There are 3 primary reasons why 98% of fat loss diet plans fail. Let’s find out what they are and take a closer look at each of these reasons.

1) 98% of fat loss diet plans fail because they don’t take into account that although times may have changed, our bodies haven’t.

Early humans were hunters and gatherers, and our bodies still function in that way. These were times when there were no food-filled refrigerators 10 feet away, and fast food / drive thru didn’t exist. They would either actively find food (working very hard to do so) or they would eat nothing at all. Sometimes, they would starve for a substantial period of time.

Since they were forced to survive without food on many occasions, their bodies had to adapt. To compensate, their metabolisms slowed down so that when food was available, it would be stored as fat, ensuring that there would be a back-up energy source for times when food was scarce. Sadly, although most of us living in the developed world no longer need this survival mechanism, it still exists.

If you attempt to lose weight with a diet plan that substantially reduces your caloric intake, your survival mechanism will kick in and work against you. In the process, you end up burning less fat and storing more of it, because your metabolism naturally slows down. Even worse, you waste away much of your lean muscle tissue.

2) 98% of fat loss diet plans fail, because they make us feel hungrier.

When you’re following fat loss diet plans that restrict calories, you will be constantly hungry & uncomfortable. (Also, you’ll be constantly thinking about food).

Is it possible to go on in that state for an extended period of time?

Of course not.Until you start eating regularly, the hunger pains from these fat loss diet plans will be continue. It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to live in a constant state of hunger permanently; at least, I don’t know anyone who can live in such a state.

Is it possible to lose weight and keep it off while following fat loss diet plans that are difficult to maintain and designed to fail?

It’s highly unlikely!

3) 98% of fat loss diet plans fail because reasons 1 and 2 set you up for disaster.

Once you stop following these low-calorie fat loss diet plans, you will be in for a rather unpleasant surprise.

The time spent on the fat loss diet has primed your body to store more fat and burn less of it. Eventually, when you resume your normal diet, you will end up piling on more pounds than before. (I’m sure you’ve heard of “yo-yo dieting”!). “)

To make things worse, it’s most likely that any weight that you might have lost from one of these fat loss diet plans was lean muscle mass and retained water. You might have reduced the number on the scale, but you didn’t actually lose any body fat.

It’s clearly no surprise why 98% of fat loss diet plans fail.

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But how do you do it when you’re asleep?

Take into account that you probably consume the last meal of your daily bodybuilding nutrition program about an hour before going to bed… then you sleep for a full night… and eat breakfast about half an hour after you get up…. sleep for 8 hours… and then have our breakfast half an hour after awakening…  You’re looking at a whopping 9.5 hours with no muscle building nutrition whatsoever!  The fact is that if a well-balanced bodybuilding nutrition program made up of top quality, growth-supporting nutrition is something you focus on during the day, you can’t just “put it to sleep” at night.

Our growing muscles need a continuous supply of protein, carbohydrates, and fats to recuperate and grow optimally, so doesn’t it make sense to supply your body with these macronutrients when growth and recovery is at its peak?

Allowing your body to endure a starved, catabolic state for such a long time isn’t the best idea, considering that you can still keep up with your bodybuilding nutrition program at night. Not everyone will do this, but if you want to accelerate your bodybuilding progress to top levels, consider eating a muscle building meal at the mid-point during your sleep. Sure, it may seem a little extreme and you might think only obsessive lifters would take the step of incorporating their bodybuilding nutrition program into their sleep, but if you think about how simple it can really be, you might get onboard too and boost your muscle building during the night.

First off, we’re not talking about a typical solid-food meal here. I’m certainly not suggesting that you cook up chicken and potatoes or salmon and rice here. Sitting down to eat solid foods in the middle of the night is actually something that might disrupt your sleep; plus it’s not the most realistic technique to use as a long-term approach to your bodybuilding nutrition program. Stick to a liquid meal that you can drink quickly; that way you can get it down fast and get back to sleep easily.  Add 30-40 grams of protein powder (in the form of whey, egg or casein) to 1-2 cups of skim milk. In this way you can get an easy dose of high quality protein without losing out on a lot of sleep due to chewing times or meal preparations.

