How To Lose 20 Pounds of Belly Fat In One Month - Calorie Shifting Prepares Your Body For the Summer

by Steve Gaidi
--------------

Summer is coming. It's almost here. It's the time for activity, poolside, beaches, sun and fun. But for many people who are overweight, summer is intimidating. Some are ashamed of their bodies, feeling that they are too overweight to do anything about it. They would love to lose weight for the summer, but they feel any effort they make to lose weight would be vain. Others have slacked during winter, counting on heavy winter clothing to hide the weight gain they have gone through during the cold season.

Whatever the reason, feeling embarrassed over physical appearance dampens the wonderful potential experience summer holds. It would be a good idea to do something about it now, before it's too late.

It's not easy to lose 20 pounds of belly fat in the short time left until summer. In order to lose weight fast, and stick with your weight loss through the summer and beyond, you need a diet plan that:

1. Will not starve you.


2. Will not bore you and make it psychologically impossible for you to stick with it.


3. Will not over-test your will and make you eat food you don't like.


4. Will not constitute or cause a health risk.

Many traditional diets do not qualify. Those diets starve you, or deprive your body from large amounts of vital ingredients in a sharp manner. Not only is it inefficient in the long run - your weight loss rate will slow and eventually stop, and could even reverse, before the summer is over - but if the transition is too sharp, it can be hazardous to your health.

Calorie shifting, which has been winning enthusiastic followers all over the world over the past few years, qualifies on all counts. It is diverse, it's based on kinds of food you like and choose, it keeps your taste buds interested and your metabolism working by changing the food you consume, and it allows you to eat properly and not starve. And above all, it allows you to reach that goal of losing 20 pounds in a month, preparing yourself for the coming summer, and keeping - or even improving - your weight loss results through the hot season.

My two suggestions to you are:

• Get going now. It's not too late. There's still time.


• After you get going, it's up to you. Remain disciplined. You want it, and you can do it. Calorie shifting makes it easier on you, as does not require that you agonize yourself dieting.

In order to find out how to lose 20 pounds and more in a month and be ready for summer, click here: Losing 9 pounds every 11 days with the calorie shifting diet.

Feel free to email this articles to friends, copy it to your site or blog, quote it in a forum, or use it in any other way you see fit - as long as you keep the links intact. Thank you.

--------------
article originally published in EzineArticles.com

Burn The Fat Inner Circle - A New Venture From Tom Venuto, Creator of Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle

By Steve Gaidi
--------------

Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle is one of the most revered weight loss and muscle building programs in the world today. The creator of this program, expert trainer and nutritionist Tom Venuto, has come up with a complementing venture - Burn The Fat Inner Circle.

Burn The Fat Inner Circle takes a different approach from the original program. It is a membership site (at a very low fee, at the time these words are written), and prides itself on three main things:

• Its exclusive humongous database, literally overflowing with reports, newsletters, articles, guides, ebooks, Q&A columns, diet and workout planning tools and calculators, and a vast variety of other material and tools in video, audio, and writing.


• Its community, with over 20 forums for members to communicate with each other in every imaginable fitness-related topic.


• An exclusive audio podcast, "The Burn The Fat Show", the episodes of which are also available for later download.

The result is a remarkable site with a wealth of information that seems overwhelming. It's so encompassing that it's difficult to take it all in. So my feeling is that Burn The Fat Inner Circle is intended for the more dedicated dieter or fitness trainee, who can benefit from the immense volume of information, ideas, and tools. Beginners, on the other hand, may get lost. The original Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle program may be a better choice for them.

Some people find the recurring membership fee model deterring on principle, no matter how low the fee is. They should consider how serious they are about their fitness, consider the low fee involved, and if they still feel uncomfortable they can resort to using a one-time fee resource like the original Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle.

