Will Running Help Me Lose Belly-Fat?

"I'm trying to get rid of my stubborn belly fat. Can running help me lose it?"

A reader is looking for help losing fat and I'll tell her the truth. I know what your thinking, the runners you see are all slim and trim, so "if I run I'll get slim and trim". Maybe, not always, it all depends on the food you're eating. 

I've mentioned this in other articles about running and weight loss, but running is not a sure-fire way to lose weight and, by the same token, it's not a guaranteed way to lose your spare tire, belly, pooch, or whatever else you want to not-so-affectionately call it. And it's also true that you won't lose fat from your abdominal area just by targeting your abs with crunches or other abdominal exercises.

To lose belly fat, you have to reduce your overall body fat. While running can help you lose fat, you'll have a lot more success by combining it with a healthy, low-calorie diet. And, even then, your genetics determine what areas will lose the fat first.

Strategies for Losing Belly Fat

Here are some tips for losing weight (and, as a result, belly fat) with running and a healthy, low-calorie, low-carb diet:

• Aim for at least 30 minutes of cardio in your Target Heart Rate Zone on most days of the week. To avoid burnout and injuries, alternate between running and cross training activities, such as cycling, elliptical trainer, dancing, swimming, or hiking.
• Some people find it helpful to track their daily steps. It takes an average of 10,000 steps per day to prevent weight gain, so aim for more than that when you're trying to lose weight.
• Incorporate entire body strength training into your routine twice a week. You don't even need access to fancy gym equipment – you can do some of these body weight exercises at home. Make sure you're doing upper body and lower body exercises, as well as core strengthening exercises.

• Write down everything you eat and drink to keep track of how many calories you're taking in and figure out what bad habits you need to correct. You'll be much less likely to go overboard if you know you have to write it down.

• Focus on making small changes to your diet, such as cutting out regular soda and adding more fruits and veggies.
• Try to avoid eating processed foods. The ingredients in packaged goods and snack foods are often loaded with trans fats, added sugar and added salt or sodium. All three things of those in excess can make it difficult to lose weight.
• Watch your portion sizes, especially after running, when you might feel tempted to eat a little extra because of all the calories you burned during your run. Have prepacked 100-calorie snacks ready at home, so you're not tempted to go overboard. When eating out, share meals — or eat half your meal and take the rest home.
• Check nutrition labels carefully. Just because a food is low in fat doesn't mean it isn't high in other things, like carbs and sugar. Foods such as salad dressings, marinades, mayonnaise, and sauces often contain hidden fat and lots of calories. It's best to eat natural foods. I try to avoid foods that come with a label.  Buy fresh foods and organic if possible.

  
  

  If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

  
  

  There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

  
  

  My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

  
  

  

Should You Count Calories?

You’ve seen the statistics. Americans are more overweight than ever and the trend is expected to continue. The lifespan of our children will likely be shorter than ours for the first time in the history of mankind, due to chronic diseases related to obesity. In this day and age, weight loss doesn’t happen by accident, but weight gain does. Why? Consider the following:

• The majority of Americans do not get the minimum physical activity needed
• The average American takes approximately 3,000-5,000 steps per day, which means they’re sitting most of the day
• Portion sizes are significantly larger than before
• Food is available in endless quantities, anytime of day, and high-calorie foods are often cheaper and more available

The bottom line is our environment encourages sitting and eating 24/7. Sitting while commuting to work, sitting at a desk to make a living, sitting for entertainment (phones, movies, video games, TV), and of course sitting while eating. To make matters worse, humans are programmed to eat and take the path of least resistance -- a survival mechanism that helped our hunting and gathering ancestors survive, but is now killing us. Literally.

Here are more facts to ponder:

• 1 out of 10 people do not know how many calories they need to maintain their weight
• Most people think they eat less than they actually do (20-50 percent less on average)

Translation -- we’re not very good at consuming the right amount of food and beverages to maintain a healthy body weight.

If you want to change something, like your clothing size, body fat percentage, or the number on the scale, the first step is to become aware of your body’s needs and the choices you’re making. In other words, awareness opens the door to change. Otherwise, you’re clueless and you don’t even know it. You end up becoming a victim of creeping obesity -- that 1-3 pounds the average American gains during adulthood because they’re not paying attention.

