If you sometimes do cardio on a treadmill, there’s a way you can burn the same amount of calories in half the time. Or, if you prefer, double the calories in the same amount of time.

What is it? Simply set the machine on an incline. Walking uphill or on an incline drastically burns up more calories. For example, a 160-pound woman will burn 4 calories per minute walking 2.5 miles per hour on a treadmill.

But, that same woman would burn 10 calories per minute walking on a 20% incline grade. So you can simply implement this and burn more calories by setting the treadmill on an incline.

If you don’t have access to a treadmill, try walking up a hill in your neighborhood if you have one, or walk up the stairs in buildings.

Give it a try.

By the way, if you’re worried that walking on an incline will make your leg muscles big, relax. The muscle fibers that are used during this type of activity are not the ones that get bigger. Just look at people like marathon runners. They have lean, firm legs, not huge leg muscles.

And if you’re too busy to go to a gym or devote a big chunk of time to exercising, please go to my website and read what I have to say.

There I talk about more simple and less time-consuming ways to lose weight. Since I know most women are too busy to exercise regularly and watch their diets, I specifically designed this program to be “time-friendly”, “exercise-friendly”, and “diet-friendly” for women.

Get more great weight loss tips and information from my ebook The Advanced Guide to Fast Weight Loss for Busy Women.

When you are following a plan to lose weight, you should realize that your progress won’t be one steady, straight line to your goal.

What I mean by that is, if you weigh yourself every day, your weight won’t always be lower or the same as the day before. Some days it will go up.

Don’t take this as a bad sign.

For example, if you weigh yourself every morning for a week, the numbers might be something like this: 175, 174.5, 174.5, 173.5, 174, 173, 173.

Notice the weight actually went up one day, but the important thing is that you lost two pounds that week.

That is how it works for most people. You will almost always have some days where your weight goes up, no matter how carefully you are following the plan.

Here are some things you can do:

• Don’t weigh yourself daily. Every 2-3 days is better.
• Realize that your weight fluctuates for a lot of reasons, besides just your diet and exercise.
• Realize that an increase in weight could be from added muscle (a good thing) or more water in your body or many other things besides just fat.
• Pay more attention to things like your waist size, how your clothes fit, and how you look and feel, than the numbers on the scale.
• Realize how small an amount a pound is compared to an adult’s body weight of 100-300 pounds or more. Your home scale is not a laboratory instrument and not 100% precise.

The key thing is that your weight and waist size go down over longer periods of time, like a week or a month. If you lose 5 or 10 or 15 pounds this month, does it matter that some days your weight was higher than the day before? Of course not!

Of course, if your weight is going up over longer time periods, you need to stop and think what you are doing. If you gain 3 pounds in a week despite following your plan, try to figure out why. Did you really follow the plan 100%? If not, dedicate yourself to getting back on track. If you think you did stick to the plan, start writing down all your food, drink, and exercise. It’s quite possible you are eating more than you think you are or are not exercising enough.

Get more great weight loss tips and information from my ebook The Advanced Guide to Fast Weight Loss for Busy Women.

If you’ve ever watched late night TV, you’ve probably seen ads for all sorts of exercise gadgets, especially for your abdominals. It seems like every few months there is another product with a name starting with “AB.”

We all want a flat tummy or six-pack abs, so will these gadgets help us get the bodies we want?

The ads are compelling, but misleading. My first problem with them is that the buff and sexy models in the commercials did not get those bodies using the gadgets they are selling. They’ve probably only used that equipment when filming the ads.

The real secret of the models is the strict diet and grueling exercise programs they follow to stay in that kind of physical shape. Good genetics, lighting, camera angles, and special effects help, too.

There is an even bigger problem with these exercise gadgets. If you want abs like the people in the ads, you need to get your body fat percentage down to low levels. No amount of ab exercises is going to give you a flat tummy if you have a high body fat percentage. Have you ever seen someone who looked overweight all over except their abs? Of course not.

If you’re already fairly lean, some of these ab gadgets may be somewhat useful in helping tone your muscles. That’s different from burning fat, though. You can also get a good ab workout without using these gadgets. Crunches and similar exercises don’t require any equipment at all.

Next time you see another infomercial for a new ab exercise gadget, just say no, and remember to stick with a good weight loss plan for the best overall results.

You’ve probably heard that pasta is fattening. Certainly it has no place on a weight loss plan, right?

There are two big reasons why you might want to avoid pasta. The sauce is often rich, and we tend to cook pasta in big batches, so it’s very easy to eat way too much of it.

However, if you can control the portions, you can enjoy some pasta as part of your weight loss plan. The easiest way to do this is to buy prepared pasta in individual serving sizes.

Look in the canned foods section of your supermarket for little microwavable tubs of pasta. They are typically 6-8 ounces each and have 200-300 calories per container. You can get several varieties of things like macaroni and spaghetti.

These containers are great because the pasta stays edible for a long time at room temperature, and they are handy when you are traveling or want to take your lunch to work.

You can save some money by buying the same pastas in metal cans, but then you have to portion the servings yourself (or risk overeating) and put the pasta in another container to heat it. When I can get the microwavable ones for about $1 per meal, I think that’s worth it for the convenience.

