Fats That are Good for You

If you are trying to lose belly fat, or are concerned about your heart, don't stop eating fats. Instead, try replacing the bad fats with good fats.

Monounsaturated Fats:

Monounsaturated fats lower total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol, known as the bad cholesterol. At the same time, monounsaturated fats increase HDL cholesterol,the good cholesterol. Peanuts, walnuts, almonds, pistachios, avocados, olives, canola oil, and olive oil are all high in monounsaturated fats. These fats also help in weight loss and help reduce body fat.

Polyunsaturated Fats:

Polyunsaturated fats also lower total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol. Seafoods like salmon and fish, as well as corn, soy, safflower, and sunflower oils are high in polyunsaturated fats. Ideally, look for polyunsaturated fats that contain omega-3 fatty acids, like flaxseed oil, hemp oil, pumpkin seeds, walnuts or oily fish.

By adding these fats to your daily diet, you will achieve that healthy lifestyle you so badly crave.

Good Fats Triumph Over Bad Fats

Some fats help us absorb nutrients, aid in nerve transmission, reduce stomach fat, improve cholesterol, and help build brain cell membranes.

However, all our lives, we've been taught that eating fat is dangerous to our health and that it contributes to weight gain. We've developed the belief that cutting fat from our diets makes us healthier and causes us to lose weight.

The truth is that we all need fats in our diets.

Although fats are necessary for the body, certain fats can have an adverse effect. Consuming too many of the wrong fats can increase the risk of heart disease, contribute to weight gain, and can even paly a role in the development of some cancers.

The key to eating fats is to substitute bad fats with good fats in your diet.

There are lots of different fats found in various foods. But basically, the good fats include monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats, and the bad fats include saturated fats and trans fats.

Over the next two days we will take a look at Good Fats and Bad Fats.

Yummy Foods for Weight Loss

There is a common delusion that to lose stomach fat you have to barely eat, and the calories you do eat should be no more than that required by a mouse. But researchers are finding that food quality is more important than quantity when it comes to weight loss. Combined with adequate exercise, your meals can be regular serving sizes. TRY THESE!

1.Yams and sweet potatoes:- These quickly break down and are easily absorbed into the bloodstream.

2. Oranges, apples and grapefruit:- These contain high levels of soluble fiber pectin which slows digestion, helps eliminate toxins stored in body fat, and gives you a feeling of fullness.

3. Killer sandwiches:- Try hearty sandwiches stacked with vegetables, such as tomato, cucumber, sprouts, lettuce and onion, as well as deli meats – like oven-roasted turkey. For bread choice, use brown with lots of seeds and heavy grains.

4. Cereal:- Try Low-sugar cereals packed with protein and fiber, with skim milk and blackberries or raspberries, which contain about 8g of fiber per cup.

5. Salad:- Get field or Asian greens and add a yogurt dressing. Plus you need a ton of vegetables and some good lean protein, like grilled salmon.

6. Quiche:- Quiche made with egg whites and just a couple of yolks is a great protein sources. Add a little low-fat cheese, broccoli and spinach.

7. Yogurt:- And other dairy goods that come in great-tasting, low-fat products.

8. Almonds:- Nuts are loaded with monounsaturated fats—the good fats that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, known to lower cholesterol. Fats are as necessary to a healthy diet as protein and carbohydrates.

9. Peanut butter:- This is a great source for healthy, monounsaturated fats.

Ways to Stick to Your Workout

It's the difference between wanting to exercise and actually doing it. This advice on how to lose stomach fat is priceless. Here you’ll find some favorite motivational strategies of the top personal trainers available.

1. Make a 'friendly' bet:- Challenge your coworker or a neighbor to a contest. The first person to drop 15 pounds wins.

2. Switch your training partners:- Close friends and family members don't always make the best training partners because they may allow you to slack off or cancel workouts. To keep this from happening, find a new, less forgiving workout partner every few months.

3. Compete:- Find a sport or event that you enjoy, and train to compete in it. It adds a greater meaning to each workout.

4. Get a workout CD:- People who pedal stationary cycles while listening to their favorite music will do so longer and more intensely than people who exercise without music.

5. Plan your workouts in advance:- Schedule all of your workouts at once, and cross them off as they're completed. Allow for bad weather and unscheduled meetings.

6. Don't do what you hate:- If you loathe going to a gym, try working out at home. (If you despise the treadmill, then jump rope, lift weights, or find a basketball court. Bottom line: If you're sick of your routine, find a new one.