To briefly sum it all up, Burn The Fat Inner Circle is a great source for a huge amount of information, ideas, and community support. It was created by an expert trainer who has a proven track record as the creator as one of the most popular fitness programs in the world. The diversity of material available to its members is huge, and the information on it keeps growing, evolving and renewing.
-------------------------
originally published in EzineArticles.com

Fat Loss Pitfalls of Salads - 3 Reasons Why So Many Salad Eaters Fail to Lose Fat

By Steve Gaidi
Steve's Fitness Blog
---------------------
Salads are great, aren't they? I love salads. They are fresh, juicy, a great source of all sorts of vitamins and minerals.

Many people today also eat salads as replacement for other foods, as part of their fat loss diets. They make up their salads with vegetables, lettuce, cabbage, and other leaves of all kinds. Vegetables and edible leaves are filling, fat-free, and just looking at them - they seem to glimmer with the maximum health nature has to offer.

If that is so, where are the pitfalls?

The pitfalls are the additives.

People on diets add lots of stuff to their salads, and who can blame them? Green leaves, over time, tend to be monotonous in flavor. The additives add diversity and depth to the flavor of salads - there's no argument on that.

The thing is, people don't pay much attention to what they add to their salads, and what these additives contain. They think that since this is a salad, and its main ingredients are vegetables or leaves, it helps their diet by definition. They couldn't be more wrong.

So what are the things people add to their salads that actually make their salads bad for their diet?



Cheese - many people add cubes of cheese to their salads. Blue cheeses, such as Roquefort or Gorgonzola, are very popular for that. Did you know that Roquefort is over 30% fat? That's even worse, considering that fat is responsible for about 75% of the calories in Roquefort cheese. That's right, seventy five percents of the calories in Roquefort cheese come from direct fat consumption.

Salad dressing - many people use all kinds of salad dressing. Dressing adds moisture to the salad, adds to the flavor, and makes the salad go down more easily. But what are these dressings made of? Many of them contain all kinds of oils and sugars. Your typical thousand island dressing is one example - it's actually mayonnaise and ketchup mixed together. It's typically 35% fat, plus a whole lot of sugar, glucose, and other simple form sweeteners that can quickly turn to extra fat. Again, people are counting on the false belief that dressing is negligible compared to the abundance of vegetables and leaves. Wrong again!

Nuts (especially roasted nuts) - many kinds of nuts are used in salads - pecans, cashews, walnuts, peanuts, pine nuts, and many more. They are all great sources of protein and minerals, and are generally good for you, with many health benefits. But if you're out to lose fat as your primary goal, beware of them in your salad. Roasted cashews, for example, contain almost 50% of fat!


So what do we learn from that? Two things: one is that salads can be traps for dieters who wish to lose fat as their primary objective, as they tend to overlook some of the additives they put in their salads. And second is that in general, you shouldn't fall for one ingredient thinking it immunes you from bad effects of other ones. And that's something that's true not only to salads.

Steve Gaidi has gained over 50 pounds of lean muscle without adding any fat whatsoever, over years of trial and error on various training programs, despite spending little of his time at the gym. Click to read his reviews of leading fat loss and muscle gain programs, or Click to read his review of the Fat Loss 4 Idiots diet and Calorie Shifting.

