Here it is...the article by my personal trainer (although he admits he got some of it off the internet!!)
It is really long!!!
It is translated from Romanian and I've helped him out and re-phrased some of it to sound better english...there are just a few bits I've left because I didn't understand them. But as a whole I think this is really informative.
ABS - MYTHS AND TRAINING
Having a mid-section (especially the abdomen) that is defined and muscular is probably the most wanted goal in the world of fitness practice, but it is also the most misunderstood aspect. We invest time and effort into abdominal exercises that are useless, more so than for any other muscle group. I'm not saying you don’t have to work for it, I just say that you should not make it complicated.
There are three reasons why abdominal definition is so poorly understood: misleading advertisements and / or misleading instructions, delusions and lack of understanding regarding the functioning of the body.
It may seem logical that belly fat can be eliminated through working the area concerned (eg doing crunches, lifting legs, twist, etc..) - But if you think that, you're wrong, and you're wrong badly! Companies that want to sell you a machine to do crunches, a book of instructions or course, usually lie to make you buy. They say you can reduce belly fat just by using their product, and you believe them.
The truth is that our lifestyle created the problem - so the solution must address lifestyle: both diet and exercise program. The idea that a single exercise, or a "killer abdominal workout" will cut belly fat is an illusion. For those of you who still believe in these illusions, defined abs will remain a dream until you understand how it works and how the body burns fat.
The Myth of losing fat in specific areas
You CAN NOT lose weight in the abdominal area just by doing abdominal exercises! Bottom line.
This should be repeated again and again because even if all of us heard that we cannot lose weight only in a certain area of the body, especially in the mid-section, and they said that they understood, lots of us still continue to believe in such things (spot reduction). It is impossible to lose belly fat just by doing crunches or exercises that target these muscles!
When doing these exercises, the abdominal muscle - which is under the fat – is the one which is bearing the brunt. When doing abs exercises, you will tone the ab muscles that are underneath the fat, but nothing happens about melting the fat.
Bouncy mass that covers your abs is not a muscle which is not toned ; it is no soft tissue that can be "cured" or converted into muscles. It's fat and can be reduced only through a well-developed plan, a plan that involves the entire body burning fat, not from a particular place only. Maybe you have some well-developed and strong abdominal muscles underneath the fat, but you will not see them, and the fat will remain the same, until you start to diet and exercise - no matter how many crunches, feet lifting and other exercises you will do.
If you exercise every day for the mid-section, or you do a large number of repetitions, it means you still hope to reduce fat from a specific area of the body, in this case the abdomen, even if you say you do not believe in that. STOP IT! It’s a waste of time. Never worked and will not work in the future. If you think the burn felt in the muscle while performing exercises with many repetitions is evidence that the fat melts, you're sadly mistaken. This sensation happens in muscle (due to lactic acid and decrease in blood pH), but not fat.
You cannot choose exactly an area of the body where to get rid of fat - just as you cannot choose where to store fat on the body. It is a physiological fact. The whole body must enter into the state of "fat burning" to burn fat from the waist. Did you see someone who has a well-defined abdomen but fat on the other parts of the body? Of course not. You have to burn fat on the entire body to get ripped abdominals.
How to "burn" fat
Fat is stored in the body as a specific molecular form called adipose tissue. The body cannot and does not burn adipose tissue. To lose weight by burning the fat deposits, the body must first convert adipose tissue into free fatty acids which are used as fuel. Only then, the body can use it for fat burning.
When this conversion takes place, it happens consistently (throughout the body) - not locally (close to the muscle that is worked). After conversion occurs, free fatty acids enter the bloodstream and are carried to the working muscle. In other words, small amounts of free fatty acids that come from small deposits of fat throughout the body, gives to every muscle that is used, the fuel required. And big muscles, such legs, are those which consume the most fuel, especially fuel derived from adipose tissue.
So that’s why we lose weight everywhere, even on the face when cycling on a static bike - even if we only use legs; fat is burned throughout the body, it cannot be burned only in a certain place, the one we want.
These processes happen only if the diet is right. If you do not follow a well thought out diet, and there is enough fuel in the bloodstream of recently eaten food, the body will not have to turn to use fat reserves. Moreover, if you have a high insulin level during the workout, because you ate some candy or white bread (or other sugar / simple carbs) - believing wrongly that this will give you energy - the body will resist giving up fat reserves, even if the total caloric intake is relatively low. These are two of the most common reasons many fail to lose weight, even if doing sports: eating too much and / or eating the wrong thing.
