Posts Tagged ‘build muscle and lose fat’
When it comes to living a long and healthy life, there are two important ingredients: diet and exercise. While some believe that they are inseparable, nothing could be further from the truth. It is quite possible to have a perfectly healthy diet with deplorable exercise habits. It is just as possible to be physically fit with less than ideal eating habits.
There’s a smart little line in the Jimmy Buffet lyrics “Fruitcakes” when his ‘lady’ is lamenting: “I treat my body like a temple, You treat yours like a tent”
I can’t help thinking about this line whenever I think about all the people around the world who are on these garbage in, garbage out diet plans hoping to achieve the weight loss success of those who are endorsing the items.
To be totally honest, it is possible to lose pounds through dieting alone. It is difficult but possible. It is also possible to be physically fit and still have a few extra pounds. To a large part, we are what we eat. If we follow a high fat low fibre diet our bodies are going to lack the fuel needed to burn the fat. At the same time if we are not providing our bodies with the tools it needs to create muscle it does not matter how many weights we lift.
When it comes to diet and fitness, the best results are achieved when they are combined together rather. Use your fitness routine to burn surplus calories and use your diet in order to provide your body with the nutrients and fuel it needs to build muscle.
A pound of muscle occupies less space on the body than a pound of fat. Pound for pound, I would much rather mine be composed of muscle than fat. Dieting on its own does not build muscle and that is something you would do well to remember.
You should also realize that as you are building muscle you may be shedding inches while not showing a great deal of progress on the scale. It is very important that you keep this in mind throughout the weight loss process. Do not measure your progress by the scales alone or you will observe deceptive results.
The problem is that far too many people do just this, grow frustrated and give up when they are in point of fact making progress. Do not allow yourself to be a victim of the scales. Look in the mirror, try on your tight pants, and measure your waistline. Measure your success by how you feel after climbing a flight of stairs not by the scales.
By building fitness into your diet routine you are also enabling your body to burn off any extra calories you may have taken in during the day. This means that if you want to have a small ‘cheat’ during your day, you can make up for it by burning a few more calories than usual in the evening. This is not something that should happen often but an infrequent occurrence is not going to make or break your diet.
You should also regard dieting and exercise as a hand and glove type of relationship. They fit together. Diet and fitness when combined can achieve incredible weight loss results for those who take them both sincerely.
The thing to bear in mind is that neither works well alone and neither will work unless you are willing to do the work. You must make this a main concern in your life in order to achieve the best possible results.
Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on several of topics, but is currently involved with work on high blood pressure charts. If you want to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at High Blood Pressure Recipes.
There are several different reasons why your attempt to lose weight might succeed or fail. In this article, I’ll explain three different things you can do, to make sure that your attempt succeeds.
1. Don’t plan too far in advance: It’s good to have big goals, but if they’re too big, they can become overwhelming and intimidating. So at the beginning of your journey, try and keep your goals small – something you know you can achieve in a couple of months is idea, because that way you will quickly reach them, and quickly start to see some real progress!
As you know, committing to permanent weight loss requires a huge change in your lifestyle. Although important, this is not something that comes easily, and if you try to force it all at once you are likely to do more harm then good. For example, just giving up junk food is more then most people can manage – at least if you try to do it all at once, it is! Oh, you might succeed for a day or two, but you would end up constantly thinking about it until you end up eating more then you would have if you had never even tried to give it up.
Rather then try to eliminate all the foods that are bad for you, all at once, you should try cutting them out one at a time. For instance, on the first day you might try replacing butter with peanut butter, a healthier alternative. Next week, maybe try switching your white bread for wholemeal. Just keep changing one food at a time, and getting used to that before you move on to the next one. Before you know it, all your foods will be healthy!
You won’t be able to accomplish all of these changes overnight, but you will be able to archive your goals if you do it slowly, bit by bit. Eventually you will realize that you have completely replaced your bad foods with the healthy foods, but without going through any stress or temptation!
