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Weight Loss Exercise Principles

If you have read the article called Exercise: Essential, then you can skip down to the next section, called How to do Interval Training. Read on if you need a reminder of the basic principles of exercise for weight loss.

Aerobic exercise is fat burning exercise. As you do some activity using large muscles (legs, especially) that raises your heart rate but still allows you to breathe normally, your body will burn fat with the oxygen you’re breathing. However, your body will only burn blood-sugar at first, because it’s easily available. So, to get to the fat-burning stage, you have to exercise for at least 20 minutes, preferably 30 minutes or more. Walking and bicycling at a gentle pace are aerobic activities.

Anaerobic exercises are high-intensity exercises that get your muscles working hard, and you will have trouble breathing. The word “anaerobic” means “without air”, meaning that you will be breathing fast, but still not getting enough oxygen to properly fuel your muscles. This leads to muscle strengthening, but it also means that you’re burning blood-sugar only, not fat, and you end up with lactic acid that will make your muscles feel like they’re burning. Weight training and sprinting are anaerobic activities.

You can keep doing aerobic exercise longer than anaerobic exercise, and you’ll burn about equal amounts of calories overall doing either. Aerobic exercise burns those calories from fat during the exercise. Anaerobic exercise only burns blood-sugar, but burns a lot of fat later (the rest of the day) to replace the energy. Is it possible to combine the two, so that you can burn fat while exercising, and keep burning the rest of the day? Yes, with Interval Training.

Exercise for weight loss works best with a proper diet: consult the Weight Loss Diet for Men.

How to do Interval Training

The “intervals” in Interval Training are alternating periods of high-intensity exercise with low-intensity rest periods. This allows a person to keep exercising for at least 30 minutes to kick in the effects of aerobic activity, but it is also intense enough to strengthen the heart and provide the long-term fat burning of high-intensity exercise. The idea is simple, but ingenious, and amazingly effective.

You can do interval training using a time-measure or a distance-measure. If you prefer to run indoors in a gym’s track, then there is probably a clock to watch while running, so time would be more convenient to keep track. If you prefer to train outdoors, it may be inconvenient to look at your watch every few seconds, so going by distance will probably be easier. If you use time, you should run as fast as you can for one full minute, then walk for two minutes. After that, run again for one more minute and rest by walking for two minutes. Keep repeating this three-minute cycle until 30 minutes have elapsed overall. If you prefer to chart distance, you will want to run about a half-mile, then walk for one-quarter mile, and keep alternating that.

Benefits of Interval Training

World-class athletes already know that Interval Training is the best way to improve almost every aspect of running performance. The fist effect is that high-intensity leg exercise, like running, will make your legs stronger. That means more muscle mass, and each gram of new muscle will burn that much more fat every minute of every day. The second effect of high-intensity training is what people call “cardio”. That’s short for cardio-vascular training, meaning that your heart as a muscle will grow stronger. This will prevent many forms of heart disease, as well as improving circulation, which has benefits for many aspects of life.

The most important benefit of Interval Training is that it is the single best way to improve your VO2-Max. That is the volume (V) of oxygen (O2) that you take with your deepest breath (max). VO2-max is the best measure of fitness and endurance. Increasing your VO2-max with interval training will give you greater endurance for everything you do, and the higher your VO2-max, the less you will feel that heat or pressure on your lungs when you exercise. Believe me, after interval training for a week, you will know without a fancy test that your VO2-max is improving, and soon you’ll feel the improvement with every training session. It’s a great feeling.

Improving Intervals

Using the time method is better than distance to keep yourself honest, because as you get faster, your half-mile will turn out to take less and less time. So, to keep improving your performance, and keep losing weight, you should either get a stopwatch, or else keep making your running intervals farther and farther (to make sure they still last a whole minute).

As your VO2-max increases, you may be tempted to make your workouts last longer overall, or to make the high-intensity periods last longer. You should do neither of these things. Your goal should be to keep intervals of 1-minute of running separated by 2-minutes of walking, and keep increasing the intensity of each running interval. If you make every interval a sprint for one full minute, and keep that up for 40 minutes, you are already a superhero. Longer workouts risk breakdown of tissues and a high burden on your kidneys and other organs. And if you make each interval longer, you may not be pushing your speed the most you can, which is where the benefits are.

