How I lost 80 pounds weight in 4 months!

Okay, you had a bad day, you ate stuff not good for losing weight or skipped a workout - or even several workouts. Like many people do, you're probably feeling like failure, or worse. Well, you're not. You're human. During my weight loss I had plenty of slip ups, gave into temptations, got lazy and skipped workouts. Sure, for those particular incidents my weight loss progress probably took a hit. I felt and still feel the frustration whenever I foul up. But I keep going. When - not if because we all will slip up now and then - you slip up, acknowledge it. Try to learn what triggered it and if you can avoid such triggers in the future. And keep going with your weight loss. The worse thing you can do is quit - no one loses in the battle for weight loss, except those who quit.
Let me share my own, recent, very bad slip up - we're taking about the atomic bomb of slipping up. On the July 4th weekend I decided to purchase I chocolate mousse cake. I hadn't enjoyed any desserts for a few weeks, and America's birthday seemed like a good time to have some. My intention was to only eat 2 slices, three at most, then toss the rest of the cake. Well%u2026I ended up eating the entire, 4800-calorie cake within 2 days. When considering I was at that time eating at a slight calorie surplus to build muscle, the consequences were not going to be good. Nothing happened immediately but by Tuesday my barely visible abs were now covered again. In two days, I obliterated that which took me 6 weeks of highly intense, tortuous workouts and bare minimal eating to accomplish. I weighed myself, predicting I had gained between 3 to 4 pounds, and sure enough my weight jumped 3.4lbs - all fat. This was not the smartest thing I could have done as one concerned about fitness. On the other hand, that cake was to die for.
But let me also share the rest of the story. In spite of this major foul up, I continued to do my intense weight lifting, I continued, or I should say resumed, to eat healthy, I continued my cardio. Despite still eating at a slight calorie surplus to maximize strength gains, by the end of three weeks I nearly repaired all the "damage" eating that cake had done to my physique. I did not even make any special effort to lose the fat. By simply staying on my lifestyle, the consequences were mitigated and I continue towards not only having the physique I had before the cake but even improve upon that.
The moral of this story is we are all going to make mistakes in life including fitness and weight loss - its all part of being human. It is what we do afterward that will make all the differences. Another thing to ponder and think on; it has often been the case where a person's mistake sent them on the path to their greatest personal triumph. If you had a bad day, bad week, or even a bad month, you're not a loser, you're not a failure, you're simply human. Dust yourself off and get on track. As you will see in spite of my many slip ups along the way, I still pressed on with using my ways to lose weight and effective weight loss plans to lose 80 pounds in 4 months.

Sorry for the length between my last post, I have been on vacation for the past week. I not only got away from my routine, I even took a break from fitness. What this means is I did not go to a gym, though I stayed active on my vacation. I also took the time to indulge myself in my favorite foods. Again, I did not binge out, but I did enjoy myself. Many people proffering weight loss advice will tell you what I did was wrong and counterproductive to weight loss. They insist you must give up all junk food forever and ever if you ever want to reach and maintain a healthy weight. And they tell you that you must abstain is you want to reach an active old age. However, I tell you otherwise. Realistically, this is not a practical option simply because the vast majority of us enjoy the taste of our favorite junk foods. By trying to deprive ourselves, pretending we want to give up totally these foods. Well, sooner or later, just about everyone caves in and ends up binging. Instead of totally denying myself, my likes, I've decided to strike a balance, a balance between eating clean for most of the week, maintaining a vigorous regimen of exercise, and 1 or 2 days a week partaking in my favorite culinary delights that are not conducive to weight loss. I have successfully maintained an 11 to 12% body fat composition - still quite a lean body and considered athletic - following this plan. Even when I was losing weight, I had one day where I enjoyed myself, and I still lost weight those weeks - even during the time I was losing 6 pounds a week. I feel part of it was that taking in the extra calories, after days of clean eating, jolted my metabolism back up. So, an occasional cheat not only does not negatively affect your weight loss, it can even boost it. It was only when I decided I wanted to become more lean, did I discover it was necessary to totally abstain, in which I did get down to 8.9%. Unless you have the desire to become super-lean, you can still occasionally enjoy your favorite foods and still lose the weight. It is sad that I need to point this out, but some people will read this post as a license to binge and overeat. It is not of course and naturally I am speaking about moderation and self control. It takes knowing when to stop. If this is a weakness of yours, then work on improving that aspect; it not only make losing weight easier, it also will make life in general easier.