How to Lose Weight: Part I: Diet
To get rid of body fat, you have to implement daily diet changes. First, you need to cut calories, but - perhaps more importantly – you should reduce or eliminate certain types of foods and replace them with better choices. Gluten and sugar cause the body to secrete more insulin - which will cause even greater fat deposits, and insulin can reduce calorie burning, even if you exercise daily, and even if caloric intake is not very high. Some people produce more insulin than others. If you tend to accumulate fat easily, chances are you are one of those people. Fat in food is not as bad as carbohydrates - gluten and sugar.
Gluten, starch and sugars have a high glycaemic index, which means they convert quickly into glucose, which leads to a large increase in insulin. Instead, try get carbohydrates from vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, pumpkin, tomatoes, peas, carrots, etc..) ;and pulses (lentils, white beans or red, etc..) And, to a lesser extent some fruit. Try to reduce a lot pasta (bread, pasta, crackers, pita bread, etc..) As well as potatoes, white rice and sugar. Do not be afraid to eat nuts, almonds, avocados, extra virgin olive oil, cheese, etc.. Unfortunately many people still believe that the solution is diets containing very low fat and carbohydrates increased, but this type of diet increases instead of decreasing, the rate of overweight people. Reducing carbohydrates, as I mentioned above, and increased consumption of fat, especially healthy ones, will lead to a lower percentage of body fat and better health.
Try eating 4 or 5 smaller meals a day and make sure that each meal contains a protein source, a source of low glycaemic index carbohydrates, and some fats. For example, grilled chicken breast with steamed vegetables with extra virgin olive oil and an avocado (as guacamole, is delicious). Or scrambled eggs with ham and red beans. Or a beef steak with salad dressing and a fruit.
How to Lose Weight: Part II: Exercise Program
The best approach is a combination of aerobic exercise and weight training. Both types of exercise have a different mechanism of burning fat. Weight training makes your entire body more metabolically active, which means it burns more calories throughout the day. Those who do only aerobic exercise, tend to become "fat loss efficient" which means that the body learns to conserve energy while doing this kind of exercise - which translates into a slower fat loss. Those who combine the two types of exercise have a much better rate of weight loss.
The best choice for cardiovascular exercise is intensity interval. Low intensity / long periods of time is not an effective method, high intensity / short time (15-20 minutes), or alternating between high intensity (one minute) and then low intensity (one minute) are more effective methods to burn fat. High intensity training burns more calories in a shorter period of time and stimulates metabolism more than the exercises at low intensity.
In terms of weight training, try to emphasize effort on large muscle groups such as legs, back and pecs. Smaller muscle groups such as shoulders or arms, contributes much less to the total metabolism. Try to train with weights 2-4 days a week. The more often you practice, the better results obviously.
Abs exercises
Work your abdominal muscles like any other muscle group - up to 2-3 times a week, not on consecutive days, 3-8 sets of 15-20 reps with wide range of movement, and do every contraction deliberately, and possibly adding a strong challenge to your muscles. Think of another muscle group: you don’t do 100 reps each for back or chest, so limit yourself to the abdomen from a maximum of 20 repetitions.
Regarding exercise, choose the ones that focus on movement of the spine, not the hips. In other words, the ground crunches are much better than lifting legs, best abs choices are the declined bench or cables.
Pay attention to this: there is no "lower abdomen". Continuous abdominal muscle is a muscle that begins and ends at the sternum to the pubic bone of the pelvis. You cannot work an end of the muscle more than the other. Everything works the same muscle.
So you can’t work your lower abs to accentuate the “handles” on the abdomen. Also, you cannot add another row of squares, or change their shape. The number and shape are written in stone, it cannot change, and is determined by genetics. You can’t add a third or fourth row of abs just by working them. There is a divisor of fibres that is either there or not, since birth. All you can do is to work on the shape of what you already have.
When the abdominal muscles contract, the sternum and pelvis get closer to each other, creating a bending motion of the trunk. When the muscles expand, the sternum and pelvis move away from each other, creating the bending of the trunk. It must be the aim of any abdominal exercise: the arch and then bending the trunk. It is classical movement.
Many believe that they are doing crunches, but in fact they just execute a pull up of the neck and shoulders off the floor which represents 10% of the full motion. Not even fully lifting the torso off the ground is the solution. Actually we must feel the muscle working, and it must be kept in constant tension deliberately.
Conclusions
If you're one of those people who do countless crunches and they are incomplete, you're wasting your time; you won‘t have any results; you will not burn fat or build muscles. Instead, follow this in three step approach:
1. Make the right changes to your diet.
2. Combine aerobic exercise (interval, in particular) with weight training.
3. Work your abs like any other muscles (non-consecutive days, 15-20 reps, 4-8 sets per exercise, full range of motion with deliberate contraction).
