No need to starve yourself to lose weight. In fact, you will have more difficulty losing weight and keeping it off by not eating. The reason is that your body will go into survival mode and actually store fat if there is a lack of food. As well, your body will start turning muscle protein into the energy it needs to feed your brain, nervous system and red blood cells. The best way to lose weight is to tone your body and build muscle. According to Nancy Bennett, M.S., R.D., "Muscle tissue burns 70% of the fat in your body; so losing muscle sacrifices your ability to burn body fat."
If you go on a crash diet and starve yourself, you will feel fatigued and you will not have the energy to build muscle. Again, a lack of eating will lead to less muscle and more stored body fat. Nancy Bennet goes on to say," Aerobic exercise rebuilds your muscle and teaches it to burn more fat. Eating right gives you the nutrients you need to make that muscle." Essentially you need to eat to lose weight.
Depending on your goals and current level of fitness, there is a general rule of thumb for the amount of nutritional energy your body requires. If you want to maintain your current weight, simply multiply your weight by 15 and this will give you the number of calories needed. If you want to lose weight, multiply your weight by 10, so if you weigh 130 pounds your minimal energy requirement is 1300 calories. Then you need to factor in your minimum energy requirements for activity. If you are an active person you, someone who exercises 3 hours or more per week, you need to multiply your energy requirement by 1.5. If you are less active, someone who exercises 1 to 3 hours per week, you need to multiply your minimum energy requirement by 1.2. This will give you the amount needed to sustain your level of activity without losing muscle.
Now, it's important to realize that if you want to burn fat you currently have, you don't want to eat more of it. The fat in your diet is either burned by your muscle or it is stored in your fact cells. So you want to eat less fat and burn the fat in your body. To eat less fat, multiply your energy requirement by 0.3 and divide by nine. This will give you your maximum fat intake.
To lose weight effectively, it is suggested that you eat 6 small meals throughout the day, and get at least 20 minutes of exercise. Make healthier choices when eating - but do eat! The secret is feeding the muscles and building muscle tone to burn the fat.
Weekly, or even daily weigh-ins can be a great way to gauge how your weight loss efforts are paying off, but how many times have you been sent on an emotional roller coaster because of your scale? Feelings of desperation, disappointment, frustration and even elation can send all of your best weight loss efforts into a tail spin.
Is it possible to lose the scale and still lose weight? Yes! In fact, your scale may be a huge culprit in why you are having such a hard time losing weight. Think about it, when you do really well with diet and exercise and don't meet you weekly weight loss goals, how do you feel? Are you wanting to throw in the towel and drown your best efforts in a pint of ice cream or your mothers best cheesecake recipe? When you lose weight, do you find that you want to be more relaxed with your eating and reward yourself with food?
There are ways to measure your weight loss progress without the scale, such as how your clothes fit, how much better you are able to complete new and challenging exercises and by monitoring your food intake and exercise habits. Go try on a pair of jeans that used to barely fit before you started your diet. How do they fit? Can you sit down in them comfortably? Try on a button up shirt that used to gap open. How is it fitting now? Consider taking a picture of yourself in these clothing items and making notations in your journal about the fit. You will see that over time, these clothes will fit better and better and eventually become too big.
If you need to see your progress in numbers then try taking measurements of your body. When you begin to lose weight always take a few minutes to measure your body. Measure every part of your body and make notations of where you put the measuring tape. Measure your wrists, waist, hips, bust, each arm, thighs, etc. Each month pull out your measuring tape for another round of measuring. This will boost your confidence and keep you motivated to continue ones you see the inches literally melting away.
Progress can be subtle, but if you pay attention and keep a journal, over time you will see how good you actually feel. You energy levels will increase so that you can do more stuff during the day and this will in turn improve your mood. Eating a diet that is healthful will satisfy you, fill you up and give you more energy. Is your diet doing that for you? As you keep up with your exercise you will build muscle and improve your overall fitness level so that you can finish tasks that once seemed impossible.
Both Chester Ku-lea & Sarah Elena Elliott are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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