Fat Loss for Good
In the majority of my columns for this magazine, I have focused on fitness tips that have hopefully inspired and motivated you towards a healthier lifestyle, which now includes regular exercise.
I have touched on diet briefly, but haven’t really stressed the importance that healthy eating habits will play in your overall success. Diet + exercise = weight loss. If your goal is to lose your saddlebags, flatten your belly and become leaner by melting away the fat forever, you must include both parts of this equation. Diet, alone, will not do it, nor will exercise without diet. They go hand in hand.
Every human being is capable of phenomenal success. What people can do, however, is often very different from what they will do. Ninety-five percent of everything you accomplish, or fail to accomplish, is determined by habits, either good or bad. Successful people have good habits that guide and direct them to even greater success. Unsuccessful people have bad habits that trip them up throughout their lives.
Change some of your habits by imagining an exciting, healthier future. Demanding more from yourself than anybody else could possibly expect is the essence of true power.
Here are 10 simple habits that could make all the difference if your goal is fat loss for good:
Drink more water: One gallon of ice cold water burns 123 calories and is key to losing weight.
Cut the Carbs: Decreasing your intake of processed sugars keeps your body’s insulin levels low, resulting in less fat storage.
No Diet Drinks: Drinking diet soda is not as great as you think. Consuming artificial sweeteners on a regular basis makes people acquire a taste for sweeter foods.
Eat More Protein: It builds muscle and increases your metabolism.
Eat small, frequent meals: It may seem like you’re eating more, but it keeps your metabolism burning steady. Fuel the fire!
Portion size: One portion equals the size of your fist.
Don’t skip breakfast: Skipping breakfast reduces the number of calories burned by 500-700 per day. Eating breakfast increases your metabolic rate by 25 percent.
Easy on the salt: The body needs 500mg/day, but the average diet contains 4000 to 6000mg/day. Reducing salt intake can help you shed water weight.
Strength Train: Maintaining body functions accounts for 60-76 percent of your daily caloric expenditure. Muscle is 17-25 times more metabolically active than fat.
It’s about Intensity: Thirty minutes of high-intensity exercise burns 500 calories – 100 of those calories from fat (20 percent). Thirty minutes of low-intensity exercise burns 100 calories – 60 of those from fat (60 percent). Even though low-intensity exercise burns a higher percentage of calories from fat, the bottom line is that you will burn more calories and more fat when working out at a high-intensity.
Don’t worry about following all of these tips. Start by choosing a couple that seem to be appropriate for your situation. As you adjust to those, add a few more.
My clients who see the most results have mastered the weight-loss equation. I let them know immediately that exercising three or four hours per week is not going to cut it if they want to lose fat. Believe me, it’s what they do during the other 164 hours each week that really matters. They hear it, say it, believe it, and receive it. You can too.
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