Can Eating Nothing But Eggs Really Be Good For Your Health

For nine months Charles Saatchi ate only eggs - three for breakfast, three for lunch and three for supper. His wife Nigella Lawson described the 65-year-old's regimen as a 'completely mad eggs, eggs and more eggs diet' - but it had the desired effect: he's shed an impressive four stone in nine months.

Can this be nutritionaly sound and why does it work. You can read the full article here dailymail.co.uk

How To Avoid 8 Years Of Poor Health In A Fat Body

I was puttering around on the internet this morning and I saw something that caught my eye. It was the latest data regarding our current life expectancy as humans from the World Health Organization, along with a history of how that's changed over the years.

This info went all the way back to the Neanderthal period (the guys from the Geico commercials) up to present day humans. Those poor Geico guys only lived to be 20 years old on average, while today's humans can expect about 75 years of life.

But did you know that today's people have an average healthy life expectancy of just 67 years? In other words, this is saying that you can expect 8 years of your life in poor health. 8 years! That's 2900+ days of poor health. I don't know about you, but that's not something I'm looking forward to.

I sure think we can do better than 67 years of good health on this planet. And you know what? We can. This number is an average. Like anything else, you don't have to be average if you don't want to be. The average person doesn't exercise properly, if at all. The average person doesn't know how to make the right foods selections and maintain a healthy diet. The average person doesn't apply themselves mentally and emotionally to maintain relatively stress free living.

If this sounds a little bit too much like you, the good news is you don't have to be this person any longer. While it is a shame that today's health, fitness, and diet industry is simply confusing more people than it's helping, there are a few people and organizations out there that can provide a realistic, effective and efficient approach to breaking past the average healthy life span and living those years full of energy, strength, and vitality.

I get questions from my Fat Burning Furnace readers all the time, after going through the FBF materials, about how they can't believe how little exercise I recommend. And even though I've told them up front that they can let go of the aerobics or traditional cardio, many still have trouble doing that. And what I tell them is directly related to the subject of life expectancy and just how much time we really have in our lives.

I tell them that having a lean, strong, and healthy body is great. It's one of the most important things we can attain. Period. But, how much time is it worth to you? That's the question I asked myself over and over when seeking out my own methods and developing the FBF methods.

Most people, after years and years of trial and error, come to realize that spending several days and hours a week working out is just not worth the trouble. And carefully measuring your food, counting calories, and depriving yourself of nutrient rich foods like whole grain carbohydrates is also something that shouldn't be necessary to enjoy a healthy and energy filled life. And it isn't.

What we really should be focusing on is how much time and effort is minimally required to get the results we're looking for. Think about that. Not how much, but how much is minimally required. Remember, we've got just 67 healthy years as a starting point...If I valued my time on this planet, this is what I would be searching for.

If it really took hours and hours a week and all of that crazy nutrition manipulation to burn fat, build muscle, strength, and cardiovascular health, I'm not sure I'd do it. Not for very long anyway. I've tried that approach, for years, and if you have you know it's no fun. And it's just not realistic given the demands our lives place on us in today's world.

But as I've mentioned before, you don't have to worry about that kind of stuff anymore. The principles in my FBF system allow you to approach your genetic potential for a lean, strong, and healthy body in just minutes each week and with very simple lifestyle changes.

I've been using the FBF principles for a while now. I work out twice each week. I even take a week off entirely every few weeks or so. I don't count calories. I don't deprive myself of the foods I love. If it's my daughter's birthday, I eat a piece of cake. I just work the FBF principles and continue to stay in great shape day after day, week after week, year after year.

I work out so little because of the way the workouts are performed and created, and I eat with such flexibility because I stick with the FBF lifestyle, which gives you the power of flexibility and variation that is lacking in most programs.

What I'm saying is that I've discovered what is minimally required to give me the health and body that I wanted. And many of my FBF students are doing it as well. Sure I could add another day a week to my workouts, but at this point it would actually be detrimental to my results. I could also start messing with my diet in all sorts of crazy ways, but that would just make my body angry and cause me unneeded stress.

So, I ask you, are you trying to find what's minimally required to get you the results you want? If you truly value your time and the other worthy pursuits in your life, I'm suggesting that this is exactly what you should be doing. If you don't, you may just end up being an average 67 year old with 8 years of poor health to look forward to.

