It is becoming increasingly difficult to open a magazine, watch tv or go to see a movie without seeing some form of weight loss advertisement. if you, like many others are lost trying to decide whether or not to the latest celebrity diet or weight loss product is suitable for you, you should firstly get an overall understanding of how to safely and effectively lose fat.

Over the course of this article i will present to you the basic facts to give you a better understanding about how your body works and how choosing the right foods and exercise plan can help you with your weight loss goals.

Most people would like to los fat around their stomachs but are unsure how exactly to do so. To get a flat stomach we need to improve the quality of both our diet and our training.

But why do we focus on belly fat? Two reasons - to show off our abs, and also to be healthy. Modern thought concerning weight issues is that measuring BMI (height weight ratio) does not provide a good indicator of health. Measuring the waist circumference is a better measure of health. even a small amount of fat carried in the abdominal region is unhealthy.

Before we continue please note that performing hundreds of abdominal exercies eveyday does not help to reduce fat. Crunches and sit ups, although intensive on the stomach, will not alone shift the fat covering them. so while you may be able to do 200 sit ups you may not have a visible six-pack. in fact building bigger abdominals could actualy make your stomach look bigger if it is still covered in a layer of fat.

The best way to lose weight and tone up is to do both cardiovascular and resistance training.

 Cardiovascular training helps to burn fat and keeps to keep the heart healthy. Examples of cardiovascular training include jogging, walking, playing sports such as tennis, football e.t.c . martial arts are also a great form of keeping fit and have the added value of learning self defense at the same time.

Resistance training involves using weights or your own body to increase strength and build muscle. Many women believe that if they lift weights they will become big and bulky but this is not the case as there are many ways to train with weights, be it to build up or slim down. For a resistance training program ask an instructor at your local gym or download a celebrity workout from the internet. Many men follow workout Daniel craig used when training for hios role in James Bond. For women Jennifer Aniston and Halle Berry workouts are popular choices.

 You should aim to do two intensive weighht training sessions and two intensive cardio sessions each week. After intensive exercising it is important that you take rest days each week. Many people have one day of training followed by a day of rest or two days of training followed by a rest day and so on.

While making these adjustments to your training will greatly help you, it is still only half the battle. It is vital that your diet is as good as your training or all your crunches and bicep curls will count for nothing. Here i have listed out some helpful tips to improve your diet.

• Keep junk food to an absoloute minimum to an absoloute minimum as it is full of empty calories (food with lots of calories with little or no nutrients) and will not keep you full for long. If you find it difficult to give up snacks and junk food completely then have a cheat day where you take a break from your diet.
  
• Cut back on processed meat (sausages, hot dog, burgers, salami e.t.c) as it is high in saturated fat.
  
• White bread, pasta, donuts, cakes and biscuits should also be avoided. they can lead to bloating, poor digestion and lead to accumulation of fat. "Good carbs" such as fruit and vegetables, should be eaten instead. a diet that takes most of its carbs from fruit an veg as opposed to flours is healthier. Ideally granary or wholemeal bread should be eaten instead of white bread, slow release carbs such as sweet potatoes, oats and brown rice e.t.c are also good choices as they give a sustained release of energy leaving you feeling fuller for longer.
  
• Avoid eating late at night as little activity is done afterwards meaning that all that this excess sugar from, the meal is not being used up and then turns to fat. If you do have to eat late at night or late in the evening keep it to a light meal.
  
• Cut down on the amount of alcohol you consume. Alcohol contains a lot of empty calories and is used by the body as a fuel source meaning any food you eat whilst having alcohol in your system wil be stored as fat.