Ladies (and gents), is there anything that’s as stubborn as stomach fat? If your answer is no, you probably haven’t tried some of these exercises to lose fat.

Across the globe, about two billion people are overweight. That’s nearly a third of the world population. Obesity comes with negative health effects such as cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes.

But you knew this already. If you’re overweight or just have some extra fat, you may be looking for ways to drop the pounds. You know that exercise can help, but you want the most efficient workouts around or some that can be done anywhere, at any time.

Ready to lose weight and feel more confident? Then look no further. This guide will cover some of the best exercises to lose fat. 

Although no workout can directly target fat, the following exercises shred through burning a lot of calories. In addition, you’ll lose weight in other problem areas to!

1. Burpees

Named after the physiologist who invented the exercise, burpees put every muscle to the test. Although this exercise has a silly name, it leads to some serious results. That’s why you’ve probably heard of the dreaded burpee even if you’re new to the workout scene.

To perform a burpee, start on your feet and drop down to a squat. Push your legs out until you’re in a plank or push-up position. Pull your feet back into a squat and jump to your feet, leading with your arms.

It sounds simple, but you’ll be feeling the burn in just a few reps. Since you’re working every muscle with burpees, it’s one of the best exercises to target all areas and lose fat fast.

2. Russian Twists

Looking for something less intensive? Start with Russian twists. By twisting your torso from side to side, this exercise gives you a great core workout.

All you need is a medicine ball and a workout mat — or at least a cozy floor.

Take a seat and raise your feet off the ground. Remember to keep your knees bent and lean back about halfway to the floor. Now hold your weight with both hands, but don’t squeeze it against your chest.

Twist your torso to one side, as far as you can manage, then twist to the other side. That’s a rep! Posture is key with Russian twists, so take care to situate yourself the correct way before really going at it.

3. High Interval Intensity Training

More and more research suggests that high interval intensity training, or HIIT, is the fat loss exercise. A cumulative study discovered that people who incorporate HIIT in their workouts lose more weight, up to 28.5%. So what’s the secret?

HIIT increases your body’s metabolic rate, which means you’ll burn calories even after the workout.

Rather than a moderate, steady workout, HIIT relies on intense exertion and low downtime. Basically, you push your body as hard as you can for a brief period of time. Switch between your favorite exercises and create a versatile workout that incorporates every muscle group.

4. Medicine Ball Slams

The best thing about medicine ball slams? It hardly feels like exercise. There’s something recreational about it, sort of like playing basketball. These slams put your arms, neck, core, and more into action. They are a great explosive exercise as well!

If you’re looking for exercises to help lose fat, then this is the one. You’ll burn through the calories with this comprehensive, full-body drill.

A medicine ball slam is easy. Hold a weighted medicine ball above your head, feet spread. Use both hands to throw the medicine ball against the floor and catch it on the rebound.

Yeah, it’s basically dribbling. And yes, that still counts as exercise.

5. Resistance Training

Resistance training is a fancy way to say weight lifting. Just like HIIT, resistance training cuts through fat by increasing your metabolism and enabling muscle growth.

To get the most out of your resistance training, you need to push yourself. More weight means a more intense workout, which can really help you shed the pounds.

But be sure you don’t push yourself too hard. As a rule of thumb, you should have a professional show you the ropes. Lifting weights can be dangerous, especially if you don’t know what you’re doing.

6. Cardio

Most people dislike cardio. For example, did you ever hear the joke about people who miss leg day? But you shouldn’t run from cardio because it’s a great way to burn the fat.

Also known as aerobic exercise, cardio comes in many forms. From treadmills to ellipticals and exercise bikes, rowing machines to exercise bikes, to playing your favorite sport or just jogging outside by the beach, the goal is to get your blood pumping.

In terms of cardio equipment, each has its own pros and cons. Find out more about cardio equipment and discover which is right for your budget and workout goals.

7. Kettlebell Swings

This is a personal favorite since it’s straightforward and not as disorienting as some other exercises. Plus, the posture is simple to get down.

To perform a kettlebell swing, bend forward slightly while standing. Both hands should be on the handle of your kettlebell. Sway the weight back between your thighs, then tense up and rock it away and upwards to about head level.

Be sure you keep a good grip on your kettlebell. You don’t want to send it flying towards the TV or fellow gymgoers!

Fat doesn’t stand a chance!

The hardest part of any exercise routine is getting started. Find the willpower to take that first step. And once you’ve started, don’t you dare stop.

Why would you stop, anyway? You’ve just discovered some of the best exercises to lose fat. When your workout becomes routine it stops being a conscious burden.

