The Journey To Fat Loss Need Not Include Suffering

     If you are overweight and not too happy about it, it is easy to panic and start a weight loss plan that is based around deprivation dieting. The problem with this is that it inevitably backfires and fails to produce long term weight loss because 1) if calories are lowered too much the diet is virtually impossible to maintain, 2) a diet works against your body and lowers your resting metabolic rate which is exactly the opposite to what you want.

The better way to lose weight is to work on stimulating the body's hormones (chemical messengers) to shift the metabolism (the body's engine) into fat burning mode. This means you need to eat the right foods at the right times and the meals need to be balanced with macro-nutrients (protein, carbohydrates and fats). The idea is to eat small meals every 2-3 hours throughout the day which will boost your metabolic rate.

Instead of starving yourself like on a traditional diet this type of eating plan for fat loss means you are often eating more than you think you should. When you eat the right balance of protein and fiber your body has to work hard to process the low calorie but nutritionally dense food.

Instead of dropping calories drastically which sends the body into 'diet shock' putting the brakes on fat loss, calories are only reduced one to two hundred at a time so as to stay under the body's famine radar and trick it into giving up its fat stores.

The other important equation in a fat loss eating plan is to stimulate the metabolism with proper exercise. To do this the muscular system needs to be worked directly as fuel (calories) are burnt for energy in muscle cells so when they are worked with proper strength training exercise the calorie burn is much more intense and lasts longer than any other form of exercise.

Low intensity endurance types of activity cannot come even close to the fat burning properties of strength training. You only need to look at fitness, body shaping and physique competitors to see how lean and shapely they get which is down to strength training combined with eating quality nutrition. Starving and excessive low intensity activity never ever builds a strong, lean shapely body otherwise that is what they would be doing.

A strength training program requires eating properly so you can put enough effort into the program to make the necessary changes to your metabolism - your fat burning machinery. You can only boost it to burn more fat day and night when you tone up your muscles and this increases your nutritional needs along with your activity levels.

Good nutrition coupled with proper exercise can further influence your body's hormones to promote fat/weight loss. An out of control appetite is the result of high levels of insulin caused by a diet of refined foods full of refined sugars and carbohydrate. Once you ditch them and start eating properly, you lower your insulin levels, you become more insulin sensitive, and the cravings go away.

Before you know it you will be in the best shape of your life without the agony of starving with low calorie diets. Welcome to the new way to fat loss where you do not have to suffer at all in fact, you will enjoy the journey.

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