This approach will give you the best chance of success. It would be a mistake to believe that anyone who follows these tips will have the same results. Everyone has to try different approaches until you find the one that’s best for you. The basic idea is that the only way to have a muscular and defined mid-section is to burn fat throughout the body and all muscle groups to be defined - and the abdomen’s role in all of this is a small one.
Tips for an easy weight loss plan
1. Slow your rate of weight loss!
Yes, you read correctly! The best way to get incredibly shredded is to lose between 1 and 2 lb per week. A faster rate of weight loss may be welcome if you have a lot of fat, but it’s not the best choice if you already have low body fat percentage, and you want to decrease even more.
2. 6 packs abs are made through diet!
It's ok to take it easier with abs and legs lifting; working the mid-section will not bring you the 6 pack of your dreams, and it will not melt fat. Train your abs 1-3 times a week with a moderate workload. To thicken your abs perform abdominal exercises with weights.
3. Drink water!
Seems obvious advice, but for many it is not. A lot of athletes, even the hard-core ones, do not drink enough water. Studies showed that an adequate consumption of water can increase your metabolism by up to 30% (these studies involved the consumption of cold water). Not drinking enough water when you want to define your abs, will slow the process. No more guessing how much water you drink per day: take measures and counts several days in a row to find out the exact amount you consume, and adjust if necessary.
If you're serious in terms of melting fat from the abdomen, and bringing on to light your abs then keep reading this article! I'll clarify some common mistakes that people make when they want to start a 6 pack diet, and how to avoid them. Mistakes are very common, and if you do it, you will certainly mess up your abdominal definition plans.
The most important aspect to getting defined abs is DIET! I do not mean diets read in magazines. Those are rather regimes, not diets. Diet is a way of life, it means what you eat, how much you eat for the long-term, not for a few weeks. 90% of success when you are struggling to have a belly from magazines comes from the foods you eat and how you eat.
It is better to focus on total calorie intake. It comes from calorie dense foods. It is necessary that a diet should contain more dietary fibre, good sources of protein, complex carbohydrates and healthy fats.
Now let's see the 3 mistakes you must avoid:
Mistake # 1 – not setting a realistic goal
It is so common that this should be the first discussed. Goals are the main element when you want to achieve something. Objectives should be clear and marked somewhere. It should be realistic! If you set goals that are too high to reach, you head straight to failure.
Yes, you have to challenge yourself in terms of objectives, but still keep things in perspective, well anchored in reality. If you cannot reach your goal or goals, it can be a destructive thing on several levels, and you can destroy motivation. It can also cause bad habits to come back which you have tried to get rid of for a long time. How can you avoid these mistakes?
Set goals in terms of weight loss that are realistic for you! What level are you now, what percentage of body fat you have, the physical condition, etc.. Be realistic, okay? Here's an example: it's been 10 years since you've trained, you have bad habits, and an extra 30 or so pounds - setting a goal to get rid of those 30 pounds in just 60 days is not realistic. But setting a goal to get rid of the 30 pounds in a period of 6 months is more achievable. It is a goal that is much easier and possible to achieve.
The idea is to be honest with yourself, and at what level you are at. Be sure to follow your progress with a diary. Once you have achieved the goals, it is time for others! You'll need them to help you keep your newly acquired body!
Mistake # 2 - look at diet as a short-term sacrifice
Another major mistake when striving for 6 pack abs, is to believe that the diet will be short term. The problem is that when you get what you want, well-defined abs, you'll stop doing all the things that brought you here (most of people fail to impose new goals to keep the results - see point 1).
If you look at diet as a short-term sacrifice, you will most likely return to old bad habits. All the fat that you‘ve tried to lose, will return for revenge, this is the main reason people gain weight back – they have not figured out how to turn their diet changes into a permanent lifestyle.
Here's how to avoid these mistakes: think of your changes in diet as permanent changes. When you get the abs of your dreams set new long-term goals that help you keep your abs like that forever.
Mistake # 3 - you want to have a perfect diet
At first you're excited about the new diet that you discovered. You are more than determined to follow, live, sleep, eat and breathe the new nutritional plan. And for a few days or weeks, you will do it without mistakes.
But then something happens! Something always happens when you have a weight loss diet. In a moment of weakness you will try pizza, chocolate or a big burger or sandwich and fries from a fast food establishment. And you stop dieting thinking that you have failed, because you did not keep it up to the end. And you quit.
