When you are healthier, you feel better, and when you feel better, it is much easier to stick to a diet. Even if you are already at a healthy weight, living a healthy lifestyle is involves more aspects than just weight loss. There are a lot of different factors we could make a case for being part of a healthy lifestyle, but I would say that everything that falls under the umbrella of getting healthy can be considered one of four categories:

• Body weight
• Fitness and functionality
• Diet
• Recovery

Your needs in each category need to be met if you want to life a truly healthy lifestyle. Below, you will discover what each category means and what you can do to get healthy in each of these categories.

Body Weight – Living a Healthy Lifestyle

Reaching a healthy body weight is one of the best things you can do to start living a healthy lifestyle. Excess body fat is such a burden for the body to bear for long periods of time and really causes a lot of problems. Heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, coronary disease, and many cancers can be attributed to obesity.

One of the most notable effects of carrying excess body fat is the promotion of inflammation. You may have heard that the body rarely creates or destroys fat cells (also called adipose cells) but instead prefers to expand the size of current cells. As these cells grow, it becomes hard for oxygen to diffuse completely across the large cell. When this occurs, portions of the adipose cell that are furthest from the blood vessels begin to die due to lack of oxygen.

White blood cells then come in to digest and otherwise “clean up” the dead cell matter, and in the process release inflammatory signaling chemicals, particularly cytokines and interleukins (which are a type of cytokine).

These chemicals then float around the body and promote an inflammatory state and can confuse the body into thinking it is sick. This inflammation increases joint pain and swelling, makes us more susceptible to cancer and other illnesses, increases stress, speeds the progression of heart disease, and can cause insulin resistance (ultimately culminating in type-II diabetes).

When you learn this, it is not surprising that being overweight is linked to nearly every chronic health problem, including chronic pain. When you reach a healthy weight, this inflammation is reversed; it is never to late to lose weight.

A good place to start with losing weight is checking out our weight loss diet plans and our exercise for weight loss section. There you will find specific information on diet plans and exercise regimens you can follow to get on the right track to losing weight and living a healthy lifestyle.

Getting Healthy – Are You Underweight?

However, did you know that being too light can also be unhealthy? Statistically, men who have a body fat under 10% and women who have a body fat under 17% do not live as long as men or women who are a healthy body fat percentage (10-18% for men; 17-25% for women).

The reason for this is that if you have very little body fat, you do not have energy stores. If you come down with a chronic illness and are unable to consume or process much food, due to a serious digestive disorder or something like cancer where eating and absorbing food may be difficult, body fat can really come in handy to help supply energy. If you have little extra body fat or muscle, you cannot go without food for long.

Athletes are not necessarily excluded from this either: having a low body fat percentage and intense exercise both actually suppress the immune system. Being an athlete is associated with vigor and vitality, but not necessarily longevity.

Fitness and Functionality

Another aspect of living a healthy lifestyle is simply having good fitness and functionality. If you want to age gracefully, you need to be fit enough to continue to live how you want to live, participate in the activities you want to participate in, and be able to take care of yourself.

When most people think of fitness, the first thing that comes to mind is cardiovascular health. Being fit is more than just working on your cardiovascular health (which is important) but also includes having the strength to perform activities of daily living and being mobile and supple enough to move without joint pain are just as important in living a healthy lifestyle.

Running yourself into a double knee replacement by age 50 is not living a healthy lifestyle. Walking on a daily basis is healthy. Training to be a competitive powerlifter likewise may not be the best for your long-term health, but doing some weight training certainly is.

Being mobile is perhaps the most important aspect of fitness. However, do not confused mobility with flexibility. I would consider being mobile to have good, healthy joint control, which may or may not be achieved through stretching or the ever-popular yoga classes. As an example of this, being extremely flexible and or being “double-jointed” can be considered to be Joint Hypermobility Syndrome, which has now been associated with anxiety and other various unhealthy states (1).

For most, people being active late in life and participating in light activity such as walking, gardening, yard work, and similar activities is enough to maintain adequate mobility. Younger individuals may play recreational sports or participate in exercise classes to stay active and maintain mobility.

I think it is very important for all adults to participate in some form of weight training if you plan on living for a long time. Once you reach 60-65 years of age, the muscle cell loses much of its ability to grow and begins to atrophy. This process is known as sarcopenia. This actually starts around age 40, but rapidly increases in the speed of degeneration by your 60s.

The good news is that older individuals can maintain much of the muscle mass built earlier in life by regularly weight training. As a result, adding a bit of muscle mass to your frame will serve you well in old age, as you can maintain much of it as you age simply by working out regularly. Some muscle loss is avoidable in old age, but you can certainly maintain much more strength by staying active in the gym.

Diet as a Part of a Healthy Lifestyle

Diet is another key aspect to getting healthy. Many whole, natural foods have powerful chemicals and compounds inside which have varying health effects. Most notably, eating a healthy diet is associated positive markers of health: better cholesterol readings, lower blood pressure, more controlled blood sugar. Cosmetically, a healthy diet can improve the quality of skin, nails, and hair.

For example, dry skin often represents a deficiency of certain types of fatty acids. Many people have successfully ditched their anti-inflammatory prescription creams for bottles of fish oil, lecithin (phosphatidylcholine), and phosphatidylserine.

Given that the health benefits of food are so broad and ranging, we will be adding more content to this section of the site soon discussing what a healthy diet actually is and what some of the health benefits of food can be.

Recovery as Part of a Healthy Lifestyle

Recovery is easily the most overlooked aspect of a healthy lifestyle. If you want to be healthy, you need to practice good recovery. Things like light activity (walking) and eating a healthy diet can help with recovery, but there are two particular problem areas where most people fall short: sleeping and stress-management.

Sleeping is important in a healthy lifestyle, there is just no way around it. We will be adding articles shortly to cover sleeping tips. One thing you can do right away to make a difference is to unplug all electronics and turn off all cell-phones at night as your body can actually detect even minute amounts of radiation, which will reduce the quality of your sleep.

The other aspect of recovery is managing stress. If you can reduce your stress levels, you will not have as much to recover from! Successfully battling stress is another topic altogether, so stay tuned for more information on this topic. One thing to note upfront is that stress includes both physical and emotional stress.

