Lose Weight and Burn Fat the Healthy Way

It is not difficult to lose weight and burn fat, but it is important that you do so and remain healthy. Many people try to lose too much weight too quickly, and their health usually suffers as a result. Why is that, and how can you become slimmer without endangering your health?

One quick way to lose weight is to fast, and while fasting in itself is not dangerous, to do so in an uncontrolled fashion can cause a large number of health problems that could easily be avoided. A one day fast, from sunrise to sunrise for example, is not unhealthy if carried out properly. You should first prepare for your fast by consuming essential vitamins and minerals the day before in the form of a good balanced meal that also contains the carbohydrates needed to maintain your metabolism: lots of rice or pasta for example.

During the fast you should drink water, or even fruit juices that provide some level of nutrition. Do not over-exercise and such a fast will not only detox your system, but also give your digestive system a rest. Doing this no more than twice each month will enable you to lose weight quicker without compromising your health.

In order to lose weight you must use up more calories than you consume, and this can be achieved two ways: by cutting down on the carbohydrate content of your diet or by exercising more. Typical carbohydrates are rice, pasta, cereal crops, sugars, starches and even proteins. Proteins consist of carbohydrates and amino acids, and when digested, the carbohydrates are released.

In fact, protein contains few carbohydrates for its bulk, so a diet of chicken, fish and colored fruits and vegetables will give you protein and also the antioxidants and anti-inflammatories your body needs without overdoing the carbohydrates. You also need some fat, because vitamins A, E and K are all fat-soluble, and a totally fat-free diet would leave you deficient in these essential vitamins. Suitable fats are oils, vegetable oil and even the fat in chicken legs would help. Ideally, your diet should contain 25% - 30% fat.

However, in order to lose weight and burn fat, if you stick to chicken and fish for your protein and fat (oily fish is excellent), and colored vegetables and fruits for your minerals and other phytochemicals, then you will be taking fewer calories than you were likely to have been taking previously. Add to that more exercise, such as walking short distances rather than driving, walking up stairs rather than taking an elevator or escalator, and getting of busses a couple of stops early and walking the rest, and you ought to be using up more calories than you eat.

Your body will first use up the carbohydrates in your diet for energy, and then start to burn its reserve energy store - your fat! You should lose weight and burn fat, and because most of the carbohydrate is coming from protein which is very inefficient in its carb content, you will still feel full after your meals.

When proteins break down in your digestive system to release carbohydrates, they also release amino acids, and if you exercise certain muscle groups then these will use the amino acids to form fresh muscle tissue. Your muscle bulk will increase and you will not only burn fat, but will develop more muscle.

This is achieved by aerobic or anaerobic exercise, although the anaerobic exercise involved in weight training, for example, will help to build strength and muscle bulk in those muscles you are using when exercising. Anaerobic respiration makes inefficient use of the bulk of the food you eat, because proteins contain less carbohydrate than the traditional carbohydrate foods in your diet. This means that a high protein diet will satisfy you, but without involving too many calories.

That means that when you work your muscles, not only will you lose weight through use of your fat reserves to make up for the calorie deficit, but that the increased blood flow through these muscles will carry the amino acids from the digested protein to generate more muscle tissue.

Since muscle tissue uses up more energy than fat cells do, this additional muscle bulk will increase your metabolic rate that in turn uses more energy, or burns more calories. Hence, the more you exercise and the more protein you eat, the faster you will burn off fat and lose weight.

A simple equation, and one that you could calculate if knew how. Weight loss theory can be used to predetermine weight loss and enable you to lose weight and burn fat the healthy way - every time.

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