7 Super-Effective Tips for Losing Stomach Fat & Getting Lean Six Pack Abs for Life

Lose Body Fat and Get a Lean Stomach for Good! 

Vince Delmonte interviews author Mike Geary, Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Specialist

1.  Mike, what is the number one component to getting a six pack?
MG: Your training style, nutrition, and mindset are all extremely important if you want to stand a chance at getting a six pack... However, if I had to choose 1 component that is most important, it would probably have to be nutrition. Maybe you've heard the saying before that "abs are made in the kitchen".
It really is true, and that's where the majority of people go wrong in the goal to get super lean. Of course, this also ties into mindset, because you really have to get your mind in the right place in order to have the discipline to be able to eat consistently clean enough to get six pack abs.
There's a lot of confusion out there these days about calories, fat, protein, and carbohydrates... every "expert" disagrees with one another on proper ratios and types of diets.  I think people make this way too complicated... If you are just to focus on a good balance between fats, carbs, and proteins, and make sure to eat only natural unprocessed organic foods (as close to their natural state as possible) instead of packaged, processed foods, a lot of the problems that most people have with cravings, a sweet tooth, overeating, blood sugar swings, etc all take care of themselves.
We still can't lose sight of the fact that you can overeat on healthy foods and gain fat even while eating healthy. Therefore, your caloric intake needs to be controlled to a level that will promote fat loss if that's the goal.

2.  Excellent Mike!  Next question... What is one thing I might be doing, unknowningly, steering my quest for a six pack in the wrong direction?
MG:  I'll give 2 things that may be steering you in the wrong direction...
a. Too much cardio
Some people, in their efforts to try to get lean, focus way too much on hours and hours of cardio exercise. The problem is that this can backfire on you by making you lose lean muscle mass over time, which decreases your resting metabolic rate. Once this happens, it becomes easier to pack on body fat than ever before.  I've even seen many people that do too much cardio and end up getting that "skinny fat" appearance, where they have very little muscle tone, yet they have excess stomach fat (even a "gut" possibly).
Instead of excess cardio, focus more on high intensity weight training (yes, even during a "cutting" cycle, where heavier training is even MORE important). This will help maintain your lean muscle mass throughout your body, so that you don't experience the metabolic rate decrease. Maintaining as much lean muscle mass on your body at all times is one of the most important things for staying super-lean for life.
b. Not eating enough healthy fats
This is another area where I see people go in the wrong direction. They are trying to lose body fat and they end up going WAY too low on their fat intake. When you decrease your fat intake too much, you are basically messing up your fat burning and muscle building hormones. It's not uncommon to see people decrease their fat intake too low and end up reducing their testosterone levels significantly.
Try to get some sources of healthy fats with every meal to make sure you don't go too low... This could be avocados, any and all nuts (almonds, walnuts, pistachios, pecans, etc), seeds (pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds), nut butters (almond butter, natural peanut butter, etc), virgin coconut oil (good source of medium chain triglycerides), extra virgin olive oil, grass fed beef (good source of conjugated linoleic acid and omega-3s), whole eggs (yes, whole eggs...not egg whites), etc.

3. What is one unique way of boosting your metabolism, to finally burn fat, that I might be overlooking?
MG:  Incorporate any form of clean & presses into your routines twice per week. This could be barbell clean & presses or using kettlebells or dumbbells.  If I had to choose one exercise that burns the most calories and has the biggest impact on increasing your metabolic rate, I'd have to choose high intensity clean & presses (with squats and deadlifts being at the top of the pack also).  I like alternating the use of barbells for C&P's one workout and kettlebells for another.
If you want to learn more about how to train with kettlebells, see this article.

4. What is your number one plateau busting secret to lose the last 10 pounds?
MG:  When you get to the point that you're already fairly lean, but just need to lose that last 5 or 10 lbs of body fat that is covering up your abs, you really need to take your workouts to a whole new level of intensity.
Consider adding all-out wind sprints and/or hill sprints into your routine if you want to take it to the next level of intensity.
As for gym workouts, this also means no jibber-jabbering for 5 minutes in between sets at the gym... Instead, you need laser-focused intensity, and one of the best ways to keep high intensity is super-setting or alternating sets. This means while you're resting one area of your body, you're working another area of your body. I usually like to do this by alternating a really tough lower body exercise such as a squat, lunge, or deadlift, with a multi-joint upper body exercise such as a bench press, overhead press, bent over row, or pullup.
Think short rest periods, full body exercises, multi-joint exercises, lots of sweat, and your chest heaving for air... if that's what your workout is looking like, then you're on the right path.  If not, then you're not working hard enough.