Most people only consider emotional stress, but things like being overweight, getting sick, exercising at a very high intensity, and performing hard manual labor can create physical stress, which effects the body much like negative stress.

Living a Healthy Lifestyle – Getting Healthy Conclusion

By reaching a healthy weight, boosting your fitness and functionality, eating a healthy diet, and making time for recovery, you can start living a much healthier lifestyle. While it may seem like a huge commitment to tackle all of these areas, just remember that these aspects help one another and the effects are truly compounding.

By eating healthier, you will reach a healthier weight. By losing weight, you will get better sleep. By getting better sleep, it will be easier to stay active and stick to your diet, which will even further your weight loss efforts. Less body weight means less stress on your body, which ultimately will lead to better sleep. You can see where this is headed!

Once you overcome the initial inertia on the road to getting healthy and truly put an effort into being healthy for a few months, the pieces start falling into place and it becomes much, much easier.

References

1. Bulbena A, Gago J, Pailhez G, Sperry L, Fullana MA, Vilarroya O. Joint hypermobility syndrome is a risk factor trait for anxiety disorders: a 15-year follow-up cohort study. Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2011 Jul-Aug;33(4):363-70.

I recognize that some people on this page are looking to get into bodybuilding, others are into fitness, while yet still more are looking to build weight in order to maintain weight loss (as mentioned in our weight loss tips section). In order to offer an individualized experience, this section of the site will be split up into different subsections.

The first section, which can be found below, will detail exactly how to build muscle in terms of physiology and nutrition, whereas the other sections of this portion of the site will be dedicated towards people who fit into one of three groups: skinny guys (or gals) looking to gain weight, people are looking to gain muscle without gaining much (if any) fat, and for people looking to build muscle in order to aid or maintain their weight loss:

• Skinny Guys and Gals Looking to Build Muscle (coming soon)
• Building Muscle Without Fat Gain (coming soon)
• Weight Training For Weight Loss (coming soon)

The rest of this article will be dedicated to the more serious or curious person who is interested in learning how to build muscle and what factors go into triggering muscle growth. If you not too worried about the why, you can just select you group from the above list to read specifics and get workouts whenever I get around to putting those articles up (hopefully within the next month).

How to Build Muscle – The Physiology of Muscle Building

Building muscle, also known as hypertrophy, is a bit of a mystery to researchers. We know how to build muscle, and we know a lot of the factors which contribute to hypertrophy, but an exact trigger for muscle growth has yet to be identified.

Fortunately, we are getting closer and closer to identifying the optimal way to build muscle. As the days go by, it appears that three specific factors can all contribute to muscle building: muscular tension, structural tension, and local metabolites.

Muscular Tension and Damage is what most people think of when they think of weight training. This is simply the amount of tension placed on the muscle. The heavier the weight used, the higher the muscular tension. High muscular tension is associated with muscle growth. More specifically, the eccentric (the “down phase” of a lift) is associated with the most muscle growth. Most muscular damage occurs during the eccentric portion of the movement.

However, there is more to muscle building than just loading up the bar with very heavy loads. Just look at Olympic Lifters as an example of this: while muscular, they are much smaller than bodybuilders despite getting many concentric-only repetitions with very heavy loads.

Structural Tension and Damage, or non-contractile tension, refers to the stress put on non-contractile portions of the muscle. In other words, the muscle cell is not build entirely out of contractile elements but also has proteins which are built to support the cell structurally. Anything which places tension on the structure seems to induce growth muscular growth as well.

An example of this would be hitting a muscle in the stretch (such as reaching down to the very bottom range of motion on a dumbbell bench press) or even getting a very big “pump” in the muscle to the point where it feels tight. You could then take this a step further by performing an exercise which stretches the muscle once it is pumped or even stretching it out once it was pumped.

Note that this is not the same concept as “sarcoplasmic hypertrophy”, a theory which suggests that the muscle cell’s non-contractile elements can grow in response to high-rep training. This is unproven and unfounded and has been parroted around as gospel despite no proof of its existence.

Instead, what I am referring to here is that by stressing the structural elements of the cell through stretching under load, you may induce muscle growth beyond what you may experience from just normal muscular tension. If a muscle is very full of blood and gets contracted in a stretching position for example, the actual cell membrane will be stressed in addition to the sarcomeres (contractile elements). This is a completely different stress from typical muscular tension and is thought to help a muscle grow.

A real-life example of this is that overhead triceps extensions will help develop the long-head of the triceps (the head of the muscle which forms the bulk of the upper, inner portion of the triceps) since it stretches this muscle, whereas rope push-downs (which do not stretch the upper-head) will result in little development to this part of the triceps.

However, structural tension alone is not to induce muscular growth. This is why we do not see any significant hypertrophy from stretching alone. Just cast your gaze upon the stretching area at your local gym and you are sure to find many unmuscular individuals.

Local Metabolites refers to building up waste products which are associated with resistance training. Things like lactic acid and hypoxia (lack of oxygen) are thought to stimulate growth hormone and local growth factors. When you work out with higher reps, waste products build up in your muscle. This is because when your muscle contracts, the pressure in the blood vessels and veins is too high for blood to flow into them, which causes these metabolites to build up.

The practical implication here is that building up metabolic waste is a key aspect of how to build muscle. This is why bodybuilders often train in higher rep ranges, as these rep ranges give more time for waste to build up. This phenomenon has also given rise to a lot of goofy training implements, such as tight “occlusion bands” which block off blood flow to the muscle. Fortunately, such masochistic equipment is not necessary: blood flow to the muscle can be manipulated by certain training techniques, such as constant tension movements (i.e. leg press without locking out).

Just like the other two factors, this does not seem to work alone. As an example of this, isometrics (muscular contraction without moving, such as holding a weight in a certain position) do not result in significant muscular growth if they are done without any other weight training.

How to Build Muscle – Practical Application

Now that you know how to build muscle, building a training plan is much easier. The key thing to note here is that none of these factors work alone. If you focus entirely on moving the heaviest weights possible, you will get sub-par results, and likewise if you focus solely on getting a “pump” or “burn”, you will also have sub-par results. You need to focus on every asset of muscle building if you want to build muscle quickly and efficiently.

