There is a lot of attention paid in the Atkins diet plan towards food and cooking. Its true that your food choices on the diet are of utmost importance. But a lot of people make the mistake of ignoring exercise. The newly released Atkins food pyramid shows the importance of exercise. It shows an increase in food options with increased activity. Exercise is important on the Atkins diet, and important for everyones overall health.

Exercise is beneficial to body, mind and soul. It has many major benefits, even at limited levels. It not only burns fat but it boosts your metabolism and increases circulation. Daily exercise helps your body eliminate toxins through sweat glands and lymph systems. It is especially important to all low-carb weight loss programs because it regulates blood sugar levels.

Physical exercise is essential for Atkins diet success. Without exercise, your body isnt configured to process carbohydrates successfully. Research has shown that sedentary individuals have extreme insulin reactions to even moderate amounts of carbohydrates. This means that exercise doesnt only help you lose weight, it will help you keep it off too. Exercise will teach your body how to process the carbohydrates in your diet. When you exercise regularly, youll be able to eat more carbohydrates over time because your body will use them efficiently.

There are two basic types of exercise: aerobic exercise and anaerobic exercise. The best regimen combines these two forms each week.

Aerobic exercises primary goal is to increase your heart rate. This causes your body to consume more oxygen and it gives all of your cells a fresh supply of oxygen. If youve been without physical activity for a while, many of those cells have been deprived. Aerobic exercise will regenerate them and help you feel better in times when you arent exercising.

If youve been inactive for a while, it may take some time to get used to your new aerobic workouts. You may want to get some advice from your primary care doctor or a professional aerobics instructor. Make sure to start slowly to give yourself time to adjust to your new movements. Its essential that you learn how to stretch and warm up correctly in order to avoid muscle strain. Some good beginning aerobic activities include walking, golf, tennis and dancing. These activities wont cause a lot of strain on your body, but they will get your heart moving. Start slowly and set small goals for yourself. For example, if you are starting a walking program begin by walking four blocks. Then increase your training to five blocks, then six. Your body will respond well to the exerciseafter all your body was meant to move!

Anaerobic exercise includes any activity that isnt technically aerobic. Most of the exercises in this category build muscle mass. Weightlifting and strength training are examples of anaerobic exercises. Working out with weights is an important part of losing weight. As you lose fat, youll need to replace it with muscle in order to stay lean. Dont be afraid of working out with weights. You wont need to become a bodybuilder. Weight bearing exercises like isometrics and resistance training will help improve your bone density, your posture and your fat burning potential.

If an exercise program is not part of your weight loss efforts, you are setting yourself up for failure. Make a commitment to incorporating exercise into your weight loss efforts and youll see the results immediately.

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If you have some excess fat around your tummy then you may be looking at natural ways to lose belly fat. Do you wish you had six pack abs or that pre-pregnancy flat stomach but you really don’t want to use those unnatural shakes or pills? Do you wish there was an exercise program that gave fast results without requiring you to be an athlete?

Well there is a natural way to lose belly fat and basically it involved a good, healthy diet and exercise.

The first thing you want to change is your diet to one that is low calorie. Try to eat as much natural food as possible and less processed foods. A good, healthy diet should include lots of fruit and vegetables and moderate amounts of low fat dairy products and lean meats. Whole grains and legumes are also great to include into your diet.

There are a lot of choices that you can make with your diet that can reduce the calories you eat. For example, eating 1/2 cup of fruit with 1/2 cup of fat free vanilla yogurt will be 105 calories less than eating a strawberry yogurt with pre-packaged fruit. Another example is eating 2 cups of air popped popcorn instead of 1 cup of potato chips will save you 95 calories.

Next you will want to start doing some exercise each day. If you can’t fit in some exercise every day then at least try to exercise five times a week. Cardio exercise is the best for burning off fat but you can burn off even more by combining it with some strength exercises. Studies have shown that people who walked for 50 minutes, 3 times a week lost almost twice as much belly fat as people who only reduced their calories but didn’t exercise.

Cardio exercises include brisk walking, jogging, running, cycling or there are many cardio machines that you can also use. You should try to get 45 minutes of cardio exercise with each workout which is a great natural way to lose belly fat.

Here is a great exercise routine that can have you burn up to 500 calories in one session. First do 3 minutes of warm up exercise. Next push up the intensity for 3 minutes, then push yourself as hard as you absolutely can for 2 minutes. Slow down a little for 3 minutes and then push yourself as hard as you can for 2 minutes. Repeat this 3 minutes regular intensity then 2 minutes high intensity combination for a total of 45 minutes ending with 2 minutes of cooling down exercises.

Working and building your muscles is also very beneficial when you are trying a natural way to lose belly fat. Muscle burns more energy than fat so the more muscle you build the more fat you will burn off when exercising. Try to combine your cardio exercises with some strength training to build up and tone your muscles.

A stability ball is also great for toning your tummy muscles and getting a flat stomach. You can get a stability ball for about $30 from most sporting goods stores. Lie on your back and hold the ball between your legs and lift into the air, hold this position for one minute. This is just one of the many exercises that you can do with the stability ball to help tone your stomach muscles. The ball should come with a manual that will include exercises.

A good diet and exercise that includes both cardio and strength training is the key to a natural way to lose belly fat.

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