5. What is your advice for me to deal with the social temptations of alcohol, eating out, and junk food?
MG: This is something many people struggle with, but if you set some limits, it can be easy to deal with and still stay lean. One thing I'd suggest is to make sure to not get in a habit of drinking alcohol excessively on a daily basis. If you're going to go out and have some fun with friends, try to limit the drinking to only 1 or 2 days max per week. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves that we can still go out and have fun with our friends without getting totally smashed.
You need to decide what is more important in your life... do you want to live healthy and have a strong lean body, or do you want to get full-blown drunk every night? There's a lot more to life than alcohol.  This article explains some tips for moderate drinkers to stay lean.
As for eating out... If you're serious about getting and staying lean, eating out should only be an occasional event. Cooking your own food on a daily basis is extremely important as it's very hard to know what is in all of the junk at restaurants and fast food joints. One of the tricks I use when eating out is to NEVER eat fries or sodas (in fact, I never eat fries or sodas AT ALL).
Instead, go ahead and order that burger, but substitute steamed veggies or a salad for the fries. Almost every restaurant will make that substitution for you. And water or unsweetened iced tea are the best beverage options to keep the calories under control when eating out.

6.  Why do I lose motivation when trying to get a six pack?
MG: Most people lose motivation because they simply aren't seeing the results fast enough. If that's why you lose motivation, go back to all of the tips and techniques we've been talking about in here and see where your nutrition or training programs are going wrong so you can get faster results.  Be patient and consistent and the results will come.
Also, you can really stay motivated by focusing on what has been successful so far. For example, maybe your fat loss hasn't been what you wanted so far, but maybe you've increased your pullups from 8 to 13 and your squat weight from 185 to 225 lbs for the same reps. Keep focusing on your successes rather than your failures, and keep going for more successes.
More motivation tips -- Train regularly with a partner. This will keep you both focused and will keep you accountable to someone other than yourself. You don't want to disappoint someone else that you've made a goal with.
Also, keep a picture up in your house or at work of someone's body that motivates you to strive for those results. Look at it every day and keep visualizing your own body improving. Set a realistic goal and a time frame to acheive that goal, such as "I will lose 15 lbs of body fat in the next 8 weeks". The important thing here is realistic goal... don't expect to lose 30 lbs in 30 days (despite those weight loss scam ads that you see everywhere claiming BS like this).

7. I understand you have the number one six pack abs program on the Internet -- Truth About Abs.  Why do you think it's so popular?
My Truth about Six Pack Abs program is so popular because it works!  It's REAL nutrition and REAL training programs instead of useless gimmicks and fads.  I give the TRUTH on what people really need to get lean sexy abs for life and why they DON'T NEED fad gimmicks like diets, ab infomercial gadgets, and bogus fat burning pills that people waste way too much money on.

8.  Who should order Truth About Abs and who is this program not for?
This program is for anyone that wants to truly live healthy and get super-lean for life. I have college students, parents, busy professionals, and even grandparents using this program successfully.
Who is this program NOT for?  Anyone who is lazy, or thinks that there is a "quick fix" out there.  There isn't! So stop looking for a quick fix, and learn the truth!
Plus, when you go to order, I'm actually allowing everyone reading this to "try it before you buy it", so that way you can try out the program, start seeing real results, and then decide if it's right for you.
Check out some of the tremendous results that other readers are getting with the Truth about Abs program

Also, you can view some of the most common questions and answers about Truth about Abs

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How To Build Muscle Fast:

41 Tips to Gain 41 Pounds Of Rock-Solid Lean Muscle Mass in 6 Months

By Vince DelMonte - Author of No-Nonsense Muscle Building

This article will give you at least 41 tips and ideas for gaining more muscle and getting more ripped than you can imagine.
Muscle building expert Vince DelMonte has helped over 50,000 skinny guys and consults with fitness experts all around the world on the most critical and supporting elements to build muscle mass and to experience consistent muscle growth.
In this article, Vince unmasks his own secrets that he used for building 41 pounds of solid muscle in only 6 months – without any drugs or steroids, without bogus supplements, and while training less total hours than before.
Find out his advanced muscle building strategies on how to build muscle, fast!
Whether you approach your physique as a hobby or a job, you should not leave any element to chance and hope it works.  In order to defeat plateaus and forge a ripped and muscular body you need all the tips and tricks you can get.  None of these techniques will work alone but by combining as many together as possible you’ll see a huge difference in your muscle growth – faster than before.
1. Begin with 3-4 full body weight training workouts per week.  Max of one hour per session.  This is a great level to make sure you don't overtrain and harm your results.  Any more than this could be counterproductive.
2. Take your body weight in pounds and multiply it by 15 to determine your daily caloric intake if you want to gain weight.

