5 Interesting Facts You Don't Know About Body Fat

We dissect the science of fat to help you pick the smartest strategies for losing it

Fat is the ultimate three-letter word, especially the kind that you spend so much time watching your diet and hitting the gym to keep at bay (or at least to keep off your butt). But beyond making you look less-than-svelte, fat can have significant physical and emotional implications. We talked to Shawn Talbott, Ph.D., a nutritional biochemist and author of The Secret of Vigor: How to Overcome Burnout, Restore Biochemical Balance, and Reclaim Your Natural Energy, to find out a few essential facts that might surprise you.

1. Fat Comes in Different Colors
More specifically, there are different types of fat that have different hues and functions, according to Talbott: white, brown, and beige. The white fat is what most people think of as fat—pale and useless. Useless in that it has a low metabolic rate so it doesn’t help you burn any calories the way muscle does, and it’s the predominant type of fat in the human body, encompassing more than 90 percent of it. In other words, it’s a storage unit for extra calories.

Brown fat is darker in color due to a rich blood supply and can actually burn calories rather than storing them—but only if you’re a rat (or other mammal); certain critters can activate brown fat to burn calories and generate heat to keep them warm in winter. Humans, sadly, have so little brown fat that it won’t help you burn calories or keep you warm.

The third type of fat, beige fat, is in between white and brown in terms of its calorie-burning ability, which is actually very exciting. Why? Because researchers are looking into ways to shift white fat cells into more metabolically active beige ones via diet and exercise or supplements. In fact, there is preliminary evidence that certain hormones which are activated by exercise may convert white fat cells into beige ones, as well as some evidence that certain foods such as brown seaweed, licorice root, and hot peppers may have the ability to do this as well.

2. The Fat On Your Butt is Healthier than the Fat on Your Belly
It’s probably safe to say that no woman favors the fat on one body part over another, but it’s actually safer health-wise to be more of a pear than an apple, Talbott says. Belly fat, also known as visceral fat, is much more responsive to the stress hormone cortisol compared to the fat on your thighs or butt, so when stress hits hard (and you don’t find a healthy way to handle it), any extra calories consumed are more likely to end up around your middle.

Belly fat is also much more inflammatory than fat located elsewhere in the body and can create its own inflammatory chemicals (as a tumor would). These chemicals travel to the brain and make you hungry and tired, so you’re more likely to overeat or eat junk food and not exercise, thus creating a vicious cycle and perpetuating the storage of more belly fat. The good news is that anything that helps you reduce inflammation helps reduce those signals to the brain. Talbott recommends fish oil (for the Omega 3’s) and probiotics, which you can take in pill form or get by eating yogurt with active cultures.

3. First You Burn Calories, Second You Burn Fat
The term “fat-burning” is thrown around willy-nilly in fitness circles, but as an expression of weight loss, it’s indirect. Before you “burn” fat, you burn calories, whether those calories come from stored carbohydrates (glycogen and blood sugar) or from stored body fat. The more calories you burn during each workout, the bigger deficit you will create and the more fat you will lose.

You can also create a calorie deficit by eating less. The trick, though, is time, since it’s hard for most people to put in the time needed to burn enough calories to make a weight-loss dent. Talbott (and many other experts) advocates high-intensity interval training (HIIT) to burn as many calories as possible in as short amount of time as possible. This method, which alternates between hard/easy efforts, can burn double the calories in the same amount of time spent exercising in a steady state.

4. Fat Affects Your Mood
Certainly there is no easier way to ruin your day than seeing you’ve gone up a few numbers on the scale, but having excess fat—especially around your belly—activates that inflammation/cortisol cycle, which studies show may be a factor in serious mood disorders like bipolar disorder. If you’re stuck in a stress/eat/gain/stress cycle, however, you’re likely to experience at least a perpetually low mood, even if you don’t have an actual clinical condition.

To help break the cycle, try eating a square of dark chocolate, suggests Talbott; there is just enough sugar to satisfy a stress-induced craving, but the healthy flavonoids help calm inflammation that leads to more stress. Low-fat dairy products like yogurt can have a similar effect—the combination of calcium and magnesium can help calm the stress response.

5. Even Skinny People Can Have Cellulite
The dreaded c-word is caused by fat trapped under the skin (known as subcutaneous fat). The overlying skin "dimples" are created by connective tissues that tie the skin to the underlying muscle, with fat trapped in between like a sandwich. You don’t need a lot of fat to cause a dimpling effect, so you can be in great shape and have low body fat but still have a little pocket of dimpled fat, for example, on your butt or the backs of your thighs.

Building muscle while losing fat (and the fat loss part is key—you have to have it to lose) can help minimize the appearance of cellulite; cellulite-specific creams and lotions can also help minimize the look of dimpled skin (though they can’t do anything about the trapped fat beneath).

Lose Weight With The Fat Loss Factor

The Fat Loss Factor is a 12-week online weight loss program created by Dr. Charles Michael Allen and his wife Lori Allen.

One of the main featuers of the system is detoxification. Trying to lose weight by dieting and exercising without the removal of toxins is only part of the equation. Toxins is what causing stubborn fat cells to reside in our bodies.

Likewise, trying to lose weight just by detoxing is extremely healthy, but the fact of the matter still remains that you must not eat more than your caloric daily intake in order to lose weight. The Fat Loss Factor combines these problems into a resolution that you can download in just 3 minutes following Dr. Charles' presentation.

With the program you will get an entire bundle of bonuses that are simply too much for me to list here (I don't like it when my posts get too long).

Take the first step and watch this very entertaining and educational free video presentation by clicking HERE or on the button below.

Find Out 3 Surprising Reasons You Don't Lose Fat

The secret to melting off your middle? Approach your workout more like a man! Here's why

A man can learn a lot from observing women in a book club for five minutes. I would know because my wife is part of a one, and every time I spend a little time with those ladies I come away much wiser and more convinced that men and women could not be much more different—unless you’re talking about exercise.

You see, the exercise techniques that work best are universal to men and women. And yet most women wouldn’t dare approach the gym like a guy. How do I know? Because the 10 women at my wife’s book club told me so last night, and it’s the same thing I’ve heard for the last 10 years in the fitness industry. The reality is that training “like a man” will actually make you leaner, sexier, and have your friends dying to know your secret.

So forget gender differences for a moment. Here are three tips that are part of the foundation of my New York Times best-selling book, Man 2.0: Engineering the Alpha. They work well for men, but like most things in life, by following these simple rules, the end result will look even better on a woman.

Rule 1: Stick to the Basics

Everyone loves to create exercises that make working out more fun. And that’s fine; your workout should be enjoyable. But thinking that Bosu ball balancing acts or one-legged plié jumps while holding a kettlebell will get you fitter faster just isn’t accurate. If you want results, you have to stick with what we know works. And that’s classic, multi-muscle exercises like squats and deadlifts. These exercises work because they force you to use multiple muscle groups at once. And the more muscles you activate, the more fat you’ll slash.

These may seem like exercises for guys, but not all squats are done with a barbell loaded with lots of weight. (Although women shouldn't fear heavier weights; they don’t make you bulky.) Variations of these exercises are timeless and extremely effective. Grab a pair of dumbbells and try Bulgarian split squats. Your legs and butt will thank you.

Rule 2: Less Cardio

More women perform cardio as a means to lose weight than men. This is not a stereotype—it’s reality. That’s not to say men aren’t equally guilty. It's true cardio helps you burn calories… but so does eating. So that’s not the issue; you want to find the most efficient ways to burn calories and more importantly fat. And you want to build a body that makes it easier for you to enjoy the foods you love, right?

That’s why cardio isn’t the answer. Or, at least, it’s not the primary solution. Cardio will burn calories, and weight training is more likely to burn fat. If you’re going to do cardio, make it secondary to weight training. That means either doing cardio on separate days (if you have the time) or after a weight training workout. The best thing about lifting weights is that your body adapts to the new muscle mass you'll build, which means your metabolism will be higher, you'll burn more calories, and you'll change your hormones (like insulin) to be able to handle the foods you love.

Rule 3: More Intensity

I’ve spent enough time in the gym to know that making fitness social is a great idea. Few things are better than going to gym with friends or being part of group fitness, whether it’s bootcamp, Crossfit, or Zumba. What’s not okay is focusing on the social aspect more than the workout itself. Most guys go in with a “go big or go home” mentality. While this can lead to injuries, it's closer to the right mindset in terms of getting results.

When you go to the gym, you want to get in and get out. Longer workouts are not better workouts. Intense workouts are what works. Your heart rate should be elevated and you should be sweating and feeling your muscles work. Completely transforming your body does not take a lot of time—but it does take a lot of effort. If you want an idea of what all out effort feels like, try this simple two-exercise sequence. It's called a countdown. It might only take 10 minutes, but it might feel like the hardest workout you've ever performed. Use this as a baseline for how hard you should be pushing to get the body you want.

Countdown Workout

• Perform 10 reps of a kettlebell (or dumbbell) swing
• Without rest, do 10 reps of burpees
• Still without resting, do 9 reps of the swings
• Now do 9 reps of burpees

Continue this pattern until you do just 1 rep of each exercise, trying to rest as little as possible (or not at all) between moves.

Lose Weight With The Fat Loss Factor

The Fat Loss Factor is a 12-week online weight loss program created by Dr. Charles Michael Allen and his wife Lori Allen.

One of the main featuers of the system is detoxification. Trying to lose weight by dieting and exercising without the removal of toxins is only part of the equation. Toxins is what causing stubborn fat cells to reside in our bodies.

Likewise, trying to lose weight just by detoxing is extremely healthy, but the fact of the matter still remains that you must not eat more than your caloric daily intake in order to lose weight. The Fat Loss Factor combines these problems into a resolution that you can download in just 3 minutes following Dr. Charles' presentation.

With the program you will get an entire bundle of bonuses that are simply too much for me to list here (I don't like it when my posts get too long).

Take the first step and watch this very entertaining and educational free video presentation by clicking HERE or on the button below.

Spring Cleaning: How Many Calories Do You Burn Doing Chores?

There's a reason they call it housework! Here's how to burn serious calories during a cleaning session

While it still may not feel like spring, winter has, at least officially, come and gone. We're hoping for warmer weather any day now, and in the meantime, getting ready to celebrate the season.

Spring cleaning might not be the most exciting way to "celebrate," but consider the upsides: airing out the sheets and sweeping away the dust bunnies can help you manage seasonal allergies and keep germs at bay—not to mention burn a few extra calories.

Of course, just because you mopped the floors today doesn't mean you can skip your workout. But, if you've got spring cleaning on the agenda already, you might be surprised by how many calories you could burn. Check out the calorie counts for these common spring cleaning activities.

