Find Out the Best Way to Lose Weight

What's the best way to lose weight? The diet and fitness industry would have you believe that you need to spend hundreds of dollars per month or more on packaged or prepared meals, gym memberships and dietary supplements.

There is no doubt in my mind that everyone needs a good daily nutritional supplement, one that is rich in amino acids. Of course, you won't find them in a discount drug store, but you don't have to pay fortune for them either.

Most gyms have taken to selling their own line of supplements, which often include "fat burners".

They claim that these pills will melt the fat right off of your body. Is taking a fat burner the best way to lose weight? Let's think about it from a logical standpoint.

Your body burns fat stores for energy, when other sources, such as glucose in the blood stream, are insufficient. People lose weight when they consume fewer calories than their body's need. We sometimes call this creating a "calorie deficit".

But, if you cut back on calories too much, your body will pull glycogen out of the muscles to burn for energy BEFORE it burns fat. Normal metabolic functions will slow down, as your body believes that you are starving. It thinks that there must be some sort of food shortage. Else, why would you have stopped eating?

Eating is natural. Exercising and moving around are natural. To your body, there is no natural reason why you would stop eating more than you need to survive.

Those so-called fat burners are nothing more than appetite suppressants. Some of them contain chromium, which is good, but you can get that in an inexpensive dietary supplement.

Some of them contain gymnema sylvestre, which is good for diabetics and those with metabolic disorders, but it isn't something that the average person needs. There are no clinical studies supporting its promotion as a fat burner.

The best way to lose weight, actually, the only way, is to create a slight calorie deficit, by exercising more and eating just slightly fewer calories than your body needs.

Strength training improves your resting metabolic rate, as long as you take in enough calories, because muscle cells are "active". They require energy, so they burn calories, even when your body is at rest.

Many of us believe that the best way to lose weight is to eat more and exercise more, so that your body can build more muscle. Now, the kind of food that you eat is very important.

It takes protein to build muscle, as well as carbohydrates and fats. Extreme diets that advise you to cut out all carbs or fats do not work and are really bad for your health, in the long run.

It would be great if there were some magic pills that could make us all beautiful, lean and muscular.

But, there are none. The best way to lose weight is to come up with and follow a complete living plan.

That's the truth.

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