Some people labor away at abdominal exercises, expecting to see a six pack within a few weeks.   When it doesn’t emerge they feel cheated that all their hard work hasn’t paid off, but what they don’t realize is that burning belly fat starts with eating right.  If you continue to eat incorrectly, all those ab muscles will stay hidden beneath a layer of fat.  So, most people would like to know, what body fat percentage do you need to see your abs?

The answer is not straightforward, and it’s certainly different for men and women.   It’s best to start off with general guidelines for healthy body fat percentages.  For the average healthy woman, between 21- 25% body fat is satisfactory.  Anything above 30% is really too high and should be addressed to prevent serious health problems developing.   A lean shape is between 15% and 20%, and competition shape is between 8% and 12%.

For men, a good average body fat percentage is 15 to 19%.  Anything above 25% is poor and potentially harmful.  A lean shape is between 9% and 14%, and competition shape (also known as “ripped”) is between 3% and 6%.

These averages also depend on the age of the person, as people tend to be heavier as they age (although if you eat and exercise properly, you shouldn’t put on weight as you get older!).   Another thing to be aware of is that the competition levels of body fat, referred to in the bodybuilding community as “ripped” , are not realistic for the average person, and could even be dangerous to good health.  They are targets for professional physique athletes, and even for these guys it is not advisable to maintain a very low level of body fat all year round.

For most women, 12% body fat is ripped, and much lower should be the preserve of the professionals only.  Even women with very low body fat can have problem areas on the lower body.  For guys, well there is room for variation- some guys look ripped with 11% body fat, but most need to be down to around 7%.   The problem is, everyone distributes fat differently, so it really is difficult to state exact percentages.

For an impressive six pack, you really need to hit the “very lean”category, which for women is less than 15% and for men less than 9%, but this could vary depending on your body type.   Another thing to be aware of is that body fat measurement is not an exact science, and tests are really no more than estimations.  Even at professional level, athletes are judged on appearance and demeanor rather than measurements.    Bodybuilders might enjoy competing amongst themselves for the lowest body fat percentage, but realistically, the average person should use it as a way of tracking progress rather than a target.

So, if you really want get a ripped look, remember there is no holy grail- it depends on your age, gender, and how your body distributes fat.  the most important thing to realize is that exercise alone won’t burn off your belly fat- you need to pay careful attention to your nutrition as well.  Eating well isn’t just a case of cutting back to low a calorie intake; you need to eat good quality nutritious foods that will keep your appetite satisfied and get your metabolism functioning on top form.

Most people are familiar with the “Food Pyramid” , which was created by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to provide nutritional guidelines.   At the base of the pyramid are foods you are advised to eat most of: breads, grains, cereals, and pasta.  The next layer is vegetables and fruits, advising 3-5 portions per day.   Dairy and meat make up the next layer, and fats and oils are at the tip, indicating you should eat them sparingly.

People who want to lose weight should remember that the Food Pyramid is a general guide, not a dieting tool.  It is far too vague for this purpose, and some of its claims are even scientifically unfounded!

Let’s start at the top, with the advice to eat fats sparingly.  This is over simplistic at best.    Some fats are undoubtedly bad for you- particularly man-made trans fats which are widely used in margarine.  They cannot be used well by the body, so they collect in the artery linings, causing blockages which lead to strokes and heart disease.   It’s also harmful to consume too much saturated fat, which is found in red meat and dairy.  However, monounsaturated fat and polyunsaturated fats which are found in nuts, olive oil, and fish are good for the body, and encourage it to burn calories efficiently- keeping your weight down!

The second problem with the Food Pyramid is that it encourages people to base most of their meals on carbohydrates, without making any distinction between good and unhelpful types.  Starchy carbs which are found in white bread, pasta, potatoes and white rice are the mainstay of the average American’s diet.  All these types of food create glucose in the body, which quickly pumps sugar into your bloodstream, followed by insulin spikes.  The surge in blood sugar and insulin is followed by a sharp plummet, causing a drop in energy and an appetite trigger.  So, if you just eat these types of carbs, you will probably end up overeating, and could even be at risk of diabetes.

The key is to eat carbs from whole grains, such as brown rice and whole wheat bread and pasta.  Your body will take longer to digest them, avoiding insulin spikes that create hunger cravings.  The slow steady effect on blood sugar will also protect you against heart disease and diabetes.

The protein layer doesn’t distinguish between which types are best for you, either.  Red meat should be eaten sparingly by those trying to lose weight, because it is high in saturated fats and cholesterol.  Chicken and fish provide a much leaner source of protein.  Beans and nuts are protein sources too, and packed with essential vitamins and minerals.  Milk consumption is encouraged as a source of calcium, but whole milk is high in saturated fat, so skim is best.

There is no mention of alcohol, which many people need advice about.  For the dieter, it should be avoided because it contains high amounts of calories.  Excessive consumption harms the liver, but in moderation, alcohol can help protect against heart disease.

Finally, the Food Pyramid makes no attempt to guide people on the other major cause of weight gain- lack of exercise.  If you want to lose fat and see results within a few months, it is far better to eat a good balance of natural fats, whole grain carbs, and plenty of fruit and vegetables, combined with a regular exercise program.

Losing weight is a mental as well as physical effort.  You have to think about your diet and exercise routine to succeed, rather than just dashing in and out of the gym, using whatever machines take your fancy.  If you settle into a comfortable routine of doing exactly the same things in the same order every gym session, your body will also settle into the same physique- you will never achieve the lean and sculpted body you first hoped for.

If your gym sessions are so routine that you don’t have to think about them, it is time to make a change.  The same goes for jogging- mindlessly pounding a pavement will probably have no effect on your body after the first couple of weeks.   Some people assume that putting the physical effort into exercise is enough- why should it involve extra brain work as well?   Well, if you think through and plan out your exercise routine in advance, you will get far better results.  To the beginner, exercise might seem to be all about putting one foot in front of the other, whether on a treadmill or round the park, but the no-think approach will probably mean no results.

It is natural for human beings to like routine, and most people find it easier to be in a comfort zone than to be doing something new.  But if you stop putting effort in, you will get nothing out of your workouts.  At work, you expect to take on new challenges to develop your career, and the same is true of any fitness plan.

Some mental effort put into researching and planning new routines will pay off with results in the long term.   That’s all very well, you might think, but what’s the best place to start?  Studies repeatedly show that a combination of strength training and interval training is far more effective than a long slow aerobic session.  Once you have this routine in place, you must vary it every four weeks.  If your body gets too used to training, your metabolism will adjust and it will be impossible to sculpt muscles and lose fat.

So, here’s a sample routine to start you off.  For a warm-up, use a bodyweight circuit.  Repeat each movement eight times, and do the whole set twice.  Use a mixture of bodyweight squats, push-ups, and bodyweight rows.

Next, do 20 minutes of body strength training, again with 8 repetitions of each and 2 of the whole set.  You could use a mixture of squats and presses.  Follow up with another superset of split squats and rows.   Now you’re ready for the intervals.

After a 5 minute warm-up, use 6 intervals of 60 seconds at a harder pace than you would normally choose.  In-between, use 60-90 seconds of recovery at an easy pace.  Cool down for 5 minutes and stretch off any tight muscles.

Once you get used to this routine, it’s time to change it!  Remember, variety is the key to making progress with fitness and fat loss.  There are dozens of different bodyweight exercises to try, and plenty of ways to vary intervals.   Use time, method, and intensity- you will soon the results with a leaner, fitter physique.  Getting out of your fitness comfort zone is much easier than you think- just use your brain as well as your body.

The most common weight loss mantra is “Eat Less and Exercise More.”  But what if you really are doing this and not getting any results?  You might be making a common mistake,  by not paying enough attention to your metabolism.  Your metabolism is the series of chemical processes that converts food into energy and is responsible for how many calories your body burns.  Your metabolism is influenced by diet, lifestyle, age, and gender.  The faster the process happens in your body, the more calories you burn.  If your body senses that calories are in short supply, your metabolism will slow down to conserve them- this is why semi-starvation diets are ineffective.  You might even end up putting on weight while depriving yourself of nutrients and becoming tired and cross!

Here are the best 10 ways to maximize your metabolism and burn off as many calories as possible.

