The number one goal that people have from a fitness perspective is fat loss. It’s that simple. We live in a society that is remarkably sedentary and when you figure in the fact that so much food is processed chemical garbage it’s no wonder. I’m going to keep this basic and give you five things to keep in mind to help you lose fat.
1. Diet. I’m going to put this out there very clearly for everyone to understand:
If you do not change your diet you will not lose weight in any real long-term way.
There’s just no two ways about it. Diet is at least 80% (sometimes more) of any kind of body composition goal, whether its losing or gaining weight. It’s true that if you go from doing nothing to doing something the increase in activity will probably allow you to burn more calories and experience an initial weight loss, but it won’t last and you’ll probably wind up putting the weight back on. There’s no getting around it no matter how much you want to. Diet is the key.
2. Diet. Did you read what I just wrote? Good. Go back and read it again.
3. Your mind. Losing fat isn’t easy. It requires you to step out of your comfort zone in many different ways. Changing your diet, exercising more, maybe feeling a bit irritable or hungry, sometimes changing some pretty ingrained parts of your lifestyle. The trick is to accept all that and move on. There are always going to be roadblocks to any goal that you have in life and losing fat is certainly no exception. Those who accept that these things will happen and that it will be challenging move right through those challenges. Those who don’t, take those challenges as signs that they can’t do it.
One example is the dreaded “bad meal slip up”. We all have them. We wind up going out to eat and just can’t stomach a salad. Not when there’s a nice juicy burger with fries on the menu. We destroy the burger and fries and even finish up with desert.
THIS IS A DEFINING MOMENT!
What happens now? The people that knew about the roadblocks will tell themselves they had a slip and get right back on track the next day. No problem. The ones that didn’t know will say to themselves, “I knew I couldn’t do it,” and they’ll drop the whole thing. Get your head right and you’ll find that it’s not as hard as you might think. In the course of life, one meal doesn’t really mean all that much UNLESS IT LEADS TO YOU ABANDONING THE THINGS YOU KNOW YOU NEED TO DO!
4. Intensity. OK. You’re going to lose weight. Let’s attack that goal with everything you have! When you’re working out, push yourself. Lift more weight. Do more reps. When you have an opportunity to slip up, and you will, get intense and DON’T GIVE IN! This is no different than a lot of things in that you will get out of it what you put into it.
I have a white board at my facility and this week I wrote on it, “Make A Decision”. A few of my clients asked me what it meant. It means make a decision that if you’re going to do something you’re going to do it the best you can. Make a decision that you will reach your goal. Make a decision that you will feel great every day, and you will! It’s up to you!
5. Lift weights. Waaaaay too many people try to lose weight by doing “cardio”. (By the way, “cardio” may be my least favorite word ever). Do yourself a favor and do some resistance training. You need to raise your metabolism to lose fat and keep it off long-term. It’s that simple. It’s also that simple that the way most people do “cardio” doesn’t do that, but resistance training does.
Well, there we go. 5 things to consider to help your fat loss. It ‘s not easy but it doesn’t have to be that hard either. Let me know if you have any questions.
Mitch Rothbardt, CPT, PN Lean Eating Coach Mitch Rothbardt Fitness at 2861 Grove Way Castro Valley’s Premier Fitness Facility I Help People Discover Their Strength 510-754-7113
www.MitchRFitness.com MitchRFitness@gmail.com http://www.Facebook.com/MitchRothbardtFitness http://fast-metabolism.com Boost Your Metabolism With My Free Report
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