First Aid Advisor

Many people are still under the misguided assumption that reducing calorie intake is the solution to weight loss. Although calorie intake is a factor, it is far from being the ideal solution most believe.

consuming fewer calories results in a slow down of the metabolic rate and a reduction in the number of calories burned. Thus, there will be little long term beneit.

The latest research clearly shows that a combination of steps will have a permanent impact on your weight loss.

In step 1 you will eat smaller portions but eat more often throughout the day. Your metabolism increases whenever you eat. Going for long periods without food often sets up a situation where the body burns muscle tissue. Muscle tissue increases fat burning, so it’s a good ides to keep as much muscle as you can. You can solve this problem by eating small meals throughout the day.

Detoxifing the colon by cleaning it out is the second step. Many people have 5-10 pounds of waste in their intestines. By eliminating this excess waste you can easily drop five to ten pounds in a hurry.

Additionally, by eliminating this waste your body will be able to absorb the nutrients from the foods you eat much more efficiently.

In step 3 you eat more quality protein, while lowering your carbohydrate intake and dietary fat. You can get high quality protein from chicken breast, salmon and other lean meats like sirloin. High protein food help build muscle tissue which increases metabolism.

Don’t slash your carbohydrate intake. Carbohydrates are fuel for our bodies and supply our energy needs. However, overeating carbohydrates often results in a spike in insulin which can result in excess fat storage.

Because body fat and dietary fat are similar, the body is very efficient at storing dietary fat as body fat. Anyone trying to lose weight does not need a lot of dietary fat.

Protein revs up the motabolism. The fact that it supports normal thyroid hormone levels indicates it plays a big role in fat burning.

Eating foods that burn fat is step four. Vegetables alter the way your body handles foods by tempering the release of insulin. Since elevated insulin can make the body more efficient at storing fat, eating vegetables will decrease the chance that the body will enter a fat-storing state.

Another important reason to eat more vegetables is that some, like broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower have fat fighting compounds called indoles. These indoles interfere with the uptake of estrogen which is body fat friendly and is produced by both men and women.

The fifth step is to use nutritional supplements. Science has discovered unique compounds in some foods that you can get in supplement form that helps the body burn fat. Some of these include green tea, acai berry, whey protein and even cold water fish oil.

Other supplements, for example hoodia, will decrease appetite and food cravings.

Step six involves weight training which increases metabolism and burns more fat than slow cardio. Scientists have now concluded that resistance training, such as weight lifting, keeps metabolism boosted longer than cardio training. this works on two distinct levels.

1st, lifting weights enhances the formation of muscle tissue. The more muscle tissue you have, the higher your metabolic rate.

Second, lifting weights will stimulate the release of anabolic hormones. Anabolic hormones rev up the metabolism resulting in increased fat burning. Additionally, because the body requires calories for the rebuilding process, after weight training you will maintain a high metabolic state long after you’ve finished exercising.

Step 7 is doing high impact cardio. When I speak of high impact cardio I’m referring to quick but short bursts of energy followed by a slow down or rest period. Not only will this burn more calories than slow cardio, but will have an effect similar to weight training by keeping the metabolism revved longer.

cardio should be done first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. Because this is when blood glucose is low, the body will burn fat rather than glucose.

Cardio should be limited to ten to fifteen minutes. But these ten to fifteen minutes should work you more than 30 -40 minutes of slow-low impact cardio and will burn more calories. High impact cardio will give you a good sweat after 10 to 15 minutes.

The take away from this artice is that weight loss involves more than just counting calories.  

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