FROG SQUATS

Little Black Dress 10-minute workout

Burn off mince pies and get party dress ready in 4 top-to-toe moves

Frog squats

Time: 50 seconds
Works: Quads, hamstrings, glutes, abs
Stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, toes pointing outwards.
Squat down as low as possible, keeping your chest lifted, heels flat and knees over toes.
Jump up in the air, swinging your arms up to help propel you.
Land through the balls of your feet, then heels, into a deep squat.
Do as many reps as you can in 50 seconds.

kettlebell squat

Move of the week!

Need a new move to spice up your workout? This week we're loving the kettlebell squat!

Works
Thighs, bottom and core

How to do it
1) Stand with your feet wider than hip-width apart, and your toes slightly turned out. Hold a kettlebell in your right hand so it rests against your forearm and raise your arm straight up.
2) Put your left hand out on your hip for balance. This is your starting position.
3) Squat down so that your hips are just higher than your knees, keeping your right arm still.
4) Push through your heels to return to the start and repeat. Change arms for the next set.

Beginner: 2 x 8 reps each arm
Intermediate: 2 x 10 reps each arm
Advanced: 2 x 12-15 reps each arm

Safety tip
Keep your back as straight as possible throughout

GET RID OF YOUR MUFFIN TOP

How to get rid of your muffin top

Stubborn weight around the middle? Eugh, we hear you! Use our diet and exercise tips to beat that muffin top

That weight around your middle sure can be stubborn to shift. Anyone who's tried to get rid of their muffin top can vouch for how difficult it is to get rid of. If you want to tackle your wobbly tum and sides, or just want to tone up your middle area, use these tips along with a healthy diet (think nutrient-dense veg, high-quality protein and LOTS of water) and you might be on to a winner...
1.Rounded tum:
Get good abs with... crunches and a clean diet!
Begin by lying on your back with your knees bent at a 90^o angle. Think of creating a concave stomach by pulling you belly button in towards your spine and then curl your truck up, keeping your head and neck tall and in line with your body. Keep pulling your navel in towards your spine during the whole movement. Do three sets of 25 reps.
2.Baby belly
Target your baby belly with... the tummy tucker.
Lie on the floor with your knees bent, feet on the floor and your hands on your abs. Take a deep breath in, exhale, and then draw your navel in to your spine, aiming to pull your belly button into the floor. Hold for 10 seconds, then relax. Do one set of 5 reps, working up to 15.
3.Love handles: 
Target love handles with... a one-legged plank hydrant.
Get into the plank with your hands on the floor. Pull one of your knees close to your chest then, without touching the floor, push your leg back out and up so it’s behind you at a 45^o angle. Hold for two seconds, then bring the leg back into your chest. Do two sets of 10 reps on each leg.
4.Belly button fat:
Relieve stress and tone up with... the downward dog to plank sequence.
Start on all fours, with your wrists slightly in front of your shoulders. Separate your knees to hip-width apart and curl your toes under. Exhale, then lift your knees off the floor, reach your sit bones toward the ceiling, and straighten your legs in a downward dog position, pushing through your heels. Hold for five slow breaths. Inhale, then shift your weight forward into plank, with your core strong. Hold, then exhale and push into a downward dog. Do five rounds, holding each pose for around five breaths each but rest if you need to.

12 Nutritionists Share the Top Tips They Give to Clients Trying to Lose Weight

Nutritionists have a lot of advice to give, especially around weight loss. But what are the number one tips they tell people who are trying to drop pounds?

We tapped 12 nutritionists for the answer—you might be surprised by what they said.

Be Nice to Yourself 
“Talk to yourself as if you were talking to a friend. All too often we revert to negative self-talk, especially when it comes to our bodies. ‘You look so fat in that' might pop into your head when you talk to yourself, but you would never use such harsh words to someone dear to you. Try to be your biggest fan instead of your worst enemy. That negative talk could lead to apathy, overeating, and dietary sabotage.” —Bonnie Taub-Dix, R.D., author of  Read It Before You Eat It

Ask Yourself if You’re Really Hungry 
“Learn the difference between physical hunger and emotional hunger. Traditional diets cut calories, which can seem like a drastic change if you are used to eating more food than your body needs. When you feel deprived, it’s hard to find the motivation to continue, which is why most traditional diets fail. Instead, focus on fueling your body when you are hungry with healthy, nourishing foods. When you reach for a snack at 2 p.m. because you ‘always’ do, ask yourself if you're really hungry or just bored, tired, or stressed. If you're hungry, have a healthy snack. If you're not, figure out what emotion is really going on and address that. Shifting the focus to this mindset makes weight loss so much easier.” —Alexandra Caspero, R.D., founder of Delicious Knowledge