1. Don’t cut down to very low calories.  A calorie shortage will be sensed by your body and your metabolic rate will slow down.  You will lose muscle and water rather than fat.
2. Try eating 6 small meals per day rathe than 3 large ones.   Include as much lean protein, fruit and nuts as possible.  If you are short of time during the week, try and prepare a batch of food at the weekend that you can keep in the refrigerator.
3. Don’t skip breakfast.  Breakfast kicks off your metabolism after the night’s break.  A mixture of lean protein and fruit is ideal.
4. Some fats are healthy!  Essential fats are found in nuts, olive oil and fish oil.  An excellent snack is a small bag of almonds or cashew nuts- so ditch those carb loaded chips and take the healthy option.
5. Cut down on sugar.  Probably the most common piece of nutrition advice but true.  Controlling insulin and blood sugar level prevents you from gaining fat and makes it easier to lose.
6. if you know your lean body mass- your body weight minus fat, then eat 1.1g of protein per pound of lean body mass.  If you don’t know, 1g per pound of body weight is a safe estimate.
7. Avoid alcohol.  Alcoholic drinks add hundreds of calories to your system and prevents fat from burning effectively.  For men, it is especially disadvantageous as it reduces levels of fat burning testosterone.
8. For a healthy drink option, choose green tea and water.   They won’t increase metabolism, but they will keep it ticking over smoothly.
9. Keep your bed times and rising times as consistent as you can to keep your metabolism settled.  If you can’t avoid shift work, stick as closely as possible to the other advice here.
10. For a metabolism boosting work out, use a mixture of strength training with medium level weights and interval training.  Complete 8 perfect repetitions per set.  This method will take less time than a regular cardio workout, and by challenging your body, you will continue to burn off calories even after you stop exercising.  This is because your muscles will take up energy repairing themselves and returning back to a resting state.

Follow these tips to gain muscle tone and shed fat, and set your metabolism on a positive course.  Remember- healthy eating isn’t a miserable process of depriving yourself of food so you are exhausted and irritable.  In fact, this is a sure way to damage your health and slow down your metabolism.  Any weight difference is much more likely to be water and muscle tissue than fat loss, defeating your aim.   Your body will try its best to hang on to those precious calories, so fat loss will be minimal.  Instead, adopt an informed and steady approach to nutrition and exercise.

If you are female, chances are you have at some point reflected on the unfairness of the male’s ability to pack away large amounts of food without seeming to put on weight.  Why is it that most women notice they gain a few extra pounds after the smallest over indulgence?  The reasons are various, but the simplest one is often the most overlooked:  most women have a smaller body density than men.   Of course, there are other factors, such as differences in hormone levels and lifestyle choices.

Because women’s bodies are lighter than men’s, they need to consume less calories on average per day than men.  Typical guidelines are 1,940 calories per day for women and 2550 for men.  Obviously, this varies from person to person- a tall, sporty young woman will need several hundred more calories than an older lady who does little exercise.

For anyone to lose weight, they need to create a calorie deficit, where more calories are expended on activity than are consumed through foods.  The lower your calorie requirement is in the first place, the lower your absolute deficit will be, and so you will lose fat more slowly than someone with a higher calorie requirement.   For example, a sporty man who consumes 3000 calories a day and decides to create a 20% calorie deficit will need to cut back by 600 calories a day, meaning he can consume 2,400 daily and he will lose weight and a rate of about 1.1lb per week.   However, a woman who consumes 2000 calories per day and wants to create a 20% deficit will need to cut back to 1,600 calories and will only lose about  0.8 lb of fat per week.   If she wanted to lose weight faster, her calorie intake would need to drop to 1,400 per day, which makes for very small portions.

Overall then, if you are an averagely built woman, it’s best to accept that you will lose weight differently to taller women and men.   You need to focus on a weight loss plan that suits you, rather than making impossible comparisons- remember, the equation is simply that the larger body mass you have, the quicker you can lose weight.  Set yourself a realistic target, such a losing 0.5 lb to 1lb a week, and be consistent in your daily routine of eating and exercising.  This way, you will lose weight steadily and be more likely to keep it off.

Here are a few tips to keep you motivated.

