Smart and Useful Ways to Lose Weight Fast

If you want to lose weight, the ideal result is seeing fast results. Since it is already summer time, trying a quick-fix diet certainly is tempting, and many speedy weight-loss solutions are popular for a reason; you get the immediate satisfaction of a seeing a lighter load on the scale (and of course a looser waistband). But strategies like juice fasts, skipping meals, and cutting way back on calories aren't sustainable in the long term, so any weight loss is likely to come back once you return to your normal eating patterns. That's why it is important to develop or follow a weight loss plan that is tailored to your needs and wants. There is not a one size fit all approach to losing weight, that is why you should try out and research many different types of plans that may help you, even try some out.

I found this article helpful in terms of forming weight loss habits:

Incorporating healthy eating into your diet is crucial for individuals wanting to shed excess pounds. However, exercise is also very important when trying to lose weight.

One of the best ways to burn more calories and increase your metabolism is to move. Although getting up the motivation to begin exercising can be a struggle, there are a number of easy activities that can help you burn calories quickly and propel your weight loss program.

Move every hour. Most of us are tied to a desk for the majority of the day. By setting an alarm to go off every hour and taking two to three minutes to walk around, grab a drink of water, or stretch, you can increase your daily calorie burn.
Take a TV time out. Instead of running to the refrigerator during the commercial break, use that time for some cardio or strength training. Walk around the house, do some crunches, or even walk up and down the stairs. The more you move, the more you burn.
Challenge yourself. The more vigorous the workout, the more calories you will burn. If you only have 10 minutes for a workout make those 10 minutes count!
Strength training is key. Add strength training exercises to your routine to propel your weight loss program. When you build muscle mass, you can burn more calories and help shed excess pounds over time. In combination with aerobic exercise and healthy eating, strength training can help you get in shape and achieve the body you want.
Both diet and exercise are important in losing weight. With a combination of healthy eating and regular physical activity, you will reach your goal weight and transition to a healthier lifestyle.

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How To Exercise to Lose Belly Fat

As we age, it becomes harder and harder for us to lose belly fat built up around our midsection, and no matter what advice we follow, it seems impossible to make progress. But you can lose belly fat, and build the best body of your life.

Everywhere we look, we are bombarded with fat loss messages, yet every one we have tried leaves us with little change in our bodies, depressed, and often with injuries caused by repetitive movements. Fortunately for us, researchers have proven we can lose belly fat without spending hours in the gym, and without doing miles and miles of slow boring cardio.

1. Make sure you get out of the "cardio for fat loss" mindset! If you've ever walked into a gym, I'm sure you've seen the cardio area full of overweight people trying to lose belly fat by spending hours and hours on the treadmill, bike, or worse yet, elliptical. But, the sad truth is that for the countless hours and buckets of sweat, they rarely see any change in their bodies. Not only do these "cardio bunnies" look the same, they risk injury with every movement they complete over and over again for hours on end. Not to mention the toll not making progress must have on their attitudes and motivation.
2. Start doing resistance training, to lose belly fat, and build lean muscle. Not only will you burn more calories in a typical strength workout when compared to a cardio session, you will increase your metabolic rate, allowing you to burn belly fat all day long, even while you're sitting at your desk. The best exercises are compound movements utilizing multiple muscle groups, like the squat, dead lift, bench press, and pull-up.
3. Cut your "cardio" workouts in half by switching to intervals after your strength training. An interval is a period of going as hard as you can (relative 9/10 intensity) for a certain amount of time, followed by going slowly (relative 3/10 intensity) to recover for another set period of time, often twice as long to get maximum recovery. Research has shown that interval training helps participants lose more belly fat when compared to slow, steady aerobic cardio training in a fat loss study that didn't even have the participants change their diets. Every study you find will demonstrate the same results: The interval training group lost more body fat than the cardio group, even though almost every fat loss program in the world today suggests long cardio workouts as the fashionable fat-burning exercise to lose weight.
4. Stay active! You must get off your fanny least 30 minutes EVERY DAY! This could be a recreational sport like tennis, golf, or basketball. It could even be taking a walk with your wife, playing with your kids, or even grocery shopping. Any activity counts, just get moving, and you will be well on your way to losing bell fat faster than ever before.
5. Get social support. Having support is the number one way to stay motivated toward your goals. Make sure you enlist your spouse, friends, co-workers, heck even your mailman if you don't have anyone else. Social support will help you stay more accountable, and keep you motivated toward your goal of losing belly fat.

