Keeping Fit is A Daily Battle

Got a question from a reader:

Ok, im 14 and can not find anything that sounds convincing or is true on building ab muscle.

I want to get a 6pack (not to big, just a nice mild look on the skin cerface).

I heard that a good diet helps..

can somebody please share any diets that i should take out which would help me to get a 6pack?

also, what exercise is best?

i have been working on crunches etc… and i have burned away some belly fat which is now making my belly flat, so im hoping that anybody has a good diet and exercise tips etc which they know works?

thanks.

ps/ i was thinking of just eating a small potion of pasta at 12(noon) and again at 5pm each day. and drinking 3pints of water from waking up to noon, and another 8pints between 12 and 5. is this good?

thanks.!

Answer from female author:

Is that diet you mentioned ALL you are thinking of eating?! If so, you are not eating enough!!!! You need to eat way more than that to build muscle and to be healthy - at your age if you starve yourself like that then you will end up damaging your bones, heart and probably stunt your growth so you will never grow to your full height. I know you think eating pasta is not starving yourself but because you are a male and aged 14, that diet would mean your body would go into starvation mode and you would do some serious damage to your body.

First of all you need to eat 3 times a day, eating earlier in the day is more important than eating at night because you burn more calories during the day than you do at night. So make time for breakfast every day! If you want to build muscle then you must eat more protein - carbs will not do much for you apart from give you short bursts of energy.

Men are very lucky in that they can eat pretty much whatever they want and as long as you exercise, you will not put on weight and just get great muscle tone. This is because your body does not have as many fat cells as women so it is actually harder for you to gain fat. I reccomend you go on the men’s health website or start buying that magazine, it has lots of great diet and exercise advice.

I have spent a lot of time reading up on diet and exercise and I think I know my stuff so here are my tips for you:

1. Eat More! You need to be eating 2500 calories a day to maintain your current weight, and if you are building muscle then muscle burns more calories therefore you need to ensure you are eating enough. If you are not giving your body the calories it needs then it will eat into your muscle first, therefore on that diet you outlined you will never gain any muscle and the 6 pack will never happen.

2. Eat more protein! That diet you mentioned only included carbs, you have to be eating a balanced diet to gain muscle and protein is very important in building muscle. Muscle is made out of protein fibres, therefore the more protein you eat the more chance you have of getting a 6-pack! Foods high in protein - Eggs, meat (chicken and fish is best seen as it is a lean meat and has little fat in it)and most diary products (milk, cheese etc), nuts and seeds.

3. Cut out White Carbs! So no white pasta, white bread or white rice. These foods have no nutritional benefit because they are processed, and they will leave you feeling and looking bloated (bye bye 6 pack!). Instead only eat the brown versions - so wholewheat pasta, brown bread and brown rice. These are brown because they have all the vitamins and nutrients left in them, and they are slow release carbs - this means they will release energy slowly giving you more energy throughout the day!

I think if you follow those 3 rules for your diet then you will get the results you want - you dont need to be too strict on what you eat at your age because you need all the energy to grow! And that water consumption you mention in your question, that seems too excessive. You can actually die from drinking too much water, it drowns your body from within! So just drink when you are thirsty, there is no need to go mad with the water! Most of your recommended intake of water should actually be coming from your food, as a lot of foods are 50-90% water. So make sure you eat lots of fruit and veg because these have a high water content and they have lots of vitamins and minerals that you need.

So an ideal diet for you would be this:

Breakfast:

Poached/boiled eggs with brown toast

Or cereal and brown toast if you dont have time for eggs

Lunch:

Anything you like! Make sure it includes carbs for energy, so wholewheat pasta is good, jacket potatoes, sandwiches with brown bread, soup etc

Dinner:

Chicken or fish with vegetables

Or any meat you like with veg

Snacks:

Nuts, fruit

Drinks:

Low sugar cordial, water, fruit juice

Exercise wise - sit-ups, crunches, press-ups…those sorts of things are all you can do to get a 6 pack. You just have to do high repitions of them, so maybe try doing 4 sets of 50 (with about a minutes break in between each set). You should try getting a little cardio in your exercise routine too, as this will help give you definition around your abs. Swimming is brilliant for all over muscle tone as it uses every muscle in the body - but remember that swimming uses lots of calories so again you will have to eat more! Or maybe try jogging once or twice a week, this is another great exercise that will help you tone up.

