The True Way to Defeat Obesity. Warning: No Magic Pills

I’m sure there’s no need to list the disadvantages of being overweight. Few people chose to be overweight. If you’re a sane human being who is overweight, then you probably want to know how to shed your excess pounds.

I’m also sure there’s no need to explain that dieting is the key to losing weight. But you can’t just go on any old diet. You need a diet that is right for you. A diet that takes into account your gender, age, lifestyle, body weight and fat percentage. Here are some tips on how to craft a fat loss program that’s just right for you…

First of all, create a list of all the dishes you eat each day for a week. When the week is up, look at your list and note down all of the fatty foods you eat. If you are unsure about the nutritional content of certain foods, contact a dietician who can educate you on the nutritional value of such foods.

Now you will be in a good position to start eliminating the unhealthy foods from your diet. If some of the foods are your favourites and you eat them every day or multiple times a week, reduce your intake gradually before removing it from your diet all together. For example, rather than eating it four times a week, reduce your intake to 3 times for the next week, and then 2 the week after that etc.

While you begin eradicating the fatty and unhealthy foods, you can start gradually introducing more fruit and veg into your diet. Try to get used to eating 2 pieces of fruit a day, then 3 a day, then 4 a day etc. It’s best to implement these changes gradually so that they are not overwhelming and your body is gets gently introduced to new foods.

Your meal patterns are something you should take care with too. You could eat breakfast, lunch and dinner every day and have small snacks in between. A better way is to graze throughout the day so that you boost your metabolism and you can use The Lunch Box Diet to do this. It has been voted ‘the best diet’ 5/5 by the likes of Elle Magazine who called it ‘a way of life’

Regular exercise is something else you should gradually introduce into your life. Your exercise should be mainly cardiovascular exercises like jogging or cycling. Working out your muscles is also helpful too however. In particular, working out your biggest muscles such as quadriceps, calves and hamstrings is good for boosting metabolism.

Patience is a big key to losing weight. Don’t expect result straight away when you begin new routines. Too many people want to lose all their weight in a matter of weeks. Stay disciplined and stick to your new routines, and your long term weight loss will be guaranteed.

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6 Ways to Prevent Holiday Weight Gain

Obesity has worldwide problem. In fact, almost 2/3 of Americans need to lose weight and over 1 billion people in the world are overweight. If you are overweight, you need to lose weight and improve your health and fitness. And yes, this can still be done over the holiday season. Don't wait for New Year's day to start your weight loss resolutions.

There are a number of reasons for the increased incidence of obesity and overweight individuals, as suggested by American statistics, but also a number of workout and nutrition tips that can counter the effects of each bad nutrition and exercise habit that we have:

* It has been estimated that for every high-sugar drink you consume, you increase your risk of obesity by 60%! Soft drinks provide 33% of all added sugars in American diets.

Tip #1: Avoid drinking calories!

* In the USA, sugar consumption has increased from 26 to 32 teaspoons (between the 1970’s and 1998).

* Americans eat an extra 150 kcal per day now in comparison to 1980. In theory, this could lead to 15 lbs. of weight gain per year!

Tip #2: Avoid over-eating treats at parties. If you can't have just one, don't have any at all!

* Your obesity risk increases 6-fold if you watch more than 2 hours of television each day.

Tip #3: Stay active. Walk around the mall a couple extra times if it means you'll avoid the couch and overeating at home. Stay busy, stay active, stay lean.

* Only 25% of individuals exercise moderately for 30 minutes each day, whereas 25% of the population does no exercise at all.

Tip #4: It's not all or nothing. If you can only do 15 minutes of exercise, that is still better than nothing. Don't stop all exercise just because you can't do 30 minutes that day.

* Obesity continues to increase in the USA despite a continued decrease in the consumption of dietary fat. In 1994-96, fat accounted for 33% of total calories compared with 40% in the late 1970's.

* In 1994-96, just over half of the population reported eating fruit each day while the consumption of processed carbohydrates (such as bread, snack foods, and cereals) has increased 110% since the late 1970's.