3. Perform only 1 exercise per body part each full-body workout but perform a different exercise for each body part every workout.  By the end of the week you’ll have hit each muscle group three times from three different angles.

4. Consume carbohydrates in a 2:1 ratio to protein after your workout in liquid form (a good post workout shake).

5. Perform each set to muscular failure.

6. Use a training journal and track your progress.

7. Drink at least 4-6 liters of water each day.

8. Vary your rep and set schemes more frequently than any other training variable.

9. Focus on exploding up on the concentric portion of your movement and taking 3-4 seconds for the eccentric portion of your program.  Most people lower the weight way too fast!

10. Aim to build about 4-6 pounds of lean muscle mass each 1-2 months.  Anything more will be fat gain.

11. Eat at least 10-15 serving of fruits and vegetables each day.  Some veggies even contain specific phytonutrients that can fight abdominal fat

12. Focus on compound movements for 80-90% of your workouts.

13. Alternate between dumbbells and barbells every 2 weeks.

14. Only change an exercise when you plateau on two workouts in a row.

15. Enter a fitness model or bodybuilding show or transformation contest to keep you motivated.  Don't underestimate the power of a deadline to meet your goals!

16. Follow a specific program for at least 12-16 weeks before trying your next one.

17. Pyramiding your sets to consistently increase your strength 5% each week.

18. Consume a variety of whole eggs, chicken, lean beef, fish and whole-milk throughout the day for high quality (bioavailable) muscle building protein.  And yes, whole eggs are better for you than egg whites, explained here.

19. Use a training partner for motivation and an extra push to experience faster muscular growth.

20. Never train hungry if you want to build muscle fast.
Before we get to tips 21 - 41, make sure to sign up for Mike Geary's fat burning email tips... you don't want to miss these if you want to get lean and ripped:

21. Concentrate your carbohydrates when your body needs them most –- breakfast, pre-workout and post workout.

22. Ensure you do the squat and the deadlift each week to increase the release of growth hormone and testosterone.

23. Hire a personal trainer if you have never received professional coaching on technique and form.

24. Stretch at least half the amount of time that you lift.  If you lift 3 hours a week, schedule at least 1.5 hours of yoga or static stretching. 

25. Train a muscle group through it's entire range of motion to stimulate muscle size.  There is a time and place for partial range of motion training, but most of the time full ROM wins.

26. Use a 3-day a week 20-minute interval cardio plan, post-workout, to maximize the muscle to fat ratio while bulking.

27. Train your most underdeveloped muscle group first in each workout.

28. Avoid processed food, packaged food and fast food.

29. Avoid protein bars and any muscle building supplement that has sucralose, aspartame, or other artificial sweeteners.  Also avoid bars that have soy protein or any corn syrups.  If you haven't heard, eating too much processed soy can harm your hormone levels. 

30. Get at least 8-hours of uninterrupted sleep each night.  You'd be suprised how important this is for keeping balanced hormones.

31. Don’t be afraid to overload your muscles with maximal resistance and miss your goal reps.

32. Consume a combination of olive oil, fish oil (or the more powerful Krill Oil), coconut oil, mixed nuts and natural peanut butter or almond butter each day to make sure you get ample healthy fats for testosterone and other muscle building hormone production.  Getting enough fats is key to keeping high testosterone levels.

33. Take a complete week off after 12-16 weeks of training.  This is vitally important for allowing your body to recover and not burn out.

34. Get a spotter to help you with your heaviest set.

35. Have a training program.  Never go to the gym without a plan.

36. Perform 5-10 minutes of dynamic stretching before each weight training workout.

37. Schedule regular ART-therapy or massage therapy to avoid injuries.

38. Cold shower after every intense weight training workout.  It sucks, but it works. Some studies show increased muscle recovery from this technique.

39. Eat at least 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass each day.  I know there's conflicting info about the proper amount of protein, but results speak, and I know plenty of bodybuilders who swear by this rule.

40. The core of your workout should revolve around the major multi-joint lifts: squats, deadlifts, rows, presses, pull ups, dips and weighted core work. 

