Health Secrets

One thing I get asked about seeing as how I run a health site and all is what programs and products I recommend for weight loss and overall fitness.

That’s an excellent question.

I read a lot of books, ebooks, and even articles on the Internet on the topic.

One thing I’ve learned is that there’s a lot of hype, and not a lot of substance.

You ever see those previews for movies, and the movie looks really good from the previews, and then when you get to the theater, the previews were the only good parts of the movie, or maybe the previews were even better than the movie.

Well, that’s how I feel about a lot of the products I see and try out - good previews, bad product.

Which brings me to my review of Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle - one of the more popular weight loss / fitness products on the net right now.

I remember reading the salesletter thinking it sounded really good, which made me think that all the good stuff was in the salesletter of the product.

So I sat down and gave it a read. It was somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 pages before reading the bonuses, so even if it sucked, he couldn’t be accused of not delivering any bulk in his product.

When I first started reading the program, chapter one was a bit of a surprise to me.

It covered, *gasp*, goal setting. Imagine that, setting goals actually helps you lose weight, and not some magic little pills you pay $150 for…

Most other books simply talk about why all other diets don’t work and why theirs is different.

Well, Burn the Fat turned out to be different too. It’s not a diet book.

Instead, I think it’d be more accurate to call it a nutrition and fitness book. Since the book doesn’t promote crash diets, and focuses more on fat loss than just weight loss (there’s a big difference).

One section that I really learned a lot from was the chapter on how to increase your metabolism. I’ll admit that in the past I’ve tried some of those gimmicky diets and in the process lost some weight, but slowed down my metabolism in the process - making it much easier to gain weight and much harder to lose anymore weight.

So when I learned how I could increase my metabolism, eat more, and still lose weight, I was really excited. And guess what, it actually works - and there’s no crazy supplements or voodoo magic involved - the technique is very simple.

Another section that I found really interesting, and you probably will too, was the section on different body types. Basically, that all men are created equal thing doesn’t apply to genetics. Some people are more gifted than others. Some people will find gaining weight almost impossible while others will find it easy to gain. Other people can eat at McDonalds everyday while other people can live off salad and still not be able to see there abs.

That’s the problem with so many diet programs out there. They’re one size fits all. This program isn’t, which means that it will work for just about anyone who really gives it a try rather than most other programs where it works for a few people - and those are the people you see on TV - but for the general population it won’t work.

So I have to say that overall I was actually pretty pleased with Burn The Fat and would be happy to recommend it to my readers.

However, just so you know if it’s right for you, I’ve made a quick little checklist.

Burn The Fat Is Right For You If:
-You Want To Lose Weight
-You Want To Get In Better Shape
-You Want To See Some Muscle Definition In Your Body
-You Want To Achieve Permanent And Lasting Results
-Even If You’ve Tried Other Diet Programs And They Didn’t Work - Like I said, this program is more about nutrition and fitness than weight loss - it’s just that the fat loss is an excellent side effect of being in shape.

Burn The Fat Isn’t Right For You If:
-You Want To Lose 30 Pounds In 30 Days
-You Want A Magic Pill
-You’re Idea Of Exercise Is Walking Out To The Mailbox To Get The Mail

Now, I’ll be honest, this product isn’t perfect. You’ll find that it recommends you use artificial sweeteners in some places, and if you know me, you know how totally against artificial sweeteners I am. Also, I’ve found that while the sections on nutrition are great, and that it helps you learn how to make good food choices, the actual recipe section is a little light - there’s a few to get you started, but after that, you’ll have to apply what you know. If I were doing a revision, I’d add more recipes.

However, overall, it’s a product that I’d recommend to anyone looking to lose fat.

Here’s another review of Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle.

Overall: Thumbs Up - Recommended

This product is available from - Burn The Fat - click here.

Today I want to take a few minutes to talk about how to lose weight.

The formula is very simple – burn more calories than you take in.

That’s it.

However, if it was just that simple, we wouldn’t have an obesity epidemic on our hands, would we?

