Posts Tagged ‘fat burning’

Why eating 5 to 6 meals a day is the way to go when it comes to losing  fat, gaining  muscle and having more energy!

If you are still eating according to the old school, traditional “three meals per day” and have a tendency to gain weight, all your body sees is that it is starving between meals and is a formula for metabolic disaster!

Let’s take a look at the traditional meal schedule and why following this eating strategy will keep you from losing fat and in a fat storing mode instead of a fat burning one:

7 a.m. Breakfast
(next you have 5 hours between breakfast and lunch)
Noon Lunch
(next you have 7 hours between lunch and dinner)
7 p.m. Dinner
(now you have 12 hours between dinner and your next  breakfast!)

Anyone with weight issues is usually metabolically inefficient and reads this eating schedule as “Oh my God, I am starving between most of my meals and I am getting NO FOOD for 12 hours!  HOLD ONTO THE FAT!  We may need it for survival, especially since we do not know when we will be getting another meal after the 12 hour fast!”

This is a bad signal for your body to get, so the TRICK is to create an internal environment of nutrients in your body that gives it the “GREEN LIGHT” to let go of the FAT and keep your metabolism revved up as it is meant to be!  Now when your brain and muscle cells are fed good nutrients, consisting mostly of PROTEIN and some “good” CARBS in each meal, and you are eating frequently 5-6 meals throughout the day, you are giving your body a signal that you are not STARVING and able to survive without holding on to the FAT!

Have you ever wondered how those really “ripped” body builders or fitness models get so ripped?  Well speaking from experience and competing in numerous bodybuilding and fitness contests throughout the years, I can tell you the TRICK is eating around the clock, every 3 hours and sometimes even as many as 6-8 small meals throughout the day and evening hours too.  Sometimes waking up at 1-2 am and having a protein shake or a bowl of cottage cheese then at 5 a.m. for another protein shake or a few hard boiled eggs whites.  What happens when you eat this way is your body becomes tricked into thinking that it does not need to hold onto ANY FAT!  So the constant intake of the right foods, in the right combinations as I discuss in my e-book, Rapidly Ripped – The Ultimate Fat Burning System for Life, is one of the critical strategies to the process of releasing FAT and getting your body into a fat burning mode!  This is why the very low calorie/starvation diets don’t work and slow down your ability to lose fat much sooner than you like.  And by the way, since you are depriving yourself and eating less as opposed to eating more often, they are a miserable experience as well.

In part 2, I will discuss how eating 5-6 meals a day trains your brain to never feel hungry again, eliminate food cravings, why never to skip meals and what the right amount of food in each meal should be – to turn you into a fat burning machine!

By Charles Damiano
Nutrition and Fitness Expert
Bestselling author of “Rapidly Ripped”
The Ultimate Fat Burning System for Life!
Body-for-Life 2004 Grand Master Champion Winner

Have you ever heard that losing fat is 90% diet and 10% training?  Well, that’s the formula for losing weight, which is a very different goal than losing fat!  Most fitness experts or trainers will tell you that your diet is the most important component in your pursuit of a fat free body but that is only half the equation.  Simply cutting calories without exercising or even worse, doing the wrong type of exercise, doesn’t just burn fat.  It burns fat and MUSCLE!  So you will weigh less but your body will be weak and soft instead of lean, ripped and hard.  And you will be what we all try to avoid in the fitness world – a skinny fat person.

The fact is the way you train is every bit as important for fat loss as the way you eat.  Unfortunately, when most people think of exercising to lose weight, they think of aerobic activities, such as biking, running, swimming etc.  And while all burn lots of calories, which is important, if  like most people you have trouble sticking to a diet, but when it comes to burning pure FAT, long moderate, boring aerobic activity is simply overrated!

Below are 3 reasons why:

1.  Your body adapts to cardio.
The more you do cardio, the more efficient your body becomes at burning fat for fuel, causing you to burn fewer calories from your fat stores each time you exercise.

2.  It takes longer.
When your body adapts to aerobic activity, your workouts have to last increasingly longer in order to burn the same amount of calories.  This not only increasing the amount of time you have to spend working out but also increases the chances of your body breaking down its own muscle for fuel instead of fat!

3.  The benefits are temporary.
Slow moderate aerobic activity does not increase the amount of fat you burn after your workout.  This is known as the “afterburn.” This is an important concept I talk about in my new book “Rapidly Ripped-The Ultimate Fat Burning System for Life!” Your metabolism returns to normal shortly after stepping off the elliptical or treadmill.

THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAYS TO LOSE YOUR FAT!

The best way to get rid of unwanted body fat is hitting the weights.  The key is knowing exactly how to train to accelerate the rate at which your body burns fat, without sacrificing any of your hard earned muscle!  The first step is to forget about training individual body parts.  Instead of arms on one day and shoulders on another, and chest on yet another, think of your body as one large muscular unit and try to work as many muscles as possible in each resistance training session.  This is one of the key strategies behind The Rapidly Ripped Ultimate Fat Burning Workout. The concept of full body workouts combined with supersets and giant sets is KEY to your fat burning success!

