A lot of people who are excessively overweight tend to think that losing those pounds of stomach fat is not possible for them. But as long as you have a plan to achieve your goals, you will be able to achieve it sooner or later. What is important here is to know what are your long term goals and short term goals. By determining the duration of your goals, you will stand a higher chance to lose those pounds of stomach fat that have been with you for years.
Let me share with you some tips on how you can lose weight with proper planning and goal setting:
1. Setting realistic goals
When it comes to weight loss, most people set goals which are too ambitious. For example, if you are currently weighing 200 pounds and you set a short term plan to shed 100 pounds, this is not a realistic goal.
To lose weight effectively, you need to have a sensible weight loss plan that will guide you step by step to achieve your target weight.
2. Determining your objectives to lose weight
To succeed in doing something, you need to have a very compelling objective or reason so that you will not lose track of your goal. Losing weight just for vanity's sake is usually less helpful than losing weight to improve health.
Other than just exercising, you need to have a healthy diet so that you will have a better body and more energy to be positive throughout the day.
3. Focus on doing, not how much you are going to lose
By focusing on how many times you are going to exercise per week rather than setting how much pounds you going to lose per week, you will definitely be able to come out with a more effective weight loss plan.
As long as you have the discipline to attend all the exercise session that you have plan out per week, weight loss will come naturally.
4. Losing fat step by step.
Let say if you have set a goal to lose 20 pounds after 1 month, you need to break down to how much pounds you are going to lose per week. Then plan out how many times you are going to exercise per week and what are the foods that you need to take to achieve your 1 week goal. By achieving weekly goals, you will definitely be able to achieve your final goal.
5. Having self-motivation
You need to always encourage yourself to achieve the goals that you have set. Learn to evaluate your efforts fairly and objectively. If you fail to achieve your target for the week, find out why is it so. Is it because you have missed a jogging session? Or you have been eating junk food for one of the days?
After evaluating, look ahead to next week and try your best to stick to your plan.
So first, let me explain what interval training is all about. It's harder than regular cardio, but also easier. And an interval training workout is always shorter than a long, slow, boring cardio workout.
Here's how the interval training workout breaks down.
Start with a 5-minute warm-up. You can use lots of other traditional aerobic movements, such as biking, running outside, etc.
Get prepared with a warmup, and then move on to your first set. For your interval, work hard for one minute. After 60 seconds, you will decrease the intensity to a very easy pace for 60-120 seconds.
That is one interval, and should be repeated 3-6 times and then followed by a cooldown.
An interval can be any length, from 5 seconds to 5 minutes, but for fat loss, I generally stick to 30-60 seconds of work followed by 60-120 seconds of rest.
One of the most common questions I get about interval training is, "What is the best equipment to use for interval training?"
Without considering anything else, for maximum results, treadmill sprinting is best. Sprinting is a total body exercise - it's not just your legs that are working hard. The entire body is needed to burn fat.
So sprinting results in a lot of "turbulence" applied to the muscles of the body. Not only does that burn a lot of calories in the workout, but it boosts your metabolism and burns calories and fat for a long time after exercise.
However, the treadmill has several logistical problems (i.e. difficulty changing speeds, possibility of falling off) and sprinting has a greater risk of injury (due to the high velocity nature of the movement).
Therefore, I prefer stationary cycling against a heavy resistance (allowing for 80-100 RPM to be achieved during the work interval). This provides the optimal combination of intensity and safety.
With the bike, you still apply a lot of turbulence to the big leg muscles, ensuring lots of fat and calorie burning. All this with a lot less risk of falling (please tell me you won't fall off a stationary bike!) and an easier time changing speeds.
All other machines and methods are generally accepted, however if you find you are NOT getting results, than your interval training method should be evaluated and perhaps you should experiment with another option.
To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of the elliptical machine. I'd rather someone use the bike or the treadmill. No more shin splits with the elliptical machine.
Rowing machines are good if you are an experienced rower. Elliptical machines are okay, but in my experience, have not given the same results as the bike or treadmill.
You can also swim, but this only seems to work if you are actually a good swimmer.
With interval training, you will get more results in less time than with slow, boring cardio. There are lots of ways to do intense cardio.
Both Homebizgears & Craig Ballantyne are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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