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September 27, 2007

The What If Questions

Do you have fears and doubts of achieving your fitness goals
Do you have the desire yet the voice inside of you tells you that it is impossible, too hard and it will never happen.

Listen to this podcast to ask yourself The What If Questions to empower you to stay focused and on track.

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September 21, 2007

How To Lose Belly Fat For Women


How To Lose Belly Fat For Women

How To Lose Belly Fat For Women
By Heather Picken


Belly fat is the most frequently asked question by women, and of course they want the fastest and quickest way to lose it. There are many articles and diets out there that claim they can help you lose unwanted belly fat but it can be very overwhelming. I have been in the fitness industry for 10 years and have worked with real women that have struggled with these issues. Let me say it can get a bit complicated then just going on a diet. Women do struggle more than men to lose this. You must be patient in the process as it is not a linear process.

First off, I don't like the word "diet" it sounds very negative, and is short-lived. Most women that go on fad diets gain the weight back and then some, which contributes more to losing belly fat. What you first must understand is that if you want to really lose the belly fat you must adapt a healthy life-style. You also must mentally prepare yourself for this and feel you are ready to change. It is a decision to be committed rather than just interested. Committed means you do what it takes, and interested is that you will only do just a little and end up frustrated because you didn't get the results you wanted.

The first thing you want to do is look at your nutrition. The main thing to be concerned about is calories. Too little calories and the belly fat will not come off and the same thing for too many. You need to be in the right calorie deficit to lose belly fat. You might be thinking of what type of plan you should be on, but the real secret is how many calories you are taking in for the day, but also make sure that protein is set up to your daily requirement. This can vary anywhere from 1-1.5 grams per body weight or some like to go by their lean muscle mass.

The second thing you need to get is fish oils (6 grams daily) this will help you lose fat. You actually need the right amount and types of fat to lose the belly fat. Most programs can show you how to take weight off, put if your serious about losing the belly fat you need to focus on fat loss not weight loss for permanent results. As you progress your body will plateau and you actually have to keep adjusting your metabolism. This is done mainly through nutrition.

Believe it or not sometimes you have to go up in calories in order to lose more belly fat. I know this may sound counterintuitive but it's true. Do this very carefully, otherwise you can end up worse off than before. I recommend hiring a highly skilled fitness professional that knows how to do this. They must understand nutrition beyond the scope of what most people think.

Thirdly, is your training program. This will consist of both weight training and cardio. I find many women doing cardio the wrong way. Forget about long sessions on steady state cardio, these can actually produce too much cortisol, which leads to belly fat. Many women are exercising this way to lose belly fat, when in fact they are being counterproductive in their exercise. The right way to do cardio to lose belly fat is interval and HIIT (high intensity interval training). These are short bursts that can be done outside or on a cardio machine. For example of HIIT would be 20 seconds of a workload followed by 30 seconds recovery then repeat the cycle for 8-12 times then perform a moderate cool down. Intervals will be longer in both work and rest segments. When it comes to losing belly fat, weight training is very important and you want to keep a variety of reps schemes.

Doing heavy sets one week (6-8 reps), and the following higher rep sets (10-15) is a good way to mix things up. There are many ways you could put together a weight training program, but I want to stress that you need to have variety and don't think doing heavy weights and less reps is going to get rid of the belly fat either. Just to keep things simple, know that you need to vary your program. Another key to getting rid of belly fat is intensity, if you are working out and you are not sweating an breathing hard then you need to push yourself harder. Dont' waste time when you are working out, rather keep your sessions intense and keep rest brief in between sets (45 seconds- 2 minute rest). This will vary depending on your program.

The forth component is tracking your progress. Take your body fat every 2 weeks, along with measurements, pictures, and try on a pair of pants that are too small. Things can fluctuate so you might have the measurements read the same but your pants feel looser. I find that by doing all of these things gives you a more accurate picture. Even the mirror can be deceiving as you look at yourself everyday, water weight can give you the wrong impression of progression. If you are not changing after every 3 weeks, you need to change your program. Women tend to stay on the same program for a long time and wonder why things aren't working. Like I said in the beginning, losing belly fat is not a linear process. You're body will plateau, so you need to take the necessary steps in tweaking your program.

Lastly, but most importantly is conditioning your mind to stay motivated. For some reason this doesn't get addressed the way it should. Everything you do is a mental process and that goes with losing the unwanted belly fat too.