You see, reducing calories does work to help lose weight, and many diets are based around this simple fact. Most of them add a lot of extra window dressing to their programs so they can sell more books, but if you’re burning more calories than you take in, you’ll lose weight.

However, as many people can attest to, just reducing your calories loses its effectiveness over time. You see, your body is smart. If it thinks that you’re trying to starve it, it’s not going to use as many calories. You see, way back before we had cell phones, TVs, and even the wheel, having three square meals a day wasn’t a certainty. In fact, some days our ancestors would have to go without eating, and sometimes it was many days at a time.

To keep our bodies from withering away into nothing, our metabolisms reacted by burning fewer calories each day. In this way, we can go survive for a prolonged period of time with no or limited amounts of food (as long as water is available). So while the eat nothing method of weight loss, may seem like it’d be the quickest method to lose weight, that isn’t the case.

As you now know, not eating causes your metabolism to go into survival mode, so while you may not be getting many calories, your body will also not use many calories. To make matters worse, instead of burning off fat reserves, your body will start burning extra muscles (protein) since muscles require more function on a daily basis. What ultimately happens is that when you start eating again, you may weight less, but you’ll actually have a higher ratio of fat to muscle than when you started, and that’s not a good thing. To make matters worse, since your metabolism has been slowed, if you go back to eating normally, you’ll gain any weight you lost back quickly since your body just doesn’t use as many calories as it used to – it will adapt back, but that will take some time and in the meantime you’ll be gaining the weight your so desperately tried to lose back.

Fortunately most diets don’t require that you stop eating, so you metabolism won’t come to a screeching halt. However, your body will eventually adapt to even small reductions in calories. For example, say you’re reducing your calorie intake by 500 calories a day. Based on that, you should burn up about 3500 extra calories a week, resulting in about a pound of weight loss a week (1 lb of fat = 3600 calories). And at first you will.
But sooner or later your body will adapt and start to function off those 500 calories and your weight loss will again come to a halt. At this point, most people simply reduce their calories even further, and the weight loss starts again.

However, as you’ve probably already figured out, this reducing of calories can become a viscous downward spiral especially if you have a lot of weight to lose. There are only so many calories you can cut out of your diet, and the more calories you cut out, the more likely you are to have nutritional deficiencies since you’re get as many nutrients from food since you’re eating so much less of it.

Are you depressed yet?

I had to learn this the hard way, and it seems whenever I explain how your body adapts, they get a little depressed – after all, who wants to be fat forever with no hope of losing weight and keeping it off?

Fortunately, there is a simple solution – it’s called exercise. And any weight loss program worth anything will have you exercising. If a weight loss program doesn’t call for exercise, it’s setting you up for a lifetime of yo-yo dieting.

Here’s what exercise will do for you:

Exercise raises your metabolism. Yes, that’s right, exercising will give your metabolism a boost.

Exercising burns calories.

Obvious? Yes.

But important to say anyway. So when you’re planning your diet, make sure you plan time for exercise. How often? Well, it’d be irresponsible for me to give advice without knowing what kind of shape you’re currently in, but most people can get away with exercising six days a week. Some people, myself included, will exercise everyday.

So if you want a simple guide to losing weight, here it is:
1) Reduce your calories. 500 calories is usually a good number.
2) Exercise several times a week for at least 20 minutes – 40 minutes is better. (if you burn 500 calories with your workouts everyday, that’s another pound a week you can lose)

That’s it. There’s more that you can do to lose weight than just those two things, and I’ll be providing more details about more advanced weight loss concepts in the future, but those two things right there can help you get started losing weight right now.

Note: If you want to lose fat, and not muscle (and who wants to lose muscle?), then it’s important that you don’t try to lose more than 2lbs/week. Your body can only use so much fat each week, so don’t fall for ridiculous sales gimmicks that promise you can lose 10lbs in one weekend. If you do manage to lose that weight, it’s going to be water weight, which you’ll gain back just as quickly as you lost it.

