How to Lose Weight Fast: 3 Simple Steps, Based on Science

How to Lose Weight Fast: 3 Simple Steps, Based on Science

 There are many ways to lose a lot of weight fast.

However, most of them will make you hungry and unsatisfied.
If you don’t have iron willpower, then hunger will cause you to give up on these plans quickly.
The 3-step plan outlined here will:

• Reduce your appetite significantly.
• Make you lose weight fast, without being hungry.
• Improve your metabolic health at the same time.

All of this is supported by scientific studies.

Step 1 – Cut Back on Sugars and Starches

The most important part is to cut back on sugars and starches (carbs).
These are the foods that stimulate secretion of insulin the most. If you didn’t know already, insulin is the main fat storage hormone in the body.
When insulin goes down, fat has an easier time getting out of the fat stores and the body starts burning fats instead of carbs.
Another benefit of lowering insulin is that your kidneys shed excess sodium and water out of your body, which reduces bloat and unnecessary water weight (1, 2).
It is not uncommon to lose up to 10 pounds (sometimes more) in the first week of eating this way, both body fat and water weight.
This is a graph from a study comparing low-carb and low-fat diets in overweight/obese women (3).


The low-carb group is eating until fullness, while the low-fat group is calorie restricted and hungry.
Cut the carbs, lower your insulin and you will start to eat less calories automatically and without hunger (4).
Put simply, lowering your insulin puts fat loss on "autopilot"

Step 2 – Eat Protein, Fat and Vegetables

Each one of your meals should include a protein source, a fat source and low-carb vegetables. Constructing your meals in this way will automatically bring your carb intake into the recommended range of 20-50 grams per day.


Protein Sources:

• Meat – Beef, chicken, pork, lamb, bacon, etc.
• Fish and Seafood – Salmon, trout, shrimps, lobsters, etc.
• Eggs – Omega-3 enriched or pastured eggs are best.

The importance of eating plenty of protein can not be overstated.
This has been shown to boost metabolism by 80 to 100 calories per day (5, 6, 7).
High protein diets can also reduce obsessive thoughts about food by 60%, reduce desire for late-night snacking by half, and make you so full that you automatically eat 441 fewer calories per day… just by adding protein to your diet (8, 9).
When it comes to losing weight, protein is the king of nutrients. Period.
Low-Carb Vegetables:

• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Spinach
• Kale
• Brussels Sprouts
• Cabbage
• Swiss Chard
• Lettuce
• Cucumber
• Celery

Don’t be afraid to load your plate with these low-carb vegetables. You can eat massive amounts of them without going over 20-50 net carbs per day.

A diet based on meat and vegetables contains all the fiber, vitamins and minerals you need to be healthy. There is no physiological need for grains in the diet.

Fat Sources:

• Olive oil
• Coconut oil
• Avocado oil
• Butter
• Tallow

Eat 2-3 meals per day . If you find yourself hungry in the afternoon, add a 4th meal.
Don’t be afraid of eating fat, trying to do both low-carb AND low-fat at the same time is a recipe for failure. It will make you feel miserable and abandon the plan.
The best cooking fat to use is coconut oil. It is rich in fats called Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCTs). These fats are more fulfilling than others and can boost metabolism slightly (10, 11).
There is no reason to fear these natural fats, new studies show that saturated fat doesn’t raise your heart disease risk at all (12, 13).
To see how you can assemble your meals, check out this low carb meal plan and this list of low carb recipes.

Step 3 – Lift Weights 3 Times Per Week

You don’t need to exercise to lose weight on this plan, but it is recommended.
The best option is to go to the gym 3-4 times a week. Do a warm up, lift weights, then stretch.
If you’re new to the gym, ask a trainer for some advice.
By lifting weights, you will burn a few calories and prevent your metabolism from slowing down, which is a common side effect of losing weight (14, 15).
Studies on low-carb diets show that you can even gain a bit of muscle while losing significant amounts of body fat (16).
If lifting weights is not an option for you, then doing some easier cardio workouts like running, jogging, swimming or walking will suffice.

                                                                   

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Top Five Free Business Apps You’ve Never Heard About.

Top Five Free Business Apps You’ve Never Heard About.

This list is purely subjective, on one hand. On the other hand, I really do think that these are the best free business apps because I’ve looked at other lists and they all come with usual suspects, like Evernote, Dropbox or Skype. How very enlightening. NOT. So here is my version.

