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12 Tips For Faster Fat Loss Now
Author : Gregg Gillies
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Let's face it. Burning off fat can be frustrating,
especially those final 5 - 15 pounds. Sometimes, it
seems like no matter what we do, the weight won't
come off. Let's take a closer look at some of the important
aspects of fat loss that you may already be implementing,
and some that you are most likely not using. These
could make all the difference in burning off those
final pounds and giving you the lean, defined physique
and six pack abs that you've been working so hard to get. Mental Tips on Getting Started 1. Determine the reality of your current situation.
Be honest with yourself about where you are and how
far you have to go. 2. Figure out the things you are doing now that you
would not have gotten involved with, knowing what you
now know. Examples are smoking, drinking sugar laden
soft drinks, junk food snacking late at night, spending
most of your time on the couch, etc. 3. Do a complete and honest analysis of yourself and your
skills regarding health and fitness. What do you do well?
Where do you need to improve? 4. Determine a measure that you can use to gauge your
progress. 5. Set specific goals for each day, week, and month of what
you need to do to move yourself toward your goals and discipline
yourself to accomplish these small goals that will lead you
to big rewards. Analyzing Your Lack of Fat Loss Progress Here’s a short checklist of reasons that your fat
loss progress may be stalling. 1) Too Many Carbohydrates. This doesn’t mean you have to eliminate carbs from
your nutrition plan. The right carbs are a vital part
of your fat loss efforts, not to mention your health.
However, any additional carbs above and beyond those needed
have a good probability of being stored as body fat. Weight
training does require a higher carb intake. But most
people don’t train intensely enough for the amount of
carbs that they take in. 2) Stack Your Carbs. Eat most of your good carbs in your morning meals
and in your post-workout meal. This will help
to stabilize your insulin levels and help you
burn body fat for energy later in the day. Forego the pasta, potato or rice at your evening
meals for lean proteins like fowl or fish, along with
a side dish of veggies. Or enjoy your favorite protein
shake recipe. Okay, maybe not your favorite if your
favorite contains a lot of simple carbs, but you get
the idea. 3) Too Much of the Wrong Type of Cardio. What happens to the guy or gal who performs 1-2 hours
of cardio a day? (We know you’re out there!) They send their body into a tailspin, a state where
the "starvation hormones" secreted by the body skyrocket
(it’s your body’s survival mechanism, a response to
too much exercise!) causing fat cells to try to hoard
their energy! Too much cardio will eat away at muscle tissue, causing
your metabolism to slow down and your body to start
storing fat. In other words, the exact opposite of what
you are trying to accomplish. Substitute shorter duration,
high intensity interval training for the slow, long
duration cardio you've been doing and watch your
metabolism get a boost as you burn more fat in less time. 4) Never "Cheating" on Your Diet. Once in a while you should let loose and give yourself
a break from the rigors of dieting and scale watching.
