Smart dieters get past just losing weight and focus on how to
lose fat. There is a lot of advice out there on losing weight and it's
not all good. The mistake of not eating enough or trying to "target" fat
loss are just a couple of the myths that keep people from reaching
their weight loss goals.
To learn how to lose fat you need a basic idea of how our bodies work and why we end up fat to begin with.
Fat
is the body's preferred energy source. It burns slow and stores easily.
Every calorie of fat or carbohydrate you put in your mouth that you
don't use right away gets converted to fat and put in the 'warehouse'
for use sometime in the future.
Where the fat goes on our body is mostly a genetic thing. Some of us pack it on around the middle. Some in the butt or thighs. Wherever your body prefers to store fat will be the first place it shows up and the last place it leaves.
In other words, the first myth we're going to bust is that you can "target" fat loss. It doesn't work that way but there will be lots of people trying to convince you that it does because that's what sells weight loss products.
If you have a disproportionate amount of fat in one particular place, say your butt or thighs, you are going to need to lower your overall fat to get those thighs to trim down.
Just cutting back on calories or increasing exercise is not how you lose fat. I learned this lesson the hard way after a couple of seasons of racing bikes with the "I can eat what I want because I'm burning it" attitude. I went in for one of those fancy sports performance tests and found that I was sitting at 25% body fat! That was at least twice what it should have been for a man my age and as active as I was.
Even though I was at my lowest weight I'd seen in years, I was still packing around a solid 25 pounds of excess fat.
The remedy for ending up like I did is to know your caloric needs and get a balanced diet. Even if you are super active don't assume you are going to burn all the simple carbs you eat and the typical American diet delivers only a fraction of the protein we need. You have to start paying attention to labels to see how many calories of carbs you are knocking back and how much protein you are getting. Eat more carbohydrates than you need and you'll be stocking your fat warehouse!
Use one of the many online resources to figure your daily caloric needs. You can also track down a personal wellness and weight loss coach. There are lots of us out there who will help you for free so keep your debit card in your pocket. A coach can look at where you are, and where you want to go, then tell you how to get there.
A healthy weight loss program includes exercise. To burn fat you don't have to do insane-hard work out sessions. Just the opposite is true and here are some tricks to keep in mind when trying to focus your efforts on how to lose fat.
First, do your exercise in the morning before you eat. If you have a moderate program like a walk or light run you should be good for an hour or so. When you exercise after you get up but before you eat your body is still in fasting mode and will tap those fat stores first. Always remember to eat a balanced, healthy meal as soon as you are finished. Remember to take nutrition if you plan a longer session.
Next, don't feel that you have to do a bleed from the eyeballs work out. About 60% of your maximum heart rate is 'the zone' when it comes to tapping fat stores. You can achieve that with a brisk walk.
That isn't to say that a more intense workout won't burn more calories, but if you are not into pushing yourself that hard you can still burn fat with a moderate effort. Consistent effort, such as a daily brisk walk, will target your fat stores better than the occasional all out effort.
Make stretching part of your program, but stretch after you have warmed up. For example, if you are walking or running give yourself ten or fifteen minutes of activity then stop and stretch. Stretching cold muscles is a recipe for injury so warm up a bit first.
You should add some resistance training as well to build or maintain muscle. Weights are great but you can probably get what you need from simple calestenics such as push-ups and the like.
Reducing your overall body fat percentage by feeding your body balanced nutrition and a modest exercise program is how to lose fat.
To learn how to lose fat you need a basic idea of how our bodies work and why we end up fat to begin with.
Fat
is the body's preferred energy source. It burns slow and stores easily.
Every calorie of fat or carbohydrate you put in your mouth that you
don't use right away gets converted to fat and put in the 'warehouse'
for use sometime in the future.Where the fat goes on our body is mostly a genetic thing. Some of us pack it on around the middle. Some in the butt or thighs. Wherever your body prefers to store fat will be the first place it shows up and the last place it leaves.
In other words, the first myth we're going to bust is that you can "target" fat loss. It doesn't work that way but there will be lots of people trying to convince you that it does because that's what sells weight loss products.
If you have a disproportionate amount of fat in one particular place, say your butt or thighs, you are going to need to lower your overall fat to get those thighs to trim down.
Just cutting back on calories or increasing exercise is not how you lose fat. I learned this lesson the hard way after a couple of seasons of racing bikes with the "I can eat what I want because I'm burning it" attitude. I went in for one of those fancy sports performance tests and found that I was sitting at 25% body fat! That was at least twice what it should have been for a man my age and as active as I was.
Even though I was at my lowest weight I'd seen in years, I was still packing around a solid 25 pounds of excess fat.
The remedy for ending up like I did is to know your caloric needs and get a balanced diet. Even if you are super active don't assume you are going to burn all the simple carbs you eat and the typical American diet delivers only a fraction of the protein we need. You have to start paying attention to labels to see how many calories of carbs you are knocking back and how much protein you are getting. Eat more carbohydrates than you need and you'll be stocking your fat warehouse!
Use one of the many online resources to figure your daily caloric needs. You can also track down a personal wellness and weight loss coach. There are lots of us out there who will help you for free so keep your debit card in your pocket. A coach can look at where you are, and where you want to go, then tell you how to get there.
A healthy weight loss program includes exercise. To burn fat you don't have to do insane-hard work out sessions. Just the opposite is true and here are some tricks to keep in mind when trying to focus your efforts on how to lose fat.
First, do your exercise in the morning before you eat. If you have a moderate program like a walk or light run you should be good for an hour or so. When you exercise after you get up but before you eat your body is still in fasting mode and will tap those fat stores first. Always remember to eat a balanced, healthy meal as soon as you are finished. Remember to take nutrition if you plan a longer session.
Next, don't feel that you have to do a bleed from the eyeballs work out. About 60% of your maximum heart rate is 'the zone' when it comes to tapping fat stores. You can achieve that with a brisk walk.
That isn't to say that a more intense workout won't burn more calories, but if you are not into pushing yourself that hard you can still burn fat with a moderate effort. Consistent effort, such as a daily brisk walk, will target your fat stores better than the occasional all out effort.
Make stretching part of your program, but stretch after you have warmed up. For example, if you are walking or running give yourself ten or fifteen minutes of activity then stop and stretch. Stretching cold muscles is a recipe for injury so warm up a bit first.
You should add some resistance training as well to build or maintain muscle. Weights are great but you can probably get what you need from simple calestenics such as push-ups and the like.
Reducing your overall body fat percentage by feeding your body balanced nutrition and a modest exercise program is how to lose fat.
Tom Bradley lives in Provo, Utah and came to wellness and weight
loss out of necessity but has hung around from passion. Tom's
straight-ahead approach to wellness and nutrition to promote weight
management and healthy aging is the simple solution for the trend of
growing world obesity and chronic illness.
Want help losing weight? Subscribe to Tom's Easy Diet Coach Newsletter and get a FREE Body Composition Analysis and Wellness Evaluation for a successful launch of your last "diet" at EasyDietCoach.com [http://easydietcoach.withtombradley.com]
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http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tom_BradleyWant help losing weight? Subscribe to Tom's Easy Diet Coach Newsletter and get a FREE Body Composition Analysis and Wellness Evaluation for a successful launch of your last "diet" at EasyDietCoach.com [http://easydietcoach.withtombradley.com]
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