Why Calorie Counting Doesn’t Work for Weight Loss...

Most people believe that calories are the "enemy", since eating excess calories leads to excess fat, right?   That’s why most people believe that the fastest way to lose weight is to cut way back on calories each day.

After all, if a dieter is eating 2,500 calories per day and they decide to cut back to 1,500 calories per day – then obviously those extra 1,000 calories have to result in weight loss, right?

Well, actually this is not exactly true.

In fact, if you try to cut your calories too much (via starving yourself and skipping meals) then you'll quickly reach a dieting "plateau" (a point where the scale refuses to drop any lower no matter how little your are eating).

Firstly, let’s talk about how the average person begins a new diet...

The scenario usually sounds something like this...

One day you look in the mirror and see that your clothes are fitting tighter than normal, and you look more overweight than normal. ...And on this day you get “angry” with yourself, you’re angry with what you see in the mirror – and you decide that you’re going to lose weight no matter what it takes.

You are filled with lots of motivation and anger on this day, and you feel determined to do whatever it takes to get slimmer.
So what's the first thing you do?

...You begin skipping meals and cutting way back on calories in an attempt to starve yourself thinner, since you're convinced that calories are the enemy.

Anyway, the above scenario is how you begin your “starvation diet.”

On the first day of dieting you feel so “motivated” to lose weight that you decide to skip breakfast.

Unfortunately, this motivation doesn't last for long, because after a few hours your hunger begins making you feel weak -- because your body is not accustomed to "skipping meals" like this, and your body is not accustomed to being without calories for so long.

Anyway, by the time lunchtime arrives you’re so hungry (and weak) that you feel absolutely miserable --- but yet you bravely tell yourself that you can handle this diet (because after all, you certainly don’t want to feel like a quitter).

So you perhaps have a piece of fruit for lunch (or perhaps another small food item instead), since you're still convinced that you can starve yourself thinner.

Finally, hours later when dinnertime arrives you’re so miserable and hungry that you have a major headache – and this is the moment when you finally begin to realize that starving yourself might not be such a good idea after all.

After this first day of starving yourself you feel horrible, but you’re determined to stick to your diet since you don't want to be a quitter so soon -- so you’ll likely hold out for another few days on this diet.

Or, if you are particularly brave then you may even hold out for a week or two.

However, regardless of how long you actually hold out -- you won't get any slimmer and the final result will still be the same.

You see, even after two weeks of starving yourself you won’t have achieved any serious weight loss at all.  In fact, your body will still look the same when you look in the mirror.

Why is this true?

This is true because most of the weight lost during a “starvation diet” is just water weight, and not real fat loss.

You must remember that any “water weight” lost during a starvation diet will be gained back immediately when you stop dieting and start eating normally again.

Also, whenever you starve yourself you cause a “hidden” factor to come into play...

You see, whenever you starve yourself your body will begin burning fewer calories each day.

For instance, let’s say that you normally eat about 3,,000 calories per day.

....But then you suddenly cut way back on calories -- so that you're now eating only 1,000 calories per day.

Guess what happens?

Even though you’re eating 2,000 fewer calories per day your body will begin burning 2,000 fewer calories per day – so in reality your weight will remain the same even though you’re eating 2,000 fewer calories per day.

When this happens the scale will stop going down regardless of how little you are eating each day, and this is known as a weight loss “plateau.”

This is why most starvation dieters cannot make the scale go down anymore after just two weeks of dieting. They all hit a “plateau” where the scale just refuses to go down any further, no matter how little they are eating each day.

Now you know why you’ve always failed when trying to starve yourself in the past, since it’s just not possible to lose weight by starving yourself.

The truth is that “serious” weight loss can never be achieved by starvation dieting.

Serious weight loss can only be achieved by giving your body the right types of calories at the correct times each day, which is something that we talk about below...

Your body is actually like a big “engine” -- and the truth is that your body needs all 3 types of calories (protein, carbs, and fat) to some degree.

To begin losing weight fast we recommend using the new Fat Burning Diet from Fat Loss 4 Idiots -- because it does not require any calorie counting (it's one of the only diets in the world which forces fast weight loss without the need to count calories).

You can begin this new diet right here.

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Eating a Raw Food Diet

Eating a raw food diet is essentially a way of eating that does not involve the heating of foods. Part of the premise lies in the fact that heating foods above 118 degrees fahrenheit destroys their inherent food enzymes, a vast majority of vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and their all important life force.

Chemical Changes in Cooked Foods

Heating foods radically changes their chemical properties making them less "recognizable" in once ingested. For instance, heating an egg renders into a solid mass whereas it began in a liquid, gelatinous. This occurs because the heat of frying or boiling denatures the protein structure within the egg, essentially making it more solid. As a result, this heated egg is now much more difficult for the human digestive tract to break down.

Another process that occurs with cooking foods is known as glycosylation. This is when sugar literally attaches to protein molecule. Glycosylation has been linked to the premature breakdown of the body's cell and many other undesirable health conditions.

