The Three Simple Steps To Fat Loss

By: Gary Matthews

Its unbelievable but being overweight has now moved from a
social nuisance and domestic embarrassment to an official
disease. The American Heart Association has announced obesity a
dangerous epidemic and a major risk for heart disease. More than
70% of US adults are overweight and that figure is rapidly
increasing.

But by following three simple steps in your everyday life you do
not have to become one of the above statistics. They are easy to
follow without time constraints and don't require a complete
lifestyle change. These three steps are:

1. Strength Training - Nowadays you do not have to live in a gym
to put on functional muscle. Short High Intensity sessions
performed once a week is all that is required to elevate the
metabolism for total fat burning.

2. A Small Decrease in Daily Calories - Diets don't work
(everybody knows this by now) but by decreasing your daily
calories by a small amount, the weight loss is body fat alone
and not lean tissue and water that is associated with crash
diets. Remember fat accumulates on the body over a long period
of time so it must come off slowly.

3. More Incidental Activity - Instead of driving try walking,
walk instead of taking elevators or escalators; take the stairs
and so on. Just keep moving through out the day.

Lets have a look at the Three Steps in more detail below:

Strength Training

Between the ages of 20 and 70 the average person loses one
quarter of their muscle mass. Running, cycling or other aerobic
sports will not prevent this loss. This is very disturbing
because the muscles are the engines of the body and every pound
of muscle burns 100 calories every day.

By adding just 10 pounds of functional muscle to your body, you
will burn off 60 pounds of fat over the next year. Providing you
take in the same amount of calories, it will keep burning those
extra pounds year after year! The amount of fat the body can
burn is directly related to the lean muscle your body has.

If you don't perform weight training to maintain your muscle
tissue, you will lose half a pound of the fat burning tissue per
year after the age of 20 years. In simpler terms the more
functional muscle you have on your body the more fat you will
burn up.

Small Decrease in Daily Calories

For years now, we have been told to use dieting to rid the
excess fat from our bodies.

The trouble with this concept is that the low calorie restricted
diet would throw the body into starvation mode, with the body
holding onto the fat and using precious muscle tissue for
energy.

This would then lower the metabolism causing greater muscle loss
and when the diet is broken the unwanted fat would not only
return but actually increase because to the lowered metabolism.

The way around this is to cut your daily calorie intake by a
small amount of calories only. This will stop any starvation
mechanisms from clicking in.

You can do this by making up a seven day eating plan and writing
down every thing you eat for the week, and then work out the
calories you have eaten with a calorie counter. Divide this
figure by seven and you have your daily calorie value.

Decrease daily calorie value by a couple of hundred calories per
day and no more. This will generate slow weight loss and the
majority will be fat loss only. The daily calories should be
consumed during the day with small frequent meals.

The calories should come from a balanced diet (no fad diets
please) with the required amount of micronutrients, vitamins and
minerals. As well as containing the required amounts of fibre,
fat, protein and carbohydrates.

More Incidental Activity

Fat is burned from the body when cells oxidize to release energy
in the form of exercise. When the exercise is done slowly to
moderately then the majority of energy is taken from the fat
stores.

The key to effective aerobic training that burns off maximum fat
is long-term consistency not intensity. It doesn't matter if you
run a mile, jog a mile or walk a mile you will burn exactly the
same amount of calories.

The best exercise by far for the purpose of fat-loss is fast
walking either indoors on the treadmill or outdoors. Other
aerobic activities are the treadmill, bike, climber or any other
training gear found in or out of the Gym.

Start with 100 minutes of controlled incidental activity per
week increasing this to 200 minutes a week or more. In all other
activities try to move, move, move.

Try parking the car further away from your destination so you
can walk the extra distance, hide all your remote controls so
you have to get up and change the channels manually. These all
help burn those extra calories and body fat from your frame.

So go ahead, by incorporating these three simple fat loss steps
into your everyday life you will not have to change your
lifestyle or be subject to time constraints.

Gary Matthews is the author of the popular fitness eBooks
Maximum Weight Loss and Maximum Weight Gain. Please visit
http://www.maximumfitness.com right now for your 'free' weight
loss e-course.



About the author:
Gary Matthews is the author of the popular fitness eBooks
Maximum Weight Loss and Maximum Weight Gain. Please visit
http://www.maximumfitness.com right now for your 'free' weight
loss e-course.

http://rjgresearch.com/weight/