When is the best time of day to do your aerobic exercise? The answer is any time! The most important thing is that you just do it. Continuous cardiovascular exercise, such as walking, jogging, stair climbing, or cycling, sustained for at least 30 minutes, will burn body fat no matter when you do it. However, if you want to get the maximum benefits possible from every minute you invest in your workouts, then you should consider getting up early and doing cardio before you eat your first meal – even if you’re not a “morning person.” Early morning aerobic exercise on an empty stomach has three major advantages over exercising later in the day:

Early in the morning before you eat, your levels of muscle and liver glycogen (stored carbohydrate) are low. If you eat dinner at 7 p.m and you eat breakfast at 7 a.m., that’s 12 hours without food. During this 12-hour overnight fast, your levels of glycogen slowly decline to provide glucose for various bodily functions that go on even while you sleep. As a result, you wake up in the morning with depleted glycogen and lower blood sugar – the optimum environment for burning fat instead of carbohydrate. How much more fat you’ll burn is uncertain, but some studies have suggested that up to 300% more fat is burned when cardio is done in a fasted, glycogen-depleted state.

So how exactly does this work? It’s quite simple, really. Carbohydrate (glycogen) is your body’s primary and preferred energy source. When your primary fuel source is in short supply, this forces your body to tap into its secondary or reserve energy source; body fat. If you do cardio immediately after eating a meal, you’ll still burn fat, but you’ll burn less of it because you’ll be burning off the carbohydrates you ate first. You always burn a combination of fat and carbohydrate for fuel, but depending on when you exercise, you can burn a greater proportion of fat relative to carbohydrate. If doing cardio first thing in the morning is not an option for you, then the second best time to do it would be immediately after weight training. Lifting weights is anaerobic (carbohydrate-burning) by nature, and therefore depletes muscle glycogen. That’s why a post lifting cardio session has a similar effect as morning cardio on an empty stomach.

The second benefit you’ll get from early morning cardio sessions is what I call the “afterburn” effect. When you do a cardio session in the morning, you not only burn fat during the session, but you also continue to burn fat at an accelerated rate after the workout. Why? Because an intense session of cardiovascular exercise can keep your metabolism elevated for hours after the session is over. If you do cardio at night, you will still burn fat during the session, so you definitely benefit from it. However, nighttime cardio fails to take advantage of the “afterburn” effect because your metabolism drops like a ton of bricks as soon as you go to sleep. While you sleep, your metabolic rate is slower than any other time of the day.

Burning more fat isn’t the only reason you should do your cardio early. The third benefit of morning workouts is the “rush” and feeling of accomplishment that stays with you all day long after an invigorating workout. Exercise can become a pleasant and enjoyable experience, but the more difficult or challenging it is for you, the more important it is to get it out of the way early. When you put off any task you consider unpleasant, it hangs over you all day long, leaving you with a feeling of guilt, stress and incompleteness (not to mention that you are more likely to “blow off” an evening workout if you are tired from a long day at work or if your pals try to persuade you to join them at the pub for happy hour.)

You might find it hard to wake up early in the morning and get motivated to workout. But think back for a moment to a time in your life when you tackled a difficult task and you finished it. Didn’t you feel great afterwards? Completing any task, especially a physically challenging one, gives you a “buzz.” When the task is exercise, the buzz is physiological and psychological. Physiologically, exercise releases endorphins in your body. Endorphins are opiate-like hormones hundreds of times more powerful than the strongest morphine. Endorphins create a natural “high” that makes you feel positively euphoric! Endorphins reduce stress, improve your mood, increase circulation and relieve pain. The “high” is partly psychological too. Getting up early and successfully achieving a small goal kick starts your day and gives you feelings of completion, satisfaction and accomplishment. For the rest of the day you feel happy and you feel less stress knowing that the most difficult part of the day is behind you.

