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At some point during their weight loss journey, a lot of people may ask the question: why am I not losing weight.  What to do to lose weight may seem relatively simple: eat less and exercise more.  While this mantra may hold under ideal scientific conditions, as human beings there are other factors that go into the weight loss equation. Don’t get me wrong, at the end of the day I still think weight loss is driven by how many calories you consume versus how many calories you expend.  Ultimately this comes down to diet and exercise. Diet: One Way to Lose Weight In my opinion, diet should be the key area of focus when it comes to what to do to lose weight.  While most people will just try to eat less calories, I actually think there are 5 separate factors that influence diet: calories, appetite, taste, emotional eating, and nature vs. nurture. Calories This is where it all begins.  For a minute, let’s just forget about the quality of calories you eat....

As I was writing How to Get a Beach Body in 2 Months or Less, I got around to thinking about the best way to stay in shape.  Below is a 3 step, fool-proof way to stay in shape. 1. Exercise A simple 3 day split.  Day 1: Pushups, Day 2: Pull Ups, Day 3: Sprints; repeat for the next 3 days and give yourself a day off.  For pushups and pull ups, complete one max set.  For sprints, you’ll run 400 meters (1 lap around the track).  Here’s the trick.  Each workout you have to increase the number of pushups and pull ups you perform by at least 1 rep.  If you can’t beat your personal record in one set, you have to do 5 more sets, stopping one rep short of failure on each set and allowing yourself 2 minutes rest between sets.  For sprints, if you can’t run faster than your personal record, you have to do 5 more laps with 2 minutes rest between laps. 2. Diet You get to eat whatever you want.  Go to McDonald’s every day if you feel like it.  H...

As you get leaner, one of the biggest challenges is measuring body fat percentage and measuring muscle mass percentage.  If you’re trying to lose a lot of weight, the scale is just as good a tool as any.  However, when you’re trying to lose the last 5-10lbs of fat while preventing muscle loss, the scale alone won’t necessarily help.  How can you effectively measure your weight loss results if you don’t know your body fat percentage or muscle mass percentage?  Based my recent experience, your best bet is to combine a variety of different methods.  Even then, it’s tough to definitively determine anything in the short term. Measuring Body Fat & Muscle Mass I recently finished doing Joel Marion’s Xtreme Fat Loss Diet.  While I’ll be reviewing that program separately, I thought I’d highlight how I tracked my results.  First thing to note, this was an experiment and I would not advise taking your weight, measuring body fat percentage, and measuring m...

Today I’d like to discuss branched chain amino acids.  You may have heard of BCAAs before but do they really live up to their claim of being effective for losing fat and gaining muscle?  While I’d say there are many benefits of BCAAs, whether you decide to supplement with them will depend in part on when you exercise and how restrictive your diet is.  For fasted training, I’d highly recommend using branched chain amino acids to help prevent muscle loss while maximizing fat loss.  Any other time, there’s probably only a marginal benefit at best. Branched Chain Amino Acids Let’s start with the basics.  What are branched chain amino acids?  In short, they’re the best building blocks of protein (essential amino acids known as valine, leucine, and isoleucine).  While your body cannot produce BCAAs on its own, you’re likely getting plenty of these amino acids from your diet, primarily through protein.  However, anyone pursuing a calorie restrictive ...

Why Gymnastics Training The amazing thing about gymnastics exercises is that you can get immensely strong.  Because gymnastics training is built around bodyweight exercises, a common misconception is that there is more of an endurance focus rather than strength focus.  This stems from the fact that many people can perform high reps of pushups, pull ups, and other bodyweight exercises.  However, gymnastics training can make these exercises significantly more challenging by changing angles and how much leverage you have.  The key to increasing strength is to increase the challenge of a bodyweight exercise to the point where you can only perform a low number of reps. Another argument is that the increased strength from gymnastics training won’t translate into strength in the gym.  In Building the Gymnastics Body, Coach Sommer describes some pretty impressive feats of a student who had only performed gymnastics exercises and had never used weights.  This s...

