Do you work out regularly and eat pretty healthy yet you can’t seem to lose any weight? Or maybe you lose weight but not body fat. Well believe it or not there is more to managing weight than calories in vs. calories out. Here are some helpful tips to help you shed that extra weight.
1. Do Cardio on an Empty Stomach: Most people do cardio at the beginning of their workout in order to warm up. Although you can definitely use cardio as a warm up you should do your full cardiovascular workout either first thing in the morning on an empty stomach or after your strength training workout. The reason: Your body will burn fat deposits for energy since there is no carbs (glycogen) stored yet. Just make sure the workout isn’t more than 20-30 minutes so you don’t lose any muscle mass. 2. Strength Training & Sleep are a Must! Although cardio does help and is needed to lose fat strength training is equally important. I know a lot of folks especially women who do cardio everyday: spin class, cardio sculpt, run on treadmills & ellipticals yet still don’t lose any weight. You need strength training in order to shape, tone & build the muscles that increase your metabolism. "You don't grow in the gym, you grow out of the gym." Sleep also plays a huge role in weight loss. It's not just recovery but it's when your muscles repair themselves. This will in turn increase your metabolism and the amount of calories you burn throughout the day & in your sleep.
3. Don’t overstress the body! When you overdue the gym (ex. cardio for bouts of 50 minutes or more) you will begin to lose muscle instead of fat. Muscles increases your metabolism and is needed in order to burn fat so if you lose muscle you won’t burn fat. Secondly, continued stress leads to excess cortisol production. Cortisol is a hormone involved in the body’s response to stress. It increases blood sugar levels, increases blood pressure, and suppresses the immune system. The excess of blood sugar (glucose) is typically converted into fat and ends up stored as fat in the body.
4. Say No to Diet Products: this includes diet sodas, gum, and more. Diet products usually contain aspartame which is an artificial sweetener (ex. "Nutrasweet) it is over 200 times sweeter than sugar. It is a deadly poison that actually contributes to weight gain by causing carbohydrate cravings and the body to hold on to fat.
5. Food Allergies: Food Allergies cause digestive problems, health problems & contribute to weight gain. It causes water retention and water weight gain because the body attempts to dilute the poison entering the system while the fat cells expand to offer protection from foreign invaders. People with allergies lug around toxins, water and fat cell buffers.
6. Contaminated Meat: You really are what you eat! The chemicals that are given to animals that we eat; we also consume the chemicals. The growth hormones used to fatten cows up & produce more milk are making us larger as well. Some cows are even given cement dust just to make weight before being sold. Go Organic!!!!
7. Food Chemical and Processed: Chemicals found in processed food and commercially grown fruits, vegetables, and meat could also interfere with weight loss and contribute to obesity. The fact is, our bodies cannot utilize, digest or properly eliminate such toxic chemical compounds. Chemicals get absorbed for an indefinite period of time, impending digestion and adding extra pounds to our weight. 8. Candida: (aka yeast) can have an unpredictable effect on our metabolism. When the metabolism is unstable, people unfortunately tend to gain weight rather than lose it. Candida can also cause tremendous cravings for sugar and refined carbohydrates- that’s what it feeds on.
9. Toxic and Impacted Colon: The average healthy colon weighs about 5lbs. but most of us carry around 10-25 pounds of fecal matter. When we don’t eliminate as much as we take in then it creates a hard shell, which gets thicker and thicker throughout the years.
10. Medications: Certain medications can contribute to weight gain and put a damper of weight loss attempts. Some of the worst offenders are: birth control pills, anti-depressents, tranquilizers, hormones such as estrogen & steroids and ant- arthritic medications.
No comments:
Post a Comment