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You were such a stud back in college. After four years of being a high school athlete, along with some Ultimate Frisbee in college, even all that cheap beer didn’t have much impact on your body. Now you’re a thirty-something, and every time you look in the mirror, it seems like your gut is hanging out over your belt just a little further. You’re not sure, but you think you spotted the beginning of a double-chin.

“What happened to my lean, mean fighting machine body?” you ask the reflection in the mirror. The answer’s simple, really, and if you search your soul, you already know it. Long days in the office, together with long commutes on crowded highways, lead you to plop down on the couch at the end of the day. It also doesn’t hurt that you’re 35 but eating like you have the metabolism of an 18 year-old.

Welcome to middle age.

Guys, don’t worry, not all is lost. You can get back that studly body when you learn how to lose weight fast with fat burning exercises and good nutrition. We’ll focus on good nutrition in a subsequent article. For now, let’s look at three sure-fire ways to burn off that gut.

1. Hit the weights.

When you lift weights the right way, you’ll definitely burn off the fat. What is the “right way”? In essence, the right way to lift weights is not to lift weights like a wimp. You want to push your limits every time you go to the gym, because stretching beyond your current capacity is what leads your body to build muscle.

Your body builds muscles when your current muscle tissues get micro-tears in them. Seeing that the muscle wasn’t up to the job you asked it to do, your body says, “Hmmm, I guess we’d better add some more muscle tissue in that area.” In other words, the phrase “No pain, no gain” is right on the mark.

Guess what? Muscles require energy to function. That energy comes from either the calories you just ate, or the calories you’ve stored. Once your muscles run out of the calories you just ate, they’ll start using stored energy – fat. This is how weight lifting leads to fat loss.

2. Try circuit training.

Circuit training combines resistance training, usually in the form of lifting weights, with fat burning aerobics. An example of simple circuit training would be to run on a treadmill for ten minutes, do bicep curls for three minutes, run for ten more minutes, do lunges for three minutes, and so forth, until all the different parts of the body have been exercised.

Baylor University, the University of New Mexico, and The Cooper Institute have all studied the effectiveness of circuit training, and the results of these studies have been a good endorsement of circuit training. The studies showed circuit training to be time efficient, comprehensive, and excellent for cardiovascular health. Best of all, it doesn’t necessarily require expensive equipment or joining a gym. You can create your own circuit training workouts and do them at home, at a school track, or elsewhere.

3. Get outside.

Do treadmills and exercise bikes bore you? Do you get the willies when you picture yourself on a stair machine? If so, then don’t keep forcing yourself to go to the gym – it’s a recipe for burnout. There are plenty of fat burning exercises you can do in the great outdoors. Here are a few of the best:

• Rock climbing – Rock climbing requires your whole body to stay engaged and active, leading to burn up to 400 calories for every thirty minutes you climb.
• Rowing – Rent a kayak and head up to the mountains for one heck of a fat burning workout.
• Cross-country skiing – Many people put on weight during the winter because they don’t like the gym and don’t feel they can work outside. That’s nonsense! Cross-country skiing is an excellent cardio workout that can burn 330 calories in half an hour.
• Mountain biking – Pushing yourself up those hills and jumping logs is a great way to burn fat.
• Running – This last one is a classic that can be done by anyone, anywhere. The only drawback to running is that it does take a toll on knees and ankles.

How to lose weight need not be a mystery. With the right combination of the fat burning exercises listed above, and healthy, unprocessed foods, almost anyone can lose weight without having to wait.

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If you’re stressing about the tides of that ocean of lard on your belly not receding, you might want to consider the possibility that what you’re doing wrong may not be your exercise or your fat burning diet, but your stress itself.  For most people, anxiety itself can actually lead to increased weight gain.  If you’re thinking to yourself, doesn’t anxiety speed up your metabolism and suppress your appetite?  It does initially, but the hormone cortisol is released by the adrenal gland as your body’s natural way of calming itself down, which works well until it gives you an inevitable spike in appetite.  Cortisol itself actually converts fats and protein into glucose to be burned off, but it’s this impending spike in appetite that is the reason why many people gain weight.

The first solution to this may be to get anxiety medication, but many of them can exacerbate weight gain themselves.  For instance, Paxil and most other SSRIs can induce carb-cravings and slow down metabolism.  Instead, you should consider non medicinal methods of anxiety “exercises.” Not only are they less expensive, but have been proven to help with a litany of other ailments as well.

