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How to Lose Weight at Home with a Kettlebell

December 10, 2012 by Jay Leave a Comment

This website is all about working out at home and one of the goals a lot of people have who read this site is losing weight at home. If you’ve got the space at home and the spare cash, building your own gym is one of the easiest ways to achieve that goal. However, this isn’t possible for most people and is way beyond what is required in order to lose weight, shape up and get toned at home.

Due to their low cost and the large number of exercises you can do with kettlebells, they are one of the best pieces of home fitness equipment you can buy. There are loads to choose from, which you can read about on our kettlebell reviews page here, and they are available for a wide range of prices. This means whatever your budget or goals there is a kettlebell for you.

How to Lose Weight with Kettlebell Training

If you want to lose weight I have to be honest with you for a second. The most important aspect to shedding fat is to have your diet sorted. You don’t need to go crazy and do a stupid fad diet like the cabbage soup diet or whatever your favourite celebrity magazine is peddling this month. You just have to cut the cr@p. A good body is made in the kitchen, not the gym, and no matter how hard you exercise, you cannot out train a bad diet. Sure, working out and exercising at home or the gym will allow you to eat more of what you like without suffering the negative consequences but it doesn’t give you a license to overdo it. Eating rubbish with the intention of working it off later in the gym is a road to nowhere but fatsville.

Weight training and kettlebell training is one of the best ways to lose fat at home and in general. Cardio can help you burn calories and drop some weight but it won’t leave you with a toned, athletic looking physique. In order to get that look, which is what we all want, you need to do some kind resistance training to develop your muscles and get that toned look. Simply losing the fat will leave you looking soft and wobbly. A look that is known as skinny fat.

This applies to both men and women: do not neglect weigh training, it should be at the heart of your fitness routine!

If you don’t heed this advice you will end up skinny fat with floppy upper arms and legs. Is that what you want?

So with that cleared up, let’s look at how you can lose weight at home with kettlebell training. First you need the right one, so take a look at this guide to picking the right kettlebell for you if you don’t have one already.

Next you need to schedule a minimum of three days a week where you can perform a 30 minute kettlebell workout at home, in the backyard, the garage or wherever. Then you need to pick a routine. The kind of routine you want to follow in order to lose weight with a kettlebell needs to do the following:

Get your heart rate pumping
Leave you out of breath
Be intense
Include a good amount of compound strength developing exercises
Be fun!

Here is a good routine to follow if you want to shape up at home with kettlebells:Push ups: 1 set of as many reps as you can (one handed for extra intensity if you can)

Kettlebell Squats: up to 12 reps
Kettlebell Swing: up to 12 reps
Kettlebell Lunges: up to 12 reps
Crunches: up to 15 reps
One armed overhead kettlebell press: up to 12 reps then swap arms

Then repeat until 30 minutes are up and you are done. If you still have any energy left after this muscle building calories burning home workout then follow it up with some rope time.

Help: I’m Working Out but not Losing Weight!

June 21, 2012 by Jay Leave a Comment

When most people start working out their initial goal is to “lose weight” but this phrase can be misleading as what their actual goal is is to lose fat. In fact they might not even really want to lose any weight at all!

When I first started going to the gym I did so because I noticed, or rather one of my friends noticed and kindly pointed out, that I was starting to develop a bit of a belly after years of being skinny due to a bad diet, too much drinking and no exercise (sound familiar?). I decided to nip this problem in the bud and join my local gym and start exercising there as I played no sports or did any training of any kind apart from walking around town.

Losing Weight vs. Losing Fat

My strategy was to do lots of cardio on the running machines and use the resistance machines in the gym. If I had a goal back then it would’ve been “to lose weight” but really what I wanted to do was “lose fat and gain muscle”.

As muscle weighs more than fat your weight might increase when you first start going to the gym as your body will be shedding its excess fat reserves while putting on some new muscle or lean mass. If you are unaware of what is going on there is a good chance you might get disheartened when you first step on the scales after a month or so of going to the gym. You will see that your total weight has gone up when the reason you started going to the gym was to lose weight – what is going on?

