Speed up your metabolism
This high-intensity workout from exercise physiologist Amy Dixon burns up to 600 calories. After warming up, complete the circuit 3 times, doing each move as hard as you can for 1 minute. Do the circuit 3 times per week to keep torching calories, even at rest.
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Want to firm up, slim down, and have a blast? Invite your girlfriends, swap your dumbbells for dancing shoes, and host a calorie-sizzling dance party.
"With dancing, you don't realize you are exercising," but getting down for an hour torches between 200 and 600 calories, says Susan Biali, MD, who is a trained flamenco dancer. Plus, it helps build strength, increase flexibility, and even slow the aging process. What's more, grooving with friends equals high-quality bonding time?and that can boost your mood in a big way. Here's how to host your own dance class and treat pals (and yourself) to a fun fitness change-up.
Dance option #1: Enlist an expert
Not everyone is born bouncing like Beyonce. Consider hiring a pro to teach you and your gang the latest moves. "This takes the pressure off people individually," Dr. Biali says. "Everyone is learning and making mistakes together, so each person feels less self-conscious." To score a top-notch teacher, ask your local gym or dance studio for a suggestion, or log on to dance-teachers.org. Had a great session? Bring your pro back for a weekly dance-off-the-pounds party.
Dance option #2: See it, shake it
If you can't swing an instructor or would rather keep things informal, pop in a DVD like Dance with Julianne: Just Dance! ($15; amazon.com) or Dancing with the Stars: Fat-Burning Cardio Dance ($15; amazon.com). These high-energy, easy-to-follow routines can help you blast fat and have lots of fun.
Dance option #3: Break out the games
Use your Kinect or Wii to dance your way to a great shape: We're loving Zumba Fitness (for Kinect for Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, and PlayStation Move for the PlayStation 3, $40 to $50; amazon.com), Just Dance 2 (for Nintendo Wii, $40; amazon.com), and Michael Jackson The Experience (for Nintendo Wii, $50; ubi.com). Keep the guest list small to keep your calorie burn superhigh.
Create a killer playlist
Keep your heart pumping with the ultimate fat-blasting mix from New York City DJ Cheila Villar.
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When you want to shed serious weight, walking might not even come to mind. But it should.
"Fast-paced walking, when combined with healthy eating, is hugely effective for weight loss," says Art Weltman, PhD, director of exercise physiology at the University of Virginia. And those simple steps can have a big impact on your overall health, cutting your risk of everything from heart disease to depression. If your daily strolls haven't made you skinny so far, your speed may be the problem. Many of us stride more like a window-shopper than a power walker. The goal?thankfully?isn't crazy race-walker style; you just need to move at a challenging pace.
In studies, Weltman has found that women who do three short (about 30-minute) high-intensity walks plus two moderately paced recovery walks a week lose up to six times more abdominal fat than participants who simply stroll five days a week. (This despite the fact that both groups burn the exact same number of calories.)
The power walkers also drop about four times as much total body fat. "There is a strong relationship between intensity of exercise and fat-burning hormones," says Weltman. "So if you're exercising at a pace considered to be hard, you're likely to release more of these hormones." The best part: When women walk, deep abdominal fat is the first to go. That's a scientific fact we can get excited about.
Another happy truth: Although you're moving at a fast clip, power walking is still easier on the joints than running. "During walking one of your feet is always in contact with the ground," says Weltman, "but during running there's a float stage where your whole body is lifted in the air. Then you come back down and subject your body to the impact."
That's why walking is a smart long-term fitness plan. To get you off on the right foot, here's a complete primer, from how to tweak your speed for maximum burn to what gear you need (hint: almost none). Follow the workouts and wisdom?along with healthy eating?and not only can you lose those extra 10 pounds in three weeks, but you will have a no-fuss plan that you can do anywhere, anytime.
Dial in your speed
To make sure your pace is on point, use these guidelines from exercise physiologist Tom Holland, author of Beat the Gym. For maximum fat burn, aim for 30 minutes at power-walk intensity three days a week (see the walking plan on the next page). That time can be completed all at once, or you can break it up into spurts with recovery strides (stroll or brisk walk) in between.
Stroll. Think window-shopping pace, or an intensity of 4 on a scale of 10. It burns about 238 calories an hour.
Brisk walk. This means an effort of 5 or 6 on a scale of 10. It burns up to 340 calories an hour (at a 3.5 to 4 mph pace). While you can gossip about Mad Men, you need to catch your breath every few sentences.
Power walk. You're torching off approximately 564 calories an hour (at a 4 to 5 mph pace). Moving at this clip, using your arms to help propel you forward and taking longer strides, your effort should be a 7 or 8 on a scale of 10. Talking is possible only in spurts of three or four words, but ... you'd ... rather ... focus ... on ... breathing.
Next Page: The amped-up plan
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Kitchen conversion
Right now, in your home, you have a powerful belly-shrinking tool you’re not taking advantage of. No, it’s not that Ab Roller you ordered off of late-night TV and promptly banished to the attic.
It’s your kitchen: Set up and stocked the right way, it can make all the difference in whether you pile on midsection fat?or keep it off. With a quick cabinet reorg, simple food swaps, and even a workout move to do during boiling-water downtime, you can transform a fat-belly kitchen into a flat-belly one.
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