You can increase your metabolism (burn more fat) if you do a total body muscle building routine. Include exercises for every body part that means your upper & lower body and your ABS

Quick Fix. You can instantly get rid of your pop belly or pooch by working on not rectus abdominus (what you call six pack or ABS) but transverse abdominus (TVA).

When you suck in your belly you are actually working your transverse abdominus (TVA) muscle.

The reason why people have flat midsections is not because they have a strong rectus abdominus (or ABS) but because they have a strong transverse abdominus (TVA)

Over years a combination of you losing strength in your TVA and a gain of fat around your midsection leads to pop belly or pooch effect.

The best way to work your TVA is to… 1. Place one of your fingers on your belly button 2. Without taking in a deep breath. Try to move your belly button inward as far away from your finger as you can 3. hold your belly button in for 5 seconds working your way up to a minute 4. Advanced: as your holding in your belly button—tightly squeeze your ABS

Another way to work your TVA is to… 1. Suck in your belly (without taking in a deep breath) 2. Tie a rope not too tightly around your midsection. 3. Every time you relax your TVA muscle rope will tighten up around your waist reminding you to tighten your TVA muscle

As you are doing these two TVA exercises do not hold your breath just breath normally.

Do not rely solely on these TVA exercises to get rid of your pop belly or pooch area. Remember—You still have to diet and exercise properly to get rid of fat around your midsection.

Here’s a quick summarized action plan to get rid of your pop belly or pooch 1. Eat six 350-400 calorie meals a day 2-3 hours apart 2. Walk (or do something) everyday for up to 1 hour a day 3. IF you are going to weight train—do exercises for every body part not just your ABS 4. Train your TVA

I guarantee that you will notice your midsection will get flatter week after week if you follow this plan—If you see any results just email me at support@weightlossmadeeasy.net and I will gladly offer any help I can.

If you want to learn a LOT about various body fat testing methods, refer to chapter 3 in my e-book, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle at www.burnthefat.com

Instead of re-hashing it all, let me give you three quick and easy, practical suggestions:

Suggestion 1: Have a trainer or fitness professional measure you, if this service is available at your local health club. Sometimes, there's a charge - usually $15 - $25, although some clubs offer service for free to all their members (we do at our club)

Suggestion 2: Purchase an Accu-measure skinfold caliper. Do a google or yahoo search to find a reseller, or just visit www.accumeasurefitness.com.

The Accumeasure was designed to allow you to measure your own body fat in privacy of your own home (you don't need someone else to measure you)

Some people wonder if this is really accurate. Truth is, it's not quite as accurate as a multi site skinfold test from an experienced tester, but it's better than nothing. Besides, what's most important is not "accuracy" per se, but reliablity and consistency of your measurements so you can track your progress. Skinfold calipers in general are not accurate or inaccurate, it's person doing test that is accurate or inaccurate.

Here's page where you can download a study about accuracy of Accu-Measure (Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, December 1998):

http://www.accumeasurefitness.com/study.pdf

Suggestion 3: If you have a spouse, roomate, or friend who can measure your body fat, you can purchase a Slim Guide body fat caliper from Creative Health Products: www.chponline.com

The Slimguide is best inexpensive caliper available (About $20), but it wasn't designed for you to measure your own body fat. You'll need someone to measure you with this caliper. Other models of body fat calipers (if you want to splurge), range from $150 to $450. (At our health clubs, I use electronic "SKYNDEX" caliper with 4-site "Durnin formula.")

The calipers come with instructions, or you can use these formulas, which I have used and found to be very accurate:

4 Site formula for men (abdomen, suprailiac, thigh, tricep)

% fat = .29288(sum of 4 skinfolds) - 0.0005(sum of four skinfolds squared) + 0.15845(age) - 5.76377

4-Site Formula for women (abdomen, suprailiac, thigh, tricep)

% Fat = (.29669)(sum of 4 skinfolds) - (.00043)(Sum of four skinfolds squared) + .02963(age) + 1.4072

Source: Jackson A S, Pollock, M (1985) Practical assessment of body composition. Physician Sport Med. 13: 76-90.

Body fat percentages vary based on age and gender, but 20-25% body fat is average for women (15-19% is ideal), while 15-20% is average for men (10-14% is ideal). I have detailed charts for body fat charts in my e-book if you're interested.

Once you know your body fat percentage, then weigh yourself and record your weight and body fat on a progress chart such as one found in my Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle Program (a fat loss program, not a weight loss program). This chart is how you will track your progress and "keep score."

You can calculate your lean body mass (muscle and other fat free tissue) very easily just by crunching some numbers:

For example, if you weigh 200 pounds and you have 10% body fat then you have 20 pounds of fat (10% of 200 = 20). That means you have a lean body mass (LBM) of 180 pounds.

Now we're talking! With this data, you can get a really clear picture of how your exercise and nutrition program are affecting your physique.

Losing weight is very easy. Losing fat - and keeping it off without losing muscle - is a much bigger challenge. If you simply wanted to lose weight, we could just chop off your leg.

Or... (slightly less painful)... I could show you how to drop 10 - 15 pounds over weekend just by dehydrating yourself and using natural herbal diuretics. Bodybuilders and wrestlers do it all time to make a weight class.

But what good would that do if it’s almost all water and you’re just going to gain it all back within days?

You don't have to "throw away your scale" like many "experts" tell you to. By all means, keep using scale, tape measure and even photographs and mirror - more feedback better, but body fat is where it's at.

By way, I recently bought a chain saw and a shiny new axe from Home Depot, and I've been practicing my "American Psycho" and Jack Nicholson, "The Shining" impersonations... so if you want to come to my office any time soon for personal consultation, you'd better have right answer to my question, "What do you want?"

One last thing - If you found this information useful, then you'll want to know that I wrote an entire new e-book on body fat testing, called "How to Measure Your Body Fat In Privacy Of Your Own Home." Normally retail price is $19.95, but I'm offering it for FREE at www.burnthefat.com with purchase of my fat loss ebook, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle. (Note: BFFM is a FAT LOSS program, not a WEIGHT LOSS program!)