Former Fat Guy Blog » 3 Tips Friday

Weight Loss Tips – Maximum Muscle Stimulation for Fat Loss

Rob — Sat, 17 May 2008 02:44:25 +0000

Today’s weight loss tips are about exercise and how to best use your time in the gym to get more work done, stimulate more muscle and burn more fat. They say that building muscle while burning fat can’t be done, and that you should focus on one or the other, never both. That said, what if you just wanted to burn fat as efficiently as possible, end workout boredome make your time in the gym as quick as possible. These three weight loss tips are the very thing to take you in that direction.

Weight Loss Tips

1 Focus your training on the largest muscle groups:
The largest muscle groups of the body are the legs, back and chest. By working the largest muscle groups, primarily, you end up putting a larger demand on your body for energy and nutrition. Then a larger demand on your body for repair of that muscle tissue. You burn fat twice, first when you’re actually training and secondly when your body is busy rebuilding the muscles.

Arms (tricep and bicep) are smaller muscles, and where training certainly makes them look good and allows you to work harder on pushing and pulling movements, they don’t burn as much fat as the larger muscles.

As my trainer says, even if you don’t specifically train arms, they still get worked when you’re doing chest and back movements.

Chest – Bench press, Incline bench press, decline bench press, flies, pushups etc
Back – Bent over row, one arm dumbbell row, pull downs, pull ups, chins, seated rows
Legs – Squat, hack squat, leg press, lunges

So for maximum fat loss, create workout routines for the largest muscle groups.

2 Work as many muscle groups as possible in each training session:
Stimulate as much muscle fiber as possible in each training session. Bodybuilders often train one body part per workout such as chest one day, back one day, legs on another, finishing with shoulders and arms on the last day.

By training one body part per day, they focus their intensity on that one part which stimulates growth.

For fat loss purposes, working the legs, back and chest all on the same day, during an intense 20 minute or 45 minute workout, more muscle fibers are stimulated resulting in a greater “after burn”. More stimulation, more fat lost.

Turbulence Training is a great example of doing short intervals using body weight exercises designed to build strength while burning fat at the same time. Craig Ballantyne describes more about the Turbulence Training program in a recent interview.

If you want to burn maximum amount of fat while building muscle, exercise your entire body, the largest muscle groups, during each workout.

3 Get as much work done in your workout as possible:
In weight loss tip number 2, I suggested training the entire body during each workout to stimulate as much muscle fiber as possible in each workout. Well what about doing as much stimulation as possible in the same amount of time? If you increase the amount of work performed during the same amount of time, you exert more energy and can build more fat burning muscle.

Traditionally, a workout where you worked the entire body in one session, might go like this:

Chest Workout

Bench press – 3 sets of 10 reps with 60 seconds rest between sets
Dumbbell flies – 3 sets of 10 reps with 60 seconds between sets

Back Workout

Lat pulldowns – 3 sets of 10 reps with 60 seconds between sets
One arm dumbbell rows – 3 sets of 10 reps with 60 seconds between sets

Leg Workout

Squats – 3 sets of 10 reps with 90 seconds between sets
Lunges – 3 sets of 10 reps with 60 seconds between sets

To summarize, you do two exercises per body part – lift, rest, repeat

To get more work done in the same amount of time, I would suggest doing supersets. A superset is working two exercises back to back.

One superset might be a bench press followed immediately with dumbbell flies, then the rest time. This is a superset using the same muscle group, but you could also superset muscle groups that are not related, or oppose one another. An example would be to do the bench press followed immediately with lat pulldowns, or seated rows followed by dumbbell flies.

If you’ve never done this before, there are a number of things you might experience.

You might not have the energy to complete 10 reps of each exercise
You might have to lower the weights of one or both exercises in order to complete them
You may become more sore the next day because your body is being stimulated in ways it’s not used to
you burn more fat and build more muscle

By doing supersets, you’re simply doing more work in the given time as well as stimulating your body in new ways. New stimulation is good for growth as well as breaking workout boredom.

It should be noted that to properly utilize supersets for the purpose of getting more work done during your time in the gym, you have to be diligent about the clock. Taking time to chat with your gym friends or spend too much time between sets doesn’t help.

During any exercise for fat loss phase, supersets should be utilized as much as possible.

There is a big difference between bodybuilding and fat loss. If you want to get in shape, begin exercising, find a good personal trainer and become a regular at the gym or at least workout in your home. If you want to make the best use of your time though and want to burn as much fat as possible in as little time as possible, I would recommend the tips above. Focus on the largest muscle groups, work your entire body during each workout stimulating as much muscle fiber as possible and make efficient use of your time by supersetting your exercises.

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3 Weight Loss Tips

Rob — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 22:00:21 +0000

3 weight loss tips to help you improve your health, increase energy levels and have a good poo first thing in the morning. My buddy Dirk used to say “Rob – there’s nothing like a good crap first thing in the morning!” and I think most would agree.

I release 3 weight loss tips every Friday here on the blog (most weeks anyways) and I’m always on the lookout for a good tip. If you’ve got one that is healthy and natural, please leave a comment. I might use it in a future post.

3 Weight Loss Tips

Eat Breakfast

Eating breakfast increases your metabolism first thing in the morning as well as keeps the hunger gremlins at bay later in the day. If you skip breakfast, you’re more likely to be making up those calories with unhealthy choices later in the day.

