Vegetarian Weight Loss Tips to Help Overweight Vegetarians Lose Weight with Eating

As a vegetarian, you'll definitely lose weight much more easily than those non-vegetarians since your body carry less toxins (from dead animals). However, if you want to lose weight with just vegetarian weight loss diet without exercising and yet wanted to get positive results, then you got to "work harder" in the way you eat your vegetarian weight loss diet. In fact, these are easy techniques to follow, all you need is just a little discipline. Follow them and you'll probably see yourself getting into better shape and look slimmer in the next 7 - 10 days.

Tip 1 - 5 Vegetarian Weight Loss Meals Daily

Break your 3 main meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) into 5 smaller-sized meals, with snacks in between the main meals to keep you going, like this: breakfast - snack (morning) - lunch - snack (afternoon) - dinner. This vegetarian weight loss diet plan will help sustain you through your daily tasks without you feeling hungry easily. You should be able to quit your supper naturally when you eat a fiber-packed dinner.

Tip 2 - Leave Your Stomach 70% Full

All your weight loss meals should not make you too full. Your breakfast, lunch and dinner should fill you up to about 70% only. You should receive 30 - 40% satiation from your snacks. But don't waste food. Always ask for smaller portion when eating out.

Tip 3 - Eat Longer to Avoid Gaining Weight

Eating slower by chewing your food more times not only helps you digest better but also allow your stomach to tell your brain how full it is. It takes about 10 - 20 minutes (at times, 2 minutes) for the communication between your stomach and brain to complete. So, don't rush your meal. Savor it and it'll help you block unwanted excess calories.

Tip 4 - Ingest Foods Rich in Fiber and Complex-Carb

Effective vegetarian weight loss diet should achieve these 5 things - it makes you feel full easily; it makes you feel full longer; it helps you burn more calories than you eat, it provides quality nutrients for your body to work optimally and it helps you secrete your waste daily. Vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts and seeds, legumes, seaweed etc - these foods are packed with fiber and complex-carbohydrate and will help you achieve these 5 things in one go. Include them in your vegetarian diet for weight loss, always.

Tip 5 - Eat Coconut Oil for Weight Loss

Coconut oil is one of the best healthful foods on earth to help vegetarian lose weight and stay healthy. It generates a thermogenic effect in your body that in turns boost your metabolism up to 24 hours - you keep burning fat throughout. But choose only virgin coconut oil.

Tip 6 - Create Your Own Vegetarian Weight Loss Diet

Whip up delicious vegetarian meals for weight loss in your own kitchen. You can control the amount of the meal to fit your needs and ensure the quality of the ingredients use at the same time. How cool is that?

Tip 7 - Eat Raw for More Effective Vegetarian Weight Loss

Do you know that a raw vegetarian diet can help you achieve weight loss more effectively than any other weight loss diets in the world? Craig Ballantyne, a non-veggie pro trainer even admits that a raw diet is the best weight loss diet in the world. But not all can turn to raw easily. It takes time to transition your diet. However, partial raw works well too. Start upping your raw intake today and you'll get a fast ticket to effective vegetarian weight loss.

Though you can achieve fat loss with eating alone, it's even more rewarding to build some muscles and improve your body shape with exercises.

The Joy Of Raw Food Diet Weight Loss

The raw food diet is rapidly gaining popularity and awareness among knowledgeable health conscious consumers. As we enter the 21st century people are becoming more diet conscious due to an increase in understanding about how the body works. When people pursue raw food diet weight loss and abandon modern processed foods they quickly see a change in the way they feel and an increase in their energy levels. The benefits of turning from soda pop and processed food to more healthy things like uncooked vegetables, seeds, nuts, grains, beans, dried fruit, and even seaweed are bringing millions of people benefits like increased energy, better skin tone and even reduced illnesses.