2. Pick up good habits instead of bad: The reason you gained weight in the first place, was because you were following bad habits. To lose the weight now, you need to replace those bad habits with good ones. I know this can be difficult, but it’s the key to success – just start slowly changing your way of doing things, until your habits are gradually fixed.
Maybe you have a habit, for instance, of eating a snack in the afternoon. There’s nothing wrong with doing so, but there is something wrong with snacking on unhealthy foods when you do. For example, if you had a habit of eating potato chips or chocolate cookies. Rather then trying to give up your afternoon snack, just substitute it for something more healthy, like low fat yogurt or fruit.
3. Get rid of temptations: Unless you learn to control your temptations, you won’t be able to lose weight successfully. One overwhelming temptation most people suffer from is that of food. Whenever you are tempted to eat, do something that would distract you from the thought of food. You can do anything such as dancing, driving, walking around your house, doing some sit-ups, or drinking a glass of water. All of these things will help keep yourself away from the continuous food cravings!
For more information about lose weight quick, take a look at the authors site, where you can find more articles on how to lose weight quick.
How nice it would have been if you could lose weight by eating, right? Well, your wish is about to come true. In this article I will tell you of three such foods that will help you lose weight. Sounds too good to be true? Well, just read this article to understand what I mean!
1. Lean meat: Lean meat, especially from birds (such as chicken or duck) is one of the absolute best foods you can have, if your goal is weight loss. This is because it is high in protein, and low in fat – this means they give you what you need to support your muscles (which helps keep your metabolism up) without giving your body any easy-to store-fats
But whether you prefer chicken, duck or turkey, what’s important is that you stay away from high-fat red meats. Keep to the birds, and you’ll immediately start feeling better.
Besides birds, an excellent source of lean meat is fish. Besides the high protein low fat, a lot of the fat in fish is actually ‘good fat’, or omega 3, 6, and 9, which instead of being stored as fat in your body, causes your body to reduce the amount of fat stored!
2. Virgin Olive Oil: Good quality olive oil, although containing just as much fat as any other oil, has a hidden benefit: the high levels of unsaturated fats in olive oil can be effective at reducing your appetite, and help to regulate the storage of fat – keeping you thinner!
3. Berries: Berries are also good for weight loss. There are several types of berries: blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, etc. All of them will help you with weight loss in one or the other way. Strawberry is especially the best among the berries: not only it tastes good, but also helps in suppressing your appetite. Once you get rid of hunger pangs, you can focus more on your weight loss goals and less on eating!
So just because you want to lose weight, doesn’t mean you have to starve yourself. Plenty of people go that route, eating too little in the crazy hope that they will come out the other side thinner and healthier. Truth is though, it just doesn’t work. If you want to lose weight and keep it off, the only way to succeed is to eat the right things. Not to mention, the previous foods are full of healthy antioxidants and vitamins!
Also remember that these are not the only weight loss super foods that are available to you. Other foods such as nuts, oatmeal, eggs and almonds can also help you with weight loss. Add these foods to your diet and see how quickly you are able to get rid of your fat belly!
For more information about quick weight loss, take a look at the authors site, where you can find more articles on weight loss quick.
Talking to most women over 50 you will quickly find that menopause and weight gain are linked in their experience. It is very common to put on weight at this time and while some of this may be due to lifestyle changes, that does not explain why suddenly we develop a tendency to put on weight at different parts of the body, especially the abdomen, while any weight gained when we were younger tended to be centered on the hips.
The truth is that hormonal changes do have a part to play in this, although the process is not completely understood. At menopause a woman stops ovulating, her monthly menstruation periods end, and her body produces much lower levels of the female hormone estrogen which is responsible for the ovulation process. Low estrogen has been shown to cause weight gain in animals and it almost certainly is the reason why our bodies change shape. While women of childbearing age store fat in the lower body, after the menopause they store it on the abdomen instead, like men. This leads to a greater risk of heart disease.
At the same time, both men and women tend to find muscle turning to fat as they grow older, and the metabolism slows down. This means that if you do not adjust your eating habits you will probably find that your weight increases. A person of 60 just does not need as many calories as a person of 40.
