Does Running Help You 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 Ebook at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet.
  
  
  “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 and search the title to find my Ebook. 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.
  

Stay Slim Through The Holidays

How do you want to look at the next New Year's Eve celebration? Do you need to fit into your skinny jeans or your barely-there cocktail dress for a special event? Want to look great and make that ex-boyfriend a little bit jealous? Then avoid holiday weight gain and get - or stay - skinny throughout the holiday season.

Clever Ways to Avoid Holiday Weight Gain

You've probably heard the age-old tips about moderation and portion control at holiday meals.

If you overindulge at any event, you put yourself at risk for gaining weight. But you already knew that. You need clever tips to keep the weight off. Try these tips to keep your body from falling victim to the holiday heft.

Skip yoga. There's nothing wrong with yoga - especially during this stressful time of year. But yoga doesn't burn calories as effectively as some other workouts. During the holidays, use your precious workout time to do the most effective fat burning workouts.

Brisk Walk. A 30 minute brisk walk every day will burn the extra calories to help you control your weight. How brisk is brisk? You have to get your heart rate up. That's the key to burning calories. Some people go up and down the stairs at work or at the mall, some people walk fast and some people use weights. You have to do what your comfortable with.

Do Tabata. You'll burn more calories and blast more fat if you do high intensity interval training. One of the easiest ways to set up these sessions is to plan Tabata style workouts.No equipment needed. Use body weight exercises that shape your muscles and increase your heart rate.

Dial back on the booze. The fastest path to weight gain is to drink your way through the holidays. You'll consume too many calories from booze and you'll end up making bad food choices.

Skip starch, choose fruit. At each meal, choose fresh fruit instead of starchy side dishes like potatoes or rice. Most fruit is low in calories and has a high water content. You'll get full without consuming too many calories and you'll satisfy your sweet tooth at the same time.

Cut snacks in half. Do you know how many calories you consume from snacks? Snacks aren't a bad idea, but we often eat too much when we munch between meals. If you snack, cut each portion in half so that you consume fewer calories.

Reorganize. Grab your rubber gloves - it's time to clean out your kitchen. Get rid of the junk food that doesn't deserve your attention during the holidays, then set up your kitchen for smart eating.

Lastly, use your smart phone as much as possible. Apps like CalorieCount.com provide information about the food that you eat during the holidays and it can help to guide your food choices. You're more likely to eat less, avoid weight gain and stay skinny if you have a realistic idea of the calories in your food. Remember not to confuse food cravings with hunger. Most people eat out of habit, not because their hungry. We eat because it's time to eat, but that doesn't mean you have to fill up.

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my Ebook at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet.

“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 and search the title to find my Ebook. 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.

Your in Your 20's and Want To Get Slim and Fit, Your in Luck

Now is the time to get the body you really want

Mike Kemp/ Blend Images/ Getty Images

This post from VeryWell.com is absolutely true. The younger you are the easier it will be to lose weight, get fit and slim and it's easier to broke old habits when your young.

Are you ready to get serious about your body? If you’re in your 20s, this might be the first time you’ve had to really think about losing weight or getting in shape. But there's no need to panic.

You can take off the pounds and set up healthy habits to get skinny and keep the weight from coming back. Post this list on your bathroom mirror to serve as a daily reminder of the things you need to do to get in shape so that you not only get fit, but you stay lean and healthy for life.

10 Ways to Get Lean and Healthy in Your 20s

1. Redefine “skinny.”  We often use the word, “skinny,” but let’s face it, ladies, skin and bones are not sexy.  What you really want is a sleek, tight physique.  That means muscle. “Contrary to common belief, muscle makes you leaner, smaller and firmer, not bigger and bulkier,” says Ariane Hundt, M.S., founder of Slim & Strong 4-Week Fat Loss Program based in New York City.  If you are not in the Big Apple to attend her boot camp style sessions, you can build strength at home or at your local gym.
2. Eat more protein.  Yes, I know there are cupcakes and pretzels in your office lunchroom, but if you want to get fit and healthy you won’t eat them. Opt for snacks and meals that are full of protein to build muscle and boost your metabolism. Lean protein will also help you feel full so you eat less throughout the day.
3. Workout harder.  Short, intense workouts are most effective for weight loss.  When you’re young, you’re more likely to be healthy enough for vigorous activity.  So take advantage of it!  Learn how to do interval training to burn more fat in less time.