41. Train with someone bigger and stronger than you. You'll be challenged and motivated to work out harder.

If you liked today's article feel free to share with your training partners and friends.

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7 "FATTY" Foods that Can Help You to Get a Flat Stomach (some of these will surprise you!)

These 7 shocking Fatty (but healthy) super-foods can actually help you to burn body fat faster!
by Mike Geary, Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Specialist
Author of best-sellers:  The Fat Burning Kitchen & The Top 101 Foods that FIGHT Aging

At this point, the anti-fat propaganda has died and almost everybody understands by now that eating fat doesn't necessarily make you fat.  In fact, it's absolutely imperative to get enough healthy fats in your diet to keep your hormones balanced, blood sugar under control, and prevent cravings.  Here are 7 examples of "fatty" foods that can actually HELP you to get lean...

1.  Super Dark Chocolate (at least 72% cacao content or higher)
It might not be a secret anymore, but yes, dark chocolate (NOT milk chocolate) can be a very healthy food, even though it is technically calorie dense.
However, I would contend that dark chocolate can actually HELP you to burn off more body fat if you're the type of person that has a sweet tooth and likes to eat a lot of desserts.  In this case, just 1 or 2 small squares of dark chocolate can many times satisfy your sweet tooth for only 30 or 40 calories as opposed to 500 calories for a piece of chocolate cake or a piece of pie.
Also some brands of dark chocolate that are in the mid 70's in % cacao content or higher, can have a fairly high ratio of fiber content (I've seen some brands have 5 grams of fiber out of 15 grams of total carbs per serving), and relatively low sugar content compared to the amount of healthy fats.  In fact, that's one of the "tricks" I use to select a good quality chocolate... I look for more total fat than total carbs (or about the same number of grams of each).
The importance of that fact is that it means many dark chocolates will not greatly affect your blood sugar and will have a fairly blunted blood sugar response compared to other "sweets".
In addition, dark chocolate is also very rich in healthful antioxidants, including a powerful compound called theobromine which has been shown to help lower blood pressure and have other health benefits.  The fat content in a good dark chocolate should come solely from the natural healthy fats occuring in cocoa butter and not from any other added fats.  Any chocolates with added fats or other additives will generally not be as healthy.
The reason I say to choose dark chocolates with at least 72% cacao content is that the higher the % of cacao, the lower the % of sugar.  However, this does mean that any chocolate over 80% cacao content will generally start to get a more bitter taste and have very little sweetness.  If you like this type of taste, then the higher % cocao, the better. Otherwise, a good 75% dark chocolate is in my opinion an almost perfect combination of lightly sweet with a rich chocolate taste.  Just remember to keep those daily quantities of chocolate small as it is calorie dense!
You can also reap the benefits of the antioxidants and fiber without all of the calories by using organic unsweetened cocoa powder in your smoothies or other recipes.

2.  Coconut milk, coconut flour, and coconut oil
Coconut milk and oil are great sources of a super healthy type of saturated fat called medium chain triglycerides (MCTs), including a component called lauric acid, which is a powerful nutrient for your immune system, and is lacking in most western diets.  In addition, MCTs are readily used for energy by the body and less likely to be stored as bodyfat compared to other types of fats.
Along with coconut milk and coconut oil as healthy fat choices, we've also got coconut flour as a healthier flour option for baking. Coconut flour is an extremely high fiber flour alternative (almost ALL of the carbs in this flour are fiber and not starch!).  Coconut flour is also VERY high in protein compared to most flours and is also gluten free!
Just beware that if you're going to use coconut flour for baking, it absolutely NEEDS to be mixed with other flours as it sucks up moisture like crazy... I've made delicious baked goods by mixing coconut flour with almond flour and quinoa flour in equal parts, and adding slightly more liquid ingredients than the recipe calls for.

