When You Hit A Plateau With Your Weight Loss

Dieters everywhere dread the plateau; the phase of your diet where all your hard work seems to get you no results. It seems that you are dieting and exercising your heart out for nothing. If you feel that you are currently on a dieting plateau, keep in mind that there has to be an up side (your previous weight loss), a leveling off (which you are currently experiencing) and a down side (which you’ll get to soon). Each plateau you come upon in your weight loss journey will have these same characteristics. Learning how to deal with them now will help you in the future.

Follow these guidelines to break through your dieting plateau and get back on the weight loss trail –

Continue to Exercise:
Even if it seems that you are not making progress towards weight loss, it is important to continue to exercise. Not doing so will allow extra pounds to creep back on. In fact, if you are experiencing a plateau, it may be wise to increase the amount or intensity of your exercise, to help you break out of your slump.

Continue to Eat Well:
Maintain the weight that you have lost so far by continuing to eat healthy foods. Do not use your plateau as an excuse for a binge, or drastically reduce your calorie count. Continue to eat the diet that has helped you lose weight so far. Do so consistently, and you will soon be out of the plateau.

Develop a Support Network:
Find a message board or a group of real life friends, and draw on them for support. This will help you to continue towards your weight loss goals, even when it becomes more difficult. If possible, find friends who are also dieting. They will be a great support to you throughout your weight loss journey.

As you fight your way through your dieting plateau, you are responsible for every action you take. Each decision you make will impact your weight loss now and in the future. Do the best you can to continue to make healthy choices, even though the scale may not show it.

If you have been exercising a lot, keep in mind that you may be losing fat and gaining muscle, leading to no drop in scale weight. Use the above guidelines to maintain your diet, and stay strong. Soon youll be breaking through that plateau and soaring on down the scale.

This article isn’t medical advice nor should it be interpreted or substituted as medical advice. This article is for informational purposes only. Prior to making changes to your physical exercise routine and your diet, you should always consult your personal physician. It is much better to be safe than sorry.

Tags: Binge, Break, Calorie Count, Diet, Dieters, Dieting, Excuse, Exercise, Healthy Choices, Healthy Diet, Healthy Foods, Heart, Intensity, Life Friends, Lose Weight, Losing Weight, Message Board, Personal Physician, Plateau, Slump, Weight Loss Goals, Weight Loss Journey, Weight Lost —

Weight Training For Fat Loss – How To Burn Calories Quickly

There are many methods of weight training for fat loss. By adding weight training to your exercise program, you can increase the fat loss you achieve. Weight training helps you to burn calories, boosts your metabolism, and helps your body burn fat more efficiently throughout the day. Weight training can be a great way to step up your workout, build muscle, and increase fat loss.

Weight training burns calories as you exercise. The physical exertion and strain on your muscles is a great way to burn calories that would otherwise be stored as fat. Excess calories can be burned quickly and efficiently as you lift weights, leading to increased fitness, strength, and loss of excess body fat.

Weight training for fat loss boosts your metabolism, as well. Muscle is more efficient than fat. Adding muscle to your body increases the amount of calories you burn while resting – your resting metabolic rate is raised. Adding muscle through weight training is a great way to ensure that you burn more fat, even while youre sleeping or watching TV. It doesn’t get much better than that!

Weight training continues to burn fat after your workout is over. For several hours, even an entire day, after your workout, your body is breaking down and rebuilding muscle. This takes energy to do, and increases your metabolism. Building muscle mass leads to more efficient energy use, and a higher metabolism in general. Adding muscle helps you to burn excess calories more efficiently throughout your day. If you truly wan to burn fat while you rest, then weight training is for you.

Multiple repetitions of weight lifting exercises can tone and strengthen your muscles. Your body will be stronger, and you’ll burn calories efficiently. Your posture, self esteem, and body image will improve as you continue to lift weights. Weight training for fat loss is a great way to mix up your workout, while improving your body image. The exercises are relatively simple to learn, and can be added to your daily routine with little effort.

Weight training is a great method to burn fat. Add weight lifting to your exercise program today, and enjoy the many benefits. Weight training burns calories as you exercise, and boosts your metabolism for continued efficiency. Weight training even burns fat after you’re finished working out! Add some weight training to your exercise routine today – you will be amazed at the results!

This article is not medical advice nor should it be interpreted or substituted as medical advice. This article is for informational purposes only. Prior to making changes to your physical exercise routine and your diet, you should always consult your personal physician. Better safe than sorry.

Tags: Building Muscle Mass, burn, Calories Burned, Calories Exercise, Efficient Energy, Energy Use, energy;, Excess Body, Excess Calories, Exercise Program, Fat Calories, Fat Metabolism, Fitness Strength, Healthy Diet, How To Burn Calories, Losing Weight, Loss Weight, Personal Physician, Physical Exertion, Repetitions, Resting Metabolic Rate, Self Esteem And Body Image, Watching Tv, Weight Lifting Exercises, Weight Training —

Staying positive throughout the weight loss process can be difficult. A few setbacks and you may be ready to give up. Staying motivated throughout your weight loss journey requires focus on the goal and positive thinking but what do you do when youre feeling less than positive about your efforts?

