If you’re overweight, losing just 10% of your body weight is associated with a myriad of health benefits, including lowering blood pressure, blood cholesterol, and blood sugar, and reducing your risk for heart disease. Not only that, experts say, but this kind of weight loss is easier to attain and maintain, setting you up for success in the long run.
Your Weight “Set Point”

Just as your body temperature is programmed to stay around 98.6 degrees, your body weight is naturally regulated to stay within a range of 10%-20%, says Thomas Wadden, PhD, director of the Center for Weight and Eating Disorders at University of Pennsylvania Medical School. This weight range is known as the “set point.”

A complex set of hormones, chemicals, and hunger signals help your body naturally maintain your weight within this range, says American Dietetic Association spokeswoman Dawn Jackson Blatner, RD.

It is not just a matter of genetics, though. Your eating and exercise habits can also help to determine your set point.

“Overeating swamps the internal regulatory system, and, as a result, the set point increases — which is much easier to do than it is to lower it,” says Wadden. The body adjusts to the higher weight and “resets” the set point to defend the new weight.

It is difficult, but not impossible, to set your range lower. “With changes in healthy eating and exercise behavior, you can lower your set point,” says Blatner.
The 10% Solution to Weight Loss

A recent book, Break Through Your Set Point: How to Finally Lose the Weight You Want and Keep It Off, by George Blackburn, MD, suggests that maintaining a 10% loss for six months to a year helps your body adjust to the lower weight and thus reset the set point.

Wadden explains that when you lose large amounts of weight at once, you set up an internal struggle and hormones like ghrelin spike to make you hungrier as your body tries to defend its comfortable range.

Instead, experts recommend that you try losing 10% the old-fashioned way — by slowly changing eating and exercise behaviors — then maintain this new weight for a few months before trying to lose more. Not only will your body get the signal to lower its “set point,” but you’ll give yourself a chance to get used to new food choices, smaller portions, and regular exercise.

“When patients lose 10% it may not be the pant size they want, but they start to realize how a little weight loss impacts their health in very positive ways,” says Blatner. “They feel better, sleep better, have more energy or less joint pain, and some people are able to reduce medications.”

source: webmd

The first thing you must know about how to effectively reduce belly fat is that there is no magic bullet when it comes to weight loss. Reducing body fat levels requires a three pronged approach that doesn’t come from popping diet pills or gulping down foul tasting drinks. Belly fat also won’t come off by trying to spot reduce only doing sit-ups or crunches. It’s just not possible to spot reduce, so don’t waste your time.

So, the question remains, how do you effectively reduce belly fat? Here is a safe, practical three pronged approach to get rid of belly fat.

1. Healthy Meals. Notice the word diet isn’t part of the equation. That’s because the word diet conjures up visions of carrots and celery and not much else. The word diet gives us nightmares of deprivation and hunger, and that’s not the image we’re looking for with permanent weight loss. Just because the word diet isn’t used does not mean you’re free to gorge on junk food at will. Healthy meals consist of lean protein, lots of vegetables, whole grains and some fruit. Your should consistantly choose foods that are as close as possible to their natural state.

2. Cardiovascular Exercise. Regular cardiovascular exercise will reduce body fat levels. Where should you start? Wallking is great cardio! Put your shoes on and get moving for at least 30 minutes per day. It doesn’t matter how fast or how far you walk in the beginning, the most important point is that you’re moving your body aerobically on a regular basis. If you don’t enjoy walking then ride a bike, rollerskate, jog, run. Participate in whatever aerobic activity you enjoy.

3. Lift Weights. Yes, you did read that correctly! If you’re wondering what lifting weights has to do with effectively reducing belly fat, then read on. Regular weight lifting has several beneficial effects for those folks trying to reduce their body fat levels. Muscles burn extra calories. The more muscle you carry on your frame, the more calories you burn in a 24 hour period which translates into extra fat burning power. Muscles take up about one third less space than fat. Muscles give you the power to carry on your daily activities more effectively and with energy to spare.

Learning how to effectively reduce belly fat isn’t a difficult task. The three principle keys to getting rid of your gut rely on diet, cardiovascular exercise and weight lifting on a regular basis. Remember, you didn’t sprout belly fat overnight and you can’t get rid of belly fat in a day, but you can reduce belly fat if you’re willing to put forth a bit of
effort.