Perhaps you are paying attention, maybe even counting calories, and you’re wondering, is it worth it? Here’s what the research shows:

• People who track what they eat at least 5 days a week lose twice as much weight as those who don’t
• People who track what they eat regularly maintain weight loss better
• People who use a body sensing device that tracks activity and calories burned lose 2-3 times more weight than those who don’t

This makes sense. After all, how do you manage something, whether it’s your checkbook, your blood pressure or your waistline, if you’re not tracking it? Well…you don’t. You end up with bounced checks, uncontrolled blood pressure and having to buy bigger clothes.

What you don’t know does hurt you. Especially when it comes to your health.

When you pay attention and discover that your morning coffee drink and muffin is nearly 1,000 calories AND you know your body burns about 1,800 calories a day, you are empowered to make a smarter choice. When you use measuring tools to find out that your morning bowl of cereal is five times more than it should be, you can make an adjustment. When you read the nutritional guide in a restaurant and see your favorite salad is over 1,200 calories, you can choose something else.

Counting every single calorie to the point of obsession is probably not healthy, as most obsessions aren’t, but getting and staying informed about your body, your activity level and your food choices is 100 percent empowering. In my opinion, tracking is not a chore but a choice. A choice to pay attention and stay in control of my body and my health. I had to learn to eat fresh and forget about the foods I like and change to those foods that were god for me.

Yes, I think tracking what you eat is key to successful weight loss. Most of us under estimate the calories we eat all day long. And to go one step farther, at the end of the day most of us can't remember all we ate and drank. Food Journal are a great help. I encourage my readers to keep a food journal for two weeks before you start a weight loss plan. Most of them are shocked when they look back through the pages. 

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

Understanding Why We Gain Body Fat

Have you ever noticed that no matter how hard you try, no matter how much you exercise or no matter how many calories you cut, you still can't get rid of the extra fat. There could be another reason for your size.

My friend has a twin born at the same time but one guy's bigger and still is 40 years later. The bigger brother is overweight and the smaller one is thin and fit. The overweight brother can't seem to lose the extra fat. At family, gathering, they always eat the same amount of food but the smaller one never gains weight. So what's going on is pretty normal for siblings. I've read a lot about families with some overweight members and some thin members.

Research shows that we are all different even when we're twins. So even if we look the same, we all process our food differently. It's your DNA that's different. DNA is in every gene that you were born with and siblings from the same parents won't have exactly the same DNA. So in that respect, we are all different. Science is working on this right now. If everyone at the family table eats exactly the same thing, for some of them, it's too much and for some it might not be enough, but it's not just the quantity, because of different DNA each person processes that food differently. Maybe some of those people can't eat starchy foods, for example, their system can't process that much starch so the liver turns it into fat and stores it.

That can happen with any food group, my wife can't eat beef. She can't digest it. Some people can't eat dairy products, everyone's different even though we all look the same or come from the same family. 

You can still overcome these differences by listening to your body and understanding what your limitations are. It will take some work on your part, but if you really want to slim down and get back to a healthy weight You must take your weight problem serious and do the work, investigate your behavior and find out what foods are causing your weight problem. I know guys that are seriously overweight and know that bread and other bakery goods are their problem, but they won't stop. They won't change, they're in denial. Guys are harder to convince that “they need to make the tuff choices”. Generally, they won't change until their Doctor has the big “come to Jesus” talk about their health. 

People who can't lose weight dieting, don't understand what they have to do to lose weight. Just eating less of the same foods won't help you to lose weight. That's the denial I'm talking about. If you want to lose weight you have to change what you're eating.

Personally, I think the overweight problem is mostly genetic. Because of your DNA, you who are African shouldn't be eating Chinese or even Italian. Because of your ancestry, you should be eating more like Africans. Maybe the overweight problem in China is because of the recent prosperity and the introduction of food from different parts of the world. Even American fast food is becoming popular in China. Because of the DNA of different people and the relatively new craze of eating out and eating a big verity of different foods from different cultures, this may be causing the overweight problem. 

There's another possibility, and this one your Doctor can help you with. If you seriously want to stop the cravings you have to stop eating food or drinks that spike your blood sugar. Your blood sugar will normally increase when you eat, but you want the increase to be slow and gradual. We know that sweet foods or sweet drinks will spike your blood sugar, but now science says that wheat flour also will spike your sugar levels. And what's so bad about that you might ask. 