Another tip is to add a tablespoon of a healthy unsaturated oil source, like flaxseed oil or extra virgin olive oil. This will slow down the release of the protein shake and give your body essential fatty acids that are very important for muscle recovery and growth.  So, what time should you drink this shake?

In a perfect world, you should drink up about halfway through the night; but any time you wake up naturally is fine too. Alarm clocks are not the best option, since you don’t want to mess with your sleep patterns and feel tired and sleepy for the following days. You might question whether this middle-of-the-night-feeding method works for every bodybuilding nutrition program.

No, but I’d recommend at least giving it a try to see how it works for you. When adding this into my own bodybuilding nutrition program and my clients’ programs, I’ve discovered that most of the time, the effects have been good. Most people wake up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom anyway, so adding a tiny detour to the kitchen to drink a protein shake isn’t really a big challenge. That one shake alone might be the key to improving your bodybuilding nutrition program. You’d be surprised at the difference a few hundred calories can make between maintaining weight and gaining some.  Want to get the most bang-for-your-buck from your bodybuilding nutrition program? Then give this technique a try.

For more information http://www.getmusclefast.info

There are so many fancy tips, contradictory debates, top “breakthroughs”, and self-proclaimed gurus, and all of them claiming to have the secret of how to gain muscle mass quickly….

Could it really be just ONE basic truth?

It’s true that when you want to create an effective muscle building workout plan, jthere are tons of tiny details that have to be considered… Ultimately, you just need to add more weight to the bar with time and you will gain muscle mass quickly.

Work with basic compound exercises like squats, bench presses, dead lifts, rows, dips, chin-ups, and overhead presses and increase the weights that you use as fast as you can…. and you might be pleasantly surprised when you discover that this ALONE will help you gain muscle mass quickly.

If you want to be bigger, thicker, and more muscular than you’ve ever been in your entire life, just set up a strong nutrition plan and add 150 pounds to your dead lift, 125 pounds to your squat, and 100 pounds to your bench press and you will gain muscle mass quickly.

But “they” would prefer to keep this a secret….

Most of the “experts” don’t want you to know that lifting heavier weights is the biggest part of how you gain muscle mass quickly. Perhaps they don’t know it themselves, but it’s more likely that they want to sell you a gimmicky, so called “revolutionary discovery” so that they can line their pockets with more money.

They would rather you spin around the gym like a ballet dancer…. wobbling around on a Swiss ball… wasting time on exercises that are just ridiculous…. performing untold supersets… “working to experience that burn”… putting all your energy into isolation movements… and doing all sorts of stupid stuff to help you gain muscle mass quickly, instead of just focusing on what it is that really makes any smart, structured bodybuilding program work….

And the core technique is to continually progress in terms of weights and reps.

This age old technique holds good even today.

Ultimately, the way to gain muscle mass quickly is really quite simple….

1) Stimulate your muscles and create an adaptive response, by training with basic compound exercises.

2) Allow time for recovery.

3) Increase your resistance or repetitions the next time around.

If can increase what you do every week, you will become stronger and gain muscle mass quickly. You will find it hard to gain muscle quickly if you let your strength stagnate and don’t grow stronger from week to week. This is not rocket science.

I have a question for you….

What are the odds of seeing some tiny guy doing leg squats with 400 pounds?

When you see someone dead lift 500 pounds, do you think they’re going to have unimpressive back and shoulder muscles?

How often do you see a lifter with little or no development in his chest or triceps bench press 300 pounds?

Not often.

And why is that?

Ultimately, strength and size ARE correlated, so the dude moving the most weight in proper form (who has a top nutrition plan) is almost always going to be the largest guy lifting weights.

It’s that easy.

It’s true that there are many small details that also have to be kept in mind if you want to gain muscle mass quickly… but at the gym, all you need to do is focus on consistently lifting heavier weights.

If you’re all about hype and trends, then go right ahead and check out all of the latest “breakthrough” workout plans that are illogically slammed together by some dude who claims to be an “expert” ….

When you are really ready to gain muscle mass quickly with serious, explosive, no B.S muscle building, then get back to basics.