Tips for Maintaining Weight Loss

Losing weight is hard; keeping it off can be even harder if you don’t know how to do it. Here are some tips how you can keep that nasty unwanted fat off after you shed them.

1. Having regular low-calorie snacks throughout the day along with regular smaller meals is a good way to manage your hunger.

2. Do not sample the food while cooking.

3. When tempted to snack between meals, substitute a glass of water with lemon and snack on carrot or celery sticks. Avoid soft drinks--they add a lot of calories.

4. Try a noneating activity, such as taking a bath or reading a book, when you feel the urge to snack.

5. Do not eat after 7:00 in the evening.

6. Limit alcohol. Alcohol provides a lot of calories and no nutritional benefit. Calories from alcohol also tend to form fat around the waist or stomach. The number of calories in an alcoholic drink depends on the amount of alcohol it contains.

7. Make mealtimes pleasant. A meal is more than just eating food. It can also be a social event, a time to communicate with family and friends, and a time to relax.

8. Eat slowly and enjoy the food.

9. Do not watch television or read while eating.

10. Use a meal plan to help control what you eat

11. Plan meals ahead of time.

12. Eat when you are hungry and stop when you are comfortably full.

13. Limit how much you eat out, especially early in your weight-loss program.

Healthy Weight Loss Diet Tips

A healthy weight loss diet helps you lose stomach fat and maintain a healthy lifestyle at the same time. But, most people don’t exactly know what a healthy weight loss diet is. A registered Dietitian recently explained what a healthy weight loss diet is and revealed three healthy weight loss diet tips to help you lose weight in a healthy fashion.

A healthy weight loss diet is one which ensures that you lose weight in a balanced and healthy way. It is not a diet which restricts certain foods and gives you a feeling of being deprived. In fact it’s just the opposite, a healthy weight loss diet promotes healthy eating of different foods in the right quantities, so that you eat good healthy food and lose weight at the same time.

These tips can help you drop the unwanted pounds.

1) Olive Oil – Cook all your meals with olive oil, since foods made with olive oil contain good fats which help you burn fat and lose weight.

2) Time your meals – Eat early and on time. This will ensure that your body digests the foods properly before you sleep thereby preventing any excess fat storage in your system.

3) Skips the colas and drink water instead – Drinking water will ensure that your body is well hydrated and does not confuse thirst with hunger, directly helping you to lose weight.

Citrus Fruits Ideal for Weight Loss

A new study shows that the naringenin found in citrus fruits is effective in promoting weight loss and controlling type-2 diabetes.

According to a study published in Diabetes, this flavonoid found in citrus fruits reprograms the liver to burn unwanted fat instead of storing it after meals, lowering triglyceride and cholesterol levels.

Naringenin, known for its antioxidant activity, is reported to have insulin-like properties as well.

Rather than suppressing the appetite and reducing food intake, naringenin causes weight loss through correcting metabolic disturbances.

Naringenin has also shown promising results in tackling metabolic syndrome by preventing the development of insulin resistance and stabilizing glucose metabolism in the body.

Scientists added that the flavonid, which is commonly found in grapefruit, can also lower the risk of developing cardiovascular disease particularly in diabetics.

Make Fitness a Lifestyle, Not a Regimen

For many, exercise can be overwhelming. To think of week after week of dieting and exercising just seems too demanding. So instead of thinking of a healthy lifestyle as a program, regimen, or challenging routine, simply think of exercise as a part of your life! Try adding these basics for health and wellness to your lifestyle and you’re certain to reap the rewards.

1: Add at least ten or more minutes of cardiovascular exercise to your day. EVERY DAY! Take a ten minute walk. Walk the stairs at your job. Dance at home for ten minutes. Get on the treadmill. Take an aerobics class at your gym. Put in one of your exercise videos. Remember, it’s only 10 MINUTES.

2: Keep track of what you eat and limit your cheat meal to one per week. Eat small meals consistently throughout the day. No more skipped breakfasts, oversized lunches, and late dinners. Then cut off your eating at least two hours before bedtime.

3: Add water to your day. Keep a bottle on your desk and one in your car. Sip water throughout the day for energy, hydration and to rid your body of toxins.

Remember, a healthy lifestyle doesn’t have to feel like drudgery. You can make fitness a lifestyle and not an arduous regimen by adding these simple things to your day.

