Before we start exercising for weight loss we must know why we are exercising. Although you burn calories while exercising, the biggest advantage comes from building new muscle tissue. Muscles are very demanding in terms of energy, so to grow and maintain muscle you need more energy. Muscles therefore increase your metabolism and make you burn fat quicker.

This is why when we are talking about weight loss we always advise you to do full body workouts. It is not worth just exercising the abdominals because you want to increase total muscle mass as quick as possible to help burn more fat. To do this you need to perform compound movements (movements which utilise several different muscles groups at the same time) and also work the largest muscles in the body. This means legs, glutes, back and chest.

Do not worry about muscle – you will not bulk up or look all veiny like Angelina Jolie. The aim is to look healthy, athletic and curvy. Muscle provides curves, glutes are the main muscle of the bottom, and to get a good shape you need to work the muscle rather than rely on fat deposits. Muscle is fit as well as sexy! So lets look at our 4 workouts.

Exercise Workout Number 1

We start with the weight training. You can perform these exercises using free weights and a weight lifting bench or by using machines. Dumbbells and barbells are both allowed.

• Squats. Squats are possibly the most important exercise that you will do. To perform them properly you stand with your feet just over shoulder width apart and then squat down until your legs are almost parallel to the floor before returning to stand upright. Always look forward when squatting and not down, this helps maintain correct spinal alignment. Perform 3 sets of 10 squats with a weight that is challenging.
• Reverse Lunges. These involve standing up straight, usually while holding a dumbbell in each hand. Step backwards with one foot and sing your weight downwards, bending the front knee. Then return and repeat on the other leg. Again, 3 sets of 10 is best to start with.
• Bench Press. Bench presses work the chest. Do not worry, they are not going to make you look like a bodybuilder, and they will not burn off all your fat either. But they will help your muscles shape and support your chest. Use a solid flat bench and with dumbbells or a barbell press the weight directly upwards from your chest until your arms are straight. Many gyms have chest press machines that you sit upright on and perform the same movement.
• Shoulder Press. This helps to tone the shoulders and also triceps that help with under arm fat and “chicken wings”. Sit upright and press a bar (or dumbbells straight overhead).
• Curls. You can either curl dumbbells or a barbell. Excellent exercise for building stronger arms, not only will you look fitter and healthier but you will be able to carry your shopping and kids with ease!
• Calf Raises. These help build shapely lower legs. Just stand on a step with your heels off the step and lift your bodyweight up and the lower again. Repeat 20 times. You can hold weights if you need to.
• Pull Downs. These work he back, another major muscle group. A strong back helps to give your body an elegant structure and improves posture. Simple sit on a pull down bench and pull the weight towards your chest. You can instead do pull ups (modified of assisted).

Exercise Workout Number 2

The second workout is a traditional bodyweight circuit training workout to help increase muscular endurance and cardiovascular fitness. It also burns a lot of fat.

• Bodyweight squats. Same motion as the weighted ones, but with just bodyweight. Aim to complete 100 squats in a session. Either all at once or in any number of sets.
• Star Jumps. Classic old school gym exercise that gets your heart thumping and tones and strengthens your legs. The lateral movement of the legs helps to build stabilising muscles that will help you in other exercises.
• Skipping. Skipping is something that only school girls and boxers do, which is odd as it is such a great exercise, everyone should learn to skip. A great fat burning cardio workout.
• Burpees. They sound odd, but are very effective. From a standing upright position, you squat down to touch the floor, then kick your legs backwards, perform 1 push up, then hop your feet forward again to under your body, then explosively jump upwards with your arms in the air. Land on floor, and repeat. Excellent fun, burns a lot of fat and tones the muscles of the legs, core, and arms.
• Push Ups. Often a hard exercise, so “quarter push ups” are allowed which are when you support your body on your knees instead of your feet. Try to perform up to 50 in a session. Building up push up strength will really help to tone muscle and burn fat.
• Crunches. The classic abs exercise – although alone they will not get you a flat stomach, you still need to do them to tone the stomach.