The main thing for you to achieve what you want is to eat more and stop worrying so much about gaining this 6 pack! I understand all men want the perfect 6-pack abs but often some men just cannot achieve this as their bodies were not made to have 6-packs. Some guys can only achieve a flat stomach with a bit of tone and definition. And most girls dont really like 6-packs anyway, it is a sign that the guy is obsessed with his body and spends way too much time working out! So definition is always better than a 6-pack. I would always go for a guy with a flat stomach over a 6-pack, I think 6 packs look unnatural and ugly!

Just enjoy being a teenager, start eating more of what you want and just be healthy, dont let yourself become obsessed with diet and exercise. You need to find a healthy balance between the two - take my boyfriend for example. He works out 3 times a week with weights and goes running a couple of times a week. He has an amazing body but no 6-pack! But he has such great muscle definition and he is really toned, and he gets so much attention from the girls! But guess what - he eats like a pig and drinks beer all the time! He loves pizza, and eating all sorts of food that you wouldnt normally associate with a healthy body. But the way he sees it is that he can eat what he wants as long as he works out and doesnt eat rubbish all the time.

I hope this helps and good luck!

This may sound contrary to many but achieving weight loss is really not an end by itself.

If you lose enough weight to achieve your ideal body weight, that’s great! Now, you want to maintain it, don’t you?

On the other hand, if you’re on a weight loss program, after losing several pounds, it is a good idea to maintain your weight for certain period to allow your body to adjust to that of your new base weight.

In fact, I know someone who achieved his ideal body weight and then gain back every pound of it and worst of all, he became obese in a few short years.

This person completed his first marathon which helped him to shed around 10 pounds to achieve the ideal body he wanted. And then in a matter of months, he was celebrating, enjoying, traveling, eating and drinking without caring about his body!

All his efforts for the intense nine months training for his first marathon went down the drain in a few months! He stopped running altogether, and eating like there’s no tomorrow.

Here’s five steps you can take to maintain your body weight:

STEP 1 - Set your goal and write it down

Many self development gurus advocate that to achieve something, you must first set your goals and to write it down.

You must be thinking what goal is there to set since you merely want to maintain your weight. But the truth is that even maintaining your body weight itself is a goal. Because your weight can actually swing the other way and you start gaining pounds!

STEP 2 - Find out how many calories your body need

As you probably know, how many calories your body need depends on many factors like your basal metabolism rate, age, sex, job, activity level. In fact, it is almost impossible to be precise due to these variables.

However, there is a rule of thumb based on your level of exercise:

- Light Exercise: Multiply your weight in pounds by 14

- Moderate Exercise: Multiply your weight in pounds by 16

- Heavy Exercise: Multiply your weight in pounds by 18

For example, Kelly weighs 140 pounds. She is moderately active. Her calorie needs are 140 x 16 = 2240 calories/day

Again, remember that this is just an approximate guideline.

STEP 3 - Record your food intake

Now, it is essential to record your food intake for at least three days.

Next, you need to check out from some reliable sources the calories for the amount and type of food you consume.

The idea is to take a sample of the foods you consume for three days so that you would know your typical calorie intake. If you need 2240 calories per day to maintain your body weight as in the above example and you find yourself consuming 2600 calories, at least you know where lies the problem and begin to take the necessary action.

STEP 4 - Focus on aerobics rather than fat burning

To lose weight, we focus on the fat burning zone of 55 to 70% of our target heart rate (which is equal to 220 less our age in years).

However, since your objective is to maintain weight, focus on the higher range of 70 to 80% of target heart rate when you exercise. This is the aerobic zone where you build up your aerobic fitness rather than burn fats.

CAUTION: Please consult with your doctor/physician before embarking on any form of exercise.

STEP 5 - Check your weight regularly

Now it’s time to make friends with the scale. Form a habit to check and record your weight at around the same time everyday such as in the morning.

STEP 6 - Adjust your eating and exercise level

Note that your weight will most likely vary from day to day. So, what you’re checking is a trend, not the minor fluctuations of half a pound either way.

For instance, if your weight goes up for 3 to 5 consecutive days, you would know that you have to eat less and exercise more.

Now that you know how to maintain your body weight, it’s time to take action to make it happen so that you can enjoy a healthy life.

Great reminder to once again go back to basic.

6 great tips on losing weight fast

1. Eat lots of green carbohydrates, like green beans, broccoli and lettuce because they are great for you and include fiber.

2. Increase your fiber intake, but make sure you do this slowly. Eat apple and bread to get fiber. Fiber makes you feel full and this decrease the want to eat.

3. Eat in smaller portion six times a day. This is a very important tip on losing weight fast. You need to keep your metabolism burning. People that eat 3 times a day are obese and sluggish. Keeping the metabolism burning helps burn fat and increase energy level.

