Does Drinking Water Help You Lose Weight?

One question I get asked a lot is whether or not drinking water will help you lose weight. The answer is simple - you bet it does. In this post I am going to show you the main reason why drinking lots of water will help you shed some of that pesky fat.

Why does water help you lose weight?

Here are a two simple reasons as to why drinking water will help with your weight problems. Remember, all of this is just science until you put it into practice. Start drinking more water today and see the results for yourself.

1. Water stops you from snacking
The main reason that water helps you lose that belly is because it makes you feel full. As we all know, water has 0 calories so consuming it will just hydrate you and make you feel full. This means you will be less likely to snack on things during the day.

2. Water keeps you hydrated
Many people do not know this but one of the symptoms of dehydration is actually hunger pains. If you are not drinking enough water there is a chance that you will be feeling hungry and that leads you consume more calories. Drinking will keep you hydrated and, as mentioned above, stop you from snacking during the day.

Conclusion

Water is essential to good bodily health. If you don’t drink water you will be dehydrated and this will lead you to snack. Try drinking at least five tall glasses of water each day and see how you feel. I am betting you will lose a few pounds over time as well.

A Simple Women’s 20 Minute Butt Workout

We all love a nice round butt. We love the way it looks in a pair of jeans and how it makes us feel when we go out. But achieving that round, firm butt can be difficult. Here is a simple women’s butt workout that you can do in around 20 minutes.

Warm up
Firstly you will need to spend about five minutes warming up well. The exercises themselves are quite difficult and as such you need to make sure your legs and joints are well warmed.

A good warm up for the legs is to do a bit of jogging followed by a few sprints. Once you are a little warmed up do some stretches and then maybe a few light squats. This should prepare your legs nicely!

The 20 minute butt workout

Now we can get in to the main workout. It is simple, easy to do and requires only some basic weight training knowledge. Remember, if you aren’t sure how to do the exercises go back through our exercise archive.

1. The lunge - 4 sets of 15 reps
Start off with a simple weighted lunge. All you need to do is grab two medium heavy dumbbells and hold them by your side as you lunge forward, alternating legs each time. Make sure you tense your glutes as you perform this exercise and do it in a slow and controlled manner. Make the decline slow and steady.

2. Jumping Squats - 3 sets until failure
The jumping squat is my all time favorite legs and butt exercise. It punishes your lower body like nothing else and will leave you sore and in pain! But, this baby burns more calories than just about anything else in the gym and gives you a fantastic butt workout. Only have about 30 seconds rest inbetween each set and make sure each set is explosive and powerful. You want to make sure you are hitting this one hard. Check out this post on how to do a jumping squat if you want more information.

3. Step ups - 4 sets til failure
I always think of the step up as a bit of a reverse lunge. Instead of stepping down you are going up! Again, take two heavy dumbbells and find a very stable bench a little higher than you knees. Step up and down again and again until you cannot do anymore. As always, make sure the motions are slow, controlled and well timed. This exercise is as much about control as it is about muscle isolation.

That’s it!
That there is your simple 20 minute workout. As you progress you can add more weight or more reps or even repeat the whole workout again. The exercises here are simple to do and will have you building a new butt sooner than you think.

How to Lose Your Fat Butt - Part One

Every woman is afraid of having a fat butt. We all know the common saying “does my butt look big in this?” because we have all said it! In this series of three posts I am going to show you how to lose your fat butt using a few simple exercises and diet tips.

Understanding the butt muscles (glutes)

It is important to get a good understanding of the butt muscles before you go and start working them out. Why? Because when you know where the butt muscles are you will have a better idea of how they work and this will help with your progress.

The scientific name for the butt muscles is the gluteus maximus and it is the red area on the diagram above. As you can see, the butt muscles (or glutes) tie in to the upper hamstring and the base of the lower back. They are there to help you balance and are involved in many motions where the leg is pushing out, such as stepping up a hill.

