My Findings on Burning Body Fat

If you're like me and have struggled in the in the past with high body fat, well you may want to read this.   Over the years as we get older find it harder and harder to get rid of body fat, mainly because our metabolism slows down as we get older, our cells start dying and not replacing themselves effectively due to poor nutrition, pollution around us and the weather and stress in our lives, coupled with the fact that as we age and do not engage into physical and active things we lose muscle mass which makes our metabolism slow. 

I recently did a biometric reading for my body fat and was really shocked at the high level of my body fat. I knew I was overweight as I have about a stone and a half to lose, but the most shocking finding was that  my fat content was near 40%. 

This made me want to look into the reason that my body fat content was so high. 

I started by tracking what I was eating in the first instance, I felt I ate pretty healthily. But then you can eat healthy and still put on weight and fat. 

This made me want to look into the reason that my body fat content was so high. So here's what I found

I started by tracking what I was eating in the first instance, I felt I ate pretty healthily. I downloaded an app on my iPhone called MyFitnessPal. 

This is a really cool app, I put in my daily food habits and it told me how much macronutrients I was getting. To you and me that is how many carbs, fat, protein I was taken in. 

I didn't put any restrictions on the amount of carbs fats or proteins at this point as I just wanted to know what my day to day intake was on a regular basis.  I did this for three weeks. The findings were amazing not to say the least I was eating far too much fat and not expending enough energy i.e. exercise   

So even though on some days I ate less than my caloric intake, The content of the fat in what I was eating was really high, and also because I was not exercising the food that I was eating wasn't being used efficiently and therefore my body converted this to additional fat and began to store it.

it wasn't that I was eating the wrong types of food, it was about eating the right combination of food. 
So this showed me that you can eat healthy and still put weight and body fat on

So then I began paying more attention to the percentage of carbohydrates, proteins, fat intake. The recommended percentages are 50% carbohydrates 30% protein 20% fat so I set my goals on the my fitness pal app to those recommended percentages. 

I also looked up what my base metabolic rate (BMR) was.
If you do not know what this is, it is the calculation for how many calories your body needs to function on a daily basis, for instance the calories need it for digestion for breathing, processing waste within the body, moving, for the heart to pump blood around the body et cetera. This is also known as you're resting metabolic rate.  So your BMR dictates how many calories you need on a day-to-day basis to function normally. 

 In order to reduce weight you would then need to reduce your daily intake by about 500 cal to lose about half a pounds a week, if you wish to lose more, say a pound a week, then you would need to reduce your daily calorie intake to by another 500 cal. It is not generally advised to reduce your calorie intake more than 1000 cal as it would make you too weak to function on a day-to-day basis and it is not healthy. 

If you put your height and your weight and your age into my fitness pal app it will calculate all this for you. You then select how many pounds you would like or what your ideal weight is and it will give you the option of losing half a pound a week ora pound to 2 pounds.  Although, 2 pounds is a bit excessive and very hard to do in a week unless you have a lot of weight to lose in the first instance  Normally a pound to half a pound a week is acceptable. 

So I put into a goal, I weighed myself, I measured my hips and my waist and enter the information into the my fitness pal app and I also set a goal to increase my workouts to 4 times a week.

I also devised a specific program of workouts that I was going to do on those four days so I wasn't just going to wing it every day. 

I then use the my fitness pal app to preload in my meals for the day, in other words I plan to head on what I was going to eat. I found this really useful and helped me to keep my carb,  protein, fat content in relation to the goals I had set. I could pre-enter the breakfast lunch and dinner onto the app and look at the nutritional content to see how they met my goal. If I was over on the far side or under on the protein side I would simply remove an item and replace it with something else, until I found the right combination of food that would give me my macro percentages. 

Which I thought had little or no fat where most surprising, such as a slice of bread has a lot of fat and when removed from a meal plan reduce the amount of fat intake. By doing this has helped me to understand more about the level of macronutrients in the food that we eat, and has helped me to understand more about better food choices by being able to plan in advance. 

