Losing Weight Is Easy When You Know How

     Many people when they become overweight find it is easier to fall back on excuses than to make the necessary changes in their lives that would enable them to lose the excess weight. Sometimes they convince themselves that they are perfectly happy with their size and weight but you can bet if someone offered them the chance to be slim with a click of the fingers they would probably take it.

One of the most used excuses from those struggling with their weight is that they have a slow metabolism. And they are right; the slowing of the metabolism (the body's engine) is a real thing. Being overweight slows the metabolism. It also means fat is burnt less efficiently and excess fuel (calories) gets converted to fat for storage as it is not being burnt for energy. So a vicious cycle is in place making losing weight difficult.

The biggest factor in the slowing of the metabolism is the loss of muscle tissue at the rate of one half pound per year from not doing enough strength building and maintaining activity. Muscle tissue is highly active tissue so its loss means the metabolic load goes down and the metabolism slows burning less fuel to reflect that. Add to this cycle is the fact we tend to become less active as the years go by and you can see why the inches start to gather around the waistline.

If you are tempted to throw up yours arms in despair and give in to the extra weight and inches, think twice. There are things you can do to improve your metabolic efficiency.
Proper exercise is number one. And the meaning of proper exercise is activity that works your muscles through their full ranges of movement under a load, in other words a strength training program.

No other type of activity will give you a metabolic boost like working your muscles at the right level of intensity (degree of difficulty). Keep your long, slow, low intensity activity (walking, jogging or cycling) as part of your new active lifestyle on top of your proper exercise not instead of it. If you want to get your motor running properly again this is a critical requirement.

A couple of interval training sessions each week will also help. These are short bursts of intense activity alternated with slower recovery periods. An example would be 10-15 seconds of sprinting followed by 30-60 seconds of walking repeated 10-12 times. This would give your metabolism a boost and have you burning more calories every minute of the day and night.

Add some small meals every 2-3 hours throughout the day with at least 20 grams of protein in each one and you have the perfect weight loss program. Try and ditch as much processed food as possible and eat more natural, whole (like a tomato, orange, carrot etc) foods which will let you lose weight without feeling hungry and will also give you plenty of energy so you can do justice to your exercise program.

So reverse the cycle of weight gain by boosting your metabolic fat burning machinery and let it do its job. Sure, it might take a little effort but I am sure you agree your new strong, lean, healthy body will more than make up for it wouldn't you agree?

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