One more option for including pasta in your weight loss plan is to go with frozen foods. Many of the low-calorie or low-fat food manufacturers include pasta in their line of frozen dinners or entrees. As always, carefully read the labels to make sure the pasta fits within your weight loss plan.

If you love pasta but want to lose weight, now you’ve seen that it’s possible to enjoy pasta on a weight loss plan if you do it carefully.

The fastest way to lose excess weight is to speed up your metabolism. There are a lot of time consuming ways to do that. I could give you 25 pages of cardio and workout information… but I’ll leave that to others.

I will assume you are a busy person with a hectic, sometimes unbearable schedule. So I want to touch on one of the key points in my ebook.

Basically, in the ebook I show you a bunch of unique little known techniques you can use during two-minute TV commercials to supercharge your metabolism to help you lose weight fast… and safe… without starving yourself and feeling deprived.

Here is a great exercise that will help you tremendously. It’s simple jumping for two minutes during commericals on a mini-trampoline, also known as a rebounder. You can buy one of these from a discount store for about $30. It’s a great investment.

Now, this may seem simple, and it may seem like it wouldn’t involve enough effort to lose weight. But trust me, two minutes at a time for most people will be plenty. If you watch TV a lot, consider that each hour of TV has almost 20 minutes of ads or about 10 commercial breaks per hour. So you can get 10 mini workouts in at two minutes each.

This is actually better than 20 minutes of continuous exercise at a gym. Why? Because when you spread out the cardio in small chunks of time, you are literally programming your body into a faster metabolism. Your body basically becomes its function. You spread out the fat burning effects over a longer period of time.

Another great thing about the rebounder is that since you can use it indoors, it doesn’t matter what the weather is like where you live.

The above is just an example. But when you have the flexibility of being able to do two minutes here and there, that time adds up to a lot of working out without messing up your schedule.

When you wake up, do two minutes. Before and after dinner, do another two minutes.

Do two minutes here and there during TV commercials. Do two minutes while you wait for something to cook. Do two minutes while you interact with your kids. The possibilities are endless.

Give the mini-trampoline/rebounder a try.

Learn more ways to lose weight fast in my ebook The Advanced Guide to Fast Weight Loss for Busy Women.

A recent study published in a medical journal says that in losing weight, diet alone can be just as effective as diet plus exercise.

This is really nothing new, but I’m afraid some people will misunderstand it. I don’t think the study is saying “don’t exercise.”

The real point of it is that you can lose weight by improving your diet or increasing exercise, or both. But that is really just common sense, isn’t it? Of course doing either of those things will help, and doing both will give the best results.

I’ve noticed that whenever I’ve gotten good results, regardless of what weight loss plan I was using, most of the results came from diet, not exercise. I think the reason is just simple math- it’s a lot easier to cut your calories by 500 a day (for example) than to do enough additional exercise to burn off 500 more calories.

You might be shocked at how few calories some exercise burns- the average person would have to walk five miles to burn 500 calories. A 5-mile walk would take most of us about two hours, which is a long time. It’s sure a lot easier to eat a small meal instead of a large one, isn’t it? Many of us might not be physically able to walk that far.

Also, keep in mind that people who already do lots of exercise probably aren’t overweight in the first place.

Since this study was in the news, it seemed important to discuss it, but I wouldn’t change your behavior based on it. If your weight loss plan is working for you, keep doing what you’ve been doing. Otherwise find another plan.

If you’re like me, you were probably raised on the concept of three square meals a day. Snacking between meals was discouraged.

It’s time to forget that outdated advice. One of the best things you can do to accelerate your weight loss is to eat more often.

I am not saying to eat more food, just to spread it out more through your day. Take your total food allowance for the day and divide it into five or six meals instead of three.

I also suggest forgetting the concepts of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks as being carved in stone. Eat what you feel like that is part of your weight loss plan, at whatever time of day you like, as long as you consume the day’s total food intake by the time you go to bed.

Why do this?

There are several reasons. First, by eating more often (even in smaller amounts), you will be more satisfied and less hungry throughout the day.

Second, by scheduling more meals, if you do get hungry, you can remind yourself that you have another meal scheduled in an hour or two. This will help you avoid an eating binge or going completely out of control.

Third, eating smaller meals is better for your body. You’re less likely to suffer from indigestion or gas when you eat less at a time. Your body can process the food more effectively if you don’t give it so much at once. This will keep your blood sugar more in check and make it less likely for food to be stored as fat.

Fourth, this will make your weight loss plan more interesting and easier to follow, so you’ll be more likely to stick with it long enough to reach your goals.

If your weight loss plan only calls for three meals a day, just divide some of the portions in half or separate some of the foods.

For example, instead of a whole sandwich, eat half of it now and half in two hours.

Instead of eating a bowl of cereal with a piece of fruit, save the fruit for later.

You don’t have to make each meal exactly the same size as the others, just spread them out and keep the total daily amount of food the same.

By the way, this tip works even when you are just trying to maintain your weight, so don’t think of it as just a diet trick.