(All calorie counts are estimates based on a 150-pound person, and will vary with intensity, body composition and weight.)

1. Mopping: Take care of those dusty, dirty floors with an hour of mopping and you'll shed 153 calories.

2. Washing floors: If your floors require a little extra elbow grease, you can shed as many as 187 calories in just 30 minutes.

3. Scrubbing the tub: It might not take you as long as those floors, but some similar umph is required to ditch that soap scum. In 15 minutes, you'll burn more than 90 calories—and you might feel it in those arms, too!

4. Vacuuming: Depending on the size of your home, vacuuming could make a significant dent in your 10,000 recommended steps a day. In the process, you could burn 119 calories per 30 minutes.

5. Sweeping: A 30-minute dance with the broom will burn off 136 calories.

6. Washing the car: Winter road salt still covering your car? Skip the drive-thru and scrub it by hand to burn 153 calories.

7. Cleaning windows: Get the grime off the inside and the outside and let the springtime sun shine in. You'll burn 167 calories in 30 minutes.

8. Rearranging the closet: Ready to put away those sweaters and your heavy winter coat? Moving around some lighter options can burn about 85 calories.

9. Redecorating: Painting your bedroom a springy pale green? Knock off 167 calories in 30 minutes of indoor remodeling.

10. Moving: Got any furniture to move? You're in luck: You could burn another 100 calories in just 15 minutes, and even more if you have to move anything up and down stairs!

Lose Weight With The Fat Loss Factor

The Fat Loss Factor is a 12-week online weight loss program created by Dr. Charles Michael Allen and his wife Lori Allen.

One of the main featuers of the system is detoxification. Trying to lose weight by dieting and exercising without the removal of toxins is only part of the equation. Toxins is what causing stubborn fat cells to reside in our bodies.

Likewise, trying to lose weight just by detoxing is extremely healthy, but the fact of the matter still remains that you must not eat more than your caloric daily intake in order to lose weight. The Fat Loss Factor combines these problems into a resolution that you can download in just 3 minutes following Dr. Charles' presentation.

With the program you will get an entire bundle of bonuses that are simply too much for me to list here (I don't like it when my posts get too long).

Take the first step and watch this very entertaining and educational free video presentation by clicking HERE or on the button below.

5 Essential Fat Loss Rules If You Are Over 40

If you're at the point in your life where you've had enough of being unhappy with your body and have finally decided to take control of the situation, you're in a great position to start off... Learn more.

If you're at the point in your life where you've had enough of being unhappy with your body and have finally decided to take control of the situation, you're in a great position to start off on the right foot - by learning the essential principles of fat loss for those over 40.

Some individuals feel quite intimidated aiming for fat loss at an older age, wondering if they're too old to make significant changes to their body or if it's even worth it - would they ever look as good as they'd like?

This isn't the case at all. If you need proof, check out some of the senior bodybuilder's or fitness competitors who are competing and look absolutely fantastic. While you may be slightly older, this does not mean your body will not respond to a proper training program and fat loss diet.

In fact, by taking action now, you will be doing so much for your future as far as maintaining healthy bones, muscles, and range of motion is concerned. If you neglected to get back into shape at this point, as you hit your 50's and 60's, you'll find you rapidly start to lose your range of motion, much faster than if you get active now.

All of this said, there are some import things to keep in mind as you design your plan for maximal fat loss. Here are the main things to know.

1. Total Calorie Intake For Fat Loss

The first thing you must take into consideration when the goal is fat loss as an older adult is your total calorie intake. Since you may have already lost a small amount of muscle mass, your metabolism could be running slightly slower than normal.

This just means you'll need to adjust your calories slightly downward for the time being until the metabolic rate is back up again and you're able to consume more calories. A good starting place is about 12 calories per pound of bodyweight a day. Eat at this intake for a few weeks and see what type of results you experience.

If you're not losing weight, move it down by about 10-15%. If you are getting good results, maintain that intake, or if you're losing too quickly (say more than 2 pounds a week), bump it up by about 10-15% to slow the rate of weight loss down.

If you are a very active individual already (you have an active job for example), you may find that this intake is simply not enough, so then you'll have to go higher even yet. The important thing is counting calories for a two to three week period and then adjusting based on real world results.

2. Specific Nutrient Composition

Moving on to the specific nutrients that make up your diet, older adults may want to boost protein intake slightly more than someone who is a bit younger. The reason for this being that will help to boost the metabolism just a bit more, improving your results.

Also, this higher level of protein will prevent any further muscle mass loss from occurring, safeguarding you against this.

Take in at least 1.2 grams of protein per pound a day, if not slightly more. Get this from lean sources such as chicken, fish, egg whites, lean red meat, and low-fat dairy products.

3. Additional Nutrients To Be Aware Of

After you've figured out your calorie, protein, carb, and fat intake, then there are a few additional nutrients to look out for. The first one is calcium. Many older adults stop consuming as many dairy products in their diet, which will really come back to get them down the road.

Since you're going to be at an increased risk of osteoporosis as you age, supplying enough calcium through your diet will help to prevent this and keep your bones protected.

Dietary fiber is another nutrient you'll want to be sure you're getting enough of. This will help to keep the digestive system regulated, promoting regular bowel movements, as well as help to prevent digestive related disorders and cancer as you grow older.

