Friday, November 18, 2011

Fat Burning Optimizers: Cheat Day

"Calories in... calories out." 

Isn't that what we've always been told by our doctors, nutritionists and trainers as the foundation for losing weight?  While it's a true statement - eat less and exercise more and you will lose weight - it's also an oversimplification of the realities of body physiology.

Let's examine the "calories in" concept.  When you cut back on your calorie consumption, your body attempts to counteract the lack of food by preserving your own body fat. Why?  Fat provides energy and warmth which are two very important things for your survival when food is scarce.  The body will slow metabolism, decrease the production of fat burning hormones and increase the production of fat storing hormones, all of which protect your current body fat stores.

So how do you eat fewer calories without causing your body to protect its fat stores?   Fortunately, the body's response to dieting is a gradual one. It takes about a week of dieting for the negative metabolism and hormone changes to occur.  At the end of that week, we need to return the body to where it was seven days ago.  According to Joel Marion, Certified Sports Nutritionist and Certified Personal Trainer, the way to do that is with a cheat day.  It only takes one day of overfeeding - or cheating - to bring hormone levels back up to normal and put your body back into the fat burning zone.  (If you have ever lost weight during the first week of a diet plan but struggled the following week with the same plan, your body adjusted to protect your fat stores.)

What are the best foods to cheat with?   Any food with a high glycemic index will do:  simple carbohydrates will cause the body to increase insulin production which triggers the normalization of fat burning and fat storing hormones.  Some examples are:
  • Pizza
  • Macaroni and cheese
  • Doughnuts
  • Cookies
  • Pancakes
  • French toast
  • Biscuits

So now you've had your cheat day (just one!) and your body's hormones and metabolism are back to normal.  Your body is now primed in a big way to burn fat again for another week.  After splurge day, you’ll want to create a large calorie deficit via minimal calorie intake and massive energy expenditure through optimized exercise. Wouldn't such a massive calorie deficit just throw your body back into starvation mode?   It won't if you exercise in a way that is strategically and scientifically designed to stimulate the release of fat burning hormones.

There is a way to take this fat burning optimizer to the next level.  On the day before cheat day, limit the consumption of insulin producing carbs and do exercises specifically designed to deplete the body's carbohydrate stores. This allows the body to make room for the carb splurge that will take place the next day.

With this optimal strategy, and others, you can reach your fat loss goals.  Smarter methods, as the basis of a strategic diet and exercise program, will result in the fastest fat loss.

For program details, Click Here.


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Thursday, November 3, 2011

Benefits Of Fat Burning

Many people don't know enough about the dangers of excess body fat.

We are all born with a set number of fat cells. If we eat more calories than our bodies need, our fat cells stretch to store these extra calories as triglycerides. We may even gain new fat cells when the cells have enlarged to their maximum size.  Unfortunately, these fat cells remain in our bodies forever.   They may shrink in size when you lose weight but they never go away unless they are removed by surgery or liposuction.

How much of your body is composed of fat cells?  Body composition can be divided into fat mass and fat-free mass and calculated as percentages.  The minimum percent of body fat considered safe for good health is 5 percent for males and 12% for females. The average adult body fat is closer to 15 to 18% for men and 22 to 25% for women. How much body fat is too much?  For men over 25% and women over 32% fat there is a dramatic correlation with illness and disease.

Ways Of Measuring Body Fat
  • Underwater weighing involves submersion into a large body of water to measure buoyancy.
  • Skinfold Thickness Measurements utilizes special calipers to estimate the percentage of body fat by measuring skinfold thickness at specific locations on the body. The thickness of these folds is a measure of the fat under the skin. Skinfold thickness results rely on formulas that convert these numbers into an estimate of a person's percentage of body fat according to a person's age and gender.
  • Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) involves sending a low-level, safe electrical current through the body. The current travels at a different rate through the various body tissues which then allows a calculation of fat mass and fat-free mass. This feature is common in many of today's at-home digital scales.
  • BMI or Body Mass Index is a method of estimating a person's body fat levels based upon a person's weight and height measurement. While the BMI calculation is an indirect measurement, it has been found to be a fairly reliable indicator of body fat measures in most people.
There are dangers associated with excess body fat.  It used to be thought that fat cells were just storage bins for excess calories.  According to Johns Hopkins experts, it is now clear that these fat cells are very active, producing and secreting a wide variety of substances that play a key role in regulating body weight. But health problems can arise when these cells begin to secrete too much or too little of these substances.

Fat cells normally produce a variety of substances that influence your body weight, how many calories you eat and how those calories are used as a source of energy.  When you have enlarged fat cells or too many fat cells, because you are overweight, many of these substances are released into the bloodstream at higher levels than normal. Over time, excessive amounts of the substances begin to damage blood vessels and tissues and impair blood flow, resulting in health problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure, liver disease, cardiovascular disease and certain types of cancer.

So what can be done to normalize fat secretions?  People need to turn their attention away from weight loss, which frequently comes from water and muscle, and focus on fat burning.  A lean body is more likely to have healthy blood sugar and blood pressure levels and less inflammation which leads to a lower risk of diseases such as cancer.

An exercise program designed to efficiently incinerate fat and a meal plan consisting of everyday foods that discourage fat storage are essential to transforming a flabby, out of shape body into a lean, calorie burning machine.  More specifically, eating the right metabolism boosting foods at the right times and training in short, intense intervals can make a huge difference.

To learn more, Click Here.




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