Here in the Northern Hemisphere, summer approaches, and in my country, June generally starts the summertime travel season. As we all know too well, gasoline prices are sky high, making people look for ways to be energy efficient.

Interestingly enough, weight loss is about being energy inefficient. Think about it like this; if our bodies had perfect efficiency, 100% of the food we would eat would be used, for energy needs and to be stored as fat. Not only that, our bodies would fine tune and optimize energy production during workouts or other physical activities, so that we would burn the least amount of energy as possible. For running a marathon, this would be a good thing, but when trying to lose weight, this is a bad thing. The laws of physics do not allow anything to be 100% efficient, so neither are our bodies, but they are pretty efficient. But we can eat things and workout in ways that can boost inefficiency a little.

Certain foods, such as whole grains, leafy green vegetables, and lean proteins are low in calorie density and take more work to breakdown, resulting in fewer calories. But these foods will still signal our bodies we have been fed. Fats in the diet signal satiety and for a longer period, leaving you feeling full for longer - just don't over do it on the fats.

Let us compare two airliners, Boeing's 787-3 and the Concorde. Both airliners can make the London-New York flight. The 787-3 is slow and highly fuel efficient, while the Concorde is extremely fast and wasteful of fuel. Our workouts should be the same. A slow, steady cardio workout is just too efficient for our bodies, even with a long duration. Initially, one may still be able to lose weight with this - especially if you have a lot of weight to lose, but it will soon be ineffective. As with the Concorde, the more intense the workout, the more energy inefficient our body is, forcing more fat to be used for energy. That is why it is possible to lose weight with a shorter workout, such as, High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). If you are stuck at a plateau, consider intensifying your cardio workout, even if it means you have a shorter workout, it might enough to jolt you out of it. It was in my case, I was stuck at the same weight for months, and decided to try much more intensive workouts. And though they were much shorter duration than what I have been doing, I broke through and dipped below the 10% body fat level. Remember though our bodies are adapting, so as you get use to one level of intensity, you will need to increase it.

Energy inefficiency is just one way to help with weight loss. For more weight loss plans and other ways to lose weight please visit my website.

Growing up, my father worked for Saudi Arabian Airlines, and as a kid, I spent some time at the airport. Watching the planes take off and land. And after they land, watching the workmen begin the maintenance process on the planes. One type of plane stood out; Lockheed's L1011. The other airliners it looked as if maintenance was an ad hoc process, but the L1011 it was almost a work of art in motion. What took hours on the other airliners took about 30 minutes on the L1011, and it was ready to fly again. A workman explained to me that Lockheed designed the L1011 around efficient routine maintenance and quick turnaround.

Our post workout period should be planned around a similar concept, especially if you have aggressive weight loss or fitness goals. Rest and recovery is when you grow your muscles, not when you workout - it is when improvements to your fitness levels are made. Simply taking it easy and getting a good night's sleep helps you recover. You should already be drinking plenty of water. However, you can engage in a more proactive recovery process. Immediately post workout, consume foods and supplements that are quickly absorbed by the body, such as whey, creatine, glutamines, and a high-glycemic carb such as dextrose or waxy maize. Whey provides fast acting proteins, creatine helps with energy delivery, glutamines helps with muscle repair and growth, and the high-glycemic carb will reload glycogen (a source of energy) levels in your muscles. At night, prior to sleep, I eat a clean protein (I prefer casein), omega 3/6 supplements, glutamine, and arginine. Arginine assists with NO to the blood vessels, providing more blood to muscles, and helps clear out metabolites. Taking these measures is why I can manage two sessions of intense cardio (not a leisurely walk in the park cardio) a day. Every two or three weeks I like to get a deep-tissue massage, I can feel the difference on my next workout.