 

1.     Bitrix24

 

I hearby declare Bitrix24 the best free business app that you probably don’t know about. In fact, Bitrix24 is 35+ business tools inside a single platform – CRM, project management, employee management, call center, virtual office, cloud call center, document management, invoicing, email marketing and much more. There are three things that Bitrix24 does exceptionally well. First is CRM and client management. Second, collaboration, planning and project management. Third, human resources information system. One review called Bitrix24 ‘business management platform and I think that’s the best description for it. Or you can think of Bitrix24 as Salesforce+Skype+Dropbox+Basecamp in one. Totally free for 12 users. Available for iOS, Android, Web, Unix, Linux, Windows and MacOS.

2.     Qwirl

 

Qwirl is a bit difficult to explain, if you never tried it. Essentially, it turns any business document into an interactive webpage.  Think of Qwirl as free quotes and proposal software. Or a way to create beautiful presentations for your clients. Or reports for investors. That’s Qwirl. Founded by ex-Googlers, this service has all the chances to become the next Prezi

.

3.     Wave Accounting

 

I wish every service would have pricing page like WaveApps.  The service is absolutely and totally free (and it’s a very powerful accounting platform). It’s especially great at scanning receipts, which is done by simply using your mobile phone camera once you install the app called Receipts by Wave. Unlike Expensify which handles only expenses, as the name implies, Wave Accounting can be used as a payroll and invoicing solution.

4.     Bizagi

 

Bizagi is a free business process modeler solution used by more than 500,000 users worldwide. It is 100% based on BPMN notations, which is a de facto standard for business process automation nowadays. Granted not very many smaller businesses think about processes, standards and procedures, but if you are ready to grow, definitely give Bizagi a try.

5.     Schedulehead

 

Schedulehead is an employee scheduling service. As long as used by 10 employees and 1 administrator, it’s absolutely free of charge. The free service includes knowledge base and email notifications. If you operate your business with tablets and smartphones, ShiftCalendar may be a better choice, but for non-mobile workforce I think Schedulehead works better.  You may also want to consider upgrading to paid plans if you want your employees to receive text messages with their schedule updates.

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Technologie that will change the way you do everything

 Technologie that will change the way you do everything 

 

Augmented reality, or technologies that enhance the regular world around your eyes with visuals, continues to attract the interest of developers. In 2015, it will be adopted into more commercial applications.
Intel Corp. and Google recently announced a partnership that replaces Intel’s chips with Texas Instruments’ as the brains of Google’s next-generation Glass  . The two said they plan to promote Glass to companies such as hospital networks and manufacturers. Google has teamed with developers to build apps specific to the workplace. Augmented reality can also be used for training purposes, such as in emergency situations or during space or air travel.
Sony unveiled a Google Glass-like headset at the giant Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this year that can be affixed to a person’s regular lenses and superimpose high-resolution OLED images, videos and text in front of a person’s eye. Sony reportedly plans to start mass producing the smart eyewear later this 2015.

 

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How Lemon and Honey can help you lose weight in 7 days

How Lemon and Honey can help you lose weight in 7 days
Honey and Lemon are both naturally beneficial to the human wellbeing; individually they have vast arrays of usefulness in many areas of the human health needs.
They have natural cleansing properties that make their names come up frequently when we are either drawing up lists for natural detoxifiers or just talking about the health benefits of some of nature’s blessings.
Lemon for instance is rich in Pectin fiber, this fiber helps fight against cravings for food. When you don’t crave for more food, be you hungry or not, you can’t add weight.
Honey on the other hand is a dearly beloved, we know honey is rich in very many things, but without been told, we won’t really know it has some properties that do facilitate weight loss.
The presence of honey in our system helps make the liver release glucose, which is responsible for keeping the sugar level in the brain high and then makes the brain release those hormones responsible for burning fat. See how it works?
HOW TO MAKE IT?
Alkaline fruits are not supposed to be consumed in excess, because of what they might do to your teeth or your stomach lining, so this mixture of lemon and honey are supposed to be diluted, sort of, with warm water.
For an effective mixture, for a cup of warm honey and lemon drink, you would need:
1 teaspoon of honey, 2 teaspoons of lemon juice poured in a glass containing warm water.
Stir properly and make sure not to add any sweeteners, the mixture already has a great taste and flavor.
HOW IT WORKS:
Individually, lemon and honey can aid the process of fat burning to a very significant distance. Imagine what a combination of both would do to your weight problems. Constant intake of honey and lemon water would help in taking care of your weight problems, because both are great in helping the body lower the level of cholesterol by allowing the fat deposit in your body to be used as energy for normal body functions.
Drinking this mixture in the morning can be taken in the morning or maybe before going to bed, to put the fat burners to work. It can also come to your rescue when you know you had consumed a meal that is very oily and you don’t feel so great, just prepare and drink this very nice mixture, it would help detoxify your system and also aid in food digestion.
The presence of lemon in this mixture is one of the many reasons the drink actually works so well because lemon makes the body produce urine, so going to the bathroom often would help you get rid of water weight too. It is also a sort of laxative, which helps in loosening the stomach, thereby softening the stools we pass. Lemons also make the liver produce digestive enzymes which are known to be responsible for breaking down the food we eat.

