Which is better - Weight Watchers or Fitness Centers?

Weight is a major factor in battling heart disease and stroke. There’s a wide range of ways to lose weight out there, from the blatant rip-offs, to the bizarre, even to the dangerous.

But there are also methods that work and people trying to lose weight would swear on or swear at weight loss programs depending on what works and what doesn’t work for them. This study by researchers at the University of Missouri compares 2 of the most popular weight loss programs: Weight Watchers or fitness centers?

“In the first study of its kind, using sophisticated methods to measure body composition, the nationally known commercial weight loss program, Weight Watchers, was compared to gym membership programs to find out which method wins in the game of good health.“

The researchers used sophisticated techniques to compare the efficacy of these 2 weight loss programs in terms of losing weight, reducing body fat and gaining health benefits. The methods used were

• the Bod Pod, which measures body composition and measure what type of weight was lost -lean weight or fat weight.
• Computer Tomography (CT) scans, which were used to evaluate changes in abdominal fat

Well, it seems that the answer to the question “Which is better - Weight Watchers or fitness centers” is not as clear cut as many of us hoped. In fact, many factors aside from numbers are actually involved in what makes a weight loss program effective.

Minus results from the Weight Watchers side:

“Participants who attended Weight Watchers for 12 weeks lost an average of 5 percent of their body weight, or about nine pounds. However, Steve Ball, assistant professor of exercise physiology in the MU College of Human Environmental Sciences, found that a large percentage of the lost weight was lean tissue and not fat.”

Plus results from those who regularly went to fitness centers:

“…the fitness center group lost very little weight [but] they probably improved their health because they lost a significant amount of intraabdominal fat (fat around vital organs).”

In the end, there was no improvement in the Weight Watchers participants’ body fat percentage because of the loss of lean tissue. Lean tissue is important in our metabolism and losing lean tissue slows down our metabolism. In the case of the fitness center participants, performing regular exercise seems to have a positive influence on the metabolic syndrome. Loss of intraabdominal fat is significant because this type of fat is predictive of cardiovascular disease.

However, it’s not only what and how much was lost that counts.

On the plus side for Weight Watchers, participants in this group have better group support, resulting in higher compliance and more participants finishing the program.

On the minus side, the fitness center crowd gets less group support leading to a high rate of quitting.

According to researcher Steve Ball:

“I think the outcome of the study speaks volumes about the necessity for a multi-pronged approach in order to lose weight, body fat and gain health benefits. I hope that this will be the first in a series of studies investigating commercial weight-loss programs.”

Now, if you ask me, which method I go for to maintain my weight, my answer is “neither.” I prefer jogging in the fields and the woods and yes - I do pay attention to my diet from time to time.

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Nutrition 101

In order to optimize your health a good diet is essential. But, with all the fad diets around it can be difficult to know what is ‘good’. Nutrition science to the rescue! Though some things are still controversial, numerous studies reinforce the following basic information.

A healthy diet requires not just items from the four basic food groups, but in the proper proportion. The average person will need about 2000-2500 calories (sometimes more for larger men, less for women and those looking for rapid weight loss). About 50% of those calories should come in the form of carbohydrates, with 30% from fats (yes, fat is good!) and 20% from protein.

Carbohydrates are the main source of compounds needed for energy. Simple sugars, such as glucose and fructose, are rapidly broken down in the intestine and absorbed. Some processing starts the minute they hit your tongue. Complex carbohydrates - starches, such as those found in potatoes - take longer, but are also healthy in moderation.

Fats are chemically similar to carbohydrates, and contain fatty acids essential to health. Proteins are lysed (split) to make amino acids, that are then recombined to form proteins used in muscles and other structures.

Meat is a valid and healthy source of protein for almost everyone. About 3 ounces per meal is about right for the average sized person. A cup of pasta is a good source of carbohydrates. Two cups of leafy green vegetables supply fiber, minerals and vitamins.

A balanced meal can be made up of a serving of meat or other protein source, starchy carbohydrates such as pasta, rice, corn or potatoes, and fruit. Easy on the butter or margarine, go light on cheese, sauces and anything high in sugar or fat.

