I have found that the best fast loss programs are often the simplest. Fat burning techniques that can be understood clearly and can be fit easily into your schedule on a weekly basis give us the best chance of not only seeing quick fat loss results, but also sticking with the techniques that work so that we can sustain our weight loss beyond the initial phase.

Here are 5 everyday fat burning tips you can work into your schedule immediately:

1. Relaxation and Meditation:  Study after study has shown the link between weight gain and stress in our lives.   In fact, the story is even worse, not only does stress have direct implications on weight gain, it also leads to the worst kind of fat – visceral belly fat.  Stress can directly impact insulin levels and also indirectly impact our emotional state leading to poor discipline, bad choices of food and an overall depression that keeps us from getting out and enjoying life.  In other words, if you don’t deal with stress, often we fall into a ‘spiral’ of unhealthy behaviors.  Head over to this Peak Achievement Site and download your free 20-point guide to meditation and relaxation.  As someone who tried and failed at meditation for almost 10-years but then FINALLY got it and uses it everyday – I can tell you it is the most impactful thing you can do for yourself period!
2. Work activity into your day:  Exercise (both aerobic and strength training) are important to weight loss, yet everyone immediately assumes they have to go take out a $60/month gym membership or start to pay a personal trainer a couple hundred dollars a month to lose weight.  The fact is that you can work enough activity into your schedule so that you don’t have to go to a gym.  Here some ideas:  Rapid walking for 20-minutes when you first get up in the morning or after dinner, take 15-minutes out of your day if you work in an office building and go up and down the stairs, jog on the spot while you watch your favorite evening television show, or fit in 20-30 sit-ups and push-ups into a free 10-minutes here and there.   You will be amazed at how you can fit the required activity into your daily schedule with little to know interruption
3. Cleanse your system:  The majority of us are walking around with digestive, lymphatic and nervous systems that are out of whack.  I regularly visit our good friends over at Awakening Potentials to help keep a healthy gut, keep our immune systems and body filtration filters working properly.  We are all susceptible to parasites, bacteria and enzyme imbalances – when these occur it can be nearly impossible to lose weight
4. Cut down on sugar:  For most people it is not necessary to go on some crazy diet plan that you would normally not stick to anyway – in fact recent research has shown that the rollercoaster impact of losing weight fast and then gaining it back again can be harmful to your body.  So, focus on one simple change in your diet – cut out as much sugar as you can.  For instance, drinking water instead of juice, milk (there are other ways to get your calcium) and soft drinks will dramatically cut the sugar in your diet.  Do this and you can still have the odd desert indulgence and still see a big change in your overall fat burning goals
5. Discipline daily routine:  Look, we all lead crazy lives and at times we lose control of our schedule, but the more consistent we can be with our sleep (at least 6.5 hours each night), meals, meditation or other stress reduction techniques and activity the quicker and more widespread we will see our weight loss objectives be

Now, doesn’t seem so hard does it? 

Look – there are always those of us on the extreme, where a complete lifestyle change (7-days at the gym) will be the right decision, but for most of us that is not who we are, so focusing on these 5 fat burning tips will help to peel off the fat, give you more energy, improve how you look and have dramatic impact on what you can achieve in your life.

His ideas are intriguing if nothing more.  Unfortunately there is much more coverage of his surface ideas, his sales message and his beard than there is of the science behind his treatment of the topic. 

In theory, he has tackled the rather finite types of “damage” that build in our bodies to eventually negate the natural state of existance – at which point we reach mortality.  Carrying on research on these 7 core areas of damage has become his target for hitting the magical point where we reach the first major point of innovation on aging, after which he is quite correct in saying that natural “incremental” innovation should keep anyone who can take advantage of the major innovation ahead of the curve…the only question I would pose is whether there may be more than 1 major innovation required before we can live forever which would throw his predictions off by a matter of a few hundred to a few thousands years…but hey, who’s counting anyway?

Here’s a great video that introduces his thinking and area of research…

The challenge with all of these has long been that they are too disruptive in our lives and often do not result in sustained weight loss plunging those who try these diet programs into deeper depression and anxiety over their weight loss.

Certainly, we all understand that exercise is the other half of the equation for achieving lasting weight loss…but there has long been a debate over the type of exercise. 

If you walk for 45-minutues 3-times a week, is that enough?

Do you have to “feel the pain” of intense aerobic exercise where cardiovascular training comes into play – if so how often and at what heart rate?

Assuming you have improved your diet (not starving yorself, but a sensible diet of eating smaller meals more often so you don’t binge, avoiding highly fatty foods, and getting as much raw fruits and vegetables as you can stand in a week), how does that combine with exercise toward achievement of your weight loss goals?

ABOUT MICE AND WEIGHTLIFTING…

New research released this week from Boston University “Weight Training Reduces Fat And Improve Metabolism In Mice – Science Daily Feb 7″  has once again advanced the notion that there is much more benefit to building muscle mass through weight lifting and resistance training than being stronger or muscular – it has a major role to play in weight loss as well.

The article differentiates between type 1 muscle fibers which are built through endurance training such long-distance running while type 2 muscle fibers are developed through resistance training such as weight lifting.

The study found that the presence of type 2 muscle fibers directly result in losing fat, stabalizing your overall body metabolism and liver function as well as balancing insulin reactions in your body – all favorable conditions for achieving weight loss.

When I first started reading the results of this study, I have to admit – I wondered “how did they get a mouse to lift weights?”  Of course, the development of type 2 muscle mass was created in a lab setting my injecting the mice to enhance the growth of type 2 muscle. 

The results were rather dramatic as mice with higher type 2 muscle mass continued to lose weight even when continuing to be fed a fatty, unhealthy diet demonstrating the importance of type 2 muscle to overall weight loss objectives.

WHAT ABOUT RESISTANCE TRAINING…

Although the study did not elaborate on how much type 2 muscle mass was built in the mice or how that would relate to humans which would give us a clue to how much resistance training we may have to undertake to achieve the same results as the study…suffice it to say that adding a couple of slow-burn, resistance training sessions to your weekly routine appears to be an extremely promising way to help you achieve your weight loss goals.