1. Ignore magazines.  Did you know that women’s magazines contain 10.5 times as many ads promoting weight loss as men’s magazines? Many of the ads promote unrealistic claims and use airbrushed images that can make you feel hopeless. Focus on building the strongest, fittest version of your own body to boost your confidence and keep your commitment in tact.

1. Skip the fad diets.  Quick weight loss is effective in some circumstances, but many fad diets promote short-term loss that will mess with your metabolism. “If you are young and haven’t done too much yo-yo dieting, your metabolism will respond to pretty much any change you expose it to,” says Hundt.  She recommends that you skip the trendy diets and opt for a healthy diet of lean protein and vegetables. It’s often cheaper than processed food, too!
2. Drink less booze.  Heads up, party girls!  Your drinking may be causing more than just a morning headache.  The calories you consume from drinking wine, beer or cocktails can add up to pounds on the scale each year.  Want to make a single change to slim down?  Make a plan to drink less for weight loss and better health.  It works!
3. Build healthy habits. Now is the time to establish daily activity habits to burn calories.  Healthy lifestyle routines will help you slim down in the short run and prevent weight gain in the future.  Take the stairs instead of the elevator, stand up while you work at the office, walk to lunch instead of taking the car. 

1. Get organized. The hardest thing about losing weight in your 20s is trying to eat healthy when you have a crazy social schedule.  Let’s face it, you have better things to do than slaving over a hot stove to cook healthy meals every night. So learn a few basic meal-planning strategies to minimize your food prep time and maximize your access to diet-boosting foods will keep you lean even when you’re on the run.
2. Clean out your closet. Think of your weight loss plan as a long-term strategy, not a quick fix solution.  As you slim down, get rid of the clothes that no longer fit. According to Hundt, when you keep bigger items “you send your brain the message that you will eventually get back to your old weight.”  Go all in, girls! Kiss the fat jeans goodbye and don’t let them back in your closet.
3. Watch your snack habits.  Do you know how many calories should come from snacks each day?  Get the answer based on your caloric needs.  Then try to be more aware of your snack habits throughout the day.  Try to eat less when you watch television and rein in the late night nibbles when you’re out on the town.

The good thing about trying to get skinny in your 20s is that your body is more likely to respond to small changes, says Hundt.  So get organized, get serious and get confident to make small adjustments and get a fit, healthy body for life.

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my Ebook at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet.

“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 and search the title to find my Ebook. 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.

Ways to Stop Eating So Much At Night

Learn to curb your appetite in the evening hours

This post is from VeryWell.com. This may be the single biggest reason for your weight problem.

Vico Collective/Alin Dragulin/ Blend Images/ Getty Images

You stick to your diet all day and eat healthy well-balanced meals. Then, the evening comes and you find yourself making repeated trips to the refrigerator or pantry to eat food that you don't really need. Sound familiar? If it does, you're not alone. Nighttime calories are a struggle for many dieters who find that they continue eating after dinner. If you're serious about losing weight, use these tips to stop eating so much at night.

Why Do I Eat So Much at Night?

You're normal if you like to snack and graze after eating dinner. But if you are trying to lose weight, the calories you consume from snacks in the evening could easily undo a day's worth of smart food choices. So, the first step to eating less is to find out why you eat when you don't need to.

For most of us, the reason we overeat is related to the fact that we are less busy at night and we are near food. We like to relax and enjoy more leisurely activities, and food is a common source of comfort. Without the distraction of work or other daytime activities, it's easy to grab for snacks that are nearby. If you can find other ways to unwind, then you'll be likely to eat less at night. You can also use these strategies to curb nighttime eating.

How to Stop Eating After Dinner

The best way to curb your nighttime eating behavior for good is to use short-term strategies to break the habit.

If you can replace snacking with a healthier habit, then you won't feel the urge to overeat in the evening. Use one of these tips (or all three) to change your nighttime snack habit.

• Move away from the food. You're more likely to eat too much at night if you are always around food. So, after dinner, move away from the kitchen. This might mean that you postpone clean-up tasks, so that you aren't tempted to eat leftovers. Or better yet, delegate the job to someone in your house who isn't on a diet.
  
  Another great way to get away from food is to go for a walk after dinner. Even if your walk is just 15-20 minutes long, physical activity helps to break up the eating momentum. It also gives your body a chance to feel the sensation of fullness, so the urge to eat is less strong.
   

