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There have been numerous studies that have shown individuals with a proper waist size, and those with tight midsections have lower total weights, better body mass indexes, and lower risks for developing certain types of diseases.  With all the ab workout programs, ab training books and DVDs, and ab workout equipment, choosing the best form of ab exercise can be a very confusing task.  Truth be told, you really do not have to purchase expensive equipment or join a gym to get results.  You can tighten and tone those abs right in the comfort of your own home.

By now I am sure you have all heard of, and probably done a few, crunches.  A simple activity, yes, however, this simple, and long touted form of exercise really does help to shape ab muscles.  To gain even better results, you can modify this classic in several ways.

Performing crunches on top of a stability ball keeps the ab muscles contracted throughout the entire workout, which can really do wonders for tightening.  Conducting crunches on top of a stability ball, but adding in left to right movement targets the obliques.  The obliques are the sides of your abdomen and add definition to your stomach and waist.

Even more modifications can be made to the classic crunch with the addition of a medicine ball.  Perform crunches on the floor as you normally would, but hold onto the medicine ball and twist left to right to work all ab muscles and obliques.  Finally, you can modify your crunches by executing them on a decline bench.  Lay on the bench with your head on the lowest end and your feet hooked in above you.  This allows your muscles to be tight throughout the process and will really give you a great workout.

To begin your workout program, keep a few basic guidelines in mind:  begin slowly, work at your skill level, and gradually increase your intensity.  When first starting out, begin with about fifteen reps of crunches on the floor, four to five times per week.  If you choose to add the stability ball to your routine, try to complete about twelve reps, four to five times per week.

Once you can easily accomplish this goal, you can then add the medicine ball to work on your obliques.  You should work toward completing about ten reps for each side.  All reps (on the floor, or with the use of stability or medicine balls) should be increased to two sets of ten to fifteen as you progress.  The use of a decline bench is recommended for more advanced workouts.

Once you are able to perform two sets of more traditional crunches, you can work into using the bench to complete up to three sets of fifteen.  It is important to remember to work your way up to these recommendations and not to push yourself too hard too soon.  Injuries can occur if you do not use a bit of common sense and caution with your workout. Also, these are just a few of the many exercises that exercises that can give you phenomenal abs!

It is very easy to calculate the BMI, so physicians and other weight loss professionals regularly use it to help identify if a person is of average weight, underweight, or overweight.  This measurement was first developed by a Belgian scientist, Adolphe Quetelet, in 1830, and is still used today by taking a person’s body weight, and then dividing it by the square of his or her height  (kg/m2, lbs. x 703/inches2, or lbs. x 4.88/ft2).

The use of body mass index calculations really took hold in the early 1950s, when more and more people began to show signs of a weight problem.  This method was a very easy way to determine what level of personal thinness or fatness an individual was at, and allowed physicians to make personalized recommendations to help to correct the issue.

While many find the BMI to be quite useful, some professionals have found defects with the calculation process due to differences in height.  People who are taller began to find that their BMI number was quite high when in reality their actual body fat levels did not correspond.  This discrepancy was due to the fact that those of a taller stature were not simply scaled up to account for the difference; their BMI was in effect doubled instead of remaining balanced in relation to their specific weight.

Current body mass index levels are as follows: optimal and normal weight allows a BMI of less than 25, however, levels under 18.5 are considered to be underweight, while levels above 25 are considered to be overweight.  A BMI level of over 30 is considered to be obese, and a BMI of over 40 is considered to be morbidly obese.

While the BMI is a good starting point to determine your target weight, it should not be taken as gospel.  BMI is not able to distinguish between muscle weight and weight from fat.  This means that if you are very muscular, and you have the same height as someone who has a good deal of fat, your BMI could actually be higher.  The numbers are usually quite off for elderly patients as well.  Elderly people tend to have low amounts of lean body mass, which cannot be determined by the index.  The BMI has no way to take into account factors such as, age, body fat, gender, general health condition, bone mass, or medical factors.

Even though the body mass index calculation has a few faults, it is still considered among professionals to be a useful tool to help (if even roughly) measure an individual’s level of health.  That being said, this index should be used in conjunction with many other evaluation practices before making a conclusive determination as to overall health.

These types of workouts not only help you to burn extra calories, they create what is known as an “after burn effect”.  This “after burn” can continue for as many as twenty-four hours following a fitness routine, and allows your body to continue to burn fat and calories even while resting.  Many people are not aware of this benefit and it is often regarded as one of the best-hidden features of weight training.

Training with weights that are heavier than you are accustomed to will further help to expend more energy and lead to after burn.  This is due to the fact that muscles need time to repair themselves, and the body needs energy to make these repairs to the muscle tissues.  This does not mean you should lift weights that are far too heavy for you, but you should lift weights that push you just slightly out of your comfort zone.