At the other end of the scale, if you’re just starting interval training, go easy. Too many men start off too fast and burn themselves out within 10 minutes. That will not benefit you. Warm up with a fast walk or a gentle jog for 10 minutes or so. Then, try your first interval. It should be for one full minute, but just try for a pace a little faster than a jog. Then walk for two minutes. For your next interval, just try to maintain that fast jog pace for another full minute. Then walk again for two minutes. Don’t sit down or stop if you can avoid it, keep walking to recover. On your third interval, try just a little faster. If you can’t make it for the full minute, you have just found out where your zone is. The key isn’t to try to sprint right away and only be able to go for 20 seconds. You have to do the full minute at a constant pace, as fast as you can sustain for one whole minute. I guarantee that it will be pretty slow your first time. But try it again the next day, and you will be better. By the end of two weeks, you’ll be amazed how much more fit you’ve become. I promise.

Interval training is the most effective exercise in maximizing your metabolism, burning belly fat and giving you a lean shape.

An interval is a brief period of exercise performed at a given intensity for a specific length of time. There is a short rest or lighter activity in between intervals. Although there are no rigid rules on the length and intensity of the interval, varying these two variables can change the way your body works and reacts to exercise.

Do not sacrifice the quality of rest between intervals as this will only reduce the benefits. You must give up the mindset of conventional cardio training in order to succeed with interval training.

Irrespective of what level you begin with interval training, be aware that the high intensity nature of the workout can cause muscle soreness and your legs may feel like jelly.

Nevertheless, interval training is the best cardio workout for losing belly fat. Most people emphasize on working out for long hours, when shorter and more intense intervals are more efficient and effective.

Another benefit of intervals is that the body continues to burn calories and fat even after the training session. You won’t get this benefit from long and steady cardio workout.

Canadian researchers discovered that interval training was more effective for belly fat loss when they compared interval training and long, slow cardio training.

Here are some examples of interval training programs which can be used 3 to 5 times per week to lose belly fat.

Begin with this beginner program:

Warm-up for 5-minutes. Exercise for 30 seconds at a hard pace (8/10 level of effort – this should be slightly harder than the normal cardio pace). Follow that with “active rest” for 90 seconds by exercising at a slow pace (3/10 level of effort). Repeat for a total of 3-8 intervals. Finish with 15 minutes of very low intensity (3/10) exercise for cool-down.

As you become familiar with intervals, move on to the advanced program:

Warm-up for 5 minutes. Exercise for 30 seconds at a 9/10 level of effort. Follow that with “active rest” for 60 seconds by exercising at a 3/10 level of effort. Repeat for a total of 4-10 intervals. Finish with 5 minutes of very low intensity exercise (3/10) for a cool-down.

Interval training is the most effective exercise in maximizing your metabolism, burning body fat and giving you a lean shape.

An interval is a brief period of exercise performed at a given intensity for a specific length of time. There is a short rest or lighter activity in between intervals. Although there are no rigid rules on the length and intensity of the interval, varying these two variables can change the way your body works and reacts to exercise.

Do not sacrifice the quality of rest between intervals as this will only reduce the benefits. You must give up the mindset of conventional cardio training in order to succeed with interval training.

Irrespective of what level you begin with interval training, be aware that the high intensity nature of the workout can cause muscle soreness and your legs may feel like jelly.

Nevertheless, interval training is the best cardio workout for losing body fat. Most people emphasize on working out for long hours, when shorter and more intense intervals are more efficient and effective.

Another benefit of intervals is that the body continues to burn calories and fat even after the training session. You won’t get this benefit from long and steady cardio workout.

Canadian researchers discovered that interval training was more effective for fat loss when they compared interval training and long, slow cardio training.

Here are some examples of interval training programs which can be used 3 to 5 times per week to lose body fat.

Begin with this beginner program:

Warm-up for 5-minutes. Exercise for 30 seconds at a hard pace (8/10 level of effort – this should be slightly harder than the normal cardio pace). Follow that with “active rest” for 90 seconds by exercising at a slow pace (3/10 level of effort). Repeat for a total of 3-8 intervals. Finish with 15 minutes of very low intensity (3/10) exercise for cool-down.

As you become familiar with intervals, move on to the advanced program:

Warm-up for 5 minutes. Exercise for 30 seconds at a 9/10 level of effort. Follow that with “active rest” for 60 seconds by exercising at a 3/10 level of effort. Repeat for a total of 4-10 intervals. Finish with 5 minutes of very low intensity exercise (3/10) for a cool-down.

