Doing countless crunches, sit ups and torso twists will not get rid of the belly fat. Strengthening your midsection is critical for back support and core strength for your entire body. But the key to losing fat is diet and cardio. Focus on those 2 items and before you know it you’ll be shedding inches from your midsection and other areas.

Here are a few tps to get you started.

1. Fist thing in the morning do 20 minutes of cardio on an empty stomach. This will help to jump start your metabolism and energizing the body.

2. Cut back on fatty foods and carbs. You don’t have to cut them completely but cutting back will help a lot.

3. Eat several small meals through the day. This will keep your metabolism burning at full capacity.

Develop your plan, stick with it, and before long you’ll start seeing results.

Popularity: 26% [?]

The first month of my new quest I easily lost 20 pounds. The next month and a half I have basically just maintained and haven’t lost a single pound. I think I have finally figured out why. The first month of the challenge I was very strict in my diet and exercise with a specific goal in mind. All I had to do was make it to my birthday and then I could have a cheat day. Eat a nice meal and have some beers. I was honest to myself and made the goal. Since then I haven’t had a goal to make it to, so the desire to cheat comes more frequently. I think to myself, well since I don’t have a goal in mind why don’t I just try and make it to the weekend.

I’ve decided that in order to start making progress again I am going to have to set a goal. Once I reach the goal I can reward myself with somthing I am a sucker for, like Cheese Cake or beer. Then set another and before long I will have achieved my ultimate goal of being in shape.

First goal. Make it to April 18th, 2008. That is when my vacation starts. Should be doable since its not even a full month away.

Popularity: 56% [?]

The winter blahs have been taking their toll for a few weeks now.  February and these weeks of March have been tough on my motivation and dedication.  But if we’re going to be in shape for summer, time is running out.  We must re-dedicate ourselves and stick to the diet and workouts.

Men’s health has a great article on staying motivated. You can read it here.

These two are my favorites:
7. Do a daily gut check
Place your fingers on your belly and inhale deeply so that it expands. As you exhale, contract your abdominal muscles and push your fingertips against your hard abdominal wall. Now pinch. “You’re holding pure fat between your fingers,” says Tom Seabourne, Ph.D., author of Athletic Abs. Do this every day, 30 minutes before your workout, and you’ll find that you’ll rarely decide to skip it.

20. Blackmail yourself
Take a picture of yourself shirtless, holding a sign that shows your e-mail address. Then e-mail it to a trusted but sadistic friend, with the following instructions: “If I don’t send you a new picture that shows serious improvement in 12 weeks, post this photo at hotornot.com and send the link to the addresses listed below….” (Include as many e-mail addresses — especially of female acquaintances — as possible.) “It’s nasty, but extremely effective,” says Alwyn Cosgrove.

Popularity: 55% [?]

I figure since I am trapped inside today, due to a major snow storm rolling through I’d do some linking to sites and videos that covered the Arnold Fitness Expo. Good thing it was last weekend and not this weekend. Would have been canceled or low turnout.

OK so on to the linking.

The official Arnold Fitness Expo site

Testosterone has some nice video and pictures by Chris Sugart

Bodybuilding.com of course always has good coverage. Check it out.

Female Muscle backstage with some female bodybuilders

Female Muscle has several other Arnold 2008 posts

Popularity: 58% [?]

Well February has come and gone and my results were not the desired ones. In fact my progress bar flat lined for the month. I weighed 226 at the beginning of the month and 226 at the end of the month. I wish I could sat that I put on more muscle and lost some fat but that just isn’t the case. I am exactly the same. Now after going to the Arnold fitness Expo over the weekend I have a new found motivation level and still have the desire to keep pushing forward. I’m going to dial in my diet even more and really push through this stagnant period. My new goal is to drop below 200 by the time I go on vacation April 12th.

So how do I plan on getting there? Well that first thing is to make sure that my caloric intake is right for sustaining the types of weight loss I am looking for. Secondly I am going to somehow overcome the barrier that I seem to have with doing any type of exercise early in the morning. I want to at least get 20 minutes of cardio in each morning to get my metabolism going. Anything from walking briskly, jogging, jumping rope, or tabata.

Also going to continue taking in a ton of water and keep on my supplements. Through the month I will see where and what I need to adjust and figure out one way or another how to get these 26 unwanted pounds.

Popularity: 64% [?]