Christina recently lost 5 pounds by simply making a few changes to her diet and eating the breakfast I recommended was one of them. You can read about her experiences with it on her post eat breakfast lose weight.

For members of the National Weight Control Registry, eating breakfast is part of their success strategy. These successful weight loss champions made it a daily habit to eat breakfast and have maintained a 30 pound or more weight loss for at least a year and as long as 6 years.

Breakfast is the fuel that starts you day. With it, you’ve got the energy you need to provide clear thinking, normalize blood sugar levels and keeps you on track with your food program for the rest of the day.

If you’re not eating breakfast and still procrastinating about doing exercise, breakfast may very well be the thing that gives you the energy to get mobile.

Increase Your Fiber

Fiber is nature’s weight loss power house. There are two types, soluble and insoluble. Soluble is the gummy type that can act like a sponge and is found in foods like oatmeal and beans. Insoluble fiber acts like a broom, sweeping out the debris and is found in things like vegetables, fruits and whole grains.

Soluble fiber can help lower cholesterol while insoluble fiber contains fibers that cannot be digested but add bulk to our meal.

Both fibers swell up in our stomach creating a feeling of fullness and being high in water and low in calories, are a perfect way to improve both digestive and colon health. High fiber foods are the best tools for anyone wanting to shed some pounds. All of the super foods contain fiber, so that list might be a good place to start.

(yes Canadians, I know it’s spelled fibre)

Drink Green Tea

Researchers say the results indicate that substances found in green tea known as catechins may trigger weight loss by stimulating the body to burn calories and decreasing body fat.

I’ve consumed green tea since I had my first experience with it back in 1991. I’ve had a cup or 3 of Sunrider Calli tea almost every day since and Fortune Delight makes up the rest of the fluids I consume after water. Green tea has become a part of my life and I drink it for all the benefits aside from any possible weight loss effects.

While I can’t vouch for any other brands or types of green tea, I have seen the research both confirming it’s effect on fat burning as well as documents showing little or no change.
My belief is simple, that I want to drink something hot, so it might as well be something that might even remotely benefit while being very safe. Again, that’s why I choose Sunrider brand Calli tea – but hey, that’s just me.

tea cup photo credit Titanium

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3 Weight Loss Tips

Rob — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:00:19 +0000

Everyone’s looking for simple weight loss tips that they can follow and get results. There’s no magic pill as far as I’m concerned, but rather multiple lifestyle changes from making unconscious choices to conscious choices. It’s with this in mind that I offer 3 weight loss tips each and every Friday so that you the reader can grab one or more and begin to apply them to your life.

Weight loss programs are such subjective things, everyone has an opinion. Mine is easy – to eat more nutrient dense foods in the form of dark green leafy vegetables, vegetables, beans and legumes, nuts and seeds with animal protein a few times through the week. It’s a modified cave man diet that I have yet to name but am working on as I write my forthcoming book. In the mean time, here are this weeks 3 weight loss tips.

Eat 5 to 6 Small Meals a Day

Eat a breakfast as soon as you get up and then every 3 or so hours after that. A sample 6 meal day would include breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner and small starch free evening snack. Smaller more frequent meals are easier to digest, help you use nutrients better and most importantly, help control blood sugar levels. Controlling blood sugar levels is the key to controlling hunger, fatigue and cravings.

Eat Live Foods, Avoid Processed foods

Live foods are those that will rot and go bad. Food is meant to go bad. When shopping, stick to the outer edges of the grocery store where fresh produce is kept and avoide the inner isles where all the dead boxed and canned “stuff” is. Live foods support life. Live food’s provide enzymes for healthy cells.

Replace Sugar Laden Drinks with Fresh Fruit

When you’d normally reach for some sort of sugary beverage, instead have some fresh fruit. Fruits low on the glycemic index include apples, oranges and all berries. Fruits provide a natural way to increase fiber and nutrients while making a good replacement choice for non-nutritional sugary beverages.

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3 Weight Loss Tips

Rob — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 22:00:13 +0000

Every Friday is weight loss tips day here at Former Fat Guy Blog and the 3 weight loss tips for today are about white foods. I rarely if ever recommend removal of foods from diet, but rather take the approach of increasing and improving the foods we eat. I teach my clients to focus on increasing whole foods and making new habits. By increasing whole food consumption, the bad habits simply get pushed aside as there’s no room anymore.

I feel that today’s 3 weight loss tips simply have to be stated for effect, so I am.

3 Weight Loss Tips – Remove White Foods

Remove White Flour Foods

White bread, white pasta, white rice, white crackers, pancake mix, tortilla’s, buns, anything made with white flour should simply be tossed out (or given to your local homeless shelter or food bank). White flour products are broken down too quickly in your stomach and turned to sugar too fast.

Remove White Sugar

First to go should be the big bag of sugar that you’ve got lurking in the cupboard, then anything that includes white sugar such as drink mixes (frozen and powdered), Pop (of course), hot chocolate mix, flavored instant breakfast mixes, boxed breakfast cereals and all the thousands of other places sugar is hidden in your home. To be honest, if there’s a product in your cupboard that isn’t a dry bean or grain, it should only be a spice – nothing else. If it’s in a box it’s not a food and should not be used to fuel your body.