Calorie cycling or also known as zig-zagging is a method introduced by Tom Venuto through his well known weight loss guide Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle to counter your body self defense system to survive starvation. Many current weight loss program have adopt similar method because it is proven to prevent you gain back weight after you loss it and maintain your weight loss speed at steady level.   Based on Tom’s explanation, fat cells have neurons and they transmit message to the rest of the body. When you start cutting calories and lose weight, the fat cells will send signal to the rest of your body to save it. Your body will think that food will not available soon and it reacts by slowing body metabolism to keep you from starving to death; this will hinder your weight loss progress since no matter how low your calorie intake you will not lose significant weight anymore.   In the book, Tom will teach you how to deal with that by modify your usual meal plans into calorie cycling meal plans. There are a few steps to do when you want to apply the calorie cycling method:

Track your calories intake; if possible track your calories intake and your macronutrient breakdown too. You can do this by eating like usual for 3 days and record all the calories information, this way you will know your daily calorie intake. Create your meal plans; your meal plans should be 5 meals per day for female and 6 meals per day for male. Each meal will centered around lean protein such as meat and fish so the macronutrient breakdown is 30% protein, 50% carbohydrates, and 20% fat. These meal plans should have 20%-30% calorie deficit for 3 days, followed by a maintenance day with 5-10% calorie surplus with all the calorie increase coming from carbohydrates.

The 20% calorie deficit means you have to cut 20% of your daily calorie intake. For instance; if your daily calorie intake is 2000, then you have to modify it to 1600 calories, the same applies when increasing calorie intake on the maintenance day. A maintenance day is required to assure your body that you are not starving, so your body metabolism will stay at steady high level and you will keep lose significant weight. It can also be used for special event such as birthday party or eating out where you need to eat more than your usual diet; the only thing you need to do is adjusting your maintenance day.

Calorie cycling is only one of the many ways to boost metabolism. Notice that the nearer you get to your goal weight or body fat percentage the harder it will get, so having a weight loss program which equipped with metabolism boost method will make things easier.

Do you know that natural weight loss products is not always safer and healthier for your body? There are natural ingredients, particularly those that are put in weight loss supplements that can cause possible other problems detrimental to your health.

Most natural weight loss products also have only a minimal amount of substances in them that can actually effect weight loss. In that case, the chances of these natural weight loss products benefiting your weight loss program will be quite negligible.

It does not mean that many natural weight loss products are not good. You just need to be aware that many of them are being heavily promoted as with any other weight loss products and dietary supplements because of the huge income it brings in.

Many of these natural weight loss products only act as diuretics which in turn resulted in temporary loss of water giving people the false impression that they are losing weight fast.

In fact, you will actually have a lot more chance of losing weight by increasing the quantity of water you drink and remaining hydrated all the time.

The best natural weight loss products are healthy foods that you should be eating everyday, such as, fresh fruits and vegetables. You will be assured that you have all the necessary vitamins and minerals that your body needs to be healthy and in order to function properly.

If you have any serious health concerns like high blood pressure or heart problems, you will need professional advice before you take any natural weight loss products. Some natural ingredients in weight loss products are found to increase blood pressure and if you already have high blood pressure then the results could be really fatal.

Be really careful before thinking of taking any natural weight loss products. It is safer to seek your doctor’s approval first. If you want more information on the best weight loss programs online, just go here: Best Weight Loss Reviews

More and more spend hundred and even thousands of dollars yearly on weight loss supplements in the hope of speeding up their metabolism.  The main desire is to be attractive and accepted but it is becoming a more difficult goal to achieve.  The fitness industry is booming but still a lot of people are unable to cut those fat in spite of all the exercise and diet efforts.  In America, more than sixty per cent of adults are overweight and thirty per cent are considered obese.  This is because: one, a lot of weight loss products promises unrealistic goals; two, dietary supplement manufacturers rely on the overweight person’s failure to survive; and three, the information about the supplements in the market are just written by themselves just to make a sell. 

Although the Food and Drug Administration has successfully banned illegal marketers, some products are still available.  Consumers can be deceived of the labels which claims caffeine or ephedra fee not knowing that these supplements composes of other ingredients that may pose the same health risks.  These include heart and digestive problems, headaches, insomnia, and even psychological side effects.

Other supplement manufacturers say that their products contains EGCG which is a phytochemical ingredient found in green tea.  This so-called component claims to speed up metabolism but in reality poses to reduce the risk of cancer.  Some studies denote that it could slightly increase the potential to burn calories and now can be found in many weight loss supplements.  It has good points on the other hand since the body might conform to EGCG after a period of time.  Eve the weight loss benefit could sum up to 60 to 70 calories a day.  This helps prevent excessive weight gain. 

