An interview by Geovanni Derice with Mike Geary – Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer

I had the pleasure of being interviewed recently by a fitness professional from NYC, Certified Personal Trainer, Geovanni Derice. The interview is below and I think you’re going to like it… I reveal some of the hardest hitting strategies for getting rid of that stubborn stomach fat to uncover those flat six pack abs that everyone wants.

“GD: Welcome Mike to our 4-ever-Toned Fitness Journal. For those who do not know you, please tell us a few things about yourself and how you can help our readers with their fitness and health.

MG: Thanks for having me, Geo. Well, to go back a little, I have been heavily involved in fitness and sports for about 17 years now, ever since I was a teenager. Being involved in sports in high school got me interested in strength training and conditioning.

At that point, once I started feeling more energetic, getting stronger, and looking better, I was instantly hooked for life. I’m 33 now and still addicted to the way living a healthy and fit lifestyle makes me feel energetic, confident, strong, and youthful on a daily basis.

I decided earlier in my 20′s that I wanted to make the commitment to help other people experience the excitement of being fit and getting in the best shape of their lives, especially since we’ve reached an epidemic of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, depression, etc. That’s why I became a fitness professional. It just gives me so much satisfaction to help others, who have struggled for years to get in good shape, and show them that it can be done, and it can be fun in the process.

I’ve expanded over the years from just reaching local individuals with personal training, into being able to help people all over the globe achieve their fitness goals with the reach of the internet. I only hope that my passion for fitness inspires people to take action and improve how they look and feel for life.

GD: Now Mike, there’s so many things out there as to what works and what does not work… if you had to pick 3 things that work time and time again to get flat lean abs, what would they be?

MG: The first and most important thing to get control of in order to lose your belly fat and get flat abs is cleaning up your diet. Exercise is important, but your diet is king when it comes to losing body fat so that you can see your abs.

There’s so much confusion these days about what a healthy diet that promotes fat loss really is… after all, we are bombarded by conflicting messages in the media about what is healthy and what is not, and you have all of these gimmicky diet books about low carb, low fat, high protein, vegetarian, fasting, atkins, south beach, liquid diets, and hundreds more. There’s so much conflicting info, that the average consumer doesn’t even know where to start when it comes to eating for fat loss.

The second thing that works time and time again, is to focus on the intensity of your workouts and focus on working the body as a whole in order to get the best metabolic response to lose that stubborn stomach fat.

In order to really get lean, the workouts should have a high intensity, with short rest periods, working the largest muscle groups of the body, instead of trying to isolate specific small muscles like the biceps, triceps, or calves.

For the third thing, let’s talk about actually training the abs specifically. When it comes to training the abs, if you want real results, I always recommend forgetting about the crunches and situps for the most part. They are ok for someone that is really deconditioned, but most people that already have some training under their belt need a much better stimulus for their abs than crunches. Crunches are one of the abs exercises that actually provide the least amount of resistance, and remember that resistance is what develops and tones the muscles.

I provide a ton of great abs exercises in my book, but one of THE highest resistance exercises for the abs, is hanging leg raises (but NOT the way you see most people at the gym doing them). The key to doing these and actually working the hell out of your abs is to curl your pelvis up as you raise your legs. Almost nobody ever does this right. To be honest, the majority of people cannot do this at first, but I provide some strategies in my book as to how to progress to doing these correctly.

GD: What are people doing wrong when it comes to developing the coveted “6 pack abs”?

MG: Well Geo, I know this sounds funny to most people, but the MAIN thing that people are doing wrong to get those flat 6-pack abs is… are you ready for this?

They spend entirely too much time focusing on training their abs! WAY too much time spent on abs exercises. Sounds crazy, but it’s true.

Remember, having a flat and visible six pack of abs is all about getting down to a low body fat percentage. In order to do that, your workouts must focus on stimulating a fat burning hormonal environment in your body, and increasing your metabolic rate. That just does not happen when you focus too much time training a small muscle group like the abs.

Instead, you must use the majority of your time focusing on training the largest muscle groups of the body like the legs, back, and chest. That’s what stimulates your metabolism and the fat burning hormones that will get you truly lean and sporting a flat sixxer!