Build a Bigger Chest in 3-4 Workouts or Less

By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.BurnTheFat.com
--------------------
If your pecs are a weak body part, or, if you’ve simply hit a progress plateau in your chest development, then this high intensity chest training program will pack slabs of muscle mass on your chest after just 3-4 workouts - and I guarantee it. This is a high intensity bodybuilding workout for advanced bodybuilders only. (Beginners don’t even think about it...)
I’m currently on workout 3 of 4 in this pec routine and the results have been so impressive that I decide to write it up for you before I even finish the final workout next week.
Considering I’m on a calorie deficit in a cutting phase, I’m especially impressed with the increase in my chest size and development after 3 workouts. You’re not going to gain much if any muscular body weight if you are in a caloric deficit, but NO DOUBT, you can improve the development of a muscle group even while cutting up. This is a perfect example. I’m going to return to this program again for sure on my next mass phase. This program is called…
Multi-Angular Rest Pause With Pump Finisher
Here’s how it works. You select two exercises. For exercise one (the main course), I chose a basic pec mass exercise that can be done at any angle from steep incline to flat bench. Thats the primary exercise you stick with for all 4 workouts. Incline Dumbbell Press was the natural choice. I set up on a fully adjustable bench that allows multiple angles of incline.
For exercise two (dessert), I chose an isolation exercise for a pump finisher, and it changes with every workout.
Here’s the sequence:
A1 Incline Dumbbell Press - steep incline - about 65-70 degrees6 repsrest 10 seconds
A2 Incline Dumbbell Press - medium (regular) incline - about 45 degress6 reps10 seconds
A3 Incline Dumbbell Press - low incline - about 20-25 degrees6 reps10 seconds rest
A4 Dumbbell Press - flat bench6 reps
Now rest 2 - 3 minutes.
That’s one "set." Technically of course, that is FOUR SETS, done in rest pause fashion, so lets call it one “round” for clarity’s sake.
Yes… that was round ONE. Now do it two more times.
Note: It helps a lot if you have a training partner change the bench angle so you can stay seated and keep the dumbbells in your hands. Doing it alone is slow and cumbersome.
For poundage, youre going to have to go MUCH lighter than usual. Although I don't train heavy pecs anymore, last time I did, I was doing 6 reps with 125s on the incline. So for this program I took about 50-60% of that; 70 lbs on workout 1, 75 lbs on workout 2,and 80 lbs on workout 3. On the last one, I had to drop to the 75s to finish all 3 rounds and even then I needed some forced reps towards the end.
You may need to decrease the weight on the 2nd or 3rd round, but if at all humanly possible, do NOT reduce the weight during each round. Doing all four angles at the same poundage is the whole idea.
What may happen, especially if you even slightly overestimated your starting poundage, is that reps may drop with each angle change within a round. First angle - 6 reps is easy. second angle, a little harder, but still no problem. Third angle, you might only squeeze out 5 reps or hit honest failure on the 6th rep. 4th angle (flat), you might hit total failure on the 4th or 5th rep.
Now this is also where a training partner comes in. This routine should not be attempted without a spotter. Sorry, but you are a dork if you try to do this without a spotter. This program causes HONEST muscle failure (I’ll explain that in more detail shortly), so you need the spotter for safety, but moreover, you will need a spotter’s assistance to complete forced reps, at least on the final round or two, if not the first round. In general, forced reps should not be overused, but they play an important part of this program.
Ok, where were we? Oh yeah, you just finished your 3rd round. You might be finished! Yeah. some people will be DONE, KAPUT, ZONKED, BONKED, NUKED, GAME OVER, after 3 rounds of that (think about it - that was 12 sets, disguised as 3 sets!) However, for those who want the full course…. come with me and lets finish off those pecs with the pump (oh, you thought were already pumped… heh.. just wait…you’ll see what a pump is!)