By being proactive in your recovery, you can sustain a much greater level of physical activity. Whether your goal is to lose weight, get in shape, or improve your performance in a certain sport, rest and recovery is an important part of any fitness plan. When you are working out, give it all you have, then take it easy.

Such proactive steps allowed me to sustain a level of activity which resulted in an 80 pound loss in 4 months. To learn other helpful tips, weight loss plans, and other ways to lose weight please visit my site.

There were two keys to my weight loss success. The first was finding weight loss information that actually works, not the politically correct feel-good pap that's printed all over the mainstream media. But information is only good if one applies it. That was the second key; discipline. After a lifetime of bad eating habits and sedentary living, it requires discipline to transform into a healthy lifestyle. Discipline to refrain from eating junk food and pick healthy choices instead, discipline to drag myself out of bed and to the gym instead of hitting the snooze button. Perhaps the greatest show of discipline lies not in doing those things, but to continue to do those things when you stumble. This is where many trying to lose weight fail; they get off to a good start, make a mistake - skipping a workout or perhaps binging - and they give up on their weight loss efforts. If you read my journal about my first 6 weeks of my weight loss plan, you will see that I did not have the discipline to completely stick to my own plan. Yet, when I stumbled, slipped up, I continued anyway. Very few people successfully lost weight without having setbacks. Those who do succeed did so because they had the self-discipline to press on in spite of their setbacks. This type of self-discipline is known as persistence. People who persist ultimately succeed, in weight loss, in business, in life. As long as you keep moving on, you will never loss the battle of your weight loss. The good news is that anyone can improve their self-discipline, regardless how much they have been lacking in the past. I found this page a great place to start reading; it's short, direct, and very helpful. Stick with your weight loss efforts, continue to research weight loss information and you will have a great body in time for swimsuit season.

The other day, I was next to a guy on a cardio machine. We were engaging in the usual small talk that eventually got around to the topic of fitness. I mentioned that whenever I come to the gym, I push myself hard. He said to me when he comes to the gym, he only wants to relax and take it easy. After he said that, I had an epiphany. For a long time, I wondered why I was not getting any results before from all my efforts at the gym. Additionally, I have observed individuals at this particular gym who have been attending at least as long as I have been going there, since June of 2006. In spite of spending huge amounts of time there, on the treadmill, on the elliptical, on the cycle for all these months, they still look the same. For a long time, I could not understand why this was the case. Then when my companion told me he only wants to relax and take it easy at the gym, it hit me. To get the best results, or perhaps any results at all, one must push their bodies beyond their comfort zones. This means the gym must be the one place we cannot "relax and take it easy", not in the physical sense. Of course a good workout can emotionally relax you since it is a good reliever of stress. But, when it comes the physical, the gym is a place to challenge your body, for it is the only way for it to improve. Looking back, I must honestly admit during my prior endeavors at the gym, I shied away from discomforting myself, and the results reflected that. It was only when I started at November of 2006 that I was going all out, that I pushed myself outside of my comfort zone, and I started getting immediate results. Now, one must not go to the other extreme and push too hard. Aside from risk of injury, there will not be enough time to recover between sessions, making it hard sustain training. That can cause loss of motivation, and so can being injured. Therefore, balance must be struck on individual training sessions being challenging enough to promote improvement but not to slow recovery or injury.
While a gym is not the place to physically relax, outside the gym one must remember to relax. Recovery is a vital part of fitness; indeed it is almost impossible to achieve muscle growth without proper resting and recovery. So, remember, take it hard in the gym, but take it easy outside of it. Pushing myself was a key to my weight loss success.
For more weight loss info, please go here.

