You may have heard already that what your post workout meal is the most important one of the day. You’re always looking for ways on how to lose weight fast, but at this time you should take special care. Your cortisol levels are breaking down muscle and your muscle’s glycogen level has been exhausted.

The need you have is for easily digestible food that you can eat after your workout. This will help put you into an anabolic state from the catabolic state that resulted from your workout.Your muscle needs the protein for repair and the carbs to restore glycogen.

The amino acids and carbohydrates from your meal will result an in influx of insulin which triggers a release of nutrients from your pancreas to your muscle cells.Depending on your weight your meal after working out should be from 300 to 500 calories.A carbohydrate to protein ration of two to four to one is what you should have.

Since fat will slow down digestion, you should keep it minimal in this meal.The most important thing to realize is that you don’t need any of the advertised after workout supplements: natural food is better.

Get a good source of carbohydrates that are easy to digest such as raisins, honey, frozen bananas, or pineapple.The insulin response I just mentioned depends on this.

For protein that can be easily digested, try whey protein that has not been denatured with some fat free yogurt.

Be sure to keep following my advice on how to lose weight fast.Here are a couple ideas for a smoothie that is great for recovery after working out:

Chocolate Banana Smoothie. Mix up a cup of water, 1/2 a cup of milk (skim), and one and a half frozen bananas.Add in organic maple syrup (2 tablespoons) and chocolate whey protein (30 grams).This will give you 440 calories, 1/2 a gram of fat, 38 grams of protein and 72 grams of carbohydrates.

Pineapple vanilla smoothie.Mix together a cup of water, vanilla yogurt (1/2 cup), frozen pineapples (1 cup), raw honey (2 tablespoons), and vanilla whey protein (30 grams).This results in 425 calories with half a gram of fat, 71 grams of carbs, and 35 grams of protein.

If you’re trying to reduce body fat, you must have post workout eating habits that are the reverse of the rest of yo ur meals.Meals during the day should have low glycemic carbs, proteins that are disbursed slowly, and sufficient healthy fats, unlike your meal following your workout.

Managing your meal after working out is a strategy that is essential to creating the lean, strong body you’re looking for.One last thing: since sugar will go to your muscles rather than your belly, your after-workout meal is the only time you can get away with satisfying that sweet tooth… have fun!

For any other questions, please visit our weight loss forum, go to www.fatlossfactor.com for a free fat loss report.

Here comes a brand new year: don’t tarnish it with your same old reasons why you’re not in shape. All your pretexts have done is left you unfit and unhealthy for another year. Almost every weight loss forum will be talking about gearing up for another new year.

This is a good time to get rid of all your fitness contraptions and miracle supplements that wouldn’t work even if you were using them.Stop trying all the miracle weight solutions that keep coming out and start working out.

Think critically about the fitness marketing you see so you can hold onto your money and start losing fat instead.A good thing to do is add up how much your health care bill will be, then compare it to the cost of healthy food, gym membership and a few weights to use at home. That should make you want to start working on that body of yours.

Take a page out of the sociologists’ book: they claim that your income is about equal to the average income of your friends.

Take that premise and apply it to your body: you’re going to be in similar shape to those you hang around.So you don’t have a good support network? Hanging around with obese, fast food eating beer drinkers isn’t how to lose weight fast.

Get out there and meet some new people with good fitness habits.Their lives can help you elevate yours.

Stop blaming your tendency to be obese: you are still in control.

While some factors of obesity might be heritable, hardly any mean that you have no control over your weight.Even supposing you are genetically inclined to be obese, that should make you want to spend more time at the gym!

Quit making resolutions and vague commitments to your health and fitness.Get a clear picture of what you want to be: this is a pre-requisite for success.Your mind will help drive you towards your goals.

For another year you can decide whether you’ll excuse your physical shape or if you’ll do something about it!

For information about how to lose weight fast, go to www.fatlossfactor.com.

A master of Neuro Linguistic Programming has suggested that we reconsider using the term “New Year’s Resolution.”Because of the word’s literal meaning of solving again, this term could make your unconscious mind want to gain back the weight you lost.

So I am suggesting that you use the term “wish” rather than resolution: it seems to have a letter connotation.Once you have decided what you wish for the new year, you should write it down: goals are wishes in writing.