Combining all the factors above, the ideal plan for how to build muscle would include:

• Using heavy weights to maximize muscular tension and damage
• Using higher reps to build up local metabolites and waste products
• Once a muscle is pumped, perform an exercise which stretches it

Now, you can do the first two bullet points in either order, and can mix them up for variety. There are advantages to both approaches. If you perform your heaviest exercises first, you truly get to maximize muscular tension and damage. On the other hand, if you use higher reps first, you might be able to focus in on a particular muscle group during your heavy weight exercises and you get to hit a pumped muscle with a heavy weight, which is a different stress than hitting a “cold” muscle with a heavy weight.

I think in general it is better for newer lifters to focus on heavier weights first, and shift into using higher reps more as they get more advanced. Given the sheer length of this article on how to build muscle, if you are still with me, now is a good time to split off into the three categories of people who might take up weight training:

• Skinny Guys and Gals Looking to Build Muscle (coming soon)
• Building Muscle Without Fat Gain (coming soon)
• Weight Training For Weight Loss (coming soon)

There you will find out how to build muscle in such a way that is consistent with your goals. There are a lot of different ways to build muscle, and you will get a more targeted plan by having clearly defined objectives.

How to Build Muscle – Diet

While weight training is important, it is only half of the how to build muscle equation. If you are serious about building muscle, you will need a good muscle building diet. Given that is another topic altogether, I will be adding that up as a second article soon, so be sure to check back often for the update.

How to Build Muscle – Summary

Now that you know how to build muscle, you know that you can significantly increase the rate at which you build muscle by going beyond the mentality of just “lifting weights”. While some people would suggest that I am over-complicating the issue, the truth is that most people just do not know how to build muscle. If you go to the same gym for a period of years, you will notice that even the regular patrons tend to look the same year after year. Rarely do you find natural lifters who put on an appreciable amount of muscle mass over the years.

Just remember that an ideal muscle-building program will at some point maximize muscular tension, focus on stretching a pumped muscle, and contain enough reps or constant tension periods to build up a sizable amount of metabolic waste. When all three of these factors work on concert, muscle growth is maximized.

However, there is a lot of confusion over which weight exercises are “best” or even necessary in order to lose weight. A lot of things work, but you will understand how to pick your weight loss exercises if you understand how the body actually burns calories. First we will go over each type of weight loss exercise options, and then I will be revealing the little-known method for actually pick out the best exercises for your diet plan and body type.

Types of Weight Loss Exercises

For those looking to lose weight, you have a lot of different types of exercises available to you, including:

• Low-intensity cardio (walking, “taking it easy” on cardio machines)
• High-intensity cardio (jogging, running)
• High-intensity interval training (sprints, circuit training, “boot camps” and similar classes)
• Weight Training

With so many options available to you, many people wonder what the best option is while others assume they have to participate in all of these types of exercises.

The truth is that choosing your exercise plan is very dependent upon your actual diet plan. If your diet plan and your exercise plan do not match up, you will be fatigued, moody, and feel completely miserable. This is a recipe for not sticking to your diet. On the other hand, when your diet and exercise plans are in harmony, you feel better, your workouts are better, and you lose more weight.

The Mechanics of Weight Loss

The easiest way to examine exercise for weight loss is to look at the body’s three different energy systems. To simplify, the body has 3 primary “pathways” it can use to generate energy (i.e. burn calories):

• The Creatine-Phosphate System: Fuels activity for 5-15 seconds; relies on carbohydrates for fuel
• Glycolysis: Fuels activity for up to a minute and a half (and generates lactic acid in the process); relies on carbohydrates for fuel
• Aerobic: Fuels activity lasting longer than a minute and a half; relies on carbohydrates and fat for fuel – the higher the intensity, the more carbs that are necessary

I can just feel eyes glazing over – but understanding this information will make matching up your weight loss diet plan and your weight loss exercise plan very easy. When your diet and exercise plans match up, you will lose more weight and feel better, so it is definitely worth learning.

Below, you will discover why this distinction is so important to your dieting success.

Carbohydrates and Weight Loss Exercises

To clarify the information above, you should know that any sort of exercise that lasts under 2 minutes will use entirely carbohydrates for energy (i.e. weight training, sprints, high-intensity intervals, circuit training, “boot camp” classes). This does not mean that they are not useful weight loss exercises (they are) but rather it means that you are actually burning carbohydrates.

If your weight loss exercise program does not include these types of exercise, your diet plan will not require many carbohydrates. The reason why the average person responds so well to low-carb dieting is simply because they rarely engage the energy systems that burn carbohydrates (weight training, interval training, running).

If you are on the opposite end of the spectrum and are working out hard with weight training and intervals and then try to go low-carb for an extended period of time, you will be very fatigued and irritable.

Burning Fat Through Exercises for Weight Loss

On the other hand, low-intensity aerobic exercise burns primarily fat for energy. The body likes to use fat for energy when it can, but it is not always able to. When the body stores energy in the form of fat, this storage form is very efficient, but it also takes the body a long time to actually convert that fat into usable energy.

When you engage in intense exercise, your body does not have time to get many calories out of fat, so it instead prefers to rely on carbohydrates. This is why walking can seem so effective for weight loss: the intensity of the exercise is low enough that the body can fuel it primarily through burning fat.

Exercise for Weight Loss – Which Exercise Type to Pick

Now that we have established a framework for evaluating exercise plans, I will be going over each of the types of exercise mentioned earlier in the article, revealing to you how to incorporate these into your diets and some workout plans that you can use in order to start burning more fat!

Low-Intensity Cardio and Walking

I think that low-intensity cardio is a great thing to add to any diet plan, even for those who are very advanced or only need to lose a little bit of weight. As mentioned, this type of weight loss exercise relies primarily on fat for energy, and as a result it is extremely effective at getting rid of “trouble spots” and stubborn fat that just will not seem to go.

It is a bit ironic actually; typically the people in the gym looking to lose that last bit of fat train very hard, when the truth is adding in some long duration, low-intensity walking or cardio would probably be best from them. On the other hand, people who need to lose a lot of weight are often the ones taking it easy when they would be better off participating in the higher intensity exercises.