The Importance of Raw Food Enzymes

The reason that the natural food enzymes are so important is that our bodies have only a limited ability to produce its own enzymes. Bear in mind that our bodies produce metabolic and digestive enzymes. The latter are used to breakdown foods whereas the former are essential to every single reaction in the body. But the problem is that we only produce a finite number.

When you eat cooked foods, you force your body to use more of its own enzyme reserves to digest them. Overtime, this is just like continually withdrawing money from your bank account without making any deposits. Eventually, you will run out of enzymes!

When you have no more enzymes, you no longer have any life - it's that simple.

Eating raw foods help you make more "deposits" into your enzyme bank account, allowing your body to preserve its own precious enzymes for more important uses such as breaking down problematic cells, immune complexes, and more.

What Can You Eat on a Raw Food Diet?

A raw food diet is mainly vegan for the simple reason that it isn't healthy or advised to eat raw animal products. Therefore, a raw diet contains no dairy, meat, or other animal products. Other than that, the choices are endless. Most raw foodists have diets that consist of vegetables, fruit, nuts, and seeds.

The amazing part is that the possibilities are truly endless with raw foods. Many people think of not being able to eat meat or wheat as a huge limiting factor. But the fact remains that processed, dead foods are dangerous to your body and there are tons of delicious and nourishing raw food recipes that will give you so much more than you can possibly imagine.

My Own Raw Food Experience

I started following a predominantly raw food diet in 2007 and it literally changed my life. From improved skin complexion to having more energy and mental clarity, I can't tell you how much better you can look and feel by eating the way nature intended for you to eat.

Growing up on dead foods like wheat, dairy, and meat literally destroyed my body and at the young age of 17, I lost my hair to Alopecia as a result of my immune system which had gone hay-wire and began attacking itself. Again, this was caused by years of abusing my body with foods that it was allergic to.

However, since eating a raw food diet, my health has never been better. My hair has returned (although I keep my head shaved because I like it like that now) and I have more energy than a teenager on red bull!

That's why I wrote Eating for Energy. If you'd like to experience the same kind of health and vitality then I urge to make the raw food diet more apart of your lifestyle!

About the Author

Yuri Elkaim is one of the world’s leading holistic nutrition and health experts. If you want to lose weight and live your healthiest and most energetic life ever, then you can learn more about his raw food diet book, Eating for Energy and get started with a FREE 6-part Energy Secrets e-course.

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Eating for Energy - Book Review

Eating for Energy has been reviewed by numerous bloggers, writers, and online magazines. Below is a review posted on Amazon.com.

A Good Why and How on Nutrition, March 13, 2009
By Kelly Klepfer (Iowa) posted on Amazon.com
 
"If you are serious about making nutritional changes and curious about why that's a good idea, you should consider looking into Eating for Energy. With loads of information on the benefits of eating raw plant foods, Yuri Elkaim, presents very compelling reasons to make the suggested changes in your lifestyle.

He provides several recipes and details on specific products and supplements.

If you are coming from a fast food lifestyle and are casually considering making some changes for the better this information could overwhelm you as it is a step up from simply eating healthier and/or organic. However, it is a valuable tool if you really want to change your future health and your life.

I read it and found the it easy to read."

Click here to find out how Eating for Energy will boost your energy and help you Lose Weight for Good!

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Foods That Give Us Energy

It's really unfortunate that the vast majority of the population turns to stimulants instead of looking to whole foods for a boost of invigorating energy. I guess part of the problem is that humans are generally lazy and would rather take the "magic pill" to fix all their problems.

But when it comes to having more energy the irony is that the stimulating foods such coffee, sugar, and energy drinks actually fatigue your body in the long run. Sure they give you a quick jolt of energy but then their real effects are felt as they wear down your adrenal glands, disrupt your blood sugar, and create a huge crash after the initial high. Essentially they are drugs. They are not foods that give us energy.

Ok, then, what are some natural foods that will give you long-lasting energy?

Well, you may want to consider that no single food will give you more energy than your overall diet. Sure you could add in some of the energy foods I describe below, but if your diet is horrific to begin with, then you will not see the sustained level of energy that you want.

Instead of searching for "miracle" energy foods your goal should be to eat a diet that consists of foods that are vibrating at higher energies. This means eating more raw living foods. When a food has not been cooked, it maintains its natural energy properties (not to mention all of its other nutrients). Thus, when you eat raw foods, you're giving your body direct energy from the ultimate source - the sun - as most of these foods will be plant-based, and the sun is where they get their energy.

The closer you eat to the bottom of the food chain, the more nutrition and energy will you acquire. Think about it - it takes more of your energy to digest animal meat than it does to digest a green vegetable, right? Plus, this green veggie will have the maximum amount of living energy versus a dead animal carcass.

Thus, to have more energy, you need to follow a high energy diet. After that, you can start to knit pick and see which specific foods give you more energy, if at all.