I'll explain as if you're looking at a graph. If a normal blood sugar is below 5.6 and you eat ice cream and your blood sugar spike to 8, and your body is working normally, your blood sugar will drop rapidly to say 4 because the effects of the sugar won't last very long, but now you're below your normal level and your body will trigger another craving to get you back up to your normal level of 5.6. Now these numbers are just numbers and if you're concerned about your level you want to see your Doctor and get a blood test.      

When you're overweight it's important to have regular checkups that include blood tests. High blood sugar levels are a serious problem. 

But let's get back to cravings, people that snack a lot often don't understand why, and snacks put on the weight. It can be caused by your blood sugar or glucose levels spiking and dropping so that you keep creating the cravings for more food. So we know sugary foods will spike glucose or blood sugars levels and now science thinks that wheat flour can do the same. Wheat flour is in almost any bakery goods. Bread, cakes, donuts anything that comes from a bakery. Now you might think because you don't eat wheat bread that you're safe. All processed flour is made from wheat flour or partial wheat flour. You want to start reading the labels and avoid foods with processed flour. 

Ever wonder why gluten-free is so popular now. Gluten-free means there's no wheat flour or any wheat in that food. Read the label on gluten-free bread and you find it's made of rice flour. Gluten-free products will help you control the spike in you blood sugar which in turn help you avoid cravings. You can buy gluten-free bagels, pasta, rice cakes, cereal and bread just to name a few at any of the major grocery chains. So gluten-free will help you control your weight and avoiding sugary foods and drinks will also help cut your calories.

This is the other part of understanding the problem. Most people think that losing weight is all about dieting or all about exercising. Yes, but it's important to understand how you gained the weight. 9 out of 10 people put the weight back in a few months. If you're going thru the trouble to lose the weight and don't forget the money your spending, it's important to keep it off. Losing the weight and staying with a moderate exercise plan will make you much healthier. You're going to feel like a kid again. You don't want to return to the old you, overweight and tired all the time.

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

Achieving Fitness

Being in good physical condition is the most important thing you can do for yourself. It will keep you healthier, more alert, it will keep your mind working quicker and you’ll be more productive.

What you eat is more important to your health than anything else. It has to be a combination of all types of food. You need fruits and vegetables, whole grains and some meat. The mistake we make today is believing all the advertising we see every day. Why do you think manufacturers spend millions on advertising cereals and snack food? The answer is money. They can't make any money sell whole foods like apples, beans or oats. They concoct something they call a snack or a cereal, they advertise it and you buy it because it sounds sexy. It may be a healthy snack or breakfast cereal but it's nothing but a manufactured wheat flour combination with lots of sugar.

Food: In a world with endless protein bars and gluten-free potato chips, I personally find that the best snacks are simple, whole foods. One favorite of mine is an apple. This snack doesn't have any protein, and that's ok. If you're staying properly hydrated, an apple is a snack that can easily take the edge off your hunger. In fact, apples are rich in antioxidants, and dietary fiber. I like green apples the most.
"An apple a day keeps the doctor away" is an old Welsh proverb that most of us are familiar with, but what makes this fruit so special? As one of the most cultivated and consumed fruits in the world, apples are continuously being praised as a "miracle food".

In fact, apples were ranked first in Medical News Today's featured article about the top 10 healthy foods.

Apples are extremely rich in important antioxidants, flavonoids, and dietary fiber.

The phytonutrients and antioxidants in apples may help reduce the risk of developing cancer, hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease.

Workout:  I decided 3-weeks ago to spend 10-20 minutes every morning stretching and doing light exercise. I've already experienced exceptional results. Consider adding a mobility routine at the beginning, or end of your day (or both)!. I assure you if you do it for one week, you will see benefits.

A quote that is always timely: "Our patience will achieve more than our force."

-Edmund Burke

A few years ago, I would have scoffed at this quote, but now I understand its wisdom. While persistence and perspiration are critical to achieving your potential, patience is a virtue that reigns supreme. Pushing harder may not help you reach your goals any faster. In fact, it may significantly lengthen the amount of time necessary to achieve the goal you desire. Patience helps shift your mindset away from focusing on brute force to planning.