Since fruit and vegetable consumption sometimes declines, your current dietary fiber intake could be lacking. Pay attention to this and try and get more fiber in whenever possible.

Finally, you may want to pay a bit more attention to your sodium intake than you typically do, particularly if you're suffering from high blood pressure. If you commonly eat convenience types of foods, there's a very good chance you're currently getting too much sodium in your diet, so taking steps to reduce this will be important.

Again, increasing your fruit and vegetable intake will help with this, as well as supply you plenty of potassium which is a nutrient that helps to balance out the sodium in the body.

4. Resistance Training Is A Must

On the exercise side of the equation, now is the time to really start resistance training. This is what is going to promote the development of lean body mass and help make up for any lean tissue you might have lost already.

Resistance training is also going to help strengthen the bones and increase your ability to perform usual activities throughout the day easier. Keep in mind you don't have to be on an incredibly intensive weight lifting program five days a week to see results - 3 days of training, one or two exercises for each body part can be more than enough to start showing increases in strength as well as body composition benefits.

5. Find A Form Of Cardio That You Enjoy - Factor In Your Joints

Finally, you should really focus on finding a form of cardio activity that you enjoy. Don't force yourself to do something that you hate as chances are you'll just stop doing it.

You may want to look into the types of cardio that are less stressful on your joints such as swimming, using the elliptical trainer, or joining a kickboxing class that doesn't have much impact. If you're suffering from knee, back, or other joint pain, this is going to be a very smart move to ensure that you're able to continue being active for the years ahead.

Conclusion

So, keep these points in mind. It is never to late to start making improvements in your diet, lose the body fat that has found its way onto your body over the years, and start feeling better about yourself. Staying active is the single biggest influence on your maintaining good health in your later years.

Lose Weight With The Fat Loss Factor

The Fat Loss Factor is a 12-week online weight loss program created by Dr. Charles Michael Allen and his wife Lori Allen.

One of the main featuers of the system is detoxification. Trying to lose weight by dieting and exercising without the removal of toxins is only part of the equation. Toxins is what causing stubborn fat cells to reside in our bodies.

Likewise, trying to lose weight just by detoxing is extremely healthy, but the fact of the matter still remains that you must not eat more than your caloric daily intake in order to lose weight. The Fat Loss Factor combines these problems into a resolution that you can download in just 3 minutes following Dr. Charles' presentation.

With the program you will get an entire bundle of bonuses that are simply too much for me to list here (I don't like it when my posts get too long).

Take the first step and watch this very entertaining and educational free video presentation by clicking HERE or on the button below.

8 Reasons Why You Keep Falling Off the Diet Wagon

Clearly, we have an obesity problem in America and many other countries across our planet. Yet, I propose
that we do not have a weight loss problem today. In case you're confused at this apparent contradiction, consider these statistics:

According to a study from Oxford University published in the International Journal of Obesity, within 3 to 5 years, about 80 percent of all 'weight losers' have regained the lost weight, and often gained back a little extra.

According to research by the National Weight Control Registry, that relapse rate may be as high as 95 percent.

For comparison, relapse rates for drug, alcohol and tobacco dependency have been reported in the range of 50-90%. This means that lots and lots of people have lost weight. But not many have kept it off. Therefore, we don't have a weight loss problem, we have a weight-relapse problem; we have a "not sticking with it" problem, wouldn't you agree?

In fact, the fall and subsequent weight-regain usually doesn't take years. Many people have abandoned their new year's resolutions within weeks. By the time the Super Bowl party rolls around, the diet is ancient history!

If this is true, then shouldn't we put more of our attention onto figuring out why you haven't been sticking with your program, and what you should do about it? That's why I put together this new list (below) of the top 8 reasons why you always fall off the wagon.

Rather than worrying about the minutiae of your diet plan, like whether you should be on low carb or high carb, Mediterranean or Okinawan, vegetarian or meat eater, I propose that if you simply focus on these 8 issues, you'll start getting more lasting results.

How? By being able to stick with whichever plan you decided was best for you! After all, even if you have the best nutrition program in the world - on paper - it doesn't do you much good if you can't stick with it in practice!

1. No focus: you didn't set goals, you didn't put your goals in writing, and or you didn't keep your goals in mind daily (by reading them, affirming them, looking at a vision board, etc.)

2. No priorities: you may have set a goal, but you didn't put it on or near the top of your priorities list. For example, your goal is six pack abs, but drinking beer and eating fast food on the weekend is higher on your priorities list than having a flat stomach.

3. No support system: you tried to go at it alone; no buddy system, training partners, family, spouse, friends, mentors or coaches to turn to for information and emotional support when the going got tough.

4. No Accountability: you didn't keep score for your own accountability - with a progress chart, weight record, measurements, food journal, training journal, and you didn't set up external accountability (ie, report to someone else or show your results to someone else)

5. No patience: you were only thinking short term and had unrealistic expectations. You expected 10 pounds a week or 5 pounds a week or 3 pounds a week, so the first week you lost "only" 1 or 2 pounds or hit a plateau, you gave up.

6. No planning: you winged it. You walked into the gym without having a workout in hand, on paper, you didn't plan your workouts into your weekly schedule; you didn't have a menu on paper, you didn't make time (so instead you made excuses, like "I'm too busy")

7. No balance: your diet or training program was too extreme. You went the all or nothing, "I want it now" route instead of the moderate, slow-and-steady wins the race route.

