Archive for boost your metabolism
Water And Weight Loss
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I cannot stress enough how important it is to drink water, especially when you are trying to lose weight. Most people are not consuming enough water each day to meet their needs and it will be an obstacle for them as they try to reach their goals.
Some of the reasons why drinking water is important in your daily life:
- It helps regulate your appetite-drink a glass of water before each meal, and it will help you feel full faster, thus helping you reduce how many calories you consume.
- Helps increase metabolism-the process of burning calories requires enough water in order to function efficiently; dehydration slows down the fat-burning process.
- Burning calories creates toxins (think of the exhaust coming out of your car), and water plays a vital role in flushing them out of your body.
- Boosts Energy Levels-dehydration causes a reduction in blood volume; a reduction in blood volume causes a reduction in the supply of oxygen to your muscles; and a reduction in the supply of oxygen to your muscles can make you feel tired.
- Water helps maintain muscle tone by assisting muscles in their ability to contract, and it lubricates your joints. Proper hydration can help reduce muscle and joint soreness when exercising.
- A healthy diet includes a good amount of fiber. But while fiber is normally helpful to your digestive system, without adequate fluids it can cause constipation instead of helping to eliminate it.
How much water should you drink everyday to lose weight? In order to lose weight, every day you should consume between 0.5 and 0.64 ounces of water per pound of lean body weight. So a 200 lb. person should drink somewhere between 100-128 ounces of EACH DAY.
If you’re serious about becoming leaner and healthier, drinking water is an absolute must. You cannot get the results you want without an adequate amount of water!
How To Plan Fat Burning Meals
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Having a hard time planning a days worth of good eating? Here is a list of some of the best protein, carb and fat choices you can make. It is important that you have something from all 3 nutrients in each of your meals or you will not feel satisfied or be giving your body all the nutrients needed to burn body fat! This is not a comprehensive list by any means, but a good place to start. Hope this helps as you work on making a plan to get lean. Remember, you need both a great diet AND exercise to reach your goals!
PROTEINS
1. Chicken Breast
2. Ground Turkey
3. Eggs
4. Protein Powder
5. Cottage Cheese
CARBS
(Fibrous)
1. Broccoli
2. Spinach
3. Peppers
4. Stir Fry Veggies
5. Tomatoes
Zucchini
(Starchy)
1. Oatmeal
2. Sweet Potatoes
3. Whole Wheat Tortillas/Pita
4. Black Beans
5. Brown Rice
FATS
1. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2. Almonds
3. Walnuts
4. Flax Seed
5. Avocado
Some examples are:
*2 egg whites with 1 whole egg, spinach and peppers
*Chicken breast with stir fry veggies and walnuts (cooked in olive oil)
Now get to the grocery store and start planning your way to a healthier life style!
How many situps/crunches do I have to do to get rid of this belly and get “6 pack abs?”
Posted by: | CommentsRecent question from a reader I thought I’d share:
How many situps/crunches do I have to do to get rid of this belly and get “6 pack abs?”
How about 2,000? Not really. There’s really no way to answer this question correctly and not knowing your current bodyfat level, measurements, eating habits, medical history and exercise program, I can’t even begin to make a fair assessment but I’ll share a few quick thoughts.
There are many factors that can contribute to getting 6 pack abs. “Doing situps/crunches” is not an important one (I’ll explain). Honestly you don’t necessarily have to do any situps or crunches to get 6 pack abs. Here are 6 things you do have to do:
First your nutrition has to be on point. You need a well balanced diet (high protein, healthy fats, and natural carbs) that stokes your metabolism and provides your essential vitamins and nutrients. That means no starving yourself here.
- You have to create a caloric deficit (burn more calories than you consume) to help get rid of your bodyfat through an exercise program.
- You need to have an intense weight training and cardio program several days per week that includes interval training.
- You have to do compound movements that offer a lot of “Bang For Your Buck.” You actually can’t spot reduce in your body – this means you can’t make your body burn fat from a particular area by exercising that area (yes advertisements can be very deceiving here). That’s why hundreds/thousands of situps won’t necessarily burn fat from your “belly.”
- You need adequate rest through sleep and time off from training. Your body can’t recover properly without rest (I promise I know this first hand).
- You have to be committed long-term and ready to change your lifestyle. This is a process. Not a quick fix. You didn’t get a “belly” overnight so you can’t get a “six-pack” overnight. Anyone who promises differently is NOT telling the truth.
Still feel lost? You can hire a personal trainer or an even better solution is bootcamp where we’ll help you with all of these (for less than the price of 2 sessions with a trainer). There’s still room. Register Now!
Bootcamp Friday 500
Posted by: | CommentsHere’s some of the early morning bootcamp group finishing up a classic Body By Buck Bootcamp workout I like to call the “Friday 500.”
No pink dumbbells or long boring cardio here. Only fat blasting, muscle building exercises that give you a lot of “Bang for your Buck” and get your metabolism revved up for the day. Just over 30 minutes of getting after it. What kind of workout did you do today?
Make time to sneak in some exercise
Posted by: | CommentsDon’t have time to workout some days? Make time and sneak it in. Set a goal to do some exercise every time you have a break or at a certain time interval (every hour or hour and a half). Or if you’re watching TV, then every commercial.
There is time. You just have to be disciplined to find it or make it.
Work in an office or at a desk? Every hour or so, stand up and do some bodyweight squats or other exercise for 30s – 60s. Or if you work at home or have a flexible schedule? Knock out some bodyweight exercises every hour for one minute a minute or so.
You can do squats, pushups, lunges, planks or situps or even go walk a few flights of stairs.
