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This is something very important to keep in mind when thinking of losing pounds, it will make the ultimate difference at the end of the day and that’s a promise. Losing pounds in an effective, sustainable and healthy way is to decide to lose fat, not just lose weight, but lose fat. There is a big difference between the two. Losing weight is when you dive head first into a quick weight loss diet designed to shed pounds quickly at the expense of your health. You may be surprised, but its true. Some diets are very bad and even dangerous for your body and overall health. Losing fat on the other hand, using a controlled eating and exercise program designed by a professional will increase your muscle, decrease your body fat and positively affect your health. When you embark on a fat loss program of eating right, doing some effective weight training and a bit of cardio, you will see better overall results than if you simply try shed pounds with an aggressive weight loss diet. If you use a fat loss program, you can expect to weight loss, but more importantly improved fitness and health. Compare yourself to a person who had the same body type and metabolic rate and that had similar weight loss goals. Now imagine you both started at the same time on a weight loss program. You on a fat loss program designed by a professional that had a healthy eating plan at the correct intervals coupled with an exercise routine. Your comparison would use a diet aimed at maximum weight loss. After a few months you would see very different results. Your comparison would have lost more weight than you, but you would have attained a higher level of health, you would have built lean muscle and you would be in great shape and be toned and look good. The difference….fat loss. Concentrating on weight loss instead of fat loss is a big mistake and a big reason why people fail so miserably. Concentrate on eating right, working out, and losing fat instead of your weight. Soon you’ll see and feel the results and no one will care about the number you see on the scale. I have reviewed the top fat loss programs available and come up with some revealing results, click to see these and a review of each fat loss product
Everyday people are thinking of how they can lose the extra few pounds they have put on recently, or how they can change their lives by getting the body they had 15 years ago. The problem seems to be that everywhere you look, there is someone telling you something different on how to achieve those goals. Although increased exercise is a great way to help you start on the way to changing your body, nutrition is a more important aspect and that is what this article will be focused around.Protein is what your meals should be based around. Protein plays the main role in building and maintaining your body’s lean mass. Another great thing about protein is that it makes you feel full. It’s always a good idea to work out what you’re going to eat rather than just going and eating what you can find. The best sources of protein come in the form of eggs, protein shakes, chicken breast, turkey, etc.Fruits and vegetables are imperative in any fat loss diet. One reason why fruit and vegetables are so good is that they are moderately low in calories thus you can eat plenty more of them as opposed to eating processed foods that are full of calories. Fruits and vegetables play a huge part in the often heard quote, “You must eat more to lose more”. When people hear the word “fat” they generally run for the high hills, however, it is not a good idea to cut all fat out of your diet when you start a weight loss plan. In fact, some foods which are very good for you including fish have large amounts of fat in them. These types of foods have healthy fats and are great for any weight loss plan. Another aspect which can help you on your way to success is to have more meals. Many people when embarking upon a weight loss plan will only eat 2-3 times a day and will get so hungry in between that they will end up snacking when they shouldn’t. A way to counter this is to have smaller portioned meals 5-6 times a day, that way you’re eating every couple of hours and its easier to fight the cravings and temptations that snacking brings. Once you have mastered the nutrition aspect of your diet, you can also increase your exercise levels. You can train aerobically in the form of running, walking, jogging, cycling or many other ways. A good way of doing this is to incorporate your training into your everyday lifestyle. For example, instead of driving to the shops, walk. Riding your bike to work is another good example. Hopefully these hints have given you some direction in which way to go. You’ve made the first step by deciding to lose weight, now put your plan into action! To your fat loss success! One thing I have noticed is that despite their huge desire to lose weight many people seem to find themselves in a cycle of perpetual dieting where they are always on a fat loss diet. If it seems like you have been dieting on and off for the past few months (or years) then read on as I share a story about a friend of mine – this could be the one weight loss ‘trick’ that you need. What is stopping your from reaching your fat loss goals? Maybe you are on track. If so then you can skip this article and go read something else…however if your body isn’t where you want it to be then keep reading. As the head personal trainer for the best boot camp in Milwaukee who has helped hundreds of people lose thousands of pounds of fat, I know a thing or two about exercise selection and I am going to share some great exercises that you can incorporate into your workouts today to breakthrough any training plateau. They are the exact exercises that I have used to help my hundreds of people lose thousands of pounds of fat. High carbs, low carbs, moderate carbs – depending on who you talk to, you will likely hear one of these recommendations being touted as the optimal approach to maximum fat loss. So what’s the