To achieve fitness, you have to "live a healthy lifestyle". It won't be something you can do in a few weeks and then return to your old life. When you live a healthy lifestyle of eating only whole foods and doing regular exercise you will become fit over time. Depending on your condition you can see results in just a few weeks, but it might take much longer to achieve your goals and once you make the commitment to change your life and get healthy you can't go back. This is a permanent change and those that made the change will tell you that was the best decision they ever made.

Look for my podcast by searching “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight” on the podcast app that you use. You’ll see a piece of my book cover.

If you really want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

 

Everyone Gains Weight Over The Holidays

Just because you can't always see the weight doesn't mean you didn't gain weight. The weight you gain is generally in small amounts like grams so in one week you might only gain one pound. That pound didn't come from one meal, it's accumulated over several days. If you eat the right foods and don't cheat your body weight will only fluctuate if your activity level fluctuates. The following is a post I wrote several years ago and it still holds true.

We all have spent the last few weeks on an eating binge. You can’t just give up because you gain some weight and blew your diet. Don’t think you're the only one who gained some weight lately. But you can get your eating back on track. Here’s how.

First, Relax
You need some perspective.

You need to eat 3,500 calories to gain one pound of body fat. One unplanned treat — a slice of cake, some fries, or even a rich meal — probably won’t make a major difference on the scale.
“We call these ‘taking timeouts,’ and we all take them,” says San Antonio nutrition consultant Rebecca Reeves, RD. “No one is perfect in their eating habits. What we have to learn is that we are giving ourselves permission to do this, and as soon as it’s over, we should go back to the eating plan we normally follow.”

The goal is to not make a habit of it.
“Most people overeat somewhere between 500 and 1,500 calories every single day,” says cardiologist Allen Dollar, MD, assistant professor of medicine at Emory University in Atlanta.

Don’t Give Up, too many dieters throw in the towel after a splurge, says Kathleen M. Laquale, PhD, a nutritionist and athletic trainer.

“You may feel defeated and say, ‘Oh, I blew my diet … and the heck with it,” Laquale says.
“When you do overindulged, don’t be self-deprecating. You overeat for one day; let’s get back on track again. Let’s be more conscious of our portion sizes the next day.”
Cut Back a Bit, But Not Too Much
Don’t try to make up for the extra calories by skipping meals the next day. That just leaves you hungry.

Instead, cut back throughout the day with a series of small meals packed with fruits and vegetables. Their fiber will help you feel full, says Joan Salge Blake, RD, clinical associate professor at Boston University.
Wait until you’re hungry. Then have a light breakfast such as a bowl of low-fat yogurt and berries.
Mid-morning snack: a piece of fruit and an ounce of low-fat cheese
Lunch: a big salad with lean protein such as fish or chicken, or a whole wheat pita pocket with lettuce and tuna or turkey
Afternoon snack: a cup of vegetable soup and an orange
Dinner: a piece of fish and plenty of vegetables

Skip the Scale

After a feast, you may weigh more. That’s not because you gained body fat, but because of water retention from extra salt that was in the food you ate.
So don’t weigh yourself. Salge Blake tells her clients to weigh themselves on Fridays, when they’re likely to weigh their lowest, since people tend to overindulged more often on the weekends than on weekdays.
Stick to Your Normal Exercise Routine
Exercise is a good idea. But don’t do a mega-workout to try to burn off all the calories you just ate.“If you overload and do more than your regular routine, you could strain a muscle, you could hurt a joint and muscle soreness may set in. Then you can’t exercise,” Laquale says.

Track What You Eat
Set a goal for your daily calories, and write down what you eat or log it in a cell phone APP used to track calories. That helps you stay aware of what you’re eating. For weight loss try to stay below 1600 calories a day. Be sure to include your drinks.
Cut out high-calorie foods and drinks and you’ll have plenty of food. I used an App on my cell phone to plan my meals and then I shopped only for those meals. It works, if the food isn’t in the house you won’t eat it.

This is the time of year when most people want to diet, but it is also the time of year when most weighters give-up. When your truly on a mission to be a thinner you, never give-up. You will go up a little and then go down and when you look at a chart of your progress over a long period of time you should be seeing a downward trend. And even if you don't, don't get upset, this is the time when you need to change your plan. Not every weight loss plan will work for everyone. You need to find the one that works for you. 

If you really want to lose the extra flab you can get help, I write 4 blogs and I’ve written two E-books. Read some of my other blog posts.

