Tuesday, February 8, 2011

5 Fat Loss Tips

5 Fat Loss Tips

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It's not easy getting lean, at least for most people, which is why fast fat loss is always a hot topic. Most of you reading this probably want to uncover your abs sooner rather than later, for a midsection that looks like a cheese grater.

So to get you on the rocket ship to ripped, here are our top 5 fat loss blast off tips from diet to training.




Top 5 Fat Loss Tips


1. Eliminate Junk Food Most Of The Time:

You may think this is a no-brainer, but you'll be surprised at how those few chips, sodas and cookies on a regular basis add up (we just saw a cookie package, and each cookie, about two bites, packed 125 calories! Eat 8 and that's about half your daily calorie intake, 1,000 calories).

Notice that we said to eliminate junk "most of the time." That's because allowing it once or twice a week will prevent over-the-top binges. And besides, a loose-eating day, with a higher-calorie jolt, prevents your metabolism from slowing down, so it's a good thing.

Also, a common mistake is to make a gigantic calorie cut all at once. Many people get so motivated to lose fat that they starve themselves right off the bat. That causes your metabolism to slow to a crawl, and your body thinks it's starving, it hordes fat and burns your hard-earned muscle. That's when you get so frustrated that you give up.

The lesson is to reduce calories gradually, and the first action is to eliminate junk food, most of the time.




2. Tone Down Alcohol Consumption:

A few beers or libations every so often won't hurt, but if you do it regularly, you turn off fat burning. The reason is that your body burns off alcohol first, it becomes your primary energy substrate.

So as you're burning off the alcohol, what happens to the food you eat? It's merely surplus calories going directly to fat cells. Not good. That means when you do choose to drink, don't eat a lot while you indulge.


3. Slow Down The Negative Stroke Of Your Reps In The Gym:

On at least one set of your big compound exercises, use a 1 1/2-seconds-up, 4-to-6-seconds-down tempo. In other words, slow down the negative on every rep.

For example, on bench presses, fire it up, then lower it slowly on every rep. Emphasizing the negative creates more muscle trauma, and that's a good thing for fat burning.

That's because it takes energy to repair muscle damage. Your metabolism kicks into gear for the entire recovery process, usually about two days or more after your workout. So you're burning fat 24/7, yes, even while you sleep. Exciting stuff!




4. Go For The Burn To End Each Target-Muscle Workout:

The best burn-inducing exercises are continuous-tension isolation moves, like leg extensions for quads, pushdowns for triceps and cable crossovers for chest.

By keeping tension on the target muscle throughout the set, you block blood flow. That occlusion creates muscle burn, which in turn enhances your natural growth hormone output. [Can J Appl Physio. 22:244-255; 1997]

GH strengthens muscles and connective tissue, but it's also a very potent fat burner. That means muscle burn can help fuel the body fat churn.

End each body part with at least one set of a continuous-tension exercise, and make that set long enough to set fire to the target muscle, at least 12 controlled reps.




5. Do A Short Cardio Session After Each Weight Workout:

You burn off all the sugar in your bloodstream with 30 minutes to an hour of weight training. That means any activity right after immediately taps into body fat.

In other words, right after your weight training is prime fat-burning time. All it takes is 15 minutes on a treadmill or stationary bike to make a serious dent in your fat stores. It's the most efficient fat-burning cardio you can do.




Don't Get Greedy

One last diet comment that we touched on briefly earlier: Don't get greedy; lose fat gradually. If you drop more than 3 pounds a week, you can be sure a lot of it was water and muscle.

Continue that and you won't start looking better or feeling healthy, in fact, you'll feel like cr@p and look worse than you feel. We're all impatient when it comes to changing out bodies, but the best strategy is gradual and steady.

Have a goal of losing about 10 pounds of fat in a month as you keep lifting hard to build muscle. You'll be amazed at what shedding some ugly fat and gaining some rock-hard muscle will do for your total look and how you feel, from both health and self-confidence standpoints.

And remember, if you do it right you'll be adding muscle and losing fat, in a sense, morphing mush to muscle, so the scale isn't something you should pay attention to very closely.

In other words, if you lose 10 pounds of fat and gain 10 pounds of muscle, you will look completely different (so much better), but the scale will read exactly the same. It's the fat-to-muscle reshuffle.

A better strategy to gauge your progress is to take photos every few weeks. They're real eye-openers. You can take relaxed front, side and back views, or you can shoot those "before" standards along with a variety of bodybuilding-type poses (put the camera on a tripod, if possible, at about waist height so you get a balanced top-to-bottom assessment).

Be sure to keep a list of the shots you take-the poses you hit-and the camera settings you use. A few weeks later, take photos again and use the same poses and camera settings.

Also, and this is important, if possible be sure the lighting is the same. Take the pictures in a room with a fairly bright overhead light and don't use the flash on your camera or your muscularity will be washed out.


Conclusion

You should see noticeable changes in your body if you're consistent, work out with weights for about an hour four days a week and follow each session with 15 minutes of cardio.

Cardio on your off days is okay, just don't overdo it. Even 30 minute walks will add to your calorie deficit. And eat clean, but don't starve yourself, get plenty of protein, fruits and vegetables without the junk.

Try all of the above for 30 days and prepare to be amazed! Your attention-grabbing physique will start to peak, and soon you'll be smiling when you peel off your shirt and hear, "Man, where'd you get those abs?"

Join Our Facebook Group - Good Diet + Exercises x Motivation = Results!

http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=148069738544376

Click here for the 4 Step Formula for Weight Loss

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