Claim your free copy of Rob Poulos's "7 Secrets Of Permanent Fat Loss & Fitness" at his website: http://www.thefatburninginferno.com

An Interview With a Top Diet and Fitness Professional

I'm really excited because I just had the chance to interrogate one of the hottest names in fat loss and fitness, Rob Poulos. Rob is the author of "Fat Burning Furnace" at.

http://thefatburninginferno.com

and specializes in helping both men and women lost fat quickly and permanently with his brief and infrequent workouts and simple diet principles.

He and his spouse lost over 100 pounds of fat combined in just a few months with his methods, and thousands of his readers are getting similar results (you can read more quotes on his website).

He really let loose in the interview, so I thought you'd enjoy reading it...

Q: Rob, thanks for agreeing to let me interview you today. For
those out there who don’t know much about you, can you give us a
little background and how you were able to make such an amazing
transformation in such little time?

RP: Sure, and thanks for having me. You know, I first got
interested in this whole fat burning thing mainly to meet girls
when I was younger and I’m not ashamed to admit it! But
seriously, I kind of struggled with my weight most of my life.
When I was in my early 20s, I got interested in bodybuilding
(mostly through watching too many Arnold Schwarzenegger movies I
guess!). But I saw it as a way to get the kind of lean muscular
body I wanted. Not the blown up steroid bodybuilder look, more
like the look the bodybuilders of the 50’s &60’s had, you know,
the kind that attracts the opposite sex and makes your friends
jealous! But I realized real fast that achieving these goals
doesn’t happen overnight.

I also found out, after years and years of trial and error, that
90% of the fat loss or muscle building programs and products
were just plain garbage. They were either created to simply
make a quick buck, or would only work on people who were already
born with great lean muscular genetics. You know the type. I
had one buddy who would work out lazily, with very little
intensity, and pretty much eat pizza after pizza and still look
dynamite when he was at the beach.

I also learned that most of the programs out there either
required you to spend 4-6 days in the gym with long cardio
workouts plus weight training workouts, restrict yourself of
carbs until you were mad at the whole world, or both!
This stuff just plain frustrated me, and so I went looking to
create a fat loss and fitness method of my own as I couldn’t
find one that allowed me to get in killer shape without having
to give up the foods I loved or most of my spare time.

And after about 10 years or so, I felt as though I had perfected
the method as once I started using all of the techniques
together, I was able to finally drop over 42 pounds of body fat
and 10 inches off my waist. I was also building slabs of lean
muscle and strength, this happened over the course of just a few
months. My wife even lost 59 pounds during this same period and
went from a size 12 to a size 4.

But what really excited me , was that we did it without cutting
carbs out of our diet and by only working out 2-3 times a week
for just 15-26 minutes per workout. And no cardio whatsoever.
We both hated long boring cardio, so we were like a couple of
kids at Christmas.

So, obviously when our friends and family saw the changes we had
made, we got a lot of mixed reactions. Some were jealous and
not supportive, if you can believe that! But most wanted to get
my secrets and kept telling me, "you have to write a book, you
have to write a book".

So that’s what I did. I put everything down to paper and even
shot some videos detailing my method so people could just copy
my plan themselves. And it’s been fantastic helping thousands
and thousands of people from all over the world with my Fat
Burning Furnace program,helping them finally lose that stubborn
body fat and develop a new level of self confidence in
everything they do. So that’s where I am today and it feels
great!

Q: Rob, a lot of people on the cover of fitness products that
have great physiques are just born with great genetics. From
what you mentioned, this is obviously not an advantage you
had. Can you tell us how exactly you were able to overcome your
fat loss and fitness challenges?

RP: I simply wanted it badly . I hated being overweight and just
felt crummy all the time. I had low energy. I was embarrassed
to take my shirt off in the summer, you know, all the
stereotypical stuff, except it was very personal for me.

I also didn’t carry much muscle on my body genetically. I’m
rather tall (6’6") so looking muscular is even tougher for me
than someone of average height. I was over fat, yet under
muscled. Talk about the worst of both worlds. But I’m not the
kind of person that just gives up. I must have tried a hundred
different programs or diets during those 10 or so years.

The steps I took were basically trial and error,and a lot of
wasted money. But you know, it really wasn’t wasted because if
I was able to gain just one new insight or technique to add to
my method, it was worth it. Especially with results I’m able to
obtain for my readers and students now.

