So you sweat and strain with your chosen weight loss program, perhaps ecstatically so at the start. Sure your body gets all aching with all your joints and knuckles cracking in epic proportions like ungreased door hinges of horror movies.

Looking at yourself in the mirror, you cringe at the sight of this blob staring back miserably at you still with the extra flabs flapping around somewhere there. You sigh in exasperation. Whatever happened to the weight loss program that promised to sculpt your body to whistle-bait shape? You scream in desperation. You know you have just been weigh-layed, err again, way-laid by some pseudo weight loss masters.

Truth is, we tend to pattern our weight loss mindset after the mentality of that of some backyard gym instructors. We torture ourselves with the age-old dictum “No pain, no gain.” Let’s face it, while it did miracles for Rocky, it sure did get him crippled (or, killed) in the final picture.

We are no Rocky. We are ordinary human beings with not-so-ordinary day-to-day affairs. Some are multi-tasked like the housewife who has to master doing diapers in one hand, pitching copies in the other, while applying tantric massage on her hubby with her feet. All throughout she is troubled between going for weight loss surgery and taking weight loss pills.

“No pain, no gain” is foolishly macho and downright false. Of course, there’s bound to be some discomfort when you’re just getting started with your own weight loss program, and later when you start to reach out for new weight loss goals.

But there’s an important difference between discomfort and pain. Learn it. Listen to your body say, “Moderation in all things.” Pain means injury. Pain makes you quit the weight loss program.

If you don’t like your chosen program of weight loss exercises, you won’t stick with it. It will become a chore, you’ll slack off and finally give up the entire weight loss program. Tailor your weight loss exercise to yourself, not to what others do or to some false image generated from within or without. Of course when you’re just getting started, weight loss may seem like a chore. But appearances are not always reality. Realize that your body and mind would always prefer being a couch potato, and will rebel at the thought of exertion in the weight loss program, so you’ve got to give any form of exercise a chance to grow on you before you start analyzing whether it’s for you or not! The key is to turn weight loss exercise into play, then you’ll succeed and persist. Lack of joy makes you quit.

So spice up your own program of weight loss exercises by customizing it according to your our own weight loss needs. Variety is still the spice of weight loss. You should’nt be satisfied just with pounding the pavement or sweating in a gym. Variety makes you learn how much you’re capable of. Play around, pick and choose, experiment with your own customized personal weight loss program.

Whatever weight loss exercises you choose from the following, try to get your heart rate up to about 70 percent of your safe maximum. You can do that by using this formula: 220 minus your age equals your Maximum Safe Heart Rate. Keep it at this rate for a solid half-hour. Don’t go over the 85 percent rate for more than a couple of minutes at a time. Of course, heart rate doesn’t figure into strength builders such as weigh lifting.

Note : The calories-burned figures that follow are for a 110-pounder. A 154-pounder should add on another 28 percent to that number, while a 198-pounder should add 55 percent.

Walking : Calories burned at 2 mph is 145 per hour; 3 mph is 235 per hour; at 5 mph is 435 per hour.

Jogging : Calories burned at 5mph is 530 per hour which is roughly about a 12-minute mile.

Jumping Rope : Calories burned is 600 calories per hour.

Swimming : At 30 yards per minute (about one lap of an Olympic-size pool), calories burned is 330 per hour.

Water-walking : Calories burned is 360 per hour in a fast game.

Bicycling : Calories burned at 10 mph is 390 per hour.

Aerobic Dancing : For low impact, calories burned is 240 per hour and for moderate impact, 350 per hour.

Square Dancing : Calories burned is 350 and up – way up! – per hour.

Table Tennis : Calories burned is 450 hour.

Rowing : Calories burned is 600 per hour.

Cross-country skiing : Calories burned at 10 mph is 600 per hour.

Weight Lifting : Calories burned is 250 per hour.

Martial Arts : Calories burned is 620 per hour.

You really won’t know what you like unless you try it. And if you haven’t tried it don’t knock it. Try mixing gardening with walking, housework with rowing, bicycling with weight lifting, dancing with martial arts, table-tennis with cross-country skiing, outdoors with indoors, team sports with solitary sports. Without variety, humans get bored and stale. They stop reaching. Boredom makes human beings quit.

For more information visit my website, “Weight Loss Secrets Revealed” and “The Ultimate Weight Loss Collection”, where you can find detailed documentation on healthy lifestyle. Sign up for my newsletter and you will receive a lot of tips and gifts related on how to lose weight naturally.

Note for the blog commenters: If you have any idea related to this topic, I would be happy to hear it in the comments section, if you want to spend two extra minutes. Of course, I am aware that this is also an opportunity for you to get a back link to your website. But, please, do not abuse. Put a link to your website or blog only if it is related to the topic, (otherwise will be not counted by Google), and don’t put more than one link, or it will be deleted automatically. Anyway, all the comments will be reviewed by admin before publishing, and, although I will accept all the criticisms to myself or to my posts, I will not allow a language other than the G-rated one, so use your opportunity wisely. Thank you for being my readers!