8. No personalization: your nutrition or training program was the wrong one for you. It might have worked for someone else, but it didn't suit your schedule, personality, lifestyle, disposition or body type.

So there you have it - 8 mistakes that cause most people to fall off the wagon! Have you been making any of these mistakes? If so, the solutions are clear and simple: focus, prioritize, get support, be accountable, be patient, plan, balance and personalize.

Tom Venuto is a fat loss expert, lifetime natural (steroid-free) bodybuilder, independent nutrition researcher and freelance writer. Tom is the author of the best selling e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle: Fat-Burning Secrets of The World's Best Bodybuilders & Fitness Models( e-book) and The Body Fat Solution (Hardcover, Avery/Penguin Books). Learn how to maximize your fat loss, naturally by visiting Tom At BurnTheFat

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Liquid Caloris May Be On Of The Top Reasons People Are Fat! Find Out Why

So far, at least 7 scientific studies have provided strong evidence that energy containing beverages (i.e., "liquid calories") do not properly activate the satiety mechanisms in the body and brain and do not satisfy the appetite as well as food in solid form.

Translation: Drinking your calories can make you fat.

Epidemiological research also supports a positive association between calorie-containing beverage consumption and increased body weight or body mass index.

The primary source of liquid calories in the American Diet is carbohydrate, namely soda. New research now suggests that soda may not be the only culprit.

Now running a close second are specialty and dessert coffees. Did you know that a 16 ounce Frappucino can contain 500 calories or even more! That's one-third of a typical female's daily calorie intake while on a fat loss program.

A recent study at Purdue University published in the International Journal of Obesity set out to learn even more about this bodyfat - liquid calories relationship.

Researchers compared solid and beverage forms of foods composed primarily of carbohydrate, fat or protein in order to document the independent effect of food form in foods with different dominant macronutrient sources.

Based on previous research, some experts have recommended targeting specific beverages as being worse than others. High fructose corn syrup and soda has been singled out the most and you've probably seen that yourself in the news.

There's no question that soda has been on top of the hit list for some time now, by virtue of the amounts and frequency of consumption alone.

However, this recent study says that from a pure energy balance perspective, we should be cautious about ALL liquid calories, not just soda and not just carbohydrates!

Fruit juice for example, appears to be an obvious improvement over soda, so many people have swapped out their soda for fruit juice. However, when fruit juice is compared to an equal amount of calories from whole fruit, the whole fruit satisfies appetite better (largely due to the bulk and fiber content), and so you tend to eat fewer calories for the day.

[On an interesting side note, soup does not seem to apply; soup has higher satiety value than calorie containing beverages, possibly for mere cognitive reasons.]

If you were to meticulously track your calories from beverages and you made sure that your calories remained the same for the day, whether liquid or solid, there would probably be little or no difference in your body composition.

But that's not what usually happens in free-living humans. Most people do not accurately track or report their caloric intake. Our mistake is that we tend to drink calories IN ADDITION TO our usual food intake, not instead of it.

Men are especially guilty of this when they drink alcohol - Men tend to drink AND eat, while women tend to drink INSTEAD OF eating.

This new research found that with all three macronutrients - protein, carbs or fat - daily calorie intake was significantly greater when the beverage form was consumed as compared to the solid.

Yes, it's true! Even protein drinks did not satisfy the appetite the way that protein foods did!

While you would think that protein drinks are purely a good thing, because protein foods have been proven to reduce appetite and increase satiety, if you turn a solid protein food into a protein drink, it loses its appetite suppressive properties in the same way that happens when you turn fruit into fruit juice.

[NOTE: After weight training workouts, liquid nutrition may have benefits that outweigh any downside, especially on muscle-gaining programs]

Why do liquid calories fail to elicit the same response as whole foods? reasons include:

•  high calorie density 
•  lower satiety value 
•  more calories ingested in short period of time 
•  lower demand for oral processing 
•  shorter gastrointestinal transit times 
•  energy in beverages has greater bioaccessibility and bioavailability 
•  mechanisms may include cognitive, orosensory, digestive, metabolic, endocrine and neural influences (human appetite is a complex thing!!!)

Last but not least, nowhere in our history have our ancestors had access to large amounts of liquid calories. Alcohol may have been around as far back as several thousand years BC, but even that is a blip on the evolutionary calendar of humanity.

As a result, our genetic code has never developed the physiological mechanisms to properly register the caloric content in liquids the way it does when you eat, chew and swallow whole foods.

Bottom line: This study suggests that we shouldn't just target one type of liquid calories such as soda. If you're trying to beat body fat, it's wise to limit all types of liquid calories and eat whole foods as much as possible.

Start by ditching the soda. Then ditch the high calorie dessert coffees. Then cut back on the alcohol. From there, be cautious even about milk, juice and protein drinks. Drink water or tea instead, or limited amounts of black coffee - without all the high calorie extras.

If you do consume any beverages that contain calories, be sure to account for those calories meticulously and be sure you don't drink them in addition to your usual food intake, but in place of an equal amount of food calories. Remember, those protein shakes you might be drinking are called "meal replacements" not "free calories!"

For many years, I have suggested focusing primarily on whole foods during fat loss programs rather than liquids, even protein shakes. Unlike so many other fat reduction programs, my Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle system does not require any kind of liquid meal replacement or protein drinks and I don't sell supplements or diet drinks. I'm here to help educate you and millions of others about the realities of body fat loss.

