To Lose Body Fat

If you’re wanting to know how to lose body fat but aren’t sure where to start, you’re not alone. Millions of Americans and people all over the world struggle with their weight every day. However, whether you are clinically obese or just overweight, losing body fat is actually not that complicated if you follow some basic fundamental rules.

Drink More Water
Firstly, you really need to considering drinking more water. It may sound simple but drinking enough water is vital in order to lose body fat and excess weight. Aim to drink at least 8 to 12 glasses of water throughout the day.  Without enough water your body will become dehydrated and your digestive system will not work as efficiently, resulting in weight gain.  That’s why it play such a vital role in shedding the fat. Just don’t be tempted to substitute juice or soda pop for water as the last thing your body needs is extra sugar running through your blood stream.

Eat Well
Proper nutrition is also key to fat loss. You need to eat right and when I say that I mean eating “real” food like fish, chicken, whole grains, and lots of vegetables (at least 5-6 servings per day). Eating enough vegetables is most important for nutrition, especially dark colored veggies, like broccoli, tomatoes, spinach, and kale. Avoid deep fried food and fast food in general. As for fruit, eating one or two pieces of fruit a day is okay but avoid drinking fruit juices; the last thing you need in your system, especially when trying to lose weight, is all that extra sugar.  Lastly, it probably goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway to be sure) that soda pop is definitely out as well for the same reasons.

Get Up and Move
Exercise in general will always help you lose weight if not simply for the fact that it burns calories and as most people know, if you burn more calories than you take in you’ll lose weight over time.  Exercise however also has many other benefits as well for your body such increasing flexibility and even reducing stress.  This is important because stress can actually prevent you from losing fat as it’s been proven to increase food cravings, especially empty carbohydrates, the worst kind.  As far as exercise to burn body fat, a low to medium cardiovascular workout such as a brisk walk or slow jog is probably the most effective exercise for shedding fat.

Build Muscle Mass
Finally, but equally important, you need to start building muscle mass. I’m not saying you need to become a bodybuilder but increasing your muscle mass through strength training will actually start to change your body’s metabolism and will as a result help you burn more fat even while at rest.  Using free weights is probably the most popular form of strength training as it’s both simple and effective.

Knowing how to lose body fat is the first step in your journey towards fat loss but now you need to act.  May today be the day you get started and change your body for good!

When trying to lose weight, you may wonder if there is a “Lose body fat diet” that you can follow and how much does it matter what types of food you eat when trying to burn fat?  Well, you may be surprised to know that even more than exercise, the largest factor in weight loss and especially with body fat loss is proper nutrition.

Proper nutrition is just so vital as this is what will be feeding your muscles as they grow and your fat is burned.  Without eating the right foods, your muscles will starve and you’ll find yourself back to where you started.

Here’s a great list of foods that should be part of your fat burning diet:

Skim Milk, which contains very little fat yet loaded with calcium acts as a metabolic trigger, boosting your metabolism.  Many studies have shown that those who daily consume low fat dairy products such as skim milk and low fat yogurt burn twice as much fat as those who don’t.

Whole grains such as whole grain cereal and whole grain bread are excellent sources of fiber and complex carbohydrates which help keep insulin levels low and your metabolism high.  You might have heard a lot of talk about how carbs are keeping you fat but this is not true at all.  Your body needs carbohydrates to function normally and starving your body of carbohydrates is no way to lose weight.  What you should stay away from are the processed carbs such as white bread.

Fish such as salmon and albacore tuna is probably the best meat for your body.  Not only is it highly rich in protein but is also a great source of Omega-3 fatty acids.  These fatty acids help keep your leptin hormonal levels down which as a result increases your calorie burn rate.

Dark colored vegetables such as tomatoes, broccoli, spinach, peppers, and asparagus are extremely healthy for your body especially if they are eaten raw or lightly steamed.  Dark colored veggies particularly contain large amounts of vitamins and minerals and vegetables are low in calories and high in fiber; the best combination for burning fat and feeling full.

These foods should definitely help you shed fat but instead of having a preset lose body fat diet, use the foods listed above as well as other fat burning foods and prepare yourself a variety of meals each day.  If you need ideas there are lots of great fat burning cookbooks you can buy.  The goal here is to change the way you eat so that it becomes part of your healthy lifestyle and no longer a “diet”.

If you’re aiming to lose body fat you’ll probably ask yourself what the ideal body fat percentage is.

Firstly however it’s important to understand a little about the role of fat in the body and why fat is a actually a good thing.  I know that might sound strange in this day and age of the media constantly telling you fat is bad but the truth is fat is essential to your body and without this essential fat your body would not be able to function normally.  Attempting to go below what’s known as your “essential fat” is not only bad for your health but extremely dangerous.