Use Green Tea for Muscle Recovery

Don't let your hard work in the gym go to waste. The food you eat doesn't just give you energy - it fuels your muscles, helps you burn fat, and even boosts your cardiovascular health. Try consuming Green Tea, for example, before and after your workouts, and you'll see results in no time.

Brazilian scientists found that participants who consumed three cups of green tea every day for a week had fewer markers of the cell damage caused by resistance to exercise. So drinking a few cups every day may help your muscles recover faster after an intense workout.

Pick the Best Fruits and Vegetables Next Time You Hit the Aisles

One of the reasons why Italians eat so well is that every last one of them believes it is their fundamental right to walk out of the market with the very best ingredients. They won't settle for a wrinkled eggplant, a withering artichoke, or an apple that tastes like Styrofoam. And neither should you. Problem is, finding the best, ripest, most jaw-droppingly tasty fruits and vegetables isn't as intuitive as you might think. It's a task that requires the attention of all five senses in order to pick up on the ultimate ripeness and utmost quality.

Regardless of what you're shopping for, start with these three rules.

1. Beautiful doesn't mean delicious. Sub-par conventional produce is bred to look waxy, glistening, and perfectly symmetrical, while prime fruits and vegetables are often irregularly shaped, with slight visual imperfections outside but a world of flavor waiting inside.

2. Use your hands. You can learn more about a fruit or vegetable from picking it up than you can from staring it down. Heavy, sturdy fruits and vegetables with taut skin and peels are telltale signs of freshness.

3. Shop with the seasons. Sure, sometimes you just need a tomato, but there are three persuasive reasons to shop in season: It's cheaper, it's better, and it's better for you.

Choose wisely and you'll bring home the best fruits and vegetables every time, just like an Italian grandma.

Don’t Let Snacks Spoil Your Weight Loss Efforts

Snacking can be an important part of any diet-when done right.

Balanced snacks keep you feeling fuller, longer, and can prevent you from over-indulging by the time you finally sit down for dinner. But when between-meal bites turn into mindless munching throughout the day, those extra calories can be disastrous for your diet, resulting in unwanted stomach fat.

It doesn't help that between 1977 and 1996, a simple snack of a bag of chips and a Coke increased by a whopping 142 calories. Sure, it's the same snack as 30 years ago, but eat it just two or three times a week and you'll gain up to 6 more pounds this year than you would have back then.

Even if you skip the chips and soda, seemingly "healthy" snacks can get you into trouble, too. Cornell University researchers found that people tend to eat an average of 28 percent more calories when snacking on low-fat foods. After all, flavor has to come from somewhere, and when food marketers eliminate the fat, they often make up for it with sugar (translation: added calories).

The good news is that it's possible to munch away pounds, as long as you avoid snack traps like these.

Be Patient in the Beginning

An area of frustration for the beginner to exercise, is energy level. Most people expect to exercise the first few weeks and experience a shot of energy. In actuality, the opposite often occurs. Your body isn’t used to the added stress, which causes you to feel fatigued and even drained, especially if you overdo it. Don’t get discouraged; it’s natural to feel this way until your body adapts. As your body acclimates itself, your cardiovascular system will become more conditioned, causing you to have more energy and focus throughout the day. Your efforts will pay off.

Overexertion will trigger stiffness and soreness, causing many people to give up on exercise completely. If you do overdo it, there are a few things you can do to feel better. Exercise actually breaks your muscles down – sleep, nutrition, and hydration play a vital role in their recovery. Proper rest, refueling your body with healthy food, and drinking plenty of water will help you recover much more quickly. In the days that follow, doing a low impact exercise at a low to moderate intensity and stretching will deliver more oxygen and blood to help clean out the waste and bring more nutrients to your muscles.

Must Read for Exercise Newbies

Beginning an exercise program can be very overwhelming and painful if you aren’t careful. Warming your body up and stretching prior to exercise is very important for your health and will allow you to see better results, as well as to enjoy the workout more. Warming up and stretching raise your body and muscle temperatures, along with preparing your cardiovascular, respiratory, and nervous systems for the demands of exercise by slowly increasing the blood circulation.

Warming up will allow all of your connective tissues that haven’t been stretched recently to handle the stress put on during exercise, limiting your chances for injury. Connective tissue is similar to hard plastic; if you don’t warm-up plastic it won’t be flexible, and is much more likely to break.

Work Off Extra Body Weight at Work

Putting in extra hours at the job can help you stack the dollars, but it can also cause you to pack on some unwanted stomach fat. Sitting at a desk all day can also have an effect on your butt. Try these easy adjustments, so you can work a 9 to 5 without gaining 10 to 20.

