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.

You will need just a kettlebell to do this, although you can manage with a dumbbell.

The Healthy Weight Loss Exercise Workout

The first exercises are done to start warming up, but are repeated. Ideally you will perform routine 3-4 times in one session. If so start slow and increase intensity. After 50 squats and 60 seconds of star jumps you should be warmed up well enough to start the main exercises.

• Squat for 1 minute – aim for around 50 bodyweight squats. Remember to squat the bum down, do not allow the knees to go beyond the line of the toes.
• Star jumps for 1 minute – around 60-80 depending on speed you can manage. If you can only do 30 to start with it is OK.
• Kettlebell Twists – hold the kettlebell to your chest and twist the upper body from left to right. Be careful not to twist below the waist, keep the legs steady and knees slightly bent to avoid twisting at the knees.
• Kettlebell Swings – keeping the back straight and squatting low, swinging the kettlebell from between the legs to head height. Aim for 50 swings.
• Kettlebell Rows – bent over lift the kettlebell to your outside rib area and return. Perform on each side. Perform 10 on each side.
• Kettlebell Curls – standing up straight with the kettlebell held at wasit height, curl up to your chest and return. Perform 10 on each side.
• Burpees – Now that you legs have had a rest from the last 3 exercises, time to work them again. This time the classic old school burpee exercise. From standing up straight, squat down to the floor, place hands on floor shoulder width apart, then kick your feet back so that you are in the push up position. “Squat thrust” the feet back to under the body and then stand up. Repeat for 1 minute.
• Push ups – Either full or knee push ups, perform as many as you can in 1 minute.
• Leg Raises – Lie on your back on the floor and grasp a sturdy table leg or chair behind your head. Then lift your feet up to the sky, hold and return. Do not touch the floor with your heels. Lift again.
• Back Extensions – Roll over on to your front, then with your hands by your temples, lift your torso off the floor, look forward, then lower.
• The Plank – In a push up position lower on to your forearms and hold. Keep your body straight and abs engaged.

Watch the video here to see how the kettlebell exercises are done. If you do not have a kettlebell then these exercises can be done with a dumbbell. For safety reasons start with a light kettlebell. Many women start with 4 or 6 kg. You can also do these exercises with no weight at all if you wish. The swings and twists will still work the thighs, hips and core muscles. For curls you could use a 3 litre plastic bottle filled with water to create a 3 kg weight.

Work through the exercises once, twice or as many times as you can. Or increase the number or each exercise you do, or the time you exercise for.

So long as you aim to keep doing more you will get fitter and stronger and so will lose weight.

However, the reality of the situation is that if during 2, or 3 if you also have a Friday night binge, days out of 7 you are overeating, you will gain weight. Or at best, you will fail to lose weight. So here we provide 10 quick weight loss tips to stop your weekend excesses going straight to your bums, tums and thighs!

1. If you are hungry in between meals at the weekend, eat a fruit snack. If you have children take the opportunity to encourage them to eat fruit too. Peel apples together and share. This makes eating fruit more fun for all the family.
2. Ensure that you have breakfast. You can often get away with a small or no breakfast in the week while working as you still do not get the chance to eat again until lunch time. At the weekend you are far more likely to snack on junk food mid morning if you miss breakfast.
3. Keep counting those calories and maintain high food quality. Many people say that counting calories does not work, but on a broad scale it does. Knowing how much you are eating each day is vital, as if you do not know how much you are eating, how can you alter your diet to make changes? To lose weight you need to ensure that each day you eat around 500 calories less than your daily needs.
4. Take your time. Eating slowly helps you to keep in touch with your feelings. People that eat slowly eat less because they are more aware of the transition from being hungry to being satisfied. Eat fast and you skip the satisfied stage and end up stuffed. This makes you fat.
5. Stay hydrated on healthy liquids. Remember that every drink except water has calories. So only drink water. Or black coffee and tea. Green tea has been shown to aid metabolism and weight loss.
6. Sleep well. Researchers have shown several times that getting your 8 hours of sleep a night helps you lose weight. Hormones and binging make tired people fat.
7. Don’t go crazy on the booze. Alcohol is a major cause of weight gain. If you want to lose weight, go easy on the booze.
8. Do some exercise. You should have more time to exercise at the weekend, so take this as an opportunity to get active. Remember, walking is great exercise, and walking around the shops all day is no less effective than walking on a treadmill!
9. Cook a 3 course meal. OK, be careful here, don’t go crazy. But instead learn to cook healthy meals with many different healthy ingredients. Keep the courses small and healthy. The weekend is a time that you should have the opportunity to cook something special.
10. Exercise with friends. Research has shown that women who exercise with friends lose more weight. So whether you want to go to the gym, do a keep fit class or go running, get together with some friends and exercise together. Your naturally competitive nature will mean that you work harder, but also have more fun in the process!