To help you get started, here is a list of some my favourite energizing foods:

- wheat grass - if you haven't tried wheat grass then you're missing out on some big time energy and nutrition. Growing it and juicing yourself can be a bit of a pain but you can easily get a "shot" at most health food stores or juice bars. 1 oz of wheat grass juice packs more nutrition than 2.5 lbs of green leafy veggies!

- raw cacao (nibs or powder) - incredible source of magnesium, antioxidants, and life force. These give me a natural high that can last for hours without the subsequent like you would get from coffee and caffeinated beverages.

- goji berries - another incredible source of antioxidants and polysaccharides that improve cell-to-cell communication. I actually combine these with my raw cacao nibs and complementary tastes work really well together.

Remember that although these foods provide incredible nutrition they are the like the healthier version of coffee and other quick fixes. The key still remains to follow a raw foods diet, as much as possible, that will provide you with tons of life force, alkalinity, and nutrients to help your body thrive.

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Build A Lean, Athletic Physique In Just 3 Short Workouts A Week

I went to the gym for one of my 45-minute workouts and quickly found myself surrounded by a bunch of weight belt wearing, orange juice carrying bodybuilders.


Not that there’s anything wrong with them….

… In fact, I got along with these guys perfectly alright.  The point is that our workouts couldn’t have been much more different.

You see, while the bodybuilders typically spent most of their 90-minute workouts sitting around in between sets, or drinking their big ol’ jugs of OJ, or even just chatting with one another, I spent my much shorter workout getting to work right away, and then making sure I didn’t slow down until I’d finished.

And the reason for this was simple...

… I just didn’t have a lot of free time to workout.

But just because I didn’t have 90 minutes a day to workout, didn’t mean I simply accepted mediocre results.

That’s because in half the time those bodybuilders were working out, I turned up the intensity and followed one of my favorite workouts from the Turbulence Training for Fat Loss Manual, TT 2K4.

With this 3 day-a-week workout in my arsenal, I was able to spend just 45 minutes in the gym. But that’s not even the best part!

That’s because TT 2K4 is designed in such a way that it burns fat long after you’ve left the gym.  So all you need to do is workout hard for just 45 minutes and you’ll then reap the benefits for up to 48 hours later.
Ain’t that great?

I realize many of you are just as busy as me and so we can’t afford to workout 90 minutes a day, 6 days a week. That’s why I designed Turbulence Training and the 2K4 workout program.

With a series of challenging bodyweight and dumbbell supersets, not to mention one muscle-pumping superset that even bodybuilders would love, TT 2K4 is the perfect program to get you maximum results in minimum time.

Click here to find out about turbulence training.

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Cut Out the Fluff Exercises And Get More Results, Faster

You’ve probably used or at least seen a Bosu Ball in your gym before (those blue half balls with one flat side), but what you might not know is that they’re really just fluff exercises.
What do I mean by that?

Well, let me share a personal story with you…

Tony, a personal trainer and former client of mine, came to me one day asking for help. You see, Tony’s a pretty fit guy, but his personal training business had started to pick up, leaving him with less time to workout. So we reviewed his program together and I immediately noticed it contained too many fluff exercises.
Tony needed maximum results in minimum time and Bosu Ball training wasn’t going to cut it.  So what I ended up doing was designing him two workouts that essentially included only the most effective exercises for gaining muscle and losing fat.

In fact, the first superset of 1-leg squats paired with dumbbell chest presses alone was more effective than an entire Bosu Ball workout.  And the second workout challenged him to one of the hardest upper body workouts he had ever done. So you can just imagine how happy Tony was with his new workout program.

And this is just Tony’s story.

I realize working out is often a huge struggle for many of you, either because you don’t have the time, or you’re growing frustrated with the lack of results.

But with the two workouts I’ve designed in Turbulence Training 2K5, one total body and one upper body, combined with newer, advanced interval training programs, you’ll discover a workout program perfectly suited for today’s busy lifestyle.

So, if it’s maximum results you want in the minimum amount of time possible, then this is a program tailored just for you.

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The Perfect Workout For Busy Gyms

Imagine you’re about to workout and suddenly notice it requires two different dumbbell weights or two different machines, used back to back without rest (a superset).

Now this sometimes isn’t a problem, but usually the gym is busy, making it virtually impossible to quickly get through the workout as it was intended. UGHH!

So what are you supposed to do?

Well, you could…

1. Stockpile dumbbells around your bench - this will surely anger others around you. Plus, with the gym so busy to begin with, you probably wouldn’t be able to grab more than one set of dumbbells anyways.

2. Ask someone if you can work-in with them on a machine, or borrow their dumbbells. Since you’ll now be accommodating someone else’s workout, you’ll inevitably have more rest time, and ultimately lengthen your own workout.

Now while these suggestions can work, they’re NOT recommended for those who want maximum results in minimum time.

And so that’s precisely why I designed Turbulence Training 2K6.

