How Fat Loss Is Like Draining A Swimming Pool

Losing Fat is Like Draining a Swimming Pool...Why Spot Reduction Just Doesn't Hold Water

By Nick Nilsson

Want to lose stomach fat? Have a problem area you want to tighten up? The bad news is simply training that area to death won't accomplish it! Learn why spot reduction doesn't work and what you CAN actually do about those problem areas.

"How can I lose my gut?"

"How do I stop my arms from flapping in the wind?"

"How can I get rid of this stomach fat?"

"How do I lose just the fat on my thighs?"

These are questions I hear regularly...the bottom-line question being asked is "how can I lose fat from one specific area?"

And I'm sorry to say, the quick answer is...

"You can't."

But don't panic! Just because you can't spot-reduce from one specific area doesn't mean you'll never lose that fat! It just means you have to look at things a bit differently when it comes to fat loss.

THAT is where the pool I mentioned comes in.

I would love to give credit to the person who I burgled this analogy from (if you're reading this, let me know!) but think of your bodyfat stores as a pool...

When you fill up a pool (i.e. bodyfat stores), the deep end fills up first, right? Of course! It's the deep end.

Well, the same thing happens in your body. Think of your stomach as the deep end. When you start putting on fat, your deep end starts filling up first.

So you're happily swimming along until one day you realize your swimming pool is too full and it's time to drain some water from the pool (i.e. lose some fat).

To spot reduce and lose that fat from the "deep end," you'd have to drain the deep end first. Not gonna happen. If you can think of a way to drain just the deep end of a pool, I'd like to know it!

This is what happens with fat loss. The stuff you put on LAST is the stuff that comes off FIRST. And generally speaking, the stuff you put on FIRST (i.e. problem areas like the gut and thighs) is the stuff that comes off LAST (because it's the deep end of the pool).

So what's the strategy?

You're going to have to drain more of the pool to get that deep end down.

In fat-loss terms this means you're going to have to lose fat from all over your body before the stuff you REALLY want to get rid of comes off.

I know...that's probably the LAST thing you wanted to hear but it's the unvarnished truth.

I'm afraid doing ten thousand crunches every morning won't get you the ripped six-pack you're looking for. And doing ten thousand leg-lifts (no matter how much you feel the burn) won't pull that fat from your thighs. It'll tighten up the muscles underneath that fat, but you won't really SEE much of a difference.

When the body switches on fat burning, it does so on a systemic basis. Going to back to the pool analogy, this would be like having multiple drains all draining water from the pool. The water level goes down evenly when you drain a pool, no matter how many drains you've got or where the drains are draining from.

So when you lose fat, even if you're exercising the heck out of your abs by doing ten thousand crunches, you could be pulling fat from your legs for fuel.

The REAL secret about spot reduction is that you can't pick your spots.

Your body picks the spots for you. Reducing ALL your spots is the only way to spot reduce.

So now that I've crushed your dreams about losing fat from just your stomach or thighs, I want to tell you that overall fat loss is not as hard as you might think!

Even small changes in your training and eating can really make a big difference in draining your fat pool. You don't have to go on a crash diet or train 3 hours a day to get results.

Eating better and training as little as 30 minutes, 3 times a week can get you moving in the right direction.

If you're interested in more information on how to lose fat, have a look at these articles:

1. How To Lose Fat NOW - A Basic Fat-Loss Program That You Can Put To Work Today!

2. BASIC Nutrition - A Quick, Common-Sense Guide To What You Should Be Eating to Stay Healthy and Get Results Right Now



And if you want to REALLY kick-start your fat loss be sure to check out my book "Metabolic Surge - Rapid Fat Loss!"



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Nick Nilsson is Vice-President of the online personal training company BetterU, Inc. He has a degree in Physical Education and Psychology and has been inventing new training techniques for more than 17 years. Nick is the author of a number of bodybuilding eBooks including "Metabolic Surge - Rapid Fat Loss," "The Best Exercises You've Never Heard Of," "Gluteus to the Maximus - Build a Bigger Butt NOW!" and "The Best Abdominal Exercises You've Never Heard Of" all available at be a Better U. He can be contacted at betteru@fitstep.com.