Tip #5: Avoid processed carbs. Hit the veggie tray, the protein offerings, and the calorie free beverages at parties. If its rolled in pastry, don't eat it.

* Milk consumption has decreased in children by 16% since the late 1970's, while consumption of soft drinks increased by 16%.

Tip #6: Don't keep soda in the house. If you don't buy it, neither you nor the kids will drink it.

Stick to these 6 simle tips and you'll stay lean over the holidays. Add in a little more exercise and you could do the impossible - you could lose fat over the holidays! Get started on a fast, efficient and effective program of strength training and interval training today!

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Turbulence Training Fat Loss Interview

This interview covers Turbulence Training for Fat Loss in-depth. Craig Ballantyne, the author of Turbulence Training, was recently interviewed by strength coach, Jason Ferrugia. Here is some advanced fat loss information.

JF: First of all Craig, I’d like to thank you for agreeing to do this interview. To introduce yourself to our readers could you tell us a little about your background?

CB:
I’m a strength coach (CSCS) in Toronto and I write for Men's Health, Oxygen, and Maximum Fitness magazines. I have worked extensively with young athletes and I train 3 of the players on Canada’s National Rugby team.

I’ve also developed my own training system that has been featured in the magazines, and I call it Turbulence Training. The goal is to get maximum results in minimum time, no matter what the goal (mass, fat loss, or athleticism).

Turbulence Training (TT) uses a combination of the basic, most effective lifts, structured in time-saving supersets, as well as interval training. It’s based on research, but I’m not going to claim that it’s any magic secret or rocket science. It is simply about getting things done quickly in a logical order. It’s amazing how complex some trainers have made training when it is generally such a simple process to achieve your goals.

Men and women looking to lose fat love it because it fits their often hectic schedules. Three 45-minute strength & interval sessions for fat loss are a lot easier to fit in rather than five 1-hour cardio sessions. And the bodyweight workouts I have, you can get done in the time it usually takes you to get to the gym and back.

JF: Your Turbulence Training system is one of the most effective training systems I have ever seen. Could you briefly describe the thought process that went into creating Turbulence Training and what makes it so effective and time efficient?

CB:
In grad school, when I had no time to train, I had to find a way to get results, fast.

That’s what almost everyone wants and needs these days, and it doesn’t matter if they want to gain muscle or lose fat. I was working 15-16 hours in the lab but still trying to get in my workouts. I realized that I couldn’t do marathon sessions, but I wasn’t about to sacrifice muscle or get fat.

Fortunately, the results of my training studies along with my review of some other research studies, confirmed my experiences that high-intensity training was the way to go. Use only squats, deadlifts, presses, split squats, rows, and similar exercises to get the maximum results in minimum time.

By training with multiple sets of low reps (6-8), and using intervals, you apply the most metabolic turbulence to the muscles. That burns a ton of fat and calories in the workout, and after. That is the key. Light weight, high reps, and slow-steady cardio don’t cause you to keep burning a lot of calories after the workout. And this approach also helps you do the next to impossible; gain lean mass while losing fat.

Another important component of TT is variety. I change the workouts frequently, every 3-4 weeks. That means rotating the exercises, putting in new variations (you can still create an endless number of workouts with variations on the basic lifts, as well as the advanced bodyweight exercises).

That’s the nuts and bolts of my Turbulence Training philosophy.

JF: I know you are a big fan of interval training. What are your favorite methods of interval training?

CB:
Sprinting is the best method, without a doubt. So whether it’s running intervals on the track, uphill sprints, or treadmill running, that’s clearly the most effective method. Moving your own bodyweight over a distance is the true definition of work, and that can be done at a high intensity.

Strongman methods are also top-notch. Pushing the truck, pulling the sled, flipping the tire, these are all great ways to do your interval training.

A little word of caution here though, as both sprinting and strongman training methods can be very intense, so you do need to warm-up more than adequately. Don’t just jump into sprinting outside or you could strain a muscle. And be conservative with the volume. If you haven’t done truck pushing intervals in 6 months, or ever, don’t do 5 or 6 of them because you’ll be puking your guts out. That being said, both of these methods are great because you are doing a lot of work in a short amount of time.

