I’ll be adding to this over the next few days/week, or just however long it takes me, so please excuse me for awhile if it isn’t terribly cohesive as of yet.
Tips to help you lose fat(not weight!)
A little explanation. Losing weight is NOT the same as losing fat. When you drop a couple pounds do you immediately get excited? If the pounds that you dropped were fat pounds, then yes, great! If they were muscle pounds then that’s not so great. You can’t just look at the scale and have that be the deciding factor on whether your weight loss procedures were effective or not. You have to look at your body fat percentage(BF%) for that. Here’s a chart that shows where your BF% puts you.
People who are in really good shape can get slightly into the “Underfat” range without too much worry but as always, consult your doctor if you think your BF% is too low.
1. Eat a healthy breakfast! – I know a lot of people who think that if they eat far less calories than they should, they will lose fat and the easiest meal to skip is breakfast. In general, you think this would work but alas, your body is smarter than you are. If you are working out(you should be), your body needs a lot of fuel to help you build muscle and repair all the damage you do to it when you exercise plus what it needs to get it through the day. When you wake up, your body hasn’t had any food since supper (dinner if you call it that), and is starving for energy. Your glucose levels are down and if you don’t give it something to metabolize, it’ll start eating your muscles, and a little bit of fat, for energy. Eating breakfast jump-starts your metabolism, enhances your mood and helps to keep you from eating high-fat and sugar laden foods, among many other things. There are tons of studies on this, if you think skipping breakfast helps you lose weight, sorry, you’re wrong. As the picture shows, I’m a huge fan of oatmeal with blueberries and strawberries in the morning. Oatmeal is a complex carbohydrate and it takes a lot of work for the body to break it down plus the sugar from the fruit is digested easily and gives the body the juice it needs to get started. It’s a staple of many bodybuilders, and for good reason. Don’t eat a huge breakfast though, that’s just counter productive. You can have too much of a good thing.
If you are gluten intolerant or have Celiac disease, you can eat oatmeal! Just make sure to get a brand labeled as gluten-free. Oatmeal by itself is naturally gluten-free but it is usually processed in the same facility as wheat and durum and it can get contaminated.
Tip: Have IBS and the doctors can’t give a reason why? Have them check for Celiac disease, they will do some blood tests and maybe an intestinal biopsy. It’s starting to get more attention now but the average time to diagnosis is around 7 years.
Washington Times – Why breakfast is important, especially for women.
2. Exercise
regularly – There are two things that are imperative to any good fat loss program. They are, as Tony says, “Don’t eat garbage” and exercise regularly. If you do one or the other, that’s good, but doing both creates a synergistic effect that will help you get into the best shape of your life. Beachbody makes great workout videos that have helped millions of people get as fit as they have ever been, even if they are older men or women. There’s P90X, Insanity, Ten Minute Trainer, Turbofire, Slim in 6 and Body Gospel among many others. If you are getting up there in age and think your best years are behind you, think again. You can get in great shape, no matter your age, you just gotta keep pushing play and give it your best effort every time. No more, no less.
3. Try to eat 5-6 smaller meals a day. – When you eat more healthy meals more frequently your metabolism will stay revved up in high gear because there is always something there for your body to be digesting. This includes your three main meals; breakfast, lunch and dinner and try to throw in a brunch and a small meal before dinner. They don’t have to be anything fancy, even small things like yogurt, fruits and veggies, and nuts will do the trick. Try not to eat the same portions that you are used to at lunch and dinner either, you might just end up really overeating. Also, drink a lot of water. Thirst pains can be interpreted as hunger pains.
4. White or Wheat? – Bread is made from wheat as we all know. There are many different types of wheat, such as hard red spring, hard red winter, soft red winter, durum(pasta), and others. In every type of wheat there are three parts; the bran(outside parts), germ(innermost part) and the endosperm(the starch in-between). White bread is made only by using the endosperm, while whole wheat bread uses all three parts. White bread is enriched (vitamins and minerals added to replace what was lost), but I would rather have my vitamins come from whole food sources and not from whatever they use to get those minerals back.