45 Fat Burning Secrets - Easy Ways to Lose Weight Fast and Keep It Off (6 page)

When you’re stuck in your car, practice good posture by keeping your back straight and pulling your tummy in. Picture a rubber band pulling your bellybutton and spine together. Hold for 8 seconds, and release. Repeat during the course of your commute.

If you can get past the name, butt-squeezes are very effective at giving you a great bottom. The nice thing is that you can do them and no one will know! Whether you’re standing or sitting, squeeze your butt muscles (your glutes) and hold it for 8 seconds. Release and do it again. Keep working at them until you can hold for 24 seconds.

Find opportunities to sneak in daily activity. Choose stairs over the elevator; park so you have to walk further to get where you want to go. It all adds up!

Secret #40:
Don’t be Derailed by a Desk Job

Does your work day consist of being stuck by a desk with rarely any opportunity to move? While a job like that may make it harder to burn a ton of calories, it doesn’t make it impossible. Try these behind the desk tricks:

·
        
Take the time to stretch your upper body muscles to keep yourself limber and keep your metabolism going.

·
        
Use fidgeting to your advantage. When you keep moving your feet, hands and any other area of your body, you’re increasing the amount of calories your body uses.

·
        
Pop in a stick of gum. According to researchers at the Mayo Clinic, gum chewers burn around 11 additional calories hourly.

·
        
Got room under your desk? Get a little exercise bike and burn an additional 250 calories per hour while you pedal your way to fitness.

Secret #41:
Green Thumbs Use More Calories

If you’ve ever gardened, then you know it can be hard physical labor. In fact, if you weigh around 150 pounds, you can burn around 270 calories per hour just by doing some general gardening. But, you can also burn by doing these specific gardening activities for an hour:

• Picking vegetation burns around 210 calories.
  
• Raking the lawn gets rid of 292 calories.
  
• Trimming shrubs and trees or weeding burns 306 calories.
  
• Planting landscape requires 310 calories of your energy.
  
• Digging and spading or laying sod burns around 340 calories.
  
• If you want ultimate calorie burn, try push mowing for an hour! Not only will your yard look phenomenal, you’ll also burn around 400 calories!
  

Secret #42:
Keep Exercise Fun

Doing cardiovascular exercise shouldn’t be something you despise. Some people get bored from doing the same routine day in and day out. But, that isn’t the way it has to be!

In fact, a lot of fun activities also happen to burn a lot of calories! Consider adding one or more of these to your exercise routine to increase your fun factor as well as your calorie burn: (calorie counts are for a 150 pound person per hour)

• Some 3-on-3 basketball – 408 calories
  
• Releasing your frustrations on a punching bag – 400 calories
  
• Playing games at the playground with your kids – 340 calories
  
• A fun game of football (touch football so there are less injuries) – 544 calories
  
• Horseback riding – 270 calories (the amount jumps to over 500 if you care for the horse when you’re done by removing the saddle and grooming it)
  
• Motocross – 270 calories
  
• Roller-skating (wear your pads) – 476 calories
  
• Softball or baseball with a bunch of friends – 340 calories
  
• Racquetball, if you’d prefer to be alone – 476 calories; and
  
• Jump roping – 680 calories
  

Secret #43:
Your Extra-Curricular Behaviors Can Increase Your Waistline

Some people don’t want to quit smoking because they’re afraid that they’ll eat more and gain weight. While it is true that smoking temporarily reduces your appetite making you weigh less, it actually makes you gain weight because nicotine stimulates your body which increases your production of cortisol. The more cortisol you have, the greater the likelihood that you’re going to carry excess pounds in your midsection – the worst place you can carry it.

Alcohol also increases your waistline. Alcohol is high in sugar which increases your insulin production. Insulin reduces your blood sugar and you get hungry. If you’re a regular alcohol drinker, you may even develop insulin resistance.

The best thing you can do for your health and waistline is abstain, especially when it comes to smoking. Is it hard to quit? Yes. But, isn’t it harder to die of lung cancer?

Secret #44
: Dealing With Emotional Eating

How often do you eat out of physical hunger as opposed to emotional hunger? Do you find yourself at the fridge or cupboard you’re happy, sad, frustrated, angry, depressed, nervous or tired?

Emotional eating is something that plagues a lot of us. And, because food is always available it adds an extra challenge. How, then, do you deal with emotional eating when you’re trying to lose weight?

