How diet and cardio hurts your weight loss without you knowing it

With 2009 right around the corner, many of you will be starting a diet and exercise plan. Like years past, your efforts will be in vain if you don't change your approach.

#1: Severe restriction of calories - each of us has this wonderous built-in mechanism that kicks in during a famine. Whenever there is severe caloric restriction, our metabolism slows to meet our reduced calorie intake. This brings weight loss to a hault! To avoid this crash, start by lowering your intake by a mere 250 calories a day, if you lose 2lbs in 2 weeks, great! If not, reduce your calories by another 250 and repeat.

#2: Too much 'same pace' cardio - study after study shows that 'steady-state' cardio (the pace remains the same) will do next to nothing for fat loss. Interval training, where you alternate fast and slower paces, does a lot more for weight loss. Just compare your average sprinter to your average marathon runner. One is lean and muscular and the other is generally soft and flabby.

#3: Lift to lose & eat frequently - to lose weight in 2009, you much lift weights. Studies continue to show a dramatic rise in metabolism that comes as a result of lifting weights. The process breaks down muscle tissue, which has a greater 'metabolic cost', hence, more calories burned. Frequent meals were once thought to keep your metabolism going, but the latest research shows that might not be true. Instead, experts speculate that frequent feedings may instead reduce your desire to overeating at your next sitting.

Apply these simple rules in 2009 and finally claim that hot, lean body that you deserve!