Choosing weight loss products

Choosing a weight loss product to use can be very tricky. It’s not even just because of the sheer amount of products available to you but more so the amount of information that each one is feeding you. So be careful before you buy a weight loss product. It is not enough that you compare products based on what’s popular although that would give you an idea on which one works. To guide you, start out by looking up the list of ingredients of a weight loss product. Then look up a list of ingredients that according to the Food and Drug Administration are harmful for consumption. Just by the list of ingredients alone you will find out if you should be taking a particular weight loss product or not.

Prescriptions: yes, no, maybe

Prescription drugs are generally of higher potencies compared to over-the-counter products. Weight loss products that come with prescriptions are normally given to very obese patients or if a person has a particular weight loss need that cannot be addressed with simple over-the-counter weight loss products. Because of their highly specific content, prescription weight loss products are approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Degree of effectiveness depend from one person to another but most who take prescription weight loss products lose about 5% to 10% from their weight. While usually given to very obese patients, prescription weight loss products may be given to people who have healthy body mass indexes considering that they have consulted with their doctors and have been cleared to take them.

Go over-the-counter

A lot of weight loss products are available to you over the counter. (Over-the-counter weight loss products mean that you don’t need a prescription to take them.) However, a weight loss product consumer report will tell you that buying weight loss products over-the-counter actually poses more threats than buying with a prescription because use is not regulated. Any person can buy as much as they want, in as many brands as they want without regard to what would work best for them. Essentially a trial-and-error process, the threat also lies in using too many weight loss products at the same time. While all claiming to promote weight loss, weight loss products aren’t generally intended to be used in conjunction with another weight loss product. Well, because each one is claiming to handle singlehandedly all your weight loss needs, they aren’t formulated to be “friendly” to other weight loss products. Using too many weight loss products at the same time can actually make you sicker instead of better. By piling on different substances into your body, you may be overloading your body systems in the process. This makes your body slow down and weaker in defending you against threats in the environment.

Unproven claims

Be careful of weight loss products labeled as “herbal” or “natural” as these can be misleading. Just because they are labeled as such, that does not guarantee that they are indeed safe for consumption. Not everything herbal or natural is safe for you. Some might even be potentially dangerous especially to those who are suffering from any health condition or are already taking prescription medication.

Protect yourself

As any weight loss product consumer report would, you have to learn how to protect yourself. When buying any weight loss product, check to see if a weight loss consumer product report has been done on it. This will tell you how it worked for other people, what does it do, and what does it contain–some of the very basic things you have to know about any weight loss product. Unless approved by the Food and Drug Administration, be cautious about products that contain the words: breakthrough, easy, magical, new discovery, guaranteed, effortless, exotic, secret, miraculous, and mysterious. If you’ve taken the time to find out what works, take the time to tell other people what works. Create your own weight loss product consumer report and help ensure that other people are informed and protected as well.

Phillip England is a weight loss expert and Author of the popular report “The Ultimate Weight Loss Secret”. To receive your free information on the secret that doctors, and health companies either don’t know, or don’t want you to know, please see [http://www.theultimateweightlosssecret.com/secret]

For more information visit my website, “Weight Loss Secrets Revealed” and “The Ultimate Weight Loss Collection”, where you can find detailed documentation on healthy lifestyle. Sign up for my newsletter and you will receive a lot of tips and gifts related on how to lose weight naturally.

Note for the blog commenters: If you have any idea related to this topic, I would be happy to hear it in the comments section, if you want to spend two extra minutes. Of course, I am aware that this is also an opportunity for you to get a back link to your website. But, please, do not abuse. Put a link to your website or blog only if it is related to the topic, (otherwise will be not counted by Google), and don’t put more than one link, or it will be deleted automatically. Anyway, all the comments will be reviewed by admin before publishing, and, although I will accept all the criticisms to myself or to my posts, I will not allow a language other than the G-rated one, so use your opportunity wisely. Thank you for being my readers!

For most people reading this article, finding an effective diet that works most of the time must seem as complicated as nuclear physics. It’s not, but there are a bewildering number of choices for diets out there. High fat or no fat? High carbohydrate or no carbohydrate? Low protein or high protein? To make matters worse, there are a million variations and combinations to the above diet scenarios to add to the confusion. It seems endless and causes many people to throw up their hands in frustration and give up. In this article I will attempt to change all that.

There are some general guidelines, rules of thumb, and ways of viewing a diet program that will allow you to decide, once and for all, if it’s the right diet for you. You may not always like what I have to say, and you should be under no illusions this is another quick fix, “lose 100 lbs. in 20 days,” guide of some sort. However, if you are sick and tired of being confused, tired of taking the weight off only to put it back on, and tired of wondering how to take the first steps to deciding the right diet for you that will result in permanent weight loss, then this is the article that could change your life…

Does your diet pass “The Test”?
What is the number one reason diets fail long term; above all else? The number one reason is…drum roll…a lack of long term compliance. The numbers don’t lie; the vast majority of people who lose weight will regain it – and often exceed what they lost. You knew that already didn’t you?