Of course the hard part is trying to stick to your meal plan for that day and I would say about 80% of the time I have done so, it's also good to plan in cheat meals, by this I mean days where you know you will be going out to a restaurant for a meal or to friends for dinner, or maybe a takeaway.  

My personal results so far,  I have reduced my body fat by 3% over a four week period which is pretty good and I have also lost 6.5 pounds in doing so. 

So here is what I did in summary 

1. Have an end goal in mind (whether it is a weight goal or to get into a dress size goal)
2. Track your eating habits using an app or a food counter or by writing it down
3. Plan your daily meals in advance using the app or writing it down and sticking to it
   Monitor your intake of macronutrients i.e. carbs, protein, fat daily. 
4. Adjust calorie intake as you lose weight (monthly)
5. Preplan a workout routine for the week including rest days
6. Make sure you drink 2 L or more of water on a daily basis. 
7. Plan your cheat days ahead so you know how much calories you will be taking in (If you do this on a heavy exercise day, you won't feel as bad!)
8. Increase your exercise activity to boost your calorie deficit rather than drop foods form your diet. 
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6 Myths Uncovered About Exercise

Weight season is still here! And a lot of us still have a struggle with doing the right amount of exercise per day, if any at all!

We all agree that exercise is good for you mentally and physically. But the question is How much? 

And the question of whether too much exercise actually damages the physical body or not is another blog post. 

So here goes, 12 myths  uncovered about exercise: 

1.  An hour in the gym gives you a good workout! 

An hour is in fact too long. Your muscles get tired after the first 20 minutes therefore being in the gym any longer than that has no further adverse affect.  You are better of splitting out your sessions into 3 x 10 minutes or 2 x 20 minute workouts spread out during the day. 

2. Exercise is good for you!

Exercise in a moderate amount is good for you, it is better to do some sort of exercise on a daily basis moderately for 10 to 15- 20 minutes rather than doing one big burst every now and then which actually does more damage to your health

3. Exercise is not good for people with joint problems. 

In fact this is the opposite. Light exercise such as walking, stretching, yoga, Pilates can help with reducing weight and also help to keep the body supple and improve the joints  

4. People who are overweight should not do exercise. 
In fact people who are overweight are the ones who need to do some sort of exercise.  Start of with a gentle walk, pace yourself and only do what you feel you can do, then as the weight comes down, you can push yourself a bit more.  Weight strengthening is also good for helping you to burn fat effectively, as this builds muscles and muscle burns fat. 

5. Stretching before workout out is crucial to preventing injury

Fact: Stretching after a workout can be beneficial, but stretching before a workout actually doesn't increase your range of motion. In fact, some studies suggest that stretching destabilize muscles, making them less prepared for strenuous exercise, especially if you're doing something like weight-lifting. Instead, do a warm-up, which gets your blood pumping. 

6. Lifting Weights will make you look bulky!

Fact: If you've been avoiding the free weights for fear of becoming the Incredible Hulk, no need to flee anymore. 

When it comes to increasing muscle size, testosterone is key. Men have 20 to 30 times the more testosterone than women, which is why they can bulk up so noticeably. But for you to reach Arnold Schwarzenegger proportions would require you to do far more weight-lifting than the average woman, plus have some sort of hormone imbalance (either genetic or synthetically induced, as with steroids). 

Using weight will help you lose weight faster and keep it off in the long run," notes Jeffrey Janot, PhD, an assistant professor of exercise physiology at South Dakota State University in Brookings. If you also do cardio, it'll help you retain muscle as you drop fat, as well as prevent your metabolism from slowing. So don't focus all your efforts on the elliptical machine — some bicep curls could actually help you reach your ultimate goal.

There you have it, if you have found this post useful, please leave 

me a comment below.