To enhance your recollection, it is sometimes useful to take one word whose letters represent a series of meetings.”Smarter” is a mnemonic acronym they can help you formulate your goals.

1. Specific. To eliminate ambiguity in your mind you need to make sure that what you want it spelled out clearly in your mind. For example, discovering how to lose weight fast is not very specific.

2. Measured. There should be a way to tell whether you are making progress or not, so what you write down needs to be something that can be verified.

3. Accountability. You need a way to account for your success or failure.

4. Realistic. What you set down on paper need to be things that are possible for you to do.

5. Time. Define how long each of your goals is going to take to reach . Some in the weight loss forum might know they want to lose ten pounds, but they haven’t defined any deadlines for achieving that goal.

6. Emotions. Make sure there are some strong emotional attachments to the goals you have written down.

7. Review. What good are goals that you can remember what they are?So when you think about your aspirations, think of one word, “smarter,” that will help you remember how to plan. Challenge yourself with goals this year and see if you get better results.

For information about how to lose weight fast go to www.fatlossfactor.com.

You Get Energy or Just a Gut from Energy Drinks?

A lot of people ask me whether the outrageous claims of energy drinks have been verified.Young consumers are especially interested in getting an energy boost that will help them win.

A couple good questions asked will find out if energy drinks will boost your energy and whether they are good for you.You are going to want to know if these drugs have a magical formula and if they will help you lose weight. Let’s put it this way, energy drinks are not some ways that you can shed weight quickly.

Rather than giving you energy, these drinks are designed to give you an enormous gut.By mixing and some of the B vitamins with the taurine and caffeine, marketers want you to think that these drinks are healthy.To begin with, the high fructose syrup is nothing but calories that build up your abdominal fat.

This means of the calories from these drinks are worse than if you just a refined sugar.

There are chemicals and artificial sweeteners in the sugar-free version of these drinks, so you probably do not want to go there.

On top of the issue with the chemicals, artificial sweeteners may actually lead people to take in more calories and put on weight.

This is a complex subject of its own, so we will have to discuss it later.All you need to know is that artificial sweeteners and the chemicals in general are bad for you

Do not you get energy from the caffeine and the energy drinks?No, because you really only get energy from proteins carbohydrates and fats.

You can get some benefit from caffeine and that it will help you stay alert by stimulating the nervous system.The extra caffeine probably will not help you much if you already drank coffee.Besides you would be better off getting your caffeine from a natural source such as white or oolong tea.

The antioxidants found in natural teas will be helpful to your body.How about the blend of taurine and B vitamins there are now in energy drinks energy drinks?

You can get taurine from any source of protein, and your body will quickly eliminate those B vitamins. healthy foods to eat will get you the nutrition you need.

Vitamins from natural sources are absorbed more on the body than they are from the chemicals found in energy drinks.

So let’s give energy drinks thumbs down because of their misleading claims and damaging effects on the body.
Try making your own energy drinks with a mix of pomegranate juice, natural tea, and whey protein.

For information on how to lose weight fast, visit www.fatlossfactor.com.

I can demonstrate to you how to lose weight fast in many different ways. Diet plans, excercise plans and many combinations of both.

I can also show you lots of testimonials from people who have had great weight loss results from each and every one of those plans and programs.

The key element in all of those testimonials is that the people who acheived their weight loss goals, had the right mind set to start with or they achieved it along the way.

One of the big reasons why we fail to lose weight, or the even bigger problem fail to keep our weight off once we have had some success, is that our focus is on the wrong thing.

We tend to focus on the effectiveness of the diet or excercise program. We need to shift the focus away from those aspects about how to lose weight fast, and on to our own mind set to make sure we are setting ourselves up for success.

Some classic examples of having the wrong mind set are;

• Choosing to lose weight because some one else tells or talks you into it
• Only focusing on a short term target (usually an event like a party or marriage) without looking to the long term.
• Doing it to please someone else.
• Going on a diet because your friends are

The best way to set yourself up for success is to really have a good think about your reasons for wanting to loose weight. If you really have no compelling reason then perhaps you should consider leaving any attempt to lose weight until such time as you really are determined to do it.

