Will Dieting Or Exercising Lead To More Weight Loss?

By Howe Russ


You have probably heard people in gyms around the world asking the question is diet more important than exercise so today we are going to help you get to the bottom of this popular issue.

The reason people tend to hear so many contradicting answers to this question comes down to the fact that many people base their final decision on what has worked for them in the past. While both aspects have proven benefits, the chances are if you pose this question to somebody who is always trying the latest trendy nutritional program they will heavily support eating habits as the most important factor.

Of course, if you pay a visit to the other end of the spectrum and speak to somebody who loves going to the gym you would hear the direct opposite answer. You'll be told that you can get away with eating your favorite snacks and junk foods providing you are able to put in the work in the weights room to burn them off. The big question is which approach is the right one?

Believe it or not, neither approach is the right one.

One of the biggest, yet most common, mistakes is for people to attempt to prioritize one aspect over another. You'll hear things like percentages being used, with people often telling others than exercise is 60 percent of the deal whereas nutrition is the other 40 percent.

Following just one principle tends to make people fall into one of two potential categories. While everybody is different in build and stature, there are certain stereotypical features to watch out for here. The next time you are having a discussion about how to lose weight and this matter pops up, take a look at the individual in question and they will probably fit into one of two fields:

* Those who always keep up to date with the latest eating plans. They're always looking for the next miracle food and tend to follow celebrity magazines which promote this type of mentality. However, you will notice that while these individuals know how to cut calories and drop unwanted pounds they don't actually look any healthier than when they started because they haven't been stimulating their muscles at all.

* Those who love training in the gym but hate watching their nutrition. Sure, they may down a protein shake after a tough workout, but that is as far as it goes. When outside the confines of the local gym they will happily consume junk food, takeaway meals and alcohol on a regular basis. While their workout sessions will lead this person to developing some shape and tone to the biggest muscles in their body, they tend to struggle when it comes to toning their abdominal area and achieve a stocky, square look.

The fact of the matter is that common sense must prevail if you are to get anywhere. If you are interested in dropping unwanted pounds and actually maintaining the results you should be avoiding falling into one of the two popular stereotypes shown above.

If is comparable to a keen gamer trying to decide whether a game is more important than a console. You need both in order to get the most from either one. Rather than seeing them as competing aspects, see them as a great team because that is exactly what they are. With a few simple changes to your eating habits and a regular exercise routine you will experience far superior results.

To sum up, listen to bodybuilder Jay Cutler's response when he was recently asked the question is diet more important than exercise or vice versa. Jay advised that placing importance on one over the other is a useless mentality which leads to long term failure and you should be focusing 100 percent on your workout routine as well as 100 percent on your eating habits. Most people aren't trying to become champion bodybuilders, of course, but if you apply a similar mentality to your fitness regime you will notice that discovering how to lose weight isn't rocket science after all.




About the Author:



Should You Do HIIT If You Want To Build Muscle Or Lose Fat?

By Russ Howe


There is so much conflicting advice in the gym that most people find it almost impossible to learn how to build muscle effectively. One of the biggest areas of concern surrounds HIIT.

Today we're going to be looking at this form of cardiovascular exercise and answering the all important question. Is it good for hypertrophy?

When it comes to cardio exercise, the fact is most guys don't do enough of it. They're happy to throw around the weights three times per week but if you offer them the opportunity to jump onto a treadmill or exercise bike they'll not be anywhere near as keen.

Naturally, this behavior stems from a largely untrue stereotype that cardio is for women and weights are for men. This age old belief is something which has held countless gym members back for years and it's built upon lies.

In fact, everybody needs to do some form of cardio if they want to get fitter and stronger. No matter whether your are a man or a woman, if you wish to get leaner you should be performing some form of cardiovascular exercise alongside your resistance routine. One of the best methods is high intensity interval training.

There are several key differences between high intensity cardio sessions and steady state workouts. If you've ever used an exercise bike for an hour at a steady pace you've probably felt a little bit bored at certain stages. That's one of the main drawbacks to this style of training and something which high intensity sessions will eliminate.

By constantly changing the resistance and intensity level of your gym session you will be able to challenge your body in ways it has never been pushed before. In fact, many of the benefits to this type of training have more in common with weights than they do with cardiovascular exercise.

First of all, which energy system does your body use when you are training with weights? Your anaerobic energy system. During any high intensity interval workout you'll be tapping into the exact same energy resource.

Secondly, one of the best things about resistance training is that the calories continue to be burnt by your body for up to sixteen hours after your session ends. This phenomenon is known as Post Exercise Oxygen Consumption and the exact same phenomenon occurs after a high intensity cardio workout. While you stop burning off calories the moment your regular cardiovascular workout finishes, interval training helps you to carry on even after you have left the gym.