A few other significant effects of weight loss supplements is that it may contain ingredients that makers claim will prevent the absorption of carbohydrates.  One good example is Chitosan, which appears most promising, which in fact shows no positive result in fat absorption.  It could even take up to seven months for men to lose just a pound of body fat and for women, there is no fat loss at all.  Thyroid supplements act as thyroid replacements help regulate and optimize the thyroid at a higher level.  This they say makes the body feel like a couch potato and won’t perform the job it has to.

Since the number one reason why people eat is because they feel hungry, there is another type of ingredient that manufacturers made which increases the feeling of being full and decreases appetite, Guar Gum.  However, recent studies show that it has no meaningful benefit at all to weight loss.  It is ironic that manufacturers mix Psyllium that has the reputation of reducing eating and aiding weight loss for initial studies so far do not support this claim although it helps control blood cholesterol and sugar.

One of the latest innovations in the fat loss industry is by way of skin absorption.  There’s a Cutting Gel, which is an epidril product by far the best selling in fat loss creams technology.  Rub it where you want the fats cut.  For now, it will seem safer to advise the age old remedies to excessive weight gain and that is to invest on walking shoes instead of diet supplements, go to the park and do brisk walking, go to the gym, and have a well balanced diet instead.

Most people think they have a slow one.  We all wish ours was a lot faster.  The slimming industry has made a fortune selling pills that supposedly boost it… Even my local curry house is claiming that eating spicy food will make it sky rocket!

But what exactly is ‘metabolism‘?  Why is it important for weight loss? And how can it help us in our quest to fit back into our favourite jeans?

Your body is a made up of trillions of cells.  Within each of those cells are chemical reactions that burn up the calories in the food you eat.  The name given to all of these calorie burning reactions is ‘metabolism’, and the speed at which this process happens is called your ‘metabolic rate’.  The faster a person’s metabolic rate, the more calories they burn each day.

Try to think of your metabolism like an engine burning up the fuel you consume.  Put in more fuel than your metabolism can burn, and the excess gets stored as fat.  Put in less fuel than your metabolism burns and you will burn off your fat stores to make up for the shortage.  Long term fat loss only occurs when you eat less calories than your metabolism burns.

So if your metabolism is like an engine, how much fuel do you need each day to run it? The government recommends 2000 calories a day for women and 2500 for men, but this is guesswork.  To find the real figure we need to look at the three factors that make up your metabolism -  Resting metabolism, Movement and Digestion.

• Resting metabolism is the amount of calories your body burns at rest.  It is the energy required to sustain your organs and muscle tissue, even while you are sleeping.  The bigger you are, and the more active muscle you have, the more calories your body burns at rest. Someone with lots of muscle will have a faster resting metabolism than a skinny person.

• Movement metabolism is the amount of calories your muscles burn when they are working, that is if they are working at all!  The more you move the more calories your body burns, so even chewing gum or fidgeting is proven to increase the amount of calories you burn each day, albeit not much! Someone who exercises daily will have a faster movement metabolism than someone who is sedentary.

• Digestion metabolism is the amount of calories it takes for the food you eat to be broken down and pushed from your mouth to your backside.  High protein, unrefined foods require more energy to digest than high sugar, refined carbs.  Someone who eats healthy food little and often will have a faster digestion metabolism than someone who binges on junk food.

The internet is swamped with slimming and weight loss pills that claim to speed up metabolism.  I’ll make this simple.  There are only three ways to speed up your metabolism - increase your resting metabolism, increase your movement metabolism, or increase your digestion metabolism.  If you want a faster metabolic rate, you have to either 1) build more muscle to increase your resting metabolism, 2) exercise more to increase your movement metabolism, 3) eat better quality meals to increase your digestion metabolism.

No slimming or diet pills can do this for you, so it’s time to put an end to that little fantasy!  To boost your metabolism you have to start eating healthier and moving more, but you knew that already.

Just about everyone wants to know how to speed up their metabolism. And why not? The faster ones metabolic rate runs the more calories they expend even when at rest. For those who say they have a slow metabolism that well may be true, but for many of these people some simple lifestyle changes can turn their metabolism around and turn their own body into a fat burning machine.

