What does it take to lose weight?
To lose weight, you have to eat fewer calories than your body uses. Calories are the amount of energy in the food you eat. Some foods have more calories than others. For example, foods that are high in fat and sugar are also high in calories. If you eat more calories than your body uses, the extra calories will be stored as body excess fat.

A pound of fat is about 3,500 calories. To lose 1 pound of fat in a week, you have to eat 3,500 fewer calories (that is 500 fewer calories a day), or you have to "burn off" an extra 3,500 calories. You can burn off calories by exercising or just by being more active. (Talk to your family doctor before you begin any type of exercise program. Your doctor can help you determine what kind of exercise program is right for you.)

The best way to lose weight and keep it off is to eat fewer calories and be active. If you cut 250 calories from your diet each day and exercise enough to burn off 250 calories, that adds up to 500 fewer calories in one day. If you do this for 7 days, you can lose 1 pound of fat in a week.

Many experts believe you should not try to lose more than 2 pounds per week. Losing more than 2 pounds in a week usually means that you are losing water weight and lean muscle mass instead of losing excess fat. If you do this, you will have less energy, and you will most likely gain the weight back.
How often should I eat?
Most people can eat 3 regular meals and 1 snack every day. The 3 meals should be about the same size and should be low in fat. Try to eat 1 to 2 cups of fruits and vegetables, 2 to 3 ounces of whole grains and 1 to 2 ounces of meat (or a meat alternative) at most meals.

Some people benefit more if they eat 5 to 6 smaller meals throughout the day, about 2 to 3 hours apart. For example, their first meal of the day might be a cup of low-fat or nonfat yogurt and a banana. Three hours later they might eat a simple deli sandwich with whole-grain bread and fat-free mayonnaise.

Eat breakfast and don't skip meals. While skipping meals may help you lose weight in the beginning, it fails in the long run. Skipping meals may make you feel too hungry later in the day, causing you to overeat at your next meal.

After about a month of eating a normal breakfast, lunch and a light dinner, your body will adjust.

What is so bad about high-fat foods?
Foods high in fat are usually high in calories, which could lead to unwanted weight gain. Consuming too much saturated and trans fats may increase LDL cholesterol ("bad" cholesterol) level, and increase your risk of heart disease. The USDA suggests that you eat no more than 20 grams of saturated fat, and that you limit the amount of trans fat to as close to 0 grams as possible. Click here for more information on reading nutrition labels.

It is important to remember that some fats can be beneficial to your overall health. "Good" fat, such as polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats are found in fish, nuts, and low- or nonfat dairy products.

What are empty calories?
Some foods are referred to as "empty calories" because they add lots of calories to your diet without providing much nutritional benefit. An example is sugar-sweetened drinks, such as fruit juice, fruit drinks, regular soft drinks, sports drinks, energy drinks, sweetened or flavored milk and sweetened iced tea. These drinks can add lots of sugar and calories to your diet.

But staying hydrated is important for good health. To reduce the calories and sugar in your diet, substitute water, zero-calorie flavored water, non-fat or reduced-fat milk, unsweetened tea or diet soda for sweetened drinks. Talk with your family doctor or a dietitian if you have questions about your diet or healthy eating for your family.

Can I trust nutrition information I get from newspapers and magazines?
Nutrition tips and diet information from different sources often conflict with each other. You should always check with your doctor first. Also, keep in mind the following advice:
There is no "magic bullet" when it comes to nutrition. There isn't one single diet that works for every person. You need to find an eating plan that works for you.
Good nutrition doesn't come in a vitamin supplement. Only take a vitamin with your doctor's recommendation, as your body benefits the most when you eat healthy foods.
Eating all different kinds of foods is best for your body, so learn to try new foods.
Fad diets offer short-term changes, but good health comes from long-term effort and commitment.
Stories from people who have used a diet program or product, especially in commercials and infomercials, are advertisements. These people are usually paid to endorse what the ad is selling. Remember, regained weight or other problems that develop after someone has completed the diet program are never talked about in those ads.
Will diet drugs help?
Although diet drugs may help you lose weight at first, they usually don't help you keep the weight off and may have damaging side effects. Most diet pills have not been tested by the Food and Drug Administration, which means you can't be sure if the drugs are safe. Taking drugs also does not help you learn how to change your eating and exercise habits. Making lasting changes in these habits is the way to lose weight and keep it off.
 

Written by familydoctor.org editorial staff

1. YOU'RE NOT WORKING HARD ENOUGH.

If you have been exercising consistently for several weeks, months or years, it's definitely time to increase the intensity and start pushing yourself. As you work out more and more, your body adapts and becomes more efficient at doing that certain activity. This means that over time, the 30-minute workout that was challenging for you three months ago doesn't provide the same results. In fact, you're actually burning fewer calories and your body is no longer changing if you're still doing the same old thing.