4. Start an exercise program that includes lifting weights and a cardiovascular workout. You need to gain lean muscle mass in order to remove excess fat. I recommend walking each day for 1 hour to achieve this.

5. Drink plenty of water. Your body needs water to remove toxin and keep your feeling good and full all day. Water is one of the most important things you can consume to lose weight and feel great.

6. Get plenty of Protein. Protein helps build lean muscle mass and is an essential part of any tip on losing weight. Eat plenty of foods that contain protein, like chicken and grass fed cow meat.

Those 6 tips above mixed with the diet I’ am about to tell you about will cause you to lose weight rapidly in your diet plan.

The diet I am referring to follows a calorie shifting routine. This means eating different foods everyday so that you trick your body’s metabolism. The most common reason most people can’t lose weight on a diet is because they have a strict diet in which they eat the same foods each day.

This tells your body that it only consumes a certain number of calories a day, so your metabolism will adapt to it and will not burn off anything else.

With the calorie shifting routine, you trick your body everyday about what you will be consuming. Your body will turn into a burning machine because it doesn’t know what calorie will come next.

This is good because on the days we eat a lower amount, a lot of fat will be burned off. The best diet plan that follows this calorie shifting routine is called Fat loss 4 Idiots.

Even the most dedicated fitness fanatics can dread a workout. There’s nothing wrong with taking a day off when you’re just not feeling it, but when a lack of motivation persists, it’s all too easy for those days off to build up into a block of sedentary time.

Staying motivated requires an understanding of purpose, so be your own coach and keep track of your fitness goals in a separate journal. Whether you’re hoping to run a marathon or trying to run a mile, the road to achieving your goals takes inner strength and drive. Once you have reached one of your goals, make self-motivation a habit by setting a new one to take its place.

There are online journals and can be used free! Try one in Global Health.

So you want to lose your belly fat quickly? Fed up of those love handles? Well the answer is to burn off a more calories than you take in. It really is as straightforward as that! One of the keys to burning fat is to speed up your metabolism. The 5 tips below are designed to ensure that your workouts maximise the calories you burn and get your metabolism going!

1. Use More Multi-Muscle Exercises

If you want to lose weight fast, forget about those isolation exercises that body builders use to define certain muscle groups. Choose exercises that allow the most load. Lifting heavier weights will build muscle quicker, and muscle burns fat! So choose a range of lifting exercises that cover your largest muscle sets and that allow you to lift the most weight. Lifts like the bench press for chest and arms, or squats for the legs are good examples. By performing all over body workouts you’ll hit all of your larger muscle groups to ensure maximum calorie burning, your larger muscle groups will burn more calories than the smaller muscles and increase your metabolism.

2. Rest For Less Than 60 Seconds Between Sets.

Keeping your rest periods under 60 seconds will keep your heart rate elevated, thus burning more calories. To help, alternate between leg exercises and upper body exercises, that way you keep your heart rate up but allow different muscle groups to rest to ensure you can keep lifting heavier weights. Only do 2 to 3 sets of around 8 repetitions.

3. Eat A Balanced Diet Of Natural Products

Don’t starve yourself to lose weight. Let exercise burn the body fat. Make sure though that you eat less calories than you plan to use up each day, and stick to natural products rather than processed foods and junk foods.

4. Allow 5 Days Rest Between Your Weights Workouts

When you’re trying to lift heavy weights, you need to allow your muscles time to recover and grow. The growth burns calories and will reduce your body fat ratio. You need to allow 5 days minimum for the muscles to recover and grow after a heavy workout. If you do, you’ll be able to lift more quicker as the muscle grow stronger. Over training will vastly reduce the benefits you see from your workouts.

5. Get On The Treadmill or Out On The Roads

Forget all the fancy machines in your gym! Running burns more calories per hour than any other exercise. So get on the treadmill (or get some fresh air) three to four times per week, and try and run for longer each week. The more minutes you run for, the more calories you’ll burn. Try to run for between 40 - 60 minutes each time and the weight will drop off quickly when coupled with the weight lifting. You should look to vary your runs. For example do some 60 minute runs at a steady speed, then do some 40 minute runs where you run in intervals, which means run fast, then run slow, then run fast again. Interval training will improve your stamina and burn a lot of calories. Lifting heavy weights will tone your body, you don’t need all the fancy machines that most modern gyms offer … run for lengthy periods and lift weights, that’s really all you need to do!

If you do your cardio training on an empty stomach in the morning, you’ll burn up your blood sugar reserves quickly, and then your body will have to turn to your stored body fat for fuel. So by doing your cardio exercises early in the morning before breakfast you’ll burn more body fat than if you exercise later in the day.