1. Stand and Deliver:- Get an adjustable-height workstation so you can stand for part of the day. Your posture will improve, and you'll burn a third more calories.

2. Dial "C" for Calorie:- Get a headset and walk while you take calls. An extra 500 steps a day burns 25 extra calories--in a year, you could drop two pounds without changing your diet.

3. Schedule Snacks:- A survey found that 75 percent of workers eat lunch at their desks while working, at least two to three times per week. Step away from work and enjoy your food. If you're aware of what you eat, you'll be less likely to nibble all day.

4. Go Green:- Fill your mug with green tea. People who drank oolong tea fortified with green tea extract every day for three months lose 2.4 more pounds than people who drank plain oolong tea. Antioxidants found in green tea, may stimulate the body to burn calories and decrease fat.

5. Put a Lid on it:- Keep candy in an opaque dish. It was found that workers dipped into chocolates 71 percent more often when they were in transparent containers. Or switch to hard candies: They're lower in calories than bonbons, and they last longer.

6. Place Your Bets:- Strike up a weight-loss competition with your coworkers. Who lose the most wins a prize. Sometimes it pays to lose.

Give Yourself a Natural Bypass

When cholesterol-clogged plaque narrows an artery that feeds the heart, the body responds by trying to bulk up tiny blood vessels in the heart.

As these so-called collateral vessels grow more muscular and interconnected, they begin to reroute some of the blood flow around the blockage. Scientists have been trying for years to nudge collateral blood vessels to develop and prosper, but without great success. However, you can do it at home without anything more high-tech than a comfortable pair of exercise shoes.

Exercise dramatically increases blood flow through the coronary arteries. The inner lining of the arteries responds to this "stress" much as it does to the stress of atherosclerosis, by stimulating collateral blood vessels to elongate, widen, and form new connections.

Experts declare that a little bit of exercise won't do the trick. You need to push your heart. If you aren't used to exercising, that may mean brisk walking. Any activity that gets your heart beating faster will do as long as you keep it up for 20 to 30 minutes at a time and do it several times a week.

Why not give yourself a natural bypass before you need a surgeon to perform a more painful and hazardous one?

Nutrients That You Need

Every time you pick up a health magazine, you get a lecture on eating healthier. It is general knowledge that eating healthier can make you more beautiful, give you more energy, and even lengthen your life; but not many people know what to eat that will activate such pleasurable results. Use the following nutrients as a starting point to building a healthier diet regime.

• Eat plenty of dark green vegetables and orange vegetables and fruits (papaya, mango) weekly to meet your vitamin A needs and potential antioxidant benefits.
• B12:- B12 is bound to protein, so foods like meat, fish, eggs, and dairy products like yogurt and milk are the principal sources.
• Chromium:- Grain breads and cereals, meat, nuts, prunes, raisins, beer and wine.
• Vitamin K:- Kale, spinach, broccoli, asparagus, arugula, green leaf lettuce, soybean oil, canola oil, olive oil and tomatoes.
• Potassium:- Choose whole, unprocessed foods as often as possible, especially fruits and vegetables, low-fat dairy products, whole grains, fish and lean meats.
• Magnesium:- Avocados, nuts, and leafy greens including acorn squash, kiwi, and almonds.
• Vitamin C:- Oranges, green bell peppers, strawberries, broccoli, cantaloupe and tomatoes, turnip greens, sweet potatoes and okra has a high concentration of vitamin C.
• Vitamin D:- We rely on fortified milk and breakfast cereals to get most of our dietary vitamin D. Apart from a few kinds of fish, including herring and sardines; there aren't many natural food sources, which leave Bolds supplements and direct sunlight.
• Folate/Folic Acid:- Liver, dried beans, peas, spinach, leafy greens, asparagus and fortified cereals.
• Vitamin E:- Wheat germ oil. Sunflower seeds, cooked spinach, almonds, safflower oil and hazelnuts.

Concentrating on your Abs

Working on your core muscles garners more benefits than a flat stomach and washboard abs. Whenever you walk or run, your core muscles are active, keeping you upright, balancing your body as your weight shifts, and absorbing the impact as your feet hit the ground. Your body’s core forms the foundation of all your movement. If your core is weak, you are susceptible to poor posture and injury. Lower back pain is also more likely to occur.