How to lose your fat butt

There are three things you need to do if you want to lose your fat butt. They are:

• clean up your diet
• start working with weights
• start doing some cardio

Now I am not saying you need to do a lot of these things but you do need to do them smartly. This series will show you the best ways to diet and exercise so that your fat butt will be a thing of the past.

Cleaning up your diet

photo credit: Zesmerelda

The first post in this series will be on how to clean up your diet. There is a reason I put this first. It is the most important. It doesn’t matter how much you run or how many days a week you spend at the gym, if your diet is crap so to will be your results.

If you want to clean up your diet you need to take a few simple steps. Forget fad diets and weight loss pills. Forget calorie controlled. All you have to do is:

1. Eat natural foods
This is a big thing for us here at Free Women’s Fitness. We strongly believe in the power of natural foods. If you want to lose weight you need to cut out all the man made foods like soda, candy, pasta, baked goods, etc. and replace them with fruits, vegetables, lean organic meats, free range eggs, etc. This is the diet humans were meant to eat and when you start cutting out the old stuff and replacing it with this the weight will just fall off.

2. Eat six meals a day every three hours
Did you know that digestion takes up more energy than any other process in the body? Isn’t that amazing, the act of eating actually burns calories! This is a good thing for us and we need to take advantage of that.

The way to do that is to eat six small meals every three hours instead of the traditional breakfast, lunch and dinner. The reason we do this is because if we eat small meals more often we keep our metabolism burning and this will help us to burn calories. Also, if the meals are small it is likely that we will burn most of the calories during the day before it gets a chance to be converted to fat.

3. Replace high carb foods with high protein foods
For a little while you are going to need to cut out breads, pastas, baked goods and rice. These foods really hamper your butt toning progress! Instead you need to start eating high protein foods like nuts, milk and free range eggs. These will help you build the muscles that will tone your butt and legs and burn off all the fat cells.

4. Drink more water
Water is an excellent weight loss tool as it helps to keep your appetite at bay. It also cleans out your system and leaves you feeling light and happy. Try to have a big glass of water before each meal as this will keep your from gorging yourself when you sit down to eat. Don’t drink all your daily water intake in one sitting, however, as this puts a lot of pressure on your internal organs.

5. Harness the power of the post workout shake
The most important meal of the day is no longer breakfast - it is the post workout shake. If you want to tone up your butt and lose weight you need to start harnessing the power of this very important meal.

When you workout the body uses up a lot of energy and it starts to run out of protein, sugar and minerals. Therefore, it is important to replace them straight after you work out. Not only that, but you need to start giving your muscles protein so they can rebuild and become stronger. This is one of the most important factors to toning and weight loss success.

Try to have a drink that is high in protein within five minutes of finishing your workout. The best protein shakes are natural ones made of milk, eggs and a little bit of whey protein powder. If you start doing this on a regular basis you will see results soon.

How to Tone Flabby Arms in Six Weeks

Flabby arms are not a woman’s favorite thing. Along with tight abs, firm legs and a good butt it seems that women want toned and defined arms. In this post I want to show you how you can tone your arms and get rid of the flab in just six weeks.

How to tone flabby arms in six weeks

The first thing you need to realize is that this workout/diet is not going to be easy. It is going to take a fair amount of strength on your part. But, if you can hold on and do the work I can guarantee you some pretty special results.

Week One: Make some diet changes

In the first week you are going to be changing your diet. What we are going to do is gradually cut out all man-made foods and replace them with natural and fresh foods. We are going to cut out pasta, bread, soda and junk food and replace them with fruits, vegetables, whole grains, free range eggs and so on. What you need to do in this week is spend time shopping for healthy foods and find recipes for dinner and lunch that will taste good but also be made solely of natural foods.

Hint: Asian dishes are great!

Week Two: Begin your weight training program

Weight training is going to be a crucial part of this six week program. The reason for this is because weight training is the primary way to burn calories and turn your body into and fat burning machine. Fat hates muscle. The two don’t work well together. And muscle always wins. But don’t worry, you will not end up looking like a huge bodybuilder. All that will happen is the fat on your body will start to be replaced with firm and healthy muscle. In short, your body will firm up.

