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Weight Loss Exercise

Starve Your Distractions – Feed Your Focus

I have had lots of problems over the years just trying to stay on track. You know, really staying focused.

The problem is that you start a new eating program, or exercise program, or any kind of self improvement program and almost immediately your ego wants to take over and make better whatever it is that you have just started.

I started a couch to 5k with my daughter last Summer and of course it is easy at the beginning, the plan is to just get you out there. Right away I wanted to start on week three instead of week one.

“We are too good to start at the beginning” I told my daughter. Fortunately she knew better and had us start getting the habit going instead of worrying about the mileage right off the bat.

The problem is that you start a new eating program, or exercise program, or any kind of self improvement program and almost immediately your ego wants to take over and make better whatever it is that you have just started.

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Weight Loss Exercise

Weight Loss Guarantee? Can There Really Be Such A Thing?

Are there any weight loss guarantees? I know that what we are all looking for is a plan that we know will tell us that once you start you can not fail.

This does not seem like a lot to ask but let’s see why I do not believe that it is possible.

First of all there are so many diets, actually there is a diet that stresses everything out there and at the same time there are so many diets because there is no shortage of people looking to try the latest diet or weight loss scheme.

The best way to see why there is not guarantee is to look at what the regular cycle of a diet is.

How Diets Fail

weight-lossHere is usually what happens.

You find out about a diet from a friend, then another friend mentions the same diet, you try the diet and are initially excited, lose weight the first week, don’t lose weight the second or third weeks, tweak the diet for the fourth week but if it does not work then you tank it.

So why does the diet fail?

Well for two reasons. Diets fail because they are not sound or because we cheat thinking that we know better than the diet.

Let’s deal with the first problem – the bad diet. Some diets are just terrible. Eat nothing but lettuce and lose weight, or eat 500 calories a day and lose weight.

Come on, just because the diet is some kind of sacrifice does not mean that it will work, and even if it does who wants to sacrifice for their whole life.

The problem with the single or restricted type diets is that they are not a lifestyle choice and more often than not the restriction of calories is going to force your body to slow your metabolism and this will make it even harder to lose weight.

Ruining a Good Diet

OK, now the second part, cheating on a good diet. We all like to have our sweets or other weakness type foods. When you get on a new diet you will initially follow it very closely but as time goes on you will go to restaurants, substitute a meal with Subway, or in some other way ruin the point of the diet.

Not only do we do the cheating but sometimes in a quest to make things work even better we will reduce our food intake or increase our exercise and ruin things that could have worked well.

So here is the real scoop. No matter what you do with a diet you need to look at the diet before the hype

(this coming from the guy promoting the great lose 9 pounds in 11 days diet)

we need to look at what the diet consists of and why it will work. Although there are superfoods and diet supplements always coming out you need to understand how your body loses and what your goals are.

If your goal is simply to lose then maybe some kind of diet pill will help you drop some but if your goal is to lose and also to improve your health and lifestyle then it would be a great idea to look at a good diet that allows you to exercise and get in better shape at the same time.

A Weight Loss Guarantee?

When you want to lose the real way then you need to do two things. You need to lower the calories that you are eating forever.

That means that if you are gaining eating 2000 calories a day then you would need to drop that to 1500, remember everyone is different.

The other thing that you need to do is increase the number of calories that you are expending with running a marathon at the top end of the calorie burning scale and watching TV while creating the perfect body indent on the couch as the bottom end of the calorie burn rate.

So this is it. If you are wondering why there has been no guarantee on losing weight you can see why. It all comes down to cheating on good diets in one way or another and having diet fads and bad diets in the mix. Choose well and you will have a better chance at losing the weight that you want.

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Weight Loss Exercise

Strength Training Workouts

I am not sure that I have really stressed the importance of strength training workouts in the past quite enough so today I will go into a bit more detail on how doing strength training workouts can help you reach your fitness goals.

Strength Training Workouts are one of the two major kinds of workouts with Cardio workouts being the other.

The main reasons to do strength training workouts

  • To gain muscle
  • To lose fat
  • To increase metabolism
  • To improve stamina

The list above if nothing else will tell you that if you are not doing them now, that you should at least start thinking about ways to do strength training workouts.

Strength Training Workouts to Gain Muscle

How to Lift Weights Properly for Strength Training

How to Lift Weights Properly for Strength Training

Of course we all know that lifting weights will over time help you gain muscle. If you do not believe this look at any Olympic or pro athlete and it should be obvious. The key is the strength training workouts.

To gain muscle it is important to do lifting sets to failure. Your muscles really will only get bigger and stronger by being pushed to the maximum and then your body knows to increase the size and relative strength so that you will not have this problem in the future.

If you have read my articles before you probably already know that I look at the human body as a machine that will change based on stimuli. If your body does not need more strength it will remain the same, if your body needs more strength it will adapt.

Strength Training Workouts to Lose Fat

There are two ways that your body will use workouts to lose fat. You probably already know that any exercise will force your body to burn calories and this calorie burn will force your body to burn fat and therefore make you lower your fat level IF you keep the amount of food that you eat at the same or lower.

The other way that you will lose fat by doing workouts is by elevating the amount of muscle that you have. As you gain muscle you will need to burn more calories in order to keep the amount of muscle that you have and to help maintain your body as a whole.

Strength Training to Increase Metabolism

This kind of goes together with the previous point and that is that your body will work to keep your body healthy. You have a base metabolic rate, the rate at which your body just burns calories at rest and for many hours after a tough workout you will be able to burn the calories at a faster rate at rest.

One important method that your strength training will help you to increase your metabolism is to do sets right after each other. This is known as interval training or supersetting. Do one set of bench, to failure, and then do lat pulldowns without any rest between sets. This is the basics behind interval training. The bench press works all of the chest, front shoulders, and triceps, the lat pulldowns are only able to be done because the pack, backs of shoulders and biceps are fresh and able to do a set to failure.

This interval training is a very popular way to lose these days and by doing this you get rid of the boredom that many people feel by doing hour upon hour of cardio workouts.

Strength Training to Improve Stamina

Doing strength training will build stamina. Often when we are doing things over the weekend, yardwork, playing with the kids, going for walks and other low energy type exercise we find that by the end of the day we are really tired. One thing that I have always found , although I can not seem to find any studies on this, is that by doing strength training you can move from activity to activity during the day and do not get tired very easily.

Start your Strength Training Workouts Today

I have been doing strength training for years and I know that many years ago it was just so that I could get big and strong, truly ego enriching activities but now I do strength training workouts to get strong, lean and coordinated. I love doing cardio and like the pump that I get from letting the endorphins really rage within my system and make me feel great but those workouts give me a sense of control and well being that I do not get from Cardio.

Look through the articles that I have written throughout this blog and see how your can easily do lifting at home and get these and other benefits or join a gym and learn more about building muscle. But for now remember that one of the critical parts of your fitness needs to be strength training workouts

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