High Intensity Cardio – Jogging, Running, Swimming

I am not a big fan of high-intensity cardio for weight loss. It works well for those that need to lose a lot of weight, but people who need to lose a lot of weight typically are not in good enough shape to actually perform this type of exercise.

The biggest problem with this type of exercise is that it burns a lot of carbohydrates and can even burn up protein (i.e. muscle), making it not very effective for sustained, long-term weight loss. The classic example of this is that elite-level sprinters have much more muscle mass and significantly less body fat when compared to marathon runners. Here is a popular picture demonstrating just that:

Elite marathon runner on the left, elite sprinter on the right.

As you can see in the picture above, despite having very little muscle mass, the marathon runner manages to have a thin layer of body fat, whereas the sprinter on the right has less body fat but much more muscle.

The problem with high-intensity cardio is that is does not tax energy systems which are ideal for weight loss. This type of exercise quickly depletes the glycogen (carbohydrate) content of the muscles and liver. The body can actually extract more energy faster from protein then it can from fat, so when are running hard and dieting simultaneously, you tend to lose muscle mass.

The way around this would be to eat a lot of carbohydrates, but when you do that it can be difficult to lose body fat. No matter how you look at it, jogging is not great for weight loss. If you are obese, you can jog and lose weight quickly (assuming you are fit enough to jog and your body can handle the stress), but if you need to lose less than 30 pounds, jogging and running should not be the bulk of your exercise routine.

Note that there are differences here between women and men. For yet to be discovered mechanisms, women are able to extract energy more readily from fat then men. As a result, women can perform cardio at a slightly higher intensity than men and still use primarily fat for energy. Women, especially petite women, may find some higher intensity cardio is necessary to burn enough calories to lose weight, whereas most men would do better by ignoring this altogether.

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

High intensity interval training refers to interspersed periods of very high intensity exercise followed by periods of rest. People often accidentally lump this in with “cardio” simply because it can get your heart rate pretty high and make you breathe very hard.

However, unlike cardio (which taxes aerobic pathways primarily), high intensity interval training maximizes energy output from the glycolytic pathway. This means that in order to qualify as interval training, you should not be able to perform whatever exercise you are performing for more than 1.5 minutes without resting. Note that circuit training often qualifies as this since you are using different muscle groups for different exercises.

High-intensity interval training is great for nearly everyone that needs to lose more than 10 pounds. It burns a lot of calories and sets up favorable conditions for preserving muscle mass (see the picture of the sprinter).

You may be wondering why high-intensity interval training is good considering it relies on carbohydrates for energy. The reason for this is that your body has to spend a lot of calories each day to perform maintenance on the body. When you spend a lot of energy doing something like high-intensity interval training, a lot of your food intake will go towards replenishing lost energy stores. Meanwhile, your body will be burning fat just to provide energy for its cells which are performing maintenance tasks.

To expand on this, your liver (which processes nutrients and metabolizes various products and nutrients) needs energy to run, just like your muscle cells. If your food intake is going towards replenishing lost energy stores, your body will break down fat to help fuel the activity of the liver and other organs. Your liver may also break down fats into energy forms usable by the brain and the heart (which may not be able to use fat as a primary energy source).

To put it simply: you do not burn fat while performing high-intensity interval training, you burn it after exercise while you are resting. It is superior for fat loss to high-intensity cardio training because HIIT tends to spare muscle (too intense to use protein for energy) whereas high-intensity cardio tends to break down muscle (and not in a good way).

Weight Training

Weight training has a lot in common with high-intensity interval training. The main difference between lifting weights and HIIT is that while resistance training burns less calories than HIIT, it offers protective mechanisms against losing muscle mass and may even build muscle mass.

To clarify, when you diet, your body will not burn exclusively fat for energy. It often will burn muscle for energy, for two reasons: protein (which composes muscle tissue) requires less oxygen to turn into energy than fat does (hence why aerobic athletes have little muscle mass), and because muscle mass is caloricly “expensive” to maintain. A pound of muscle burns around 10 calories per day simply being maintained, so your body is smart enough to try to get rid of it when you are dieting.

This is why 300-400 pound people tend to be much stronger than smaller individuals, even if the smaller individuals are very muscular. A linebacker on an NFL team might be very muscular, but the fatter linemen are the strongest players on the team.

Lifting weights helps prevent this muscle breakdown. To make things really simple, when you lift weights, you are telling your body that you need your muscle, and as a result it is more likely to get spared when you are dieting. This is advantageous for long-term weight loss simply because holding onto muscle mass means you burn more calories.

Another thing to consider is that the less body fat you have, the more your body wants to use your muscle mass for energy. When you are very overweight, you can even build muscle and lose fat at the same time. When you are a normal weight and looking to get a six-pack, your body holds onto its fat and tries to get rid of muscle instead.

Due to these factors, the less body fat you have, the more you need to lift weights. Very overweight individuals can make strength and muscle gains by training with weights just 2 times per week, whereas people who do not have much weight to lose happy to maintain their strength and muscle mass when losing fat.

Exercise for Weight Loss – Putting it All Together

Now that you understand the mechanisms behind exercising for weight loss, you will need to find a way to put it all together in a package that makes sense. This summary below will help you create the perfect individualized weight loss plan, matching up your diet and exercise with your specific situation.

For Those That Need to Lose A Lot of Weight (30+ pounds)

If you need to lose a lot of weight, you can engage in as much exercise as you like – just make sure you start slow and work your way up. I recommend starting with walking and slowly adding in weight training.

Once you get in better shape, you can replace walking with higher-intensity exercise (assuming your health allows for this). However, this is not necessary. If you need to lose a lot of weight, you can definitely do so through just walking each day and following a good diet plan.

Speaking of diet plans, if you have no health problems that preclude you from doing this, a relatively low-carbohydrate diet that is high in protein, vegetables (low-carb – not potatoes), fruits, and legumes would be ideal. Some healthy fats are also necessary to make this work; a blend of all three types of fat tends to work best.

