It is Monday morning. It's is a great day to get out to the grocery, pick up some foods and prepare some meals for this week. If you think this will help you get on track, I recommend doing this today or maybe on sunday if you are pretty busy during week days. I prefer to cook extra food at lunch time and then take the left overs for dinners. Whatever works better for you.

Here is a weight loss secret you should never forget .... "there are no magic secrets. Stop eating garbage and get off your ass"

Is it really possible?

Here is the thing, you want to get fit but you do not want, or not have time, to join a gym, or maybe you are just an independent person. Or maybe you already have a gym membership but you are busy to make it in a regular basis or can not even make it at all. If this is your case then you are all set up to working out at home. The question is ... can you really have a decent workout at home? And the answer to this is .. of course you can!

Speed and resting time

Hing Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) refers to doing almost any type of exercise at a variable pace. For example, if you are walking or doing push-ups, vary the pace of the exercise. You can walk normally for a minute or so, and then speed up a bit, and then return to normal speed several times. For exercises like push-ups, do a few slowly and do others more quickly and, like walking, repeat these faster and slower intervals several times. Interval training helps the body to adjust its aerobic system (heart rate, breathing, and metabolism) to burn more calories to lose weight and strengthen and tune muscles. Allow Interval Training to arrange your exercise routine for better and faster results. 

How many calories/day should I consume?

I am sure this is a question that all of us have been wondering sometimes. There is not such an exact answer that it would magically work for everyone but, generally speaking, within a healthy and  balanced diet, men needs around 10,500kJ (~2,500kcal) a day to maintain a healthy weight, and for women, this figure goes around 8,400kJ (~2,000kcal) a day. However, these values vary depending on age, metabolism and levels of physical activity, among other things. 

Either as a new year resolution or just because you want so, It’s time to dive in to that fitness routine so you can ditch those extra pounds/kg and get down to your fitness and weight goal. Whether you are trying to follow a routine for the first time or after a period of inactivity, here are some of the most important Virtual Personal Trainer tips on what to keep in mind as you get started. These tips will help you get the fullest of your workout and meeting  all your goals.

Efficient post-holiday's weight loss?? Yes it is possible!

Here is the idea:  rather than accumulating more kgs/pounds after this holiday season, how about keeping them off in the first place?

A free app is proving to be a new way to harness science. Just log in your current weight and the app will calculate your BMI, Ideal and Healthiest weight all in one, leading to successful weight loss, even during holidays.

The Body Mass Index (BMI) is the most popular and internationally accepted measurement of weight in relation to health. It is a measure of body fat based on height and weight that applies to adult men and women ( for age 2-19 BMI). However, caution should be observed when using the BMI as a measure for interpreting overweight and obesity as body composition can be highly variable yet have the same BMI. To avoid such situations, successful weight management programs should consider the required timing for feedback signals originating in adipose tissue to influence the brain centers that control eating behaviour and activity (metabolic and motor). Thus, a much better measurement based on calculating and achieving the healthiest weight has being recently proposed.

Today is different to other days. I am in a very good mood. There are many reasons why someone might be in good mood.. maybe a salary raise, unexpected lottery winning, planning a long and relaxing vacation, a new girl friend or news of a new babe born or wedding coming up to name a few. But today i am in a very good mood for a totally different reason.. I did not win any lottery game at all, have no serious girl friend for a long time and the general employment situation worldwide is totally a disaster due to the well known crisis what made me feel in not so good mood lately but guess what ....

A few hours since I finished my work out 30 mins running today and I still think I am gonna rock the world. Exercise experts have known for years that moderate physical activity improves mood. 

We all know and probably heard many times all the benefits of running or jogging. To name a few: running boots energy, controls weight, combats health conditions, improves mood, gives us better sleep, etc etc. But this time I am not gonna repeat what we know already very well. This time I am gonna talk about a hidden benefit of walking (at a pace) or running. Something that you might have experienced before but perhaps you never realized. And that is .... I know I am not alone when I say that I do some of my best thinking during a brisk walk or slow jog.

