Identifying the Problem
Plant firmly in your head the fact that the problem is not excess fat; fat is only the outer most symptom. The real problem is the lack of Fat- burning muscle underneath the fat. As muscle gives way to fat, not only does muscle decrease, thereby lessening the need for calories, but also the chemistry of the remaining muscle changes in such a way as to require fewer calories.
Dieting may decrease fat, but it cannot increase the amount of muscle or reverse the badly altered chemistry of the muscles. Additionally, dieting does nothing to improve the body shape. If a person was fat and a pear shaped before a diet, they will be skinny and a pear shaped afterward. Furthermore, your situation might actually worsen; radical dieting, unbalanced dieting shots, liquid diets and fasting have been shown to decrease muscle mass while a person loses weight.
We have developed such a mania for losing weight that we overlook what the lost weight consists of. Suppose I were to call you on the telephone with the exciting news that the local supermarket was selling twelve pounds for only $5.99! Your reaction would be, “Twelve pounds of what?”. Well, that’s what I ask when someone tells me of a terrific diet that guarantees you will lose twelve pounds in 10 weeks, or no time at all – “Twelve pounds of what?”. Unfortunately, while losing fat, you may also lose muscle, which decreases the need for calories and makes the problem worse.
All of us think of someone we know who has gone on a diet only to end up looking gaunt and haggard. Compare over-eaters and under-eaters to many people who have exercised their bodies to low fat levels. They are full-bodied, healthy individuals who lead active lives without being constantly concerned about the number of calories they eat. Exercise increases muscle, tones it, alters its chemistry and increases the metabolic rate. All of these effects mean that you burn more calories even when you’re asleep.
Spot Reducing
Next to quick weight loss diets, spot reducing has to be the biggest rip-off foisted on the American public. Most of us laugh at those old-fashioned bumping and rolling devices that were supposed to jiggle the fat away. But I’ll bet almost every woman has been suckered into doing leg lifts, and butt blasting exercises to get rid butt and thigh fat, and every man has done sit-ups to work off his belly fat. I’m as guilty as anyone. I was starting to get a little roll around my midsection, so I did sit-ups – in the morning, in the afternoon and in the evening. I did more than three hundred sit-ups a day! My abdominals muscles got hard as rock, but the fat on top never moved. My belly felt like jell-o on top of a washboard.
Let me say it load and clear: YOU CANNOT SPOT REDUCE! You cannot work a specific muscle with the idea that the fat on top of the muscle will be burned off. Just because fat tends to collect in specific areas doesn’t mean working that area is going to dislodge it. In women, fat tends to be deposited in the upper thighs and buttocks; in men, it collects in the belly. But, the fat doesn’t belong to those areas. Exercising those muscles to lose the fat in those areas is silly. Fat is like blood. If you cut your finger, you don’t get finger blood. The fat on your thighs isn’t thigh fat – it’s just fat.
“How do I get to where I want to be?”
- You must graze frequently. These frequent meals are what will regulate your blood sugar levels… and assist your fat burning engines. It is the small, or no breakfast, then skipping meals throughout the day that suppresses your metabolism. If you do not put fuel in the car, it has nothing to burn. Eating three times per day or skipping meals will only slow your fat-burning process and promote the loss of lean body weight (LBW). Your body will actually eat away muscle tissue and store fat.
- You must plan. It is the first step to a healthier lifestyle. Planning your meals will omit non-nutritious foods, and replace them with foods more conducive to your health goal. By planning, you make certain you will stay on a successful eating pattern.
- You must drink as much water as possible. Incredible as it may seem, water is quite possibly the single most important factor in losing weight and keeping it off. For less water retention and permanent weight loss, FixMyFitnessClub.com recommends that you drink .65 fluid ounces multiplied by your current body weight. Here is why:
- Water suppresses the appetite.
- Water helps your body metabolize fat cells.
- Kidneys cannot function without it.
- The more you drink the less you retain.
- Water helps maintain proper muscle tone.
- Water helps prevent sagging skin.
- Water helps rid the body of waste.
- If you use the scale, you will fail. Dramatic changes in body composition (your muscle to fat ratio) can occur without a drastic decrease in overall weight.
- You must take your lifestyle and current habits into consideration. With our help, support, and recommendations, you will achieve increased self-awareness and modify your behavior.
We want you to utilize this information as a learning tool. We want you to think, because there are more then 30,000 diets registered in the U.S. Every time you turn around our minds are being flooded with more diets and gimmicks. We ingest too much confusion and therefore, we do not understand what it means to eat well. With all the fitness and diet guru’s bombarding us with a new fangled celebrity diets… the confusion and false hopes escalate to proportions that leave us with another failure. It is a way to brainwash us into thinking there is another way for a quick fix. This is an insult! In addition, I personally take that to heart, and so should you! Diets do not work period! Skipping meals make you FAT! This is why there is diet book after diet book and people are still searching for answers and are still struggling.
The answer is not in the diet book – it’s within you.
#Dave Parise #Fitnessfixer #Fixmyfitnessclub