We now have even more scientific data that confirms what Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle philosophy has been teaching all along.

About the Author

Tom Venuto is a natural (steroid-free) bodybuilder, fat loss expert and author of the best seller, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle: Fat Burning Secrets of the world's best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism without drugs or supplements, by visiting Burn The Fat's official web page

Discover How a Detox Diet Can Help You Overcome the Dangers of Food Additives And Melt Fat Away

In this article, you will learn which of these food additives will be safe for you to consume and which ones you want to stay away from. You will also learn why a detox diet is extremely important to help you to lose weight for good.

According to research, there are over 3000 additives routinely used in our foods. I'm sure that you have run into them if you are reading the ingredients on your food labels. (Usually the words on the back that you can't pronounce are food additives and preservatives)

A person consumes nearly 150lbs of these food additives each year.

Let's take a minute and think about this... Our "authorities" have stated that these food additives are safe to consume in small doses. This is shown by research. And of course large doses of any of these compounds can potentially kill you.

Here is the main problem: Research doesn't show the safety of eating a bunch of foods with food additives. OR eating combinations of food additives OR consuming small amounts over time. Does this make sense?

What is regarded as "safe" really isn't safe at all.

Your Body Can't Process Synthetic Chemicals

Since these are synthetic chemicals, the body doesn't recognize them as natural substances and has difficulty neutralizing and eliminating them. The end result: the toxins will be stored in fat cells and other metabollically depressed areas in the body. Which means that you will gain large amounts of weight.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of people report adverse reactions to these so called "safe" synthetic food additives. Anything from headaches, nausea, diarrhea, hormonal dysfunction, metabolic changes, liver damage, problems with sexual function, cancer, mutation of DNA, kidney stones, etc. The list goes on and on. Going on a detox diet will help your body to purge those fat cells of toxic substances and allow the fat to just melt away. Your body will then have the chance to heal itself from the detrimental effects of these chemicals.

Below is a list of safe food additives:

Safe Food Additives:

• Annatto
• Beet juice, beet powder
• Beta-carotene or carotene
• Citric acid
• Gelatin
• Herbs and spices (cloves, peppermint, ginger, cayenne, etc.)
• Lactic acid
• Lecithin
• Minerals (iron, calcium carbonate, magnesium)
• Natural oils (almond, vanilla, peppermint)
• Natural sweeteners (stevia, raw honey, raw maple syrup, brown rice syrup)
• Pectin
• Sea salt, natural rock salt
• Sodium bicarbonate
• Sorbic Acid
• Vegetable glycerin
• Vitamins (vit D,thiamin, riboflavin, niacin)
• Yeast

Avoid These Additives

• Aluminum Salts
• Artificial colors (Red dyes, Yellow dyes, Blue dyes)
• Artificial flavors
• Artifical sweeteners (splenda, aspartame, saccharin)
• Bisulfite
• BHA
• BHT
• BVO
• Caffeine
• Carrageenan
• EDTA
• Hydrogenated vegetable oils (margarine, shortening)
• Metabisulfite
• MSG
• Natural smoke flavor
• Olestra
• Processed and refined sweeteners
• Propylene glycol
• Propyl gallate
• Salt (with aluminum silicate added)
• Sodium benzoate, Potassium benzoate
• Sodium nitrate and nitrite
• Sodium propionate
• Sodium sulfite
• Sorbitol
• Sulfur dioxide
• THBQ
• Xylitol

These lists are by no means complete. The few food additives that I have listed are some of the most common ones found on the ingredients labels. A good rule of thumb to follow is that if you cannot pronounce the words on the ingredients label, then avoid the food. Chances are really high that it is bad for you.

Avoiding food additives is a small thing to do in your diet but will yield big results. Just by getting rid of these, it is possible to lose 30lbs in a couple of months.

Enjoy and Good Luck On Your Weight Loss Journey!

Dr Charles Livingston - Author of The Fat Loss Factor

Lose Weight With The Fat Loss Factor

The Fat Loss Factor is a 12-week online weight loss program created by Dr. Charles Livingston and his wife Lori Allen.

One of the main featuers of the system is detoxification. Trying to lose weight by dieting and exercising without the removal of toxins is only part of the equation. Toxins is what causing stubborn fat cells to reside in our bodies.

Likewise, trying to lose weight just by detoxing is extremely healthy, but the fact of the matter still remains that you must not eat more than your caloric daily intake in order to lose weight. The Fat Loss Factor combines these problems into a resolution that you can download in just 3 minutes following Dr. Charles' presentation.

With the program you will get an entire bundle of bonuses that are simply too much for me to list here (I don't like it when my posts get too long).

Take the first step and watch this very entertaining and educational free video presentation by clicking HERE or on the button below.

Find Out The Biggest Fat Loss Lie According To Best Selling Author Tom Venuto

What if I told you that very low calorie diets will actually make you fatter in the long term, and that there's an almost embarrassingly simple way that you can eat more and still burn more fat?

"Eat more and Burn more?" I know it sounds too good to be true, but you're about to see the science, and I've got the real-world proof that this works, so read on.

You MUST achieve a calorie deficit

To get rid of body fat, the unbreakable law of thermodynamics dictates that you have to burn more calories than you consume.

Run for cover the next time you hear, "calories don't count" because that claim is absolutely false (it's absurd), and any reputable exercise scientist will tell you that.