3.  Grass-fed (pasture-raised) butter
Yes, delicious smooth and rich BUTTER (real butter, not deadly margarine!)... It's delicious, contains loads of healthy nutritional factors, and does NOT have to be avoided in order to get lean.  In fact, I eat a couple pats of grass-fed butter daily and maintain single digit bodyfat most times of the year.
There's a lot of confusion about this topic... in fact, I just saw a TV show today that was talking about unhealthy foods and one of the first things they showed was butter.  It just shows that the majority of the population has zero idea that butter (grass-fed only!) can actually be a healthy part of your diet.
In fact, there's even ample evidence that REAL butter can even help you to lose body fat for a couple of main reasons:
   a.  Grass-fed butter is known to have high levels of a healthy fat called CLA, which has been shown to have anti-cancer properties, and also has been shown to help burn abdominal fat and build lean muscle.
   b.  Grass-fed butter also has an ideal balance of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids (unlike conventional grain-fed butter) which helps fight inflammation in your body, and can help balance hormones.
   c.  The healthy fats in grass-fed butter also contain MCTs, which help to boost your immune system and are readily burned by the body for energy.  The healthy fats in grass-fed butter also help to satisfy your appetite and control blood sugar levels, both of which help you to stay lean!
If you have a hard time finding a grass-fed butter at your grocery store, Kerrygold Irish butter is one of my favorites, and even though the label doesn't clearly state "grass-fed", the cows are 100% grass-fed on lush green pastures in Ireland. It's one of the richest butters in color that I've seen, which indicates high levels of carotenoids.

4.  Whole Eggs, including the yolk (not just egg whites)
Most people know that eggs are one of the highest quality sources of protein.  However, most people don't know that the egg yolks are the healthiest part of the egg... that's where almost all of the vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants (such as lutein) are found in eggs.
In fact, the egg yolks contain more than 90% of the calcium, iron, phosphorus, zinc, thiamin, B6, folate, and B12, and panthothenic acid of the egg. In addition, the yolks contain ALL of the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K in the egg, as well as ALL of the essential fatty acids.  Also, the protein of whole eggs is more bio-available than egg whites alone due to a more balanced amino acid profile that the yolks help to build.
Just make sure to choose free-range organic eggs instead of normal grocery store eggs.  Similar to the grass-fed beef scenerio, the nutrient content of the eggs and the balance between healthy omega-3 fatty acids and inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids (in excess) is controlled by the diet of the hens.
Chickens that are allowed to roam free outside and eat a more natural diet will give you healthier, more nutrient-rich eggs with a healthier fat balance compared with your typical grocery store eggs (that came from chickens fed nothing but soy and corn and crowded inside "egg factories" all day long).

5.  Grass-fed beef or bison (NOT the typical grain-fed grocery store beef!)
I know most people think that red meat is unhealthy for you, but that's because they do not understand how the health of the animal affects how healthy the meat is for consumption.  Keep this in mind -- "an unhealthy animal provides unhealthy meat, but a healthy animal provides healthy meat".
Typical beef or bison that you see at the grocery store is raised on grains, mainly corn (and to some extent, soybeans). Soy and corn are NOT the natural diet of cattle or bison, and therefore changes the chemical balance of fats and other nutrients in the beef or bison.  Grain-fed beef and bison is typically WAY too high in omega-6 fats and WAY too low in omega-3 fats.  In addition, the practice of feeding cattle corn and soy as the main portion of their diet upsets their digestive system and makes them sick... and it also increases the amount of dangerous e-coli in the meat.  This is not the case with grass-fed meat.
On the other hand, grass-fed beef from cattle and buffalo (or bison) that were raised on the type of natural foods that they were meant to eat in nature (grass and other forage), have much higher levels of healthy omega-3 fats and lower levels of inflammatory omega-6 fats (that most people already eat way too much of) compared to grain fed beef or bison.
Grass fed meats also typically contain up to 3 times the Vitamin E as in grain fed meats.
In addition, grass-fed meat from healthy cattle or bison also contain a special healthy fat called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) in MUCH higher levels than grain-fed meat.  CLA has been proven in scientific studies in recent years to help in burning fat and building lean muscle (which can help you lose weight!).  These benefits are on top of the fact that grass-fed meats are some of the highest quality proteins that you can possibly eat... and this also aids in burning fat and building lean muscle.
Grass-fed meats are a little harder to find, but just ask your butcher or find a specialty grocery store and they usually have cuts available.

6.  Avocados
Even though avocados are typically thought of as a "fatty food", they are chock full of healthy fats!  Not only is this fruit (yes, surprisingly, avocados are actually a fruit) super-high in monounsaturated fat, but also chock full of vitamins, minerals, micro-nutrients, and antioxidants.
Also, in my opinion, guacamole (mashed avocados with garlic, onion, tomato, pepper, etc) is one of the most delicious food toppings ever created, and you can be happy to know that it's also one of the healthiest toppings you can use on your foods.  Try sliced avocados or guacamole on sandwiches, burgers, eggs or omelets, on salads or with fish, or as a delicious side to just about any meal.
The quality dose of healthy fats, fiber, and micronutrients that you get from avocados helps your body to maintain proper levels of hormones that help with fat loss and muscle building.  Also, since avocados are an extremely satiating food, eating them helps to reduce your appetite in the hours after your meal.  Say goodbye to junk food cravings and bring on that fat burning!  I personally eat anywhere from a half to a full avocado DAILY and it only helps to keep me lean.