To burn through even more fat, consider changing and cleaning up your eating habits, as that is where the key to losing fat comes in.

Ready to work up a sweat? For your first order of business, make sure you have the workout equipment you need. Depending on your exercise of choice, it may be a medicine ball, a treadmill, or just a decent pair of shoes. A key element to remember when trying all these new exercises, is your recovery. Be sure to prioritize your own recovery and rest when pushing your limits. You could also add foam rolling to your cool down, or for muscle aches you can even try CBD balms.

It’s time to get out there and get started. Better health is just around the corner.

Photos by:

• Theme Photos
• Gursimrat Ganda
• Element5 Digital
• Taco Fleur on Unsplash

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If you find yourself trying to lose that unwanted weight and not getting anywhere it could be because of a few important points which you could have overlooked. Take a look below and hopefully we can steer you on the right path.

You are eating too much

Your diet plays a huge role in whether you will lose fat or not. In order for you to drop the pounds you need to be eating less calories than you expend. The key is to drop your calories gradually and not just suddenly cut out say, half your calories.

There is no specific set number of calories that you have to eat, but rather it should be tailored individually to your body.

A good way to find out, is to eat a set number of calories each day, and assess your weight and bodyfat each week. If you are losing weight then keep everything the same and carry on. If not, then adjust your calories and decrease them slightly, then assess again after another week or two.

A big factor that you should be aware of is that you need to be consistent each day, each week, each month, and ensure you stick to the amount of calories. If you keep changing every day or month there is no way of telling what works best for you.

One simple food choice of cutting out sugar from your diet, for example can make a huge difference, one which you can feel and see rather quickly.

Hidden ingredients and calories

These days there are so many “low fat,” “fat free,” “sugar free” products that we think we are actually getting healthier, less calorie goods, but many cases something has been removed only to have it replaced with sugar or something worse. We as consumers must learn to read and understand food labels and nutritional information in order for us to know exactly what we are buying and putting into our bodies.

Endless hours of cardio

One of the biggest mistakes people make is, when they decide they want to start exercising and lose fat they immediately just jump on a treadmill and go for hours upon hours throughout the week doing cardio.

The best way to lose fat is a combination of weighted training, to help you build muscle, and cardio, which you gradually build up to.

Muscle needs nutrients for building and recovering and burns more calories at rest than fat does. So the more muscle you build the more calories you burn just standing there. This is the reason why people who have significant muscle mass and low bodyfat can usually get away with eating a lot more than someone with a high bodyfat and low muscle mass.

There are basically two types of cardio which you can do. Steady state cardio or HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). Steady state cardio is where you run at a steady pace for a set time keeping your heart rate relatively low. HIIT on the other hand is where you can jog for one minute, then sprint, or go all out for 40 seconds to a minute, raising your heart rate level quite high. You then go back to jogging and repeat the cycle a few times.

The thing with either types of cardio, is that you must gradually build them up over time, regardless of which you decide to do.

Try both and see which you prefer. For instance start off with doing 15 minutes of steady state cardio after your weighted sessions (one or two days per week) and each week try to increase your distance in that 15 minutes, or increase the resistance. Once you have done that for a few weeks, you can then increase the time to say 20 minutes or 25 minutes and so on. This gives you a lot more room and a lot more factors to play with, to prevent your body from getting used to it. There are many things you can add and change to make it more challenging for your body than if you just throw in an hour of cardio every single day of the week. How do you increase that, to 2 hours of cardio every day? I hope not.

Always be sure to keep challenging yourself each week, whether it be by beating your previous distance in the same time or by adding a bit of weight to each exercise. The only way to keep growing and progressing is to not get comfortable and avoid sticking to the same things every day and every week.

Not being consistent

This is one of the most important and often overlooked factors in doing anything in life. You cannot expect to achieve something if you only work at it when you feel like it or by putting in the effort for a few days and then ignoring it for a while. You have to, have to, HAVE TO, put in the work every day. It is this constant work over time which delivers results.

Not training heavy enough

The purpose of weight training is to promote muscle growth or to maintain your muscle mass. Without some form of constant resistance your muscles will slowly start to disappear.

The body is an astutely engineered machine which will shed unnecessary tissue if it does not have a stimulus or the need for it.

This is really a clever survival tactic. With that being said, when your calories are somewhat low, in order to keep shedding the fat, the first thing to go will be your muscle since the body wants to store whatever food that it can due to it not receiving sufficient calories. Thus the need for heavy weights arises. By keeping the weights relatively heavy you force your body to realise that it needs to keep that muscle because of the constant stimulus provided by the weights.