Studies show the more muscle you stimulate in a workout, the greater the boost to your metabolism for the next 24-48 hours (a process we mentioned earlier known as the “afterburn”).  This means your body is continually burning fat at an increased rate long after your workout is over-even while you’re watching TV, driving to work or even sleeping!

So are you ready to start lifting or following the Rapidly Ripped Ultimate Fat Loss Workout DVD? Remember to aim for three full body workouts a week, resting a day in between to fully recovery.  Since you’re working your entire body each session, you want to avoid doing back to back workouts, in order to give your muscles time to recover for your next workout.  For ultimate fat loss, I suggest on alternate days you follow a short 20 minute HIIT cardio program. (More on this in my next post)

Here are 4 key points you must follow to maximize your FAT LOSS workout and get the most out of your muscles during each session.

1.  Use Free Weights.
Machines are designed to target individual muscle groups and will this will actually reduce to total amount of muscle involved to move the weight.For example, a leg extension machine works one muscle group: the quadriceps.  A  free weight squat, however, hits more than 250 muscles!

2.  Stand don’t Sit (whenever possible)
Nothing shuts off muscle involvement like lying or sitting down.   For example, a standing biceps curl is generally better than a seated curl because your back, hips, leg and even your toe muscles have to work to keep you standing, therefore burning more calories.

3.  Choose multi-joint, compound exercises.
Always pick exercises that force you to move at more than one joint.

Examples:
The Squat – involves the hip and knee joint,
The Bench Press – involves the shoulder and elbow joint.
The Bent over Row – involves the shoulder and elbow joint.

These  BIG lifts require a tremendous amount of energy, stimulating the release of muscle-building and fat burning hormones that will accelerate your fat loss and muscle building results.

4.  Go Heavy and aim for slightly heavier weights each week.
Conventional wisdom use to suggest that that we use high-rep, light weight workouts to help us lose fat and get ripped.  In reality, low-rep, heavy weight workouts burn more calories and also work more muscles, increasing the ever so important “after-burn” once you are done with the workout.  So you are burning calories and losing fat at an increased rate all day long – even at rest!  Low repetitions and heavy weight workouts also help preserve more of your muscle and have a much greater protective effect on your muscle, preventing it from being used for energy and ensuring that your weight loss comes purely from FAT! (not your hard earned muscle!)

The bottom line when lifting weights or performing body weight movements to lose fat is stick to 5-12 reps, using the heaviest weight that allows you to complete each rep in good form.  Perform 3-5 sets of 4-6 exercises per full body workout.

Bonus Tip:

If your ultimate goal is to incinerate the fat off your body and get ripped, you’ve got to keep rest periods between sets to a minimum.  Ideally 30-60 second rest at the most.  Research has shown that workouts that incorporate heavy weights and short rest periods not only challenge your body more during the workout itself, but also lead to a much more dramatic spike in the production of fat-burning hormones afterwards!

By Charles Damiano
Nutrition and Fitness Expert
Bestselling author of  Rapidly Ripped -
The Ultimate Fat Burning System for Life!
Body-for-Life 2004 Grand Master Champion Winner

Photo By: Tsja!

So what is this supplement that will help you increase fat burning?

I can tell you it is not a pill, not a magic potion, not a prescription drug, fad diet or secret formula….

And it is something none of us get enough of, yet we should all make a conscious effort to consume more of….

It is plain old simple Water!

WHY and how does this work?

Let’s understand why drinking water contributes to fat loss and maybe we will all become more conscious about drinking more water…

Drinking water increases fat burning. The reason is due to the fact that water relieves the burden on the liver by keeping your kidneys doing the filtering.

When kidneys are taxed from too little water your liver has to take over and help… and… your liver is your primary fat burning organ!

So… there you go.

But There’s More…

Here is a simple technique to increase fat loss even further…..

Drink 16 ounces of pure water 15 minutes before eating and you will drop weight.

Researchers testing hydration found that drinking water prior to meals significantly decreased the amount of food consumed.

One reason is: Your stomach feels fuller.

The other is more technical… In order to keep acidity levels optimized the body begins to increase its core temperature slightly. This state called “thermogenesis” is primed for fat burning purposes.

So you get a triple benefit from drinking water:

1. More appetite control
2. Increased thermogenesis (fat burning)
3. Increased hydration (less stress on liver =more fat burning.)

This makes plain old water the number one fat burner you can drink on the planet.

For ultimate fat burning make sure you are drinking 8-10 glasses of water a day. One with each of your 6 small balanced meals and four more throughout the day.

I shoot for a gallon of water a day and suggest you do the same.

For now, stay focused, stay consistent, train hard, eat smart and have fun.

By Charles Damiano
Nutrition and Fitness Expert
Bestselling author of Rapidly Ripped –
The Ultimate Fat Burning System for Life!
Body-for-Life 2004 Grand Master Champion Winner