If you have a lot of weight to lose and are not doing any exercise beyond walking, you really do not need to eat much in the way of carbohydrates. People who are carrying around a lot of extra body fat tend to be insulin resistant (do not process carbohydrates well), so if you are not burning them through weight training or high-intensity exercise, you really do not need to be taking them in. Fruit and beans can provide the fiber and carbohydrates you need for optimal body function; there is no reason to eat potatoes or grains (it does not matter if they are “whole”) unless you want to slow your weight loss.

For Those That Need to Lose a Moderate Amount of Weight (15-30 pounds)

If you are at the point where you are overweight but not quite obese, you do have different needs than someone who needs to lose a lot of weight. At this point, I recommend performing weight training 2-3x a week (women) or 3-4x per week (men), as well as performing HIIT at least two days a week.

You should have 2-3 off-days at this point where you do not do HIIT or weight training. You can walk on these days as much as you like, but do not take it too far past this. On your weight training days, you may want to add in some carbohydrates. On your off-days, you will want to be low-carb. On all days you should get plenty of protein and non-starchy vegetables. Legumes and fruit can be used to restore carbohydrate stores on “low carb” days.

Now, at this point, you can really do as much walking or low-intensity cardio as you want, but if you want to get really (i.e. 6-pack for men, bikini body for women), then you may want to lay off the cardio at this point until we get to the next section.

For Those That Need to Lose the Last Few Points (less than 15 pounds)

At this point in your weight loss journey, burning off the last few pounds of stubborn body fat requires some particular plan. At this point, you want to be weight training regularly – at least 3x a week for both men and women, perhaps up to 5 times per week. This is not to build muscle mass but rather when you are trying to get to lean, your body really likes to burn up muscle, so this is just to make sure you burn fat instead of muscle. Even men will not build any muscle mass at this phase.

You will also want to do a lot of low-intensity cardio. On a week-by-week basis, increase this amount by 10-20%. For example, you might start this out by walking 30 minutes a day, 5 days per week. You may increase this to 35 minutes a day on week 2, then 40 minutes a day on week 3.

You want to do the bare minimum that lets you lose .5-1 pound per week, just because your body will adjust its metabolism accordingly and really fight to hold onto those last few pounds. This way, when your weight loss stalls out, you can just keep adding in more cardio. If from the very start you are doing 2 hours of cardio every day, what are you going to do when your weight loss stalls out? Move up to 3 hours? It is best to start low and then increase slowly on a weekly basis.

For diet, I recommend carb-cycling to tie in with this approach. This give you carbohydrates after your weight training sessions and have you go low-carbohydrate on off-days. Whenever possible, you would do your cardio in the morning before you eat anything (fasted). This sets up a good environment to burn fat quickly, even the fat that just will not seem to come off.

If this sounds like a lot, keep in mind that getting really lean is difficult and is not for everyone. This is why when you go to the beach you would be lucky to find a single guy that looks like a model on the cover of Men’s Fitness and why women rarely have bodies like that of Victoria’s Secret models (yet alone fitness models).

Here are some specific articles that you can follow along for more details:

• Good Exercises to Lose Belly Fat – Perfect for those who need to lose 30 pounds or less.

Exercise for Weight Loss – The Ultimate Guide to Weight Loss Exercises Wrap-Up

You should now have a good understanding of how to sync up your weight loss diet plan with your exercise plan. Since this article was quite long, here is a quick summary:

For those who are obese and just looking to get down to a healthy weight, it is as simple as walking regularly and not eating too much. Combine this with a low-carb diet plan and the weight will fly off. For extra credit, throw in a few weight training sessions per week.

If you need to drop 15-30 pounds, you can do this through diet and walking alone, but progress will be slow. You will definitely want to look into adding in weight training and even some high-intensity training to really speed up weight loss.

If you are already a healthy weight and just want to drop those last few pounds, you will want to do a lot of weight training and a lot of low-intensity cardio. I recommend combining this with carb-cycling for maximal results.

Factors Effecting Weight Loss Diet Plans

As a general rule of thumb there are three major factors which may change the efficacy of a diet plan:

Calories in, Calories Out: No matter what type of weight loss diet plan you follow, you will eventually need to burn more calories than you take in.

Ability to Comply: Some diet plans may look great on paper, but if they leave you feeling too hungry or depleted, it will be hard for you to stick with the diet for any length of time. The best diet is typically the one that you can stick to.

Individual Factors: While the first two factors are the most important, there are occasionally some individual factors which might make you want to lean towards one diet type versus the other.

Let’s take a look at each of these factors a bit closer.

Weight Loss Diet Plans: Calories In, Calories Out

No matter what you may have heard about different weight loss diet plans (such as low carb or low fat diets), the truth is that the most important thing you have to consider is how many calories you are eating versus how many calories you are expending. No matter how you set up your carbohydrates, protein, and fat intake, if you are eating too much food, you are not going to lose weight.

What most people do not realize when following this basic guideline is that the effect is cumulative. You should look at your caloric intake over a weekly period rather than a daily period. If you stick to your diet throughout the week and then overeat on the weekend, you may find that you are consuming more calories over the course of a whole week then you burn during the week, which will not allow you to lose weight.

Too often people binge and end up eating several thousand calories above their needs in just a day or two. Note that it is much easier to consume extra calories than it is to not consume enough calories. For example, if you need 2,000 calories a day, if you only eat 1,500 calories, you will be very hungry and yet only be 500 calories below maintenance level. Over 5 days (Monday-Friday) that adds up to 2,500 calories, or about 2/3 a pound of fat. You can stick to your diet very successfully during the week and not even lose a pound!

Now, if you went out to dinner on Saturday and then out for drinks, it is within the realm of reason to pack in 2000-4000 calories over the course of the night. When you add that to whatever you ate earlier in the day, you can easily wipe out a week’s worth of progress in a single night out.

On the other hand, if you diligently diet and exercise throughout the week, you can easily push up your caloric deficit to 5,000 calories for Monday-Friday (500 calories from diet, 500 calories from exercise for 5 days). You can then easily have a night out on Saturday and still lose weight. This highlights the importance of exercise in long-term weight loss.

Learn how to calculate how many calories you should be eating each day in our article: How Many Calories Should I Eat to Lose Weight?