Heather Picken, helps women 30+ all over the world with the surest and fastest way to lose unwanted belly fat & inches. She is the creator of the revolutionary fat-burning system "6-Week Fat-Burning & Instant Motivational System and Co-Founder of http://www.fatlossforwomen.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Heather_Picken
http://EzineArticles.com/?How-To-Lose-Belly-Fat-For-Women&id=587538




Can Women Target Specific Body Parts For Weight Loss

Can Women Target Specfic Body Parts For Weight Loss?
By Heather Picken


Here is a recent fat-burning question that I got asked:

Q. I've heard that you can't
target your weight loss to a specific area, but then I also hear about programs to do precisely that. Which is true?

A. You will see many program that say they target how to lose belly fat, slim down hips, and tone arms.
The truth is that you can't spot reduce these areas.

All women have different body types and some store more body fat around their stomach, while others may store more fat around their back. You can lose belly fat, or other areas that you want to target but you can't just magically do this. If you are on the right belly blasting program or whatever you want to call it, then your body will start to take shape in those areas.

However, if you store more fat around your stomach that is the last place it will come off, and again with the right program you will eventually see it come off. Also, if you have a smaller build on top, you can do program specialization. Part of the solution is to do more exercises for upper body to balance the rest of your body's symmetry. A successful program design should comprise of the following:

Goal setting action plan
Fat loss nutrition plan
Weight training program for the week
Fat Loss Tools to monitor and track your program (this is very important when tweaking your program)
Motivational strategies

The key is to seek out a plan that incorporates all of these to get that six pack abs or slimmer hips and thighs.


Heather Picken, helps women 30+ all over the world with the surest and fastest way to lose unwanted body fat & inches, with her online fat loss community for women at http://www.fatlossforwomen.com She is also the creator of the revolutionary fat-burning system, "6-Week Fat-Burning & Instant Motivational System"

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Heather_Picken
http://EzineArticles.com/?Can-Women-Target-Specfic-Body-Parts-For-Weight-Loss?&id=670309




September 5, 2007

7 Fat-Burning Oatmeal Recipes

by Heather Picken


One of my favorite fat-burning foods that will help women burn more fat, especially excess belly fat is oatmeal.

That is why I wanted to share some of my quick and tasty recipes for those of you who don't have a lot of time but want to slim down and tone up.

If you incorporate oatmeal every day in your fat-burning menu you will start to notice your belly shrinking rather than eating a bagel, toast, or sugary cereal. Oatmeal also is a great source of fiber which we need in order for our bodies to run like clockwork.

The following recipes can be prepared by stove top or microwave use 1/2 cup of water when cooking.

Peanut butter Oatmeal

1/2 cup oatmeal (use quick or slow cooking oats without sugar)
1 tbl. of all natural peanut butter
microwave or cook on stove top stir in peanut butter

Pumpkin Oatmeal

1/2 cup oatmeal (use quick or slow cooking oats without sugar)
dash of cinnamon dash of nutmeg
2 tablespoons of unsweetened pumpkin
1tbl of powdered non-fat milk

Egg Oatmeal
1/2 cup oatmeal (use quick or slow cooking oats without sugar)
dash of cinnamon
1 packet of splenda
mix in 4 egg white while cooking oats

Maple Nut Oatmeal
1/2 cup oatmeal (use quick or slow cooking oats without sugar)
Stir in syrup after cooking and top off with almonds
1 Tablespoon of no-sugar syrup 8 almonds

Get the other recipes here

If you would like the complete fat burning recipes e book go to http://www.fatburningrecipesforwomen.com

Best Fat Burning Workout: Can I Use Weights?

The following was take from www.fatlossforwomen.com community

Posted by
stef1976

The gym that I work out in has many different types of group classes that involve circuit training and I notice that all of them use a variety of equipment besides weights. Is it possible to develop a training circuit using all weights?

Stefanie
Posted by
Chaney Weiner

Great question Stef... The answer to your question is, yes you can develop a circuit using just weights. When you say, using just weights, are you talking about using dumbbell and barbell exercises only? The reason I mention this is because most gyms now have a pulley and/or dual pulley system that utilizes weights in the form of a weight stack and you can do weight exercises with those as well. I highly recommend using these pulley systems along with dumbbell and barbell exercises.

Check out these 3 articles:

http://www.fatlossforwomen.com/members/113.cfm
http://www.fatlossforwomen.com/members/126.cfm
http://www.fatlossforwomen.com/members/129.cfm

If you have any questions about anything in those articles feel free to post them here. Also, check out our exercise programs section here We are in the process of adding specific exercise programs to this section that include the very thing you are asking about.

Chaney

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