Fat Loss - You Cant Out Train a Bad Diet

Achieving optimal fat loss relies heavily on a combination of appropriate, maintainable nutrition and effective training protocols. It is true that you cannot out train a bad diet, so if fat loss is your goal then first considerations should focus on what you are eating.

Achieving optimal fat loss relies heavily on a combination of appropriate, maintainable nutrition and effective training protocols. It is true that you cannot out train a bad diet, so if fat loss is your goal then first considerations should focus on what you are eating. A balanced, largely alkaline diet will ensure that your body is sufficiently nourished, enabling it to cope easily with imposed physiological demands such as training, recovery and even work stress. A poor diet, on the other hand, will leave you feeling sluggish, low on energy, more prone to injury and storing excess fat in your adipose cells, which obviously has a knock on effect to your shape and performance.

When you’re looking at streamlining your diet to compliment your fat loss goals, the following five nutritional principles will put you in good stead, allowing you to enjoy your food and thus giving your good eating habits longevity.
•Firstly, make sure you eat every 2-4 hours. Doing so will keep your metabolic fire burning and ensure you don’t become hungry and develop cravings for high sugar or high fat foods. It will also help you maintain lean muscle tissue, the most metabolically active tissue in the body. Eating every 3-4 hours requires some pre-planning, but raw vegetables, nuts, seeds and cold meats all make for fast, nutritious meals and snacks.
•The second key to a healthy and effective fat loss diet is to ensure you eat lean, complete protein with each meal or snack. Research has proven that a high protein diet is not only safe for healthy individuals, but also necessary for optimal health, body composition and performance. Aim for a palmful of protein at each feeding if you are female, and two palmfuls if you are male. Complete protein sources are those that include all of the essential amino acids and include foods such as meats, poultry, eggs and cheese.
•The third key to fast loss is to also add vegetables to each of your meals and snacks. Not only are they are superb source of vitamins and minerals, they help to keep you blood alkaline, thus preserving both bone strength and muscle mass. 10 servings of fruit and vegetables per day is ideal, with a ratio of 4:1 vegetables to fruit for those seeking to shed fat.
•You’ll probably be pleased to hear that starchy carbohydrates such as potatoes, rice, bread and sugary foods are still on the menu, but only after training and only non-processed varieties. The reason for this is that in the 3 hours post exercise, your body will use starchy carbohydrates to replenish glycogen stores that become depleted during training and support muscle growth and repair. At any other time, starchy carbs tend to be stored as excess fat, thus thwarting your fat loss attempts.
•The final key element to remember is to include healthy fats in your diet on a daily basis. Roughly 30% of your diet should be made up of fat, with approximately one third from each of the fat types; saturated (butter, cheese, animal fats), monounsaturated (nuts, avocados, some veg oils) and polyunsaturated fats (nuts, vegetable oils, fish oil).

With sound nutrition at the top of the fat loss hierarchy, the next most effective tool is resistance training. Research shows that exercising under loads heavy enough to instigate a physiological adaptation results in your metabolic rate being elevated for a whopping 38 hours post training, and that doesn’t take into consideration the potential cumulative effect of consecutive workouts within that time frame! Compound movements such as squats, deadlifts and overhead presses offer incredible bang for your buck thanks to the number of muscles they recruit simultaneously, thus resulting in large calorie expenditures and a big after burn effect on the metabolism! These exercises are best performed using barbells , dumbells or kettlebells .

Cardiovascular exercise is comparatively ineffective when it comes to melting stubborn fat, but if you are looking to simultaneously develop your anaerobic and aerobic fitness and lose body fat, then high intensity interval training is your best bet. Short, maximum effort sprints interspersed with periods of active rest will not only save you a great deal of time, but will also preserve your joints and deliver great fat loss and fitness results. At Phoenix Pro Fitness, we use treadmills and bikes for our sprint work, but rowers and other cardiovascular equipment work well too. Slow, steady state activities such as jogging, swimming and cycling tend to be ineffective for fat loss due to the fact the body adapts to the stress they present fairly rapidly, and their ability to initiate an increase in metabolically active lean tissue is comparatively poor. Therefore, for optimal fat loss training, a combination of resistance training and high intensity intervals will turbo charge your metabolism and turn you into a fat burning machine. Keeping a food and training diary will help you stay accountable and monitor your progress, but if you need extra help, a good coach will be able to ensure your fat loss journey is a fun, effective and fulfilling one.