Weight Loss Diet Plans – Ability to Comply

Given that even very strict dieting and exercise plans will only lead to 1-2 pounds of weight loss per week, you have to be willing to follow a weight loss diet plan for a very long period of time if you want to actually lose a significant amount of weight. Additionally, as highlighted above, a single day or two of slacking on a diet can result in losing an entire week’s worth of progress.

For this reason, perhaps the most important thing in the weight loss diet plan that you choose is whether or not it is maintainable for you in the long run. It is much better to follow a diet plan you can maintain forever where you lose .5-1 pound per week than it is to get on a 2-3 pound per week crash diet that you finish with in a month. A slow but steady diet can result in 25-50 pounds of weight loss over the course of a year, whereas a series of failed crash diets usually does not amount to much.

If you find low-carb diets easier to follow than more moderate approaches, go with a low-carb diet. If you low-carb diets leave you tired and irritable, go with something else. Rather than getting caught up in the rapid fat burning potential of a certain diet, just try to find something that fits with your life.

Individual Factors That May Influence Your Weight Loss Diet Plan

There are a lot of different things that may effect your choice in weight loss diet plan. While your primary focus should be on calories in, calories out and the ability to stick to a diet, sometimes individual factors may make one weight loss diet plan more appealing than the other. Some factors include:

Medical Conditions. For example, it is not usually medically advisable for a type-I diabetic to follow a low-carb diet or for someone with kidney disease to consume a high protein diet.

Blood Work. While not necessarily a disease, the results of a blood test may impact your choice in diet plan. For example, a high-carb, low-fat diet might be inappropriate for someone with high triglycerides and very low HDL levels, whereas a low-carb, higher-fat diet might be inappropriate for someone with high LDL. Pre-diabetic levels of blood sugar may make a low-carb diet advisable.

There are many different ways diet can impact blood work, but you should know that most medical schools do not have much curriculum on nutrition. If you have some unusual blood readings you may want to consult a clinical nutritionist in addition to your doctor. Your doctor will be able to check for internal factors like liver, kidney, or insulin sensitivity problems whereas a clinical nutritionist (not just any nutritionist) can help point you towards a diet plan to improve your blood-work.

Current Body Fat Levels. Whenever possible, the more weight you have to lose, the less carbohydrates you should eat. Lower carbohydrate diets work well for people who are overweight and obese, whereas carbohydrates tend to be useful in people who have less weight to lose.

Activity Levels. The more high-intensity exercise you perform, the more carbohydrates you need. If you do not perform much exercise at all, you need very little carbohydrates. Note that while walking is great for weight loss, it does not really stimulate the need for you to eat more carbohydrates. As a result, obese individuals who do nothing or only walk for exercise would be best off following low-carb diets, whereas individuals who weight train, run, or do interval work and are only looking to lose a small amount of weight will need more carbohydrates.

Types of Weight Loss Diet Plans

Now that we have covered the basic mechanics underlying which weight loss diet plan is right for you, I will be giving an overview of each diet type, as well as linking off to articles which contain full diet plans which you can follow along with weight loss tips which will help you troubleshoot any issues you may run into.

Low Carbohydrate Diets

Low-carb diets are some of the most popular diet types of our times, and for good reason: they are very effective. I think low-carb diets are best for those who are doing little to no intense exercise (i.e. nothing, walking, or other light cardio) as well as those who need to lose more then 20 pounds. Men who have a waistline over 36″ and women that have a waistline of over 34″ can benefit from a low-carb diet plan.

Check back shortly as we will add a section detailing how to set up these sorts of diets.

Moderate Diet

A balanced diet which includes some protein, fat, and carbohydrates is often makes for a good long-term diet plan. The biggest problem with a moderate diet in my experience is not effectiveness but rather compliance. It is hard to feel satiated (i.e. not hungry) if you are in any significant caloric deficit.

However, you can really ramp this up by changing around how you eat depending on the day of the week and turn the average diet into a great weight loss diet plan. Check back soon for more specifics. What I recommend is a light form of carb cycling, and this works well for those that still need to lose weight but are also exercising regularly.

Check back soon as I will be adding information on this type of diet.

Carbohydrate Cycling

Carbohydrate cycling is the most advanced type of weight loss diet plan, and as such it is best used for those that are advanced! It involves changing the amount of carbohydrates you are eating on a daily basis based on your workout schedule, with your hardest training days having a very high carbohydrate intake and low fat intake, while your days off from the gym you end up going for a very low-carb approach.

In order to make this type of dieting effective, you already need to at a decent weight and work out pretty seriously. I will be adding details on this soon enough.

Alternative Diet Plans

Some people may not be able to follow the plans above due to dietary restrictions such as allergies or beliefs. No matter what your dietary exclusions are, you can still lose weight. We will be adding weight loss diet plans below for people who have certain dietary restrictions or other needs:

• Quick Weight Loss Diet Plan – For those who need to lose weight fast.
• Vegetarian Weight Loss Diet Plan – For those that do not eat meat.
• Healthy Weight Loss Diet Plan – For those who are fine with slow but steady, healthy weight loss.

Weight Loss Diet Plan – Summary

Just remember that there are a lot of weight loss diet plans out there which can work well and some individualization may come into play, but in order to be effective, weight loss plans need to induce a caloric deficit and need to be something you can comply with.

Rather than provide people with the knowledge and weight loss tips that they need to be successful in their efforts to lose weight, the diet industry, and even nutrition science, have more served to confuse and confound people, than to help.

What is healthy food is a question that used to be based in common sense. And the short answer is, well, food. Much of what we consume today would more properly be referred to as “food-like substances”, the term coined by writer Michael Pollan.

This is due to the fact that our foods are so laden with chemicals, preservatives, and additives, that someone from a few generations past might not even recognize it as food.

For those who want to know what is healthy food, and what constitutes a healthy eating plan, there are a few bits of advice that will really help one get started on the path to weight loss success.

Small and Frequent Meals

Part of what makes us reach for that bag of chips or box of cookies is the idea that we need to eat three large meals a day. What this really means is, hours and hours between meals, and our bodies need a fairly regular source of energy, even just to get us through the basic functions of daily living.