Remove White Salt

It’s my opinion as well as many others, that the only salt you should be putting in your body is Celtic sea salt. I use Real Salt brand salt, but any Celtic sea salt will do fine.

The first 2 of the weight loss tips are all about reducing the amount of sugar in your blood stream. The more sugar you remove from entering your body, the more chances your body has to use your fat as fuel. Do you want to burn fat or burn sugar? If fat is the answer, then remove the white flour and white sugar.

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3 Weight Loss Tips

Rob — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 22:00:11 +0000

Every Friday is weight loss tips day here at Former Fat Guy Blog and the 3 weight loss tips for the new year that you can take action on right now are about pictures, measurements and journaling.

Something everyone always regrets after they’ve reached their goal weight is not having taken that ever important “Before” picture. Overweight people tend to be quite fearful of camera’s, but if there’s one thing I can tell you, it’s to document history! If you’re not thinking of it as documenting history then you’re not fully committed to your plan.

3 Weight Loss Tips

Take Your Before Picture

Get over the fear of the camera and take your before picture. When you reach your goal weight and then begin working on your physique for the rest of your life, image how happy you’ll be having document the whole process. Even if you don’t look at the pictures during the process, take them anyway and file them away. Eventually you’ll want to show your success’ and having a mitt full of pictures in various places doing all sorts of activities will be great for your website or book.

Take the pictures!

Measure Yourself As Well As Weigh Yourself

There will be times that the scale does not move. Somewhere during your journey you’ll hit a plateau even though you’re doing everything right. By taking measurements, you’ll know that you’re still shrinking but trading fat for muscle. You’ll weight the same but know you’re getting smaller because the tape measure told you so.

Take your measurements!

Keep A Food Journal

Food journal’s can help in many places. When you’re following a very strict program to get to your leanest, tracking every single food product that you eat can help you determine if you’re under calories or over calories and then help you adjust. Matching results to your journal can also help you re-visit a program that worked for you in the past. You’ll know exactly what you were eating and how much of it you were eating to get that consistent 3 pound a week weight loss. Was is a higher fiber content, a higher fat content or re-feeds happening more often that got your success? Should you cut calories or increase calories?

Archive your food journals along with your training journals. Keep every little detail so that you can refer to them at any time in the future. If you don’t know what you’re eating, how can you know where to adjust?

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3 Weight Loss Tips

Rob — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 01:29:09 +0000

Every Friday is weight loss tips day here at Former Fat Guy Blog and the 3 weight loss tips for the new year that you can take action on right now are about goals, foods and exercise.

Weekly goals should be part of any weight loss program as long as they’re worded correctly because how your brain hears what you’re saying is critical.

Weight Loss Tips – Goals, Food and Exercise

Goals should be actions

Instead of having a goal of loosing 3 pounds this week, make your goal or goals the actions to get there. Instead of “I will lose 3 pounds this week”, state something like “I will walk 30 minutes every day this week”. Your focus should be on what’s going to get you to your result, not the result itself.

Avoid Processed Foods

If you can’t pronounce it, it has no place in your body. Your body is the most wonderful machine ever created and its primary fuel source is fruit, vegetables, beans, legumes and in some cases grains. As you eat more from the primary fuel sources, you’ll notice improvements in energy levels, brain functioning, sleep, muscle tone and you’ll burn more body fat. The increased fiber will keep you full, delaying the release of glucose and keeping your blood sugar more regulated. Eat from these primary fuels throughout the day for best results.

Move Your Body

Want to eat more food? Have you cut your calories too far? Get off your ass and move your body. What happens when you lose the weight to see your physique but it’s not as nice as you thought it might be? Exercise builds muscle, metabolism, and increases your energy levels. If you’re new to exercise, start small and then build your way up to a full program. Start with a trip to the gym and ask the staff for a tour. This way you’ll at least get an idea of what the inside of a gym looks like and what goes on inside. Then arrange a free week pass. Take action… begin now.

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New Years Eve Weight Loss Tips

Rob — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 01:40:00 +0000

Weight loss tips for New Years eve are the theme of this edition of 3 tips Friday. New Years Eve is a time to celebrate the ending of one year and to start the next year fresh. Many use the time to set new years resolutions, whether they be physical, financial, spiritual or career related, and would welcome any new years resolutions tips they could get. With the new year celebration comes parties, dinners, snacks and of course alcohol.

Now, I’m certainly one to have a couple of good glasses of wine, because life is just too short for bad wine you know, but I’m also goal driven and understand the effect of alcohol on weight loss.

With that in mind, here are my New Years Eve Weight Loss Tips

New Years Eve Weight Loss Tips

1. Eat Before You Go Out

You should always eat before your party to cut down on low blood sugar affecting your ability to make good food choices when you’re out. Having your meal at the last minute before heading out gives you a good 3 to 4 hours of even blood sugar and a full stomach. You should be staying away from starchy carbohydrates this late in the evening anyway, but I’ll say it again. Don’t eat starchy carbohydrates after 6 PM. This will reduce the risk of having a drop in blood sugar just as the beverages begin being poured. To further increase your level of fullness, make sure you eat a larger portion of vegetables to increase your fiber content and your level of fullness.