Yet, what are you doing to avoid it? Here’s another reality check: virtually any diet you pick which follows the basic concept of “burning” more calories then you consume – the well accepted “calories in calories out” mantra – will cause you to lose weight. To some degree, they all work: Atkins-style, no carb diets, low fat high carb diets, all manner of fad diets – it simply does not matter in the short term.

If your goal is to lose some weight quickly, then pick one and follow it. I guarantee you will lose some weight. Studies generally find any of the commercial weight loss diets will get approximately the same amount of weight off after 6 months to a year. For example, a recent study found the Atkins’ Diet, Slim-Fast plan, Weight Watchers Pure Points program, and Rosemary Conley’s Eat Yourself Slim diet, were all equally effective. (1)

Other studies comparing other popular diets have come to essentially the same conclusions. For example, a study that compared the Atkins diet, the Ornish diet, Weight Watchers, and The Zone Diet, found them to be essentially the same in their ability to take weight off after one year. (2)

Recall what I said about the number one reason diets fail, which is a lack of compliance. The lead researcher of this recent study stated:

“Our trial found that adherence level rather than diet type was the primary predictor of weight loss”(3)

Translated, it’s not which diet they chose per se, but their ability to actually stick to a diet that predicted their weight loss success. I can just see the hands going up now, “but Will, some diets must be better than others, right?” Are some diets better then others? Absolutely. Some diets are healthier then others, some diets are better at preserving lean body mass, some diets are better at suppressing appetite – there are many differences between diets. However, while most of the popular diets will work for taking weight off, what is abundantly clear is that adhering to the diet is the most important aspect for keeping the weight off long term.

What is a diet?
A diet is a short term strategy to lose weight. Long term weight loss is the result of an alteration in lifestyle. We are concerned with life long weight management, not quick fix weight loss here. I don’t like the term diet, as it represents a short term attempt to lose weight vs. a change in lifestyle. Want to lose a bunch of weight quickly? Heck, I will give you the information on how to do that here and now for no charge.

For the next 90 to 120 days eat 12 scrambled egg whites, one whole grapefruit, and a gallon of water twice a a day. You will lose plenty of weight. Will it be healthy? Nope. Will the weight stay off once you are done with this diet and are then forced to go back to your “normal” way of eating? Not a chance. Will the weight you lose come from fat or will it be muscle, water, bone, and (hopefully!) some fat? The point being, there are many diets out there that are perfectly capable of getting weight off you, but when considering any eating plan designed to lose weight, you must ask yourself:

“Is this a way of eating I can follow long term?”
Which brings me to my test: I call it the “Can I eat that way for the rest of my life?” Test. I know, it does not exactly roll off your tongue, but it gets the point across.

The lesson here is: any nutritional plan you pick to lose weight must be part of a lifestyle change you will be able to follow – in one form or another – forever. That is, if it’s not a way of eating you can comply with indefinitely, even after you get to your target weight, then it’s worthless.

Thus, many fad diets you see out there are immediately eliminated, and you don’t have to worry about them. The question is not whether the diet is effective in the short term, but if the diet can be followed indefinitely as a lifelong way of eating. Going from “their” way of eating back to “your” way of eating after you reach your target weight is a recipe for disaster and the cause of the well established yo-yo dieting syndrome. Bottom line: there are no short cuts, there is no free lunch, and only a commitment to a lifestyle change is going to keep the fat off long term. I realize that’s not what most people want to hear, but it’s the truth, like it or not.

The statistics don’t lie: getting the weight off is not the hardest part, keeping the weight off is! If you take a close look at the many well known fad/commercial diets out there, and you are honest with yourself, and apply my test above, you will find most of them no longer appeal to you as they once did. It also brings me to an example that adds additional clarity: If you have diet A that will cause the most weight loss in the shortest amount of time but is unbalanced and essentially impossible to follow long term vs. diet B, which will take the weight off at a slower pace, but is easier to follow, balanced, healthy, and something you can comply with year after year, which is superior? If diet A gets 30 lbs off you in 30 days, but by next year you have gained back all 30 lbs, but diet B gets 20 lbs off you in the next 3 months with another 20 lbs 3 months after that and the weight stays off by the end of that year, which is the better diet?

If you don’t know the answer to those questions, you have totally missed the point of this article and the lesson it’s trying to teach you, and are set up for failure. Go back and read this section again…By default, diet B is superior.

Teach a man to Fish…
A well known Chinese Proverb is – Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

This expression fits perfectly with the next essential step in how to decide what eating plan you should follow to lose weight permanently. Will the diet plan you are considering teach you how to eat long term, or does it spoon-feed you information? Will the diet rely on special bars, shakes, supplements or pre-made foods they supply?

Let’s do another diet A vs. diet B comparison. Diet A is going to supply you with their foods, as well as their special drink or bars to eat, and tell you exactly when to eat them. You will lose – say – 30 lbs in two months. Diet B is going to attempt to help you learn which foods you should eat, how many calories you need to eat, why you need to eat them, and generally attempt to help teach you how to eat as part of a total lifestyle change that will allow you to make informed decisions about your nutrition. Diet B causes a slow steady weight loss of 8 -10 lbs per month for the next 6 months and the weight stays off because you now know how to eat properly.

