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Category Archives: Calorie Deficit

Teenage Weight Loss Tips for Gen Y

“The number of kids affected by obesity has tripled since 1980, and this can be traced in large part to lack of exercise and a healthy diet.” –Virginia Foxx

When it comes to teenage obesity, we are dealing with a new phenomenon.

A few decades ago, obesity among teens pretty much didn’t exist and no one was writing about ideas for teenage weight loss. Today, it seems like teens are becoming heavier and just as susceptible to deadly, obesity-related diseases as their parents and grandparents. I believe the reasons for this are the same reasons for the increase in overall obesity: mainly lack of sufficient physical activity and a diet that consists of too much processed junk food. First, I’ll talk about the physical activity component because I believe that this is the most critical for teens.

This is a good example of what not to do for teenage weight loss.

I used to believe that you can’t outexercise a poor diet, but I’ve changed my stance. Continue reading →

Simple Weight Loss Tips You May Be Afraid To Try

“Obesity is really widespread.” –Joseph O. Kern II

Are you thinking outside the box when it comes to weight loss?

If you eat three meals every day, believe fasting is unhealthy, and “wing it” when it comes to managing your calorie intake, then you probably aren’t. If this is the case, you’re not alone. The majority of people eat too much for their activity level without even realizing it. What’s worse is that they convince themselves that this is the healthy thing to do because they have been brainwashed into believing that skipping a meal or two is not okay. My aim is to offer 3 simple weight loss tips that will change the way people think about eating. I go into more depth on each of these tips in my free 12-page report called “3 Simple Tips for Weight Loss”. You can access a free download link by “liking” my Facebook fan page.

“Every creature deserves a warm meal.” Dr. Evil is definitely thinking outside the box with his “sharks with lasers” idea. If he can do it, you can.

Tip #3: Three meals per day may be too much. Continue reading →

The Best Zig Zag Diet for Fat Loss

“I don’t know about you, but I’m not in to eating dried chicken breast and veggies six times a day, day after day, week after week, month after mind-numbing month.” –Joel Marion

Calorie restriction will take you a long way.

But it will only take you so far. Once you get to a certain point, your body starts taking measures to prevent fat loss and promote fat storage because this is what it thinks will help you survive. Your body can’t really tell the difference between a calorie restricted diet and starvation except that the former is simply a milder form of the latter. This is why the leaner you get, the more difficult it becomes to lose fat. You can create a massive calorie deficit by eating very low-calorie and low-carb for a few days, but take it any further than that and you will hit a fat loss brick wall. Your body will trump all your efforts by reducing levels of fat burning hormones and increasing levels of fat storing hormones. However, a zig zag diet will keep your fat burning hormones running solid.

You can eat like this and have a body like this too.

The main hormone that controls all the others is leptin. Continue reading →

Bravo Burrito Beach Body Diet

“Wow, this burrito is delicious, but it is filling.” –Ron Burgundy

A new burrito joint recently opened in Jacksonville Beach.

It’s called Bravo Baja. Before I even set foot in the restaurant for the first time, I had heard plenty of praise through word of mouth. The biggest burrito you can imagine with all the works for $5? I’m a huge fan of Mexican food and this just seemed too good to be true. But, when I went to check it out for myself, I was pleased to see that the rumors were true. The burrito was phenomenal. All the ingredients were fresh and I had mine loaded with carne asada steak, Spanish rice, Mexican potatoes, lettuce, cheese, sour cream, sautéed onions and mushrooms, peppers, white salsa1, cilantro, and the kicker… bacon! Beach body diet, anyone?

This is my new go-to burrito spot at the beach!

Why am I talking about this on my fitness blog? Continue reading →

Determine Your Calories Needed to Maintain Weight

“Preventing weight gain requires knowledge. What we’re finding is that some knowledge about portion size and regular feedback about people’s weight may be enough to prevent a gradual but typical weight gain that occurs in this country over time.” –David Levitsky

We all know that weight loss and weight gain are mathematical events.

Therefore, losing weight and gaining weight should be a simple matter of making sure your numbers are on point. Of course it always seems more complicated than this, but it doesn’t really need to be. If you avoid the common pitfalls most people fall into and just focus on the bottom line, which is calorie deficit, you will have no choice but to lose weight and keep it off. Calorie deficit is the single most important concept you need to grasp if you want to prevent gradual weight gain. Once you determine your calories needed to maintain weight, you will have your waistline under control as well.

Don't let this happen to you!

Know your number. Continue reading →

How to Lose Weight Really Fast After a Vacation

“A vacation is what you take when you can no longer take what you’ve been taking.” –Earl Wilson

I don’t know about you, but I usually let myself go when I’m on vacation.