So to avoid this mistake, give up trying to be perfect. Do not give up just because you’ve tasted something wrong. Do not press the panic button. Learn from mistakes, move on, and follow the plan. Any weight loss diet should include cheat days, you eat what you want as a reward, you followed the plan until then. You can eat pizza or chocolate once in a while, and eventually to compensate for extra calories through workouts.
What should you eat - and when should you eat - to get the most out of your diet? It's all about timing. Depending on the time of day or the situation you're in, the body needs certain nutrients to survive - so that you can live and work at optimum level.
Food triggers all sorts of hormonal reactions in the body - reactions that effect your mood, attention, energy levels, etc.. So even if you already know what to eat, you need to know when to eat. Follow this guide on what foods are good to eat no matter what.
What to eat after a workout ...
When you submit your muscles from intense effort, they feel like the students at the end of a session - stressed and defeated! To cope with future requirements, your muscles will get stronger…So you become stronger. But to take full advantage of these cycles of muscle growth, your body needs adequate nutrition.
Use this post-workout formula: in short, carbohydrate-protein ratio should be 2:1 for low-medium intensity workouts, for intense training to be 3:1. Carbohydrates will replenish glycogen stores and rebuild muscle protein.
Consumption of these nutrients between 20 and 60 minutes after completion of training is the best window of time to be absorbed optimally. Try a glass of chocolate milk or peanut butter on a piece of wholegrain bread.
What to eat ...at the finish line
For any endurance activity, the final priority is to replace nutrients lost through sweating. That means replenishing glycogen. The best post-marathon drinks contain carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals, and small amounts of protein. Even after a short run (5-6 km) you must restore what you lose through sweat, but in smaller quantities.
Because liquid is easier to digest than solid food and carbohydrates are digested more easily than proteins, those who run long after exercise should consume milk or milk with cocoa / chocolate or another carb drink. Milk chocolate or cocoa has optimal ratio 3:1 carbohydrate protein and it is a good source of electrolytes, especially potassium. For example, 250 ml of Gatorade has 30 mg potassium, compare with 400 mg as skimmed or 425, in the case of chocolate skimmed milk. It is an important issue because during such events a person loses a lot of potassium.
What to eat after a night out ...
When you feel good, time flies without you realizing. The next day drinking a virgin Bloody Mary (no vodka) is a good anti-hangover remedy. Tomato juice will hydrate the body and replace electrolytes lost due to alcohol.
Many wonder why some people eats that keeps a percentage of body fat consists of a single digit. But at the same time they want to be taken by the hand and be told exactly what to eat, when they want to define or to lose weight.
Aim to eat a large variety of fruits and vegetables every week, so lists are not set in stone - diversify! The food in the lists are the most common and most recommended. I want to point out that although I do not think extremely low carbohydrate diets are necessary or useful in the long term, research and reality have shown that there are some great benefits of diets containing moderate to low carbs and high protein consumption. These advantages mean: reduced appetite, higher thermogenic effect of food and better calorie control.
Usually, drastically reducing carbohydrates is for before bodybuilding and fitness competitions, in other words, when they want a very strong and fast definition. In particular carbohydrates from sources with starch from grains and cereals are the first to go. Vegetables and fibrous vegetables should be kept in large quantities with quite big quantities of lean protein, small amounts of fruit and decent amounts of essential fatty acids.
The debate is not if many carbs – lots of carb, but about controlling total calories. The main problem is that restrictive diets, maintaining a calorie deficit are difficult for most people, and most fail to keep to such a diet and eventually fail.
I think our attention should not be directed toward such debates about which diet is better diet x vs. y, but rather the following questions:
• How can we form a nutritional program that we like to be healthy and to allow us to lose weight?
• How can we form a nutritional program to help maintain control calories?
• How can we form a nutritional program that can be followed for a long time?
Here's a good answer: Eat a variety of foods with a high density of healthy nutrients and less calories, that you like.
Here are lists of foods that you must include in your everyday diet. After a period, eating will become a pleasure and it will feel strange to eat something else. Remember that habits go in both directions: "Bad habits are easy to form and hard to live with, good habits are hard to form and easy to live with."
Foods are listed in order of consumption. I mean, if oatmeal is on the top of the list, you should be eating that every day.