As the saying goes, “If you don’t use it, you lose it.”

Setting unrealistic goals

A major aspect of losing fat, is your mindset.

You really need to be fixated on what you want to achieve and set your mind to it, regardless of the time frame that it will take.

If this is truly what you want then you have to understand that it will be tough, there will be many challenges, there will be days where you just want to give up and not care anymore. It’s those days that will define you and force you to learn more than you can ever imagine, about life and about yourself. So be aware of this from the start and ensure that you are focused and will not let anything derail you no matter what because this is what YOU want. This is YOUR choice and nobody else’s. Do this for yourself, for a future better you and not for anyone or anything else.

It always starts and ends with YOU.

Anything good takes time, patience and consistency. So you must be prepared to be in it for the long haul and not for a few weeks or days.

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Juniors

1. Willie Badenhorst
2. Khukumuzi Maluleke
3. Hannes Alberts

Masters U/80 kg

1. Japie v Wyk
2. Gerrie Killlian
3. Frederick Schultz

Masters O/80 kg

1. Ferdie Pieterse
2. Andrew Parsens
3. Tiny Verryne

Beach Bikini U/163

1. Alex-Maude vd Westhuizen
2. Francisca V Heerden
3. Lerato Deu

Beach Bikini O/163

1. Marissa McCabe
2. Thealize Maritz
3. Danica Venske

Overall Beach Bikini: Alex-Maud vd Westhuizen

Fitness Bikini U/163

1. Sandy Greeff

Fitness Bikini O/163

1. Larisa de Swardt
2. Carmen Botha
3. Alva Maree

Overall Fitness Bikini: Larisa de Swardt

Body Fitness

1. Annelien Booysen
2. Vivian Goosen
3. Odette Holtzhausen

Classic Bodybuilding

1. Christie Ryker
2. Thabiso Modisane
3. Willie Erasmus

Senior Men U/70 kg

1. Steve Makhubela
2. Frans Hloi
3. Johannes Mnuguni

Senior Men U/80 kg

1. Hans Mokgoshi
2. Charles Luck
3. Nikolaus Von Kraayenburg

Senior Men U/90 kg

1. Siyabulela Vusani
2. Sean Koeberg
3. Andre Pieterse

Senior Men O/90 kg

1. Cobus vd Merwe
2. Mduduzi Green
3. Tony Flex

Overall Winner: Cobus vd Merwe

Video Gallery:

H&H 2013 Bodybuilding & Fitness Classic

Watch this video on YouTube.

Best Poser Award – Charles Luck Posing Routine

Watch this video on YouTube.

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Quick Stats

Name:  Jeanine Kilian
Age:  24
Competition weight:  48kg
Current weight:  50kg
Current city:  Witbank, South Africa
Occupation:  System Administrator Xstrata and Entrepreneur

Why do you follow this ‘training’ lifestyle?

Its my passion and my dream! There’s more to gym than just exercise!

What competitions have you competed in and your placings?

2013

• Ifbb Mpumalanga Novice Championships, Beach Bikini,1st
• Nabba Pretoria Classic, Bikini

Tell us a bit about your experience leading up to your first competition, where you placed first!

I was a runner for a long time and wanted a new challenge so I started to gym. I wanted to compete last year but was sick with a histamine allergy and overcame it this year, winning my first competition. My friend Jenine Van Der Merwe gave me stage training and helped me with my diet and exercise.

We are now helping girls in our hometown with stage prep and giving them the motivation to never quit.

I’m so excited to be where I am now. A real dream come true! I love the sport and just want to better myself every day.

What are your future plans?

I’m going to compete in the WBFF in July, then after that I want to compete in Natal for SA’S. I really want to inspire and help a lot of people.

Take us through an average day of yours:

• I wake up at 3:45 to go to gym
• I’m at work from 6 am
• Leave work at 3 pm
• The rest of my day is made up of meal planning and shopping for my diet
• Stage training (before a show)
• Bed at 9 pm

What’s your favorite healthy meal which you eat even during your contest prep?

Pancakes. Egg Whites with oats

What supplements do you use?

I use Furian Nutrition. Very Clean in carbs and works great for me and all the people I sell it to. I also do Furian Challenges on my face book page (Diet Help & Motivation by Jeanine Kilian). Please go check out the results.

If you had to choose only one supplement to take, what would it be?

Furian Leanx. It gives me the energy I need and helps me burn off the fat.

Give us a brief description of your philosophy on your diet, pre contest and during the off season.