At some point I basically realized that exercise and nutrition
for building muscle and getting lean is a science, just like any
other science. There are things that must be included in your
regimen or else you cannot expect results. Period. The beauty
of it is, that for other people, I can show them how to get it
done like my wife and I did in just a few months and without
having super human motivation or spending even 1 year of more
trial and error.

Q: That’s awesome..now Rob, you specialize in teaching people
how to burn fat from their bodies. Can you give us some
nutritional tips for burning the most amount of fat in minimum
time?

RP: Oh yeah. There’s a lot of stuff,but perhaps the most
important tip I can give anyone trying to get and stay lean is
to look at food from a micronutrient standpoint. Most people
look at food from a macronutrient view (protein, carbs, fats).

This is fine, but the big light bulb went off for me when I
started to focus on eating most of my calories from foods that
are super loaded with nutrients. These are vegetables, fruits,
whole unrefined grains, beans, legumes, nuts, and seeds. I’m
not talking about a vegetarian or vegan diet here, but a diet
that supplies the body with the nutrients it requires to burn
fat optimally. When you give your body the required nutrients
without overloading it with nutrient poor or nutrient barren
foods, fast fat loss happens almost magically.

Q: Now I also know you're not a fan of cardio. I usually teach
cardio as a great way to burn fat. Why do your methods not
include cardio?

RP: Let me be extra clear on this one, because my stance here
confuses a lot of people. First off, I think it is a waste of
time trying to "run off" your calories to burn fat. This
attitude will just wear you out over the long haul, and simply
doesn’t work as well as controlling your calories through diet
techniques. Also, studies have shown that regular moderately
paced cardio, where you run or bike at a steady pace for 30+
minutes several times a week actually causes you to store more
fat! Here’s why this is the case.

When you’re doing this
exercise, your body is using stored fat for fuel. This may
sound good, but what this is actually doing is telling your body
that when it encounters this activity again it needs a reserve
amount of fat available to fuel the exercise session. I know it
sounds crazy, but it’s true. On top of that, most avid runners
can tell you about the injuries and nagging pains they have from
the constant repetitive pound their joints and tendons take over
the years...not something I would wish on my worst enemy!

Now, what does work for burning fat quickly is what’s known as
interval cardio. And I know you know all about this , with your
stair routines. This is where you perform a relatively short
cardio workout (usually 15-25 minutes or so) and you alternate
periods of high to low intensity during the session.

So you might spend 1 minute jogging at a light pace, and then
immediately switch to a near sprint for 1 minute straight, and
then repeat the process several times. This type of exercise
uses stored carbohydrates for fuel, not fat, so it sends a
signal to your body to replenish your depleted muscles rather
than storing a reserve amount of fat. Very different from the
standard type of cardio that I loathe!

But believe it or not, I don’t even do this type of interval
cardio in my own method. Why is that? Well, it’s because I
realized a while back that the #1 activity you can do to burn
fat is weight training or some form of resistance training.

This has to do with the fact that adding lean muscle to your
body creates a powerful fat burning furnace that will
automatically burn more calories at rest...significantly more.
What we’ve done with the type of weight training we do in Fat
Burning Furnace, though, is combine interval cardio with weight
training to create one short and simple fat burning, muscle, and
strength building work out. Many people have called it the most
efficient fat loss and fitness work out ever created.

Q: So obviously you are a big fan of weight training when it
comes to burning fat. Should people train the same as when
they're trying to gain muscle?

RP: Yeah , in my experience, they should. But the weight
training we use is not like you see most guys performing in the
gym these days. We don’t use split routines, we don’t throw the
weights around, and we don’t have ladies lifting soup cans or
using rubber bands. From my experience all of these things will
get you worse results or injured. The main goal of my Fat
Burning Furnace exercise program is to burn fat, of course, but
the underlying goal that leads to this is building lean muscle
mass.

And this scares some ladies and even some of the men who read my
book..they don’t want to get too bulky. But, as I said, this is
a near impossibility for 99% of women and even some men due to
the genetic requirements (muscle belly length, testosterone
levels, etc.) of having overly large muscles. Now, sure, you
could gain weight and look bulky by eating a ton of calories
while you’re building muscle, but you’d just be fat and
puffy like I was several years ago.

The only thing more lean muscle is going to do to a ladies body
is make it more feminine, shapely, and se.xy.

Q: That’s right,and it’s something we still need to get the word
out on to women everywhere for sure. Rob, what are some common
mistakes you see people making when trying to lose lots of fat
and get ripped?