My next two favorite methods are bodyweight training and cycling. Both can be done with less need for an extensive warm-up, but both will really help you slash the fat.

I’ve been on a big bodyweight kick over the past year and it includes some very tough bodyweight interval circuits. It’s great “real-world” conditioning for athletes, and everyday people. The bodyweight workouts and circuits can be humbling, but build “everyday” strength.

I’m also partial to stationary cycling. Because you are cycling against a resistance you can do a lot of work. Doing a lot of high-intensity work means burning a lot of energy during the training the session and after (what I call putting your body into Turbulence). Just be careful with overuse injuries on the bike…as being in that hunched position can be rough on the low-back and can tighten up the psoas and rectus femoris muscles.

Rowing is okay for interval training. And simple walking at faster speeds or inclines is perfect for beginners. Remember that interval training is relative. What is an interval for me might not be an interval for you, or for Lance Armstrong.

Elliptical training machines are useless for intervals. These things are one of the biggest wastes of space in commercial gyms today.

As far as timing goes, there is no one best interval length for fat loss. I use everything from 20 seconds to 3 minutes for the length of the work interval. For the shorter sprints, I use 60-90 seconds rest, and for the longer aerobic intervals (i.e. 2-3 minutes) you would rest an equal amount of time as the work interval lasted. These are excellent not only for fat burning but for improving sport-specific conditioning.

One thing that has never made sense to me is the Tabata protocol for intervals (and if you don’t know what it is, don’t worry about it). The rest intervals are too short to allow high quality work…and that’s what Turbulence Training is all about – quality over quantity.

JF: Why is interval training so much more effective than regular steady state cardio?

CB:
Many reasons. But specfically, we choose quality over quantity.

1. It’s at least 200% more efficient, if not more. You can get the same or better fitness and fat loss improvements in half the time.
2. It builds real-world fitness. How many times each week do you do a 20-second stair climb? Compare that to how many times you run 30 minutes continuously (not including training)? The fact is life activities are short bursts of intensity, not long, slow bouts of continuous activity. The same can be said for most sports. So it quickly becomes clear which training method is better.
3. Intervals build anaerobic and aerobic fitness. Cardio builds only aerobic fitness.
4. Intervals build sport-specific fitness. Put a typical marathon runner on the basketball court and he’ll get beaten every time because he doesn’t have sport-specific fitness.
5. The health benefits of interval training are the same as you get from traditional cardio training. But again, the workouts are shorter.

JF: You favor a rep scheme that is lower than most typical fat loss programs. Could you explain why this is?

CB:
When you diet, you have to give your muscles a powerful stimulus to grow or maintain their current size. If you train with light weight and high reps, you don’t stimulate muscle growth and you don’t hit as many muscle fibers. The result will be a loss in muscle mass.

So in the TT workouts, we work in the 6-8 rep range for the first two supersets. The third and final superset of the workouts will often use 10-12 reps in order to stress all the metabolic processes in the muscle. That means the most “turbulence” and the most calories burned in and out of the training session.

JF: How much time does some one need to dedicate to training each week to achieve a great physique?

CB:
Fortunately not as much as most people think. You can do really well with 3 hours of structured training. However, you have to live the fat loss lifestyle for 167.5 hours per week (allowing 30 minutes per week for a “cheat” meal).

If you pick efficient lifts (like squats, deadlifts, presses, and rows), you don’t need to lift more than 1-2 hours per week for fat loss. And you can get great interval training results in three 20-minute sessions. Then you just have to concentrate on your nutrition. Plan ahead, shop correctly, and prepare your meals in advance.

For mass, cut out the intervals, do 4 sessions of 45 minutes per week, and you’re set. Spend the rest of the time concentrating on your muscle-building nutrition.

JF: What are the two or three biggest mistakes most people make in their quest to lose bodyfat?

CB:
Following politically-correct workouts and nutrition programs. By that I mean, slow-cardio marathon sessions followed by light weight, high rep weight training. Fortunately, there are a lot of great Internet sites giving good info for men, and even the magazines are catching on and giving good programs.

