faster.
Try a series of sun salutations in the morning. These require you to learn only a few simple postures and repeat them in a flow series. There are lots of websites and DVDs with sun salutation sequences available.
Tip 30: Using Muscle Confusion to Burn Maximum Calories
If you work the same muscle group over and over, you start to get diminishing rewards. Your body grows accustomed to the exercises and stops working as hard as it first needed to. However, you can avoid this by mixing things up.
Muscle confusion involves working different muscle groups on different days. You might work your core on Monday, your arms on Wednesday, and your legs on Friday. In between, you can do cardio to burn more calories while you give your muscles time to repair.
Switching up your workout routine will help your body develop muscle tissue faster. The more muscle you have, the faster you’ll burn calories – even when you’re relaxing.
Tip 31: The Best Exercises for Arms
Working your arms will give you more than just sexy sculpted biceps; it will help you burn more calories, too!
The effect is two-fold. First, you’ll actively burn calories while you do the strength-building exercises. Then, you’ll passively burn more calories after you build more muscle tissue.
For stronger, leaner arms, try these classic exercises: push-ups, pull-ups, bicep curls, tricep kickbacks and arm rows.
You can find illustrated guides online to walk you through these effective exercises. Do them every other day to firm up fast and burn extra calories.
Tip 32: The Best Exercises for Legs
When you’re not giving your arms a workout, you can focus on building stronger legs. Like arms, legs can benefit from a host of classic exercises that don’t require any special equipment to do.
Try these favorites: squats, wall-sits and walking lunges. They will firm up your legs and give you more muscle mass, which increases the amount of calories you burn each day.
Those are examples of exercises you can do anywhere. If you prefer to work your legs at the gym, try leg presses, leg curls and the stair-climber. Machines that target the adductor and abductor muscles are also a good choice to round out your total leg workout.
Tip 33: Sculpt Your Abs to Burn More Calories
Chiseled abs are a dream for many dieters. While they’re not a realistic goal for everyone (your genetics plays a part in whether or not you can develop visible ab muscles), most people can get them by losing enough body fat and doing the right exercises.
The best ab-ripping exercises are variations on crunches and leg-lifts. Try these five great moves for sleek abs: bicycle crunches, vertical leg crunch, long arm crunch, reverse crunch and plank position.
All of those exercises have been listed by the American Council for Exercise as highly effective ways to target your abdominal muscles. None of them require extra equipment so you can do them in the comfort of your own home. A quick online search will turn up step-by-step guides with photos.
Tip 34: Exercising with Kids Underfoot
As any new parent will tell you, kids are a full-time job unto themselves. But many moms and dads regard the birth of a child as a new phase in life, and they want to take the opportunity to shed excess pounds on a quest to be the best parent they can be.
So how do busy parents make time when they have a demanding infant or toddler underfoot? There are several tactics you can employ.
First, try to get someone to watch the baby while you sneak in a workout. Your spouse or parents might cherish the thought of having some regular one-on-one time with the new arrival.
If babysitters are scarce, try some exercises you can do with the baby. If you have an infant, join a stroller walking club for fun and fitness. If you have a toddler or older child, take them to the park or swimming pool. You’ll have a good time while you get fit!
When you’re all out of options, sneak in a home workout when baby is napping. Even a 10-minute circuit of the above-mentioned exercises (Tips 31–33) can help you get in better shape.
Tip 35: Burn More Calories While You Run Errands
Your calorie burning doesn’t have to be limited to workout sessions. In fact, you can burn calories all day long while you go about your daily tasks.
Think about it: How much time do you spend sitting in traffic, standing in line at the grocery store, and sitting at a desk? That’s a lot of sedentary time you could spend getting a little extra calorie burn.
When you’re driving around, try sitting up straight and sucking in your stomach. Visualize your bellybutton pulling back toward your spine. Hold this clench for 10 seconds, then release. Repeat as often as you can.
Butt-squeezes sound funny, but they are an excellent way to tone your backside. Plus, nobody will even realize you’re doing them! While sitting or standing, clench your glutes as hard as you can. Hold for a count of 10, release, and repeat. Practice until you can hold the clench for 30 seconds.
Tip 36: Calculate your BMR
Before you burn calories, you need to know how many calories your body needs in order to function properly. You can find this out by calculating your basal metabolic rate, or BMR.
There are many detailed BMR calculators online, but here are some simple rules that will give you a good estimate of your caloric needs:
To lose weight, you need to eat 12 to 13 calories per pound of body weight.
To maintain your weight, you need 15 to 16 calories per pound.
To gain weight, you need 18 to 19 calories per pound.
Thus, a 150-pound person needs at least 1,800 calories each day to lose weight and keep their body running efficiently. This requirement can vary according to gender, age, medical conditions and activity level. You can receive more customized results from online BMR calculators or your health care provider.
Tip 37: Find Your Target Heart Rate
To get the most benefit from your workouts, the American Heart Association recommends staying within your target heart rate range, which is your resting heart rate plus 50–85%. The Mayo Clinic website has a quick target heart rate calculator you can use.
Of course, measuring your target heart rate while you’re working out can be a little complicated. The AHA also recommends the “conversation pace” measurement. If you can talk while you work out, you’re probably going at a good pace. If you can sing while working out, you need to push yourself a little harder. If you cannot talk without a lot of effort, you could be working out too hard.
Tip 38: Burn Calories While You Work
Do you have a desk job that doesn’t provide many opportunities to be physically active? If so, don’t despair; with a little creativity, you can burn extra calories while you sit at your desk.
You can certainly stretch your arms, shoulders and neck while sitting down. These stretches will keep you from becoming cramped, and they will also burn a few calories. Conscious fidgeting – like tapping your feet, changing position, and getting up to walk around – can burn several hundreds of calories each day. Even chewing gum will burn an additional 11 calories per hour, according to Mayo Clinic researchers.
If you have the space and money, you can even find tiny exercise bikes that fit beneath a desk. You can pedal while you work, burning 200–300 calories per hour.
Tip 39: Burn Calories in Your Garden
Many people don’t realize that gardening is hard work until they try it for themselves, but it’s a real calorie-burner. Check out the number of calories a 150-pound person would burn during an hour of the following activities:
General gardening tasks burn about 270 calories. One hour of digging and spading burns 340 calories. An hour of picking vegetables and flowers results in a loss of 210 calories. Laying sod for an hour will burn 340 calories.
Planting trees and shrubs burns 310 calories per hour. Trimming shrubs and trees for an hour will burn 306 calories. So will an hour of weeding. Raking the lawn for an hour burns 292 calories.
And the best gardening activity
for burning calories is mowing the yard with a push mower. One hour at this task will leave you with a better-looking yard and 400 calories burned!
Tip 40: Fun Aerobic Exercises that Won’t Bore You
Aerobic exercise doesn’t have to be a chore. In fact, boredom is a leading reason why many people don’t stick to their exercise routines. Who wants to jog in one place on a treadmill every day?
Luckily, some of the coolest activities are also great calorie-burners! A 150-pound person burns 408 calories an hour playing a casual game of basketball. That same person would burn 400 calories by hitting a punching bag for an hour, or 340 calories during an hour of playground games.
A touch football game burns 544 calories per hour. Horseback riding burns 270 calories per hour, and you’ll burn an additional 232 if you unsaddle and groom the horse afterward. Motocross also burns 270 calories an hour.
One hour of roller-skating will provide lots of entertainment and burn 476 calories. An easy-paced game of softball or baseball burns 340 calories an hour, whereas a casual racquetball game burns 476.
What’s a quick, easy, fun and inexpensive way to burn major calories? Jumping rope! A 150-pound person will burn a whopping 680 calories an hour.
Tip 41: Fat-Burning Green Tea
Many weight-loss supplements contain green tea extract, and green tea has definitely been promoted in the headlines as a healthy drink that can help you burn fat. But are the claims true?
Luckily, yes! Green tea can help you burn more calories in a variety of ways. First, because