7.  Nuts:  Walnuts, Almonds, Pistachios, Pecans, Brazil Nuts, Macadamias, etc  
Yes, this is yet another "fatty food" that can actually help you burn belly fat!  Although nuts are generally between 75-90% fat in terms of a ratio of fat calories to total calories, this is another type of food that is all healthy fats, along with high levels of micronutrients such as vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.  Nuts are also a good source of fiber and protein, which of course, you know helps to control blood sugar and can aid in fat loss.
Nuts also help to maintain good levels of fat burning hormones in your body (adequate healthy fat intake is vitally important to hormone balance) as well as helping to control appetite and cravings so that you essentially eat less calories overall, even though you're consuming a high-fat food.  My favorite healthy nuts are pecans, pistachios, almonds, macadamias, and walnuts, and by eating them in variety, you help to broaden the types of vitamins and minerals and also the balance of polyunsaturated to monounsaturated fats you obtain.
Try to find raw nuts instead of roasted nuts if you can, as it helps to maintain the quality and nutritional content of the healthy fats that you will eat.
Also, try to broaden your horizons beyond the typical peanut butter that most people eat, and try almond butter, cashew butter, pecan butter, or macadamia butter to add variety to your diet.
One of the little "tricks" that I've used with clients when trying to cut down body fat is to have them eat a handful of nuts such as almonds or pecans about 20 minutes before lunch and dinner.  This ends up being a perfect time to control your appetite before lunch or dinner and helps you to eat less overall calories on that meal.
I hope you enjoyed this look at some of the healthiest "fatty" fat-burning foods you can possibly eat.  I could list a ton more, but wanted to give you a few of my favorites for now.  Enjoy!

But BEWARE...
Although these "fatty" foods may be a super-healthy choice for achieving your lean, strong, and energetic body... I've discovered that there are at least 23 popular foods that most people falsely think are "healthy", but they actually HARM your metabolism and pack on belly fat.

Discover what these metabolism-harming foods are on the next page:

These 23 "healthy" foods HARM your metabolism & pack on belly fat (avoid these!)

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Harvard Study Shows an Obscure Trick

Harvard Study Shows an Obscure Trick to Make ANY Exercise Program or Workout MUCH More Effective

Hotel cleaning attendants got "tricked" by researchers into burning more fat in 4 weeks. They also lowered their blood pressure, and improved their waist to hip ratio. This article explains what factor caused these benefits!

by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer
Author of best-sellers:  The Fat Burning Kitchen  &  Do This, Burn Fat: 101 Sneaky Weight Loss Tricks

