How to eat your food for maximum fat loss - part II

4. Eat the majority of your carbs in the first part of the day.

If you were eating large amounts of carbs in the second part of the day what would happen is that glycogen stores would be full after a day of eating so excess carbs are likely to be stored as fat instead of glycogen.

By doing this you are also promoting the use of fat as a fuel source in the second part of the day.

5. Don’t eat food that is not found in the approved food lists.

The foods in the lists of approved foods where carefully selected to make sure you are eating natural, low calorie dense and nutrient rich foods that aid you in your fat loss crusade and that there is enough variety so that you don’t get bored eating the same food over and over again.

If you choose empty calories & “junk foods” instead of the foods on the list you are severely compromising fat loss.

I know from experience that it’s hard to completely cut out fast-food and other “goodies” and that’s why you are allowed to have a cheat meal once in a while, let’s say 4 out of the 28 mini-meals you will be eating in a week can be cheat meals.

When having a cheat meal you can eat what ever you want, but in small quantities (Don’t eat a whole cake at a cheat meal!!).

The best way to use your cheat meals, if you decide to have cheat meals, is to make Sunday Cheat Day meaning that you can eat anything you want during Sunday meals, but again in small portions (if you pig out then you are throwing out the window all the effort put in dieting and exercise during the week).

Another thing that needs special attention is the way the food is cooked.

Always roast, broil, grill, sauté and stew your food.

Avoid food that is deep fried.

NEVER cover your food in butter and high-fat sauces, because you will be adding tones of extra calories to your food without even knowing. This highly overlooked fact often makes or breaks a successful fat loss diet. I know that food can be very dull without this but let me ask you this: Is giving up these a price too much to pay for building the body of your dreams? If the answer is YES I am sorry to say that you are not serious about losing fat. Remember: You eat to live not live to eat!

Approved list of condiments (use sparingly)

Fat Free Mayonnaise	Balsamic Vinegar
Low-Fat Salad Dressing	Salsa
Chili Powder	Mustard
Extracts

6. The only liquid you should be drinking is water!

A common mistake dieters make is that they fail to add the calories coming from the liquids they drink to their total calorie intake. Alcohol, diet soda, sports drinks and fruit juices all contain “empty calories” (calories without nutritional value) and should not be consumed.

That’s right no alcohol, no diet-soda, no sports drinks, no fruit juices, no nothing!!!

Water is the only calorie free liquid.

What you should know about water is that:

• Every physiological process in your body depends on water.
• Dehydration decreases endurance, strength and physical performance.
• Without enough water the body can’t “burn” body fat as efficiently as normal.
• Water is especially important on moderate to high protein diets (the one used in this book). Processing protein produces much metabolic waste that the kidneys can’t remove completely without enough water.
• Drinking lots of water does not make you retain water. In fact the body only retains water when it does not receive enough water.

The best way to figure out the amount of water you should drink per day is by reporting it to your Total Energy Expenditure – you should drink between 1 ml and 1.5 ml per calorie consumed.

(Water intake in liters) = (total energy expenditure) X (1 or 1.5)

Anyway, do not drop water consumption below the recommended 8 to 10 glasses per day (that’s about 2 liters per day).

Water has to be consumed every 2 hours regardless if you are thirsty or not. During exercise sessions that involve heavy sweating you can drink a glass of water for every 30 minutes of exercise.

Another thing you need to know is that over consumption of water has a negative effect, so don’t exaggerate – stick to the guideline and you will be ok.

How to eat your food for maximum fat loss - part II

4. Eat the majority of your carbs in the first part of the day.

If you were eating large amounts of carbs in the second part of the day what would happen is that glycogen stores would be full after a day of eating so excess carbs are likely to be stored as fat instead of glycogen.

By doing this you are also promoting the use of fat as a fuel source in the second part of the day.

5. Don’t eat food that is not found in the approved food lists.

The foods in the lists of approved foods where carefully selected to make sure you are eating natural, low calorie dense and nutrient rich foods that aid you in your fat loss crusade and that there is enough variety so that you don’t get bored eating the same food over and over again.

If you choose empty calories & “junk foods” instead of the foods on the list you are severely compromising fat loss.

I know from experience that it’s hard to completely cut out fast-food and other “goodies” and that’s why you are allowed to have a cheat meal once in a while, let’s say 4 out of the 28 mini-meals you will be eating in a week can be cheat meals.

When having a cheat meal you can eat what ever you want, but in small quantities (Don’t eat a whole cake at a cheat meal!!).