Raw food diet weight loss revolves around cutting out foods that are not readily processed by the body. By replacing these processed foods with natural foods that are not cooked at excessive temperature many enzymes and nutrients are left intact. Studies have shown that heating food above 115 degrees F can destroy enzymes in food that can assist in the digestion and absorption of food. At least 75% of the diet must be uncooked or raw food in order for the diet to be a true raw food diet.

If you are thinking about pursuing raw food diet weight loss you need to make sure that your body's PH is not moving towards being more acidic than alkaline. An acidic body is a fat body as the metabolism will be slowed down and more inefficient. When an unhealthy diet of processed foods is consumed this will create an acidic condition in the body. To test the body's acidity you can use PH test strips, these are inexpensive and they can be used to help determine not only your PH but the right diet schedule needed to meet your weight loss goals. By eating an alkaline diet you will find weight loss is more effective. This is the major tip in achieving long term weight loss. Fruits, vegetables and herbs will help assist you in your efforts to maintain a more alkaline body.

Eat Fresh and Organic

Eating organic foods can help as they contain higher nutrient levels. Organic foods have more alkalizing minerals than conventionally grown foods and eating organic will speed up your weight loss efforts. Make sure to buy the highest quality and most delicious food. It may cost more but the great taste and higher quality will ensure that your raw food diet weight loss plans are successful.

The lowest calorie count per ounce will be found with raw greens and vegetables. Fruits are next in line. In general, fruits have a slightly higher calorie count because of their naturally occurring sugars which will help with weight loss due to the fact that this will raise the body's blood sugar and reduce hunger levels. People will often eat a piece of fruit before their meal to reduce over eating. If you eat a piece of sweet fruit like some pineapple or an apple 30 minutes before your main meal this can significantly reduce your hunger cravings so that when you do finally eat you will want to eat less. Raw food diet weight loss is usually successful when a complete lifestyle change is made. This change is typically rewarded with a higher energy level and possibly a reduction in illness.

You Are What You Eat: Triglycerides and Diet

I must confess that I am a Steve Martin fan. Like me he studied philosophy in his earlier days. He plays a banjo like I wish I could. And he is funny. In 1987 he was in a movie entitled “Roxanne”. He played a small town fire chief with an enormous nose who fell in love with a beautiful astronomer played by Daryl Hannah. The only problem was she had an eye for a younger fireman with a relatively normal nose. C.D. Bales (Steve Martin), having a poetic command of the English language, agreed to coach the younger and much more awkward man in his pursuit of the educated astronomer. It is a hilarious twist on an old story. In one of the more sober scenes C.D.’s friend Trixie encourages him to pursue the young maiden for himself since he was obviously in love with her. She makes her point by saying the truth “is as plain as the nose on your face.” Well said.

Many people today are concerned about their triglyceride levels. And rightly so. High triglycerides have been marked as an independent risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD). But in all the scramble to reduce our triglycerides many doctors have been trying to tell us that the truth is as plain as the nose on our collective face.

Triglycerides are a form of fat. In fact they are the most prevalent form of fat in our bodies. Our bodies make triglycerides and we consume them in our diets. Even though we live in culture where ‘thin is in’, fat is a good thing. Triglycerides in particular are good because they are the form of fat our bodies use for energy. But like many things more is not necessarily better. Triglycerides truly represent an example of the maxim, ‘too much of a good thing’. In this case too much can contribute to serious health side effects especially in relation to heart health. So if your triglycerides are too high get them down.

But how? How do we get them down? To answer this question it is first helpful to understand what causes our triglycerides to rise. There are several causes which we will only mention in passing because they do not compose the main subject of this essay. There are certain medical conditions that elevate triglyceride levels such as hypothyroidism, kidney disease, liver disease, familial hypertriglyceridemia and pregnancy. And of course medical conditions are often accompanied by medications that negatively impact triglycerides. Among these are oral contraceptives, estrogen replacement therapy, certain steroids, diuretics, beta-blockers, newer classes of antipsychotic medications, cyclosporine, glucocorticoids, progesterone, retinoids and tamoxifen to mention a handful.

