Thick to Fit Fitness Challenge

Slow down. It takes approximately 15 to 20 minutes for your stomach to sense it’s full. If you wolf down your food like a starving dog, you’ll likely out-eat your hunger.

Build more lean muscle. Maintain, or even increase, your metabolism by continuing to build lean muscle. “Muscle has a higher metabolism than fat does,” explains Emily Banes, RD, clinical dietitian at Houston Northwest Medical Center. If you don’t yet train with weights, add this type of exercise to your overall program now. If you do, increase the amount of weight you’re working with to keep yourself challenged. 

Whichever body shape you were born with, you can enhance your figure with a healthy diet that includes lean protein, lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, complex carbohydrates, and minimal packaged foods and added sugars.

It’s also important to let go of having the perfect body, and learn to eat well and exercise because it makes you feel good. When you are feeling down in the dumps about your body shape, call a positive pal for a pep talk, or write down everything you love about yourself. Combine these little efforts with a body-type specific fitness plan, and you’ll be on the road to loving your figure in no time.

You are thin and have little definition with bust, waist, and hip measurements that are very similar — hence the comparison to a streamlined flute.

What you can do: If you’re thin, your goal may be to chisel your waist to add some curves to your body. Look to tone your abs with sit-ups, side planks, squats, and vertical toe touches (lie flat on your back and raise your legs straight up in the air, then reach to touch your toes). If you have a rectangular flute shape but are on the heavy side, your goal is to lose weight all over by adopting a healthy eating plan along with regular exercise.

(source: everydayhealth)

You’re curvy, and your bust and hip measurements are just about the same while your waist is narrow. If you have an hourglass figure and you’re overweight, you will likely be overweight all over.

What you can do: To enhance an hourglass body type, follow an exercise program that works both your upper and lower body. Your upper-body weight-training program to define muscles could include dips, lat pull-downs, tricep extensions, and bench presses. Good aerobic exercises for the upper body are swimming, rowing, and cross-country skiing. Tone your lower body with squats, leg presses, leg curls, and calf raises. Good aerobic exercises for the lower body are bicycling, walking, and running

(source:everydayhealth)

If you’re a pear, you carry fat around your hips, thighs, and buttocks and are more likely to have a small upper body (including breasts) and a heavier lower body. If you want to shift the emphasis away from your hips, there are fitness improvements you can make for a better body image.

What you can do: Bicycling is an excellent aerobic exercise to help tone your lower body, Allen says. Although you can’t spot reduce, you can tone your legs with squats, leg presses, leg curls, and calf raises.

(source:everydayhealth)

If you carry most of your excess weight around the waist and tend to have narrower hips and bigger breasts, you’re an apple. Some researchers believe that apples have an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, and early death while others think that waist circumference may be no better an indicator of your likelihood of having a heart attack than any other measurement of body fat. Still, being overweight, no matter where you carry your fat, puts more strain on your heart and increases your risk for heart disease.

What you can do: You can’t spot reduce to get rid of fat, but you can start a cardio routine to help burn fat all over, and tone your abdominal muscles to make them look more streamlined, says triathlete Mark Allen, co-author of Fit Soul, Fit Body: 9 Keys to a Healthier, Happier You. Research has found jogging to be the single most effective exercise to tone tummies, so if you have your doctor’s approval, consider starting a running program to slim down. Next, add in ab-toning moves, such as planks and crunches.

(source: everydayhealth.com)