Despite growing in popularity over the last few years, HIIT remains a largely unused form of cardiovascular exercise. Most gym users believe that they need to punish themselves with long, dull sessions on bikes and treadmills to lose fat and it is simply not true. If you are learning how to build muscle more effectively, this form of training will work very nicely alongside your resistance training.




About the Author:



Can You Lose Fat And Build Muscle Simultaneously?

By Russ Howe


If you walk into any gym and ask a person for their fitness goals, it's likely you'll hear them tell you that they want to learn how to build muscle and lose fat simultaneously. The trouble is most people don't accomplish either goal.

In today's article we will show you the main obstacle which prevents a lot of individuals from accomplishing their long-term goal.

While those who are in their first few weeks of training are able to enjoy both fat loss and hypertrophy because of the shock caused to their body by their new healthy and active lifestyle, this period is short lived. Before too long they need to make a choice. What is more important to you right now?

Despite all of the scientific advances we have made in sports, the basic rule of weight loss is to eat less than you used to. That's right, the first step really is that simple. Work out your existing daily calorie total on average and then try to eat slightly less.

Individuals looking to grow, however, have to try adding calories to their diet in order to gain size.

The two goals are complete opposites which can't really be put together in the same routine. It's impossible to eat less calories per day when you are eating more calories, right? For this reason, so many people train without any goal and therefore get no results.

The solution, naturally, is far easier than the mass confusion people usually get themselves into. Separate your goals individually. If you wish to lose some weight then you should make that your primary goal and focus on it specifically for the next three-to-six months.

Once you accomplish your primary goal you can then start focusing on your follow-up goal.

By separating each goal you will notice results far easier to come by.

If your primary goal is hypertrophy then you can get very, very far by simply applying some of the old proven rules towards your lifestyle. Old classics such as focusing your gym sessions on compound exercises and focusing your diet on a good intake of carbohydrates never go out of fashion.

If your goal is to learn how to build muscle while simultaneously losing figuring out how to lose weight, the facts you have discovered in today's article will help you to prioritize your goals and begin accomplishing them rather than treading water.




About the Author:



How To Build Maximum Muscle In Minimum Time

By Howe Russ


If you've used HIIT instead of regular cardiovascular exercise before, you'll know it has many more fat loss and muscle building benefits. Yet, for some reason, those who want to know how to build muscle often overlook the possibility of incorporating HIIT into their resistance routines. Can it be used to speed up results? You can use it to increase cardio results by up to 5 times, so can you learn how to get a six pack in 3 minutes per day? Today your questions will be answered.

If you have been spending hour after hour toiling away in the gym to no improvement, you're about to discover a whole new way of training which will undoubtedly kick-start your interest in the gym. []

The levels of variety and intensity are the two most important factors within any solid training program. Variety simply means challenging the body in ways it's not used to. You could simply swap low reps for high reps, or perform exercises in a different order than usual.

At one point on another, almost every gym user has encountered a period of little progress. In most cases, this occurs because their body has simply adapted to the routine the person has been doing. If you have been training the same way and lifting the same level of resistance for the last three months, it's no wonder your muscles have adapted. They know they don't need to grow any more in order to handle the workload being put on them, because they did it all last week and the week before that.

So the first step here is to ensure you never repeat the exact same workout from this point forwards. Even if the changes are quite small, they will still generate fresh progress.

Let's talk about intensity. While everybody likes to think we workout with high intensity levels, the truth is most of us do the opposite. They'll talk to the guy next to them for 5 minutes in between sets, or they'll spend too long playing on their mobile phones between exercises. Keeping a high intensity means minimizing rest times throughout your entire session. Slash rest periods to 30 seconds and you'll feel your next workout far more.

The shock factor of hitting the body with new, unfamiliar exercises and also keeping rest times down is enough to spur new growth in even the hardest of gainers.

Here is an example of what a high intensity routine would look like for the midsection: []

* Leg Raise

* Mountain Climber

* Elevated Plank

It might look easy on paper, but it is not to be underestimated. Try moving from exercise-to-exercise with 30 seconds on each movement and no rest at all. Take a 60 second breather at the end of the circuit and then start over. Two rounds would only take 3 minutes, but it will really test your fitness levels.

It is true that the simple session above can effectively help you to learn how to get a six pack in 3 minutes or slightly longer. The important thing to remember after you have tried it, of course, is that you can also apply this method to training any body part you wish. Incorporate it into your next chest workout and watch how much more difficult it becomes. The key to learning how to build muscle on a regular basis lies in your ability to adapt and configure your training to suit your goals.




About the Author:



Twitter Bird Gadget