The above mentioned factors can contribute to a rise in serum triglycerides. But they are by no means the most common. For most of us our problems lie elsewhere. Diabetes is a common cause of high triglycerides. Unfortunately diabetes is a two-pronged fork. Not only does it affect triglyceride levels but diabetics are more susceptible to the damage that results from factors such as high triglycerides.

Obesity, whatever the reason, causes higher levels of triglycerides to hang around in the blood. As our nation gets progressively heavier higher cholesterol and triglycerides, as well as the heart damage that accompanies them, will become more common.

Now for the rest of us. For most of us our triglycerides are high for one reason. The truth is as plain as the nose on C.D.’s face. We are what we eat. Doctors, though themselves seldom the epitome of health, have been telling us for years to watch what we eat. With all the medical advances over the past several decades diet and exercise are still the primary and most effective methods for promoting heart health, especially in relation to cholesterol and triglycerides and the damage they can cause.

I have only this to say about exercise. Get some! But concerning diet we need a bit more detail. Let’s begin where it hurts the most. Alcohol, though good for your heart in many ways, is easily converted to triglycerides. If yours are too high stay away from alcohol.

Next in line, and this hurts me even more, is sugar. Simple, and especially highly processed carbohydrates, cause triglycerides to rise perhaps even more than alcohol. The American diet is no stranger to sugar and highly processed foods. Such foods are doing more than making us fat. They are causing the incidence of heart disease to escalate with amazing speed. When it comes to high triglycerides, sugar is your worst enemy.

Fruits are questionable. Eliminating fruits is not the place to start. Whole fruits, and the sugars they contain, do not convert to triglycerides as readily as their processed cousins. However, if you have done all you can in other areas of your diet you might consider reducing fruit intake. But before you do this make sure you have eliminated the juices that are more sugar and juice than they are fruit. And avoid canned fruits that are packed in syrup.

Since triglycerides are fat it makes sense to avoid fatty foods. I have in mind especially saturated animal fats. Foods such as bacon, sausage, fatty fowl like duck or goose and fatty beef should be restricted in your diet. Hotdogs and hamburgers? I realize they are the core of the American diet. But do I really need to comment on these?

Now for the surprise. Some fatty foods actually cause triglycerides to fall. Can you believe it? There is a silver lining behind every dark cloud. Cold water fatty fish like salmon, mackerel and tuna, not the canned varieties, are high in omega-3 fatty acids which are well documented to reduce triglycerides. When is the last time you heard about an Eskimo having bypass surgery? Perhaps that is because Eskimos know that the American Heart Association has recommended two to four grams of omega-3 fatty acids from marine sources for people with high triglycerides. That is a lot of omega-3 but such quantities are well proven to lower triglycerides as well as offer a whole list of heart health benefits. Though it is difficult to eat that much fish and there is the risk of mercury poisoning, there is a safe way to get enough omega-3 to effectively lower triglycerides. You can take fish oils supplements. Please purchase them from a trusted source.

So, as you can see, the epidemic of rising triglycerides is an unnecessary danger. For most of us the solution rests in the things we eat and the exercise we need to get. It sounds all too simple. But I am a simple guy. I think it is nice to know that the solution to rising triglycerides is as plain as the nose on C.D.’s face.

For more information on causes of high triglycerides and triglyceride lower diets please use the links below:

http://www.optimal-heart-health.com/causesofhightriglycerides.html

http://www.optimal-heart-health.com/foodtolowertriglyceride.html

http://www.optimal-heart-health.com/triglycerides.html

The Benefits of Coral Calcium

The benefits of coral calcium have been known to some for centuries. Coral calcium's benefits have been made famous by the farmers and residents of Okinawa in Japan. Feeding coral calcium to their chickens and their cattle, they get twice as many eggs and twice as many gallons of milk than the average chicken or cow produce elsewhere. Feeding coral calcium to themselves, they have attained an average life expectancy of 105. The benefits of coral calcium for them also extend to a more youthful appearance, more energy right into very old age, and vastly fewer ravages of old age including diseases that people in the modernized Western world take for granted: Alzheimer's, cancer, osteoporosis.

