It's easy to pack on the pounds during the holidays.  If you're not careful, they'll creep up on you.  Personal trainers share their expert advice for maintaining or losing weight in December.

When you are at the holiday parties or going out with old friends for lunch and/or dinner, it is easy to eat and eat…and eat. You can easily lose track of how many calories you are taking in.

One way you can avoid eating unhealthy foods at a Holiday party is to snack before you go.
 
Most personal trainers will also advise you eat 3 to 5 small meals a day and make sure they include lots of vegetables and protein like grilled chicken or fish.

Remember that exercise is key to weight loss and weight maintenance.

The more lean muscle mass you have, the more calories you're going to burn at rest.

Cardiovascular exercises like walking, running or group groove will start burning stored fat.  After that, you can add some resistance training like pushups or dumbbell exercises.  The resistance training will help build lean muscle mass and will eventually burn more calories.

Depending on your weight loss goals and your existing activity level it is may be a good idea to consult with your doctor before you start a new exercise program.

Original article – Fox News

Have a blast doing cardio, burn calories and lose weight like never before when you groove to lose weight. With Group groove you get a body and energy boost.
 
Increasing your cardio activity helps you lose weight of course. Use more calories than you take in. The trick is finding the exercise that you will keep on doing and that you will fit into your schedule.

For those of you who are just bored on a treadmill try a group exercise. Group exercises provide a community feel, everyone trying to attain a similar goal. Classes generate followings, and those who go to the same exercise classes become friends and help each other lose weight.

Another trick to staying committed is joining a fun group exercise class, that you enjoy and that you can look forward to.

In Group Groove you will experience a fusion of club, urban and Latin dance styles with motivating chart topping hits and retro classic tunes.  Supportive, funky, easy going instructors help you slim down and shape up.  

Contact Answer is Fitness in your area to lear more about Group Groove.

Most People associate weight loss with cardio work outs and weight lifting with increasing muscles. Unfortunately, this causes people to not reach their potential results when they don’t understand how weight lifting relates to weight loss.

Weight lifting can be a very effective method for losing weight, when you do it the right way. Weight lifting increases your metabolic rate in the short and long term. Immediately after a weight-lifting session your metabolic rate will increase. But weight lifting also helps you maintain lean muscle mass, which creates a permanent increase in your metabolism. Muscle burns more calories at rest than fat.

With cardio training, your metabolic rate will increase, but only for a short time during and after your workout.

Now, while cardio will definitely help you lose weight, weight lifting will help you lose body fat, so you are changing your body composition. When you lose weight with cardio, you don’t look different, just smaller, because you may have lost 10 or 20 pounds. This is because you still have the same proportion of muscle mass to body fat.

Through weight training the way you look will change, because you will have in a sense replaced fat with muscle. This makes you look healthy and fit. This is when people will say to you, “you look great, have you lost weight?”

Weight training for weight loss is a great alternative to cardio and will give you better, more visible results.

Choose weight lifting as an avenue for weight loss, and get help in designing a routine that is right for you from the personal trainers at Answer is Fitness.

It has happened to plenty of people, maybe even to you. Diet and lose weight, come off the diet and gain the weight back. But who wants to diet forever? There is a way to lose weight without a special diet plan, books, or medicine.

Do you want to lose 5 lbs, 10 lbs or 50 lbs? How much weight your lose and how fast you lose it is determined by only one set of principles. We learned that principle when we learned first grade math. Our body weight is determined by the amount of energy that we take in as food and the amount of energy we expend in our daily activities.

Calories are energy. So if you do not gain weight, it isn’t that you do not or cannot gain weight. Rather, you are probably taking in the same amount of calories that you burn each day. If you're slowly gaining weight over time, most likely your caloric intake is greater than the number of calories you burn throughout the day.

Our intake of calories in any given day is completely within our control through the amount of food we eat.  To a large degree, we can control the number of calories we burn each day. The number of calories we burn depends upon the number of calories our body burns just being alive, and our physical activity.

Our weight does determine how much energy (or calories) we burn at rest. Keep in mind that muscle mass burns more calories than fat. So while many say cardio, cardio, cardio is the path to weight loss, a strong muscular body burns more calories, so you should have a plan for both cardiovascular exercise and weight bearing exercises in your fitness program.
 
Lifestyle and work habits partially determine how many calories we need each day. For people who do not have jobs that require intense physical activity, exercise or increased physical activity can increase the number of calories burned.

An average woman 31-50 years of age who leads a sedentary lifestyle needs about 1,800 calories per day to maintain a normal weight. A man of the same age requires about 2,200 calories. Keep in mind this is a very rough estimate. Participating in a moderate level of physical activity (exercising three to five days per week) requires about 200 additional calories per day.

Click "weight loss program" for more information from Answer is Fitness.

The official start of summer begins this weekend. If you have put off your “get in shape” plans, now is the time to start. Answer is Fitness, with locations in North Attleboro and Springfield, can help. With a 30 day fitness pass, see what we have to offer to help you reach your fitness goals.  With personal training and an expansive group exercise schedule, you will surely find an exercise program that is exciting, challenging and fun; which is exactly what you need in an fitness routine. Here are just a few examples:

Group Power:
Group Power is an hour of power! This 60 minute barbell program strengthens all your major muscles in an inspiring, motivating group environment with fantastic music and awesome instructors. With simple athletic movements such as squats, lunges, presses, and curls. Group Power is for all ages and fitness levels. Discover results, Discover Group Power.

Group Kick:
Group Kick brings it on! This electric 60 minute fusion class of martial arts and boxing movements will kick your cardio fitness to the next level while defining and shaping your body and self confidence! Energetic music, awesome instructors and a group environment will keep you punching, kicking and smiling! Group Kick will knock you out!