I've read about this very interesting Harvard University study about exercise multiple times in the past, but I was just recently reminded about this study again while reading the fascinating book called 59 Seconds by Richard Wiseman.
Pay attention, because this actually shows a pretty powerful trick that you can use to literally make ANY workout or exercise program a LOT more effective and results producing.
According to the book 59 Seconds, here's how this study was carried out:
Researchers at Harvard University studied over 80 hotel room cleaning attendants from 7 different hotels.  The hotel room attendants naturally received a lot of exercise from their daily jobs, which included cleaning an average of 15 rooms per day at about 25 minutes per room.  This work involves a good deal of exercise in carrying things, scrubbing, lifting objects, vacuuming, and so on.
The researchers knew the hotel maids led an active lifestyle from their work, but also questioned whether most of the maids may not realize that their work was actually good for their health.  The researchers set out to study the effects on the hotel attendants of making them very aware of how beneficial the exercise they got while working was for their health, and to see if this increased the results that they actually received from the exercise.
Basically, the question was... Would telling them that their work was great exercise improve their health, lower their blood pressure, and help them to lose weight compared to the hotel attendants that didn't realize their work was in fact "exercise"?
The hotel attendants were split into 2 groups:
1. This group was informed about the benefits of exercise and told how many calories they were burning while doing their hotel cleaning work each day. They were specifically told how many calories activities such as changing sheets, vacumming, and scrubbing bathrooms were burning each hour.
The researchers also wanted this information to stick in their heads daily, so they gave the attendants a handout showing the quantities of calories they were burning doing each activity of their jobs.  They were also shown a poster daily that reinforced how many calories they were burning.
2.  The control group of hotel cleaning attendants was simply informed of the benefits of exercise, but were NOT told how many calories they were burning doing their work, and also were NOT told that their work actually constituted a good form of exercise.
The researchers studied the existing lifestyles of all of the participants in both groups as well as giving them various health tests, including weigh-ins.
The study was conducted for 4 weeks.  The researchers made sure that none of the participants had actually changed their exercise habits, smoking, or eating habits outside of work.  This assured that there was no external lifestyle factor that could have accounted for the results of the study.
In addition, the hotel managers assured that the workloads of both groups stayed the same throughout the entire experiment.
Here are the VERY interesting results:
It turned out that the group of hotel cleaning attendants that was informed daily about the calorie-burning effects of their normal work routines ended up losing a significant amount of weight, lowered their body mass index and waist-to-hip ratio, and decreased their blood pressure.
The control group of hotel attendants that was not told about the calories they burned while doing their work showed NONE of these improvements.
Wow... very interesting huh!
Remember that each of these groups received the SAME amount of exercise and did not alter their lifestyle, eating habits, drinking habits, smoking, or anything else.  The only thing that was different between the 2 groups was simply that the one group was constantly being reminded of how beneficial the exercise during their work was for their health and how many calories they were burning, and therefore their minds were busy believing in the benefits of it.
This actually doesn't surprise me... this is classic placebo effect at work here, and reinforces how powerful our brains are in relation to the results we get from exercise, food, supplements, etc.
How to use this info to burn more fat in your workouts, build more lean muscle, and improve your health more from exercise and nutrition
There's a good lesson in this study.  If you strongly believe in your mind that the workouts that you are doing are drastically improving your body, your results will increase dramatically from those workouts.
The trick I've used over the years is to really "get mental" during your workouts and believe strongly that the exercise you are doing is transforming your body into a lean chiseled machine. (This is assuming that you're actually doing legit workouts such as Truth About Abs routines and not just wasting time reading a magazine while pedaling away on a boring exercise bike or treadmill).
So, if you want to burn more fat, not only do you need to workout intensely (for your individual capabilities), but you also need to mentally visualize the results you're getting, the bodyfat you are burning, and really strongly believe in how powerful the workout routine that you are doing really is for your body.
Along the same lines, if your goal is to build more muscle, then you really need to strongly believe in your mind at how powerfully your workouts are helping you to build muscle.
And this can be applied to your food intake too!
Don't underestimate how powerful your mind really is... If you are eating truly healthy foods such as those detailed in my Fat-Burning Kitchen manual, make sure that you are also actively thinking in your mind about how those foods are dramatically helping your body, making you stronger, making you leaner, improving your energy and health, and so on.
Don't ignore this... this will drastically improve your results if you actively think about how truly healthy the foods you are eating every day are and how they are changing your body.  This is assuming that you actually are eating truly healthy foods every day.
Another benefit of this "mental programming" is that it trains you to actually want to avoid junk foods, because you want to be able to think about how everything you eat is improving your body instead.
So there you go... an interesting study that shows how you can legitimately increase your results from your exercise and nutrition by just actively thinking about the benefits of both every day!
But this trick I just showed you is just one of many more unique and powerful tricks to burn more fat, boost your metabolism and get the body shape that you've always wanted...
Here's What to do Now...
On the next page below, you're going to discover some extremely SIMPLE tricks that you can apply to your daily life to BALANCE your hormones, BOOST your metabolism, and fire up your fat-burning machine inside your body...  there are 101 total "tricks" you can use to flatten your stomach faster and get lean, including these:

• Fat-Burning Trick #1:    The simple twist to your morning routine (takes less than 1 minute) that INSTANTLY jump-starts your metabolism and boosts fat-burning by as much as 30%!
• Fat-Burning Trick #5:    The tasty beverage you've been WARNED to stay away from...but new-found studies reveal the shocking health benefits jam packed in this potent anti-aging & fat-burning "elixer"!
• Fat-Burning Trick #15:    The amazing "super-food" that in one clinical study, dissolved away more than 10 extra pounds in 12 weeks...WITHOUT DIETING or any other lifestyle changes!
• Fat-Burning Trick #99:    The candle (yes, candle) that can help maximize your body’s own natural release of age-defying, fat-melting growth hormone and have less fat on your body within the next 8 hours!
   

Some of these fat-burning tricks are odd, some are crazy, some involve your diet, others exercise, and some involve your mind - but they all have one thing in common... they are all SIMPLE!
All you have to do to discover those tricks, and so many more, is head to the Next Page...