Naturally, we get hungry when we grab a bagel or donut at seven in the morning and do not get to eat again until noon.

Smaller, but more frequent meals not only help to reduce between meal hunger pangs – as you are eating more frequently – but is also acts to help keep your metabolism elevated for longer, throughout the day, and this will aid in your weight loss efforts.

The Place of Meat in the Diet

The Standard American Diet, which is, sadly, spreading rapidly around the world, gives one the impression that meat is the point of the meal. What this translates to is over sized portions of protein on a plate, surrounded by a few afterthought carbs and maybe, just maybe, some sort of vegetable.

This is part of the problem with the SAD (which really is pretty sad when you think about it). Meat is the point of the meal, the focus, and the other stuff is just an afterthought.

Meat, and protein in general, should merely be a part of the meal, not the point. When wanting to know “what is healthy food, and what constitutes a healthy meal?” a plate that has about three times as much “other stuff” as meat (in proper proportions of course), is more appropriate than a giant hunk of meat with a few obligatory veggies.

Why Whole Grains?

The reason that whole grains are such an important part of the “what is healthy food” equation, is the ability these foods have to help regulate blood sugar. Foods that act to regulate blood sugar will help to curb hunger, aid in fat burning, and keep you fuller, longer.

Science has begun to show us that certain foods will actually aid our bodies in our weight loss efforts due to the effect they have on the physiology of our bodily systems.

While all are still in agreement that a well balanced diet that is loaded with fruits and vegetables, as well as lean protein is the best way to go, there are certain foods and weight loss tips you can turn to for a bit of extra help.

Dairy products have been shown to help aid in burning fat for those who pair their quality dairy intake with a balanced diet and moderate exercise.

The calcium and Vitamin D in dairy products actually aids in boosting one’s metabolism. The consumption of dairy products is also being shown to have the ability to bind to certain fats, making it easier for them to be passed through the digestive system, as opposed to being converted into fat by the body.

Chiles of various sorts – cayenne, habanero, jalapeno, and even serrano – have also been shown to help aid in weight loss. These fiery little guys are packed with a plant-based chemical called capsaicin.

That hot under the collar feeling you get when eating spicy foods containing these chiles is not just an illusion, these chiles actually boost your metabolism. Some studies have shown that this effect can even last far beyond consumption.

Whole grains too are a great answer to that question “what foods burn fat?”. Foods like whole wheat products and whole grain oats are great aids in weight loss. While is not a direct fat burning food, it does help you feel fuller than refined grains.

Not only do these foods help to keep you fuller longer, which helps to reduce the need to reach for between-meal snacks, these foods also aid in keeping your blood sugar regulated. This regulation of blood sugar is what makes these foods so powerful for the dieter.

Not only are excess levels of blood sugar implicated in the development of Type 2 diabetes, it is also a culprit behind excessive weight gain. Foods that act to help regulate one’s blood sugar will not only reduce your risk for this horrible, but completely preventable disease, but they are powerful allies in your efforts to eat to lose weight.

Lean proteins, especially seafood such as salmon and tuna, which are high in Omega-3 fatty acids have also shown promise as being foods that help burn fat.

This lean protein helps to properly fuel the body with the type of calories it needs to make it through the day. It has also been shown that those who regularly consume fatty, oily fish are likely to lose more weight than those who consume red meat or poultry.

By adding any number of these foods to your diet, you have found that food can be a huge ally in your efforts to lose weight. Focusing on whole foods and a balanced diet, and utilizing some of the tips laid forth in this piece will help you on the right path to success.

It is hard to have any hope after trying diet upon diet that seemed too good to be true, only to find out that, it was indeed, too good to be true. This often creates a yo-yo pattern whereby we lose and gain the same 20-50 pounds over and over again, but each successive time gets harder and harder.

The problem with the diet industry is that it focuses on just one aspect of weight loss tips when it is really a holistic issue. One nutrient or one food is the “magic bullet” that will help melt off those pounds fast!

We are all starting to realize that this, unfortunately, holds no basis in reality. So we are looking for tips to lose weight fast that really work. Not in the short-term, not in theory, but ways to lose weight that will actually lead to tangible results.

Light but Enjoyable Activities

No matter what this diet book or that bestselling supplement creator tells you, the best tips to lose weight fast involve getting active.

This does not mean that you must turn into a gym rat – though if that is what you choose to do, you have to work with whatever works for you. But the fact is, most people do not like exercise, and they dislike the gym even more.

If you want to find ways to get in physical activity, that do not feel akin to torture, think outside the box a little bit. A few days a week spent hiking, cycling, swimming, or jogging are great and relaxing activities that will give you a full body workout.

Rollerblading with the kids, or joining in a community sports league are other great ways to get active, that feel more like play than work. This is what makes this one of best tips to lose weight fast, and also makes it so powerful – you are more likely to stick with a physical fitness regimen you enjoy, than one you dread like a plague.

500-calorie a Day Reduction

Rather than subjecting your body to a crash or starvation diet, you can use the idea of caloric reduction as yet another of the tips to lose weight fast that actually work. You might be wondering why this method works as opposed to those laid forth in the many diet plans that call for severe caloric restrictions.

The problem with severely limiting your caloric intake is that the body requires a certain number of minimal calories with which to maintain basic bodily functions.

When you dip below this mark, your body reverts to starvation mode. When you begin to eat a normal number of calories again, you are likely to see the weight pile right back on, as your body is preparing for future times where calories are “in short supply”.

However, a reduction of 500-calories or less from your recommended daily caloric intake is a great way to jump start your weight loss, and can result in the loss of up to 3 pounds a week.

The answer to the question, “how do you lose weight?” is not as clear as it really should be. And even when it is laid out in clear and concise weight loss tips, many people are reluctant to believe the advice that actually works.

Part of this is probably wishful thinking, but more of it can be attributed to societies love affair with specific nutrients and spot exercises. As is the nature of modern science, we as a society like to break things down into neat little packages and try to study them as discrete systems.

While this might help us learn a lot about our surroundings and even about ourselves, it does not take into account the need for a holistic approach and viewpoint, as well as the fact that everything, at least when it comes to the human body, is connected.

