The sad fact is that two out of three Americans are overweight or obese. It is time to stop blaming the abundance of fast food restaurants, convenience store junk foods and diet fads and look at the root cause. The real reason lies in the fact that people today eat not only larger portions at the dinner table than they did fifty years ago, but snack on an abundance of sugar, starch and unhealthy foods all throughout the day. Couple this with a lack of physical exercise, and countless excuses of why not to have some sort of an activity and you have the real reason for that spare tire around your midsection or that extra 15 pounds on the scale.

Studies show that genetics does have a part in determining how your body will gain weight depending on your metabolism (the speed at which your body burns calories). None the less, you do have a choice in what you put in your mouth and what you do during your free time. The saying, “You are what you eat” is literally true. Furthermore, if you do not expend the extra calories you take in during the day, then these calories do nothing but transform themselves into fat.

However, there is hope. A balanced diet and regular exercise keeps your body healthy, while elevating your mood and outlook on life as well as speeding your otherwise slow metabolism. Easier said than done, but there are hundreds of thousands of people who have taken the initiative and decided on changing the lifestyle and health style for the better. Studies show that no matter how old you are with added muscle your metabolism will increase therefore increasing your body’s capabilities of burning fat even while you are sleeping.

The simple fact that you are reading this article proves you are ready and want to change. Stop looking for excuses why you could not go to the gym for an hour or why you would rather go to the fast food drive through instead of preparing a healthy meal that can be shared by everyone in your family. It is not easy to put yourself first, but you can do it. In order to deal with the other people in your life (including partners, children, business associates, friends) you have to deal with yourself. You are worth the time and the energy. It is a lot easier to get up every morning and go to the gym than it is to look in the mirror and not like what you see. By recognizing and committing to the changes that needs to be done for you to live and feel better about yourself is a starting point to a new life, your life.

A lot of people have made the same promises of going to the gym and changing their diets numerous times and you might be even one of them. 90% of those people either give up or fail only after 3-4 weeks of trying. This is a testament that a lot of people are unprepared and committing to something that they do not fully understand therefore do not get the changes that they want. In order to succeed, and keep you motivated with the task at hand device a proper plan and get the proper information that is relative to what you would like to achieve. Changes do not happen overnight, they take time and patience as well as a whole lot of commitment. The energy boost that you get from your workouts are instantaneous and can spill over to you daily activity however the physical changes will not be taking effect until about 5-7 weeks into the program. So, do not be discouraged if you hop on the scale and you find that you weigh the same weight. Physical changes will not be as obvious to you as you might think and using the scale as a measuring stick can be deceiving. Because we look at ourselves in the mirror everyday we fail to see the subtle changes that our body goes through, and just because we weight the same today than we did 1-2 weeks ago that does not mean nothing has change.

Pictures are worth a thousand words, as a measuring stick for your progress, if you take a picture of yourself in either your shorts or swimsuits every 3-4 weeks and compare them, only then will you see the changes that you’ve made to your body. Another alternative of seeing your progress is with the use of your old pants, seeing if they are looser and a better fit, not seeing that angry red ring that you develop around your torso every time you put your pants on. It is a given fact that fat is a lot denser than muscle, a pound of fat is equal to a pound of muscle though most people think otherwise. Muscle is a leaner and therefore takes a lot less space in your body and so you can look leaner and thinner today that you did 2-3 weeks ago but still weigh the same weight.

Whatever the goal is there are the three principles that remains constant – a) proper workout/routine b) nutrition and diet c) rest. The difference in achieving your desired goal is the understanding of how to manipulate these principles in working for you, and how these principles must work in unison. Below is a breakdown of how a slight change in your routines, and your eating habits can put you on the road to a better and healthier you.

Workout/Routine
There are tones of them out there, each are designed specifically to compliment or meet a person(s) goal whether he/she is an athlete going for speed, endurance or stamina, or is trying to gain weight muscle mass or for someone who wants to rehab an injury. The point is, you cannot go wrong by going to the gym.

Below are a couple of workout programs that you can try or incorporate into your workout. These routines focus mainly on working with free weights three times a week and cardiovascular exercise three times a week alternating everyday for no more than 60-75 minutes. The weight program will consist of less weights and higher repetitions with 3-4 sets and shorter rest period between sets and exercises so you can maximize your energy output during the exercise. Weightlifting workouts can be done on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Cardiovascular exercises which would be slotted on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays could range from aerobic exercises, elliptical machines, stationary bikes or even a pickup game of a sport of your choice. Depending on the chosen activity a cardio session can range from 30-60 minutes. With added intensity in your cardio exercise your body will burn more calories of fat even after your exercise for you will increase the number of growth hormones that your body will produce. Growth hormones are the key players in your fight with fat, the more growth hormones the better your chances of getting rid of your fat.