Start with simple but challenging compound exercises… perform these movements with maximum intensity… write down everything that you do in the gym each week… and be sure you add more weight and perform more reps each week, to “beat the logbook”.

You will gain muscle mass fast and get that powerful body you deserve as long as you put in this type of effort and are consistent about it.

For More Info. http://www.givememusclefast.info

More often than not, such people expect the weight to just melt away after reading some free tips to lose weight online or in a magazine. Unfortunately, it really doesn’t work that way.

If you truly want to increase your fat burning in actuality, simply include these 6 fat burning tips in your program….

Free Tip for Losing Weight #1: Eat more protein.

Protein enables you to build and maintain lean muscle tissue. Apart from improving the appearance of your body, lean muscle also burns calories all by itself since it is metabolically active.

Protein has two benefits: It makes you feel fuller and it makes your body burn more calories during digestion since it is harder to digest than carbs or fats.

Free Tip for Losing Weight #2: Select a workout that you are most likely to enjoy.

Think of it this way, if aren’t too fond of running and you make it an important part of your workout routine, chances are that you’ll easily get discouraged and quit exercising completely.

Either way, the best way to stay motivated is to keep changing up your workout routine and adding to it exercises that you like doing. A balance of weight training and cardio (both low and high intensity) is a smart way to go.

Free Tip for Losing Weight #3: Don’t get disheartened.

If for some reason there are days when you are unable to exercise or haven’t been able to keep to your diet plan, don’t beat yourself up over it. Take a one-day break. Then, just get right back to your exercise program as soon as you can.

Weight loss isn’t something you do for a few weeks so that you can look good at a reunion or fit into that bikini; it’s a life-long process. In fact, if you really want to make it work, you need to incorporate weight loss into your lifestyle over a long period of time.

Free Tip for Losing Weight #4: A healthy balance of protein, carbs, and healthy fats must be consumed.

It’s true that proteins burn fat, but your body also requires high quality carbohydrates and healthy fats. “Zero carbs” or “zero fat” fad diets are really only marketing hype; don’t allow yourself to be swayed by them.

Your meals should have a good balance of lean proteins and natural carbohydrates; healthy fats sources should also be included in some meals.

Free Tip for Losing Weight #5: Healthy carbohydrates do not imply sugared cereals, white bread, and white rice.
Natural starchy sources and green fibrous veggies are high in fiber and don’t trigger such a quick insulin response; you should opt for these.

Cauliflower, broccoli, green beans, and celery, among others, are excellent green fibrous vegetables. Good starchy carbohydrates include oatmeal, yams, whole grain breads, whole grain cereals, and potatoes.

Free Tip for Losing Weight #6: You must eat some fats.

You only need to make sure that you’re eating the right fats. Eating healthy, unsaturated fats not only increases your body’s rate of fat burning but also provides several health benefits.

Some great examples of healthy fats that should be a part of your diet include cold water fish, nuts, seeds, avocados, and oils like olive and flaxseed oils.

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The “inevitable famine” was not uncommon in those days, and our bodies had to store fat to survive through such times. Since our bodies could sense when a famine arrived, noted by a major drop in our caloric intake, our metabolism had to slow down to increase our chances of survival during this starvation period.

Today, our body’s mechanism to survive can get in the way of our weight loss efforts when we try drastic diets and severely limit what we eat to lose weight fast, because it misjudges it as a famine due to the lowered caloric intake. As a natural response, our metabolisms slow down in order to help us conserve energy.

If you are thinking, “I’ll limit what I eat to lose weight fast,” it will only work against you since your body will burn fewer calories and store more fat.

Plus, the body prefers to store energy in the form of fat, so almost 40% of the tissue that you burn to compensate for when you don’t eat to lose weight fast will probably end up being muscle mass. Since your muscle tissue is metabolically active with the ability to burn calories all by itself, you certainly don’t want to lose it.

Plus, lean muscle mass makes our bodies look trim and toned. A person who weighs 165 pounds with a lot of lean muscle and little fat will look much thinner and healthier than a person who weighs 125 pounds with little lean muscle and a lot of fat.