Though you could get the basics from a variety of sources, when considering weight control in addition to getting the proper balance, it’s important to know which sources are high in what.

Fat contains nine calories per gram, which is double than other energy sources. Thus, you need to keep those foods high in fat down to modest levels. That also helps control cholesterol levels.

All sources of carbohydrates have four calories per gram. But healthy sources also contain needed minerals, vitamins and fiber. Some examples are fruits (apples, pears, peaches), nuts (walnuts are lower in fat than peanuts or cashews, for example) and grains (for fiber and minerals).

Why is candy bad, unless consumed in very modest portions? Because they are designed to be high in fat, high in sugar with much lower amounts of helpful nutrients. Neither fat nor sugar are harmful in moderation. Indeed, they’re essential to good health. But when consumed in a form that contains an excessive proportion, they provide enormous calories and fewer other nutrients.

A single Snickers candy bar, for example, contains 63g, with 53g of sugar, but only 2g of fiber. A cup of broccoli, by contrast, has only 6g total, of which 2.5g are fiber, 1.5g are sugars. A cup of sweet corn has 31g total, 21g are starch (complex carbohydrates), 3g of fiber.

Making a list of items you consume will show you the relative amounts of helpful nutrients - and how many calories each contains. Putting a little arithmetic into your diet plan will help you reduce the number you obsess over - your weight.

               

Weight Loss for Men

Women are the major consumers for weight loss programs and diets. Men tend to focus more on exercise. But either topic is, and should be, popular with both sexes. Men, too, need to concern themselves with proper diet and nutrition as part of a rounded program of weight loss and health.

Particularly with the onset of middle age, diet becomes a greater concern for men. Calorie needs are typically highest in the mid-20s and taper off about 2-4% with every passing decade. For an average-sized male (say, 5 ft 9 inches and 170 lbs), the average number of appropriate calories per day, 2500, reduces to 2200-2350.

One of the reasons for the change is an average reduction in muscle mass. It takes a lot of calories to continue to feed blood to muscles, to perform cellular repair and maintain internal body temperature among other physiological tasks. As men age, they tend to have less muscle mass, thus requiring fewer calories.

But the other major reason is a shift in basal metabolism. That’s the ‘base’ or ‘natural’ rate at which your body burns calories for all its functions, even at rest. That amounts to about 70 calories per hour for most men, and constitutes about 65% of the daily calories needed. Hormonal and other natural changes with age reduce that basal rate.

The thyroid, which participates in regulation, and other glands tends to be less active and less efficient as we age. The adrenal gland is another example. Glandular reduction is one of the internal factors that actually defines biological aging, in fact.

As a result, taking in the same number of calories in mid-life that were consumed during earlier decades will result in the excess being stored in adipose tissue, in other words you’ll gain body fat. For most men, that body fat is considered unsightly, and beyond a certain level has definite health risks.

Though it’s not the only number you should look at, a BMI (Body Mass Index = weight/height squared) > 30 should be a concern for nearly anyone. A BMI over 40 is generally considered obese. Waist circumference - over 35 inches - for the average male is an indicator, with over 40 inches considered obese for most.

Whatever you eat - while it does matter for nutritional and general health reasons - taking in more calories than are consumed leads to the excess being stored as fat. That leads to weight gain. Reducing the daily intake by as little as 50-100 calories per day for every decade past age 29 can go a long way toward eliminating that problem.

Alternatively, and a good thing for other reasons, burning an extra 50-100 calories will help reduce solve that problem and lead to better overall health. An extra mile per day walking is enough to accomplish that.

Reduce calories, stay active and you can look and feel fit for a lifetime.

               

How to Cut Your Workout Time in Half & Lose More Weight

By Craig Ballantyne

The #1 reason for not working out is a lack of time.

If you get up at 5:30am to drive an hour to work, only to get home at 6pm and then have to launch right into carting the kids around, who can blame you for not working out? Not when it takes 45 minutes to do cardio, and another 30-45 minutes for isolation bodybuilding workouts.