When I am stressed out on a project, concerned about something going on in life, or just thinking too much, I find that my most creative and thoughtful ideas come while I am brisk walking. I don't know if you will believe it or not but many of my best ideas, even blog posts topics, came to my mind through this very productive time. Even the idea of making this blog came out actually during a brisk walk session. I prefer brisk walking better than running because I think the best thinking comes out of exhaustion, but I have experienced also this amazing momentum while running.

And I have learned over the years to actually use walking at a pace or running as a tool for brainstorm myself or as a highly effective problem-solving technique. If I have my mind blocked with something and I have the option to disconnect by going a few kms far, I will often do. 

“Eating healthy nutritious food plus a minimum workout is the simple and right solution to get rid of excess body weight effortlessly and become slim and healthy forever and ever” ― Virtual Personal Trainer"

Let me be honest, it is easier to be motivated to stay healthy and fit when the sun is up, specially if we go to the beach, our swimsuit is in use, and we have more time to work out. But as much as we hope to keep our healthy habits and fitness routines in place during the rest of the year, let’s face it: working, studying, or doing any kind of homework takes time, going out party is too much temptation and the stress can make us throw all your hard work we have done out the window in a matter of seconds. But here are the good news: it is not impossible to stay on track! Here are some tips to keep you healthy, fit and motivated throughout the rest of the year....

"Pure water is the world’s first and foremost medicine"

Water is the more basic and needed molecule of life. It is a necessity. We needed it to maintain a healthy body, a clear mind, and a good balance within our tissues. About a 60 percent of our body is formed by water. We must constantly replenish the supply, as it is continuously used in all the processes of life. But water is not only extremely needed for life. Drinking water could be also one of the easiest efforts you can incorporate into your weight loss or weight maintenance plan. There is no excuse for not drinking enough water, and if you are having trouble to fit your recommended 8 glasses of water a day into your schedule, keep reading. Here are a few tips to help you drink more water.

"Some things are worth the fat and calories, although I have to watch it like a hawk" - Megyn Kelly

Many of us are eating too much and not being active enough. This is why nearly two-thirds of the adult population is overweight or obese in developed countries. Switching from high-calorie to low-calorie, reducing portion size or skipping one or two high-calorie foods a day can be a good way to start cutting down calories. Interestingly, exercise, besides being extremely good for your health, can also help you cut down calories directly from your body. Here are some recommendations to cut down on your daily calorie intake and eventually help you to reach your Ideal Weight.

We all know that in order to achieve a goal, we need to take action. And if we do not succeed at first, we should try again and again. But what is that internal mindset that makes us try in the first place? We commonly refer to this inner built-in as “motivation”. But why we find it so difficult when it comes to taking actions such as weight loss or exercising?

Read more to find the reasons behind and how to build positive thinking and long-term motivation.

Are there any more efficient ways to work out than others and is it possible to burn fat really quickly? It sounds too good to be true, but there are really very short bursts of exercise than can really boost your health as well as efficiently help you out to both losing weight and getting fit much efficiently and faster. Find out how by reading this article.

The Healthy Weight should be accurate and unique to everyone. Here in we introduce some easy to follow steps to find out if you are at a healthy weight. For most people, these are good clues to whether or not they are at the right track. 

Following a healthy lifestyle can help you to prevent overweight and obesity. Ideally, lifestyle habits should begin during childhood. Parents and families should encourage children to make healthy choices, such as following healthy diet habits and being physically active. But even at an elder age it is never too late to start having a health life style. Here are a few basic tips to avoid overweight and obesity in the future.

Walking and running are the most popular physical activities for adults. Whether one is preferable to the other in terms of health has long been a focus of debate. A variety of new studies are providing some answers. What's the conclusion? It depends almost completely on what you are hoping to achieve. In this article we provide all the answers to this intriguing question...

The ideal food intake recommendation for achieving a healthy weight should be based on your own personal food preferences ideally, following nutrient guidelines. The bottom line is that you have to control your calorie intake in order to have a healthy weight, regardless of the nutrient composition of your diet.