So there you go, 10 easy tips to help you lose weight and tone up. Of course, these weight loss tips are not really restricted to the weekend, you should try to follow as many of them as possible all week.

As the thighs are one of the largest muscles of the body they do respond well to focused training, mostly because to work your thighs you have to work the whole body hard. However, before we jump into the thigh workouts we need to talk about diet and nutrition.

How To Lose Thigh Fat Through Dieting

We we consume more calories than we need to maintain our weight, our body converts excess energy (generally sugars) into fat. Where the fat is stored is mostly determined by genetics, which is why we are all different shapes even though many people eat the same diet.

Even if you have a relatively slim waist, excess fat on the thighs is a sign that you are eating too much each day. Thigh fat is not really unhealthy (unlike stomach fat which is) but it still signifies that your overall body-fat is too high.

As with any weight loss plan you need to follow these rules to trim the fat on your thighs:

• Total calories consumed each day must be less than your daily requirements.
• Most of your calories must come from healthy, low GI, low sugar sources, such as salad vegetables, eggs, dairy and lean meats.
• Only by keeping a near constant calorie deficit will you lose weight.

Diet is the cause of weight gain so it must also be the solution. To get thinner thighs you really need to change your diet. Follow these dieting tips:

• Calculate your daily energy requirement (see the table below)
• Consume around 500 calories less per day than your daily needs
• Stop eating all refined or baked goods – no flour, no sugar
• Eat mostly low GI vegetables
• Stop drinking all fruit juices and sodas. Drink only water, green teas and coffees
• Stop eating sugary breakfast cereals (these are also refined goods)
• Instead eat eggs, fresh fruit and wholemeal toast (1 slice) for breakfast
• Eat a fresh salad each day
• Eat more protein and less carbohydrates
• Protein sources: eggs, fish, poultry, lean meats.

Best Thigh Exercises to Burn Fat and Tone Muscles

It is tempting to provide just one exercise only, as there is one exercise that really beats all others hands down at toning the thighs: SQUATS.

Bodyweight squats are extremely effective at toning thighs and they are also very simple to do. Keeping good form is important. To perform squats just stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart and feet facing slightly outwards. Then squat down, looking ahead and keeping your back straight. Try not to move your torso forwards above your feet, instead sink your bum downwards. Once your thighs are parallel to the floor, stand up again.

An exceptionally simple exercise, but very effective. Aim to perform 100 squats per day. Other exercises that will help are star jumps, burpees, leg raises and lunges. Perform a simple circuit like this every day or every other day:

• 50 star jumps
• 50 squats
• 10 push ups
• 10 burpees
• 10 lunges on each leg
• 20 leg raises
• 20 crunches

That is a total of 170 exercises in one circuit. Aim to perform this circuit 2 to 3 times. It will be hard to start with but gradually become easier.

As it does get easier you can increase push ups and burpees to start working the cardiovascular system and upper body harder to aid fat burning.

• Weight loss requires a change in diet. Eat less, eat healthier.
• Weight loss requires exercise. Short intensive sessions are effective (scientifically proven fact).
• Weight loss requires more muscle. Do weight training at last once a week.
• Weight loss requires planning. This is where you can really utilise your strengths – get organised.

