how to sleep better
Something that a lot of women don’t consider is the fact that their sleeping patterns might be making it difficult for them to get the energy they need for a daily workout. Part of being a grown up busy working woman is learning how to sleep better. It really can change your life.

photo credit: calleecakes

Firstly, read our posts on how to get up when your alarm goes off, how to get more energy and never feel tired and how many hours of sleep do you need each night. These will give you a good base knowledge for the type of sleeping habits that you should be working towards.

There are three key things that you need to know if you want to sleep properly. They are:

1. Try and wake up and go to sleep at the same time every day
   This is the most important thing because your body is a machine of habit. If you teach your body to get up at 6am every day for a workout then, over time, it will become natural to you. If, however, you stay up til midnight one night and then 8pm the next night your body is going to get confused and your sleep will be affected.
2. Do not drink coffee, red wine or eat chocolate before bed
   These three foods are the worst things you can drink/eat before bed because they are gut irritants. Even if you can get to sleep after eating them you will find that your sleep is not very deep and you often wake up feeling terrible. Ironically they are the three foods our culture usually has in the evening.
3. Do not go to bed thinking about work
   Stress and worry will stop you from getting a good night’s sleep so make the firm resolve to stop thinking about work as soon as you get home. Thinking about it will not help you get the job done and will, in fact, make you less likely to do it properly as you are so wound up about it. Let go.

If you can get your sleep on track you are 50% the way to being a busy women who can stay toned and sexy. Why? Because you will not have the obstacle of extreme tiredness weighing you down. It is also important to remember that you sleep extremely well after exercise so the more you do the better – its a very healthy cycle.

8. Exercise with whatever you have around you
You don’t need to go to the gym in order to get a workout. Sure, the gym is probably best because you are forced to do something but sometimes it just isn’t an option. For all of those busy weeks you should be creative and find things to workout with that you normally wouldn’t think of.

• At home
  do step ups on to a solid table or ledge, reverse crunches on the sofa, push ups with your feet on the coffee table, bicep curls and should lift with some heavy books, etc.
• At work
  walk the stairs on your breaks, park far away and brisk walk to the office, do isometric exercises with your desk as the counterweight, do some squats while waiting for the kettle to boil, etc.

The possibilities are endless. If you are super busy you often need to be creative and find different ways to get your heart rate up or push your muscles. These things will rarely be a substitute for a proper workout but they can tide you over until you get to the gym or the running track.

Add your tip…

The best way to find out how busy women stay toned, sexy and healthy is to talk to each other. If you have any other tips please leave a comment and share them. Hopefully over time we can amass a great resource of information for busy women all over the world.

photo credit: emples

When you are trying to lose weight it is information and knowledge that will set you free. You need to know all the pitfalls that are out there and you need to be aware of every little trick that can help you on your journey. You also need to know how to stop it from coming back. This post is your ultimate guide to losing weight for good. I hope it helps you.

The low down

This post has a lot of information to digest so I have broken it down into some sections so you can read a little bit and then come back to it. I urge you not to skip anything though as each part is as important as the last. The sections include:

• Preparing to lose weight, becoming the warrior
• Proper food and drinks
• Exercising for smart weight loss
• Maintaining the weight
• Tips to help you on your way

Start at the beginning and work your way through. And if you fall off the weight loss track as the weeks and months go by you can always head back here for more information or to get your priorities set nicely again.

Preparing to lose weight, becoming the warrior

photo credit: live-showtime

The first thing I want to talk about in this post is the fact that you need the right mental attitude. If you approach weight loss with anything less than a warrior mentality you are going to fail. Simple. The most important part of losing weight is the warrior mentality.

Goals that mean something
Sit down somewhere quiet and think of why you want to lose weight. Try to come up with at least five really solid reasons that mean something to you. It might be that you want to live longer in order to accomplish some goal. Whatever the motivations try to make sure it is something that has an affect on you deeply. You are going to need these reasons on those days where you don’t feel like getting up and going to the gym.

