All you have to do is increase your activity and reduce your calories to lose weight. It truly is that simple. Although a gym is a great place to go to get results, losing weight can start with just a simple walking program.

Here are a few things to help you get started:

1. Get a good pair of tennis shoes. A good pair of shoes can reduce hip, knee and leg pain and make your feet very happy. Asics gels are my personal favorite.

2. Exercise in your fat-burning zone. Your heart rate should be between 65%-75% of your maximum heart rate which is 220 minus your age.

3. Buy a heart rate monitor. This is a great tool to make sure you are working out with enough intensity. your heart can't lie.

4. Fat burning workouts should be between 30-45 minutes. As you get stronger and faster, your walks should be longer in distance. They should ALWAYS be challenging. Weight loss plateaus are almost always because of a training or diet plateau.

5. Do cardio on an empty stomach. As long your health allows, doing your cardio on an empty stomach forces your body to burn fat stores instead of food stores. However, you MUST eat before lifting weights.

6. Wearing Spandex can increase comfort while walking. Large people may have problem with irritation where their legs rub. Spandex biking  shorts, etc., worn alone or under clothes can help with chafing.

7. Find a partner. Begin a walking/jogging group, talk a friend into working out with you at the gym or make a new friend in your favorite aerobics class. The added ccountability is great.

8. The more you exercise, the faster the results. You can do cardio everyday. You can even do it two times a day. The more you put into your exercise routine, the more you'll get out of it. It's all up to you! If you are not getting the results fast enough and you feel like you are definitely exercising enough, then you are taking in too many calories. That is when it is necessary to count calories and find the missing calories that are sabotaging your weight loss program.

Steve and Bonnie get personal and share their own diet and exercise routine.

We jog or interval train (walk/run) first thing on an empty stomach 5-6 days a week. If we feel like we are slipping, we add a PM cardio to our program. PM/AM cardios can be really helpful to pulling through a plateau.

BONNIE'S WEIGHT ROUTINE: (Click here to view detailed routine)
MONDAY - Quads (legs)
TUESDAY - Shoulders
WEDNESDAY - Back, Chest & Biceps
THURSDAY - Triceps & Hamstrings
FRIDAY - Make-up Day. This is the day I work whatever is my weakest area or what I feel didn't work hard enough, etc.
 

STEVE'S ROUTINE: (Click here to view detailed routine)

MONDAY - Chest

TUESDAY - Back

WEDNESDAY - Legs

THURSDAY - Shoulders

FRIDAY - Arms

SATURDAY - Traps, Abs & Calves

ABS: Of course non-weighted abs can be done daily. Weighted abdominal exercises however, like crunches with a medicine ball/dumbbell, crunches with the rope on the cable machine or abdominal machines require rest, like any other body part. Some of our favorites are crunches on the traditional slant board, hanging crunches and rope (ask a trainer to demonstrate crunches using the cable).
 

Non-weighted crunches flatten the abs and keep the tummy tight, but weighted abdominal exercises will help build the abdominal muscles in order to get the "six-pack" look with defined cube-like abs. No matter how hard you work your abs, you won't ever see them unless your diet is clean and you do the cardio necessary to shed body fat that maybe covering them.

FORMULA FOR GREAT ABS: Low Calorie Diet, Cardio & Abdominal exercises.