Exercise Workout Number 3

High intensity interval training workout. This workout involves performing high intensity intervals, which just means sprinting then slowing down to recover  and then sprinting again. You can perform them on exercise bikes, elliptical machines, treadmills (although harder), rowing machines, while out running or swimming.

Short workouts with multiple intervals have been shown to be very effective at improving fitness and burning fat.

Warm up for a few minutes first, and then perform a 30 second sprint. At the end of the 30 seconds slow down to work at a gentle recovery pace for 60 seconds, then as soon as the recovery minute is finished perform another sprint.

Using a machine is easier as it can either be programmed or will have a clock. It is harder to perform this type of training while running. If you are outside you need an interval timer to beep at you for each stage. If you are on a treadmill you have to be careful to not go too fast that you can no longer control the machine! Ellipticals, bikes and rowers are really the best options.

Exercise Workout Number 4

Endurance training. Even though intensive workouts are best for fitness and weight loss, longer sessions are still important. Walking is actually a very good option, so walk for 45-60 minutes at a time to build up stamina and muscular endurance.

So there you go, 4 types of exercise to do each week that will get you fit, tone your muscles and burn fat. Hop to it!

Web Sources and Resources

These sites and articles provide more information on the options we discuss above. The research papers provide evidence to support our workout ideas.

• “11 At-Home Exercises For Women – Save Time And Money” by Angelique Millis. Bodybuilding.com
• “Reduction in intra-abdominal adipose tissue after strength training in older women” by M. S. Treuth, G. R. Hunter, T. Kekes-Szabo, R. L. Weinsier, M. I. Goran, and L. Berland. Journal of Applied Physiology April 1995 vol. 78 no. 41425-1431. Abstract: jap.physiology.org/content/78/4/1425.short
• “Effects of Sit Up Exercise Training on Adipose Cell Size and Adiposity” by Frank Katch. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, v55 n3 p242-47 Sep 1984. Abstract: www.getcited.org/pub/103341727
• “Impact of exercise intensity on body fatness and skeletal muscle metabolism” by Angelo Tremblay, Jean-Aimé Simoneau, Claude Bouchard. Metabolism Volume 43, Issue 7, July 1994, Pages 814-818. Abstract: www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0026049594902593

If you are like many of our readers here you are keen to lose your belly fat, tone your thighs and trim down the fat on your arms and bottom.

Fortunately the same exercises and diet rules will help all of these. There are really just 3 things that you need to do to lose fat from any part of your body:

1. You need to change your diet
2. You need to get more active in your daily routines
3. You need to get stronger and fitter

Without exception everyone that you see around you that is overweight has got into that situation for one simple reason – they have eaten more food than they need. There are some medical conditions and medications which mean that people are likely to have a larger appetite, but the general rule is that overweight people eat too much, you included!

If anyone says “I have tried every type of exercise there is and not lost weight” it is for 2 reasons that they failed to lose weight:

1. Their fitness levels prevented them from exercising at a high enough intensity to make a huge difference to their metabolic rate.
2. They did not change their diet to help with their weight loss, instead making the classic mistake of thinking that exercising means you do not need to diet.

Likewise, whenever anyone says “I have tried every diet under the sun and cannot lose weight“, the lack of weight loss is generally due to this:

1. They did not follow the diet correctly, and usually cheated along the way. Many people say they are following a diet, and then eat foods that are banned on the diet with the excuse – “well, I cannot believe this is unhealthy”. Classic examples are people continuing to eat bread and high GI vegetables when on an induction phase of a low carbohydrate diet, or people drinking copious amounts of fruit juices and smoothies even though they have been told not too by their dietician, because those drinks are “healthy”.
2. They do the diet reasonably well, but make no other changed to their lifestyle, and do no exercise.

Researchers have shown that diet and exercise must be done together for weight loss plans to work. Diet without exercise and exercise without diet both lead to failure.

