5 Tips to Losing Weight to Fit Into Swimwear

You have to trick your body into burning more fat. If you usually taking in 1500 calories each day, switching after two days of normal intake to one day of 1200 calories a day will trick the body. This will make it burn more calories and help one lose 10 pounds fast.

There are approximately 3500 calories in a pound of stored body fat. So, if you create a 3500-calorie deficit through diet, exercise or a combination of both, you will lose one pound of body weight. If you want to lose fat, a helpful guideline for lowering your calorie intake is to reduce your calories by at least 500, but not more than 1000 below your maintenance level. For people with only a small amount of weight to lose, 1000 calories will be too much of a shortfall.

Drink Plenty of Water:

One of the liver's duty is to help the kidney to do its job, which needs plenty of water to work properly. If the kidneys are deprived of water, the liver has to do their work along with its own, lowering its total productivity. They can't metabolize fat as quickly or efficiently as it could when the kidneys were working, as they ought. If you allow this to happen, you're setting yourself up to store fat and also you're not treating your liver properly.

You should drink at least 8 glasses of water daily. Also you should drink another eight ounces for every 25 pounds of excess weight you carry. Increase this amount if you live in a hot climate or exercise very strongly.

Plenty of Exercise:

For most of us, the main challenge in the pursuit to get in shape and lose weight is being able to fit an exercise program into our busy schedules. Exercising itself actually is most often not the problem but fitting an exercise program into our busy schedules is.

Commit yourself to a specific schedule and be consistent before you know it the pounds will come off. Make your exercise time as a high priority. If your own health, fitness, and efforts to lose weight are not a priority to you, they certainly won't be so to anyone else.

Eat Fruits and Vegetables:

Fruits and vegetables are part of a well-balanced and healthy eating. There are many different ways to lose or maintain a healthy weight. Take a look at your dinner plate. Vegetables, fruit, should take up a large portion of your plate. If they do not, replace some of the meat, cheese, white pasta, or rice with legumes, steamed broccoli, asparagus, greens, or another favorite vegetable. This will reduce the total calories in your meal without reducing your food intake. Remember to use a normal or small-size plate. Substitute fruits and vegetables for some other higher-calorie food.

Health Fitness - Feeling Better and Living Longer

If you ask anybody if they want to live longer and live a life that is full of health and vitality then, the common answer would be yes. They would be mad to say no. However, it is strange that most people who answer yes actually choose a lifestyle that goes against living a long and healthy life. Many people acquire bad habits that make their lives less healthy and less enjoyable.

It is now widely known and understood through medical science and research that developing a healthy lifestyle with plenty of regular exercise has many benefits to the quality of our lives. A healthy lifestyle reduces the fat around our bellies, it provides clarity of mind, gives us the energy and vitality we need to live and experience a full and varied life.

Regular exercise helps us live longer and better. It reduces the risk of deadly disease such as coronary heart disease, cancer and chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension. Regular exercise combined with eating a healthy diet can help slow down the ageing process.

The above information is not a secret, it is not unknown or hidden from us. We know this but why do so many people continue to do the opposite and not take the necessary steps to get their health and vitality back on track.

There are many reasons for this but a lot of it has to do with the changes to society. After the Second World War there were many changes that have influenced the lives we lead today. Two main changes was the rise of mass production of processed foods and technology. We consume more processed and packaged foods now that we have ever done before. People are eating less fresh natural foods which provided the essential nutrients and vitamins the body needs to remain healthy.

Technology has made our lives more comfortable but at a cost. The rise of the computer and auto-mobile has cut out the need to exert ourselves physically that many people hardly move any more. These conveniences have created more free time for people but most people prefer to use that free time lying on the couch watching TV while eating a tub of ice cream.

We can blame it on technology but the real blame lies with us. It is our choice to live a certain lifestyle. Although it is not easy to change, the thing is you can change because most of it is to do with our habits. With habits we can change them to improve our health and our lives.

Always consult with your physicians if you have a health condition or food allergy before changing or doing any form of new exercise or diet.

What Has Changed in Health & Fitness Over the Last 30 Years?