• Use a "meal-ender" to curb your appetite. Some dieters use mint-flavored gum to diminish the desire to eat after dinner. Most of us don't like the taste of food when we have a mint flavor in our mouths. Brushing your teeth after dinner provides this same benefit — along with a dental health bonus.
  
  You can also try using MealEnders. These small candies claim to "reset" your taste buds so that you don't feel the urge to eat, and I can attest that they can help to dull post-meal hunger. MealEnders contain no stimulants and are regulated as a food product, so they have to follow strict guidelines of the Food and Drug Administration, unlike many diet and weight loss supplements. I use a mint gum that's very strong. You can also drink a strong hot tea, or coffee.
   
• Be a smart television watcher. Most of us eat too much at night when we snack mindlessly in front of the television. Some researchers even believe that certain action shows make us eat too much food. Regardless of your show preference, however, you can create healthy eating habits in front of the television to eat less and lose weight.
  
  My favorite way to eat less is to keep my hands active. I fold laundry or do other simple chores while I watch TV.  If I really want to eat — and I know I've eaten enough for dinner — then I use specific diet strategies to control snacking in front of the TV. I also make sure that I follow good portion control guidelines if I choose to snack while watching TV.

Remember, snacking isn't bad for your diet. But eating when you're not hungry is never a good plan.  Learn to eat a healthy dinner and then create habits to stop eating so much at night. You'll reach your goal weight faster and keep your weight off for good. 

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my Ebook at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet.

“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 and search the title to find my Ebook. 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.

Skipping Dinner Might Boost Your Metabolism

Overweight people who eat during a much smaller window of time each day than is typical, report fewer hunger swings and burn slightly more fat at certain times during the night, according to a new study. But the study was small and it's not yet clear what effect, if any, this approach might have on weight.

I personally understand the reasoning and I do believe that if you want to lose weight, you have to eat most of your calories early in the day. Breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner should be all the food you need for the whole day. It's a type of "fasting". Eat all your calories in a 6 or 8 hour window and the other 16 or 18 hours you can't consume any more calories. This gives your body time to digest all the calories you ate and burn some of your body fat. But if you don't eat healthy food it doesn't work and you won't lose or if you binge food during the eating hours it won't work.

The assistant professor of nutrition sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham thinks the idea is worth examining as a potential weight-loss approach and hopes to conduct a larger study.

The approach is called early time-restricted feeding. It's been tested in animals, where researchers have found that it reduced fat mass and the risk of chronic disease.

Body mass index is a rough measure of a person's body fat based on height and weight. A BMI of 30 is considered obese. Someone who is 5 feet 9 inches tall would need to weigh 203 pounds to have a BMI of 30.

All of the study participants tried each approach -- the early restricted-eating and the typical pattern. During one four-day period, participants ate between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. only; during another four-day period they ate between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.

The participants ate the same number of calories during each approach and they ate only the food given to them by the researchers and under supervision.

Researchers then tested the impact of the longer fast time on calories burned, fat burned and appetite. The restricted eating time didn't change the total number of calories burned, she said.

Personally, I do think there's merit to the theory. One very big problem that overweight people have is night-time eating. Snacking at night and eating that big meal at 6 pm or later and then not being active enough after dinner will cause weight gain and most of that is simply bad habits.

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. 

Why You Have to Keep a Food Log

A cookie here. A bowl of pasta there. A handful of veggies drenched in ranch dressing. We think we know what we're taking in nutritionally, but reality is often pretty far off base. If you have trouble keep weight off, there's usually a simple reason why. 

Most of us that watch the scale often know pretty quick that we're gaining weight. Gaining weight, if your not a body builder like those people on Venice Beach in California, probably means your increasing body fat. And if you're like most of us when we want to lose weight, we cut back on food. That's wrong. Most of us don't overeat, we just eat the wrong things. 

In particular, calorie intake when dining out -- which, let's face it, most of us do more often than we should -- is usually grossly underestimated. Even so-called "healthy" meals can get derailed in a hurry, thanks to poor nutritional choices. Salad dressing is the number-one source of fat in [many] women's diets, which attests to how many women turn a good salad into a cardiac disaster. Most restaurant salads with dressing are about 800 calories, some can be even more, like a Chef Salad, Taco Salad, or a Cobb Salad.