Scales aren’t the Best Way to Track Your Progress

For this reason using scales to weigh yourself isn’t the best way to see if your hard work in the gym is paying off. Seeing your body weight going up can be disappointing so we recommend that you track your progress in other ways. Some great ways to chart your change in body composition are:

Use a tape measure to measure the key parts of your body. Choose the main areas of your body you think that would give you a good indication of whether you are losing fat or not such as your belly, hips, thighs and upper arms. Make sure you measure yourself in exactly the same positions each time. A good idea is to measure yourself at the widest point, so for your belly find where you are the biggest and measure there each time. Do this once a month to allow enough time to pass for there to be a noticeable change and don’t get despondent if there isn’t a change as when it comes to getting in shape patience is definitely a virtue. If you are doing weight training as well as cardio which you really should be as it is the best way to lose fat and get toned for both men and women, then you will notice that some measurements might start going up such as your upper arms, chest and possibly shoulders. This is due to an increase in muscle and is nothing to worry about!
Take a photo of yourself at regular intervals to record the change in your body’s composition. If you are quite overweight then at first you will notice your fat deposits starting to reduce in size and visibility and then once you get to a low body fat percentage which could be less than 20% for men and maybe under 30% for women you will then see some muscle tone and definition start to become visible. This is where your weight loss might start to slow but do not worry! This means you are still losing fat but are gaining lean mass or muscle which will keep your weight level or even increasing but will result in a great new look which is toned, healthy and athletic looking. Try to ensure you take the photo in the same place such as the bathroom or the changing rooms at the gym to keep it consistent as different lighting and positions can make it harder to determine if there are any changes from photo to photo. I wish I started doing this when I first decided to get in shape as it can be a great motivator for you to see how far you’ve come and when you don’t feel like going to the gym a quick look at the photos of yourself looking fat and out of shape can give you that extra bit of motivation to workout!
Measuring your body fat is probably the best way to keep track of your fat loss progress but it is also quite tricky to do, especially by yourself. The cheapest and easiest way to get a measurement is to use a pair of body fat measuring calipers and although they come with instructions they can often give inaccurate readings if you don’t know what you are doing. There are more reliable methods available but they require special equipment that you won’t even find in most gyms. There are of course scales that claim to be able to measure your body fat by sending an electrical current around your body which they time to calculate what percentage of your body consists of fat on the premise that the current travels slower through fat. These products are not known for their accuracy and even on the same day can give different readings so don’t rely on them for an accurate reading or even to track your progress.

The best way in my opinion is to use a combination of the mirror and measuring tape to track your fat loss and muscle building progress once you start working out at home or in the gym. One of the main reasons we workout after all is to look good and to have a healthy appearance so what better way to keep an eye on this than by using our reflection.

If you still want to try and measure your body fat levels at home check out these products now.

How to Get in Shape at Home without a Cardio Machine

June 11, 2012 by Jay 3 Comments

If you want to lose weight and get in great shape while training at home without the need for expensive cardio equipment or doing boring cardio exercises then this article is for you.

We will show you how you can burn more calories, save space and spend less money to get the look you want. All by training smarter, not harder.

Weight Loss Myths

Lots of people assume that the best way to lose weight is to do lots and lots of cardio. While cardio training such as running, cycling, swimming or rowing does burn calories it is not the most effective way to get rid of that excess fat we all have and want to say goodbye to.

In fact, the best way to lose fat and get that lean athletic look is to focus on weight training which means lifting weights. If you are planning on training at home then this is great news due to the fact that weight training equipment takes up a whole lot less space than an exercise bike or treadmill.

WOSS Suspension Trainer

This means you can now start working out at home in a way that will help you shift those stubborn areas of fat you want to get rid of in order to get the look you want. Something like this very popular but affordable WOSS suspension trainer could be just what you need.

Another advantage to this type of training over doing cardio at home is that basic weight training equipment also costs a lot less than the equipment you would need for a home cardio workout.

So not only will you be burning more calories but you will be saving space and money. Convinced yet?

How Does Weight Training Burn More Calories than Cardio Exercises?

A vigorous workout with weights burns almost as many calories as a cardio workout but one of the two main benefits of training with weights is that during the hour or two after your training session your body has a metabolic spike which means that your body continues to burn calories at an accelerated rate even if you have finished working out and are sitting down relaxing. Your body burns these extra calories in a bid to help your muscles recover from the weight lifting exercises you have just performed.