There have been many changes in fitness over the past 30 years. It's human nature to reminisce about times past. That's great but lets not forget that things change as well. This is certainly true in the area of health and fitness. "If you do what you have always done, you will get the results you have always gotten" is true, but what if the situation changes? Then what used to work is no longer a viable and effect way to get the results that we want. In this article I will outline seven items that have changed over the past 30 or so years that affect the way we view health, fitness, exercise and what is considered "best". Let's look at some of these changes in Fitness.

1. Activity level

This change in fitness is pretty obvious. We just don't move around as much as we used to 30 years ago.

Currently, the average sedentary person living in an urban setting takes 900-3000 steps a day. Uh... that's a puny number! In the journal of sports medicine existing literature was pulled together to set a general guideline of what a good number of steps per day would be

The author Dr. Catrine Tudor-Locke translated different physical activity into steps-per-day equivalents. A rate of fewer than 5,000 is classified as sedentary, 5,000 to 7,499 is low active, 7,500 to 9,999 is somewhat active 10,000 or more is active and 12,500 or more is very active. So what does 900 make us? Close to dead! But its not hard to imagine. Get up from, take elevator to car park, drive car, take elevator to office, sit down, order fast food, reverse the process to go home and go back to bed. Just to note, 1km is about 1300 steps.

Its gotten to the point where we have to purposely inconvenience ourselves to get our activity level up. Here are some suggestions (that actually show us how pathetic our average activity levels have become).

Park at the far end of the car park and walk to your building Instead of dropping the kids off in front of the school, park a couple of streets before it and walk them the rest of the way... 10,000 is actually considered a LOW estimate for children.

Go round the shopping centre or supermarket in a random. With today's super malls, this is a big thing!

Take the stairs instead of the lift or escalator (well if you work on the 50th floor, maybe climb halfway to start)

Give the dog an extra 5 minutes on his walk (we need it even more than him)

Stop emailing colleagues in the same office, instead go over and talk to them (shockingly effective considering how much email we send each day!... great for team building as well)

Go for a walk during your lunch break, walk to get your lunch or to find somewhere to eat your lunch

Get up and do something, run up and down the stairs for example during TV ads (no excuses here!)

Walk to the corner shop instead of driving or popping in on your way home

Walk to friends houses instead of driving

Take public transport and walk from the train station

Dr. David Bassett studied an Amish community to see what things were like in the past. These guys have no cars, no electricity and do hard manual labor to put food on the table. Its like time travel to the past. They eat 3 large meals a day with lots of meat, vegetables and natural starches like potatoes.

The 98 Amish adults Bassett surveyed wore pedometers for a week. The men averaged 18,000 steps a day. The women took an average of 14,000 steps.

The men spent about 10 hours a week doing heavy work like plowing, shoeing horses, tossing hay bales, and digging. The women spent about 3.5 hours a week at heavy chores. Men spent 55 hours a week in moderate activity; women reported 45 hours a week of moderate chores like gardening and doing laundry. Wow that's a lot of manual labor. Get a pedometer (its only like 20 bucks) and see how you fare.

2. Fat Percentages and Obesity

Activity level leads us right on to this point about obesity. The scary obesity rate is one of the most obvious changes in fitness.

The obesity rate among the participants in the study of the Amish population was 4 percent, as determined by body mass index, or BMI. The current obesity rate among the urban populations is 30% or more. OK the obesity percentages are a scary thing because obesity is already in the "VERY high risk of a lot of bad ways to die" category. There is still the overweight category (obviously fat but not hitting the medically obese range) to consider. These people are at a high risk already!

The total percentages of overweight + obese are really wild... hitting close to 70% in some cities. Compare this to the average in the 1980s. 10-15% obesity in most cities. It rose to the mid 20% in 1995 and its now at an all time high.

3. Diet

OK linked to point no.2 is of course diet. This is another obvious change in fitness. Its very simple actually. We now eat more refined foods (white bread, sugar, rice, flour, noodles). In the body these give pretty much the same response - FAT storage. The only time we should eat these items is immediately after hard training. As we can tell from point no.1, not much of any training is going on. But lots of eating is!

We also eat less fresh fruits, vegetables and meats. We eat more snacks like chips and cookies (which are also refined despite what advertisers claim).

