Tips to Help You Lose Excess Fat
Believe it or not, losing a little or a lot of fat involves pretty much the same concept – consistent dieting coupled with cardiovascular exercise and weight training. This is how the professionals do it, and it works. If you are overweight, you may be hesitant to start a weight training program, but the benefits far outweigh any reservations you may have.
Weight training enhances your fat loss by increasing your muscle mass and more muscle means more calories burned (faster metabolism). It also it gives your skin a more tone, tight appearance, lowers your blood pressure, strengthens your bones, improves your agility, increases your flexibility, strengthens your immune system and gives you more energy and a brighter outlook on life. If you have a high level of body fat, or you have never been able to successfully lose fat, you should consider trying a complete, well-rounded program that not only focuses on dieting, but also includes adequate cardiovascular activity and weight training.
If you are already very muscular, and you just want lose a little body fat, then a fat loss program that includes regular cardiovascular activity and weight training is perfect for you. The best way to get ripped and maintain as much muscle as you can is to diet slowly.
The truth is, when you are on a low calorie diet, your body prefers to use muscle tissue for fuel rather than excess body fat. So, the slower you lose weight, the more likely you are losing fat and not muscle. Ideally, you should aim to lose no more than 1lb – 1.5 lbs per week that’s it. If you are obese, then you should try to lose no more than 1% of your bodyweight per week. Any more than that and you are sacrificing muscle.
Women do tend to lose fat at a slower rate than men, but don’t let this discourage you. Women simply store fat more efficiently than men because it is needed during and after pregnancy. As your body fat levels drop, you will notice that the fat loss comes off in reverse of how it was put on. So, the most recent fat gains will come off first, while the old fat that has been there for a while will take the longest to lose.
The most difficult fat to lose usually centers around the waist, belly and lower back areas for men, and the upper thigh and buttocks, area for women. The fat in these areas are the most difficult to totally get rid of. This type of fat is difficult to lose because the low blood flow in these areas hinders the fat mobilization. So, if the fat can’t be moved into the bloodstream to be used as fuel, those love handles will never go away.
That’s why thermogenic supplements help to improve fat loss – they increase circulation into these hard to reach areas and mobilize the stubborn fat.
Remember that you cannot spot reduce!
What I mean by this is that you can’t pick and choose the areas that you would like to lose the fat and do exercises that work those areas expecting the fat to just magically disappear in those areas. Your body does not work that way. The only way to decrease the amount of fat in certain key areas is by lowering your total body fat levels.
As you lose fat, it will come off all over your body, not just in specific areas. If you follow a complete diet and weight training program for at least 12 weeks, you will begin to see dramatic changes occurring with your body, and I’m not just talking about the obvious physical changes, I’m also talking about the psychological and physiological changes.
You can expect lower body fat (of course), increased muscle mass, increased metabolism, increased sense of well-being, more energy, lower bad cholesterol level, increased good cholesterol level, decreased risk of heart disease, deeper more restful sleep and most important, increased self-confidence.
To be successful, your fat loss program should include the following:
* A calorie restrictive diet, which requires you to eat no less than 12x and no more than 15x your LEAN bodyweight in calories.
* Regular cardiovascular activity for at least 30-45 minutes 3-4 times per week. Some recommend a moderate pace while other recommend a vigorous pace — it doesn’t really matter as long as you are exercising.
* Weight training.
* Supplementing your diet with vitamins, minerals and amino acids. Vitamin C, L-glutamine, and a good multi vitamin are the bare essentials.
* Adequate dietary fat, including high amounts of Essential Fatty Acids (Omega-6 and Omega-3).
* Regularly monitor your progress. If you don’t track your progress you won’t know if your diet program is working! Looking in the mirror or just relying on the scale is NOT adequate. Here’s a great composition tracking software that I highly recommend comptracker.com
It will let you know exactly if what you are doing is working.
* Finally, make sure that the program you decide on is compatible with your lifestyle and schedule.
You can have the greatest program in the world, but if you cannot implement it then it is worthless. There are thousands of fat loss diets and workouts that will work, but the hard part is finding one that works for you and the specifics of your diet and schedule restraints.
Fitness Consultant Anthony Ellis has helped thousands of individuals lose fat and build more muscle. To read more about his fat loss recommendations please check out his site at fatlosstips.com
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Scientific Guidelines for Effective Weight Loss
If you have been dieting and haven’t lost weight, stop! Don’t even think about trying another diet, because it will produce the same results you have already seen.
Below you will find “Scientific Guidelines” for weight loss that have always been around, but are not followed by the majority of weight loss programs these days.
Now let’s have a look at a few basic principles.
1. Increasing Your Metabolism
In order to produce Sustained, Permanent and Long-Term Weight Loss, it’s imperative that you boost your metabolism. And the most effective way to raise your metabolism is to have a greater proportion of functional muscle on your body.
The only way to build this lean muscle so you can raise your metabolism is through “Strength Training”. There’s no other method that works wonders on the Metabolism like Strength Training.
By performing Strength Training, you’ll effectively increase the amount of functional lean muscle on your body so that your metabolism will elevate.
After a Strength Training session your body will undergo a significant increase or “Spike” in Metabolism, which will allow you to burn much more fat then you were able to before.
2. It’s All About Lean Muscle
“The amount of fat the body can burn is directly related to the more lean muscle your body can hold.”
If your muscle system can sustain more energy and use this energy significantly when performing strength training, then it will be able to burn off the calories you eat and the excess fat on your body.
In other words, if your muscles become stronger and can hold more energy then you should be able to release this energy more efficiently to increase your metabolism, and to burn off excess calories that you have eaten.
Once we can build more lean muscle through our own strength, then our bodies will become more efficient at burning fat.
It’s also the amount of lean muscle on your body that makes you LOOK GOOD. Once you burn off the excess fat from your body, the lean muscle underneath your skin will be exposed making you look healthy, energetic, and well toned.
3. Decrease Your Daily Calories
For years now, we have been told to use dieting to rid the excess fat from our bodies.
The trouble with this concept is that the low calorie restricted diet would throw the body into starvation mode, with the body holding onto the fat and using precious muscle tissue for energy.
This would then lower the metabolism causing greater muscle loss and when the diet is broken the unwanted fat would not only return but actually increase because to the lowered metabolism.
The way around this is to cut your daily calorie intake by a small amount of calories only. This will stop any starvation mechanisms from clicking in. You can do this by making up a seven day eating plan and writing down every thing you eat for the week, and then work out the calories you have eaten with a calorie counter. Divide this figure by seven and you have your daily calorie value.
Decrease daily calorie value by a couple of hundred calories per day and no more. This will generate slow weight loss and the majority will be fat loss only. The daily calories should be consumed during the day with small frequent meals.
4. Fast Walking Burns Fat
All you need to do now is incorporate “Fast Walking” into your weight loss program to hasten the burning of excess fat.
Not only is fast walking better much easier on the hips, but it also produces a greater percentage of fat loss as opposed to jogging or running.
Here are some of the benefits of Fast Walking.
? Easy to Perform
? Most Conventional
? All Natural Body Movement
? Doesn’t Cause Injuries
? Can Be Done Anywhere
? The Best Minimal Effort Exercise for Fat Loss
“I can’t stress enough how Fast Walking is necessary in every weight loss program.”
Gary is the author of several ebooks, including “Maximum Weight Loss in Ten Weeks” – the complete ebook and time-saving solution for burning away unwanted fat, and “Maximum Weight Gain in Ten Weeks” – easy-to-use and follow techniques that serve as a guide to muscle growth without having to “live in the gym”.
Visit Gary’s website at maximumfitness.com/
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