The goal of getting fit and in shape is a popular one. This article will give you some tips on how to burn fat and build muscle that will stand you in good stead in your quest for good physical conditioning.
Cut down your intake of saturated fats and simple carbohydrates. There is debate about the health profile of animal fats (which are the main source of saturated fats), but there is no doubt that saturated fats when not metabolized (i.e. burned) are stored as body fat. The same goes for carbohydrates (sugars), especially simple ones. Most American diets get way too much of both anyway so cutting them down is pretty much always a good idea. And if you want to lose fat based weight it's an obvious first step.
Eat a balanced diet. Reducing calories doesn't mean that you starve yourself or live on only salad and Perrier water. Both for health reasons and even to effectively build muscle while you burn fat you need to eat items from the four food groups: protein, carbohydrates, fats, and water. It's not a question of what to exclude certain food types from your diet, but to eat healthier sources of it and in amounts suited to your calorie expenditure.
Make the amount of carbohydrates and fats (which are the main quick energy fuels your body uses) proportional to your energy expenditure. The fact is that when you eat carbohydrates and fats, if they are more than you need for the amount of energy you're expending they're more likely to be stored as fats. Kind of hard for the lounge around snacker to really embrace this, but you need to pay attention to this if burning fat is your goal.
When given a choice, eat proteins rather than fats, and complex carbohydrates rather than simple ones. The standard American diet is high in both proteins and saturated fats, so getting enough of either is no problem, unless you're attempting some sort of extreme diet. The key is to keep it moderate and emphasize one - namely protein. Since meet has a lot of saturated fats, you can use nuts, beans, rice, wheat, and brown rice as substitutes. Seldom complete proteins on their own these foods usually are complete when combined so they will supply with most of the protein content you need, with much less fat. Poultry and fish also have less fat, ad the fat they do have is often more essential. Complex carbs are found in fruits, vegetables and grains. These are sugars, but being integrated into healthier foods and being more "slow release" they are preferable in many senses to simple sugars that are either burned immediately or put into fat form for storage. So favor them when possible.
Eat plenty of fiber (roughage). Leafy green vegetables, grains, and fruits all have material called fiber that helps complete digestion and elimination of cholesterols. Saturated and other fats are converted by the liver into cholesterol and getting rid of it helps the liver function more effectively and has a number of other health and fitness benefits. Often complex carbohydrates double as fiber sources so you can take are of two things at once by eating these foods. Drink a lot of water. Yes, you've heard it before and it's true. The body is largely composed of water and needs it in adequate quantity to run smoothly. It is the prime factor in all kinds of metabolic functions, transmission of nutrients, and waste disposal. Eight cups per day is recommended.
Try a few "metabolic tricks." These include: eating smaller potions - that's fairly obvious one. Another technique that may seem counterintuitive at first is to eat more frequently. This boosts metabolism by stimulating the metabolic process more frequently but of course goes hand in hand with lowered calorie intake (less fat and carbs, same level of protein) and smaller portions. A third well known trick is to avoid eating just before bedtime, since metabolism slows way down when you're asleep thus setting your body up to view the food you've intaken as "surplus" and storing it (as fat).
Do primarily intense muscular exercise. This "tip" needs a few paragraphs to really elucidate. Combing it with the nutritional wisdom above is what really gets the burn fat - build muscle process going.
Do intense muscular exercise. This "tip" is actually a foundational principle which is becoming clearer and clearer in the fitness industry. We need to go into it a little so it is fully understood.
Intense muscular demand is about the highest calorie-using activity there is. In the past it was thought that long aerobic workouts were the way to go for this, but it's now clear that what aerobic workouts primarily do is make demands on muscle, but in a low intensity - high duration framework. Thus what's really happening is that you're combining oxygenation and increased circulation (which admittedly are good for you) with less demanding muscular exercise. This will build endurance, but it doesn't burn more fat than, say, weight lifting. In fact many say it burns less, and it certainly doesn't build muscle in the way more intense muscle activity does. So in the burn fat - build muscle equation, muscular activity at a fairly intense level is what is called for. This really creates a demand for more energy, and thus tells the body to burn fat like nothing else.
Think of proteins as the building blocks or the raw materials of a muscular construction project. And think of fats and sugars as the fuels, say the gas and electricity for the construction vehicles, tools, and other equipment to continue the analogy, that power the whole enterprise. If these fuels are not used for muscle building, all they are needed for is routine function, and thus tend to be stored as fat for future use.
This is why reducing fat at the same time as intense muscular activity is such a good combination. And in the fitness industry exercise workouts are beginning to reflect this, emphasizing things like interval training, lifting, body weight exercises, slow burn techniques and so on more and more. This is in contrast to the workouts of the pat which tended to emphasize long cardio-vascular type workouts as the fat burners.
Use common sense in your quest to burn fat and build muscle and try to grasp the basic principles rather than get lost in complicated formulas. Use more specific tips and tricks where applicable, but basically get that muscle construction project going, get healthy raw materials to make a strong structure, and get that fat burning to fuel it.
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