The benefits of coral calcium stem from this sea-substance's great abundance of minerals. Coral calcium contains 74 minerals. Coral consists of pre-digested ionized oceanic minerals that have been secreted by tiny sea creatures. Since these minerals have all been predigested and ionized, they are easy for the human body to absorb into the blood and tissues once they are digested. Minerals are extremely important for optimal human health.

Minerals increase the metabolism by acting synergistically with vitamins, glucose, enzymes, fats, and proteins to catalyze them and break them down into the usable chemical complexes that the body truly needs. In this way, minerals and coral calcium contribute to a healthy weight--and therefore weight loss if it is necessary--and they make the human body far healthier and able to stave off aging for much longer. Minerals also interact synergistically with each other, so the more you get at one time the better. Seventy-four minerals at once is a great abundance of minerals.

Minerals greatly contribute to the creation of an internal bodily environment that is more alkaline than acidic. A more alkaline body, which is what we are by our nature (natural human body ph is 7.4), readily resists a vast array of pathogens and potential diseases that need heavy amounts of acid to thrive--this includes cancer.

The calcium component of coral calcium in particular strengthens the electricity of the heart and all of the body's muscles. We already know well how calcium also enhances the strength of teeth and bones, preventing tooth decay and osteoporosis. In fact, orthopedic surgeons use coral for bone grafts because the body readily takes it and accepts it. And, calcium seems to play a strong role in DNA replication.

If you want to get the benefits of coral calcium and seek to take a supplement, make sure you take one that includes at least 400 mg of vitamin D along with each calcium capsule. Vitamin D interacts with calcium and allows the body to absorb it into cells and tissues. Without vitamin D, calcium intake is largely useless. In the case of coral calcium, this would mean that a great deal of the minerals never get absorbed by the body. The body naturally takes in vitamin D from the sunlight as well as fish, meat, eggs, and fortified milk.

About the Author:

Fabiola Castillo is an online marketer for the website NinjaCOP SuperStore. This virtual store sells not only personal defense items but also nutrition products such as marine coral calcium, energy supplements, coral calcium suplements, heart health supplements, and multivitamin supplements.

A 30-minute, Or Less, Full Body Workout

Most people do not have the time to do biceps and back one day, then legs and shoulders the next, then triceps and abdominals the next day. So here is a short, and every effective full body weight session you can easily get done in 30 minutes or less. Your muscles will feel the workout but you will not have the muscle soreness that will prevent you from your other training

Do this program two times a week. You are going to do drop sets. This means you are going to do three sets back to back without resting. Obviously if you ar not experienced with liting weight you will start with one set then more up to the three sets. You are going to work your larger muscles first. The order goes something like this:

Leg extension

Leg Press

Hamstring Curl

Close Grip Lat. Pull Down

Pull Over or Seated Row

Bench Press

Chest Fly

Triceps

Bicep Curls

Lateral Shoulder Raise

For every exercise write down the weight and the number of repetitions you do for your first set only. Do fifteen repetitions, once you get to the fifteenth repetition drop the weight down about 25% then do as many repetitions as you can, then again without rest drop the weight down and do as many repetitions as you can. If on the first set you cannot make fifteen repetitions, no problem, do as many as you can then drop the weight and keep going as I mentioned.

Write down the weight and number of repetitions you did for the first set only. For your next workout, if you made it to fifteen repetitions increase the weight. If you did not make it to fifteen repetitions, keep the weight the same and try to do more repetitions than you did last time. This will constantly push you to trainer harder. Try and do the exercises in the exact same order every time.

Not resting will really fatigue the muscle, but only while lifting at that time. You will still be able to do your other training. Training this way will stimulate muscle growth because you are causing the muscles to fail. In fact, on your third set you may only be lifting the bar with no weights on it at since your muscle is failing. That is one reason you will want to do this workout on some type of machine unless you have a spotter. Get past how much weight you are lifting, just let your muscles fail.

