You can lose weight quickly. You can shed fat from your belly and under your arms with rigorous but smart exercise. You can get a lean, athletic build. You can even show off your muscles by losing that pesky layer of fat that obscures your tone and definition. It is not a matter of training for hours on end every day. It is a matter of making every minute of your exercise as efficient as possible.

Millions of people commit many of hours out of their schedules at health clubs working out. The sad fact is, most fitness enthusiasts who regularly visit gyms know little about what makes up an effective workout system. In this article, I want to dispel 90% of the hype and help you understand exactly how to build your routine so it will guarantee that every second you spend in the gym will help you get stronger.

A thin, toned body is a lovely thing to look at; but good looks are only one of many benefits offered by a lean physique. We all want to lose weight, to shed that extra layer of fat around the abs and show off the natural, alluring muscle tone beneath. We have become victims of the bathroom scale. We base our performance, and perhaps even our self-esteems, on the number the scale displays on its cold, unbiased digital screen.

Every gym has them: die-hards who seem to live, eat, and drink in the free weight room. After a while you recognize their faces. Just how many hours do they spend pumping iron? Such fitness zealots might cause you to second-guess your own routine. If these die-hards workout for, say, four hours a day, seven days a week, how often should you workout? The answer to this question might surprise you; relatively infrequent but intense strength training workouts are all that is required.

Staying motivated is the biggest roadblock on your path to fitness. Luckily, there is a bomb-proof shield against lack of motivation; the solution is a well constructed plan. Lets roll up our sleeves and line out exactly what you will need to lock in your fitness success.

STEP ONE: YOUR FITNESS JOURNAL
Start with a fitness journal. Don't just grab an off-the-shelf, spiral bound notebook.

You have seen pictures of them; fitness models pulling up their shirts to reveal rock-hard six-packs wrapped with only a paper-thin layer of skin. The truth is, you too, with a little work and time, can have a toned, well-defined stomach. Everyone has a six-pack somewhere beneath the fat. It is a matter of shedding that flab to allow the muscle to define the shape of the abs rather than a layer of fat.

You can become lean, more energetic, and happier by making a few easy decisions in your life. Below are ten tips to get you started.

1. Lift weights. An effective strength-training regimen adds lean muscle mass to your body. Each pound of lean muscle mass burns, on the average, 13 calories a day; that means, if you gain an additional ten pounds of lean muscle, you will burn an extra 130 calories per day.

You can use your metabolism as a weight loss tool. Your metabolism breaks down nutrients like proteins and carbohydrates into elements that are used to generate and repair cells. Like an engine, your metabolism requires fuel to run. Metabolic fuel is measured in calories. It's easy to confuse calories with nutrients, but calories are merely a measurement of energy.