The best way to use your cheat meals, if you decide to have cheat meals, is to make Sunday Cheat Day meaning that you can eat anything you want during Sunday meals, but again in small portions (if you pig out then you are throwing out the window all the effort put in dieting and exercise during the week).

Another thing that needs special attention is the way the food is cooked.

Always roast, broil, grill, sauté and stew your food.

Avoid food that is deep fried.

NEVER cover your food in butter and high-fat sauces, because you will be adding tones of extra calories to your food without even knowing. This highly overlooked fact often makes or breaks a successful fat loss diet. I know that food can be very dull without this but let me ask you this: Is giving up these a price too much to pay for building the body of your dreams? If the answer is YES I am sorry to say that you are not serious about losing fat. Remember: You eat to live not live to eat!

Approved list of condiments (use sparingly)

Fat Free Mayonnaise	Balsamic Vinegar
Low-Fat Salad Dressing	Salsa
Chili Powder	Mustard
Extracts

6. The only liquid you should be drinking is water!

A common mistake dieters make is that they fail to add the calories coming from the liquids they drink to their total calorie intake. Alcohol, diet soda, sports drinks and fruit juices all contain “empty calories” (calories without nutritional value) and should not be consumed.

That’s right no alcohol, no diet-soda, no sports drinks, no fruit juices, no nothing!!!

Water is the only calorie free liquid.

What you should know about water is that:

• Every physiological process in your body depends on water.
• Dehydration decreases endurance, strength and physical performance.
• Without enough water the body can’t “burn” body fat as efficiently as normal.
• Water is especially important on moderate to high protein diets (the one used in this book). Processing protein produces much metabolic waste that the kidneys can’t remove completely without enough water.
• Drinking lots of water does not make you retain water. In fact the body only retains water when it does not receive enough water.

The best way to figure out the amount of water you should drink per day is by reporting it to your Total Energy Expenditure – you should drink between 1 ml and 1.5 ml per calorie consumed.

(Water intake in liters) = (total energy expenditure) X (1 or 1.5)

Anyway, do not drop water consumption below the recommended 8 to 10 glasses per day (that’s about 2 liters per day).

Water has to be consumed every 2 hours regardless if you are thirsty or not. During exercise sessions that involve heavy sweating you can drink a glass of water for every 30 minutes of exercise.

Another thing you need to know is that over consumption of water has a negative effect, so don’t exaggerate – stick to the guideline and you will be ok.

Dietary guidelines for the burn body fat fast nutritional plan - part II

This is post is the fifth in a series of 7 posts aimed at detailing the official burn-body-fat.blogspot.com nutritional plan. More info about the series here. Also, make sure you check out:

The concept behind The Burn Body Fat Fast Nutritional Plan
Super Food List part I
Super Food List part II
Dietary guidelines for the burn body fat fast nutritional plan - part I

Guideline #4: Any carbohydrate that does not fall under the categories of vegetables and fruits should be eaten only with the meal following an exercise session

The non-fruit and non-vegetable carbohydrate category includes:

* Carbohydrath starchy foods: bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, oats and cereal grains
* Simple sugars:
* Table sugar and anything that contains it: juice, soda, cake, cookies etc
* Sport and recovery drinks

For optimum body composition, your best bet is to remove the simple sugars completely and stick only with starchy carbs post workout.

If you were to eat foods from this category with non-post-workout meals, what would happen is that because of their high glycemic index, they would drastically increase insulin and blood glucose levels, negatively affecting glucagon levels causing the slowdown or stop of fatty acid oxidation.

But when ingested post workout they replenish glycogen stores.

Bottom line: No exercise, no carbohydrates other then fruits or vegetables!

Food type	Food timing	Foods included
Fruits and vegetables	With each meal	Vegeatbles Fruits
Starchy carbohydrates	Eaten with the mini-meal following a workout	Whole grain breads, pasta, rice; potatoes, yams, cereal grains
Simple sugars	Eaten only during or immediate after exercise (if at all)	Sports and recovery drinks, soda, fruit juice, table sugar and anything containing it.

Guideline #5: Be sure to include healthy fats in your daily diet

In a previous I mentioned that adding healthy fats (omega-3 and omega-6 rich monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats) to your diet as well as balancing the saturated fats to monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats ratio and eliminating trans fats from your diet are all critical steps toward improved health and body composition.

Read my earlier post My fat friend eats a low fat diet to find out the advantages of increasing protein intake.

Aiming for a fat intake consisting of:

* 1/3 saturated fats
* 1/3 monounsaturated fats
* 1/3 polyunsaturated fats

Would help you achieve all the three goals above.