GD: Which exercises are the top exercises that people need to do if they are to get maximum defintion with their midsection?

MG: When it comes to developing the abs themselves, I again refer to any kinds of hanging abs exercises, as well as some good floor abs exercises like lying leg thrusts (all described and illustrated in my book).

However, maximum definition in the abs and midsection comes from losing bodyfat, and the most effective exercises featured in my program for that goal are various forms of swings and snatches (unique dumbbell or kettlebell exercises that almost nobody ever does in normal gyms), squats, deadlifts, lunges, step-ups, clean & presses, mountain climbers, sprinting, and other full body exercises and calisthenics. If you want great looking flat abs, focus on those instead of focusing so much on training the abs directly!

GD: When it comes to diet Mike, people really have tried millions of ways to get one thing… and that is fat loss. What recommendations have you used to successfully help your clients lose body fat and keep it off?

MG: I have included a fully comprehensive discussion of this topic in my book, which accounts for almost half of the book, but I’ll try to make some nice simple generalizations to get people started on the right path immediately. The most important thing is that your diet is as natural and unprocessed as possible. It almost always comes back to the overprocessing of food that makes it unhealthy, and makes it totally wreck your metabolism and hormone balance in your body.

For example, why eat refined grains, when you can eat whole grains (even better are sprouted grains, as I usually recommend limiting grain foods overall for best results).

Why eat refined sugar, when you can get natural sources of sugar from a high nutrient whole food like fruit. Why eat highly processed, refined, and hydrogenated vegetable oils (these are THE worst thing in the modern diet), when you can eat natural sources of healthy fats like nuts, avocados, fish, eggs, coconut milk, organically raised meat, and so forth.

The point is to not fall for some gimmick like extremely low carbs (although I do believe in a fairly reduced carb intake as that is a big problem for most people), low fat, super high protein, or any other combination that has you focusing on one macronutrient vs. another.

Your body needs all macronutrients to thrive and obtain a variety of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, etc. Trying to cut an entire food group out just works against what your body needs. I get into much more detail on this vitally important topic towards losing body fat (especially that stubborn stomach fat) for life in my book.

GD: Thank you very much Mike for sharing with us all of this great information.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this interview and plucked several nuggets of info to get you motivated and started on showing off your flat abs shortly. If you don’t already own a copy, be sure to pick up a copy of my Truth about Six Pack Abs book and discover the entire system I’ve developed for ridding yourself of that extra ab fat for good!

If you are ready to stop “dieting” and rather start enjoying the road to fast fat loss and the body of your dreams, then you must check out this “non-diet”!  There is no program more effective, more livable than Cheat Your Way Thin. According to the plan, it doesn’t matter what your favorite foods are, you can eat them on this plan – essentially “using them” to block the body from the starvation mode which occurs in low-calorie plans.  The way to do that is the secret – a strategic system designed to increase your metabolism at precise times.

Regardless of how much you have to lose. . . Joel Marion guarantees your success if you follow his plan or it’s free.  Everything you need is delivered instantaneously via the internet in an E-manual, audios and videos so you can start immediately.  The testimonials on his site alone are more than impressive.  People are really losing ugly fat — not lean muscle.

Joel Marion, the creator of Cheat Your Way Thin,  is America’s leading “anti-diet” expert, achieving dramatically high success rates with clients by teaching them how to use food—their favorite foods—to literally triple their fat loss results.

As a nationally published author and fitness personality, Joel has appeared on such television networks as NBC, ABC, and CBS, is a frequent guest on SIRIUS satellite radio, and has been featured in the pages of more than 20 popular national newsstand magazines including Men’s Fitness, Woman’s Day, Maximum Fitness, Oxygen, Clean Eating, MuscleMag International, and Muscle & Fitness Hers.

His other accomplishments include winning the world’s largest Body Transformation contest for “regular” people, the Body-for-Life Transformation Challenge, in 2001 as well as graduating Magna Cum Laude from a top-20 Exercise Science program and being certified as both a sports nutritionist and personal trainer through the nation’s premier certification agencies.

Through more than 6 years of research and working with clients in the real world, Joel has developed his signature Cheat Your Way Thin system, the “perfected” approach now available through select websites such as ours.