Your weight training program is going to consist of these compound exercises and these sets and reps:

• Squats 4 x 10
• Bench Press 4 x 10
• Pull Ups 2 x 10
• Dips 2 x 10
• Barbell Bicep Curls 4 x 10
• Overhead Presses 4 x 10

These exercises use lots of muscles at once and as such are a great way to get yourself in shape quickly. What you are going to do is spend week two learning and practicing these exercises. Make a time with a gym instructor and tell them you want to learn these exercises for your new workout.

Technique is Queen! Do not perform weights with a bad technique or you will end up with bad results and possible injuries. Learn them well and always consult a professional.

You are to do this workout three times a week. It should take no longer than an hour. The first number denotes the number of sets you are going to do. The second number indicates the number of repetitions. So if it says 4 x 10 that means you will do the exercise for 10 repetions and do it four times. And 10 does not just mean 10 reps with any old weight. No! It means you pick a weight that allows you to ONLY perform 10 reps. Got it?

You will continue with this workout for the whole six weeks. You can do it any day you like as long as you leave at least one day in between each workout.

Week Three: Add some cardio to the mix

Your task this week is to start adding in some cardio to your weight training workout. You can do any type of cardio you like but it must be done on the day that you DON’T do a weights workout. For example, if you do weights on Monday you should do cardio on Tuesday.

Pick a highly intense form of cardio like kick boxing or hill climbing. Make it fun and interesting. You can do it for as long as you want but make an effort to start doing it this week. If you really want to see results try and add at least three sessions in.

Week Four: Start adding a protein shake to your day

This week I want you to continue with all the other stuff but also start adding a protein shake to your day. You can drink it at one of three times: morning tea, afternoon tea or post workout. Any of these will do at this stage.

The protein shake should be made of natural ingredients like raw milk, free range eggs, banana and whey protein powder. Have this drink as a replacement to your regular meal. This is a wonderful way to boost your training progress as well as burning some pesky fat.

Week Five: Pick Up the Pace

Week five is going to be all about intensity. By this stage of the program you should be past the feelings of tiredness and past the sugar cravings. You should be feeling fit, healthy and inspired at your new progress.

Using this inspiration you should start to pick up the intensity. You have had over a month’s practice of weight training and by now you should be pretty good at the exercises. Endeavor to add more weight and a little bit more speed this week. Run faster, lift heavier, become more intense. That is the motto of this week.

You should also start to shift your cardio workouts to before your first meal of the day. This is a special technique that allows you to burn fat instead of available calories because your body hasn’t had anything to eat yet. If you cannot manage to get up and workout before breakfast then you should do it after dinner.

Week Six: Make a vow

Week six is not about training. Of course, you should keep doing what you are doing but the emphasis of this week is on something new. Mental toughness.

This week I want you to make a vow to yourself that you will continue training well and eating healthy for the rest of your life. You see, losing weight and firming up is easy. Maintaining it is hard.

Go somewhere quiet and peaceful that you like to go. Go there alone. Take a pen and some paper and write down your goals and your vow. Then keep it on you at all times. This is one of the best ways to stay fit and healthy for your entire life.

Take a vow and mean it.

Post Program Follow Ups

After the six weeks is up you should start to become more adventurous and experiment with new weights workouts and new exercises. Try some pump classes or some yoga. Start experimenting with exercise and really learn to enjoy it.

There are a whole host of weights exercises out there that are called isolation exercises. These exercises deal with one muscle group at a time. For example, the concentration curl just works the biceps and the lateral side raise just works the shoulders. You should try to find out more about these exercises and add them to your routine when you feel like it.

This program is fail safe. I have used it myself and I know many people who have done similar things with great success. The hardest part is believing in yourself and not giving up too early. 90% of people give up when it gets tough. Make sure you are one of the 10%.

