5 Most Outrageous Weight Fat Loss Myths…Busted

Factors That Make Fat Loss Exercises Successful

As you go about your weight loss program, it’s important to understand the main factors that make fat loss exercises successful.  Those who are using proper weight loss programs will see much faster results than those that aren’t, so before you go off dedicating hours each week to the gym, it’s vital that you take this into account so you can be sure that you start off on the right food.

Let’s have a quick look at the main factors that will determine whether or not your fat loss exercises are successful.

How Many Muscles Are Utilized

The very first factor to consider is how many muscles you’re going to be working at once while doing the exercise.

For example, with the bench press exercise you are going to be working the chest, the triceps, the shoulders, and even the biceps to a small extent since they will act as dynamic stabilization muscles.

Now compare this to a bicep curl instead.

Which do you think is going to burn more calories and be a better fat loss exercise? If you said the bench press, you’d be entirely correct.

Generally speaking, compound exercises, that is, any form of exercise that has you lifting and using as many muscles at once will have a much faster fat burning effect than an isolated exercise where you’re only targeting a single muscle group at a time.

If you use only isolated exercises in your workout program, you’re going to be in there performing exercises for a very long period of time.

Instead, turn to compound exercises only.  These will really give you more bang for your buck.

How Heavy Of A Weight Are You Lifting

Second, the next thing to think about when assessing whether you’re doing the right fat loss exercises is how heavy of a weight you are able to lift.

When placing two exercises side by side, the exercise that allows you to lift the most weight is almost always going to be the more effective exercise for producing fat loss than the one that doesn’t.

Why?

Greater muscle activation.  Again, the more weight you can lift, the more muscle fibers that will be called into play to hoist that weight and the faster progress you’re going to make.

Only in specific cases where you’re really focusing on high rep lifting and including multiple supersets or other advanced protocols in your program will lighter weight exercises be necessary.

How High Is Your Heart Rate

Finally, the third thing to look for when assessing the effectiveness of your fat loss exercises is what they are going to do to your heart rate. An exercise that does create a much higher heart rate while performing it will also burn off more calories minute per minute therefore allowing you to see much better results.

What’s more is that the faster you can move from exercise to exercise in your workout session while still ensuring that you are recovering so that you can maintain that heavy weight, the better off that overall fat burning program will be.

So keep all these three points in mind when assessing your fat loss exercises.  If you have a number of exercises that don’t include these factors in your program, it may be time to make some changes.

For more information about the Express Fat Loss System Click Here

What You Need To Know About Quick Weight Loss

If you’re like most people, when you set out on a diet and workout program, you’re looking for quick weight loss. Most of us don’t want to waste time spending weeks if not months getting down to our goal weight.

No, we want to lose weight fast and effectively so we can reach our ideal weight and start living the life we desire.

But, before you jump on the latest quick weight loss quick-fix, it is important that you take some time to understand a few things about quick weight loss strategies.  While there definitely are ways that you can see quick weight loss that stays off for good, more often than not, this isn’t quite how it plays out.

Let’s take a quick look at the main factors to consider.

Quick Weight Loss and Water Weight

So the very first thing that you must take into account is the fact that on many of those quick weight loss diets, much of the weight you are going to lose is going to be pure water weight.  When you instantly see the scale drop by a good 5-10 pounds over the course of 3-5 days, you know something is up here.

Since it takes 3500 calories to burn off a single pound, you can clearly see how impossible it would be to burn off 35,000 calories in just a week.  Even if you ate absolutely no food at all and exercised for three or four hours a day, you still would never accomplish this feat.

So if you’re losing weight this quickly, it’s important that you come to realize that it isn’t pure fat loss that you’re experiencing.  Failing to realize this could lead to disappointment down the road.

Quick Weight Loss and Muscle Mass Loss

Second, the next important thing that you need to remember when it comes to quick weight loss is that you’re not setting yourself up for muscle mass loss.   When you go on an extreme diet that contains very few calories and if this is coupled with lots of exercise, the chances of losing lean muscle mass are incredibly high and this will only come back to hurt you in the long run.

The problem with losing lean muscle mass is the fact that it’s going to mean a significantly slowed metabolic rate which then only makes it that much harder to continue to lose body fat.

Remember that your lean muscle mass is the calorie burning ‘engine’ of the body so if you’re not maintaining it while you diet, you’re going to really struggle in the long run.