It has been a while since I updated this lens. I have been busy on my own website, since this project has outgrown my Squidoo lens. This is not a slight against Squidoo at all. This is an awesome site with an awesome concept. The tools are so simple and you can create powerful pages with them. I found many great lenses and I will continue to visit here and find many more.
Anyway, as you can imagine, I am constantly asked what I did to lose so much weight in a short period, especially during the first six weeks when I lost 6 pounds each week. Since I cannot isolate specific methods and techniques that worked from those that did not, I have posted on my website a weekly journal of what I ate, what I avoided, what I did, what the outcome for the week was, and how well I stuck to my plans.
Before visiting it, I must caution you it does not consist of miracle pills or a no-effort plan. I did a lot of strenuous physical activity and near the end I was on a 1600 calorie a day diet which took an iron will to stick with. But it worked in that for six weeks I lost 36 pounds. I put it up so those inclined can try it, but I cannot promise you will get the same results.
Here is my website:
www.obesetoathletic.com
click on the "Weight Loss Info" to see the link to my 6-week journal.

I have found it interesting during my weight loss journey, the number of people who seem to think their bodies are somehow exempt from the laws of physics. Some freak out because they think eating a two-ounce piece of cake will make them gain three pounds. Others go to the gym, but barely exert themselves, and cannot understand why they have no progress. It is simple, energy in - energy out = net change. If the value is positive, you will gain weight, if it is negative you lose weight. That is all there is to it! Applying the laws of physics was, perhaps, one of the biggest aids to my own weight loss. Knowing that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only changed to another form, guided me through out my journey, and still central to my maintenance plan.

Do you know your BMR? I know mine, it was another strategy I used in my weight loss success! Ah, you are probably wondering what BMR is. Well, it simply is your Basal Metabolic Rate. In ordinary English, that is the amount of calories your cells need to stay alive. It is the absolute minimum energy your body burns, and does not include activities such as digestion, respiration, and circulation. Why is this important to know? If you do not know how many calories you burn each day it is hard plan an effective weight loss strategy. As I stated, BMR is strictly basal, it does not include bodily functions, nor does it include your daily activity level. While you can mess around with math, I have a web link that helps you make an estimation of your BMR. Click here to find out what your BMR value is! This site uses the Harris-Benedict formula, which dates back to the 1920's and requires you to input gender, age, height, and weight. Though old, it still serves as a rough guide - it worked for me quite well. Once you calculate your BMR, you can use a multiplier based on your level of activity, and voila, you have an estimate of your daily caloric output. Here are the multipliers to use:

Sedentary = BMR X 1.2 (little or no exercise, desk job)
Lightly active = BMR X 1.375 (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk)
Moderately active = BMR X 1.55 (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk)
Very active = BMR X 1.725 (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk)
Extra active = BMR X 1.9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training)

Using this number, you can plan how much calories you should eat. It is common advice that you should never consume fewer calories than your BMR. I decided this was not acceptable to me. Instead, I calculated my BMR for my target weight and planned my caloric input based on that value. As you begin to lose weight, your BMR will decrease. In my case, at 240 pounds, my BMR was 2193, and when I reached 160 pounds, my BMR dropped to 1686, a difference of 500 calories per day. If you wonder why you lost an amount of weight and then reached a plateau, perhaps the major reason is your BMR dropped enough that your current level of activity and caloric input are no longer sufficient to keep your weight declining. In that situation, you will need to adjust - most likely your activity level, indeed I recommend you adjust that rather than cutting your food intake.