Pressed for time? Combine two moves into one. For instance, do a squat with an overhead shoulder press, or a reverse lunge with a bicep curl. This is great for a more intense workout or if you’re really crunched for time.
Don’t do the same old thing week after week. Cut your chances of boredom and improve results with these six strategies.

Health Tips 2
If you exercise or engage in any activity that makes you sweat, you need to drink extra water to compensate for the fluid loss. Drink an extra 400 to 600 milliliters of water for short bouts of exercise. During long bouts of intense exercise, it’s best to use a sports drink that contains sodium, as this will help replace sodium lost in sweat. Continue to replace fluids after you’re finished exercising!
Read up on why you shouldn’t use thirst as a guide for how often you should be drinking water.

Health Tips  3
Log off to get a better night’s rest. The brightness of your computer screen stimulates the brain. Plus, it’s difficult for your mind to stop fretting about your digital to-do list, even once you’ve logged off. Avoid late-night surfing and shut down your computer. Give yourself time to wind down without any electronics.
An estimated 65% of Americans said they encounter sleep problems a few nights each week — keep reading for more tips on getting the most out of your beauty rest.

Health Tips 4
Slim and tone your thighs with the Power Plié: Start with your feet a little wider than shoulder width apart and plié into a seated position, pulsing down 30 to 60 times. Next, take your arms above your head, shimmying your hips side to side, pressing down hard into your heel. Then put your hands on your hips and continue pulsing, staying down low while lifting your right heel and then your left.

Health Tips 5
Can stress make you fat? The link has been tough to prove, but after a recent study at Emory University involving the eating habits of female rhesus monkeys, Mark Wilson, Ph.D., concluded that chronic stress could wreak havoc on appetite-control systems, either by dampening levels of leptin, the satiety hormone, or upping levels of ghrelin, the hunger hormone.

Health Tips 6
Take a rest from Facebook-stalking your ex, and try your hand at Bejeweled 2 instead: A recent survey by PopCap Games found that 90 percent of female gamers considered puzzles and online word games a stress-reliever.

Health Tips 7
Brown grain products aren’t necessarily whole grain products. Brown dyes and additives can give foods the deceiving appearance of whole grain. Read labels to be sure a food is whole grain, and try to get three-ounce equivalents of whole grains per day to reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and stroke.

Health Tips 8
Strength-train before doing any cardiovascular work, says Ken Fitzgerald, owner of Lift Gym in New York. Why? It takes the body about 15 minutes to warm up and start burning fat. So, a 30-minute bike ride is really only burning fat for the last 15 minutes of your workout. But, if you lift weights first, your body is warmed up by the time you hit the bike, and you’ll burn fat throughout the entire ride.

Health Tips 9
Marty Munson shows us how to build up to 20 “real” push-ups fast: Get into the plank position and lower yourself to the floor (keep head in line with spine). If you can’t push back up, stay an inch off the floor for as long as you can. Drop, get into plank again, and repeat eight times (three times a week). Once you can do one full push-up, add another every week.

Health Tips 10
Research has shown that people who eat nut butters often weigh less than those who shun them. It’s likely that the combination of protein, fat, and fiber keeps you full, so you’ll eat less overall. Whole nuts are effective, too: Purdue University researchers found that people who added peanuts to their diet for 19 weeks boosted the amount of calories they burned at rest by 11 percent. Why? The unsaturated fat in peanuts and nut butters burns faster than other fats.
The ideal amount of nut butters in your diet and how to incorporate them in your meals.

Health Tips 11
The rower isn’t a wimpy workout if you know how to use it right. Maximize the least-used machine at the gym and get sculpted arms, abs, and back muscles. The trick: After you pull the handle toward you, straighten your arms before you bend your knees.

Health Tips 12
“Vitamins, color, herbs, protein, and all the other additions to water — those are a marketing ploy,” says Marion Nestle, Ph.D., professor of nutrition studies at New York University. Enhanced waters usually contain sugars and artificial flavorings to sweeten the deal and can pack more calories than diet soda. When it comes to providing fluoride, tap water usually wins, though that element is increasingly being added to bottled waters.