10 Tips To Lose Fat Without Even Trying

10 Things You Can Do To Lose Fat Without Even Trying
By Nick Nilsson of Better U.com
Fat loss doesn't have to be painful. Try these simple
tips and you'll see just how easy it can be.


1. Eat smaller more frequent meals - not only is your metabolism boosted every time you eat something, your body can more efficiently process smaller meals. Instead of having 3 large meals in a day, try to break them up into 5 or 6 smaller meals.

2. Drink more water - regular water intake helps to flush away waste products in the body. Get at least six to eight 8 oz. glasses per day. An easy way to do this is to keep a water bottle handy and drink from it frequently.

3. Be inefficient - do you need to go to the kitchen to get a couple of things? Break it up into to two trips even if you can do it in one. Being inefficient like this can easily double your activity level, burning calories without even trying.

4. Eat more protein - sources of protein include foods such as chicken, fish, eggs, dairy, beans, lean red meats, etc. Your body burns more calories processing protein than either carbohydrates or fats. Protein also helps to support your muscle tissue, which burns calories all day long!

5. Take the stairs instead of the elevator - any time you can add in a little more physical activity, do it. This doesn't mean you need to slog up 20 flights of stairs. Even a flight or two done regularly will add up.

6. Don't let yourself get hungry - when you get hungry you will have a much greater tendency to overeat when you do finally get something to eat. As well, because your body is starting to go into starvation mode, it will be much more likely to hold onto whatever you give it.

7. Order small portions at restaurants - it's tough to order small french fries when "supersizing" your order is such a great "value." Take note, however, your real savings will occur in the calories that don't end up on your backside.

8. Eat more fiber - fiber is very filling. By eating more fiber you will find yourself full sooner. This feeling of fullness will last a long time as well.

9. Wait 20 minutes between servings - your brain takes at least 20 minutes to register that you're full. By waiting that long, you'll give your brain a chance to realize that you don't really need any more food.

10. Cheat on your diet - one thing I always make my clients promise is that they will cheat on their diet. The only thing I ask that they do is to cheat ONLY when they have planned to cheat. By planning when you are going to eat the foods you crave, you take back control of your eating habits.

This way you no longer "give in" to your cravings. You "reward yourself" for sticking to proper nutritional habits. Do this once or wice a week and you will feel far more in control of your eating.


In conclusion, if you follow even a few of these 10 easy tips in the long term, you will certainly notice a difference in your overall weight and health.

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Nick Nilsson is Vice-President of the online personal training company BetterU, Inc. He has a degree in Physical Education and Psychology and has been inventing new training techniques for more than 16 years. Nick is the author of a number of bodybuilding eBooks including "Metabolic Surge - Rapid Fat Loss," "The Best Exercises You've Never Heard Of," "Gluteus to the Maximus - Build a Bigger Butt NOW!" and "The Best Abdominal Exercises You've Never Heard Of" all available at Better U for innovative ideas for fat loss,muscle building and nutrition

Get That Six Pack Abs Look: 2 Unique Ab Exercises

Two Ab Exercises With a Twist For Rock-Hard Obliques and Explosive Core Power


These two unique abdominal exercises will have you doubled over in a good way! You'll develop eye-popping obliques that will give your midsection a finished look, and you'll develop tremendous core strength.

The muscles of the abdominals are always on the list of improvements people would like to make to their physique. I've got two exercises that can help you not only develop obliques that jump out of your abs and demand attention but also help you develop rock-solid core power and strength.

The first abdominal exercise is one that I call the "Stretched Flying Cable Crunch." It is done using the Cable Crossover machine. This exercise allows you to place direct tension on the upper oblique area to sides of the upper abs where the obliques form the "fingers" that truly finish a physique.

Start by attaching two single handles to the high pulleys of the crossover machine. You will be using a moderately heavy weight for the exercise itself but you can start light to get an idea of the movement first.

Grasping the two handles, kneel down then walk a few steps forward on your knees. As you kneel down, you will need to rotate your shoulders so that your arms are being stretched behind your back (your palms will be facing up in this position). The reason you want to step forward a bit is to get a better stretch on the obliques.

