Fat Loss Tips.

We are quickly becoming a world consumed with our weight. The fact is there are now HUNDREDS of millions of people who are OBESE causing multitudes of health problems that lead to negatives consequences for themselves and their family not to mention the strain it places on our healthcare system.

One of the main problems that people face when trying to lose weight is that they simply don’t UNDERSTAND how the body works. Our lack of understand comes from so much BS that is thrown at us from all sides of the media. We are too busy looking at the latest weight loss programs to understand the basic fats of fat loss.

Calories make you fat, not fat

Oftentimes when folks are looking to lose fat, they begin to cut fat out of their diet. They buy fat free and low fat product assuming this will help them lose fat. The fact is, it is not the fat, but the amount of calories that we consume that is the enemy. While it is true that a gram of fat has more calories than a gram of protein, many people eat MORE proteins and carbohydrates because they assume that fat is the enemy.

The scale is NOT always right

Have you ever been working out hard, running, lifting weights, I mean REALLY working out? Maybe you have been on the program for a few weeks. You feel better than ever and you are sure you are making fantastic progress. You decide to step on the scale and test your theory and, much to your surprise, BAM, you have gained a pound of weight! What the heck? How is that possible? Well, you may be in better shape than you thought. You see, muscle weighs more than fat, so sometimes, the muscle we build working out causes our weight to level or even be a bit higher, BUT we have actually lost fat and are in much healthier condition. It is important for you to pay attention to how you look and feel, not just your weight.

Eating 3 meals per day can make you gain weight

We were always taught to eat 3 meals per day. Actually, this is wrong. The way to keep your metabolism moving quickly is to keep eating. Now, you want to gorge yourself all day, but spread out smaller, healthier meals throughout the day and keep your metabolism burning fat all day long.

Not eating at all is the WORST thing you can do to lose weight

Ok, the last and perhaps most important fat loss basic we will talk about here is the idea that exists that if we don’t eat at all, we will lose weight. Well, to SOME degree, this is true. If you don’t eat, your body WILL begin to burn fat, but first of all, you will quickly become unhealthy. Your body needs a constant supply of nutrients and if it doesn’t get it, you will quickly become unhealthy. In addition, when your body is restricted of calories, it begins to enter into survival mode. This means that any calories it DOES get it will try to store as fat for later use. This is why some people who don’t eat for several days eventually end up gaining MORE weight once they begin eating again. Starvation is NOT a good fat loss technique.

I think it may be time for a reality check. Any sane person that believes that dieting is easy please raise your hand. If you raised your hand I am not sure that you qualify as sane, please check with a mental health professional. For the rest of us, the term easy diets should be classified as an oxymoron. If these things were so darn easy, then nobody would be overweight. Now, there may not be such a thing as easy diets, but many weight management plans are effective and are only as difficult as you make them. A better term may be simple diets. Here are 2 things you should look for in trying to keep it simple.

Fat Burning

Easy diets that only focus on the scale will be absolutely worthless to you. Fat burning is infinitely more important than weight loss. Losing weight is really not all that difficult, but your real goal should be to burn fat. The proper diet and targeted exercise can turn your metabolism into a fat burning machine 24 hours per day. Once you get your metabolism going, you results will really take off.

Meal Planning

Does your system offer meal planning help? I am not talking about those systems where you have to sell your first born to be able to buy their food products. Easy diets can only truly become easy if you learn how to plan and shop for healthy meals. How do you expect to stay on a weight management plan if you have not been taught how to eat and shop correctly?

Getting serious about losing weight but do not have your plan together yet? We all know that we have to eat right and exercise, but does it really matter what and how much you drink? Guess what… it does matter. Let us look at what and how much you drink can affect your weight loss efforts.

What has zero calories and cannot make you gain weight? You guessed it…water. Water is essential for life. You cannot live without it. You can survive for over 10 weeks without food, but you will die going without water for more than a few days. How much do you need per day and does drinking water have an effect on weight loss?

The body is made up of 60% water. Just a 5% reduction in the body’s water level will cause a 20% energy reduction. If you exercise, this same about of water loss can have a huge effect on the energy required to complete the exercise routine. You must hydrate with water if you are to lose weight and have enough energy.

Water serves many purposes in the body. First, it is used to move mineral and nutrients to the places in the body that needs them. It is also used to remove waste from the body. Water provides a medium for organs to send electrical impulses through in which they use to communicate with each other.

As stated earlier water has zero calories and can help to neutralize acidity in the body. Water also helps to fill you up and diminish hunger or cravings. When you drink water before or during a meal, it helps to fill your stomach and give you a fuller feeling. This helps a person to feel fuller without eating as much food.

Consistently drinking water during the day will lower the amount of food you think you have to have, as you will feel fuller before meals. Most recommendations suggest drinking eight glasses of water per day. Although this is a good starting point, each individual has a different requirement for water dependent on his or her metabolism.

If you still feel thirsty drinking eight glasses per day, then drink more water. Since there are no calories to worry about, drinking plenty of water will not harm you unless you drink a tanker full. Be aware that sometimes the body confuses hunger with thirst. If you feel hungry, try drinking a glass of water first as this may be all you really need to rid yourself of the hungry feeling. Most of the time the stomach is calling out for something to fill it and it is not always necessarily food.

After drinking water to get rid of hunger pains, wait 15 minutes to see if you still have feelings of being hungry. Most of the time you will feel full, therefore saving the calories that you would have otherwise taken in eating something.

Try this – before you eat or even start to cook your next meal drink one to two glasses of water. It depends on the amount of time you have before the meal whether you will be able to consume one or two glasses of water. This will reduce the amount of empty space in your stomach before starting to eat thus reducing the amount food you will want to eat. It will also reduce the tendency to nibble before or after the meal.

Drink two glasses of water when you first get out of bed each morning. Most people are the hungriest between dinner in the afternoon and breakfast in the morning. You have gone your longest period without food. By drinking a couple of glasses of water when you first rise, it will help to fill your stomach and keep you from eating so much at breakfast.

Since water is the most important fluid you put into your body you should try to replace as many other drinks as possible with water. There will be times when you want something other than water, in which case you should drink other fluids in moderation and create a balance. For instance, coffee or tea both contain caffeine which is a diuretic. To keep a balance in the body, you should drink at least two glasses of water for every glass of caffeine or tea that you drink to replace lost fluids.

Some medications as well as herbs have a diuretic effect, so you should drink water to offset these also. Water flushes the body’s systems, has no calories and fills the stomach. It should be included in your daily intake as much as possible to assist with your weight loss program.

I know that when you decide that you want to lose that excess flab that you want to lose it right now. I can certainly feel you pain because I have been there myself. You are looking for the best way to lose weight fast, but you should also make sure that you find a method that is effective and healthy. If you get this wrong, the least of your worries will be taking a trip on the diet rollercoaster. While surgery may be an option in extreme cases, the best way to lose weight fast is really not much of a secret.

Exercise

The best way to lose weight fast has to include an exercise regimen. A combination of an aerobic routine and focused weight training will do more for your weight loss efforts than you can imagine. The real goal should be to lose fat and the best way to do that is with an exercise program. This will jump start your metabolism and get your body burning fat all day long.

Meal Planning

Meal planning is an absolutely critical factor in weight management. There are many programs that have you counting calories, eating meal replacement bars, or drinking sludge to help you drop weight. All of this is complete and total garbage. Counting calories definitely has a purpose, but if you are eating your daily fill of calories with ice cream you are not doing yourself any favors. Meal replacement bars and liquid sludge has a place too, the trash can! A balanced healthy meal with real food is what you need to be eating.