So you think that losing weight is too hard? Well, think again or a while, because choosing a suitable workout plan that would actually help you lose weight is even harder. The weight loss industry is getting bigger and bigger and there are so many workout options out there that it often becomes difficult for the average person to decide which are suitable and which aren’t.

These three questions are enough to get you started in deciding if the exercise programs that you are looking at are going to be a good fit for you so that you will do an exercise program long term instead of just for a couple of weeks.

Is the workout program easy to demonstrate? Before choosing any weight loss workout or exercise, make sure that it is easy to understand. It doesn’t matter how well the professional fitness trainers will understand the workout plan; what matters is how well YOU understand it, because it is YOU who is going to sweat it out in the gym. If any workout is incomprehensible to you, you will have a tough time carrying it out! Some workout plans are written in such a way that they are very difficult to understand for the layman.

Will I be able to carry it out the exercise program? It is not enough to just choose a workout plan; in fact a workout plan is meaningless if you cannot carry it out properly. There maybe many different reasons why trying out a given workout plan might seem impossible for you. For example, maybe that the workouts don’t fit into your lifestyle! If you are used to sitting on the couch for hours and if your workout plan demands that you do intense exercises for hours, you won’t be able to do it, would you? What you need instead is a workout plan that consists of lighter, shorter exorcises that you can carry out easily! For some others, time is a huge problem. If you have a 9 to 5 job, it may seem difficult for you to find even an hour for the gym. If this is your case, then you need to choose workouts that you can do at home. Don’t worry; there are plenty of home-based exercises that will help you to burn as much fat as you would by hitting the gym!

Will this workout system actually help me lose weight? Make no mistake -there are actually two groups of exercises out there. One group will help you tone up your muscles and give you the six-pack abs that you desire, but if you are looking forward to losing weight then this group of exercises is not suitable for you. There is another group of exorcises that will actually help you shed off pounds; it is this group that you should really choose! Research thoroughly and check whether the workouts you are choosing will make you fitter or actually help you lose weight!

Choosing the right weight loss workouts for yourself can seem to be difficult at first, but with a little research, you will be able to find suitable exercises for yourself!

Thanks for visiting. To get started why not subscribe to the 21 day fitness plan at the top of this page. Look in the red box, it is right there.. Thanks Bill

OK, first of all I am not sure how much science is behind this but it is just to ugly not to let you know about.

Top Secret Fat Loss Secret

I was looking around at the most popular fitness, weight loss, and health products and came across a program called the Top Secret Fat Loss Secret (sounds pretty secretive). Anyway I click through to see what this is about and was in for a bit of a shock. Usually the sales page for any weight loss program shows happy skinny people flirting with each other, not in this case.

The Secret Fat Loss Secret has a video by Dr Suzanne Gudakunst talking about how the weight loss industry is never going to tell you that the secret behind losing weight is not diet and what you eat but is instead caused by the plaque inside your intestines, have to call bullshit on that, but anyway apparently having a cute doctor tell us is not enough, they had to show us.

The plaque inside the body is very disgusting looking and makes me not want to ever be a doctor. Very yucky looking. Oh, and then there is the parasitic worm video.

In sending you to the page for the Top Secret Fat Loss Secret I have to tell you that at this point I have no clue whether the system that Dr Suzanne Gudakunst is promoting works or not but I have to say that it is kind of fun to watch all of the stuff.

I have been planning and putting this offer together for a while now and it is nice to finally unveil it on the blog. As I hope you have seen I have done reviews of the three big internet weight loss and fitness programs. The programs are:

Fat Loss for Idiots - This is a customized online diet program that comes with a handbook to help you through your diet to lose weight.

Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle - This is a mammoth 350+ page book written by a natural bodybuilding champ that shows you how any normal overweight person can lose fat and gain muscle through a special diet and good exercise.

Turbulence Training Program - A three day a week weight training program that will help you lose fat while gaining muscle. Not the standard way that most people workout but in fact a new program that is done in just 45 minutes 3 times per week.

