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At my gym Heavy Weights Training Center center we have helped thousands of women with their transformation goals. I wanted to share with you 21 tips that we use in our programs to get amazing results.

1. Don’t Drink Your Calories

Soda and fruit-flavored drinks can really add up quick. Some have up to 250 calories per 12 ounces. Juice drinks, you know the fruit cocktail drinks with names like cranberry cocktail, or pomegranate raspberry, sound healthy but can actually contain more calories per ounce than soda.

Only Drink Water, Green Tea & Black Coffee (sweeten with Stevia is ok).

2. NO Sugar Drinks like Orange Juice, Apple Juice etc.

Further to point #1. Even 100% fruit juices, be it orange, apple, etc., all count as calories.

Unlike a whole piece of real fruit, fruit juice is very concentrated in sugar, which makes it high in calories. Sugar is sugar, don’t drink it.

3. Remember “You Can’t Out Train A Bad Diet” Because it’s TRUE

So ignore the fact that most people eat healthy foods so that they can look good for a minute, what about your health?

Nutrition is the biggest factor. You can exercise all you want but if you do not provide your body with the fuel it needs, your performance, health and appearance all suffer. Our bodies need certain nutrients to function and when all you eat are empty calories, everything is impacted. Real foods is what our bodies crave and what we are meant to eat. If you are looking to lose weight, get healthy and perform to your full potential, give your body the nutrients it needs.

4. Use Fish Oil

The benefits are HUGE for Fat Loss, Anti Inflammation and more. Fish Oil contains Omega 3 fatty acids, particularly EPA, have a very positive effect on your inflammatory response. Fish oils also help to lower cholesterol, triglycerides, LDLs and blood pressure, while at the same time increasing good HDL cholesterol. This adds years to your life expectancy. As an added bonus Fish oils will help burn fat and prevent fat gain. They improve serotonin levels (mood), make it easier to move nutrients in and out of cell walls, decrease the amount of sugar your body will absorb, improves blood pressure and decrease insulin output when taken with a meal.

The BEST Fish Oil I have used is Nutra Sea from Ascenta. Don’t skip and go cheap on fish oils, you get what you pay for.

5. Have Most Of Your Carbohydrates Around Your Weight Training

If fat loss is your goal, hold off on the carbohydrates until you have completed your training session. This will allow your body’s hyped-up metabolism to keep burning fat as fuel. You will still have a window of opportunity to load the carbohydrates back into the muscle cells.

6. If You Can Split Your Cardio & Weight Training Sessions Do It

You cannot give the same intensity when you do your cardio and weight training at the same sessions. First, let’s be clear when I say cardio, I’m not referring to walking on a treadmill for an hour. Our cardio is short, high intensity interval training; Sled pushes, battling ropes, sprints, ect. When you perform these activities to your max effort, you will not be able to give your weight training the same intensity. It is better to wait and do your weight training in a separate session.

7. Remember “You Are What You Eat” Because it’s TRUE

Eating the right foods provides your body with adequate nutrition to perform everyday tasks as well as improve your performance during training. Remember Garbage In=Garbage Out.

If you eat crap, you cannot expect to feel good and train to your full potential. healthy, nutrient rich foods can fend off serious diseases like diabetes, cancer, and heart disease; fortify your immune system; protect and smooth your skin; and help you lose weight or stay slim.

8. Set Weekly Training Goals & Monitor Them

Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your ideal future, and for motivating yourself to turn your vision of this future into reality. By knowing precisely what you want to achieve, you know where you have to concentrate your efforts.

Breaking a big goal into smaller, realistic goals can help you both mentally and physically.

Keep track of what your goals are and them at the end of each week, evaluate if you have reached them. Perhaps the most important component of setting an effective and realistic fitness goal is celebrating your victories, even the small ones! From buying yourself a new magazine to read, enjoying a long bath, or buying a new pair of workout shorts, the reward should be a time where you compliment yourself for your hard work and revel in your success.

9. Have a GOOD PLAN For Fat Loss

Don’t go by what you think you know if you are not a fat loss expert.

Don’t re-invent the wheel.

Fat loss is not a new phenomena. There is plenty of information out there, so find an expert, pick a plan and follow through.

10. Get Your Workouts Done Faster

Less rest time with faster paced workouts work very well for fat loss.

There are many benefits to completing workouts at a faster pace. First is the increased heart rate, which in turn increase fat burning. But you’ll also see local muscular development and increased definition in existing muscles.

Everyone thinks you need hours a day to workout to get results, you only need this if you waste time or walk on a treadmill.  Lift weights faster, do HIT conditioning and don’t waste time.

11. Ditch The Steady State Cardio & Go With 20/10′s, Interval Training, Finishers or Hurricane’s

Slower paced steady state cardio is a great way to clear your mind, relax and unwind.

