Exercise Less and Eat More

Sounds like one of those things you’d see on a diet wonder infomercial than on our serious page about fat burning, but this time it’s true.

Many people don’t even think about losing fat because it just seems too hard: all those hours in the gym, eating terrible diet food, sacrificing all that time you don’t have and even giving up living just to be slimmer.

Nothing could be further from the truth. I’m sure you’ve heard you need to work out 5 days a week for an hour on your cardio and 5 days per on the weights to burn fat – bunk!

If fact, an advanced regime like that is sure to put you on the walking wounded list and probably cancel your fat burning program before it can have any effect at all.

If you want to look like Mr. or Ms. Fitness, you’re going to have to do all that and more, but let’s get real – this is not your job, it’s your health. You want to look better and feel better. More important, you want to be healthier.

You want to be an underwear model? Better have the right genetics to start with and have a face that could grace the cover of a fashion magazine – otherwise, forget it. The number of people who can be Arnold is vanishingly small, so don’t think any amount of pumping the iron is somehow going to turn you into the incredible hulk.

Our mass media culture has warped the idea of beauty to the point where the genetic freaks seem to have come from to the forefront and everyone else is a “loser” because they don’t workout hard enough or eat too much. It’s all BS.

The fitness industry, greatly aided by its partner in crime, the supplement industry, thrives off your insecurity and need to emulate “perfection”. They would have you believe you need an expensive gym filled with superfluous equipment and hundreds of dollars a month in mostly useless supplements – plus about 3 hours per day to make sure you get a good workout.

What’s the reality? You need to do cardio 3 to 4 times per week for 20 to 30 minutes. Is that too hard? You can actually start to burn fat with just this small amount of exercise – in fact, you’d be better off NOT doing more, at least for the first few weeks if you’re a beginner or haven’t exercised in years.

Don’t let the term “cardio” fool you into thinking “expensive gym equipment” – we’re talking about a brisk walk here, not a grueling session on the treadmill.

As you get into shape, some callisthenic exercises like pushups, chair dips, weightless squats and ab crunches wouldn’t hurt, but again, three times per week for 20 to 30 minutes is fine. So that’s a grand total of 40 minutes to an hour three times per week. Nobody can say that’s too hard or takes to much time.

You can even split up your workouts and get the exercise doing something you have to do anyway – like walking to work, for example. Turns out two 20 minute walks are actually better than one 40 minute one.

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