So, once your crash diet is over, odds are that you might appear fatter, regardless of the whether or not you have lost weight. It gets worse. Your body has now been trained to hang onto fat, and you have actually harmed your metabolic mechanism. When you start to eat normally again, your weight will probably go up since your body will be in fat storage mode.

Forget what weight loss marketers and diet pill pushers tell you, fad diets are a recipe for weight gain. When you don’t eat to lose weight fast, you are in fact charting on the course for weight gain. There is no healthy way to lose weight over night, and any diet that allows you to do so will only backfire in the long-run.

Yes, it is totally possible to find a healthy and results-oriented plan to eat to lose weight fast, but it won’t be as fast as some of these other options have led you to believe.

You should aim to find a realistic, sustainable weight loss plan that works for you. Find something enjoyable so that you can incorporate it in your daily routine.

Clean up your eating habits, start a sensible exercise plan, and set a goal of 1 to 2 pounds of fat loss per week. If you are able to prevent muscle mass from degenerating while following your plan, you will be surprised at how quickly your appearance improves.

The reality is simple: 98% of people who start a fat burning program fail miserably. Click the following link and download a free 6-part fat loss e-course to get that lean, sexy body you deserve: http://www.hotbodynow.info

To have a world class fitness body, you must be muscular of course, symmetrical and balanced, and have a well defined six-pack, but most importantly, you have to get ripped and shredded to the bone! If you do not know how to get ripped fast, then we are about to discuss how weight training, proper nutrition and aerobic exercise will assist in getting a ripped, beach worthy body by summer.

Determine Where You Are Starting Before You Start To Get Ripped

If you do not have the ripped body of your dreams than you are either one of two people:

1. The ‘big guy’ at the gym who looks huge in clothes but has no muscle definition when the shirt comes off. You are training like a bodybuilder, eating in a caloric surplus, getting stronger and bigger each week but would never win a fitness model show because of your excess body fat.

2. Or, are you the ’skinny guy’ who thinks he is ripped because your veins are popping out of your tank top, but have no muscle mass to support your frame. Sure, your veins make you look ‘ripped’ to the bike club but this false sense of ‘big’ would only get you laughed off a bodybuilding stage.

To get ripped, you must determine whether you need to start leaning down through a fat loss program or else add muscle mass with a bulking program. You cannot be ripped if you are lacking muscle mass or lacking muscle definition. Don’t chase both goals at once. I will address how both categories can learn how to get ripped fast with weight training, nutrition, and cardio.

How To Get Ripped With Weight Training
Skinny guys should train less than 45 minutes each workout.
Skinny guys should focus on only compound movements and no isolated movements.
Skinny guys should focus on getting stronger by 5% every two weeks.
Skinny guys should do no more than 1-2 forced reps to avoid wasted energy.
Skinny guys should have there body parts split up into a maximum three day program.
Bulky guys can train from 1 hour to 1 and ½ hours for the extra caloric expenditure.
Bulky guys can incorporate more isolated movements for caloric expenditure.
Bulky guys should still maintain their strength which will ensure no muscle loss.
Bulky guys can include drop sets and pre-exhaust sets for the extra energy expenditure.
Bulky guys can spend more time per muscle group and split their body parts over 5 days.

How To Get Ripped With Nutrition
Skinny guys should be eating about 15 x their current body weight in calories for muscle mass.
Skinny guys should eat at least 1- 1.5 grams of protein per pound of lean muscle mass.
Skinny guys should be eating at least 2x as many carbs as proteins.
Skinny guys should be getting high quality fats with each meal.
Skinny guys should be getting extra calories through workout nutrition drinks.
Skinny guys should have their largest meals at breakfast, pre-workout, and post-workout.
Skinny guys should be eating large quantities of oatmeal, whole grains, potatoes, and rice.
Bulky guys should be eating about 10 x their current body weight, in calories, for fat loss.
Bulky guys should eat at least 1 – 1.5 grams of protein per pound of lean muscle mass.
Bulky guys should eat a 1:1 ratio of proteins to carbs in the day.
Bulky guys should only eat healthy fats like flax oil, olive oil, nuts, and avocado’s.
Bulky guys should only consume liquid carbs during the workout.
Bulky guys should consume carbs only in the form of veggies and fruits.