The above links are direct to the sales pages of the programs but if you want to see my reviews you can just click on the links on the right side of this page. Each of the programs are only $39 so you can choose any of them and know that you won’t get soaked for a bunch of money, they are all really cheap. Read the rest of this entry »

I used to joke with my wife that soup is not a meal but I have changed a bit over the years and now I not only like soup but soup is something that we probably have at least once a week for dinner.

Now that winter is here sometimes we can get that urge for soup. soup is a great food as it is very low in calories and has a lot of taste to it. I am not a proponent of the cabbage soup diet or anything in thinking that soup is a magical answer to losing weight but it does in fact fill you up with a lot of vitamins as well.

If you are eating a lot of times a day, doing more grazing than eating, then you do not feel so disappointed about having a smaller meal at dinner. soup i guess could also be a great meal for lunch. What my wife will usually do is make whatever soups that we want from a can and then also make grilled cheese sandwiches, which the kids love. Read the rest of this entry »

I set off a bit of an email flurry a couple of days ago when I suggested that Gastric Bypass surgery is bad and is the wrong way to lose weight so I thought that I would explain why I do not like the idea of losing weight using gastric bypass surgery.

Gastric Bypass for those that are not aware of the idea is a surgery that either puts a band around a part of your stomach or staples your stomach so that it is smaller. This smaller stomach of course can hold less food so most people are going to lose a lot of weight very quickly and because of this Gastric Bypass surgery has become very popular.

OK so it is relatively easy to shed pounds with Gastric Bypass surgery how could I then be against it as a way to lose weight?

The truth is that Gastric Bypass surgery does not make you fit or healthy. The day after your gastric bypass you will have the same issues with food that you had the day before but now you will now be able to eat as much food. Also any emotional issues will not be solved with your weight loss. Most of these issues cause you to overeat although most people that are overweight think that that is the cause of their emotional problems.

Another more important problem is the nutrition that we all need from our food. If you starve yourself like is going to happen then you will have no way of getting the nutrients that you need and have to rely on supplementation to get everything that you need to live a healthy life. Now that I have broached this subject, how about the health aspect of this kind of weight loss? Being thin does not make you healthy as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, in fact being thin can lull you into the false expectation that you are healthy. If you are getting lots of exercise then you need more calories to feed your muscles and after a gastric bypass you are not going to be able to get what you need actually get healthy.

Lastly there is no guarantee with Gastric Bypass. Once you are at the point of needing gastric bypass you can either die on the operating table or die after during recovery as your body is not strong enough for the surgery. Also there is a way that if you do overeat after your gastric bypass surgery that you may be able to stretch your stomach and now you will be in the same place that your were before.

So what can you do instead of Gastric Bypass?

Gastric Bypass used to be the only way that people that are morbidly obese could think of to lose weight but now that we are in the fourth season of the Biggest Loser anyone can see that there is another option. Sure it may be very difficult and take a long time to lose weight through diet and exercise but people that are really overweight can lose 100 pounds in a year and over this time you can become healthier, happier, build incredible self worth and overcome all of those food demons as well.

If you have been thinking about gastric bypass surgery I certainly hope that this has given you pause to reconsider. There is an alternative.

X-Weighted is a TV show that is shown on the life network here in Canada. The idea of X-Weighted is that the story of regular people losing weight would be interesting to watch and in fact it is. The host of X-weighted is a trainer from Edmonton by the name of Paul Plakas. Paul is a great host for a weight loss show because he goes into peoples houses and is not afraid of offending them with his tips and is really great for giving workout ideas. Also, as a Canadian Paul is never an ass but he doesn’t give anyone much of a chance to make any excuses either.

I watched X-Weighted a couple of times last season but earlier this week was a standard episode that I thought was great to watch especially for the lack of hype that this show uses to bring across the idea of weight loss over a longer period of time. The structure of X-Weighted is that you will have an intro where you see the life situation of someone that wants to lose weight, then Paul Plakas measures and weighs the person, looks in their kitchen and does a fitness assessment. Later in the show you have workouts and a a weight in and finally at the end there is an official X-Weighted final weigh in. Great drama and great info all in an hour

Anatomy of an X Weighted Episode

The X-Weighted episode that I saw started with Michelle, a lady that was over weight and would like to lose 50 pounds. She had problems with one of her three children being Autistic and becoming a problem and her whole family leaned on her for support in various parts of their lives. Because of Michelle’s work schedule and early mornings she would eat out at fast food places once or twice EVERY day. Now we know this ladies background.