Role models that do something
The next thing you need to do is find a role model that helps inspire you. This could be someone you know or someone that you don’t know but respect. Many men choose people like Michael Jordan or Muhammad Ali. These are great athletes who represent discipline and mental toughness. Find your role model and look up some information about them. Perhaps even read their biography. This will give you the inspiration you need to stop you from becoming weak in the mind.

Proper food and drinks

photo credit: negotiable_me

Now that you have sorted out your mental preparation we need to get on to the most important thing of your weight loss journey. Your diet. Without the proper food and drinks it is impossible to succeed on this journey. You see, women need to be calorie perfect because, unlike men, we do not have testosterone to help us along the way. If our diet falters then our weight loss will as well. Get your diet right if you are serious about losing weight and keeping it off.

The mathematics of weight loss
The sad part about weight loss is that it is mostly, in the long term, about maths. You see, if you want to lose weight you need to be burning more calories than you take in. If you have excess calories in your diet they are going to be converted into fat stores. And the thing that most women don’t realize is that over a number of years those calories add up. Take a look:

If you have a can of Coke with lunch everyday of the week you are taking in 155 calories x seven days a week. That is 1085 calories a week. Now, there are 3500 calories per pound of body fat. So, if you take in 1085 calories from one can of Coke per day in three weeks you have added a pound of fat. That is 17 pounds per year. Just from your daily Coke.

Now, don’t panic. Weight loss is more complicated than that. It is not that black and white. The point of the above example is to show you how important your diet is going to be over the course of your life. Every little thing you take in each day will add up to extra pounds.

Eating well vs running
The most important thing you need to realize after seeing that mathematical example is that eating well is so so so much easier than running and burning the calories. All you have to do is leave the can of Coke in the fridge and you have effectively burned 155 calories from your diet. That is a good 20 minutes on the treadmill. Now, when you do go to the treadmill, you are going to be burning other calories and that means you are going to lose weight a lot faster than if you had that Coke with lunch. Remember this: eating well is so much easier than running.

Foods to avoid for long term success
Weight loss is really about discovering what foods you need to avoid. It is the things you remove from your diet that will make the difference, not the things you add. And the main thing to remember here is that you need to remove unnatural foods that are made up of empty calories. Let me explain what empty calories are.

Empty calories are calories that you get from foods that provide no nutritional benefit. Take a packet of chips as an example. From this packet of chips you might get 30 grams of fat and a couple of hundred calories. But you got zero nutritional benefit. It didn’t give you any minerals, vitamins or proteins. On the other hand, if you had a salad with some cheese you might get the same amount of calories and fat but you also got tonnes of goodness that helps your body function properly. It is a massive difference.

Try to avoid things like:

• Soft drink and sodas full of sugar
• Deep fried and shallow fried foods which add calories for no reason
• Baked goods like crisps and biscuits which are full of fat and sugar
• White bread, rice and pasta which contain a lot of empty calories
• Highly processed foods with lots of preservatives

Instead you need to be eating natural things like fruit and vegetables and raw milk. As a general rule of thumb, the less man has had to do with the creation of the food the better. If you can get it straight out of the ground or right off the tree you are going to lose weight very fast. And your health is going to improve more than you can imagine.

photo credit: poo dog

The myth of fat-free
It is high time the women of the world learned that fat-free is a marketing ploy that has very little to do with losing weight. Fat free meals are, 90% of the time, bad for your waist line. Please take this information in. Fat does not make you fat. Some fats are good for you. Fat free foods are generally packed full of sugar – and sugar makes you fat. Sugar is the worst of all the empty calories, and half the time you will find that fat free meals are full of it. Next time you buy something that is fat free and claims to be good for your weight loss take a look at the nutritional information. I bet it is full of sugar.

Portion sizes and frequency
The common thought amongst diet experts is that six small meals a day is the way to go if you want to lose weight. The idea is that by eating smaller meals more often you keep your metabolism burning and this uses a lot of calories. But this idea is completely useless if you are taking in a lot more calories than your body is able to burn for energy. If eating six small meals a day instead of three main ones means you are taking in hundreds more calories then the idea is mute.

