Intermittent Fasting For Weight Loss: 5 Reasons Why It’s So Effective

If you want to lose weight there are a great many different approaches you could take. But unfortunately most of them will turn out to be nothing more than short term fixes. You may get some good results for a while, but when you return to your normal eating habits all the weight you have lost will just go back on again. But successful long term weight loss really boils down to just one thing – you need to consume fewer calories than you expend. And the simplest way to do this is to use intermittent fasting for weight loss.

Intermittent fasting is not really a diet; it's more of a lifestyle. There's no calorie counting or restrictive eating plans involved, and you don't need to worry about combining foods in any particular way. All you need do is stop eating food for about 24 hours one or two days per week.

This means that from dinner one day until dinner the next day all you will consume is water. But the real beauty of this is its flexibility. You can do it as and when you wish, fitting it into your lifestyle in the way that suits you best. And on your non-fasting days you can eat as you normally would if you wish; although you’ll obviously have more success if you stick mostly to healthy food choices.

There are a number of reasons why intermittent fasting is so effective for weight loss, but here are the top five of them…

Fasting For Health: The Top 10 Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting

Apart from eating healthily and exercising regularly, there’s something else you can do that will have a dramatic impact on your long term health – not eating! Going without food for short periods of time on a regular basis (i.e. intermittent fasting) will cleanse, heal and rejuvenate your body like nothing else. And this can lead to some exceptional health benefits.

Fasting has been known for its remarkable healing properties for thousands of years, and today it's becoming more popular than ever. Intermittent fasting simply involves going without food for around 24 hours (i.e. from dinner one day until dinner the next day) once or twice per week. During this time you drink only water (and perhaps some green tea if you wish).

So if you are interested in fasting to improve your health, in this post I'll outline the top 10 benefits you can expect to experience from doing this...

1. You'll Lose Weight Easily

With intermittent fasting you’ll be eating fewer meals per week, so your weekly calorie intake will automatically be reduced, even if you eat as you normally would the rest of the time. This means you can lose weight without worrying about calorie counting or restrictive eating plans. So dieting will be a thing of the past.

A Low Carb Diet Plan For Effective And Permanent Weight Loss

Many people struggle with their weight their entire lives. They try all kinds of different diets but with no real lasting success. But if you really want to lose the excess fat, and keep it off, a low carb diet plan could be just the thing to make it happen.

Why Low Carb?

If you eat a good healthy diet consisting mostly of natural whole foods, and take some regular exercise, you should be able to maintain a normal body weight without any problem. Sometimes however additional measures may be required if you are having difficulty or want to get even better results. And this is where cutting your carb intake can prove so useful.

If you are overweight it’s because you are consuming too many calories, and also because your hormonal response is causing these calories to be stored as fat. But if you cut your carb intake right down you’ll find this will solve both of those problems.

First when you eat the low carb way your calorie intake will be reduced automatically. This is because it’s very easy to overeat carbohydrates, whereas if you are eating mostly protein foods and vegetables you simply won’t want to eat as much.

A Full Body Workout Routine For Rapid Muscle Gains

If you've struggled to build muscle in the past, or you’re stuck at a plateau, or if you’re just looking for a good workout routine to build muscle as well as increase your strength, this full body workout routine could be just what you need.

A Simple Workout Routine

The uncomplicated plans are usually the ones that work best. If you stick to the big basic exercises you’ll work the most muscle in the least amount of time, and you’ll get the best hormonal response too. So you’ll build muscle faster with this approach than with any other type of program.

With this workout routine you’ll do three short workouts per week, alternating between two different ones. The two workouts have different emphases, and work together to produce the best overall results.

You’ll only do three exercises in each workout – a squat or deadlift together with an upper body push and an upper body pull. But you can add in a fourth later, when you've made a decent amount of progress. A lot of people find they can make good gains on a routine of this sort even when they have failed with everything else.

So your full body workout routine for rapid muscle size and strength gains will be as follows…

The Best Way To Gain Muscle: 10 Tips To Help You Build Muscle Fast

If you want to build muscle, the best way to do it is by lifting weights. However you need to know how to train in the most effective manner if you want to get the best results from your efforts. And although individual requirements do vary, there are some general principles you should adhere to if you want to gain muscle mass in the shortest possible time. So if you want to make some real progress in the gym here are my 10 tips to help you build muscle as fast as possible…

1. Use Compound Exercises

The big multi-joint exercises use the most total muscle when you perform them, and they also stimulate the highest levels of hormonal response. So therefore they will build muscle faster than anything else.

These include exercises such as squats, deadlifts, bench press, barbell row, overhead press, chin-ups and parallel bar dips.

When you've gained a decent amount of muscle size using these movements you can add in some isolation exercises in order to gain additional size in certain specific areas. But compound exercises should always remain the cornerstone of your routine.

The Best Cardio For Weight Loss: A HIIT Workout To Burn Fat Fast

If you want to get fit and healthy, as well as lose some weight, exercise is obviously a vital part of what it will take to achieve this. And both strength training and cardiovascular exercise are required. But if you think doing cardio means spending hours per week on a treadmill or elliptical trainer, I have some good news for you. There’s a type of cardio that is much more effective than jogging for both burning calories and improving fitness. The best cardio for weight loss is in fact a high intensity interval training (HIIT) workout.

What Is High Intensity Interval Training?

High intensity interval training, or HIIT, involves alternating between short bursts of maximum or near maximum effort and periods of active rest. For example you might sprint for 30 seconds and then walk for a minute. HIIT can be done with a wide variety of exercises, including bodyweight exercises or even weights, but sprinting is probably the best.

The Benefits Of HIIT

HIIT burns calories much faster than other forms of exercise. And just as importantly, you continue to burn calories for many hours after your workout. This effect is known as ‘afterburn’ or EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption), and it does not happen to any great extent with other less intense forms of exercise such as jogging.

Essentials Of A Healthy Balanced Diet

Having outlined the four pillars of health in my last post I thought I would expand on the first of the pillars, a healthy balanced diet, in this one.

A good healthy diet needs to supply all three macro-nutrients (proteins, carbohydrates and fats) as well as a wide range of micro-nutrients (vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients etc.) By supplying your body with the nutrients it needs you will ensure it is able to function properly and maintain good health well into old age.

What you don't need is processed, refined and sugary foods. These will do nothing to promote optimum health, but will instead rob you of your health, as well as contribute to weight gain. Your body will deteriorate due to the effects of ageing faster than it otherwise would and your quality of life will be greatly reduced, particularly in your later years. A little of this type of food, say once or twice per week, will not do you any harm; but for the most part you should avoid them.

Instead eat natural whole foods if you want to stay in the best of health for as long as possible. So lets take a look at each of the essential categories of a well balanced diet in turn...