Over a 73 month period, Joel meticulously went through each and every one of more than 300 studies while testing his findings over and over again with hundreds of clients in the real world.  The result?  Thousands of people have lost serious body fat and have kept it off!

Here are some of the highlights:

• Increase and protect your metabolism
• Maintain lean muscle while burning fat
• Keep fat away even after you reach your goal
• You must eat your favorite foods during the regular, subscribed intervals
• You must eat your food in substantial quantity

So the answer to the question “Is it really possible to eat what you want and still lose weight” is YES!  Do it right and you not only don’t have to give up your favorite foods, but you will HAVE to eat them!!!  How cool is that!

No more excuses!  Find out more about this fantastic program by clicking here.  The end result will be fast fat loss and a program you can live with for the rest of your life

For more great diet information and resources, please visit us at www.Diet-On-The-Run.com

Incredible Proven Exercises To Lose Weight Quickly Dont Wait

So you really need to lose weight quickly, but just aren’t sure how to do it? You know diet alone won’t bring back that great looking body you had in your younger days. You know you need something else.

What you need is exercise! Any type of exercise is fantastic for weight loss but there are certain exercises that will really accelerate the dropping of those extra pounds. Fitting exercise into a busy life schedule can be challenging but don’t let that stop you. The exercises listed below only take a few short minutes out of your day but your results can be dramatic.

However, before starting any new exercise program, it is important to check with your personal Doctor to make sure you are healthy enough; to tackle a strenuous exercise program. Once that determination is made you are ready to go. Don’t wait! Get started now.

There are two types of exercise that should form part of your exercise routine. The first is aerobic and the second is resistance training (weights). Both of these exercise types are vital as they work very differently.

Aerobic exercise aims to increase your heart rate and improve stamina. Four very common forms of aerobic exercise are:

•    Running
•    Fast walking
•    Cycling
•    Skipping

These can be undertaken either outside or on gym equipment like treadmills and exercise bikes.

Weight training on the other hand aims to build lean muscle which has a result of burning fat much faster. The more lean muscle you have on your body, the faster you will burn fat and the more calories you’ll burn!

There are some quick exercises at home you can do for quick weight loss. Let’s take a look at these now:

1.    Walking
It goes without saying that walking is a key to losing weight. The more walking you can do the better, but aim for at least 30 minutes of dedicated walking per day. However, faster weight loss will be accomplished if you walk twice a day for 30 minutes. The faster you walk the better as your heart will pump faster.

2.    Skipping
Skipping is an excellent aerobic exercise. Just 50 skips per day will have you burning calories but for best results try to add an extra 10 skips to your routine everyday.

3.    Step-ups
You can simply use your backyard steps for this one. Stepping up and down will have your heart rate elevated and the calories will be burning. Try to complete 3 sets of 20 steps every day, but increase the number of steps every few days as your body adjusts as your fitness levels rise. You can also buy special step up mats which are designed with safety in mind.

4.    Squats
These won’t make your hate race but they will assist in building leg muscles. Squats are considered one of the toughest exercises to perform so don’t be embarrassed if you can only do one or two. Remember, building and strengthening muscles equals faster fat burning and that is the aim of squats.

The above exercises all have one thing in common: they are exercises to lose weight quickly. If you undertake the above four exercises on a daily basis then you are heading in the right direction for weight loss.

One way that you can come to lose weight quickly is to calorie count. What does this mean for you? This means that you keep a careful count of how many calories you consume, every day, in order to make sure that you don’t take in more calories than you burn off.

To lose weight quickly, and to keep it off both for the short term and the long term, it is important too calorie count, as well as to exercise regularly and to eat a diet that is low in saturated fat.

The best part about calorie counting is that it can be done by anyone. It doesn’t matter whether you are male or female, where you live, or whether or not you wish to lose weight quickly or have plenty of time to devote to losing it.

The concept behind calorie counting is that you can eat whatever you choose, but you have to make sure that you exercise sufficiently to get rid of those calories. Your energy output must be greater than your food input. You are not allowed to have any extra calories hanging around that can easily turn to fat! It stands to reason then that calorie counting must be accompanied by consistent exercise.