I stay in shape all year by eating 6 meals a day consisting of clean foods. I try to never over eat on the wrong foods because then it’s going to be difficult to get back on track. I make sure I’m never starving myself because that is when your body stores fat.

How do you measure your progress?

Photo shoots is how I track my progress. Love being in front of a camera. Also one of my passions, I love to see the results!

How do you stay motivated, focused, and keep moving forward in all aspects of life?

The People in my life, the support I get from my friends and family. Also the fact that I’m so lucky to be backed by my wonderful sponsors:

•  X-trend Hair studio,  the best hair salon in Witbank
• Furian Nutrition, for all my amazing supplements
• CompuTweak, my website sponsor
• Ridge Pharmacy for all my vitamins

and all that I have achieved so far. I’m very blessed!

How important is cardio and how much cardio do you do?

I was a long distance runner for a long time, running 21km and more, but now I’m only doing 45-60 minutes of cardio. I don’t want to lose any muscle.

What are your top three tips that women should use, for training legs?

• Say Goodbye to machines
• Don’t be afraid of weights
• Choose cardio wisely

Favorite female fitness icon(s):

My friend, Jenine Van Der Merwe

Favorite Quote:

“Stop thinking in terms of limitations and start thinking in terms of possibilities.”

Advice for someone wanting to start competing?

• Get a coach to help you with your prep/diet
• Never stop dreaming and believing

Where can people get hold of you?

• Facebook: www.facebook.com/MotivationByJeanineKilian
• Twitter: @chanine24
• Email: jkilian0[at]gmail.com
• Website: www.jeaninekilian.co.za

Jeanine Kilian Picture Gallery

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So many people are unsure of what exactly makes up a great breakfast, or rather have the idea that they don’t have the time in the mornings to worry about breakfast, and they end up eating a bowl of cereal, or just a small piece of fruit or even end up eating NOTHING at all.  I firmly believe that, if you eat sufficiently at breakfast, you will have plenty of energy throughout the day, your ability to focus will be much better and you will stay fuller for longer, keeping your cravings under control.

There have also been a few studies done to show that a group of people who ate a protein filled breakfast everyday for a period of time managed to lose more weight than the group who didn’t.

One of the reasons for this was that when we eat protein at breakfast, it helps to keep us (our appetite) satisfied and we are less likely to overeat at other meals later in the day.

Check out more information on one of those studies here:   http://www.bicycling.com/training-nutrition/nutrition-weight-loss/drop-weight-and-your-cravings

So that brings us on to the question, what can we eat that is balanced, quick and easy to make and that is nutritionally sufficient to support us throughout the day?  Well think protein, carbohydrates (fruit and complex carbs), and even fat.  In terms of food, eggs are an excellent source of protein, fat and vitamins and minerals.  Oats, honey, yoghurt, blueberries, bananas, apples, melons, are all great sources of carbohydrates.  Now the specific amounts you take in  will vary, depending on your size, weight, body fat levels, etc. as well as your energy needs throughout the day and at the time.

So to make this quick and easy, nutrient rich breakfast, this is what you will need to do.

Lets start with the eggs:

• Crack open three eggs in a bowl.
• Add a dash of milk, sprinkle some salt and pepper and add half a tsp of garlic.
• Mix well.
• Then place a non stick electric frying pan on low heat and pour the eggs in the pan.  Keep separating the mixture with a non stick spatula (cooking scrambled eggs).
• Cook until done.  You should not need to cook for more than 3 – 4 minutes.
• Add a few slices of tomatoes, and season to taste.

That’s your eggs (protein and fat) done. It sounds like its a process but it really doesnt take longer then 5 or 6 minutes to make.

Now for your Carbohydrates.  This is so simple its scary.

In a bowl place the following:

• 40 grams of Raw Oats.  (I have used raw oats, if you prefer yours cooked, by all means cook a portion of oats the night before to use)
• 1 tsp cocoa
• 2 tsp dessicated coconut
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• A Few blueberries
• One small banana chopped

To that, pour in some milk to the consistency that you like and eat up!

Now there you have it, a very quick meal to make, with hardly any hassle and it provides you with all the nutrients you need to take on the day ahead of you!  You now have no excuse to eat a great breakfast and make the most of your day!

*Just a note, please do not misunderstand the principle here, I am in no way saying ONLY eat breakfast and you will have energy for the whole day!  You must still eat healthy meals throughout the day to keep you going.  BUT, By consistently eating a good breakfast, you will have more energy, reduce cravings and hunger pains, and will be less likely to overeat later in the day which can cause unwanted fat gain.

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