7 Secrets to Losing Belly Fat and Getting a Flat Stomach

Interested in losing your belly fat and getting a flatter, leaner, and sexier stomach? Want to look better in a bathing suit while getting rid of that ugly (and dangerous) abdominal fat? It's not necessarily "easy" but -- with focus, determination, and continuous effort -- it can be done in less time than you probably think. Follow the 7 steps below and you'll soon be on your way to a leaner, healthier, and better-looking body...

1. Eat a balanced diet that is high in protein and includes plenty of "good" fats and carbs. Improving your eating habits is the first and most important step to reducing abdominal fat and losing weight. An effective "fat burning" diet is based around lots of high-quality proteins (such as lean meats, low-fat dairy, and whey protein), good amounts of healthy fats (such as nuts, seeds, olive oil and omega-3 fats) and enough high-fiber carbohydrates (such as fresh vegetables, fruits, and whole grains) to keep your energy levels high and your stomach feeling full.

2. Eat a good breakfast. It is extremely difficult to lose weight if you regularly skip breakfast. Eating a relatively large and healthy breakfast is one of the simplest, yet most effective, things you can do to keep your hunger in check, keep your energy high, and keep your metabolism going strong. At the very least eat some fresh fruit and yogurt in the morning so that you don't overeat at lunch. A big breakfast is best but anything is better than nothing!

3. Drink 8-10 glasses of water per day. Drinking water throughout the day does lots of good things for your body and is an effective way to speed up the weight loss process. It helps you flush out toxins (very important when you're trying to lose belly fat) and helps you maintain high energy levels. It's also great for fat loss because it helps to optimize your metabolism so you burn fat even when you're not working out. Finally, sipping water throughout the day and drinking a large glass right before meals is a very effective, safe, and easy way to reduce your appetite and prevent overeating.

4. Move as much as possible. Try to move as much as possible throughout the day. If the weather's nice take a walk (or two). Don't spend hours sitting at a desk without getting up every half hour or so and moving around a bit. Always take the "hard" way whenever possible. That means taking the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator. Park farther away from the door when you go to the mall, supermarket, etc. These extra efforts will quickly add up and you'll burn more calories and lose more fat almost without realizing it.

5. Do higher-intensity cardio exercise 2-3 times per week. The best fat burning exercises are the ones that get your heart rate up and make you sweat for at least 20 minutes straight. It's better to do 20 minutes of high-intensity aerobics than an hour of slow jogging. You'll burn more fat -- both during and after the workout -- plus you'll feel better and save your knees, hips, back, and ankles over the long run.

6. Do 1-2 intense, full-body strength training workouts per week. Working all your major muscle groups intensely, once or twice per week, is one of the best ways to burn body fat and look better fast. Full-body workouts that involve compound, multi-joint movements help to build muscle, burn fat, and strengthen your abdominal muscles... all at the same time. They also force your body to produce hormones that will continue to burn calories and strip off fat for hours after you're done working out. If you don't like weights that's fine. Just do several sets of pushups, pullups, bodyweight squats, and lunges. These "big" exercises will give you a workout just as good as any you can get in the gym.

7. Set realistic goals. Increase your chances of weight loss success by creating realistic goals for yourself and reviewing those goals every day. Remember that you're not going to be able to safely drop 10 pounds of fat in a week and you're probably not going to have a totally flat stomach for at least a couple of months. It's simply not possible to drop huge amounts of body fat very quickly in a safe and natural way. However, as long as you stay focused and determined -- and you follow the healthy weight loss tips listed above every week -- you absolutely will make great progress within a relatively short amount of time.

Note: Always consult your doctor before you begin any new diet or exercise program, especially if you have existing health problems.

By the way, if you're looking for a super-effective, easy-to-understand guide to losing body fat, getting a flat stomach, and looking better fast I highly recommend the Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle program located here:

http://www.fat-burning-guide.com

Jamie Clark is a long-time fitness writer and contributing editor for the Belly Fat Blog. If you're interested in losing belly fat and getting a flatter stomach as fast as possible be sure to visit http://bellyfatblog.blogspot.com today!

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Cheese and Weight Loss - Lose Weight Even If You Cannot Live Without Cheese!

Are you one of those happy cheese lovers? If that`s you who cannot live without cheese but still need to lose weight, I have some great news coming your way! There IS a way to lose weight even when you love cheese! Can you imagine that?

Well, it`s not a cheese diet, nor anything similar. It`s just a way to eat cheese, but still not to do so much harm in terms of fat to your body and shape.