How To Get Ripped With Cardio
Skinny guys should only do cardio if there caloric intake is in a 1000 calorie surplus.
Skinny guys should keep their cardio workouts as far away as possible from their weights.
Skinny guy should keep their cardio workouts less than 20-30 minutes.
Skinny guys should do cardio no more than 2 – 4 x a week.
Skinny guys should perform cardio on a full stomach.
Skinny guys should have a protein-carb workout drink ready after the workout.
Skinny guys should avoid long, endurance-style training.
Bulky guys should do there cardio immediately after weights.
Bulky guys should do a mixture of long, slow cardio and interval cardio.
Bulky guys can do cardio up to 7-10 x a week in extreme cases.
Bulky guys should do cardio on a empty stomach for quicker fat loss.
Bulky guys should sip on a protein drink to avoid muscle loss.

Over-training is very common amongst athletes and particularly bodybuilders, since they figure that training as much as possible is the fastest way to massive muscle gains.

This couldn’t be any further from the truth however…

Training too much, or at too high of an intensity will lead to over-training.

Now this doesn’t mean you don’t have to put plenty of effort in to see some decent results… Whether you are a bodybuilder, athlete, or just someone that wants to add some additional mass to your frame, you need to train hard and be consistent-that’s a given. In order to get the most out of your genetics, you have to progressively overload the muscles by increasing the weight and / or intensity of each weight training workout.

The problem is however, that many of us increase the intensity of our workouts or get insufficient amounts of rest, or even worse, a combination of both. The trick is finding the right balance between workout volume and intensity, and rest and recovery. And that is exactly what I’ll cover in this article.

The Effects of Over-Training on Bodybuilders

First, let’s take a look at some of the effects of over-training and how one can prevent over-training from happening in the first place.

The Effects of Over-training on the Nervous System

Over-training effects both the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems in the following negative ways:

Higher resting heart rate
Weak appetite
High blood pressure
Weight loss
Trouble sleeping
Increased metabolic rate
Irritability
Early onset of fatigue
If you are experiencing more than one of the symptoms outlined above, you may be in a state of over-training, and should evaluate your routine as soon as possible.

The Effects of Over-training on Hormone Levels

Many studies have indicated that over-training negatively effects the levels of hormones, as well as the hormone response in the body. Since hormones play such an important role in the muscle building process, this can have a detrimental effect on your training progress.

Over-training has been show to:

Decrease testosterone levels
Decrease thyroxine levels
Increase cortisol levels

The increase in cortisol levels along with the decrease in testosterone levels is a deadly combination, since this leads to protein tissue break down. This will ultimately lead to a loss of muscle tissue.

The Effects of Over-training on the Immune System

Perhaps one of the most alarming repercussions of over-training is it’s negative impact on the immune system-you’re bodies first defense against harmful viruses and bacteria.

Over-training can drastically decrease the levels of antibodies and lymphocytes in your body, making you much more susceptible to illness. Simply put, this means that if you are in a state of over-training, you are much more likely to get sick. Since you will have to skip workouts while you are sick, your muscle building progress will slow considerably.

The Effects of Over-training on the Metabolic System

Here is a list of how over-training can effect the metabolic system. These symptoms are the ones that are most commonly discussed, and are ones we can’t ignore:

Micro tears in the muscle
Chronically depleted glycogen levels
Slow, weak muscle contractions
Depleted creatine phosphate stores
Excessive accumulation of lactic acid
Extreme DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness)
Tendon and connective tissue damage
So you must get the point by now… Over-training effects the entire body, and can seriously impact the results of your muscle building program.

Now let’s take a look at the different types of over-training, and what we can do to prevent it.

Is it Worse to Over-Train With Cardio or Weight Training?
Any form of over-training is a bad thing, however, I’ve personally experienced both types of over-training and can honestly say that over-training in the weight room is much worse, and much more prevalent than over-training through cardiovascular training.

