Resting For Fat Loss?

Do you have friends that seem to have a great figure ALL the time? You are around them all the time and know they only workout 3-4 days per week but have more muscle and less fat than everyone else. There are explanations and solutions for this so don't get discouraged that it will never happen to you, because we can change it one pound at a time.

First of all, there is a genetic thing that can play a role. That's right your genetic content plays a role and can determine your body style. What is a body style? Your body style refers to whether or not you are typically skinny (ectomorph), big (endomorph), or in shape (mesomorph). These three styles reflect your typical body shape and your ability to lose or gain muscle.
An ectomorph is a person who is skinny no matter what. It is very difficult for them to gain significant muscle mass and they are always thin and skinny. The endomorph is your typical "big boned" person. They are big and always have been. They are typically blocky looking and cannot lose weight. They have a lot of muscle underneath their fat, but cannot get rid of the fat to show the muscle. Finally the mesomorph is a person who is always in shape. This is the person that no matter what they do they can look in shape or get in shape quickly. This is the friend that seems to always look the most in shape when you go to the beach, etc... The friend that you love to hate, secretly. Once you know your body style, then you have a better idea where to focus most of your efforts for your weight loss goals. The ectomorph needs lots of calories and weight training to bulk up. The endomorph needs lots of high intensity training to burn fat. The high intensity training can be cardio, weights or a combination of both. The mesomorph can do a combination of anything as they will always get in shape quickly no matter what.

So what does that have to do with resting for fat burning? No matter what your exercise regimen or your body style, your body needs to repair itself. It does this in an autopilot way that can burn fat in the process. However, you have to nudge it a little for it to work at it's peak. How do you nudge it? First of all, do your exercise to breakdown muscle/train the muscle. Then, feed the muscles the right breakdown of proteins, carbohydrates and fats at the right time and your body will burn calories to digest the food and then burn calories repairing the muscles you trained. It does this all while you are resting. Pretty nice, huh.

So keep checking out the blog because all the information you need to achieve your healthy weight loss is right here! Don't forget to check out the Metabolic Cooking Page and the other posts on the blog to help with your efforts.

For what it's worth,
Dr. B

Is There A Great TIme For Cardio?

I get asked this all the time.  There are many theories and thoughts on this and I don’t believe that there really is a correct answer.  Therefore, I will go over some of the ideas and thoughts on this topic so you can choose the right cardio for you.

First of all most experts believe in early morning cardio and I tend to agree with this thought, if you are a morning person.  If you are not a morning person, then don’t beat yourself up over the fact that you just cannot get up early enough to get your cardio done.  I have really met a lot of people who worry about this and just cannot fit it into their schedule.  Are these people doomed to a life of obesity, of course not?  The theory on this is the fact that you are on a fast from your sleep and then when you do your cardio you are more apt to burn the fat on your body when you workout.  This fact is true and if you can fit it into your schedule then do it.  I think if you go on an early morning run/walk you just might enjoy seeing the day begin right before your eyes.  It can be a truly wonderful experience.  For this cardio, I recommend a long low intensity cardio, such as a long run or walk at a steady pace.

However, if you cannot do the early morning cardio, then you do have an alternative.  You can do your cardio after a weight workout.  You can achieve the same benefit because the weight workout will deplete your energy stores.  Therefore, when you do your cardio you will most likely burn the fat on your body for your energy.  However, you must be careful not to over exercise as your body will then breakdown muscle and you definitely do not want that to happen.  I recommend a high intensity short interval cardio for this scenario.  For example, if you are on the elliptical, then go on a higher level with a high level of intensity for about two minutes.  After the two minutes reduce your level for about 2 minutes and alternate back and forth until your energy stores are depleted.  Also, if you need to do a cardio and are not doing a weight workout, then I would recommend the high intensity workout as described above.   Research seems to favor this as the bigger fat burning cardio as compared to the long slow cardio described above.

There you go, two different ways of doing cardio so you can find the one that works the best for you.  Furthermore, I recommend you alternate between the two types of cardio throughout the week, as that will keep your body guessing and allow a more efficient way to burn fat.  More importantly just pick the cardio that fits your life and enjoy it.

For what it’s worth,

Dr. B

Cheat Meals Or Cheat Days To Lose Body Fat?

This may sound like a crazy idea, but it’s true.  There’s a lot of research behind cheat meals and how to lose pounds and body fat.  You can find articles everywhere on this subject.  So, let’s educate you on this topic.

What is a Cheat Day or Cheat Meal? 