If that’s the way you have to exercise to lose fat, then practically no normal person is going to be able to pull that off.

But when you look at the science, you’ll see that you can get more results in less time. You just have to increase the intensity of the workout, but at the same time, you can cut your workout time in half (or more!).

I am convinced that an effective fat loss workout can be done in 45 minutes or less, and that long, slow, excruciatingly boring cardio is not necessary for you to get the body you want. Please, read on…

Here are the details on the superiority of interval training when compared to traditional aerobic exercise:

Q: What is the role of interval training vs. steady state aerobics in a fat loss program?

Answer: Interval training is more important than cardio. First of all, it gets more results in less time. And with “lack of time” being the number one reason most people do not participate in a training program at all, clearly intervals are the winner here.

Now let’s just assume that lack of time is not a problem. Well, interval training is still more effective because it applies more “turbulence” to the muscle. Or in scientific terms, interval training results in a greater metabolic stress on the muscle.

And that causes more calories to be burned in the important 23.5 hours per day when you are not exercising.

From there, the muscle must work to recover, repair, and replenish the energy that was used in the training. It is much more metabolic work for the muscle to recover from interval training (and strength training) than it is to recover from aerobic training.

Therefore, in the post-exercise period, interval training results in more calories burned.

In fact, I just read a new study from Australia that shows interval training is superior to slow cardio for fat loss.

The researchers, Trapp & Boutcher put WOMEN through a 15 week study where one group was a control, one group did intervals (20 minutes of alternating sprints and recovery), and one group did 40 minutes of slow cardio.

The interval group lost 2.5kg of fat in 15 weeks on average (with one subject losing 7.7kg of fat), while the slow cardio group lost only 0.4kg of fat over 15 weeks on average.

The results speak for themselves.

So don’t get hung up on how many calories are burned during a training session with aerobic training. That is not nearly as important as how many total calories your body burns over the course of the day - and you will burn more with interval training.

And for those that subscribe to the fat burning zone as being important, again, you aren’t looking at the big picture (the 24-hour calorie burning period). Instead, those that believe in the importance of the fat-burning zone have a myopic view of how the body works.

The same message applies to those people that live and die by the cardio on an empty stomach method. You’re “nickel and dime-ing” the fat loss process, when really it’s a much bigger budget to balance.

Look at the big picture. Get your nutrition in order, then focus your workouts on brief, intense strength and interval training workouts that increase your metabolism for the next 24 hours.

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit www.TurbulenceTraining.com

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Weight Loss Effectiveness

By Roger Grant

The first method of weight loss is presented only to show an example of what not to do. It is the rapid weight loss method by way of a starvation diet. This diet involves depriving the body of a vital nutrient that it needs, which forces the body to break down muscle tissue to provide the nutrient.

Because muscle is much denser than fat, this will create a very rapid initial weight loss. Any real fat loss is due to a shortage of calories which is created. However, this loss in muscle tissue will cause a reduction in the resting metabolic rate, which will cause the caloric deficit to become a caloric equilibrium. While this is happening, the starvation state will cause the body to activate some very powerful defense mechanisms to protect the person from the environment as well as from himself.

One of these mechanisms is to discourage the person from wasting energy, which will manifest itself as lethargy and muscular weakness. The other defense mechanism is to encourage the person to consume concentrated sources of the deficient caloric nutrient as well as calories in general. This results in severe cravings, and explains why people in starvation mode are more likely to crave pizza or ice cream than celery or spinach. If the person inevitably succumbs to these cravings, then he or she will gain back all of the weight in fat, resulting in a higher percentage body fat than he or she had before the diet. If the person does not succumb and terminate the diet, then he or she will eventually die of starvation. As a result, this type of weight loss program is all but unsustainable, and creating beneficial habits are out of the question. Unfortunately, it is probably the most popular way for people to try to lose weight.

