Fat Loss Tips.

I’m just a stone throw away from hitting triple digit weight loss with the medifast diet. I’m proud of how I look and feel, but I’m more proud of the fact that, for once in my life, I stuck with a diet until I reached my goal. I’m often asked exactly how hard and difficult this was. Deep down, I think that people suspect that I have willpower of steel or that I cheated in some way. Neither of these things are really true. But, in the following article, I’ll tell you how hard this diet really is, or at least how hard it has been for me.

Ketosis Is Really The Key With Medifast: People often think that it’s the low calories in the diet which makes you lose weight. Because of this, many wonder why they can’t just cut drastically back on what they are eating and get the same results. I shared this thought process for a long time as well. I tried to eat a low amount of calories on my own and my results were nominal at best.

I had read about ketosis and I even knew that this is why Atkins and south beach work well. I had even had success on these types of diets before, but I didn’t connect the puzzle pieces because it was hard for me to wrap my brain around the fact that medifast is a high protein diet since you’re consuming chocolate shakes, oatmeal, pudding, and chips on it. No where in this diet are you eating pork rinds and eggs and this fact sort of threw me.

But, I soon learned the this diet is in fact high in protein and low in carbs – enough so that it sort of coaxes your body into a metabolic state called ketosis. And this means that you’re no longer allowing your body to burn all those excess carbs that you used to consume. Since you’re no longer providing those carbs, then your body has no choice than to burn what is available – and what is available is fat.

How Hard Or Difficult Is The Medifast Diet?: That’s not to say that ketosis does every ounce of the work for you. You will have to eat the foods and stay away from those things that they don’t want you to consume (although you do get to prepare a large meal each day on your own.) However, this process is a little bit easier because the amount of cooking and shopping that you will need to do will be minimal. Most of your food is provided for you. Mostly, you will eat five “medifast meals” each day and then make the one meal that I mentioned before. This really is not a lot to ask, especially since you don’t need to count or calculate anything. This helps you to focus on other things and doesn’t give you a ready excuse that the diet was just too complicated.

And, since your mind is free to think about things other than food, you might find, as I did, that you just aren’t as dragged down or limited by the process as you might have thought. I actually started a class and reconnected with some friends because I now had the time and confidence to do so. I’m not sure if I would say that medifast is unbelievably easy, but I certainly would not call it hard and it’s by far been the most convenient and effective diet that I have ever been on.

That’s not to say that you won’t know that you’re dieting. You will be eating different foods. Although there are over 70 food choices and you can add some sugar and fat free ingredients to have even more control over this, it’s not like you can eat whatever you want. You do not have free reign and there will be days when you’d rather not have another shake or chili. But, I’ll tell you, once the weight begins to come off at a steady clip, this becomes a very small point that isn’t as important as you might have thought.

If you exercise regularly, no doubt you’ve heard someone talking about interval training benefits, and perhaps wondered if you might add these short bursts of intense activity to your own routine.

Wonder no more! Where once interval training was the domain of superstar athletes and Olympians, new research has shown adding this type of training to your workout could have significant benefits for the rest of us.

More older people, as well as those with chronic health problems like diabetes or heart disease can now be encouraged to make interval training part of their routine.

When you think interval training, think sprinting, jumping rope, skipping and running in place, as well as alternatives like swimming, rowing or stair climbing.

And with good reason, as it appears to be a more efficient way to lose weight no matter what age, or physical state, you’re in at present.

Even a walk can incorporate interval workouts, pick up the pace in short spurts or throw in some hills. What you want to do is get your heart rate to about 85% of maximum for short bursts, then slow it back to a more moderate pace.

Understand that this isn’t a workout for the lazy, or faint of heart, but if you make the effort, interval training can bring you some incredible advantages. It’s the fastest way to get fit and improve your performance. Those in the fitness world have long held that interval training is also the best way to lose fat.

Researchers out of Australia have tried to find the most effective interval of time, and believe 8 seconds is it.

Experiments involved 20-minute sessions on stationary bikes where participants alternated between 12 seconds of slow, easy pedaling into 8-second intense periods where they pedaled as hard as they could. This amounts to about 8 minutes of hard exercise per session, which brought significant payoff.

Participants lost an average of 6 pounds of body fat over the four-month study period. This compares to less than 2 pounds lost by the subjects who cycled steadily for 40 minutes.

Why the difference? No one is sure, but the researchers speculate that the reason may involve chemical compounds known as catecholamines, substances that tell the fat cells to release their fat.

Our body seems to produce more of these during intense types of exercise that elevate the heart rate than it does during more moderate activity.

If you decide to make interval training part of your exercise routine, it’s important to start out slowly, taking care if you’re just getting active after a long stint behind a desk or away from the field.

You may not realize how out of shape you are, and thus are more prone to hurt yourself, which will set your fitness goals back by a lot. Instead, talk with your primary care physician first, especially if you’re living with a chronic condition.

A session with a personal trainer can also be a wise investment so that you’re sure your technique is what it should be.

Once you get the go-ahead – you can start making short bursts of intense exercise part of your routine and see if the increased weight loss holds true for you and if you can gain benefits from interval training.

If you have not yet tried circuit training, then you’re missing out on a lot of fat burning! Most workouts focus on how many calories you burning DURING your workout. Circuit Training helps you raise your metabolic rate so you burn calories not only DURING your workout, but AFTER your workout as well.

Your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) is a measure of how many calories you burn during rest. Individuals who are naturally lean often have very high metabolic rates. This is why some people can eat a lot of calories without gaining any fat.

I usually combine body weight and dumbbell exercises. For some reason, combining these two types of exercises has given me better results that performing body weight alone, or dumbbell alone.

There are many different techniques you can use to raise your metabolic rate. However, the best method is circuit training. Circuit Training is where you choose three or more exercises and perform them back to back with little to no rest in between each set.

Let me show you a sample workout so you can figure out how to set up your own sample bodyweight and dumbbell fitness circuit:

Perform 7 rounds of:

• Dumbbell Front Squat – See Saw Press, 10 repetitions
• Body weight Rear Lunge, 10 repetitions
• Dumbbell Bent Press, 10 repetitions
• Rest 30 seconds

With this workout, you start with the Dumbbell Front Squat – See Saw Press. Perform 10 repetitions and move immediately onto Body weight Rear Lunges. Perform 10 repetitions with each leg, and finish the circuit with Dumbbell Bent Press.

Take 30 seconds to catch your breath and repeat the circuit another 6 times, for a total of 7 circuits. If you move through this workout fast enough, it should not take you more than 20 minutes.