Earlier this year I switched to three strict meals a day as I got a new orthodontic treatment that only lets me eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. And as a result I lost four kilograms in the space of about two months, doing nothing new or different on the exercise front. I must have been taking in way too many calories with the six meals a day philosophy. Try both and see which one works for you.

Exercising for smart weight loss

photo credit: Let Ideas Compete

Now that we have covered the diet elements we can move on to exercising for smart weight loss. Please note that the key word here is “smart”, not “exercise”. It is really important that we exercise in a way that sets us up for success, not failure.

Understand that anything is better than nothing
Some women I know actually talk themselves out of exercise because they think that, unless you do a solid hour, you are wasting your time. This is a grave mistake. When it comes to exercise it is vital that you understand that something is better than nothing. Think back to the above point about the mathematics of weight loss. If you can only get time for a 20 minute walk you are still going to burn off a can of Coke worth of calories. Sure, its not a 60 minute weights and rowing session at the gym, but it will help. Any exercise is better than no exercise.

High intensity is better than low intensity
I have talk about this lots of times here on the site but I need to rehash it here again for this guide to losing weight. High intensity exercise is always a better option than low intensity. Why?

1. It burns more calories
   A shorter session of intense exercise burns more calories during the session than a long slow workout. This means you are using your time effectively.
2. It keeps your metabolism up
   A high intensity bike ride, run or boxing class will keep your metabolism cranking for hours after the workout has finished. This means you will be burning calories even when the workout has finished. And that is a very valuable thing.

The downside about high intensity workouts is that your body can overdo it. If you workout at the gym five times a week and do hard stuff every time you are going to burn out in a few months. So, try to make your high intensity sessions fewer but more intense. For example, if you workout four times a week try to make two of them super intense and then leave the other two for slower weight training or a longer more relaxing jog. This will keep your body well rested and well worked.

Variety is the key to long term dedication
One thing I have noticed over the years is that the women who stick to their exercise programs use a lot of variety. They are loyal and dedicated to fitness as a whole, not to one particular form of exercise. Sure, there are those amazing women who can go to a yoga class every day for ten years but for the most of us we need to inject some variety into the routine in order to keep it exciting.

The good news is that in today’s fitness obsessed society there are so many different things to try. There is no way we will ever get bored. Some ideas include:

• The regulars like running on the treadmill, cross trainer or riding on the exercise bike
• Weight training or doing home workouts
• Kickboxing or some other martial art classes
• Going for hikes in the hills with friends
• Taking classes like yoga or pump or step
• Going for bike rides with the family
• Etc.

Variety is also important because it stops your body from getting stuck on a plateau. Fitness is all about pushing your body to a new level and then letting it adapt. The body always adapts so you have to keep pushing it to new levels. Changing your regular exercise routine is one way to do this.

Women must weight train
So many women still avoid weight training because they are worried about putting on muscle and looking like a bulky man. It is a myth that needs to be busted because it really isn’t true. Women simply do not have the chemical make up in their body to become really massive. In fact, the only thing that will happen with weight training is that your body will become leaner, tighter and more toned. You won’t get bigger. Weight training is really important because it burns a lot of calories while keeping your healthy and strong.

photo credit: hectorir

There are so many benefits to weight training and one of them is that you feel amazing after a workout because your body has released so many endorphins. Some things to remember:

• Learn the correct way
  Get a trainer and learn how to lift weights correctly before you go out lifting like a crazy woman. These things can cause some pretty serious long term injuries if you don’t do it correctly. For this reason I always tell my friends to start off with the machines because they are designed to keep the movement safe and controlled. They will also help to teach you the proper form.
• Use free weights
  Once you are proficient with the machines you should move onto the free weights exercises that use dumbbells, barbells and your own body weight. Why? Because these exercises are unbalanced and require that you use more muscles to keep stabilized. And more muscles means a more complete and intense workout.
• Keep it short
  Don’t workout for two hours at a time. Mix your weights session with your cardio session and do some running on the treadmill followed by some jumping squats and pushups. It is wonderful if you can mix cardio and weight training together as you will really get your heart racing.

