2 Major Ways To Replace Fat Storage With Fat Burning

I'm sure I've spoken about this in some prior posts but I just wanted to go over the massive benefits that can be gained just by making 2 simple changes in your food. People too often underestimate the effects of their diet on losing stomach fat and getting abs but when it comes down to it, it's known factually by almost any savvy trainer or nutritional/exercise professional that what you eat contributes to about 80% of your ability to lose stomach fat.

Yes, the old saying is true. You are still what you eat.

So the 2 replacement foods that are going to help you burn loads more fat from all over your body are:

1. Replace sugar with Stevia - Stevia is a natural sweetener made from herbal extract of the stevia plant. Unlike sugar, it contains zero calories and unlike other no-calorie alternatives, it will NOT mess up your metabolic rate via hormonal distortions and excessive xenoestrogen invasion.
2. Replace nothing with cinnamon - You can put cinnamon on virtually anything and it will actually provide an extremely powerful fat burning effect which will help you lose excess stubborn fat. If you currently eat fruit salad, muesli or even if you drink tea or have an occasional treat, add some fresh cinnamon to ensure your metabolism stays afloat.

That's it. Simple enough strategies to get 6 pack abs by losing loads of stomach fat through both decreasing your caloric load and increasing your fat burning metabolism rapidly and drastically.

New Yahoo Group For More Fat Loss

I just started up a Yahoo Group for people to get onto to share questions, answers and anything interesting related to fat loss, weight loss, nutrition and getting abs.
Take a look at the sexy abs group now and join to access full features.

If anything is going to define your success or failure with your health and fitness goals, it's going to be your level of motivation and this is just one extra tool to give you loads more motivation to get what you want.

Some Tips To Lose Love Handles & Stomach Fat

Today, I'm just going to give you a heads up to some content added to the site. I've added 2 brand new articles to the site to help you out with your fat loss.
Here they are:

How To Lose Weight And Get Abs Using A Combinational Effect - This goes over some really good points to do with eating habits, hormones and exercise. Check it out

Insanely Fast-Acting Advice On How To Lose Love Handles And Belly Fat - Some gentle revelations for you on losing love handles and of course belly fat.

Check them out and let me know what you think. Leave a comment here or email me.

Cheers

Cardio Stomach Exercises & Why They Fail

What are the best cardio stomach exercises? That's the question I aim to answer today.
In order to maximize your ability to get sexy 6 pack abs in a short period of time, it's necessary to do some exercise. Now most people think that exercises that target stomach muscles will somehow work out their stomach area and give them a flat belly. In reality, it's not like this at all. To get a flat stomach requires 2 things:
1. 80% of your efforts should be focused on losing the fat that covers your stomach
2. 20% of your efforts should be on getting lean muscle underneath the fat.

So it's necessary to do cardio stomach exercises then? In a traditional sense, NO! If you have been advised to do cardio to help you lose stomach fat, you are setting yourself up for a long and unnecessarily painful journey that will 9/10 times result in failure. Traditional cardio methods focus on getting you into the "fat-burning-zone" so that you maximize caloric expenditure and thus burn the maximum amount of fat. This method is damn near hopeless because it massively limits your fat loss to the amount you can lose whilst exercising.

When you think just a little outside the "box", you realize that you can actually gear your fat burning to get 10 times better results through boosting your metabolism and it's an easy thing to do.
Effectively, choosing the right cardio stomach exercises allows you to:

1. Burn more fat
2. Burn fat beyond the time that you work out (for up to 48 hours after exercise)
3. Get a lean stomach whilst also getting rid of belly fat

So what are these magic cardio stomach exercises?

First of all, the aim here is to get a metabolic boost to allow you to burn more fat, faster and while you are not working on it.

Exercises that can achieve better stomach results:

• Weighted circuits - A higher intensity, more functional type of cardio that loads your muscles with more weight, adding a lean muscle effect to your cardio stomach workouts.
• HIIT - A special type of cardio based on intervals of work and rest. This provides a huge amount of your "metabolic muscle" so to speak.
• Weight training - This is not cardio but will compliment the cardio that you do by adding lean muscle mass (a huge fat burner) to your body gradually.

That's it! The best cardio stomach workouts are a combinational workout that uses weights, intervals and nutritional tactics to maximize fat loss.

