Fat Loss Information and Tips
Fat Loss
As America grows unhealthier as obesity rises in percentage, the need for accurate fat loss information also grows. One of the reasons America is under such a negative health epidemic is because of the lack of quality fat loss information. Sure, you can say it's because America is lazy, but a big reason is because the diet programs 95% of people try to follow end up in failure. It's a sad but true reality and we will only begin to "fit up" as a nation when the fat loss information becomes more accurate and truthful. All of the fad diet and exercise programs have very low success rates because of one problem, personalization.
In this article I will discuss what exactly needs to take place within both a solid diet program and exercise program in order for fat loss to occur and last.
Dieting for Fat Loss
Most people make the diet and nutrition aspect of fat loss to be the most difficult to stick with. As with anything in life that takes time and patience to see results, fat loss is no exception. Therefore it's very important to keep consistent and stick with the following diet "guidelines" if you are to be successful. Don't worry, it's not as bad as you think it is. It just takes the implimentation of a few specific rules and you will be fine.
It's all about how many calories your body burns and how many calories you consume through food. In order to force your body to use fat for energy, is by operating on what you call a negative calorie diet. This means you want to consume around 300 to 500 calories less than what your body burns per day. Therefore, your body will be forced to take that energy from your body (fat stores), because you will not have provided it with enough in the form of food. So the trick is figuring out how many calories you consume so that you're consuming less calories than what your body burns. Fortunately there are a few methods to determine this value.
The formula below is known as the Harris Benedict Equation, and it's for determing your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), which is how many calories your body burns per day within 24 hours. Please note, that BMR doesn't include the amount of calories you burn through the physical activity you place upon it, the equation for that is just beneath this equation.
| Women: | 655 + (4.35 x Weight in lbs.) + (4.7 x Height in In.) - (4.7 x Age) |
| Men: | 66 + (6.23 x Weight in lbs.) + (12.7 x Height in In.) - (6.8 x Age) |
This formula will equip you with your BMR, and once you have that number
you can use it in conjunction with the fomula below to determine how many
calories in total your body burns per day with the addition of physical activity.
| Sedentary (Little to no physicaly activity): | BMR x 1.1 |
| Light Activity: | BMR x 1.2 |
| Moderate Activity: | BMR x 1.3 |
| A lot of Activity: | BMR x 1.45 |
| Intense Activity: | BMR x 1.65 |
Now that we know roughly how many calories we burn per day given our physical attributes, we then have a base from which to work from to help us determine how many calories our diet program should consist of. Generally when you start out on a new diet program, you try to aim to consume less than 300 calories from our total daily caloric expenditure. Let's say your BMR + Acitivity came out to be 2,300 calories. Then your diet program should amount to approximately 2,000 calories per day. You would follow a 2,000 calorie diet per day for roughly 4 to 6 weeks and see if you achieve any fat loss. If the fat loss is non-existant or you want to lose more fat quicker, you have to widden the caloric deficiency. You can do this through two ways, either exercise more to burn more calories, or consume less calories! It's as simple as that.
There are four different macronutrients: protein, carbohydrates, fat, and alcohol. Protein and carbohydrates both contain 4 calories per 1 gram, fat contains 9 calories per 1 gram, and alcohol contains 7 calories per 1 gram. So you have your daily caloric consumption, which is made up of a portion of all four of the macronutrients (excluding alcohol if you don't drink). Each macronutrient has their own purpose, and it's important to know how much and when to consume each macronutrient.
Carbohydrates have been giving a very bad reputation throughout the last few years with the emergence of the low carb and no carb diets, like Atkins. But the truth is that carbohydrates play a very necessary role in the body, which is providing it with energy (your brain included). There are different types of carbohydrates though, which is rated on the glycemic index. Carbohydrates that fall on the lower end of the GI are considered to be good carbohydrates (complex carbs), while those that fall on the higher end of the scale are the bad types of carbohydrates (simple carbs). It should be your effort to consume more of complex carbs and eliminate the simple carbs.