truth? The truth of the matter is that there is really no one best way. Each of the above methods has been used by countless people – from bodybuilding and fitness competitors all the way to your every day gym rat – and used successfully at that. In actuality, how many carbs you are eating is not the key determinant of your fat loss progress; calories are. More on that later though. The key to successful fat loss is paying attention to your body, following a plan designed for your body and making the necessary adjustments to your program as your body changes. With that said, a nutritional strategy that includes both carbohydrate and calorie cycling in a structured plan built around your training program could be just what you’re looking for. Let’s take a closer look at this carbohydrate issue first. Truth be told, there are benefits to having a fair amount of carbs in your diet and there are benefits to keeping them low. So why not use both strategies? Said in a simpler way, why not cycle your carb intake, and subsequently your caloric intake? By cycling your carb intake you get the best of both worlds. Assuming you keep your protein and fat intakes relatively constant, and only manipulate your carb intake, you are automatically cycling calories as well. The first benefit to doing so is that it keeps your body from adapting to what you are doing. Your body will always try to adapt to what you’re doing and the further you move away from your natural set point, the harder your body is going to try to pull you right back. This is just in part related to the regulatory hormone, leptin. Leptin levels are related to things like insulin, your caloric intake and your current level of body fat. Think of it as one of the big “fat-loss decision makers”. The leaner you are the lower your circulating levels of leptin are going to be. On the flip side, under normal conditions, leptin is plentiful. However, while on sub-maintenance calories, and particularly on low-carb diets where circulating insulin levels are low, leptin levels drop and they can drop quickly. Decreased leptin levels cause a cascade of other regulatory changes, namely a decrease in thyroid output and metabolic rate, as well as an increase in catabolic hormone activity and appetite. In an attempt to become more efficient, your body will try to adapt to make your newly lowered caloric intake its new maintenance intake; that is, it will make the necessary changes needed to do the same amount of work on less energy. Unfortunately, this usually means having to continuously lower calories to maintain fat-loss progress, which inevitably makes it very hard to hold onto all your hard-earned muscle. None of this sounds too good does it? There has to be a better way, and there is. Planned and structured days of high calories and high carbohydrates may help with this. As previously mentioned, there are benefits to both low-carb intakes and to high-carb intakes. When carb intake is drastically reduced you create a temporarily greater caloric deficit. In addition, low-carb intakes result in decreased levels of circulating insulin, increased levels of the fat-burning catecholamines and therefore a much heightened rate of fat oxidation. Quite simply, when insulin levels are low, you create an environment in which fat is more likely to be used for energy. Low muscle glycogen, as a result of decreased carbohydrate intake, obviously results in depleted muscles, but there are benefits to this as well. Low muscle glycogen tends to promote a higher rate of free fatty acid burning. Result? More fat loss. On the flip side however, most people do not enjoy eating few carbs for very long. While there are clearly benefits to doing so, there are other things that need to be considered. Chronic low-carb intake can actually impair insulin sensitivity and promote insulin resistance. As already noted, low-carb intakes result in overly flat, depleted muscles and gym performance typically suffers. Throw in a day of high carbs and your muscles fill out, you find yourself more vascular, your workouts are great, and you look and feel much better. There is also research to support the fact that these higher-carb/calorie days may stimulate leptin production, which as we already noted is an important player in the fat-loss game. Carbohydrates are also very protein sparing – meaning they prevent protein from being oxidized as fuel – which is an important consideration when muscle retention is a primary focus. There are psychological factors to consider as well. How you feel on a diet is arguably just as important to your progress as any other variable. There are not too many people that enjoy looking flat and depleted all the time. And lets not forget one of the reasons most people can appreciate – carbohydrates simply taste good. So to summarize, we want some days where carbohydrate intake and calories are higher and some days where carbohydrate intake and calories are lower. The simplest way to set this is to just cycle your carbohydrates and calories according to your weekly training schedule. For example, assuming four workouts per week, you might have your high days on your two big workouts, medium days on your two easier workouts, and low days on your off days. PRACTICAL STEPS There is no one best way to cycle carbs or calories. In fact, there are many, many different permutations that can be used successfully. Here is just one example that you could use as a template. Feel free to tweak it to suit your needs if necessary. First off is caloric intake. Determine all the macronutrient totals (protein, carbs, fat, and calories) for the medium day and then just let the carbohydrate intake change the calories for the high and low days. So, assume the medium day is a standard dieting day. As an aside, but a valuable note to keep in mind, there are many different calorie equations you can use – however be aware that they all have the potential to be off by as much as 20%. So for the sake of simplicity you could just assume maintenance to be approximately 