RP: Oh man, there are so many . I mean, there are basic large
scale diet mistakes, like restricting yourself of carbohydrates
too much (which won’t work in the long run), eating too few
calories or starving yourself, eating a low fat diet and
eliminating healthy fats, and not eating enough of your calories
from nutrient rich foods.

Then there are big exercise mistakes, like spending 4-6 days a
week in the gym with hours of boring fat storing cardio and then
hours more of low to moderate intensity weight training on top
of it. People are using terrible form with their exercise,
which takes most of the stress off the muscles being worked and
cuts their effectiveness by at least two-thirds. Ladies are
afraid to work out hard in fear of getting to bulky.

I mean I could go on,but I actually have a video I put together
for my newsletters subscribers that tells you my top 7 mistakes
people make.Your readers can watch it after they subscribe at my
website if they wish.

Q: Any other fat burning tips you want to share with us?

RP: Well, I suppose the big thing lately is that everybody wants
to lose their belly fat and get ripped abs. The main problem
here is that people still think they can lose belly fat without
losing fat in any other place on their bodies. But the reality
is you only use fat uniformly, throughout the entire body. It
may seem like it’s not coming off in those problem areas, but
that’s only because you have more of it there. You need to
focus on lowering your overall body fat percentage and that
belly fat, thigh fat, butt fat, or wherever fat will come off.

Also, hours of situps or any of those ab gizmos on late night TV
will not reduce your belly fat. You could have the strongest
abs in the world, but if they’re covered by a blanket of fat,
you’ll never see them.

So to summarize:focus on eating most of your calories from foods
loaded with nutrients. Use interval cardio and/or intense full
body weight training to build muscle and burn fat, 2-3 times per
week. Or if you’d like, you can simply copy my method that I detail in my Fat Burning Furnace book.

You know that movie "Back To The Future", right? One of my
favorites. Man, sometimes I think what I would give to have that
Delorean so I could go back in time a few years and give my Fat
Burning Furnace plan to my former fat and frustrated self. The
money I’d save. The hours and hours of frustration and
embarrassment I’d save. That would be nice!

Q: Now Rob, I understand you’ve just create something special
for those out there who are ready to stick with their new year’s
resolution for fat loss?

RP: Yeah, I have...and here’s what’s happening. You know at the
beginning of each year, everybody and their brother vows to lose
weight as one of their top new year’s resolutions. But I think
the latest figure is that 97% of them do not succeed in doing
this,that’s just crazy. So I wanted to do something to help spur
people to success that thus far has really eluded them. So what
I did is put together 5 additional fat burning bonuses to really
give them no more excuses to finally achieve that lean and fit
body they really want this year...

So first on the list is my 8 secrets to a new year’s fat loss
resolution solution. The reason I put this together is that I’ve
found it’s not usually a lack of discipline that stops people
from realizing their fat loss goals in the new year, but just a
lack of knowledge of some simple but powerful techniques that
those that are nearly always successfully with their resolutions
use themselves. So I’m providing that here.

Next, I am giving away an archive of my most helpful fat loss
and fitness tips and tricks that my newsletter subscribers have
received over the past 2 years or so now this is really cool
because I often reveal a lot of tips that are not in my Fat
Burning Furnace book in the newsletter. So at over 145 pages,
there’s a lot of value there obviously.

And on top of these two, I’m giving away 3 downloadable mp3
audios of my own interviews with 3 dynamite health and fitness
experts. One is with a guy that is an expert at helping you
manage your personal energy so you can really change your
lifestyle for the better fast. Another is with a guy that
specializes in helping people develop unstoppable motivation for
fat loss and other life goals. And the last interview with a
world famous trainer who has the fastest workouts I’ve ever
seen, 4 minutes per workout, it sounds crazy, but there is
actually hard science to how these things work. And all of that
is revealed in these interviews.

Now, I can’t obviously give these 5 bonuses away for free for
too long, so what I’m doing is,I’m going to give them away,
free, to anyone who claims a copy of my Fat Burning Furnace book
at my website before midnight Wednesday, January 30th. That
means the latest you can get your copy is 11:59pm on Tuesday the
29th,so again, you get all 5 bonuses just for grabbing a copy of
my book. We just started giving these bonuses away a few days
ago and people are really digging them. I mean the emails I’m
getting from people are just awesome!

Q: Alright, well thanks again for giving up your time today
Rob..you’ve really shared some fat loss tips.

