Understand that everyone has their own fitness goals and that everyone's "relative healthiness" is different across the board, mainly due to what your genetics say. But one thing is certain, your body composition or your lean muscle mass in relation to your % body fat is a ratio everyone must care about, everything outside of that falls into semantics.
What is fat?: Fat is a body tissue essential to your survival, it allows your brain and nervous system to function properly, allows proper hormone production and regulation, keeps your organ insulated and protected from shock and keeps you warm. Too much fat isn't great for you as it is linked to chronic conditions such as diabetes (type 2), cardiovascular disease and much more. The excess fat around your abdomen is called visceral fat, it is a kind of fat that invades your organs and prevents them from functioning properly, that is the fat us fitness professionals are targeting, that is the fat that kills you, you must minimize or control that fat.
The ideal % body fat for women range from 25 to 28% and 12% to 20% for men. KEEP IN MIND these figure vary based on your age and genetics.
Caloric consumption: No matter how you spin it, you want to lose %body fat? you need to watch what you eat. Figure out a way to take in less calories. Your metabolism stores excess calories into fat cells which are never destroyed but endlessly created, which is why you gain the weight back so easily. FAT CELLS CANNOT BE DESTROYED, they simply shrink. Track your calories, either via an app or a journal, it will give you a great map into your caloric habits.
Eat more fat / Eat less carbs: Simple explanation, dietary fats makes us feel full (nuts, avocados, oils). Fats has more calories per gram than protein and carbs, meaning less is more when it comes to fat, and the fuller you feel, the less likely you are to eat. Carbs on the other hand is easy for your body to get to. If your body needs more energy it usually gets it from glycogen, if glycogen are low it then takes its energy from protein and fats. Thus the lower your glycogen the faster your fat use. PS: Glycogen is derived from carbs so less carbs = less glycogen = more fat oxidation.
Measure your progress: Do not use the scale for this, Muscle is more dense than fat so the scale will just depress you. SCALES ARE THE WORST way to measure fat loss, instead use pictures and inches or how your clothes fit.
SLEEP, quality sleep! Your hormones control and regulates your metabolism, adequate sleep is what regulates your hormone, bad sleep = bad hormone regulation = fatter you :(
Increase your workout intensity: Train for fitness performance. As explained earlier above, when the body needs energy it will first go dietary carbs, then to its glycogen stores, which you build by consuming carbohydrates. Once you use up the energy provided by glycogen, your body turns to fat, using that to burn energy. Because high-intensity exercise is more demanding, your body more quickly burns through the glycogen and moves on to the fat. Bonus: Higher-intensity exercise keeps burning fat even after you're done exercising.
Increase your lean muscle mass: Muscle is a very metabolically active tissue. This means that whatever your muscles are doing, from standing up and walking to the bathroom to doing a workout, they're using a lot of energy to do it.The more muscle you have, the more energy you burn doing the same activities. NOTE: the metabolic rate of muscle is massive when you are active, it is near 0 when you are at rest. So muscular couch potatoes are like unicorns, they don't exist, if you are one then you are either losing your muscle mass and building %body fat or your lying to yourself.
DRINK WATER! a lot of it: The byproduct of losing fat is CO2 (Carbon dioxide) and H2O (water). That means without Oxygen there is no fat burn, but you will also not be alive so that not an issue but without enough water, you also do not have proper fat oxidation so DRINK up.
Should you need help to get you started, contact us or drop us an e-mail to alistaireNF@gmail.com and let's make that step towards your fitness journey TOGETHER!