You may be thinking you won’t be satisfied with smaller meals. All I can say is just give it a try and you’ll probably wonder how you ever got through life eating only three meals a day.

Get more great weight loss tips and information from my ebook The Advanced Guide to Fast Weight Loss for Busy Women.

Here’s an easy way to speed up your fat burning: eat more spicy foods. No, I don’t mean you should pig out on Mexican food or buffalo wings, just add more intense spices to what you are already eating.

Research has shown that spicy foods can increase your metabolism, which means you’ll burn more calories and fat. This is because fat burning is related to heat, which is where hot spices come in.

Additionally, most spices add very few or no calories, so there is no downside to adding more to your food.

You don’t need to change your diet to use this tip. Simply start using hotter spices than you normally do. We all have different levels of how much we can tolerate, so just gradually increase the hotness level as long as the food doesn’t get too hot. If you’re currently using mild sauce, try medium, then hot. You’ll probably find you can get used to hotter spices without any problems.

You can also change your thinking about which foods can be eaten with spices. For example, try adding some chili powder to your eggs at breakfast.

Keep packets of hot sauce handy and try adding them to soups, casseroles, sandwiches… almost anything. You might not even notice a difference in taste, which means you can add more sauce or spice next time.

In addition to spices and hot sauces, you can also add in spicy vegetables such as onions, pepper, and chilis. This has the healthy side effect of adding fiber and vitamins to your diet.

One more benefit from spicing up your diet is that it will make your food more interesting and fun to eat, so you’ll be less tempted to cheat on whatever plan you are following. After all, there is no rule that you have to eat bland food to lose weight.

Get more great weight loss tips and information from my ebook The Advanced Guide to Fast Weight Loss for Busy Women.

Often when people try to lose weight, they go on a strict plan that tells them exactly what to eat. Since weight loss goals take some time to achieve, people usually reach a point where they get bored or tired of what they are doing, or miss favorite foods, and end up going on an eating binge.

Sometimes they even give up on their goals entirely.

Most of us were trained to follow rules, so when we’re on a weight loss plan and eat something we aren’t supposed to, we consider that cheating and feel bad.

I’m here today to tell you that cheating can be good for you and can even help you reach your weight loss goals. You just need to do it intelligently.

This idea can work regardless of what type of weight loss plan you are on. Usually there are certain foods that are forbidden or restricted, and these tend to be our favorites, like ice cream, cake, pizza, fries, and so on. (Let’s face it, if we liked raw veggies instead, we probably wouldn’t need to lose weight in the first place!)

If you find yourself craving certain forbidden foods, make a note of it.

Every so often, schedule a cheat meal or cheat day for yourself. You might let yourself have one cheat meal per week, when you can eat whatever you want. Or you could go for a full day like that, maybe once or twice a month.

Won’t this ruin your progress? No, actually it can help. First, if you know your cheat meal or day is coming, it’s easier to avoid temptation and follow your weight loss plan the rest of the time.

Second, if you let yourself have some of those favorite but forbidden foods on your cheat days, you may find yourself craving them less. Some people even decide they don’t really need a certain food and completely stop eating it.

Third, remember that life is to be enjoyed, and your weight loss journey is meant to change your life, not punish yourself. So let yourself enjoy those favorite foods now and then.

Fourth, since on a weight loss plan you are eating less than normal, after a while your metabolism can slow down when your body starts getting used to a lower food intake. This “starvation mode” can be interrupted by some intelligent cheating. In effect, you will be confusing your body in a good way.

You may find it works best to schedule your cheating around special occasions. Travel days, birthdays, parties, business dinners, and other events are good for this since it may be harder to follow your weight loss plan then.

Just remember, schedule your cheating and stick to your weight loss plan the rest of the time. I’m not advising you to eat anything you want at any time, since that is how most of us got in trouble in the first place.

So if you find yourself bored or craving forbidden foods on your weight loss plan, give cheating a try!

Get plenty more weight loss tips and information from my ebook The Advanced Guide to Fast Weight Loss for Busy Women.

This article will help you learn to alter the way your body burns fat. Specifically, it will help you adjust the temperature at which it normally burns fat.

You have a normal body temperature of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Fat doesn’t burn at normal body temperature. It burns at a much higher temperature.

So what is this tip and how does it work? The tip is to take the supplement lecithin. On page 27 of my ebook I’ll go into greater details.

But here is the gist of why lecithin will help you to lose fat. Lecithin helps to program your body to burn fat at your normal body temperature.

This way, your body doesn’t have to be at a higher temperature to burn fat. So when you take lecithin, you are automatically burning fat while you do nothing in particular. So you will be burning fat all day regardless of what else you do.

If you think about it, one way people raise their body temperatures is by doing cardio. And that is why it is somewhat effective in burning fat… because your body needs to be at a higher temperature to burn fat.

In the ebook, I also show you a quick 6-minute cardio session that allows you to raise your body temperature and allows you to eliminate 30 minute cardio sessions and burn fat.

So if you want to help jumpstart losing fat, try lecithin. On page 27 in my ebook, I’ll show you exactly how to use it.

Get plenty more weight loss tips and information from my ebook The Advanced Guide to Fast Weight Loss for Busy Women.