Hormone therapy with estrogen is sometimes prescribed to control menopausal symptoms. Many women will be surprised to hear that studies have shown that hormone therapy does not cause weight gain. Some women experience bloating and water retention in the early stages of hormone therapy but this is usually temporary and they have not gained any fat. Hormone therapy can reduce the risk of heart disease by preventing the changes in storage of body fat around the abdomen and lowering cholesterol. However, hormone therapy has been linked to an increased risk of breast cancer in some studies.
There are one or two things in particular that you can do, if you notice yourself gaining weight after menopause.
- Keep to a low fat, healthy diet, with lots of fiber and minimal sugar.
- Exercise regularly. As you get older, you’re natural inclination is to exercise less. With no kids to look after, less active holidays, and a tendency to do things more slowly, it can be all too easy to slow down. So you need to take deliberate measures to counter this – even doing a half hour of moderate activity each day will help to keep you in condition.
- Keep your legs in good shape by regularly jogging or cycling, and lift weights to maintain fitness in your arms.
- Don’t try and fight fate. Accept that your body will change shape and composition, and as long as you are no overweight, this is nothing to be concerned about.
Talk to your doctor before you begin a new exercise program, especially if you have any medical conditions, or if you know that you are quite unfit. You should also talk to your doctor about managing the symptoms of menopause and weight gain – they can offer you professional help.
Whether you are interested in advice on getting rid of fat, or other articles on how to lose weight, take a look at the writer’s website.
Anyone who is involved with sports or anyone who simply wants to have a beautiful muscular body practices bodybuilding. Bulking up may be accomplished with proper strength training and a balanced bodybuilding diet that must include 40% proteins, 40% carbohydrates and 20% good fats.
Carbohydrates are actually the main source of energy for the body. Grits, oatmeal, pasta, brown rice, and sweet potatoes together with green beans and broccoli tend to be the ideal sources of carbohydrates. These ensure that muscle mass is maximized instead of fat gain. In order to fuel workouts, an increase of carbohydrate consumption is required to gain muscle.
Proteins are actually the building blocks of all body tissues. The primary sources of protein are turkey, chicken, lean red meats, tuna, salmon, mackerel, tilapia, shrimp, and egg whites.
Some fats are needed to ensure the manufacture of hormones that induce muscle growth. Virgin olive oil and flax seed oil are the most important sources of good fats like Omega Fatty Acids. They are employed by the body to make hormones, lubricate joints, and ensure good brain function. Avoidance of all fats will cause testosterone levels to drop and stunt the development of muscles.
Gradual instead of radical changes should be used in the diet of a person who wants to stick to a bodybuilding diet. He needs to eliminate as many fats as possible. Fats tend to be one of the challenges of nutrition. It’s the densest of all nutrients; it’s difficult to digest and is also the favored storage of excess body mass that you don’t wish to store. You may need to start steaming and broiling your dishes rather than frying them. Salad dressings having excessive fat content must be replaced with low or non-fat alternatives. High fat meats should be replaced with turkey or skinless chicken.
Excess sugar will need to also be eliminated by avoiding regular sodas. Even diet sodas contain Aspartame that may cause cancer in the long term. Reduce, or even eliminate, the usage of table sugar and also the consumption of any sweets. Excessive sugar, once in the body, is easily converted into body fat. Instead of all kinds of sugary beverages, replace these with water. Drink 8 ounces of water following each meal and whenever you get thirsty. In the course of workout sessions, drink at least 16 ounces. Like a plumbing system, it flushes your body and regenerates its cells by means of water replentishment.
Everyone’s goal with a bodybuilding diet is to develop a lot more muscle mass and reduce body fat. The amount of muscle one can gain might be determined by heredity and age. But basically, developing muscle mass depends mostly on eating the right types of foods in excess of what you presently eat coupled with strength and weight training.
Speeding up your metabolism is essential to burning fat that’s why learning about foods that speed up metabolism can be a real game changer. Visit us today to learn more about this and the best ways to get ripped this summer.