Quick Weight Loss and Adherence

Now, the third bit thing that you must also take into considering is the impact of quick weight loss on your adherence rates.  Any time you go making dramatic changes to your eating habits it’s going to be hard to stick with and quick weight loss diets really amplify this factor.

Of you’re cutting out entire food groups on these quick weight loss diets or you’re eating such little food that hunger is always present in extreme amounts.

As you can imagine this becomes incredibly difficult to stick with and before you know it you’ve abandoned the program altogether.

This doesn’t bode well for long term fat loss so another reason why you really have to assess the quick weight loss method you’re using carefully. If it doesn’t seem like something you could follow for even a modest amount of time, you’re better off looking for a different approach instead.

Your Best Bet For Maintaining Quick Weight Loss

So what’s your best bet when it comes to maintaining a quick weight loss? Your best bet is finding a diet that does provide sufficient calories that you do feel like you could stick with over the course of time.

Try and find a diet plan that offers quite a bit of protein content in the day since this is the one macronutrient that is going to help save your lean muscle mass the most as well.

If you’re getting enough protein, the chances of you seeing that decreased metabolic rate will be much lower so this will have a huge influence on the results you get.

Finally, try and find a quick weight loss diet that also includes plenty of vegetables with modest amounts of fruit.  These are also very important for the nutrients and antioxidants they provide so are something that you absolutely do not want to exclude from your day.

If you can focus on all of these factors, then you can have successful quick weight loss that will stay off over the long term.  Focusing on wholesome foods as much as possible will always be the best quick weight loss strategy for not only good health but the best success as well.

5 Best Tips For Your Workout

I just received an email today from Frank – and in this email Frank wanted to know why he doesn’t have the power he needs to push heavy weights in his chest workout. It’s an interesting question, and I want to share it with you, because my answer will show you how to plan your workouts to get the most out of them!

This is a copy of Frank email (with his permission).

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Hi Martin,

First of all I would like to say thank you for all the good information you provide with your tips and your newsletter. I loved your tips and try to make all of them my new way of life.

I don’t know if you can answer to my question. When I train my chest, it’s very hard for me to be able to push heavy for my workout.  I’m pretty good with the rest of the body parts.

My split routine is like this:

Monday: Back/Core

Tuesday: Legs

Wednesday: Shoulders/Core

Thursday: Biceps

Friday: Triceps/Core

Saturday: Chest

Sunday: OFF

Do you think this is a good split for my routine?

I usually do 5 set of 3 exercises for each body part?

Each set is around 12-15 reps and I keep the same program for 12 weeks.

Thank you

Frank

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I can see right away that a few things are not right with Frank’s routine.

First, let’s talk about how Frank split his workouts to work different body parts. It depends on what you want to accomplish, but for nearly everyone, heavy strength workouts out 6 days a week is too much. I might do this when I’m training for a bodybuilding tournament, but otherwise I do my strength training 4 days a week and I stay in amazing shape all year round. Read the rest of this entry »

The Survival Guide to Overeating

Express Fat Loss Glutes and Legs Workout

Try this great workout for your Legs and Glutes. Ladies you will love it…But Gentleman you should try this one as well!

