Fitness Mistakes and Weight Loss Secrets

Mistake #1: Avoid these fitness mistakes

A common mistake made quite often is not including a weight routine and doing only cardio! The key to increasing your metabolism is developing lean muscle mass. As we age, muscle mass drops by 6% decreasing metabolism, lean mass and overall strength. This is especially true after the 40 years of age. Keeping your heart rate up and working out none stop, while you work your entire body, will increase fat burning.

Mistake #2: Doing a hundred or more sit ups a day to lose belly fat.

It's a fact you can not spot train any part of your body, including the abs and doing thousands of sit ups will not trim your waistline. The focus has to be on reducing your overall body fat percentage. We all have six-pack abs, but they are hidden underneath fat. Since men naturally have a lower body fat than women, It's harder to do for women. It is important, however, to develop a strong core for lower back support and to prevent injury, but crunches are not the only way to do that. Try total body moves like planks and weighted wood chops for maximum results, and eat less calories than you burn to get the best results.

Secrets to Fitness Success #1 - Set Your Goals

This may sound a little cliché, but it is very true. In order to achieve something that you set out to do, you must... 1. Clearly visualize what this "something" is 2. Know how you are going to go about measuring "it". 3. Have a plan laying out your ways in which to get "it" 4. Know when it is that you finally are going to achieve "it."

Always have a short-term goal and a longer-term goal, (Lack thereof is a major fitness mistake)and always writing your goals down with a clear map. The more motivated you are to reach your goal, the higher your chance of achieving it. What really drives you to lose 20 lbs? What is your reason for gaining 5 lbs of muscle or losing 20 lbs of fat? If your reason for the goal is not motivating enough for you to see the positive reward at the end of the tunnel, you might find yourself on the path to non-achievement. Be true to yourself be aware of these fitness mistakes, and be realistic about what you want to achieve, draw out a plan for how you are going to go about it, and keep your plan visible so that you are constantly reminded of it. Sometimes, I even tell my closest friends and family about my path to my goals so that they can encourage me along the way. Better yet, invite a friend to join you. Develop a routine!

Secret to Fitness Success and Weight loss #2

It would be safe to say that diet is almost 70% of the weight loss battle, where as exercise is 30%. You'll be amazed at just how many calories you are eating in a day, or how few you are consuming. One of the biggest problems that people have is that they don't eat enough, or frequently enough. Most people don't eat enough of the food that is going to get them lean or they are uneducated about the nutritional value of most foods. A good rule of thumb is to keep a balanced diet of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. A good split in a 2000 calorie diet would include a breakdown of 40% carbs, 30% protein, and 30% fat. If you want to lose 1 lbs a week, you must eat 500 calories less than you burn for 7 days and a total of a 3500 calorie deficit equals 1 lb lost. NEVER SKIP BREAKFAST!! and if you are going to eat carbs, try to eat them at this time of day, and around the time of your workout. Try to eat 5 to 6 small meals a day, each meal consisting of 200-300 calories. Increase the consumption of high density, low calorie foods, such as vegetables. It's good to have some lean protein and veggies for dinner. Limit the amount of sugars you eat, reduce consumption of alcohol. Increase the amount of water that you drink.

Note: You don't need to starve yourself in order to lose weight.

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