Recall the Chinese proverb. Both diets will assist you to lose weight. Only one diet, however, will teach you how to be self-reliant after your experience is over. Diet A is easier, to be sure, and causes faster weight loss than diet B, and diet B takes longer and requires some thinking and learning on your part. However, when diet A is over, you are right back where you started and have been given no skills to fish. Diet companies don’t make their profits by teaching you to fish, they make their money by handing you a fish so you must rely on them indefinitely or come back to them after you gain all the weight back.

Thus, diet B is superior for allowing you to succeed where other diets failed, with knowledge gained that you can apply long term. Diet programs that attempt to spoon feed you a diet without any attempt to teach you how to eat without their help and/or rely on their shakes, bars, cookies, or pre-made foods, is another diet you can eliminate from your list of choices.

Diet plans that offer weight loss by drinking their product for several meals followed by a “sensible dinner;” diets that allow you to eat their special cookies for most meals along with their pre-planned menu; or diets that attempt to have you eating their bars, drink, or pre-made meals, are of the diet A variety covered above. They’re easy to follow but destined for failure, long term. They all fail the “Can I eat that way for the rest of my life?” test, unless you really think you can eat cookies and shakes for the rest of your life…Bottom line here is, if the nutritional approach you use to lose weight, be it from a book, a class, a clinic, or an e-book, does not teach you how to eat, it’s a loser for long term weight loss and it should be avoided.

The missing link for long term weight loss
We now make our way to another test to help you choose a nutrition program for long term weight loss, and it does not actually involve nutrition. The missing link for long term weight loss is exercise. Exercise is the essential component of long term weight loss. Many diet programs do not contain an exercise component, which means they are losers for long term weight loss from the very start. Any program that has its focus on weight loss but does not include a comprehensive exercise plan is like buying a car without tires, or a plane without wings. People who have successfully kept the weight off overwhelmingly have incorporated exercise into their lives, and the studies that look at people who have successfully lost weight and kept it off invariably find these people were consistent with their diet and exercise plans. (4)

I am not going to list all the benefits of regular exercise here, but regular exercise has positive effects on your metabolism, allows you to eat more calories yet still be in a calorie deficit, and can help preserve lean body mass (LBM) which is essential to your health and metabolism. The many health benefits of regular exercise are well known, so I won’t bother adding them here. The bottom line here is, (a) if you have any intentions of getting the most from your goal of losing weight and (b) plan to keep it off long term, regular exercise must be an integral part of the weight loss strategy. So, you can eliminate any program, be it book, e-book, clinic, etc. that does not offer you direction and help with this essential part of long term weight loss.

Side Bar: A quick note on exercise:
Any exercise is better than no exercise. However, like diet plans, not all exercise is created equal, and many people often choose the wrong form of exercise to maximize their efforts to lose weight. For example, they will do aerobics exclusively and ignore resistance training. Resistance training is an essential component of fat loss, as it builds muscle essential to your metabolism, increases 24 hour energy expenditure, and has health benefits beyond aerobics.

The reader will also note I said fat loss above not weight loss. Though I use the term ‘weight loss’ throughout this article, I do so only because it is a familiar term most people understand. However, the true focus and goal of a properly set up nutrition and exercise plan should be on fat loss, not weight loss. A focus on losing weight, which may include a loss essential muscle, water, and even bone, as well as fat, is the wrong approach. Losing the fat and keeping the all important lean body mass (LBM), is the goal, and the method for achieving that can be found in my ebook(s) on the topic, and is beyond the scope of this article. Bottom line: the type of exercise, intensity of that exercise, length of time doing that exercise, etc., are essential variables here when attempting to lose FAT while retaining (LBM).

Psychology 101 of long term weight loss
Many diet programs out there don’t address the psychological aspect of why people fail to be successful with long term weight loss. However, quite a few studies exist that have looked at just that. In many respects, the psychological aspect is the most important for long term weight loss, and probably the most underappreciated component.

Studies that compare the psychological characteristics of people who have successfully kept the weight off to people who have regained the weight, see clear differences between these two groups. For example, one study that looked at 28 obese women who had lost weight but regained the weight that they had lost, compared to 28 formerly obese women who had lost weight and maintained their weight for at least one year and 20 women with a stable weight in the healthy range, found the women who regained the weight:

o Had a tendency to evaluate self-worth in terms of weight and shape
o Had a lack of vigilance with regard to weight control
o had a dichotomous (black-and-white) thinking style
o Had the tendency to use eating to regulate mood.

The researchers concluded:

“The results suggest that psychological factors may provide some explanation as to why many people with obesity regain weight following successful weight loss.”

