Now that you’ve made the commitment to starting an exercise program, the next step is choosing a gym that you will feel comfortable going to on a regular basis. If it isn’t, chances are you aren’t going to stick with any type of regular exercise plan and will eventually just stop going altogether. By being sure your gym is a good fit for you, you help take yourself one step further to realizing your health and fitness goals.

Keep in mind that if a traditional gym isn’t for you, you can definitely set up a home gym with smaller equipment and where you can get complete workouts all in the privacy of your

Even if you’ve packed on a few winter pounds, had kids, or neglected your belly for years, it’s never too late to get your middle section into a firm and sexy shape.

[Win or lose, Melissa Rycroft sports the best looking abs during this seasons' Dancing With The Stars] 

The following moves hit all of the major ab muscles, specifically the rectus abdominis (ie. the “six pack” muscle) and the obliques. They also force you to focus on your abs throughout the motion (no worries about sleep walking through this routine). Perform these exercises 3 times a week, in addition to your interval training routine.

So you think you know everything about losing fat? Sure you’ve read about every weight loss trick and exercise on our site and others, but you still look in the mirror and wonder when the skinny version of you is going to break through?

Here we take a look at three secret weight loss tips that will melt the fat away immediately!

1. Body Weight Training

Isn’t this the same thing as yoga? Only girls do this type of training!

Simply put, most body weight training is hard and tends to crush the ego of the many who try. As far as we’re concerned, if you can not work with your own body weight than why in the world are you using additional weight such as barbells and dumbbells.

It’s incredible how many attempt to use heavy

What to do today?

Free weights or machines?

Body part or whole body training?

Treadmill or elliptical?

Strength training or cardio?

Are these the questions racing through your head every time you hit the gym floor?

So many options to choose from? Enough I say.

Step out of the line of sheep to use the fancy universal pec-deck machine and locate these three basic pieces of equipment to build muscle and lose fat quickly!

1. Medicine Ball

One of the oldest (think 500BC old) pieces in strength and conditioning training. The medicine ball is a versatile tool, useful for abdominal twists, playing various types of catch if you have a partner, adding resistance to crunches and squats or simply raising it overhead and slamming it to the ground. They range from 2-25lbs so your bound to find one that is

I’m a big believer in preparing big meals and then having leftovers the next day for breakfast, lunch, ordinner. Adding leftover chicken or steak to your omellette the next day is a great way to spice up your meals and add variety to your food intake. But what about the other things lurking in your kitchen pantry or fridge?

The need to dispose of unrecognizable leftovers in tupperware, which by the way now looks like a science experiment gone bad, is a pretty standard business. Ditto for anything well past its best-before or consume-by date on the label. But in the absence of such information, deciding what food items are still safe to eat and what should be thrown away can be an exercise in itself.

Just how long have those half-filled bottles of salad dressing and jam been lining the back of the refrigerator shelves? And

Many different articles on muscle building make a big deal about pre and post workout nutrition, specifically about the amount of protein needed to build and repair the body. Calculating your protein needs has traditionally followed the following formula:

1. Weight in pounds divided by 2.2 = weight in kg
2. Weight in kg x 0.8-1.8 gm/kg = protein gm.

Use a lower number if you are in good health and are sedentary. Use a higher number (between 1 and 1.8) if you are under stress, are pregnant, are recovering from an illness, or if you are involved in consistent and intense weight or endurance training.

Example: 154 lb male who is a regular exerciser and lifts weights
154 lbs/2.2 = 70kg
70kg x 1.5 = 105 gm protein/day

But does protein consumption during pre

It’s time to review some important tips we’ve covered off here at the Fat Loss Authority. Think of this as your study sheet. We know the reasons behind each point, but if you want to review the details, look back at our previous articles. We’ve broken them into the two pillars of our fat loss adventure: Exercise and Diet.

Exercise

1. Start slowly. Set short-term goals to help boost your confidence and stay motivated.

2. Set challenging but realistic goals.

3. Create a support group. Involve a workout buddy, your family, a friend.

4. Schedule exercise as you would a business meeting. Morning is better because it’s easier to get overwhelmed with other tasks as the day goes on, but a long walk after dinner works great too.

5. Do resistance training about three times a week. Muscle mass raises your metabolism, burning more

The arm is one of the first things noticed by others. It can be covered up with a sleeve or fully exposed. If they are well defined, chances are the rest of the body is too. Here are five ways to sculpting your guns a la Ron Burgundy:

1. Work your Triceps

The triceps comprise 60% of your upper arm, therefore, you should be training them 10% more then your biceps! The two muscles compliment each other and for a great workout try doing bicep and triceps exercises in the same workout.

2. Supersets

Super what? A superset consists of doing one exercise followed immediately by another different exercise. For example, doing dumbbell curls followed by overhead triceps extensions. Not only will this give you

Straight to it. Here are five of the biggest fat loss mess-ups that
I see men and women doing everyday…fix these, and you’ll lose fat.

1) Not having back up.

Trying to lose fat without social support is the wrong way to go
about this. Ideally, you’d have your doctor, an RD, a trainer, your workout partner, your spouse, your workmates, and your friends all behind you. Research shows that you’ll benefit most from a health professional (i.e. a trainer) and a workout partner that is also successful. Get those two people on your team first, and then work on the rest of the group.

2) Not using a structured program

If you ever go into the gym and wonder what you are going to do first, you’re already wasting your time – even before you choose. Get a plan, know what you have to do, stick to it, and see it through. That

While the fitness media still insists that aerobic exercise is a great way to lose weight, your more up-to-date trainers and fat loss programs know that interval training is the better way to burn body fat.

Still not convinced?

A study published by the North American Association for the Study of Obesity, subjects aged 40 to 75 were instructed to do 60 minutes of aerobic exercise per day for 6 days per week for an entire year.

Given the amount of exercise, you’d expect weight losses of 20, 30 pounds, or more, right?

Well, the surprise findings showed the average fat loss for female subjects was only 4 pounds for the entire year, while men lost 6.6 pounds of fat over the year. That’s over 300 hours of aerobic exercise just to lose a measly 6 pounds of blubber. Not time well spent, in my opinion.

So what’s the better way?