Health Tips 13
After the age of 30, your metabolic rate slows down and you lose bone density. This exercise can help reverse the effects of aging: Lay your forearm down on a countertop or other flat surface, and bring one leg up behind you, squeezing in your abdominals. Do 30 leg lifts to the side, and then 30 to the back.

Health Tips 14
Make the most of your workout: Have about 100 calories at least 15 minutes before your workout (try a banana or half of an energy bar). Then have a good breakfast afterward, making sure you get protein, carbs, and fat. (Good combos: fruit and cottage cheese; toast and peanut butter; protein-rich cereal with milk.) The key is not to eat more than usual, but to redistribute more calories to the early part of the day.

Health Tips 15
Aim for 4 to 6 ounces (about the size of your fist) of lean protein, such as chicken, fish, or egg whites, at every meal, says trainer David Kirsch. (He’s the one who whipped Heidi Klum back into shape within eight weeks of giving birth.) In one study, people who got 30 percent of their day’s calories from protein ate 441 fewer calories than people who ate a 15 percent protein diet.

Health Tips 16
If you can stand the outfit changes, divide exercise into two sessions: cardio in the morning and weights in the evening (or vice versa). You’re elevating your metabolism twice, which means you’re burning more calories than if you’d done both in the same session.

Health Tips 17
Pro athletes are using cherry juice to reduce muscle soreness and recovery time after exercise (it won’t get you into a steroid scandal, either). They’re swilling stuff from cherrypharm.com (132 calories per serving) that was found to be surprisingly effective in a 2006 study by Declan Connolly, Ph.D., at the University of Vermont.

Health Tips 18
A wobbly surface like a stability ball makes you recruit more muscle, so you get more from your crunches. With your back on the ball, keep feet flat on the floor, knees bent. Place your hands behind your head. Contract your abs, lifting your shoulder blades and upper back off the ball. DO: Two sets of 20 repetitions, two to three times a week.

Health Tips 19
Bacon won’t ever win any health prizes — in fact, nutritionists consider it a fat (and not a healthy fat!), as opposed to a meat. But it’s not as bad as you might think. One slice, about 1 1/2 tablespoons crumbled, has about the same amount of fat as two tablespoons of feta or shredded cheese or one tablespoon of sunflower seeds.

Health Tips 20
“Your body can interpret excessive exercise as stress, causing you to retain fluid and become constipated,” says Diana Taylor, R.N., Ph.D., at the University of California-San Francisco Center for Reproductive Health. But moderate exercise, such as yoga or walking, can speed things through your system and help nix the problem.

Health Tips 21
People who wear casual shoes burn more calories in a day than people who dress up, according to a recent study by the American Council on Exercise. Wearing comfortable shoes daily could burn an extra 6500 calories a year, thanks to the extra walking you’ll do, says study author Katie Zahour, M.S., a clinical exercise psychologist at the Southwest Florida Heart Group.

Health Tips 22
A heart-rate monitor eliminates “junk workouts,” as heart-rate guru Sally Edwards calls them. Once you know your own personal maximum heart rate (everyone’s is different; see “How Do I Use This Thing?”), you can give a purpose to every workout. Some workouts will be about teaching your body to burn fat (essential if you’re doing endurance events); others will be about teaching it to sustain a high heart rate for a few minutes (helpful for breaking away from the pack or running from a dog or bee in your neighborhood).

Health Tips 23
To firm up the muscles beneath your love handles — known as the external obliques — try the Pilates “100s.” This exercise was found to challenge more overall muscle in one shot (specifically, the muscles spanning the waist) than traditional crunches. To do the 100s, sit on a mat and make a V with your body (your butt forms the bottom of the V). Reach your hands past your knees, arms parallel to the floor. Pump your arms up and down 100 times, inhaling and exhaling every five counts.

Health Tips 24
Colorful, all-vegetable salads offer good-for-you phytonutrients that aren’t available in greens. For instance, powerful antioxidants (anthocyanins) in purplish vegetables such as eggplant help reduce heart-disease risk and improve brain function. Radishes offer cancer-fighting indoles; red tomatoes are the ultimate in lycopene, linked to lower risk of heart disease and cancer.