That should be enough for you to work on to lose weight and get fit. If you have 5 more minutes to spare, then lets elaborate a little.

Diet – Eat Less, Eat Healthier

If you limit yourself to around 1500 calories a day, and eat only fruits, vegetables, pulses, lean meat, fish and poultry then you will lose weight and remain healthy. Fill up on bread and you only succeed in consuming energy with no kick (by kick, we mean vitamins, nutrients, antioxidants and all that jazz).

Short Intensive Exercise

Some sports scientists believe that 10 minutes exercise is enough each day to help you lose weight and get fit. But that has to include 5 high intensity 30 second sprints where you go flat out. Imagine you are running 200m and there is a lion behind you – that is the sort of speed we are talking about.

Muscle – Weight Training for Women

• Muscle burns fat when it grows
• Muscle burns fat when it repairs
• Muscle burns fat when is sleeps

Nothing more to say on this. Pump some iron, reap the rewards.

Planning

Plan your training and your meals. Lack of planning leads to disaster. If you do not shop right you end up having to buy food on the go, and this is almost always junk food.

Do not plan your exercise and you risk missing or putting off sessions. Planning is vital to avoid mistakes.

For more fitness inspiration read the article Women Still On Top by Eleanor Oldroyd which discusses many of the great female athletes and sports stars who prove that women can be superfit and super successful.

She says on her Twitter page that she wants to lose an additional 30 pounds before she is at a happy weight.

So what does her diet involve?

Her product, the Organic Liaison diet, promotes eating a natural and organic meal plan. Basically this is another take on the “caveman diet” that only allows natural foods that would have been eaten in the days before agriculture.

So no processed foods, no junk food, no sugar, no baked goods, no breads or fizzy drinks. Allowed food is organic vegetables, organic fruit, organic lean meats and fish, lots of inorganic water.

It is great news that she lost weight, but a bit of a shame that we do not know the full details. All information on her weight suggests that it was all done on her own Organic Liaison diet solution, but this may not be the case.

Motivation to Lose Weight

She is marketing her own weight loss product now, so she has a massive incentive for losing more weight. In a way this is the best lesson learnt here. She has proved that if you are motivated and have clear attainable goals then you can lose weight.

It is never too late to lose weight and no matter how many times you have failed in the past, you can still succeed this time. You just need to be focussed and have a good reason to lose weight.

For many people staying fit and healthy to raise a family is a good enough reason. The best reasons to lose weight are to feel good, to be happier and live a fuller and more rewarding life. And to be here for as long as possible to support loved ones.

The Summer Workout Plan

Hopefully you have now got fitter by exercising everyday over the winter and Spring months since the end of the holiday season. So now you should be able to do 2 workouts each day.

Every morning you should do your cardio workout, ideally before breakfast. Comprising of 45 minutes of cardio, with the last 15 minutes including at least 3 intensive sprint intervals to really get the heart rate up and your lungs panting. Breakfast should be lean and could include either an egg or a banana.

Lunch time is salad time, only add olive oil as a dressing, with tuna or chicken (without the skin). Ensure you only chose those low GI vegetables for the salad. Lettuce, rocket and watercress are all excellent options.

Evening supper should be very light also, so that you can then do an evening workout. This should include one of the following:

• Yoga routine / other callisthenics
• Circuit training routine
• Weight training routine (push/pull session, or upper/lower body session – split those workouts)

These evening sessions should only be 20-30 minutes long, as you are exercising twice a day. Warm up with a few movements then do the work sets. With weight training especially split your routines to allow yourself to workout everyday.

If you are a very keen weight lifter then you will need to take rest days as you will be lifting heavier weights.

After your evening session have a light protein snack (fish, eggs etc.) or a protein shake. But not both.

Drink plenty of water throughout the day and watch the weight come off and your muscles tone up and strengthen in time for the beach holidays.