Have you ever found yourself in a rut when it comes to weight loss? Have you tried different diets, only to regain more weight than you lost in the first place? It's a common problem in the overweight and obese populations (anyone with more than 32% body fat are considered obese by current standards.) However, despite the focus on body fat percentage in determining a healthy weight, it's also important to note that weight loss does not always mean fat loss. The average person should maintain 25-31% body fat for women, or 18-25% body fat for men. If you lose more than this, you could actually be losing lean body mass such as bone, muscle, organ tissue, and blood.
The key to effective weight loss is to understand how your body uses the fuel that you provide it. Eating right is important, as is drinking lots of water and other fluids. Muscle burns up a lot of calories, so it reasons that the more muscle you have, the better. However, that's not to say that you need to be a muscle-bound body builder! What it means is that you need to develop a more toned, muscular body, one that burns calories for you even while you are sleeping. Having more muscle tone will help to improve your overall self worth. You will begin to focus more on weight or strength training instead of the foods you eat, making the weight loss experience a much more successful one. It can give you a new outlook on life, decreasing the depression and anxiety that can lead to emotional eating and other behaviors that can have a negative impact on your weight loss and fitness goals.
To get started on building a new you, you'll need to increase your metabolism. There are quite a few ways to do this, but the best way is through strength training for fat loss. The most efficient way to raise your metabolism is to increase and maintain muscle, which can most effectively be accomplished through properly-performed resistance training. The more active your muscles are and the more you experience muscle failure (the breaking down of muscle) during strength training, the more energy your body needs for metabolism and repair. And most of that low-intensity energy is obtained from fat stores in the body.
Many people get discouraged after a few weeks of exercise because they see a weight gain instead of a loss. But let's do some math here: If you gain ten pounds of muscle, that muscle allows you to burn an extra 600 calories a day, or 4200 calories per week. It takes approximately 3500 calories to burn off a pound of fat. So, even though you've gained some initial muscle weight, this gain will actually help you lose weight more efficiently in the long run. If these disappointed people would persevere through that upward nudge of the scale, they would see a much quicker and more constant weight loss.
Weight loss should always include considerations of your health. Your health is what will keep you moving into your old age, and though we all show signs of aging eventually, our bodies will age more quickly if we haven't used our bodies to their fullest advantage early in life.
Author Resource:-
I have been struggling with weight loss my whole life. Been to Weight Watcher and all the other programs. But it never worked long term. Then I starting working out and found ways to lose fat quickly, and permanently and feel much better!
For more information:
www.fatlossfreak.com
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