How to lose belly fat fast?

This was the question I had become obsessed about. Why?

Well, one day I came back home from work and my wife was smirking. I said: “What’s going on?” and she replied: “Come see Emily’s drawing, it’s really good!”. Emily is our 8 year old daughter, and she had just completed the drawing below:

At a first glance I thought that the person to the right was mom (who had just given birth to our third child), but upon closer inspection I was horrified to realize that my daughter saw me as what I can only describe as “a pregnant red stick figure”.

Needless to say, this was my wake-up call, and I set out to lose my belly fat immediately. I love beer but, sadly, it was the first thing that needed to get off my grocery-shopping list.

I stopped eating chocolate and candy, and I actually started eating a lot of veggies (much to the chagrin of my wife who hates them, and, being the cook, she had to cope with the smell of broccoli too – how could I not love her?).

But guess what? I wouldn’t lose weight!

Or better yet, I lost some, but then I gained it back again, and then I lost it again, and got it back again. And, even when I did lose a few pounds, I wouldn’t lose them where I needed the most, that is on my belly.

Now if you want the long story, keep reading. Instead, if you’re one of those who skips to the good parts, I’ll spare you the trouble and tell you what made me lose my belly fat fast. It’s called Fat Burning Furnace, and it’s the best program you can get. TRUST ME, I’ve tried them all!

Yes, I’ve tried them all. If you want to share some of my pain, I’ve calculated how much money I’ve spent buying any diet, book and training DVD I could find. Ready? 1,561$. There, I said it. That’s how obsessed I had become with weight loss. And of the products I bought, I reckon that the 80/20 rule applies. I got 80% of the results from 20% of the products I purchased. Probably even less! I think Fat Burning Furnace is the one that gave me the quickest and most reliable results, by far. And that’s why I recommend it ever so strongly.

I’ll give you some of the best insights I’ve found about various topics related to losing belly fat quickly and effortlessly.

1 – What to eat to lose belly fat?

I found that eating everything in smaller quantities is the best rule of thumb. Yeah, yeah I know that everybody says that, but you know what? Everybody says that because it works!

A study has shown that eating a bit of salad before consuming your meals reduces the fat intake of up to 20%! That’s some good science-backed advice, and it’s worked wonders for me. I would always start my meals with a bit of salad, even in my “off-diet” days (except in those I used to go more heavy on the toppings, with a bit of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and feta cheese – try it and tell me if you like it).

Fruit – eat fruit. Fruit is full of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and soft fiber that cleanses your intestines. I hate fruit. I know, I know, I’m weird like that! What made me get fruit in my diet is smoothies. Try my special smoothie. It’s an original recipe and you can call it “Bob’s strawberry delight”. Sounds fancy, huh?

It’s simple: 6 strawberries, 1 and 1/2 cup of water, 1 tablespoon skim milk powder, 1/2 a banana. The real kicker: add a sprinkle of cinnamon. It rocks!

Also, some programs swear by green tea to help reduce fat. Well, in my experience green tea doesn’t do much at all. I tried drinking green tea each morning for a week. Then I tried drinking a full cup after each evening workout. Again, no luck. And I think that green tea tastes like muddy water. Not worth the hassle.

What DID work for me, though, is a chocolate Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey shake after each “workout”. (I use quotes cause my workouts weren’t really intensive, but that stuff worked nonetheless – and it had the bonus of making me miss chocolate a lot less).

2 – What are the best exercises to lose belly fat fast?

Okay there’s a lot of debate on ab crunches to lose belly fat. But I still swear by them. Crunches and sit-ups have worked great for me. What I used to do at first was to do one set of crunches until exhaustion and it did work but sloooowly. And I had neck and back pain after finishing from time to time. Until I discovered the secret to ab crunches. Are you ready for it?

The secret is fewer reps but more sets! Yes, it’s THAT simple. What happens when you do a lot of reps? Your body tires and you eventually lose your form: you sink your chin into your chest and you strain your neck and back muscles. That’s a big no-no.

Even only 3 sets of around 30 crunches every day is enough to create lasting change in your belly’s shape.