This particular study was done on women, so it reflects some of the specific psychological issues women have – but make no mistake here – men also have their own psychological issues that can sabotage their long term weight loss efforts. (6)

Additional studies on men and women find psychological characteristics such as “having unrealistic weight goals, poor coping or problem-solving skills and low self-efficacy” often predict failure with long term weight loss. (7) On the other hand, psychological traits common to people who experienced successful long term weight loss include “…an internal motivation to lose weight, social support, better coping strategies and ability to handle life stress, self-efficacy, autonomy, assuming responsibility in life, and overall more psychological strength and stability.” (8)

The main point of this section is to illustrate that psychology plays a major role in determining if people are successful with long term weight loss. If it’s not addressed as part of the overall plan, it can be the factor that makes or breaks your success. This, however, is not an area most nutrition programs can adequately tackle and should not be expected to. However, the better programs do generally attempt to help with motivation, goal setting, and support. If you see yourself in the above lists from the groups that failed to maintain their weight long term, then know you will need to address those issues via counseling, support groups, etc. Don’t expect any weight loss program to cover this topic adequately but do look for programs that attempt to offer support, goal setting, and resources that will keep you on track.

“There’s a sucker born every minute”
So why don’t you see this type of honest information about the realities of long term weight loss more often? Let’s be honest here, telling the truth is not the best way to sell bars, shakes, books, supplements, and programs. Hell, if by some miracle everyone who read this article actually followed it, and sent it on to millions of other people who actually followed it, makers of said products could be in financial trouble quickly. However, they also know – as the man said – “there’s a sucker born every minute,” so I doubt they will be kept up at night worrying about the effects that I, or this article, will have on their business.

So let’s recap what has been learned here: the big picture realities of permanent weight loss and how you can look at a weight loss program and decide for yourself if it’s for you based on what has been covered above:

o Permanent weight loss is not about finding a quick fix diet, but making a commitment to life style changes that include nutrition and exercise

o Any weight loss program you choose must pass the “Can I eat that way for the rest of my life?” test,

o The weight loss program you choose should ultimately teach you how to eat and be self reliant so you can make informed long term choices about your nutrition.

o The weight loss program you choose should not leave you reliant on commercial bars, shakes, supplements, or pre-made foods, for your long term success.

o The weight loss program you choose must have an effective exercise component.

o The weight loss program you choose should attempt to help with motivation, goal setting, and support, but can’t be a replacement for psychological counseling if needed.

Conclusion
I want to take this final section to add some additional points and clarity. For starters, the above advice is not for everyone. It’s not intended for those who really have their nutrition dialed in, such as competitive bodybuilders and other athletes who benefit from fairly dramatic changes in their nutrition, such as ‘off season’ and ‘pre-contest’ and so on.

The article is also not intended for those with medical issues who may be on a specific diet to treat or manage a specific medical condition. The article is intended for the average person who wants to get off the Yo-Yo diet merry-go-round once and for all. As that’s probably 99% of the population, it will cover millions of people.

People should also not be scared off by my “you have to eat this way forever” advice. This does not mean you will be dieting for the rest of your life and have nothing but starvation to look forward to. What it does mean, however, is you will have to learn to eat properly even after you reach your target weight and that way of eating should not be a huge departure from how you ate to lose the weight in the first place. Once you get to your target weight – and or your target bodyfat levels – you will go onto a maintenance phase which generally has more calories and choices of food, even the occasional treat, like a slice of pizza or whatever.

Maintenance diets are a logical extension of the diet you used to lose the weight, but they are not based on the diet you followed that put the weight on in the first place!

Regardless of which program you choose, use the above ‘big picture’ approach which will keep you on track for long term weight loss. See you in the gym!

References

(1) Truby H, et al. Randomised controlled trial of four commercial weight loss programmes in the UK: initial findings from the BBC “diet trials” BMJ 2006;332:1309-1314 (3 June),

(2) Michael D., et al, Comparison of the Atkins, Ornish, Weight Watchers, and Zone Diets for Weight Loss and Heart Disease Risk Reduction. A Randomized Trial. JAMA. 2005;293:43-53.

(3) Comparison of Diets for Weight Loss and Heart Disease Risk Reduction-Reply. Michael Dansinger. JAMA. 2005;293:1590-1591.

(4) Kruger J. et al. Dietary and physical activity behaviors among adults successful at weight loss maintenance. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity 2006, 3:17 doi:10.1186/1479-5868-3-17

(5) Byrne S, et al. Weight maintenance and relapse in obesity: a qualitative study. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2003 Aug;27(8):955-62.

(6) Borg P, et al. Food selection and eating behaviour during weight maintenance intervention and 2-y follow-up in obese men.Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2004 Dec;28(12):1548-54.

(7) Byrne SM. Psychological aspects of weight maintenance and relapse in obesity. J Psychosom Res. 2002 Nov;53(5):1029-36.

(8) Elfhag K, et al. Who succeeds in maintaining weight loss? A conceptual review of factors associated with weight loss maintenance and weight regain. Obes Rev. 2005 Feb;6(1):67-85

Author Bio

Will Brink is an author, columnist and expert in the supplement, fitness, bodybuilding, and weight loss industry and has been extensively published. Will graduated from Harvard University with a concentration in the natural sciences.