When it comes to diet, we do a lot of things right, but most of us manage to make some serious blunders. Keeping a food log can help us get back on track, and it's not as difficult as you might think. See if any of these excuses sound familiar:

But... I don't understand what the point of a food log is. You know those contests where people fill a huge jar with jellybeans and you guess how many the jar holds, but you're wayyyyyyyyy under? That's pretty much what happens when it comes to "eyeballing" your calorie, fat and sodium intake. We think we know what we're consuming, but we're usually light years away from reality. A food log will help you keep track.

But... I don't have time to keep a food log. Back before the World Wide Web, my dad had a book full of foods and their calorie content. He painstakingly researched and recorded each and every meal and added up the calories himself. Let's all raise our voices in thanks for apps that now do the work for us. (I particularly love My Fitness Pal.)

But... I already eat healthy. Keeping a food log isn't only about the obvious culprits, like calories and fat. Most people unknowingly put away far more sodium than they realize in a given day, and we often overestimate our fruit and veggie consumption. A food log can be a wake-up call to improve habits we didn't even know needed fixing.

Fruit and Vegetables should be 3/4 of every meal. When watching calories, never drink anything with calories. You might not realize it but half the calories we consume come from drinks. If your gaining weight it's all about the calories. You can't exercise away a bad diet. Keeping a food log with an App is the quick easy way to keep track of calories. 

Someone was telling me, you can find an App that tells you the calories in any item on any menu. If I find the App I will post it.

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my Ebook at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet.

“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 and search the title to find my Ebook. 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.

Surprising Reasons You're Gaining Weight

Here’s what we do know about some of the most persistent mysteries of weight loss.

Are All Calories Equal?

Let’s start with the alcohol.

“There’s a big debate on whether alcohol calories are even useable, whether you can even turn them into fat. It’s not easy,” says Ken Fujioka, MD, a weight loss expert at Scripps Health in San Diego, CA. “When you look at various studies you actually get mixed results. Some studies say it’s not a problem, don’t worry about it, others say it’s associated with weight gain. So it’s a real open mess.”

Fujioka counsels his patients to pay attention to how alcohol affects their eating.

“Some folks, when they drink alcohol, feel like they have license to eat whatever they want to, and they get into problems,” he says.

If a glass of wine weakens your will to resist that plate of cheese and crackers, it’s not doing your waistline any favors.

But if booze doesn’t affect your eating, then one or two drinks is probably OK, he says.

As for calories from fat, carbohydrates, and protein, this is where one size, or one eating plan, really doesn’t fit all. Yes, it's true, all calories are not created equal. In other words, if you're trying to lose weight you can't just cut back on the same foods that put on the extra fat. Losing fat is the "key", not just losing weight.

Most people that just lose weight might drop a few pounds but they will usually increase their percentage of body fat which will cause you to burn less calories and after a few weeks the weight returns. So, be careful of the science you believe in. Science will conduct dozens of studies, but if they knew the real answer to weight loss, they would be selling it.

Surprising Reasons You're Gaining Weight

There is good science to show that people who have high blood sugar levels -- associated with conditions like type 2 diabetes, prediabetes, gestational diabetes, polycystic ovary syndrome, and fatty liver disease -- benefit from diets that are lower in refined carbohydrates and higher in healthy fats and lean proteins. Examples of this kind of diet are South Beach, the Zone diet, the Mediterranean diet, and the low GI diet. My favorite is the Mediterranean diet.

If insulin levels aren’t a concern, there’s little difference in the amount of weight people lose if they cut their calories from fat or from carbs, says Kevin Hall, PhD, a senior investigator and expert in metabolism at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases in Bethesda, MD. But he says protein calories are a different story.

In the lab, researchers have shown that higher-protein diets tend to increase the number of calories a person burns, Hall says. “So in that sense, a protein calorie is not equivalent to a carbohydrate or a fat calorie,” he says.

Protein helps you burn more calories during the day and helps preserve muscle. When people lose weight, they don’t just lose fat -- they also lose muscle. The more muscle you lose on a diet, the more your metabolism slows. That can make it tough to keep the weight off down the road. Protein also helps you feel satisfied for longer after your eat.

But people can eat only so much protein without changing their kidney function. U.S. dietary guidelines recommend that adults keep their protein in a range of 10% to 35% of total calories each day. Most diets fall into that range. Atkins, for example, one of the highest-protein diets around, supplies 35% of daily calories from protein.

Pick a diet plan you can stay with for many years. To be successful you have to re-train your body to eat healthy. No refined or processed foods.

If you really want to lose your body fat than look for my Ebook at the websites listed below. You'll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet.

“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 and search the title to find my Ebook. 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.