RP: Sure thing , it’s been great.

Q: Now, you mentioned your newsletter and all of those New
Year’s bonuses with your Fat Burning Furnace book. Where can
people go to sign up for the newsletter and get the bonuses?

RP: Oh yeah, if your readers would like to get my complimentary
eNewsletter, which comes with a free 40 page ebooklet by the
way, as well as learn more about my Fat Burning Furnace plan and
the 5 limited bonuses, they can visit my site at:

http://thefatburninginferno.com

And thanks again for having me. I’m sure we’ll talk soon.

Diet and Fitness Myths Busted

There seem to be many questions and confusions dealing with nutrition as part of our fitness goals. Let's take a look at the many myths surrounding this topic.

Myth #1: Don't eat fat & you won't get fat

If you consume more calories than you burn, you’ll stimulate bodyfat storage even if your dietary fat intake is low. Excess carbohydrates can be stored as bodyfat once liver- and muscle-glycogen levels are saturated, and protein that isn’t used for tissue synthesis can similarly be stored as bodyfat. So, unfortunately, you can gain bodyfat in more than one way. Avoiding excess dietary fat is important, however, because at 9 calories per gram, fat yields more than twice the calories of an equivalent amount of protein or carbohydrate. To encourage bodyfat loss, follow a diet that derives no more than 15%–20% of your total daily calories from fat, and consume slightly fewer calories than you burn each day.

Myth #2: All fat is bad

Your body requires certain types of fat, such as the essential fatty acids generally found in vegetable oils, that your body can’t manufacture on its own. They are the building material for hormones and are essential to support normal fat metabolism — that’s right, you need fat to burn fat. Flaxseed oil, evening primrose oil and omega-3 fatty acids (found in many types of cold-water fish) are important types of fat that can improve glucose tolerance and support immune function by sparing glutamine. A diet too low in fat can rob you of these vital nutrients.

Myth #3: Carbs build muscle

Only protein actually becomes part of new muscle tissue. Yet carbohydrates do provide the fuel for most of the body’s various systems and are essential if you’re going to train with enough intensity to stimulate muscle growth. To create an environment favorable for building even a little bit of muscle, consume about 1 gram of protein daily per pound of lean body mass.A rule of thumb is to consume roughly 2–3 grams of carbohydrate daily for each pound of lean body mass. This should be sufficient to restore muscle glycogen depleted during training and to supply the energy you need on a daily basis.

Myth #4: You don’t have to eat much protein if you just want to 'tone'

First of all, there’s no such thing as toning. Muscle cells either grow (hypertrophy) or break down (catabolize), and bodyfat deposits either grow or shrink — those are the only adjustments you can make. Toning is usually understood to mean adding a minimal amount of muscle, increasing muscle tonus (degree of firmness) and reducing bodyfat. To create an environment favorable for building even a little bit of muscle, consume about 1 gram of protein daily per pound of lean body mass. When your protein intake is too low, the body can cannibalize its own tissue to obtain the amino acids it needs to support various biological functions. This results in a higher bodyfat-to-muscle ratio — exactly what you don’t want.

Myth #5: Three square meals provide all the nutrients you need to build muscle & be healthy

Not likely. Getting all the micronutrients you need in three feedings is very difficult, and requires those meals to be rather large. This creates two problems: Larger meals are harder to absorb, and large, infrequent meals can stimulate fat storage. Three “squares” is a custom, the result of social norms and work schedules. An improved strategy for better health, energy levels and absorption of nutrients, however, is to eat 5–6 smaller meals each day.

Myth #6: You can make up for eating too much one day by eating a lot less the next day.

Consuming too many calories in one day will stimulate fat storage. Trying to make up for a “bad eating day” by severely lowering your caloric intake the following day will always fail. Low-calorie dieting — even for a day — can slow your metabolism (so you’ll burn even fewer calories) and drain your body of energy, making it difficult to exercise at full capacity.

Myth #7: Red meat is high in fat

Not all red meat contains a lot of fat. Eye of round, round and flank are good red-meat choices. The eye of round is nearly as lean as skinless chicken breast and is much higher in iron and B vitamins. Try grilling or broiling lean red meat with herbs and lemon juice, or even watermelon juice, rather than using marinades or sauces that may contain oils.