After a few sessions switch the type of exercise you are doing. Instead of a chest fly do a decline bench, then latter do an incline bench. Instead of a close grip lat. pull down do a seated row, but keep the same basic order, working the larger muscles to the smaller muscle.

You should be able to get this fully body weight session done in thirty minutes or less. Now go run!

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Vegetarian Weight Loss Tips - Lose Weight & Gain Health as a Vegetarian

Want to lose weight and gain health as a vegetarian? These are the sure-fire vegetarian weight loss tips guaranteed to make you feel lighter and full of energy. Your pants will probably become less tight in the next 10 days.

Vegetarian weight loss Tips on Dieting

Include in your vegetarian weight loss diet this type of foods:

- Carry low calories.

- Hold good amount of water.

- Bear complex-carbohydrate structure and thus require more energy (from your fat stores) to break them down into digestible units.

- Contain high fiber. Fiber helps you detox. And it makes you feel full easily so you won't overeat. Recommended daily fiber intake: 25 - 35 grams. Max 45 grams.

Most vegetables embrace these attributes. Certain fruits like figs, peach, raspberries, apple, cantaloupe, cranberries, kiwifruits, lemon, watermelon, mango, orange etc also bear these properties.

Vegetarian Weight Loss Tips on Hydration

Don't blindly follow what others say about drinking 8 glasses or 2 liters of water. You know your body best. Observe your urine at all times. If it goes yellow, you need more water. If it turns clear or pale yellow, then you should stop drinking excessive water to avoid water poisoning (hyponatremia).

Take one glass of water every 2 - 3 hour until you feel you're properly hydrated. And when you drink, drink slowly to allow for proper absorption by your body. A well hydrated body will have its metabolism running at full speed to keep burning fat.

Stop drinking 2 hours before your bedtime to prevent from having to wake up in the mid of your dream for peeing. This can disrupt your sleep quality. You can take small sips to lubricate your throat.

Vegetarian Weight Loss Tips on Interval Training

Steady-state exercises like cardio will only burn fat during its exercise bout. Once you stop it, its fat-burning effect stops. Interval workouts will suddenly raise your metabolic rate which in turn forces your body to pull out extra energy from your glycogen (stored glucose) and fat storage to fuel the sudden burst of high-intensity activity, achieving more fat loss during and even after the training bout.

But do check with your physician about your physical condition before you engage in this training since it does bear certain risk due to its high-intensity characteristic. Remember to seek advice from certified trainer when you start with interval training.

Vegetarian Weight Loss Tips on Sleeping

You can easily run into metabolic disorder when you don't get enough quality sleep. Quality comprises both the number of hours you sleep plus the time you hit the sack. How long we should sleep varies differently. Listen to your body for the best number of hours of sleep you need.

As for the best time to sleep, I strongly recommend that you turn in before 11 P.M. since our bodies will enter the intensive recovery state from 11 P.M to 2 A.M. - fixing and repairing your damaged cells and tissues.

When your body recovers more cells and tissues, it'll perform its calorie management at its best since it is after all, your cells and tissues that command and control the metabolizing of the calorie you consume.

Vegetarian Weight Loss Tips on Detox

During respiration, we breathe out carbon dioxide. When we defecate, we remove wastes from our body. We sweat in exercising. All these are detoxification. Hence, you should learn some deep breathing technique (from yoga, perhaps), make time for toilet every day, and engage in regular workouts at least 3 times a week. Simply put, you can never achieve successful vegetarian weight loss without a proper detox plan.

Exercise and Fat Loss

A lot of people are confused when it comes to fat loss and exercise.

'I’ve lost so much weight my clothes are hanging off me, yet I’ve still got a spare tyre around my waist!'

Sound familiar? Or maybe you’ve just noticed how many women can be really thin but still have love handles on the waist. Do you know that anorexics can actually INCREASE their body fat percentage as they drop weight? Why does this happen?

