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!

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.