Myth #8: You should avoid starchy carbohydrates if you want to lose fat

This leaves you with fruit, vegetables and milk products as your only sources of carbohydrate, an approach that will make it very difficult to consume an adequate amount of calories, which in turn can lead to a slower metabolism and low blood-sugar levels. Low blood-sugar levels can initiate the breakdown of muscle tissue. In the long haul, the result of losing muscle is a slower metabolism and fat gain. Excellent choices of starchy complex carbs include yams, whole-grain pastas, brown rice and oatmeal. Remember, 2–3 grams of carbohydrate daily per pound of lean body mass should do the trick.

Myth #9: Fruit juices are a good replacement for soft drinks

While fruit juices may provide more vitamins, they’re an extremely concentrated source of calories. A tall glass of grape or apple juice yields approximately 200 calories — about the same as two large apples and more than a medium potato. The juice takes up little room in your stomach and is very easy to absorb, while the fruit and potato take longer to digest, occupy more room and leave you feeling more satisfied. Since fruit juice is digested rapidly, blood-sugar levels can increase quickly, resulting in a large output of the body’s energy-storage hormone called insulin. This insulin response may cause increased fat storage, and can increase your appetite as the spiked blood-sugar levels drop quickly.

Myth #10: Fad diets don't work

Some do work, in that they promote temporary weight loss. Yet your real goal should be a favorable change in body composition (more muscle and less bodyfat). Fad diets typically cause a loss of both fat and muscle tissue — with the loss of muscle further compounding the difficulties of reducing bodyfat. Bodyfat reduction requires a sound nutritional program combined with resistance training to increase metabolism and moderate aerobic work to help shed bodyfat.

Why You Should “Just Say No” To Diets To Burn Fat

Fad diets, they all have one thing in common. They’re diets. They are like a pair of bell bottom pants. They are in for a couple of years and they’re gone. Then they find they’re way back just when the fitness professionals know we are ready to eat 'em up again…no pun intended. When you're trying to burn fat, you really should avoid these things like the plague.

Now, realistically many of these diets will provide some initial fat loss for many people. So you get some weight loss initially, but you could also lose some muscle on these programs too, and you know that losing muscle can spell disaster to your fat burning efforts. But the bigger problem with these diets is that most who follow outlandish diets gain back the fat they lost, and then some! On top of that, they often recommend focusing too much on one type of food, which can lead to unhealthy eating habits. I’ve found they are too strict to be realistically followed, especially for a long period of time, and they’re no fun. And anything you can't follow as a lifestyle will not burn fat in the long run.

You see, the very concept of a diet is doomed to fail. Why? Diets are based in a temporary mindset. The fact that someone goes on a diet means they will have to come off of the diet. This is temporary…why force yourself to lose 10 pounds when you’re just going to gain it back and then some when you go off of the diet? That may sound simple, but most people just don’t get it…they look to diets as the answer to their weight and health problems. But they’re not the answer, and they actually create more problems for you. People who are regular dieters don't burn fat over the long haul.

If you seek life long fat burning, health and fitness in a lean body, you should take some advice from my mom, and probably your mom too. When I think about it, probably the best base of nutritional knowledge I received was from my mom. For the most part, my mom was right. She didn't know anything about fat burning, but she made sure I got nutritious foods growing up. She especially made a point to make sure I ate my vegetables, especially the green ones. She limited sugary stuff and other junk, but didn’t totally eliminate it, making it a special treat for me on occasion. She tried to provide a balanced offering of the different food groups throughout the day. Thanks, Mom. Mom’s diet was actually quite sound, and I’ve found that heeding some of this advice in the pursuit of maximum fat burning and a lean healthy body for the rest of your life is a smart way to go.

You see, your body naturally craves foods rich in nutrients (antioxidants, phyto nutrients, fiber, vitamins, minerals, etc.) When you eat most of your meals from foods rich in important nutrients, your body will body will be satisfied and overeating won’t be much of a problem. You then begin to burn fat as a natural result of giving your body what it thrives on. On top of that, you’re lowering your risk for disease by promoting a natural alkaline environment in your body with these types of foods.

If you do the opposite and eat most of your meals from foods lacking in nutrients, you’ll keep eating and eating and eating to satisfy your nutrient needs. This leads to too many calories and a person who will just keep getting fatter and more prone to develop increased risk for disease with an acidic environment in the body. When this happens, you can just kiss fat burning goodbye.