• Firstly, don’t just rely on the scales to measure weight loss- this can be inaccurate for women especially because they are prone to water retention.  Measure your waist size as well, and check if your clothes feel looser.
•  If dropping up to 1lb a week seems too slow, remember that this is the approach even professional sports and fitness experts use, because it is the safest and most reliable.
• Be careful about your portion sizes- weigh food and check the calorie labels.  The lower your calorie intake, the less margin there is for error.
• Look for ways to increase your calorie expenditure during exercise.  For example, if you workout on a treadmill,  intense interval training will burn more calories than running steadily for the same amount of time.
• If you do interval training, don’t make the mistake of making the sessions too brief.  Any claims for “4 minute miracle workouts” are false.   Ideally, start with 15-20 minutes of high intensity training, followed by another 30-40 minutes of medium and then slow intensity.
• Keep a progress chart of your daily food intake and workout levels, and track your weight loss over time.  This will give you proof that the effort is paying off.

For a successful fat loss strategy, you need patience, persistence, and hard work, but if you are prepared to put the effort in, results are guaranteed.

Calorie Restriction For Life Extension: What They Didn’t Tell You On Oprah

By Tom Venuto
www.burnthefat.com

On a recent episode of the Oprah show, one of the guests was a 51 year old man with the heart of a 20 year old. He’s been following a calorie restriction plan and they said he might be one of the first people to reach 120 years old by following this plan. There have been stories both in the lay press and scientific press about calorie restriction for years and it has been a frequent talk show topic on other many other TV shows. However, before you cut your calories in half in hopes of adding another decade onto your life, you’d better get the other half of the story they didn’t talk about on Oprah.

I’ve seen a lot of strange things in the health field, and although calorie restriction (CR) is the subject of serious and legitimate scientific study, I consider CR to be one of those strange things. Of course, that’s because I choose a different lifestyle – the muscle-friendly Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle lifestyle – but there’s more than one reason why I’m not a CR advocate:

Hunger while dieting is almost always a challenge. There’s some hunger even with conservative calorie deficits of 15-20% under maintenance. Prolonged hunger is one of the biggest reasons people fall off the weight loss diet wagon because it’s unpleasant and difficult to resist. This is why pharmaceutical and supplement companies spend millions of dollars on researching, developing and marketing appetite suppressants. Yet CR advocates put themselves through 30-50% calorie restriction on a daily basis as a way of life in the hopes of extending life span or health.

Practitioners of CR follow a low-calorie lifestyle, but technically, they are not in a chronic 30% calorie deficit. That would be impossible. What happens is their metabolisms get very slow (that’s part of the idea behind CR; if you slow down your metabolism, you allegedly slow down aging). So a 6 foot tall man who would normally require nearly 3,000 calories to maintain his weight, might eventually reach an energy balance at only 1800 or 1900 calories. This is not just due to a ‘starvation mode’ phenomenon, that’s only part of it. It’s primarily because he loses weight until he is very thin and his smaller body doesn’t need many calories any more.

Does caloric restriction really extend lifespan?

The biological mechanisms of lifespan extension through calorie restriction are not fully understood, but researchers say it may involve alterations in energy metabolism (as mentioned above), reduced oxidative damage, improvements in insulin sensitivity, reduction of glycation, modulation of protein metabolism, downregulation of pro-inflammatory genes and functional changes in both neuroendocrine and autonomic nervous systems.

Mouse studies on CR go back as far as 1935 and monkey studies began in the late 1980’s. So far the results are clear on one thing: caloric restriction does increase lifespan in rodents and other lower species (yeast, worms and flies). Studies suggest the life of the laboratory rat is 25% longer with CR (even longer with aggressive CR). Primate studies are still underway and humans have been experimenting with CR for some time. In primates and humans, biomarkers of aging show signs of slower aging with CR. This makes many proponents talk about this CR as if it were a sure-thing, already proven through double-blind randomized clinical human trials.

The truth is, there is NO direct experimental evidence that you will live longer from practicing CR. Due to the length of human lifespans, we will not have the necessary data for at least another generation and perhaps multiple generations. Even then, it will still be highly speculative whether CR will extend human life at all and if so how much. We can only estimate. I’ve seen guesses in the scientific literature ranging from 3 to 13 years, if CR is practiced for an entire adult lifetime.