Exercise		Manual-Notes (if any)
Stair Climber Place your feet on the steps and adjust the resistance so that you are climbing at a fairly quick pace. Continue to climb but do not lean on the arms or support yourself with your arms. Trainer’s comments: Warm-Up	Sets Reps Weight/ Resistance Tempo Time 1 5 to 10 min.
One Leg Box Step Up 1. Stand to the right of the box. Place left foot on top of box. 2. Raise body using the left foot only until leg is extended 3. Lower to start position keeping the foot on top of box. Repeat with other leg according to exercise prescription. Trainer’s comments: You can add some Dumbbells to add more challenge.	Sets Reps Weight/ Resistance Tempo Time 1 10 each side 2 10 each side 3 10 each side
Supine Bridge and Hold 1. Lie on your back and your knees bent with your feet flat on the floor. 2. Press your heels into the ground so that your hips come up off the ground. 3. Hold this position for the suggested number of seconds and then return to the starting position. 4. Repeat for the required repetitions. Trainer’s comments:	Sets Reps Weight/ Resistance Tempo Time 1 12-15 2 12-15 3 12-15
Stationary Lunge on BOSU 1) Stand with feet hip width apart. Take left leg and step back approximately 2 feet standing on the ball of the foot. Place the other ball on top of a BOSU ball or balance board and balance disc. 2) Start position: Feet should be positioned at a staggered stance with head and back erect and straight in a neutral position. Place hands on hips. 3) Lower body by bending at right hip and knee until thigh is parallel to floor. Body should follow a straight line down towards the floor. 4) Return to start position. Trainer’s comments:	Sets Reps Weight/ Resistance Tempo Time 1 8-10 each side 2 8-10 each side 3 8-10 each side
Hip Hikes 1. Start by lying face down with your legs straight. 2. Slowly raise one leg keeping it straight using just your glute muscles. 3. Return to the starting position and repeat for the desired repetitions. Repeat with the other leg. Trainer’s comments:	Sets Reps Weight/ Resistance Tempo Time 1 15 each side 2 15 each side
Glute Kicks with Machine 1. Start by lying in the machine face down and placing one foot on the foot plate. 2. Slowly kick back with your foot until your leg is extended. 3. Return to the starting position and repeat for the desired repetitions. Repeat with the other leg. Trainer’s comments:	Sets Reps Weight/ Resistance Tempo Time 1 8-12 each side 2 8-12 each side 3 8-12 each side
Stair Climber Place your feet on the steps and adjust the resistance so that you are climbing at a fairly quick pace. Continue to climb but do not lean on the arms or support yourself with your arms. Trainer’s comments: Finish with 15 minutes cardio (Interval)30 seconds fast/ 30 seconds recovery and repeat	Sets Reps Weight/ Resistance Tempo Time 1 15 minutes

Top Reasons Why You Can’t Lose Body Fat

There are few things more frustrating than not being able to lose body fat.

You want to be slimmer and to tone your body, but your weight won’t budge.

Read the following 7 Weight Loss Blockers to discover what is standing in your way and how to quickly and easily begin your weight loss journey.

Blocker #1: Your Mind

Your mind is your number one ally when it comes to achieving your goals. However, until your mind has been programmed for success, it will do more to derail your efforts than to help you.

• Take a few moments each day to visualize yourself at your ideal weight. Imagine how it feels to look the way you’ve always wanted.
• Protect your mind from any negative self talk. If a negative thought comes to mind, immediately reject it.
• You want to be thin and fit, and yet you think of yourself as out-of-shape and fat. Re-program your mind to think of yourself as fit and attractive, and you will be well on your way toward achieving your goal.
• Give up the belief that you can’t achieve the body you’ve always dreamed of. See it first in your mind, and then in the mirror.

Blocker #2: Your Fear

Change makes most of us nervous – even if it is a change in the right direction. You may not be consciously aware of the fear you have of getting into shape. Until you conquer this fear, your weight loss efforts will be blocked by self sabotage.

Professional speaker and author, Anthony Robbins, has outlined three specific beliefs that you must have in order to conquer your fear and instantly create a lasting change.

• Believe that something MUST change. You can’t be wishy-washy about it. You can’t be considering it. You can’t even be pretty sure about it. You’ve got to be rock solid.
• Believe that YOU must change it. You can’t pass the buck of responsibility and expect to lose weight. It’s on your shoulders. Other people will prove to be great assets in your journey, but in the end you are the one who is going to make it happen. You have to want this weight loss enough to make it your personal mission.
• Believe you CAN change it. You may have failed in the past, but that doesn’t matter. When you put your mind to it, you’re able to do amazing things. Do you believe that you are capable of losing weight? Once you own the belief that you can, you’ll be unstoppable.

Blocker #3: Your Excuses

Your excuses for being out-of-shape are getting old. An excuse takes less immediate effort than an action, but in the long run the action taker always has the advantage. Don’t allow excuses to ruin your life any longer.

• Don’t skip out on your responsibilities with excuses, instead expect more from yourself.
• Focus on the big reason why you are losing the weight. Make a list of the benefits you’ll enjoy once you achieve your goal, and read them first thing each morning.
• Remember that you can only have two things in life: excuses or results. Which do you want?

Blocker #4: Your Commitment

How many times have you tried to lose weight, only to give up a week or two later? We live in a commitment-phobic world, so it’s no wonder that you routinely abandon your goals. If you truly want to lose weight then your commitment to the process is a must.

• The margin between success and failure is bridged by your commitment. Don’t give up until your goal has been achieved.
• Treat exercise with the same importance as a work meeting, and you’ll never skip it at the last minute. Find three available 60-minute time slots in your schedule and mark them (in pen) on your calendar. Now stick to your schedule.
• If you don’t give up, then you’ll never fail.

