Want to lose fat? Exercise
We have covered your food intake – that’s only half of the picture. To achieve a negative balance and lose fat, you also need to work on the energy that’s going out of your body. Exercise will increase your OUT in three ways. First, you expend energy by performing the activity. Second, your body uses more energy after the activity over about a 2 day recovery period to repair muscle and replenish energy stores. Third, in the long run and as you slowly build muscle, it increases your base energy expenditure (also called resting metabolic rate, read The Caloric Balance for the full story).
Also, notice this is titled “lose fat” and not “lose weight”? This is because a portion of the weight lost in negative energy balance is muscle. As we’ve just seen, muscle helps increase your OUT by raising your base energy expenditure, so we want to keep our muscle mass intact as much as possible. Exercise, especially weight lifting, will take care of that. In short, exercising combined with a negative energy balance helps make certain that you are indeed losing fat, and not muscle.
ACTION STEP REVISITED
No “regular” action step for this one. Once you’re started and comfortable with the cardio and abdominal training programs, if you want to speed progress up, do additional weight lifting. A basic weight lifting program must include the Bench Press, the Squat, the Deadlift and Pullups. These lifts are described at http://www.exrx.net/. For a comprehensive guide on weight training, I recommend getting a copy of Body Building Revealed. It is, to my knowledge, the web’s best source of information on the topic.
Tame your hunger
Eating has become too methodical. Frequently, we eat even if we’re not hungry. We eat for socializing, like at a restaurant or party. We eat for pleasure, like a craving for chocolate or ice cream. We eat out of anger, or because we feel empty.
Are you eating right now? Are you hungry right now?
If you answered yes to the first question, I hope you also answered yes to the second. Maybe you haven’t: often we eat without being hungry. This unquestionably leads to overeating. Repeated over time, overeating becomes a habit. And the more you overeat, the more likely you’ll end overweight. The body knows. It knows exactly how much energy it needs. Listening to your body and to your hunger is the first step toward better eating habits. It’s the focus of this tip and the next few.
ACTION STEP
Ask yourself if you are actually hungry next time you’re about to eat. If you’re not, eat it later or take a smaller serving. After all, if you’re not hungry then the food is going to be turned to fat.
ACTION STEP REVISITED
Develop the habit of asking “Am I hungry?” before you eat. You’ll be surprised at how often the answer will be no. When not hungry, skip the meal or eat less.
Carl Juneau teaches men how to get six pack abs using a unique combination of carefully sequenced abs exercises. Check out his web site to discover little-known abs exercises that help to get washboard, defined abs.