Unlike weight lifting, a core-strengthening program exercises your whole system at once. You also don’t need any equipment. The strength you use in holding a position, as well as the gravitational pull of your own weight, works out the core muscles. You’ll be surprised at how great an effect a simple routine can have on your daily living activities.

Burn Fat Superfast by Walking

Walking can help you trim your belly fat and slim down in just 6 weeks. Check out these two superfast fat burning workouts.

Add intensity:- Adding bursts of intensity to your walk burns more calories and helps you get fit faster. While setting mini-goals keeps you motivated. Here’s how walking for 40 minutes can burn 195 calories.

Instead of trying to walk the whole 40 minutes at a fast pace, which can be tough, try walking briskly for 5 minutes and then fast for 1 minute, then repeat. A tip is to take smaller, quicker steps to increase your pace. Keep your stride smooth and efficient – don’t tense your hips or pelvis.

Add an incline:- Adding hills to your workout ups your calorie burns like crazy and gives you a fast cardio boost. Plus, it’s a great way to sculpt your legs and butt. With this system, 25 minutes of work can burn 170 calories.

Here’s how: Find a hill about the length of a football field (it should take you less than a minute to reach the top). Start at a warm-up pace for 5 minutes on relatively flat ground and then attack the hill. As you climb, you will start breathing heavily, but push yourself to make it to the top. Once you reach the top, turn around and walk back down at a comfortable pace to let your breathing and heart rate recover. Once you get to the bottom, head back up again. Repeat a total of 8 times and then cool down for 5 minutes at an easy pace. Good luck all.

Lose Fat With This Essential Vitamin

A recent study from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis USA, found that people who eat eggs, salmon and tuna, which have higher vitamin D levels, might have better chances of losing unwanted fat.

The report states that Doctors measured both the active and inactive levels of vitamin D in 38 obese patients before and after an eleven-week weight loss program. The findings suggest that vitamin D may play a role in weight loss success rates when combined with a low calorie diet, though researchers aren’t sure if low vitamin D levels cause obesity, or the other way around. Still, it couldn’t hurt you to load up on vitamin D-rich foods. Most people are deficient in vitamin D, which can mean fatigue and muscle weakness, and even the risk of heart disease.

Start the day with eggs: Researchers found eggs at breakfast fill you up and help reduce calorie intake throughout the day.

Eat salmon for lunch: It’s not only a clean source of protein, but the fish is packed with healthy omega 3 oils and creatine to replenish your energy.

End the day with a glass of milk: Not only is most milk fortified with vitamin D and packed with protein, but it will also help you sleep.

Burst Through a Plateau With New Exercises

You feel a burst of satisfaction when you lose stomach fat. But for some reason, your scale isn’t budging. So what do you do when you hit a wall?

Switch it up. You have abs, we promise. But when you do the same plan over and over, your body can adapt, making your stubborn flab refuse to budge. Instead of getting discouraged, surprise your muscles with some new tricks.

You know that in order to reveal a cover-model stomach, you need to burn fat with lifting and occasional cardio. But you should condition your midsection at the same time. Swap out some of your abs exercises for intermediate and advanced moves that work several areas of your middle at the same time.

Run Like a High School Track Star

Running on a treadmill can feel tedious at times - especially if you've already ran a few miles. Here is an outdoor routine to make your jog, to lose belly fat, more enjoyable.

First off, you need to move your routine from the treadmill to the track. This is because muscular endurance is your muscles' ability to contract over a long period of time, and it increases through short bursts of high-intensity exercise and interval training. This also means that muscle-endurance training burns calories faster. The track provides easy, measurable distances that you can mark off for sprints, laps, and other interval exercises; and the bleachers or stadium stairs force you to use your own power (versus the treadmill's belt). The less assistance you have when doing exercises, the more endurance you'll build.

Proven Ways to Tame a Raging Appetite

Are you hungry because you failed to partake in the most important meal of the day, breakfast? Are you really even hungry at all or do you have a craving? One of the most important components of losing stomach fat is controlling what and how often you eat. Here are 6 tips to tame your raging appetite.

1. Guarantee Success:- Set a target that you're 100 percent confident you can achieve. Once you make it to your goal date, start the process over.

2. Don't Dwell on Mistakes:- One meal doesn't define your diet, so don't assume that you've failed or fallen off the wagon, if you indulge a little. Follow any "cheat" meal with at least five healthy meals and snacks.

3. Eat Breakfast:- If you sleep for 6 to 8 hours and then skip breakfast, your body is essentially running on fumes by the time you reach work..