So, you say you’re not a morning person? Take heart; neither am I. I can sleep in like you wouldn’t believe! But I get up anyway because I know the effort is worth the results. When I have a bodybuilding goal that I am clearly focused on, such as reaching 4% or 5% body fat for a competition, I’m on my Stairmaster for 45 minutes every morning at the crack of dawn without fail. Sure it’s a challenge at first, but you know what? After a few short weeks, It’s no longer a chore and I’m “in the groove” – and you will be too. Just try it. Make a commitment to yourself to do it for just 21 days. Once those 21 days have gone by, you’ll already be leaner and you’ll be on your way to making morning workouts a habit that’s as natural as brushing your teeth or taking a shower. Once you start getting used to feeling that buzz, you’ll become “positively addicted” to it. The more you do it, the more you’ll want to do it. Before you know it, early morning cardio will your new habit; you’ll be leaner, your metabolism will be faster and you’ll feel fantastic all day long!

This post via the My Boot Camp Workout! blog where you get boot camp workouts, dumbbell workouts and more.

When is the best time to exercise – burn up to 300% faster…

How Many Calories Per Day Should You Eat?

Just how many calories do you need to maintain your current weight, lose weight or gain weight? There are tons of calorie calculators out there but the easiest and fairly accurate way to determine how many calories you need each day is the one I am listing below. Once you determine your caloric needs you can then determine how many calories to cut from your intake each day to drop one pound. It takes 3500 burned to lose one pound so if you combine exercise with a reduction in calories per day you will meet your goal.

I happen to like the Mayo Clinic’s free calorie calculator because it is simple and quick. If you want determine how many calories you need just to exist at the weight you are at use this calculator. Then you can determine how much you want to exercise and find a calculator to determine how many calories are burned during that exercise and reduce your daily intake of calories to reach the 3500 mark. That will help you burn off one pound when you spread it out over a week’s time.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/calorie-calculator/NU00598

This post via the My Boot Camp Workout! blog where you get boot camp workouts, dumbbell workouts and more.

How to determine how many calories per day you need to eat

I actually love all of these ideas so I wanted to share this article with you. For anyone looking to lose weight on a reduced calorie plan this will help because you will always be eating. It tricks the brain into thinking that it is being fed a lot which can help avoid the pitfall we make when dieting which is to starve ourselves…it’s the complete opposite of what you think may happen. When your body thinks it’s being starved it will hoard every necessary fat module you own and not let go! So, eat well, eat many times per day and eat enough.

Enjoy- Nadine

7 Simple Tricks to increase your metabolism

You don’t need a magic pill to boost your metabolic rate. It takes just seven minor adjustments to turn your body into a calorie-burning machine.

1. Graze Like a Sheep
You’ve probably heard that six small meals a day are better than three larger ones, but Ben Greenfield, author of 100 Ways to Boost Your Metabolism, takes it a step further and suggests eating 10 times a day. If you eat frequently, he says, you maintain a higher metabolic rate because the physical act of digestion raises your metabolism. (I happen to disagree with this a bit on WHY it’s good to eat small meals throughout the day and that’s because I feel that it helps maintain blood sugar levels but not necessarily help to increase your metabolic rate.)

3. Twitch and Fidget Off Calories
A study conducted by the Mayo Clinic showed that leaner people spend more than two more hours a day fidgeting, standing and walking compared with obese people, which translates to a difference of 350 calories a day. Keep your metabolism revved up with small, frequent movements like tapping your feet, rolling your neck in circles or shrugging your shoulders.

4. Beat Stress to Defeat Fat
Elevated stress levels could be holding you back from achieving your highest metabolic rate, says Elizabeth Stein, founder of Appetite for Healthy Living, a health and wellness practice in New York City. “Stress leads to increased levels of cortisol, which leaves fat accumulation in the body,” she says. So relax! Take five deep breaths before every meal and practice a few yoga moves daily.

5. Turn Into a Top Chef
Big shocker: Cruising through the drive-thru or phoning in for pad thai won’t help you burn any calories. When you prepare your own meals, you’re not only burning calories in the kitchen, you’re also controlling what goes into your dishes. Experiment with spices — your metabolism responds to heat by increasing your body temperature and metabolic activity.