These changes in fitness are made more troubling because even natural foods today are not as good for us as they used to be. Current farming methods make vitamin and mineral content in fruits and vegetables drop about 10-40% depending on the mineral. Corn fed meats don't give us as good an omega 6 to omega 3 ratio as we used to get from grass fed and free range animals. (that means not so many healthy fatty acids for us)

And of course, we are also simply consuming more calories. The Amish people in the study in point no.1 ate about 3600 calories/day for men and 2100 calories/day for women. Many sedentary people consume this much and more! How? Well a fully "featured" gourmet coffee from coffee bean or Starbucks can add up to 500 calories in an instant of caffeine folly.

That's 2 hours of walking for an average sized lady.

Just remember, calorie quality counts as well. 2000 calories of vegetables, meat and healthy fats is infinitely better than 2000 calories from french fries. Its close to impossible to get fat on the first, and nearly impossible not to get fat with the second.

I like this car analogy. If you had a 2million dollar dream car, would you put low grade or high grade petrol into it? High grade of course! Then why do some people put low grade filth into their bodies which are so much more important than the car we drive?

4. Games children play

The average child who grows up in an urban environment is a motor-skill weakling. As a hobby, I coach youth basketball. In our talent scouting, I have kids do a very simple drill of dribbling in and out and around cones. There are so many kids who can't do it and some who I think might fall down if asked to RUN around the cones without the ball! This is in contrast to the past where kids ran around, chased each other, played physical games and sports of all kinds, where the playground was the center of fun for young kids. This lack of activity not only causes a change in fitness for the child in his/her youth, but has a profound long term effect as well.

Of course this change in fitness is a result of a combination of possible factors.

Parents who only consider academic success to be worth striving for, who only give a child recognition and praise when they do well in academic subjects.

An education system who also values book knowledge above other things and takes away physical education classes to put more academic lessons in.

Poorly taught PE lessons that don't help a child develop motor skills in the key early years Busy double-income families where fathers are not free to play with their children (or don't care enough to... money isn't everything dads)

The maddening computer game addiction situation where virtual life is more important than real life. I believe this is the reason for all the empty basketball courts in my neighbourhood. It used to be that teams lined up to play there. Now only people my age (late 20s to 30s) play. No young kids are there any more.

But actually, so what? The issue is that if kids stink at sport and physical activity, the well known psychological factor of "competence" comes is. Simply put, in general, we do what we are good at. If our next generation is poor at sport and physical activity, they are even less likely to do any of it! Which combined with items 1 to 3, make for a deadly health crisis for many countries. Obesity costs the UK 7.4 billion in national health care per year! If we don't help our kids, that's only going to grow to be a bigger and bigger burden for everybody.

5. Social Support

This is a more subtle change in fitness. People are communal animals. We stick with things because there is a supportive community behind us. Even drug and alcoholism rehab centers recognise this. We all need social support. But social links are getting weaker. And no, Friendster and MySpace links don't make up for it.

In a more connected but less close world (I know so many people who are only comfortable behind a computer screen and not in front of a real person) there is less social support than in the past (extended families, communal living, strong friendships within a neighbourhood etc) and its hard to stick with something which requires dedication and sacrifice like an exercise program. I'm not a sociologist but I do believe there is a reason that exercise classes do better in terms of membership than individualized training. Most of them certainly are not as effective as great individual coaching. But the social factor does come in when sustaining a lifestyle change is involved.

6. Free Time

This subtle change in fitness is pretty clear. We just have less time that we "own". Bosses, social, family and other commitments make free time a very precious commodity and it adds difficulty to the fact that time is our only non renewable resource. When we choose to exercise or spend time cooking to keep a healthy lifestyle, we are competing with movies, games, TV and other things for free time. We know that exercise is good for us, but it not only has to be good for us, it has to be BETTER in our minds than the latest episode of desperate housewives, or the latest computer game. That's the issue. We need to prioritize long term health over temporary fun.

