Body Fat - Discover What It Really Is
There are serious health effects associated with high body fat: heart attack, stroke, reduced mobility and low energy. High body fat percentage is an important health issue that must be addressed, but there are ways to reduce fat without spending a fortune on special diets or costly programs. All an individual needs is the desire to truly make a change and some creativity. Losing weight the healthy way takes time and commitment. Remember, slow and steady wins the race.
One of the first things you should do is to figure out your body fat percentage. You can find this out through a number of methods, but an exact number representing your body fat percentage is usually quite hard to discern, and your doctor can provide numbers that are more accurate in a few minutes. It involves an equation and finding out your average density.
Taking a body fat measurement will likely not make you feel very good about yourself, but it may motivate you to start looking in to ways to reduce your body fat. Using the body fat measurement as a guide, you can start up a plan to reduce your body fat and make a difference in your life. Depending on how high your body fat measurement is, you may have to make some serious lifestyle changes to accomplish your goals.
Replace Food with Better Food
One of the first things you should do is to replace rice, pasta and breads with vegetables. This isn't like the Atkins diet, in which you drop the carbohydrates in your diet. This technique replaces a type of carbohydrate with another type of carbohydrate, providing your diet with a better way to burn them altogether. Fruits and veggies are better fat burners than rice, pasta and breads, so they will help you reduce your body fat.
Drink Water
Next, drink plenty of water each day. Consuming a lot of water actually makes it harder for the fat to stick to your body, allowing you to lose body fat and keep it off. Water also flushes your body out and removes harmful toxins, creating a better body system with which to fight off body fat. Water also raises your energy level, if you drink enough of it, and can improve your concentration.
Resistance Training
If you add some light resistance training to your workout and you do it before you do any cardio, you'll find that you will have an easier time with your goal to lose body fat. This occurs because your body does not actually burn fat for the first portion of your exercise, so it is better to allow your body to warm up to lose body fat. Elevate your heart rate by doing some light training, then go forward with the whole routine.
Those three tips are just some of the ways you can lose body fat and create a healthier "you". As you continue to exercise, drink water and watch your diet, you will start to feel healthier and will have an easier time keeping the body fat off.
Gary Holdon is a writer and internet publisher who likes to publish resources for loosing weight. You can go to Weight Loss Plans for more.