Before people were eating mindfully, they were trying these diet trends. Check out the craziest weight-loss plans through history:

Stop Dwelling on What You Shouldn’t Eat
“Focus on the foods and drinks you should be saying ‘yes’ to, rather than focusing on ones you should cut. If your mantra is ‘no junk food,’ it’s likely that junk food—the very thing you are trying to avoid—is top-of-mind. Focusing on eating the healthy foods you love, like roasted cauliflower, pomegranate arils, or Sriracha hummus, makes you think about how to include them in your daily or weekly meals. That will help your unhealthy choices fall to the wayside.” —Tori Holthaus, R.D., founder of YES! Nutrition, LLC

Eat Whole, Not “Health” Foods 
“Weight loss will happen as a side effect of choosing whole foods that provide the nutrients you need. New research demonstrates that foods labeled as ‘healthy,’ like ‘healthy cookies,’ may be contributing to the obesity epidemic because people are more likely to overeat them.” —Brigid Titgemeier, R.D., registered dietitian nutritionist at Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Functional Medicine

Move More 
“Of course we have to watch our calories consumed, but how about focusing on calories expended? According to the Department of Health and Human Services' Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, adults need at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity each week. I recommend trying a combination of things such as strength training, cardiovascular training, and core work to increase activity and lose weight. Keep a journal of your active minutes each week, or use an app, to stay accountable and hit your minute goals. —Jim White, R.D., spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, and owner ofJim White Fitness and Nutrition Studios in Virginia

(Need a fun, results-driven workout to pair with your healthy eating efforts? Look no further than Women's Health's new Ignite DVD.)

Don’t Ditch the Fat
“It’s a common misconception that you need to cut fat out of the diet to lose weight; however, omega-3s in fatty fish like salmon, and monounsaturated fatty acids in foods such as avocado and olive oil have been linked to healthier waistlines. Eat these healthy fats to increase satiety and lose weight more easily.” —Kelly Pritchett, Ph.D., R.D., assistant professor in nutrition and exercise science at Central Washington University

Make a Plan
“Planning is the key to weight loss, maintaining a healthy weight, and living a healthy lifestyle. Plan out your meals and snacks in advance, grocery shop based on those meals and snacks, prep food ahead of time, and think through the ways you can incorporate your favorite unhealthy foods in moderation. In my experience the people who plan are the ones that succeed.” —Wesley Delbridge, R.D., spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

Rework Your Favorite Meals 
“Don’t eliminate the foods you love. Instead, learn how to eat them in a healthier way. For example, don’t stop eating pasta. Add lots of veggies and lean protein, like shrimp, chicken, or beans to your pasta bowl, and avoid heavy, creamed sauces. Remember, the real win in weight loss is keeping the weight off, not just losing it quickly.” —Keri Gans, R.D., author of  The Small Change Diet

Make Changes You Can Stick With 
“Find a diet that is a lifestyle change you can embrace forever. Studies show that ‘diets’ don’t work because people don’t stay on them. A diet shouldn’t be something you go ‘on’ and ‘off.’ It should be something sustainable. It should be a way of eating for life—an eating pattern that doesn’t make you feel hungry, deprived, or obsessed with food.” —Sharon Palmer, R.D., author of Plant-Powered for Life

Follow Your Own Path 
“There is no one meal plan that will lead to sustainable weight loss in everyone. People have to find what works for them, based on their own needs and preferences. —Maria Elena Rodriguez R.D., program manager of The Mount Sinai Health System’s Diabetes Alliance

Don’t Forget Calories 
“No matter what plan you're following, if you take in too much energy, it will get stored. When you’re aware of roughly how many calories you've eaten for breakfast and lunch, you’ll know if you can have some dessert after dinner. It’s kind of like a budget.” —Holly Herrington, R.D., dietitian at the Center for Lifestyle Medicine at Northwestern Medicine

Take Things Slow
“Don't try to change everything about your diet at once. Start by making one improvement in what you’re eating or one improvement in how much you’re eating, but don't try to change both at once. Ease into it, and you’ll find that the healthy changes you make become much more doable.” —Georgie Fear, R.D., author of “Lean Habits for Lifelong Weight Loss”

5 Crucial Things to Do if You're Exercising for Weight Loss

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Getting stronger is a beautiful thing. It’s what helps you see more definition and build more metabolism-boosting muscle. But according to new research in Current Biology, it also causes you to burn fewer calories during each workout.

