Learning How to Lose Body Fat Should NOT Be That Hard!
What’s the first thing you think about doing when you contemplate how to lose body fat? If you answered “eat less” you are not alone.
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While in theory eating less and cutting calories will help you lose weight, you must first understand how many calories you are currently eating vs. how many calories your body needs to sustain itself each day. This is known as your Basal Metabolic Rate. By accurately determining your daily energy (calorie) requirements you can then determine if you need to eat more or less calories each day.
Figuring out how to lose body fat isn’t that complicated. Here’s why: eating too few calories will actually slow your body and metabolism, causing you to feel sluggish, crave high fat and sugary foods, as well as leave you with no energy to exercise. Low caloric diets can actually cause you to gain weight because your body recognizes the symptoms of low calories as starvation and it goes into protection mode.
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Protection mode includes hoarding of any calories as fat for emergency, breaking down of muscle tissue (catabolism) to help supply calories needed to sustain life. A good example; how many times have you or someone you know worked out 6 days a week, would barely eat, and then at the end of the week weight yourselves only to find out you hadn’t lost a pound or actually gained weight? They ask over and over, “Why can’t I figure out how to lose body fat???”
How to Lose Body Fat with Your Basal Metabolic Rate
So how do you find out your caloric needs aka your Basal Metabolic Rate? Simple, contact a qualified fitness professional and have a skin fold caliper body fat test done. Understanding your body fat vs. your lean muscle is the key to success. By finding your body fat and lean muscle your trainer can determine the amount of calories needed to support lean muscle, NOT body fat.
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Once you are eating the necessary calories required to support your BMR your body will begin shedding the unwanted fat because it no longer senses a need to hold on to fat in case you stop feeding it. In addition, as you lose body weight, your trainer will be able to determine if the weight is from fat, muscle or water. You want it to be fat of course.
Here is how that works; for every 1% of body fat lost you should lose approximately 1.3/4 to 2lbs of body weight so if your trainer takes your body fat and body weight and the next time he/she takes it your body fat has not changed but your weight is down, you have lost muscle or water, neither of which is what you want. However if your trainer takes your body fat and weight, and your body fat is down 2% your body weight should show about a 4lb weight loss, ALL from fat.
Your trainer or fitness professional can accurately help you determine this requirement and work with you to modify and make the necessary changes to your habits. By understanding this simple measurement you can save years of struggle, frustration, failure and have the body you deserve. So get out there, learn what your Basal Metabolic Rate is, learn how to lose body fat, and eat! You can also try our daily challenge workout routines to vary your exercise regimen.
Brought to you by Fitness Solutions, the leading provider of On-Site Group Fitness Classes in the DC metro area. Remember, it may sound complicated, but really, learning how to lose body fat is just simply understanding what your body needs each day and making sure it gets it!