Jay Phelan, a biologist at UCLA is skeptical. He says the potential life extension is on the lower end of that range and the increase is so small that it’s not worth the semi-starvation:

“There is no current evidence that lifelong caloric restriction leads to increased lifespan in primates. It’s certainly tantalizing that things like blood pressure or heart rate look as though they are a lot healthier and I believe they are. Whether or not this translates to a significantly increased lifespan, I don’t know. I predict that it doesn’t.”

I don’t quibble qualitatively with their results. Yes, it will increase lifespan, but it will not increase it by 50% or 60%, it won’t increase it by 20% or 10%, it might increase it by 2%. So if you tell me that I have to do something horrible for every day of my life for a 2% benefit – for an extra year of life – I say no thanks.”

Is prolonged caloric restriction unhealthy?

When caloric restriction is practiced with optimal nutrition (CRON), it is not inherently unhealthy. Actually, it appears the reverse is true. First, the weight loss that comes with the low calories produces improvements in the health markers, as you would expect. Second, the meticulous choice of food from CRON practitioners, where they pick high nutrient foods and avoid empty calories means that they are making healthy food choices. Third, advocates say that the CR itself improves health. I wonder, however, how much does CR improve health independent of the weight loss and the optimal nutrition?

By losing fat and maintaining an ideal body composition (the fat to muscle ratio) and eating high nutrient density foods, I propose that even at a more normal caloric intake, you will get very significant health and longevity benefits. I also propose that gaining muscle in a natural way (no steroids) will increase your quality of life today and as you get older.

Aside from the fact that we are not lab rats, the truth is, none of us knows when our day will come. We could get plucked off this physical plane at any moment and have no control over how it happens. My belief is that we should make our lifestyle decisions based on quality of life, not just quantity of life. That includes our quality of life today as well as our anticipated quality of life when we are older. Maybe we ought to be focusing more on “health span” than life span.

Downsides of calorie restriction for life extension

One fact about calorie restriction that they often don’t mention on these talk shows is that the benefits of CR decline if you start CR at a later age. This was discussed in a research paper from the Journal of Nutrition called, “Starving for life: what animal studies can and cannot tell us about the use of caloric restriction to prolong human lifespan.” The author of the paper, John Speakman from the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, said that the later in life you begin to practice CR, the less of an increase in lifespan you will achieve. Even if the CR proponents are right, if you started in your late 40’s or mid 50’s for example, the benefit would be minimal. If you started in your 60’s the effect would be almost nonexistent. Essentially, you have to “starve for life” to get the benefits.

While some CR proponents claim that they aren’t hungry and they cite studies suggesting that hunger decreases during starvation, Speakman and other researchers say that hunger remains a big problem during CR – especially in today’s modern society where we are surrounded with convenience food and numerous eating cues – and that alone makes CR impractical:

“Neuroendocrine profiles support the idea that animals under CR are continuously hungry. The feasibility of restricting intake in humans for many decades is questionable.”

Let’s suppose for a moment that CR is totally legit and the claims are true. Many of the proposed benefits of CR come at the expense of what many of us are trying to do here: gain and maintain lean body mass. One spokesman for CR is 6 feet tall and 130 pounds. Another poster boy for CR is 6 foot tall and 115 lbs. Measurements of rodents under CR not only show large reductions in skeletal muscle but also bone mass.

I am not suggesting that these CR practitioners are anorexic, a concern that has been raised about CR when practiced aggressively. However, they are losing large amounts of fat-free tissue and that is plainly obvious for all to see when you look at their bony physiques. I am not imposing my body standards on others, but 115 to 130 lbs at 6 foot tall is underweight for a man by any standard. Furthermore, researchers say that at the body mass indices sustained by most voluntary CR practitioners, we would expect females to become amenorrheic. “One thing that is completely incompatible with a CR lifestyle is reproduction” says Speakman.

With that kind of atrophy, I have to wonder what their quality of life will be like in old age. While many people struggle with body fat for most of their adult lives, I’m sure almost everyone knows an elderly person who wrestles with the opposite problem: they are seriously underweight and they struggle to eat enough and maintain lean body mass.

My grandmother, before she passed away, was under 80 lbs. We could not get her to eat. She was weak and very frail. I have reported many times about the research showing how most overweight people under estimate calorie intake and eat more than they think or admit. In elder care homes, the research has often showed the opposite – the patients over estimate how much they eat. They swear they are eating enough, but they arent and they keep losing dangerous amounts of weight. With underweight, atrophied seniors, weakness means less functionality and lower quality of life and a fall can mean more than broken bones, it can be life-threatening.