As the year comes to a close, I thought now would be a good time to review my favorite workout programs and diet plans.  So what are the key components of the best workout programs and best diet plans?  In general, I think any good program provides some background and guidance as to why it is effective.  That should in turn help the reader understand and even construct their own workout program or diet plan.  Additionally, I find that the best workout programs and best diet plans lay out a recommended approach.  Obviously, this provides a starting point for readers.  Ultimately, I believe the best programs offer specificity as well as customization.  In other words, a reader can either perform an exact recommended routine or gain enough knowledge to create their own routine.  In this manner, the best workout programs and best diet plans can be effective for both beginners and experienced fitness fanatics. Free Workout Program and Diet Plan Bef...

I’m currently in the process of choosing a new workout routine.  I generally like to change things up ever 6-8 weeks which is why the 3 phase approach of Visual Impact Muscle Building was so appealing to me.  While I could just cycle through the program again, I’ve decided that I want to try a different approach to see what type of results I’ll get.   So what should you consider when choosing a workout routine?  Here are the guidelines I’m using. Goals It’s important to choose a routine that is consistent with your goals.  Why do a mass building routine if you want to burn fat?  Different workouts were made for different people as well.  Same thing goss for diets.  There’s no reason to undertake a highly restrictive diet if you know you won’t be able to stick with it.  For example, a diet that eliminates all fat or sugar may sound great but execution could prove incredibly difficult. It can be challenging to decide if a program fit...

Over the past two decades I’ve been interested in fitness, I’ve learned a lot.  However, I think I’ve learned more lessons from my fitness blog over the past two years than in my previous experiences.  Much of this knowledge comes from the research I do to write articles.  That being said, the questions that readers ask and experiences they share are truly eye opening.  Here are ten general fitness lessons. 1. One size doesn’t fit all Not every workout routine or diet program works for everyone.  Just because I’ve had success with a variety of strategies doesn’t mean those same strategies will work for you.  The strategies or programs I recommend tend to work with others but there’s no absolute certainty that they work for everyone.  For example, I like intermittent fasting to lose weight but my wife just can’t fathom doing it. 2. Consistency and effort trumps selection of a routine I’m convinced that consistently performing the worst routine an...

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know I’ve been documenting my Visual Impact Muscle Building results.  Now that I’ve completed the program, I’d like to review my journey and some of the things I learned along the way.  There isn’t much I’d do to improve the program, but perhaps my experience could help some people with any potential hurdles they may encounter.  Author Rusty Moore is pretty good about answering questions on his Facebook page, but I’m happy to offer any assistance that I can. If you’re not familiar with Visual Impact Muscle Building, you could start by reading my quick review.  The brief summary is that it is a 6-7 month program dividend into 3 phases plus a bonus phase that will help you gain muscle while limiting fat gain in order to achieve a lean, defined, and muscular look.  The focus is generally on upper body training so that you strategically gain muscle in the right places. Background I think it’s important to...

It might sound easy, but staying in shape can be just as difficult as losing fat or gaining muscle.  In a way, it’s more motivating to have a set goal and clearly defined approach.  The problem is that you can only keep a laser-like focus on your diet and exercise program for so long.  At some point, you should return to reality and enjoy yourself a bit.  Ironically, easing up a bit will help your body and mind recover and allow you to push harder again in the future.  Pushing too hard for too long can easily lead to burn out.  That’s where a maintenance workout routine and diet plan come into place. Maintenance Workout Routine & Diet Plan In my opinion, the goal of a maintenance workout routine and diet plan is to stay in good shape or marginally lose body fat and/or gain muscle.  This is not the time you should see 5-10lb fluctuations in your weight.  Simply try to maintain your body.  Here are three general approaches to adjust you...

