Posts Tagged ‘fat loss’

Why eating 5 to 6 meals a day is the way to go when it comes to losing body fat, eliminate food cravings and having increased energy!

Eating six small balanced meals per day trains your brain that it is “never really hungry” due to the constant stretch on the upper stomach that comes with this kind of regular eating.  See when your upper stomach gets stretched your stomach feels full and it then sends a signal to your brain that you are full and you feel satisfied.  The appetite satisfaction that you get from the protein rich meals balanced with good Carbs on the Rapidly Ripped Eating program, last about 2-1/2 – 3 hours!  In addition, since you are eating every 3 hours on the Rapidly Ripped Eating program, you basically don’t have time to develop those deep hunger cravings that messes up just about any eating plan and just when your stomach is beginning to growl and feeling hungry it is time for your next meal.

With this type of eating strategy you are training your brain that there is no time to really ever feel hungry.  Your brain and body are cared for and its nutrient needs are being met.  This is why the six meal eating strategy you will learn in the complete Rapidly Ripped Fat Burning System for Life severely decreases and in some cases eliminates food cravings!

When you follow a DIET you are depriving yourself of food and starving your body but on the Rapidly Ripped Eating plan you are feeding and nourishing your body every 3 hours, six times a day so when do you have time to feel hungry and when do you fit in cheating?  Constantly stretching your stomach TRICKS your brain into feeling full most of the time.  When you begin the program you will be amazed that you are never really hungry and you feel like you are always eating.  You may even feel like you want to skip a meal because you are always satisfied and may even feel full-but Don’t!  Remember, skipping meals will only begin to slow down your metabolism and place you back into a fat storing mode tricking your body into thinking it is approaching famine or starvation mode and will hold onto the FAT!

Eating six meals a day creates a “metabolic environment” that supports your energy and muscle metabolism, while helping you burn bodyfat.  Study after scientific study has shown this to be so and a recent published report in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition cites that people who ate six times a day had a faster metabolism rate than those who ate just three meals daily.  The study showed eating meals frequently throughout the day every 3 hours, like we promote on the Rapidly Ripped Eating Strategy, allows you to burn fat more efficiently!

In part 3, I will discuss what the right amount and the right combinations of food should be in each meal – 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