2. Take Your Own Snacks With You

Be pro-active and take some good quality snacks with you for the late night that new years eve becomes. Balance your host’s mostly white flower snacks with some raw nuts like Almonds and Brazil Nuts. The protein and fats in them are a much better source of calories that support the building of muscle rather than the white flour empty calorie carbohydrates. Have a treat or two if you must, but quickly follow them with the protein and fat from the nuts. Good choices while out include raw vegetables, but avoid the crackers and anything sweet.

3. Have a Glass Of Water For Every Alcoholic Drink

For each glass of wine, beer or champagne you drink, have a glass of water between them. This spaces the drinks out as well as helps to cut down on the quantity of carbohydrates or sugar from the champagne or other beverages. Another good idea is to drink only water as late into the evening as possible before starting on the booze.

New Years eve is a time of festivities and celebration. Welcome in the new year safely by cutting down on your alcohol consumption or having a designated driver. Be safe, have fun and have a happy new years eve.

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3 Weight Loss Tips – Keeping Track Of Things

Rob — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 21:38:34 +0000

Weight loss tips this time around are all about keeping track of things and knowing what it is that you’re loosing. Knowing and tracking your results will allow you to make adjustments to further your progress. It’s also about being honest with yourself about what you can and might not accomplish based on how much work you want to put into it. Being realistic about what’s possible and the length of time it will take can be the difference in keeping your sanity.

1. Know what you’re loosing – When you drop 2 pounds during the week, what did you drop? was if fat, muscle or water? Muscle is your metabolic engine and you want to do everything in your power to build muscle and keep the muscle you have. Drastic calorie cutting may very well waste your hard earned muscle and slow the fat loss. Without knowing what you’re loosing (or gaining), you wont be able to make adjustments to your program. Invest in a good body fat scale that measures weight and body fat. The better ones like Tanita also measure hydration levels too, so you know if you’ve lost water weight, muscle or fat. Knowing can make all the difference.

2. Track your progress – keep score of your results. No matter what happens you got a result. You either got leaner, stayed the same, or gained weight. Keeping track of your results AND knowing what your body is doing (fat loss – fat gain, muscle loss – muscle gain, neutral) using a body fat measurements helps you make adjustments. If you burnt fat (reduced your body fat percentage), you’re program is working. If you gained muscle your program is working (in reverse, but still working). If you stayed neutral, you’ll want to have a look at what’s going on and make some decisions. Too many calories, too little? not enough exercise? too much? Without tracking and knowing what is changing in your body, you are guessing. Write your results down. Keep track of them on a calendar, in an excel spreadsheet or in a notebook. Keep track of your program as well so that you can always refer back to what worked and what didn’t work.

No matter what happens, you got a result. It’s up to you to decide if your program needs adjustment or not. Do you need to eat more food or less? Do you need to exercise more or allow for more recovery time? It’s the results that allow you to make a decision

3. Set realistic goals – what’s realistic? That question is completely subjective. What’s realistic for you might be different than others. It depends on the dedication to your goals. Are you working this every day or every other day? Are you exercising every day? or 3 times a week? If you’re program is on slow mode, is 4 pounds a week realistic? probably not, but 1 pound may very well be. If you’re making a comeback from a recent setback, you probably have the metabolism to burn the fat fast and 3 pounds a week is realistic, it just has to be revved up again is all.

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3 Weight Loss Tips

Rob — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 18:32:13 +0000

This edition of 3 tips Friday is clearly about weight loss. 3 weight loss tips that you can use right here, right now to get started towards you goal. 3 tips Friday allows you a 3 day jump on those who begin on Mondays. Take action, get started now.

Eliminate all starchy carbohydrates after 6 pm – Starchy carbohydrates such as bread, yams, rice, crackers, popcorn, pasta, potato’s etc are all converted to sugar quite quickly. When that sugar is flowing through your veins, your body will burn it for energy rather than fat.

After 6 PM, stick to lean proteins and vegetables only. Consider a meal of all vegetables with some chicken, bison or steak instead along with good fats. The fiber of the vegetables will provide bulk, make you feel fuller while eating less calories.

Exercise every day for at least 30 minutes – For proper recovery after weight training, one should allow for at least a full 48 hours before training again. This allows the catabolic phase to finish and then a full 24 hours or more for the anabolic phase to provide recovery and building of muscle. Read more about How To Build Muscle

During your off days, do some more cardio – walking, cycling, swimming, stair climbing or whatever you prefer.

Getting your body moving each and every day increases your metabolism which then burns fat. Consider getting into a routine of going to the gym at the same time every day. On Mon, Wed and Friday, do weight training, with cardio on Tue, Thursday and Saturday.

Remember the term GOYA – Get Off Your Ass.

Get Involved In A Weight Loss Challenge – Get into a challenge that involves a support group to keep you accountable. Any good challenge provides an outline that you have to follow and then check in with other members at least once a week to keep you accountable. Write down your goals, submit them, announce them and then get to work. Challenges usually run 3 months long and have monthly and weekly goals.

It just so happens that I’ve recently launched my Winter Weight Loss and Fitness Challenge right here on my forum. Lasting from Dec 1st until Feb 29th 2008. Sign up, sign in and get started. The complete list of regulations and guidelines can be found in the weight loss forum.