This article provides recommendations and tools for breaking down calories into carbohydrates, protein and fat needs depending on your total calorie intake. 

"Weight gains aren't failures, they're learning curves" ― Rachel Stevenson

Have you ever wonder how many pounds (or kg) you should be losing ideally per week if you were following the right plan? if so this is the right article for you

It is common in people trying to lose weight that once they have reached their ideal weight, they return to the habits they had before, which makes them regaining the weight they had, even much more. This is the called “rebound effect”. Here are the tips to keep you away from gaining any weight after weight loss. 

The big unknown

The most likely reason of the rebound effect is not well known by many people, even by doctors, fitness trainers and dieticians. This reason is that the chosen "Ideal Weight", which should be unique to any individual, has not been well calculated and preset... 

If you are one of those people who like to do all by yourself, in this article you can find a short list of the "must have" weight loss and stay-healthy apps you can download to get in shape and lose weight with no help except the app and yourself. This is the way you can turn your smart phone into a personal trainer and dietician all for free.

Whether you are looking for weight loss, have a healthy life or to keep your New Year’s resolution or simply to help you do better with your current goals to lose weight or stay healthy, these apps will definitely help you get there and also to stay there.

Past vs present

The ideal human body weight has been a topic of debate for a very long time. In the past, many specialized fitness and weight loss journals and books used to publish "ideal weight" charts by only representing height vs weight. Readers looked at those charts and many found that they were really far away from their ideal weights. Then, they looked themselves in the mirror and wonder why they did not look that bad. This is probably because those charts were not accurate enough. The criterion (height represents weight) was simply not good enough to predict a proper healthy ideal weight.

Often we tend to over eat around the holidays especially during Xmas. As a new year resolution it is time now to get rid of the extra pounds. Just follow these 4 easy steps below and you will get back in shape after a few days ;-)

1. Start moving

Start moving. If you’re not a gym fan, go for a walk along the city, at the park or on the beach. You only need a few minutes a day. Read start for free now and the minimum workout. A fitness tracker can be of great help for trracking your first steps.

"A man too busy to take care of his health is like a mechanic too busy to take care of his tools"

Finding time to exercise can be difficult, but it is worth every minute you can invest into it. Not only is it great for you, but it sets a powerful example for other people including your own children. When your children see you moving, they want to move too. Here we have put together a few tips on how to fit exercise into your daily routine, no matter how busy you are.

This blog is meant to be a continuation of our former blog "the right fitness-diet balance" but looking at the topic from a different perspective... read more

“I'm prouder of my weight loss than my Oscar!" - Jennifer Hudson

When talking about food, the term "calorie" is a unit of energy that the food supplies to your body. When talking about physical activity, "calorie" is a measure of the energy that your body uses in performing the activity. Calorie balance is like a scale. To remain in balance and maintain your body weight, the calories you get from foods must be balanced by the calories you use for normal body functions and physical activities. In other words, If we eat more calories than we use, we gain weight. If we burn up more calories than we eat, we lose weight.

"Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind" ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Studies have shown that it is not the quality of our diets, but our brains ability to resist cravings and follow a plan that is behind losing weight and living a healthy life style. Read more bellow for resetting your mind for weight loss and healthy life.

In this article we will show the reasons why many people have flaccid skin after fat loss and how you can prevent it. After reading this article you should be able to avoid it. 

Why people have flaccid skin after fat reduction?

When you are trying to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight, reading food labels properly is an essential skill. Reading a food label not only tells you how many calories you are consuming when you are eating a particular food, but it can also provide you with useful information about the food’s nutritional value. The food label is essentially a cheat-sheet for healthy eating. You do not need to recall the calorie counts of your favorite foods, or to remember how much protein, fat or carbohydrates are in every side item and snack you come across. Nutrition labels make all of this information accessible to you all the time. Once you know how to read a food label, and what information you are looking for on it, you can start making healthier food choices.

Follow the steps below to understand and utilize properly the information provided by food labels. This blog can be extremely useful for people aiming to reach a healthy weight status.