Becoming an overall more muscular person also helps to increase your metabolism.  It is estimated that for each one extra pound of muscle that you carry, your body will burn an extra fifty calories.  When you begin to train with weights, you will also need to consume more protein.  Protein is critical to the process of building muscle, and in turn helps burn energy due to your body needing to process the material.  You burn twice as many calories while digesting foods that are high in protein than foods that are high in fat.

So, how much of an after burn does weight training create, and will you even notice?  Lets take a look at an example.  If your body is currently burning about 1,500 calories per day, increasing your metabolic rate by just ten percent will allow you to burn 1,650 calories per day.  This change can make a huge difference in your overall weight loss progress.

Making a few simple dietary changes can also help to increase your metabolism.  Getting a bit more sleep at night can do even more.  A lack of sleep can cause all of your workout results to fall by the wayside as it greatly decreases the number of calories your body burns while resting.  Resting does not only include lying down, or sitting; it also includes basic life sustaining practices such as breathing, pumping blood, and cell and tissue repair.  Your body burns between sixty and seventy-five percent of the total number of calories burned each day while resting.

Remember, you cannot increase your metabolism with just one weight training session.  You need to make a firm commitment to an overall healthier lifestyle, combined with adequate physical exercise.  Once you begin to make these changes your body will follow suit.

There are many elements that factor in to the human ability to both lose and gain weight.  We all know we should eat less and exercise more.  While this is true, weight loss is actually a bit more complicated, and requires firm dedication and a proper state of mind.  To better understand how to succeed, you must first understand the main reasons for failure.  Below are the most common reasons for failure, as well as a few simple tips to help you succeed in your weight loss journey.

Goal Setting:  Possibly the number one reason for diet failure is due to the setting of unattainable goals.  It is imperative that you think long term and understand that results will not happen overnight.  The changes you will need to make to your lifestyle need to be incorporated in stages.  By setting reasonable goals that you can achieve, such as losing one pound every week, going for a daily walk, and eliminating junk food, you will gain a great sense of achievement and keep a positive attitude.
 
Eating Habits:  Changing the way you eat is absolutely critical to losing weight.  You need to understand that all mindless eating needs to be eliminated, unhealthy foods need to be removed or simply not purchased, and you need to examine the reasons behind your eating behavior.  In order to change your eating habits try these tips: keep a food log, plan your meals, make and stick to a grocery list, avoid overeating, and keep portions under control.

Setting A Fitness Plan:  Do not try to start a strenuous workout routine right off the bat.  You really do not need to spend hours at the gym or with a personal trainer in order to lose weight.  Set up a reasonable fitness plan, and choose activities that you actually enjoy doing.  Walking just twenty minutes per day can be very beneficial.  If you enjoy a particular sport, find a team to join, or start one of your own.  When you find an activity that you enjoy doing, you will stick with it and you will not feel as though it is a chore to exercise.

Environmental Factors:  You cannot always control your surroundings.  Temptations are all around us and they need to be handled in the proper manner.  Donuts at work, candy bars at the check out counter, and cake at the birthday party will always be of concern.  You need to learn how to practice self-control and distract yourself from diet wrecking temptations.  When at home, you can most definitely control your environment.  You are in charge of what is in your refrigerator, pantry, and cupboards.  The best way to prevent diet mistakes is to avoid them all together.  Leave the junk food at the store.  Keep healthy snacks such as vegetable sticks, fresh fruit, yogurt, and granola on hand.  When you only have healthy choices available to snack on, you will only make healthy choices.

While most dieters are hoping to drop their unwanted pounds as soon as possible, the only path to successful weight loss, and to keep the weight from returning, is to remember that slow and steady wins the race.  Making changes to your life that you stick with is the only way to long-term triumph.

In order to begin making the necessary changes, you first have to fully understand your eating behavior.  Are you an emotional eater that reaches for chocolate at the end of a stressful day?  Are you a binge eater at times when you are feeling anxious or depressed?    When you are able to understand how your emotions or habits affect your diet, you will be in a much better position to avoid destructive food trends.
 
Another major step to losing weight successfully is to make sure you only eat consciously.  You need to determine if you are really hungry and need to eat, or if you are just craving something and want to eat.  It is important to understand that food cravings are not a sign of hunger, and that hunger is not caused by stress or boredom.  When your body truly needs nourishment, you will receive tell tale signals, such as your stomach growling, or a slight headache.  You should also stop eating when you feel full, but before you feel stuffed.

