Posted Dec 31, 2011
How can you lose weight in 2012? Let us count the ways. Whether you’ve vowed to lose 5 pounds or 50, the following advice will help make achieving your weight loss resolution a little easier. We scoured research journals and spoke with diet and fitness experts to find a year’s worth of practical and effective methods to rev your metabolism, torch fat, and flatten your belly. In this three- part series, we’ll bring you a total of 52 ways to cut the fat.
The following tips are simple, but the effects will add up.
“When you successfully implement one change, you’re more likely to do another. The more you’re able to stick to your goal, the greater your confidence, and the more chance you’ll have to start and accomplish new goals. These small changes can add up to a lifestyle change,” says Jessica Cassity, author of “Better Each Day: 365 Expert Tips for a Healthier, Happier You.” Over the next 52 weeks, use these strategies in your daily life to help you reach your goal by year’s end.
-Pop smarter. Popcorn is a great whole grain snack, but don’t pour on the butter. Three cups of Orville Redenbacher Pour Over Movie Theater Butter popcorn will set you back 154 calories and 12 g of fat. Choose the Smart Pop version and snack without guilt for 48 calories and 1 g of fat.
-Take a fish oil supplement. A study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that people who took 6 grams of fish oil a day and exercised three times a week lost 3.4 pounds more in 12 weeks than those who just hit the gym and didn’t take a supplement.
-Max out. Stoke up your after-burn by lifting heavy. Women burned twice as many calories the 2 hours following a workout that involved doing 8 reps of lifting 85 percent of their max as when they did 15 reps at 45 percent of their max. Your max refers to the maximum amount of weight that you can lift in a single rep of an exercise. To estimate your one-rep max, determine the greatest amount of weight you are able to perform an exercise to exhaustion. Plug in the weight and number of reps into this formula: Weight