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4 Exercises To Help Burn Fat

I found this excellent blog post online. I use the 'my fitness pal' app to monitor my food intake and activity.  This has helped me identify my days when I don't do enough activity. These are great exercises you can do anywhere. 

Most dieters today assume they need expensive gym memberships, fancy running shoes, or restrictive eating plans to get in shape. But before that stuff was invented, people had to exercise using only their bodyweight.

Throughout history, bodyweight exercises have been a consistent component in military training regimes. And largely due to its inexpensive and convenient nature, bodyweight training has stuck around because it works. Outside of an armed forces setting, bodyweight exercises are used to train athletes, and have once again becoming a staple of many of the best fat burning and muscle building workouts available, anywhere.

Here are 5 of the best bodyweight exercises to help you burn fat in as little time as possible:

1. Jumping Jacks I know what you’re probably thinking, “Aren’t jumping jacks a little basic?”Well, yes and no. They’re basic in so far as they’re a simple exercise, and you probably did them in pre-school, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t effective.

Jumping jacks can help you burn fat and get fitter, but the real reason I put them at the top of the list is because they’re a great way to warm up. Performing them before your workouts or other bodyweight exercises will help prepare your body for exercise, making your workout more effective and increasing your fat burn.

2. Push-Ups Push-ups are one of the best upper body exercises in existence, hands down (pun intended!). Even with access to a barbell and dumbbells, I often opt for the good, old-fashioned push-up instead. That’s because they’re convenient (no waiting around for a machine to free up), they develop a great deal of strength, and they are arguably safer for the shoulders than many weight-bearing exercises. Plus, there are a ton of variations to make them more difficult.

The problem is, people don’t always do them properly. Here’s how to do them right:

• Keep your head, neck, torso, and hips in a straight line. (It helps to brace your abs.)
• Keep your elbows close to your body—don’t let them flare out.
• Lower yourself down, and then push back up in a controlled movement.
• If a regular push-up is too difficult, do them against a wall to begin with. Using the same form as above, stand facing a wall, place your hands against the wall in front of you and push back and forth. Over time, do this on lower surfaces (such as a sturdy table or chair), until you are eventually ready to do a regular push-up from the floor.
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3. Squats Squats are often hailed as the king of exercise moves.That’s because they involve a lot of muscles, which in turn means they burn a lot of calories. You learned to walk by squatting, but as natural this movement is, you might have forgotten how to do it. Here’s what you need to get started:

• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
• Keeping your heels planted, lower your body as far as you can by pushing your hips back and bending your knees until your thighs are parallel to the floor.
• Pause, and quickly stand back up again.
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4. Burpees Burpees are an awesome, calorie-torching, strength-building, full-body exercise. They’re also hard work, so it’s important you master your form and ease yourself in. Just follow these simple steps:

• First, get into a squat position (as above).
• At the bottom of the squat, reach your hands out and onto the floor in front of you.
• Kick your feet back into a push up position.
• Return your feet to the squat position as fast as possible.
• Immediately jump up into the air as high as you can.
• Squat back down and repeat!

The great thing about burpees is that they are a high-intensity exercise. This means that not only will you burn calories at the time, but they will ramp up your metabolism so much that you’ll be burning additional calories throughout the rest of the day.

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5. Jumping Rope Jumping rope is one of my all-time favorite exercises.It’s the only exercise on this list that requires some equipment, but a rope is so cheap I think I can get away with it. Similarly to jumping jacks, jumping rope is a great way to warm up, but the great thing about it is that it can easily be made more difficult. If you continually push yourself to get quicker, do it for longer, or learn new techniques, you can ensure that it never becomes too easy.

Keeping the intensity high is a sure-fire way to burn loads of calories and melt fat fast!

These are my go-to exercises when I’m traveling or can’t make it to the gym. What are your favorites? Let us know in the comments!

- See more at: http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/2014/05/5-bodyweight-moves-that-burn-fat-fast/#sthash.MtU7TWxQ.dpuf

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