Weight loss success secrets - Part 1 of 4 (page 2 of 2)

Many of the products don't use the ingredients proven by science and misquote scientific studies to convince the consumers that they really work.

While every little bit counts, the amount of extra calories burned by drinking a cold beverage is hardly worth giving up your favorite warm liquids.

3. Zone Alert

A popular weight loss adage is to "train in the fat-burning zone." It's time to understand what the "fat burning zone" truly is. Your body is always burning energy from multiple sources: carbohydrates (in your bloodstream and stored in your muscle), protein, and fats. The preferred source of fuel changes with the intensity of your training. Typically, lower levels of intensity burn a higher percentage of calories from fat, while more intense training burns a higher percentage of calories from carbohydrates and protein.

For this reason, so-called fitness gurus have been recommending that you must stay within your "fat burning heart rate zone" to burn fat.

On the surface, this seems to make sense. Upon closer inspection, the theory falls apart.

When you are training at a low intensity, you are burning calories at a slower rate. So while you may be burning a higher percentage of calories from fat, you are burning fewer calories overall. Intense training, on the other hand, burns more calories in the same period of time. A smaller percentage is burned from fat, but the total calories are higher. Furthermore, intense training tends to elevate your metabolism so that you continue to burn calories for long after the activity is over.

Research suggests that a mix of training is ideal for burning fat. Too much high-intensity training can lead to injury. However, low intensity training simply does not burn the same volume of calories nor impact the metabolism like high-intensity training. This is why an approach that addresses nutrition, weight training, and cardio or aerobics has been shown to be the most successful approach to permanent weight loss.

In part 2 of this series, we'll cover "Diet: Don't Do It" and "Crunch Time.