Core Training

One of the most common weight loss exercises I see people doing at the gym is the crunch. People will do hundreds or even thousands of crunches every single day! People do crunches when they wake up in the morning and when they go to bed at night. There are abs classes that are loaded with crunches. So why do most of these people still have a lot of belly fat?

Core training is not about doing a lot of crunches. It is about strengthening your core to provide a strong center for your body so you can lift things and support yourself in a healthy manner. Crunches do not do this.

Crunches are not a functional exercise. The only thing they do is make your abdominal muscles bigger. They are great for the bodybuilder and pretty much no one else.

The crazy thing is you can grow your abdominal muscles without crunches.

The best core training exercises are the plank, side plank, and bird dog. These hit the stabilizer muscles of your spine and lower back very hard. They are great for protecting your lower back during your workouts and everyday activity.

If you want great abs, these three exercises will help, too. In addition, you can throw in woodchops and reverse woodchops to work the obliques. You can add stability ball or ab-wheel rollouts for a concentric contraction to hypertrophy the abdominal muscles. You can also add a cross-body mountain climber for a great, dynamic core exercise that is also great for conditioning.

Don't do crunches. They are useless and put strain on your lower back. Strengthen your core the right way instead. And experience new levels of health and fitness as a result.

Consistency and Weight Loss

One of my favorite quotes of all time is by Og Mandino: "I know that little things repeated will complete any undertaking."

This is especially true for weight loss. Keep doing the little things day after day, week after week, month after month; and you will certainly get to your goals. Replacing one soda every day with water may only be 120 calories or so at first, but after one week that is 840 calories, after one month that is 3,600 calories, and after one year that is 43,800!

If 3,500 calories is one pound of fat, replacing one soda or juice every day with water saves you 12.5 pounds of fat in a year! That is very significant. See, the little things add up in big ways when you are consistent.

Now what if you were to cut your five cookie (400) snack down to four. After a week that is 560 calories. Then you cut it down to three and that will save you another 1,120 calories. Then you cut down to two to save 1,680 calories. Then you switch those two cookies for a serving of almonds and you are eating about the same calories, but now you have a healthy snack. And for this month of progressive minor improvement you have saved yourself about 5,000 calories. That's over a pound of fat right there!

The little things add up.

Be consistent with your weight loss program. Lose just one pound of fat each week for a year and you will have lost 52 pounds of fat! You may not even want or need to lose that much! And that's a very realistic amount to lose in a healthy manner.

Keep doing what you're doing if you're doing the right things. Keep moving forward. There will be good times and bad times but do not stop moving. Do not stop working for what you want. Keep going!

Be consistent.

Weight Loss Tips: What is EPOC?

Have you ever thought of this thing called EPOC when people talk about weight loss and fat loss? EPOC stands for Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption and is a very important aspect of weight loss that needs to be understood in order for you to create a strong exercise program.

Basically, EPOC means that, after exercise, the body's processes are all vamped up a bit. This means the body is still working harder than at rest for up to a few hours after exercise. This extra exercise requires more energy, and that means it also will burn more calories.

So the goal of your exercise program should be to maximize EPOC, both in magnitude and duration.

So how do you do this?

It's actually quite simple. All you have to do to get more out of EPOC is increase your high intensity work. High intensity exercise has a far greater effect on EPOC than low intensity exercise.

This means you should be doing more resistance training with moderate to heavy resistance and more interval training. These types of exercise are typically high intensity in nature and will elicit a great response in the form of increased EPOC.

Here's some more advice: Try a total body circuit training routine of about 30-45 minutes three times per week. Add 20-25 minutes of intervals either after the circuits or on days in between twice a week. This combination is sure to get a good metabolism boost from EPOC. Give it a try and see the fat fall off!

Exercise at Home

Just because you cannot get to the gym or cannot afford a gym membership does not mean you have an excuse not to exercise. You can literally exercise just about anywhere at anytime.

Thousands of years ago, I don't think too many people had gym memberships. Still, they managed to keep themselves in pretty good shape. Look at the statues of ancient Greeks and Romans. Those dudes were pretty ripped, if I do say so myself.

