Fat Lose Tips....The 8 Commandments

The Fat Commandments.........

If you want abs, you can do all the work in the world while you're at the gym to get them, but they will never show if they are covered by body fat.

It is very difficult for someone to lose body fat and it can be very frustrating as well. In the end however, it is all worth it. For example, if you want abs, you can do all the work in the world while you're at the gym to get them, but they will never show if they are covered by body fat.
While dieting or losing weight, it is often times tempting to eat that which we are not supposed to eat. I have discovered a way of helping with this problem. Next time you see something that you want but can't have, tell yourself that it is no good anymore.
Make believe that it went bad and you don't even want it or that it has a weird taste to it and you think something's wrong with it. This has worked for me time and time again! Try it and let me know how it works.

1. Eat 5-6 Small Meals Per Day
The traditional three meals a day simply won't do it for burning fat. Every time you eat, your metabolism kicks in to start burning what you've eaten and you begin to break it down instantly, taking everything it has to offer, from energy to nutritional content.

While eating only three meals a day, your metabolism has time between meals to slow down. This is not very efficient for burning fat. Your goal here is to keep your metabolism going and burning as much fat as possible. This is done by spacing your food out to 5 or 6 smaller meals a day, or by eating approximately every 2.5-3 hours. This is not to say eat like a horse 5 times a day, it means simply, to have your three meals, but to eat something small and extra in between.

The advantage of this is two fold. First, it keeps your metabolism going, and second it will allow you to be less hungry during your next meal, in turn causing you to desire less food. Often times it is not practical to prepare yourself a meal in the mid-morning or in between your regular meals at any time.

Using protein bars can solve this problem. You can get them right here at the Bodybuilding.com store. Make sure that the one you choose however is low in carbohydrates and high in protein.
For this reason, I do not recommend the Power Bars brand, but rather the brand Pure Protein bars. These are high in protein content and lower on the carbohydrate end of the scale.

2. Drink Water
The importance of drinking water is often overlooked. Your body is 70 percent water, and so it should be treated that way. Give it what it needs. Water is essential when dieting or losing weight.

It helps you properly utilize all of your nutrients that you take in through food, which is essential when dieting. You need every nutrient that you take in or what's the sense of eating? It will help you transport the nutrients efficiently into your cells and determine how your cells use them. You need them to keep your health and to keep putting on quality muscle.

At the same time, it will help you efficiently eliminate wastes while flushing all toxins out of your body to make you even healthier. Also, it will help make your skin more elastic like so that while your putting on quality mass with my first article, you can avoid getting stretch marks all together.

It will improve your complexion. Also, water cushions joints. This is important because while losing body fat, you will also lose some of the fat cushion that helps protect your joints. Drinking plenty of water will help you avoid injury.

3. Eating Before Bed
Eating before bed is not a wise decision. While you are sleeping, your metabolism slows down. It is for this reason and this reason only that you do not want to eat within 3 hours of going to bed.
The food that you eat will possibly be stored as fat because your body will not be able to burn it off completely. Think about it, you are going 8 or more hours without giving your body anything to keep it going anyway, so the danger is two fold. Avoid it whenever you can and you won't regret it!

4. Cardio
Cardiovascular exercise is perhaps one of the most important keys to losing weight. Your diet could be the best in the world, but it will never reach it's fullest potential without cardio. For best results, you will want to do your cardio at least 4 times a week for at least 20 minutes at a time to start with. Each week, you could maybe increase your cardio time by 5 minutes until you get yourself up near 45 minutes a session.

The best time to do your cardio session is when you first wake up in the morning, before you eat anything. The reason for this is because when you wake up, your glycogen stores are low, so your body will begin to burn fat quicker than if it had to burn all of your carbohydrates up and then start working on your fat.

However, it gets more complicated than this. While doing your cardio, you want to reach a target heart rate of 65% (most efficient fat burning zone) of your maximum heart rate. To determine this, subtract your age from 220 and multiply it by 0.65. This is how many beats per minute that you want your heart pumping out while you exercise for the whole session. This is not as complicated as it sounds. Here is an example. If you are 16 years old, then you would subtract 16 from 220. The difference is 204. Now multiply this number by 0.65. The answer would come to 132.6, rounded off to 133. This is the ideal number of beats per minute that you want when doing your cardio. That means you want your heart to be beating 136 beats every minute during your exercise session.

This is the ideal fat burning zone while you do your cardio. You can measure it by stopping every now and then for a short 10 seconds only and count how many beats during those ten seconds by taking your pulse (use a stop watch).

Then continue your cardio. Eventually you will be able to tell where you are at as far as beats per minute go.

5. High Protein
Keeping your metabolism going and burning fat efficiently while retaining as much muscle as possible is dependent on taking in a high amount of protein. Your body will burn carbohydrates first, because this is your main energy source. Once it runs out of carbohydrates, it will begin to use your fat as fuel. You don't want your body dipping into your hard-earned muscle to use as energy. It is for this reason that it is of prime importance that you eat as much protein as possible while losing the weight.

It will keep your metabolism moving! This is why I recommended the Pure Protein bar in key 1 above. It is low in carbohydrates and high in protein content.

6. Lower Your Carbs
Without lowering your carbohydrates, your fat loss will be minimal at best. Lowering your carbohydrates will keep your body burning mostly fat all the time. Since your body burns carbohydrates first, then fat, it will have no carbohydrates to burn and begin burning fat immediately.

The trick with carbohydrates is that you want to consume most of your day's carbs with breakfast. When eating breakfast, you want a combination of protein AND carbohydrates to give your body a jump-start for the day. Also, this will supply you with enough energy to get through the day.

7. Take A Multi-Vitamin
When dieting, taking a multi-vitamin will keep you strong and healthy. Since you are changing your eating habits in one way or another while dieting, you want to make sure you are getting in a good amount of your essential vitamins and minerals.
A good multi-vitamin that I recommend is Centrum. I use it every day, and I can feel myself being healthy when I take it. Or if I am sick with a cold, I can almost feel myself starting to get better after taking it.
Extra Keys

To prevent yourself from over eating and eating what you don't really need, wait 15 minutes after eating to see if you really want a second serving. Your body takes approximately 15 minutes to know that it's full.

8. Get plenty of sleep. Sleep will provide you with energy the next day, which is vital while restricting your carbohydrates.

Make sure to get at least 8 hours of sleep a night. Try for 10 especially if you're a teenager.
Don't be afraid to eat plenty of fruits or vegetables while trying to lose weight. Just make sure that it is not completely and utterly high in carbohydrates such as baked potatoes. But don't hesitate to have an apple or an orange with breakfast, or some green beans with dinner.