Sometimes at the Fire Academy when we’re in the classroom all day, me and a few firefighters will knock out a set of pushups at every break. By the end of the day, that’s an extra 100-200 pushups completed as opposed to just going to the vending machine for something terrible. And it didn’t really cost us any extra time.
I promise all these little times will add up. Not only will it help give you a boost of energy but can also boost your metabolism and burn some extra calories. Plus you’ll make healthier choices since fitness is on your mind. Make time and sneak it in.
Three Mother’s Day Fat Fighting Tips
Posted by: | CommentsThis Sunday is Mother’s Day, so I thought I’d share with you some really simple tips that do a great job of fighting fat. But before I even get to them I want to let you know that while moms have a real tough job, it’s not nearly as hard to burn off the belly fat.
In fact, just a few simple changes in lifestyle can make a dramatic difference in your belly, butt, hips and thighs. So be sure to put these tips to good use:
Mother’s Day Fat Fighting Tip #1 – Avoid soft drinks, juices and any other liquids loaded with sugar. All these drinks are very high in useless calories. A 12 oz. can of cola typically packs 150 calories worth of sugar! Drink a couple of those a day and you’re packing on the belly fat!
Mother’s Day Fat Figthing Tip #2 – Record what you eat and drink. Most moms – and people in general – are shocked at the amount of food and calories that they are REALLY consuming when they track it. And be honest, many times when people do this exercise they “forget” to write down the foods they nibble on here and there. It ALL adds up.
Mother’s Day Fat Fighting Tip #3 – Eat 5 to 10 servings of fruits and veggies each day. This will help you meet your micronutrient needs for the day. And that is critical to your body’s ability to burn fat off your belly, butt, hips and thighs.
Now, if you’re having trouble eating all your fruits and veggies I’ve got some good news for you. My good friends at Prograde Nutrition are having a Mother’s Day sale on their powerful Women’s VGF 25+. You can save 15% on this awesome product made from 25 veggies, greens and fruits. All the details are below.
Happy Mother’s Day!
PS - Here are all the details on Prograde Nutrition’s 15% off Women’s VGF 25+ Mother’s Day sale:
When you checkout you will enter this coupon code to save the 15%: mom2009- If you choose the Smart Ship option the 15% off applies only to the first purchase.
- Shipping will take 3-5 days domestically, so while I HIGHLY recommend you jump all over this sale, don’t purchase these as a gift expecting them to be there for Mother’s Day itself. Buy them as a healthy gift for yourself or others.
- The offer cannot be combined with others from Prograde and it ends TOMORROW, Friday, May 8th at 11:59pm EST.
- Women’s VGF 25+ is NOT available in stores anywhere. You can only find them online here: http://bodybybuck.getprograde.com/vgfwomen
Cardio is overrated…
Posted by: | CommentsMy colleague Ben and I have similar training philosophies. When talking about weight training, he summed it up perfectly:
“If I hear one more person tell me that cardio is the best form of exercise for fat loss, I swear I’m going to… Seriously, I think this one is dying but it isn’t going away quietly. Metabolism is the machine that burns fuel in your body, and your lean muscle is the main determinant of how fast your metabolism is. The only way to increase your lean muscle is, WEIGHT TRAINING.”
No sugar coating in that. What are your workouts looking like? Are you a slave to group fitness or are you challenging your body in new ways that are going to build muscle, burn fat, and boost your metabolism around the clock? If not, you need to add some intense weight training to your workouts today!
Break one sweat per day…
Posted by: | CommentsPretty simple but yet pretty powerful. It’s a great goal to have. Break one sweat per day and help keep the fat away. And sweat as in physical exertion. Not standing over the stove or sitting in the steam room/sauna or sunbathing but having the goal of breaking one sweat per day from exercise where you are actually challenging your body. This is a great goal to have. So set that for yourself and hold yourself accountable to it.
Ask yourself each day: “Did I break a sweat today?” And if your answer is NO. Get to moving! Your health, body, and loved ones you will thank you for it…
*Funny Weight Loss Video
Posted by: | CommentsCheck out this great video from MAD TV. It’s hilarious but so true at the same time. Weight loss isn’t as complicated as we make it out to be. You say you’ve tried everything, looked for the magic formula, and will do anything but often can’t manage these 2 simple things which you’ve heard me say many times before: “Eat less, and move more!” Try it and you’ll be much better off!
Five Super Simple Fat Loss Tips
Posted by: | CommentsFat loss isn’t rocket science. I know we love to make our problems seem much bigger than they really are, but when you really look at them they’re typically easy to solve. And that’s often the case with fat loss.
To prove it to you here are five super simple fat loss tips you can easily follow:
1) Stop guzzling liquid sugar. Yes, I mean soft drinks and juices and bottles of iced tea loaded with high fructose corn syrup. For the most part, a 12 oz can of cola is 150 calories of pure sugar. Have a couple of those a day…
2) I’ve written it a gazillion times and I will continue to – eat breakfast! If you want to make fat loss easy then make sure you start your metabolism off on the right foot.
3) Eat more fruit. Aim for at least 5 servings a day.
4) Eat more veggies. Again, aim for at least 5 servings a day.
5) Stop eating so many processed foods. If it comes in a box from your grocery store it’s most likely processed. The fresher the food is the better.
* Bonus tip*
You can make tips 3 and 4 a breeze by using a whole foods based dietary supplement. Personally, I love Prograde Nutrition’s VGF 25+ for MEN or WOMEN because it is made from 25 WHOLE veggies, greens and fruits.