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How Fast You Will Lose (and Other Benefits)

How Fast You Will Lose (and Other Benefits)

You can expect to lose 5-10 pounds of weight (sometimes more) in the first week, then consistent weight loss after that.
I can personally lose 3-4 lbs per week for a few weeks when I do this strictly.
If you’re new to dieting, then things will probably happen quickly. The more weight you have to lose, the faster you will lose it.
For the first few days, you might feel a bit strange. Your body has been burning carbs for all these years, it can take time for it to get used to burning fat instead.
It is called the “low carb flu” and is usually over within a few days. For me it takes 3. Adding some sodium to your diet can help with this, such as dissolving a bouillon cube in a cup of hot water and drinking it.
After that, most people report feeling very good, positive and energetic. At this point you will officially have become a “fat burning beast.”
Despite the decades of anti-fat hysteria, the low-carb diet also improves your health in many other ways:

• Blood Sugar tends to go way down on low-carb diets (29, 30).
• Triglycerides tend to go down (31, 32).
• Small, dense LDL (the bad) Cholesterol goes down (33, 34).
• HDL (the good) cholesterol goes up (35).
• Blood pressure improves significantly (36, 37).
• To top it all of, low-carb diets appear to be easier to follow than low-fat diets.

Bottom Line: You can expect to lose a lot of weight, but it depends on the person how quickly it will happen. Low-carb diets also improve your health in many other ways.

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No Equipment? No Excuses: 20 Exercises You Can Do At Home

• No gym,
• No weights,
• No equipment.

Can a decent workout be done? Absolutely. The number one excuse for not working out is a lack of time. I understand that, but the reality is you don’t need a lot of time to get a good workout at home in. You already have the only tool you will ever need to take yourself to peak health and fitness levels, your own body.

If you are serious about working out at home and changing your body, you should check out No Equipment No Excuses. It is the ultimate workout at home guide. These are the workouts I used to finally change my body. I also outline the nutrition changes I made to get where I am today.
With over 100 exercises to do at home, 66 tailored workouts and 5 long term plans you will never get bored reaching your fitness goals.
Now…here are a few exercises to help you start your own no equipment workout.

Lower Body

BW Squats
Do them with or without the couch. The couch just makes it a bit easier to get your glutes involved, which is really important when it comes to most lower body movements. Make sure to lead with your hips first, the tendency is to bend directly from your knees, but make the first move with your hips, let your knees follow. Once you get the hang of it this becomes a great warmup exercise.

Overhead Squats
This is another variation of the squat that will ensure you stretch out the fascia in the front of your body. The same technique points apply as in the squat, you should move first with your hips. However, this time we want to hold something overhead. In this picture you see me using a broomstick, but you can hold anything you want. If you want to progress, you can hold something heavy. If you want more information about the benefits of this exercise you can read more about Overhead Squats here.

Single Leg Squats
These are a tough exercise and a good progression from the squat. You can do them without support, or you can put a chair next to you and hold onto it. Again, be sure to lead from your hips first. These will be quite difficult for people at first, but it is important to persist. Go as deep as you can, you will find your strength and mobility increase and improve and you will become much more efficient with time.

Single Leg Stiff Leg Dead lifts
These will really get your hamstrings going, you don’t need to hold anything as it is tough eccentric work alone. If you want to progress you can hold a heavy book, ball or something of that size out in front of you. Be sure to go down slowly, bend your knee slightly at the start of the exercise but don’t bend it anymore as you are moving. All the movement should come from the hips. As soon as you feel a pull on your hamstring you know you have bent forward enough, slowly bring your body back upright.

This video also shows the exercise in motion.
Overhead Lunges
This is a classic exercise to do at home with a little twist. Holding something overhead really stretches out your fascia and gives you an extra hip flexor stretch. Doesn’t matter what it is. Start with your feet together and step out into the lunge. Ensure that you step far enough so that your knee does not go in front of your toe, and to make sure you get good hip flexor stretches. I use a broom in this picture, but you can also hold a book or something light overhead.

Check out this video to see the exercise in motion.
Side Lunges
These are pretty tough, a great alternative to lunges and also give you a stretch in your groin and adductors. Step out to the side and try to keep your toes pointing forward. Go as far down in the lunge as you can, if you feel any pain in the knee stop at that point. You will find as you get stronger you will be able to go further down into your side lunge as you progress. A great workout without weights.