Tummy Toning Diet and Exercise Plan for Women

If you wish to lose your belly fat, then follow these rules. Please note that “spot reduction”, that is reduction of fat from one body part, is not possible. So knowing how to lose belly fat is actually knowing how to lose weight, as the only way to lose belly fat is to reduce your overall fat content. Whether you are very overweight, or if you just have a stubborn layer of fat left to shift before you can display a set of six pack abs, these tips should solve your problems.

Before we continue, please note that performing hundreds of abdominal exercises everyday does not help to reduce fat. Crunches and sit ups alone, although intensive on the stomach, will not shift fat – and building bigger abdominals could actually make your stomach look bigger if it is still covered in a layer of fat.

Why are we focussing on belly fat? Two reasons – to show off our abs, and also to be healthy. Modern thought concerning weight issues is that simply measuring body mass index does not provide a good indicator of health. Size of waist circumference is a better measure of health. Even a small amount of fat carried in the abdominal region is unhealthy.

For many people losing tummy fat and getting a toned stomach is the most important goal of any fitness and weight loss regime. So today we shall look at ways to tone your stomach, sculpt your abs and burn off belly fat.

There are 3 elements to achieving a well toned and flat stomach:

• Diet – Diet is the most important factor. What we eat determines how much energy we have, how much fat we accumulate and how healthy we are. It also determines the speed at which you build muscle and helps to control hunger and speed up metabolism. Some people say that diet accounts for 80% of weight loss.
• Exercise – Exercise is also vital to weight loss and tummy toning. But alone it will not be enough, which is why diet is so important. Also, without exercise. diet will fail. Exercise burns fat and also increases metabolism as a result of building more muscle.
• Sleep – This is something that is so often overlooked. Sleep affects weight. Not only does lack of sleep lead to hormonal imbalance that affects appetite, it also leads to binge eating and inactivity which lower metabolism.

The Tummy Diet Plan

This is simple: Eat less and cut out sugar.

There really is little more to it than that. But, most people fail to understand what sugar is. Sugar is not just the white stuff that you have in a jar for coffee and tea. Sugar is present in all carbohydrates, and “healthy” vegetables and fruits are not immune to the presence of sugar.

Why do you need to eat less sugar?

Sugar is energy in its pure state. There is nothing useful other than the energy. As soon as we have consumed too much energy we start storing excess energy as FAT. So if your fitness instructor, dietician, weight loss plan etc. say that you cannot drink fruit juice or eat carrots, it is because this plan is getting you to reduce your sugar intake.

The reason for cutting out highly nutritious juices and some vegetables is because the diet plan will be getting you to consume more healthy protein sources and healthy fats which help to strengthen your body and suppress your appetite. If you follow the diet but then drink a fruit smoothie and add a few extra vegetables to your plate you will go over your daily calorie allowance, and you will not lose weight. So if you go on a diet, follow it to the T. No excuses.

Other common mistakes people make when “dieting” are drinking energy drinks or energy bars. These are great for professional athletes or extremely fit and strong people that are used to working out a lot. People that drink protein shakes are also keeping a close eye on the rest of their diet. If you are on a diet plan and it does not say “drink the protein shake that your friend is drinking in the gym” then do not drink one! Just because a friend or colleague says it will help you does not mean it will. It will only help you if you are doing everything else that they are doing.

So, diet rules are: Eat less food, cut out sugar. Drink water instead of everything else.

Cut Sugar and Saturated Fat

After exercising, the most important rule for losing belly fat is to stop eating junk food. Although, some nutritionists say that junk food can be eaten in moderation, it often leads to excess with little effort. Do not take the risk. From now on junk food in any form should not be allowed into your home.

So no more takeaways, no more double whoppers with cheese, no more cookies, sweets, candy, soda or other sugar laden snacks. It is also important to cut back on processed meats – so say no to hot dogs, sausages, salami and other forms of processed meat. These meats are high in saturated fats.

Eat The Right Carbohydrates

Not all carbs are equal. Refined flours and the foods that they create, such as white bread, pasta, donuts, cakes and biscuits should be avoided. They can cause bloatedness, poor digestion, and lead to accumulation of fat. “Good carbs”, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, should be eaten instead.

