We are bombarded with messages and claims of what to do and how to do it every day. It can be daunting to try and decipher what is truth, what works and what's for real from what's false, ineffective and unsafe.
Without doing hours of your own personal research and education it can be near impossible to ever get to the bottom of the surplus of information that's thrown at us.
It is this obstacle that I hope to remove in this article by giving you the "what to do and why" version of weight loss. This is almost the spark notes version of what all that other mumbo-jumbo says in some form or another.
I have compiled the traditional science and research along with the newest findings in supplementation/diet and weight training to synthesize a more condensed version of what is truth, what does work, what has worked all along, and what has now been proven not to work as it may have once done before.
This article will offer you a list of critical suggestions of what to do and why you need to do it to lose weight (fat) and build or retain muscle mass. You won't need a PhD in exercise physiology or chemistry to understand it either. I am a strong believer in that if you know why and how something works you will actually do it versus just being told to do it at face value.
This article makes it clear why you should do the things I have listed and how to implement them into your own training and dieting program. Here are a few things to consider when weight loss (fat) is your primary goal while retaining muscle.
1-Cardio Before Breakfast
Fasted Cardio in the morning is optimal because insulin levels are bottomed out. |
At this time there is less glucose in your blood stream to be burned, vs. after having just ate a meal, leaving fats as the go-to substrate. Keep the session under 60 minutes long, 45 minutes is ample, too long and you eat up muscle tissue when your body perceives starvation.
2-Be Aware Of Your Carbohydrates
Consume no more than 25-35 grams in other meals if you must have more carbs based on your job and or lifestyle and even then, make them high fiber vegetable based carbs.
Give yourself the proper carbohydrate fuel to get the day started, get through a workout and the carbs to recover from the workout, that's it! Any other carbs taken in should be trace carbs or sources that are not true carb sources like starches and sugars.
3-Don't Get Hungry
Even if it's the right thing to eat, you end up eating way too much of it. Eat often enough to stay full even if it's lots of veggies and water.
4-Do Not Consume Large Amounts Of Fat And Carbs Together
Fats normally get booted to storage since they don't need chemical processing or active transport to become body fat. Plus the body prefers to use carbs (glucose) as energy.
So my message is don't eat them together in huge amounts. A few grams of healthy fat with complex carbs are ok (about 15g fat for every 50 grams carbs eaten at a sitting). Assuming you always eat a protein at every meal of course!
5-Take Your Fish Oil
Alwyn Cosgrove, a very popular weight-loss specialist and researcher is huge on fish oils to promote fat loss (take 3-6g a day).
6-Use Thermogenics Correctly
Caffeine: PDE inhibitor, beta 1,2,3 adrenergic agonist, acetylcholine antagonist.
Yohimbine HCL: Alpha 2 adrenergic antagonist.
Aspirin: Inhibits alpha-glycerol-phosphate, the re-esterification enzyme of free fatty acids.
Green Tea Extract: Iinhibits the breakdown of norepinephrine.
Synephrine: Known as bitter orange, this plant extract works much like caffeine without the jittery side effects.
L-Carnitine: Acts a fatty acid transporter to get fats into the mitochondria where they get burned as energy.
Forskolin: Helps activate hormone sensitive lipase.
Capsaicin: Chemical in chili peppers that supports the metabolic rate.
Guggulsterones: Thyroid stimulator that helps this gland pick up iodine from bloodstream.
My personal favorite fat loss product is VPX Meltdown as it is one of the only supplements to have been tested in a well controlled university study where the supplement itself, not the ingredients in the supplement were given to the subjects in which they lost significantly more fat weight than those not taking the supplement.
That's right, the actual pills right from the bottle were used in the study, not parts of the supplement as in most studies.
7-Eat Citrus Fruits
Do not eat grapefruit with prescription meds as it may have negative side effects. Kiwi, mango and strawberries also fit the bill as good citrus fruits.
8-Weight Train To Hold Lean Muscle
9-Interval Train To Burst Through Plateaus
10-Refeed Rather Than Cheat
Refeed's are just 1 single very-high carb meal of slow and medium digesting carbs. Eaten before bed (yes 2-3 hours before bed) it tricks your body into sucking up all these carbs all night long causing it to blunt any hint of starvation or metabolic slow down.
T3, leptin, and a couple other hormones related to hunger and metabolic rate go through the roof because of the overnight presence of insulin (you won't store much at all if your diet has been spot on over the week). This does have a limit however. The amount and type of carbs needs to be titrated to your bodyweight.
Conclusion
These rules only work when adhered to in the strictest sense. If you give the rules 100% compliance you will get 100% of the effect.
If you give a sad effort then you get sad results. I don't mean to be blunt but I do mean to be honest and straight forward. Results only come to those who do what it takes to get them, not to those who look for short cuts and magic pills.
Source : The Health Cafe