March 04, 2006
March 3, 2006
Greetings! I have some advice here that will be of interest to many people, especially with Spring just around the corner. Enjoy!
--------------------------------------------------------------
7 Tactics That Guarantee You'll Lose Weight This Month
--------------------------------------------------------------
I common question I receive as a trainer is how to get the weight off when exercise just isn't doing the trick. In this situation, a person who has been working out pretty religiously but still hasn’t lost any weight wants to know what to do next. Here is my advice!
----------------------------------------------------
It is common that people will not lose weight even if they add exercise to their lives. The fact is, weight loss is 80% diet and only 20% workouts for most people. Exercise will make you more toned and look thinner, but it won't necessarily melt off all those unwanted pounds.
One reason is that oftentimes your body gains muscle tissue with exercise, which makes your weight go up. However, exercise burns calories, which usually leads to fat loss and your weight going down. So, in general the scale weight stays very close to the same when you add in exercise, but your body is smaller and more toned, with more muscle and less fat.
The reason you don’t lose a ton of weight just from adding exercise is because fat stores A LOT of energy…each lousy pound contains over 3,500 calories worth of energy. This means that you have to burn 3,500 calories MORE THAN YOU CONSUME to lose a pound of fat. That represents about 35 miles of walking or running, and also that you are not eating more because “I have exercised, so I have earned it” which is a common attitude. You cannot treat yourself to more food just because you worked out and expect to lose weight. Eating more just negates the calorie burn of the extra exercise as far as weight loss is concerned.
Therefore, the easiest way to lose weight is to rely on proper diet, NOT exercise, although adding exercise to the equation certainly tips the scales in your favor (literally!). See, exercise is one of the best ways there is to prevent weight GAIN, but diet is by far the superior way to LOSE weight.
So what should you do if you would like to lose weight this month? Well, if you are exercising, that is great, it will only help you. Exercise will burn extra calories and generally keeps you appetite under better control and motivates you to eat better and be more aware of your body in general. This means you are less likely to harm your body by overeating or eating junk. However, you need to reduce some of your calorie intake, and the simplier the method you use to accomplish this, generally the better, because it's easier to follow. Reducing your calorie intake will depend on a comparison to what you are doing now to what you have been doing when you failed to lose weight. All of these suggestions are assuming that they represent a change in your diet.
I recommend taking one (or more) of the following steps:
1. Leaving three bites of food on your plate for three meals a day
2. Skipping two snacks a day, or trading them for healthier choices
3. Stopping all caloric beverages or reducing them by at least 10 glasses a week.
4. Trading higher calorie items for lower calorie items, but keeping the portion size the same, at least two times each day.
5. Eliminating second and third portions.
6. Swearing off alcohol, or limiting it to four glasses a week
7. Swearing off sugar, except for very special occasions
If you do one of these steps listed above, and keep your activity level at least the same, you are Guaranteed to lose some weight this month!
If you received this e-zine from a friend and would like to continue receiving it for free, please visit this page: