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Fat Loss

Do you know how to read those confusing, information filled nutrition labels?

They can appear confusing but if you know what you are looking for then you can ensure you are making the best nutritional choices!

Think of your body as if it were an car engine – if you put bad fuel in your car you will have poor performance. When you put good fuel in your car, the engine’s performance will be improved, right?! This same rule applies for your body and the nutrients we consume!

Want to know the big “secret” of weight loss?

THERE IS NO SECRET – Ensure you are burning more calories in a day than you’re consuming. Simple!

Whether you’re a perfectionist and look at tracking every fat gram and calorie per day or someone who just wants a rough estimate of her daily nutrient intake, the nutrition facts label is a handy tool.

  1. Start at the top with Serving Size and Servings Per Container and remember to adjust all measurements below this point according to the serving size you will eat.
  2. Look at the number of calories per serving.
  3. Limit these nutrients: total fat (including saturated and trans fat), cholesterol, and sodium.
  4. Get plenty of these nutrients: fiber, vitamins, calcium, iron and protein.
  5. Use the % Daily Value to determine what is a high or low number for your daily diet. 5% or less is low; 20% or more is high.

Additional tips:

  • Calories = energy
  • Don’t just use the nutrition facts to track the nutrients you want to cut back on. Remember to use it to track the nutrients you want to increase (like fiber, calcium, protein and vitamins). Learn how to use it for foods you eat frequently and anything new that you are tempted to incorporate into your regular meal plan!

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by Joseph Coyne

With Mother’s Day right around the corner here in Australia, I thought I’d share some quick fat loss tips for mums.

Not like mums need too many tips. To me, being a mum is a fair bit harder than burning fat (once you know what you are doing that is.) I feel like any woman who can give birth and raise a child definitely has the strength and determination to change their own body. The problem is however that so many mothers are used to putting all the focus on their kids that they forget how to invest any time in THEMSELVES!!!!

Anyway if you’re a mother who could use some “time”, why not get that self-focused alone time (which I recommend every female gets at least 15 minutes of it a day) while using some of these tips to burn fat?

1) Plan your day the night before

A lot of my clients who are mothers literally can’t get anything done for themselves in a simple day unless they write it down and plan when they are doing it the night before. It’s too easy to fall into “dropping the kids off” or “pick up the shopping” mode and before you know it, its 3pm and you’re starving because you haven’t eaten yet (meaning blood sugar is all over the place which means you are probably putting on fat!).

2) Do not worry too much about cardio

If you are time poor when it comes to exercise, one of the last things you should be focusing on to burn fat is long bouts of cardio. Excessive cardio training (although it can help heart function, blood pressure and decrease visceral body fat) has been shown to increase oxidative stress on the body, which can increase the speed of aging and increases cortisol (our stress hormone). High levels of cortisol, by the way is related to body fat storage around the stomach – not a good thing! The last thing any mom wants is to look older faster and induce more stress than they already have.

3) Do full body strength workouts

The bodybuilder type split muscle routines that the trainer with the 3 month personal training qualification is doing at your local big franchise gym is not going to get you your pre-baby body back. You need to focus on doing upper body, lower body and full body movements that give you a high metabolic effect post workout and work more of your muscles in less time and give your hormones a turbo boost.

4) Ditch the baby weights

Most females are a lot stronger than they think. Lifting heavier weights is the only way to get stronger, it produces all the necessary fat burning hormones and it burns a lot more calories than what I call “Tracey Anderson Toning” movements with light weights which don’t do squat (no pun intended).

This should be enough to get you started in the right direction.

Visit Jo’s website for more training and nutrition info at www.josephcoyne.com

www.massnutrition.com.au

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