The other main benefit from weight training over cardio training is that as the amount of lean mass or muscle your body has increases so too does the amount of calories your body burns during the day. The amount of calories your body uses in a day is known as your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) and is the amount of energy your body expends to keep your body’s vital organs ticking over such as your brain, heart, lungs and other essential bits and pieces. Any other activities you do during the day also burn calories on top of this amount. Common BMRs for adults can range between 1500 and 2500 calories per day. But if you are weight training and increasing the amount of lean mass on your body then this number will go up and even on a day when you don’t do any exercise at all your body will use up more calories then when you didn’t have the muscle mass.

How Much Muscle Do I Need to Increase My BMR?

Now the thought of adding this extra lean mass or muscle to your body might sound like hard work and if you want to really bulk up and get big then I’m afraid it will be a hard task you are faced with.

However if you just want to add some muscle to get that toned look and burn more calories by weight training than from doing cardio then it’s not so hard. You will still have to train seriously and regularly as you would do if you were doing cardio training as the payoff is great and the benefits longer lasting then it shouldn’t be hard to keep motivated.

By adding just three pounds of muscle your body will burn an extra 120 calories a day.

Don’t Worry About Gaining Too Much Muscle

Some of you reading this might be thinking “but I only want to lose weight, I don’t want to gain muscle”. If you are thinking this the reason if probably that you don’t want to get too big and bulky or get the look of a bodybuilder.

Well the good news is there is no need to worry about that happening. Building muscle is a slow process which becomes quite difficult once you have passed through the initial period where you might easily gain a few pounds of muscle when you first start training with weights. There is no chance you will wake up one day and realise you have become the Incredible Hulk by accident.

Getting big takes a lot of time and work and is not something that happens by mistake!

Why Loosing Fat and Not Building Muscle is a Bad Idea

If you went down the route of only doing cardio training to meet your goals of losing weight you would eventually meet your targets and lose the pounds you had been desperately trying to get rid of. Sure it might take you longer than if you trained with weights but you should get there in the end. The problem is that if you lose fat and don’t add muscle to your body then you won’t get that healthy, athletic, toned look people with attractive bodies people have. Just losing the fat won’t tighten you up and any wobbly bits will still be wobbly, just not as much so. You will also won’t get the bonus of increasing the amount of calories that your body burns daily and will therefore but at much more risk of putting the weight back on. Also, gaining muscle also makes you stronger which can come in handy from time to time!

The Best Way to Lose Weight Training at Home

Although the information in this article can be applied to people training in a gym the main purpose of this piece was to show you that even if you want to train at home and your goal is to get in great shape then you can do so without the need to do cardio at home.

Doing home cardio workouts can be expensive due to the need for large equipment such as stationary bikes or elliptical trainers which also require a lot of space.

You can easily start building muscles at home with just one or two pieces of equipment such as a pair of dumbbells or a kettlebell. Even if you are travelling on the road you can get a good workout in using a portable training device such as the very effective suspension trainers.

As you can see weight training is the best way to not only lose fat but also get a great athletic, healthy, toned body whether you are training at home or in the gym. If you are now convinced this is the way forward take a look at some of our other articles to help you get started:

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Why Weight Training is the Best Way to Lose Fat for Everyone

June 6, 2012 by Jay 4 Comments

If you are serious about losing weight and getting a lean, toned physique then it doesn’t matter whether you are male or female, weight training should be your main focus when working out.

Shouldn’t I be Doing Cardio Exercises?

This is one of the biggest misconceptions in the gym and if you ask most people using the cardio machines such as the treadmills, the stationary bike or the elliptical trainer they will tell you that losing weight is their number one priority. Doing cardio exercises are a great way to increase your fitness levels but when it comes to losing fat then there are much more effective ways to use your time that you should be doing first before you even think about getting on the treadmill.

Why Weight Training is Great for Weight Loss

One of the main benefits of training with weights is that as the amount of muscle in your body increases so too does the amount of calories your body burns when resting (your basal metabolic rate or BMR). Add more muscle or lean mass to your body and you will burn more calories each day even if you haven’t had a workout. Let’s say your body uses 2000 calories per day just to function. If you start increasing the amount of muscle your body contains then this number will increase meaning that you can either eat more food without putting on weight or eat the same amount of food as before and lose weight as you will be in a calorie deficit. As fat loss comes down to calories in vs. calories out the more calories your body uses means you are much more likely to lose fat. As there are many factors that come into play such as your weight, height, diet and fitness levels it is impossible to give a general number for the increase in calories burned but as a rough guide for every three pounds of muscle you add, your body will burn an extra 120 calories per day.