By now, everyone has heard that you’re supposed to drink 8-10 glasses of water a day. We’ve all heard it, but how many of us actually do it?

Very few.

Today, I’m going to cover why drinking enough water is so important for your health and why it’s absolutely essential if you want to lose weight.

First, let’s cover the basics. Your body is 60-70% water. Your blood is almost all water. Your muscles contain water. Heck, even your bones contain water. Water is essential to proper body function. Your body uses water to regulate its temperature, transport nutrients, build body tissue, digest food, breathe, lubricate joints, and a whole host of other tasks.

Basically, without water you die.

When you’re dehydrated, exercise becomes more difficult.

Studies have show that even mild dehydration of just 3% of your body weight can decrease your strength by 10%. And if 10-12% of your body’s weight in water is lost, death can occur. So before, during, and after exercise, be sure to drink water.

Water Is Essential For Weight Loss

I know that some people are afraid to drink too much water or they think they’ll get bloated and start retaining water. Actually, the opposite is true. When your body is dehydrated, even a little bit, your body starts to retain water to survive. When your body starts retaining water, your kidneys stop eliminating waste through urine so your body starts building up waste. Once your kidneys stop doing what they’re supposed to, the liver steps in and tries to help out. However, when the liver steps in to get rid of waste, it starts to neglect its other jobs, one of which is burning fat. So when you’re dehydrated, you’re not going to be burning fat. If you want to burn more fat, drink more water.

How Much Water Should You Drink?

The number you hear thrown out most often is that you should drink 8 8oz glasses of water a day (64oz). However, for many people, especially active people, your needs may be a gallon of water or more.

The National Research Council recommends 1-1.5 ml of water for ever calorie (kcal) you use each day. So, if you typically expend 2000 calories a day, then you should drink 66-100 ounces of water a day. If you expend 3000 calories a day, then you should drink 100-149 ounces of water each day.

It may seem like a lot of water, but keep in mind that once you feel thirsty, you’re already in a state of mild dehydration. Your goal should be to never be thirsty.

Hungry Or Thirsty?

It’s been said that the thirst mechanism is so weak in most people that it’s often mistaken for hunger. So next time you think you’re hungry, drink a glass of water first and wait 15 minutes. In many cases, you won’t be hungry anymore, but if you’re still hungry, then by all means eat. So just by drinking water you can stop yourself from overeating and this process alone may help you lose a few pounds.

Can I drink anything besides water?

Yes, but you should still make it your goal to drink mostly water. If you want to enjoy a sports drink after a workout, go ahead. If you want to have your morning cup of coffee, that’s also okay.

However, soda doesn’t count (you really shouldn’t drink soda except on special occasions) and alcohol certainly doesn’t count – alcohol actually dehydrates you and stops fat loss dead in its tracks.

Can I Drink Too Much Water?

It’s hard to, but yes. I was actually tempted not to even include this section since I don’t want to encourage people to avoid drinking water.

So yes, it is actually possible to drink too much water. It’s called water intoxication (or hyperhydration and water poisoning) and it happens when you drink more water than the body can remove (i.e. you drink too much too fast). It can also happen if you’re drinking a lot of water but not replacing electrolytes during heavy exercise (i.e. you’re running a marathon).

However, this is very rare, and almost everyone doesn’t drink enough water, so don’t be afraid to drink water. If you’re really concerned after a workout that you don’t have enough electrolytes, then have a sports drink (gatorade or powerade are acceptable) or eat a banana.

What kind of water should I drink?

I don’t like the idea of there being chlorine and fluoride in my tap water, so I don’t drink tap water if I can help it. I usually just buy spring water by the gallon at my local supermarket for about 60cents/gallon. However, if you prefer using a water filter or if you enjoy plain ole tap water, then go ahead. There are certain types of water that are slightly better for you than others, but for now, I would just concentrate on drinking the water rather than worrying about any of the other small details.

Have a great day, and bottoms up.