Losing weight is a two-fold process. It is always a combination of eating healthy foods and performing fat burning exercise. You should do these two to reduce your daily intake of bad fats, remove the intake of excess calories, have a healthy body and sculpt your figure.
You need to control your calorie intake to prevent the buildup of fat reserves. Unused calories get deposited and solidify in fatty hotpots, which include the belly, sides, arms and thighs. You can do this by reducing your meal portions. Count the calories contained in your food and try to limit your intake to a maximum of 1500 per day. Just don't go below 1200 daily because calories are important for all your body's functions.
But eating is a pleasurable activity,isn't it? This is where performing fat burning exercise comes in. As you walk, run or do other physical activities, you use up calories. If you have burned enough excess calories, you will begin to tap fat reserves in the body. This is where you begin to lose weight and shed those unwanted extra inches on your waist.
Proper Diet - the First Step
Having mentioned that eating is pleasurable and a necessity, you should eat enough everyday. Mix and match foods from all the categories, which include meats, carbohydrates and "good" fats. What matters here is your selection of food sources.
For your sources of carbohydrates, stick to vegetables, fruits and whole grains. Protein should come from lean meats, chicken, eggs, as well as omega 3 rich fish like salmon. Good fat sources are olive oil, coconut oil, nuts, and other natural fats like butter. These foods make you feel satisfied and provide you with energy, without adding fatty bulk to your body.
Stay away from pastries, tarts, ice cream, cakes and fast food. They are either high in processed flour or infused with lots of sugar. Sugars and hydrogenated oils, lard and margarine can be found in sweets and heavily processed foods. They're readily absorbed by the body and get deposited as added weight and are full of toxins that cause other serious health hazards..
Fat Burning Exercise - the Complementary Task
A fat burning exercise is a workout that results in metabolism boost. Metabolism is the body's process of converting food and fat reserves into energy, which is readily usable by the body. Generally, all cardiovascular workouts improve metabolism. In 3-4 days per week, it is recommended to perform 20-40 minute cardio routines like jogging, running and swimming.
Another type of fat burning exercise is the one that targets specific muscle groups. These workouts target muscles in an area to work more and consume the fats that are near them. Examples are crunches and leg lifts for the abdomen, push ups for the arms and squats for the legs and thighs.