The most inexpensive one out there is probably Progressive Muscle Relaxation.  PMR is based upon the fact that muscle tension and anxiety are directly related.  The idea is that if you tense and then release all the muscles in your body, it will work in reverse, signaling to your brain that you are in a relaxed state.  It only takes around 15 minutes a day, and consists of simply tensing and relaxing all the muscles in your body (skipping the ones that aren’t “problem” muscles).  Although PMR only cures anxiety temporarily, many people believe that habitual use can lead to the ability to “turn off” the anxiety just by imagining the exercises.

If you have a little more money to spend, you can also try biofeedback.  Biofeedback focuses on strengthening the connection between the body and the mind just like PMR, but with a more permanent intent.  Many biofeedback kits come with a headset and software that monitors physiological functions such as heart beat, sweat production and respiration.  The goal of this training is to condition your mind to consciously alter the rate of these functions, leading to a change in the disorder that they are a symptom of.  Biofeedback has been proven in studies to not only reduce anxiety, but ulcers and hypertension as well.

Try some of these exercises, and even if you don’t notice your gut getting smaller, the prevention from future ailments that these exercises offer make it more than worthwhile.

Byline:
Eric Hirota is a personal trainer at LAVA Sport & Fitness located in San Diego, CA. He specializes in plyometrics and lowering body fat percentage.

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The acai berry has been subjected to a considerable amount of negative press, particularly in regards to its use as a weight loss supplement. There are two main reasons behind this; many scammers have elected to use the acai berry as a backdrop for their con games while a huge number of retailers have claimed the acai berry can do unimaginable things which no single food, medicine or supplement ever could.

The problem is that people have purchased an acai berry weight loss supplement under the impression that 10 pounds will be lost in 10 days, or 3 stone in 3 months, with little need for any other effort. However, these outlandish claims couldn’t be further from the truth, meaning that when people don’t see these expected results, they shout about it and give the acai berry bad press.

The truth is that the acai berry is simply a fruit; albeit a very nutritious one. In addition to how it can aid in weight loss, it can also lower blood pressure and cholesterol and help in the prevention of cancer and heart disease.

However, acai berry weight loss supplements are not miracle workers. The high levels of vitamins and antioxidants present in the acai berry will help to improve a person’s energy levels, thereby giving them more motivation and energy to exercise. However, the person still needs to do their part and get themselves up and moving – the acai berry alone will do very little.

The other additional benefit to acai berry weight loss supplements is their high level of fibre. Fibre is healthy, filling and low in calories. By eating a diet rich in fibre the body will start to feel full quicker and stay that way for longer, therefore reducing the overall amount eaten.

It’s also important to take any acai berry weight loss supplement in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions. The better of these supplements will be very high in vitamin content, and an overdose of certain vitamins can cause health problems. While it might be tempting to consume more of an acai berry weight loss supplement than is recommended, it is unlikely to have a significant additional effect, and could incur a number of unwanted side effects.

In addition, some acai berry weight loss supplements contain a hefty amount of calories. For example, the powder that is produced for mixing into drinks can contain as many as 80 calories a portion. It is integral that any dieters bear this in mind, since should the food eaten not be monitored carefully, the supplement could actually result in weight gain as opposed to weight loss.

Simply put, never expect an acai berry weight loss supplement to do all the work itself – it won’t. Dieters must eat properly and monitor their calories, in addition to exercising. The acai berry can offer that small boost that will help a dieter successfully lose weight, and it can significantly improve the overall, general health of the individual. But like everything else in life, acai berry weight loss supplements cannot work miracles. It is only a select combination of factors that are able to lead to successful, safe and long-lasting weight loss.

This post was written by James Harper on behalf of Which Acai Berry? James writes on a number of topics including health, fitness and diet.

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So, you decided to get serious about getting in shape and you bought a treadmill, huh? And now, it sits in the corner of your living room, looking more like a technologically advanced drying rack than a piece of exercise equipment – right? Maybe you’re not using your new treadmill because you just don’t know what to do with it, or how to make it exciting. After all, when you really think about it, is there anything exciting about walking or running in place while you stare at the same spot of peeling wallpaper for 20 or 30 long minutes? Let’s face it: You need some spice in your treadmill life. Here are six tips for making those treadmill workouts more interesting, thereby motivating you to actually use it.

