Fat loss

Fatty Foods and winning the battle of the bulge

Throughout my youth I was skinny. Not just thin, not fit, but actually skinny. My friends used to joke that I looked unhealthy, and I couldn’t get near a dinner table without someone – usually an aunt or the mother of a friend or some such – trying to stuff me as full of potatoes, beef, and other fatty foods as was possible.

And I gladly indulged. Part of being skinny was a bottomless pit of an appetite, one that was particularly insatiable when it came to meat. Whether it was steak or hamburgers or fried chicken or pork chops, if it once was alive then I wanted to eat it. And to eat as much of it as I possibly could.

That was how I exited, culinarily speaking, from the time I hit puberty til the time I was twenty five. Fatty foods, and as much of them as I could find, was always the menu of choice.

Then, one day right around when I turned twenty five, my metabolism stopped. Overnight I went from six-foot-one, one-hundred fifty-five pounds to six-foot-one, one-hundred ninety-five pounds. It took maybe a month to pack on that weight, the first I had gained in over ten years. And it was ghastly.

Seriously, I had man boobs. Moobs. They jiggled when I walked up or down stairs. I began busting out of certain shirts I had worn forever. I couldn’t exercise – I never exercised growing up, so the prospect of doing so, now that I was grossly overweight, was just out of the question.

I had to improve my diet. And I really, really didn’t want to.

But making those choices, the tough choices that we really don’t want to make, is what makes us an adult. You get to eat all the fatty foods you want when you’re a kid, all the mashed potatoes, all the steaks, all the cheeseburgers with extra bacon, all the ice cream, all the anything, because you’re a kid. Your body can process tupperware at that age, for god’s sake.

But when you get older you have to be realistic. Everyone’s metabolism slows down one day, and the risk isn’t just weight gain. You’re also risking your health and your very life, and that’s something everyone should be willing to take into account.

So I cut out the fatty foods. Dairy was the first to go, and red meat soon followed. Desserts turned from ice cream or pastries to fresh fruit. And within a year, I had dropped twenty five of my new pounds.

Women’s Weight Training

The newest research in exercise science indicates that weight training is crucial to fitness and weight loss. Cardio exercise which doesn’t incorporate or include weight training is far less effective and can even be counter-productive. But women’s weight training routines require a specific approach. Women should not weight train in the same way that men do. Weight training approaches which are designed with men in mind may not achieve the results that women are looking for.

Women who want to incorporate resistance training into their workouts must consider certain hazards which probably do not bother men. For example, excessive muscle building can appear unattractive on a feminine frame. Women’s weight training must build muscle strength without creating the appearance of bulkiness.

It’s also true that women’s weight training must focus on different parts of the body than men’s weight training usually does. For example, men might like to build size and strength in their lats or trapezius (shoulder) muscles. But women most likely will not want to perform weight training exercises which create bulk in those areas.

So women embarking upon a weight training regimen should carefully consider the weight training routine which best accomplishes their gender-specific goals. Women’s weight training should be tailored to the strengths, weaknesses and aesthetic concerns unique to the female body.

Women’s weight training should generally involve lower resistance than men’s weight training. In other words, weights should be less heavy. But compensate for the lower weight with a larger number of reps for each exercise.

Also, women should focus on certain muscle groups more than others. Women who are weight training will not want to build too much bulk in the biceps, shoulders, back or thighs. However, women’s weight training should give special attention to the abdominals, pecs, glutes, triceps and calves. Those muscles, when well developed, contribute to the appearance of a lean, slender, feminine figure.

Overall, when embarking upon a workout regime with includes weight or resistance training, women should be well aware of the distinctive needs and concerns of the female body. Not all weight training regimens are the same, and not all are designed specifically with women’s needs in mind. Take time to consult with a personal trainer to design a women’s weight training routine which suits your own needs. Women’s weight training is not the same as men’s, and most trainers should be aware of the important distinctions.

Weight Lifting Routines

Persons over fifty years of age have their own unique challenges when it comes to getting or staying in shape. What worked for someone age fifty even ten years prior in their lives just would not be appropriate when they reached the big Five-O. Many people in their fifties suffer from physical problems such as arthritis, high blood pressure, heart problems, and other ailments that make it especially challenging when it comes to working out. Finding weight lifting routines that suit their abilities is the key to establishing core fitness and increasing their strength and stamina.