Top starchy carbs and whole grain cereals:
• wholegrain oats flake
• oatmeal
• brown rice
• sweet potatoes
• muesli
• 100% wholegrain bread
• 100% wholegrain pasta
• beans
Top vegs:
• broccoli;
• asparagus
• spinach;
• tomatoes
• peppers
• onions;
• mushrooms;
• cucumbers
Top protein foods:
• egg whites, eggs
• whey protein powder
• chicken breast
• salmon
• turkey breast
• lean beef
• lean turkey
• trout
Top Fruits
• grapefruit;
• apples
• red currant
• melon;
• oranges
• bananas;
• peaches
• grapes;
• raspberry;
• pineapple;
NOTE: you must include in your diet healthy fats, found in nuts, peanuts, almonds, pistachio, extra virgin olive oil, avocado, etc..
Also a good choice is always skimmed milk and low fat cheese products.
Keeping to the diet is the most important thing; try not to step away from your path, many times. One or two times per week you can have a few slices of pizza or your favourite desert, but stay away from fast food.
When you want to lose weight it’s more important what you don’t eat than what you can eat! The common point of all successful diets is what is not in the recipes.
Why? Because it is impossible to maintain calorie deficit if you eat processed food. Until you will understand that, your success about keeping every possible diet will be short term.
You need extraordinary will power to stay below a certain number of calories when keeping a diet, if your food is bad quality. It’s not so hard when consuming natural, not processed foods.
If 90% of the food available is not specified, then what the hell did we eat?
- For essential nutrients and macronutrients focus on low animal protein, complex carbs, vegetables and fruits.
- Nutrients which give you energy: if you have an approach based on reduced carbohydrate, follow a healthy diet based on fat, eating fatty foods such as fatter meats, nuts, avocado, coconut, etc.. And for low-fat diets rich in carbohydrates, eat foods low in fructose, gluten free, natural starches such as sweet potatoes, potatoes, rice or yams.
- A low carbohydrate diet, 100% Paleo style is suitable for people sedentary obese, insulin resistant / with diabetes type II.
- A diet based on carbohydrates, Japanese style (fish and rice, chicken and sweet potatoes, etc..) is a good choice for active people, athletes focused on anaerobic effort.
Calories are still the most important issue to be watched.
- Even though some macronutrient ratios can bring some success, no such ratio can offset the large number of calories.
Here are the numbers:
• weight loss = 20 calories per kilogram scale (or per kilogram of muscle, if you're really overweight)
• Maintenance = 30 calories / kg
• Accumulation of mass = 40 calories / kg
• Protein = 2-3 g / kg
• Essential fatty acids (use a supplement if you do not eat enough fish) = 0.50 g / kg or 15-20% of total calories.
Remaining calories can be distributed between the addition of carbohydrates, or added fat, or both, depending on the circumstances.
Your Somatic type (lose weight easily or accumulate easily) determines your consumption of carbohydrates. And your daily effort the same. Fats are then adjusted to stay in calories allocated.
- If you are sedentary, you get Nazi regime: no carbs.
- If you have a low physical activity (weight training, low intensity), consumption will be more moderate carbohydrate: protein: carbohydrate ratios of 1:1.
- If you have a high activity level (high volume workouts hypertrophy / bodybuilding heavy workouts), carbohydrates must be something more: protein: carbohydrate ratios ranging from 1:1 to 1:3, depending on the somatic type.
- If the level of activity fluctuates, then carbs should fluctuate accordingly.
Still confused? Think of your body as a car. If you sit all day in the garage it does not need fuel. If you just drive short distances around the neighbourhood to honk at girls, you need less fuel. If you travel large distances on your daily commute to work, you need more fuel, and frequent refuelling. If you go only on the bike, you're probably a hipster and look like the guy from The Machinist movie!
In addition, many people need to stop reading about what to do, and start to implement what they already know. Of course, that is after you finish reading this article!
If you control the food consumed, calories and macronutrients, than meal frequency is not as important.
There is no real metabolic advantage, or a big change in body composition, if you eat more meals a day when you follow macronutrients proportion and you're in caloric deficit.
- Eating specific way bodybuilding (5-6 meals a day), 3 meals daily, or intermittent meals (1-3 meals a day) can all work, and are all viable weight loss formulas if the other variables are in place.
- The ideal meals frequency for you is the one which helps you to keep to your diet. More important than physiological factors, the psychological and social factors must be taken into account when designing such a long-term plan.
- If you're a high performance athlete, or have the metabolism of a racehorse, or you're in mass gaining, then maybe you need to have 5-6 meals a day.
- For most people, those who have jobs, school, family, children, etc., and is maintained in the normal caloric weak to 2-3 meals per day with an excess of nutrients in the days of training is a correct and efficient approach, and finally, the most logical.
