Claim:  You can never get rid of fat cells once they are created without surgery

I do have some bad news.  You are stuck with the fat cells that you have.  Have you ever wondered why it is so easy to regain weight after you diet?  Well, all you did to your fat cells is, essentially, deflate them.  It is very easy for your body to just re-inflate the fat cells it already has…and it does very, very fast. 

Dr. Sanjay Gupta was asked about this and his response was:

That’s true. It’s a really simple equation: When energy input is equal to energy output, your fat cells don’t expand to accommodate excess. It’s only when more calories are taken in than used that the extra fat is stored and the person begins to accumulate fat. Your very best bet for not “fattening” up your fat cells is exercise, particularly weight-bearing exercise. Exercise builds muscles — and it’s true, muscles use more calories than fat throughout the day, even while you are resting.

To add insult to injury, a recent study found that you maintain relatively the same number of fat cells throughout adulthood.  Obese people have more fat cells than lean people but number of fat cells for both groups held steady.  The really irritating part is that, yes, fat cells do die but they are regenerated at about the same rate!

They also found that these findings hold true for people that were obese as children.  For those that become overweight or obese later in life, it is thought that you can actually over stuff your current fat cells to the point where your body may create more.  Guess what?  Those new fat cells?  You have them for life now!

So, there you have it.  You now know why its so easy to regain weight after dieting.  All you’re doing is just filling up your deflated fat cells!  This is the overriding factor why losing weight shouldn’t be your primary goal.  You’re primary goal should be changing your lifestyle AND lose weight.

Verdict:  FACT

I’m sure most people find that they traditionally buy the same food and drinks every trip they make to the grocery store.  This can be a good thing but it can also be a very bad thing!  If your usual list consists of potato chips, margarine, baked goods, and frozen pizzas then you aren’t doing yourself any favors. 

So let’s replace those staples with healthy options but still tasty enough to satisfy. 

1.  Instead of chips, choose almonds

Natural almonds are best but roasted almonds are fine (and taste better).  While almonds wouldn’t be considered low calorie, they are extremely rich in Vitamin E and monounsaturated fats.  Monounsaturated fats are great for reducing LDL (bad) cholesterol. 

How many times have you heard someone say, “Boy, I really feel my workout yesterday?”  What they are referring to is DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) or just “sore as hell” for short.  I’ll make this really simple: Soreness is not an indicator of the quality of your workout.   It is an indicator that you just did something your body isn’t used to doing.

Being sore can be caused by a few things.  You may be new to working out or you just added/changed exercises in your routine working muscles in a way that they haven’t been worked in a while.  It can also be caused by significantly upping the load on your normal lifts.  This is not, by any means, and exhaustive list of causes.

So, what really causes soreness?  Here is a great explanation from About.com

Delayed onset muscle soreness is thought to be a result of microscopic tearing of the muscle fibers. The amount of tearing (and soreness) depends on how hard and how long you exercise and what type of exercise you do. Any movement you aren’t used to can lead to DOMS, but eccentric muscle contractions (movements that cause muscle to forcefully contract while it lengthens) seem to cause the most soreness. 

There are hundreds of different lifts you can incorporate in your routine but which ones really give you the biggest bang for your buck when your goal is fat loss?  It has been proven that by adding muscle your BMR  will increase which means you’ll naturally burn more calories.  Not a bad deal if you ask me!  The bigger the muscle, the more calories it will consume. 

With that knowledge, I am a firm believer that an effective routine for fat loss should include lifts that work the largest muscle groups in your body…and the most muscle groups in your body.  To me, it only makes sense and the results I’ve seen from incorporating these compound exercises into my routine prove it.  Of all of the effective fat loss routines I have personally used, these five lifts have given me the greatest return on my time investment.

Talk about confusing!  Check out some of the supplement sites on the Internet.  There’s a couple of things to remember about the supplement industry: they are not FDA regulated and their marketing write-ups make them sound like all you have to do to get in shape is dab a little bit under arms and you’ll be good to go!  Yes, I’m joking about the “under your arms” part but the write ups are truly an art form.  If you’ve ever read any, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

So where does that leave us?  Which of the 50 different protein powders is the best?  Do you need the fat burners?  What about the different types of creatine?  Yep, tons of questions.   Whether you’re just getting started with weight training  or you’ve been doing it for a while, here are a few pointers to help.