Weight lifting routines can be extremely harmful if not done correctly and it is always wise if you are not familiar with the machines and weights to get some professional instruction or coaching. Most people go to gyms such as Bally’s, 24-Hour Fitness or another chain. These gyms have professional athletes and trainers on staff that can help you find the right weight lifting routines and aerobic fitness exercises for you.

Working with free weights is always tricky and you should be very careful. Work with the dumbbells first and use only very light weights as you build up resistance and strength. Many experts suggest using light weights and more repetitions as a way of strengthening muscles without damaging them. You should feel the burn but not extreme pain. If you do feel a pinch or other form of acute pain, you may have pinched a nerve or you could be damaging a joint and need to stop immediately.

Using the lightweight dumbbells you can try the following exercise. Lay down on one of the benches and place on dumbbell in each hand. Extend your arms out to the sides and raise them again upwards and towards the middle of your chest. These are called “Flys” and will help to strengthen the outer chest muscles. The good thing about using light weights is that you will not need much recovery time between sets.

Another of the best weight lifting routines for the chest that can be done with the same bench and dumbbells is a straight bench press. Put one dumbbell in each hand and lay back on the bench. Place your feet up on the bench if you can to make sure that your lower back is flat on the bench. Lift the dumbbells up simultaneously from your chest until your arms extend then bring the weights back slowly. If you do this exercise slowly you will get the negative resistance on the way down which works different areas of the same muscle groups and will give you a more all around workout.

Another of the best weight lifting routines for seniors is an overhead military press with light weight dumb bells. There are special benches for this that you sit on and support your back. Sit on the bench with your back flat against the support and raise the weights up over your head simultaneously until your arms extend. Do three sets of fifteen repetitions until you feel the burn. This exercise is great for the shoulders and neck. The next day you should feel sore but not injured.

These are just some of the great weight lifting routines for persons over fifty. Of course it is strongly suggested that you see your personal physician first and get their approval before starting out on any fitness program.

Effective Ways to Lose Belly Fat

I never had much of a weight problem until I hit 30. All throughout my teen years and 20′s, I practically lived on pizza, burgers, fries, and beer, while barely ever working out. Nevertheless, I managed to keep my weight nice and steady without ever having to worry about counting calories or dieting. But my bad habits are finally coming home to roost, and the result is not pretty. That’s why I’m now scrambling to find the most effective ways to lose belly fat.

If you’re dealing with the same issue, then you already know how tough it is to lose belly fat. I’ve tried some basic fixes, like adding cardio to my workout routine, but I haven’t seen any results yet. I suppose some people might say that I’m just not going far enough. For instance, why don’t I do a thousand crunches a day or something like that? Well that’s insane! There’s got to be a more efficient way to lose belly fat that doesn’t require me to spend all my waking hours doing crunches!

I looked online for expert tips on how to lose belly fat, and came up with some interesting information. First of all, it seems that many fitness gurus don’t believe in targeted weight loss, and think it’s impossible to focus on shedding inches from your thighs, butt, or waistline. Once you start losing weight, your body dictates where the pounds will come off and that’s that. Of course, many other top trainers believe that it is indeed possible to target certain areas, so it’s hard to get a definitive answer here.

Another thing I learned is that simple aerobic or cardio exercises like walking or steady jogging might not be the most effective approach, either. Instead, it’s recommended that you engage in something called interval training to get rid of excess weight. This consists mainly of short bursts of a high-intensity activity (like sprinting) followed by short rest periods of a low-intensity activity (walking or jogging).

Besides interval training, there are lots of commercial products intended to help you lose belly fat. Some of these products include special wraps that are supposed to immediately (and permanently) trim inches off your waistline, supplements that control certain hormones that are tied to obesity, and various exercise gizmos and gadgets that are meant to help you target your abs. It’s definitely going to take me some time to go through and figure out which of these products might be worth trying and which sound like a waste of money.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like there’s an easy, magical way to lose belly fat. It seems as though I’m going to have to put a lot of hard work into exercising and dieting in order to see the results I want — which I guess is the kind of answer I expected all along!