This blog has some pretty comprehensive articles about weight training and all the different exercises that are available to you. I recommend going back through them for some inspiration and then start adding weight training sessions to your workout at least twice a week for the rest of your life.

So how often do I need to exercise?
Here is where things get tricky. Finding the time to exercise is really hard and, unfortunately, studies show us that we need a fair amount in order to maintain our weight. In fact, a recent study revealed that you need about an hour of exercise everyday in order to keep the weight off. To be honest I find this a little difficult to believe. I would love to know some important details like: did they weight train, did they do high intensity workouts, how were their diets, did they exercise before breakfast, etc.

I do not believe that you need an hour a day, everyday, in order to lose weight and then maintain that weight. I think it depends heavily on how good your diet is and how well you exercise when you do actually do it. However, I do think you need at least four solid sessions per week. It doesn’t really matter what you do as long as you do something significant like run, box, go to a yoga class, etc. Anything less than this amount and you will struggle to notice any changes.

Maintaining the weight

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Perhaps the hardest part of any weight loss program is maintaining the weight once you have reached your goal. In fact, I have heard statistics that something like 95% of women will go back to their old weight within two years of losing it. That is very depressing. It is important that you get the right information and discipline in order to make sure you are the 5% that stay lean, sexy and healthy.

Make habits for life
When you begin to lose weight it is important that you make habits for life instead of just temporary changes. You see, the main reason that women go back to their old shape is because they go back to their old way of eating. And the real cause of this is the concept of dieting. Dieting is not a good idea because it gives you the idea that it is only for a period of time. Rather, you need to make habits that will last the rest of your life. Sustainable changes like eating less processed food and more fruits and vegetables. If you are just trying to find a diet that will help you lose weight fast then you are in trouble because that weight will come back, 95% of the time.

Keep learning
Science is continually discovering new things about the body and the way it operates. Fitness experts and dietitians are constantly coming out with new data about how you can lose weight and keep it off. So keep learning. Keep reading about these things and stay up to date with the modern schools of thoughts. This is advantage that will really help you along the way because you will find more efficient and healthy practices.

Remember the motivation
Remember the start of this post we talked about finding the strong motivation that you can call upon. Don’t forget it now just because you have achieved your goal. In fact, now is the most important time to remember it because it is after the weight is gone that most women fail. It is a lot like quitting smoking, lots of people can do it but most of them relapse. You need to remember your goals about living longer for your children, avoiding serious diseases and having a better quality of life now more than ever.

Tips to help you on your way

photo credit: rolands.lakis

To conclude this guide I have put together a list of tips from this site and from around the web that will help you along your weight loss journey. As I mentioned before, knowledge is power. The more you can know about a topic the more able you will be to make the right decision. Take some time to read these great sites or bookmark this post and come back to them when you need more information or inspiration.

• How to get more energy and never feel tired
  This post will help you feel more alive and energetic which is really important if you are going to be getting up early for all those hard training sessions.
• What is better, the treadmill or the cross trainer
  A little article about determining which cardio machine is best for weight loss at your gym.
• Tips on how to start jogging
  A good list of tips from a great website. Sometimes you need some help to start jogging.
• Some meals for weight loss
  Reader’s Digest is one of my favorite magazines and they have a great online section devoted to meals that help you lose weight.
• Good fats vs bad fats
  It is important to know what kind of fats you should be eating. Yes you should be eating them.
• How to beat depression
  Sometimes we eat badly because we are feeling bad. This post helps you to deal with depression without food.
• How to start weight lifting
  A few tips on how to get started with those weights. Ladies only.
• The benefits of fruits
  A great list of different types of fruit and their nutritional benefits

If you have any tips of your own or would like to add to this guide I would love to hear from you. Please leave us a comment and hopefully we will get some good discussions going. Also if you know of any other super helpful posts please let us know and we can add them to the list.

photo credit: lululemon athletica

A lot of women choose walking as their preferred method of weight loss. It is low impact, easy to do and quite relaxing. But how long do you actually have to walk for in order to burn fat and lose weight? In this post I am going to give you a few ideas.