Here are some of the reasons why:

In order to grow, muscles must fully recover from their last workout, every workout. If you are over-training and work the muscles before they have fully recovered, you will break down the muscle tissue before it has rebuilt-making it impossible to build muscle!
Over-training with weights makes you more susceptible to nervous systems hormone and immune system issues, which all pose serious health risks.
It can lead beginners down the wrong path, perhaps wasting money on unnecessary supplements, or even worse, steroids.
I personally believe that only competitive athletes such as swimmers, runners and bikers run a serious risk of reaching a state of cardiovascular over-training, since there are often training for two or more hours daily.

The bottom line is that it is much easier for the average person to over-train while weight training than while cardiovascular training, and I think the effects can be more serious.

How do I Determine if I’m Over-training?

Determining if you’re currently over-training is fairly simple. If you’re in tune with your body, you can often see the signs of over-training before they get serious. If you are losing interest in workouts, are having trouble sleeping, and feel weak and irritable, you may be in a state of over-training and should take a week or more off.

If you are experiencing two or more of the symptoms outlined earlier in the article, this should raise a red flag.

Another variable you can use to determine if you are over-training is by tracking the performance of your workouts.

Has your physical performance improved compared to your last workout?

For example, let’s say last workout you were able to perform 8 pull-ups using your body-weight, but were only able to perform 6 pull-ups the following week. This means that you have not “out done” your previous workout, have not fully recovered, and therefore are likely over-training. You nave to re-asses your program and make modifications so that you see progress every workout.

How Can I Prevent Over-training?

n order to avoid over-training, you need to take a multi-facited approach. Determining the correct training volume and intensity, eating the right foods, and getting the right amount of rest and recovery must all be taken in to consideration. Now let’s take a look at each of those factors in more detail.

Correct Training Volume

Determining the correct training volume can be difficult, especially when you are first starting out. You have to determine how much weight to lift, how many repetitions and set to perform for every single workout.

You need to use your own judgment in this case, based on your recovery ability and your recovery methods. Remember that the goal is that you improve every single workout, and if this isn’t happening, you have to decrease the intensity of your workouts.

This is where many people go wrong though. You begin your workout and realize that you have not fully recovered. You can either continue to train at a lower intensity than the previous workout, or skip the workout entirely.

As hard as it may be, skipping the workout is the right way to go. Just turn around and go home! Your body is telling you that it needs more rest, and you must listen to it!

There is no point in training at a lower intensity, further breaking down the muscle tissue. By doing this you will increase your risk of injury, and make it harder for your body to fully recovery for your next training session.

Proper Nutrition

Your diet plays a huge role in your muscle building program. It helps regulate hormone levels, provides energy, and provides the raw building blocks that are used to create new tissue.

Here are some dietary recommendations that will limit the chance of over-training:

Do not skip breakfast. This is one of the most important meals of the day. Skipping breakfast is very catabolic, and can promote muscle loss.
Never let yourself get hungry. If you’re trying to build muscle mass, you have to constantly feed your body quality foods so that it never has the chance catabolize muscle tissue.
Unless you are trying to build muscle and lose fat, make sure you have eaten prior to your training session and are not hungry.
Have the largest meal of the day within an hour after your workout. Do this every single workout!
Consider taking proven supplements like creatine, and antioxidants to increase performance and fight free radicals.
Eat every 2-3 hours to ensure that your body remains in an anabolic state.
Keep glycogen levels at full capacity to inhibit muscle tissue breakdown.
Rest & Recovery

Rest and recovery is essential when it comes to avoiding over-training. Make sure that you get at least 7 hours of sleep each night, and that you are on a consistent schedule. As for recovery time, it’s important that you have days off between weight training workouts. Try to have one rest day between weight training workouts, and never train the same muscle groups on consecutive days.

But how beneficial is Fat Loss For Idiots? Understanding some common dieting myths is important to determine whether this program is worth its salt. First, if you read their premise, they state that if you eat 2500 calories a day, your body will adapt and stop burning 2500 calories a day. Well sorry folks, but that just is not correct. If your body adapted to burning off however many calories a day you are eating, how do you think you got fat in the first place? Your body certainly did not adapt to those calories – what makes you think it will adapt to the ones this program tells you to eat?