The human body is an engine that runs 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Its metabolic rate will vary depending on what it is doing at the time but it never shuts down. Understanding how metabolism works can help us understand how to increase our metabolism. The food we eat is the energy our body’s need to function. The thing is that not all food is equal when it comes to the energy provided. Some foods provide better energy, or calories, than others.

For those who have a slow metabolism cutting calories is actually not a good idea if they are trying to lose weight. In fact doing so will make their metabolism even slower as their body starts to conserve its energy stores for the perceived lean times it is going through. By changing the type and amount of calories eaten from healthy and nutritious food sources a metabolism increase can occur.

Eating food high in complex carbohydrates, fiber, and vitamins and minerals will give a definite metabolic boost. The body will actually expend more calories digesting and metabolizing these types of food over a longer period of time then the processed and refined food found on most supermarket shelves today. These processed and refined foods and sugars are one of the main reasons for the obesity epidemic we are seeing today.

One of the best ways to speed up a slow metabolism is to start exercising. This works in two ways. Any form of physical activity naturally raises the body’s metabolic rate as it takes more energy to do the activity. This can be as simple as going for a walk 3 or 4 times a week to starting a full fledged exercise program at the local gym. The other thing that exercise can do, and this is particularly true of weight training, is it raises the resting metabolism of the body. That is your metabolism is higher even during times of rest or inactivity.

The secret to speed up a slow metabolism is really not a secret. It’s simply making some changes in diet and exercising more. By making these lifestyle changes you can lose weight and live a more healthy life.

Overview. Dr Agatston, a leading American cardiologist, initially created the SouthBeach diet for his heart patients.  While his diet was to improve his patients heart wellbeing, he discovered that a side effect of the diet was that they lost considerable amounts of weight.  He claims this isn’t a low-carb or low-fat diet – instead it focuses on eating the ‘right’ carbs and the ‘right’ fats.  In fact, the South Beach Diet is based on the Glycemic index.  It begins by severely restricting carbohydrates in the first two weeks, before gradually re-introducing those with a lower on the glycemic index. In addition, it recommends swapping saturated fats for unsaturated fats.

The South Beach Diet follows the same principles of other diets based on the Glycemic Index.  SouthBeach is divided into three phases.  In Phase One, most carbohydrates are banned to give your body a complete rest from fluctuating blood sugar and insulin levels.  The theory is this will help to resolve insulin resistance.  During Phase One, the banned foods list includes bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, fruit, milk, sweets, cake, biscuits, ice cream, sugar and alcohol.  A few low GI vegetable such as broccoli and cabbage are allowed, but the focus is on eating lean meat, chicken, fish, eggs, low-fat cheese, some nuts and olive oil.  You follow this phase for 14 days.

In Phase Two, low GI carbs including most fruits, Granary bread, wholegrain cereals and pasta and low-fat milk are reintroduced. The idea is to stay with this phase until you’ve reached your target weight.  Finally, in Phase Three, you introduce an even wider variety of foods.  This phase is aimed at keeping your weight steady and the diet recommends you stay on this for life.

What we like about this plan. The South Beach Diet differs from its low-carb competitors, like Atkins, in that it restricts saturated fats, which are associated with health problems like heart disease and high cholesterol.  The plan reduces the cravings for sugars, sweets and other carbohydrates because the diet is supposed to keep blood sugar levels sustained.  Its importance on fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and heart-healthy fats is an eating plan that is full of vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids.

Dr Agatston has great support from the medical science community.  There is a new updated book released in 2008, “South Beach Diet: Supercharged”.  The book does an excellent job getting a dieter started and includes great recipes.  There is also a complete line of South Beach Diet foods that can be purchased in your grocery store from cereals to frozen meals.

What we dislike about this plan. The plan is tough for a vegetarian and a non-fish eater.  The science behind Dr. Agatston’s assertions about certain foods and their ability to raise blood sugar levels or put on weight is inaccurate.  Alcohol is forbidden in the induction phase and limited in the long-term diet.  The book contains no exercise guidelines.  Recipes rely on a lot of NutraSweet and sugar alcohols, which many find difficult to digest.  To become a member of the website you must join for 6.00 a week.

How Healthy Is This Plan? It is a overall healthy plan after the first phase. Its encouragement of eating vegetables, lean proteins, and healthy fats is marvelous.  Its elimination of white sugar and refined carbohydrates is equally creditable, but not so easy to follow.  Many people have been successful losing weigh following the South Beach Diet and have been able to keep it off.  The South Beach Diet has some scientific flaws and many nutritionists would argue that its promise of losing 8-12 pounds in 14 days is a bit aggressive and is certainly water weight and some muscle, especially since exercising is not addressed.