8 Hacks to Burn More Fat and Lose More Weight

photo credit: unruly chaffinch

Everybody I know wants to lose a little bit of weight. Almost 80% of women feel as though they are too fat. That is a pretty terrible statistic. And the hard thing about weight loss is that it takes a lot of time and effort. Today I am going to share with you 8 hacks that will help you burn more fat and lose more weight. I hope they help.

8 hacks to burn more fat and lose more weight

If you have any other tips that you think our readers might find useful then please head on over to our women’s weight loss forum and let us know.

1. Step up the intensity
If you want to burn more fat you need to start working out with more intensity. Higher intensity cardio burns a lot more calories and it keeps your metabolism elevated for most of the day which means you will be burning fat long after the workout has finished. Higher intensity workouts also allow you to fit more in and as such you will gradually increase your levels of fitness. This progression is how you get super toned and healthy.

Check out this post for some ideas on how to make your cardio more intense and exciting.

2. Train with weights
Weight training is one of the best ways to burn fat and tone up. All women should be weight training. I recently talked about whether weight training will make you bulky as it is something that a lot of women worry about. You really shouldn’t, however, as weight training is so important for your progress.

Lifting weights increases your metabolism and it creates a better fat burning environment in your body. Fat and muscle do not coexist and where you have a good amount of toned muscle you will have less fat. For example, the calf and hamstring muscles are quite dense and as such you have less fat there than other places where there is less muscle.

3. Eat six small meals a day
This tip is an old one but one that most women ignore. If you want to lose weight faster you need to start eating six small meals a day instead of three big ones. If you can do this you will find that you lose weight quite naturally.

When you eat three big meals you slow down your metabolism. And quite often your body will not have a use for all the calories and as such it will get stored as fat. When you eat six small meals, however, the energy gets used up quite quickly and your metabolism stays elevated all day long. Digestion takes up a lot of energy - by eating six small meals every two hours you are effectively using eating as a weight loss exercise!

4. Train your legs more
The legs contain the biggest muscles in the body. When you work them out you use a lot of energy and this helps you to lose weight fast. The legs, in fact, are the secret to getting toned, trim and fit. Try doing more exercises like kickboxing, squats, jumping squats, sprinting and so on. These exercises utilize your leg muscles in a very intense way and this will help you to burn a lot of extra calories.

photo credit: Ed Yourdon

5. Eat lots of vegetables
When you think about weight loss you often don’t think about vegetables. Your mind automatically thinks of protein rich foods like meat and eggs. However, vegetables should become the main part of your diet if you want to lose weight fast. Why? Because they take a lot of energy to burn - and this requires calories.

The other reason for eating vegetables is because this is what human kind was meant to eat. When you put yourself on a natural diet your body will feel comfortable and secure and will stop storing all that emergency fat. Try it. It works.

6. Don’t mix carbs and bad fats
Carbohydrates and fats are two of the hardest food types to process. The problem? A lot of the time we eat these two together. Spaghetti and Parmesan cheese for example. And the bad thing about mixing these two is that a lot of it ends up being converted and stored as fat. Not good. If you are still eating carbs you should try to eat them without too much fat in the meal. Give your body a chance to burn some of the energy up.

Remember, not all fats are bad. Some fatty acids are essential for your body to function in a normal and healthy way. The fats you need to start avoiding are saturated fats and trans fats. LDLs are not good for you.

7. Skip rope
Skipping is one of the absolute best exercises for losing weight. I am including this as its own point because I truly believe that regular skipping will get you in the best shape of your life. Recently we did an article on skipping for weight loss that showed why it is so good for you as well as giving you some tips to make it more effective. Considering the rope only costs $5 and you can do it anywhere in the world I wonder why more women aren’t jumping rope!

8. Think of dinner as a snack
In the western world we have meals all upside down. We eat a tiny breakfast (if any!), a medium lunch and a huge two course dinner. Bad idea if you are trying to lose weight. All of that dinner gets stored as fat because you eat and then sleep and your body has nothing else to do with the calories. It is time to re-think the way we do dinner. Dinner should be no more than a snack. Eat a big breakfast and gradually eat less as the day goes on. This is one of the best tips you can take on board if you want to speed up your weight loss.