The next method is the first proper method of fat loss, and is the quickest healthy way to lose fat. This method causes fat loss at a rate of about 1 to 2 lbs per week, and provides the body with the vital nutrients needed for proper functioning while creating a shortage of the calories needed to power the Krebs cycle. This forces the body to tap into its own fat stores for the needed calories and will result in fat loss. In addition, both resistance and cardiovascular exercises are used to enhance the caloric deficit along with fat loss. As the person reaches his goal, he will increase his caloric intake to create a caloric equilibrium and maintain his new condition.

Because this method keeps the person out of starvation mode, it is perfectly sustainable and is suitable for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. However, the difficulties encountered in this program are likely to be psychological. The truth is that people are creatures of habit, and a fat loss program such as this demands major changes to those habits. It involves performing exercises when the person is used to being sedentary, and refusing hot dogs, potato chips, and other junk food that the person is used to eating regularly. In addition, the increased lean mass will often show an initial increase in weight even when girth measurements are shrinking. This can be discouraging to an impatient person.

The second proper method of fat loss is a slower way to lose fat, and it mainly involves increasing the lean mass. The resulting increase in the resting metabolic rate is a major factor in providing the caloric deficit and resulting fat loss. However, proper nutrition is still a cornerstone of this program, and it provides all of the vital nutrients without adding an excess of empty calories. The result is a noticeable increase in muscle mass combined with a loss of fat. Like the previous method of fat loss, the increase in lean mass renders weight measurements to be unreliable. Also, the slow rate of fat loss can be discouraging to someone who wants to see results quickly. However, because there is a less drastic reduction in caloric intake, it is much less stressful and much easier to maintain. In addition, the length of time required to reach the goal increases the chances that it will form a lifetime habit.

The proper methods have their advantages and disadvantages. A method that shows results in a reasonable amount of time, usually involves major changes in habit patterns. This makes it all too easy for the person to abandon the new habits in favor of the old bad habits. On the other hand, a slower method would involve less drastic changes in caloric intake, and makes it easier to form new habits. It is no surprise that most proper fat loss programs are somewhere in between these two types of programs. It also shows that the more quickly someone loses fat, the more difficult it is to keep it off.

In addition to maintaining his career as a professional pilot, Roger has spent much time pursuing formal and self directed studies of the human physiology and metabolism. He is also qualified as a health nutritionist and a fitness trainer. He has written articles for www.spartafit.com

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Quick Weight Loss Exercise Program - 5 Ways To Lose Weight Quickly

By Dick Doe

While there are many people out there who want to lose weight real quick, most of them don’t know how to do it. You may not know it, but there are several different ways to lose weight quickly. In this article I will tell you about five different ways you can use to lose weight fast.

Walking: Walking is one of the best and easiest ways to lose weight. Believe it or not, if you do a brisk walking of forty-five minutes per day, it is only a matter of weeks before you start seeing improvements in your metabolism. Walking not only helps you lose weight, it also makes you feel refreshed and better about yourself. While you can walk anytime, I would recommend that you do morning walks. Morning walks are very effective because in the morning the weather is free from pollution; moreover, since you’ve got a good sleep on the previous night, you feel refreshed and energetic to start walking.

Aerobics: Aerobics is yet another way to lose weight quickly. Aerobics involve dancing. Don’t worry whether you are good at dancing or not. For one, you don’t need to be a good and graceful dancer in order to lose weight. Just dance however you like and it will burn off your extra fat and calories. However, you should not do aerobics if you suffer from back pain.

Swimming: Swimming is yet another easy and fun way to lose weight quickly. And swimming not only enables you to lose weight, it also enables you to look and feel refreshed. You don’t need to swim all day long. Just swim for thirty minutes every day and see how you start burning calories! And I am sure that this is one exercise you will really love to do!

Gym: Joining gym is yet another way to lose weight. However, you should make sure that your gym provides a combination of strength training as well as cardio exercises; your gym should also assign a personal trainer to you who will look after your diet as well as look to it that you are following your exercise routine properly. Most good gyms do have such facilities, and since gyms are everywhere, it is really easy to join one.