Health Tips 25
For strong biceps and a beautiful back, try this: Grab a pair of 5- or 8-pound weights. Start by standing with feet shoulder-width apart and your abs pulled in. Start bringing the weights up to your shoulder and then slowly lower them down. Do these biceps curls for 30 to 60 seconds, until you feel an intense burn. Then stand with feet a little wider apart than hips, bend your knees, and bring your torso down toward the floor about 45 degrees. Bring weights all the way to your rib cage, and then extend forward, for 30 to 60 reps.

Health Tips 26
Abs need rest and recovery: It’s only during rest that your muscles build. “Three to five days a week of consistent, dedicated abdominal training should get you strong, sleek abs,” says Kathy Kaehler, trainer and author of Kathy Kaehler’s Celebrity Workouts.

Health Tips 27
Slow down at dinner — the longer you take to eat, the sooner you’ll feel full. And focus on whole grains. It takes more white rice than brown to make you feel just as satisfied. That’s because white rice contains no fiber, a food component that helps you feel full.

Health Tips 28
On its own, your body is naturally conservative when you ask it to do something. If you lift a weight, your body recruits just enough muscle to do it safely, but not necessarily heroically. So when you want to outperform yourself, “you have to fool the body into recruiting more muscle,” says Bobby McGee, a sports psychologist and running coach, which you can do with your mind. If you think you can’t run a seven-minute mile, for instance, your body begins to switch off muscle, leaving you weak and fatigued. But if you think positively, your body will recruit more muscle to do it.

Health Tips 29
Get enough z’s: Too little sleep is bad for your health and your image; it can make you ineffective (it impairs performance, judgment, and the ability to pay attention), sick (it weakens your immune system), and overweight. In fact, women who slept five hours or less a night were a third more likely to gain 33 pounds or more over 16 years than women who slept seven hours, according to a Harvard Nurses’ Health Study.

Health Tips 30
All lettuce is not created equal. Arugula and watercress are superstars, loaded with cancer-fighting compounds. Spinach is another hero because of its cache of lutein, thought to protect against cancer and blindness. And baby versions of kale, mustard greens, and turnip greens are less sharp, tough, and bitter than the grown-ups but are outfitted with the same cancer-fighters. Dark-leaf, mild-tasting greens, including romaine, red-leaf lettuce, and many mesclun mixes, don’t have a wealth of phytonutrients but have respectable levels of beta-carotene. Light greens, like iceberg and endive, are pretty much nutrition duds.

Health Tips 31
To take yourself from 20 or 30 minutes on the treadmill to the finish line of a charity 5K (3.1 miles), follow this plan from running coach Jason Karp: Instead of running two miles three times a week, run different distances each day. Go two miles on Monday, one on Wednesday, and three on Friday. Each week, increase each run by five to 10 minutes (so a 2/1/3 pattern becomes 2.5/1.5/3.5 the next week, 3/2/4 the following week, etc.). Try to get your longer run up to at least five miles.

Health Tips 32
Drink less to eat less. People who quaff sugar-free soft drinks are 41 percent more likely to gain weight than people who drink regular sodas, according to a University of Texas study. Experts speculate the body isn’t fooled by zero-calorie sweets and that it actually searches for sugary foods to make up for calories it expected to get from a faux-sugar beverage.

Health Tips 33
Increase your flexibility faster: Hold your usual stretch for 15 seconds. Release it a bit and contract the muscle you’re working on for six seconds. Stretch for 15 seconds again. Activating the muscle before stretching short-circuits your body’s “not moving any farther” reflex and lets you go deeper. Flexibility is often overlooked, but it’s important to take time for a good stretch.

Health Tips 34
It may be the social lubricant of choice for awkward family or work events, but alcohol is rich in sugar and carbohydrates. Skip sweet cocktails and go for champagne, dry wine, or drinks straight up.

Health Tips 35
Sleep keeps important weight-loss hormones in balance (without it, ghrelin rises, so you’re hungrier, and leptin is suppressed, so you’re not as satisfied by what you do eat). If you don’t have enough time to sleep at night, try to schedule at least a short power nap during the day. If anxiety is keeping you up, practice relaxation techniques before bed: Organize a to-do list for the next day so you know you have everything covered. And don’t stay up watching back-to-back episodes of Entourage. Try getting calm by reading instead.