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3 Weight Loss Tips – Healthy Celery Snacks

Rob — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 01:07:07 +0000

Celery is a fantastic vegetable providing both fiber and natural water content. Celery is about 95% water, very alkaline and can be easily eaten anywhere, anytime as a handy weight loss snack.

Being both alkaline and of high water content, celery is perfect for smokers who have decided to quit and want to make sure their blood and body chemistry stays on the alkaline side. Those people removing the habit will often release enough toxins into the blood that it starts to become acidic and celery is a great way to balance that out. If you’ve just quit, keep celery handy and snack on it often.

3 Weight Loss Tips Using Celery

Celery can be eaten combined with almost anything. Here are 3 of my personal favorite celery snacks

1. Celery Stalks and Hummus – While I’m preparing a meal, I often snack on celery and hummus. Hummus is a dip made with Chick Peas (Garbonzo beans, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and often cayenne pepper. Darlene will be posting a Hummus recipe soon. Taken with you to work, Hummus can be eaten with celery, carrots, sliced peppers or any other raw vegetable or whole grain crisp bread crackers like Ryvita crackers (www.ryvita.com). Opt out of the wheat crackers and choose whole grain rye instead. High in fiber, low in calories and great with Hummus. I like the sesame rye crackers which contain only whole grain rye, sesame seeds, salt and that’s it.

2. Celery Stalks and Almond Butter – I often have this before bed as I simply love almond butter. Almond butter is a staple in our home and has been for years. The value of raw almonds is undeniable and is a staple of vegetarians and vegans alike. Lots of protein, vitamins and minerals, the almond is one nut that can be turned into a scrumptious butter. Simply spread some Almond butter onto a few pieces of raw celery and eat. This is another great snack that can be taken to work, in the car while traveling or eaten before bed like I do. For many, the good fats in the almond butter help a person sleep.

3. Celery Stalks and Hard Boiled Eggs – The egg is my own personal daily staple for protein. I choose local farm raised eggs from chickens allowed to eat grass and bugs like they were meant to. Egg’s supply a large amount of complete, high-quality protein, and provide significant amounts of several vitamins and minerals, including vitamin A, riboflavin, folic acid, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, choline, iron, calcium, phosphorus and potassium. They are also one of the least expensive single-food sources of complete protein. One large chicken egg contains approximately 7 grams of protein. Boil a dozen eggs and then take 3 with you to work to eat during a break with a little sea salt and black pepper. Add in a few celery stalks and you’ve got a nutritious snack, low in calories and fat, and which provides a 21 grams of protein.

You’ve heard that celery is a negative calorie food I’m sure. This means that it takes more energy to digest celery than celery provides. Celery is 95% water and is made up of cellulose. Cellulose can’t be broken down, resulting in the reverse energy load (my term, I just made that up). Thought to be a myth by many looking for an easy weight loss snack, Snopes was brought into it ….

The calories in food are a measure of energy content. For something we eat to be a source of “negative calories,” it must provide fewer of these units of energy than we expend in consuming it. Yet everything contains calories, so at first this concept appears impossible. Therefore, the hunt is on for ingestibles whose energy content is not released into our bodies because we humans lack the ability to break them down – it doesn’t matter how many calories these goodies have, provided we can’t extract them. Cellulose in plants is one such substance: although it contains a goodly amount of carbohydrates, they are packaged in a form we cannot digest, so we fail to absorb their calories. (source)

Celery was also strongly endorsed in the Cayce readings (Edgar Cayce) for its nutritional value and specific use as a nerve building food or medicine. Celery is rich in phosphorus, silicon, iron, and calcium. As part of a balanced diet, celery can help improve alkalinity which helps ward off infectious tendencies.

Because celery is of high water content, it’s great for before, during or after a meal when you want some water but don’t want to dilute your digestive juices.

Celery is a great all around snack for dieters or anyone simply wanting to increase their natural water intake or lower their alkalinity such as new non smokers or anyone with acidocis. These 3 weight loss tips are provided to give you some good food choices and healthy snack ideas for eating on the go at work or traveling.

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3 Weight Loss Tips For The Fitness Lifestyle

Rob — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 19:00:17 +0000

Does alcohol make you fat? The age old question among lifters and anyone on a weight loss program for sure. You know that drinking makes you fat right? The beer belly is evidence of this fact… or is it? Tom Venuto, author of Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle gives us 3 weight loss tips this week in regards to alcohol and weight loss. This is the first of two sets of tips regarding alcohol and they’re not only based in science, they’re based on common sense, just like any of Tom’s work.

Alcohol and Weight Loss Tips

(1) Don’t drink on a fat loss program. Although you could certainly drink and “get away with it” if you diligently maintained your calorie deficit as noted above, it certainly does not help your fat loss cause or your nutritional status.

(2) Drink in moderation during maintenance. For lifelong weight maintenance and a healthy lifestyle, if you drink, do so in moderation and only occasionally, such as on weekends or when you go out to dine in restaurants. Binge drinking and getting drunk has no place in a fitness lifestyle (not to mention hangovers aren’t very conducive to good workouts).