Once you have your mind set on why you want to lose weight, and it is better to just have one or maybe two reasons to focus on. You can look at what the benefits of losing weight will be, and what the cost of failure is.

Only then is it really worthwhile learning about how to loose weight fast, and what diets and exercise programs you are going to use to achieve your goals.

I wish you well and remember; Persistence pay off, so get over it and get on with it!

There is often confusion about Metabolism and how it affects your body. Many people think that you are given a “metabolism” and you have to live with it.

Well that is not really true at all.

Your Metabolism is the process by which our body converts Food (fuel) into energy. The extension to this is your metabolic rate which is the speed at which you convert food into energy.

In every living moment of your life your metabolism is working. While asleep it does not need to work very hard, while exercising it needs to work very hard. The rate at which your metabolism works is a direct derivative of what your body requires at any given time.

So you need to understand that if today you are exactly what you are. And in 1 months time, having been to the gym every day and followed a well designed resistance program, you have now increased your muscle mass by 5%. Your body will have gone through some other changes but in an effort to keep it simple lets just assume that all that has changed is that you now have a larger muscle mass.

Now when you go to sleep at night your body has to supply more energy to maintain that extra muscle mass, and so it needs more fuel to burn to create that extra energy. In addition during tomorrows gym session you are going to need a whole lot more energy to be able to do your workout. Your body has to get that energy from somewhere. You van provide that extra source of energy by eating more, OR if you do not eat any extra food, your body will find it from stored energy sources.

Now if you are super fit with a very low percentage of body fat, then this can be a very dangerous situation, however if you happen to be looking to lose weight, then you happen to have a great source of energy that your body will be only to happy to use. Your excess body fat. How cool is that.

Obviously this whole process of increasing your metabolism by increasing your muscle mass and or expending more energy in your daily activities is only going to work really effectively if you combine it with a sensible and balanced diet. But there you have it in simple terms, you CAN alter your metabolic rate and you can do it easily for almost instant results.

You don’t even have to worry about building muscle bulk if that is not your go. You just need to expend more energy in a day. Simple things like walking the stairs instead of taking the lift etc. Now I hear you say but I am 20 floors up. Stop being so negative, think outside the box. When you walk in the front foyer, go straight to the stairs and simply walk a couple of floors, hell just do one if that is all you ca do today, then catch the lift the rest of the way while you catch your breath!

Hope you got something from this and remember; Persistence pays off, so get over it and get on with it!

One of the most common questions I hear is “I want to learn how to loose weight fast, will this diet work”. Well the answer is quite simply that most diets do actually work. However the real question is will this diet work for YOU?

As much as I would love to be able to say, yes that looks like a really good diet, well balanced and sound in its nutritional values, THAT WILL DEFINITELY WORK FOR YOU, I just can’t do that! At least not unless I have a very good idea of who you are, what your likes and dislikes are, and how committed you are to achieving your weight loss goals.

You see it is not really about the diet, the credentials of your personal trainer or any other external influence you may have in your attemtps to lose weight fast. In fact it is entirely about YOU and your state of readiness to go though the process.

It is really very easy for me to show you how to lose weight fast, and then to show you how to keep it off. It is also very easy for me to walk a horse down to the dam and say, here you look thirsty have a drink.

I can even go through a motivational process with you and get you all hyped up about how my programs are sure to have you losing weight in no time. I can also yell at my horse, pull on its reins or try and sweet talk her into taking a drink.

But ultimately if you are not really ready to embrace the process, or my horse does not want a drink, then sadly I am going to fail in both endeavours.

I have no problem with that because I know it is not my fault, I also know that if I keep presenting water to my horse she will drink when she is good and ready. Her life is not that complicated, she does not have too many other distractions that will keep her from satisfying her basic needs.

You on the other hand are a whole different kettle of fish. As a human being you have been given the most superior brains in the animal kingdom (that we know of anyway), this is both a blessing and a curse. You see most other living things just do what they are programed to do. They don’t have a choice and they don’t know any different. Their brain is not sufficiently well developed to “think”.

Our ability to think, create and solve problems is awesome as we continue to strive for a better life, we build a whole bunch of creature comforts and develope our communities.

The down side is that we also possess an ability to form habits and in many cases addictions. Very often it is a very fine line between the two. We also have the ability to have an opinion, and to influence others with our thoughts and opinions.