From this position, you can perform one of three movements: a cable crunch straight forward, a side crunch to the left or a side crunch to the right. The angle of the cables form a direct line of pull for the obliques on the opposing side of the body, e.g. when you side crunch to the left, the right pulley has a direct line of pull on the left obliques.

I've found that a good way to execute this exercise is to cycle between the three movements during the set - do one crunch to the front, one to the left, one to the front, one to the right, one to the front, one back to the left, etc. This will give you a balanced workload on the abs. You can also choose to just focus on the obliques by going back and forth between the two sides.

The unique angle of tension from this exercise will really place demands on the abs in a way that they're not used to.

The second abdominal exercise is a variation of an exercise you may already be familiar with. The exercise this variation is based on is commonly known as a "Cable Torso Rotation." This variation takes this basic concept and adds a unique twist that literally doubles the effectiveness of the exercise.

This movement is done on a cable machine. If you have access to a machine that has an adjustable height pulley, this is the best option. If not, it will also work on either a high or low pulley. The movement itself is exactly the same regardless of where you pull from.

Set the pulley to about belly-button height (or use either the high or low pulley) and attach a single cable handle to it. Use a fairly light weight to start so you get an idea of how the movement is performed and what resistance you'll need.

Stand perpendicular to the pulley with your left side towards the pulley. Grasp the handle with your right hand and take a step to the right. Plant your feet a little wider than shoulder width apart and get ready to rotate. The movement itself is very similar to a baseball swing, making it a very effective sports-training movement not only for baseball but from any sport that requires a powerful transfer of force from lower body to upper body.

At the start of the movement, your right arm will be held across your chest with your left arm at your side. Initiate the movement by rotating your torso to the right. Be sure to keep your elbow slightly bent and locked into position. If you allow the elbow to bend, you will turn the movement into a side row, lessening the effect on the obliques. Keep that arm stiff and fairly straight!

When you start this rotation, begin bringing the cable around in front of your body by pulling on the cable handle with your right arm. Your right arm will come away from your body as you rotate, placing more torque on the obliques.

Here comes the trick that doubles the workload on the abs...

As you start to approach the midpoint of the rotation, grasp the CABLE about 6 inches from the cable clip with your left hand. Do not grasp the handle itself with the left hand - it's important that you wrap your left hand around the actual cable for this to work. Read on...

In a normal cable rotation exercise, after you go past the halfway point of the rotation, the tension on the abs will start decreasing. The peak tension is at the halfway point. We're going to fix that!

Once you've passed the halfway point of the rotation, continue pulling the handle with your right hand but now start PUSHING forward and away from your body on the cable itself with your left hand. As a visual, think of the string games that kids play such as the Cat's Cradle.

What you're essentially doing is creating a new fulcrum for the tension of the cable to go through. Instead of losing some tension around the arc as you normally would, you now have direct tension on the abs again and in a different way than in the regular rotation exercise. This not only works the obliques on the pulling side with the pulling motion, it also works the obliques on the pushing side with a strong pushing motion.

The effect on the abs with this double movement is tremendous! The next day you should have a very strong feeling of tightness (and possibly soreness) in the upper/side ab area.

If you would like some more unique ab exercises check out The Best Ab Exercises You Never Heard Of.

Low Intensity Cardio: What Do You Mean It Doesn't Work?

What Do You Mean Low-Intensity Cardio Training Isn't The Best For Fat Burning?
By Nick Nilsson of Metabolism Surge - Rapid Fat Loss And Better Uone of if not the most inovative fitness sites around. Fat Loss, muscle building, nutrition and more.

Find out why high-intensity training may be
your best bet for trimming your waistline.


But how can this possibly be? Everywhere you look, it's always said that long-duration, low-intensity training is best for fat loss. All high-intensity work does is burn carbohydrates, right?

Wrong.

After reading this article, I guarantee you'll develop a new respect for high-intensity cardio training for fat loss.

Low-intensity exercise is defined as working at a heart rate of about 60% to 65% of your maximum heart rate (which is equal to 220 - your age = maximum heart rate, thus if you are 20 years old, 220 - 20 = 200 max HR). High-intensity exercise is defined as working at about 75 to 85% or more of your maximum heart rate.

Using the previous example for maximum heart rate (max HR=200), working at 60% of your max HR would be 120 beats per minute and 80% of that would be 160 beats per minute.