Unfortunately, women still get terrible fitness advice (one of the recommendations that upsets me the most is the suggestion to lift soup cans or water bottles – like that is going to help any woman under the age of 75).

As far as nutrition goes, the politically-correct recommendations still include a lot of carbohydrates, and generally these articles don’t even recommend the right carbohydrates. If you want to lose fat fast, get carbohydrates from fruits and vegetables first. These should be eaten at every meal. Cereal bars, rice cakes, and juices have no place on any weight loss program, if you want the weight lost to be fat.

JF: There’s six weeks left until the fourth of July; in that time how big of a difference can some one make in their physique?

CB: If someone knows what they are doing, or trains with someone that knows what they are doing, they can make incredible changes. Just look at bodybuilders. Look at the difference they make in 6 weeks. But again, they aren’t following politically correct recommendations. Don’t get me wrong though, just because you aren’t doing the politically-correct weight watchers diet doesn’t mean that you are doing anything unhealthy.

So in my opinion, both beginners and advanced physiques can make dramatic changes in their bodies in only 6 weeks. Overweight guys that eat like crap can probably lose 20-30 pounds of fat if they turn things around dramatically. And any guy that is around 15-18% body fat can develop an incredible set of abs and hit single-digit body fat in only 6 weeks.

JF: Where can people read more about you and your training methods? Do you have any new projects, etc.?

CB:
I have lot’s of big projects coming up, Jay. And I could go on forever about this stuff, so if your readers have questions, feel free to contact me through my site.

I keep on adding programs to my member’s section and I’ll be focusing on more hardcore fat loss workouts, muscle-building programs, and my bodyweight training pet projects. Seems like the hardcore fat loss programs are in greatest demand, so I’m working on those right now.

So all that, and I plan to continue taking Turbulence Training to the masses to help people get more results in less time.

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Uh-oh, Five Fat Loss Mistakes

Straight to it. Here are five of the biggest fat loss mess-ups that
I see men and women doing everyday...fix these, and you'll lose fat.

1) Not having back up.

Trying to lose fat without social support is the wrong way to go
about this. Ideally, you'd have your doctor, an RD, a trainer, your workout partner, your spouse, your workmates, and your friends all behind you. Research shows that you'll benefit most from a health professional (i.e. a trainer) and a workout partner that is also successful. Get those two people on your team first, and then work on the rest of the group.

2) Not using a structured program

If you ever go into the gym and wonder what you are going to do first, you're already wasting your time - even before you choose. Get a plan, know what you have to do, stick to it, and see it through. That way, no wasted time wandering around the gym deciding where to start.

3) Not changing your workout after 4 weeks.

That's the longest you should go on one program. If it's been
6-months, give your head a shake. If it hasn't worked yet, why do you think it's magically going to start now. Change it up
frequently. You'll get more results and you'll have more fun.

4) Not realizing your results will come from nutrition more than
they will from training.

You want to lose fat? You have to eat right for fat loss. You can't
train like an animal and then eat junk and expect to lose fat. No
program is that good. None. Diet beats training everytime, like
scissors beats paper. Eat whole, natural foods in 6 smaller meals
each day. Get lots of fiber, lots of protein, lots of vegetables.
Eat healthy fats, avoid trans fats. Drink lots of water and tea. So
simple, so effective. Eat for energy, not for gluttony.

5) Not knowing when to quit.

I get emails everyday from readers asking if they can add even more cardio and more lifting to their current workout plans. After all, if some is good, more training must be better?

Listen, you have to draw the line somewhere. You can't keep adding more and more exercise. First, there is diminishing returns from each additional set you do, and from extra cardio. Second, your body can breakdown fast from too much work, particularly when you are dieting. Overtraining and low calories go together like oil and water. Neither of these combos will make your engine run optimally.

And finally, focus on quality over quantity. The "volume approach to fat loss" from the 1980's (characterized by lots of cardio and lots of carbs) didn't work. For good reason. Stick to high quality nutrition, and high-quality training.

The only thing that matters is results. Not muscle soreness, not
feeling exhausted after each workout, and not feeling deprived of food.

Quality work and quality food for a better body.