This usually means pigging out and doing little to no exercise.  Why am I talking about this on a fitness blog?  Because it’s inevitable.  People are going to stuff their faces and be lazy while they’re on holiday.  These are the things that make the holidays enjoyable, so don’t deprive yourself.  Eat a lot and get plenty of R&R.  If you’ve been working hard and sticking with your fitness and diet program, then you deserve it.  The key is to know how to rebound afterwards.  In this post, I’m going to talk about how to lose weight really fast after a vacation.

Enjoy your vacation! You deserve it!

In my last post, I talked about how I got event ready for my friend’s wedding. Continue reading →

Easy Ways to Lose Weight and Get Rich

“If we work less, wear less, and eat less, we will be more wealthy, healthy, and wise.” -Hugh Nibley

If you want to know easy ways to lose weight and get rich, you need to do some simple math.

For those of you who don’t know, I am an actuary.  Most people have no idea what this is and I never feel like explaining it to them, so I either tell them I work in finance (which is true) or that it’s like what Ben Stiller does in Along Came Polly (which is partially true).  In Along Came Polly, Ben Stiller assesses risk for a living, which is essentially what actuaries do.  In that movie, he works for a life insurance company, but I work in the health insurance industry.  Long story short, I crunch a lot of numbers and I am pretty good at it.  In this post, I’m going to show you some easy ways to lose weight and get rich.

In order to lose weight and get rich, learn to manage your calories and your money.

What does number crunching have to do with weight loss? Continue reading →

Intermittent Fasting: The King of Easy Diet Plans

“I had literally starved myself for four months – not a morsel of food – to get into that pair of size 10 Calvin Klein jeans.” – Oprah Winfrey

Intermittent fasting is one of the easiest ways to lose weight.

Let’s face it.  There aren’t many easy diet plans out there.  It’s ironic that so many people focus on what to eat in order to lose weight when one of the best ways to lose weight is to simply not eat anything. I began intermittent fasting about a year ago and since then, I have reduced my body fat percentage by over 65%. Sure, there were other factors that contributed to this, but intermittent fasting was a big one. There are two main reasons people don’t consider intermittent fasting when trying to lose fat. First, they are afraid of causing their body to go into “starvation mode”. Second, they think it’s too difficult.

Maybe you should keep this sign up in your kitchen while you're fasting.

First, let me address the starvation mode myth. Continue reading →

The Jersey Shore Workout is More Than Just Working Out

“Big is out, thin is in.” – Mike Sorrentino (aka “The Situation”)

How are the Jersey Shore guys so ripped?

Is there a secret Jersey Shore workout that will get you a six pack?  With the highly anticipated second season fast approaching, I thought I’d put up a short post to offer up my two cents.  My theory is that it goes far beyond what they do in the gym.  Anyone who has seen Jersey Shore knows how ripped the dudes are.  But how?  After all, these guys are constantly gorging themselves on high-carb Italian feasts, funnel cakes, 2am pizza, and a seemingly endless supply of booze.  They aren’t exactly beacons of good health.  So how do you explain their top notch physical condition?  The answer is very simple.  Two words: calorie deficit.

Cast of MTV's Jersey Shore

Continue reading →

Vary Your Daily Calorie Intake to Lose Weight

“Rules were meant to be broken.”

I’m going to tell you how to cheat on your diet without cheating on your eating plan.

I’ve heard some experts claim that the more you eat healthy foods, the less you crave unhealthy foods. Personally, I have found this statement to be completely untrue. Right now I’m eating healthier than I ever have and I’m also craving junk foods more than ever. So what do I do? I cheat. I’m able to get away with this by varying my daily calorie intake to lose weight.

Who doesn't like to cheat?

Continue reading →

The 7 Day Diet Plan – Part 3

Eat Less Frequently and Prepare Most of Your Meals

In Part 1 of The 7 Day Diet Plan, I talked about how much to eat and in Part 2, I talked about what to eat.  Now, I’ll go into when and where you should eat.  First, I’ll focus on the when.

How many meals should you eat per day?

If you’ve read anything about nutrition recently, I’m sure you’ve heard the whole six small meals per day doctrine.  The argument is that you need to be constantly eating so that your body doesn’t go into starvation mode and start storing fat.  I used to buy into this but once I quit and went back to three meals per day, I experienced the best results I have ever seen. If you eat six small meals a day, then your meals will probably look like this:

Not very satisfying...

Here is where I believe the six small meals a day routine goes wrong. Continue reading →

The 7 Day Diet Plan – Part 1

Figure Out Your Number and Eat Less than That

If you read one post on this blog, then read this one.

Actually three posts (I made this into a three-part article because it’s so important).  Developing a good eating plan is absolutely critical to your success if you want to shed fat.  I don’t care how great your workout routine is.  If you eat like crap, you will look like crap. There are very few exceptions to this. Check out my post on the Jersey Shore lifestyle for one example.  I came up with The 7 Day Diet Plan because it is much easier to manage eating on a weekly basis.

This dude looks like he's trying too hard to figure out his BMR.

The 7 Day Diet Plan consists of three points: Continue reading →

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