Conclusion

All of these little hacks added up equal some powerful weight loss. Try to implement as many of them as you can over a period of a few weeks. If you find that anything works particularly well for you then please let us know!

A Beginner Abs Workout for Women

Do you want flat abs? Are you looking to tighten up your midsection and create a firmer tummy? You will be happy to know that it isn’t that hard. In this article I am going to give you a beginner abs workout that will help you do just that.

Technique is paramount

When you are doing any resistance training you need to make sure your technique is perfect. The exercises are designed in specific ways that help you avoid injuries and maximize the amount of utility you get from the motion. If you cheat on the exercise you are only harming your progress.

Make sure you read up on all these exercises in our abs archive and learn how to do them perfectly. If you need to hire a training for a day to go through them all with you then do that. It will be well worth it in the long run.

A beginner abs workout for women

This workout is for any woman that is looking to tone, tighten or strengthen her midsection. It is suitable for women with little to no exercise experience.

1. Warm up
Start with a brief five minute warm up like a quick jog or some running on the spot. The idea is to get the muscles warm and the blood pumping.

2. Reverse Crunch 3 sets of 15 reps
The reverse crunch is a excellent exercise for targeting your lower abs.

How to do it:
To perform this exercise lay on your back with your hands cradling your lower back. Keep your head and upper shoulders on the ground. Extend your legs out so you are horizontal to the floor and then using your abdominal muscles bring your legs in and up to your chest. Crunch the abs. When you have brought them as far as you can rock back slightly on to your upper back and crunch the abs further. This is on repetition.

Do three sets of 15 reps making your technique is perfect and your repetitions are done in a slow and careful manner.

3. Abdominal Crunch 3 sets of 15 reps
The abdominal crunch is the basic crunch that allow you to target your upper and lower abs while protecting your lower back from strain.

How to do it:
Lay on your back and place your finger tips on your temples. Do not put your hands behind your head as this can lead to pulling. Place your feet flat on the floor and using your abdominal muscles roll your body up towards your thigh muscles while exhaling. To do this start with the head and neck and then the upper shoulders and finally crunch the abs. The motion should be like rolling a newspaper instead of going up and down like a see-saw. Once you have reached the top of the motion slowly lower yourself back down and repeat without resting your head on the floor.

Do three sets of 15 reps in a slow and controlled manner. Make sure your tense your abs at all times throughout the exercise.

4. Warm down
For your warm down it is a good idea to do some stretches. This helps with muscle recovery and keeps your midsection healthy and strong. The best stretch to do is the Upward Dog Yoga Pose.

How to do it:
To do the Upward Dog sit on your knees with your upper forehead touching the ground and your arms outstretched as far as they can go in front of you. Breathe out and as you breathe in slowly run your chin along the floor towards your hands and then curl yourself up so you have a nice bend in your back. Stretch your chin up, roll your shoulders back and tense your buttocks. You should feel a nice stretch in your back and abs. Continue to breathe. To come out of this stretch simply breathe in and as you breathe out go back in to the starting position. Rest for a few breaths.

Conclusion

This abs workout will be perfect for anyone who wants to strengthen their midsection and develop a flatter tummy. It will only take ten minutes but the results will be well worth your time. Remember, technique is paramount so make sure you do every exercise perfectly.

How to Get Sexy and Toned Legs

Would you like to have sexier legs? Do you want to turn your soft and chunky legs in to smooth, firm and toned ones? Well it is possible. In this post I am going to show you how to use some simple exercises and diet tips to make your legs sexy.

Exercises for Sexy Legs

The first thing you need to do if you want to get some sexy legs is start a regular exercise program. This exercise program needs to be made up of:

• Basic weight training
• High intensity cardio; and
• Simple stretching

Now I am not talking about a lot of exercise. Four times a week should be enough. But, the more time you can devote to your training the better your results will be. Be careful not to over train, however, as this will lead to exhaustion and poor muscle recovery.

