3 Things you should do to lose fat
February 1st, 2012 // 10:31 am @ Chris
Its February and I hope you are all sticking to your new year’s fat loss plan (if fat loss was indeed your goal).
Here are 3 things you should be doing to help you lose the fat, if you are not already doing it.
Resistance Training
At this time of year the gyms are usually full of people filling up the Cardio machines and busting out hours upon hours of Cardio training, thinking that this is the solution to their flabby belly.
Cardio training will aid in burning calories, but doing too much will increase your Cortisol (stress hormone) levels, break down muscle tissue and weaken joints. All of this is bad and will stall your fat loss attempts.
Resistance training, whether it’s free weights, body weight, machines, BootCamp etc will boost your fat loss results in no time.
Not only are you burning calories whilst working out with weights (possibly to a greater extent than you are when doing Cardio), but you are also going to encourage your muscles to grow back stronger, leaner and more toned. Having more lean body mass will naturally get your body burning more calories.
If you insist on performing Cardio, for fat loss, the best thing you can do is keep it intense and short. HIIT training is the perfect solution.
Go Low GI
As I’ve mentioned before, it’s not the amount of fat we consume in our diets that is responsible for the UK’s high obesity problems, but it’s the amount of sugar that is consumed and the wrong Carbohydrates that people eat.
Carbohydrates provide our body with glucose which is the primary choice of fuel for our body. So it is essential that we provide our body with what it needs to operate.
Choosing foods that are low on the glycemic index means that the sugars in those foods are slowly broken down by the body and released in to the blood stream at a steady rate, providing our body with sustained energy over a period of time. This will stop any sudden increase in blood sugar levels, which will reduce the amount of insulin our body releases, which will mean our body will store LESS fat and spend more time burning fat.
Resting
January is notorious for busy gyms and people wanting to get in shape for the year. These newly driven people will spend the first 4 weeks of the year going gun-ho in the gym, for hours, every day of the week.
Whilst there drive is certainly respectable, the lack of rest they give themselves is counterproductive.
Your body won’t grow or change in the gym, it needs to rest and to recover and it’s at this point the change occurs.
Furthermore, if you work out day in day out, you are putting a tremendous amount of stress on your body and if you haven’t exercised regularly before, it’s going to be a little shocked at what’s going on and not use to it.
Stress is bad, whether its mental stress from your job, or physical stress from working out to much. Your body becomes filled with stress hormones which will start to promote fat storage.
If you keep your workouts to under an hour, you can avoid the bad hormones and take advantage of the awesome hormones in your body that will make your body change (growth hormone and testosterone).
