Everywhere I go, I see & hear people asking how to lose weight. Lately I’ve noticed a massive amount of people all over Facebook and fitness forums simply asking “I need to lose weight. Help!”.   It’s a bit of a general question that cannot be covered by one simple answer. As a quick beginners guideline I’ve done my best to wrap up, with what I believe to be the most effective approach towards losing weight, or more specifically, body fat. Although I can’t give all of the answers in one article, below is the basic framework to get started and give you the right questions to expand and evolve your understanding of getting and staying lean.

There’s 3 things…

…exercise, nutrition and recovery.  The idea is to speed your metabolism with exercise that builds muscle, with good nutrition and sufficient time for recovery you should see the results you want.  You want to create a bodily state that’s active and burning more calories than before.  You then must feed your body quality fuel, higher quality than what you’re currently eating, in smaller amounts to keep the calorie intake down below maintenance levels.  It’s a simple formula of calories in < calories out, that’s not so simple to follow. Since your body is always changing, adjusting and adapting to your lifestyle the findind the right path can be difficult.  This is why a good balance and solid plan is essential.

Exercise

Muscle mass burns calories.  We want to build more muscle and keep our bodies burning more fuel throughout the day (outside of exercise).  The statistics don’t lie – weight lifting, when performed correctly, builds more muscle and elevates the  metabolism more than any other form of exercise.  Hitting the gym 3 or 4 times a week, lifting heavy, challenging weight is the best way to grow muscle mass.  If you’re starting out, try doing a full body workout 3 times a week until your body adjusts.  The next important thing to know is what exercises to perform.  Compound movements, exercises that require more muscle to move generally allow more weight to be moved, increasing your workload and resulting in more muscle growth and a higher raise in metabolic rate.  There’s 3 top exercises that are favoured by experts everywhere – Squat, Deadlift, and Bench Press (read more about ‘The Big 3′ here).  But there are also many other movements out there such as military press, chinups, rows and dips that are highly effective.  The best way to learn these movements is to get some professional instruction at your gym, so they can show you not only how to do it correctly but also correct your form to protect against injury.  A good weight lifting session will elevate your metabolism for up to 38 hours afterwards.

Although weightlifting plays a major role, good cardiovascular conditioning should not be overlooked either.  You can start out with a jog outside or on a  treadmill, cycling, swimming or even just going for a walk 30 -45 minutes, 3-4 times a week.  try as best you can to keep these workouts on days when you are not lifting weights, this will ensure better performance for each session.  If you want something a little more intense try hill sprints, interval training or a high intensity sport or martial art (MMA or Muay Thai are highly intense activites that burn fat).  Cardio not only burns calories during but for  hours after the session is finished, and is excellent for your heart and practical fitness.

Nutrition

Let’s look at the 3 macronutrients – Protein, Fat and Carbohydrates.  Eat of these nutrients cops it in every different fad diet out there.  Truth is you need a bit of everything to give your body the energy it needs.  The goal with eating to lose weight is to pack as much quality nutrition into a small amount of food to ensure your body get’s everything it needs and doesn’t your metabolism to protect itself from any deficiency. Keeping everything running smooth will curb the cravings and keep muscle mass full, to burn more calories.  The key with nutrition is keep it as natural as possible.  Eating quality meat, eggs, fruits and vegetables is the best way give your body what it needs.  Milk and dairy plays a role but must be as natural as possible – try to avoid supermarket milk and go for raw farmers milk.  If you can’t stick strictly to these sources of food whole grain bread and some supplementation is also a good path to healthy nutrition.

Remember to steer clear of the unnatural food – junk food, soda’s (including diet the zero calories drinks), soy, processed meat or anything that doesn’t look like it came from a natural source is out.  These things can wreak havoc on your metalobism, hormones and decrease your weight loss (or even stop it all together).  Keep it clean.

Knowing how much to eat is another vital factor.  You can either count calories. Try our BMI calculator to find out what your expenditure is and consume 500 calories less.  Or you can try eating 6 fist sized portions of food a day, spaced approximately 3 hours apart.  The real trick however, is not keeping your food intake down, butto avoid dropping it too much.  If your caloric intake goes below 600-700 calories a day, you’re body will panic and you’ll get the cravings and most likely binge whilst your metabolism drops.  So don’t starve yourself too much.  6 small meals, balanced in good fats, protein and carbs dervied from quality natural food is way to go.

Recovery

Overtraining can lead to exhaustion and a drop in metabolic rate, so listen to your body.  If you find yourself feeling run down, stressed or weak, take some time off.  Make sure you get a day each week to rest.  Also try to get 8-10 hours sleep every night.  Recovery is when muscle is grown and you get fitter, allowing increased intensity and results.  One thing to remember also is that strict dieting also requires a little ‘space’.  If you’ve adhered to strict diet for 8-12 weeks you’ve done very well!  Now, give your body a rest for a few weeks, take 4 or more weeks to increase your food a little but stick to the quality natural stuff.  A small increase in healthy food and a good weightlifting routine will allow a little muscle growth and a recovery in energy levels aswell as immune system.  After this break you’ll feel full of energy, fit and ready to go again without the classic rebound you’d get switching back to junk food.

But that’s not all…

If you follow this information you will see results, but as you get further into your program you’ll have questions about the small things, and that’s where the journey begins. You have your framework, and now the smaller questions will pop up naturally.  So keep reading and learning.  It’s rewarding and will lead you toward a life of health, fitness and low body fat.  If you need any more info keep checking back with us.  You can follow us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/activebodi or Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/activebodi.  Thanks for reading, and good luck!

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