Try taking these steps the next time you find yourself in the kitchen when you’re not physically hungry:

• Step 1:
  Before you put one morsel of food in your mouth, ask yourself what happened just prior to you deciding you wanted to eat? Was it a phone call or a visit? Were you thinking about something that is causing you stress? Try to figure out what triggered your desire to eat.
  
• Step 2:
  Figure out how you feel. What emotions are you feeling? Happy? Sad? Disappointed? Scared? Isolate the one or two primary emotions that you’re experiencing.
  
• Step 3:
  Ask yourself what you can do, other than eat, to deal with your emotion. For instance, if you’re tired, can you take a nap? If you’re angry, would a walk cool you down? Find a non-food action that will resolve the emotion.
  

Here’s the deal, food will
never
solve anything other than physical hunger. It can’t. The only way to get over emotional eating is to resolve whatever issue is driving you to eat in the first place.

This can be extremely difficult because it forces you to deal with things that you’ve been avoiding, usually for quite some time. However, with a little persistence and patience, emotional eating can become a thing of the past.

Just keep working at it and you’ll get there.

Secret #45:
Use Visual Motivators

Nothing can kill your motivation to lose weight more than feeling like you’re not progressing fast enough. Sure, maybe you’ve already lost five pounds, but all you can see is the forty-five you have to go. When it feels like you have a long battle in front of you, it’s easy to get sidelined.

The key to staying motivated is to use something visual; something tangible that inspires you to keep going. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Create a goal board
  .
  Cover it in pictures that represent what meeting your goal means to you. For instance, if you’re trying to drop some extra pounds for a tropical vacation you have planned, you might want to put up a picture of a beach scene or a woman looking confident in a swimsuit. Look at your goal board every day so that you keep reminding yourself why you want to make positive changes.
  
• Use goal jars
  .
  Set two jars or glasses next to each other. In the first one, put a stone, coin or decorative piece in there for every pound that you want to lose. Each time you do lose, transfer one piece for each pound to the other jar. As you begin to watch your progress, it will help you see that you’re moving in the right direction.
  
• Use past photos
  .
  This suggestion comes with a bit of caution. Some people find that looking at photos of themselves motivates them; while others feel so bad looking at them that they have the opposite effect. So, you have to decide if this is a good option for you or not. Of course, you could always use positive past photos. If there was a time when you were in shape, a photo may motivate you to get back to the old habits that got you there to begin with.
  

Bonus Secret:
Kick your Workouts into Calorie Burning Gear!

If you want your exercise routines to be a little more effective, you can do a few things. For instance, when you run, do so on dirt or grass; something different than concrete. The resistance will kick your calorie burn up a notch or two. Or, try using wrist and ankle weights. The more weight you have to move, the greater the calorie burn!

Review

So, to go over everything you’ve just learned, here are some things you can do to increase the amount of calories you burn on a daily basis:

• Eat several mini-meals containing fat-fighting foods
  
• Increase your metabolism with things like green tea and ginger
  
• Get rid of trans fats and choose heart-healthy fats instead
  
• Choose foods from all food groups
  
• Drink lots of water
  
• Relax your body through stretching
  
• Kick up your workouts by taking your resistance up a notch or two
  
• Keep exercise fun
  
• Get all your vitamins and minerals, such as vitamin A, B, C and calcium
  
• Get plenty of sleep
  
• Be familiar with how many calories you need to meet your goals
  
• Don’t let holidays, buffets and having children derail your efforts
  
• Work your arms, legs and abs effectively
  
• Use your desk time to get in shape
  
• Stay active all day long for maximum calorie burn
  
• Eat lots of protein so your muscles grow big and strong!
  
• Simple daily activities such as gardening are great for weight loss
  

Now that you know how many calories you should consume every day, try keeping a journal. The only way you’ll know if you’re eating too much or not enough is by writing it down. Also log your exercise so you know how many calories you’ve burned!

If you want to lose a pound a week, you have to get rid of 3,500 calories in that time frame. Although it may seem slow, you don’t want to push it more than that or you risk losing the weight only to regain it in the future.

This is everything you need to drop the weight you so desperately want to lose. Refer to this guide often to make sure you’re doing all you can to reach your goals.

Good luck!

Where To From Here?

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