And walk! I’m sorry if you live in L.A. and you can’t walk anywhere, but for those of you who live anywhere else, do the right thing: save on fuel, be a greener citizen, and, more importantly SHED SOME WEIGHT by walking to work, walking to the grocery shop, walking to your friends’ place.. WALK! You will lose weight and you will not even notice it.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I only ever started enjoying walking (as I couldn’t run at first – my extra weight was causing my knees to get sore and hurt like hell whenever I tried to) when I ditched my iPod. I started to walk without my earbuds and suddenly I felt a connection with the environment, and I loved to hear the sound of my footsteps, the sound of the wind and to really immerse in my thoughts. Guess what? Not only I started walking a lot more every day, but it became my personal meditation and I also became more focused at work and more relaxed at home. I can’t recommend this approach enough!

In conclusion..

I started down the path of weight loss with a few clear goals in my mind: break bad habits, start good habits and monitor progress. And this is probably the best advice I can give.

I am one of those who tend to start a weight loss program and then, under pressure, says “screw it” and goes back to the old, bad, habits. Until I found a product that is so simple and laid-out so clearly that I didn’t have that “must-not-think-about-cake” attitude and it just came very naturally for me to follow it. As you already know, it’s called Fat Burning Furnace and I highly recommend it if you’re serious about losing belly fat fast.

Sorry for the long post but I really wanted to give you as much insight as possible! (and maybe I was inspired by Mark, a man from New York who sent me an e-mail yesterday telling me he had found new motivation to get on a weight loss program after reading about my story – Thanks Mark!)

If you have some knowledge you want to share, by all means leave a comment!

–Bob

What is the best workout to lose belly fat, then?

I have to say that losing fat on only one area of your body, in my experience, is somewhat of a myth. You need to workout your entire body and reduce your overall body fat to see the results. Of course, this doesn’t mean that you should only run or only do cardio. What you need is a little bit of everything!

I’ve tried LOTS of different workouts, and I purchased all sorts of programs. I was so fed up with the whole thing that I almost gave up: all of these products advertised “no sweat”, “no strain”, “stress-free”, “easy” workouts that would give me a six-pack without having to leave my office chair, apparently. But when you actually purchased the course, you’d realize that you HAD to actually exercise. I tried many times to follow a workout plan, but most of the time I would follow along with the DVDs once, or maybe twice, before giving myself a ton of excuses not to follow-through.

But you know what? Losing weight is a simple goal once you start taking responsibility.

I decided I’d had enough and set out to create my own workout plan. I just couldn’t bear the fact that I had this huge spare tire around my waist and I wanted to do something about it. I felt so unsexy when I looked at my naked body that I would almost apologize to my wife for being such a fatso. Thank God she always supported me and said a few words that made everything easier. She said: “Darling, as long as each day you make progress, you can consider that day a success”.

Wow, what a woman I have.

To cut things short what I did was: I looked around the net for a few basic workout plans, I modified them for my needs, and I swore to do at least one of the exercises each day, even if it seemed impossible because of my agenda or whatever!

My lose belly fat fast workout was this

- I ran 3 miles every other day (I hated running before I realized I had to ditch my iPod. Listening to my steps and the world around me really had an entrancing effect, and I started to LOVE running. It was my personal meditation!)

- I did 4 series of 50 reps of squats (4×50 squats)

- I did 5 series of 20 reps of push-ups (5×20 pushups)

- I did 4 series of 50 reps of ab crunches (4×50 crunches)  [important: I thought these didn't work for getting rid of your belly fat, but I have been once told by a personal trainer that I was doing them all wrong. The secret to perfect ab crunches is to keep your chin towards the ceiling. If you focus on that, the movement is going to be perfect. Try it now, thank me later!]

And that’s it! I can tell you that, although, I didn’t keep a log, I didn’t do the whole workout every day. In fact, I think I only did ALL of that just twice. I would excercise around 4 days a week and I would try to focus more on the abs than anything else. The muscular tissue of the abs will start to burn your belly fat from behind!

I have since moved on and now I’m following the best workout program I’ve found so far that actually seems to burn A LOT more fat than what I did before. And I’ve found that the results are way more stable. Click here if you wanna check it out, it’s awesome.

–Bob