See, cheese itself is not a bad thing. The bad thing is the fat in the cheese. So if we could only have a way to eat the cheese, but leave the fat, we would be SO HAPPY!

And we have a way to do that! Eat the cheese, but skip the fat. And this way is so easy!

Here is how to do that:

Take a slice or two of cheese, and put it on a plate. Put that plate in a microwave for 10 seconds or more, until the cheese starts to melt. Keep for a second or two until you see those little bubbles on the top of the cheese.

Now take the cheese plate out of the microwave. Wait a couple of seconds until the cheese stops to bubble. Drain off the grease.

You`re done! Easy, was it?

Well, I am not saying you to eat as much cheese as you can. You will not help yourself to lose weight if you do this. What I`m saying, is you CAN eat some cheese, and still lose weight!

If you are looking for the REAL way to lose weight, if you are TIRED of trying out different diets that DO NOT work, visit the healthy weight loss tips website, and grab a FREE copy of the weight loss guide, packed with weight loss methods that DO WORK.

Stop wasting your precious time, everything you need is there.

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Healthy Recipes

Cool Summer Side Dish

• 2 ears of corn husked
• 3 table spoons extra-virgin olive oil
• Juice of one lime
• Salt
• Pepper
• 15 oz can of black beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 cups grape tomatoes, halved
• 1 cup cooked and cooled brown rice
• ¼ cup finely chopped red onion
• 3 thinly sliced green onions
• 1 clove garlic, minced

Heat a large cast-iron skillet over high heat. Char the ears of corn, rotating on all sides, in the dry skillet until lightly blackened and charred, about 15 minutes. Let cool, and then remove the kernels from the cob with a sharp knife. In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lime juice and salt and pepper to taste. Add the black beans, tomatoes, rice, red onions, green onions, garlic and cooled corn to a large bowl. Toss with the lime vinaigrette.

Chicken, Sausage and Peppers

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3/4 pound sweet or hot Italian sausage, cut into chunks
• 3/4 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into chunks
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 Italian green frying peppers, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 3/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 1/4 cup roughly chopped fresh parsley
• 2 jarred pickled cherry peppers, chopped, plus 2 tablespoons liquid from the jar

Heat one table spoon of butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and then toss with the flour in a bowl. Add the chicken and sausage to the skillet and cook until brown but not cooked all the way through. Add the onion, peppers, garlic, salt and pepper to taste. Let these cook for about three minutes and then add the wine; bring to a boil. Add the chicken broth after a few minutes and simmer. Cover and cook until the sausage and chicken have cooked through.

Take the chicken, sausage and veggies out of the liquid. Increase the heat to high, stir in the parsley, and cherry peppers. Boil this mixture until it is reduced by one-third (2-3 minutes). Remove this mix from the heat and stir in one tablespoon of butter. Pour this sauce over the chicken mixture and ENJOY!!

Per serving: Calories 335; Fat 14 g (Saturated 7 g); Cholesterol 95 mg; Sodium 891 mg; Carbohydrate 10 g; Fiber 2 g; Protein 36 g

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How to Lose the Belly Pooch Forever

Millions of people around the world have some varying size of belly pooch. Belly pooch isn't always the result after pregnancy, it can also be caused from bloated bowels. Even though women often do get the dreaded belly pooch after pregnancy, that doesn't mean they have to be stuck with it forever. There are ways to get rid of belly pooch and I'm not talking about liposuction or any other surgical methods.

Eating Clean

Losing the belly pooch and building the abs can actually be done mostly by just eating the right foods. You don't have to do a bunch of crunches, sit-ups or leg raises. If you can't see your abs, it's because there's a layer of belly fat that's hiding them. Eating clean is consuming foods like chicken, turkey, salmon, mackerel and fresh fruits and vegetables. Whole grains and water consumption is important as well. Don't forget to include some sources of fats in your diet because the body does need fat. You can get sources of good fats from things like nuts, fish oil and salmon.

Cardiovascular Activity

Regular cardiovascular activity helps to keep your heart and the rest of your body, including your mind, in shape. It burns up any excess calories and keeps your legs toned and your midsection slim. If you need to burn belly fat, consider doing one or two high-intensity interval training (or HIIT) workouts per week. These short, intense bouts of exercise are a great way to burn fat all over the body because not only does your body burn calories during the exercise, but for up to 24 hours following the exercise as well.