(3) Don’t drink daily. Moderate drinking, including daily drinking, has been associated with cardiovascular health benefits. However, I don’t recommend daily drinking because behaviors repeated daily become habits. Behaviors repeated multiple times daily become strong habits. Habitual drinking may lead to heavier drinking or full-blown addictions and can be hard to stop if you ever need to cut back.

Tom continues with some thoughts on the subject of the role alcohol plays in a fitness lifestyle

Alcohol has been implicated as a factor that may hurt your efforts to lose body fat. Whether alcohol is “fattening” has been a very controversial subject because technically speaking, alcohol is NOT stored as fat; it is oxidized ahead of other fuels.

Whether moderate drinking is healthy has also been a subject of controversy. Many studies show that cardiovascular health benefits are associated with moderate beer or wine drinking (which has been of particular interest lately with reservatrol in the news so much), while other studies show improved insulin sensitivity. Some experts however, say that alcohol has no place in a fitness lifestyle.

I invite you to read more on this subject by reading the full article Why Some People Can Drink Alcohol Without Getting Fat by Tom Venuto. Tom gives 4 more weight loss tips as well in regards to alcohol and weight loss.

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Waters Role In The Human Body – 3 Weight Loss Tips

Rob — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 16:14:26 +0000

Water is such an important part of our lives and the role it plays in our body, every aspect of our body, is not to be underestimated. Because water is such a critical factor, wouldn’t it be safe to assume that the quality of that water is just as important? Water is life and without it we would dry up like prunes. I give out 3 weight loss tips each Friday which allow you the reader to get a 3 day jump on those who wait until Monday to start. I say take action, begin now. Here are 3 weight loss tips for today, continuing our theme of the importance of water in our life.

We can all agree that we need more water every day. Most people are dehydrated and it’s easy to see why they gain weight when they first switch to a whole food eating program. They body is better nourished, electrolytes get balanced and your body begins to absorb more life giving water. With that water absorption comes weight and it’s why I tell people “congratulations” when they tell me they’ve gained weight after beginning to eat better. Exercise depletes the body of both water and electrolyes through sweat. If you exercise, you should be sipping more water each and every set to replace it. If not, cramps can occur. I’d like to share with you 3 advantages to drinking more water to improve all areas of your life, health and weight loss.

Flush Toxins – Water helps remove toxins from the body, in particular from the digestive tract. Our kidney system is unique in its filtering capabilities and totally dependent upon water in order for it to work. Daily fluid intake is essential to its efficient operation, particularly because there is some decrease in function with age. Water helps get rid of excess nitrogen, urea, and ketones, so it is particularly important when following a high protein diet. You need even more water to help your kidneys do their work if you’re eating big to gain weight.

Burn More Fat – Increased water consumption can help you control weight by preventing you from confusing hunger with thirst. Water will also keep your body systems, including metabolism and digestion, working properly and give you the energy (and hydration) necessary for exercise.

Add a squeeze of lemon or lime to water – Warm water with the juice of 1 lemon taken in the morning on an empty stomach is a great liver detoxifier, and has been shown to aid in weight loss.

Here are tips on how to drink more water , part of an ongoing series due to it’s importance.

Expect 3 weight loss tips each and every Friday, subscribe using the form below so that the blog posts from each author are delivered to your inbox each and every day. That way, you wont miss any of the weight loss tips from Friday.

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How To Drink More Water – Weight Loss Tips

Rob — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 18:24:26 +0000

The importance of the role drinking water plays in your life can not be underestimated. As Harvey Diamond says, and I’ve quoted for years “Water is life! The better your water, the better your life”. When it comes to weight loss or just plain health in general, the quality and quantity of your drinking water is crucial. Today’s 3 tip Friday begins a series of tips on water and how to increase the amount you drink per day.

1. Have a glass of water first thing in the morning and last thing before bed – Simple enough rule. By having a glass of water first thing in the morning, you start the day with water. Adding a small squeeze of lemon can aid in liver detoxification as well and add a nice twist to plain drinking water. Studies have shown that drinking a glass of water upon waking and before sleeping will accelerate weight loss.

2. Drink a glass of water 10 minutes before each meal – Having 5 or 6 meals per day, this simple tip allows for much more water in your day. Be sure to drink the water before your meals and now after. Water will leave your stomach as quickly as 5 minutes, so you’ll have room for your meal afterwards. Harvey Diamond of Fit For Life and Fit For Life 2 recommends NOT drinking water with meals or afterwards because they dilute your gastric juices and delay or reduce digestion of your meal. This is a practice I’ve done since reading about this in 1992.

3. Keep a gallon jug of water on your counter top or in your cubicle – A great way to measure how much water you’ve drank during the day. If the jug is empty, you know you got your gallon of water for the day. There is a lot of information saying that drinking cold water burns more calories as your body has to raise the temperature of the water back to body temperature. Probably true, however, from a health standpoint, drinking cold water shocks the body and puts it into a short state of emergency. In my opinion, the coldest water you should drink would be room temperature.

Specialist agree that the 8 Glasses of Water A Day rule is very misleading and is a gross over simplification of how much water to drink. Some need more and some need less, it really depends on the person. In some cases, over consumption of water can lead to the condition opposite of dehydration called hypnatremia and then to water intoxication. The need for 8 glasses of water a day is a myth.

Which Drinking Water Is Best?