The bottom line is that if you are looking for a smart way to lose fat, you will need to create a caloric deficit. Your Six Pack Quest does this. By reading through it, you will get access to a metabolic calculator to determine the optimal number of calories your body needs to guarantee fat loss, without feeling like you’re starving. Sure, if you have been on a starvation diet, you will need to up the calories – and when you do, you’ll find you do actually lose weight! But if you are currently eating thousands of calories, your body will not adapt to burning those off. You need an action plan that works – Your Six Pack Quest will lay it out for you in easy to understand terms that anyone can follow.

Next, when looking at the Fat Loss For Idiots program, they downgrade exercise stating that it doesn’t ‘matter’ when it comes to gaining or losing weight. How can exercise not matter?! Study after study has shown that dieters who combine exercise with their dietary efforts show a much higher rate of fat loss, rather than a mixture of muscle and body fat. Do you know what happens when you lose both muscle and fat? Your metabolism slows down. So sure, you’ve lost weight but now your natural metabolic rate is slower meaning you have to eat less for the rest of your life! Is that something you want? A diet of rabbit food forever? Didn’t think so.

Your Six Pack Quest will show you how to exercise productively, where you aren’t spending hours in the gym, but you are getting results. Doing so will help you retain that crucial muscle mass, thus helping keep your metabolism revved and make maintaining your weight loss a piece of cake.

So, instead of falling for another gimmicky plan that promises rapid weight loss (they claim 9 pounds in 11 days – which will be mostly water anyway), opt for a plan that combines both a healthy, long-term way of eating with healthy exercise that doesn’t feel like torture. Your Six Pack Quest offers meal plans just as Fat Loss For Idiots does, but it takes things one step further – you’ll also received detailed exercise descriptions and plans for a variety of exercise needs, a workout DVD, a virtual trainer, supplement information, along with continuous updates on all the latest on the research front related to fat loss. It really is an all inclusive program that will address all the factors that contribute to weight gain – not just diet alone. Remember, losing weight should be a lifestyle approach, not just changing what you put on your plate.

Carbohydrates are essentially broken down into two main categories: “simple” and “complex”.

Carbohydrates are basically “rings” of carbon/hydrogen/oxygen, and it is the number of rings and the manner in which they hook together that determines whether they are simple or complex.

Conventional wisdom used to tell us that we should limit our consumption of simple carbohydrates and focus on consuming complex carbohydrates. The logic behind this was that the simpler structures are broken down faster while the complex structures are broken down gradually. We now know that this is not entirely accurate. For example, a white potato is a complex carbohydrate that raises blood sugar levels quickly, while an apple is a simple carbohydrate that raises blood sugar levels slowly.

This brings us to a more accurate tool: the glycemic index.

Rather than focusing on the notions of “simple” and “complex”, the glycemic index evaluates the rate at which carbohydrates raise blood sugar levels by assigning them a ranking between 0 and 100. In general, a GI ranking of 55 or less classifies a carbohydrate as “low glycemic” (raises blood sugar levels very slowly)… 56 to 69 would be considered “medium” (raises blood sugar levels at a moderate pace)… while 70 and above is considered “high” (raises blood sugar levels quickly and sharply).

While the GI is a more accurate criteria to use as opposed to the “simple” and “complex” method, the drawback is that each ranking is based on that specific food source consumed on its own in a fasted state. We never consume carbohydrates on their own (in order to maximize fat loss they should always be combined with a lean protein source), and we rarely ever consume them in a fasted state.

This is very important, because when carbohydrates are combined with other food sources (such as proteins and fats), their GI properties can be dramatically altered. So while the glycemic index IS one useful tool that can be utilized as part of the overall picture, relying on it as the sole means of carbohydrate selection is an obvious mistake.

The next and final criteria that can be used is the issue of “natural” carbohydrate sources versus “refined” carbohydrate sources.

Refined carbohydrates are foods where the high fiber bits (the bran and germ) have been removed from the grain. White rice, white bread, sugary cereals and any item made from white flour are all examples of refined carbohydrates. These sources of carbohydrates are very simplistic in structure, low in nutritional value and raise blood sugar levels quickly and sharply.

