Tips for Girls Who Want to Lose Body Fat without Losing Body Weight ...
By Neecey • 19 Comments
By Neecey • 19 Comments
Okay ladies, let’s look at something different to standard weight loss. The concept of being fat or having fat implies being overweight but that isn’t always true. You might have a healthy BMI (Body Mass Index) and you might be in the right weight range for your height and bone structure, but you might also have areas of fat you want to lose. Losing fat usually means losing weight but not if that is not your overall goal. If you want to lose fat without changing the overall composition of your body, this is what you need to know:
The first thing to get straight is to understand exactly what body fat is and what its purpose is. Though the word fat has become a negative word, body fat is actually a tissue in our bodies that we do need, just not as excess of it. Our bodies need fat for cushioning and insulation; the recommended amount is around 25% to 28%.
Cutting calories is the first basic step towards getting rid of excess body fat, as in simple terms, the less fat that you are putting into your body, the more your body is going to have to turn to consuming the reserves that you already have stored within yourself.
Like I said, our bodies do actually need fats in moderation. In order to stick to a diet that is going to satisfy and full you up enough to actually stick to it, it is recommended that you include about 30% ‘good fats’ in your routine, things like peanut butter, avocado etc.
Carbs are really important and give us the energy that we need to make it through a day. Carbs give the body something called glycogen for energy, and if there is a lack of glycogen within your body, it will turn to your fat reserves to get some energy instead. It is important to reduce your carb intake to stimulate use of fat reserves.
When you look at food labels, you want to subtract the fiber from the total carb count to see how much you will actually be getting because fiber is not digested and used in the same way. Always look for carbs with a glycemic rating of fewer than 55. Check Gi ratings here health.harvard.edu
Rather than just using normal scales that only reveal your weight for your progress, choose instead to use something like the Withings Scale which actually lets you know about changes in your body fat percentage. Weight reduction is not always a straightforward indicator of fat loss.
One of the best things you can do is make sure that you get in to a healthy sleeping routine. Getting the recommended 7 to 8 hours every night will stand your body in much better stead for fighting the fat loss battle, and it will help your metabolism too.
The most efficient and successful form of exercising for fat burning in particular is definitely high intensity cardio. As referred to previously, using up all of your glycogen quickly means that your body will turn to your fat reserves to help it keep energized, and quick bursts of strong exercise is the best way to spark this.
Performing strength training will put your muscles in to overdrive in terms of activity, and whenever your muscles are working hard, your energy levels are going to deplete quicker and your fat reserves are going to be dipped in to sooner. The more muscle you have, the more energy you burn.
One of the major places women store fat is around the tummy. This is called visceral fat and women should look to target this area – not for aesthetic reasons only but because an excess of abdominal fat can invade and hinder your organs. Look into exercises for flat abs – even if you don’t want flat abs, the exercises will be the right ones to target visceral fat.
To make the strength training as time efficient as possible, it is always a good idea to focus on the areas of your body that contain the largest muscle groups. For example, exercises that incorporate the legs and arms are going to be economic in reaching your fat reserves than exercises for the relatively small abs.
Sugary drinks are essentially your worst enemy when it comes to trying to burn fat. The huge amounts of sugar that they contain will turn in to extra carbs in your body that will only serve to stop it from trying to access the fat reserves and will eventually turn in to fat themselves.
Don’t trust a food product when it proudly professes to be healthy on the package. Go deep in to the labels and search out the things that are most important to you, in this case most probably the carbohydrate content and the saturated fat content.
If you diet isn’t that unhealthy but you’re still struggling to shift fat pockets, then your portion control might be the problem. There are plenty of sites online that show you in visual comparison what single portions of different foods should look like. It might be shocking but it’s something that you can easily adjust and maintain.
Your body is essentially like a car; it cannot run without it’s vital fluids, no matter how great the exterior looks! Drinking the recommended eight glasses of water a day will keep you happy and healthy and your metabolism up.
Don’t be fooled in to thinking that you can get away with a little extra extravagance straight after a workout. It’s not a smart cheat, it’s just a quick and easy way to undo all of the good work that you just did for 30 minutes or more!
Remember one thing through all this. It is science-proven biological facts that will carry you through fat reduction. No one thing will remove unwanted or excess fat: not cutting out carbs; not cutting out fat; not giving up meat; not exercising three times a day; and there are no foods that will make you lose excess fat. It takes a combination of healthy eating adjusted for your needs as above and
targeting exercises.