Womens' bodies are wonderfully designed for a specific purpose: to produce healthy babies. In famine stricken countries women still manage to give birth every day to healthy children, though they may be malnourished themselves. This is because of the lovely fat stores that our bodies will fight viciously to protect. So if you thought that losing fat was hard, you were totally right.

It is a lot easier for men. In one study it was found that women could carry at least twenty percent of their body weight without raising the level of calories burned. So that means if you weigh 120 pounds and you get on the treadmill holding a 12 pound dumbbell in each hand your calorie expenditure won’t be any higher than if you had nothing in your hands. This is because our bodies are designed to be able to carry a baby with maximum efficiency. Women also have a lower resting metabolic rate than men, which means that we burn fewer calories to maintain our basic life functions than men do. We also have larger fat cells than men.

So if you’re carrying an extra 20 pounds or so of fat, it can be extremely hard to lose.

The way to lose fat and gain muscle is to eat enough calories at the same time as following an exercise program that includes weight training and cardiovascular exercise. The two go hand in hand. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you should only do cardio until the excess fat comes off. I tried that before. I spent a significant amount of time running on the treadmill and swimming my butt off every day in the hope of losing some weight and nothing whatsoever happened.

When I began a weight training exercise program as well as cardio and a good diet then I started to see some results.

If you eat too few calories, you will certainly get smaller, but your body fat percentage may not go down very significantly. You may lose quite a lot of lean muscle mass in the process. So you will be smaller, but you may not look a whole lot better. Your body will defend its fat stores, just so that it can nurture a healthy baby should you get pregnant! So your muscle mass will waste away and your fat will remain!

You should either eat enough calories with a fantastic exercise program, or go on a complete fast. There should not be any in-between. It is only on a complete fast that your body goes into a muscle sparing phase and preserves your lean muscle mass while burning fat. As long as you are consuming ANY calories, your body cannot go into this muscle sparing phase, so your muscle mass will waste away. So while you’re not on a complete fast, you need to work out how many calories your body needs and then make sure you are getting that. A site such as nutridiary.com or fitday.com can help you work this out very effectively.

Another thing is to cut your fat consumption. “The fat you eat is the fat you wear“ according to Dr John McDougall. A low fat diet is crucial to your success. While you may be able to lose weight on a high fat diet if you’re counting calories, you will find that you will have to eat less and, since your body’s favorite choice of fuel is carbohydrate, you will find yourself hungry, undernourished and fed up. I found that when I did a 30 day no fat trial, I lost weight without cutting my calorie consumption at all.

Weight Training

Adding weight training into your exercise schedule is crucial. And you don’t have to worry that you’ll suddenly look like Arnold, that does not happen by accident. Women who bulk up do so very deliberately and with an ENORMOUS amount of effort, it will never happen accidentally. Lifting heavy weights will just make you more toned and help with fat loss. You can have beautifully toned sleek muscles while lifting heavy weights. If you look too big, you are probably still too fat, not too muscular.

You should choose weights that are challenging enough so that by the end of your set you are seriously struggling. If you plan on 12 reps and could easily do 15 then you are lifting far too light.

You should also change your routine every 4-6 weeks so that you avoid plateaus. The changes you make do not have to be huge. Just mix it up. Choose some different exercises that work the same muscle groups. Or switch from doing sets with rest breaks in between to doing supersets and no rest breaks.

The more muscle groups that are engaged in the exercise the better. So it is better to do large compound exercises such as pull ups, pushups and dips, than it is to do preacher curls. Although preacher curls definitely have their place. When you do pull ups you are working multiple muscles all at the same time. Whereas with a preacher curl you are just working your biceps. So make sure you are doing major compound exercises as well as isolated muscle exercises.

Major compound exercises for legs include squats, lunges, leg press and deadlifts. These work your whole leg as well as your back and your abs as stabilisers.