With this workout at your disposal, you should be able to use the same dumbbell weight for pairs of exercises in a superset, or you’ll find that I’ve combined a dumbbell exercise with a bodyweight exercise. So you’ll no longer need to change your weight or get new equipment for the second exercise.

Plus, if you want either a little variation from the traditional interval training workouts or just simply an off-day workout, then you’ll love the “Total Body Ten” bodyweight workout that I’ve also included in the program.

I’m pretty sure neither of the two scenarios listed above sounded very appealing, especially if it’s results you’re after. And when all is said and done, TT 2K6 is a great way to help you overcome busy gyms. In fact, you’ll be flying through these workouts so fast that you probably won’t even know how packed the gym is!

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Seeing Is Believing If You Want To Burn Fat - Or Is It?

By Rob Poulos, Fat Loss & Fitness Expert & Creator of 'Fat Burning Furnace'

As with a good majority of the things we do in life, we rely heavily on our vision or eyesight as the determining factor in whether or not we believe something.  And this is unfortunately the case in trying to burn fat as well.  What’s the old cliché?  A picture is worth a thousand words, right?

Well, when we lock our eyes onto that photo of that buff guy or buxom bombshell on the cover of the latest fitness or weight loss product, something happens.  We get excited.  We may even get very excited!

Unfortunately, this is something that many in the fitness industry are preying on. They know this and use it to their huge advantage.  The process is simple: put a great looking and in-shape guy or girl on a product and it will sell.  They don’t even have to tell you you’ll look like that person - they already know your subconscious will assume it will happen.  When you're desperate to burn fat, this is an easy game for the fitness industry to play.

And of course a few weeks later if it doesn’t, you may start to lose hope and realize that it’s going to be tough to keep up with the unrealistic and overly strict guidelines.   You’ve got a life, right?  Sure, you want to burn fat, but you’ve got a job, maybe a family, and other interests in life.  Don’t get me wrong, I love a great fat burning workout, but I know you don’t want to spend every waking hour for the rest of your life working out!

   

All of this happened to me several times over as a young man.  I wasn’t happy with my weight, wanted to burn fat, and was in search of the most efficient way to get lean, strong, and healthy, but while not spending too much time in the gym, or having to follow crazy diet plans for long periods of time.

  

After more than a decade of experimenting on myself, friends, relatives, and perfect strangers, I assembled some of the secrets that I found to work best at burning fat and in the shortest amount of time, on myself and the others that I worked with.  Now, what led me to do this was an incredible amount of frustration that I know thousands of others are going through right now.

Why?  To answer that, I want you to understand the psychological aspects of what we are up against in the world of health and fitness.

What do you call doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?  OK, I’ll answer this one…Insanity!  In some ways, the fitness industry is making you insane in your quest to burn fat and get a lean, strong, and healthy body.  Their promises are too good to be true and often they can’t typically deliver on them.   They are over-promising and under-delivering in many cases.

It’s a big psychological game that the fitness industry is playing with us, and it dates back to our childhood.  When we were kids, we were all taught in school that we could do anything we wanted to do when we grew up.  Your parents might have even told you that you can achieve anything you want if you believe in it strongly enough.  I know mine did.

While this can provide great inspiration in life’s pursuits, it can also be used against you by others, and without you knowing.  You are largely a product of your genetic makeup.  Just as Mini-Me from the Austin Powers movies could never play in the NBA, a guy like Woody Allen could never win a heavyweight bodybuilding competition.

The reality is that these two guys can burn fat and get in the best shape of their life, but our genes are responsible for much of what we end up looking like when in that best shape.  But this isn’t what the fitness industry will typically tell you - they want you thinking that anyone can look like a genetic freak of nature…if you just follow their programs, that is.

Please know that I am not saying you are doomed by your genes…everyone can make amazing improvements in their physiques with proper exercise and nutrition habits.  It’s when we start comparing ourselves to the guys or gals in the magazines that we get into trouble, and get lost in that vicious cycle of hype and sensationalism all too prevalent in fitness and fat burning today.

As I mentioned before, you’ve got a life.  You’re a busy person.  We all are.  We live in a fast-paced society, the information age, where we have so many tasks to complete and so little time to complete them.  I don’t know about you, but I find myself trying to cram everything I do into those few hours between waking up and going to sleep.  It’s not easy.

Then comes along the fitness gurus telling you that to burn fat and get in great shape you’ve got to workout everyday or close to it.  You’ve got to do aerobics or cardiovascular exercise to burn fat, several times a week.  You’ve got to weight train several other days each week, so that you are literally working out 5-6 days each week, every week.  If you want it, you’ve got to do it, they say.

I’m here to tell you that nothing could be further from the truth! Many of these programs will also tell you that you’ve got to follow some crazy diet to burn fat.  This might include cutting all or most of your carbs, ingesting loads of supplements or other magic weight loss potions.  On top of that, when their programs don’t deliver, they’ll tell you that everyone is different and that you’ve got to find what works right for you.  Wait a minute...weren’t they just telling you that their program promises the body on the cover?

