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[D281]Diet For Fat Loss And

by Usman Pasha Siddiqui, Usm

If you are even a little into fitness you will have heard about HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) for fat loss. In simple words, this means doing very demanding movements for short intervals followed by a resting period. You may have heard that it is the best way to lose fat and preserve and gain muscle mass. But is it really the case? Let's analyze.

Before I go any further, let me just talk about the traditional fat loss method...YES...that's the one. Getting on the treadmill and jog for 30 - 45 minutes at a constant speed while keeping in your fat burning zone which is about 65 to 75% of your maximum heart rate. So if you are 30 years old, you should stay in between 123.5 to 142.5 beats per minute (220 - 30 = 190 | 0.65 x 190 = 123.5 | 0.75 x 190 = 142.5). It takes about 60 - 80% of the energy from the fats. Anyone who hears this would be completely convinced that this is the best way to lose fat. But this is not really true. I agree that this will help you lose fat but I question the part about it being the best. Let's take a look at some of the drawbacks of this type of training.

First of all, if you ask me, it is extremely boring. Anyone would be bored doing the same thing without any variation for a long time, but maybe that's just me. If we look at the more scientific side, this kind of cardio training will raise you metabolism (or use of energy) during the workout and an hour after the workout, after that you will get back to the normal metabolic rate. So you don't burn a lot of calories at rest. Then there's this problem of hitting the weight loss plateau. This means that you stop losing fat because your body gets used to your workouts and diet. Another huge problem is that when you workout for over 35 - 40 minutes you increase the release of a hormone called cortisol, which is a regulator of all the human body functions, but one of its not-so-good features is that breaks down the protein for energy (i.e. muscle loss).

Let me also point out that muscle is heavier than fat so the scale will show that you have lost a few pounds but losing muscle mass is no good. The final and most important goes back to the first point where I mentioned that this cardio burns more fats and fewer carbohydrates. But if we look at our diet, we take a lot more carbs during our day compared to the amount of fats and if we don't use up those carbs, they eventually convert into fats. So whatever benefit you get, will not be the best result.

Now that we know quite a bit about the traditional cardio method, let's look into the HIIT method of cardio. As mentioned earlier, it involves short burst of highly intense movements followed by recovery periods. So as an example, a very popular HIIT workout is to jog for 2 minutes and sprinting for 10 seconds and repeating this from 5 - 10 times depending on your fitness level. Research shows that this kind of training elevates your metabolic rate for a number of hours (ranging up to 48 hours after a workout). This is due to the EPOC effect. EPOC stands for Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption, which basically means that you use up more oxygen at rest after a workout session compared to the amount of oxygen used pre-workout.

EPOC is accompanied with a higher metabolism, which is exactly what you want to lose fat. I would like to make it clear that long traditional cardio also gives the EPOC effect but for a very short period of time. Research shows that anaerobic (weight lifting, sprinting etc) workouts keep you metabolism higher for a lot longer than traditional aerobic workout (jogging, walking, , cycling etc.). At the end of the day, you burn a lot more calories, which include both carbs and fats.

Another effect of HIIT form of training is the release of testosterone and growth hormone which help build muscle but at the same time, a number of research shows that they help lose body fat and preserve muscle. Because HIIT is done for no more than 20 minutes, the release of cortisol can be avoided. Other benefits can include that HIIT helps you give a better tone to the entire body, it is not boring as you keep changing and planning every minute or so. HIIT is often used to break a fat loss plateau so your body will never get used to a workout.

In conclusion, we can see that HIIT is probably a better option for fat loss and/or muscle growth. However, please note that your diet and nutrition plays a huge role in this as well and it is not to be neglected. For more hints and tips, please visit my blog at http://burnfatnbuildmuscle.blogspot.com.

So is diet or exercise more important when it comes to losing body fat? I am the author of a fitness site so obviously I am a big believer in exercise, but to be honest, you can get pretty dramatic results from diet alone. In fact, I would say that 90% of the people who are having a tough time losing weight are simply messing up when it comes to diet.