Establishing a calorie deficit is the first step you must put into practice if you want a leaner body. However, there's a fatal flaw in most popular diet programs: the calorie deficit is too extreme.

Have you ever been told that you had to cut your calories to 1200 or 1000 a day or even less? Or did you ever just get FED UP with no results and tell yourself, "THAT'S IT! I'm hardly going to eat ANYthing," because you were desperate to get the pounds off as fast as possible?

Here's how that works out for most people: You lose body weight fast at first, but eventually, starvation diets make "bad stuff" happen to your body and it stops working.

When you cut your calories too far, eventually YOUR BODY ADAPTS.

In the sci-fi show Star Trek: The Next Generation, Captain Picard and his crew encounter a formidable foe called THE BORG. At first, the phaser weapons work against these alien enemies, but eventually the BORG adapt. Soon, the same phaser blast no longer has any effect.

Diets are kind of like that too, aren't they?

You "shoot" a crash diet at your body and it zaps off some weight in the beginning. But then your body figures out what's going on and turns on its defense systems. Your body doesn't care that you want to look good in a swimsuit; your body thinks you're "under attack," so just like the BORG, your body adapts!

When you do extreme things to your body to lose weight (like hardly eating at all), you trigger a series of adaptive metabolic, hormonal and behavioral "defense mechanisms" collectively known as "the starvation response."

Here Are Some of the Consequences of Starvation Mode:

1. Your fat cells sound the alarm and release less leptin. Leptin is the "anti-starvation hormone" that tells your brain you are well fed with plenty of reserve energy. When leptin goes down, fat-burning goes down.

2. Your appetite rages out of control. Your brain flips on the appetite switch and hunger hormones increase. You become a ravenous food-seeking machine.

3. Your body releases fewer fat-releasing and fat-burning enzymes such as hormone sensitive lipase and lipoprotein lipase and your body doesn't oxidize fat for fuel as efficiently as normal.

4. You lose muscle. Maintaining muscle requires energy. Extreme diets are like an "energy crisis", so excess muscle becomes expendable and you cannibalize your own lean tissue.

5. Your metabolism slows down. Levels of T3, the active form of thyroid, fall, decreasing your metabolic rate, so you burn fewer calories each day.

Bottom line: It's hormonally, metabolically and psychologically impossible to achieve permanent fat loss by starving yourself.

You can't fight these biological defense mechanisms with willpower. Your body is too smart for that.

Eventually, extreme diets lead to frustration, binge eating, weight re-gain, and you end up with less muscle and a slower metabolism than when you started.

The good news is, you DON'T have to starve yourself to get a lean body. In fact, you can eat more and burn more fat - and IT'S SIMPLE!

Here are 4 easy tips that will get you started with the Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle approach to losing fat and keeping it off for good, without going hungry:

1. Avoid very low calorie diets.

Before going on any diet, look at the recommended calories first. You'll discover that most of them require you to slash your food intake to the level of "semi-starvation." 1200 calories or less for women and 1800 or less for men are dangerously low levels and yet this is exactly what most popular diets recommend... and why most fail.

2. Customize your calories.

You must adjust your calories according to your overall body size, amount of lean body mass, activity level, age and gender. Effective programs always take individual body type into account before telling you how much to eat. If a diet recommends the same calories for everyone, that's a warning sign of an ineffective, generic program.

3. Decrease your calorie intake slightly.

Small calorie cuts don't trigger the starvation response as much. Use a conservative calorie deficit - just 20% below your maintenance level at first. For example, a typical female needs about 2150 calories a day to maintain. A 20% deficit is 1720 calories per day. A typical male needs about 2700 calories a day to maintain. A 20% deficit would be 2160 calories per day. NOTE: if you are very overweight, your body can handle larger calorie deficits without negative side effects (because you have so much reserve energy in storage).

4. Increase your calories burned.

If you only cut your food intake slightly, then how do you cut body fat without the process taking forever? Simple, you BURN MORE. Increase your deficit with fat burning workouts AND an active lifestyle outside the gym.

First, if you're not doing so already, you should aim for 3-4 days per week of strength training with weights. Weight training not only develops a muscular physique and protects you from losing muscle while you're in a calorie deficit, it can actually BURN MORE calories than traditional cardio.

Second, do at least 3 days per week of moderate to vigorous cardio training. Push yourself at a high enough intensity to really get your heart pumping.

Third, to accelerate fat loss more, or to break a progress plateau, bump up your activity further by adding additional cardio sessions or increasing the intensity or duration of your current workouts.

Fourth, keep your lifestyle active, and participate in physical hobbies, housework, walking, sports or recreational activities that you enjoy. The calories you burn during the day - not counting your "formal" workouts - is known as Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, or N.E.A.T. All of those calories add up.

In closing, always remember my fat loss golden rule:

DON'T STARVE THE FAT... BURN THE FAT!

Stay tuned for the next installment of BIG FAT LIES, where you'll learn the truth about "fat burner" supplements and diet pills... from someone who refuses to sell them.

If you'd like more information about how you can "eat more and burn more" and how you can (and must) customize your nutrition and calories according to your body type, visit the Burn The Fat home page

Train hard and expect success,

Tom Venuto, Fat Loss Coach

Author of Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle

www.BurnTheFat.com

See How HIIT Will Trim Your Waistline and Restore Your Energy

What Do You Mean Low-Intensity Training Isn't The Best For Fat Burning? Find out why high-intensity training may be your best bet for trimming your waistline.