The Harris-Benedict formula was designed with the average person in mind, it will under estimate BMR for people with low body fat percentages and overestimate BMR people with high body fat percentages. To be honest, since I was already low-balling my BMR, I did not seek BMR equations adjusted for obese people. However once my body fat percentage became low, I wanted an equation that would provide me with a more accurate estimate of my BMR. I stumbled across the Katch-McArdle formula. It uses only your lean mass and a single equation is suitable for both men and women. I did not find an online tool for this one, but it was effortless to put the formula in a spreadsheet in any case. You will need to know your lean mass and convert it to kilograms for this formula, the web link I provided will give you a very rough estimate to of your body fat percentage. From that you can calculate your lean mass, divided your lean mass by 2.2 to convert it into kilograms. Here is the formula:

BMR = 370 + (21.6 X lean mass in kg) - In my case, using this formula at 12% body fat, I get a result of 1767 versus 1683 with Harris-Benedict, almost 100 calories per day difference. As your muscle mass grows and fat shrinks, the difference will become larger.

That's all there is to BMR. By tracking your BMR along with your weight, you will keep steady progress on your weight loss journey!

It is commonly believed that it is harder to keep the weight off than it is to lose it. In my research, I found this belief to be false. Maintaining is actually easier than to losing. Think about it, to lose excess weight, you must burn more calories than you consume but to maintain you need only to consume the same amount of calories you burn. This requires less work than trying to burn off excess fat.

So, are you ready for the secret I found that helps me keep my weight off? It is so profound, and yet so simple. Sometimes it amazes me why so many dieters do not "get it", but then again with the mindset of dieting, it really is not surprising. Okay, here is the "secret":

Do not go back to the things you were doing before you started the diet.

That is all there is to it! Yet this is why many people (95% according to some statistics) fail in their diets; they finish when they reach their target weight, or they become tired of being on the diet and quit. In either case, they go back to their original lifestyle and gradually (or quickly even) regain the weight they lost. As I said before, the problem is framed in the mindset of diets. When we think of going on a diet, it implies a temporary change. And that is what happens; either the dieter reaches the target weight and goes off the diet, or cries uncle and quits. Permanent results require permanent changes!

Instead of going on a diet, you need to change your lifestyle towards one that encourages greater health. You will lose the weight and keep it off, you also will have more energy and vitality - I can vouch for that firsthand. I went through several lifestyle plans depending on my fitness goals. The first was to burn my fat off as quickly as possible. When I succeeded in reaching that goal, I then changed again to a lifestyle that builds up my muscles. Aside from becoming stronger and enjoying the benefits that come with greater strength, I continued to gradually burn off my remaining excess fat stores. The one thing I have not done was to revert to my old lifestyle that made me grotesquely obese. So, once you succeed in losing your excess fat, develop a lifestyle that includes some healthy eating and some physical activity, and you too will be among the 5% who have permanent weight loss.

Here are some great lifestyle plans that will help you keep your success story a success story. Determine what your fitness goals and desires are and pick one!

Building up muscles is the long-term key to keeping weight off! Once you reach your ideal weight this system will help you keep it off by growing strength. And the great thing is when you need to build muscles you have to eat more!

If you are satisfied with your weight and fitness level, this product is perfect for you. After checking it out, I found it contains solid advice based on facts and it feels nothing like being on a diet! It is a balance of eating healthy, being active, and enjoying life:
Every other day you enjoy your favorite foods!

If you are here reading this article, then you are researching ways get control of your weight. Do not ever, ever, under any circumstance, put yourself on a diet! That's right, I am telling you to avoid diets in order to lose weight. Diets are failures; diets have always been failures. The worst thing you can do to your health is to go on a diet. You have seen it before - perhaps you even experienced yourself; people go on a diet, achieve some success, go off the diet, and regain the weight they loss - perhaps with interest.