Does walking burn fat at all?

The first question we need to ask is one that might shock a lot of people. Does walking actually burn fat at all? Can you lose weight by just walking? Some people say yes, others say no. And in fact, there is no hard and fast answer. It depends on how fast you walk, how often you do it, what time of the day you walk and whether you do it on a regular basis. To be honest, there are better ways of burning fat. But if you are just starting a weight loss program and need to build up to something more intense then walking is a great thing to do.

So how long do I have to walk?

So how long do you actually have to walk if you want to burn fat? Well the answer is not as pretty as you’d hoped for. A recent scientific study of over 34,000 women shows that if you want to lose weight and maintain it you need to exercise around an hour a day, every day. That is very different from the current recommendations of half an hour four times a week.

Are you serious?
Yes, the study is deadly serious. But to be honest I am struggling with it. I know scores of women who lose weight exercising less than that. But the question to ask is whether they maintain that weight. Losing weight is easy, maintaining your new levels is not.

Conclusion

An hour a day of walking is what is needed if you want to lose weight and maintain it. There really are no quick fixes when it comes to weight loss. It is hard work, dedication and a lot of sweat.

photo credit: lululemon athletica

So you’re struggling to lose weight. You are one of the millions of women around the world who just can’t seem to burn fat. Well, all is not lost. There is hope. Here are a few things you can do if you want to start burning fat quickly and in a way that lasts for the long term.

1. Train with weights
So many women avoid weight training for fear that it will make them bulky. It won’t. Weight training is an essential component of losing weight. It elevates your heart rate and, contrary to popular belief, burns a lot of calories. If you are not weight training in a regular way then you are not setting yourself up for success.

2. Mix high intensity and low intensity
If you are struggling to lose weight I am betting that you do a long run each time you workout. Or perhaps you spend 40 minutes on the exercise bike. That’s good but you could be doing more. High intensity workouts are far more effective at burning fat because they keep your heart rate up after your exercise session has finished. This means you will be burning calories well into the day.

3. Change your workout every two weeks
The human body is adaptable. It becomes used to certain things and develops resistance to it. Exercise is no different. The body becomes accustomed to the strain you put it under and for this reason you need to start changing your workout at least every two weeks. Try weight training and then doing cardio, mixing the two up and then doing different exercises in different orders. Try new classes and keep the body guessing.

What about you?
Do you have any tips that you would give to women who are struggling to lose weight? Has anything worked for you? Leave a comment.

photo credit: hectorir

I often get asked by my friends which piece of equipment burns the most fat and as such is the best for weight loss. Is it the treadmill, the exercise bike or the cross trainer? In this post I am going to tell you which one it is and why.

Which is the best for weight loss? Treadmill, bike or cross trainer?

If you spend hours every week doing cardio training trying to lose weight then you obviously want to know which one is the most effective. I know many women who get quite anxious about this issue; they have only 30 minutes per day and don’t want to waste their time.

The answer is extremely simple: they are all good. It depends on how you use them.

Let me explain. You could sit on the exercise bike for an hour a day just barely spinning the wheels and not burn a whole lot of fat. Then the next day you could jump on the treadmill and do sprints for 10 minutes and burn a heck of a lot more of calories than you did on the bike. Does this mean the treadmill is better? No. It just means you used it properly.

The best machine
The best machine is actually the one that you like the best. It is the one that you can push yourself on without getting injured or bored. I like the cross trainer the best because I have an old knee injury that flares up on the treadmill and the bike. So this is the best machine for me because I can push myself without getting injured.

What if you trained equally on all?
Now we have a difficult situation. What if you trained equally hard on each machine? Which one then would be the best for weight loss?

