In A Nutshell

My Fitness Trainer.com is designed to teach you the principles of fat loss and improved health in a step-by-step, learn-as-you-go manner.  But what if you don't like waiting?  Here's what you'll learn on this site, in a nutshell:

Calories

There is an optimum number of calories for you to eat to best fuel your fat-burning-machine.  This number can change often, depending on your activity level, and your muscle mass.  For example, if you gain 2 pounds of muscle, you could burn up to 100 more calories per day.  One reason people plateau on weight loss programs is because they always eat the same number of calories no matter what their individual body needs.  Other websites and books often either recommend the same calorie goal for everyone, or use less reliable means to determine calorie goals.  Your online personal trainer at My Fitness Trainer.com will use your lean body mass to determine your starting calorie goal.  After that, it will adjust your calorie goal depending on the results.  For example, if your body indicates that it needs more fuel (by losing muscle mass) the program will up your calorie goal.  This personalization is not currently available on any other website or in any book that I know of. 

Fiber

On your personal fitness pages at My Fitness Trainer.com, you'll learn about the importance of getting adequate fiber in your diet.  By tracking your fiber intake, you naturally eat higher-quality food.  This higher-quality food tends to have more vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, and other important benefits.  Also, the fiber in the food helps you feel full longer.  Fiber has no calories, but it fills you up- what could be better than that?  When you eat good food with the nutrients you need, cravings are significantly reduced.  Also, when you choose high-fiber foods, you'll notice that you get more food on the plate for the same calories.  This will help you to eat a reduced-calorie diet without feeling hungry or deprived. 

Fiber is only found in foods that come from plants.  No meat or animal products have fiber.  This doesn't mean that you aren't allowed to eat meat on this program.  On the contrary, there are no foods that are forbidden.  What it does mean, however, is that in order to reach your fiber goals each day, you'll have to limit the calories that come from these foods.  One way to do this is to choose lean meats like seafood, poultry, and the leanest cuts of beef. 

Water

Studies have shown that people can lose weight just by increasing their water intake!  It is critical that you get enough water.  You may have heard that you should get 8 glasses of water a day, but this is the absolute bare minimum.  When you are working out and eating a high-fiber diet, you need way more water.  I recommend drinking as much water as you can.  Even as much as a gallon a day can be beneficial.  It is possible to drink too much water, but it's pretty hard to do. 

There are many reasons to focus on getting enough water to drink.  Drinking water cleans the liver, which has an important role in fat metabolism.  If the liver gets clogged, fat burning is slowed.  Without adequate water intake, fiber can be constipating.  A deficiency of water intake can cause water retention, which can make you look and feel bloated.  This can also cause you to gain weight.  Water can help you overcome illnesses faster and get back to the gym sooner.  If water is your drink of choice you won't waste calories on beverages, so you'll get to eat more.  There are hundreds of reasons to drink water.

Cardio

Cardiovascular exercise works your heart.  It can reduce your risk for heart disease, stroke, and more.  It is also a great way to burn fat.  It's important that you vary your method of cardio exercise.  If you always do the same thing, it won't challenge your body and cause it to adapt.  Your online fitness trainer will show you all kinds of ways to get your cardio done.  It'll also help you work up to a higher level of activity, starting with only 5 minutes a day. 

Strength Training

Strength training is one of the best kept secrets to fat loss.  Even those who recognize its value rarely know how to make it work for them.  Simply going through the motions will not give you the desired result.  Nor will doing the same exercises every day.  Your online personal trainer will help you to learn more than one hundred new exercises.  The variety will not only keep you from getting bored, but it will keep your fat-burning-machine doing what it should: burning fat.  It is also very important to stretch your muscles in order to help them heal. 

Here is how strength training burns fat: First, you damage your muscles.  When you work your muscles harder than they're used to working, you make tiny tears in the muscle fibers.  When your body (your fat-burning-machine) heals this muscle damage, its main fuel is fat.  It collects particles of fat from all over your body, carries them through your blood, and uses the energy from the fat to heal the muscle. 

As important as it is to "damage" your muscle with a good quality strength-training workout, it's equally important to heal.  The time when your body heals the best is when you're sleeping.  That's why you may sense that you need more sleep now that you're working out hard.

Unfortunately, the concept of "spot training" is a myth.  Although focusing on a certain area of your body (like the abs, for example) can help you gain strength and muscle mass there, you can't choose where the fat goes from first.  That is entirely up to your body and genetics.  Some people who fall for the ab gadgets marketing techniques have actually seen their stomachs get bigger.  This is because they grew the muscle, but didn't lose the fat.  The only way to be sure that you lose fat from your stomach (or any other body part, for that matter) is to lose fat overall.  That is done by eating the right number of calories with high-quality food, and exercising all of your major muscles.

Supplementation

Weight-loss supplements are very tempting.  Don't waste your time or money on them.  There is yet to be discovered a drug or herb that causes long-term weight loss.  On the contrary, most are eventually proven dangerous, or at least harmful to your fat-burning machine.  Remember, to permanently lose body fat, you need to be functioning at peak levels.  Poisoning your body is not the way to do it.  If you do want a pill that will help you lose weight, there is one, though: the multivitamin.  It's hard to get enough vitamins and minerals in the foods you eat each day, and even harder when you're following a restricted calorie meal plan.  Think of a multivitamin as insurance for maintaining your fat-burning machine.  It can help keep you healthy, and keep your body happy.  A happy body burns fat.

Sleep

Have you ever wished that sleeping were at the top of your to-do list?  Well, it's time to at least get it on the list.  Remember that a happy body burns fat, and an exhausted body is not happy.  When you strength train effectively, your body needs sleep to heal and burn fat.  Try to get a minimum of 8 hours of sleep a night, and naps are allowed!

Food Journaling

Studies have shown that simply writing down what you eat can help you to lose weight.  Your online personal trainer program has a food journal that will keep track of foods you've eaten before, so you won't have to enter the calories and fiber for each food more than once.  The program will help you keep track of how many calories you have left for the day, and how far you are from your fiber intake goal.  You will also have access to a wonderful recipe library with high-quality recipes.