Image courtesy http://www.collegeaffairmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/shutterstock_12086764.jpg

How To Get A Flat Stomach Without Exercise

Now, if you've read some of my previous posts you would easily come to the realization that I'm a strong believer in exercise not only to help you get a flat belly but also for your health in general. Exercise is beneficial in thousands of ways but it's not always for everyone.
I understand that many people dread exercise with a passion and those are the people who should definitely check out this post.

If  you want to learn how to get a flat stomach without exercise, the best thing you can possibly do is look at 3 aspects of your lifestyle:

1. Your calorie intake & food sources
2. Your hormonal levels
3. Whether or not you have parasites (not the most romantic topic I know)

So let's look at them one by one:

Calorie intake plays a major role in the storage of fat. Too much and you'll start storing excess calories as fat, too little and you'll start storing all the energy available to your body as fat. So you need to maintain a healthy balance with calories. Eat sensibly most of the time, but also allow some treats into your eating plan (preferably low calorie, natural treats).
The other important factor here is food sources. If you want to know how to get a flat stomach without exercise, you will have to focus on getting as many vitamins and minerals from your food as possible. This will result in massive metabolic boosts, not only from good food content, but from avoiding bad food content. It has a double pronged effect towards fat loss!

Your hormone levels are another major player in the fat loss game. Optimally, you want to reduce your exposure to xenoestrogens and balance your hormones to contain more progesterone. Many people have seriously high estrogen levels and comparably low progesterone levels. One way to do this is by eating loads of cruciferous vegetables each day. Another way is to take a specific type of supplement such as wild yam.

Parasites. Not a nice subject. Too many people have them without even knowing it and it leaves them wondering how to get a flat stomach without exercise while totally oblivious to the fact that parasitic organisms are feeding of their nutrients and leaving toxic chemicals as a substitute. This is a big problem (even if you are exercising). Getting rid of them is not as easy as it may seem. Some natural products are available which are very effective. Things like walnuts, pepitas (pumpkin seeds) etc. can help, but it pays to be wildly thorough. If you want to stay parasite free, cook your (fresh) meat well, avoid drinking water you're not sure is clean and do a cleanse when returning from overseas (especially developing countries).

That's it. So now you should have a basic grasp on how to get a flat stomach without exercise. You didn't even have to go jogging. Not so hard is it? :)

Image courtesy http://losefatatwork.com/wp-content/uploads//2009/09/fat-loss-frustration.jpg

Honey As A Natural Sweetener To Lose Belly Fat

A lot of confusion exists around the topic of honey. Is it a good alternative to sugar? Will it aid the fat loss process and help you get sexy abs? Will it cause outrage and conflict in your household - see here for more details. Or is it just another source of calories that should be avoided?

Well, the answer to this, not surprisingly, is that it depends which kind of honey you go for. It is possible to process honey to a significant degree, removing many of it's beneficial properties and thus making it comparable to processed sugar or any other processed food. This is the kind of thing we, obviously, try to avoid with a goal to lose stomach fat.

Raw, pure, unprocessed honey, on the other hand, contains 22 amino acids and a variety of minerals essential for its metabolism. Honey is naturally full of essential vitamins and minerals such as Vitamin B6, Riboflavin, Thiamine, Pantothenic Acid, Calcium, Copper, Potassium, Zinc, Magnesium and Iron. These nutrients are found abundantly in pure raw honey whereas they are found only in trace amounts in processed honey.

Although "pure honey" is filtered to remove impurities such as bees wax from the final product, it is not heat treated like many other commercial honeys and therefore it is loaded with many more beneficial nutrients for fat loss.

How do you know which honey is "pure"?
Pure, raw honey will crystallize, given time, and will therefore be seen to contain some form of solid product within the honey. In this form, the honey may even contain unprocessed pollen with many beneficial properties that will help you lose belly fat.

Be aware and wise when choosing your sweeteners, and if you want to choose honey, make sure you choose pure, raw honey as an alternative to highly processed, "empty" honey.

Image courtesy http://www.moograssfarms.com/images/Honey.jpg

Make Money By Losing Weight?

So as if we didn't have enough reasons to get fit and lose weight already, now it seems that there are also financial incentives for many people to achieve results for their own health and fitness.

Many employers will actually pay employees to make positive steps towards being healthier and fitter and this is simply because it saves them money in the long term. There are loads of ways to lose weight, even eating honey, but what an employer is more likely to give you the cash bonus for an "acceptable method" like joining a gym or by measurable results

So sure, you can make a few hundred dollars by talking to your boss about health and lifestyle options that may be available to you, why not?