Life extension with more muscle

While there is a commonality between CRON and the way I recommend eating (high nutrient density, low calorie density foods), in most regards, CR is the opposite of my approach. In my Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle program, we go for a higher energy flux nutrition program, which means that because we are weight training and doing cardio and leading a very active lifestyle, we get to eat more. Because we are so active and well-trained, the eating more does not have a negative effect as it would on a sedentary person, who might get sick and fat from the additional calories. We active folks take those calories, burn them for energy, partition them into lean muscle tissue and we enjoy a faster metabolism and extremely high quality of life.

As a bodybuilder, CR is not compatible with my priorities, but hypothetically speaking, if I were to practice a lower calorie lifestyle, I wouldn’t follow an aggressive CR approach. I’d probably do as the Okinawans do. They have a very simple philosophy: hari hachi bu: eat until you are only 80% full. While this does not mean there is a carefully measured 20% calorie deficit, it’s consistent with what we practice in the Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle lifestyle for a fat loss phase, and avoiding overeating is certainly a smart way to avoid obesity and health problems. Incidentally, the Okinawans eat about 40% less than Americans, and 11% less than they should, according to standard caloric intake guidelines, and they live 4 years longer than Americans.

If someone is being “sold” on CR by an enthusiastic CR spokesperson, or simply curious after watching the latest TV talk show (where they are looking for controversial stories), it’s important to know that there is more than one side to the story. If you carefully read the entire body of research on CR, you will see that the experts are split right down the middle in their opinions about whether CR will really work. CR for humans remains highly controversial and there are no guarantees that this will extend your life.

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health in Baltimore, MD put it this way:

“Because it is unlikely that an experimental study will ever be designed to address this question in humans, we respond that “we think we will never know for sure.” We suggest that debate of this question is clearly an academic exercise.”

In closing, let me go back to one of the original questions I was asked: “Can the BFFM food plan also be thought as a longevity lifestyle, but with more muscle mass?” Absolutely beautifully said! That’s precisely what Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle is.

I believe that by making healthy food choices but doing so at a higher level of calorie intake and expenditure, that we can fend off sarcopenia – the age related decline in muscle mass that debilitates many seniors – while enjoying a more muscular physique, greater strength, and a less restrictive lifestyle. Most gerontologists agree – by making simple lifestyle changes that include strength training and good nutrition, you can easily turn back the biological clock 10 years without going hungry.

For more information aboutBurn The Fat, Feed The Muscle, the “longevity lifestyle with more muscle”, visit: www.burnthefat.com

Train hard and expect success,

Tom Venuto
Fat Loss Coach
www.burnthefat.com

About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a fat loss expert, lifetime natural (steroid-free) bodybuilder, independent nutrition researcher, freelance writer, and author of the #1 best selling diet e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle: Fat-Burning Secrets of The World’s Best Bodybuilders & Fitness Models (e-book) which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using secrets of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: www.burnthefat.com

References:

Hunger does not diminish over time in mice under protracted caloric restriction. Hambly C, Mercer JG, Speakman JR.Rejuvenation Res. 2007 Dec;10(4):533-42.Aberdeen Centre for Energy Regulation and Obesity (ACERO), Rowett Research Institute, Bucksburn, Aberdeen, Scotland, United Kingdom.

Starving for life: what animal studies can and cannot tell us about the use of caloric restriction to prolong human lifespan.Speakman JR, Hambly C. J Nutr. 2007 Apr;137(4):1078-86. School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 2TZ, Scotland, UK.

Can dietary restriction increase longevity in all species, particularly in human beings? Introduction to a debate among experts. Le Bourg E, Rattan SI. Biogerontology. 2006 Jun;7(3):123-5.

The potential for dietary restriction to increase longevity in humans: extrapolation from monkey studies. Ingram DK, Roth GS, Lane MA, Ottinger MA, Zou S, de Cabo R, Mattison JA.Biogerontology. 2006 Jun;7(3):143-8. Laboratory of Experimental Gerontology, Intramural Research Program, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, 5600 Nathan Shock Drive, Baltimore, MD 21224, USA.