Diets are nothing new, the ancient Egyptians, Chinese, and Babylonians had diet plans to lose weight. Even the low-carb craze is not new; there was a low-carb diet introduced in the 1820s and later again in the 1860s. Virtually all diets have two things in common; they require the dieter to adjust their eating often in an unpleasant manner. This can cause nutritional deficiencies to the body. Secondly, diets are often approached with a short-term mindset - going on a diet implies one will be going off it on a later date. The end results are generally one of two outcomes. The dieter reaches his weight goal and stops the diet, goes back to what he was doing before and then slowly regains the weight often along with additional weight. Or, the body begins to suffer imbalance, hormonal or otherwise, due to the nutritional deficiencies caused by the diet and, he or she becomes "fed up" with being on the diet and simply gives up. Binge eating frequently follows this situation. Neither outcome will help you have a successful long-term weight loss outcome and can cause harm in the long run. Finally, when one cuts the amount of food - and it is the amount of food, not calories (our bodies do not have built-in calorimeters) that trigger these reactions - our bodies undergo several reactions. First, the thyroid gland reduces its T3 hormone production, slowing overall metabolism. Second, your body, thinking it is starving, begins to leach off your muscles, slowing your metabolism even more, and leaving you weaker. Since regained weight that follows will invariably be fat, the individual will end up having a higher body fat composition.

Diets, being temporary phenomena, will give you only temporary results. To have permanent results, you will need to make permanent changes. Instead of dieting then, change your lifestyle, which then will allow you to achieve permanent weight loss. This will involve a combination of healthy eating as well as a reasonable activity level, and still, in moderation, enjoy those foods we all love but know are fattening. This site will show how I adjusted my lifestyle in such a way that I went from being obese to having an athletic physique (Actually it was a series of lifestyle changes, depending on my fitness goals at the time). It will also direct you to resources and products that were helpful for me. Don't wait any longer; start changing your life today!

I spent much money buying stuff to help me with my weight, literally thousands of dollars. Below are the resources that I found personally useful. Any one of these resources will help you start on your way to a new body - if you want to buy any of these, save your money - you only need one. Start today and share your success with the world!

These titles offer realistic, sustainable, lifestyles that will help you take complete control over your weight.

Short but intense workouts means you spend less time working out and more time enjoying your new body!

An excellent resource I found extremely useful!

This resource was very helpful, many useful information for all body types!!

This man was an inspirational success story who's material really helped me with my success!

After reaching your target weight, switch to a lifestyle that will help you keep it off.
Building up muscles is the long-term key to keeping weight off! Once you reach your ideal weight this system will help you keep it off by growing strength. And the great thing is when you need to build muscles you have to eat more!

If you are satisfied with your weight and fitness level, this product is perfect for you. After checking it out, I found it contains solid advice based on facts and it feels nothing like being on a diet! It is a balance of eating healthy, being active, and enjoying life:
Every other day you enjoy your favorite foods!

For years I was seriously overweight. I tried to lose the weight, I watched what I ate and I attended a gym, but to no avail. Finally I got fed up with making no progress. So I conducted some research, found out I was making many mistakes. Armed with new knowledge, I declared total war on my body fat. At that time I weighed 240 pounds. During the first six weeks, I lost 36 pounds, and over the next ten weeks, I lost another 44 pounds, until I stabilized at 160 pounds. One of the things I discovered in my research was how badly I was treating my thyroid, and many other overweight people are likely doing the same thing. The thyroid gland controls the body's metabolism, and anything that disrupts its function will slow your metabolism down, and make losing weight that much harder.
One of the first facts I uncovered, from several reports, is that the artificial sweetener Aspartame has been shown to disrupt thyroid hormone production. Aspartame happens to be the most commonly used artificial sweetener in the world. I decided to determine if these reports were true. I abstained from Aspartame, drinking Splenda-based sodas.
Your thyroid primarily used two substances to produce the T3 hormone; iodine and the amino acid tyrosine. I decided to experiment by taking kelp tablets - rich in iodine - and tyrosine supplements. Additionally, I learned in my research that thyroid extract and olive leaves (along with kelp tablets) were used by old-school body builders to minimize fat gain while trying to build muscle. Supposedly thyroid extract and olive leaves cause the thyroid gland to produce more hormone. So I experimented with those substances as well. The result; almost immediately I began see significant weight loss. I was at the same time eating clean and doing intensive cardio training, true. However, doing the math, based on the diet and exercise I was doing, I should not have lost more than three pounds per week, I was losing six - and I was occasionally cheating on my diet at the same time (and slacked off a couple times on my training). I am convinced cutting out Aspartame and taking the supplements were key in the extra weight loss I experienced, it allowed my thyroid to become a dynamo. During another experiment I conducted on myself, I took a two-week vacation, in which I did no exercising, and ate excessively - lots of fat-loaded junk food, ice cream, and candy. Everyday. I continued to avoid Aspartame and take kelp tablets, tyrosine, thyroid extract, and olive leaves during this period. Calculating the calories I consumed and estimating on the high end my activity level, I should have gained 8 to 10 pounds, but instead my weight only increased by three pounds (and lost those three almost immediately). If you too are struggling with your weight, consider eliminating Aspartame from your diet, and possibly adding the supplements I described to your diet. I felt no ill effects from taking any of those supplements, and being slim again feels awesome.