For the study, researchers examined 300 men and women, specifically their levels of physical activity and the number of calories they burned each day. They found that while moderately active people burned about 200 more calories per day than the most sedentary participants, the most physically active people didn’t burn any more calories than those who were only moderately active.Here's how your body makes up for the major calories you torch at the gym: As you get used to your workouts, you might not burn more calories—even if you're consistently active, says California-based trainer Mike Donavanik, C.S.C.S., “Think about your job. When you first started, there were some learning curves, it took more energy and more time, but you became more efficient,” he says. Exercise works the same way. Your body adapts to a specific demand. So you naturally become more efficient, and use less energy [a.k.a. calories] to meet that demand."

But that’s no reason to forgo exercise in the name of weight loss or, more importantly, fat loss. After all, you want to lose fat, not muscle. Right? One obesity study of 439 women found that those who ate healthy and exercised lost considerably more body fat than those who stuck with dieting alone.

So how do you make sure every sweat session helps you burn more? Follow these five rules of exercising for weight loss. (If you're ready to add more sweaty variety to your exercise routine, check out Women's Health's Ignite program, designed by our Next Fitness Star, Nikki Metzger.)

Get FIIT
When it comes to making sure your body never gets too comfy with yourworkout, you’ve got to cozy up to the FIIT principle. It stands for frequency, intensity, time, and type—the four factors that determine the exact stress you put on your body during a given workout, says Donavanik. Changing up any one of them “surprises” and challenges your body in a new way. Remember, as long as your body is forced to adapt to progressively challenging workouts, it’s going to burn more calories during every workout. It’s when your body gets used to your current workouts that things start to plateau. “Look to change one to two of these variables every four to six weeks and you’ll keep losing weight,” he says.

And HIIT
“High-intensity interval training is the way to go,” Donavanik says. In one 2013 study from Human Performance Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, people who performed a 20-minute HIIT workouttorched 15 calories per minute—about twice as many as they did during long runs. Plus, with HIIT workouts, you benefit from the “after burn” effect, which a steady-state cardio just won’t give you. “So instead of burning 250 calories from your 30-minute session, you can burn up to 40 percent more throughout the next day or so as your body recovers,” says Donavanik. Follow the study’s lead: Perform all-out effort for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds, and repeat until you’ve hit four minutes. Rest one minute, then repeat to complete a total of four rounds.

Prioritize Clean Eating
“If you don’t pay attention to your diet, you can work out every day as hard as you possibly can and not lose a single pound if your calories expended are equal to your calories consumed,” says Donavanik. What’s more, eating junk can make your workouts feel more difficult, so even if you think you’re pushing yourself to the max, you’re not, he says. And sub-max workouts, as you might have guessed, burn fewer calories. He recommends limiting added sugar and focusing on eating lean protein, healthy fats, and whole carbs from fruits, veggies, and whole grains. 

Pick Up Some Weights
More muscle = more calories burned. After all, while a pound of fat burns only two calories per day, a pound of muscle burns six—and takes up a lot less room, he says. That’s why, in a 2015 Harvard School of Public Healthstudy of 10,500 adults, people who strength trained for 20 minutes a day gained less belly fat over a period of 12 years compared to cardio bunnies.

Don’t Forget to Fuel
While everyone thrives on a slightly different pre-and post-workout nutrition plan, research published in Sports Medicine shows that eating carbs before you hit the gym improves your performance during HIIT and endurance workouts alike. And tougher workouts burn more calories—both during and after your workout, Donavanik says.

That explains why recent research published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism found that downing coffee (or any caffeine) an hour before your workout can boost your post-workout caloric burn by 15 percent. After your workout, Donavanik recommends eating a meal that’s about 40 percent carbs, 40 percent protein, and 20 percent fat. The combination will help your muscles recover, get your energy levels up, and have you burning more calories as your body repairs…and, yes, adapts.

UP AGAINST THE WALL WORKOUT

The Up-Against-the-Wall Workout

Exercise 1 Shoulder Climbers

This one’s a real back blaster, from shoulders to glutes to hamstrings (with a little quad as well). (A) Squat down, back to the wall.  (B) Roll your shoulders back and up, while you press slowly up with your legs—your aim is to “climb” the wall, with your upper body leading the way. (C) Now reverse the motion to “climb” back down. Try for a set of 8 up-and-downs.

Exercise 2 Power Push-Offs

Your chest, arms, and shoulders get into the action with this plyometric move. (A) Place your hands on the wall a little wider than shoulder-width apart and step your feet back so your body is in a solid plank. (B) Bend your elbows to bring your chest close to the wall, then push back dynamically, so your hands come off the wall and you tilt back on your toes. (C) Fall back into the wall, bending your arms. Do 8.