15x total bodyweight and subtract 20-25% to create a healthy caloric deficit. Remember, if you are not progressing based on your caloric intake, simply adjust it up or down until progress resumes. Next up is protein. I am sure we are all in agreement that we need to eat sufficient amounts of protein when trying to lose fat and maintain muscle, so set it anywhere from 1.0-1.5g/lb of bodyweight and split it up evenly throughout the day. You are going to have three carbohydrate intakes – one for high days, one for medium days, and one for low days. Carbohydrate intake for the medium days is going to be set at 1.0g/lb of bodyweight. So now we know our calories, our protein and our carbs. All that remains is to figure out how much fat we’re to eat. In this case, fat simply serves as a caloric ballast. Simply make up the rest of your calories from fat. Your protein and fat intake from these days will stay constant throughout all three days. Carb intake for your high days should be set at 2.0g/lb of bodyweight and finally for your low days it is going to be minimal as you’re only eating fibrous vegetables; no starch type carbs at all. Remember the truth of the matter is that there is no one best method for fat loss. Carbohydrate and calorie cycling is just one logical and effective way of approaching it. Many who opt for this kind of approach find it very easy to follow as you get a few days a week where you get to eat some fun carbs, and like I said, who doesn’t like eating carbs? Body building is a hobby that promotes a wide range of goals, and vascularity for many weight lifters ranks very high on the priority list, as those who have a prominent appearance of veins in the arms convey a message of strength and power. With this in mind, body builders attempt to unlock the key to producing a vascular appearance, wondering whether veins are a function of building significant muscle mass, or if there is a certain diet structure that must be followed for veins to become visible. Although many weight lifters aim for maximum muscle gain in an effort to enhance vascularity, this is only one of two factors in producing such a goal.A far more important factor in enhancing vein prominence is body fat percentage, which is a function of proper diet techniques. When a body builder is gaining muscle mass, often times body fat increases, and although muscles are growing at a constant pace, definition declines, and vein appearance does not improve (and often worsens), which prompts certain body builders to seek a solution (such as bogus supplements promising to enhance vein appearance), yet when fat loss is focused upon, vascularity will naturally improve. Often when pursing muscle gain, body builders consume more food than is necessary, or improperly construct their macronutrient profile, which leads to quicker and more substantial body fat gain than is necessary, and this adversely impacts both definition and vascularity. As you’ll notice, I group definition and vein appearance together, as the less body fat is present between muscle tissue and the skin, the larger and more impressive muscles will appear (definition), which will consequently allow veins to display far more prominently (since they are no longer obstructed with excess body fat).Sometimes body builders will reduce carbohydrates drastically in an effort to burn fat, but because muscle is lost using such a radical approach, vascularity does not improve to anywhere near the extent that is possible when following a proper carbohydrate, protein and fat ratio, as muscle is also part of the equation in producing both definition and vein prominence. Larger muscles require a greater amount of nutrients, which increases blood flow, and enhances vascularity, but only when body fat levels are sufficiently low (the most vital concept), which is why building muscle mass alone is not sufficient. Body builders who pursue muscle building periods alone without a properly structured body fat controlling diet plan will find that vascularity declines, as does overall muscle definition, and this works against the body building goal of having a balance of sufficient muscle mass with low body fat for ideal aesthetics.One additional factor controlling vascularity is genetics, as all body builders do not have the potential to display the same amount of vascularity, yet in most cases, genetic factors are not preventing vein appearance, but rather simply require a body builder to become more diligent in finding an effective fat loss diet plan to improve definition and bring vascularity to maximum levels. Aerobic activity is also helpful in increasing the rate of fat loss, but no amount of cardiovascular effort will bring about enhanced vascularity without a potent fat reduction diet routine, so although body builders frequently will either procrastinate regarding fat loss or never pursue a properly structured fat reduction eating strategy specifically because they fear this will lead to muscle loss, this stubborn thought process is detrimental, as low body fat, when compared with muscle gain, is equally important in developing a body building caliber physique, and if vascularity is a concern, the only method of bringing veins to the skin’s surface is to begin eating and weight training in such a way that not only is conducive towards significant muscle gain, but also brings body fat to the lowest level that genetics will allow. You’ll find that once diet is designed correctly, focusing on body fat reduction using a properly structured fat loss eating routine will allow vascularity to reach new heights, while greatly enhancing overall muscle definition, and this is when body building begins to become a truly rewarding experience! Just make sure to avoid the dreaded low carb diet philosophy, as the muscle loss and metabolism slowdown that accompanies such an eating plan will risk significant muscle loss, and in the long run makes achieving low body fat, and a high level of vascularity, quite difficult. |
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