Strength Training

Strength training helps keep our bones and muscles strong. When you build muscle, you're doing your body a favor because you will be able to burn more calories at rest. This means that the more muscle mass you have, the more calories your body will burn just sitting around. The only way to maintain and/or build muscle mass is by performing strength training exercises regularly. Try to perform weight training at least two to three days per week.

If you eat a good, clean diet and participate in cardio and strength training activities regularly, you should start to see the belly pooch getting smaller and smaller. Once your belly begins to flatten out all you need to do to maintain it is to continue eating clean and working out regularly.

If you're interested in learning more about how to lose belly pooch and keeping the weight off, please feel free to visit my fitness blog where you can find workouts and fitness articles on a variety of topics.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Melinda_F

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Exercise While Sitting Down and Get Slimmer Hips and Thighs

You can achieve slimmer hips and thighs by eating right and exercising regularly. As you exercise, you burn fat deposits for energy. You don't need expensive gym equipment to slim and trim your hips and thighs; all you need is a chair. Sit down and lift your legs to trim your hips, your thighs and get a lean body while achieving weight loss. Isometric, or resistance, exercises for the thighs and hips can help reduce the lumpy appearance of cellulite while toning and shaping the legs. Combine resistance exercises that target your hips and thighs with cardiovascular workouts and balanced nutrition for effective and long lasting weight loss.

Sit down in a chair that does not have arms or wheels. Dining chairs work well. Grab a pillow and place it between your knees and then sit up straight. Rest your feet on the floor and squeeze the pillow between your knees. Breathe out as your squeeze your knees together and hold the squeeze for at least one minute. Breathe normally while squeezing the pillow between your knees. Repeat this exercise for 3 to 5 repetitions. The knee squeeze will tone and slim the difficult to trim area inside the thighs. This isometric exercise helps burn fat and gets you closer to your weight loss goal. You will soon see a reduction in the appearance cellulite as well.

The next isometric exercise will help trim the outer thighs and hips and help get rid of saddle bags. Remain sitting on the chair with your feet resting on the floor. Keep your knees bent at a 90 degree angle. Sit up straight. Place the palms of your hands on the outside of your knees. Try to push your knees together with your hands while pushing outward with your knees. This isometric exercise should be held for one minute while you breathe regularly. Relax and take a few deep breaths before beginning the next exercise.

Place your hands on either side of the chair seat beside your thighs. Sit up straight as possible. Begin with your feet resting on the floor and your toes pointed straight in front of you. Breathe out and then lift one leg. Extend your leg straight out in front of your body and point your toes. Hold your leg extended for at least 30 seconds to as long as 1 minute while breathing normally. Lower your leg and then repeat the exercise with the other leg. This exercise is a great workout to trim the front of your thighs and your hips.

These easy to do and effective exercises can be performed at home or at work. You can exercise any time of the day to get trim. Exercise your hips and thighs at least three times each week. Your leg muscles will gradually increase in strength as you slim and trim your hips and thighs. Combine exercise with a healthy balanced diet and you will soon see slim and trim thighs and hips.

Robin Reichert is a certified nutrition consultant, certified personal trainer and freelance writer. She has been involved in the health and fitness industry for over 10 years. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from the University of San Francisco and a Master of Science in natural health from Clayton College. Robin specializes in weight loss health, total body toning, aerobic conditioning, plyometric training, nutrition planning, and home-based boot camp style workouts for women. Lifelong learning and educating others about natural health, physical fitness, nutrition and wellness is her passion. Robin's goal is to make every personal training session fun and effective for her clients. Her services include both in-person and online personal training at http://www.trainwithmeonlinetoday.com. For less than a dollar a day, you can have access to 24/7 online support, professional pre-designed workout plans for all fitness levels, comprehensive nutrition database, *personal trainer support, monthly newsletter, over 2000 exercise demonstrations, and so much more.

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Early Morning Exercise - 3 Tips to Start Exercising in the Morning With Ease

Whether you're exercising to lose weight or to boost fitness level, the early workout routine is the way to go. A morning workout is the ideal training strategy for boosting metabolism levels and staying charged up-mentally and physically- for the rest of the day. Not only that, over 90 percent of people who work out consistently exercise first thing in the morning. That's why the odds of achieving your fitness goals are one your side when starting out the day with a workout.

As a result, if you're looking to get the most out of your morning workouts, here are a few practical tips that can help.

Get the Perfect Sleep

When it comes to feeling energized and ready for the morning workout, sleeping right is the first step. Good quality sleep is vital as the training itself. If you're well rested after a night's sleep, your body will perform better both during the exercise and throughout the day. On the other hand, bad sleep can spell disaster on your fitness and overall productivity and wellbeing levels.