7. Training methods

OK here is where we are doing well. 30 years ago the aerobics craze took the western world by storm. Its not a very good training method both in terms of results, and in terms of results per unit of time. Add that to the fact that we have such minimal time to train, we can't afford to train in a sub-optimal way. We know a lot more now. Fortunately for us, there are good methods that smart coaches use to improve training efficiency and get RESULTS even with less training time. Some of these include smartly designed resistance training programs, interval training and good assessment techniques to determine individual needs. If you have a coach like that in your corner, you can turn back the clock and avoid becoming one of the ever growing statistic of people who's health is headed in the wrong direction. Stay fit and strong and good luck!

Coach Jonathan Wong, is a sought after Singapore personal trainer and performance expert who has helped hundreds of clients in Singapore from regular folk to national level athletes achieve their fitness, fat loss and sports performance goals regardless of starting age, fitness level or experience

Exercise Shows How To Get Health Fitness

When we want to succeed at any goal in life, we have to first put our foot through the door. Sometimes it can be the simple mistakes that hold us back or it may also be our lack of inspiration to see the other side. Either way any type of goal will require you to go through a phase, complete a few tasks, or just follow steps given to you in order to finish the objective.

A goal that everybody should strive to get better in is Health. Why is Health such an important aspect in life? Health is why you are still alive till this day. Without Health you wouldn't be able to do normal everyday activities, such as reading an article. One other thing that goes with increasing your Health is working on your Fitness. Currently about half of the world is obese or overweight. Which is due to a lack of Fitness and that causes many Health problems to occur.

Without Exercise you can go through life threatening experiences, but the benefit of working out and maintaining a healthy lifestyle is that you won't have to worry about those problems. After you put in the effort you will see results immediately. You don't have to go out and stress out your whole body in one day. There are multiple exercises for different body parts. So you can decide to workout on your arms one day, then turn around and workout on your legs another. It's that simple, going at your pace is the best way so you don't feel rushed or lost in between. We all go through occasions where we absolutely have zero energy, but if you continue to exercise for better health fitness and keep up with your diet, you will find yourself with more energy on days you didn't expect.

Normally someone would just accept those problems and keep moving forward because they couldn't find an answer. There is always a solution; it just depends on how bad you want to get the problem resolved. Too many people have problems with their Health and Fitness. That do not know the main problem that can be affecting their Health and Fitness is Exercise. There are so many benefits to Exercising, but it is blocked away by illusions and temptations to go a different route.

Your Health and Fitness can only change if you put the effort in to change it. So remember, if you can set-up and complete a goal in life. You can use this as a resource to start to your Diet Plans, then to Exercise and get to the Health and Fitness you've always wanted and needed

Weight Loss Success Strategies - Health & Fitness Solutions That Won't Confuse You

You looking for advice on how to improve your overall fitness levels, body shape or weight problem? Bet you really have no idea on where to start right? The Internet is full of sites that could potentially help you out but where do you start when there are so many of them to choose from?

If you're smart then you probably already know that not all diet, health, weight loss and fitness advice that you can get on the web is kosher. A lot of people want to jump on this very profitable bandwagon and will post up dubious advice that you should really ignore. But, the problem that you might come across though is working out what is good advice and what isn't.

It's not like every site says any of the same stuff -- in most cases they'll all violently disagree with what the other sites say. This is especially true if you're looking to work on your muscle development as well as your weight loss. Even if you find reputable sites with good advice the chances on them agreeing on anything will be slimmer than your ideal target weight!

So, one site might tell you that you can only burn fat and build muscle if you work out on an empty stomach. Others will tell you that you need to find fat burning zones and workout that way. And the list goes on here.....and on and on and on. You may have one problem that you need a solution for in this situation but you're guaranteed to get hundreds of potential solutions.

The chances are, however, that none of these solutions will work exactly right for you. Often they are targeted at a specific body part or type of exercise and if you have more of an overall aim then they may not help you get the results you want. And the results you get may be good to begin with but you won't see them continue to happen in the long term.

You can avoid short-term results and long-term plateaus by looking for health and fitness help that takes more of a holistic view and that is based on hard evidence and experience. If you can find advice that helps you use your whole body and boosts your metabolism, for example, then you'll achieve any fitness or weight loss aim that you have a lot easier

Couple of Health Fitness Tips to Keep Your Body Healthy

One of the biggest challenges today, is to stay fit. To follow health fitness tips, you need to make a lot of behavioural changes to achieve the required fitness levels. Diet and lifestyle play a major role in weight reduction. To stay in shape and to boast of a good figure, you need to take care of your diet. Ensure that your food is well balanced with loads of fibre and eat a variety of fruits and vegetables. Avoid red meat as much as possible. Sufficient amount of sleep is very crucial for your body. In order to recover from a hard day's work, you need to get at least 7 to 7.5 hours of sleep, every night.