A diet that takes most of its carbs from fruits and vegetables, as opposed to flours, is healthier. Slow release carbs are also beneficial, such as oats, brown rice, some pulses and sweet potato. Ideally granary or wholemeal bread should be eaten instead of white bread, and biscuits and cakes should be avoided.

Consuming too much carbohydrate can bump up your insulin level, which can slow down your metabolism. Your body cannot metabolize too much carbohydrate at once because the body doesn’t need so much energy at once. The excess sugar will just turn into belly fat.

Much research has shown that adopting the Atkins Nutritional Approach, i.e. a high fat/protein diet, is the way ahead. Avoiding carbohydrates increases fat burning metabolism (lipolysis), which helps to reduce stomach fat.

Stop Binge Eating

Try not to binge on food in the evening. Often people eat out of boredom, frustration or stress. And when at home, binge eating is very easy to do. The main problem with binge eating in the evening is that there is not much activity done afterwards. Going to bed straight after eating causes high sugar levels in the blood stream and no energy is spent after that. As a result the excess sugar turns into fat. So, DO NOT BINGE!

Also, try to consume your last meal around 2-3 hours before your bedtime. If you are hungry during late nights, consume a small meal rather than binge.

Drink Less Alcohol

Decrease alcohol consumption, or better still, give up drinking altogether. There is a good reason why a beer belly is called a beer belly! There are two reasons to give up alcohol. Firstly, alcoholic drinks contain a lot of calories, especially those that are sweetened. Beer is stacked with carbohydrates and sugars. If you are in the habit of having a few drinks in the evening, these calories really add up, and the fat is generally accumulated around the waist. The other reason is a metabolic one. When you consume alcohol, your body stops burning fat and sugars while using the alcohol for energy. Alcohol is a source of energy. This means that if you spend an evening drinking, you will not be in a state off lipolysis (fat burning) or glucosis (sugar/carbohydrate burning) and any food eaten will be stored as fat. Only once all the alcohol has been utilised will you start to burn fat again.

Losing tummy fat and getting a flat stomach is a long term goal for most people, so persevere, stick to the plan and don’t give up. In addition to these tips, look to enhance your fitness training by following specific routines and schedules. Organising your weekly routine makes it much easier for you to follow your schedule. After a while it will become second nature for you to get out and exercise. If you do not have to think about what you are going to do, then that saves precious time. Keep a diary, write up your training goals and progress in an exercise log, and just do it!

The lose stomach fat you have to know who your enemies are. These are your tummy enemies:

• Sugar in all its forms
• Junk food of all types
• Processed foods
• Ready meals
• Soda
• High GI foods
• Fruit juice
• Health snacks

You may be surprised by the last two on the list. Any excess sugar we eat is converted into fat. Most people overestimate the amount of food they need each day by a long way. Fruit juices and healthy snacks a full of energy, energy that most people do not need.

Fruit juice contains a lot of fructose, which is the natural sugar in fruit. Although fruits are healthy, and a rich and varied diet is required to a healthy immune system and proper functioning of muscles and the nervous system, too much fruit juice will lead to accumulation of fat, or at least will slow down weight loss. If you are serious about losing weight then stop drinking juice. The only drinks you should have are water, tea and coffee, both without milk. (Elliott, 1992)

“Health snacks” are another problem when losing weight. They are only labelled “healthy” because they contain low salt or low fat levels. However, they are almost always energy dense foods made of grains. Although there is nothing unhealthy about them as such, they are so full of energy that eating a couple of health snacks a day will stop you from losing weight, and will not let you lose your tummy fat.

Healthy Eating Options

So to lose tummy fat you need to have real healthy food. This means eating food that is closer to nature. So fresh fruits and vegetables (raw), or lightly cooked vegetables (ideally steamed). Following a low GI diet is recommended as this lowers total sugar intake, and as we mentioned already, all sugar consumed is turned to fat, if it is not burnt off.