Corporations are well aware of this, and spend billions of dollars every year on advertising and promoting why you should use or consume their products. No matter which way you look, advertising is being put in front of you. And it is being put there to influence you to spend your cash with the advertiser.

I am sure I am not telling you anything you don’t alreay know, however if you have not considered how you are going to deal with all those temptations, then It may be a good idea to devise a plan now.

Fast food outlets are one of the biggest contributers to our growing waste lines. There are many ways to deal with the enourmous quantities of these stores that are on just about every other corner. The best advice I can give is to make sure your strategy suits your personality.

If you are easily tempted, then choosing to commit to still going to your favourite fas food outlet BUT buying their “low fat” options may not be a good idea. Completly avoiding it would be a much better idea.

Some of the other things you need to address to put your mind in the right frame to accept the changes you are about to impose on your body are;

• Understanding the REAL reason why you want to Loose weight.
• Understanding not only what your eating habits are, but how they came about
• Accepting or at least acknowledging that change is the only solution.
• Understanding that any change that does not look at who you are and what your
• individual likes and dislikes are, Is likely to end in failure. Don’t go on a cabbage diet if you hate cabbage!

You can check these out in more detail at “how to Lose weight fast - Mind Set”

Godd luck and remember; persistance pays off so get over it and get on with it!

If you are desperate to learn how to loose weight fast for that special function, or perhaps you have another reason, then the safest way I can suggest to achieve this is by following these three tips;

1. Record all of the food and drink you consume in a day. Take a look at it and be absolutely honest with yourself to see if it is representative of what you really consume.
2. Identify ALL of the foods and drinks that you normally consume that are high in fat or sugar.
3. Replace every one of them with zero or low fat alternatives, making sure that they are also very low in the GI index. This means that they are low in highly processed sugars.

My very special 4th tip is to replace every drink that you consume from now until the date of the desires result, with water. In fact you can also replace some of your normal snacks with a glass of water.

Please, please, please, avoid any form of starvation diet. Your body is designed to be fed on a regular basis, when you deprive it of energy, and remember another word for energy is “calories”, it goes into what is known as a survival stage. I am going to keep this really brief for the purpose of this article, but basically what this means is that your body starts to store everything you eat as fat and starts to use things like your muscles as a form of energy.

Yes muscle is heavier than fat so there will be a weight loss evident, however I assume that you probably want to loose fat not muscle. The problem with starvation diets is that when you do start eating normally again, your body starts to repair the muscles but you are left with the extra stored fat. Not a great result!

Your objective should absolutely NOT be to cut down on what you drink and eat, but simply to replace every single thing that you currently drink and eat with, well water for ALL drinks, and very low calorie foods for what you eat. So that means lots of vegies, wholemeal breads and pastas, not too much fruit but definitely a couple of pieces per day, and as little meat as possible, and ONLY meat with very, very low fat content.

Good luck, I hope you enjoy the reason why you needed to learn how to loose weight fast.

When setting goals to achieve in your weight loss program, it is important to understand what your natural body type is.

There is a well developed theory that we all fit roughly into one of three different body types. So if your body type is that of an “Endomorph” then you are going to find it difficult to achieve your goals if you set them to resemble those of an “Ectomorph”.

Below I have listed some of the traits of the three basic body types, Ectomorph, Mesomorph and Endomorph:

The ECTOMORPH - The Basket Ball Player or High Jumper

• Definitive
• Slight Body
• Flat Chest
• Lean
• Takes Longer to Gain Muscle
• Skinny

The pure ectomorph body shape is slight and delicate. Bone structure is light, small joints and slight muscles. Limbs are typically long in respect to the body and shoulders may drop away. The ectomorph has a linear body shape. This body shape does not have natural power and muscle develpoment will be hard to come by.

Other Ectomorph Traits;

• Long fingers, toes and neck
• Sharp triangular facial features
• Lower jaw may be receding
• May suffer easily from sun burn
• likely to suffer from extreme temperatures
• Hair tends to be fine fast growing

Examples of Ectomorphs:

Lisa Kudrow, Kate Moss, Brad Pitt.

The MESOMORPH - The Chosen Ones!!!