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Using NLP To Help You Lose Weight

Losing weight is as much of a mental battle as it is a physical challenge. Lack of belief or lack of motivation can often be what stops people from being successful with dieting. Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is a technique of re-framing negative thought patterns and programming the subconscious mind to empower you to take positive actions.

To successfully apply NLP for weight loss, you firstly need to identify the negative thought patterns you have that are preventing your weight loss quest from being successful. Perhaps you have thoughts like “I’ve always been fat, therefore I always will be”, or “losing weight is hard”.

When you have identified the negative thought patterns that are holding you back, you can use NLP to reprogramme them. If you have been thinking in this way for a long time, your beliefs will have become ingrained in your subconscious mind. If this happens, your subconscious will ensure that the way you act is in alignment with these negative beliefs.

When you re-train the subconscious to believe that you are losing weight successfully, it will do everything it can to make sure your actions reflect this.

Here is a brief summary of the benefits of using NLP for weight loss:

• Re-trains your subconscious and changes your beliefs about food and exercise
• Changes the way you think about yourself
• Identifies and eliminates the fears that are holding you back
• Can help you change your habits and eliminate problem foods from your diet
• Triggers long-term lifestyle changes rather than a short-term fix

NLP Techniques

NLP for weight loss can be used to help you control your food intake. Many people have unhelpful unconscious thought patterns that cause them to eat irresponsibly.

Without knowing, many people associate eating fatty foods with pleasure, or as a way to escape stress. Being as these thought patterns operate almost on auto-pilot, many people do not stop to think about whether eating what they are about to eat is really a good idea.

NLP can change these associations so that the thought of eating unhealthy foods would fill you with negative feelings, while the thought of eating healthy foods would make you feel good.

Here is an example of an NLP technique that can change the associations you have with unhealthy food:

Firstly, visualize in your mind some of your favourite fatty snacks. Picture the image clearly in your mind. Next, relate this food to a disgusting image. Add a horrible image into your visualization such as you vomiting. To make the image worse, add a horrible smell and and a terrible taste to your visualization.

Visualize and imagine the nasty image, and the terrible taste and smell as intensely as you can. Do this a few times. Really experience how sick the image makes you feel.

After doing this a few times you will start to notice how that food is no longer attractive to you, and the thought of eating it makes you feel disgusted. This will compel you to avoid this food.

NLP is an indefensible tool to anybody who is trying to lose weight. Use it effectively and you can train yourself to exercise and eat healthily with ease.

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7 Weight Loss Tips

Okay, that's it, all done with the holidays, so lets get going on weight loss. No more bad nutrition, get back to your regular calorie intake and 6 small meals per day. You are eating 5-6 mini-meals per day, right? If not, get started, and here are some more weight loss tips.

1. Eat more fruits and vegetables.

Get your carbohydrates from fruits and vegetables first, before using breads and pastas. You'll get far more nutrients and fiber, and fewer calories.

2. Eat fiber

The average American falls far short of the fiber recommendations (of 25+ grams of fiber per day). Add an ounce of raw nuts to your daily food plan to get more fiber and to satisfy your appetite.

3. Eat more protein

Protein fills you up and doesn't mess with your blood sugar, so you'll have more mental energy.

4. Have something for breakfast.

While the exact reason isn't clear, breakfast eaters tend to be slimmer than non-breakfast eaters. Start your day with a whey protein shake and an apple if you are in a rush.

5. Drink water

At least 8 cups per day. This will help fill you up and helps you avoid constipation.

6. Exercise less, but harder.

Forget about long, slow cardio. Learn how to do interval training instead. This will boost your metabolism all day long.

7. Use your bodyweight

There are hundreds of bodyweight exercises you can do at home, from beginner to advance.

And those are your 7 tips to help you lose weight, burn fat, control your appetite, boost your metabolism and get the body you want.

Sincerely,

P.S. Is a lack of time stressing you out?

"No time to exercise" is the #1 reason most people don't exercise consistently. In fact, a lack of time stresses most people out for many reasons - whether it's a lack of time to prepare good food, exercise, or be with your family.