As a result, make sure to get plenty of sleep during the night. To do that, you need to take conscious control over your sleep schedule. The best way to do so is to readjust you inner clock by setting up a sleep rhythm where you get to go to bed and wake up at the same time everyday-even on Sunday. The 11.30 to 7.00 seems to be the most suitable sleep schedule. Nonetheless, no suit fits all. You need to find what works best for you and stick with it. However, the more hours you log in before midnight, the better and high quality sleep you're going to get.

Get Ready the Night Before

Nothing kills efficiency and productivity and causes mind-numbness more than being in reactive mode. Opting for this way of behaving is a sure of way of suffering from confusion, bewilderment and lack of motivation. Instead, opt for the better approach of planning ahead your actions and watching from far as everything folds down to your liking.

As a result, make sure to lay out your training clothes, running shoes or any other gear you mind vital in the clear before you go to bed at night. Doing so will boost your motivation and help you log in more time on the workout. Furthermore, doing so will take much of the guess work out of the training, thus leave you with enough mental space to focus on the workout itself.

Start the Morning with Water

Dehydration can spell disaster on your training program. And the chances of suffering from it in the early morning-especially after 7 or 8 hours of sleep-are high. Exercising on a dehydrated body causes discomforts, muscle cramping and spikier heart rates, thus leading to dizziness, lightheadedness, and premature fatigue. In fact, severe dehydration leads to serious health troubles, even death.

As a result, make sure to get plenty of water first thing in the morning. Shoot for at least 2 glasses of water as soon you wake up and always keep a water bottle near the bed. In addition, keep your body well hydrated throughout the workout, and instantly refill your fluid tanks afterwards.

David DACK is a runner and an established author on weight loss, motivation and fitness.

If you want more free tips from David DACK, then go to http://runnersblueprint.com/weightlossrunning.html and for a limited time you can grab this special "Weight Loss By Running" (Value $18) report For FREE.
Or you could go and visit his awesome blog at: http://www.runnersblueprint.com/blog/

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The Top 5 Best Cardio Exercises

When it comes to your body it is very important that you do some cardio, whether you want to lose weight, improve your health or build on your muscle. And you won't get bored because, there are plenty of different types of cardio exercise. Anything that gets your heart rate pumping will pretty much do the trick. The thing that's confusing is there are so many different cardio exercises out there... which one will benefit me most? There's no right or wrong cardio exercise for men and woman. The correct choice is the cardio exercise you enjoy and the one you'll stick with, but there are some that work best if your goal is to get in great shape and burn calories.

1. Running

Running is a good one for many different reasons. You don't need any special equipment apart from some decent running shoes. You can do it just about anywhere and anytime. It's high impact, which helps build connective tissue and strong bones. It gets your heart rate up a lot quicker than low or no impact exercises. It's good for burning serious calories, especially if you add sprints, hills or try interval training. The same person would burn around 50% as much with just a brisk walk. The only downfall is that it takes time to build the stamina and strength to run continuously and, because it's high impact, it may not benefit every person. This bodyweight exercise is probably the best cardio workouts.

2. Bicycling

Whether you're outdoors or indoors, cycling is an excellent cardio workout. By using the power of your legs, you increase endurance while burning lots of calories, anywhere from 250-500 in 30 minutes, depending on how fast you go and how high your resistance is. What makes cycling even better than other activities is that you can incorporate it into your daily life. You can ride to and from work or use your bike to run errands around town. It's also low impact, which is great for your joints and perfect cross-training for high impact activities like running or aerobics.

3. Swimming

Swimming is another great choice because, like cross-country, it's a full body exercise. The more body parts your workout requires, the more calories you'll burn. Best of all, you dent have to worry about any high impact injuries because your joints are fully supported. It's also great cross-training for other cardio activities.

4. Step Aerobics

Step aerobics is another good choice, especially for people who like choreographed workouts, but don't enjoy the jackhammer feel of high impact aerobics. This gives you the intensity without the pounding and it's easy to up the energy used by adding risers.

5. Kickboxing

Kickboxing is another great choice for exercisers who are looking for more of a challenge with more choreographed workouts. Combining punches and kicks not only, involves both the upper and lower body, but it enhances your combination making this an excellent all round workout.

Joshua "Coach" Kozak has been a fixture in the world of health and fitness for over 10 years. Burn calories with HASfit's greatest cardio workout and the best bodyweight exercises.

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