What they are doing is keeping you in that fitness insanity that I mentioned earlier.  They keep you doing the same thing (trying then next hot product or workout and diet regimen) and promising the same great fat burning results.  If it doesn’t work, they recommend the next great thing.  And too many people go on to that next miracle product or promise and the fitness industry uses this to their advantage!

Unfortunately the fitness industry, in many ways, has become a cycle of hype and sensationalism.  Sure, there are some good-hearted trainers and professionals out there, but even some of them are being controlled by the fitness center owners, magazine publishers, and supplement companies.  That’s where the money is!  Even if they are trying to help you, they can become unwitting victims to the machine.

They advertise their products, programs, and diets by using the cream of the crop in the genetic gene pool.  Hey, if it worked for that guy or gal with the amazing physique, it will work for me.  I fell for it, too, many times, until I did some serious research and experimentation as I mentioned before.

Then one day I finally woke up and discovered for myself the secrets that few people are aware of.  Secrets that will never dominate the fitness industry’s general recommendations because they are unpopular with the people that control the industry.  Why?

Because these principles won’t sell loads of crazy exercise gimmicks, gadgets, or magic potions.  My Fat Burning Furnace students are schooled in the proper application of brief, progressive, and intense resistance training, eating a diet full of nutrient rich foods, drinking tons of water, and getting plenty of quality sleep and rest.

But our subconscious mind is powerful, and you have to watch out…even today, I can get sucked in to a compelling late night TV ad, even though I know better.  So you’ve got to stay on guard. 

If people would pay more attention to proven principles like those I teach my students, and spend less time with the latest “butt buster” or “fat stripper” on the market, we’d all be healthier, leaner, stronger, and happier for it.  And we'd also be burning a heck of a lot more fat in the process.

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Are You Caught Up In A Cycle Of Fat Loss & Fitness Confusion?

By Rob Poulos, Fat Loss & Fitness Expert & Creator of 'Fat Burning Furnace'

As a member of a popular fitness center for a few years, I noticed countless others frustrated with their fat burning exercise routines and eating practices, working so hard and long but with virtually no improvement to show for it.

Several of my own friends and relatives would mention this new program or product they had just shelled out cash for that was the answer to their fat loss or fitness goals.  They were so excited about it and couldn’t wait to get started.

Then, a few weeks later, the same happy-go-lucky people that were once jumping with joy about their new plan to burn fat and get a new body became downright discouraged.  It was hard to watch.

I’d ask them how their fat burning plan was working and they’d tell me that it seemed pretty good at first, but they didn’t get the results they were expecting or they felt were promised.  They quickly became tired of following the daily workouts and found following the strict eating guidelines almost maddening at times.  So they hopped onto the next plan.

Even worse, they became so frustrated with following these so-called exercise gurus’ programs, that they fell even deeper into unhealthy eating habits once they stopped the program.  Binging became their only form of satisfaction.  Forget about maximum fat burning, and talk about moving in the wrong direction.

What’s worse is that all of these people were following the typically recommended exercise and fad diets that were all the rage.  They were doing what everyone else was doing to burn fat fast.

After speaking with many of these friends and inquiring about their exercise routines, I noticed one common theme that kept popping up in our discussions…they were focused on the short term…their approach was wrong.  They weren't thinking of lifelong health and fitness, but instead they were thinking about burning fat and getting in shape for “swimsuit season”.

More specifically, they were also performing their exercise in a less than optimal manner.  And then I noticed this with many others at the fitness center I worked out in.  They just seemed to lack the fire or intensity in their fat burning workouts which I knew could turn their programs from nothing to something literally overnight.

But you know, you can hardly blame them, and you certainly shouldn’t blame yourself if you’ve fallen into the cycle of fad exercise and diet programs.   We all want to achieve what we know in our hearts we’re capable of so badly, and that’s why we’re such easy prey to this “get fit quick” mentality.

Most people are approaching health and fitness in the exact opposite way that they should be, and they're not going to burn fat because of it.  If you continually think of using exercise and nutrition as ways to lose a couple of pounds, or get in shape for summer, you're going to be disappointed with your results.

If you think of exercise, nutrition, and rest as separate things, you're going to be disappointed with your fat burning and fitness results.  If you think you need to spend hours a week in the gym or adhere to some strange unnatural eating strategy, you're going to be disappointed with your results.

What all of these approaches will do, is put you into the fat burning and fitness cycle of confusion that so many are stuck in these days.  If instead, you choose to forget what you thought you knew, and start off with the right approach, the approach that focuses on making changes in your lifestyle long term, you'll instantly improve your results by 1000%.

When your approach includes combining proper exercise that takes very little of your time, nutrition the way nature intended you to eat that is simple to understand and follow, and the rest and recovery that is vital to lifelong vitality and energy,  you'll experience an awakening of both body and mind.  Plus you'll burn more fat, too.