Basic weight training
First we will look at the weight training aspect of getting sexy legs. There are certain exercises you can do that shape and build the muscles in your glutes, hamstrings, thighs and calf muscles. It is vital to do weights. Weight training not only makes your legs stronger and firmer, it burns a hell of a lot of fat.

Do not buy in to the myth that weight training will make your bulky. It won’t. Women simply do not have enough testosterone in their body to cause excessive muscle growth. Weight training is used to burn fat, increase the metabolism and strengthen the muscles.

Here are the exercises you need to do:

• The weighted squat:
  This exercise is the best exercise you can do for your lower body. It uses every muscle below your waist and is a fantastic way to burn fat and develop your firmer muscles.
• The weighted step up:
  This exercise is done by taking some medium heavy dumb bells and stepping up on to a stable bench or table. It is especially good for the glutes and thighs and is an essential exercise for sexy legs.
• The jumping squat:
  This exercise is done by squatting down to the ground with one foot forward and then springing in to the air as high as you can. Whilst in the air, change your feet so the back one is now in the front and repeat. This exercise is tough but brings super fast results.

Beginners should start with a light weight and perform as many sets as they feel comfortable doing. As you master the technique and become stronger you should add more weight and/or more repetitions so that your muscle development does not stagnate.

High intensity cardio
I always choose high intensity cardio over low intensity cardio. Why? Because it is so much better!

High intensity cardio like sprinting, stair runs, martial arts, boxing, etc. burn more calories. They also cause your heart rate to stay elevated long after the exercise session has finished meaning you will be burning fat long after you leave the gym.

The main advantage of HIC is that you can do everything you need in under 30 minutes. No more jogging on the treadmill for an hour and a half - just bang out 25 minutes of boxing class and you will have achieved so much more!

If you want to get sexy legs it is a good idea to choose HIC that targets your legs. For example, stair sprinting, running up hills and kickboxing are all excellent choices. If you want more traditional gym exercises you could do fast paced exercise bike riding, stair master or sprinting on the treadmill.

Try and do three sessions like this per week in order to get the maximum benefit.

Simple stretching

The last piece in the exercise part of our ’sexy legs puzzle’ is some simple stretching. Stretching is extremely important to the health of your legs and will keep them limber and firm. Take a look at the legs of any gymnast, martial artist or yoga instructor!

Yoga is my favorite way of stretching my legs because it is also extremely good for your health and mind. It is relaxing at the same time as being challenging. Some of the best workouts I have ever had have been in a yoga class as we did deep stance poses and stretches. You legs always feel rejuvenated and healthy after a good yoga class.

For a real challenge I recommend Hatha or Bikram Yoga. If you don’t feel like a new person after a yoga class I will personally write you an apology.

Diet tips for sexy legs

The best thing you can do if you want to have sexy legs is forget about whatever diet you are on. Forget about fad diets and milkshakes. Forget it all and start eating healthier.

Most diets either promote no fat or no carbs. Both of these are extreme. We need some fat to be healthy. We need some carbs to be healthy. The diet you need to be on is an all natural one.

If you want to get sexy legs (or just lose weight!) you should replace man made foods like chips, pasta, baked good, snack bars, candy, soda, etc. with natural foods like nuts, fruit, vegetables, water, milk, eggs, etc. When you do this you will find you get the perfect balance of proteins, carbs and fats and you will burn fat without even trying.

And you will become healthy. How many women do you know who have become sick, gaunt or moody when on a low carb diet? It happens for a reason - their body isn’t happy. Forget diets and go natural. This is the best thing you can do for your body.

You can get sexy and toned legs!

With a little bit of commitment, dedication and the right information you can have some extremely sexy and toned legs. Perform regular weights, cardio and stretching sessions and eat a natural diet. These are the secrets that you have always wanted.

Not as tough as you might have thought!