First things first for the meeting with her trainer . Michelle laid out her situation and then told her trainer that she wanted to lose 50 pounds in the next six months. Her trainer talked to her about her exercise requirements, eating requirements, tested her current level of fitness and then followed her around for a day. A couple of day later Michelle met with her trainer for a training session and then we get to see how Michelle reacts over the next few months to life, changes and weight loss.

In the end Michelle lost I believe 44 pounds and was really happy with how things went for her weight loss. Her life was a series of traumatic events over the time of her weight loss and it really makes you feel for her and her family.

X-Weighted is a great show in that it really walks you through how real people lose weight while living their regular lives, this is a classic idea of a reality show where the people are in their own surrounding much like our own and every great result is hard fought. X-Weighted is on in Canada on many nights of the week on the Slice Network (formerly the Life Network).

Often things take a bit of time to take affect. Sometimes you do all the right things but see no results and change tactics, don’t do that ride it out instead.

When people start a new diet they get excited do all the right things and then in the first week they lose 5 pounds or so and are very excited with the results, then the next week comes and the only lose a pound or nothing at all and discouragement sets in.

You hear a lot about yoyo dieting, gaining and losing weight only to gain it back again and often this will happen because people become discouraged and don’t let the changes that they are making to take affect and change to a different type of diet. Although our bodies are complex and in many ways can change very very quickly, losing weight does not tend to be one of these things

If you eat all of the right foods and get the exercise that you need and then at the end of the week you have not lost any weight is it becasue the diet and exercise are not working? probably not. Often when you make big changes your body will start a bit of a backlash. You will retain water, your metabolism will slow down in fear of starvation or your body will just not have caught up with the changes. Often the diet and exercise changes that you make will not show up for a couple or even three weeks. Many of the bog diet companies know this. Jenny Craig only has you weigh in once a week as does Weight Watchers and Weight Watchers cautions people not to weigh themselves at all during the week. As you have probably noticed beofre your weight will fluctuate all over the place during a single day so any changes that you see are very hard to predict from week to week even.

Stay on a course doing the right things and give yourself at least a few months to see if you are tending in the right direction. Do not just take the scale into account but also look at how you feel, how your health is, how your energy is and how well you are sleeping. What you want out of any diet and exercise program is to improve all areas of your life, not just the bathroom scale

What are the Most Popular Celebrity Diet Choices?

The celebrity diet is the hot new craze amongst dieters because it can have you looking good in no time at all. Have you ever wanted to have the toned, fit body of a celebrity, but you just had no idea what to do in order to get there? Do you watch the Academy Awards and the Emmy’s with a wishful gleam in your eye that one day you could look as beautiful and fit as the celebrities who are gracing the red carpet with their appearance? Well, it is time for you to stop dreaming about being thinner and go out there and do it. It is not hard, and in a few short weeks you can be well on your way to having a killer body like Angelina Jolie or Brad Pitt.

Many people believe that celebrities are just naturally fit and thin and that they really do not have to do any work to keep up their appearances. If you listen to the people who say things like that stop now. Those people are just plain wrong. To have a fit and trim body like a celebrity, you have to work at it like a celebrity. That means going to the gym whenever you can, eating all of the proper foods and making sure that you stay away from all kinds of fats, sugars and carbohydrates. If you can keep those two simple rules in mind, you are already well on your way to looking amazing.

However, it is one thing to know the rules of participating in a celebrity diet, and it is an entirely different thing to actually practice what you preach. Sure, you can say that you will eat healthy all you want but until you actually do it, you will never actually start losing weight. Therefore, it is important for you to pick one of the most popular diets that celebrities are currently using and stick with it.

What diets are popular with Celebrities?