So nutrition for fat loss, fitness, and health really all do go hand in hand. My Fat Burning Furnace students have changed their lives permanently, by simply altering what they put in their bodies…and you can do it to. Focus on foods rich in nutrients. In part two of this article, I’ll get more specific in helping you make the transition from your current lifestyle to the one you desire. One where your body seemingly burns fat 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with little effort.

From a nutritional standpoint, you need a healthy balance of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats in your diet to keep your metabolism firing on all cylinders, constantly burning fat. Fad diets have a coolness factor to them that sometimes makes them irresistible at first. But in the long run I’ve found it best to go back to the basics of what your body craves. Let’s talk about that…

Complex Carbs (whole grains, breads, cereals, etc.) are vital to maintaining your energy throughout the day and do a host of other things within your body including keeping you feeling full. I’ll also lump fruits in with complex carbs, because of their high fiber content and slow absorption into the blood stream, keeping our insulin level in check, which is important for less fat storage and a higher chance of burning stored fat.

Simple Carbs, or sugars (candy, soda pop, white processed baked goods, etc) are to be avoided and kept to a minimum for the most part. They provide little nutritional value to you and are what I often refer to as empty calories. They just add calories to your body with little or no nutritional value that are going to end up in your fat stores if you’re not careful with how much you ingest. Forget about maximum fat burning here. Of course, many people are aware of the blood sugar and insulin connection with eating too many simple carbs. Our insulin regulates are blood sugar level and takes any excess sugars and stores them as fat. We then are stuck getting tired and hungry, making repeating this cycle far too easy. The best way to avoid this, I’ve found, is eating a sensible amounts of complex carbohydrates instead.

Proteins (lean meats, fish, poultry, soy, beans and legumes, etc.) are important to maintain the cellular structures in your body and provide the building blocks for the lean muscle you’re after, which is vital if you want to burn fat fast. But with anything else, don’t go overboard with protein. Some fitness experts claim that you’ll need a minimum 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight each day. There is no real proof that this is the case, and ingesting more protein than your body needs ends up going to your fat stores…plus it doesn’t do your kidneys or liver any good either. I’ve found that keeping protein to around 0.5 grams per pound of bodyweight each day more than sufficient in feeding the lean muscle growth that my Fat Burning Furnace students stimulate with their properly performed resistance exercise.

Another important aspect of protein involves whether or not you’re getting your protein from animal or plant based sources. While the traditional American diet recommends most animal based proteins, recent data suggests that too heavy a reliance on animal proteins increases risks for disease. On top of that, animal proteins contain almost no fiber, which doesn’t go very far in keeping you feeling full, and negatively effects your ability to burn fat. When choosing your protein sources, make sure you eat a good portion of your protein from plant sources (soy, beans, legumes, etc.). You don’t have to be a vegetarian, but I recommend keeping your animal proteins on the low side.

Fats (found in many proteins, nuts, oils, etc.) are essential to maintain certain bodily processes like hair, nail, and skin regeneration. There is a lot of confusion with fats out there, some recommending extremely low fat diets and others even recommending a very high fat diet. If you are focusing on lean protein choices in your meals, and including small amounts of healthy oils, nuts, and seeds in your diet, your fat intake will be in order.

So how much of each of these macro nutrients should you be eating to maximize fat burning and get that lean fit body you’re after? It’s easy to get caught up in the percentages and counting calories, but the easiest way I’ve found is to count portions instead of calories. An easy way to ensure that this happens is to make sure you eat both a portion or two of complex carbs and a portion of protein at each meal. Add as many green veggies as you can eat, as they’re super low in calories and provide more fiber, enzymes that aid in digestion, and vitamins and minerals that will be more than adequate for most people. Remember, focus on nutrient rich foods and you’ll find that burning fat and getting healthy will seem like a natural.

How many times per day should we be eating to burn the most fat? I can tell you that three meals a day is not going to cut it when trying to burn fat fast and get lean, at least not in my experience. In fact, if you wanted to get as fat as possible, you should eat all of your daily calories in one meal. Eating smaller more frequent meals throughout the day is the fastest way to fat loss. It fires up your metabolism, as every time you eat something, the metabolism kicks it up a notch. Try and eat 5-6 smaller meals per day, spaced about 3 hours apart.

Now, I know many people don’t want to be taken out of their breakfast, lunch, and dinner routine…so you can still eat at those traditional meal times, but try cutting back a bit on how much food you eat at those meals and add those calories into 2 or 3 snack meals in between. A snack meal could be a protein/energy bar or maybe even a piece of fruit and a slice of whole grain bread.

