Losing Body Fat Information Overload? Cut The Fat

Water, Water, Water! I can not begin to stress enough how important staying hydrated is. One of these days I am going to create an entire Lens about it! It would take a hundred Lenses to go into ALL of the health issues resulting from and aggravated by dehydration. NONE of your bodies' systems can function at a complete and total optimum level if you are dehydrated... period! As for your weight loss goals, to keep it simple as planned, when you are dehydrated, and most people are and don't realize it, your body will retain all the liquid it can causing excess water weight. Drink a lot of water regularly, and your body will release all that excess water. Drink an absolute bare minimum of 64. oz every single day, more is better. I generally drink around 100 to 120 oz. I keep one of those giant 64 ounce mugs with a lid filled with ice water sitting on my kitchen counter. Every time I walk past it I grab it and take a swig or two. Before you know it, it's gone.

If your eating habits are terrible, then you can work-out until you are blue in the face and probably never lose much weight and you will never lose those really stubborn fat deposits that that tend to grace our bellies, butts, and thighs. So lets work it out. About those calories, I don't keep a food journal, I don't track calories per day. I know, I just threw myself to the wolves right? Now I didn't say I don't count calories at all, I do it per meal and snack. That is much easier. Another words I take my calories, let's say you are a woman who wants to lose about 40 pounds and you are going to consume 1400 calories each day. If you are exercising and fairly active throughout the day, this is a good number to work with. You should consume 3 meals and 2 snacks (yes, I eat a snack between dinner and bed time and you should too! Your body should not go that many hours without food!). So if you keep each meal around 400 calories and each snacks around 100 calories you will be on track. Of course you can work with that, I just find it much easier than toting around a journal all day writing everything down. Then you get to dinner and find you have no calories left!

Your calories should contain lean proteins, "good" fats, simple carbohydrates, and a lot of FRESH fruits and vegetables. Avoid processed foods that contain chemicals like packaged lunch meat or can goods. Canned Tuna in water is fine and I do use canned beans but I rinse them well. Get your lunch meat from the deli and choose frozen vegetables over canned. Use olive oil and your favorite vinegar instead of salad dressing, and prepare your foods either baked, grilled, or broiled. Put some olive oil in a spray bottle and use in place of chemical laden cooking spray. I you are consuming these types of foods, you will find that it takes a lot of it to add up to 1400 calories. You won't go hungry.

Of course any type of physical activity is going to burn calories so get out there and move. Kick around the soccer ball with your kids, take the stairs instead of the elevator, walk to the corner store for that loaf of bread instead of drive, and take the parking spot thats no where near the door at the store. Any small changes you make in your daily schedule to be a little more active will really add up. As far your exercise schedule goes, you don't have to work out for hours on end to achieve fat loss. What you do need to do is include both cardiovascular exercise and strength training. Cardio will raise your metabolism while you are doing it to burn of calories as well as improve the overall health of your lungs and heart and build your endurance. Strength training will do just that, strengthen your muscle and cause muscle growth. Muscle burns fat and calories all the time, even while you sleep, so the more you have the more fat you burn. Now, no need to go all Arnold on us, some hand weights and using the proper technique to target specific muscles will do the trick. Grab a couple good weight training magazines like Oxygen or Muscle and Fitness and check out some of the guides. These are great resources for learning great strength training exercises. Pick up a couple DVDs to guide you through your workout. There are some great DVDs out there that combine both cardio and strength training into one workout. This is a great resource if your short on time.