As a personal trainer, I generally teach my clients to avoid carbs that are white in order to speed up fast loss.

These white foods include: breads, pastas, cakes, and rice. This doesn't mean you cannot eat breads and pastas, you just don't want to eat the 'white' variety and instead opt for whole wheat.

If you are able to identify 'carb types' you are going to be well ahead of the game. There are two primary types of carbs: simple and complex.

Simple carbs are things like milk, honey, cakes...basically carbs with high sugar. Complex carbs break into two subgroups: starchy and fibrous. Starchy carbs are the whole wheats, potatoes, oatmeal, etc. Fibrous carbs are your vegetables like aparagus, onions, broccoli, and so on. Your aim should be to eat plenty of fibrous, some starchy, while avoiding simple carbs.

Another important factor to consider is carb timing. If you are going to have whole wheat breads, pastas, and other starchy carbs, limit them to breakfast and lunch. Try combining fibrous carbs with your evening meal for the best results.

The last thing you want to make sure of is to eat plenty of protein and to keep it low on saturated fats. Good lean proteins include: egg whites, low fat cottage cheese, chicken, turkey, lean beef, and plenty of fish.

The best thing to do is to break your goal into bite size pieces. I give my clients short, mid, and long term goals to make things as easy and bite-sized as possible.

Your first task is to establish a weekly goal. With diet, resistance training, and cardio, you can expect to lose 1-3lbs a week. Do not weigh yourself everyday, but pick a certain day of the week (i.e. every Monday) and check your progress then.

Following the short term goal of 1-3lbs a week, by the 6 week mark you should be at 6-18 lbs fat loss. At this point you want to reduce your calories more and make your cardio more intense.

By week 12, you should fall into the range of 12-36. 36 lbs being best case scenario.

Here are few tips to remember:

- Eat small meals containing a protein and complex carb every 3-4 hrs

- Avoid simple carbs, and reduce your carb intake in the evening

-Drink plenty of water

- Aim for 3 times a week of resistance training (bands, weights, etc), and do cardio at least 20 minutes at 60-75% of you maximum heart rate 4-5 times a week

- Consistency is key. It takes 21 days to make a habit. Do not give up.

- Measure your results in detail every 4-6 weeks to ensure you are making progress. Sometimes the scale doesn't tell you how you are doing as well as a tape measure and calipers can.

I have a secret to tell you, but SHHHHH don't tell anyone!

There is a "trick" if you will, that if done properly will allow you to retain your muscle tone while you do cardio.

First, let me ask you a question. How many muscular cross country runners do you know? In fact, how many do you know that do not look somewhat emaciated?

The reason this happen is that the high amounts of cardio wastes away their muscle mass. Their body is using their muscle to fuel their long runs.

Ok, so maybe you're not a cross country runner, then what does this have to do with you?

Many people do tons of cardio when trying to lose weight. This is fine and good, except that often times it is to the detriment of muscle tone. At the end of the day, fitness and aestetics is primarily about your body composition. In every day terms, this means how much of you is muscle, fat, or water.

Remember also, muscle at rest burns more calories than fat. For females, this does not mean 'getting bulky' like so many fear, but rather having denser, firmer muscles that facilitate fat loss!

There is a way to retain your muscle tone while you do cardio, and therefore have maximal body composition.

The secret is amino acids.

Amino acids are the building blocks of muscle in their most basic form. If taken on an empty stomach, the body will use the amino acids readily available, rather than breaking down your muscle mass!

Wrestlers, boxers, and other 'weight class' related sports have known about this trick for years. This has allowed their athletes to drop weight without losing the competitive edge on the field.

I'm a big fan of Advocare's Catalyst amino acid blend. This is what my clients use, and what I use in my own work outs to get optimal body comp.

Now that you know the secret, stop losing all your muscle doing cardio, and get some catalyst now!