• Athletic
• Hard Bodied
• Females will have the classic hour glass shape
• Males will have the classic “V” shape
• Muscular Body
• Well postured
• Easily builds muscle

The mesomorph is muscular with heavy bone structure.. Body shape is the envy of society with a narrow and low waist line. Well defined facial features, high cheeks and a well defined jaw line.

Other Traits of the Mesomorph

• skin is thick
• tans well.
• hair is heavy in texture.

Famous Mesomorphs

Arnold Swartzeneger, Sylvester Stallone, Mr. Universe contestants

The Endomorph

• Soft Body
• Underdeveloped Muscles
• Round Physique
• Weight Loss is Difficult
• Gains Muscle Easily Like the Mesomorph.

Tends to have a round and soft body shape, sometimes referred to as Pear shaped. The arms and legs are shorter in respect to the body. The hands and feet are also relatively small. The bicep and thigh areas are often more developed than the lower sections of the arms and legs.

Other Traits of the Endomoprh

Skin is soft and smooth. Hair is fine and thin. The head round and face is broad.

Famous Endomorphs

John Goodman, Roseanne, Jack Black.

Combinations of Body Types

Very often, people cannot be easily classed as one of the three main body types. Although there are some people who are purely ectomorphs, endomorphs, or mesomorphs with little or no characteristics of the other body types, very frequently, people fall into mixed categories, such as ecto mesomorphs, or endo mesomorphs, where largely, they are like the mesomoph, but with traits of the ectomorph (such as small joints or a trim waist), or traits of the endomorph (such as a tendency to gain fat easily).

No matter what your body type is, there is no point in setting goals and or objectives that are unrealistic. Common goal setting advice revolves around setting “big” goals that will challenge you to great heights.

I have my doubts about this advice in general terms, but more specifically in regard to losing weight, you need to set goals that are very achievable.

Your object should be to set your self up for success by setting and re setting short term goals that will provide you with a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction that will motivate you towards the next step.

Good Luck and remember; persistence pays off, so get over it and get on with it!

Your Body is like a corporate identity. It has several departments that must function together to achieve a desired result. In the case of a corporate identity, that result may be profit driven, or it may be a charitable body that is striving to achieve a certain goal. Or it may have any number of other desired results.

In the case of your body, there is less scope for variation, even given our own individuality. The first and foremost of course is basic survival. From this basic platform we all put our own spin on it and the desired result of a professional sports person will be very different to that of lets say a full time mum with three kids on her hands! The bottom line however is that our bodies different departments, or systems, are striving to maintain our living state.

No matter what your situation is, OR your desires are, your objective should be to have the different departments of your body working together and in harmony so that you have the best chance of “achieving the result” you desire.

Your body has 8 basic departments or as would be more appropriate to label them - systems;

1. Skeletal
2. Muscular
3. Nervous
4. Cardiovascular
5. Respiratory
6. Endocrine
7. Digestive
8. Urinary

The Skeletal System;

Your body has 206 bones (unless you are have an extra rib or something which is not that unusual). This bone structure known as your skeleton has 5 basic functions

1. To protect your vital organs - Rib cage for your lungs and heart, skull for your brain.
2. To provide the framework of your body.
3. To facilitate the attachment of the muscles that create movement via the “lever” system created by the skeletal structure.
4. A storage depot for calcium deposits
5. Produces red and white blood cells as well as platelets.

The Muscular System;

Your body has over 620 muscles and is in charge of movement. Muscles generally have 4 basic functions;

1. Agonists - the action that causes the movement, normally the contraction or shortening of a muscle.
2. Antagonists - the muscle that is opposite to the agonist, and its function is to relax and lengthen to allow the movement to happen. The classic example of an agonist / antagonist relationship is the biceps and triceps. As the biceps muscles cause the action of bending your elbow, the triceps are relaxing to permit that action. The reverse applies when straightening the arm.
3. Stabilizers or Fixators - these muscles help to stabilize the body creating a smooth movement. An example of this is when you are doing a pushup, the agonist and antagonist muscles are all around your shoulder and upper arm area. Your abdominals act as stabilizers as they prevent your body from sagging to the ground at your mid section.
4. Neutralizers - Sometimes the action of your muscles will tend to cause two movements. If your biceps muscles are bending your elbow, then because they are also attached at your shoulder, this tends to want to also flex your shoulder joint. This is where Neutralizers step in neutralize that action. In this case the muscles at the back of your shoulder joint will perform this job.