Blocker #5: Your Diet

If you consistently eat the wrong food, then you’re weight loss efforts will all be in vain. To put it bluntly, you need to stop eating junk. Processed foods, refined sugar and high fructose corn syrup do not belong in your diet if you want to be in great shape. Cut these items out of your diet and replace them with real whole foods like lean meats, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and fruits.

• Don’t eat processed foods. Even though processed foods are accepted by our society, they contain tons of chemicals and empty calories that will make you sick and fat.
• Fat contains twice the caloric density of protein and carbohydrates, so make sure to limit the amount that you consume. Eat lots of lean proteins and wholesome carbohydrates from plants and whole grains.
• Vegetables, whole grains, fruits, nuts and seeds are filled with fiber and antioxidants which are vital for healthy weight loss. Snack on these instead of packaged treats.

Blocker #6: Your Patience

It takes time to transform your body from fat to fit, even though you want it to happen overnight. Remind yourself that it took time to put the weight on, so it will take time to take the weight off. When you find your patience wavering, or when you encounter a frustrating plateau, do the following:

• Review your goal. Is it specific and measurable? Is it small and attainable, rather than monumental? Focus on your goal when the going gets tough.
• Make each workout a new experience. Challenge your body with different resistance, new exercises and a varied pace.
• Remember that anyone can have one great workout, but that won’t get you the body you want. The only way to achieve your goal is by consistently exercising and eating right, plain and simple.

Blocker #7: Your Support

People who exercise alone are less challenged, less accountable and are more likely to fail. It makes sense. Who would rush to the gym if no one is was waiting for them? Who would push themselves if no one was paying attention? Exercising alone is a recipe for disaster.

• Find a workout partner who is in better shape than you, or better yet, work with me, your local fitness expert, to guarantee your results.
• I am passionate about seeing you achieve results – don’t waste your time, energy and effort on mistakes.
• When you start a program with me, you suddenly have the upper hand on weight loss. I’ll be in your corner, coaching you each step of the way, keeping you accountable to workouts and giving you that dose of encouragement when you need it most.

Get serious about your results and begin the last weight loss program that you’ll ever do with the Express Fat Loss System.

Click Here and Start the Express Fat Loss System right now

7 Reasons Why You Need to Exercise This Summer

Summer has arrived and along with it the dreaded bathing suit season.

Whether you can’t wait to bare it all on the beach, or if you’re still working toward a weight loss goal, exercise is the key to looking and feeling great in summer months.

But why else should you exercise? Here are the top 7 reasons to exercise this summer:

Reason #1: To Melt Fat Away

The most coveted side effect of exercise is, of course, fat burn. The combination of a challenging exercise routine and a balanced meal plan is the best known way to lose fat. Here’s what losing fat feels like:

• Your pants become loose
• People around you begin to say that you look great
• A glance at yourself in the mirror makes you smile
• Your energy levels soar
• You feel amazing

Reason #2: To Alleviate Pain

Regular exercise is a great way to alleviate chronic muscle and joint pain. Persistent back pain can be lessened by strengthening your core, and you’ll protect yourself against injury. It amazes people when the chronic pain that they’ve lived with for years begins to fade after starting a regular exercise program.

Reason #3: To Increase Lean Tissue

More muscle is good for many reasons. You see, muscle requires many more calories each day than fatty tissue. In fact, one pound of muscle burns 30-50 calories each day at rest – compared to a measly 9 calories per pound of fat.

When you exercise your body composition will change to contain more lean tissue, thus resulting in extra calories burned while you sleep. What could be better than that?

Reason #4: To Stay Young

Tim D. Spector, a professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College in London, led a study on the effects of exercise on aging. The results were astounding. They found that exercise appears to slow the shriveling of the protective tips on bundles of genes inside cells (called telomeres), which means a slowing of the aging process.

“These data suggest that the act of exercising may actually protect the body against the aging process,” said Spector.

Here’s the study in a nutshell:

• Telomeres cap the ends of chromosomes and every time a cell divides, the telomeres get shorter.

• Once a telomere gets too short, that cell can no longer divide.

• Aging occurs as more and more cells reach the end of their telomeres and die. This results in weakened muscles, skin wrinkles, loss of eyesight and hearing, organ failure and slowed metal functioning.