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How To Do Bodyweight Exercises

Thanks to the modern gym movement, people often think of exercise and resistance training as something that requires a lot of special equipment: a big pile of weights; a roomful of machines; some contraption with elastic bands or springs; or some high-tech gadget with lots of buttons and light-up displays that makes bleepy bloopy sounds.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Humans have gotten fit and strong using their own bodies, gravity, and some imagination for thousands of years. This isn't to say that additional exercise equipment isn't useful - it certainly is, especially if well chosen and appropriate. But bodyweight training can be a great addition to your "exercise toolbox": it's versatile, you don't need anything besides your bad self, you can do it almost anywhere, and it can be applied to a number of goals or tailored to an individual's ability. It also gives you loads of stability and balance, especially as you get more skilled and start doing movements with only one hand or leg.

Bodyweight movements fall into a few categories: 

• Pushing.  Pushing motions work the shoulders and triceps primarily, and these can be in three directions: pushing overhead (as in a handstand pushup); pushing horizontally away from you (as in a regular pushup); and pushing down (as in a dip).

Pulling. Pulling motions work the back, biceps, and forearms primarily. With bodyweight exercises these are usually in two directions: pulling something down from overhead (as in a pullup or chinup); and pulling horizontally (as in a row, but for a bodyweight exercise this would be a horizontal pullup, which looks sort of like an upside down pushup).

Squatting. One of the best all-round exercises for developing leg strength. Bodyweight squats are a good challenge on their own, especially if you set yourself the task of very high rep sets (100 or even more). Try varying foot position and experiment with a range from very wide to very narrow stance.

Jumping. Jumping practice is useful for helping improve performance in many sports. There are lots of ways to jump: explosively upwards from a squat position; over things or onto things (such as a step); in different directions (front, back, sideways, zigzags); moving the feet around (e.g. switching feet rapidly in midair to alternate landing in a lunge position); or even jumping rope.

Bridging and static holds. These are helpful for training isometric strength (namely, the ability to hold a particular position), and many holds help improve the strength-endurance of midsection muscles (such as the spinal erectors and abdominal muscles). Examples of bridges are the classic wrestler's bridge, the plank position of yoga (essentially the top position of a pushup with weight on hands or forearms), and the modified glute bridge (where you lie on your back, feet on floor and knees bent, then squeeze the glutes and straighten out the body, lifting the butt off the floor).

Now that you've got the basics down, there are lots of ways to mix it up.  

1. Try movements with one arm or one leg. For instance, you can squat with one leg held out behind you, in front of you, or to one side. You can jump on one leg, push up with one hand, or do a one-handed pullup (if you're really tough).

Try movements with body weight asymmetrical. For example:

• Pushups with most of your weight on one side, over one hand
• Pushups with one hand elevated
• Pushups with one hand in front and one behind
• Pullups using a small towel or rope hooked over the bar, so that one hand is on the bar and one hand is lower down, gripping the towel
• Pullups where you pull towards one side

Try movements in different directions. For example, try lunging to the side, or 45 degrees in front of you. Or try a plank position with body facing one side.

Use explosive movements. Once you've mastered the basic technique, experiment with making some movements explosive. For example, try clapping your hands underneath you with each pushup - you'll have to push up powerfully and explosively to get enough airtime to make this work.

Change the angle of the movement to make it easier or harder. For example, elevating your hands will make a pushup easier; elevating your feet will make it harder.

Add intensity/duration. Work up to as many reps per set as you can, or try going for more but shorter sets (for instance, 10 sets of 5).

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