Get-Results Remedy: In order to get results from exercise, you have to regularly push yourself beyond your fitness comfort zone. Whether you increase the frequency, intensity, or duration of your workouts, you have to switch it up. Not sure where to start? Try adding an extra day of cardio onto your routine, testing out a new group exercise class at the gym, adding another loop around your walking track, or bumping up the incline and speed on the treadmill. Remember, when it comes to exercise, change is good—and that change should be challenging!

2. YOU'RE WORKING TOO HARD.

Yes, you can actually work out too hard and too much. If you're someone who goes all out in every workout, or rarely to never takes a day off to rest, you could actually be breaking your muscles down instead of building them. If you always feel tired and sore, have unexplained headaches, insomnia or just a general lack of motivation and an inability to complete your workouts, you may be overtraining.
Get-Results Remedy: Take three to five days off of exercise altogether. It may be hard for you to do this, but know that you must allow your body the time it needs to rest and recover. Get plenty of sleep each night and fill up on nutritious foods. Then slowly ease back into your routine, making shorter, less intense workouts part of your workout plan. And remember to always take one to two rest or easy active recovery days a week!

3. YOU HAVEN'T CHANGED YOUR DIET.

Exercise is awesome, but if you're not eating a nutritious diet with the appropriate number of calories for weight management, you could be shooting yourself in the foot. Proper nutrition fuels your workouts, but eat too much and you could gain weight (or hurt your weight-loss efforts), and eat too little, and you won't have enough energy to exercise.
Get-Results Remedy: If you can't seem to see those muscles you're trying to build, start logging your foods to see how many calories you're eating a day. If you're regularly eating more than you should (it just takes an extra 100 calories a day to gain an extra pound a month), then try choosing lower-calorie versions of your favorite foodsand slowly decreasing your caloric intake until you're at the right level! On the flip side of that, if you find that you're eating too few calories, that can also slow your metabolism and leave you drained at the gym. Find out how many calories you need to manage your weight by visiting your SparkPeople Nutrition Tracker.

4. YOU'RE ONLY DOING CARDIO

Yes, cardio is important for calorie burning, but a proper exercise plan includes cardio, strength training and flexibility. If you're just doing cardio, then you will be burning calories and strengthening your cardiovascular system, but you won't be really changing your body composition by building more muscle. For that you need strength training!
Get-Results Remedy: Lift weights or do body-weight exercises, such as lunges and push-ups, at least twice a week to reap the amazing benefits of resistance training; including decreased body fat, increased muscle mass and stronger bone density. For hardcore cardio fans, you can also try kettlebell training or circuit training, which is like getting a strength and cardio workout at the same time!

5. YOU REWARD YOURSELF WITH FOOD.

Do you allow yourself to have that extra piece of pizza or order that dessert when dining out because you "went to the gym" earlier? If so, you may be undoing all of that good calorie-burning with too many treats.
Get-Results Remedy: Familiarize yourself with the calorie contents of your favorite foods—and find out how many calories you're really burning through exercise. (SparkPeople's Nutrition Tracker andFitness Tracker will help you learn!) Remember that while you may have run 3 miles at the gym, that only burned 300 calories, which isn't nearly equivalent to the calorie count in that brownie sundae you ate later. Focus on how good exercise makes you feel rather than what it allows you to eat after; and choose foods that fuel your workouts, rather than the other way around.

6. YOU'RE ARE DOING TOO MUCH TOO SOON.

Unfortunately, results don't happen overnight. It takes time and consistency to get in shape over the long haul. But how many of us decide that we're going to get in shape and then get totally gung-ho, spending hours at the gym only to find ourselves tired, sore and no thinner after a week or two?
Get-Results Remedy: Be patient. Remember that you're creating a lifestyle change that you can sustain for the rest of your life. While there's temptation to start off doing extra long and hard workouts, don't. Build up to doing those tough workouts gradually as the weeks go by. Not only will this prevent injury and give your body more time to adapt and change, it will also give your life and habits time to change—permanently!