I spent much money buying stuff to help me with my weight, literally thousands of dollars. Below are the resources that I found personally useful. Any one of these resources will help you start on your way to a new body - if you want to buy any of these, save your money - you only need one. Start today and share your success with the world!

An excellent resource I found extremely useful!

This resource was very helpful, many useful information for all body types!!

This man was an inspirational success story who's material really helped me with my success!

Building up muscles is the long-term key to keeping weight off! Once you reach your ideal weight this system will help you keep it off by growing strength. And the great thing is when you need to build muscles you have to eat more!

Centuries ago, Emperor Qin of ancient China initiated a nationwide quest to find the "Elixir of Life", a potion (depending on which myth you listen to) that either would allow the imbiber to live forever or heal all wounds and illnesses. He of course failed in his quest, but in a very real sense we have always had the Elixir of Life. It is called water. True, water will not give us immortality, but try going three days without water and see how alive you feel.

As living organisms, we have countless chemical reactions going on in our bodies, most of them occur more efficiently in a liquid medium. And water happens to be the most common and least reactive liquid available. It is no wonder that the first life began in water, and life continues to depend on the presence of water. Furthermore, water acts as a transport medium, carrying needed materials to our cells, and removing wastes. You have no doubt heard that we should drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day. That is a minimum and if you are active you should be drinking more. In my research, the most common rule of thumb I found is to drink .075 8-ounce cups of water per pound of body weight for active individuals. So for a 200-pound man, that would be 15 cups or 120 ounces of water per day. This should be done with plain water, not through drinking sodas or caffeine beverages (personally I do not consider sodas, coffee, or tea when calculating my water consumption). Water is the only substance we can consume that neither contains calories nor has a caloric effect on our bodies. Drinking electrolyte beverages such as Gatorade® in moderation will help restore electrolyte balance. By staying well hydrated, you will help with many fat metabolizing processes within your body, and that will speed up your weight loss. Not to mention, I personally have noticed other health improvements when I ramped up my water consumption, such as more energy, loss of fatigue, and virtually no more headaches. Please keep in mind, simply increasing your water consumption will not help you loose weight. The core of any successful and long-term weight loss will always be a combination of healthy eating and physical activity. However, by ensuring you are well hydrated while eating healthy and training, you will push your body to burn more fat.

I spent much money buying stuff to help me with my weight, literally thousands of dollars. Below are the resources that I found personally useful. Any one of these resources will help you start on your way to a new body - if you want to buy any of these, save your money - you only need one. Start today and share your success with the world!

An excellent resource I found extremely useful!

This resource was very helpful, many useful information for all body types!!

This man was an inspirational success story who's material really helped me with my success!

Building up muscles is the long-term key to keeping weight off! Once you reach your ideal weight this system will help you keep it off by growing strength. And the great thing is when you need to build muscles you have to eat more!