13 More Fat-Fighting Tips

Tired of how you look? Then understand you’re the only one who can change it. Create a plan and carry it out, budgeting time for the gym, food prep and rest for the week.

While you should be rigid about your workout times and food intake, don’t lock yourself into lofty goals such as losing 10 pounds in the first two weeks. Instead, aim to shed up to 2 pounds per week after weeks 4-5. Anything earlier or greater than that is icing on the cake!

Watch and read everything you can get your hands on (such as M&F) to learn about the body, exercise and nutrition. The more you know, the better off you’ll be.

Giving yourself a reason to get into shape (or remain that way) is a great way to stay on track with your goals. Signing up for a 10K or joining a league in your favorite sport is often motivation enough not to miss your next gym session.

Free weights force your body to recruit more total muscle because they call on stabilizer muscles to balance the weight, a superior advantage to the predetermined range of motion that machines have to offer.

Train like a bodybuilder to help improve your hormonal milieu. Doing 3-5 sets of 8-12 reps with relatively short rest periods has been shown to increase testosterone and growth hormone release, improving your anabolic environment and metabolism.

Training with the progressive-overload principle helps rev your metabolism. Pushing your muscles beyond what they’re currently trained to overcome forces them to adapt and regenerate themselves so they’re ready the next time such a stimulus is encountered.

Depending on a number of factors—weight loads, rest periods, intensity, exercise selection, etc.—the average weight-training session will yield a caloric burn of 400-600 calories.

Subjects who ate half of a grapefruit with meals or drank 8 ounces of grapefruit juice three times a day lost 4 pounds (with some losing more than 10 pounds) in 12 weeks without dieting.

Active individuals actually require more water and should aim to consume roughly 1 gallon per day to avoid becoming dehydrated. And if you’re one of those people who hates drinking water, consider this: Dehydrated individuals burn less fat than their well-watered counterparts.

Two quarts of plain popcorn has the same calories as just 20 potato chips. By substituting 1 cup of plain, unbuttered popcorn for a 1-ounce bag of chips, you’ll save 135 calories and 10 grams fat.

Creatine not only helps build muscle but can aid in bodyfat loss. Soldiers who took creatine increased strength and muscle mass, but also averaged a 0.5% reduction in bodyfat percentage, with several subjects dropping more than 1% bodyfat.

Weight training with the right partner can help push and motivate you beyond what you’d achieve on your own. He or she can also be a positive and healthy source of competition, if that’s a characteristic that helps drive you in accomplishing specific goals.