Tuesday, August 31, 2010

The Truth About Soy Products

Is soy good for your fat loss diet?
There are many people on diets or healthy eating plans and in particularly vegetarians that consume large quantities of soy products because of their conception those soy products is a healthy alternative to other foods.

If soy is part of your day-to-day diet then I want you to watch the video below before you continue eating soy products.



An opportunity has come up for a Physiotherapist or Sports Therapist to start a clinic here at Pro Active Studio. For more information contact me. I’ve put a video of the treatment room below.


Is soy good for your fat loss diet?

Friday, August 27, 2010

How Often Do You Need to Snack For Fat Loss?

What works best for your body?
The chances of you achieving fat loss or other diet and fitness related goals depend on the types of food you choose to eat. Not just your main meals but for snacks too. Your success is determined by food quality, quantity and frequency of each meal and snack. It is important to find the right balance for your body and discover what works best for you.

Some people do great eating snacks between meals and others not so great. It doesn’t take an expert to tell you that you would instantly take a u-turn in your rate of progress if you snacked erratically.

My advice is this; if snacking is something new to you and you are keen to speed up the metabolism, try eating frequently. I would recommend trying a mid morning snack first. This is a safer way to introduce you to eating frequently because it will help speed up the metabolism for the day ahead better than just having a mid afternoon snack. Remember consuming most of your calories in the first of the day will do more for your metabolism than putting off eating till the back end of the day.

It is also important to remember that eating good quality foods and nutrients for your main meals doesn’t give you the right to snack on bad calories. I’m talking about the kind you find in processed foods and most convenient food outlets. Don’t think for a minute that good meals will cancel out bad snacks, maybe now and again but definitely not everyday!

I know as much as anyone else that easily available junk food can be testing on our temptations even at the best of times. It is easy to feel helpless and our willpower torn to shreds as we go about our daily business.

Don’t worry because there is some good news. All you need to be is organised and follow some simple guidelines.

1. Plan what foods you are going to use for snacks.

Tip: Choose just two foods, a protein food and a carbohydrate food and always carry them around with you so you don’t get stuck when you need something to eat.

2. Only eat natural foods.

Tip: Try not to eat anything with multiple ingredients i.e. processed bars etc. For example try fruits and nuts/seeds or nut butter.

3. Keep your eye on the clock.

Tip: Do not eat snacks sooner than 2 hours before your last meal. If it is approaching 4 hours since your last meal you will need to eat something to keep the metabolism ticking optimally.

Experiment with what works best for your body in regards to how often you need to snack and the response it has to the rate of your progress. For instance are you making progress with just a mid morning snack or do you need a mid afternoon snack as well?
What works best for your body?

Monday, August 23, 2010

The Effortless Way to Get Slim

Fail to get enough sleep and go to bed on time and you could be doomed with battling with your fat levels forever!
Are you committed to a six-pack workout at the gym or at home? Is your dream of achieving perfect abs and a trim waist evaporating together with any sign of progress? Did you know a good night sleep is one of the most important issues for losing body fat? Fail to get enough sleep and go to bed on time and you will be doomed with battling with your fat levels forever. Taking the steps with changing your habitual sleep patterns over the next few days and weeks can have immediate effects on dropping fat from your body.

Sleep is one of the factors behind controlling one of the body’s most important hormones for dieters. The hormone is called cortisol and happens to be a fat storing hormone. Cortisol is influenced by light, which means you should aim to wind down before bed avoiding all bright lights. Cortisol is also connected to our natural body clock. Going to bed late will prolong the release of cortisol and keep it elevated at a time when it should be low.

This important information shouldn’t be dismissed from your arsenal of fat fighting strategies and quest for six-pack abs. It can seem like a lot of dedication going to bed early especially when the ideal time is 10-10.30pm. In this day and age of late night TV and the Internet there are plenty of reasons to keep us occupied into the small hours. Watching bright TV screens and staring at the computer just before bed is the worst thing you could do to wind down, the light from both is enough to keep cortisol levels high.

You should aim for 8 hours sleep every night if you are struggling with losing body fat and getting your abs to make an appearance. Going to bed at midnight and getting 8 hours sleep isn’t the same as going to bed at 10.30pm and getting 8 hours sleep. We have a natural body clock built in to us with the times set for certain hormones to peak and dip throughout the day. Staying up late will send your natural rhythm of hormone secretion out of balance.

