When you are trying to lose weight, one of the things that you need to pay attention to is your metabolic rate. Metabolism is the process of converting food calories into energy to fuel all the tasks that your body does everyday. Energy is burned even while you are doing stationary tasks such as standing, sitting down, breathing and sleeping. Of course, the heavier activities that speed up your heart rate like running, jogging, biking and other cardio training activities help more to increase your metabolism.

Why A Higher Metabolic Rate Is Essential to Lose Weight

The principle behind losing weight is simply achieving a caloric deficiency. This means you need to be burning up more calories than what you are taking in. However, it is not safe to assume that by merely decreasing your food intake, like most who go on crashed diets do, you would already lose weight. Some may succeed at first to lose some pounds due to a crashed diet, but the minute you start eating regular meals again, the pounds will start creeping back in, and often, you tend to gain more pounds than before.

What you need to do is keep your supply of energy in the body constant, to make your metabolism go on a normal rate. When you are eating less and seldom, you are depriving your body of the calories that it needs to fuel your body. It is more sensible, then to eat more frequent meals in smaller portions.

A higher metabolic rate can also be achieved through regular exercise. Even exercising for 30 minutes a day can help increase your metabolism throughout the day. Exercise that focuses on muscle development will also help increase lean muscle mass. Lean muscles help burn fats in the body, so the more lean muscles you have, the lesser fats remain in your body.

To achieve a higher metabolic rate also means increasing the level of testosterone in the body. This can be done by using weight supplements that increase the testosterone such as Phen375, through one of its essential chemicals, Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). This is a metabolic enhancer that increases the testosterone level and helps in developing leaner muscles.

Fast weight loss may be possible with diet pills, but you should aim for more permanent weight loss that will keep you healthy and looking good. This is possible through the right eating habits and a good exercise routine, plus the added value from a good weight supplement.

The main difference between a man and a woman in terms of body building is their metabolism. A woman has a harder time metabolizing fat than a man. Women also have a harder time gaining muscle than men. This is important when choosing a female body building diet to enter into.

Another crucial difference between a man and a woman are the hormones they produce. Specifically, men produce testosterone while women cannot. Testosterone is an important hormone used to increase the size of your muscles. This is the reason why men have bigger muscles than women.

Women who undergo weight training thus cannot become bulky. What a lot of female body builders do is that they take steroids, which have synthetic testosterone, together with their female body building diet. This is what makes these women muscular.

To be able to keep yourself fit, you also have to engage in an effective female body building training program. Your training program should be suited to your body building goals.

Typically, a good training program combines cardiovascular exercises, such as running on a treadmill, alternating with weight training exercises. Cardiovascular exercises help you lose fat, while weight training exercises help you build muscle. Some women can also include additional stretching and flexibility exercises to their workout.

Of course, an effective body building training program has to be combined with specialized female body building diet program to produce the best results.

Just because you exercise does not mean you can eat anything you want. The amount of calories you burn depends on your metabolism. Thus, your metabolism also dictates how much you can eat. If you eat more calories than the amount your body can burn, the calories will become stored as body fat.

Since women store fat more readily than men, a general rule for women body builders is to lessen the amount of fat and cholesterol in their female body building diets. Healthier low-fat and low-cholesterol alternatives to most foods, such as milk and yogurt, are now available for you to include in your female body building diet.

Energy supplements for tennis not only help in boosting your energy levels but they also enhance your overall health with panache. It is advisable to maintain a healthy diet and workout regime for increasing your performance. You should preferably maintain a good lifestyle for playing tennis. One should completely avoid junk food intake and smoking.

Best Diet & Muscle Strength Products For Playing Tennis

* Nutrition plays a major role for enhancing your performance. You should include high fibrous foods such as fruits and vegetables. These foods contain anti-oxidants that can easily flush out toxins from your body. You should also include beans in your diet because they are rich in protein. It is always advisable to start your day with complex carbohydrates and protein. Foods like oatmeal or oat bran can also be taken, as they are rich in fibers. Drinking plenty of water is extremely important for keeping your body hydrated. One should drink at least 12-16 glasses daily.

* A regular workout regime is mandatory for strengthening your muscles. You should perform cardio workouts such as running, swimming, walking etc. for shedding those extra calories. It is advisable to include protein supplements in your diet.