Gettingtoahealthyweight.wordpress.com

idropped40pounds.wordpress.com

howbaddoyouwanttoloseweight.blogspot.com

blogonweight.blogspot.com

E-books are the easiest and cheapest way to learn about any subject without groping through hundreds of websites looking for the material you want.

My first e-book is “HowBadDoYouWantToLoseWeight” and it sells for $2.99 on most online bookstores like Amazon.com, BN.com, iBook, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, and Gardner books in the U.K.

My second e-book is available in the same stores. And on smashwords.com. If you use the Smashwords promotional code You can get my second book for $1.99 (TL96R). Just type in the search line “getting to a healthy weight”.

It's The Holidays, Forget The Diet For Now

It's a very special time for every family. A time of celebration. I hope you can spend some time with your family, even if it's on the phone.

Celebrating has always involved food and drink, it's a tradition that has gone on for thousands of years and I'm sure it will continue on, but we don't have to pig-out.

Yes, you have to taste the important traditional dishes that your friends or relatives have taken hours to prepare, but use a small plate, take small amounts and try and avoid the sugary stuff. Remember you can't work-off a lot of calories.

A one hour workout for an experienced athlete will only burn about 300 calories. For a person with less athletic experience you might only burn 100 calories. On a festive holiday like Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year it's easy to consume 3000 to 4000 calories between all the food, snacks, and drinks for the day. That kind of consumption can increase your weight by 2 or 3 pounds at least.

So if you can hold down your calorie count to say 2000 calories which should only be a few hundred more than normal, you should be able to work off those extra calories in a couple of day.

The problem we all have this time of year is the continual party, one after the other with very little time inbetween to recoup. Than there's the shopping for gifts. We go after work and spend a couple hours trying to find gifts and no time to eat, so we eat in restaurants with friends which involves more celebrating and more calories.

Did you know that the hoiday season is the busiest time of the year for restaurants. It's not unusual for a family to eat out 4 or 5 times a week during the holidays. So if you add up all the meals we eat in restaurants and all the social events we have to attend, it's no wonder that the average adult will gain between 5 and 10 pounds during the holidays.

This is the typical weight gain you have to avoid. It can take months to recoup, if you can recoup. Most of us will try to diet in January. We'll lose some weight but not much, because the winters are cold and in the cold weather we tend to eat more comfort food and that's high-calorie food.

Eating the wrong foods even in small portions will keep you from losing weight. You can't exercise away a bad diet. Once the weather starts to warm up most of us find it easier to cut back on food, but by that time it's hard to break the bad habits we had during the winter. We will trim down a little because we are more active in the spring and summer because the days are longer and we have more time to work outside.

I know all about this life cycle because that is the way my life was. All the weight I would gain during the cold months never quit left me. I always ended up one or two pounds heavier at the end of the year. Of course, we never remember how much we weighed the year before, so we don't realize we keep gaining weight every year. That cycle is call "creeping obesity". The one or two pounds you gain every year and don't even realize it. Then when you get to be 50, you wonder how you gained all that weight. On average, a 50 year old male will weigh between 40 and 60 more than he did on his 21st birthday. The more you weigh when your 21, the more you'll gain over the years. This doesn't hold true in all cases, it's an average over the entire population, some people are very athletic and never gain weight. I weigh the same today as I weighed when I was 17, of course I spent years yo-yoing from 220 pounds down to 160. 

Be mindful what you eat. Keeping your body is good condition is your responsibility. It would be better for you and better for your health if you never gained any extra weight. When an adult gains weight they are adding body fat. Not good. The human body is only built to carry a small amount of body fat, like 15% of your weight. It's there in case of emergency. When you can't find food your body will still have fat to survive on. But because of the American diet we are adding too much fat and it only causes health problems.

Controlling your weight and keeping your body in good condition is your responsibility. Your doctor can only relieve your symptons, give you pills or repair a broken bone. Your body has to heal itself and you have to feed it the nutrition it needs to do that. Also increase your activity everyday by walking more or doing yoga. 

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. 

There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $1.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans or meal plans. Look for my book. at Amazon.com, B&N.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com, just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

Merry Christmas

To My Loyal Readers

Don't worry about your diet today. Try anything you want, just remember to eat and drink in moderation. You can fix your diet tomorrow. Have a Merry Christmas and be safe.

Ray Edward