The SecretIf you want to lose weight, you are told that in order to do so, you have to consume fewer calories than what your body burns on a given day. While this is true, simply reducing your caloric intake below what you burn on a given day will not guarantee you the results you are looking for.
When we talk about losing weight, in reality we are talking about losing body fat and maybe some excess water weight (and this kind of weight goes away within a few days after you start a proper program). Examples of weight that we don’t want to lose are muscle and even bone weight. However, if you don’t know what you are doing, these last two tissues will actually account for a large portion of your weight loss, and thus, your results will be undesirable and you will be more prone to gaining even more fat weight!
The reason for this is because muscle is what gives shape to your body, and furthermore, it plays a huge role in the amount of calories that your body burns on any given day. Muscle is a metabolically active tissue and it requires calories in order to continue to exist. Therefore, if you lose muscle, not only do you lose body shape, but also your body’s metabolism (ability to burn calories) is dramatically reduced as well! Unfortunately, many of the fad diets today result in exactly what I just described. This is the reason why once people get frustrated with the program, and they abandon it, new fat weight gets added in a fast and furious manner.
CortisolCortisol is a stress hormone secreted by the adrenal glands during periods of physical and emotional stress. Cortisol is a hormone that when secreted in excess, preserves body fat, stores water weight and burns muscle tissue for energy.
Dieting is a physical stress and if you do it in excess and incorrectly, you will increase cortisol levels dramatically and thus end up preserving body fat and losing muscle instead. This is yet another reason why you need to incorporate the right diet into your program.
Meal Management
Going more than 3 hours without food is a sure fire way to increase your cortisol levels and also lower your blood sugar, which in turn will give you low energy, food cravings, less muscle tissue and reduced fat loss due to the cortisol increase. Therefore, it is imperative that you graze throughout the day and that you have a small meal every 3 hours in order to keep your metabolism going.
Macronutrient ManagementIn order to lose just body fat, first we need to create a slight caloric deficit by adding some physical activity and also by controlling our food portions (as specified in my Fat Extinction Program). There is no need to starve, as if you do so, cortisol will rear its ugly head.
Once that caloric deficit is created, then you need to establish macronutrient management. Macronutrients are
Carbohydrates (foods that give you energy like rice, potatoes, oatmeal, fruits and vegetables), Proteins (foods like eggs, chicken, turkey that give you the building blocks for your body tissues such as muscles, bones, hair, skin and nails) and Fats (yes, you heard right, fats, as the right fats like extra virgin olive oil, flaxseed oil, and fish oils support hormonal production, thus aiding with health, energy production and even fat loss!).
Taking the right amount of macronutrients, in the right quantities and at the right times is crucial to achieving the best results! Why? Because when you combine the macronutrients properly, you stimulate the release of fat burning hormones that will not only help you to lose fat, but also give you more energy and protect muscle tissue from being burned as well as preventing cortisol from rising! In addition, these hormones will suppress your appetite and accelerate your metabolism so that your fat can become extinct in no time!
A simple way to start managing your macronutrients is to make sure that you have an equal amount of carbs and proteins in each meal with a little bit of essential fats. You can use the size of your palm as a measure for the size of your protein serving while you can use your clenched fist as a measure of the amount of carbs to have in each meal. Add to each meal some vegetables and a teaspoon of essential fats and this alone will get you started on the path to Fat Extinction! If you have not done so already, make sure to sign up for a free newsletter and body fat analysis where I tell you how many macronutrients (and calories) you must eat on a daily basis to lose belly fat!