Most of the Health & fitness tips also lay stress on modifying your lifestyle. Diet and exercise should always go hand in hand. It is important to stretch before you workout. Strenuous exercise can take a toll on your muscles, causing minor injuries. Therefore, always work in moderation. Do not repeat the same workout over and over again. Once the body gets used to a particular activity, it is recommended to change to another schedule.

Top tips on Health & fitness advocate that smoking and alcohol consumption should be stopped. Smoking increases the risk of vascular conditions like arteriosclerosis and heart diseases. Alcohol intake should at least be reduced, if not eliminated totally. Take care when consuming sugary drinks, as these can cause an imbalance in your gut due to rapid growth of yeast and pathogens. It is good to take probiotic supplements to boost your immune system and keep it going. You could opt for a superior quality, sugar free supplement with ample live bacteria.

All health & fitness tips lay stress on the importance of drinking lots of fluids. Intake of fluids both during and after workouts is crucial to keep your body hydrated. A well hydrated body remains balanced and helps protect against muscle tensions. Water acts as a great beauty enhancer by improving your skin complexion. It also increases your energy and concentration levels.

There are innumerable health fitness tips but the ones discussed above are the major ones. By following the same, you can rid yourself of a good many disorders and pave your way to a healthy body and mind

The Importance of Health Fitness

Exercising and working out is a great way to always look and feel better in getting a total wellness for our body. The physical as well the mental well-being of a person always depends on it. One good thing about exercising is that it can help a person lessen the chances of getting heart diseases or even diabetes. It is also good in the reduction of various effects of depression and getting rid of different stressors.
Getting the mental and physical benefits of health fitness are always well worth all the hard work. It will make certain that you are able to live a happier life and is always in good shape. Now, I have one great question for everyone. Do you want to just live your life or do you want to enjoy life and take pleasure in your existence? The choice will depend on you.

Discovering different activities that will develop your current fitness level is what Health Fitness entails. Everyone has a different existing level of fitness. It varies from person to person. It can be brisk walking for 10 minutes. For some, it can be jogging an extra 1 mile. It can also be a hardcore weightlifting. So the point here is you have to begin your fitness level and you must only make an assessment to where you want your health fitness level to be, say next year or next two years. Ensure that you set realistic goals that are very tough but are still attainable.

Improving your health fitness can involve too many ways. You yourself can select and participate in different activities that you will surely enjoy. It is a good way to be healthy while getting a self motivation aside. If you love and will take pleasure in playing basketball, then let yourself be engage in that sport maybe twice a week. And if you hate gymnastics then do not force yourself to do it. Find other exercises that will promote a healthy heart but that will keep you motivated and enjoyed.

It has been a long time that our society, viewed doing exercises as something awful that we always have to stay away from it. And spinning the entire situation into something that is positive will do great help in achieving very promising health fitness goals.

Now, how many among us take some time to meet our own needs on a normal basis? I guess, not all of us. We have our families and career that make us busy as a bee. You then should take some time to find value in yourself for at least once a week. Grab this opportunity to do something, new things for yourself. You can simply soak in bubble bath yourself or read a very interesting book. Try as well to take a pastime that you will enjoy or will let you learn new skills. A quality time like this will surely help you get relaxed and relieved stress. It is one great importance of health fitness.

This isn't all about exercise either. Proper way of eating also plays a vital role in health fitness. You for sure will feel very sluggish and irritable if you will consume large amounts of carbs and sugar. They will provide you a momentary boost of energy but not for so long. Consuming fresh fruits and veggies will help you sustain your energy levels all day long. This will let you consume fewer calories but you feel full all day long.

Health Fitness is an essential issue that most of us need to focus our interest on. Because it influence both our physical and our mental well-being. As a final point, it gives us the chances to be the healthiest we can be.