So... you are ready to lose weight, tune your abs, etc but do not have time to go to the gym or want to spend money on those expensive machines AND also .. you want it from home! If so, this is the right article for you. But how can you achieve this? Of course, we all have busy lives and cannot dedicate many hours a day to reach these goals. But the good news is that it is possible to reach these goals with appropriate advice about the right exercise techniques. However, it is not gonna be an easy path because the most important is that you must be very motivated and constant. In addition, a healthy life style including a logical diet is also important but this is the focus of other or our articles.

As you grow older, having an active lifestyle is even more important than ever before. Doing exercise on a regular basis can help you to boost energy and deal with symptoms of illness or pain. Physical exercise can even reverse some of the symptoms of aging. But not only exercise is good for your body, it is also good for your mood, mind and memory. Whether you are in good general health or even if you are having some illness condition, there are many ways of getting more active, improving your confidence, and boosting your body health and fitness.

Whether you are a beginner taking the first steps toward fitness or an exercise master hoping to optimize your results, designing an organized and effective fitness training program is essential and crucial in order to achieve the best results. When designing a fitness program try to make sure you include these five elements to create an effective program.

Flexibility and stretching

Flexibility is an important part of physical fitness. Some types of physical activity, such as dancing, require more flexibility than others. 

“Life is what happens while you are making other plans.” ~John Lennon

Finding the right time to stay healthy and in shape can be complicated for anyone but when you are a very busy professional or an entrepreneur who’s work follows you everywhere you go it can be even more difficult. As an executive or business owners sometimes you can even forget that you have to take care of yourself as well. Your body also needs your care and attention in order to function properly. Pursuing a healthy lifestyle not only will benefit you but also your business in a long run since healthy people tend to life longer, be happier and more productive. If you are one of those busy people "welcome to the club" ....

Here are a few tips for maintaining a healthy lifestyle having a very busy schedule:

"Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently" - Henry Ford

Weight loss resistance is one of the most common things. The inability to exercise or diet is sometimes very discouraging. It might even make you very unhappy and stress. But hopefully after so many positive thoughts as a new resolution we are totally into exercising, dieting or both with all our enthusiasm hoping to reach our goals if possible in a short period of time. If that is the case, congratulations! you passed the most difficult part, which really is STARTING AND GETTING ACTIVE. But is not all flowers in the garden. Sometimes something might not be working the way we want it to be ....

omg! what happened to me? i tried hard to lose weight but I see no results :S

A visit to the health food store can be an experience. It is tough to choose from among the huge variety dietary and nutritional supplements on the shelf. From vitamins to minerals to weight loss pills, there are thousands of options to choose from. But .... 

do you really need any of them? Do they really work, and if so, which ones are best? 

The Virtual Personal Trainer team wishes you a healthy and happy new year! We will continue to support you in 2015 with the same energy and enthusiasm, bringing you more motivation, fitness and health tips. Thank you for following us!

It will take dedication, time and patience to get a six pack. But all you need to do is only two things: lose weight and build abs muscle. You get this by kind of adopting a dieting and exercising philosophy consistently. You can have the most toned and muscular abs, but it will not show if there is a layer of fat over them. This blog will discuss the ways in which you can accomplish both of these goals.

Losing weight

First step is understanding what it means to lose weight. In order to burn fat, you need to use up calories. Since there are about 3,500 calories in a pound, you need to burn about 3,500 more calories than you bring in with food or drink in order to lose one pound. It sounds simple, but it's actually quite hard. Don't have unrealistic expectations. A vigorous, hour-long workout will only burn 800 - 1,000 calories. 

Your weight is regulated by energy balance, and calories are part of that equation. Some diets may promise you that counting carbs or eating a bunch of fruits and veggies will make the extra pounds drop off. But when it comes to weight loss, it is calories what counts the most. Weight loss comes down to burning more calories that you take in. You can do that by reducing extra calories from food and beverages and increasing calories burned through physical activity so that you keep a negative energy balance towards losing weight. Once you understand this equation, you are ready to set your weight ­loss goals and make a plan to reach them.

