If there is one question that I am asked more than any other, it is how to properly burn off body fat and tone up. Here I will offer some guidelines to follow. The more of them you follow, the better off you will be in burning body fat. There are several methods used to determine if you are in need of losing body fat.
Body fat testing can be done with skin-fold calipers. Males on average should have around 15% body fat, women around 23 %. Another way to tell is the waist-to-hip ratio. The waistto- hip ratio indicates where most of your body fat is located. People who carry fat around their waists are referred to as “apples”. People that carry most of their fat below the waist are often referred to as “pears”. Carrying fat around your hips and thighs (a pear) is considered less of a health risk. However, apples are not good.
To find out what shape you are, use a tape to measure your hips at their widest point, and then measure your waist at its narrowest (usually around the navel). Then divide your waist measurement by your hip measurement. A ratio greater than .80 for a woman and greater than 1.0 for a man indicate that you are an apple!
How is this done?
Well, there are two ways: cardio and nutrition. It needs to be done properly and in balance. Most people go about the wrong way when trying to lose weight. One wrong way is to drastically cut the amount of calories you consume so that it is impossible to take in more than you burn off. This is not healthy or wise to do. This is called dieting. Diets do not work. I guarantee if you try to diet and restrict your calories, you may lose a small amount of weight initially, but you will gain it all back (and usually more) when you get tired of starving yourself.
Another wrong alternative is to greatly increase your calorie expenditure by overdoing cardiovascular work. Doing aerobic activity 7 days a week, an hour at 31 a time will not produce healthy results either. You will probably burn yourself out and become overtired. When this happens, your weight training becomes negatively affected. The key is proper balance. Doing the proper amount of aerobic activity combined with the correct diet is how we are going to effectively lose the unwanted body fat, once and for all.
Doing a little of both is also more realistic to continue into the future as well. Who wants to look forward to years of diets? Balance is crucial. Balance is healthy. If you eat a spoonful of ice cream, you are left wanting more. Eat a whole tub and you have a huge stomachache. Balance is key. There are no magic solutions, just hard work. Follow them closely and you get to your destination. Approach them haphazardly and you get lost. The following tips will assist you in losing body fat.
1. Make the commitment to yourself you are going to do this.
You have to decide that this is something you want to do and are going to be serious about. You need to admit to yourself that you need to lose the weight and then resolve that you are going to do what’ s necessary to get there. Set weekly or monthly realistic goals for yourself. Once you reach that goal, enjoy the victory for a moment, and then have another one ready to go after.You need to commit. Stop making excuses for every reason why you can’ t do this and start coming up with reasons why you have to do this. This is the most important step in the whole process. Skip this step and you are planning to fail.
2. Get moving! (Do 2-3 intense cardio sessions a week).
The prime reason for doing cardio is to expend energy by burning calories. Cardio also helps to speed up, or “prime” our metabolism. Plus, cardio helps by enhancing our endurance and our cardiovascular health as well. These are the main reasons we do cardiovascular exercise. You are not going to lose weight if you do not move your body. You need to burn off more calories than you consume, so this is where the aerobic activity comes in. The key is to move more of your body. The more you move your body, the more calories you burn. That is why jogging, mountain biking, Stairmaster, elliptical trainers, even treadmill walking at a steep incline are beneficial forms of cardio. You can burn as many calories jogging for 20 minutes on the treadmill as you can by walking for an hour on the treadmill.
3. You are what you eat, so eat well.
Other than cardio, nutrition is the only other way you can directly manipulate calorie intake and expenditure. Your eating habits will make or break your fatburning results. You can do all the cardio in the world, but if you have poor eating habits, you will not get good results. You need to be eating every three hours or so to keep your metabolism operating efficiently. Constantly grazing on food will keep your body burning the fuel it is consuming. If you eat two or three large meals a day, you slow down your metabolism. Also, by only eating once in a while, your body will start storing fat as a defense mechanism. Be careful when eating typical “ snacks” like chips or crackers. As far as meals, keep protein sources like fish, turkey, chicken, lean red meat, whey protein supplements, low-fat dairy products, egg whites, and some soy products a mainstay in your diet.
4. Drink at least a gallon (preferably more) of water a day.
I’ m going to keep this one simple and just tell you it should be done. Shoot for a gallon a day, more if you can. Water is so important I cannot overstate it enough. It is used in every single physiological principle in your body. You can 36 live for weeks without food, but you die if you do not take in water for a few days. . Keep a bottle of it at work, in your car, in your fridge, or any other place you frequent. It is very abundant so try to get plenty.
5. Keep track of your progress
You need to see if what you are doing is working or not. If it isn’ t, you need to regroup, figure what you are doing wrong, and start heading in the right direction again. Measure your results. You can look in the mirror and see if you are achieving beneficial results. You can tell by the way your clothes fit or by what your friends say. You can judge by the scale, although this is not the greatest way to measure success.
Tags: Diet, Exercise, Fat loss tips, Nutrition, Weight Loss Cure by admin
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