7. YOU'RE TRADING SLEEP FOR WORKOUTS. 

We're all so busy these days, and sometimes the only time to work out seems to be early in the morning—even if you were up late the night before working or with a child that couldn't sleep. But regularly swapping sleep for workouts can seriouslyhinder your weight-loss, as sleep triggers a number of hormones that influence cravings and a tendency for weight gain. In addition, too many sleepless nights will leave you tired and unfocused for your workouts, which means that you won't get much from your efforts. And did you know that sleep is a much needed part of a fitness plan, since a lot of recovery and repair happens while you rest each night? Skimp on the shut-eye, and it could also lead to symptoms of overtraining.
Get-Results Remedy: Start scheduling both your sleep and your workouts—and treat both as unbreakable appointments. Then follow SparkPeople's 4-week Better Sleep Challenge to make the most of those Z's! Exercising after an occasional sleepless night shouldn't pose too many problems. But if you're regularly swapping sleep for a sweat session, you could be doing more long-term harm than good. Sleep should come first—even before working out.

8. YOU SIT ALL DAY.

Sure, you work out regularly, but what you do the rest of the day matters, too! If you put in a solid exercise session only to sit at a desk all day and lounge in a recliner watching TV at night, you may be undoing all of your hard work at the gym. Plus, there are a number of new studies that say too much sitting can be bad for our health and our waistlines—even if you exercise during the day.
Get-Results Remedy: Try to work more activity into all areas of your life by going for a walk after dinner, choosing to stand whenever possible, taking the stairs, parking your car further away and replacing your TV time for more active relaxation (like playing with your dog). Also, if your job requires you to sit in front of a computer all day, set a timer to beep every half hour or hour to remind you to stand up, stretch and do a quick lap around the office.

If you're not seeing the results you want, you may be guilty of more than one of the mistakes above. Follow these tips to feel better, have more energy and get the workout results you want and deserve!

BY: JENNIFER WALTERS

Cardiovascular Adaptation (Important to know for weight loss...)

The body adapts to cardiovascular training by becoming more energy-efficient. This is good if you're an athlete, but bad if you're trying to lose weight.

I had a friend come to me frustrated because even though she had spent the past six months running on the treadmill five times a week, and is following a very strict diet, she hadn't lost the last ten pounds. Keep in mind that she's been working out and dieting religiously for 3 years.

I told her it was obvious: her body had adapted to her workout routine.

Her body had become so energy-efficient at that activity that she was actually burning less calories than when she first started running on the treadmill (again, this is good for athletes and bad for fat loss). I told her that she wasn't allowed to go within five feet of a treadmill for the next 6 months. I suggested that she change her cardio routine every two weeks.

Here is the two month weight loss plan I made for her:

===========================

Sample Weight Loss Plan

Week 1 to 2 - Boxing

Week 3 to 4 - Jump Rope

Week 5 to 6 - Plyometrics

Week 7 to 8 - Sprints

===========================

Notice how frequently the exercises are changed up. She lost 8 pounds in two months with the workout plan.

So the important less is to always change things up. You can't workout on autopilot and get the body of your dreams.

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Adaptation to Resistance Training

Your body adapts to resistance training by getting stronger. Perhaps you have been doing resistance training four times a week, but don't see much muscle development.

Why is this you may ask yourself?

Assuming your diet, intensity, and technique are good, the answer again points back to the frequency in which you change your workouts. At this point it's obvious that your body has adapted to the routine and it's on maintenance mode. If you perform the same weightlifting routine with the same intensity and volume, your body will fully adapted after the fourth workout. All you're really doing after the fourth or fifth workout is maintenance. Your body has reached a plateau.

I hope by this point you really understand how critical it is to keep things fresh in your fitness regiment.

The whole concept of this post is based on this concept of always changing it up, and keeping your body guessing. 

I promise you, if you're diligent about trying new workouts, you'll see dramatic improvements in your body and you'll be happy with the results. 

Remember our new session of boot camp starts this Monday March 12th. The workouts are diffrent everyday :-)

#1 Upon getting out of bed EAT!!  Within 30-45 minutes you can eat one of the best performance and fat loss food items in meal which is OATMEAL!

#2 You can eat 2-3 salads daily with 1-2tbl spoons of Olive oil dressing.  Eat it with 4-6oz. of seafood, fowl, or red lean meat.

#3 You can eat the high fiber, nutrient dense foods like those suggested Fit Club Nutrition Program.  Fruits, veggies, whole grains. 
Fresh, frozen or forget it!  Limit canned items.  Shoot for minimum of 30-40 grams per day.

#4 You can have a meal replacement shake each day.  Try it with frozen fruit, nonfat organic plain yogurt (TJ’s), egg whites and
or water.

#5 You can have an egg white dish (4+) daily.  Mix with meat, fish or fowl and veggies.

#6You can include 1-2 snacks daily.  A piece of water dense fruit (apple, pear, or banana) and a serving size of your favorite
type of nuts or natural peanut butter.

#7 You can include the essential fats in your eating plan to make your body drop fat faster! (Omega  –3,6,9’s) the fat sources
from nuts, fish and veggie oil.