* Playing tennis needs enough strength and endurance that can be easily provided by Nitric Oxide. This compound mainly helps in increasing the flow of blood in your body, which consequently provides oxygen to your working muscles. Nitric Oxide also strengthens your immune system. It increases your mental focus by nourishing your nervous system. Nitric Oxide supplement can easily prevent various deadly diseases such as diabetes, heart attacks and cancer. You can easily procure this product from its official website. It is advisable to order its free trial for understanding the product and its benefits.

Developing increased muscle mass requires a number of key elements to be put into place. In effect you must create the perfect growing environment for actual growth to take place. Many novices to the sport of bodybuilding waste months of training simply because they have not created this ideal ‘growing environment’. It is for this reason that so many novices become disillusioned with the sport and give up. They cannot understand why, despite the fact that they are training hard that they still haven’t made any significant or noticeable gains in both size and strength.

Training is only one third of the muscle building process and without the other two thirds of the equation little or no progress can be made.

In order to develop muscle growth you need to put in place all three parts of the muscle building equation which are; Stimulation,Nutrition and Rest and recuperation. All three are of equal importance in creating this ‘growing environment. If any one of the three are neglected then you seriously effect your overall chances of being successful. Lets now take a more detailed look at each of the three in turn.

Stimulation of the muscle takes place in the gym. Training has to be performed in a strict style. You must lift the weights under full control using only the muscle that is being trained. Ideally it should take you two seconds to raise the weight and four seconds to lower it. You should also train ‘progressively’. Progressive training simply means that you perform a required number of sets and repetitions with a weight that you can only lift for one set of eight reps. You must train to absolute failure, where no matter how hard you try you cannot perform another repetition. The whole cycle then starts again. Each time that you workout you must endeavor to beat your previous workouts repetitions by at least one. Training this way will shock those muscles into responding due to the ever increasing workload. As your strength increases so will your muscle size. A stronger muscle is a bigger muscle. You should find that by training in this manner that you can add an extra five or ten pounds in extra weight each and every month. Over the course of a year sixty to hundred plus pounds is quite an improvement. If for example you started squatting with a hundred pounds then by the end of twelve months training you will now be squatting with two hundred. Training is hard,brutally hard but unfortunately muscles are stubborn,some more so than others, calves and forearms

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A wise man once told me that when a person won’t do something, it’s for one of 3 reasons. 1. They either don’t know how to do it, 2. Don’t know why they should do it, or 3. They simply just don’t care. I’m going to assume that you don’t know how, or you would already be ripped to shreds. Be it to get the chicks, personal satisfaction, a reunion… everyone has their own reason why. But if your reason is the last one, you should just stop reading this right now. Because if you simply don’t care enough, you aren’t going to get anywhere. And there’s nothing I, or anyone else for that matter, can do to help!

I’m going to tell you how to Get Shredded Fast and explain why these 5 steps work! What you are about to read may or may not be news to you… I don’t know. But I do know this, if you follow these 5 steps… you won’t be disappointed!

1) Diet for metabolism!

I put this first on the list for a reason. It is the absolute most important part of any successfully shredded man or woman’s lifestyle. Your diet directly affects your metabolism and through it alone, you can totally change your physical appearance! But, whether you are a bodybuilder, a swimmer, a football player, or an every day average overweight American, keeping a consistently clean diet is as hard as it gets… and I’m sure we all can attest to that.

Eat 5-6 Meals per day:

It’s funny… I have this friend who swears this 5 or 6 meal-a-day rule is the “Catch” that all the diet companies are throwing out there. He says that no one can consistently eat 5 small meals a day and the nutrition companies know this – so they put this rule out there as a fail-safe to ensure that, if their diet program doesn’t work, they can blame its failure on the customer! The ironic thing about it is if the customer had followed the rules of their diet program, they would have succeeded! And the reason they would have succeeded is because the “eat 5 small meals a day” rule works… just probably not in the way you think.

You see, it’s not really the 5 meals that does it… it’s the fact that you aren’t relying on 2 or 3 meals to fuel your body for a full 24-hour period. Think about it; your body uses a fairly steady stream of energy all day, so when you feed it in spurts, your body adjusts and begins to store energy instead of using it. Eating 5-6 smaller meals throughout the day ultimately conditions your body to use the energy you provide it – and use it now – because it knows that more is coming soon. There is no need to store the energy (fat) for later… make sense?

Eat Low Glycemic Carbs:

Eating 5-6 small meals per day is a great start. But (there’s always a ‘but’ isn’t there?) that’s not the only thing you have to do. Something else you’ve probably heard before but hasn’t been explained fully, is the benefit of low GI carbohydrates. Low GI carbs being carbs low on the Glycemic Index (GI). People usually confuse low GI Carbs with an ultra-low carb diet but its not! All you need to do is control the types of carbs you eat… not lose them altogether! Approximately 40% of your total calories should come from low GI carbs. A low GI carb diet will regulate the insulin levels in your body.