Sports: Participating in sports is yet another easy and fun way to lose weight. It is fun because you like sports, isn’t it. All of us have interest in at least one type of sports. It may be golf, tennis or cricket. But make sure that your sport includes lots of physical activities. Indoor sports won’t help you lose weight. Most clubs provide sports facilities for its members. Clubs are really an easy way to meet new members as well as participate in physical sports and outdoor activities.

Excessive fat can damage your health beyond imagination. To learn more about weight loss exercises, read my article Get Rid of Tummy Fat: 3 Awful Truths About Tummy Fat by going to:
getridoffat.info/get-rid-of-tummy-fat-2.php
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The Top 5 Ways To Jumpstart Your Weight Loss Plan

By Angie Schumacher

Getting started with a fitness plan is often the most difficult part. But when you make the decision to take those steps to lose weight, tone your body, or just feel healthy, you have made one of the most decisions of your life. Here are the first steps to get you started.

First, buy yourself a journal or a notebook to keep track of your workouts and everything you put into your mouth. Writing down all your foods is a great way to see just exactly what you are putting into your body and then you can see just what changes you need to make.

Second, set a specific goal. Are you hoping to get down to that size 6 pants or lose 10% body fat? Would you like to build up some muscle or just tone your body? Write it down and set a goal date. When you reach THAT goal, set another one!

Third, take your measurements: weight, chest, waist, hips, thighs, arms and whatever other body parts you would like to see changes to. This is the best way to measure what changes your body is making.

Fourth, take some pictures. You will want to look back and see where you started and how amazing you look in 3, 6, even 9 months from now!

Fifth, develop a plan of action. Plan your workouts and meals for the following week and act on them consistently. By planning them, you are more likely to follow through with them.

Stay with your current plan for at least 12 weeks, even if you do not see any changes happening. Changes will not happen overnight and the more patient you are, the happier you will be in the end!

Angie Schumacher is a successful fitness entrepreneur both in online and offline areas. She is a Certified Personal Trainer and diet and fitness website manager. For more great diet and fitness tips, visit www.womensdietandfitness.com

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Don’t Be a “Big Loser” - Why You Should Say No to Quick Weight Loss

By Tom Venuto

Patience. It’s the one thing you never seem to have when you’ve got a body fat problem. You want the fat gone and you want it gone now! And why not? It seems so do-able. Everywhere you look, you read and hear promises of quick weight loss and you even see people losing weight quickly. We have reality TV shows that actually encourage people to attempt “extreme” body makeovers or see who can lose weight the fastest, and the winners (or shall we say, the losers), are rewarded generously with fortune, fame and congratulations.

Let’s face it. Everyone wants to get the fat off as quickly as possible - and having that desire is not wrong – it’s simply human nature. However, you must become aware of some serious problems that can occur if you try to force it and lose weight too quickly. The faster you lose weight, the more muscle you will lose with the fat, and that can really mess up your metabolism. An even bigger problem with fast weight loss is that the loss just won’t last. The faster you lose, the more likely you are to gain it back. Think about it: We don’t have a weight loss problem today, we have a “keeping the weight off” problem.

Weight loss will be the healthiest, safest and most likely to be permanent if you set your goal for about two pounds per week (and even if you lose only a single pound each week, that is healthy progress). This is the recommendation of almost every legitimate and respected dietician, nutritionist, exercise physiologist and personal trainer, as well as exercise organizations such as the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Dietetic Association.

Are there any exceptions to this rule? Is it ever okay to lose more than two pounds per week? The answer is yes. It may be ok to lose slightly more than two pounds per week if you have a lot of weight to lose because the rate of weight loss tends to be relative to your total starting body weight. Generally the rule is that it’s safe to lose up to 1% of your total body weight per week, so if you weigh 300 lbs to start, then 3 lbs a week is a reasonable goal.

But there IS a catch.

What really matters is not how much weight you lose, but how much FAT you lose. Where did your weight loss come from? Did you lose body fat or lean body mass?

“Weight” is not the same as “fat.” Weight includes muscle, bone, internal organs as well as lots and lots of water. What you really want is fat loss, not weight loss. If you only wanted weight loss, I could show you an easy way to lose 20 or 25 pounds in about 5 minutes. Just come over to my house. I have a really sharp hacksaw in my garage, and we’ll just slice off one of your legs, after all it’s just extra “weight” right?