A cheat day is a day where you don’t diet at all and you give in to your desires of food and beverage.  I have met a lot of people who swear to the cheat days as the best way to lose body fat.  However, I think that the cheat DAY may be a little too much.  I think that taking an entire day to eat whatever you want may jeopardize your total caloric intake for the week and thus lead to a standstill in weight loss, or worse yet, an increase in weight.  The theory behind the cheat day is to trick your body into thinking that it is not in starvation mode but in a feast mode and thereby tricking your body to increase metabolism to burn off fat.  This can and does work to an extent.  Your metabolism can definitely be tricked in this regard, however, you still may consume a huge amount of calories in that one day to jeopardize your entire weight loss efforts for the week.  However, it does provide an advantage to the dieter because it tricks you into feeling as if you are not dieting and you are able to eat what you want. 

This works, as I have done this before, but I have also hit a plateau quickly by doing this.  I felt great the day I ate whatever I wanted, however, it also made me feel pretty bad by the end of the day.  I felt bloated and I could not wait to get back on my diet as the excess food just made me ill as my body was used to eating healthy and working out.  Therefore, it was a positive because it made me feel excited to go back to eating right and exercising.  However, there were times I realized that my calorie intake for the week was in jeopardy due to the amount of calories I consumed in just that one day.  So, yes it can trick YOU and your feelings more than it tricks your metabolism.  You just have to be careful.

Contrary to a cheat day, I like to use cheat meals. 

These are anywhere between 2-3 meals per week that you feel comfortable eating anything you like, but at one time.  The result will be a quickly bloated person who is satisfied that they ate what they wanted and therefore did not feel as if they were stuck on a diet.  Cheat meals can be saved for nights out with friends or special occasions.  During that one meal you don’t consume enough calories to jeopardize your weeklong weight loss efforts and you still are tricking your metabolism because your body never knows what day you are going to consume the extra calories.  It is the same idea as above but a different way to go about increasing metabolism.

So there you have it, cheat meals and cheat days can trick your metabolism.  I prefer to have a few cheat meals throughout the week rather than a cheat day, but if you do it smart and don’t jeopardize your entire weeklong weight loss efforts they both will work for you.

For what it’s worth,

Dr. B

Burn Fat By Increasing Protein?

This is fundamentally true and I will explain how this happens!!

Now there are a lot of reasons why people burn fat, but one of the biggest ways to jump start your metabolism is to increase your protein intake.  If you do this and your metabolism is increased then you will burn more calories.  How can this be, you might ask?  Let me explain.  If you increase your protein intake, then you increase the ability of your body to build muscle.  This is due to the fact that protein is the building block of muscle.  So why do you want more muscle, you might ask?  Well the more muscle you have will in turn increase the ability of your body to burn fat.  Therefore when you exercise you have more muscles involved and they need more calories to do the exercise and if you stick to the calories you need in your diet then your body will turn to the fat for energy.  Consequently, you burn more fat.  Nice idea, huh.

You might think that any protein will do and for a beginning dieter this is true.  As the sudden change in lifestyle for a beginner will cause a drop in pounds quickly.  However, after you have been exercising for awhile you may develop a plateau effect and therefore stop burning fat.  At that point, you need to change your protein to very lean cuts of meat.  Yes, that means less steak and more chicken and fish.
Furthermore, you may be wondering how much protein you should eat?  There are many different ideas about this, but I stick to the 0.5gm to 1gm of protein per pound of body weight per day.  I know it seems like a lot, but trust me if you calculate this amount of protein and then fill the rest of your caloric need with vegetables and low glycemic carbs (that is the non-white carbs, see my earlier post) you will BURN BABY BURN!!
The next thing you need to do is calculate the amount of calories you need per day depending on your lifestyle and activity level and whether or not you are going to exercise.  I can try to duplicate the calorie counters, and someday I may try to on my blog, but the best one I have seen and used is through Livestrong.com, it is free so check it out.  No endorsement here either, by the way.

Finally, just stick to your game plan of diet and exercise.  Equip yourself with the knowledge you need to lose the weight you want as fast as you can.  Remember healthy weight loss is 1-2 lbs per week.  Let this blog help you in all the ways possible with exercise tips, workouts, diets, etc... Check out my review of metabolic cooking at http://www.healthyweightlossasap.com/p/metabolic-cooking.html for more ideas on what foods you can pair up to kick in your fat burning furnace for Healthy Weight Loss ASAP.