In fact, it’s helpful in losing weight. That’s because continual dieting eventually leads to
roadblocks where the body responds by slowing its metabolic
rate. Strict dieting also takes its toll on you mentally,
and can leave you feeling deprived. That’s a bad combination! Taking in a couple of high
calorie meals once every 7-10 days not only provides
a mental break from dieting, but helps you side-step
roadblocks by preventing the body from entering a
starvation state where the metabolic rate slows. Another way to approach this is on a daily basis. Here's an example. Don't forget the numbers are for
the example only. You'll need to adjust the calorie
number to what's appropriate for you. Day 1 - 2,600,
Day 2 - 2,500
Day 3 - 2,400
Day 4 - 2,300
Day 5 - 2,200
Day 6 - 2,100
Day 7 - 2,000
Day 8 - 2,500
Day 9 - 2,400
Day 10 - 2,300
Day 11 - 2,200
Day 12 - 2,100
Day 13 - 2,000
Day 14 - 1,900
Day 15 - 2,400
Day 16 - 2,300
Day 17 - 2,200
Day 18 - 2,100
Day 19 - 2,000
Day 20 - 1,900
Day 21 - 1,800 At this point, I will take a look at my progress (using body
fat calipers, the scale and the weight increases on my
exercises) and then devise a new plan for the next three weeks. The cycling of calories in this manner is good both for
building muscle and losing fat. How high you start and how low
you go depends both on your goals (building muscle or losing
fat) and your individual metabolism. If you are building muscle
you don't want to make your low days too low. You just want to
have some slightly lower calorie days so that you keep fat gain
to a minimum as you add muscle. For losing fat, you don't want your high days too high (for
obvious reasons) but you also don't want your low days too low,
otherwise you will lose lean muscle and put your body into
starvation mode, which will cause it to slow your metabolism
down and store fat - two big no no's. If the weight stops coming
off, don't always go lower on calories but consider increasing
your cardio training (or just increasing the intensity of the
time that you do your cardio - the more intense it is, the more
calories you burn during the same amount of time). You still need to be careful with the amount of food
you eat when you do this. After all, it doesn’t take
too much to completely wipe out that week’s progress. 5) Paying Attention to The Scale Only. The scale is not the "end-all" measurement of progress.
You also monitor a couple of other things, primarily
body composition, energy and strength. As I’ve said before, don’t go just by the scale. It
can deceive you and frustrate you. Get yourself a
nice pair of electronic skin fold calipers and keep
track of your muscle gains and fat loss. Skin fold calipers, along with the scale are a much
truer indication of your progress. 6) Eat More Good Fat Getting enough of the good fats will help you lose fat, build
muscle, and recover faster from your workouts. In addition, it
has myriad health benefits, including being good for your heart.
Good fats include: polyunsaturated ( especially Omega-3's), such
as those from fish and nuts, as well as monosaturated fats, such
as those from peanut butter, olive oil, egg yolks, and fish oil. Bad fats include saturated fats from things such as animal and
coconut fats. Then there is the worst kind of fat the man made
kind, trans fatty acids which can be found in our typical, of
no redeeming value, junk foods such cookies, chips, fries and
margarine. Limit, if not stay completely away from, the bad fats and try
to get about 30 - 35% of your calories from the good fats. "Studies show that higher-fat diets make more sense for fit people
than low-fat diets," says Liz Applegate, Ph.D., author of
Encyclopedia of Sports & Fitness Nutrition. "In one study,
endurance athletes ran up to 24 percent longer before they fatigued
when they ate a diet that was above 30 percent fat compared to
one that was below 20 percent," she says. More importantly to most readers of this newsletter, researchers
are now beginning to realize the fact that a nutrition plan high
in the good fats helps the body to burn fat. Omega-3 fatty acids
increase the size of your cells' fuel-burning furnaces so your
metabolic rate rises and you burn more calories every minute of
every day. Omega-3's also help your body's sensitivity to insulin. This
helps your body store less fat. In addition, the fat you do
store is more readily and easily converted into energy and
burned during activity. This keeps your blood sugar levels stable
and keeps you away from those famed sugar crashes and cravings
and irritable mood swings. 7) Don’t Get Frustrated by A So Called Lack of Progress. I received an email the other day from a man who wanted to
thank me for the quality information I have provided to him. He’s lost 100 pounds in the past two years and he
didn’t think this was very good progress because
of what he’s seen others do. Stuff like this drives me nuts. He made phenomenal
progress and should be extremely proud of himself
and what he accomplished. Please people, don’t let
the progress of others (especially those in ads)
cause you to get frustrated with what you’ve
accomplished. Sure, you can use those outstanding results to
motivate you but don’t let them make you think what
you aren’t doing isn’t special. Don't let it derail
you from your goals. |  http://ezinearticles.com/members/mem_pics/Gregg-Gillies_796.jpg" border="0" alt="Gregg Gillies - EzineArticles Expert Author"> |
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