So you've been struggling with the vicous cycle of diets that you hate and don't work, the self image you hate, and then the binge eating aftermath? Fear no more! Here, I will show you the proper way to permanently lose fat.
Eat More
"Wait, eat more to lose fat?!?" Yeah, I know what you're thinking: it's counter intuitive. What most fat loss companies want you to believe is that you must starve yourself, quench your hunger to lose weight and fat. This is one of the most ridiculous ideas today. The diets and pills will starve your body, but what that does is cause your body to go into starvation mode. What this starvation mode does is it retains more of what you eat, and it slows down your metabolism - your fat burning process. Eventually, the drop is weight you initially noticed, stops. What happens next? You can't take it anymore, and you binge eat because you're starving. Why is this bad? Well, remember that you body is now in retain-what-you-eat mode. So now, your body retains more food than usual. Now, you're upset and frustrated that you've "bounced back" to your prior weight. So how should I eat more then?
For women, ideally, you should eat every ~4 hours, and for men, ~3. This means eating a small meal 4~6 times a day. Of course, this isn't exactly easy, so it's best to prepare meals beforehand and then microwave them. Each meal MUST include a complex carb and lean protein. And because you're trying to lose fat, you must keep each meal smaller than usual (around 20% smaller calorie wise).
You need the protein to maintain your muscles: think of muscles as fat-burning furnaces. The more muscle you have, the more fat you will burn just by doing nothing. "But wait, I don't want to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger! I don't want to look all bulged up! That looks disgusting!" Don't worry, you won't look like that anytime. Why? Firstly, you're eating less, and this will create a calorie deficit that makes you lose fat while MAINTAINING muscle. Realize that maintaining muscle and gaining muscle are two different things. And contrary to what most people think, you CANNOT gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. By eating smaller but more frequent meals, you'll lose fat, and not gain muscle.
You need the complex carb because only complex carbs slow release energy. If you eat too much simple carbs, your body will process them faster and create an insulin spike. This might sound a bit technical and complicated, so let me just simplify this for you. When you get an insulin spike, your body starts storing much more fat (so you get fatter). Then the insulin spike will cause an insulin crash. Now this causes you to starve, and binge eat.
In a nutshell, if you eat more simple carbs, like high fructose corn syrup, you'll be storing fat, and causing you to eat more unhealthy food. If you want to lose fat, you MUST eat more complex carbs. If you want to lose fat, you MUST eat your lean protein (protein without too much fat).
I won't dispel all the dangerous myths regarding fat and how it's unhealthy so let me briefly list the conclusions:
1. Eating fats doesn't make you fat. What makes you fat is eating too much simple carbs with saturated fats and trans fat. You need to eat the essential fatty acids.
2. Beware of foods that say "Low Fat". It might be low in fat, but they probaby dumped it full of simple carbs like sucrose, fructose, glucose, etc. (Keep in mind you still need simple carbs, like from fruit, but just don't eat too much. Watch for too much simple carbs on the labels.)
3. Don't worry about the grams of sugars in a product; they may be natural sugars. Just watch out for the simple carbs and saturated/trans fats.
So how much of protein, complex carbohydrates, and fats should you eat? Again, I won't go too much into this, but the answer depends on each individual. There's no one-size-fit-all solution, but here are a few guidelines. For the idle person, a 60% carb, 20% protein, 20% fat is suitable. But guess what, you're not going to be an idle person, you're planning to lose fat! So if you want to lose fat, you should eat somewhere along 50% carb, 30% protein, and 20% fat. Of course, you should tweak it to better suit your body's individuality.
Just by eating healthier, you can lose fat, but to accelerate the fat burning, let's explore some more topics.
Breathe More
Oxygen burns fat. Period. This is because fat is stored energy and oxygen is what is used to fuel the energy process. Where-ever you are, develop the habit of deep breathing. It's easy to do, and it'll burn fat.
Of course, the faster way to burn fat is to do aerobic exercise. Personally, I like to jog and sometimes swim. How should you jog? Again, it depends on your body's individuality, but let me list some guidelines:
1. You MUST jog for more than 20 minutes because the first 20 minutes used to burn what you ate, and not the fat you've stored.
2. A good heart rate is somewhere around 155~175 bpm. Of course, there are better equations out there and I encourage you to check them out (you need to know your body fat percentage, however).
3. Breathe deep!!! You know when your guts start to hurt? Shout in your head, "INHALE!" "EXHALE!" as you inhale and exhale deeply. The deep breathing will gradually lessen your discomfort, energize you, and burn even more fat.
4. Have a cool down and stretch your legs, especially your hips, so that your circulation improves and you don't get stiff legs.
I know, I know. You hate jogging, and that's why you've been looking for shortcuts like pills and what not. But again, don't fall for that marketing hype! Refer back to the negative effects of starving your body.
Lift More
Again, I know, I know. You don't want to be bulgy. But again, you're not going to be bulgy because you're not eating too much and if you're a woman, you're biologically designed not to get bulgy. What does this mean? Men have testosterone, a hormone that makes men aggressive and bulgy. Women don't have testosterone, so if you're a woman, you'd have to lift extremely hard and eat a LOT to get sort of bulgy. But you must have some level of muscle, because remember, muscles burn fat whether you're sleeping or sitting on your couch. And if you don't lift weights, your muscles will atrophy. If you don't get your protein, your proteins will atrophy. And you don't want that to happen, because your fat burning rate will decrease.
Stick to reps of 8~12 to focus on increasing volume. Reps of 4 or less focuses on strength training, and more than 15 focuses on endurance. You want volume because you're trying to increase the size of your muscles - and no, for the last time, you won't look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Focus on at least 3 sets per muscle group.
So Now What?
We've come a long way - we've dispelled a few popular diet myths and women bulging up myths. We only scratched the surface of proper dieting and exercise, but it should be enough to inspire new habits, like reading the labels and deep breathing. Now you've realized that proper nutrition is the foundation for quality fat loss.
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