Drop a dress size without dieting

Top tips to tone up and lose the fat

Dieting may be a short-term fix to dropping a dress size but it will prove unsustainable in the long-term. Instead, why not drop a dress size through exercise and not dieting?

Does this sound at all familiar? You’ve tried lots of different diets but in the end, they’ve all failed. Now you feel frustrated and you wonder if you’ll ever fit into that dress from several years ago. Well, help is at hand because the basic fact is that diets don’t work. Embarking on a diet to lose weight typically follows the pattern below:

• Initial successful weight loss when the diet starts
• A plateau where your weight stays the same
• It becomes harder and harder to lose weight
• The diet is abandoned
• The weight is rapidly regained
• A further weight increase occurs

Calorie counting forever is not sustainable, either for dieting goals or good health but if the diet is dead, how do you drop a dress size without dieting? The solution is to gradually introduce a structured regime of exercise that burns calories, makes maintaining a healthy weight easy and also tones up problem areas.

Super six toning areas

The 'Drop a dress size without dieting' plan focuses on training six key problem areas. By toning the ‘Super six’, specific muscles will become firmer and everything will be ‘pulled in’, resulting in an all-round leaner physique.

Super six toning areas

• Stomach
• Obliques
• Thighs
• Bottom
• Underside of upper arms
• Core

To target the super six, complete the following exercises:

Drop a dress size exercise 1: Stomach exercises

Upper stomach muscles: Sit-ups and crunches
Lower stomach muscles: V-sits and leg extensions

Drop a dress size exercise 2: Obliques (Sides of the abdomen)

Oblique crunches on a stability ball

Drop a dress size exercises 3 & 4: Thighs and bottom exercises

Any aerobic activity such as cycling, walking, jogging, running, rowing etc, which uses the legs.

Drop a dress size exercise 5: Underside of upper arms

Any triceps exercise, for example:

• Tricep dips
• Tricep extensions
• Tricep kickbacks

Drop a dress size exercise 6: Core exercises

Core exercises train your inner postural muscles. These muscles aren’t visible but are fundamental to holding you in and keeping you upright.

Drop a dress size exercise 7: Good core exercises include

• The plank
• Sitting on a stability ball
• Stability ball floor bridge

When targeting specific areas, it is extremely important not to neglect the opposing muscle and ensure that the body remains in postural balance at all times.

Example 1: If the triceps are being exercised to tone up the upper arms, exercises for the biceps muscles should be included.

Example 2: If stomach exercises are carried out, back extensions for the lower back should also be completed.

Drop a dress size, question 1: Bulking up through exercise?

Many women focus solely on cardiovascular exercise (working the heart and lungs) because they are concerned that if they start weight-training, they will bulk up their muscles. Women are not naturally predisposed to building large muscles and will find it virtually impossible to develop anything remotely like a muscular physique. What training with weights will achieve, will be a lean, toned, slim body, with additional spin-off benefits including:

• Increased calorie burn 24 hours a day due to the higher ‘energy cost’ of toned muscles compared with body-fat.

• Reduced risk of osteoporosis (brittle bone disease) as the skeleton is strengthened when resistance training is carried out.

Drop a dress size, question 2: How often should I train?

To optimally tone muscles, training for a minimum of two sessions per week is necessary. After 72 hours, the physiological improvements that occur following a training session begin to ebb away, so a single weekly session reduces training gains. However, by completing two sessions per week, (with a suitable rest period in between sessions), you ensure that improvements are maintained. It is also important to note that training for seven sessions per week will not produce seven-fold improvements. Rest is the key ingredient in any training programme and it is vital to allow time for the body to recover following training. A minimum of one day’s rest between sessions is necessary to facilitate recovery and the rebuilding that occurs after training. If rest is omitted, fatigue and over-training can occur, resulting in reduced gains because the body is still tired from the previous session.

Drop a dress size, question 3: How many times should I complete an exercise?

Frequently, advice is given that to tone up muscles, lots of repetitions with light weights are necessary. This advice is suitable for basic maintenance but to reactivate dormant muscles, challenging the body with fewer repetitions using a higher weight will bring about quicker and more improved results.

Resistance exercises (triceps, obliques and stomach)

Build up to completing three sets of 12 repetitions, with a 60 second recovery between sets.

Core exercises

Build up to holding each exercise for 60 seconds.

Cardiovascular exercises

Build up to completing three, 20 minute sessions each week.

The end results of dropping a dress size without dieting

Simply by carrying out the specific exercises outlined above, within six weeks, you will notice that your body has become noticeably leaner and firmer. Additionally, you will have broken out of the yo-yo diet syndrome and by sticking to your new-found healthy regime, you will see your dress size falling instead of rising!

Source: realbuzz

The Only Move You Need to Whittle Your Waist

Trendy peplum dresses and tops may not be the corsets of yore, but they definitely accentuate your waistline and hips. Throw the spotlight on your trim middle with a move that targets your whole core. (It works for skinny jeans, too!) 

All you really need is one great lower body toner to trim your tummy, says Klara Bella, a yoga and Pilates instructor at Zooga Yoga in Culver City, California. Incorporate this multi-tasking move into your regular routine 3 to 4 times a week to "work your deep core muscles and engage the oblique muscles, which will help slim down your waist."