So you see, eating for a lean, strong, and healthy body isn’t so difficult…and it doesn’t require you to eliminate essential foods like complex carbohydrates from your diet. In fact, doing so will put you into the cycle of confusion of fad diets that is all too prevalent in fitness today. And that’s a cycle that’s tough to break out of. Focus on foods your body craves naturally instead, and the rest of the details will be easy to implement into your lifestyle. Before long you'll start to burn fat faster than you might have thought possible.

Claim your free copy of Rob Poulos's "7 Secrets Of Permanent Fat Loss & Fitness" at his website: http://www.thefatburninginferno.com

Are You Caught Up In A Cycle Of Fat Loss & Fitness Confusion?

As a member of a popular fitness center for a few years, I noticed countless others frustrated with their fat burning exercise routines and eating practices, working so hard and long but with virtually no improvement to show for it. Several of my own friends and relatives would mention this new program or product they had just shelled out cash for that was the answer to their fat loss or fitness goals. They were so excited about it and couldn’t wait to get started.

Then, a few weeks later, the same happy-go-lucky people that were once jumping with joy about their new plan to burn fat and get a new body became downright discouraged. It was hard to watch. I’d ask them how their fat burning plan was working and they’d tell me that it seemed pretty good at first, but they didn’t get the results they were expecting or they felt were promised. They quickly became tired of following the daily workouts and found following the strict eating guidelines almost maddening at times. So they hopped onto the next plan.

Even worse, they became so frustrated with following these so-called exercise gurus’ programs, that they fell even deeper into unhealthy eating habits once they stopped the program. Binging became their only form of satisfaction. Forget about maximum fat burning, and talk about moving in the wrong direction. What’s worse is that all of these people were following the typically recommended exercise and fad diets that were all the rage. They were doing what everyone else was doing to burn fat fast.

After speaking with many of these friends and inquiring about their exercise routines, I noticed one common theme that kept popping up in our discussions…they were focused on the short term…their approach was wrong. They weren't thinking of lifelong health and fitness, but instead they were thinking about burning fat and getting in shape for “swimsuit season”. More specifically, they were also performing their exercise in a less than optimal manner. And then I noticed this with many others at the fitness center I worked out in. They just seemed to lack the fire or intensity in their fat burning workouts which I knew could turn their programs from nothing to something literally overnight.

But you know, you can hardly blame them, and you certainly shouldn’t blame yourself if you’ve fallen into the cycle of fad exercise and diet programs. We all want to achieve what we know in our hearts we’re capable of so badly, and that’s why we’re such easy prey to this “get fit quick” mentality.

Most people are approaching health and fitness in the exact opposite way that they should be, and they're not going to burn fat because of it. If you continually think of using exercise and nutrition as ways to lose a couple of pounds, or get in shape for summer, you're going to be disappointed with your results. If you think of exercise, nutrition, and rest as separate things, you're going to be disappointed with your fat burning and fitness results. If you think you need to spend hours a week in the gym or adhere to some strange unnatural eating strategy, you're going to be disappointed with your results.

What all of these approaches will do, is put you into the fat burning and fitness cycle of confusion that so many are stuck in these days. If instead, you choose to forget what you thought you knew, and start off with the right approach, the approach that focuses on making changes in your lifestyle long term, you'll instantly improve your results by 1000%. When your approach includes combining proper exercise that takes very little of your time, nutrition the way nature intended you to eat that is simple to understand and follow, and the rest and recovery that is vital to lifelong vitality and energy, you'll experience an awakening of both body and mind. Plus you'll burn more fat, too.

If you choose the path most often taken by those looking to improve upon them selves, you'll most likely end up like most of them. Confused, frustrated, unhappy, burnt out, injured, sick, or worse. Did I mention very uhappy with their fat burning progress as well? Instead, you can choose to embrace a lifestyle that includes brief, progressive, and intense resistance training, eating a diet full of nutrient rich foods, drinking tons of water, and getting plenty of quality sleep and rest. But know that when you do so, you'll be joining the select few who understand that one of the true secrets to life long fat burning and fitness is not found on a fad diet or in a bottle on the shelf of your local health store.

Claim your free copy of Rob Poulos's "7 Secrets Of Permanent Fat Loss & Fitness" at his website: http://www.thefatburninginferno.com