How to Achieve Real Weight Loss

     If you have become overweight and are concerned about it a couple of lifestyle changes will be necessary to halt and reverse the process to get you back into slim and trim shape again. If you do not make these changes keep in mind that the problem is most definitely only going to get worse over time.

The first thing is you need to start eating a lot more. That is right and you read it correctly… you need to eat more. A whole lot more than you are eating right now. You have to eat 4-6 meals a day to fire up your metabolism (your body's engine) to increase the rate you burn fuel (calories) rather than store it.

One of the reasons that you have gained weight will be because your metabolic rate has slowed because it is not getting enough proper nutrition as your body needs a constant supply of energy to burn fat. The other very big reason is if you have become more inactive it is certain you would have lost some precious muscle tissue which is your fat burning machinery.

So we have to address both of those problems before that excess stored body fat can be dealt to. Firstly let's look at the eating part and the rules are simple. A small meal every 2-3 hours throughout the day with your first one starting within one hour of getting out of bed.

Each of the small meals should contain 20-30 grams of protein (meat, fish, eggs, soy) at each one. Add lots of raw or cooked vegetables to that protein source with a little complex carbohydrate such as rice, pasta or sweet potato. The calorie content should be around 250-400 for each meal and the number of meals should be at least four each day and up to seven. The more the better as it will skyrocket your metabolism just having to process all that food.

That's your food sorted. It sounds easy but it does take some preparation each evening so that all of the meals are prepared so no matter where you go during the day you have your meals with you. This is the secret to making this work, thinking ahead and preparation.

The World Health Organization calls eating less than 1800 calories per day a starvation diet so you need to eat more than this. When you have too few calories you will trigger the 'starvation response' an ancient survival mechanism which slows your metabolism and encourages your body to store fat.

This is the opposite of what you should be doing to lose fat and is working totally against your body not with it. You can never ever win this battle as your genes want you to stay alive. You need to sit just above the bodies 'radar' if you wish to coax it to lose fat permanently.

The other very important part of the equation is your exercise program, one of the reasons you have become overweight is the likely muscle tissue loss that happens to everyone from their mid 20's onward. This is unless you work hard to keep this fat burning machinery with proper exercise.

Your program must include at least 60% strength training exercise which is the only type of exercise that can tone and rebuild lost muscle. Forget the long, slow repetitive activities that were used in the 1980's and failed to work as we now have a massive global overweight and obesity problem.

Get some professional help to set up your program so you get the best and quickest fat loss results. These changes are all that is needed to take your from overweight to normal weight again. They won't happen overnight but they will happen if you keep working at making improvements each day or each week. Some days won't be anything close to perfect and that is okay. As long as you continue moving forward you will win.

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