You can also see this exercise in motion.
Calf Raises
If you have a step to do this on it is better, if not no problem. Start with two legs and slowly lower your self. The count should be two beats down and one beat up. If two legs is to easy, move onto one leg. Although this is a very isolated exercise, I find it very important to help keep your knees healthy.

Step Ups
These are really good for your legs and your bum. Find a stable chair and you can get started. If the exercise is too easy find something heavy to hold to your chest or put a back pack on your back. Start doing these slowly and controlled on the way down.

Bridges
This is one of my favourite exercises and will really build up your bum. You should start with two legs on the floor, press up through your heels until your body is straight. Once you have mastered the two leg version, you can try the one leg. The same principles apply, push through your heels to make sure you really engage your bum! If that becomes too easy, put your foot up on a chair or couch and really work those glutes!


Reverse Hypers
Bit of a different one thrown in here, this is great for your butt. You can also hold onto a table. The important thing is that your hips hang off and your legs don’t touch the ground. Lift up using your hamstrings, glutes and lower back. This exercise is very effective for your posterior chain. Ensure that you lift up slowly.

I haven’t included any explosive/ jumping movements in this list, there are too many and that can be for another post. This is just purely strength work.

Upper Body

Pushups and Alternatives
There are so many alternatives to pushups that you can do at home. Check out this post on Pushups if you want more information about their benefits. You should keep your hands just slightly than shoulder width apart and ensure that your body is straight throughout the whole pushup. Another variation of the pushup is included in this video, 6 exercises to do at home.

• Normal Pushups
• T Pushups
• Pushups with weight/ backpack on
• Single arm Pushups
• Single arm wall pushups
• Clap Pushups (explosive)
• Incline Pushups (easier), you can also get on your knees as shown in the picture.
• Decline Pushups (Harder, with feet up on something)

Lying Pullups
Admittedly these look a little strange, but they work. If you are going to do pushups, you should do a set of these to balance out. If you have something you can lie under,  such as a fence, two chairs with a broom stick across them or any surface or bar to pull up it is equally effective. These work your upper back.


Tricep Dips
This is a classic exercise that works your triceps. To progress put your feet up onto another chair.

There are many more upper body exercises to do at home, so make sure your sign up to the blog to receive your free ebook.

Abdominals, Activation, Core and Random Exercises

There is a massive amount of different ab exercises out there. There are a lot of situp variations that many of you are familiar with, I prefer you start working with prone holds to help save your lower back.
Prone Hold and Variations
In my opinion these are the ultimate ab exercise. Not only will you work your core and get rock hard abs, you will also save your back. being able to perform these for more than 2 minutes has been shown to decrease back pain considerably. If you want great abs, you should be including these. If you want to see more variations, check out this post on Prone Holds.

Supermans
These are great for stability, a good addition to your workout without weights. You will activate your glutes, as well as help your core and abs in the push up position version. Make sure you do the movement slowly and hold at the top for a beat. Once you get a hang of the ones on the floor, you can progress to the version in the push up position.
 
Glute Lifts
Great for activating and strengthening your bum. Bend your leg to 90 degrees, and then push your heel to the roof. This will ensure you are squeezing your bum muscles, and will help to activate them. Your bum is really important in a lot of movements so you want to make sure it’s functioning properly.

Arabesque
This one is great for activating your bum and is a really good balance exercise. Try to hold for 30 seconds. You’ll feel your quad too. You can do this on or off the cushion, the cushion just makes it harder and adds extra stability work.

Dead Bugs
A great abdominal and core stability workout. Lay on the floor with your arms and legs up as shown in the picture. From here you need to drop your arm and leg on the same side. Make sure your leg doesn’t touch the floor. Bring them slowly back up and repeat.

Inchworm
I like this one. It’s almost a flexibility one but I can throw it in there because it is working stabilizers and upper body a little. Hence it comes under the random tag. Gets the hamstrings loose and well as hitting your shoulders and core as you move down into the pushup position.
Bird Dog

Another one for activating your bum, as well as working on core stability. Alternate sides and hold for a second once your arm and leg are in the air. Make sure your body is straight.

Just remember you can always exercise at home without equipment and I hope this list opens your eyes to how easily you can get a full body workout. If you have any favourite home exercises without equipment that you do, leave a comment!
If you are serious about losing fat and changing your body for good then you are at the right place. If you are willing to put in a little bit of effort to make amazing changes, then you should check out thiscustomized home workout program. Click the banner below to read more about how I used all the exercises above (and more) and made key nutrition changes to get my body to where it is today.

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