Pro(tein) Tip

When you drop pounds, some of what you shed is calorie-burning muscle--a loss that slows your metabolism.  The fix:  Double your protein!  Study participants who downed twice the recommended daily allowance lost the same amount of weight-but much less muscle-as those who ate the RDA.  Try 1.5 grams per two pounds of body weight per day to get the same results.

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Percentage that weightlifting can reduce your risk of developing metabolic syndrome.

Be clear about how your trainer can help you

Want bigger biceps?  Or simply gearing up for your first 5-K?  Set your goals and communicate them to your trainer.  Then when things get tough, he or she can remind you what you're working toward.

Take responsibility for your shortcomings

If you came home at 2 a.m. and ate half a cake, cop to it  Your trainer can work with you by taking that into account and bumping up the intensity during your session.

Getting enough?  Sleep, that is

Insufficient sleep can wreak havoc on your hormone balance.  It stimulates hunger-inducing ghrelin and suppresses appetite-inhibiting leptin.  Sleep-deprived folks eat about 300 extra calories a day, reports the New York Obesity Center.  Another study found that those who slept fewer than 5 hours a night gained more visceral fat over five years than those who slept more than 7 hours.

Brief workouts with heavy weights may be best for blasting fat,

an Italian study reports.  One group of men did 32 minutes of interval-slyle lifting (heavy weights, periodic 20-second rests, longer rests between sets).  Another did 62 minutes of lighter lifts using a more traditional approach (3 sets of 12 to 14 reps, shorter rests between sets).  Over the next 22 hours, the heavy lifters burned an extra 363 calories.  Your muscles work harder with intervals, so they have to do more post-workout rebuilding.  That burns calories and lifts levels of metabolism-boosting hormones, says study author Antonio Paoli, M.D.