Health Tips 36
Both skinny and obese people have higher risks of premature death than people who are considered “overweight,” according to a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “Overweight,” according to this study, means a body-mass index (BMI) of 25 to 29.9: For a 5′6″ woman, that’s between 155 and 185 pounds.

Health Tips 37
Stick your butt out on the elliptical machine. This shifts the focus to your butt, hamstrings, outer thighs, and quadriceps. (If you stand up too straight — a common mistake — you work only your quads.)

Health Tips 38
Foods with natural fat-burning properties, such as cayenne, ginger, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, cinnamon, green tea, hot peppers, citrus fruits (especially lemon), and apple cider vinegar, can really help take — and keep — those pounds off when eaten on a regular daily basis.

Health Tips 39
Get your digestive system going before you even start eating by giving your earlobes a quick 30-second rub. It will stimulate the brain, relieve stress, and lower your appetite, all while sitting at the table!

Health Tips 40
Looking for a full-body workout in one move? Try the curtsy: Start by standing with your feet together in a small V position, and then put one leg behind. Staying on the ball of your back foot, bend both knees, and take your hands and lace them behind your back. Then pulse both legs and pull your abs in. Do 30 to 60 repetitions on each leg.

Health Tips 41
For sexy, strong abs, try the Marine Crunch. Lie on your back with your legs raised straight above your hips and your arms reaching to the ceiling. Simultaneously reach your fingertips toward your toes and press your feet toward the ceiling to lift your tailbone off the floor. Beginner tip: Instead of lifting your feet and hands together, alternate between lifting the upper body and the hips.

Health Tips 42
Want Jennifer Aniston’s bod? Celeb trainer Kathy Kaehler says:
1. Eat! Severely cutting calories slows your metabolism and makes you feel deprived.
2. But, eat slowly. After each bite, put down your fork and count to 10. This allows your brain to tell your stomach, “Enough.”
3. Try this must-do move to target your thighs: Place 10 playing cards on the floor. Squat, pick up one card, and shuffle four paces to the right. Squat; put the card down. Shuffle back to the pile, pick another card, and repeat until all 10 cards have been moved to the right.

Health Tips 43
Want slimmer legs and a trimmer waist? Do the Rockette: Start by laying on your back with your hands laced behind your head and your legs straight up, perpendicular to your waist. Pull your abs down toward the floor and lift your head and shoulders up toward the ceiling. Then lower one leg down and bring your opposite shoulder toward that thigh. Alternate for 20 to 40 reps and you’ll slip right into your skinny jeans!

Health Tips 44
Want Jennifer Lopez’s hot body? Quit quick-stepping on the stairclimber! This works fewer muscles and burns fewer calories than long, deep steps. Also, sit still for no more than three minutes between weight-lifting sets. Waiting longer allows your muscles to cool down, weakening the benefits of the exercise.

Health Tips 45
You’ll get the body you want faster by doing 10 slow repetitions of crunches instead of 20 fast ones. Moving slowly — two counts up and two counts down — allows you to use more precise form, which can stimulate your muscles better and make them stronger, says Rodney Corn of the National Academy of Sports Medicine. (The faster you go, the more likely you are to use momentum instead of your abs.) Your muscles should feel tired in 15 reps.
marieclaire.com

Talk with a gym trainer, or look at an exercise video/DVD, to check that you are doing your sit-ups correctly; a trainer friend tells me that incorrect technique will not work your abdominal muscles efficiently and will also put a worrying strain on your back and neck muscles.

The most efficient way to burn fat when exercising is to work within your aerobic zone. To establish this start with the number 210 and subtract your age. Next, work out what 65 to 75 per cent of this figure would be — for you, it is 113-130: if you exercise so that your heartbeats a minute fall between these two numbers then you will burn fat, which I suspect is around your middle. Keep your heart rate in this zone: go above it, and you will burn sugar, which is less efficient for weight loss; going below it is not useful, either. Check your pulse while you’re working out, and you’ll soon become familiar with how your body feels burning fat.
[ad#co-1]

Even though I know you’re within the healthy limits for alcohol, you may notice a difference if you halved your intake. One unit of alcohol means a very small pub measure of wine; the wineglasses we use at home are more like two units (the same applies in restaurants), and I wonder whether that means that your alcohol and calorie consumption is higher than you realise. Alcohol can give us an increased appetite (especially on an empty stomach), so it may be that if you cut down, you will eat less. I find that desperate as I am most nights for a glass of wine, I notice a huge difference in my energy level if I don’t drink during the week. I miss it, but the compensation is not in feeling so exhausted.