But how can this possibly be? Everywhere you look, it's always said that long-duration, low-intensity training is best for fat loss. All high-intensity work does is burn carbohydrates, right?

Wrong.

After reading this article, I guarantee you'll develop a new respect for high-intensity cardio training for fat loss.

Breaking The Terms Down


Low-Intensity Exercise: Defined as working at a heart rate of about 60% to 65% of your maximum heart rate (which is equal to 220 - your age = maximum heart rate, thus if you are 20 years old, 220 - 20 = 200 max HR).
High-Intensity Exercise: Defined as working at about 75 to 85% or more of your maximum heart rate.
Using the previous example for maximum heart rate (max HR=200), working at 60% of your max HR would be 120 beats per minute and 80% of that would be 160 beats per minute.

Normal Low-Intensity Assumptions

There are several reasons low-intensity exercise is normally recommended for fat loss.

1. It's Easy ... In many cases people who are trying to lose fat don't always feel energetic enough to do hard training due to the caloric deficit (a.k.a. diet) that they are on. In these cases, just sticking to an exercise program can be hard enough, never mind making the exercise itself challenging.
2. It's Low Risk ... A personal trainer generally can't go wrong by recommending low-intensity exercise to clients. Even the most out of shape person can usually do low-intensity cardio training safely. While this is certainly appropriate advice for novice trainers, it does not necessarily apply to the more experienced trainer when it comes to effective training.
3. It Burns More Calories From Fat ... this is very true. Exercising at a lower intensity does burn a higher percentage of calories from fat than high-intensity exercise. But, as I will explain, this does not necessarily mean you're going to burn more fat.

The Numbers

Let's crunch some numbers to show you exactly what I mean when I say high-intensity exercise burns more fat. Low-intensity training burns about 50% fat for energy while high-intensity training burns about 40% fat for energy. This is not a huge difference. 

Say, for example, walking for 20 minutes burns 100 calories. Then 50% of 100 calories is 50 fat-calories burned. Now say 10 minutes of interval training at a high intensity burns 160 calories. Well, 40% of 160 calories is 64 fat-calories burned.

By doing the high-intensity work, you've just burned 14 more fat calories in half the time. Starting to sound good? There's more...

Also ...

Low-intensity exercise only burns calories while you are actually exercising. That means the moment you stop exercising, your caloric expenditure goes back down to nearly baseline levels. Within minutes, you're not burning many more calories than if you hadn't done anything at all.

High-intensity exercise, on the other hand, continues to boost your metabolism long after you're done (often up to 24 hours after, depending on the length and intensity of the training session). This means you're continuing to burn many more calories all day long!

Other Benefits

• Low-intensity exercise does nothing to build or support muscle mass. Maintaining muscle mass is critical to an effective fat-loss strategy as muscle burns fat just sitting there. Want to keep your metabolism working to burn fat? Do whatever you can to build or keep your muscle tissue.
• High-intensity exercise has the potential to increase muscle mass. Compare the body of a top sprinter to a top marathon runner. The sprinter carries far more muscle mass. You won't get big bulky muscles from high intensity training but you will get shapely and more defined muscles!

How To Do It

Now that you've seen how effective high intensity training can be for fat loss, how is it done?

The absolute easiest way to start this type of training is to get on a cardio machine at the gym and select the interval training program. As you'll see, you'll start off with a fairly light warm-up cycle, then quickly jump up to a high intensity level for a short burst. You will then drop back down to a low level for a period of time, then back up to a high level again, repeated several times and finishing with an appropriate cool-down period.

The repetition of these intervals is the nuts and bolts of high intensity interval training. You can also do it manually by adjusting your intensity level up and down over short periods of time.

Examples

• Do 30 seconds at high power then 30 seconds at low power. Repeat. It's very simple and very effective.
• Another excellent method for doing high-intensity training is called Aerobic Interval Training. It is essentially the same concept as the previously explained interval training but the work intervals are longer with the intensity level somewhat lower. A good example would be running at a pace that you can only keep up for about 5 minutes then walking for 2 minutes then running 5 more minutes, walking 2 minutes, etc.

High-intensity training can be applied to any form of cardiovascular exercise. Anything from walking/sprinting to swimming to bike riding will work perfectly. I would recommend doing his type of training 2 to 3 times per week for best results. As always, be sure to consult with your physician before starting any exercise program.

Final Note

Remember ... what you get out of exercise is directly proportional to what you put in. Work at high-intensity training for awhile and see just how much better your fat-loss efforts go.

Lose Weight With The Fat Loss Factor

The Fat Loss Factor is a 12-week online weight loss program created by Dr. Charles Michael Allen and his wife Lori Allen.

One of the main featuers of the system is detoxification. Trying to lose weight by dieting and exercising without the removal of toxins is only part of the equation. Toxins is what causing stubborn fat cells to reside in our bodies.

Likewise, trying to lose weight just by detoxing is extremely healthy, but the fact of the matter still remains that you must not eat more than your caloric daily intake in order to lose weight. The Fat Loss Factor combines these problems into a resolution that you can download in just 3 minutes following Dr. Charles' presentation.

With the program you will get an entire bundle of bonuses that are simply too much for me to list here (I don't like it when my posts get too long).

Take the first step and watch this very entertaining and educational free video presentation by clicking HERE or on the button below.