Follow these five tips and your stomach fat will disappear quickly to give you the flat, toned stomach you are looking for.

Creatine monohydrate can help you build muscle, make you stronger, and get you leaner.

A number of studies have proven that when creatine supplements are used, together with exercise, significant gains can be made in muscle, strength and endurance. It has also been shown to improve muscle strength and decrease recovery time following a work out.

Creatine monohydrate works best for activities that require rapid or intense effort. Activities such as weight lifting to build muscle and sprinting are examples of this type of activity. If you’re a marathon runner, you may not see the same type of results.

About 93% of all the creatine in your body is stored in the muscles. The reason it is stored in your muscles is that it plays a key role in providing your body with a boost of energy needed to perform work.

The normal energy cycle of the muscle requires a substance called Adenosine Triphosphate or ATP to fuel it. The muscle usually has enough ATP on board to fuel a burst of work lasting about 6 seconds.

Creatine restores the ATP to a state where it can act as fuel for the muscle and continue the burst of activity for about another 6-12 seconds. This is how it helps to build muscle.

A good analogy is to think of the muscle as if it were a high performance engine. ATP is the gas for your engine and creatine is an octane booster that allows you to get better performance from your engine.

The most common effects of creatine include bigger muscles and increased production of muscle tissue.

This translates into more repetitions, more weight lifted and/or the ability to sprint faster. More work equals more muscle and more muscle equals increased strength and endurance.

In addition to helping to build muscle, creatine has been shown to decrease muscle soreness and recovery time needed between work outs. Obviously, being sore can be a negative factor when it comes to working out.

Activities such as jogging or running may not benefit as much from creatine supplementation as weight lifting. The muscles work slower for these activities and seem to be able to restore ATP at a rate that meets the need.

Creatine occurs naturally and can be produced by the body. It is found in beef, pork, salmon, cod, herring and tuna.

But it’s impractical to eat the amount of food needed to achieve the amount of creatine supplementation you desire. Creatine supplementation also allows you to know the exact amount of creatine you are getting.

The normal dose for creatine is between 5 and 10 grams per day. For the fastest results you can “load” the muscles by taking between 15-20 grams of creatine for approximately 5 days.

Once you’ve loaded the muscles, you can maintain the creatine level by taking the normal creatine dose approximately 30-60 minutes before a work out.

Because it is excreted through the kidneys, and due to the increased risk of dehydration, creatine supplements are not recommended for people with kidney disease.

When you first start taking creatine supplements you may notice an immediate gain of weight of between 2 to 5 pounds.

Creatine causes your muscles to store more water which seems to assist in building more muscle. This is a side effect that causes many people to think that creatine is similar to anabolic steroids. Creatine is an amino acid and does not build muscle in the body the same way that steroids do.

The results of creatine supplements vary from minor to significant depending on the person using them. A number of factors come into play that affects the outcome.

Age, sex, work out intensity and frequency as well as how much creatine store you start with all play a part in the results you will achieve.

If you suffer from any chronic illness or are on prescription medications for your heart, blood pressure or other medical conditions you should always consult your medical provider before taking creatine.

If you’re looking to build muscle using only safe, effective ways, creatine may be the supplement to help you do it.

Do you want to lose 10 pounds in 2 weeks and lose fat from your hips, belly and thighs? Then the first thing you need to do is to stop making excuses and start making a difference.

Top 3 excuses for not losing weight:

* “I can’t lose weight because my metabolism slows down as I get older”- The truth: After the age of 30 the metabolism slows down only by 2-3% per decade!
* “I was born to be fat”- The truth: Although heredity is important, I have yet to see a starving person who is overweight! Our bodies do not create fat out of thin air. Genetics is only one of the many factors of obesity. The main cause is your behavior. And that’s entirely under your control!
* “I don’t have the time to go on a diet ” - The truth: Eating a healthy meal doesn’t take longer that eating junk food.

After you accept the fact that you are 100% responsible for your situation, then you need to follow the right diet plan.

Lose 10 pounds in 2 weeks - 5 Quick Tips:

* Hide the temptation: clean out your refrigerator and pantry. Get rid of all fatty foods and sweets.
* Always eat breakfast: eating a good breakfast, makes you eat less throughout the day.
* Stop skipping meals: eating 5-6 smaller meals instead of 1-2 big ones can boost your metabolism.
* Get a good night’s sleep: according to medical research sleep deprivation can induce hunger.
* Start weight training: for every pound of muscle your body burns 50 extra calories a day. Training with weight a couple times a week for about 15 minutes, should be enough to build muscle.