• The study analyzed the telomeres from the white bloods cells of twins over a 10-year period. Telomere length was used as a marker for the rate of biological aging.

• It was found that the length of telomeres was directly related to that twin’s activity level. “There was a gradient,” Spector said. “As the amount of exercise increased, the telomere length increased.”

• People who did 100 minutes of weekly exercise had telomeres that looked like those from someone about 5-6 years younger than those who did 16 minutes of exercise each week.

• People who did 3 hours of vigorous exercise each week had telomeres that looked like those from someone about 9 years younger.

Reason #5: To Prevent or Control Type 2 Diabetes

Regular exercise helps to stabilize blood sugar levels. This is something that people with type 2 diabetes, or at risk for type 2 diabete, gain substantial benefits from.

Exercise improves the body’s use of insulin, and the related weight loss improves insulin sensitivity. Of course patients with type 2 diabetes need to get guidelines from their doctor before starting an exercise program.

Reason #6: To Lower Blood Pressure and Cholesterol Levels

Exercise has shown to lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels for these two reasons:

• Weak Heart Muscles pump little blood with lots of effort. By exercising you strengthen your heart muscles and train them to pump more blood with less effort. The stronger your heart is the less pressure will be exerted on your arteries.

• Exercise Increases HDL levels in some people – this means a decrease in your risk for heart disease. Other heart disease risk factors such as weight, diabetes and high blood pressure all show improvement with regular exercise.

Reason #7: To Feel Great

The first thing that clients tell me after starting an exercise program is how much better they feel.

Most didn’t even realize how bad they felt. It is easy to get used to feeling sluggish, achy and unmotivated.

Exercise boosts your energy levels and makes you feel amazing.

The quickest, easiest way to guarantee that you’ll meet your fitness and weight loss goals is to work one-on-one with a qualified fitness professional. You’ll be held accountable with your workouts and you’ll be instructed properly and shown techniques and strategies that will expedite your results.

What are you waiting for? Lace up your shoes and get moving!

How to Lose Your Belly Fat

Are you still trying to lose your belly fat by doing a ton of crunches every week? Sorry, but it doesn’t really work!

You know why? It’s because you can’t do any spot reduction. It’s that simple. Sure when you perform your crunches you will strengthen your abdominal muscles, but you’ll still have that layer of fat on top of your abs. They may be strong and firm, but you won’t be able to see them under the belly fat!  So what is the best way to burn your belly fat and show off those abs?

If you train your big muscle groups like your chest, back and legs you will burn more calories during your workout and therefore burn more fat. This is the best way to burn those calories – focus on the big muscle groups. I feel so sad when I see someone who’s overweight and they’re doing something like a triceps kick back or biceps curl for half of their workout.  If they could see how many calories they can burn with my approach with big muscles by comparison, they’d be watching their melt away.

If you really want to work your biceps, but you also want to burn fat, try adding a squat to your movement. Do a squat with your dumbbells at your side and when you come up perform your biceps curls. This works because you will burn more calories. You can try the same thing with the shoulder press.

Here’s a list of few exercises I like to perform because they engage 2 muscles groups (a big and a small).

1. Squat with overhead press
2. Squat with biceps curl
3. Lunges with Lateral Raise
4. Squat with Kick back
5. Chest Press on Ball with Hip Drive
6. Sumo Squat with dumbbell and Up right row

I could write more than 20 different exercises like this. Just use your imagination and I’m sure you can come up with something too. Try to mix a big muscle group (chest, back, legs) with a small muscle area (biceps, triceps, shoulders, calf). That’s all there is to it!

The Evil Supplement Industry

As you probably already know, the supplement industry is filled with phonies.

They use shady manufacturing processes. They use cheap ingredients. Heck, sometimes they don’t even use the ingredients they claim on the label!

And for awhile now I’ve been telling you about Prograde Nutrition. They are the real deal.

In fact, they’ve created a behind-the-scenes video that SHOWS you how they make their products. What other company does that?

Seriously, this is REALLY cool. You even get to see how they do micro-biological testing on the ingredients before they are even used. And if they don’t pass their tests then they do NOT make it into the bottle.
See for yourself here: Prograde Nutrition Video

Yours in health,

PS – I don’t know of any supplement company – other than Prograde Nutrition – that would have the guts to do this. And I’m sure their competitors aren’t too happy about it!
PPS – I am a Prograde Nutrition partner