Positively Fit

If you want to reduce your body fat, focus on increasing the amount of exercise, you get rather than decreasing your food intake. A recent national study was done using two groups of sedentary men, one group in their 20's and the other over age 65. A lot was learned from this accumulated data and it is interesting to note that there was a significant relationship between lack of physical activity and fat. Not surprisingly, the most sedentary men had the most body fat. These studies have also indicated that the government’s current recommended daily allowance for calories does not correlate with the body's actual energy needs. For example, although 2400 calories have been calculated for older men, they in fact burned an average of 2800 calories daily. The leading experts now recommend that people who want to lose weight start increasing their physical activity. Just being more active in general (such as climbing the stairs instead of taking the elevator, moving around instead of...

Editor's Note: Fitness author Jon Benson shared this letter with me and gave me permission to share it with you. If I had to pick out the number one reason most people fail to achieve good results in the gym, guess what it would be? Over-training. Exercising too much. Sounds counter-intuitive, but trust me: It's quite real. Folks write to me all the time and say... "Jon, I don't get it. I cannot lose body fat and I'm running six days a week for an hour and training in the gym five days a week for 45 minutes!" My answer back is usually: "You are training 4x more than me, and I'm a fitness pro!" Look, do you take 21 aspirin for a headache, thinking the more you take the faster your pain will go away? No? So why apply the same logic to fitness? Only a certain amount is required. Beyond that, you are spinning your wheels. When I wrote 7 Minute Muscle (available here: http://tinyurl.com/ddsak5 , I exposed all the lies about training too long and why t...

10 TIPS TO FAT LOSS 1. Eliminating all junk foods like like snack foods, pizza, desserts, pasta, bread, and dairy products. 2. Exercise to increase lean muscle mass. Resistant training is highly recommended!!! 3. Have your thyroid checked if you're not losing fat. One in two Americans has an under active thyroid. 4. Not enough protein is consumed for breakfast. Protein regulates insulin levels, when you eat high sugar meals, your insulin levels become elevated, you store fat. 5. Cut out the butter, salad dressing, fried foods,cookies, candies. 6. Keep your sugars to minimum. 7.Eat your largest meal at breakfast, dinner should be light since you're sleeping; no energy is needed to sleep;-) 8. Eliminate or minimize your alcoholic drinks, because it only slows down the metabolism. 9. YOU must EAT at least 5 small meals everyday! If not your body goes into starvation mode, where it uses muscle for energy and leaving you fat.* Never skip a meal! 10. Visualize your success. Look into...

It's been three weeks since the New Year. I would like to know how are the new "be more fit and healthy" plans are coming along!! It's ok if you're not keeping up with your goals; all you have to do is TRY AGAIN!! Remember why you wanted to do this at the beginning of the year and continue for the rest of the year.Don't ever give up! Please do NOT view yourself as a failure. The only time you fail is when/if you quit.* Statistics show that most people do not succeed their first time trying. Not of your persistence! If you’re using your intelligence, nothing can get in the way of your success! Let’s review your current plan: -What were your fitness goals? Did you want to lose fat, gain muscle, or be healthier? -What did do for your strength training routine? -How long was cardio session? What was the intensity? -When did you stretch for flexibility and how long did you hold each stretch? -How do you plan your daily menu? Did you keep track of your daily menu, w...