Let’s look at an example with some numbers so you can really grasp this concept of weight versus fat and then you can see, clearly illustrated, what will happen when you lose weight too quickly (because I know you probably don’t believe me and you STILL want to lose weight as fast as possible… read on and it will all become clear to you).

As an example, let’s take a 260 pound man who has a lot of body fat to lose - let’s call it 32%. With 32% fat, a 260 pounder has 83.2 pounds of body fat and 176.8 pounds of lean mass. Using this example, let’s look at a few possible scenarios with losses ranging from two to four pounds per week.

Weight Loss Scenario 1:

Suppose our 260 pound subject loses four full pounds instead of the recommended two pounds per week. Is this bad? Well, let’s see:

If he loses a half a percent of body fat, here are his body composition results:

256 lbs 31.5% body fat 80.6 lbs fat 175.4 lbs lean body mass

Out of the four pounds lost, 2.8 pounds were fat and 1.2 were lean mass. Not a disaster, but not good either. Thirty percent of the weight lost was lean tissue.

Weight Loss Scenario 2:

If he loses a half a percent of body fat and only three pounds, here are his results:

257 lbs 31.5% body fat 80.9 lbs fat 176.1 lbs lean body mass

These results are better. Although he lost less body weight than scenario one, in this instance, 2.3 pounds of fat and only 0.7 lbs of lean mass were lost.

Weight Loss Scenario 3:

What if he only lost two pounds? Here are the results:

258 lbs 31.5% body fat 81.2 lbs fat 176.8 lbs lean body mass

These results are perfect. Even though our subject has only lost two pounds, which seems slow, 100% of the two pound weight loss came from fat.

Weight Loss Scenario 4:

Now let’s suppose he loses three pounds but he loses more body fat: .8%

257 lbs 31.2% body fat 80.2 lbs fat 176.8 lbs lean body mass

These are the best results of all. When the weekly fat loss is .8%, 100% of the three pounds lost is fat.

So the answer to the question is yes - it’s safe to lose more than two pounds per week… but only if the weight is all fat or at least mostly fat with minimal lean mass losses.

If you take example one – with thirty percent lean tissue loss and compound that over a few months, you’re talking about a massive muscle tissue loss which can dramatically slow down your metabolism and turn you into nothing more than a “skinny fat person” (a person with low body weight because they lost all their muscle, but still holding stubborn body fat because they slowed down their metabolism).

One thing you should know is that water weight losses sometimes distort the numbers, especially when you first begin a new nutrition and training program. It’s very common to lose 4 - 5 pounds in the first week on nearly any diet and exercise program and sometimes even more on low carb diets. Just remember, its NOT all fat - It’s water!

The best advice you will EVER get is to focus on losing fat, not losing weight. If you lose three to five pounds per week, and you know it’s all fat, and not lean tissue, then more power to you!

Of course the only way to know this is with body composition testing. For home self-testing, I recommend the Accu measure as first choice. I suggest using the bio-electric impedance analysis body fat scale only as second choice behind calipers for home self testing because this device gives some funky readings sometimes.

Even better, get a professional caliper test from an experienced tester at a health club, or even a water (hydrostatic) or air (bod pod) displacement test.

From literally hundreds of client case studies, I can confirm that it’s rare to lose more than 1.5 - 2.0 lbs of weight per week without losing some muscle along with it. If you exceed 2.0 to 3.0 pound per week, the probability of losing muscle is extremely high. If you lose muscle, you are damaging your metabolism and this will lead to a plateau and ultimately to relapse.

Lack of patience is one of the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to losing weight. If you want your weight loss to be PERMANENT, you have to take off the pounds slowly.

This is one of the toughest lessons that overweight men and women have to learn - and they can be very hard learners. They fight kicking and screaming, insisting that they CAN and they MUST lose it faster.

