*1 Fat Burning 101 Unfortunately, your body hates to burn fat…and it works really hard to make sure it doesn’t have to. And there’s a good reason for it. It’s your body’s survival mechanism to store excess fat as an emergency energy storage depot, and it only wants to use it when it has to – like when you’re stuck on the side of a mountain for three weeks with only bugs, bark, and bunny rabbits to live on. (and you’ve got to be pretty good to get enough rabbits to keep from losing weight!) That’s what makes losing the extra fat so hard – your body is actually fighting against you unless you can “trick” it into using fat as an energy source. And how do you do that? Your body’s primary and desired energy source is carbohydrates. But if we restrict your carbohydrate intake and operate at a slight caloric deficit (taking in less calories than you require), we force your body to start burning fat as an energy source – also known as ketosis. Problem is restricting carbs is HARD since we’re so used to eating them in almost EVERYTHING we consume these days. Carbs are everywhere, so keeping them restricted can be challenging at first. But once you get the hang of it, it’s not impossible as long as you can control your cravings (more on that later). In fact, you may actually like it because it means you get to eat more lean meats and healthy fats, like steak, chicken, shrimp, fish, eggs, avocados, and heavy whipping cream and actually LOSE body fat at the same time. Eat More Of This – All The Time! Generally, a diet of fewer than 50g of carbohydrates per day will put you into ketosis quite quickly, especially if you work out and deplete the glycogen currently stored in your muscles. If this seems too extreme to you, try keeping your carbs to under 100g a day for a few weeks and see how it works for you, then drop down to below 50g per day. There are some great parts about this eating method, and 2 of them are that 1) you get to keep all the muscle you’ve developed and 2) you won’t be hungry. There is a catch to all this, but it’s actually a good one! If you stay in a low-carb state for too long, your body adjusts and starts to shut down some of the fat-burning mechanisms in order to keep the stored energy as long as possible (remember being stuck on the side of the mountain?). So periodically we need to remind your body it’s not going to self-destruct if it keeps up the fat burning, and we do that by eating carbs once a week. On your “carb-up” day, you get to eat pretty much whatever you want and not worry about fat spill-over. This might be a bit much…but you can indulge once a week without worrying about gaining fat! Don’t go crazy or anything, but just know you’re ok to have some of that pizza or pasta you’ve been eyeing all week. You get to put a little glycogen back in your system to help fuel your workouts, your body realizes it’s ok to keep up the fat burning, and you get to indulge a little each week! So, that covers the diet part – simply cut carbs down to 100g or less per day and consume approximately 200 calories less per day than you need. And once you’ve achieved your fat loss goals, you can slowly add clean carbs back in and eat a more “balanced” diet while still maintaining your desired body fat levels!
Posted on: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 15:52:58 +0000
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