There are many articles and theories out there that supposedly provide us with the information to accelerate our fat loss.
While most of the information is relatively accurate, there are some points that need to be corrected.
Training to spot reduce fat is a myth. We don't decide where our bodies put on fat, and we can't decide where we burn it off from. However, if we train a specific muscle group more often, we will increase the muscle mass in that area, therefore reducing the fat percentage.
Saying carbohydrates and fats are bad for you is also a myth. While we don't want to over eat unnecessarily, our bodies require the sufficient amount of carbs and fats, as well as protein. This allows our bodies to function at peak capacity, recover, and burn any unwanted or unneeded energy.
All cardio has to be hard cardio. Not only is this false, buy only 25% of our cardiovascular training needs to be hard cardio. The rest of our cardio should be done at low/moderate intensity.
Resistance training will make not make you bulky. The purpose behind resistance training to increase muscle mass. This, in return, increases our Resting Metabolic Rate, meaning we burn more energy while we aren't exercising.
Here are some other specific things to work on that will assist in accelerating your fat loss journey.
- Nutrition: Ensuring you are consuming the right amount of macronutrients at the right time will make the biggest change to your body. Fuelling ourselves the right food makes up for 80% of our weight loss.
- Exercise: Understanding the different types of exercise and how much to do of each type is vital to your health. The balance between cardiovascular and resistance training is essential to maximizing results.
- Sleep: Ensuring you get enough shut eye every night is important for our physical and mental health. Sleep allows us to relax and recover, as well as feeling refreshed for the next day. Working or exercising after not getting enough sleep can be detrimental to our performance.
- Water: Drinking a sufficient amount of water allows our bodies to function correctly. We should aim for 2L of water per day, and add an extra 1L for every hour of exercise we complete too. This will let our bodies flush out all the toxins and rehydrate ourselves. Remember, 60% of our body is water, so it is extremely important to keep drinking.
- Stress: Stress can affect our lives in massive ways. While we can't do much about the way our bodies react to stress, we can work on reducing the causes. Work, family, general health and finance are the biggest reasons of stress and cause a snowball effect.
- Circle of influence: Probably one of the most important points to be understood. The people you see on a regular basis are the ones that are either going to be a positive or negative effect on your journey.
Implementing some of these points will allow you to start feeling better about yourself within a couple of days. From there it is all about building a routine and being consistent. The first 3 weeks will be the toughest as it takes around 21 days to build new habits. After the initial 3 weeks you should be feeling that much better that it shouldn't be an issue to keep going
*Disclaimer: Individual results vary based on agreed goals. Click here for details.