If you choose the path most often taken by those looking to improve upon them selves, you'll most likely end up like most of them.  Confused, frustrated, unhappy, burnt out, injured, sick, or worse.  Did I mention very uhappy with their fat burning progress as well?
 

Instead, you can choose to embrace a lifestyle that includes brief, progressive, and intense resistance training, eating a diet full of nutrient rich foods, drinking tons of water, and getting plenty of quality sleep and rest.  But know that when you do so, you'll be joining the select few who understand that one of the true secrets to life long fat burning and fitness is not found on a fad diet or in a bottle on the shelf of your local health store.

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The Mass Confusion That Dominates In Fat Loss & Fitness Today

By Rob Poulos, Fat Loss & Fitness Expert & Creator of 'Fat Burning Furnace'

People are confused more than ever about how to burn fat.  They are confused about the best way to go about achieving the body they want.  They are confused about what works and what doesn’t, and the reasons why.  There are countless individuals slaving away in gyms and fitness centers around the country right now.

They are working tirelessly, almost every day, on the treadmill, stair-climber, elliptical, etc. to burn those calories and fat.  They also might be lifting weights several times a week for hours at a time to build some strength and muscle.  They might even join a few aerobics or spinning classes too.

They are probably also trying one of the latest diet strategies that promises miracle fat burning and weight loss.  They could also be spending a lot of money on the latest and greatest dietary supplements that could be that miracle pill that will aid in weight loss.  They are also carefully watching the scale as their main judge of fat loss progress.

If it goes up a pound or two, they may behave rashly and maybe even change up their entire workout or diet program! And of course there are others are doing variations on that same theme.

After all, this is the kind of stuff that many of the popular fitness and diet gurus typically recommend to burn fat.  But with so many different strategies and plans being pushed as the be all and end all, what happens is we tend to overboard.

And when that happens, we lose sight of what really matters in achieving lifelong fat burning, fitness and health…the principles than many people don’t know about, most people have forgotten, and only a select few put to use to achieve lifelong health and fitness.  These are the same principles I used to drop over 40 pounds of unwanted body fat, keep it off, and revitalize my life!

With any exercise or nutrition program, you’ll probably lose some fat initially, but far too often the progress doesn’t continue or doesn’t come as fast as the person would like because they're using a temporary mindset.  They're only focused on the short term and one specific goal.  So they end up switching to something else, and the cycle continues until they’ve become consumed by this cycle of confusion.

I believe that this is one of the biggest, if not the #1 reason for the lack of fat loss and fitness progress that is being experienced by the masses of exercisers and dieters in the world.  They are jumping from one fad diet or exercise routine to another, while losing sight of what’s really important, and what really works.

Simply put, they are exercising far too much, not nearly intensely enough, and trying to adhere to unrealistic diet recommendations.

If instead they focused on a long term plan, a lifestyle as it’s often called, and didn’t worry about “losing 10 pounds by summer”, they would find it far easier to do the right things most of the time.

And those right things include brief, progressive, and intense resistance training, eating a diet full of nutrient rich foods, drinking tons of water, and getting plenty of quality sleep and rest.  The students of my Fat Burning Furnace method understand this and are reaping the life long health and fitness rewards because of it. Are you? 

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Diet Plans to Lose Weight Need Not Be Complicated

With all of the conflicting information about nutrition, it’s no wonder people give up on their diet plans to lose weight after only a few days. Dropping weight can feel like an uphill climb, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Don’t let others make the process more complicated than it actually is.

Don’t get me wrong, losing flab certainly has it challenges (trust me, I’ve been there). I’m simply saying if you’re armed with the right information, slimming down is not as hard as it seems. If you boot all the processed foods out of your diet and replace them with nutrient-dense, natural foods, you’ll lose weight and feel healthier before you know it.

Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

Adding a variety of fresh fruits and veggies to your daily diet can help you get the vitamins and minerals you need to support important functions of the body. For instance, calcium helps support bone health. Vitamin C helps the immune system thrive. B vitamins work to ease stress, and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. And vitamin A supports healthy vision and skin.

Fruits and vegetables are rich sources of complex carbohydrates and fiber. Carbs are important because they provide fuel for the body. Fiber regulates the bowels and expands in your stomach to help you stay full longer. The longer you stay full, the less you eat, and the more likely you are to drop body fat.

Poultry and Beans

When you make beans and poultry a part of your regular diet, you are giving your body the protein it needs to maintain good health. Protein is referred to as the building block of the body for a reason. This nutrient is found almost everywhere in the body. Without it, you’ll face problems like fatigue, skin ulcers, sleeping difficulties, weakness and organ damage.

Skimping on the protein can also cause crankiness, depression, anxiety and other mental issues. Also, when you add this compound to your diet, you are less likely to overeat because it makes meals more satiating and helps control your appetite.