Here Is the Bottom Line. The South Beach Diet only requires serious willpower for the first two weeks during Phase One.  Nevertheless, this phase is extremely restrictive. If you can get past the initial phase, then it will get easier.  No major food groups are eliminated, plenty of fruit and vegetables are recommended and generally the diet follows the use of the glycemic index and taking heart health into consideration.  If you can handle the restriction of carbs, this plan will be a plan for you.

© 2008 – 2009 Which Weight Loss

Staying trim and healthy is crucial for most people — which is why setting up an exercise regimen is so crucial. According to research studies, only two core varieties of exercise are usually successful; as a result, it is crucial to take care in choosing the type of exercise you do.

Since so many people have trouble with the motivation to exercise, choosing the most efficient kinds of exercise is critical, due to the fact that the less time you spend exercising – and the less time you throw away on exercise that is not efficient – the more likely you will be to continue to exercise and therefore to reach your personal weight and strength target.

The first type of exercise that has been consistently shown to assist people to lose the pounds and get healthful is progressive resistance. In sum, progressive resistance is one type of strength training. It functions by progressively ramping up the amount of weight that you lift, the number of sets, and number of repetitions performed. As a result, your muscle fibers are not strained or subjected to damage – instead, they slowly and steadily strengthen without any setbacks.

Our second type of exercise that was studied thoroughly is cardiovascular training. This name is given to any type of exercise that gets the heart rate up to 60 – 85 percent of its maximum. Some examples of cardio training may include jogging, jumping rope, aerobics, or running on a treadmill, as well as other types, but it is your choice.

Even though progressive resistance and cardio training by themselves have been discovered to be highly efficient kinds of exercise, we now know that the combination is the best bet for achieving success. If you combine both progressive resistance and cardio training, you will strengthen muscle groups and develop whole-body endurance. According to a recent study, exercisers who performed both cardio and progressive resistance during a two month time period lost 45 percent more weight than exercisers who did cardio training or progressive resistance alone.

Just as crucial as the type of exercise you perform is, the way in which you exercise is also vital. It no doubt will be unsurprising that being consistent is what you should seek. Exercising irregularly may strain your muscles and will probably not assist you to build strength and endurance. In addition, it is unlikely to improve your overall health. According to most researchers, the ideal routine is to exercise for 40 minutes to an hour 3 – 5 times per week.

Unfortunately, it turns out that for a significantly sized percent of people, getting enough exercise is not as simple as dropping in at the health club 3-5 times every week or listening to what scientists write. For this group of people, the motivation to exercise is the big issue – this group of people simply doesn’t have the motivation to go to the gym. Actually, they might resist all exercise, which can lead to problematic anxiety.

Nobody knows what percentage of the American population has to deal with problems with the motivation to exercise, but researchers say that up to 20 to 40 percent of people say that they “hate” or “dread” exercise. An even larger group of people might have milder exercise motivation problems, feeling that even though it is relatively simple to commit to an exercise routine for a short period of time, motivation eventually disintegrates, leaving them back where they started – out of shape and overweight.

If you happen to be the kind of person who struggles with the motivation to exercise, fortunately, there are some easy methods to handle the struggle. In a recent study, volunteers who needed to begin an exercise program received a brief learning program that aided them to choose the right kinds of exercise, were provided with a therapist who specialized in exercise motivation, and received a brief series of sessions with a hypnotist. After six months, they were re-evaluated. Surprisingly, it turned out that over 85 percent of the participants had adhered to an exercise program during the entire six months. Even better, they generally lost an average of 15 more pounds than the control group.

If you are interested in this study, it could make sense to investigate the possibility of finding a motivational therapist, habit control therapist, or counselor who specializes in hypnotherapy. These types of therapists are provided with special training in aiding people to overcome anxieties, develop the motivation to exercise, and reinforce the development of good habits. Another possibility for exercise motivation is self-hypnosis – which is a simple and inexpensive practice that often helps individuals develop control over their own unconscious powers of motivation.

Hypnosis therapy and self-hypnosis are safe ways of increasing motivation that are proven to be successful in the case of exercise motivation. Hypnotherapy works by making use of hypnotic relaxation to elicit the abilities of the unconscious to influence behavior modification and habit development. Hypnosis therapy is a good choice for people who are exercise adverse because it is able to help increase the drive to get healthful and lose the weight easily and effectively.