Sideline Leg Lift 
Lay down on the left side of your body, staying in a long line from the crown of the head to the toes. Stretch your bottom arm out and lay your head down. Bending the top elbow, place your top arm's palm on the mat in front of you. 

Keeping your big toe joints touching, flex your feet at the ankles. Lengthen through the inseam of the legs as you send the sit bones toward the heels to create space in your lower back. Draw your lower abdomen in toward the spine to stabilize it and stack the hips. Slide your shoulderblades down your back away from your ears as you draw the ribs in. Inhale, lifting the top leg a couple of inches away from the mat. 

Keep lengthening through your heels. Exhale, hugging the belly button to the spine and pull the ribs in towards each other as if you were wearing a corset. Lift your bottom leg to meet the top one. 

Pause with no inhale. Firing from the belly, exhale even more. Lift both legs higher simultaneously and pause with no inhale again. Exhale even more, lowering both legs down and resisting the descent. Inhale. Do 8 to 10 reps then repeat on the other side. 

Source: Yahoo!

Tackling the Muffin Top

After bingeing out and being lazy, I now have a muffin belly. What fitness regime and diet should I follow? - Tanisha Nigam, Mumbai, 31.

A: Abdominal fat is the most common problem related to weight gain and also the most difficult to get rid of. A 'muffin belly' may not only look ugly but is also associated with problems like type 2 diabetes and heart ailments. Abdominal weight gain is largely due to a high-calorie diet, lack of exercise, and high stress levels.

One has to attack the fat through a three-dimensional plan which includes nutrition, cardio and abdominal exercise.
Have smaller meals: Never skip a meal (especially not breakfast); eat smaller portions five to six times a day. Your diet should have low carbs, low fat and no starch and sugar. Avoid canned juices, aerated drinks and alcohol. Drink at least two to three litres of water daily.
Shed calories with cardio: Hydrate well before, during and after the cardio workout. Warm up before the exercise and cool down after.

Learn about the benefits of exercise on the intellect!

Cardio exercises like jogging, swimming, aerobics or dancing for upto an hour a day will help you burn excess calories. Doing crunches while lying on a mat or using a stability ball for 15-20 minutes a day helps tone the abdominal muscles. While the focus is on your abs, do not neglect your lower back. Some back-strengthening exercises are required as well to balance the muscular strength in and around the trunk area. Do these exercises under supervision as they need to be correctly executed.

Source: Yahoo!

Warming up/Cooling down basics

Warming up for exercise

The warm-up, raises the heart-rate, gets blood flowing to the working muscles and prepares the body for exercise. It should be for a minimum of five minutes and replicate the movements or activities of the main session.

For example: for an upper-body resistance training workout, five to 10 minutes on the rowing machine will focus on upper body movements for the arms, back, shoulders and also the legs.

Mobility during exercise

Some basic actions to put the limbs through the range of movement that the main session requires will ensure that the joints are loosened up, lubricated and will function more efficiently.

Main session of exercise

This will form the bulk of the training session, for example: resistance training, cardiovascular training or core stability training.

Cool-down after exercise

The cool-down should be at a lower intensity than the main session and should bring the body temperature and heart rate closer to pre-exercise levels. Additionally, waste by-products of exercise will be flushed from the muscles and tissues, accelerating recovery before the next training session.

For example: the cool-down should be a minimum of five to 10 minutes light CV, jogging or walking is ideal.

Flexibility for exercise

Stretching exercises should be carried out after the main session and cool-down as the body is in a greater state of relaxation than at the beginning of the workout. Five to 10 ten minutes spent stretching the muscles worked will maintain suppleness.

Source: Yahoo!

Just 3 mins of intense exercise can help burn fat

London, Feb 21 (ANI): Those who feel lazy to go to gym or do not have time to exercise may be literally jumping once they read this news.

Scientists say we don't need to work for hours at the gym to cut flab, as just three minutes of exercise a week could be enough to help you lose weight.

The secret is short bursts of intense exercise - known as high-intensity interval training.

According Scientists at Birmingham and Nottingham universities, such a session once a week is far more effective at -burning fat than daily workouts, the Daily Express reported.

HIT triggers the release of fat-burning hormones helping to shift those unwanted love handles. It also moves glucose from the blood into muscle tissue where it is burned as energy rather than converted to fat.

And vigorous bursts of physical activity also have the effect of killing your appetite, whereas longer workouts can leave you wanting to eat more.

This means people keen to lose weight would be less likely to be tempted to snack on unhealthy treats if they ditched the gym and went for a short brisk walk.IT sessions can include running, riding a bike or walking.

"HIT is really good at improving glucose uptake into the muscles in a very, very short time," Professor James Timmons, leading the research at Birmingham, said.

"With really intense exercise, you release hormones that can help break down fat. This may help burn that fat over time, after HIT is done. Also, we think, but don't know, that HIT will subdue appetite, while traditional exercise will stimulate appetite. This last point is key and will be researched by our team," he stated. (ANI)

Source: Yahoo