Believe it or not, eating more meals throughout the day and consuming more water can also help you achieve your weight loss goals.  Eating about five small meals during the day, rather than just two or three large meals will help to keep your metabolism functioning at a more efficient level and help to burn more calories and fat.  Foods that contain a good deal of fiber, fresh vegetables and fruits, low fat dairy, and lean protein, are essential diet foods. 

Make sure you keep water close at hand to sip on throughout the day.  Water works to keep you hydrated, but it also helps to promote the sensation of being full, which can further improve your weight loss results.  Modifying your eating schedule can really do wonders for your diet, and will also help to prevent you from craving all of those tempting little treats.
 
Finally, we have all heard it, and we all seem to know, that exercise is an absolutely necessary component to successful weight loss.  That being said, you do not have to spend countless hours a day working out.  You should, however, make regular physical activity a part of your daily routine.  A good mix of cardiovascular exercise and a bit of weight training is an ideal combination. 

A fast paced power walk for just half an hour a day, coupled with lifting light weights a few times each week is a great workout option.  This process will help you to build lean muscle, tone your entire body, gain energy, and burn that extra fat and calories.

You can manage your weight effectively and even achieve your weight loss goals.  The process does not have to be difficult.  Achieving and maintaining a reasonable weight is essential to leading an overall healthy lifestyle.  Not only are the health benefits many; you will look better, feel better, and have more confidence.  When your body mass is balanced proportionately your body is under less stress, thus lowering your chances of serious health risks such as heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and certain types of cancer.

In order to lose weight and keep it off for good, you need to analyze your previous diet attempts, find out what went wrong, why they did not work, and to take a look at your current lifestyle.  Really look at what your food and fitness behaviors are, and what mistakes you tend to repeat.  Do not get discouraged, and do not be too hard on yourself.  Once you have taken an in-depth, and truly honest look, you will be more likely to make the needed changes and set up a plan that will work for you, meet your specific needs, and help you stick with your changes for the long term.

When setting up a personal plan, keep a few basics principles in mind: weight loss is a simple math formula that involves burning more calories than you consume.  Proper diet plus exercise will equal results.  Another way to look at it is: calories consumed minus calories burned equals weight loss or weight gain.  This does not mean that you need to eat less food; you just need to eat better food.  You can still eat the same volume of food, possibly even more food, and still reduce the number of calories and the amount of fat you take in.
 
Here a few eye opening facts to keep in mind throughout your weight loss process:  A single 3-ounce serving of fried potato chips packs nearly 470 calories.  Substituting 2 cups of lightly salted air popped popcorn for those chips gives you a 60 calorie snack; a savings of over 400 total calories.  One can of soda contains roughly 150 calories.  If you substitute plain water, or even club soda with a twist of orange, lime or lemon, you still get a tasty drink that contains only 2 calories; a total savings of 148 calories.  These are just a few examples to help illustrate how you can still enjoy treats, still eat enough food, and yet save yourself a good deal of fat and calories.  This is a perfect example of how changing your mindset just slightly can help you lose the weight, and keep it from coming back for good.

When discussing the “intensity” of a workout, you are really talking about the level of difficulty of the exercise.  You want to make sure your workouts are challenging enough that your heart rate is elevated, and you burn as much fat and as many calories as possible.  Not only does the type of activity being performed affect the intensity of a workout, the duration and the frequency also play a large role.  There are major differences in the intensity of a thirty minute workout conducted five times per week compared to a ten minute workout done only three times per week.

In order to help you determine how hard you should be working out, you can either calculate your heart rate or you can use the Borg Scale of Rate of Perceived Exertion.  While the latter of the two sounds more complicated it is actually easier to figure than your heart rate and is considered to be more accurate. 

Lets first begin by learning how to calculate the heart rate.  The basic rule of thumb for this calculation is to take your age and subtract it from 220.  This will give you your target maximum heart rate.  While this will give you a rough estimate of what your heart rate should be, it is important to note that there are many different factors that affect heart rate and each person is different.  Once you have this number, multiply that by .65 (or 65%) for your low heart rate number, and .85 (or 85%) for your high heart rate number.  This will give you a general range to focus on during your cardio workout. 

Once you have your numbers, measure your rate periodically during your session by counting your pulse beats on your wrist or your neck for fifteen seconds and then multiplying that number by four.  Try not to rely on heart monitors found on some exercise machines; these monitors are often inaccurate.

The second of the calculations methods, the Borg Scale of Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE), is much simpler to figure, and provides you a much clearer picture of your level of exertion.  This method uses a scale of one to ten, with one being no exertion and ten being maximum exertion.  A good way to judge your intensity is to understand that an exertion level of between four and six correlates to about 60 to 85% of your maximum heart rate. 