Some examples of healthy low GI foods you can eat are:

• Pulses – beans, peas etc.
• Apples – eat the skins
• Grapefruit – grapefruit juice is acceptable in moderation
• Plums
• Cherries
• Avocado – great with mozzarella and tomato in tricoli salads
• Courgettes
• Spinach – baby spinach can be eating raw in salads
• Peppers – high in vitamins
• Onions – one of natures wonders
• Mushrooms
• Leafy greens – eat in abundance in salads – rocket and watercress are great options
• Leeks
• Green beans
• Broad beans
• Brussels sprouts
• Mange-tout peas
• Broccoli – a superfood
• Cauliflowers
• Natural yoghurt
• Milk
• Peanuts

There are many other low and medium GI foods available. Educate yourself well on this topic and weight loss will become much easier.

Remember that lean meats and fish are all low GI (no sugar in fact) so are allowed. Remember to stick to healthy cuts of meat, limit fat. Fat is very energy dense, so only a little fat can quickly push you over your daily calories allowance.

Exercise For Flat Stomach

Why You need to get stronger and fitter

This is a vital part of weight loss. Exercise does several things:

• When you exercise you burn calories which helps you lose weight
• When you build muscles you increase your metabolism, which means you use energy quicker and burn more fat
• Exercise helps you feel good about yourself, your self esteem increases
• Exercise helps you sleep better which means you desire less comfort snacks and keep calories down

Benefits of Exercise

Exercise has many other benefits but these are the most important. And remember, you need to exercise and diet to lose weight, not just one.

As for the type of exercise you do, it does not actually matter that much. You do not need to do any stomach exercises to lose weight. Intensive cardio exercise like running, cycling and swimming with regular weight training exercises, like squats, lunges, bench press, rows and curls, will help you far more than any abdominal exercise. Exercise is about burning fat and building muscles. Ab exercises alone are not anywhere near enough. And if you think that exercising your abs help you lose your belly fat, then you are mistaken.

The most important change you must make if you wish to lose you belly fat and get a flat stomach is to start working out. But simply jogging a few miles twice a week, or playing some tennis at the weekend, will not shift stubborn belly fat. The best way to lose weight is a combination of intensive interval training and resistance training, ideally in the form of compound weight training.

You do not need to join a gym to start getting fit, as we can provide several home exercise routines, as well as weight training routines. However, for motivation and support, being a member of a gym can help.

One of the best ways to get some intensive interval training is in a martial arts class. Kickboxing, karate, judo, and kung-fu are all excellent choices. Also new popular methods include spinning, kick-boxercise as well as more traditional step aerobics. You need to be working in the fat burning zone, so invest in a heart rate monitor, and learn how to use it!

For weight training we recommend a beginners training workout, which is designed to burn fat and tone muscles for a lean and slender look.

You should aim to do two intensive weight training sessions and two intensive circuit training sessions each week. Always plan a good rest day at the weekend, plus have a day of “active rest”, which means moderate light activity, such as swimming or walking on the other day. Read our abs exercise tips to get you going, also learning how the celebrities get fit can give you inspiration, and we have workouts and diet tips from some of our favourite celebs to help you.

No Stomach Exercises to Burn Fat!

There are no “stomach exercises” as such that will flatten your stomach. The best way to exercise to get a flat stomach is to perform full body workouts and exercise the core also. So perform circuit training workouts with squats, lunges, star jumps, skipping, push ups, burpees, leg raises, back extensions and crunches too.

Weight training is an excellent way to tone and stay trim. Barbell squats, deadlifts, shoulder press, lateral pull down (or modified pull ups) dips, curls and bench press are all excellent exercises that work large muscle groups, burn fat, raise metabolism and tone muscles.

The core muscles for weight management and toning are really squats and lunges (work similar leg, bum and thigh muscles), lateral pull downs (works back and arms), push up . bench press (works chest) and curls (work biceps). These exercises will get you toned. Toned legs can make a huge difference to your over all body shape, and you will look good naked if you get toned!

If you do all this right then a flat stomach will come naturally in time. Getting a flat tummy is really all about eating well and exercising properly to burn off the fat and tone up the muscles. You do not need to perform exercises and amazing athletic skill, you just need to stick to the plan and work hard at it for as long as it takes.

