Lose Belly Fat Fast

Posts Tagged ‘Weight Loss’

Everyone knows that soda (Pepsi, Coke etc.) is bad for you. Doesn’t really take a genius to figure that one out, I mean just looking at the label you can see that it contains sodium, carbohydrates and lots of sugar, while not containing anything good. You might as well pour sugar into water and drink that (which is what soda really is anyway. Unfortunately the reality is that soda is even worse than it looks, when it comes to weight loss.

As I had pointed out in the diet basics post, the food and the way it is prepared has progressed a lot, while human’s digestive system is mostly the same as it was thousands of years ago. And soda is one of the most obvious examples of how this affects people in their every day lives.

Did you know that human body does not recognize calories contained in liquids? That means that you could drink 2000 calories worth of soda and not feel any less hungry than you did before? Just think how much you would likely eat if doing so did not satisfy your appetite? Probably lots more than you currently do. So, why in the world does human body not recognize calories contained in liquids? As pointed above, because we still have the same digestive system that humans had thousands of years ago, yet the food preparation has changed a lot.

The reason our bodies do not recognize calories in liquids is because the only naturally produces liquid that contains calories is milk. Milk that is designed to be consumed by a baby (that needs all the calories it can get) and has an obvious natural limit since a mother only has so much milk in her breasts. As such our bodies simply didn’t need a mechanism to recognize calories in liquids, and unfortunately food preparation has progressed at a much faster rate than our bodies are able to adapt.

There is of course nothing that you can do about this, but it is something to be aware of. When you drink your coffee, energy drink or soda, no matter how many calories they contain your body will not recognize them and you will feel just as hungry as you did before. As such you should try to eliminate most of the calorie containing liquids from your diet. Drink your tea or coffee without sugar, cut back on energy drinks and obviously completely eliminate all soda (diet or normal doesn’t matter.) It’s not easy (I love soda) but it is a necessary step to achieve fast weight loss results.

PS: What do you know, I make this post and 2 days later I read this article on yahoo’s front page Soda is bad for you where it is explained in more scientific details why sodas are very, very bad for one’s health.

It may sound a bit surprising, but losing weight is very, very simple. It’s not however easy to do. And because it’s not easy many people will run around the simple weight loss methods and instead try to find a short cut that is both simple and easy. But people who want to get results without putting much if any effort into achieving them is a subject for another discussion. What I’d like to do in this post is discuss why weight loss is so simple.

It’s simple because it’s not the type of rocket science that weight loss companies seem to want you to think it is. Weight loss, or gain is a function of a human body. It works in a very straight forward, none complicated way – when you have excess amount of calories your body stores them as fat. When you have a lack of calories your body burns fat to get the extra calories (energy) you need. That’s all there is to it.

But no, people want to complicate it, bring in metabolism and what have you into the equation without addressing the underlying fundamentals. For you to drop pounds your body must burn fat, but for it to do so there must be a calorie shortage. No shortage – no reason to burn fat – no weight loss. As such you must create a calorie shortage to force your body to burn the extra pounds.

How do you do it? Simple your get less calories than you spend, in other words you eat less and exercise more. It is possible to do just one thing either diet or exercise, but the best results come when you do both, doing both will also have the most positive effect on your over all health. Trying to do create calorie shortage by working out more without a good diet is often a total waste of time – no matter how many calories you burn during a work out you can always eat even more.

And trying to diet without exercising sounds like a good idea, but it doesn’t actually work. What happens is when you switch to a new, low(er) calorie diet your body puts up a red flag and instead of burning the fat it starts to conserve as much energy as possible. By working out you can over come it and force your body to get the extra energy by burning fat, which is your goal.

This is of course where we run into the “not easy” part. Following a healthy diet means you have to stop eating your favorite junk food. And exercising means that instead of watching TV or playing video games or what ever, you have to go to a gym and exercise. And that can be very difficult, especially if you don’t have the right mind set for weight loss. However, this is the part you should focus your efforts on.

So instead of asking “How can I lose weight?” ask yourself “Am I willing to do the things required to lose weight” If the answer is yes then you will. If the answer is no, well, good luck in your search for that magic pill!

Mind Set – perhaps a somewhat unusual subject when it comes to weight loss. I mean, everyone is so concerned about their diet and work out program, what diet pills or vitamins to use etc etc that no one seems to even think about the mind set one must have to lose weight. That’s right, there is a certain mind set that you need to have to lose weight. Without it all the diets and work outs in the world won’t get you the lean body you want.

So, what kind of mind set does one need to lose weight? Well, for once you need to change your thinking about weight loss from something you do to lose weight, then go back to what you were doing before, to a permanent change in your life style. Changing your habits is of course not easy. So you have to be prepared to make those changes that may be difficult, especially at first. But above all you need to realize that those changes are good for you – eating healthy (and avoiding junk food) and exercising often – those are good things.

You also need to decide whether losing weight is important to you or not. I mean, anyone who is over weight would say that getting rid of the extra fat is important to them. But their actions sure don’t seem to reflect it. Sitting on a coach eating junk food and talking about how you’d like to lose some weight and get a nice toned body isn’t going to do anything. If you want to drop pounds then your actions need to reflect that desire.

If you say that you want to lose fat, you better start doing things that will result in you losing weight. And you have to be prepared to take those actions and to do things. The person sitting on a coach watching TV isn’t prepared to take the actions required for them to drop belly fat, no matter what they say about wanting to lose belly fat.

What are the actions one needs to take? Well, weight loss isn’t exactly rocket science, the things one needs to do to lose weight are well known – follow a good diet and exercise frequently. it’s of course a good bit more complicated than that, especially with the multitude of diets and work out programs. But still the mind set is much more important – it is the difference between those who lost weight and those who gave up after a few weeks on a diet, or after they didn’t lose as many pounds or as fast as they were hoping to.

The right mind set will keep you going even when you want to give up and quit. So before you even start with your fat burning work outs and diets, you have to realize that certain changes to your life style will need to be made, and you have to be prepared to make them. If you don’t want to make those changes, and try to find some work around, you will just set yourself up for a disappointment when a “magic solution” you found will fail as they always do.

So, get your weight loss off on the right foot with the right mind set! And if you haven’t yet signed up for the weekly newsletter do so – the first email will contain some of the tips on how to start your weight loss the right way and avoid some of the mistakes people often make.