Here’s a little story:
"The lungs were screaming, muscles were burning and I was seeing, literally, small white spots dancing in front of my eyes. I glanced at the clock. Impossible! Been 90 seconds? Time for another set. I grabbed the bar for set number four, I focused as much as I could, and I broke through another set. A minute later, "cardio training" was over. It lasted only 10 minutes, and still I was exhausted.
Exhausted, I looked to the cardio section. I saw 3 "beer belly’s" jumping in all directions on treadmills. I could hear the crackling knees because of the abuse! Behind them, two women were on the elliptical bands. They talked and giggled, probably had burned more calories coming from the car to the door of the room, than on the elliptical.”
The little story above illustrates the scene in many fitness centres. I mean, many who train mostly in vain, and the few who know what they're doing, and do it right! Comparing the two categories in the story above (ie those who do cardio classic at the train until his eyes out) we reach the following conclusions regarding the category who train properly. In 10 minutes, depending on the weights used you can:
• move several tons of weight
• increase the amount of training
• increase strength
• increase endurance
• increase metabolic rate and fat burning
• After taking advantage of post-exercise oxygen consumption
• increasing the capacity of exercise and general physical condition
And also:
• No risk of loss of muscle
• DO NOT RISK being bored on cardio machines
So what the hell does this guy above? Something there for a long time, and is known by many names. We will simply call them complex exercises.
A complex exercise means to take a barbell for example, do a few reps of an exercise, then move directly to the next exercise, and then the next and the next and maybe in another one or two exercises. Then see white spots, you define like hell and live happily ever after! Of course, there are better definitions of the complex: "A complex is a series of exercises performed with no rest, moving from one exercise to another when you have finished all the reps from the previous one. The barbell goes off your hands or touches the ground only after all reps and exercises were completed. "
It can be even more concise definition of both "complex is a circuit using a single piece of equipment, single weight, and a single space."
An example would be to do squats with the bar in front, and military press, then rows and then squats with the bar on the back, without a break and without the bar leaving your hand.
It is brutal! Even better, it is brutally effective in burning fat and improving physical performance. And the best part? You cannot do it while talking on the phone or making jokes with your gym buddy. It requires concentration, discipline and work.
If someone says it's easy, they certainly have not tried before.
When to use complex exercises?
• as a replacement for cardio during defining periods
• for building general physical condition
• workout days, if you feel like going to the gym, although not in your usual program
Complexes are almost torn from a telesales advertisement: "Just 10 minutes twice a week, you can stay in shape and you can build up the body of your dreams." But of course, it takes more than 20 minutes per week to be toned and complexes cannot be easily packed and stored under the bed and do not come two for the price of one. But added to your usual workout program, you can go to the next level.
A good tip is to print a list of a complex exercise, and you have it in front of you on the floor or wall while you train, then you will not accidentally skip an exercise, especially for long complexes.
You can also create your own complex and choose your favourite exercises that bind well together. But any exercise goes, so imagination is the only limit.
Try this workout in your next day off, or on the day of cardio, and you’ll feel it in every fibre of your body. Train strong and lose weight smart! I will show you how to structure your cardiovascular exercise to lose weight optimally. Use the following methods to optimize fat burning and more!
Cardio exercises, although much used by everyone seeking to lose weight, are some of the most poorly understood and mismanaged exercises. When talking about these exercises it is important to understand why we do cardio. There are two reasons:
1. burn more calories
2. better physical condition (to be able to run longer and longer distances)
It is important to understand that we cannot train more, to compensate for a poor diet. The first thing to do before starting a cardiovascular workout is to master and apply the principles of correct diet. Do not think that if you eat a big slice of cake the night before, you can compensate by 30 extra minutes on the treadmill! To do so it's like you get to race with a bear. It's possible you can overcome the bear at first, but eventually he will catch you! Same with the diet, you are able to train more and lose weight at first, but eventually poor eating will catch up. To get the best results after workout you need to eat smart.
The more you do cardio, the more it becomes less efficient. If you now run 20 minutes on the treadmill with 8 km / h, next week, if you run all 20 minutes you will burn fewer calories than in the previous session. This is because the body adapts. The body gets used to the type of effort and becomes more efficient in the run, and thus it burns less calories to do the same thing. Heart and lungs become more efficient, it means that cardio will become less efficient, in terms of calories burning. To burn the same number of calories you must always increase the time for cardio.
The solution is progressivity. To maintain effectiveness, you should always add a little. So easy to start and grow little by little. Start with 20 minutes twice a week and add as it becomes easier. You can increase the time for each session and increase the number of sessions per week. If you proceed directly to 30 minutes 5 times a week, it can be difficult to add more effort.