There are several reasons low-intensity exercise is normally recommended for fat loss.

1. It's easy - In many cases people who are trying to lose fat don't always feel energetic enough to do hard training due to the caloric deficit (a.k.a. diet) that they are on. In these cases, just sticking to an exercise program can be hard enough, never mind making the exercise itself challenging.

2. It's low risk - A personal trainer generally can't go wrong by recommending low-intensity exercise to clients. Even the most out of shape person can usually do low-intensity cardio training safely. While this is certainly appropriate advice for novice trainers, it does not necessarily apply to the more experienced trainer when it comes to effective training.

3. It burns a higher percentage of calories from fat - this is very true: exercising at a lower intensity does burn a higher percentage of calories from fat than high-intensity exercise. But, as I will explain, this does not necessarily mean you're going to burn more fat.




Let's crunch some numbers to show you exactly what I mean when I say high-intensity exercise burns more fat.

Low-intensity training burns about 50% fat for energy while high-intensity training burns about 40% fat for energy. This is not a huge difference.

Say, for example, walking for 20 minutes burns 100 calories. Then 50% of 100 calories is 50 fat-calories burned.

Now say 10 minutes of interval training at a high intensity burns 160 calories. Well, 40% of 160 calories is 64 fat-calories burned.

By doing the high-intensity work, you've just burned 14 more fat calories in half the time. Starting to sound good? There's more...

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Low-intensity exercise only burns calories while you are actually exercising. That means the moment you stop exercising, your caloric expenditure goes back down to nearly baseline levels. Within minutes, you're not burning many more calories than if you hadn't done anything at all.

High-intensity exercise, on the other hand, continues to boost your metabolism long after you're done (often up to 24 hours after, depending on the length and intensity of the training session). This means you're continuing to burn many more calories all day long!

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Low-intensity exercise does nothing to build or support muscle mass. Maintaining muscle mass is critical to an effective fat-loss strategy as muscle burns fat just sitting there. Want to keep your metabolism working to burn fat? Do whatever you can to build or keep your muscle tissue.

High-intensity exercise has the potential to increase muscle mass. Compare the body of a top sprinter to a top marathon runner. The sprinter carries far more muscle mass. You won't get big bulky muscles from high intensity training but you will get shapely and more defined muscles!

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How To Do It

Now that you've seen how effective high intensity training can be for fat loss, how is it done?

The absolute easiest way to start this type of training is to get on a cardio machine at the gym and select the interval training program. As you'll see, you'll start off with a fairly light warm-up cycle, then quickly jump up to a high intensity level for a short burst. You will then drop back down to a low level for a period of time, then back up to a high level again, repeated several times and finishing with an appropriate cool-down period.

The repetition of these intervals is the nuts and bolts of high intensity interval training. You can also do it manually by adjusting your intensity level up and down over short periods of time.

For example, do 30 seconds at high power then 30 seconds at low power. Repeat. It's very simple and very effective.

Another excellent method for doing high-intensity training is called aerobic interval training. It is essentially the same concept as the previously explained interval training but the work intervals are longer with the intensity level somewhat lower. A good example would be running at a pace that you can only keep up for about 5 minutes then walking for 2 minutes then running 5 more minutes, walking 2 minutes, etc.

High-intensity training can be applied to any form of cardiovascular exercise. Anything from walking/sprinting to swimming to bike riding will work perfectly. I would recommend doing his type of training 2 to 3 times per week for best results. As always, be sure to consult with your physician before starting any exercise program.

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Remember, what you get out of exercise is directly proportional to what you put in. Work at high-intensity training for awhile and see just how much better your fat-loss efforts go.


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Nick Nilsson is Vice-President of the online personal training company BetterU, Inc. He has a degree in Physical Education and Psychology and has been inventing new training techniques for more than 16 years. Nick is the author of a number of bodybuilding eBooks including "Metabolic Surge - Rapid Fat Loss," "The Best Exercises You've Never Heard Of," "Gluteus to the Maximus - Build a Bigger Butt NOW!" and "The Best Abdominal Exercises You've Never Heard Of" all available at Better U. He can be contacted at betteru@fitstep.com.