This is important because your body uses insulin to burn the food you have for immediate energy. To explain it further, when you eat carbs, your body digests them and turns them into glucose. Then insulin is released to metabolize the glucose for energy. High GI carbs have a very fast glucose response, which tells your body to release a lot of insulin quickly. The result is, you digest your food very fast… a bad thing! You want your food to digest slowly! And you can control this by eating low GI carbs. Knowing which carbs are low and high GI is pretty easy too. As a general rule, the more processed it is, the higher it is and the more natural (unprocessed) it is, the lower it is.

There is, however, one time when you want to digest your food fast! Immediately following a workout, your body is goes into a “need food now!” state and requires a lot of nutrients to begin repairing the muscle that has been broken down. This is the perfect time to ingest 40-50 grams of high GI carbs. Actually, if you don’t, you are taking a risk that your body will go into a catabolic state and start breaking down muscle for energy instead of fat. Timing is important!

Increase Protein Intake:

The final part of the diet is to increase your protein intake. Again this is something we have all heard before… but do we really know why? First of all, we all know protein is a crucial part of muscle growth. But what we all don’t know is that protein is a good fat burner too! Protein digestion takes a lot of time and a lot of energy! You might be doing this already and if you are… don’t stop. A good rule of thumb is to consume 1 gram of protein for each pound of bodyweight. So if you are 200 pounds, you need 200 grams of protein.

2) Workout!

More cardio!

Increasing the number and intensity of your cardiovascular workouts will no doubt make a vast impact on your fat burning productivity. When it comes to burning fat, the more cardio the better. A lot of fitness trainers and other self proclaimed fitness guru’s will tell you to be careful not to over do the cardio. While there is no doubt that there is a point of diminishing returns, if you have your diet and supplementation in place, the chances of hitting cardio too hard are very low! But that’s just it… there isn’t one magic way to get shredded fast!

It’s not like you can just increase your cardio from 2 days a week to 4 days a week and expect to get shredded without adjusting your diet and the rest of your workout regimen too. Of course you will burn more calories and lose more weight, but burning fat to get shredded and losing more overall weight are two different things! Where should your cardio be? I think 4 days a week at 45minutes at 75-80% max heart rate is a good start. If you have a super high metabolism, start with less, if you have a super low metabolism, start higher. Adjust from there and remember, when it comes to cardio, more is better!

Intensify Your Resistance Training

Believe it or not… weight training actually burns more fat than strict cardio work! In fact there have been numerous studies to prove it. This doesn’t mean you should just drop cardio work altogether, but that you should have a balance between cardio and weight training. Hopefully you are working out already. If you are… great! If you aren’t you really need to. Weight training is the only way to permanently raise your metabolism! You see… muscle burns fat. Not just when you are working out, but all the time – every day! One pound of muscle alone can burn up to 500 calories per week – that’s without doing anything! Lets put it this way: Without resistance training, the best you will ever be is “skinny fat.”

3) Get more sleep!

Sleep is probably the most overlooked factor in the quest to get shredded. Everyone knows the importance of getting a good night’s sleep but not many of us go out of our way to be sure we get it. I read somewhere that the average adult gets approximately 7 hours of sleep each night! Not bad… but if you’re anything like me; 7 hours of sleep would be a blessing!

And 7 hours is fine for the average adult, but if you’re an athlete you need more than normal! How much do you need? Well… that’s something you’ll have to experiment with and find out on your own. 7 hours of sleep might be enough for you – but it likely isn’t! I do know this – if you don’t get enough sleep, you are limiting your potential to build muscle. Sleep is very anabolic and you need it in order to efficiently recover from grueling workouts and stressful days! Be sure you get enough… it could be the difference maker.

4) Supplements!

Getting Ripped To Shreds is not an easy task for most people. If it was easy then everyone would be ripped don’t you think? I know for sure that, at least for me, it would be virtually impossible without the benefit of supplements. There’s no denying that genetics plays a huge role in who is shredded and who isn’t, but that’s not the only thing. If you could take a behind-the-scenes look at just about any professional athletes’ supplement regimen, I guarantee they would be taking more than you could imagine!