For what it's worth,
Dr. B

The first step to take for weight loss

I have seen and reviewed many different workout programs over the years.  I have participated in just about every one on the market.  I even made up a few of my own.  They all can lead to weight loss, but the best thing to jump start your weight loss is focusing in on your diet.  Now diet isn't the only thing, but it really is the biggest contributing factor for your weight loss.  So here is the best first step to take...

First, cut out sugar!!  Yes, I said sugar.  Sugar is a very simple chemical that when broken down is great for energy especially if you eat it right before you go workout.  Look at the energy boosting shakes.  SUGAR and CAFFEINE sprinkled with some herbal supplements.
Just cut out the sugar in your coffee, sugar in your desserts. sugar on your cereal, etc... Try splenda or stevia and they can be just as good.  Just get used to living without it unless you are having it right before a workout or exercise regimen.

Next, cut out white Carbohydrates.  If you don't know what they are then look at labels.  Yes, I said labels.  I cannot believe how many people never read the labels on the things they buy.  Check the carbohdrate portions in your meals.  But to get back to the point, cut out the white carbohydrates.  These are foods like potatoes (by the way I Love French Fries), but it is better to eat  a sweet potato then a white good old Russet.  Cut out White bread and eat whole wheat bread instead.  Basic point is if it is a white carbohydrate then cut it out of your diet.

Finally, I would say is look at your portions.  Your portion should not be any bigger than your fist.  Simple enough right.  Don't measure and weigh just remember your fist.  If it is a piece of chicken that is flat then use the rule of thumb to make it  the palm of your hand.  Keep an eye on the portions and for a bonus the portions are listed ON THE LABELS!!  So read the labels.

One last thing I forgot to mention is try to consume smaller portions throughout the day as it is better for your metabolism to eat a small portion of something every 3 hours then to sit down three times per day and eat a lot of food.  By eating more frequent you will be better able to stick to the portion control as you will not want to consume a huge meal.

For what it's worth,
Dr. B

Get Off Your Couch Workout

The other day I was sitting around and thinking about working out.  Just thinking.  After a short period of time being lazy (yes we are all allowed this) I realized that unless I get off the couch it's not going to happen.  Therefore, I got off the couch and hit the workout.  As I was planning my workout I realized that I seem to do the best workouts on the fly.  Let me explain.  For years I have always put together a workout regimen like; weights on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  Cardio on Tuesday and Thursday.  Golf on Saturday and Rest on Sunday.   However, after I began thinking about it, prior to my workout, I noticed that my best workouts have been the ones that I JUST DID.  Therefore, I call it the Get Off Your Couch Workout.

It's pretty simple, just get off your couch and do SOMETHING!  Go for a walk, Powerlift, Elliptical, Treadmill, etc....   The key to the workout is build up a sweat at a good healthy heart rate for fat burning and before you know it your done.   It will be more fun then sticking to a sheet of paper with exercises printed on them.  My workout the other day was a push-up, pull-up and dumbell workout with elliptical at the end and it was the BOMB! 

Here is an example:
Proper warmup (ALWAYS)

Three sets of each exercise listed below but with Chest->Back->Bicep->Tricep for the three sets for each body part and then 2 sets of full body workout with Power Clean then elliptical to burn some fat and cool down.

Push-ups with feet on a physioball  (arms at a normal width, then wide width, then close to one another)
Pull-ups (wide grip, then closed grip, then underhand grip)
Bicep Curls (alternating dumbell curl, then non-alternating dumbell curl, then crouching curls)
Tricep Extensions (one arm overhead, then both arms overhead, then lying extensions)
Finally for two sets I did dumbell overhead power cleans.
Then I did elliptical for 20 minutes.

Great workout and it only took me 45 minutes with adequate rest breaks.
Don't forget the protein shake after your workouts as that helps re-energize the muscles.

Till Later, Dr. B

1 Simple Modification To Lower Body Fat

1 Simple Modification To Lower Body Fat

by: Mike Westerdal

I'm going to cut right to the chase and get to the point. Eat more veggies than starchy foods for your carbohydrate source.

Here's why:

The end result of all carbohydrates broken down by the body is glucose, also called blood sugar. So whether it's a spoon of sugar, a piece of bread, or some broccoli, the body breaks each down to use as its main fuel source, blood sugar. The difference between some of these carbohydrates is the rate in which the body metabolizes them, or breaks them down, to use as blood sugar. There are simple carbohydrates like fruit, syrup, and sugar and there are complex carbohydrates like bread, pasta, potatoes, and oatmeal. The difference between simple and complex carbohydrates is the speed at which the body breaks them down to utilize as glucose.

Simple carbohydrates like table sugar and fruit are converted more rapidly for a quick energy boost. Complex carbohydrates take longer to break down and offer a more sustained supply of energy for the body.

Complex carbohydrates should be your main choice for energy for that precise reason, they offer more of a sustained energy supply. Simple carbohydrates create a quick boost of energy followed by a rapid decline, almost like a "crash."

Complex carbohydrates mainly come from either starchy foods like rice, pasta, and bread, or by vegetables like broccoli, peas, and green beans. The biggest reason to switch from a diet full of starchy carbohydrates like bread, pasta, and rice to a diet with more fibrous, leafy ones like vegetables is the calories involved.

I have a friend named Shawn LeBrun who is a personal trainer in Maine and when he was getting ready for his bodybuilding show in which he lost almost 50 pounds in 10 weeks, he replaced his starchy carbohydrates with more vegetables and fibrous carbohydrates.

I have never had to lose that much weight that fast but can vouch this works.

Fat-Loss Veggies

This one simple modification accounted for a significant drop in calories that was soon followed by a significant drop in body fat. Just like it's wise to moderate fats because they are very calorie dense, starchy carbohydrates like bread and pasta are more calorie dense than fibrous, leafy ones like vegetables.

What we want to do is eat a lot of food that makes us full but without over-doing it with the calories.

For effective, permanent fat loss, I feel it's important to choose foods that offer high volume but low calories. This way you do not feel deprived because you're still eating a lot of food but you're not getting a lot of calories in return. Vegetables offer this luxury. You can eat a lot in volume, but do not get a lot of calories in return, unless they are deep fried or drowned in butter (not recommended). This high volume, low calorie luxury doesn't exist with starchy carbohydrates. A small serving of starchy carbs like pasta, bread, and rice is still high in calories.

For example, a 1/4-cup of rice has approximately 150 calories. A 1/2-cup of oatmeal has about the same amount of calories. However, you can eat an entire box package of broccoli and have fewer calories than what you consumed with the 1/4 cup of rice. Or almost an entire bag of raw baby carrots.

I know what you're thinking, "I love my bread and I'm not getting rid of it". I absolutely agree, do not get rid of your breads, pasta, rice, and oatmeal. But moderate it and reduce the amount of each serving. Instead, supplement the smaller serving with more vegetables.

Your body absolutely needs carbohydrates. Carbs are the body's main source of glucose. Your brain cannot function without glucose, in fact, you'd die without blood sugar.

To start eliminating excess calories from the diet, start to moderate and limit the amount of starchy carbs like bread, pasta, rice, oatmeal, bagels, and instead eat more vegetables like broccoli, carrots, green beans, spinach. lettuce, peas, and so on.

Start your program today by clicking here!!

Thinking Right

I have met many people trying to lose weight and they are the same people that I see every few months that say the same thing to me.  “I can’t lose weight, because I am stuck in this body figure.”  Or, I hear that "I go to the gym for hours on end and I just don’t seem to lose the weight I need to lose".  Meanwhile, they are not watching their diet and when they go to the gym they are halfway doing any exercise they attempt.  Further, I would venture to say that they failed before they began, because they put the thought in their mind that “they” cannot accomplish a task.  Therefore, they give 50% effort and expect 100% results.  It bugs me to no end to hear their self-defeating behavior.

If you research about self-defeating behavior you will realize that you can sabotage yourself quickly and then everything you do from then on will just not give you the results that you are looking for.  Remember you have to believe deep in your soul that you can accomplish something in order for it to happen.  Professional athletes don’t go to the pitching mound and say that they will never strike someone out.  If they have that belief, then they will not be in the major leagues at all.  Do you really think that Tiger Woods in his best of golfing days ever had the belief that he could not win a tournament?  I don’t think so!

From here on out think before you act.  Think positive before you give something a half-hearted effort.  Develop the skill set in your mind that you can accomplish whatever task you want to achieve.  Is it your desire that limits you?  Is it your lack of self-discipline with your diet?  Is it that you really don’t want to accomplish your goals or are your goals really too lofty?  Take a good look at yourself and find out what is really in your heart and desires about getting healthy and in shape and achieve YOUR goals and not what somebody else says you should accomplish.

