Helping your body burn Fat

Wouldn’t you just love it if your body decided to burn fat and calories on its own

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It can:

1. Exercise in short, intense bursts (interval training) for effective fat burning after

exercise.

2. Increase the amount of resistance/strength/weight training you do, to build more

lean muscle. Muscle is ‘metabolically active’ and burns more calories than other body

tissue even when you’re not moving.

And of course, for best results:

3. Chill on the amount of food you are eating.

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Technically:

1. Our bodies are built to survive, so when you exercise for long periods of time
(often and consistently) your body thinks it needs to hold on to fat for energy.
Doing short (12-15 minute), intense exercise sessions builds strength and burns
calories, but not fat, so it “feels safe” using fat stores for energy after exercise.
2. Resistance training (using extra weight) helps build lean muscle mass (and
strong bones), and muscle burns more calories than fat.
3. If you are obsessing over things like fat grams and not eating a nutritious diet,
your body will reserve energy (store fat) to survive.

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Realistically:

1. Varying your exercise is the most effective and efficient way to stay lean and
healthy. You must do some longer exercise to build cardiovascular endurance,
burn lots of calories, and yes, even burn fat during exercise - your body will not
click in to “save” mode unless you exercise for long periods of time, regularly
and often.
2. You must do resistance training in order to build muscle and strong bones.
3. Nobody wants to exercise more - and we don’t want to train our bodies to need
more exercise to stay fit. So exercise efficiently – two short, very intense
(relative to your level of fitness) training sessions weekly, like a 15-minute fast
run/walk or fast cycling sprint intervals, and two moderately long, moderately
intense sessions (30-45 minutes) of strong walking, cycling, or yoga, with one
long day (60-90 minutes) of a moderately paced walk/hike. That’s a great
five-day/week training schedule.
4. Instead of adding more days to your workout schedule, add a weighted vest to
your training. I have said this before, but this is the most efficient way that I
know of to build muscle while burning calories.
5. Eat moderately - stop counting fat grams and calories and look at how much food
is on your plate! And eat more nutritiously by eating foods that are natural and
unprocessed.

Keep it real -Debbie Rocker

For more information, go to http://www.walkvest.com/

Weight Loss Success Story

Spokane Wa. James Hicks weighs in on 'Dr. Phil'

James Hicks he's lost 250 pounds, thanks to Weight Watchers, Dr. Phil McGraw book,

"The Ultimate Weight Solution"

If you seen James Hicks on "Dr. Phil" show a couple of years ago, you would have also seen much less of him than you would've just a years ago.
But, then, that's why the Spokane man was asked to appear on the talk show in the first place.
James Hicks has shed 250 pounds in 12 months before the airing on the show, thanks to a combination, he says, of Weight Watchers and Dr. Phil McGraw's book, "The Ultimate Weight Solution."
"I just literally did it one week at a time, one piece at a time, one meal at a time," says James, a corporate trainer for WestCoast Hospitality. And he's not done yet.

James Hicks started at 570 pounds, a weight that left him on oxygen with chronic bronchitis and doctor's orders not to walk more than 50 yards. He was only 30 years old, he'd even been cleared to undergo gastric bypass surgery, a drastic, last-ditch procedure that shrinks the stomach and causes weight loss.
Just before going under the knife, though, his insurance company decided not to cover the procedure. "I was basically left with no options," he says. And then his office started a Weight Watchers program at work. The cost of the plan would be deducted right from his paycheck. It was too easy to pass up.
About the same time, his wife bought him Dr. Phil's weight-loss book. "It didn't just talk about diet and exercise," Hicks says. "It focuses on everything in your life you need to get straight."
Finally, after being overweight since he was 6, after trying diet after diet, the pieces clicked: He didn't need to change what he ate; he needed to change his life.
He made this his New Year's resolution. And, unlike most of us, he stuck with it. Since then, James has followed the Weight Watchers plan religiously. Some weeks he loses 5 pounds, others less than a pound. But he's never attended a weekly weigh-in to find out he'd regained any weight. At first, James concentrated solely on his eating. The bronchitis made it too tough to start exercising. But once he lost 10 percent of his body weight, nearly 60 pounds, he got a pedometer and began walking.

He started walking to and from his wife's office to WestCoast, about a mile each way.
Then he started coming to work an hour early so he could get in more walking. He was walking four miles a day, then seven. James had lost about 100 pounds when he completed his first Bloomsday. "We were just about the last finishers," he says. "But we made it … And I'm going to run it this next year."
James was surfing the Web when he landed on Dr. Phil's site. He decided to send the host an e-mail. "Dr. Phil's book basically changed my life," he says. "It got me thinking about diet in a way I never have before." That was Sunday night. By Monday morning, the producers had already written back, asking for before and after pictures.
Within days, he found himself in Los Angeles, sitting on stage, talking to Dr. Phil. James told him how much the book had helped him. "He started getting choked up," he says. "You could tell he was really happy for me."
Reaching his weight goal won't be the end of the success story, he says. He'd like to train for a marathon, maybe a triathlon, too. And, he hopes to become a motivational speaker. "I want to inspire people," he says. "I want people to know it's not impossible, even though it's a huge undertaking. "James Hicks' life has changed even more with the birth of their first child
"My son's never going to know a dad that can't do things or that can't move around," he says.

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This story is not only inspirational, but its a personal pleasure for me to share with you as James is also a personal friend of mine. James has been buddies with my brother Ron, for years. and through my brother I have gotten to know James personally, he was supportive to me and my family when we lost out mother in Dec. 2000, and he has always made himself avail to me if all I would pick up the phone. Its true he and I are nearly as close of friends as he is with my brother, but never the less we are friends, and I am proud to say so.

He is also a inspiration for me in my own weight loss