Apart from the increase in your BMR there is also the calorie burning properties of the workout itself. Estimates state that an average 30 minute weight training session can burn 240 to 300 calories or eight to 10 calories per minute. When compared to a 30 minute cardio workout which on average uses around 300 to 360 calories they compare quite favourably but when you factor in the increase in your BMR and also that weight training gives your body a metabolic spike which lasts for about an hour after you have finished you can see that lifting weights is the best way to lose fat in the short and long term.

Other Reasons You Should be Training with Weights

Apart from the increase in the amount of calories your body burns on a daily basis and the calorie zapping properties of the workout lifting weights has many other great advantages. Increasing your strength is just one of them and although it might not be at the top of your list of goals it does bring benefits, making day to day life easier and more effortless. Plus you never know when you might need to win that arm wrestle or lift that heavy box or open that jar of pickles! Increasing your strength is a great secondary goal to achieve. As you train with weights your bone density increases which is a good thing as it strengthens your bones. This can have immediate positive benefits but in the long term, when you start to get old and frail your increased bone density can keep those bones strong and healthy minimising the risk of breaks and fractures.

But I Don’t Want to Get Big!

A lot of you reading this might be concerned about adding too much muscle and starting to look like a bodybuilder. This is something you should not worry about at all. To get to the stage where people are commenting on your muscles and size takes years of heavy lifting and serious dedication. Not only do you have to lift heavy weights but in order to become big and bulky you also need to eat lots of food so that your body can convert the extra calories into muscle. If you train at a medium intensity and stick to a sensible diet then the chances of you starting to look like you should be on stage are next to nothing. If it was that easy to get big and muscular then there wouldn’t be so many men grunting and huffing and puffing in the gym!

I Just Want to Get Toned, Not Build Muscle

Getting toned just means you have a decent amount of muscle or lean body mass and also have low body fat levels. This means that you don’t look too skinny and don’t wobble about when moving even if you have a small build. In order to get the toned look you have to lift weights to build your muscles. Just doing cardio and losing fat that way won’t get you toned. You might lose weight from doing cardio but once the fat starts to go there won’t be any muscle tone underneath and you won’t get the look you’re after. Getting that layer of muscle under your skin keeps you firm and toned to give you that healthy, athletic figure.

Even Women Must Lift Weights

A Toned Womens Physique

So far this article has been aimed at men and women who are serious about fat loss and getting in great shape. All the above applies to both men and women but as we get near the end of the article I want to make it crystal clear that for women to get in shape both in terms of losing fat and getting that sporty, athletic toned figure they need to start weight training as their number one priority. Yes diet and cardio vascular exercise are important but starting a weight training program should be your main focus if you want to transform your body composition and boost your body’s calorie burning abilities. You won’t get big and muscular unless you really want to and even then it will be a real struggle to achieve the bodybuilder look so don’t worry about that happening.

What Exercises Should I Do?

Even if you are a regular gym goer who uses the cardio and fitness machines, making the transition to weight training can be a daunting prospect. Like the first day at school, crossing the invisible line into the free weights section of the gym can be a nerve wracking experience but once your first workout is underway you will be wondering what all the fuss was about. Sure there might be some big guys waddling around but overall they are a friendly bunch. If you are nervous ask a gym employee to show the ropes on some of the free weights and then start off with a basic workout and then add more exercises as time goes by until you have a rock-solid weight training schedule you are happy with.

Alternatively you could always train at home which is easier than it sounds due to the plethora of home weight training equipment on the market. To get started you only need a set of dumbbells or a single kettlebell and you can start performing a full body workout in the comfort of your own home. This is another advantage over cardio training as the size a treadmill or exercise bike takes up can’t be compared to the size of a small set of free weights.

Check out our Home Weight Training section for more ideas on training at home.

Conclusion

To summarize weight training is the best way to lose fat because:

The more muscle you have the more calories your body burns on a daily basis
Weight training workouts burn a comparable amount of calories to a cardio workout but your body continues burning calories at an increased rate for the next few hours as well
Adding lean body mass or muscle to your body will give you that healthy, athletic and toned look
Increasing your strength has many practical applications
Weight training at home is far easier, cheaper and takes up less space than doing a cardio workout at home

So if looking good, burning more fat and becoming healthier are your main priorities then training with weights should be you be your new favorite activity!