6. Pump Iron With Active Rest
A pound of muscle can burn up to nine times as many calories as a pound of fat, so the more muscle you have, the more calories your body burns (even while you sleep). Greenfield suggests doing exercises that use the most body parts in the least amount of time, such as squats, lunges, rows, push-ups and pull-ups. Extra boost: Instead of waiting 45 seconds to a minute between reps, do jumping jacks or lunge jumps.

Power Metabolism Boosters

Stock up on these items to fire up your metabolism.

Gum
Chewing a couple of sugar-free sticks a day can raise your metabolic rate by about 20%.

Coffee
One or two cups a day can speed up your heart rate almost like a mini workout.

Dark Leafy Greens
Kale, spinach and Swiss chard boost metabolism by keeping insulin levels steady.

Green Tea
Drinking four to five cups a day can help you burn up to 100 extra calories.

Cinnamon
A teaspoon or two can help you burn glucose up to 20 times faster.

Spicy Foods
Eating peppers, hot sauces and salsas can decrease the concentration of fat in your liver.

This post via the My Boot Camp Workout! blog where you get boot camp workouts, dumbbell workouts and more.

7 Tips to increase your metabolism

You don’t need to eat only grapefruit and drink 7 gallons of water to lose a quick 5 pounds. In fact, that will only make you lose water weight and not fat so you’ll put those 5 pounds back on in 2 days. It drives me nuts to see ads in magazines saying, “Lose 25 pounds in 3 weeks”. The only way you can lose weight is to burn more calories than you take in. Period. The end. There is NO other way. And anyone who tries to convince you otherwise is selling something right? Say it with me…”Yes, M’am”.

So without further ado, you need to burn more calories than you take in. Let’s say you are eating a diet consisting of 1800 calories per day. To burn one pound of fat takes 3500 calories. Now that may seem like a ton of work but think about it. If you reduce your 1800 calorie diet by 200 calories per day that equals 1400 calories in 7 days which is great! Then you add in some boot camp exercises that are high calorie burners and you’ll lose weight quickly. Here’s what to do:

Eat a healthy 1600 (or whatever caloric intake you are supposed to be eating) calorie diet per day with lots of fruits and veggies mixed in for vitamins and minerals, include protein for staying power, and carbs for energy. Take whatever meals you are going to eat and divide them up into 8-10 little mini meals that you can eat throughout the day. You’re doing that so that your blood sugar levels stay even during the day and you won’t be hungry. DO NOT wait until you are hungry to eat your mini meal. Schedule your eating times and eat that portion whether you are hungry or not. Yes, you are going to be eating 8 to 10 times a day! Sounds crazy but it works.

Then you add in DAILY exercise. Your goal will be to work out for 5 hours per week but it is better to have daily exercise. This helps increase your metabolism. Aerobic exercise such as jogging or elliptical machines are good for the cardiovascular system and they do burn calories but my favorite is weight training and body weight exercises because they burn more calories for a longer period of time.

When you do body weight exercises such as jumping jacks, squats, lunges, pushups, and combination exercises, you are using major muscle groups together which burn calories fast. I would recommend doing body weight exercises daily. Then you can add in weight training every other day or whatever schedule works best for you. Try getting some hand weights and doing lots of reps with a small amount of weight. So you could start by doing 20 arm curls at 5 pounds. Then increase that to 2 reps of the same weight. Then do 3 reps. Work your way up slowly so you don’t injure yourself.

The key is to track what goes in and what goes out! Keep a log of how many calories you are consuming and how many calories you are burning to know if you need to adjust anything. You don’t want to decrease your caloric intake too much because then your body will shut down and conserve your body fat. It will think you are starving it and it will hold on to every piece of fat it can find.

So my friends, that’s it! That’s the magic potion.

Any questions let me know.

Trainer Nadine

This post via the My Boot Camp Workout! blog where you get boot camp workouts, dumbbell workouts and more.

The Secret to Weight Loss