Check Out More Great Information At:   BurnTheFat 

Night Time Eating And Fat Loss

Night Time Eating And Fat Loss
By Tom Venuto
www.BurnTheFat.com

“Eat breakfast like a king, eat lunch like a prince and eat dinner like a pauper.” This maxim can be attributed to nutrition writer Adelle Davis, and since her passing in 1974, the advice to eat less at night to help with fat loss has lived on and continued to circulate in many different incarnations. This includes suggestions such as:
“Don't eat a lot before bedtime”
“Don’t eat midnight snacks”
“Don’t eat anything after 7pm”
“Don’t eat any carbs at night”
“Don’t eat any carbs after 3 pm”
and so on…
I too believe that eating lightly at night is usually very solid advice for people seeking increased fat loss, especially for people who are inactive at night. However, some fitness experts today, when they hear “eat less at night,” start screaming, "Diet Voodoo!”…
Opinions on this subject are definitely mixed. Many highly respected experts strongly recommend eating less at night to improve fat loss, while others suggest that it’s only "calories in vs calories out" over 24 hours that matters.
The critics say that it’s ridiculous to cut off food intake at a certain hour or to presume that “carbs turn to fat” at night as if there were some kind of nocturnal carbohydrate gremlins waiting to shuttle calories into fat cells when the moon is full. They suggest that if you eat less in the morning and eat more at night, it all “balances itself out at the end of the day.”
Of course, food does not turn to fat just because it’s eaten after a certain “cutoff hour” and carbs do not necessarily turn to fat at night either (although there are hypotheses about low evening insulin sensitivity having some significance). What we do know for certain is that the law of energy balance is with us at all hours of the day - and that bears some deeper consideration when you realize that we expend the least energy when we are sleeping and many people spend the entire evening watching TV.
I had the privilege of interviewing sports nutritionist and dietician Dan Benardot, PhD, and he gave us a very interesting perspective on this.
Dr. Benardot said that thinking in terms of 24 hour energy balance may be a seriously flawed and outdated concept. He says that the old model of energy balance looks at calories in versus calories out in 24 hour units. However, what really happens is that your body allocates energy minute by minute and hour by hour as your body’s needs dictate, not at some specified 24 hour end point.
I first heard this concept suggested by Dr. Fred Hatfield about 15 years ago. Hatfield explained how and why you should be thinking ahead to the next three hours and adjusting your energy intake accordingly.
Although it’s not really a new idea, Dr. Benardot has recently taken this concept to a much higher level of refinement and he calls the new paradigm, “Within Day Energy Balance.”
The Within Day Energy balance approach not only backs up the practice of eating small meals approximately every three hours, AND the practice of “nutrient timing” (which is why post workout nutrition is such a popular topic today, and rightly so)… it also suggests that we should adjust our energy intake according to our activity.
Let’s make the assumption most people come home from work, then plop on the couch in front of the TV all night. Let’s also assume that the majority of people go to bed late in the evening, usually around 10 pm, 11 pm or midnight. Therefore, nightime is the period during which the least energy is being expended.
If this is true, then it’s logical to suggest that one should not eat huge amounts of calories at night, especially right before bed because that would provide excess fuel at a time when it is not needed. The result is increased likelihood of fat storage.
From the within day energy balance perspective, the advice to eat less at night makes complete sense. Of course it also suggests that if you train at night, then you should eat more at night to support that activity beforehand and to support recovery afterwards.
Those stuck on a 24 hour model of energy expenditure would say timing of energy intake doesn't matter as long as the total calories for the day are in a deficit. But who ever decided that the body operates on a 24-hour “DAY”?
Try this test (or not!): Eat a 2500 calorie per day diet, with nothing for breakfast, nothing before or after your morning workout, 500 calories for lunch, 750 calories for dinner and 1250 calories before bedtime.
Now compare that to the SAME 2500 calorie diet with 6 small meals of approximately 420 calories per meal and then tweak those meal sizes a bit so that you eat a little more before and after your workout and a little less later at night.
Both are 2500 calories per day. According to “24 hour energy balance” thinking, both diets will produce the same results in performance, health and body composition. But will they?
Does your body really do a calculation at midnight and add up the day’s totals like a business man when he closes out the register at night? It’s a lot more logical that energy is stored in real time and energy is burned in real time, rather than accounted for at the end of each 24 hour period.
24 hour energy balance is just one way to academically sort calories so you can understand it and count it in convenient units of time. This has its uses, as in calculating a daily calorie intake level for menu planning purposes.