#8 Cottage cheese and fruit makes a great, quick meal!

#9 Drink 1 gallon of water daily

#10 Follow these basics along with these habits and You will SUCCEED!

Summer is great because you get to wear shorts everyday without concern of rain or cold, flip flops are standard and you get to show off that body the you HOPEFULLY have been creating for the last 6 months!

The hourglass shape is what best defines what we see as fit.  So how do you best build the hourglass shape?

The first key is to shrink your waistline.  No this is not achieved by doing crunches.  That is more than old school, it is flat out wrong and not effective!  You need to burn off that ab fat and that is by burning as many calories as possible while restricting calorie intake.  So keep your diet in check this summer and work the crap out of your legs.  You read that correctly, work your legs.

Legs are BY FAR the biggest muscles in the body, so logically they burn the most calories while they workout but also while at rest.  The best adage that I have heard about this is "strong legs equal small waist".

Next, build some shoulders.  An hourglass is the shape of something going from wide to thin.  If you add just some shape and posture to your shoulders then you will enhance the illusion and improve your overall look.

Finally, remember the afterburn.  When you exercise you will burn some calories after you are done while you recover from that workout.  The harder that you work the longer the afterburn effect (usually).  Cardio generally lasts up to 90 minutes while weight training can last up to 48 hours.  So get your butt into the weight room every other day so that your body becomes a calorie burning machine at all hours of the day.

Good luck and make sure that you share this, Like this, Comment on this and enjoy this post!

Portion Distortion- Eating the Right Foods in the Right Amounts!

Over the past 50 years, Americans have super-sized meals so much that few of us recognize healthy portions anymore. We have "portion distortion." If we aren't careful, one super-sized meal can consume a day's worth of calories. As you choose your meals for weight loss and management, follow these guidelines for size and number of portions per day. (The number of portions will vary based on your age, sex, height and physical activity level.) 

Bread/Pasta/Rice - 1 slice, 1/2 cup cooked, 4-6 servings per day (at least half whole grain)
Vegetables - 1 cup raw leafy, 1/2 cup cooked, at least 3-5 servings per day (low in calories, high in nutrition, eat all you want!)
Fruit -1 medium fresh, 1/4 cup dried, 2-4 servings per day
Meat/Beans/Cheese - 3-4 oz, 1 cup, 2-3 servings per day
Milk/Yogurt (low-fat, light) - 1 cup milk, 1.5 oz cheese, 2-3 servings per day  
"The Plate Method" is an easy way to quickly determine if you are eating the right foods in the right amounts. Imagine your plate is divided in half. One half of your plate should be filled with non-starchy vegetables - lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, broccoli, eggplant, carrots - you get the idea.

Now, take the other half of your plate and divide that into 2 parts -- or ¼ of your plate. One of those ¼ plate sections is for your meat or protein source. You won't be able to fit an 8-10 ounce steak in a ¼ or your plate! It will be close to the 3-4 ounce serving size. 

The other ¼ is for a starch serving. Potatoes, rice, pasta, bread. Add an 8-ounce glass of low-fat milk and a small piece of fruit for dessert, or you can choose 1-2 more starchy food servings (a roll, peas, pasta, etc.).   You have a well balanced meal, high in fiber that keeps you feeling full, low in calories and fat, from a variety of food groups. Click HERE to download the fun handout.

Small changes - Big payoffs!
Eat more vegetables! We can't say this enough. They offer lots of fiber, vitamins, minerals and they are LOW CALORIE
Remove the white - Use 100% whole grain breads and pastas and brown rice
Do a "fat swap" - Use olive oil and canola oil instead of butter and cream
Try avocado instead of cheese
Snack on nuts instead of chips
Use almond or walnut butter instead of cream cheese

Here are 3 paths to the right serving size:

Use a scale-purchase an electronic food scale and weigh your food.
Measuring spoons and cups-measure your portions with these tools to ensure that they are not distorted. It can be surprising how much we may be "off" when we guess our serving size.
Use household objects or your hand to guide your portions, if you don't have your scale or measuring tools with you. For example, one serving of protein should be the size of the palm of your hand.
 

Fast Food Tip
If you're craving that fast food cheeseburger, make the choice to get a small size or child's size, or take the bun off. Order it without the mayonnaise.  Skip the fries and milkshake and choose a calorie-free drink.

When making diet decisions, there are a lot of nasty options out there. We break down the ten worst foods of 2010 to help you make the right choice at dinner.

The science is in and spending hours on the treadmill, or any form of cardio for that matter, is NOT giving you the workout that you think it is.  It is no wonder that those cardio kings and cardio queens spend hours each week pounding away on their cardio machine and never seem to look as good as they should.