Calorie counting forces you to take a closer look at the foods you consume on a daily basis. You also will become acquainted with the quantity of calories each food contains. This is something that might be very surprising for you. It can be a real eye opener but will lead to you becoming more conscientious. Another important consideration when it comes to the idea of how to lose weight quickly is you need to learn how many calories you need in order to function at your best.

How do you begin to calorie count your way to a slimmer, and more toned physique? To start, you first need to figure out how many calories you require to maintain a stable and healthy weight. For both sexes there is a general guideline to go by. For example, females require approximately 2000 calories on a daily basis while males require more (an estimated 2500 calories per day). Keep in mind that other important considerations are your build, your height, and how much muscle you have on your body when you first start the calorie counting plan.

Once you have this figured out, you can then devise a plan that is appropriate for you. Let’s look at a concrete example of this:

If you take in less than 500 calories of what you require on a daily basis, then your weight loss will be roughly one pound a week. If you increase this to bringing in less than 1,000 calories then you will lose an average of two pounds weekly. Sound good?

Why does this work so well? If you want to lose weight quickly, then you want to consume fewer calories, than you need to, in order that your body will then need to turn to your fat stores to make up the difference.

How great would it be to shed a bunch of unwanted pounds in less than two weeks?  Of course, that sounds like a dream-come-true, right? Well, the twelve-day grapefruit diet claims to do just that. I am wary of any diet that insists you eat only one certain food, or one food most of the time, but there are definitely some health benefits to be found in the yummy citrus fruit we call grapefruit.

The grapefruit diet that has been around for a number of years is also known as the twelve day grapefruit diet because it is designed to be done for twelve days, with two days off, then resumed for twelve more days, and so on, until you lose the amount of weight you want to lose.

For the most part, the twelve day grapefruit diet limits your calorie intake to a very minimal eight hundred calories per day. Can you imagine? When you only consume eight hundred calories, whether you include grapefruit or not, you are bound to lose some weight. However, the twelve day grapefruit diet does have you either eat grapefruit or drink grapefruit juice with every meal.

In addition, it limits the other types of foods you can enjoy.  For example, the veggies you must give up on the twelve day grapefruit diet include tomatoes, celery, cabbage, peas, cucumbers, green beans and lettuce.

That being said, the twelve day grapefruit diet seems very hard to maintain. Yes, if you only have a few pounds to lose, you might want to try the grapefruit idea, but as far as using it as a regular eating plan, that seems unwise. The twelve day grapefruit diet is much too restrictive; it would be difficult to find anyone who had the stamina – even folks who adore grapefruit – to maintain such restrictions for long.

What is good about grapefruit, though? Isn’t fruit supposed to be good for us? Yes, of course it is. Grapefruit is a great source of vitamin C.  It is definitely low in calories.

Many folks who swear by the greatness of colon cleansing use grapefruit as part of their cleansing plan. Also, grapefruit seems to decrease the amount of insulin in the bloodstream. This is definitely great news for people with diabetes or with a diabetic tendency in their genetic makeup.

In addition to vast amounts of vitamin C and insulin regulation, grapefruit may also help control cholesterol, which is a powerful tool in avoiding heart disease.  There is even some ongoing research that might suggest that grapefruit helps fight cancer because of its DNA-repairing abilities.  Of course, let’s not forget the basics.  The twelve day grapefruit diet will give you fiber, vitamin C, potassium, and folic acid, which are all good.

It may not be the best idea to latch onto a particular-food diet as a long-term way to eat, so the twelve-day grapefruit diet should not be used for a lifelong nutritional plan; however, grapefruit definitely is delicious and has a lot of health benefits, so go ahead and peel yourself one or slice one in half and dig out the little triangles of lusciousness.
Let’s face it the grapefruit would make a great substitute for a mid morning or afternoon snack, in place of an energy drink or candy bar.

Do you want to lose 15 pounds fast? Would that be pounds of fat, water or muscle?

You see, when people talk about losing weight, they don’t always comprehend exactly what that means. Most people automatically connect weight with fat, but that’s not accurate.

If you want to lose 15 pounds just so it looks better on the scale readout, then it probably doesn’t matter whether you lose fat, water or muscle. If you want to lose that extra bulge around your middle, then you’re looking to lose 15 pounds of fat fast.