His often ground breaking articles can be found in publications such as Lets Live, Muscle Media , MuscleMag International, The Life Extension Magazine, Muscle n Fitness, Exercise For Men Only, and numerous others.

He has been co author of several studies relating to sports nutrition and health found in peer reviewed academic journals, as well as having commentary published in JAMA. Will formerly trained high level Olympic athletes, bodybuilders and fitness and now runs seminars for (SWAT).

He is the author of Bodybuilding Revealed which teaches you how to gain solid muscle mass drug free and Fat Loss Revealed which reveals exactly how to get lean, ripped and healthy completely naturally.

Find out more at http://www.bodybuildingrevealed.com & his personal website at http://www.brinkzone.com

For more information visit my website, “Weight Loss Secrets Revealed” and “The Ultimate Weight Loss Collection”, where you can find detailed documentation on healthy lifestyle. Sign up for my newsletter and you will receive a lot of tips and gifts related on how to lose weight naturally.

Note for the blog commenters: If you have any idea related to this topic, I would be happy to hear it in the comments section, if you want to spend two extra minutes. Of course, I am aware that this is also an opportunity for you to get a back link to your website. But, please, do not abuse. Put a link to your website or blog only if it is related to the topic, (otherwise will be not counted by Google), and don’t put more than one link, or it will be deleted automatically. Anyway, all the comments will be reviewed by admin before publishing, and, although I will accept all the criticisms to myself or to my posts, I will not allow a language other than the G-rated one, so use your opportunity wisely. Thank you for being my readers!

People want answers they know, answers that make them feel they are on the right path. They want to know that a small change, like going from semi-skimmed to skimmed milk, or regular to diet coke, is going to make a big difference. They know this is true because it ‘feels’ true.

More importantly though it is convenient. No matter how much people want to lose weight they want it to have as little impact on their life, on their daily routine as possible. We know that as humans we suffer change badly, we don’t like missing our favourite TV shows, never mind making huge changes.

But this is not the answer. If you want to lose weight, and I mean really lose weight, not just a lb or two from walking up the stairs or changing your coke type, then you need to make changes. You are what you weight for a reason, and those reasons need to be addressed.

It may not be easy, it may not be convenient, it may not even be cheap, though usually you can find budget options, but then your health and your weight aren’t a supermarket they need more attention and more effort than that.

For more information visit my website, “Weight Loss Secrets Revealed” and “The Ultimate Weight Loss Collection”, where you can find detailed documentation on healthy lifestyle. Sign up for my newsletter and you will receive a lot of tips and gifts related on how to lose weight naturally.

Note for the blog commenters: If you have any idea related to this topic, I would be happy to hear it in the comments section, if you want to spend two extra minutes. Of course, I am aware that this is also an opportunity for you to get a back link to your website. But, please, do not abuse. Put a link to your website or blog only if it is related to the topic, (otherwise will be not counted by Google), and don’t put more than one link, or it will be deleted automatically. Anyway, all the comments will be reviewed by admin before publishing, and, although I will accept all the criticisms to myself or to my posts, I will not allow a language other than the G-rated one, so use your opportunity wisely. Thank you for being my readers!

Why starving yourself might not lose you weight? It is important to understand that your body needs a certain amount of calories with which to function. Without that number of calories it starts to struggle to perform certain functions and, as a result of that, it enters into what we call ‘starvation mode’, whereby it tries to conserve as much energy (calories) as possible, and the body’s way of storing energy is as fat.

Starvation mode basically means that it cuts back on all non-essential processes that usually burn calories to use. In extreme cases this can actually really compromise your immune system, if you eat less than roughly 1,200 calories (varies from person to person) a day then your immune system won’t be able to function properly, which risks your health.

Obviously your body needs lots of different types of vitamins, minerals, etc, even some fats are essential, so it is important that you eat a wide selection to feed your body the ‘fuel’ it needs. Without these nutrients your health will again be at risk.

But to focus on the weight loss side, starvation mode means conserving energy, which means storing energy as fat, which is what a reduced metabolism (a result of not eating enough) gives you. Even if you really cut down and just eat enough to power your body’s basic needs you will (quite aside from the health risks) struggle to burn the fat you already have as your body won’t want to use it.

You will certainly lack any energy to exercise with, so toning muscles and burning calories that way is out of the question. Whatever way you look at it though, dramatically decreasing your calorie intake will damage your health and leave you struggling to lose weight – better then to find a healthier and more efficient way of stripping fat.

For more information visit my website, “Weight Loss Secrets Revealed” and “The Ultimate Weight Loss Collection”, where you can find detailed documentation on healthy lifestyle. Sign up for my newsletter and you will receive a lot of tips and gifts related on how to lose weight naturally.

Note for the blog commenters: If you have any idea related to this topic, I would be happy to hear it in the comments section, if you want to spend two extra minutes. Of course, I am aware that this is also an opportunity for you to get a back link to your website. But, please, do not abuse. Put a link to your website or blog only if it is related to the topic, (otherwise will be not counted by Google), and don’t put more than one link, or it will be deleted automatically. Anyway, all the comments will be reviewed by admin before publishing, and, although I will accept all the criticisms to myself or to my posts, I will not allow a language other than the G-rated one, so use your opportunity wisely. Thank you for being my readers!