The best way to burn fat is HIIT type workouts (high intensity interval training). If you run on the treadmill and in the end you just feel a bit sweaty, you are not doing it right! Shirt should be wet and lungs burning! HIIT training not only helps burn calories but grow massive and post-exercise oxygen consumption. That means you have an increased consumption of calories for 24-48 hours after the workout.
HIIT training sample type
Levels are numbered from 1 to 10, 1 is the easiest (at normal walking) and 10 the hardest (so hard as you can work without fainting).
A cardio workout:
• Level 9 1 minute, 2 minutes level 6-7 = one round
• Start with 5 rounds of 3 times a week, add one round at each weekly session
Cardio Workout B:
• 20 level 6-7 seconds, 10 seconds, level 9 = one round
• Start with 8 rounds 3 times a week, add 2 rounds per weekly session
Keep in mind that you have to work hard to keep burning calories at a high level!
This is the smartest way to do cardio! So if your current cardiovascular program does not give the desired results, try applying what it says in this article!
Is it true that you don’t like to hear that? Especially when that someone comes with his 300 pounds sitting on the chair in the restaurant with a large plate full of roast with potatoes fried in oil. Between the mouths of beer and cigarette fumes says: "It’s useless! It doesn’t work and never worked. All those people who are in shape and look good, have a magic pill or secret that they do not share with us mortals… now if you do not mind, can you give me that cream? I am very hungry tonight! "
Now if you're the person of 300 pounds, let me share with you a secret. Diets really work! Do not nod a sign of disapproval. It really works! Proper diet has always worked and will always work. The problem is not in the diet but in the one who keeps the diet. He is the one who does not work and I will tell you why. Let's say an ordinary guy wants to get rid of a few pounds. Reads about different diets, about lowering carbohydrate intake protein on growth, when to do cardio, everything. He manages to reach his goal, no fat just muscles!
After struggling 3-4 months, he decided to cheat a little. "What the hell! There's no harm". Out with friends, drinking beer and eats a lot of pizza. Having a great time! The next day he wakes up late and misses training. He says it’s ok, I will catch it up. The next training he doesn’t focus so well, but he finds lots of other reasons why. The truth is that he’s not focusing because his only carbs comes from beer and pizza! And this becomes a habit, going out and abusing food happens more and more often, and training gets worse and worse, but always he finds something else to blame. Anything but the truth!
He looks at himself in the mirror and sees that his muscles are not so well defined, his abdomen is covered with fat. And he starts to tell his friends that he does not look as before. He doesn’t know exactly what happened, but knows that something is wrong.
See, that's why diets do not work. For 95% of those who reach their goals and desired weight, bad eating habits come back. If diet should be maintained, they would have stayed and looked exactly the same!
A diet is not a regime. Do not confuse them. Diet does not mean to starve. In Latin it means "life style" and in Greek means "to live your life." So hang on to it. Your deviations from the diet must be very rare. Almost not at all. The more often you have, the more you’ll get used to it thinking that it won’t harm you! Diets work! If you look in the mirror and do not know why something is not working, don’t look for the answer into the diet. Look for it in yourself.
Most diets these days focus mostly on quick weight loss. Overall it seems to work, the only problem is that most weight loss comes from muscle mass and water. For the long term it is a very bad approach. Muscle helps your metabolism to be high even during rest. So if you lose them, it automatically decreases the metabolism, which means that the risk to put your lost weight back is very high.
Below are the rules to be followed in a diet, to be successful in both the short and especially the long term.
Strategy 1: Eat around the clock!
To avoid gaining calories as fat, and to have optimal metabolism, we should eat 5-6 meals per day.
This is why it is good to have such a diet:
• It prevents muscle loss by a constant supply of protein;
• prevents the body from entering a state of "panic" because it did not receive nutrients for a period of time, leading to decreased metabolism and fat deposition, also this approach reduces appetite;
• helps an energetic lifestyle, maintaining a steady blood sugar level;
• burns fat through continued digestion, the body prefers to digest small portions of food, rather than a lot at once, eating every 3 hours the body has "fuel" to burn all the time;
Strategy 2: Eat clean
I know everyone has heard of this, but it is an important point. You need to eat protein without fats, complex carbs and fruits and vegetables. Simple carbs create a high insulin response, which leads to fat storage.
Strategy 3: Reduce carbohydrates in the evening
The majority of carbohydrates should come from whole grains, brown rice, sweet potatoes, etc. They are ideal power sources that maintain a constant sugar level. Also, they have more fibre, which helps digestion and an optimal absorption. However, at night you do not need energy, so take out carbs in the evening and you will not gain any fat. Evenings is recommended to eat only protein, possibly with very few carbohydrates.