A recent article by :Kristine :Earl suggests that for most people, Distilled Water has the highest energy and transfers that energy into your body. Distilled Water is the cleanest, or rather “empty” which allows for uptake of nutrients and removal of wastes in a more efficient manor. Since reading this informative first look at drinking water, I have added Distilled Water back into my daily routine.

Apply these 3 weight loss tips into your daily routine for 21 days, anchor them and record the results. If you’ve got any weight loss tips that include water, please leave a comment.

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3 Weight Loss Tips – Improve Digestion

Rob — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 16:49:22 +0000

3 weight loss tips for today’s edition of 3 Tips Friday. 3 tips you can take action on right here and right now and get a 3 day jump on your buddy who always says “I’ll start on Monday”. This edition of the weight loss tips is about how to improve digestion for weight loss.

Digestion of food is the most energy consuming thing your body does. It’s the same reason you hear your mom say “wait one hour after eating before swimming”. It’s not because you’ll get cramps, it’s because your body has sent so much blood to your stomach to do the work of digestion that you will have less energy for swimming.

Let me ask you this: If you don’t get the nutrition out of the food you’re eating, why are you eating it? That’s the whole point isn’t it? Making a few simple changes to how you eat, you can then assimilate all the nutrients, vitamins, minerals, fats, enzymes and protein of which your body is built.

Chew Each Bite Of Food At Least 30 Times – Digestion starts in the mouth. It’s where the breakdown of the food first occurs. Our saliva mixes with our food during the chewing process, but only if you keep it in your mouth for awhile. If you make an effort to slow down and chew each bite of food at least 30 times, you not only take a great deal of effort off the stomach in breaking down the food, you also mix the food with your saliva, further enhancing the digestion process.

Remember, digestion of food is the most energy consuming thing your body does. Help out your stomach by chewing your food, turning it into a mush with your teeth and mixing it with your saliva. Improve your digestion, release more energy, get more nutrition out of your food and you may find that you drop a few pounds and feel better. Do this for 21 days, anchor the habit and record your results.

Eat Your Meal Slowly – By simply slowing down, your stomach has time to tell your brain that it’s full. You don’t have to finish all the food on your plate either. When you’re full, you’re full.

Never Eat To Capacity – Have you ever seen a picture of your stomach? Your stomach is a muscle that churns your food along with the digestive juices it cranks out. Your stomach needs room for this churning to take place and if it’s full to capacity, proper digestion wont take place. Remember, digestion is very energy consuming. The energy you save could better be put to cleaning your body, burning fat or for workouts at the gym.

Think of your stomach in thirds. One third food, one third liquid and one third empty for the digestion process. You’ll be much better off, be able to digest your food completely and get full nutritional value from it if it’s completely digested. Oh, and all that farting? That is partly due to undigested food being broken down in your colon. Digest your food completely and you may notice that you reduce your bloating and farting (oh, excuse me.. I meant flatulence). Do this for 21 days to create the new habit and anchor it. Record the results.

Have a weight loss tip? Leave it in the comments. Have a look at previous weight loss tips and other tips from the 3 Tips Friday section of this website.

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3 Tips To Manifesting Your Desires

Rob — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 00:30:22 +0000

It’s Friday and that means weight loss tips. 3 tips that you can begin to apply right now, 3 days earlier than those who begin on Monday. This is your change to take action, to begin now and apply some simple little tips and take charge of your weight. This week I’m taking a small break from the weight loss tips and instead will follow along with our theme on The Attractor Factor. The Attractor Factor is all about attracting into your life the things that you want, so this week, 3 tips for manifesting your desires.

Speak As Though It’s Already True – when you’re talking to yourself about that which you want to have in your life, that which you want to attract, speak as if it were already true. Act as if it was already in your life, speak as if it were already in your life and your brain will hear you. Add in the emotions of how it will feel to have this and visualize what it’s like. If it’s being in a size 6, then visualize how you would look and how you would feel. Add energy to it and it you will begin to pull that which you want towards you. Sit for at least 5 minutes each day in a quiet place and visualize having already achieved what you want. Do this for 21 days, anchor it and record the results.

Focus On What You Want, Not What You Don’t Want – It’s all about the words and the energy really. If you’re always talking about all the bad stuff in your life, then you’re pretty clear about what you don’t want right? The more you focus on bills or traffic or weight gain, the more you get. You’ve added energy to the thoughts and you get exactly what you’re complaining about. Now, after all that practice of complaining, turn it around, use it to your advantage. Realize that what you talk about is what you get. If you’re always complaining about not being able to find a parking spot, then start EXPECTING the perfect parking spot right in front of the place you want to go. Imagine it being there, right in front, the perfect spot. Expect it. Believe it and then Receive it. Have fun with this one. Every day when you go out, sit for a moment in your car before you leave and know that a parking spot is in front of the place you want. Then as you’re driving, begin imaging the spot either vacant or opening up. Expect “Rock Star Parking“. Do this for 21 days, anchor this new habit for parking spots and track your results.

Be Grateful For What You Already Have – We must be grateful. We must appreciate what we have in order to receive more. Gratitude is the key. This is a simple one to practice too, just make note each day of 3 things that you’re grateful for, right now, no matter where you’re at in your life. Just be grateful. Every night before you go to bed, just consider 3 things that you have in your life that you’re grateful for and honor them. Do this for 21 days, anchor it, and track the results.