This means that the effect of one change in diet or lifestyle will have an effect on the entire body, not just a targeted part of it. This is why spot exercises do not work, and why a focus on a specific nutrient, as opposed to an overall healthy eating pattern does not work either.

Proper Diet

The confusion that surrounds a proper diet comes mostly due to lost knowledge. Not very long ago, eating out was a rare treat, not a common, everyday occurrence.

Fast food is good in part because if you load down anything with enough fat and salt (and we cannot forget the cheese!), it will taste pretty good. Even if we were to make comparable meals at home, that would be far better for us than what we currently consume on a daily basis. The ability to cook is a skill that is rapidly being lost.

However, when you cook your own food, you have control over every ingredient that goes into the meal. Even if you do not have the time or wherewithal to succeed in the kitchen, focusing on a balanced diet of whole grains, lean proteins, and plenty of fruits and vegetables is always the way to go.

Meat should not be the centerpiece to a meal, but rather a part of it. Vegetables must extend beyond French fries, and fruits cannot all be consumed in the form of juice.

Getting Active

If you want to answer the question “how do you lose weight?” getting active is the other, but equally important side of the same proverbial coin.

The best way to lose weight and stay healthy is to get active. But this does not mean that you have to turn into one of those people who spends their life in a gym. Moderate, but regular exercise is just fine.

In order to truly succeed in your efforts to lose weight, you have to have a clear idea of where you are, and where you need to go. You also need to understand that reality must play a part in your planning.

If you do not cook, nor have the time, you are doomed to fail if your healthy eating plan is reliant on home cooked meals. Just as you would be doomed to fail should you insist on subjecting yourself to a brutal exercise regimen that you absolutely hate.

You may stick with it for awhile, but it will get old. This illustrates the importance of finding ways to make a healthy lifestyle actually work for you.

Many are starting to see through the false promises of these industries, coming to the realization that there are no magic short cuts, and that when it comes to fat burning tips, it is going to require one to get moving and make lifestyle changes.

However, with all the increases in scientific knowledge, a lot of us have lost that innate common sense about, well, what weight loss tips make sense and what seems like a bad idea.

We look at the body as a commingling of different systems, and often fail to take a holistic look at how it all works together. The body is an interconnected set of systems and it is time to take back that common sense that served past generations well.

Before nutrition science and exercise physiology, we had advice on the best fat burning tips, the best ways to be healthy and fit, and believe it or not, even with all the knowledge we have gained, most of this advice is still the best there is on offer. Sad thing is, that does not sell very many books.

Get Moving, but Take it Slow

The inspiration to get moving can take us a bit by storm and the enthusiasm we feel can make us want to dive into a new active lifestyle head first.

But by doing so, you are actually putting yourself at risk of being sidelined due to injury. While getting active is one of the key fat burning tips, there is a correct way to approach physical activity.

This does mean ensuring that you always take care to properly stretch before becoming physically active, but it also has to do with how you begin your activity as well. Going from a predominately sedentary lifestyle to a very active one can literally shock your body.

This means that you should start off slowly in your efforts. Start off with a day or two a week dedicated to a moderate amount of your chosen exercise, then, after a couple of weeks, kick it up a notch until you have reached your desired level of frequency and intensity.

Fuel Your Body for Increased Levels of Activity

One of the biggest fat burning tips that goes unnoticed is that need to properly fuel your body. When you are starting a weight loss plan that includes fitness, many make the mistake of cutting their calories far too much.

While cutting calories is a way to lose weight, as calories in-calories out is important, in order to get the most out of your physical fitness efforts, the body needs to be fueled and refueled in order to maximize the results and allow for proper recovery post-work out.

The best way to do this is to eat small, but frequent meals. This will keep you fuller throughout the day, and it will also help to reduce your need to snack. Doing this will also mean that your body always has high quality, healthy fuel at the ready to help get your through your exercise regimen.

However, that is not the case, you can find the fastest weight loss plan that will work for you with just a bit of weight loss tips. Your weight and your health are never beyond hope, though after multiple failures, or successes that later turn to failure when the weight is put back on, really take a toll on people.

What we are starting to see is that most diets just do not work. Part of the problem is the way that we, as a society, and the weight loss industry, view the concept of a “diet”.

When many hear that word, most of us imagine “the cabbage soup diet”, “the South Beach Diet”, “the Adkins diet”, or some other fad diet. The fact of the matter is the word “diet” merely refers to our overall pattern of eating.

For those who want to be successful, in the long-term, while also finding the fastest weight loss plan to assist us in achieving said goals, read on for a great and proven combination.

The Diabetic Diet

Diabetic diet plans and food lists are great resources for those looking for the fastest weight loss plan, that still maintains an adequate caloric and nutrient intake.

One need not be diabetic to yield a great deal of highly valuable and useful information from these plans. In fact, a good number of truly solid and well balanced eating plans are based, at least in a conceptual way, on the principles of a diabetic diet.

Diabetic diets makes some of the greatest and fastest weight loss plans because of the focus on foods that help to regulate and lower the levels of glucose in the bloodstream, as well as to learn which foods serve to causes spikes in the level of glucose in the bloodstream.

For the diabetic, excessive levels of glucose are the primary causation behind the development of the disease. For an overweight individual, it is also the primary cause of excessive weight gain.

By looking to these diet plans and lists as a basis from which to develop your own personal eating pattern, that takes into account your lifestyle, as well as your tastes, you have found one of the fastest weight loss plans available, that will not backfire on you in the end, as is so common with most fad diets.

Cardio and Strength Training

The fastest weight loss plan will also need to include physical activity. Getting active is not only a great way to enhance your health, it is vital when you want to see results, and see them fast.

However, it is key to understand that one needs to focus on full body exercises, and not fall prey to the false logic behind so-called “spot exercises”. The body is a complex, interconnected set of systems and to burn fat fast, you need to work the entire body, not just specific parts.

Cardio combined with strength or resistance training is the perfect combination to burn fat fast, and help to replace that fat with toned, sculpted, and lean muscle.

A great way to put this concept into practice is to participate in light resistance training or weight lifting a couple of times a week, alternated with a few days a week spent on some sort of cardio exercise such as swimming or cycling.