Muscles can also be broadly referred to as slow twitch or fast twitch. Endurance athletes have a stronger presence of slow twitch muscle fibres and speed and power athletes have a higher percentage of fast twitch fibres. A normal mix is around 60% slow twitch and 40% fast.

The Nervous System:

There are two systems within one, the Central nervous system and the Peripheral nervous system.

Your Central nervous system is your brain and spinal cord. Your Peripheral nervous system is the vast network of nerves and neurons that permeate your muscles and organs.

Your nervous system communicates with your body via electrical impulses . Once again there are slow and fast twitch neurons that facilitate this function. A slow twitch neuron will talk to 10 to 15 of your muscle fibres and a fast twitch neuron to around 800!

Your nervous system is also a collector of information. Your eyes and ears obviously relay information to your brain for processing. Similarly your nervous system collects information from you muscles and organs, so that it may take appropriate action to prevent harm to your body.

The Cardiovascular System;

Your heart, blood and the vessels that carry your blood, arteries, veins and capillaries. The function of your Cardiovascular system is to move oxygen, carbon dioxide and waste products around your body.

The system works in conjunction with the lymphatic system to fight against infection and to maintain your pH level (the difference between acidic and alkaline) within normal limits.

Your heart pumps blood (from the left side) via your arteries to the areas of your body that are in need, there it will drop off its load of oxygen and collect carbon dioxide. Your blood is then returned to your heart (the right side) where it is then pumped to your lungs. Your lungs then diffuse the carbon dioxide (and exhale it), re load the blood with oxygen (from freshly inhaled air), and return it to the left side of your heart to be redistributed thought your body.

The Respiratory System;

Your lungs simply remove carbon dioxide from your blood and replace it with oxygen. They do this via are sacs in your lungs called Alveoli. You have around 300 million of these little suckers in your lungs, and they would cover around 50 to 70 square meters if flattened out.

Your carbon dioxide laden blood travels into your lungs and once it passes through the walls of the alveoli the carbon dioxide is removed and replaced with oxygen.

Your lungs have an amazing capacity, at rest you will inhale and exhale approximately 6 litres of air in a minute. For an elite athlete operating at maximum aerobic capacity that can increase to around 100 litres per minute!

The Endocrine System;

Your Endocrine system is in charge of hormone distribution, and it does this via your glands. Hormones like Testosterone which aids in muscle development, Estrogen for bone health and menstruation, Adrenalin which is also know as the fight or flight hormone, are some of the better known hormones.

The Digestive System;

Your digestive system controls processing of the food you eat. It must break it down store it and mobilize it for energy. Naturally it also helps in the process of getting rid of waste.

Your body requires energy to exist. Even as you lie at complete rest, you body is still at work pumping blood, breathing, repairing damage and processing food. All of those functions maybe at a very reduced rate but they are still going on. So your digestive system provides an important function of supplying your body with the type of energy it is looking for in different circumstances.

Your body will be looking for an entirely different source of energy when asleep (largely protein sources which are good for repair work) as opposed to say playing sport, when it will be looking for fuel that can be very quickly converted into energy, in this case carbohydrates.

The Urinary System;

As you body need to get rid of unwanted bi products the urinary system plays a key part in the disposal of disposing of things like urea, uric acid, and creatinine. Your kidneys form the center of this process as he filter your blood and redirect the waste to the urinary tract.

If you have ever wondered why you have a reduced need to urinate while playing sport or during increased heart rate activity, this is due to your body needing to increase the blood flow to your muscles and skin to facilitate an increased need for oxygen. Subsequently your blood does not have as much time to be diverted to your kidneys and as a result less waste is created!

This has been a very brief explanation of how your body works. It was not meant to answer all questions, obviously that is not possible in this format. You will find an increasing number of subsidiary articles under the category “Your Body” that will expand to some extent on the many topics of understanding your body.

If you have a specific question, please do not hesitate to ask and I will do my best to answer it as simply as I can.

Enjoy and remember; Persistence pays off, so get over it and get on with it!