A typical human body has anywhere from 50 to 250 billion fat cells which are stored in many different areas throughout the body including the thighs, waste, buttocks, around your organs such as the kidneys and liver and even within muscle.  Fat has many uses within the body including the insulation and protection of vital organs but the main purpose of fat is to store energy for future use.  When your body needs energy it can break down the contents of fat cells using enzymes to release fatty acids into the bloodstream which can then be transported to any area of the body.  Your body can then convert these fatty acids into a usable form of energy, adenosine triphosphate (ATP).

Now that you know a bit about how fat is used in the body and why it’s important, with this frame of mind should you set your ideal body fat goal.  Unsurprisingly there is no one ideal percent body fat for everyone but you can set a realistic goal for yourself by taking into account your age, gender, and body type.  You should also determine whether you are aiming to be at an athletic level of body fat or just in a healthy range.  The following are some charts indicating the ranges for body fat percentage in both men and women:

Body Fat Percentage Chart for Men

Body Fat Percentage Chart for Women

As you can see from the charts above, your ideal body fat percentage is very dependent on your age and gender.  Another thing that’s evident from these charts is that the ranges for women and men are very different. Women naturally have more body fat than men and for good reason. Fat is vital for reproduction so in case of pregnancy fat stores are maintained on a woman’s body.

Lastly, it’s important to note that your ideal percent body fat is also very much dependent on how you feel and what level your individual body performs it’s best so do not think that lower is automatically better.

As an alternative to the body fat scale, body fat calipers can also be used to measure body fat relatively accurately.  Body fat calipers resemble a pair of large tweezers which are used to measure skin folds in order to calculate the amount of fat under a person’s skin, otherwise known as subcutaneous fat.

When using calipers, you need to measure skin folds in at least three areas of your body which must include your belly, thighs, and triceps.  If it’s your first time using calipers, it’s highly recommend that you let a professional do it the first few times and ask him to show you how.  That way you can learn to use them in the correct manner and vastly improve your accuracy when measure your own body fat.

Calipers can range in quality and price widely, from $10 all the way up to $300 or more.  Why such a vast range in price?  Well, as with most things you get what you pay for and when buying a pair of calipers, it’s no different.  Now that doesn’t mean you need to buy the most expensive pair of calipers on the market and a higher price doesn’t necessarily mean better accuracy.  The most important things to look for when buying calipers is to find some that are of a reputable brand such as those by Accufitness or Lange and that can hold a steady level of tension.  If the calipers you buy can not consistently hold a steady of tension, the accuracy can be thrown way off. All this being said you should be able to get a decent pair of calipers for $30 to $40.

How accurate are body fat calipers?  Well, like anything the answer is “it depends”.  The biggest factors that can affect their accuracy however include the person using them and the quality of the fat calipers.  On average though, if used properly fat calipers have about a 3-4% margin of error.  Overall they can be slightly more accurate than a body fat scale simply because they are not influenced by external factors such as whether you recently worked out, drank water, or ate a meal; all of which can affect your typical body fat scale.

Though underwater or hydrostatic weighing is by far the most accurate way to measure body fat, it’s just too impractical.  Using body fat calipers, like the body fat scale, is a great alternative to this and much more convenient and economical for the average person.

A lot of people will use a bathroom scale for measuring their weight. This is okay for general weight loss but if you are focused on losing body fat specifically, body fat scales are much more suitable.

The main problem with your typical bathroom scale is that it only gives you the weight of your entire body; your fat, muscle, organs, blood, even what you ate for dinner are all thrown together into this one number.  This is just plain misleading and certainly not a good way to measure body fat. It’s common for example that a person after going through a weight loss program for several weeks could end up at the same weight they started with.  How can this be? Simple; muscle weighs more than fat. The weight that you lose from shedding fat was made up the muscle you gained. In other words you could be well on your way to reaching your body fat goal but instead think you are no better off than you started!

Therefore, if you seriously want to lose body fat, you should consider investing in a good body fat scale also known as a fat monitor. Fortunately, body fat scales are actually quite common nowadays so you should have no trouble finding one in your local department store or fitness shop. Also, if you can, try to purchase a body fat scale that contains a body water monitor as well. A body water monitor will help indicate whether you are dehydrated. This is important as not only is dehydration bad for your overall health, it can actually slow the progress of body fat loss.

You might be wondering how a body fat scale works? A body fat monitor measures the resistance of a small electrical current that passes up one of your legs through your body and down the other leg. The way it measures this electrical resistance is by what’s know as Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA). Since water is a good conductor of electricity, the way BIA is able to differentiate fat from muscle is because unlike fat which contains very little water, muscle is roughly 75% water.  The electrical current can therefore pass through the muscle with much less resistance.

With a 4-5% margin of error, body fat scales are not the most accurate way to measure your body fat percentage but are still close enough to meet most people’s needs and the sheer convenience makes them a highly useful tool in the path towards your body fat goal.