The second exercise (exercise B) is going to be an isolation exercise.. ie., DB flye, cable crossover, machine flye (pec deck), etc., and you will perform 20-25 reps, non stop in piston-like fashion. use a steady quick tempo, but not so fast that you use momentum.
This isolation /pump exercise will change with every workout:
B1 Workout 1: standing cable crossover2-3 sets, 20-25 reps
B1 Workout 2: machine flye or pec deck2-3 sets, 20-25 reps
B1 Workout 3: decline dumbbell flye2-3 sets 20-25 reps
B1 Workout 4: flat bench cable flyes in cable crossover machine2-3 sets, 20-25 reps
That’s it! That’s the whole program. Three rounds of multi-angular rest pause, then finish your workout with 2-3 sets of 25 reps on a pumping, isolation movement.
This routine is performed within a standard bodybuilding type of split, so it should be done once in 5-7 days, no more. You would probably do another body part after chest,such as biceps or triceps, depending on how you organize your split routine.
I would recommend advanced bodybuilders use this program a couple times a year if and when they need a boost in chest development. This is not the type of program you would use all the time. You would burn out and overtrain.
There’s one more very important part of this routine - progression.
On the Incline Dumbbell Presses, you will increase the poundage with every workout. Keep in mind, you will not be able to complete all 3 rounds at all 4 angles for 6 unassisted reps. Its going to get harder each time, even as you get stronger. You may have to use a spotter more with each progressing workout. You may also find that on workout 1 or workout 2, you can complete all 3 rounds with the same dumbbells, but on workout 3, by the 2nd or 3rd round, you have to drop the weight or you’ll barely be getting 2 or 3 reps.
Now let me re-emphasize the importance of a spotter. Theres something thats going to happen when you do this routine that does not happen often. You will hit what my training partner and I call “HONEST FAILURE.” This means that your muscles literally fail, or give out right underneath you. Mind you, this is not something you would usually aim for, but that’s just the nature of this program and this is only a 4-workout high intensity “shock” type of routine.
When I say your muscles will give out, I mean that literally. On the last rep or two of 3rd or 4th angle, of the 2nd or 3rd round, your arms may literally buckle underneath you. That’s honest failure.
You see, there are several types of failure… First there is “sissy failure”.. that’s when there is a lactic acid burn or a fatigue in the muscle (you’re tired) and because it hurts or youre tired, that causes you to stop. Thats sissy failure (sarcasm).
Then you have positive failure. This is where you can no longer push the weight up in a concentric motion, but you are still able to lower the weight and exert an upward force against the weight. For example, you’re bench pressing and you hit the “sticking point,” but you are holding that bar at the sticking point (its not coming back down), and you’re still exerting force to push the bar upward, but the bar simply isn't moving up!
Then you have honest failure. This is where the muscle simply gives out.. it buckles. you have reached concentric and eccentric failure. This type of failiure is rarely discussed. In fact I don’t recall anyone ever writing about it except for Arthur Jones and Ellington darden and the rest of the High Intensity Training (HIT) camp.
Rarely does any bodybuilder tread in this territory, and for good reason, as it is really not necessary and can be dangerous for anyone but a veteran who knows what the heck he is doing - and all the kidding aside for a moment, Im serious about this. Its no joke if your chest and arms give out from underneath you and you dump a 70 or 80 pound dumbbell on your face. (you do like your teeth, don’t you?)
However, as a technique you use on rare occasion for a shock routine that breaks through progress plateaus, that untrodden territory is there… for those who dare. There is something about this particular program (multi angular rest pause) that takes you there. You've been warned! Train hard, but be safe!
Now, go out there and get jacked!

Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
Lifetime Natural Bodybuilder
www.BurnTheFat.com
--------------------
About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified personal trainer and freelance fitness writer. Tom is the author of "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using secrets of the world's best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: www.BurnTheFat.com

3 Calf Exercises - Build And Tone Your Calf Muscles

by Steve Gaidi
owner, Steve's Fitness Blog
---------------------------
Most amateur muscle builders place building leg muscles, and particularly calf muscles, in lower priority compared to building upper-body muscles. But the calf muscles are some of the most important muscles of the human body. Since their job is to point and flex the foot and toes, they are the ones that enable us to do some basic activities like walk, run, jump, pedal a bicycle, or push the pedals of our car. They also have a vital role in correct posture and stability of the body. On top of that, a muscular calf on the leg of a man is immediately noticeable and impressive, and on a woman, a toned and slender calf is the cornerstone of a sexy leg.
The calf is made of two main muscles, the gastrocnemius and the soleus, nicknamed in some languages "the twins". They manipulate the Achilles tendon - that's the big tendon just above your heel, behind the ankle - to produce the movements of the foot and toes.
Barbell calf raises - place a barbell, with the weight you need for proper resistance, behind your neck on the trapezoid muscle. Make sure it extends symmetrically on both sides. In order to make it easier to get into position, I suggest you do this exercise next to the tall barbell rack usually used for bench presses - this way you can get into position and lift the barbell with your trapezoid straight off the rack. Now, raise your heels slowly so that you end up standing on tiptoes, wait for one second, and slowly return. Make sure you keep your posture and don't bend forward or backward as you rise, and don't make the move too fast like many trainers do. If your gym has a squat machine, it can be used as a substitute for the barbell.
Machine calf presses - The machine usually used for leg presses has excellent use for calf presses as well. Get into position on the machine just like you would for leg presses, only this time don't place your entire feet on the press plate in their entirety -place only the toes of both feet on the edge of the plate instead. Bend your knees just a little, to prevent your knee joints from being locked up and pressed beyond their range of movement - but make sure to keep them in constant position and not to push with them during the exercise. Now, press the plate forward with your toes slowly, wait for one second, and slowly return. Again, bend your knees a little to prevent knee injury, but don't press with knee movement - I cannot stress that enough.
Rope jumping - that's right. Rope jumping makes you constantly stay of your toes and use your calf muscles for one of the main actions they were designed to do. If you're a starter, start with 5-10 minutes just to get the hang of it (it requires some coordination). Extend the time when you feel you can. Rope jumping will tone your calf muscles in a big way.
The calf muscles are two of the muscles your body needs the most for some of its most basic functions. They are also some of the most important muscles for body aesthetics, in both men and women. Give them the attention and respect they deserve.
Click here to find more ideas for calf exercises, routines for other body parts, nutrition advice, and much much more.

----------------------------------
article originally published in EzineArticles

The 3 Best Ab Exercises That Are Not Direct Ab Exercises

by Mike Geary,
Author of the world-famous The Truth About 6-Pack Abs
---------------------------

Instead of the typical ab exercise routines that we see so often with crunches, situps, leg lifts, etc... I like to give my readers better options for metabolism-boosting high intensity workouts that work their entire body while also working their abs.
I'm going to show you an example today of one of my favorite ab workouts that doesn't include any direct ab exercises at all. It's in a tri-set format (similar to a super-set but alternating between 3 exercises).
Here goes:
1a. Renegade Dumbbell Rows1b. Front Squats with Barbell1c. Mountain Climbers on Floor
A good rep scheme to use with this could be 3-4 sets of 8 reps for each exercise, or more sets for less reps, such as 5 sets of 5 reps of each exercise. Mountain climbers can be done for a time interval (such as 30 seconds) instead of "reps".
Renegade dumbbell rows are done starting in a pushup position with the hands on 2 dumbbells. You then row one dumbbell up while stabilizing your body with the other arm. Bring the dumbbell back to the ground and alternate the rowing arm while stabilizing with the opposite arm. This stabilizing effect during the rows creates incredible work for your entire midsection core area. Trust me... you'll feel it in the abs!
Front squats are done similar to back squats, however with the barbell in front of your body on the front of your shoulders instead of resting on the upper back as in back squats. You stabilize the barbell on your shoulders by crossing your arms and pushing your fists into the bar against your shoulders while keeping your elbows out in front of the body. This takes a little practice at first, so you will want to seek a professional trainer at your gym to help you with the form. Front squats require extreme stabilization strength from the abs due to the barbell weight being shifted to the front of the body instead of the back. Even though this is mostly a leg exercise, you'll feel this one in the abs big time!
Mountain climbers are done by starting in a pushup position and then shuffling your feet in and out so that your knees are moving in under your chest and then back out to starting position. It sort of resembles climbing a mountain but flat on the floor. If you want an advanced version, you can also shuffle your hands 8-10 inches forward and backward in addition to the leg movements. This really makes it a full body exercise and MUCH more difficult than standard mountain climbers.
After finishing each exercise, rest about 30 seconds before starting the next exercise. Rest about 1-2 minutes after completing each "tri-set" before repeating.
This will give you one of the best ab workouts you've ever had without even doing any direct ab exercises. You'll see what I mean after you try it!
If you are tired of failing to get visible six pack abs, consider losing the traditional ab exercises and bogus ab gadget machines, and find out the real fat loss for abs truth at Best Ab Exercises & Workouts for Abdominals