Soy milk, which is made from soaking, grinding and boiling soy beans with water, is a very nutritious drink. Soy is naturally high in essential fatty acids, proteins, fiber, vitamins and minerals. These nutrients provide energy and keep your body functioning at its optimum level. Find below are the most important health benefits you can acquire from drinking soy milk.

IMPROVE LIPID PROFILE

The most important attribute of soy milk is its ability to improve your blood lipid profile. Unlike dairy milk, which is high in saturated fat and cholesterol, soy milk fat is mostly unsaturated with zero cholesterol. 

No time for a workout? Do you want to get fit but do not have time to join a gym club? are you really busy at work? Well, if you are within this group of people then definitely this is the right blog for you. Some experts argue that just a few minutes of strenuous exercise may be all that is needed to improve key measures of health and fitness. If you are consistent, determined and up to the cause then you can really get a great workout without spending much of your time and without leaving home. 

What are the advantages of quick high intensity workouts?

Carrots are rich in nutrients with beneficial impact on the organism, especially on the eyesight. Either raw or cooked as part of your meal carrots are the kind of food that can definitely help you to reach your health and weight loss goals.

Carrots benefits

• Powerful antioxidant. Carrots are one of the richest natural sources of beta-carotene, important provitamin, which after consuming, turns into one of the most powerful antioxidants in the body, vitamin A. Vitamin A helps cells strengthen and fight against viruses, supports the fight against cancer and prevents cardiovascular diseases. 

It is all over the news the 2014 Winter Olympics, officially the XXII Olympic Winter Games, or the 22nd Winter Olympics, a major international multi-sport event currently being held in Sochi, Russia. But have you ever wonder what's the taste of an olympic medal? someone may say it tastes like glory after all effort required. But this time I am talking about its real taste... this is a privilege only a few gifted ones can tell. 

Congratulations to all medal winners, participants and also the many other who did not manage to classify for competition. Remember that "the hard and long way for participation could be as important as winning because without that part we would never win ;-) "

It’s Valentine’s Day and for romantic couples that probably means a crazy weekend full of yummy foods and highly caloric deserts. It is only once a year but better do not let this throw off your New Year’s goals for keeping yourself fit and healthy.

There are many ways you can take healthy food choices and maintain a workout schedule with your partner and still having a very romantic weekend. You could, for example, go for a walk on top of a hill or beach with a nice view and bring your picnic basket with your own choice of heathy foods. Being outdoors with the person you love is certainly a great healthy choice. This way you will probably enjoy eating guilt free because you have plenty of time to burn out your extra calorie by walking while enjoy being together with your love one.

Today is the beginning and first blog of Virtual Personal Trainer, your online personal trainer

Origins and motivation

Virtual Personal Trainer uses unique science concepts to set our right “preset weight”. It has been first clinically tested and proved by his creator (**Update** Virtual Personal Trainer methodology has been Scientifically Proven in Jan 2017; likewise, our tools and apps have been recently validated in Dec 2017). Jose is 47 years old originally from Spain with Masters in Biological Science, Food Technology, Nutrition, Organizational Engineering and PhD in Biology. He has more than 20 years of professional experience occupying leading positions both at private and public sectors. In the sports & fitness training world, he used to practice martial arts (Karate, Ninjutsu and Self-Defense), diving, ski, and he was a gym personal trainer at his twenties. Later on he only practiced ski and snorkeling when he was on holiday. Because of his career he put sports a bit apart for a few years. He is much of a world travel person. Perhaps because of his traveling experiences and relation with different cultures one day he realised he was getting very fat and consciously unhealthy. He could not believe his weight was as much as 223 lbs (101 kgs). Too much business traveling and eating outside with no control over his food habits and spare time made him like that, he thought. But some day in July, 2012 he opened his eyes to the reality and that day was the beginning of a new resolution: "I never thought i will reach three ciphers. I will never be like this again", he promised himself.