Thursday, February 19, 2009

Fat Lose Without Losing Muscle

By Victoria Jamison

When it comes to fitness and weight loss, one of the most difficult things to do is eat so you lose fat without shedding muscle. There are a few things you can do to help make this possible.

Keep On Eating

The way to lose body fat without losing muscle mass is to eat more, not less! Eating 6-7 meals throughout the day will provide the body with protein at regular intervals while limiting muscle loss.

When you go for a long period of time, your body kind of freaks out. The next time you eat, your body will think that meals are going to come few and far between, so it will store whatever it can from that meal as fat.

When you don't eat for more than a few hours, you'll see your blood sugar levels go down quite a bit. This not only affects your mood and concentration, it makes you feel tires. This also causes your body to crave anything that might bring up your blood sugar levels. For me, that tends to be chocolate. Not good.

When you eat smaller meals more often, your body can better digest what you're putting into it. This means greater nutrient absorption and utilization. When you're body runs more efficient it craves food less often. Try to keep your meals 3-hours apart at the most.

Clean and Lean Food

The best carbohydrates to eat are called complex carbs. These are the carbs that are high in fiber and not processed very much. You'll find them most often in fresh fruits and vegetables. This will give you a clean nutrition food source that won't cause jumps in your insulin levels. Also focus on eating proteins that are low in fat.

Sugar Is Your Enemy.

When you're tying to avoid sugar, you suddenly realize how prevalent it is in our foods. It seems to be put into everything these days. You won't always see it listed as "sugar", but instead as maltose, sucrose or even fructose. You have to really keep an eye out for it.

Drink more water

If you're not drinking about 8 glasses of water each day, you're depriving your body of a very important need. Water will help your body to digest your food more easily and efficiently, making sure it absorbs all the nutrients you're offering it. What will also help your tone your muscles and lose weight.

Eat Protein

Get plenty of lean protein from chicken, fish, and lean beef every day. It can be hard to eat enough through out the day so you can add peanut butter, and use protein supplements if needed. By adding plenty of protein, you are keeping your body from using its own muscle for energy and allowing you metabolism to burn at a higher rate.

Rotate Your Carb Levels

Rotating carbohydrates allows you to control and manipulate your blood sugars and insulin response so you are allowing your body to burn more calories for energy instead of storing excess carbs as fat. Carbohydrate cycling is the act of lowering your carb intake for 1-2 days and bringing it back up. This keeps your metabolism from slowing down and makes dieting easier knowing that you can have higher carbs and calories in a few days.

If you have been struggling with weight loss and desire to lose fat fast then look at your carb intake and consider using "carb rotation". Soon, you'll see the results you've been seeking. - 15438

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