3 Forearm Exercises - Workout For An Often Forgotten Muscle Group

by Steve Gaidi
--------------------------
It is a fact that most people who exercise for muscle mass concentrate on certain groups of muscles. Almost everyone at the gym pay the greatest amount of importance to developing their chests, shoulders, abs, and the upper part of their arms - biceps and triceps. Most people will also exercise their backs, mainly their upper backs. Most women, and those of the men who are more serious and more dedicated to muscle building workout, will work out their legs and behind as well.
With all this going on, it seems that one of the most important, most visible parts of the human body is often forgotten, neglected, or exercised too little - The forearms.
This is strange, when you think about it. It doesn't make sense. A strong pair of muscular forearms is one of the most impressive things to see in a well-toned human body. So why is forearm exercising overlooked by so many?
There are two main reasons for that, in my view. One is people's perception of priority. Chest, shoulders, abs, and biceps are looked at as the most important muscles to develop. The exercises that work on the m are the most popular, well-known to all amateur weight exercisers, and even to most non-exercising people.
The other is that many people who exercise believe their forearms are being exercised anyway, as a by-product of the other weight exercises they do. While this may be true to a certain degree, that's a wrong way of thinking - it's no reason to leave exercises intended directly for the forearms out. To clarify this, think about it this way - many of the exercises intended to develop the chest also develop shoulders and triceps as secondary groups of muscles. But you don't see people leaving their shoulder exercises out of their workout because of that.
So developing forearm muscle is important. How do you do that? Here are a few ideas for forearm exercises at the gym:
Reverse barbell curl - this is a lot like the regular barbell curl which exercises the biceps, only this time the bar is gripped from above, not from below. That way, the load is less on the biceps and more on the main muscle of the forearm, the brachioradialis. Try not to move your elbows, as they are the axes of the movement for this exercise, and keep your lower back still. This exercise can be done standing, or sitting on a "preacher's bench".
Wrist barbell/dumbbell curl - in this exercise, the only moving parts are your wrists. Your forearms need to be rested, either on your thighs in a sitting position, or on a flat bench that your kneel in front of. Your wrists need to stick out just barely past your knees, or past the other end of the bench. Hold the barbell, or the pair of dumbbells, from below, and curl them up and down using only the wrists. This is a great exercise for a group of muscles responsible for exactly that - flexing your wrists.
The final idea for now is for two groups of muscles known as pronators and supinators. These are the muscles responsible for rotating your forearms around like a screwdriver. To get the hang of what these muscles do, stand up straight with your elbows against your sides, the forearms in a right angle forward, and the palms of your hands facing each other. Now rotate your forearms so that your palms face down. Your forearms are now pronated. If you rotate your forearms the other way, so that your palms face up, your forearms are supinated. A great exercise for these muscles is lying down on a mat on your side, with the bottom arm (the non-exercising arm) supporting. The other arm should be rested on your hip with the elbow bent at a right angle, so that the forearm points forward. The hand of that arm holds the dumbbell. Now rotate your forearm, so that the dumbbell turns around itself. The end points of the movement should be the thumb pointing up at one end, the pinky pointing up at the other.
Exercising the forearms is something that is often not being paid much attention to, but thorough exercisers who take their workout seriously will never skip.
For other forearm exercising ideas and other ideas for those who take their workout seriously, Click here for information about Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle - it may very well be the most thorough exercising programs available on the internet today.
--------------------------
Steve Gaidi has gained over 50 pounds of lean muscle without adding any fat whatsoever, over years of trial and error on various training programs, despite spending relatively little of his time at the gym. Click to read his reviews of leading fat loss and muscle gain programs.
--------------------------
article first published on Ezine articles.