Caloric restriction in humans: potential pitfalls and health concerns. Dirks AJ, Leeuwenburgh C.Mech Ageing Dev. 2006 Jan;127(1):1-7. Epub 2005 Oct 13, Wingate University, School of Pharmacy, 316 N. Main Street, Wingate, NC 28174, USA.

Caloric restriction and human longevity: what can we learn from the Okinawans? D. Craig Willcox, Bradley J. Willcox Hidemi Todoriki. Biogerontology (2006) 7: 173—177

Endocrine alterations in response to calorie restriction in humans. Mol Cell Endocrinol. 2009 Feb 5;299(1):129-36. Epub 2008 Oct 21. Redman LM, Ravussin E. Pennington Biomedical Research Center, 6400 Perkins Road, Baton Rouge, LA 70808, United States.

Caloric restriction in the presence of attractive food cues: external cues, eating, and weight. Polivy J, Herman CP, Coelho JS.Physiol Behav. 2008 Aug 6;94(5):729-33. Epub 2008 Apr 13. University of Toronto, Canada.

Life Extension by Calorie Restriction in Humans. Everitt AV, Le Couteur DG.Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2007 Aug 23, Centre for Education and Research on Ageing, University of Sydney, Concord, New South Wales, Australia.

This video shows you the 10 rules to build muscle fast. These 10 rules have been put together by some of the world’s top trainers.

Do you want to lose belly fat fast?

If you want to get rid of belly fat, you can. Losing belly fat and keeping it off is doable for everyone, if you know how.

Here’s what you need to understand. If you eat more calories than you body burns, then your body will store those extra calories in our body fat. Your body fat is your body’s rainy day source of energy. If you stop eating, your body will start burning off your fat.

If you’re like most people your body stores fat on around your belly as one of first places to store the body fat. It stores belly fat first because it’s the easiest place for the body to put it.

The other thing you should know is that exercises that target belly fat, like crunches and other abdominal exercises don’t burn belly fat any better than other better exercises.

Think of belly fat like the deep end of the swimming pool. No matter how much you protest, there is no way you can drain the deep end before the shallow end. However, don’t let this discourage you. Lower belly fat will come off, it will simply be the last place to come off. First place on – last place off.

This helps to explain why abdominal exercises have little impact on body fat loss. It’s a huge mistake to think that hundreds or thousands of reps of ab exercises will help you get rid of belly fat, except to the degree that it burns calories and contributes to the calorie deficit. What removes the fat – all over your body – is a calorie deficit and that comes from decreasing food intake, increasing activity, or a combination of both.

If you want to lose belly fat, start in the kitchen, not the gym.  Here are Tom Venuto’s  (Tom is the author of “Burn the Fat”, the best selling weight lose book) suggestions for a lose belly fat diet.

1. Eat about 15-20% below your calorie maintenance level. If you use a more aggressive calorie deficit of 25-30%, then do not keep calories too low for too long; increase calories to maintenance or maintenance +10-15% 1-2 days per week.
2. Spread your calories into 5-6 smaller meals instead of 2-3 big ones. Be very conscious of portion size. If you eat too much of anything (even “healthy” food), you can say goodbye to your abs. Period.
3. Eat a source of complete, high quality lean protein with each meal (egg whites, lean meat, fish, protein powder, etc.)
4. Choose natural, complex carbs such as vegetables, oatmeal, yams, potatoes, beans, brown rice and whole grains. Start with aprox. 50% of your calories from natural carbs and reduce carbs slightly (esp. late in the day) if you are not losing fat. Avoid refined, simple carbs that contain white flour or white sugar.
5. Keep total fats low and saturated fats low. Aim for 20% of your total calories from fat (and no more than 30%). A little bit of “good fat” like flax oil, fish fat, nuts & seeds, etc. is better than a no fat diet. Essential fatty acids actually assist the fat burning process.
6. Drink plenty of water – a gallon is a good ballpark to shoot for if you are physically active.

If you’re really interested in losing belly fat,  then you have probably looked for some magic food or pill that will make the pounds come off.  That doesn’t work.

If you really want to lose belly fat then it requires work.

I recommend Burn the Fat for two reasons:  It’s simple and it works.

Download our complete review of Burn the Fat