FAT LOSS

There seems to be a lot of confusion lately on how best to lose weight and the current trend in over hyping the latest super food and training methods only serve to make matters worse.

But what is the key to losing weight? Simply put, if calories expended exceed calories ingested then you will lose weight. Whilst this approach is a sure fire way to loose weight, it is not a sustainable way to do it and it is certainly not a healthy way to do it.

At the expense of short term weight loss "crash" dieting will only mean you put the weight you've just lost back on, and probably a bit extra too! Exactly what you don't want if you ask me!

We recommend that you don't follow any of the FAD DIETS out there, like the Atkins Diet, Cambridge Diet, GI Diet, this diet, that diet etc etc. They only give you temporay results. 

There's only one way to lose weight and keep weight off and thats to eat healthy and sensibly all of the time, or at least 95% of the time!!

Its no good going on one of those fad diets only to come of and go back to your old diet, because it's your old diet that got you so out of shape in the first place, TIME FOR CHANGE!

Below are a few useful tips on how best to lose fat.

Keep a Food Diary

To successfully lose fat you need to know exactly what you are putting into your body.

Afood diary is a great way to do this, as you will have in front of you a comprehensive overview of your current diet. For 3-4 days keep a diary of everything you eat and drink, include in this diary any condiments you use, any sugars you may add to your drinks, any snacks you have and of course the meals you eat. It would be useful to make note of portion sizes, it doesn't have to be exact, an estimate will be fine but don't kid yourself. Tot up the value of protein, carbohydrate and fat that you consume each day.

By keeping a food diary you have an overview of your current diet from which you can begin to alter food choices and switch things around, its amazing when you see your diet written out in front of you how godd or bad it is. Be honest with yourself and write down everything you eat or drink. Lying to yourself will only keep you from reaching your goals.

Clean Up Your Diet

Cleaning up your diet is the simplest thing you can do to loose fat. Using your food diary, cicle everything that isn't a natural wholesome food, these foods need to be replaced by quality foods.

Foods that can be eliminated immediately include takeaways, covenience foods, fizzy drinks, chocolates, crisps etc i think you get the picture! Lesser things such as sauces and condiments will more than likely need to be eliminated as they are often laced with fats and sugars. Use herbs, spices, oils and vinegars to flavour your food.

Reduce Carbohydrate Intake

Carbohydrates are the body's primary source of fuel for anaerobic activity (weight training, sprinting and other high inensity activities) Whilst carbohydrate are a vital part of your diet and need to be included for energy, too many carboydrates are readily stored as fat.

Reducing your carbohydrate intake will keep your body burning fat. Since your body burns carbohydrates first, then fat, it will have no carbs to burn and so will turnto fat for energy.

The trick with carbohydrates is that you want to consume more of your days carbohydrates earlier in the day (breakfast, lunch) and then taper them off as the day progresses. Eating a carbohydrate rich breakfast will give you the energy you need for the rest of the day.

Change Your Carbohydrate Sources

As well as reducing your carbohydrate intake, changing your sources of carbohydrates will help your fat loss goals. Consider swapping any white carbohydrates, such as white pasta, white bread, white rice for their wholemeal counterparts.

Beware however of how food is packaged. A lot of the time foods labelled brown are in fact white foods that have been dyed! So whilst you may be thinking you have bought yourself something healthy, you have only been conned into buying a subpar food!

Always check the ingredients, and if in doubt put it back!

Beware Of Hidden Sugars

Sugars have been highlighted as one of the main reasons for the obesity epidemic in the western world. Although there has been a shift in public demand towards low sugar foods, the industry is very switched on to this and has hidden sugar behind all sorts of fancy names including aspartame, asulfame K and high fructose corn syrup in an effort to confuse you, the consumer.

More recently with "diet" food and drinks, albeit they are low in sugar, they are now laced with e numbers, preservatives and fats, all of which will derail your dieting efforts. Your best bet is to avoid these foods and drinks where ever possible.

Protein

It is well worth increasing your protein intake as you lower your carbohydrate. Keeping your protein intake high will stop your body from tapping into your hard earned muscle and help to keep your metabolism fired up.

Fats, Fibre and Water

As explained in the nutrition section of the website, the right fats are vital to our diets. Incorporating healthy fats into your diet will encourage your body to release its own fat stores! Healthy fats will also help protect your joints from the efforts of your training, provide long lasting energy, and aid digestion to name only afew of their benefits.

Fibre will help to keep your digestive system functioning properly and will help to lower LDL (bad) cholestrol. Fibre along with healthy fats will help to keep you full between meals so you will be less likely to snack on your cravings.

Our body is over 70% water so give it what it needs. Drinking plenty of water will help to flush toxins out of your body, help lubricate your joints and help you utilise the nutrients you take in from your food. Drinking generous amounts of water will also allow your body to expel excess water from under the skin giving you a slimmer, less bloated appearance.

Fire Up Your Metabolism

The traditional three meals a day simply won't cut it for fat burning! Every time you eat your metabolism kicks into overdrive to breakdown and utilise the food you have just eaten. Eating only three times a day gives your metabolism time to slow down between meals which is not efficient for fat burning. The key here is to keep your metabolism revved up and this is done by spacing your meals out at 2.5-3 hour intervals. This is not to say eat like a horse at each meal, but rather to eat something small between each meal.

The reasoning behind this idea is twofold, first it speeds up your metabolism and second it will allow you to be less hungry at your next meal in turn making you desire less food.

Exercise

This goes without saying that some form of exercise 3-4 times per week will also help with losing and burning fat, exercise will help you keep your weight down and in general make you feel great!!

If you want any further help then drop an e-mail to Gary or Scott info@aktivbodz.com