Cycling/Spinning:
The Cycling program is the original and most popular group cycling class. And it's not just because Spinning is an unmatched way to make your fitness goals a reality. With no complicated moves to learn, top-notch instructors and music that begs your legs to pedal, getting into the best shape of your life has never been more fun.

For good nutrition and healthy living, eat right and increase your metabolism to lose weight and fat. By combining nutrition, resistance training, and cardio exercise you will be on your way to a healthy you.

The recommendation for produce consumption is 2 cups of fruit and 2 ½ cups of vegetables per day for most people. Not surprising, very few Americans meet this requirement. More than 75% of the population misses this required amount. Juicing fruits and vegetables is a great way to add fruits and vegetable to your diet and meet this goal.

The juice provides most of the vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients available in fruits and veggies. The other benefit is that most people can easily drink 4-8 ounces of juice. One serving of vegetables is one cup raw, ½ cup cooked or ½ cup of juice. Juice also makes ingesting fruits and vegetables easy for those with digestive illnesses.

Juicing fruits and vegetables removes the fiber. So instead of a juicer, you can use your blender to process the produce. Or, drink 1 to 2 servings of fresh juice and continue to eat fresh produce too.

A Juicing Recipe for Beginners
6 C dark green leafy vegetable (like kale)
4 apples
2 carrots
¼ lemon or lime

Using a juicer, process all ingredients. Whisk, pour into a glass and serve. Makes 16oz.

National Women’s Health Week is an effort to raise awareness about manageable steps women can take to improve their health. The focus is on improving women's health and the importance of incorporating simple preventive and positive health behaviors into everyday life.

Women are the caregivers: for spouses, children and parents, and they often forget to focus on themselves. However, research has proven that when women take care of themselves, the health of the entire family improves.

Maintaining regular health checkups is one of 5 health habits that can improve women’s health. The others are physical activity, a healthy diet, not smoking and engaging in safe behavior.

For regular health appointments, a bone density scan is very important. Having healthy bones is important at any age, but as we age our bones get thinner. Healthy eating habits, regular cardio exercise and a strength training routine are imperative to healthy bones. Osteoporosis is a concern for women, as women are four times more likely to develop this disease than men. To limit the risks of Osteoporosis, women should definitely engage in weight-bearing exercises. Eating healthy and possibly taking calcium supplements also aids in prevention.

What are those weird-looking weights with handles? They are kettlebells and they are worth meeting on a weekly basis. It has recently been discovered that people who did an intense 20-minute workout with kettlebells burned, an average of 400 calories, or 20 calories a minute.  If you need help with the math, that is like running a six-minute mile. Most likely, this is because kettlebell workouts combine cardio and strength training and use several muscle groups at once.

Using a kettlebell burns 70 percent more calories than a typical strength routine. There certainly is a lot of strange looking exercise equipment, but kettlebells you've gotta try. A 20-minute kettlebell workout is worth about an hour on the treadmill! They sculpt every part of your body. Most exercises with them involve swinging the kettlebell up or across the body. All of the weight is below the handle, so your core has to work hard to counteract the momentum. So as a result you will lose inches and while getting stronger and leaner.

If you want to learn how to use kettlebells, work with a personal trainer who can help you design a workout to achieve the goals you want, in a realistic time frame. A trainer at Answer is Fitness can help you get a feel for using kettlebells and burn about 400 calories while you can sculpt your entire body with a fun and different routine.

Are feeling less than energetic? Exercising actually creates more energy for you to use. Physically active people feel more energetic overall than sedentary people.  In a study of 40,000 women, the more weekly physical activity they did, the more they reported feeling revved up. It has been shown that exercise stimulates neurotransmitters, like dopamine, and this creates the feeling of having more energy. You should aim for 20 to 40 minutes of cardio four or five times a week.

But, keep in mind, not all workouts need to be fast moving, hearth pumping sessions. Yoga is also restorative. A study at the University of New Mexico found that people who followed an eight-week yoga and meditation program had a significant increase in daily energy. And women who regularly practiced Hatha yoga had 41 percent less of a compound related to stress, in their blood than those who did not. In yoga, for every a single pose you bring freshly oxygenated blood to your organs because of the type of deep breathing that's incorporated into the practice.

The new guidelines for physical activity for ages 18-64 is at least 150 minutes/week.That's equivalent to working out for 30 minutes for 5 days a week. However, many people find it hard to stay motivated to exercise on a daily basis. Scheduling 30 minutes of your day aside to workout shouldn't be a problem for anyone so here's are 3 tips we feel can help you stay motivated to exercise and reaching your fitness goals.

1. Notebook and pen -Bring this with you whenever you go to the gym or exercising and log in your workout routines and progress in it. Its a great way to keep track of your exercises as well as your repetitions and sets. A good way to prepare yourself is to write down knowing what exercises your going to do that day prior to the workout. This notebook acts as an agenda for your workouts, and is a great little tool to help motivate you to reach your goals faster by jotting it down.

2. Mp3 player/ music gadget - Nothing feels better than listening to music while working out. Find songs that get you in your groove and gets you focused on yourself and your lifts. Listening to music is also a great way to avoid distractions in the gym.

3. Our Group Exercises - Getting involved in one of our group exercises is great because the members and instructor act as a boost of motivation. They can help support and spot you on your routines, provide guidance and fitness tips, and make it more fun and challenging.

Be sure to contact us today to learn more about fitness goals and work out routines. We have many fun and rewarding exercising programs, so be sure to check them out.