Choose your workouts and burn calories!

My sister has started her battle with weight again recently, since summer is obviously here already. Her plan is a combination of diet and exercise, at my recommendation, and she is doing this slowly – no more than 1kg each week. I am sure many women (or some men) have been struggling with their weights, and for some it’s a life long battle; after all not all of us ar blessed with super model genes. Therefore, different forms and shapes of weight loss plans are taken and followed around the world.

Some recent swear-by diet plans include the Zone, Atkins, South Beach, low-carb diet, Slimfast shakes, and some adopt the homemade crash diet like cabbage soup diet, Master Detox diet, apple diet, yogurt drink diet and the recent crazy frenzy plan from Japan – banana diet. Some people take pills to suppress appetite, boost their metabolism, cut calorie, block fat, block carbohydrate…etc, so Hoodia, Acai berry, Alli, Chromax, MetaboLife, Reductil..etc.  or more alternative approach like acupuncture, aromatherapy, will power weight loss..etc. The list just goes on and on. But I can assure you that any crash weight loss plan can and will give you speedy result, but you will gain the weight back and usually you will gain more back than you have lost. And medical doctors will tell you that yo-yo dieting puts your health at risk.

I encouraged her to eat right and exercise regularly as suggested by the experts from The Wellness Wonderland, and not just to have a smaller number on scale, but to live a healthier life style. We have quite different body types, but share same love when it comes to good. Friends all know that I am a foodie; I enjoy gourmet food and love snacking during the day. There is no way I will give up my daily cakes and ice cream – yes, I eat those every single day. So how does a foodie can lose 1kg or keep reasonable weight? I am talking about reasonable not super model. Then math is quite simple – burn 300 to 500 calories a day or say 2,100 to 3,500 calories a week. Here is the chart –

Find the number of calories you need to burn, and find something you like to do and stick to it. When it gets bored or seems stop working then challenge yourself by tough up the effort level or try something fun and different to spice it up your exercise routines. If you think you need a new workout environment, then you may benefit from knowing how many lifetime fitness locations are there.

Take myself as an example – I love running outdoors, rain and shine, and unless the weather is too severe otherwise I won’t step on a treadmill. Treadmill simply drives me crazy and can’t even do it for more than 5 minutes. I run 3 times a week, 5 miles on  Tue, Thur and Sat. On Mon, Wed and Friday I workout at gym. To get a whole body workout and get my heart rate up, I work on Elliptical machine. I always make sure I burn 300 calories at least, which takes me about 38 mines. I am not into body building, but do want stronger arms and shoulder to help me run faster and longer. Therefore, I do 200 x abs crunches, and weight trainings – smaller weights but more repeats. When schedules allowed, I will do yoga to stretch my muscle. However, I found yoga a very personal thing, so I have to have the right karmawith the instructor or I will just practice with Rodney Yee Power Yoga DVD.

I am not sure how many Kgs  my sister will lose, and how many jeans sizes she will drop. But I assure her that once she starts the workout she picks, she will immediately find herself more energized and confident. And stick to it for at least two weeks, she will see a slimmer and trimmer body for summer and days to come.