Lean Meats, Fish and Raw Nuts

Adding lean meats to your diet will ensure you get the iron you need to build hemoglobin and transport oxygen to the cells in your body. When you don’t get enough iron in your diet, your chances of suffering with iron deficient anemia increases. Symptoms of anemia can include fatigue, problems regulating the body temperature, headaches, dizziness and weakness.

The importance of fat in the diet is underrated. When you avoid eating healthy fats, you do your body a huge disservice. Healthy fats build the brain, provide the body with energy, help produce hormones, and provide cushion for your internal organs.

Fats also enable the body use vitamins more efficiently. Make fish and raw nuts staples in your diet so you can get some of the fats you need for good health.

If you rid your diet of processed junk and replace them with the foods listed above, you can shed unwanted pounds without frustration. The weight isn’t going to come off overnight, but it will eventually come off. Oh, and remember. No diet plan is complete or 100 percent successful without exercise.

If you don’t have a plan, trying to lose weight can be frustrating. Let The Diet Solution Program provide you with effective diet plans to lose weight.

Click here to find out The Diet Solution Program.

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I Need to Lose Weight and Fast: Which Diet Plan Should I Use?

If I had a dollar for every time someone came up to me and said, “I need to lose weight and fast,” I’d be stretched out on the sandy beaches of Hawaii without a care in the world. Low carb, high protein, liquid and cabbage soup – with all the diet plans on the market, how on earth do you choose?

Most of these diets are just a bunch of hype; so personally, I wouldn’t touch any of them with a 50-foot stick. Sorry to break it to you (I always gotta be the bad guy), there are no shortcuts to weight loss. The most effective way to lose those stubborn pounds is by using a common sense approach that favors nutritious eating over dieting.

The Lure of the Fad Diet

When people want to lose weight, they want to do it quick, fast and in a hurry. Fad diet marketers take advantage of this desperation and use the promise of lightning speed results to reel you in.

Quick does not always equal better. In fact, when it comes to permanent weight loss, slow and steady always wins out in the end. Here are two of the main reasons faddy-type diets don’t work:

(a) They don’t deliver long-term results. Most fad diets require you to drastically reduce your caloric intake. This causes your metabolism to respond by slowing down. Once you revert back to your regular eating habits, you’ll gain the weight back just as fast as you lost it.

(b) They mangle your health. Fad diet plans deprive you of some of the key nutrients you need for good health. This can result in malnutrition, zapped energy, damaged organs, hair loss, and loss of lean muscle tissue. Sounds like a fun way to drop a few, huh.

4 Simple Rules of Eating to Lose Weight

Losing weight is certainly not the easiest thing to do, but if you remember these four simple rules, you’ll never have to hop on the fad diet bandwagon. You can lose weight gradually (remember slow and steady) and keep it off for good.

1. Stay away from processed foods. These foods are full of high fructose corn syrup, salt and chemical additives that can cause weight gain, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and cancer. Yep. This includes those frozen diet meals that some weight loss programs encourage you to buy.

2. Leave the sugar alone. Sugar is riddled with calories. If you use it to sweeten foods and beverages everyday, you can easily rack up too many calories and hinder your weight loss efforts.

3. Eat enough food. If you’re hungry all the time, you are probably not eating enough food to fuel your body. If you don’t eat enough, your body will hold on to stored fat instead of burning it off. This is not what you want to happen when you’re trying to lose weight.

4. Stay hydrated. Water is important when you’re trying to slim down because it helps to metabolize fat and eliminate toxins and stored fat in the body. So drink up!

Where Does Exercise Fit In?

When you follow a healthy eating plan, you’ll likely lose weight, even if you don’t workout. However, unless you add exercise into the mix, your metabolism will eventually slow down and you won’t see the results you want.

Your exercise routine should consist of both cardio and weight training. Relax ladies. Training with weights won’t turn you into the Terminator; it will simply help you build muscle mass and sculpt a lean, fierce frame.

Getting in the habit of working out several days week can be tough, especially if you already have a lot on your plate. Choose exercises you enjoy. This way, you’re more likely to stick with a program.

I know what it’s like to want to lose weight fast. I’ve been there and I feel your pain. Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts to permanent weight loss (believe me, I’ve looked). The best way to achieve long-term weight loss without jeopardizing your health is with proper nutrition and exercise.

Making the decision to lose weight is the first step to looking good and feeling even better. Watch this video to get advice on the age-old dilemma of, “I need to lose weight and fast.”

Click here to find out The Diet Solution Program.

Visit here for more diets and weight loss products!

I’m Really Overweight-Help Me Lose Weight

I remember being overweight, and desperate to find a solution to help me lose weight. After a few failed attempts, I finally dropped the weight and I’ve managed to keep it off for years. So how did I do it? Since that darned magic pill didn’t work, I had to lose the weight the old fashioned way. I committed myself to the cause, ate healthy and got off my hump and exercised. If I can do it, so can you.