4. Install Food Regulators:- Clean out your cupboard and fridge, then restock them with almonds and other nuts, cheese, fruit and vegetables, and canned tuna, chicken, and salmon.

5. Recognize Hunger:- If you have a craving for sweets, even though you ate just an hour ago, imagine eating a large, sizzling steak instead. If you're truly hungry, the steak will sound good, and you should eat. If it doesn't sound good, your brain is playing tricks on you. Change your environment, which can be as easy as doing 15 pushups or finding a different task to focus on.

6. Take a Logical Approach:- Before you take a bite of food, consider whether it's moving you one step closer to your goals or one step farther away. This encourages the habit of thinking long-term about what you're eating right now.

Shed Stubborn Fat - Never Feel Empty Again

Think about the last time you were hungry. Really hungry. Chances are you didn't calm your gurgling stomach with a leafy green salad. Next time, control hunger pangs and avoid gorging on all things greasy by eating more—and more often. Six times a day, to be specific. Just follow these fat-shaving tips:

Eat fat: That's right. But it has to be good fat, not the kind with the word "trans" before it. Add turkey, chicken, and fish to your favorite sides, and throw on any of a number of sauces. The flavors and combinations you can create are endless.

Have a pint: Of berries. Stash some in a small container in your fridge, and you have an instant snack for work tomorrow.

Nosh on foods produced naturally and without preservatives, extra sweeteners, or other additives. If it comes in a package, it's probably processed—and could mess with your weight and metabolism.

Equipment for Everyone at the Gym

Assuming that strength-training and weight lifting equipment won’t accommodate a very large body is a false assumption. The truth is, very few machines won’t fit an obese body. All the rest will. Manufacturers of these machines want profit. They are designed to accommodate people of all sizes, if for no other reason than to generate sales to the gyms that purchase them. Also, a typical 300-pound person can work out on a weight lifting bench without any problems.

I have observed it, and I have trained alongside very large individuals, and there are only a few pieces of equipment that they cannot work out with. Explore your options by trying out the equipment. Do not just blindly make assumptions. Seats on resistance machines can be lowered and raised. They can also be moved backwards to create more sitting room.

Happy 4th of July

For my friends in the U.S.A happy 4th of July!

To my friends everywhere else...

Have a safe and fun filled weekend with your family and friends!

Be Fearless About Your Exercise Routine

Don’t be like so many people who put fear above their real desire to lose unwanted fat, thus ensuring a healthy life.

Constantly we see people refusing to lift weights due to “intimidation” or self-consciousness. Not all people in the free-weight area are built like Tarzan or Jane. And you can be sure that Tarzan and Jane couldn’t care less about your thighs or waist; they’re too busy fretting over their own bodies. Yes, they are. If you think someone has the perfect body, do not assume that she isn’t just as self-conscious as you may be. This is about you, and only you. You paid for your gym membership, nobody else did. You have the right to enjoy working out anywhere you want in the club.

4 Ways to Fire up Your Calorie-burning Engines

Missing a meal doesn’t seem so bad. You don’t need those extra calories anyway, right?

Wrong. When you skip a meal, your body slows down your metabolism to hold on to your existing fuel supply.

Here are three better ways to burn blubber fat faster:

When you work out, speed up and slow down. You can interval train with any form of cardio, from the elliptical machine to cycling.

Perform a bodyweight routine 12 hours before or after your intense weight-training sessions. A handful of pushups and squats will send your fat burners into overdrive.

Nosh on more protein, one of the hottest-burning food sources out there. Your body uses twice as much energy to break down protein than it does to break down carbs. Translation: Eggs in the morning, string cheese for a snack, salmon for dinner. You’re good to go.

Groups Help You Lose Weight Faster

Many activities are more fun and effective if you do them with others. Basketball, chess, cycling: All more exciting when you are not out there alone. Same goes for losing unwanted belly fat. It seems like a solitary activity, chipping pounds away with exercise and discipline, but exercising as a group may actually help you decrease your body fat faster.

Some obese people who came together said the once-a-week group workouts were crucial to their weight-loss success. “And this was not just because of the accountability factor, but also because of the camaraderie. And, frankly, they said it was a lot more fun to exercise with buddies than to sweat through a workout alone.”

Unlike popular belief, group exercise is not just for women anymore. If running is your thing, get a group together during lunch to sweat off afternoon stress. Try joining a bike riding team, and make losing weight fun and more effective.