Everyone who saw the Super Bowl got a good idea of what Bill Romanowski takes on a daily basis. He probably spends a good $2,000.00 a month on vitamins alone! And don’t forget that he almost certainly takes 2-3 MRP’s a day too! Getting ripped in 6 weeks without the benefit of great genetics is – for most – an unthinkable task. Shoot… staying motivated for 6 weeks straight can be hard as hell! Then, not only do you have to stay motivated, you have to be dedicated too! You can’t be making excuses for missing workouts and cheating on your diet… if you find yourself doing that you’re on the way down that road to the same old “before picture”.

Back to the supplements… Getting “shredded” involves keeping (or gaining) muscle mass and losing fat at the same time, two things that are best done separately! So right off the bat the odds are against you. And if you’re anything like me, you’re going to need all the help you can get! I’m going to recommend 3 separate base supplements and 3 will-do-whatever-it-takes-to-get-there supplements.

Base Supplements:

1. A balanced Meal Replacement (MRP)

An MRP is important for the obvious reasons. Diet is the number one key and with the way life is now, it’s pretty difficult to get 6 good meals in a day. However, if you alternate 3 small meals and 3 MRP’s throughout the day, you’ll be indeed setting yourself up for success. The reason I say “balanced” MRP is because too much protein is a waste, too little carbs will leave you energy-less, and you need to get your vitamins somewhere. Check the label and be sure it has around 30g of protein, 20g carbs, L-Glutamine, BCAA’s, EFA’s, and an array of multi vitamins.

2. Creatine

No matter what you think about creatine, you can’t deny the facts. Creatine promotes muscle growth and muscle contraction energy. And even though it is thought of as a staple to only muscle building programs, it’s an effective addition to almost any program… no matter what the goal is! Just get some and take it as directed.

3. ZMA

ZMA is a formula of Zinc and Magnesium Aspartate that has been proven to increase muscle strength, stamina, and recovery. But the main reason I added it to the list is because it will help you relax and sleep better. Like I said before, sleep could be the difference maker. And ZMA’s a lot less damaging than taking a shot of tequila or cough medicine!

Will-Do-Whatever-It-Takes-To-Get-There Supplements:

1. An ephedrine based fat burner (ECA)

Even with all the bad things reported about using ephedrine-based products, they continue to reign in the fat loss supplement world. Why? Because they work! Believe me when I say this. No non-ephedrine based supplement will ever be able to take the fat off like a high quality ECA… ever! Not that there aren’t any effective non-ephedrine fat burners… just none that are as effective as an ECA. Another cool thing about ECA’s is that they are great pre-workout stimulants. You get up in the morning and you are feeling groggy on the way to the gym… pop an ECA and you’ll be churning out reps with ease! Just be careful to not become dependant on them. If you find yourself taking over 50mg of ephedrine before you ‘feel’ it kick in, you are taking it too often. Take some time off.

2. Anabolic Hardening Agent:

By anabolic hardening agent I mean – a pro-hormone. Pro-hormones are precursors to anabolic steroids and can be a huge benefit in more ways than one. First of all, they can be very anabolic and promote muscle growth. Second of all, they can be very androgenic and promote a harder more vascular muscle that is indicative of the word shredded! Third, they can be very anti-catabolic! This means that they help prevent the breakdown of lean muscle tissue; an important feature to anyone who is putting their body through a 6-week “Try To Get Ripped As Fast As I Can” schedule. You want to lose fat, remember… not muscle!

3. Site Specific Fat Loss:

Yes. I’m talking about fat loss creams. Say what you will, but just as creatine, pro-hormones, and ephedrine have their clinical studies, so do topical fat loss creams. The difference is the expectation. You cant rub in a dime sized drop of fat loss cream once a day and lose 10 pounds a week without doing some serious exercise and dieting! On the other hand, when used correctly, in a calculated program, fat loss creams can produce some substantial results! Call me crazy but it’s true. The reason I put them in the “Will-Do-Whatever-It-Takes-To-Get-There Supplement” section is because they can be expensive! It’s not uncommon for people to spend $200.00 a month just on an effective fat loss cream! They have their benefits though. Being able to target a specific spot for fat loss can go along way!

4) Know what not to do!

Now that I have explained all the tools you need to get ripped in 6 weeks, I feel obligated to address some of the most common mistakes people make when trying to lose fat fast! First of all you have to steer clear of the “Fab Diets” that claim you can drop 10 pounds in 48 hours. Even though these claims are true, you don’t want to do it. The weight you lose will be temporary at best! And because these diets help you lose weight, not fat, they wont get you shredded.