I was giving away free copies of The Attractor Factor to 2 lucky people who left their comments about desires they wanted to manifest and the feedbac has been awesome. Go have a look at what and how people are manifesting along with how to apply the law of attraction, Scott’s video explanation of creating a vision board and how the attractor factor works. Kandace has some great tips on Manifesting you desires as well from a post she wrote earlier this week.

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3 Weight Loss Tips – Play With Your Foods

Rob — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 11:15:46 +0000

3 Tips Friday, a collection of weight loss tips that you can take action on today and be 3 days ahead of your friends who start things on Mondays. Each Friday, I publish 3 weight loss tips or fitness tips that allow you to take steps towards you ultimate physique today. Taking action is one of the main themes of this blog and my weight loss forum. There is a saying that Knowledge Is Power, however, it is my belief that Knowledge In Action Is Power. Take action. Begin today.

Weight Loss Tips – Playing with your food

The idea here is to test small changes to your weight loss program. Make a small tweak in your diet and then monitor the results on your body fat. I call this “playing with your food”

Increase Your Protein Intake – proteins are essential building blocks for living systems—hence their name, drawn from the Greek proteios, or “holding first place”. The power of protein cannot be denied and simply by adding a little protein to each meal, you increase your fat burning capability. More protein equals more fat burnt.

Two ounces of protein is a little less than 200 calories according to Tom Venuto’s Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle program. Begin by adding one or two ounces of lean chicken breast to each of your meals. The total calories would be 300 to 600 for the day, but the thermogenic effect of eating it burns more fat than the calories you consume. Tom’s trademarked phrase is “Eat More Burn More“. Try it for 21 days. Monitor your results

Properly Combine Your Foods – Fit for life author Harvey Diamond taught me about food combining. Food combining, otherwise known as natural hygiene was even practiced and taught by Henry Ford, the inventor of the Model T. The idea is that you can greatly improve your digestion and release enormous amounts of energy stored as fat on your body by simply combining your foods properly. Do not eat Starches and proteins together. You can eat protein and vegetables together or starches and vegetables, but not protein and starches. Choose chicken breast and vegetables as your primary food meals for say 2 meals a day. Make this one change and apply it for 21 days and monitor your results. For more information about food combining listen to my free interview with Harvey Diamond.

Eliminate Banana’s From Your Diet – Simple. I used to eat 1 single banana every day at 11:30 am before I had my lunch. I ate it by itself, according to the principles of proper fruit consumption and then had my lunch about an hour later. I heard that bananas had a lot of sugar in them and were very mucous forming. I didn’t believe it. It’s a natural food. I was told that by eliminating them I’d drop a few pounds, so I decided to prove him wrong. I proved him right. I lost 5 pounds in two weeks by eliminating this one single banana. Will it work for you? Dunno? Try it for 21 days, monitor the results and report back in the comments.

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3 Weight Loss Tips

Rob — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 22:08:40 +0000

I’m launching 3 tips Friday today with these 3 weight loss tips that you can use to take small baby steps towards a healthier and more physically fit you. This will be a regular theme on Fridays along with some Friday Fun and Anything Goes. It might be weight loss tips or exercise tips or health tips or any combination of them. Whatever weight loss tips I come up with or are submitted to me.

A lot of people have this thing where they start something new on Monday. Well, why wait until Monday?

These 3 tips will be coming out on Fridays, so if you’re up for starting something new, then take action today and prepare for a great weekend. You’ll already have a 3 day jump on those who wait until Monday.

Weight Loss Tips

Focus on healthier replacements – Instead of making huge shifts in your weight loss program, focus on one small change. Then make it a habit for 21 days. Do it each day for 21 days and anchor it. Then make another new replacement and repeat.

Replace French fries with a small salad for one of your meals each day.
Replace your muffin with some fresh vegetables and a small serving of protein like tuna or chicken.
Replace a snack with a small nutritious meal instead.

Remember energy flows where attention goes, so focus on small healthy replacements

Take The No Dairy Test – you would probably agree that you would continue to go on living if you didn’t eat dairy products for 6 months right? So take the No Dairy Test. Eliminate all dairy products in your diet for 6 months and then monitor and track the changes. See what sort of results you notice. You might notice that your digestion improves, your allergies go away, your chronic stomach aches disappear and you don’t have headaches anymore. Just give it a try but pay attention to what you notice and how you feel. Keep a journal keeping track of what you notice. Are you up for the challenge?

Add A Few More Calories To Your Low Calorie Diet – If you are following a low calorie diet, I mean really low, like sub 1000, then just thinking about eating more might freak you out. You may know in your gut that you should be eating more, but don’t know how to approach it. Here’s how: Add in no more than 200 calories per day for a week or two, increasing your daily calories to 1000. That little bump should not be enough to freak you out, and if you focus on protein and good fats, the results should be an increase in energy, warmth and a boost in your metabolism. Consider adding 1 Tablespoon of Udo’s Oil each day (134 Calories) and 2 ounces of lean skinless chicken breast ( 98 calories) to one meal. Slightly over 200 calories, but it’s all good.

If you’d like to see these sort of tips on a daily basis, subscribe to my rss feed or by email by entering your email address in the subscription box next to my picture on the right.

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