What I find amazing is that people will do just about anything to get out of exercise if it's only themselves they are letting down but when you add in a reasonably small financial incentive it can actually give people that little extra drive to get the results for themselves that they wanted all along.

Whatever works! That's my motto, and if it takes something like a financial incentive to get you started on your goal to lose stomach fat and get sexy abs, then all the best to your success!

Nature's Cinnamon For Fat Loss

When you think about cinnamon, most people think of things like doughnuts and other terrible treats that are the exact opposite of helpful when it comes to serious fat loss. The truth is, however, that cinnamon is one of the most potently thermogenic foods, making it an ideal flavor to add to your treats to maximize fat loss and ultimately help you to get sexy abs.

If you're not familiar with the term "thermogenic" it basically means that it helps your body to burn fat just by the content of the food (ie. without any further effort on your part) how cool is that!

What I will say, however, that using cinnamon with loads of sugar and deep fried foods is totally counter productive to your goals and will not help you lose weight. This is exactly the case with doughnuts and as a result, you WON'T be able to sit around eating doughnuts all day and lose stomach fat... Not going to happen. They are loaded with calories (more than 224 - over 11% daily recomended average!), trans fats and are essentially "empty calories".

So definitely use fresh cinnamon when you treat yourself to something nice, avoid sweetening with sugar or artificial, aspartame-based sweeteners and you've won half the battle against stomach fat.

Get Sexy Abs With Antioxidant Rich Berries

Berries are known to be one of the richest natural sources of antioxidants on the planet and as we already know, antioxidants are a majorly helpful companion in any quest to lose stomach fat and get sexy abs. In a massive study conducted on fruit and vegetable antioxidant content published in the June 9 2004 Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, berries easily trumped the competition in terms of the amount of antioxidant for the price.

The reason berries help you get sexy abs is because they are known to actively fight oxidation in the body via their high antioxidant content. This reduces the amount of free radicals in the body and helps with the process of losing fat.
Among the richest antioxidant containing berries are:

• Blueberries
• Cranberries
• Blackberries
• Raspberries
• Wolfberries (Goji berries)
• Acai berries
• Strawberries

These berries all help to fight fat loss with massive vitamin content and loads of polyphenol.
So if you didn't already have enough reason to include more berries into your regular eating then now you can rest assured that almost any berry will also help you to get sexy abs.

Fat Loss Sabotage... And How To Avoid It

One of the major influencing factors to weight loss, fat loss (or any other life change for that matter) is the people who are close to us in our lives.
It might not sound like that much but it's honestly one massive thing to consider if you are trying to make positive changes in your life.
If you have friends, family and/or a spouse who is not fully supportive of making your health and fitness goals a reality it will make your journey 100% harder to succeed with.
A lot of fitness experts say the number one difference (if you want to achieve a goal like to get sexy abs) is setting realistic, time-bound, tangible goals. Well, I say that even more important than setting the goals is having a psychological environment that will support and enhance those goals.

Friends and family might seem like they "mean well" when they tell you things like:

• I wouldn't bother trying something like that.
• Are you seriously going to do that?
• You don't need to change anything, everything is fine.
• I've tried that before and it didn't work
• Why are you eating cinnamon!!?

What you have to recognize is that when your friends and family say things like this, they are not acting in your interest because they are (unwittingly perhaps) sabotaging your goals that will ultimately make a huge difference in your life. Put yourself and your goals in priority to pleasing other people around you.

Image courtesy of http://earlychildcare.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/odd-one-out.jpg

Intense Training For 6 Pack Abs

People often ask me, "What's the best exercise to get 6 pack abs?". It's always hot on everyone's mind these days given that most of us gave up on the idea of sit ups being the stomach exercise to give you abs. One thing's for certain when it comes to intense training for 6 pack abs, and that thing is...

***No abs workout should solely target your abdominal muscles***

The biggest reason for this is that many people who want 6 pack abs have stomach fat which prevents the muscles underneath from being revealed (yes we all have muscle under there, even if you're a skinny geek-o-saurus). The trick is combining fat burning exercise with abdominal exercise. In basic terms, you want to work as many muscles as possible while focusing strongly on your abs.