Exercise 3 Marching Bridges

Concentrate on your glutes doing the work for a seriously tight end. (A) Lie down on your back, arms by your side, knees bent up, toes touching the wall. (B) Walk your feet up the wall a step, pushing your hips up so your body is flat from knees to shoulders. (C) Slowly march your legs in toward your chest while engaging your glute muscles to keep those hips high. A rep includes both legs; go for 8 of ‘em.

Exercise 4 L-Handstand Step-Ups

This toughie makes your shoulders and core really work. (A) Start in a downward dog position, heels touching the wall. (B) Pick up one leg and step the foot on the wall a hip height. (C) Press into the wall with your foot, then pick up your other foot and place it alongside the first one. (D) Pause briefly in this modified handstand, then step back down. Lead with one foot for 4 reps, then lead with the other for 4 more. Not ready to make the move to the half-handstand? Try it on your forearms first.

Exercise 5 Foot-Up Split Squats

Picking up a foot adds thigh-toning intensity to the standard split squat.  (A) Stand back to the wall and take a large step forward. (B) Pick up your back leg and place the toe against the wall. Square off your hips and lean your torso forward slightly. (C) Slowly bend your front leg as low as you can control (but not past 90 degrees); press up almost back to straight. Do 8 on each leg.

9 BEST EXERCISES

The 9 Best Exercises for Weight Loss, Ranked in Order of Effectiveness

Throw these moves into your gym routine for more calorie-torching power.

1.The move: Jumping rope (120 skips per minute)
The burn: 667-990 calories/hour
The bonus burn: As it turns out, this little rope is actually a big-time fat burner. Try using a weighted jump rope to engage your arms and shoulders even more.
Before people we're sweating it out to get in shape, they were doing some pretty cray cray things. Check out some of the weirdest weight-loss trends through history:
 

2.The move: Running (10 min/mile)
The burn: 566-839/hour
The bonus burn: After running at a steady pace, you’ll continue to burn extra calories over the rest of the day. (If that's not motivation to tackle the treadmill, nothing is). To torch more during and after your workout, add short bursts of sprints or faster running into your jog, says Tamir. He recommends keeping a 2:1 work-to-rest ratio to get the most afterburn. For example, if you run for 60 seconds, walk 30 seconds.

3.The move: Kettlebell intervals
The burn: 554-822 calories/hour
The bonus burn: Tamir says that a HIIT circuit using kettlebells can keep the afterburn going for 36 hours after you leave the gym. To get the best results, make sure you’re doing a fluid circuit and not stopping to rest between each move. Tamir recommends switching between upper- and lower-body movements so you can keep exercising for a longer period of time. Try doing a set of kettlebell swings, kettlebell squats, and kettlebell push presses. Then, rest for 15 to 20 seconds after completing the three moves.

4.The move: Kickboxing
The burn: 582-864 calories/hour
The bonus burn: Whether you’re kicking it on your own or in class, make sure you keep the rest periods between rounds of jabs and kicks super short. Aim for 30 seconds of rest for every 90 seconds of sparring.

5.The move: Stationary bike (at a vigorous pace)
The burn: 498-738 calories/hour
The bonus burn: To get the most afterburn, Tamir says to start with 10 seconds of intense pedaling and 50 seconds of rest. Then, move to 15 seconds of sprints and 45 seconds of rest, and do 20 seconds of sprints 40 seconds of rest after that. Don't forget to turn up the resistance as you progress!
 

6.The move: Rowing machine (150 watts)
The burn: 481-713 calories/hour
The bonus burn: To get maximum torching power, row in super-fast one-minute intervals, and take 30- to 60-second active rest periods by alternating between squats, pushups, and planks.
 

7.The move: Stairs (77 steps/minute)
The burn: 452-670 calories/hour
The bonus burn: Whether you’re working the Stair Master or running steps around town, à la Rocky, stair climbing provides a good mix of aerobic and anaerobic exercise. To up the ante, hold a one- to five-pound dumbbell in each hand to get your upper body fired up, too.

8.The move: Elliptical/arc trainers (resistance level 8)
The burn: 322-478 calories/hour
The bonus burn: If you’re after a better burn, don’t keep the same pace the entire time you’re on the elliptical. Vary the incline and levels of resistance to keep things interesting (read: challenging).
 

9.The move: Power yoga
The burn: 226-335 calories/hour
The bonus burn: To get the most burn, sign up for a power vinyasa flow class. “Strength-driven practices, where you match the breath with the movement, is where you would have the most