I hope it is clear that keeping cortisol levels high at bedtime is your worst enemy for fighting the bulge and achieving perfect abs. Putting together and applying an action plan to get you in bed earlier each night until you reach the ideal bedtime is the easiest way to accomplish the next step in your fat loss programme. Especially if you are a die-hard night owl like I once were.
Fail to get enough sleep and go to bed on time and you could be doomed with battling with your fat levels forever!

Thursday, August 19, 2010

How Do You Review Fat Loss Results?

Anybody who wants to reduce fat, lose weight or improve the way they look needs to implement some sort of review system!
The quickest way to get slim and lose tons of fat doesn’t need to involve scientific jargon or a calculator. Many people jump on the calories in and calories out bandwagon only to be left disappointed with the lack of results they get from that approach. Dieters simply fail to manage their diets properly and this is the number one reason why there are so many unsuccessful dieters around.

Anybody who wants to reduce fat, lose weight or improve the way they look needs to implement some sort of review system into their calendar. If your goal is fat loss then there should be regular review dates to see if you are progressing or not.

Applying some attention to the level of progress every ten days is exactly what any dieter could do at home. There is more you can do then to step on the bathroom scales to see if you are achieving results or not.

Below are two ways to review your progress.

Tracking Body Fat Levels
Stepping on the scales can be convenient and give you instant feedback but they only give you limited information. Scale weight tells you nothing about body fat percentage and the areas where body fat is dropping quicker than others. It is possible to be overweight but not over fat especially if you are an athlete.

Skin fold callipers are the easiest method and most reliable way to measure body fat. A good set of skin fold callipers should come with instructions and formulas for working out body fat percentages.

The way I do it is by keeping it simple, I choose certain areas of the body I wish to keep an eye on and take the measurements. I record the skin fold measurement in millimetres and write it down in my diary. I repeat this process every 10 days to see if I am making progress. The benefit of doing this over the scales is that it tells me where on the body I am responding and making progress.

Taking Body Measurements
This is another useful method that tells you much more than just getting weighed. Taking regular measurements around the largest area of different body parts is a consistent way of tracking changes. The most popular areas to measure are thighs, hips, bum, tummy, bust/chest and arms.

Once again record measurements and changes in some sort of journal or calendar to track your progress.

Once you have the information at hand and still not progressing at the speed you wish you have a strong advantage because you can modify your diet to influence the next set of measurements on the next review date. A simple enough strategy that many dieters fail to put into practice.
Anybody who wants to reduce fat, lose weight or improve the way they look needs to implement some sort of review system!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

The Easiest and Quickest Way to Get Rid of a Beer Belly

If you don’t drink beer and still have what looks like a beer belly then you will need to lose the visceral fat!
Pints of beer drunk frequently are going to swell up and distend the stomach regardless of an individual’s body fat levels. Some men regularly drink at least half a dozen pints in one drinking session. The pressure of retaining pints of high calorie fluids is going to swell even the leanest person’s belly.

High levels of visceral fat also cause the beer belly look. Visceral fat is internal fat. It is actually underneath your six-pack muscles and covers your organs. People who have high levels of visceral fat are also insulin resistant and need to avoid sugary, processed and starchy foods.

Obviously the best way to lose a beer belly is to stop drinking beer!

If you don’t drink beer and still have what looks like a beer belly then you will need to lose the visceral fat. Given that visceral fat is an indication of severe insulin resistance then the first step is to manage insulin levels by limiting certain carbohydrates in the diet and sugary processed foods.

Eliminating breads, pastas, ready-made meals and basically anything that comes in a fancy packaging with unpronounceable ingredients including so called healthy cereals is the fastest way to drop fat. Then it can take as little as a couple of weeks to see a major change in the size of your beer belly.

Beer is a terrible choice of drink for someone who wants to lose body fat. Beer has empty calories and has an estrogenic effect. Hops are highly estrogenic and are considered the main causes for beer bellies and man boobs on men.

Exercise recommendations for beer bellies and man boobs should be something that gets your heart rate high and panting like a dog. Resistance type training is the most effective way to exercise for someone wanting to burn fat. Weights burn more calories than cardiovascular exercises such as the treadmill and rowing machine. You need to approach resistance training with a view to sweat and work hard in order to get the best results.
If you don’t drink beer and still have what looks like a beer belly then you will need to lose the visceral fat!

Saturday, August 7, 2010

The Six Pack Exercises That Work - A Way to Train Abs in 3 Minutes

AB circuit you can do anywhere and it only takes 3 minutes!
In a previous post about 3 minute abs I introduced you to the concept of training your abs as hard as possible in only 3 minutes. Just to recap, choose 2 abdominal exercises and work them for 30 seconds each with no gaps of rest between any of them. When you have done the 2 exercises repeat them all immediately until you have exercised for 3 minutes.