It is the main meal in your day you are most likely to end up eating too much, or the wrong thing, because it is the meal that you have least control over. Think about it for a moment. How many times have you eaten with colleagues in the pub, or met a client over dinner? You aren’t at home, you don’t have the level of control you do for other meetings – which makes planning for lunch an important step in weight loss.

* Planning Ahead – When it comes to lunch, whether you are dieting or simply trying to eat healthy, you need to give strong consideration to what you are having well in advance, you need to plan ahead.

This means understanding what meals in various pubs are healthy and helps stick to your diet (weight watchers might find out points in foods, calorie counters learn what the calories in a meal are etc).

Also it means hunting around the area surrounding your office for places that sell healthy foods – supermarkets and newsagents that sell fruit and veg as well as white bread sandwiches and bakeries laden with pasties.

Remember though, you don’t HAVE to go and eat lunch outside – you can bring your own lunch with you, indeed often this is the best option. It gives you the control to eat what you want, when you want it. You just have to try not to eat what you brought with you as a mid-morning snack!

For more information visit my website, “Weight Loss Secrets Revealed” and “The Ultimate Weight Loss Collection”, where you can find detailed documentation on healthy lifestyle. Sign up for my newsletter and you will receive a lot of tips and gifts related on how to lose weight naturally.

Note for the blog commenters: If you have any idea related to this topic, I would be happy to hear it in the comments section, if you want to spend two extra minutes. Of course, I am aware that this is also an opportunity for you to get a back link to your website. But, please, do not abuse. Put a link to your website or blog only if it is related to the topic, (otherwise will be not counted by Google), and don’t put more than one link, or it will be deleted automatically. Anyway, all the comments will be reviewed by admin before publishing, and, although I will accept all the criticisms to myself or to my posts, I will not allow a language other than the G-rated one, so use your opportunity wisely. Thank you for being my readers!

From high impact and aggressive sports like rugby through to low impact gentle sports such as a friendly jogging club, sport has the ability to entertain and reach out to people – and bring people together.

Sport is a powerful tool. Firstly for weight loss it will provide you with an outlet to exercise. How vigorous the exercise depends on the sport but you should be able to find pretty much any sport that will give you the sort of work out that you want.

The level doesn’t matter. Sport is everywhere and you will always be able to find a team good or bad enough to take you on. At the lowest levels they tend to be desperate for participants so I wouldn’t worry about that.

Sport also motivates you. Because you are training you get a set schedule – and even better a ‘boss’ (coach or captain) to answer to. The training sessions will also be devised to get people fitter – basically giving you a personal trainer, for free.

So much of sport is a team game. Even sports such as golf have you walking around the course with another golfer or 3. This gets you out and meeting people, bringing yet more enjoyment to your weight loss – and making you more friends in the process. Sport really is that powerful.

For more information visit my website, “Weight Loss Secrets Revealed” and “The Ultimate Weight Loss Collection”, where you can find detailed documentation on healthy lifestyle. Sign up for my newsletter and you will receive a lot of tips and gifts related on how to lose weight naturally.

Note for the blog commenters: If you have any idea related to this topic, I would be happy to hear it in the comments section, if you want to spend two extra minutes. Of course, I am aware that this is also an opportunity for you to get a back link to your website. But, please, do not abuse. Put a link to your website or blog only if it is related to the topic, (otherwise will be not counted by Google), and don’t put more than one link, or it will be deleted automatically. Anyway, all the comments will be reviewed by admin before publishing, and, although I will accept all the criticisms to myself or to my posts, I will not allow a language other than the G-rated one, so use your opportunity wisely. Thank you for being my readers!

And that lack of excitement means that people start to dread getting out and walking to lose weight, they would much rather find pretty much anything else to do. We’ve all been there, that lack of motivation to get out and exercise can be hard to kick. But one of the best ways of doing that is to try make the exercise fun, which is why we have put together this list of hints and tips on how to make walking for weight loss more enjoyable.

So what can you do to make walking a more enjoyable experience?

* Walk with a friend – Walking whilst talking means that you won’t notice that you are walking at all. You get to gossip and catch up as well. As an added bonus you will be motivating each other into going when you don’t want to and can even get competitive about weight loss if you want.

* Take an MP3 player – Walking to a soundtrack can let you get lost in the moment, enjoying the music rather than thinking about the walking. Don’t do it when crossing a road though!

* Learn a language – Using that MP3 player again you could learn a language as you walk, (or pretty much any subject actually).

* Listen to a story – One more MP3 idea, audio books are available all over the world now, use the power of MP3 to listen to your favourite author, podcast or whatever.

* Change the scenery – Go for walks in different places so you don’t get caught in a rut. Parks, beaches, local hills, wooded areas, wherever you can think of to keep things interesting.

