It’s the start of a brand New Year, so now is the time to start about reaching your fat loss goals for 2012. Here is my New Year Fat Loss Guide to set you on the right track to reaching your fat loss goals.

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Get rid of calorie dense foods.

I often work with people that tell me ‘I really don’t eat that much, I can’t understand why I don’t lose weight.’ Whilst portion size is obviously an important factor, it is not nearly as important as the TYPE of food you are eating. It’s all very well not eating much, but if what you are eating is calorie dense you are still going to have a high total calorie intake.

For example, a small chocolate can contain up to 100 calories. A small biscuit up to 200 calories. Think how easy it would be to go through a few chocolates and a few biscuits a day. You could be up at 1000 calories without even feeling like you have really eaten anything. And of course because they have no good nutritional value they will make your body crave more food rather than filling you up.

Chocolates and biscuits are just 2 examples. Cheese, crisps, cakes and of course alcohol are just a few other calories dense foods.

Compare these 2 sweet foods;

100 gram chocolate brownie; 400 calories

100 grams blueberries; 55 calories.

I know you may be thinking ‘yeah but I would rather have the brownie.’ Well that may be true, but the blueberries… Read more->

As much as I believe that December is just as good a time as any of get fit and burn fat I’m also realistic enough to know that for most people this month is about damage limitation. In my experience it’s not just the few days over Christmas where people overindulge, it’s the few weeks leading up to it as well! This is obviously a bit of a problem, because whilst there’s only so much damage you can do over the course of a few days, but A LOT of damage can be done over the course of a few weeks.

Here are my top 3 tips to avoid gaining weight this December;

1/ Avoid the nibbles. There a lots of parties, lunches, dinners, drinks etc. at this time of year. Of course you want to treat yourself a bit, but steer clear of the ‘nibbles’ as much as possible. By nibbles i mean stuff like crisps, dips, mice pies etc. For example most mince pies are 300/350 each! Add a bit of cream and you’re up at 500! That’s a main meal! So be aware of these high calorie, un-filling snacks and steer clear when possible.

2/ 2 drinks at a time. That sounds good doesn’t it! Well it’s not quite what you think I’m afraid. Whether you’re at home or out and have an alcoholic drink, make yourself drink a glass of water for every glass of booze you have. This will slow your drinking and help to stop you getting dehydrated and getting cravings.

3/ Work it off! Never is exercise more important that when your consuming more calories. If you’re taking in say… Read more->

Everyone is so busy these days, it is unrealistic for me as a trainer to expect everyone to go to the gym every day. It’s not just the 45/60 minutes in the gym, it’s the travelling back and forth, changing, showering, etc. The whole process takes over 2 hours. Who has that sort of time?! So home workouts are the thing of the future – but with your obviously limited resources you must know what you are doing to get a good home workout.

Rule 1 – Set Yourself an Appointment

If you just wake up every day with the intention of ‘exercising at some point,’ the chances are it simply won’t happen. Whenever suits you, first thing in the morning, when you get in from work, it doesn’t matter, the key point is you make an appointment to do it at a certain time. That way you know exactly when it is going to happen and you can’t put it off and eventually not do it!

Rule 2 – Be Realistic With Time

Don’t plan to workout for an hour a day unless you can guarantee you can spare the time. You are much better of planning a daily 20/30 minute workout that fits into your routine and doesn’t take up too much of your time. Frequency of exercise is more important than duration.

Rule 3 – Keep it Varied

Mix up what you do. So many people buy fitness equipment like a bike or cross trainer that just acts as a clothes horse after a few weeks. Why? Because… Read more->

Everyone wants to work their stomach. The stomach is a very common area to carry a little excess weight so burning fat and toning up around the stomach is high on everyone’s hit list. But all your hard work and effort can be in vain if you don’t follow this one simple rule;

If you want a flat stomach you must be able to engage your stomach muscles during your entire workout. So whether you are doing cardio on the bike or rower, or doing squats or press-ups you are still working your core. YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE DOING A STOMACH EXERCISE TO WORK THE STOMACH MUSCLES!

I know the statement above may seem a little odd, but its true. You should be using your core muscles during your entire workout. In fact I would recommend only spending a small proportion of your workout doing ‘stomach specific’ exercises such as sit-ups.

So how do you do this? Imagine someone went to tap you on the stomach. What would you do? Hopefully you would brace your stomach muscles slightly. This is what you need to be doing throughout your workout. Don’t over strain and over-tense, just hold enough tension so all your core muscles are engaged. And make sure you keep your back flat and straight at all times no matter what your are doing.

Learn and perfect this and your stomach muscles will be working and burning fat during your entire workout. And what’s more, this will be happening whilst you are burning fat from others areas all at the same time.

Today’s Takeaway – So you don’t actually need to do many ‘stomach exercises’ to get a flat stomach. Engage your core throughout your workouts for flat stomach results.