You need to get more active in your daily routines

This is more than just doing regular exercise. Many of us become more and more sedentary as we grow older. It is important to just get more active in your every day life. I meet people who drive to the local shops instead of walk, even though they are only 10 minutes walk away, along a quite, rural path. I see people who drive their children to the local school even though it is only 5 minutes walk away. Usually they give an excuse like “it was a bit wet” or “I was going to the shops afterwards anyway“.

If this sounds like you then get out of these habits. Walk to the shops, walk your children to school, then walk back again before hopping in the car to go to the shops. Even if you have little need to get out of the house, do so. Go for a walk, wander around the shopping mall if need be, just get up off your feet and move.

Never give up, each day you will make a little progress in the right direction.

References

• “Fructose, weight gain, and the insulin resistance syndrome” by Sharon S Elliott, Nancy L Keim, Judith S Stern, Karen Teff and Peter J Havel. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 76, No. 5, 911-922, November 2002. Abstract: http://www.ajcn.org/content/76/5/911.short
• “A Critical Examination of the Evidence Relating High Fructose Corn Syrup and Weight Gain” by Richard A. Forshee, Maureen L. Storey, David B. Allison, Walter H. Glinsmann, Gayle L. Hein, David R. Lineback, Sanford A. Miller, Theresa A. Nicklas, Gary A. Weaver & John S. White. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition. Volume 47, Issue 6, 2007. Abstract: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10408390600846457
• “Diet, nutrition and the prevention of excess weight gain and obesity” by BA Swinburn, I Caterson, JC Seidell and WPT James. Public Health Nutrition: 7(1A), 123–146
• “Food for Thought“by Antigone Kouris. Low GI News. Accessed Oct. 2011.
• “Circuit Training Workouts” MotleyHealth.com. Accessed Oct. 2011.

We feel it is best to start simple, so suggest a regime that includes some running, circuit training, and aerobics.

Aerobics does not only refer to aerobic exercise classes, but all forms of exercise which increase heart rate and respiration to the extent that the heart and lungs are working much harder than usual.

This leads to improvements in the heart and lung’s health and also general strengthening and toning of muscles.

Chair Exercise for Tums & Bums

Circuit training is an excellent way to improve fitness and strength, as it is traditionally a set of aerobic and strength training exercises that are carried out at stations around a gym, sports hall or in a martial arts class. Circuit training has many forms, and can be done with just calisthenics routines or using free weights and machines. Circuit training classes often incorporate exercises from different schools such as yoga and pilates as well as classic exercises such as press ups, skipping and sprinting. Interval training can also be done as a form of circuit training.

Pilates, also know as the Pilates Method, has become increasing popular in the last decade as the popularity of health clubs has increased. The exercises are taken from various schools, especially yoga and various hybrids have been developed, such as “yogalates”.

Martial arts are a great way to get fit and healthy. There are many styles to choose from and many clubs provide a great social environment in which to exercise. Martial arts can provide both physical training and exercise as well as mental training, as many of the forms and sparring, help to develop an alert mind. Many classes also provide a healthy form of discipline, which can aid children’s social development.

Swimming is an excellent form of exercise. The human body is very well adapted to water as our density is very similar to that of water. This means that when swimming the body is supported in the water placing less stress on bones and joints. Swimming is a good way for people to recover from an injury too, or to keep fit during pregnancy. Aqua-aerobics is a popular form of exercise done in water, which mimics swimming motions in shallow water.

Bodybuilding involves building muscle purely for aesthetic purposes. A bodybuilders training routine differs from that of athletes, as they need to increase muscle size and definition rather than core strength. Fat loss is essential to maintain perfectly formed muscles. Bodybuilding requires very strict diet.

Running is probably one of the simplest forms of exercise that can be done. No equipment is required and subscriptions to gyms are not needed – just get some good shoes and run.

We will be covering all of these different exercises as we slowly build this site (remember, it is new!)