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The 7 Hottest Fat Burning Trends

Losing weight can be fun (and easy) with these workout tips to burn fat faster
by Craig Ballantyne, Men's Health Fitness Advisor, Personal Trainer -


Forget about cardio, machines, and aerobics classes. 
Weight loss workouts have come a long way in the last 10 years to help men and women burn fat faster than ever. We’ve gone from boring, ineffective, long cardio workouts to finally using interval training to lose fat and slash your workout time in half.
I’ve also discovered the fat burning secrets of resistance training and bodyweight exercises to help you lose fat at home without expensive or fancy machines. Heck, you don’t even need a gym membership any more to burn fat effectively.
But there are even more and better ways of burning fat that you might not know about. So here’s Part 1 of the top 7 hottest trends to burn fat this year.
1) Competition & Challenge-Type Workouts Will Be Found in More Fat Loss Programs
The popular 300 challenge workout revolutionized fat burning programs because it introduced a new method internal motivation. By adding some form a challenge workout to your program – such as a workout you try to complete faster and faster each week – you’ll have a better chance of sticking to your program.
In addition to the 300 workout, you could also try one of my Bodyweight 500 workouts, or create your own challenge workout. You could even just try to run a greater distance in 20 minutes each week. Just make sure to switch up your challenge workout every 4 weeks. Challenge yourself and you’ll find this to be a powerful motivational tool to keep your fat loss progress going.
2) We’ll Return to Working Out with a Partner or in a Group for Social Support
In the past few years, many folks started exercising at home by themselves, but there is actually a good reason to invite a friend over for a workout or to exercise in groups.
Research shows that if you workout with a partner who is losing weight, you have a better chance of losing weight yourself. If you are working out by yourself right now and not getting the results you want, then recruit a partner to exercise with you (but make sure you know they will stick with the program and succeed). This could mean that you try to workout regularly with a friend, family member, or spouse.
Bootcamp workouts are also going to be hot, hot, hot as time goes on, as more and more people prefer this motivating, economical way to work out with a trainer while getting social support from a dozen or so other men and women with the same goals. This will also expose you to more success stories and people who can give you tips and support to burn fat.
Plus, bootcamp workouts don’t use machines or long cardio exercise, so they must rely on bodyweight exercises and interval training, which you discovered in recent years to work really fast for fat loss. The combination of intervals, bodyweight exercises, and social support are going to help a lot of folks burn fat successfully this year.
3) More and More People Will Start Training Like an Athlete to Burn Fat
Bootcamp training leads perfectly into our next hot tip. This year, you’ll see more and more trainers and fitness magazines showing people how to exercise like a power athlete to burn fat. However, there is a right way and a wrong way to do this.
Just like any fat loss program, the “train like an athlete to burn fat” workouts must be intelligent and professionally designed. After all, it’s sad to see folks doing jumps on concrete, or doing athletic exercises in the wrong order that could lead to injury. That’s not smart athletic training.
When doing a “Fat Burning Athlete Workout”, your program must follow a specific order. You’ll start with a total body warm-up with bodyweight exercises, such as prisoner squats, lunges, pushups, spiderman climbs, planks, and even exercises like hurdle walks, high knees, skipping, inchworms, and walking hamstring stretches.
The correct time to do power exercises, such as jumping or agility drills, is right after your thorough warm-up because you are fresh, not fatigued. This will help you perform jumps and short sprints (or exercises like cleans, kettlebell snatches or medicine ball throws) with maximum effort and proper form. Power exercises should not be done after interval training or any other type of exhaustive exercise.
Following power exercises, an athletic fat burning workout would spent a short amount of time on essential strength exercises, such as squats, upper body exercises (pushing and pulling), and single-leg exercises. This could be followed by strength-endurance exercises if needed, such as high-repetition bodyweight exercises.
Finally, the athletic fat burning program would end with interval training for conditioning and fat loss. This will exhaust your energy stores and you’ll finish with static stretching. These workouts are fun, fast, and effective, and also more applicable to daily living than spending an hour on a cardio machine.
Working out like an athlete will give you the best looking, and best performing body that you’ve ever had!
In Part 2 of the 7 hottest trends for fat loss (article coming soon), you’ll learn about training for personal bests, alternative interval training workouts, the secret to success of the new generation of transformation contests, and the truth about shorter, no-cardio workouts.
Click here to check out Craig's HOT new fat burning Turbulence Training workouts

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