Use these tips to help you stay positive:

1. List Your Reasons:
List your reasons for choosing to lose weight. Whether it’s for health reasons, or simply to be able to fit into your favorite dress again list it.

Then make several copies of the list, and place them where you’ll be able to see them regularly. Keeping your goals in front of you will help you remember why you’re doing all this in the first place.

2. Never Say Diet:
Don’t use the word diet if you can possibly avoid it. This conjures up images of deprivation, and you end up feeling sorry for yourself. Instead, tell yourself (and others) that youre not on a diet, but that you are trying to make healthier choices.

3. Dont Use the 3 letter “F” Word:
Avoid using the word fat when describing yourself. This includes your thoughts. Thinking about how fat you are and how bad you think you look will only bring you down and stress you out. Stress often equals eating another bag of cookies.

4. Use Positive Adjectives:
Instead, use another adjective that you prefer. Heavy, voluptuous, overweight – these all have nicer connotations than fat and will help you to see yourself in a more positive light.

5. Focus on the Positive:
Think about all the things you like about your body, as well. If you have great hair, for example, focus on that as you attempt to lose weight. This takes the focus off of the body parts you dislike, and helps to get rid of the stress.

6. Find a Role Model:
Instead of focusing on celebrities that are thin, find a celebrity that is larger and attractive, or one that is struggling with weight loss. This allows you to choose a realistic role model.

Positive body image can be difficult to find when you’re struggling to lose weight. Focusing on your positive mental and physical traits will help you to be comfortable in the body you have.

This allows you to work towards better health, instead of simply working to be skinnier. Overall, this is a much healthier approach to weight loss, and will help you stay positive throughout the process.

This article is for informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, nor should it be interpreted or substituted as medical advice. Prior to making changes to your physical exercise routine and your diet, you should always consult your personal physician. Better safe than sorry.

Tags: Adjective, Adjectives, Body Image, Body Parts, Celebrities, Celebrity, Choices, Connotations, Eating Habits, F Word, Favorite Dress, Health Reasons, Healthy Diet, Lose Weight, Losing Weight, Overweight, Personal Physician, Positive Thinking, Role Model, Setbacks, Stress, Using The Word, Weight Loss Journey, Word Diet —

You’ve been dieting. You’ve been doing your cardio workouts. You’ve been good, but for some reason, you’re still not happy with the way you look. You’re at or near your target weight, but you still dont look like that picture of that guy on the wall at the gym.

Now you need to start your ultimate weight training exercises. The exercises that use weights, which target specific muscle groups, toning and building the muscle you have.

Be aware, however, this is not targeting specific fat spots on your body. Spot reduction doesn’t work. Dieting and aerobic exercise should have already reduced the amount of fat in your body. The goal here is to tone the muscles that are there. Here are some trouble areas you can target and the way to do it; safely and easily.

* Arms: Stand up straight with your feet about shoulder width apart. Grab something that weighs bout five pounds (a bag of flour in a shopping bag works well). Start with your arms above your head, weight (or bag of flour) behind your head and slowly lift up until your arms are straight up and down. This works your triceps and helps to get rid of that ‘granny flab’ between your elbow and shoulder.

* Butt and legs: Again, start with your feet slightly more than shoulder width apart. Keep your back straight and bend your knees until your thighs are parallel to the ground. Hold this position for a few seconds if you can and rise back up slowly.

This exercise works and tightens your butt and hamstring muscles (the muscles running down the back of your legs to your knees). If you continue the squat all the way down to the ground, you can target your quadriceps (the front of your thighs).

* Love handles: Now you’ve heard of crunches, sit ups, and a hundred other exercises for abdominal muscles. You’ve probably also heard that they are useless. They are; at least for losing weight.

The most effective exercise you can do for toning your abs is total body resistance training. Included in this is walking or running up hills, or some kinds of machines at a health club or gym.

The key to toning muscles is not heavy weights, but rather lower weight with a higher number of repetitions. It will do you more good to lift five or ten pounds 25 times than if you lifted 250 pounds once.

There are even programs out there that show you how to lift weights quickly to raise your heart rate and get some fat reduction as well as muscle toning. It is not easy, no matter what anyone tells you. Losing weight and shaping your body is possible, but you really need to be committed to a goal. Don’t give up! You CAN make it!

This article is for informational purposes only. It is not medical advice and should not be used or interpreted as such. You should always consult a medical professional before making drastic changes to your diet and physical exercise.

Tags: Aerobic Exercise, Body Resistance, Cardio Workouts, Crunches Sit Ups, Exercise Works, Exercises For Abdominal Muscles, Flab, Flour, Healthy Diet, Losing Weight, Muscle Groups, Quadriceps, Resistance Training, Shopping Bag, Shoulder Width, Target Weight, Thighs, Triceps, Trouble Areas, Ups, Weight Training Exercises —