The more muscle you build the more fat you will burn and the smaller your body will get. Not bigger! The people who bulk up, such as bodybuilders, do so very deliberately with specific dietary programs that enable them to do so. Simply having a lot of lean muscle mass will not mean a large physique, quite the opposite. Muscle is smaller than fat and you will get tinier and able to fit into the tiniest items in your wardrobe. So don’t be scared of weights, they are crucial, and keep pushing yourself to lift heavier weights so that you are always challenged.

Remember too not to take long rest breaks between sets. 15-30 seconds between sets is more than enough. Time your rest breaks. You are not doing yourself any favours if you sit for minutes at a time between sets, you might as well start at the beginning again if your rest break has been too long.

Cardio

Cardio is essential and if you have weight to lose, the more the better. It takes at least 20 minutes for your body to get into a fat burning zone, so try for a minimum of 30 minutes daily, but anything more that you can fit in is a bonus. I am currently aiming for a minimum of an hour of cardio a day. If I do more it is even better.

When you are doing cardio it is essential that you are working hard enough. You should be working out at between 70 and 85% of your maximum heart rate. To work out your maximum heart rate subtract your age from 220. For me the formula is 220 - 32 = 188.

If I want to work out at between 70 and 85% of my maximum I should keep my heart rate between 131 and 160.

I wear a heart rate monitor when I work out so that I can make sure I am always working hard enough. I don’t worry if my heart rate goes over 160 and when I am really working out hard it often goes to 180 and sometimes all the way to my maximum and beyond. But that is always for brief spurts and is generally when I am doing something like walking lunges very vigorously. When you are doing cardio it is better to be more moderate as you can then keep it up for a longer period of time. You should not be gasping for breath, but you should be breathing more heavily than normal and you should be sweating.

What kind of cardio is best?

Any kind of cardio is fine. I like to mix it up as much as possible as I get bored really easily. I do a combination of walking on the treadmill at an incline, the stairmaster, the Arc Trainer and the Elliptical interspersed with bicycle riding and occasionally some running. As long as you can get your heart rate into the right zone then any kind of cardio is best.

What time of day is best for cardio?

First thing in the morning is the best time for cardio as it is the best time for fat loss. In the mornings you are in a fasting state since you haven’t eaten since the night before and you therefore burn more fat than at any other time of the day.

However, if you can’t manage a morning workout than any time of the day is still going to be beneficial. Just doing it is more important than the time of day you do it.

Doing cardio AFTER your weight training is also better. This way you have more energy to put into really strong sets in your weight training.

Home Workouts

I am a fan of home workouts as it is great for when you don’t manage to get to gym or when your time schedule is more limited. It is a lot easier to fit in an hour long workout at home then it is to get yourself to the gym for an hour long workout. So I definitely think having some home workout DVD’s around is a good thing. I highly recommend Cindy Crawford - Next Challenge Workout and Cindy Crawford - Shape Your Body Workout.

They were made in the early 90’s but are in no way outdated. The workouts are a fantastic mix of compound exercises that get your heart rate very high, so they incorporate cardiovascular training with muscle building.

How often should you work out?

The more the better. Aim for every day, that way if you only manage five days a week you will still be successful.

It is a myth that you can exercise for only 30 minutes three times a week and still see results. Utter nonsense. If you want to see results you have to put in the time. I would say a minimum of an hour a day 5 times a week to see good results.

Anything you can add to that is a bonus. I am aiming for 2 hours a day at least 5 days a week, preferably more, plus time on the weekends. I am lucky enough to have the time available but if you don’t, I would say that an hour to an hour and a half five times a week is sufficient, so long as you are incorporating both weight training and cardio into your workouts.

If you don’t have any fat to lose, then you could get by with doing a lot less. You could focus on weight training with just a couple of short cardio workouts per week to maintain your health. In this way you could significantly cut your exercise time. However, we are not meant to be sedentary beings, we are meant to be highly active. So even if you don’t have any fat to lose, exercising hard is still a really good idea. Just eat more calories so that you don’t lose weight if that isn’t what you want.