Inside’s Guide to Fat Loss Part 1
INSIDER TIP #1
stronger effort yields better results
At the risk of sounding like Captain Obvious, Jeramie Hinojosa, MS, senior clinical exercise specialist at East Texas Medical Center Olympic Center in Tyler, Texas, is quick to point out that eating into your body’s fat stores is, first and foremost, a simple matter of effort.
“While people claim to have a bunch of magical solutions to fat loss, there’s simply no substitute for hard work,” Hinojosa says. “Even in long-term clinical trials, the single best predictor of long-term weight
loss and prevention of weight gain is consistent exercise. The effort of exercise is one of the most important yet underrated aspects of fat-burning.”
That’s why techniques such as high-intensity interval training (HUT) — which we covered in last month’s “Fit With HUT” feature and touch on again here in tip No. 3 — and advanced lifting techniques such as supersets and drop sets should be part of any fat-burning program; they simply demand more of your body, allowing you to burn more fat after a workout. In fact, one study on football players found that those who did forced reps in their workouts lost significantly more weight than athletes who stopped at failure — all without dieting! » To maximize fat-burning, always keep your workout intensity high and add new challenges as your body adapts.
INSIDER TIP 2
Burn fat without losing muscle
Is it possible to burn fat without eating away at your existing muscle mass? Yes. “A well-fed athlete can effectively control his diet and train his body to increase its utilization of fat as fuel for exercise and recovery,” Hinojosa says. “But the strength training must be sufficient to warrant lean body mass increases, and cardio must be reasonable.” (See tip No. 3.)
To prevent excessive use of muscular protein, you must maintain adequate protein intake. But you also have to make sure you have enough carbohydrates and fat to continue training hard.