The Best "One Two" Weight Loss Combo is Both Diet and Exercise

Have you ever been too busy to exercise? Me too! Well, you can't use that excuse when it comes to eating a clean diet. No matter how busy life gets, you always have time to eat well. So, while you may go days and even weeks without visiting a gym, you can eat well every single day.

"You Can't Out-Exercise a Big Mac"

A Big Mac has 540 calories. Do you realize how much exercising it takes to burn those calories? Well about an hour on the elliptical trainer at a moderate pace would do the trick! So after an hour of boring cardio, you are back to square one. You probably won't lose weight at all especially if you added the fries and soft drink. Large fries would be an extra 570 calories and a large non-diet soft drink would be an extra 310 calories. So how much exercise would you have to do to burn 1,400+ calories? Let's not even go there!

It Is Much Easier to Create A Large Calorie Deficit With a Clean Diet

The most proven way to lose weight (really the only way) is to create a calorie deficit. A calorie deficit is basically when your body burns more calories than what you eat each day. To lose two pounds of fat per week, you need to create a daily calorie deficit of 1,000 calories (2 pounds of fat is 7,000 calories). Would you rather hop on an exercise bike for 2 hours or just not eat those calories in the first place. To create a 1,000 calorie deficit through exercise you have to hit moderate cardio for close to two hours. That is brutal! My suggestion in to not eat those extra 1,000 calories in the first place!

This is Simplifying Fat Loss a Bit

The body is actually much more complex than simply responding precisely to a calorie deficit. There are WAY more variables that come into play when it comes to fat loss; the type of food you eat, the timing of your meals, the metabolic effect of exercise, the muscle sparing effect of resistance training, etc. There are a lot of things that come into the fat loss picture that I'm not addressing here.

Diet is More Important Than Many People Realize

I would bet that over 80% of the articles in fitness magazines are about exercise. It does make a lot of sense, because exercising is a much more interesting topic. The funny thing is that diet is equally, if not more important to an attractive physique. Don't get me wrong. I am a HUGE believer in regular exercise, I just think people are "spinning their wheels" when it comes to getting fit by not paying enough attention to diet. If your diet is bad, a lot of your effort in the gym goes to waste.

Want your Cardio to Be 3 Times More Effective? Then Eat Well!

If you eat junk food or just an excessive amount of calories each day, you are sabotaging your efforts in the gym. A hard cardio workout can be tough. It should drive you nuts to know that a bad diet will negate any positive benefits you could have had from cardio. If you did that same workout on a low calorie diet, you would actually reach your goals and not struggle so hard with weight loss.

Bonus: A Great Way to Increase Your Self-Discipline With Dieting

The crazy thing about self-discipline is that it all depends upon the "way you think about things". We are impressed when we see someone who has strong self-discipline, but you would act the same if you thought like that person thought. Hope that makes sense. Here is the way I think about cardio exercise and diet that works for me. If I know I am going to workout hard later in the day, I will eat strictly. The reason I do this is that I actually want my exercise to mean something and burn body fat. During the day I will eat low calorie foods to prepare for my early evening workout. Often times the evening rolls around and I don't feel like exercising. Since I skipped the unhealthy food and spent all day getting my body ready to exercise, it would be foolish if I skipped a workout. I force myself to exercise, since I stuck to a strict diet during the day. This is a great way to make diet and exercise play off of each other.

Article Source : Pg. 13

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Both Usman Pasha Siddiqui & Rusty Moore 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.

Usman Pasha Siddiqui has sinced written about articles on various topics from Fat Loss. Usman Siddiqui is a certified sports nutritionist, personal fitness and aerobics trainer who works to help people in achieving their fitness goals.. Usman Pasha Siddiqui's top article generates over 4400 views. to your Favourites.

Rusty Moore has sinced written about articles on various topics from Fitness, Build Muscle and Cardio Training. Want a slim and hot body like Jessica Alba or Will Smith? Uncover the and Exercise methods of Hollywood's Hottest Actors and Actresse. Rusty Moore's top article generates over 27100 views. to your Favourites.