Beginners (people who are new to exercise or those who have not done any exercise in at least six months) should aim for an exertion level of between four and five.  Intermediates (those who are somewhat regular with exercise, at least twice per week) should be able to achieve an exertion level of between five and six.  Advanced level exercisers (individuals that exercise very regularly) should be consistently working at an exertion level of between five and nine and a half.  No matter what skill level you are currently at, strive for the next stage.  Perform your exercise with higher bursts of exertion to really work your muscles and help burn extra calories.

That’s right, give yourself the hard sell.  It works for infomercials and it will work for exercise.  Now this does not mean you have to beat yourself up for not spending time at the gym or for not going for your daily run, but you do have to put a good deal of pressure on yourself to get some sort of activity.  Once you start to talk yourself into getting going, you will find you will be more willing to start exercising.  It is truly an issue of mind over matter. When you change your mindset, you will find yourself keeping up with a daily workout schedule.

2. Remind Yourself How Good You Feel Afterward

How quickly we all seem to forget how good we feel after a workout.  Energy levels are increased, stress levels are decreased, and sleep patterns are more normal.  Many people think that exercise is going to sap the little bit of energy they have left, but it is really just the opposite that occurs.  You will feel wonderful and you need to remind yourself this to keep yourself motivated.

3. Set a Short, Reasonable Goal

At the end of a long day you may find it very difficult to talk yourself into an hour at the gym.  Try just a short exercise session.  Take your dog for a short twenty-minute walk in the park, dance at a rapid pace for ten minutes, or spend fifteen minutes on the treadmill.  Even a short session will get your heart pumping, your endorphins flowing, and increase your energy level.

4. Fuel up a bit

You may need a bit of liquid encouragement to get yourself moving, especially at the end of a work day.  Have a small cup of coffee (preferably without cream and sugar), a low calorie caffinated soda, or a small amount of protein to give yourself a quick boost to insure you will have the stamina needed to complete your exercise routine.

5. Make Yourself Uncomfortable

Rather than rushing home and getting into your favorite sweats and snuggling up with your pillows on the couch in front of the television, change into your workout gear.  Once you have dressed for a workout, you will not be able to skip it!  When you are done, a nice hot shower and your sweats await.  Use this thought as a bit of a reward for a job well done.

A few examples of the most well known fads today are: The South Beach Diet, Hydroxycut, The Zone, Atkin’s, The Grapefruit Diet, Metabolife, Slim Fast, and Dexatrim.

So how can you know for sure if your diet falls into the category of “fad”?  A good rule of thumb to remember is that fad diets tend to come with extraordinary claims such as: “lose ten pounds in just two weeks”, or make the promise of allowing you to lose weight and keep it off without having to make any lifestyle or dietary changes.  Often these diets carry numerous testimonials from clients, who are really just paid spokespeople, touting all the wonderful results of the diet. 

In addition to these red flags, many fad diets also are willing to provide plenty of before and after photos of their clients, offer the assistance of weight loss experts, over simplify medical research findings, and limit your food choices but not in a manner that actually teaches you how to follow a healthy and balanced diet.  Fad diets also typically require you to purchase extremely specific items such as pills, prepackaged meals, supplements, meal plans, and seminars, in order to obtain the plan’s pledged outcome.

Now that you understand what a fad diet is, the potential risks they pose, and what these diets involve, you may still be left with the question of why people nevertheless willingly sign up for these programs.  The truth is, people want a quick fix.  In a society that is over run with obesity, people will do almost anything, except the true hard work and dedication it takes, to drop those unwanted pounds.  The companies and manufacturers of these diet programs understand this desperate need, and prey upon people’s desire to be thin, and their fear of developing the unhealthy conditions that come with being overweight. 

Another reason that fad diets catch on so quickly is that many of them do provide some short term results in a somewhat rapid manner.  The main reason that results do appear is because each of the diets tends to restrict your eating habits in some way.  What this really does is cause you to consume fewer calories than you normally would, and it forces you to pay extra attention to your diet.  People tend not to realize that the “weight” they are dropping is usually water weight or lean muscle mass, not fat.  Since these diets deprive you and only allow you to eat the same foods repeatedly, the body cannot tolerate it for a long period of time.  Dieters become bored and give into their cravings.
 
Just about every person who has tried a fad diet has gained back all of the weight they lost, and in some cases, even more!  As hard as it may be, we all know the only real way to lose that excess weight and keep it off is to make concrete changes in your life.  Make the tough commitment to get more exercise, eat healthier, and set reasonable goals that you can truly achieve.  The process may seem long and difficult, but once you have done the hard work, you will love the end results.