Whip Your Eating Habits into Shape

We live in a nation of processed foods. The result of this is a skyrocketing population of fluffy adults and children. When you’re overweight, you are at risk for diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and other illnesses that can reduce your quality of life and send you to an early grave.

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it ten thousand times: processed foods are no good. Do yourself a favor and boot these items out of your diet. Replace them with healthier, natural foods like fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh fish, lean meats, poultry, beans, legumes, seeds and raw nuts.

Don’t delude yourself into thinking you can change your poor eating habits overnight. Keep in mind, bad eating habits are easy to develop, but they’re not as easy to change. It helps if you start small by making gradual tweaks to your diet.

For instance, you might make it a point to trade in your morning doughnut for a bowl of oatmeal, a piece of nitrate/nitrite free bacon and some fresh fruit. If you eat out everyday, scale back, and commit to preparing healthy, low-cal meals at home at least twice a week.

On the days you eat out, replace a few unhealthy foods with healthier menu choices. For instance, instead of ordering a bag of chips or a side of fries with you sandwich, opt for a small salad. Continue to make small dietary changes every couple of weeks until your poor eating habits are a thing of the past.

Get Up and Get Moving

When you’re trying to whittle your waistline, it’s all about the burn, baby. Once you remove all of the processed junk from your diet, you’ll automatically reduce your caloric intake and lose weight. However, if you don’t do something to set that metabolism on fire, it will slow down and you won’t see any additional weight loss results.

You don’t have to take the “whole hog” approach to exercising to see results. The most important thing is that you do something to get your body moving. Jump up and down for 10 minutes or take a stroll around the block – if it’s more physical activity than you normally get, you’re good.

Of course, as your fitness level improves, you’ll have to add to your exercise routine to keep those weight loss results coming.

Get Committed to Your Healthy Eating Plan

When we talk about losing weight, we always tackle the nutrition and exercise side of things. Let’s talk for a bit about the commitment dropping weight requires. Losing weight and keeping it off is hard work; it requires some serious lifestyle changes.

There are going to be times when you feel discouraged and disappointed, and days when you experience setbacks. If you’re committed – and I mean really committed, you’ll be able to pull yourself up, dust the cake crumbs off, and press on. If you’re not ready to dig your heels in and put in the work, you’ll be disheartened by the results.

Losing weight with proper nutrition and exercise can make you feel healthier and produce lasting results. Watch this video to learn how The Diet Solution Program can help you lose the fat and keep it off for good. If this program could help me lose weight, you can do it, too!

Click here to find out The Diet Solution Program.

Visit here for more diets and weight loss products!

Why Ab Machines Can Never Give You a Slimmer Waistline...

Ab Machines are not the answer to a slimmer waistline.

Ab machines are being advertised everywhere these days, but they are most commonly advertised on late night infomercials.

These infomercials are largely aimed at tricking the public to believe that they can “flatten” their stomach by doing a few ab exercises each day.

You’ve seen the infomercials – so you know what we’re talking about.

These infomercials usually have a bunch of super-healthy fitness models walking around with perfect abs -- and they tell you that they owe their great looking abs to whatever “ab machine" that they’re trying to sell to you.

These fitness models usually have a “smile” on their face as they demonstrate the ab machine for you, and they do this so that you’ll believe that it’s “fun and easy” to use their ab machine.

However, what these super-healthy fitness models don’t tell you is that they had great looking abs even before they used an ab machine.

Most of those fitness models were born with super-lean bodies, and this means that they would have great looking abs no matter what.

THE TRUTH ABOUT AB MACHINES

The truth is that ab machines do work to strengthen your ab muscles, but that’s all they do.  They strengthen your ab muscles, but they do not make your waistline slimmer -- see the difference?

Ab machines cannot make your stomach THINNER or SLIMMER – they can only make your ab muscles STRONGER.

You see, even if you have the strongest ab muscles in the world, it’s still possible to have a huge waist at the same time.

In fact, just look at football players for a perfect example of this. Football players have some of the strongest ab muscles on the planet (you could almost hit their stomach with a sledgehammer and not hurt them) ---- but yet they are also some of the most overweight athletes on the planet.

This is because they have super strong ab muscles, but those ab muscles are buried beneath layers of fat tissue.

This fact PROVES that ab machines will only give you stronger abs, but they won’t give you a SLIMMER STOMACH.

If you want a thinner waistline then you must lose the fat tissue which is sitting on top of your stomach muscles, and the only way to do that is to follow a good dieting plan.

You must remember that you can make your abs super strong and firm, and yet you can still have tons of fat tissue sitting on top of your stomach which prevents your ab muscles from being seen.  

This is the "truth" which ab machine makers don't want you to know when you're watching their fitness models on TV.   The truth is that you need to begin a diet to lose the fat which is sitting on top of your ab muscles, since only then will you get a slimmer waistline.

To begin losing weight fast (and to get a slimmer waistline) we recommend using the new Fat Burning Diet from Fat Loss 4 Idiots. This is a brand new type of diet never seen before.

You can begin this new diet right here.

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