The most obvious way to get in exercise outside a gym is to run. Running outdoors is so much better than running indoors because you actually go somewhere! You can actually feel the progress. Plus you get to take in fresh air, enjoy beautiful scenery and go wherever you want to go. You can find some place to run no matter where you live. While I am not a big fan of aerobic exercise for weight loss purposes, there are plenty of people who enjoy running and it is a great way to improve your cardiovascular health.

Another way to work out outside of a gym is to use bodyweight exercises. Pushups, stickups, lunges, prisoner squats, and planks are all great exercises that require only your bodyweight as resistance. There are hundreds of great bodyweight exercises, so you should never have a problem getting in a workout even if you have no equipment around.

A final example of exercising outside of a gym is to buy some of your own fitness equipment. You can cheaply and easily set up a great exercise place in your house with some dumbbels, kettlebells, exercise balls, mats, and resistance bands. Even if you are on a budget, you can get what you need and start working out from the convenience of your own home.

You do not need a gym to get in a great workout. Having one is nice, but not having one is no excuse to be out of shape.

Weight Loss: Be Happy With Your Body

It's easy to be unhappy with the way your body looks in the mirror, especially when you are attempting to lose weight. We are all overly critical of ourselves. Even when we look good, we always want to look better. We also see each other every single day in the mirror, often several times each day, so it is difficult to notice any changes made to our body.

Being overly critical of yourself is unhealthy and very harmful to your weight loss efforts. There is nothing wrong with being happy with your body, even if it isn't the body of your dreams yet.

Your body is a gift. It is yours and yours only and it is precious. Your body encapsulates your life. It holds your heart and your spirit. It provides a structure for all you have.

You body should be celebrated, not scrutinized.

For those same reasons, you should treat your body with the utmost care and respect. Do not put anything in it that it will not like. Move in ways it wants to move. Feed it good energy and build some muscle for stronger support.

Treat your body well and it will treat you well.

Be happy with your body while you work to make it happier and healthier. By doing so, it will be much easier for you to enjoy life. As long as you have life, you have the opportunity for better things. Appreciate this opportunity and be grateful for all you have. Then go after everything you want.

Why Counting Calories to Lose Weight is a Waste of Time

You want to lose some weight, so you figure you'll cut some calories out of your diet. It's a reasonable assumption that if you take in less calories than you burn, you will lose weight. In fact, this assumption is absolutely true. The problem is that the amount of calories you take in can impact the amount of calories that you burn.

If you start restricting the amount of calories you intake each day, your body will realize that it is not getting enough calories for its energy requirements. It will respond by conserving energy and storing fat.

Most people I know that want to lose weight do not want to conserve energy or store fat. Therefore, calorie restriction is a very bad idea for weight loss purposes, or any purpose for that matter.

It may not seem logical that you have to eat more to lose weight, so don't think of it that way. Just eat in a normal, healthy manner the way your body wants you to eat.

In other words, give your body the energy it needs. It will respond favorably.

That's pretty much all there is to it. Well, ok there's also the matter of what to eat, when to eat, what to avoid, how to exercise, how much to excercise...

But this is a good start!

Quick Weight Loss Tips

Here are a few quick weight loss tips if you are looking for new ideas to break through a weight loss plateau.

1) Try Interval Training to Spice Up Traditional Cardio

Running for long periods on the treadmill or elliptical or anything can do damage to your weight loss efforts. Eventually, your body will become very efficient at aerobic exercise, so you won't burn as many calories as you did when you were getting started. This causes a lot of weight loss plateaus and can easily be fixed by interval training.

2) Don't Starve Yourself

By not eating enough calories regularly, your body will enter "starvation mode". This means you will start to conserve energy by burning less calories. You will also tend to store more fat and begin to use muscle for energy. This will kill your metabolism.

3) Try Something Fun

Exercise in the part. Dance. Go for a swim. Go for a hike. Workout with a friend. Take a kickboxing class. Exercise does not have to be boring. There are thousands of ways to get in a good workout. Who says you need to stick to a routine?

For more great tips check out this Healthy Weight Loss Plan on HubPages.com.