The amount of carbohydrates you consume is pretty important. Your daily caloric consumption should usually consist of no less than 45% carbs, and on the upwards to 65% if you're a very active person. Knowing when to consume carbs is just as important as how much you should consume. Since carbohydrates are fuel for physical activity, it only makes sense to consume them an hour or two prior to inevitable physical activity. It's also good to consume complex carbs in the morning, which will give you sustained energy through the various tasks through the middle of your day. You should also avoid consuming any type of carbs before bed, since they won't be used for energy (you will be sleeping).
Protein as most people know is what helps repair and build muscle. Protein also has other uses so it shouldn't be neglected if you don't want to build muscle. You should consume anywhere from 20% to 35% protein. You consume protein usually after exercising, and a sustained amount throughout the day, particularly more at night.
There are also two primarily different types of fat. Saturated and unsaturated. You should try to cut back your consumption of saturated fat, while being conservative on the amount of unsaturated fat you conserve. You should never try to eliminate fat from your diet though, the good type of fat (unsaturated) has a lot of important roles in proper brain function. You should aim to consume 10% to 15% of fat per day.
The amount of meals you consume is also very important. The typical three meals per day is not enough, you need to consume at least 5 smaller portioned meals per day, which will help raise your metabolism to a more natural level, thus resulting in a higher BMR (it takes more calories to fuel the digestive processes 5 times a day opposed to 3). Many studies have been conducted where people have aten only a few bites every hour throughout the day (many small meals), and they were able to lose a lot more weight opposed to people who ate the same amount of food over only 2 or 3 meals.
And those really are the bare essentials that you need to follow to operate on a successful diet program for fat loss.
Exercising for Fat Loss
When it comes to exercising and losing fat, your primary focus will be on cardiovascular training and your secondary focus will be on resistance training. If you do the math in your head, it is indeed possible to achieve fat loss by solely manipulating your diet. But by exercising (burning calories), you give yourself the ability to consume calories (and not be so hungry) because the more calories you burn, the more of a caloric deficiency you create, and that caloric deficiency is accounted for by your body taking it from its fat stores, hence creating fat loss.
Cardiovascular
training is very simple. "Cardio" means heart, and the training
signifies a structered activity which is designed to increase the heart rate
for a given period of time. The heart is like any other muscle in the body,
if it is worked and exercised, it will adapt by becoming stronger. So cardiovascular
training also has a great benefit to your heart and your general health, aside
from also helping you lose fat.
So now that we're equipped with the information of what exactly cardiovascular training is, can you think of any activity which might be considered a cardiovascular exercise, even indirectly? There are literally thousands of activities that aren't considered to be exercises which achieve the same thing (elevated heart rate). Let's think of a few; biking, rock climbing, various sports like tennis, basketball, football, sex even! More conventional cardiovascular exercises are speed-walking, jogging, sprinting, biking, etc... which can be performed on exercise bikes, treadmills, elliptical trainers, and you get the idea.
So if you perform cardiovascular exercising three or more times a week, at approximately 20 to 40 minutes per session, you will be doing enough to ensure you're burning an adequate amount of calories.
Resistance training is not only for the bodybuilders, i recommend to all clients who want to achieve fat loss to integrate some form of resistance training within their exercise program. Usually i recommend a resistance training routine to be performed 2 to 3 times per week, which focuses on high reps and full body. So if you have access to a gym, focus on one exercise per bodypart and hit them all at high reps for 1 to 2 sets a piece. This will help you build some muscle, which burns fat by raising your BMR. This is because more muscle requires more energy to operate and sustain, and more energy means more calories burned.
Consistency
The above two sections are all it really takes for fat loss. You just need to keep consistent and not give up. Inconsistency is the number one reason people give up, they aren't patient enough therefore they just quit. No body successful every got where they are by being lazy and giving up. It's all mental, you either want it or you don't. Living a fitness lifestyle is one of the greatest things you can do for yourself. You will feel better all around, and you keep yourself healthy so you can stick around for your loved ones longer.
If you're interested in learning more about how to lose fat, and all other aspects of fitness, we can help you! At FitPractical we teach our members not only the very specifics of what it takes to achieve fat loss, but also how to build muscle, how to eat, and how to exercise. Please click the link below and browse around on our site for more information.
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