So what's a good intense training workout for 6 pack abs?
Firstly, always warmup - a light jog, a few pushups, a few squats and your done (3 - 5 min)
Next follow this program:

• Burpees // run 20 feet & back
• 5 burpees // run // 4 burpees // run // 3 burpees // run // 2 burpees // run // 1 burpee //run
• Squats or jump squats // run 20 feet & back 
• Same sequence as above 5 - 1
• Pushups // run 20 feet & back
• Same sequence as above 5 - 1

Next you should do a pyramid starting at 1 rep and increasing by 1 each time up to 10 and back down (eg. 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 9 - 8 - 7 - 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1)
First do this with squats, then with pushups and finally with burpees.

The entire workout should take around 30 - 40 minutes depending on your fitness level.
The single most important thing to focus on during this abs workout is your abs. Make sure you are bracing, holding your core tightly during exercises.

Image courtesy of http://onlinepersonaltrainingvideobootcamp.com/blog/uploaded/Blog%20Post%20Images/Push-up%20Boot%20Camp/pushups.jpg

Protein, Beans and Fat-Burning "Diets"

Now I've never been one to talk positively about diets. If you've read some of my posts before you'd likely know that I'm not a fan of diet schemes that claim you can lose weight and get a flat stomach.
The simple reason for this is that the creators of these "miracle diets" will often twist the truth in order to make sales.
The truth is that no diet is going to give you a flat stomach forever. The mere word "diet" refers to eating habits that are not usual. If you want to get 6 pack abs, lose stomach fat or just lose some weight, you will need to keep a few things permanently in your life in order to keep your level of health, fitness etc.

One of those things is a quality source of protein. Protein is a macro-nutrient and one of the most essential nutrients in the body in terms of maintaining lean muscle mass and burning/preventing fat.

So how do beans weigh up on the protein scale? Well a couple of essential things you should know about beans and fat-burning:

1. Not all beans were created equal - some contain a much richer source of protein than others.
2. Raw is usually best, but in this case (you have to cook beans to make them edible) cooked beans are much more beneficial in terms of nutritional value than canned beans.
3. Organic is always the way to go. Especially with varieties such as soy which are often otherwise GM foods that are scientifically proven to contribute to cancer growth.

Beans can take a lot of heat in nutrition circles for apparently being carb-rich and "starchy" but I beg to differ. Although beans do contain carbohydrates unlike meat, they also contain loads of extra nutrients such as flavanoids and are a rich source of daily fiber.
Like everything though, I would recommend bean consumption in variety and moderation. 

Bean protein source types:

• Soybeans - 36.5% protein. Also contains isoflavones, omega-3 fatty acids and cholesterol reduction properties. Avoid GM soybeans.
• Black-eyed peas - 30% protein. 60% daily dietary fiber intake.
• Pinto beans - 28.1% protein. Also contains molybdenum which is beneficial for numerous human functions such as protection against tooth decay.
• Kidney beans - 24% protein. Also contains various vitamins
• Garbanzo beans (chick peas) - 20% protein. Rich in many vitamins and minerals
• Navy beans (baked beans) - 13% protein. 19 other vitamins and minerals
• Adzuki beans - 7.5% protein.

All beans are generally high in protein, fiber, complex carbohydrates and iron, they offer a great source of variety for protein intake and for beneficial carbohydrate sources.

One thing I love is any of these beans cooked with chili, tomato, peppers, onion and mexican spices topped with loads of avocado served with some fresh garden greens. That is a great lunch which will literally explode your fat burning potential and help you get a flat stomach faster.

Incorporating beans into your diet will give you yet another secret weapon with which to fight belly fat.

Hormones & Getting a Flat Stomach

Now I go on about this topic for one reason and one reason only:
It is one of the biggest problems people encounter regarding fat loss and getting a flat stomach!

I kid you not, hormones play a vital role in weight loss, fat loss and just about everything that goes on in your body.

I've written about xenoestrogens before and how they tilt the balance of hormones in your body to make your entire system more estrogen dominant. Well, this is just one of the causes of hormonal imbalances that makes it so hard to get a flat stomach.

The other major cause for hormonal upset other than xenoestrogens in food and chemicals is the production of excess estrogen in the body, usually due to an unbalanced diet containing too many synthetic "foods" and not enough real, raw, vitamin-packed, antioxidant-loaded, fresh, organic meat and veg.

To ensure that you have an easier time with fat loss and your goal to get a flat stomach, it's 100% necessary to eat well by adding variety to your diet. Get the right advice on your food and it can really be easy to make the necessary changes to start reaping the benefits within a week or less!

Image courtesy of http://k21st.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/neurons1.jpg