A couple months ago I decided to buy a weighted vest. If you’re at the point where you’re doing 20+ reps for bodyweight exercises or would like to burn some extra calories during cardio, then it might be time to perform weighted vest workouts.  I’ve been using a 40lb weighted vest to increase the difficulty of pushups, pull-ups, dips, and inverted rows.  Obviously I’ve had to significantly reduce the number of reps I’m performing, but that’s the whole point.  Increased resistance, decreased reps, increased strength and muscle mass.  I’ve also used the weighted vest when performing steady state cardio.  It’s amazing how much harder using an elliptical can be when carrying an extra 40lbs.  In an ideal world, I’d also wear it outside every morning while walking my dog, but it looks conspicuously like a bullet proof vest. Weighted Vest Bodyweight Workouts If you’ve been training for a while, then there’s a chance that bodyweight exercises just aren’t chall...

So I just stepped on the scale for the first time in over a month.  Guess what happened?  For all intents and purposes, nothing.  My weight was down about 1.5lbs but that could easily be water fluctuations.  Body fat and muscles mass were exactly the same.  What’s my point…once you reach your goal, you can spend less time obsessing about diet and exercise.  Does that mean you give up and start eating like crazy without exercising…absolutely not!  It does mean that you have the option of exercising less or eating more though, assuming you were in a caloric deficit to achieve your goal.  The whole purpose behind my little experiment was to show that if you have a good plan in place, you don’t even necessarily have to track your progress on a regular basis; periodic check-ins are good enough.  This was perfect for the summer.  That aside, readers always seem to be interested in specific workout routines and diet plans, so I’ve outlined my...

1. CUCUMBER Cucumbers are the fourth most cultivated vegetable in the world and known to be one of the best foods for your body’s overall health for several reasons. To begin with, cucumbers contain most of the vitamins that the body needs in a single day. They’re very rich in vitamins B, vitamin K, copper, potassium, manganese and don’t forget to leave the peel on because it contains about 10 percent of the daily- recommended allowance of vitamin C. Moreover, cucumbers are about 95 percent water which means staying hydrated at all times especially during those hot summers while the cucumber is helping your body to kick the toxins out Cucumber is also known to contain these three main lignans: lariciresinol, pinoresinol, and second iso lariciresinol that according to medical research help reduce a risk of several cancer types.  1. The peel can be used for skin irritations and sunburns the same way you use aloe. 2.The inflammatory properties of cucumber help reduce the puff...

Roche shares fell at the begining of buying and selling on Monday after trial failures put into the Swiss drugmaker’s challenge of replacing patent-expired medicines with lucrative new drugs. Its cancer of the skin treatment Zelboraf flopped, the organization stated on Monday, while similar drugs from Novartis achieved their set goals. Furthermore, analysts now doubt prospects for Roche’s eye drug lampalizumab after it unsuccessful another trial, jeopardizing greater than $2 billion in potential annual sales. Roche continues to be relying on new drugs to boost its business as rivals produce cheaper biosimilar copies of their greatest sellers — the $20 billion-a-year trio of cancer drugs Herceptin, Avastin and Rituxan. However the recent flops, along with disappointing results this season on its immunotherapy Tecentriq and it is Herceptin-Perjeta combination, underscore the task Roche faces. “In a finest situation, lampalizumab might have been a substantial driver of Roche e...

Researchers state that getting out of bed and moving every half an hour may help to counterbalance the harms of sedentary behavior. Getting out of bed and from your seat every half an hour could aid in reducing the harms of sedentary behavior, according to a different study. Researchers discovered that adults within the U . s . States spend more money than 12 hrs each day sitting lower, and also the additional time spent sitting, the higher their chance of premature dying all causes is going to be. But it is not every not so good news. They also discovered that getting out of bed and getting around every 30 minutes could aid in reducing the harms of prolonged sitting. Keith Diaz, Ph.D., of Columbia College Medical Center in New You are able to City, NY, and colleagues lately printed their findings within the  Annals of Internal Medicine . Research is more and more documenting the health risks of prolonged sitting. For instance, research printed this past year ...