You may not be eating enough iron-rich foods, ie, lean red meat, green leafy vegetables, pulses and beans. Look for the seasonal iron-rich vegetables such as curly kale and cavolo nero that are in the shops — these are delicious steamed. If you’re low in iron, you may be anaemic, and it would be worth asking a GP for a blood test. I find that increasing my intake of lean protein (lean red meat, chicken, eggs, fish, beans, lentils) and reducing the carbs (bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, cereals) — I don’t cut them out totally, I just have smaller portions and make up the difference with the lean protein — can make me feel more energised.

It’s possible that you’re eating too much cheese; cut the rind off soft cheeses such as brie, as this reduces the fat and hence the calorie content, and maybe use a cheese-slicer instead of cutting big chunks. Also look at the speed you eat — as a new parent, meals becomes more rushed and you could be eating too quickly to accept when you ought to stop, and portion sizes can creep up. A late afternoon snack just before the children’s bath time — say, a quick bowl of soup, or a few slices of prosciutto and a few cherry tomatoes, or a banana — should keep your energy levels high.
[ad#co-2]

Make sure that you have a large glass of water, or herbal tea. Though you say that you drink lots of water, you may be little dehydrated at this crucial parenting point.

timesonline.com

Experts on the moderate-low intensity cardio/aerobic workouts suggest that in these instances the body uses more fat than carbohydrates as a fuel for the workout. This means that these types of cardio workouts will be beneficial to those who want to lose weight fast. Those who are proponents of high intensity cardio workouts suggest that once the body is made to go through such a workout it will have a higher expenditure of energy and as such the weight loss will be greater. This really needs consideration; what type of workout is more effective?

[ad#co-1]To do this best, we can compare various case studies. Let ’s first consider a man who is between the ages of 30-39 and has a weight of 85Kg. Let ’s also assume that the man has aerobic capacity in the range of 40ml/kg/minute. In this case study we will compare the two training methods both of which will burn up the same number of calories i.e. 500kCal. For the low intensity cardio workout the rate will be set at 65 percent of the maximum heart rate. This is the rate that has been categorized as optimum for fat loss
. As for the high intensity workout the rate will be set at 85 percent of the maximum heart rate. This is the rate that has been preferred when you want to improve the personal aerobic capacity. The 85% rate mostly makes use of carbohydrates as the fuel source.

Moderate rate of 65%: At this rate the person in question will require 55 minutes to burn up the 500 calories. By using a gas analyzer it has been shown that at this rate the fuel contribution is 37% fat and the carbohydrate use is 63%. One gram of fat yields approximately 9kCal. As such the person will have used 79g carbohydrate and 20g fat.

High intensity of 85%: At this rate the 500 calories are burnt up faster i.e. 42 minutes. When we analyze the fuel contribution using the gas analyzer it is observed that 17% is fat while 83% is carbohydrate. This translates into 104g carbohydrate and 9g fat.

By using this case study we can make some inferences about both types of workout. The moderate workout uses more fat for same amount of calorie burnt, more fats are used in similar time, and that the training is less demanding. On the other hand the training benefits are less significant, it is easy to cancel out the benefits acquired depending on your food intake and the amount of fat used is quite insignificant.

For the high intensity workout more energy is used in the same time limit and the training results in greater benefit. The training is harder to perform and fewer fats are burnt off.

These observations should help you make a choice of the regimen that will suit you. Whatever the choice it is prudent to be active and eat healthy.

About the Author
Dane Fletcher is the world-wide authority on bodybuilding and steroids. He has coached countless athletes all over the world. To read more of his work, please visit either http://www.BodybuildingToday.com or http://www.SteroidsToday.com[ad#co-1]