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  • June 12th 2007

13 Killer tips for express fat loss

June is already here and those of us who didn't start the summer weightloss operation might be late on scedule. While the is no magic quick-fix for quality fat loss, there are few useful tips that will significantly accelerate the process. Here we go:

Training

1. Weight training: Don't leave weight training out of your program! A good weight workout has an after-burn effect up to 36 hours after the workout! 4 to 5 intense 30-minutes-workouts a week wikk keep your metabolism at 100% 24/7!

2. Use more dumbbells: no modern hi-tech gym machine beats a pair of good dumbbells. More stabilizing muscles are used in free-weight training which has a double benefit: (1) You burn more fat by using more muscles. (2) You train these small stabilizing muscles and their cooperation between each other. This way you add more quality to your workouts than just "pumping" individual muscles without teaching them teamwork.

3. Kettlebell training also showed good results for a quicker weight loss as almost all principal muscles are used in these exercises. I'd say that 30 min kettlebell exercises burn 2x to 4x more calories than even dumbbell training. There are different sizes and weights. You could even improvise and build your own "kettlebells" from stuff at hand. I have used for long time 5-liter plastic water cans which could be used for dozens of different exercises. And you can adjust the weight, too, just by adding more water!!

4. Jog/run first thing in the morning. I found out that the jogging session doesn't have to be long. Even 10-15 medium-intensity workout 30 minutes before breakfast is enough to speed up your metabolism for the whole day. Plus, you won't be as lazy to wake up and go running when you know that the workout is not as "bad".

5. Know the reason. The aim of exercing in a fat-loss plan is NOT to burn as much fat DURING the exercise, but to speed up your metabolism just enough to burn fat constantly THROUGHOUT the day, 24/7. Moderation is the key. Overdoing just destroys your  precious muscle mass that is dearer than gold while dieting: Only the muscles burn fat, nothing else. I feel pitty seeing all those peeps at the local gym spending hours at the treadmill and having worse results than me, who jogs 15 minutes in the morning and  does 25 minutes weight training 5 times a week. Be clever.

Nutrition

1. Take at least 5/6 small meals a day. Split up those large dinners. Your metabolism (if you eat the right food) speeds up after each meal. By eating small throughout the day, you'll keep that engine running non-stop! After some time you'll notice that you get hungry every 2-2,5 hours automatically. That's a good thing! This means that your metabolism is at full pull! You may notice that you eat slightly more calories a day than before. Don't worry about that. As long as you eat healthy, the few extra calories don't matter.

2. NEVER feel hungry! Don't give your body a reason to store fat. It perceives even the slightest hunger as an indication of possible starvation and will save/store more fat "for bad times" at the first possibility (cravings to eat more / eat more junk-food). This is probably the most important but largely underestimated and wrongly done thing while dieting!

3. Drink good fluids, as much as possible: Water and tea. There are around 5 different theories of whoch I know that try to explain whydrinking more water helps you with weight loss. Maybe it's a combination of them all. However, I think, the most important reason is the following: When you drink much water, your kidneys adjust to water "abundance" and don't have any reason to store much water as a reserve. And with less water under your skin, you appear "leaner". Appearances, but a good quick-fix-tip ;)

4. Watch what you eat! There are tons of useful articles that will give you an idea what is "right" food. As a quick-fix I suggest to cut significantly on simple carbs and even complex carbs by adding much, much more fruits and veggies (fiber). Try to take the good complex-carbs before and after any physical activity and limit yourself to protein and vegetarian food n other times.

5. Guarana, green tea and coffee are good metabolism-boosters. Just use them in moderation. =)

Other

1. Keep your stress in check. Stress is known to trigger cortisol, the junk-food hormone, that destroys muscles and puts you out of equilibrium. It's pure evil!! So stay cool. Take yoga, classes, if neccesary. Go for a walk in the afternoon. Leave everything behind for sometime. Do something you like once in a while.

2. Work on your sleep patterns. It's said that fitness has 3 key elements: exercise, nutrition and rest. You need to pay attention to all three. By leaving one out, the equilibrium is broken and the process is slown down. The only tip I can give here is get enough sleep and, even more important, don't take too much sleep, which is far worse!! The most useful tip I've ever got was to wake up at the same time EVERY morning (yes, even weekends) and go to sleep when you're tired (variable time). This will keep you in a natural balance and provide you with enough rest proportional to the day's activities. In a matter of two weeks you will notice a significant power boost which, again, will help you to burn more fats off your belly.

3. Moderation and persistence is the key to success in any area of life. This is probably the most important advise I can give you. Master these and you'll master everything else! Good luck!

Stretching videos

A poor person like me can’t afford a gym membership. Nor can I afford a trainer, who is normally provided with a gym mebership. And without a trainer there is no one around to help me with the new exercise routines and to show how it’s done, right? Actually, wrong. Internet is a great gadget. If I have a question about anything I go to my MSN list and talk to my friends about any doubts and problems I may have. Or I lookup information on other blogs, google or forums.

