1. Get your sweat on with strength training! If you want to feel good in your bathing suit, this is non-negotiable: Fit your workout in, no excuses! Commit to a full-body strength-training program at least three times a week to burn calories during the workout, boost your metabolism‘s calorie-burning power for 24 to 48 hours after, and develop lean muscles that look and feel better than flab. Perform exercises that use more than one muscle group such as squats, pushups, rows, and lunges in a circuit to make your workouts most efficient. Tip: Try working out in the morning to get your metabolism revved up for the rest of the day.

2. Make your butt and belly your top priorities. Your glutes (butt muscles) are the biggest muscles in your body, so working them out is one of the best ways to burn calories—and prevent a saggy bikini-bottomed butt. (There’s nothing worse!) Of course, everyone knows that the real key to looking great in a bathing suit is having a flat belly! Give both areas extra attention during workouts leading up to and during bikini season by performing this move right after warming up at the beginning of each workout, 2 to 3 times a week:

Bridge Marching: Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Lift your hips off the floor so your body forms a straight line from your shoulders to your knees, keeping your hips parallel to the ground. Maintaining that straight line, lift your right knee upward, so your foot comes up off the ground. Then, return it to the starting position and lift your left knee the same way. Continue alternating (as if you are marching in place), keeping your butt muscles contracted the entire time for a total of 10 on each leg.

3. Drink extra water. Skimping on water can reduce the effectiveness of your workouts because even mild dehydration can affect your performance and fat-burning potential. If you need another reason to drink up, swallow this: the best way to rid yourself of excess water weight is to flush your body with water. You should drink at least half your body weight in ounces each day (e.g., a 150-pound woman should drink 75 oz. or the equivalent of about four and a half 16.9 oz. bottled waters a day). Just don’t skimp on the ice! Research has shown drinking ice-cold water causes your body to work harder (i.e., burn more calories) to maintain its ideal core temperature. So gulp down the cold stuff like it’s your fat burning fuel—because it is!

4. Increase your daily intake of natural diuretics. These are foods that increase the speed at which fluids pass through your body to help you de-bloat. Natural diuretics include cucumbers, asparagus, lemon, green tea, and any foods with a higher concentration of magnesium, potassium, vitamin C, and/or caffeine. Tip: Try adding cucumber or lemon to water.

5. Cut back on processed, starchy carbohydrates such as breads, pastas, bagels, cookies, and crackers. Most of these foods are loaded with extra sodium and preservatives that can contribute to water retention and bloating. If the ingredients on a packaged item list more than a few ingredients—or anything you can’t pronounce—don’t eat it. Instead, opt for a serving of one of the many fresh fruits and veggies now in season, with lean protein to keep you satisfied.

6. Reduce your alcohol intake. If you’re used to having a glass of wine or pint of beer every night, try cutting back to two or three nights a week. You’ll reduce your total calorie intake and set yourself up for a better night’s sleep to energize you for your workout the next day. Tip: When you do indulge, always sandwich your drink with a glass of water before and after to avoid alcohol’s dehydrating effects.

7. Stand up taller and engage your core muscles. Think about tucking your hips underneath and tightening up your stomach as if you were going to be punched. Improving your posture will instantly make you look thinner—even if you haven’t lost a pound yet!—and train your body to hold everything in once you’re in a swimsuit. Every 15 minutes, set an alarm for a “posture check” to train your body: If you’re standing, stand up straight and hold everything. If you’re sitting, pull those shoulders back and engage your stomach muscles.

Courtesy of Women’s Health.

Don’t mess with granny.

How to tone up and build some muscle. 

#1: Weight train 3x/week minimum. Consistency is key here.  Results are yours for the taking with consistent effort, even if you have a poor workout or are too tired to give it your all on certain days, getting in the gym 3x/week to generate even a little bit of weight-training stimulus will pay off over time.

#2: Train with heavy weights. Ladies, get over your “responsive arms” and “thunder thighs”–lifting enough to coax the muscles into responsiveness and generate soreness is not only a good indication of the degree of muscle break-down a workout generates but also a necessity to build lean mass and achieve fat loss while at rest.  Let your muscles do the fat burning for you.

#3: Train to failure. While you are grabbing that heavy weight, go ahead and make sure it is one that you can lift 10 times, but not 11.  Getting to the point of breathlessness, burning in the muscles and inducing failure with heavy weight all guarantee the hormonal cascade necessary for muscle building and fat-burning: increased lactic acid, growth hormone, testosterone, cortisol, adrenaline–an optimal formula to get the body responsive (more on this here).  Since this is a very intense technique, rotate periods in your training where you don’t train to failure, like adding a light “resting” period when you train with lighter weights for 1-2 weeks and then go back to training to failure in your workouts for 6-8 weeks.  Check out Metabolic Effect’s Rest-based Training Concept for more info on how to use this technique safely and effectively.

#4: Eat protein pre-workout. Here’s where the fat-burning side of the equation comes in…eating 20-30 grams of whey protein 20-30 minutes before a workout, along with ~5g of branched chain amino acids (BCAAs) encourages the body to pull from fat stores to power the workout and preserves muscle being used for energy.  Limit the carbs pre-workout since insulin’s presence in the blood effectively shuts down lipolysis (burning stored fat).

#5: Eat protein (and a little carb) post-weight training workout.  In order to capitalize on your tough weight workout, give your body the amino acids (protein) it needs to repair muscle.  You will also need some carb in order to release insulin (the muscle-building pathway depends on it), however, too much carb will also store fat.  Find your unique Carb Tipping Point to know how many grams you should be getting.  I recommend starting with 20-30g protein and 20-30 grams carbohydrates (depending on your size) post-weights–good choices include bananas, honey, grape juice and white potatoes.

#6: Eat protein (and a little healthy fat) post-cardio workout. After a cardio-only workout, the muscles don’t require the same insulin stimulus as after a weight workout.  In fact, post-cardio is one of the best opportunities to burn fat.  Eating a bunch of carbs after a cardio-only workout may blunt the fat-burning effect of the workout so stick with veggies, lean proteins and even fats.  Here is my favorite post-cardio shake:

In a blender or Vitamix, blend:
20-30 grams egg white protein powder
8 oz unsweetened almond milk
2 tbsp natural peanut butter
5 grams L-glutamine
Liquid Stevia to desired sweetness (I use Chocolate flavor)
1 cup ice

#7: Eat all your starchy carbs for the day in your post-workout meal, and the very next 2 small meals. For example, if you weight-train at 6am, you eat carbs with a post-workout meal at 7am, 10am and 1pm.  If you train at 7pm, you eat starchy carbs at 8pm, 6am and 9am the next day, etc.  Your metabolism is elevated for at least the first few hours after the workout is over (maybe longer) and so the best time to capitalize on muscle building and utilize an elevated metabolism to avoid fat storage is in the hours following your workout.  Starchy carbs include foods like potatoes, brown rice, oatmeal, squash, zucchini, pumpkin, whole grains, quinoa, etc.  Consume your designated bites of starch according to your ME Burner Type at each of the meals.  At all other meals (2-3), eat just lean protein and fibrous veggies (greens, etc).  More about Best Carb Choices.

#8: Sleep a minimum 8 hours each night. One of the hardest things for most of us to do, but without a doubt a key part of the muscle-building process.  Adequate rest and sleep are imperative in the quest for results.  Sleep is one of the key times in terms of growth hormone release, and is also one of the best times for fat burning.  However, sleeping only a few hours and/or eating a very high carb meal right before bed means that most of your sleep is spent digesting food and not even getting into the fat burning process yet.  Pair adequate rest with optimal nutrition for best results!

Just..wow.