1. Interval training.

Want to burn some serious fat? Try interval training. In interval training, you vary the speed at which you walk or run. You might start at about 60% of your top speed, then jump after a few minutes to 95% of your top speed, then slow back down to 60% again, and so forth for the duration of your workout. You’ll burn more calories this way than you will be running 30 minutes at 60% of your full speed.

To do interval training, check the settings on your machine – there might already be an interval training setting. If you have a simple, old-school machine, you can create your own interval training changes through song selections: Classic rock might mean 60% speed, then you might throw in some techno to speed things up.

2. Circuit training.

Mix up interval training with some circuit training. Start on your treadmill for five minutes, then hop off and go to push-ups, crunches, lunges, or free weights for one very intense minute. Hop back on the machine and go hard again for five or ten minutes, then back to the push-ups, etc. Circuit training will definitely keep you from getting bored.

3. Television makes everything better.

On the one hand, it’s a little Brave New World creepy when you walk into a gym and hear only the whir of exercise machines while everyone’s eyes are plastered onto television monitors. On the other hand, watching TV or a movie while you work out makes the time go by quickly, and stops you from thinking too much about how tired you’re starting to get.

4. Train with heart.

One of the best ways to make sure that your treadmill workouts are effective is to monitor your heart rate. To hit the fat burning zone, your heart needs to be beating at 70% of its maximum level. To calculate your maximum heart rate, start by subtracting your age from 220. In other words, if you are 30 years old, your maximum heart rate is about 190, with a fat burning zone at 133 to 152. Some machines have heart rate monitors built into them. For those that don’t you can easily track your heart rate by counting your pulse for ten seconds, then multiplying the number you get by six.

One training technique is to try to work in that 70 – 80% zone for as long as you can. Once you get tired, slow down for a few minutes. Then, ratchet it back up to 75 – 85% and see how long you can go at that pace.

5. Take a hike.

Rebecca Rusch won her third straight mountain biking championship in 2009 in a unique, 24-hour solo competition. She also rock climbs, competes in canoe competitions through dangerous straits, and has earned the nickname “Queen of Pain.” She also uses a treadmill, but she likes to keep that challenging, too. She’ll start at 3.5 miles per hour with the belt flat, then increases the incline each minute until the grade hits 5%. For three minutes, she’ll stay at that 5% grade, raising and lowering the belt every two minutes until she’s been going for 25 minutes. For the last five minutes, she decreases both the speed and the incline for a cool down. For someone who trains to go up and down mountains, “hiking” in this way is an excellent training method.

6. Keep mixing it up.

Let’s close with this bit of advice: Keep mixing those workouts up, never allowing yourself to fall too deep into a treadmill workout rut. Once you’re in a rut, you’ll start to burnout, and once you burnout, you’ll give up. Therefore, try out each of the five methods listed above, and keep mixing them up to keep your interest level and motivation level high.

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The compound that is responsible for the accumulation of fats in the body is cholesterol which is produced in the liver and when the amount of fats is huge in the body, it is likely to face many complications that may be difficult to handle. It is therefore better to deal with the problem before things get worse. Here are a few foods that can help burn the excess fat from the body.

Oatmeal
This one of the best fat burning foods as this contains a huge amount of soluble fiber in it and this does not cause the insulin spike and so that the body does not store the fat. The rate of fat burning is also high when you have an oatmeal breakfast everyday.

Nuts
Nuts like almonds and walnuts make you feel fuller and help in controlling one’s appetite. Though they are highly useful in burning fats, it is important that you consume only within limits else the calorie content in your body may increase. This is the purpose that nuts are included in the high protein diet.

Beetroot
The entire focus of the beetroot is on the liver and kidneys. They help in driving the fat out of the body and cleanse the blood cells and keep the deposition of fat in them at bay.

Carrots
Just as the beetroot, carrots also play an important role in reducing the fat content of the body and the carotene which is a form of vitamin A is responsible for the cleaning out of fat from the body.

Garlic
Garlic is known as one of the best cholesterol lowering foods and the promotion of a vigorous action of peristalsis, a kind of contraction of the muscles which eliminates the excessive fat. The most advantageous part is that the loss of weight happens quite quickly.

Lettuce
The green leafy vegetables are one of the best sources of the soluble fiber that can aid in the removal of fat from the body. The minerals like iron and magnesium helps in the better functioning of the immune system and also increases the metabolism rate due to which the fat is lost.

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