* Join a walking club – You get the benefits you get from walking with a friend, only many times over! You also get to meet new people which is (almost) always nice.

* Bring a pet – Well maybe not any pet, goldfish for example aren’t known for being much company on a walk. But going for a walk with a dog can really make you see how much fun it can be, their enthusiasm rubs off on you.

For more information visit my website, “Weight Loss Secrets Revealed” and “The Ultimate Weight Loss Collection”, where you can find detailed documentation on healthy lifestyle. Sign up for my newsletter and you will receive a lot of tips and gifts related on how to lose weight naturally.

Note for the blog commenters: If you have any idea related to this topic, I would be happy to hear it in the comments section, if you want to spend two extra minutes. Of course, I am aware that this is also an opportunity for you to get a back link to your website. But, please, do not abuse. Put a link to your website or blog only if it is related to the topic, (otherwise will be not counted by Google), and don’t put more than one link, or it will be deleted automatically. Anyway, all the comments will be reviewed by admin before publishing, and, although I will accept all the criticisms to myself or to my posts, I will not allow a language other than the G-rated one, so use your opportunity wisely. Thank you for being my readers!

So what exercises are you able to do in the privacy of your home? Of course we are only looking at exercises that actually work at helping you lose weight and get fit here. The reason is that there are actually a lot of exercises that you can do from your own home, so if you never want to step outside to do the exercising (after all, it’s not just people might see, it can get cold out there) then try these exercises out for size.

* Exercise videos – The staple of the home work out for years, they still work. Get a good exercise DVD and work out to it every day (or couple of days) and you will lose weight.

* Yoga videos – By a similar vein yoga videos are also very useful, the added advantage of which is you can see what it is that you are meant to be doing.

* Weights – It is easy (and cheap these days) to get in some free weights such as dumb bells, bar bells etc. You can even buy good quality machines for a home gym if you have the space.

* Stepercise – Simply step aerobics. Have a step? Or failing that a sturdy box step height? Then you can stepercise. Whack on some music and get stepping in time to the beat. Surprisingly hard work and very effective.

* Boxercise – Following the same concept as stepercise all you need to do here is get on a decent tune (or MTV) and start shadow boxing. Works very, very well.

* Wii fit – Home exercising has gone up a technology notch or 10. The wii is a useful weight loss tool allowing you to lose weight playign games and completing missions. It can even track your weight and BMI for you, if you want it to.

For more information visit my website, “Weight Loss Secrets Revealed” and “The Ultimate Weight Loss Collection”, where you can find detailed documentation on healthy lifestyle. Sign up for my newsletter and you will receive a lot of tips and gifts related on how to lose weight naturally.

Note for the blog commenters: If you have any idea related to this topic, I would be happy to hear it in the comments section, if you want to spend two extra minutes. Of course, I am aware that this is also an opportunity for you to get a back link to your website. But, please, do not abuse. Put a link to your website or blog only if it is related to the topic, (otherwise will be not counted by Google), and don’t put more than one link, or it will be deleted automatically. Anyway, all the comments will be reviewed by admin before publishing, and, although I will accept all the criticisms to myself or to my posts, I will not allow a language other than the G-rated one, so use your opportunity wisely. Thank you for being my readers!

Look how our food has changed, we now get huge bulk discounts, fast food joints are all about ‘double burgers’ and everything has a super-size option. Size really does matter, no question. At least when it comes to food! But no matter what the marketers, supermarkets and fast food joints might tell us, bigger isn’t always better. In fact it often is the worst thing that we can do.

With food we often eat more than we need in any one sitting. We eat it before our stomach has a chance to register that we are full, which it might otherwise have done halfway through the meal. The larger the meal the more this will happen. So eating a smaller meal, and taking our time to eat it, allows us more control. We can eat it and allow our body time to tell us if we are full or not.

If we’re not then because we won’t have eaten as much it is easy to simply have another portion. Here you have some simple portion tricks:

* Use smaller plates – it will fool your eyes into thinking you are eating more, and half the battle is with your brain rather than belly.

* Split it in half – Split your meal in half, put one half away and eat the other. That way you don’t need to eat it all but you can go back for more if you have to.

* Bulk out with vegetables – Rather than having a huge portion of chips why not reduce the portion and instead bulk it out with low calorie vegetables?

For more information visit my website, “Weight Loss Secrets Revealed” and “The Ultimate Weight Loss Collection”, where you can find detailed documentation on healthy lifestyle. Sign up for my newsletter and you will receive a lot of tips and gifts related on how to lose weight naturally.

Note for the blog commenters: If you have any idea related to this topic, I would be happy to hear it in the comments section, if you want to spend two extra minutes. Of course, I am aware that this is also an opportunity for you to get a back link to your website. But, please, do not abuse. Put a link to your website or blog only if it is related to the topic, (otherwise will be not counted by Google), and don’t put more than one link, or it will be deleted automatically. Anyway, all the comments will be reviewed by admin before publishing, and, although I will accept all the criticisms to myself or to my posts, I will not allow a language other than the G-rated one, so use your opportunity wisely. Thank you for being my readers!