It would be a toss up between the cross trainer and the treadmill. Why? Well the cross trainer is good because it involves both the arms and the legs. You can get a full body workout by focusing on both. The treadmill, on the other hand, is extremely good because it is high impact. I don’t care what anyone says, running is the most difficult of all gym cardio, especially when you up the speed and the incline.

If you are injury free and looking to burn the most amount of fat I would mix up between the treadmill and the cross trainer. Make sure you use lots of sprinting, inclines and so on to maximize the amount of calories that you burn.

Conclusion

Really, the best cardio equipment is the one that you work hardest on. High intensity exercise is the best way to lose weight so make sure you push yourself more and more each time.

photo credit: cmav

Have you heard of negative calorie foods? Well its high time you did! These super healthy foods are a woman’s best friend when it comes to weight loss. Why? Because you lose weight by just eating them.

What is a negative calorie food?

Negative calorie foods are natural foods that have a net effect of weight loss when you eat them. Remember in this post on portion sizes for weight loss when we talked about the equation for weight loss being calories in + energy out = weight gain? Well negative calorie foods aid in this process by negating the calories in part of the equation.

How do negative calorie foods work?

Negative calorie foods are not foods with no calories. They actually could have quite a few calories. The reason they are called negative is because they take more energy to digest than are contained in the food itself.

Let’s take a stick of broccoli as an example. It might have 50 calories in it but it might take 60 calories worth of energy to digest. So you are, in effect, having a weight loss reaction. Digestion takes up a lot of energy in our bodies so it is important to use as many negative calorie based foods as possible.

What are some negative calorie foods?

Here is a simple list of some negative calorie foods that you can start to incorporate into your diet. Keep your portion sizes under control but enjoy the weight loss benefit that these can bring.

• Asparagus
• Fennel
• Broccoli
• Leek
• Cabbage
• Lettuce
• Carrots
• Apricot
• Mandarin orange
• Blackberry
• Melon
• Blackcurrant
• Peaches
• Clementines
• Damsons
• Raspberry
• Grapefruit
• Rhubarb
• Guava
• Strawberry
• Honeydew Melon
• Lemon
• Cucumber
• Cauliflower Peppers
• Celery
• Radish
• Spinach
• Tomato

As you can see they are all fruits and vegetables. Does that give you any hints about what we humans are supposed to be eating?

photo credit: nozomiiqel

Over the last few years there has been a great emphasis on eating the right foods and eating them at the right time. In my experience, however, a lot of women fail to realize that one of the major reasons for being over weight is because your portion sizes are too big. In this post I am going to talk a little bit about this and what you can do to fix the issue.

Why portion sizes matter

When it comes to losing weight there is a simple mathematical equation that explains 95% of weight loss. That equation is:

Food in + Energy burned = Weight gain

Basically what this is telling us is that if you take in more calories than you burn with exercise and bodily functions then you are going to gain weight. And one of the major reasons for weight gain is having too much at any one sitting.

If you eat big meals it is very likely that your metabolism is going to be slowed down and very heavy. Eating smaller meals throughout the day keeps that metabolic system revving and as such it is likely that you will expend more energy.

Over five years those calories add up

photo credit: Tobyotter

Imagine that you eat 400 more calories per day than you are supposed to if you want to lose weight. That 400 might not seem like much over the span of a week but of the span of five years that adds up to a good couple of pounds of flab. And that is how you need to view extra calories; they add up.

The same is true, however, of negative calories. If you can cut your portion sizes in each meal and lose 200 calories per day then over five years that is going to be several pounds that you have not added to your waistline. It is that simple.

Some ways you can cut your portion sizes include:

• Buy a can of soda instead of a bottle
• Use small bowls so they look full
• Don’t go back for seconds
• Cut extras like rice and pasta and just have vegetable rich stews
• Just don’t make as much

Conclusion

Don’t think of this as a quick fix. Think of it as something you will do for the rest of your life. Cut your portion sizes at each meal by even just a small amount and you will lose weight over the long term.