How to Reduce Belly Fat
If you have excess weight only in specific parts of
your body, you still must look at yourself as a whole. It's not
possible to spot reduce; in other words, you can't dictate that
you only want weight to come off one place or another. In most
cases your so called "trouble spots" is where the fat will come
off last, so be prepared to lose weight in your fingers (rings
fall off) and your face (friends may ask if you're feeling all
right).
If you work toward building muscle and reducing body fat you
will eventually tackle those trouble spots though, and develop
a better physique in the process. Muscle tissue is active
meaning it requires calories to be maintained.
If you were stranded without a food supply, eventually your
body would turn to its own muscle tissue as a source of
nutrition first (muscles are protein) while saving the fat
stores for last. Simply put, fat is nature's way of ensuring
survival during times of famine.
That's why the prevalence of heart failure kills someone who
is severely malnourished. By building more muscle you become a
more efficient energy burning machine which translates to mean
you can eat more food! That to me is a good thing.
The More Active You Are, The More You Get to Eat!
That explains why some people can eat so much more than
others yet not gain weight; your efficient energy burning
friend simply has a greater proportion of muscle to fat than
you. Muscle is more dense than fat. It's often said that a
pound of muscle is heavier than a pound of fat, but the truth
is a pound is a pound.
What they mean is a one pound volume of muscle is a smaller
package than a one pound volume of fat, or put another way, fat
is billowy and fluffy while muscle is sleek and compact.
Lady No. 1 weighs 120 pounds with 30% body fat so she has 84
pounds of lean tissue and 36 pounds of fat, while Lady No. 2
also weighing 120 pounds but at 18% body fat is carrying
roughly 98 pounds of muscle and 22 pounds of fat. Would you
rather be Lady No. 1 or Lady No. 2? Which do you think takes up
more space, 22 or 36 pounds of fat? I'd say 36 pounds of fat
would be a lot bigger package than 22 pounds.
That is why body weight as a number by itself is
meaningless, but your ratio of fat to muscle is very important
and worth working to change. Strive to decrease your body fat
and increase your muscle mass and you'll look better, you'll
feel stronger and more energetic and you'll simply be
healthier.
You can generally have your body fat tested at fitness
centers and most gyms so ask about having it done. It's better
to know you have 30% body fat and work to reduce it to 29, than
not to know and only think in terms of body weight. Most people
who think only of how much they weigh tend to do everything to
reduce that weight, and it's usually at the expense of losing
more valuable muscle.
The best way to increase muscle and decrease fat is through
a consistent exercise program. Start at whatever is your
beginning, but do start.
Begin with an overall body conditioning type exercise
program, doing whatever you enjoy, whether it be a sport,
gardening, weight lifting, biking, hiking, or any other
activity. Any physical movement you do regularly counts as
exercise even if it is doing laundry or taking out the trash.
Get as much as you can out of every chore you do, and stop
thinking of it as a chore but instead as an opportunity to move
your body.
In the early 1900s a washing machine was a new invention.
People used to wash their clothes by hand, and hang them
outside to dry. Being a housewife was actually a pretty
strenuous job. It's no wonder women were thankful for modern
conveniences like automatic washers and dryers, but now we've
come to where our daily activities are not taking our bodies at
all, so unless we want to get fatter and fatter we must do
something about it.
Get Fit and Belly Fat Disappears
It doesn't make sense to drive around and around in the
parking lot looking for the closest space when you're on your
way to run or walk on the treadmill. Why take the elevator five
flights every day at work and then pay a monthly fee to do the
StairMaster after work? What if we all started to notice that
our world is full of exercise equipment. We could become so
much more fit if we'd just start to notice all the
opportunities for physical movement we miss in the name of
convenience. Look around and see if you can spot some exercise
opportunities, and then get busy and get fit.
About The Author: Kathryn Martyn, Master NLP
Practitioner, author of Changing Beliefs, Your First Step to
Permanent Weight Loss http://www.OneMoreBite-Weightloss.com |
Get The Daily Bites: Inspirational Mini Lessons to Use EFT
and NLP and End Your Struggle with Weight Loss http://www.onemorebite-weightloss.com/getnews.html
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Jesse Cannone is a certified personal trainer and author of the
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