But for fat loss workouts consists of alternating short periods of intense exercise with short periods of rest. For a given time investment, interval training leads to a greater fat loss and this occurs despite a smaller calorie burn during activity. Not everybody has the time to devote to an hour (or more) of aerobic training per day.

A properly set up interval workout may only take 15-20 minutes.

For more info Finishers check out Rob’s Body Weight Finishers.

12. Have Protein With Every Meal

Every time you go to eat ask “Where’s The bBeef” in your brain. Protein is more satisfying than carbohydrates or fats.

Getting enough protein helps preserve muscle mass and encourages fat burning while keeping you feeling full.

The key to all this is to make sure that the protein you eat is of the highest quality and contains the most EAA’s possible. Animal-derived protein—beef, fish, poultry, almond milk, and eggs—contain a better quality protein because they have more EAA’s per gram of protein.

13. Limit Fruit

Fruit is great but try to limit it to usually pre/post weight training. Too much carbohydrate from fruit can prevent weight loss. However from a nutrition standpoint, fruit is a great source of fibre, potassium, vitamin C and folate, nutrients that help guard against disease. The key is to time your fruit intake properly. After the workout is the other time to take in simple carbs: this is critical because it starts the whole recovery/muscle growth process.

14. Treat Yourself (When You Do Things Right 90% Of The Time)

Have a good week, follow your plan 90% then treat yourself to ONE Treat Meal. Everyone has a list of favorite foods that don’t score too high on the nutrient value scale, but we love them all the same. What happens when you deprive yourself of something you crave for too long? You binge. You break down, eat the food and then spend the rest of the day (week) beating yourself up and feeling guilty.

FACT: Eating small amounts of treats in moderation can be part of an overall healthy diet. The key is moderation.

15. Get an Accountability Partner

It works wonders for motivation & training results and is mandatory in our Rippedin42 program. An accountability partner is someone who can help you stay on track toward reaching your goals. Some partners train together and some train on their own but share their goals with their accountability partner, then each day they send an email or text saying what they are planning on doing that day to get you closer to their goal. At the end of the day they send another one telling what they actually did that day.

16. Keep a Training & Nutrition Log

If aren’t doing it you are missing out big time. WRITE IT DOWN.

Think of the journal as a road map. It’s going to show you the route, help you avoid sidetracking and keep your final destination in focus. Lost your direction? Consult your journal. Can’t remember where or why you started? Your journal knows.

The best thing about it is that it is first hand knowledge from your body, it soon becomes a reference so you can avoid pitfalls and find shortcuts designed for you. It is encouraging to see the pages fill and accurately measure how far you have come.

17. Read Nutrition Labels

No matter what the food check the LABEL.

This means the nutritional profile and ingredient list, not the marketing claims that are made on the package.

There is a BIG difference between the two. Learning how to read and understand food labels can help you make healthier choices. The Nutrition Facts food label gives you information about which nutrients are in the food.

Your body needs the right combination of nutrients, such as vitamins, to work properly.

18. While on Labels, Remember This “Real Food Doesn’t Have Labels”

Real food, such as fresh vegetables and fruits, do not have a nutritional label on them.

Packaged (usually processed) foods have labels.

Keep it simple and try to purchase fresh, local, organic foods when possible. Then you don’t have to worry about if it’s fat free, low calorie, or whatever the latest claim is; you know it’s just good, healthy food that your body needs.

19. Fat Burners HELP, But They Are NOT Magic Pills

Fat burners are supplements. They’re designed with ingredients that can really give you an extra boost to help burn fat. But they are not a replacement for a solid diet and exercise plan.

Fat burners can help enhance fat loss, but they’re only going to do so if a proper diet is in place. They can boost energy, help curb appetite, promote fat to be used for energy, and even increase your metabolism and core temperature so you burn more calories throughout the day.

But, if you take a fat burner and then eat crap, you’re not going to get the results you’re looking for. Consistent healthy nutrition along with a solid exercise plan is the only way to achieve realistic and maintainable fat loss.

20. Take Responsibility

You are where you are fitness wise because of your CHOICES. Man up, make the right choices more often and you will be in the best shape of your life. Every time you do something ask yourself “Is this taking me closer to or further away from my goal?”

No one is going to force feed you pizza and beer. That is your choice.

You choose to eat foods that fuel your goals or you choose to eat crap, either way IT’S YOUR CHOICE.

21. GET STARTED NOW

Bottom line is information is useless without action. The best way to get results is to get started.

If you are looking for a great program to help with Fat Loss check out our 21 Day Kick Start Challenge.

You can get more info HERE.

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Rob King is a Competitive PowerLifter, Coach and Writer.