Want a body that looks like it was carved out of stone? Want to lower unwanted body fat.
Many diet programs talk getting in better shape, but very few speak on the subject of reducing a person’s weight.. What exactly is fat percentage and how can we lose weight without harming our body? Is weight reduction and drop in body fat percentage the same thing? And how come some people work out so hard and never see any weight loss results.
Fat percentage
Measuring body fat percentage is important in determining the amount of fat that our body is composed with in comparison to bones and muscle. Men and women have different ranges of body fat that is normal, this is due to body structure as men have more muscle, different hormones and the fact women’s bodies are made to handle situations like pregnancy and birth. In general women have a higher percentage of body fat than men. Age is another deciding factor in the level of body fat a person has because a person’s metabolism will slow down as the years go by. The average fat percentage for men should be between 10% - 20%. Adolescent boys and professional athletes may have a body fat percentage of 10% and lower. Women generally have 20%-30% body fat. Professional athletes may have a body fat percent under 20%.
Toning
Generally speaking, people who want to lose weight do it out of a desire to look better. This can be done though the combination of two processes.
• Balanced Diet
Following a diet that reduces the amount of dietary fat while cutting calories in a non harmful way is a great way to get the body you want. The ultimate goal of following a diet is to teach the body once again to effectively burn fat as a source of energy while not damaging muscle mass. Following a crash diet may give you fast fat loss results, but in the long term, repetition of this method may actually hurt the body. One of the reasons crash dieting may be harmful is because crash dieting generally avoid eating from all the food groups, thus losing out on nutrients your body needs to function properly.
• Physical activity
To get the body you want, you will need to add physical exercise into your weight loss program. When dieting without doing any form of physical activity, one can expect an inelegant appearance as there may be much loose skin and muscle loss. It’s really important to make sure you exercise all the muscle groups in your body in order to maintain symmetry and avoid injuries. Before starting any physical activity, make sure you go through a good warm up session to make sure all your joints and muscles are ready for a good weight loss workout, also remember to stretch afterwards to increase flexibility and avoid unnecessary injury. Try working out 3 – 4 times a week in order to see proper results from your exercise routine.
Participating in a fitness regimen without dieting is not going to give you the fat loss results you want to achieve. This also goes for dieting without working out. Make sure to follow a proper diet and fitness program in order achieve the weight loss result you want.
How to lose fat by changing what you eat?
3 major nutritional rules:
1. Negative calorie balance. Creating a negative calorie balance is easy. The first step is to slightly reduce the amount of calories consumed daily, in order to allow the body to burn fat. It is important when reducing calories, that there is not an extreme reduction in calories as this may do more harm to the body than good.
2. Eat a good amount of protein. Most studies show that it is not possible to increase muscle mass while on a negative calorie diet as muscles need a certain amount of protein in order to maintain their strength. In order to gain the right amount of muscle that the body needs, you will need to follow a positive calorie diet – compromising of a good amount of daily protein. This means that when trying to lose weight that you create a 2 step program, the first step being a fat reduction step where you try to simply reduce the amount of fat you are carrying. The second step is the building step, where you try to build a strong healthy body. Make sure to get the appropriate daily amount of protein when you are working out, if you are training lightly try to eat 1.2 – 1.4 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. If you are working out at a very hard pace, then you will want to eat 1.5 – 1.8 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight.
Another rule to follow when trying to lose weight by following the principles of a good diet is to try to eat several small meals throughout the day instead of eating three square meals. Each meal should have some protein.
3. Pay Attention to reducing the amount of fat in your meals. This is very important as it will help lower the daily calorie totals and get your body in the swing of burning fat for energy. The body needs to learn how to burn fat efficiently, and if it keeps on getting fat from a fat filled diet it will not learn how to properly burn fat.
The body takes an average of 3-4 weeks until it learns to burn fat effectively. Once those 3-4 weeks pass, the body will become a fat burning furnace.
Try consuming around 25 percent of your total daily calories from healthy fats. Under no circumstance, you should not go under 20% total fat per day as fat plays a vital role in the immune system and the maintenance of your body’s daily functions.
Summary
Decreasing fat is all about decreasing the amount of fat you consume and increase the amount of daily physical activity you perform.