Strategy 4: Eat protein
This is another topic that is not new to anyone. To eat enough protein you can drink supplements such as protein shakes. But keep in mind that these protein supplements cannot replace a well-planned and varied diet.
Strategy 5: Drink more water
Besides helping in fat burning, through water you replace liquids and minerals lost during exercise. If you use a supplement for weight loss, water consumption should be even higher, because you sweat more because of them.
Strategy 6: Turn the carbs!
This is one of the most important strategies in this article. Many people either do not know or do not use this method for other reasons, and therefore lag results occur. There are two reasons for using this strategy.
First, if you consume the same amount of food every day, the body adapts to the macronutrients that it is fed every day, and thinks that this is how it will always be. Thus it is less likely to use fat reserves for energy. If the amount of carbohydrates varies greatly from day to day, the body cannot adapt, and thus is forced to use fat for energy.
The second reason is that the days of carbo-loading rebuild energy reserves, decreased due to stricter diet. Consumption of large quantities of carbohydrates every 3-4 days will give you energy for your workouts and muscle tone.
Before making a decision regarding what weight loss plan you choose, do not neglect emotions. Many people are "emotional" eaters or eat when they are upset or depressed. Being aware of your unhealthy habits is the first step in giving them up and adopting a healthier lifestyle.
The first step that any overweight person has to do is to be sure that it’s safe to do physical exercises, so consult your doctor. If you're overweight, you're more prone to heart disease, so you should first find out if you are healthy enough to exercise, and at what intensity. Exercise and nutrition are the best weapons to lose weight. It is not easy or fast, but it is a lifestyle that helps getting rid of fat and being healthy forever.
Start easy, with short walks. Other ideas are no impact activities such as swimming or cycling. You start off slowly, but as long as the doctor says it is ok, you should start making the move. For those who can afford hiring a personal trainer is a great idea, especially for new training ideas and exercises and for the motivational factor.
Altogether, the best for your health is to adopt a healthy lifestyle, no fast food, no heavy meals, and plenty of exercise. Active lifestyle is the key to happiness and health. It is important to choose a method and strive to succeed. It is very important to know as much as you can. There are numerous methods and tricks to lose weight, but not all work for everyone. Experiment and see what suits you best. You deserve a long and beautiful life, it depends only on you to have one.
The best weight loss program will incorporate features and personal needs of those who will follow it. In most cases this approach will require consultation with a nutritionist and a fitness trainer. You can compile such a program by yourself, but that requires more time to experiment with theory and various approaches to find the most effective. Whether you choose to go to a nutritionist or you build yourself a weight loss program, there are certain things that should be considered: a very good knowledge of the mechanisms of body weight gain and weight loss, and food properties and their composition.
Finding the best program requires trying many possibilities until you find one that gives the best results. Such a program requires discipline, strict control of food intake and performing regular exercise. To introduce exercise into your life, it takes a slow pace. You start easily, with mild and brief exercises and gradually increase over time. In most weight loss programs consume small amounts of carbohydrates and higher protein and exercises are performed daily. Although it can be boring at first, this approach gives the best results. If you lose weight, you will feel better, you look better, and thus will increase your confidence.
It is important to learn which foods are healthy and have this in mind when you go shopping. Fruits, vegetables, lean meats and foods that have nutrients help digestion more efficient and easier, quench hunger and boost your metabolism. Fulfilling all targets imposed throughout the day will bring a sense of achievement and give you the energy and will to continue. Many aim to lose weight but few succeed, mainly due to lack of will and worries.
The secret is to implement a weight loss program into our lives. No need to adapt new diet, but the diet must be adapted to our program. It is the simplest and most effective solution.
For example, at work or school, you can make a packed lunch from home. You don’t necessarily have to buy food from restaurants, and fast food, as probably do most colleagues. The best way is to eat every 3 or 4 hours, I’m sure you can find 10 minutes to get a snack. When others take their cigarette break so you can take a break, but to eat.
With any diet and exercise program you will choose, the determining factor in all is strong will power and patience. You will not be a model overnight! Constant monitoring and small changes are required for an effective weight loss program. And do not forget to propose small goals, and credible ones. Do not aim to lose 20 lb in a month. You will definitely not succeed. Be realistic, conscientious and thrifty. The results will surely come.
Subject: How to get a 6 pack!! And other diet and excercise tips!! 
Thu May 09, 2013 1:13 am