That's why I created Turbulence Training to be the most efficient and effective fat loss program out there.

The warm-up is applicable to your workout, not some 5-minute waste of time on the treadmill.

The strength training supersets shave minutes off your wait time.

And the intervals cut your cardio in half, or more.

"I think TT is awesome. I have seen a serious change in my overall body composition. In 12 weeks I've gained a lot of muscle and have lost about 10 lbs, but inches are flying off."
Gordon M.

"The TT workouts are excellent! You have literally changed my life! I got completely burned out on single body part training and long periods of cardio. It just isn't conducive to my life given that I work full time and have a spouse. I'm already lean but I want to maintain a high level of health and have a fit, athletic look. I have to admit that I was skeptical because the workouts were so short, but even after the first workout my skepticism disappeared in a hurry. The time flies by at the gym and the workouts have eliminated a lot of stress because if I got stuck at work and couldn't get to the gym for "leg day" it would mess up my training schedule for the rest of the week. I also like having the option to do some body weight circuits plus I have a full range of dumbells and a ball at home so I can get my workouts in at home."
Janet M

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Six “Little-Known” Muscle Building Tips Part 1

So you think you know everything about building muscle? If you have read everything, tried everything and heard everything about muscle building but still resemble the silouette of a Calvin Klien model instead of a buff fitness model than I promise these three 'little-known' muscle building tips will accelerate your muscle gains immediately!

1. Body Weight Training

This was once a popular muscle building technique but is very commonly ignored. Why? Perhaps because most body weight training is simply hard and can put a dent in your precious ego! As far as I am concerned, if you can not work with your own body weight than you have no freaken business using external loading such as barbells and dumbbells.

It’s incredible how many attempt to use heavy weights with a microscopic range of motion but can’t do a set of push ups, a squat to the floor or even one chin up. Don’t get me wrong, there is definitely a place for external loading with heavy weights but not until you have the ability to master the following bench marks:

Males should aim for 1 set of 80 push ups, 1 set of 20 chin ups, 1 set of 20 1-leg squats, 1 set of 40 dips and 1 set of 20 pull ups.

Females should aim for 1 set of 40 push ups, 1 set of 5-10 chin ups, 1 set of 10 1-leg squats, 1 set of 10-15 dips and 1 set of 3-5 pull ups.

These standards will ensure a solid foundation of general fitness and muscular endurance and lead to building muscle mass more easily in the following stages of your weight training program.

2. Flip Your Program Upside Down Every 3 Weeks

This is an extremely powerful tip to building muscle mass, not to mention one of the easiest tricks to ensure your body side-steps plateaus forever. Consider that you have been training your chest shoulders and triceps every Monday. In you next phase, three weeks later, you should do the complete opposite. You will train your triceps, shoulders than chest on Friday. This will prevent plateaus because each muscle group will have an opportunity to train completely fresh.

Let's say you are training your back, biceps, forearms and abs on Friday. Than you will train your abs, forearms, biceps, and back on Monday (in the opposite sequence). You will literally switch everything upside down. Again, this will ensure that these muscles receive an opportunity to train first in the week when your body is the most fresh.

You will curse my name when you blow the heck out of the smaller muscles first and than train the larger muscle groups last. Yes, I know this months issue of Bodybuilders Digest said to never train the smaller muscle groups before your larger muscle groups. I have heard it before so stop analyzing, trust me and give it a try. You be the judge and don't be surprised if you see new levels of muscle mass and strength after this one technique.

3. Spend More Time At The Grocery Store

If you are serious about building muscle, accept the fact that you will need to spend more time than you do right now in the grocery store. Have you ever opened the fridge for something to eat and all you found was Aunt Wilma's Thanksgiving turkey leftovers with mold on it? Ever gone into the cub boards and discover only a few leftover bags of potato chips from last weeks Super Bowl party?

To ensure a optimal environment for building muscle and fat loss you must ensure your cub boards and fridge are constantly stocked. This will mean more frequent trips to the grocery store. Chuck the crap that is in your kitchen right now and replace it with good stuff and keep on replacing it. Don't ever let that supply of good food run low.

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