Although it might seem hard, balancing your fat intake is quite easy.

The amount of saturated fats you need is coming from animal fats (the fat in eggs, dairy products and meats that you are eating) so you don’t have to worry about them.

So, basically, all you need to do is focus on supplementing your intake of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.

Adding monounsaturated fats is as simple as using olive oil for salad dressing, eating mixed nuts and avocado. You can supplement you polyunsaturated fats intake by flax seeds, vegetable fats and fish oil supplements to your diet.

Cooking your meals yourself, using the super foods and this guidelines almost guarantees that you will be eliminating the majority of trans fats from your diet.

Now, a word on fat intake timing. As long as you get your daily requirements it doesn’t matter when you eat the healthy fats. The only time you want to keep fat intake low is immediately after exercise because the fatty acid oxidation rate increases post workout and by keeping fat intake low we are encouraging the use of stored fatty acids for oxidation.

Food type	Food timing	example
Saturated fats	none	Animal fats
Monounsaturated fats	none	Olive oil, nuts, avocado
Polyunsaturated fats	none	Vegetable fats, fish oil, flax seeds

Guideline #6: You should not drink calorie containing beverages

Water should be the only fluid you drink.

Alcohol, soda and all types of sugary beverages, including fruit juice, should be eliminated as they provide “empty calories” (calories without nutritional value). If you must drink something other then water then you can have some tea as long as it is not sweetened with table sugar.

A few things that you should know about water, but probably don’t:

· Every physiological process in the body requires water

· Without enough water, the body can’t perform it’s metabolic processes (including fat mobilization and oxidation) as efficiently as possible

· dehydratation decreases endurance, strength and physical performance.

In order to make sure you get enough water, drink between 8 – 10 glasses of water per day. That is about one glass every 2 hours whether you are thirsty or not. During workout sessions, you should drink a glass of water for every 30 minutes of exercise.

5 Things you can do NOW to start losing body fat.

Imagine this situation:

You are wrestling with the same 10-30 pounds for years. You’ve tried everything out there, from no fat to high fat diets, low carbs, high carbs, you name it but only managed to lose a few pounds here and there.

Every time you look in the mirror you don’t like what you see - you know it’s time to get serious about losing body fat but are not prepared to make a major dieting effort.

If that’s the case with you, then I have some good news – you don’t have to make an major dieting effort in order to lose fat.

In fact, the trend in the fitness world has shifted from complex fitness solutions that turn your lifestyle upside down (and for that reason are hard to follow) to focusing on thing you can incorporate into your life style with ease and act on NOW!.

Below is a list of things you could do to start losing body fat now:

1. Don’t touch that first piece.
Everybody knows that you can eat any kind of food and still don’t get fat as long as you eat in MODERATION. But let’s face it – some types of food you can’t just eat in moderation. One cookie or a hand full of chips will do for you? If not; if you can’t stop there it is better to avoid those types of food altogether.

2. Spread your calories over the entire day.
Most people have the following eating pattern: one or two light meals during the day and a HEAVY dinner. Geese’s! At night you are the least active (with the exception of night jobs) so you burn the least amount of calories. The extra calories from the large dinner are stored as body fat.
So, make breakfast your largest meal and dinner the smallest. Chances are that you will be burning the calories eaten during the day so minimal amounts of them will be stored as fat.

3. Fill up on fiber.
Because fibrous carbs have low calorie density and at the same time “fill you up” so you don’t feel hungry they help you lose fat, so they should constitute the bulk of your carb intake.

Fibrous carbs are: Asparagus, Broccoli, Carrots, Cauliflower, Celery, Cucumber, Green Beans, Green peppers, Mushrooms, Onion, Peas, Salad (lettuce, romaine), Spinach, and Tomato.

4. Drink water.
Without enough water the body can’t “burn” body fat as efficiently as normally.
When dehydrated, the body tries to hold on to as much water as possible. When this happens, the body’s waste products can’t be eliminated and the kidneys become overwhelmed. At this point the liver starts to help remove these waste products, neglecting its own job which includes using stored body fat for energy.

5. Get Moving.
This is the most simple and most effective fat burning secret. Exercise, besides the fat that burns calories, increases the metabolism and develops lean muscle mass, also boosts your self-esteem, increasing the probability that you will do more things in this direction (losing the fat).
Running outdoors is a very pleasent activity and can help you quickly burn the fat!

For the best results, combine aerobic (walking, riding a bike, treadmill etc) with strength training.