Today I will show you another way to blast your abs in only 3 minutes.

This is what to do:
Exercise #1 for 30 seconds
Exercise #2 for 30 seconds

Repeat three times with no rest between any of the exercises.

This time you are only doing 2 exercises for the 3-minute circuit. The same principles apply as before where you go from one exercise to the other without any rest.

The 2 exercises I have found to work very well are:

Exercise #1 The V Sit Up
Lie face up on the floor with your head touching the floor. Place your arms straight by the side of your head and straighten your legs so they are touching each other.

The aim of the exercise is to bring your legs, arms and head off the floor at the same time. Ideally you should come up so your body imitates a V shape. I have found bringing your head a few inches off the floor and arms and legs around 12 inches off the ground works just as hard for most people. Make sure you start each rep with your head; arms and legs touching the floor so you work in the full range and prevent your neck from hurting.

The tempo should be 2 seconds each way and try and focus on recruiting the abdominal muscles every time you lift off the ground. In other words don’t force your body up by throwing your arms and legs upwards.

Exercise #2 The Plank
Begin lying face down on the floor with your feet together and forearms on the ground; hands should be clenched in a fist. Draw the abs inward, squeeze your backside muscles and lift the entire body off the ground until it forms a straight line from head to toe, remember you are resting on your forearms and toes.

Forearms should be parallel and elbows directly below the shoulders. Keep the back flat throughout your set and chin tucked. Hold this position until you can maintain good form and slowly return to the ground.

Remember when you have done the 2 exercises in a row for 30 seconds each go back to the first and repeat them so you get a 3 minute workout.

What makes this AB circuit popular is the fact that you can do it absolutely anywhere and it only takes 3 minutes.
AB circuit you can do anywhere and it only takes 3 minutes!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Personal Trainers Focus on Three Main Areas That Diet & Fitness Fads Never Address

A diet fits all approach never works for everyone!
Using a personal trainer is most successful way to get in shape, lose fat, reduce inches and build a lean physique than any other way possible. Personal training focuses on three main areas that diet and fitness fads never address.

The three main areas begin with a personalised diet, addressing exercise technique and motivation. You could add a fourth with progressive exercise programme design but the first three needs to come first.

A diet fits all approach never works for everyone. Diet clubs and other group meetings use this method and there are always more that don’t get anywhere then those that do. Wouldn’t it be quicker and easier learning the best way to diet from the beginning without guessing or gambling with efforts?

Secondly doing the proper exercise for a goal is essential for results. Technique is paramount and makes all the difference in shaping the body and burning enough calories. Ask yourself how one piece of exercise equipment can give you the workout you need when in fact a proper exercise programme regardless of goals needs to include squatting, bending, twisting, pulling, pushing and lunging.

On the other hand how can anyone be sure they are doing the exercise correctly if there are over a dozen or more people in the room with different fitness levels? Remember the trainer has only one pair of eyes. If anyone’s technique is so shocking that it does get picked up and corrected then they are getting their moneys worth at the expense of everyone else’s. Imagine you are in a class and you have the best exercise technique then everybody else’s in that class. If the trainer were doing his or her job correctly they would have to keep interrupting the flow of the workout to correct the people with the less experience who were at risk of hurting themselves. Now can you see how a boot camp class can leave you short changed and not being able to deliver on its promise? Everyone in the class would have to be at a pretty even level to benefit everyone in there, but as I know from experience this is rare.

Finally the one thing a personal trainer can be sure to give you that no gym membership or fad can ever compete with is MOTIVATION. How many people join a gym and never use it? How many members does your gym have? A typical gym these days can have anywhere between three and five thousand members. Would it surprise you if I told you that if twenty percent of gyms members used the gym regularly then that would be an impressive amount? If you are a member of a big gym chain lets assume there are four thousand members at that gym. Next time you go in at a peak time say six o clock on an evening just do a quick estimate head count to see what number is in there. You would assume it is the gyms busiest time of day so there should be the most number of members using it then at any other time of day. If you get four hundred which I very much doubt then that is only ten percent of the members using it at its busiest time of day. What does that tell you? For starters it says having a gym membership is an expensive way to get in shape if you never use it. It also proves that gyms couldn’t care less if you use it as long as you keep paying your membership fees. They are not in business to make you exercise and achieve your goal. They are simply there to provide a place for you to exercise if you choose to go.

I hope you can see how beneficial a personal trainer can be to your goals. Not only could you save money and time but also get the results you want from the level of service that can’t be equalled anywhere else.
A diet fits all approach never works for everyone!