Natural carbohydrates are simply those which have not been modified and still contain the whole grain, including the bran and germ. These sources are high in fiber, take longer to digest, are more nutritious, will keep you feeling full for longer, and have a negligible effect on blood sugar levels when consumed as part of a balanced meal.

To determine if a carbohydrate source is natural, look for the first ingredient on the package to be whole wheat flour, brown rice, rye flour, barley, or oats. Terms such as “rice syrup”, “corn syrup”, “sucrose” and “brown sugar” all indicate that the source has been refined, as does any product made from white flour. As you can see, there is more than one criteria to be used when choosing fat burning carbohydrate sources.

Here is a summed up review that takes all factors into accoun.
1) Refined carbohydrate sources of any kind should be avoided.
2) Unrefined starchy carbohydrate sources are fine to consume as part of a balanced meal.
3) Vegetables of all kinds are highly acceptable, particularly green fibrous vegetables.
4) Fruit sources on the medium to lower end of the glycemic index are acceptable with a maximum of 2-3 pieces per day.
5) Low fat and non-fat dairy products are fine to consume in moderation.

With all of that in mind, here is a basic list of carbohydrate sources to include in your fat burning diet…

Carbohydrate sources that should form the bulk of your diet
Vegetables of all kinds
Oatmeal
Whole grain breads
Whole grain cereals
Brown rice
Potatoes
Sweet potatoes
Yams
Barley
Rye
Lentils

Carbohydrate sources that should be consumed in moderation
Fresh fruits
Low-fat/Non-fat yogurt
Skim milk

Hopefully by now you have grasped the basics of carbohydrate consumption and understand which food sources are best to include in your diet and why.

In this 2-part article I will attempt to provide a very basic and straightforward framework to help you choose which sources of carbohydrates to include in your fat burning diet. This will simply be a broad, overall examination of the topic in order to keep things as easy to understand for you as possible.

So… what exactly IS a carbohydrate? Sugar.

Whether you consume a plate of spaghetti noodles, a bowl of grapes or a chocolate bar, carbohydrates will always eventually be broken down into their simplest form: glucose. The main function of glucose is to provide fuel for your muscles and brain in order to carry out your daily tasks. While the end product of all carbohydrates is the same, it is the manner in which they reach that final end product that is important to us in terms of burning fat.

When you eat foods containing carbohydrates, the body will digest and break them down into glucose, which is then released into the bloodstream to be used as a source of fuel. The main difference amongst different carbohydrate sources is the speed at which the sugars are broken down for use. Some carbohydrates raise blood sugar levels quickly and sharply, while others are broken down and released at a slow, gradual pace. As a person looking to burn body fat and maintain high levels of energy for your workouts, your primary goal when consuming carbohydrates is simple: keep blood sugar levels consistent and balanced.

Why?

It’s all related to insulin, which is a hormone that controls the amount of sugar in the bloodstream by moving it into the cells of the body. When you consume carbohydrates that are broken down quickly, the body must release a large amount of insulin in order to compensate. The insulin will remove the sugar from the bloodstream very quickly, which will then result in lower-than-normal blood sugar levels.

Low blood sugar levels will result in feelings of tiredness and fatigue, and will also produce hunger pangs which can then lead to binge eating.

In addition, high levels of insulin increase the body’s rate of fat storage. When insulin is present in large amounts, fat cannot be used as an energy source by the body due to a rise in enzymes that prevent fat mobilization.

To put it simply.

When you consume carbohydrates that raise blood sugar levels quickly, you end up in a constant cycle of sharp rises in blood sugar followed by dramatic falls. This inhibits your ability to burn fat and throws your energy levels, appetite and mood completely out of order. Because of the above-mentioned facts, the ultimate goal of proper carbohydrate consumption is to stick to meals that keep blood sugar levels balanced. This is accomplished by focusing on food sources that are broken down and released gradually in the bloodstream. By always maintaining steady blood sugar levels, your body will remain in a continual fat burning state, your energy levels will remain peaked, and your appetite will be kept under control.

We have now established what the GOAL of proper carbohydrate consumption is, and in Part 2 we will discuss which specific sources can help you achieve that goal.