Struggling With Fat Loss?

Don't. Fat loss is something that's gradual. Putting your body through extreme conditions won't give you long-lasting results. Also, the more you think about losing fat as a chore, the more it'll become so. The ideal way to beat the fat loss blues is to take it slow and keep it simple until you get used to what you are doing. You increase the intensity gradually, making it a lifestyle to eat right and exercise.

If You Prefer Dieting To Exercise...

Fad diets are a strict no-no. You can lose fat by just skipping your meal every night, but it's not healthy or permanent. Our bodies are hardwired to the way we've been eating for the past several years, so if you try to diet, you get hungry. Hunger makes all logic fly out the window and at some point, you break your diet and binge eat, gaining back everything you've lost.

Instead of the popular "dieting," you should incorporate a "proper diet." Cutting down your salt, sugar and gluten intake is guaranteed to help you digest your food better, have more energy and create less hunger pangs. When you diet too hard, your body goes into starvation mode, and starts storing the extra fat to help you during the days you don't eat. This defeats your purpose anyway. Don't skip your breakfast, because your morning nourishment informs your body that it's time to start digesting and your metabolic system kicks in. If you skip breakfast, this will only begin when you eat something later, reducing the daily period in which your metabolic system works hard, lowering your possibility of losing fat. Also, wake up early, because then your metabolic system has a lot of time to work on you. Don't eat heavy meals at night. Your metabolism is very slow after 6:00pm.

Eating right requires a lot of self-discipline, so if you've tried and failed, don't blame yourself. It's just because you are human. Start simple. Here are a few ways to substitute your cooking ingredients to give your system a boost in the right direction.

1.Oil/Butter - instead of deep-frying and cooking with added fat, try grilling, steaming, baking and broiling the food. If meat is a part of your everyday meals, use the roaster to drip out the fat from the meat and don't add extra oil or butter. The meat has enough fat in itself to cook it to perfection.

2.Salt - the daily requirement of sodium for anyone is 6g. On average, Asians consume 30g of salt per day, while Americans and Europeans consume approximately 12g. It's in the cooking styles and recipes and the majority find it very difficult to not include salt in their food. But, it's important to consider this fact - excess salt makes you retain water in your body. While water is good for your health, the extra water reacts with carbohydrates in a different way, explained below.

3.Carbs - Atkins tells you to avoid all carbohydrates, common sense tells you to eat carbohydrates moderately. Reducing the carbs you intake on a daily basis is easier than you think. Opting for whole grain and wholemeal instead of enriched bread is a good start. Baked goods are often full of all-purpose flour, which is high in carbs. Avoid them. As mentioned earlier, salt makes you retain water and excess water retains carbohydrates, which means when you mix salt and carbohydrates, you are not doing your body any favors. So, start by reducing your carbs at home.

Whenever you go shopping, create a list of healthier products you can buy and stick to that list. If you don't bring home the bad stuff, you won't be eating it. Remember to start small and gradually increase, because it's not healthy to lose more than 3 pounds per week.