Ok, but enough about calories, what about the individual macronutrients? Some people don't simply suggest eating fewer calories at night, they suggest you take your calorie cut specifically from CARBS rather than from all macronutrients evenly across the board. Is there anything to it?
Well, there’s more than one theory. The most commonly quoted theory has to do with insulin.
The late bodybuilding guru Dan Duchaine was once asked by a competitor,
“I want to get cut up for an upcoming contest. Should I eat at night? I heard I shouldn’t eat carbs after six pm.”
Duchaine answered: “It’s true that insulin sensitivity is lowest at night. Let’s discuss what is happening in your body that makes it dislike carbs at night. Cortisol, a catabolic hormone, is highest at night. When cortisol is elevated, your muscle cell insulin sensitivity is lowered…”
More recently, David Barr wrote a tip on “lower carbs at night” for T-Muscle Magazine. He said:
“Even when bulking, you don’t want to start scarfing down Pop Tarts before you go to bed. Our muscle insulin sensitivity decreases as the day wears on, meaning that we’re more likely to generate a large insulin response from ingesting carbs. Stated differently, we’re more predisposed to adding fat mass by eating carbs at night because our body doesn’t handle the hormone insulin as well as it does earlier in the day.”
Mind you, Barr is a not a “voodoo” guy; he is a respected scientist who also happens to be well known as a “dogma destroyer” and “myth buster”… and Duchaine, although he had a shady past and some run-ins with the law, was nevertheless highly respected by nearly all in the bodybuilding world for his ahead-of-his-time nutrition wisdom.
As a result of advice like this, word got out in the bodybuilding and fitness community that you should eat fewer carbs at night. Real world results and the “test of time” have suggested that this is an effective strategy. I also don’t know a single nutrition or training expert who doesn’t agree that insulin management and improvement of insulin sensitivity aren’t effective approaches in the management of body fat.
However, it’s only fair to point out that not all scientists agree that cutting carbs at night will have any real world impact on fat loss, outside of any additional calorie deficit created by it. Dr. Benardot, for example, doesn’t think there’s much to it. He says that exercisers and athletes in particular, usually have excellent glycemic control, so the ratio of macronutrients should not be as much of an issue as the total energy balance in relation to energy needs at a particular time and the meal frequency (eating every 3 hours).
Regardless of which side of the “carbs at night” debate you lean towards, if you consider the within day energy balance principle, it makes perfect sense not to eat large, calorie-dense meals late at night before bedtime.
Keep in mind of course, that cutting back on your calories and/or carbs at night makes the most sense in the context of a fat loss program, especially if fat loss has been slow. It’s quite possible that I might give the exact opposite advice to the skinny “ectomorph” who is having a hard time gaining muscular body weight.
Also consider that this doesn’t necessarily mean eating nothing at night; it may simply mean eating smaller meals or emphasizing lean protein and green veggies (or a small protein shake) at night.
Many programs suggest a specific time when you should eat your last meal of the day. However, I’d suggest avoiding an absolute cut off time, such as “no food or no carbs after 6 pm, etc,” because people go to bed at different times, and maintenance of steady blood sugar and an optimal hormonal balance even at night are also important goals.
A more personalized suggestion is to cut off food intake 3 hours before bedtime, if practical and possible. For example, if you eat dinner at 6 pm, but don’t go to bed until 12 midnight, then a small 9 pm meal or a snack makes sense, but keep it light, preferably lean protein, and dont raid the refrigerator at 11:55!
An important rule to remember in all cases, is that whatever is working, keep doing more of it. If you eat your largest meal before bed and lose fat anyway, I would never tell you to change that. Results are what counts. On the other hand, if you’re stuck at a fat loss plateau, this is a technique I’d suggest you give a try.
Night time eating is likely to remain a subject of debate - especially the part about whether carbs should be targeted for removal in evening meals.
However, perhaps even those who are skeptical can consider, that if cutting out carbs at night is effective for fat loss, it may be for the simple reason that it forces you to eat less automatically.
In other words, setting a rule to eat fewer calories or to eat fewer carbs at night may be a very effective way to keep your daily calories in check and to match intake to activity, whereas people who are allowed to eat ad libitum at night when they’re home, glued to the couch and watching TV, etc., may tend to overeat when food is readily available, but the energy is not needed in large amounts.
Me personally? Unless I’m weight training at night, I have always reduced calories and carbs at night when “cutting” for bodybuilding competition. It’s worked so well for me that I devoted a whole section to it in my program, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle (BFFM) and I call the techniques “calorie tapering” and “carb tapering.” For more information on how I use these methods to help me reach single digit body fat, you can visit: www.BurnTheFat.com
Tom Venuto, author of
Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle

Founder & CEO of
Burn The Fat Inner Circle

About the Author:

Tom Venuto is the author of the #1 best seller, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle: Fat Burning Secrets of the World’s Best Bodybuilders and Fitness Models. Tom is a lifetime natural bodybuilder and fat loss expert who achieved an astonishing 3.7% body fat level without drugs or supplements. Discover how to increase your metabolism and burn stubborn body fat, find out which foods burn fat and which foods turn to fat, plus get a free fat loss report and mini course by visiting Tom's site at: www.BurnTheFat.com

Mass Confusion

The Mass Confusion That
Dominates In Fat Loss & Fitness Today

By Rob Poulos, Fat Loss & Fitness Expert & Creator of 'Fat Burning Furnace'

People are confused more than ever about how to burn fat.  They are confused about the best way to go about achieving the body they want.  They are confused about what works and what doesn’t, and the reasons why.  There are countless individuals slaving away in gyms and fitness centers around the country right now. 

They are working tirelessly, almost every day, on the treadmill, stair-climber, elliptical, etc. to burn those calories and fat.  They also might be lifting weights several times a week for hours at a time to build some strength and muscle.  They might even join a few aerobics or spinning classes too.

They are probably also trying one of the latest diet strategies that promises miracle fat burning and weight loss.  They could also be spending a lot of money on the latest and greatest dietary supplements that could be that miracle pill that will aid in weight loss.  They are also carefully watching the scale as their main judge of fat loss progress. 

If it goes up a pound or two, they may behave rashly and maybe even change up their entire workout or diet program! And of course there are others are doing variations on that same theme. 

After all, this is the kind of stuff that many of the popular fitness and diet gurus typically recommend to burn fat.  But with so many different strategies and plans being pushed as the be all and end all, what happens is we tend to overboard. 

And when that happens, we lose sight of what really matters in achieving lifelong fat burning, fitness and health…the principles than many people don’t know about, most people have forgotten, and only a select few put to use to achieve lifelong health and fitness.  These are the same principles I used to drop over 40 pounds of unwanted body fat, keep it off, and revitalize my life!

With any exercise or nutrition program, you’ll probably lose some fat initially, but far too often the progress doesn’t continue or doesn’t come as fast as the person would like because they're using a temporary mindset.  They're only focused on the short term and one specific goal.  So they end up switching to something else, and the cycle continues until they’ve become consumed by this cycle of confusion. 

I believe that this is one of the biggest, if not the #1 reason for the lack of fat loss and fitness progress that is being experienced by the masses of exercisers and dieters in the world.  They are jumping from one fad diet or exercise routine to another, while losing sight of what’s really important, and what really works. 

Simply put, they are exercising far too much, not nearly intensely enough, and trying to adhere to unrealistic diet recommendations.

If instead they focused on a long term plan, a lifestyle as it’s often called, and didn’t worry about “losing 10 pounds by summer”, they would find it far easier to do the right things most of the time. 

And those right things include brief, progressive, and intense resistance training, eating a diet full of nutrient rich foods, drinking tons of water, and getting plenty of quality sleep and rest.  The students of my Fat Burning Furnace method understand this and are reaping the life long health and fitness rewards because of it.  Are you? 

Claim your free copy of Rob Poulos's "7 Secrets Of Permanent Fat Loss & Fitness" at his website: http://www.fatburningfurnace.com

Super-Fast "Multi-Workouts" to do at Home or the Office

by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer
Author - The Truth About Six Pack Abs

Warning: this style of workout is WAY different than anything you've ever tried before and may result in a dramatically leaner, stronger body so that your friends no longer recognize you in a matter of weeks!
Alright, I exaggerated about your friends recognizing you, but this workout is still great for busy people that always use the excuse that they don't have time to go to the gym, or even for the normal gym rat to try out for a few weeks to break out of a plateau.
Please keep an open-mind and don't worry so much about what other people think, because this is quite different and you may get some funny looks, but you'll get the last laugh with your new rock hard body! To be honest, most people are too self conscious to try something like this. If that's the case for you, then that's your loss.
Here's how it works (these workouts can be done at home or even in your office):
Instead of doing your traditional workouts of going to the gym 3-4 times a week and doing your normal weight training and cardio routines for 45-60 minutes at a shot... with this program, you will be working out for just a couple minutes at a time, several times throughout each day, 5 days/week.
The program will consist of only bodyweight exercises done for about 2-3 minutes, 6-8 times per day, throughout each day. Now obviously if you work a normal office job, you are going to have to not be shy about doing a few exercises in your office and having your cube-mates watch you. Actually, I've found that some people that have tried this have actually gotten their co-workers to join them!
If you have a private office, then you don't have to worry about anybody watching you. If you work from home, or are a stay at home mom, there's no reason you can't fit these in throughout the day while at home. If you end up having a busy day with meetings and so forth, and can only fit a couple of these 2-minute workouts in, then so be it, but try to get as many done each day as you can.
If you're on a normal 9-5 office schedule, I recommend doing your 2-minute workouts every hour, on the hour, with the exception of lunch. For example, you could try 9 am, 10 am, 11 am, 1 pm, 2 pm, 3 pm, and 4 pm.
Some of the bodyweight exercises that are the best to focus on are:

• bodyweight squats (and variations)
• pushups (and variations)
• forward, reverse, or walking lunges
• up & down a staircase if one is available
• floor planks (holding the plank position from forearms and feet)
• floor abs exercises such as lying leg thrusts, ab bicycles, etc.
• one-legged bodyweight Romanian deadlifts

This list is not fully comprehensive, but I wanted to keep it relatively simple. If you know other good bodyweight exercises, you can add those to your routine also. If you want to keep it real simple and don't want to get down on the floor for anything, you can stick to squats, lunges, and pushups and still get great results.
The good thing about these workouts is that you do enough in 2-3 minutes to get your blood pumping, heart rate up a bit, a large portion of your body's muscles worked, and body temperature raised. However, it's usually not enough to break a sweat in only 2 or 3 minutes, so you don't have to worry about sweating in the office or where ever you may be. At most, you might just get a little moist on the skin.
Here's an example workout routine at home or the office (adjust the reps up or down based on your capabilities):
Mon/Wed/Fri9 am - 10 pushups/15 bodyweight squats, repeat 1X for 2 sets
10 am - plank holds (hold the planks as long as you can taking short rest breaks for a total of 3 minutes)
11 am - 5 pushups/10 bodyweight squats, repeat for 4 sets
1 pm - plank holds (hold as long as possible in 3 minutes)
2 pm - 8 pushups/12 bodyweight squats, repeat for 3 sets
3 pm - plank holds (hold as long as possible in 3 minutes)
4 pm - max pushups/max bodyweight squats in one set (no repeat)
Tues/Thurs
9 am - 6 fwd lunges each leg/6 rev lunges, repeat 1X for 2 sets
10 am - one legged bw Romanian deadlifts (RDL) 6 each leg/floor abs for 20 sec, repeat 1X for 2 sets
11 am - 3 fwd lunges each leg/3 rev lunges, repeat for 4 sets
1 pm - one legged bw RDL 3 each leg/floor abs for 20 sec, repeat for 4 sets
2 pm - 5 fwd lunges each leg/5 rev lunges, repeat for 3 sets
3 pm - one legged bw RDL 10 each leg/floor abs for 30 sec (no repeat)
4 pm - max fwd lunges each leg/max rev lunges in one set (no repeat)
In order to progress on these workouts, you could either add 1 or 2 reps to each set per week, or you could progress to more difficult versions of each exercise each week (for example, close grip pushups, one leg raised pushups, squats with arms raised straight over head, etc.).
The above routines are just a couple examples of how you can use this very unique style of training. Use your creativity and come up with your own. Think about what you've accomplished with these "mini" workouts completed throughout each day... You've increased your heart rate and pumped up your muscles 6-8 different times throughout each day, burning a lot of extra calories and stimulating your metabolism.
Even though each "mini" workout was a very short duration, you've accumulated lots of repetitions for almost every muscle throughout your entire body, and you didn't even have to break a sweat during any of the "mini" workouts. And there's hardly any excuse for not being able to take a 2-minute break once per hour and do a couple of exercises.
Another benefit of this style of training is that now you don't have to devote any time before or after work to going to the gym because you already got your workouts little by little throughout the day. You've now got some extra free time on your hands!
Try this type of time-efficient workout routine out for 3-4 weeks and then go back to your normal gym routines. I think you'll find that it was a great way to break out of a plateau and stimulate new results in your body. You can try mixing in a cycle of these "mini" workouts every couple of months to keep things fresh.

Keep in mind that this is only one method of training and doesn't mean that you should only stick to this method for eternity. You will hit a plateau on any given training method, so I'd recommend just rotating it into your arsenal of various training methods. And by all means, don't worry so much about what other people think...have the courage to try something a little different. In the end, you'll be the one laughing back at all of the "blubber-bellies" at your office that are giving you funny looks while they eat their donuts!
Feel free to email this link on to any friends or coworkers that you think would like to try these types of unique quick daily workouts.  Heck, try to get your co-workers to do these with you if you can!

Click below to get some of the best workout information to help you.