50 Ways to Get Super Fit This Year

Gain Weight

Every pound of muscle you add can help burn an extra 45 calories per day. So if you beeline it for the weight room and pack on 10 pounds of lean muscle, then your body can continue to torch 450 calories daily well after you've left the gym, even if you’re chained to a desk for most of the day. At that rate, you can lose almost a pound of fat per week. Source: Tanya Zuckerbrot, R.D., author of the Miracle Carb Diet

Never Stop Moving

You get off your high horse now, Ms. I Work Out Five Times a Week. A new study shows that women who regularly exercise (an average of 2 and a half hours a week) still spend too much time sitting—about 63 percent of their day. So even if you're active, you might be sedentary too. One way around this is to embrace restless behavior. An unrelated study found that if you stand, pace, and tap your toes often, you can burn 350 calories a day—or drop 30 to 40 pounds a year just from fidgeting! Source: International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity and Greg Chertok, director of sport psychology at Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Center in New Jersey

Stretch It Out

Throwing a leg on a bench and reaching for your toes is not a great warm-up. If you're getting ready to run or bike, try firing up your muscles and boosting your heart rate and blood flow with some dynamic stretching: Pull one knee to your chest while standing, then alternate for a few reps on each side. Next kick each leg back and forth one at a time, slowly increasing speed to improve your range of motion, which will make the activity easier. Source: Sergio Rojas, a certified strength and conditioning specialist and owner of Redefined Fitness & Physical Therapy in Chicago

Keep It Short and Sweaty

Spending three hours at the gym or doing 100 reps of a move are not good things—quality trumps quantity when it comes to exercise. Your workouts should be short, intense, and explosive. This way, you'll be better able to give it your all with good form, which is the best way fast-track results. Source: Austin Malleolo, CrossFit head coach at Reebok CrossFit One in Canton, MA

Forget counting calories this year, and instead make it your goal to eat fresh, high-quality foods. You'll instantly dump the biggest flat-belly troublemakers like all things highly process, boxed, and full of dangerous synthetic hormones, pesticides, and genetically-modified ingredients. You don't have to go vegan, low-carb, or even Paleo—just eat fresh and watch the pounds melt away. Source: Mira and Jayson Carlton, Ph.D., authors of the new book Rich Food, Poor Food

Drop the dumbbells and become best friends with a kettlebell. Since your stabilizer muscles have to work harder to wield a weight that isn’t evenly distributed, you burn more calories (almost 300 in 20 minutes!) using it. We like the Rip: 60 adjustable soft Kettle Bell, which adjusts from two to 20 pounds with its four removable soft-weight discs. Follow its DVD for a total belle body workout you can do right in your living room.

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