Then you have these TV shows that encourage the masses that rapid, crash weight loss is okay. I say to the producers of these shows SHAME ON YOU! To the personal trainers, registered dieticians and medical doctors who are associated with these programs, I say DOUBLE SHAME ON YOU, because you should know better.

The rapid weight loss being promoted by the media for the sake of ratings and by the weight loss companies for the sake of profits today makes it even harder for those of us who are legitimate fitness and nutrition professionals because our clients say, “But look at so and so on TV - he lost 26 pounds in a week!”

Sure, but 26 pounds of WHAT - and do you have any idea what the long term consequences are?

Short term thinking, folks… foolish. There are hundreds of ways to lose weight quickly, but only one way to lose fat and keep it off in the long term.

Do it the right way - the healthy and sensible way. Take off the pounds slowly with an intelligent nutrition and exercise program – make this a new lifestyle, not a race, and you will never have to take the pounds off again because they will be gone forever the first time. No more yo-yoing.

Tom Venuto is a certified personal trainer, natural bodybuilder and author of the #1 best selling diet e-book, “Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle.” You can get info on Tom’s e-book at www.burnthefat.com. To get Tom’s free monthly fitness newsletter, visit www.tomvenuto.com

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7-Day Weight Loss Guide

By Craig Ballantyne

At the start of each week you should hit the grocery store and to prepare your weight loss meals for the next 7 days. See our grocery list at the bottom of this email. Print it out and take it with you.

And now here are your guidelines for the next 7 days.

Monday
Start the week with a strength and interval workout. It never hurts to have a trainer check your form, and make sure that you are pushing yourself hard enough. Alternatively, a workout partner can make all the difference in helping you bust through a plateau. The quote most often heard in the gym, “I’d never work this hard on my own.” Is this true for you?

Tuesday
Get 30 minutes of fun, recreational activity. In addition, check your diet for excess calories. By now, you should have developed many healthy eating habits…however, sometimes things start slipping. So give yourself a little review. It’s never too late to start eating properly.

Wednesday
Do another strength and interval workout. Get your workout done in only 45 minutes.

Add 5% more weight to your main exercise, and reduce the number of reps per set by 1. Keep perfect form of course, but increase the intensity. You might even find that you can do all of the reps with this new, increased weight. That will lead to more Turbulence, and more calories burned. If you want to increase your interval intensity instead, do the same - increase your speed or resistance by 5% on the treadmill or bike.

Thursday
Do at least 30 minutes of activity. Try something new. If you haven’t done any bodyweight circuits yet, give those a try.

Friday
Finish the week with one more strength and interval workout.

Try to eat 8 small meals today which should give you even better results than eating 6 small meals. The 8 small meals/snacks: Breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, pre-workout, post-workout, dinner, and evening snack.

Saturday
Enjoy 30 minutes of activity. Check in with your social support group and trade fat loss secrets.

Sunday
Start the day nice and early with 30 minutes of activity. Plan, shop, and prepare. Make it your goal to purchase the most healthy grocery order of your entire life. You get extra bonus points if the clerk says, “Wow, what a healthy order”.

Here are some of the items on my list:

Fruits

· Apples

· Oranges

· Blueberries

· Peaches

· Grapefruit

· Raspberries

Vegetables

· Peppers (red, yellow, green, & orange),

· Spinach

· Asparagus

· Broccoli

· Snow Peas

· Mushrooms

· Frozen mixed vegetables

· Tomato sauce

Protein Sources

· Chicken breasts

· Turkey breasts

· Salmon fillets

· Lean beef

· Skim milk & low-fat, low-sugar yogurt

· whey protein

Carbohydrates

· Oat bread

· Oatmeal (no sugar added)

· Whole-wheat pasta

Other

· Green tea

· Unsalted, not roasted, Almonds

Nutrition has a huge impact on your success,

CB

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Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men’s Health and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training for Fat Loss have helped thousands of men and women with weight loss and fat burning in less than 45 minutes three times per week. Turbulence Training for Fat Loss workouts help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment. Craig’s bodyweight workouts for fat loss help you lose fat without any equipment at all.

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