Celebrities are usually into all kinds of different fads, and when it comes to dieting, they are no different. Therefore, one of the most popular celebrity style diets out there right now is the raw foods diet. This involves you eating foods that have not been cooked, like salads and sushi. Now, this is an expensive diet to keep up because all of the foods that are safe to eat raw cost much more at your grocery store but in the end it will be totally worth it. You will not only look great, but you will feel great too.

Despite the fact that many celebrities are into fad style diets, there are quite a few who simply stick with the tried and true method of eating healthy and exercising regularly. If you are the type of person who feels that they can keep up with the celebrity diet of cutting out fatty foods and sticking with food that is high in protein, and vegetables that are high in nutrients (and exercise at least four or five times a week), then you will see positive changes in no time flat.

Well the first full week of the new year is upon us and as I have always seen at this time of year gyms across the country are filling up with new members. As veteran members all know the wait for gym equipment usually peters out by the beginning of February as all the new members stop going to the gym or at least stop coming very often.

I always think of new years as being a very trendy time for gym memberships as the prices drop to get new members and there is a lot of excitement as many people show up for the first time and then get bored, sore and disillusioned and move on to the next exciting thing in their lives. A few people we will see get the bug and do not stop and will become lifelong weightlifters but I always used to wonder what makes the difference between those that stay at the gym and those that leave. Here is my list.

1. No pain, no gain - The problem here is that most people push themselves far to hard and have no time to recover between workouts and after being sore for a month it is impossible to go on. This looks to newbies as a ridiculous lifestyle. To get away from this problem why not just slow down. If you want to look hot for the summer why not take it a little easier. The beach will still be empty next week so don�t kill yourself trying to look like a greek god now.

2. No results - When getting started in a gym you may not get fast results in losing weight. Your workouts are going to lose you fat as well as gain you muscle so you are going to not be losing as fast as you hope. Give it time. As you gain muscle it takes your body more calories to keep that muscle, as well as increasing your metabolism, which in turn will help you lose fat.

3. Tiredness - This relates to number one. You will be tired as your body adjusts and as you gain strength, lose fat and get healthier. After you adjust to the new workouts you will get more energy and not be nearly as tired as you were before you started this healthier lifestyle.

4. No time except for the gym - This is a doozy. When you get started the only thing that matters is going to the gym and then suddenly you have lost touch with the rest of the world and you miss that. Why not just start reducing the time you workout. You do not need to work out two hours a day. 45 minutes to an hour is all you should be spending in the gym as you get started.

5. Boredom - Boredom can definitely creep into your attitude at the gym. This is usually caused, I believe, from not having a plan, goals and a way to make sure that you are going to achieve them. If you just go in and lift weights randomly or do a cardio workout when you can�t think of any muscle groups that you �feel like� doing then you are quickly going to get bored and not know why you are spending time in the gym. Get together with a trainer at the gym that you join and get a plan together for what you are going to do each day in the gym and set some realistic goals and you should be set.

Other than these issues the biggest issue is that the first gym you saw was the one you joined and you just might not enjoy working out there. Try going through my list of how to choose a gym, and my other gym staff articles to make sure that you pick the right place to workout.

Setting goals for your fitness is a very good idea and I have posted a couple of guides on how to do this well. I found the following information that I thought was valuable from the Federal Trade Commission on setting goals for fitness.

There are lots of reasons for people who are overweight or obese to lose weight. To be healthier. To look better. To feel better. To have more energy.

No matter what the reason, successful weight loss and healthy weight management depend on sensible goals and expectations. If you set sensible goals for yourself, chances are you’ll be more likely to meet them and have a better chance of keeping the weight off. In fact, losing even five to 10 percent of your weight is the kind of goal that can help improve your health.

Most overweight people should lose weight gradually. For safe and healthy weight loss, try not to exceed a rate of two pounds per week. Sometimes, people with serious health problems associated with obesity may have legitimate reasons for losing weight rapidly. If so, a physician’s supervision is required.

What you weigh is the result of several factors:

• how much and what kinds of food you eat
• whether your lifestyle includes regular physical activity
• whether you use food to respond to stress and other situations in your life
• your physiologic and genetic make-up
• your age and health status

Read the rest of this entry »