Regardless of whether you want to lose fat or pounds, it’s important to know that water makes up part of that loss. In fact, during the first few days of any diet, water makes up the majority of loss.

There are countless sites on the internet that claim to be able to show you how to lose 15 pounds fast. What they don’t always tell you is that losing weight fast can be dangerous to your health. Of course, it all depends on what you consider ‘fast’. For some people, a month would be fast while others see it as something more immediate, like a few days or a week.

The most realistic goal would be to lose 15 pounds in a month, because that’s far more achievable. Still, it can be risky if you don’t approach your weight loss correctly.

If you want to lose 15 pounds fast, it can’t be all water, which is the easiest to shed. Your body needs water to survive. Deprive it of too much water and it will begin to break down.

Starvation or near starvation isn’t the answer either. In fact, not eating will cause your body to retain and even gain weight. When your body isn’t getting enough nutrients, warnings go off. In a desperate effort to survive, it hangs onto everything you feed it, which adds weight.

The best way to lose 15 pounds fast is by eating foods such as meat that use more of your energy to digest it. You could eat nothing but meat, but that wouldn’t be healthy either. Your body needs a well-rounded diet that provides all the required nutrients. You can eat a well-balanced diet and still lose weight if you know which foods to choose.

Before starting your weight loss plan, take measurements of your body including your weight and fat content. Special callipers (usually part of a weight loss or fitness center’s tool kit) are used to measure fatty tissue on various areas of your body. Keep these figures handy so you can see your progress.

Here are some things you can do to lose 15 pounds fast.

1) Avoid foods that cause water retention, like salt. Cut back on salt and you’ll begin to shed weight.

2) Eat 5-6 small meals throughout the day to keep your body’s digestive process working.

3) Add foods that use more energy to digest, including meat, chicken, salmon, asparagus, cheese, carrots, squash and green beans.

4) Drink water throughout the day as this helps boost your metabolism.

5) Exercise to build muscle, because muscle increases your metabolism naturally.

Re-take your measurements about every week or two and if you aren’t seeing results, adjust your weight loss plan accordingly.

Stay loyal to your plan and you can lose 15 pounds fast.

With the boom of herbal products in the last decade or so, one of the most popular products has been green tea – but did you know you could use green tea for weight loss? There’s been a lot of talk about reasons to use green tea to help improve your health, but a lesser-known fact is that is that green tea can help you burn calories, as well. Before you decide to stop your diet and quit exercising, you must realize that green tea is merely an aid for weight loss.

Green tea is a weight loss aid, but it’s merely meant to help you shed pounds – it’s not going to do all the work for you. So how can green tea help you lose weight? It’s pretty simple, really: green tea contains caffeine. As a stimulant, caffeine naturally helps you burn extra calories. The thing is, most drinks that contain caffeine are full of calories of their own, too.

Coffee, soda, and energy drinks are never going to help you lose weight, because they’re filling your body up with fat and calories along with the caffeine content. Again, it’s key to remember that green tea is just a little boost, in the neighborhood of an extra 70 to 80 calories burned per day. That number much is less than the amount of calories in a single serving of soda or coffee.

One thing that gives green tea weight loss an advantage is the compound called epigallocatechin gallate, commonly known as ECCG. The ECCG in green tea increases the effectiveness of the caffeine, leading to a greater amount of calories burned. Along with the fewer calories contained in a serving of green tea, this means the caffeine in green tea can help you lose weight where it would not if you got it from soda or coffee.

It can’t be stressed enough that green tea is just a small ally in the war against fat. If you were to lose 80 extra calories per day, that only adds up to about 8 pounds lost in a year, assuming you made no other dietary or exercise changes. If you want to shed pounds quickly, green tea can help, but it’s not the answer.

The good news is drinking green tea does more than just help you lose weight. As an antioxidant, green tea provides a number of benefits to your cardiovascular health – this means green tea can help reduce the risk of heart problems. Green tea can also help improve your metabolism and control your cholesterol level, and some claim that it can help your mental focus, as well.

Replacing your daily coffee intake with green tea can be a great way to help lose weight and improve general health. You’re replacing all the calories and chemicals found in coffee with pure herbal tea. This change can help make you feel healthier in months, and experience the effects of green tea weight loss at the same time.