But what about routines that are not easily explained in words, like stretching? A big advantage of a trainer is that he can actually SHOW you how to do something. An article can only show a few pictures that are often very confusing and depressing…

But keep your head up, o bodytweaker! The great information age has arrived! Now you don’t even have to have a trainer to see how something is done right. Just look it up in video directories! God bless internet!

Jokes beside, here is a list of great video sources and some samples where you can get cool new workout ideas from:

  • Google Videos – a great source of videos. Doesn’t have a lot, but quite enough. :-)
    1. Golf stretching video 1 and video 2
    2. A woman stretching in sitting yoga position
    3. Another woman performing leg stretching on a railing
    4. Lower body stretch
    5. 3 women performing stretching on the beach. Hot!
    6. 30 min. Video of a marathon preparation class: stretching.
    7. A 4 min stretching video with expalnations. 5 star!
    8. A woman performing deadsplit
    9. Cycling stretching exercisses. Very useful!
    10. 5 stretches routine. Rather exotic (tai-chi like) stretches. Cool!
    11. Abdominal stretching to tighten up stomach
  • ExpertVillage.com – this is a huge resource of how-to videos. not only stretching, but strength training, aerobics, etc! Just visit and look for yourself! Few samples:
    1. Beginner gymnastics stretching.
    2. Angela Joyce performing back stretching. Check out her other 15+ stretching videos on the same site. On your place, I would bookmark that page. Very useful!
    3. …Heck, here is a whole list of hundreds more videos: http://www.expertvillage.com/category/health-fitness.htm
  • YouTube – the good ol’ youtube has also some stuff to offer.
    1. Stretching video 1.
    2. Stick stretching.
    3. …wow! this flexibility inspires a lot! also check out her other videos like this one of the splits.
    4. Towel stretching, a good idea.
    5. …etc.

    There are a lot of more videos, but I think these few are a good start and give a good idea of how a stretching routine should look like.

    There are also ton of material about yoga, strength training, endurance training, etc. Just look at those websites and use their search functionalities.

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    • October 28th 2006

    Neuromuscular training

    What is the sense of big muscles if you don’t know how to use them?
    What is the sense of a fancy sports car with no horse power within?

    It’s so pitiful seeing all those big guys hitting the gym trying to to get even bigger, spending thousands of hard-earned dollars for expensive bulk supplements that, in many cases, hurt their bodies and cause irreversible health problems. And what’s the aim? A 350 pounds meat pack that spends 3500+ calories a day, but is still a big zero when it comes down to even most simple tasks?

    The “bodybuilding” boom of the last few decades has been aiming at “good looks”, but no real quality. That is: isolate the muscle, pump it hard, eat a lot, make it grow. But, where’s the bright logic of homo sapiens here? Who said that big muscles will do better job in a given task? Quantity never presupposes quality and vice versa. There is no logical connection between the two. And as our fathers were “training” for quality, we are training for quantity nowadays. Good progress, comrades! It’s like building a facade and forgetting about anything else.

    Now, I don’t want to tell You what to do. It’s a free world (in most cases) and you have a choice just like in anything else: to smoke or not to smoke – you decide. If you are just trying to get big muscles in order to impress somebody then to hell with the quality. To hell with the guy on the other side of the planet who is writing this. To hell with the health, if it stands on your way. Go ahead and impress everybody. Maybe it’s a good aim.

    But if your aims lie in deeper virtues, if you are seeking performance rather than the mere “good looks”, if you’re going for the essence and not superficiality, then go with the quality.

    Quality doesn’t mean isolating and pushing one muscle till it grows the size of a tumor. Quality means training the whole body: to train all the muscles together so they work in a team as they should be. It means training your nervous systems that controls your muscles.

    The neurologists say we only use max. 10% of our brain capacities. The fact is, we use only 10% of our whole nervous abilities. It is said that our muscles have enough strength to lift a car even without having been once to the gym. It’s just that they don’t know HOW to do it. The nerves just don’t give enough impulse to work at 100%. Ever seen a man struck by lightning with several bone fractures? That’s how “hard” the muscles can work given the right impulse. :-P
    Now imagine a trained neuromuscular system working at its best. Knowing what to do in a given situation and how to do it. This is an aim far beyond the mere pumping of the muscles. In fact, the question of size is senseless here. They will grow to the size that is needed for the tasks your system is trained for. Muscles are means but not the aim. And strength is only a tiny part of it! Think about increased speed, range of motion (flexibility), better coordination, endurance. THAT is quality.

    I’m happy to see that more and more people are realizing this. Today you can find the same concept in what is called “functional training“,? which is getting very very popular, and “kettlebelt training” – the roots where our fitness fathers have started from!

    Live strong!

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