Losing body weight does not necessary mean losing body fat. Ask yourself again what you are aiming for. In order to lose body fat effectively and to preserve your muscle mass, here are 8 golden rules for you to follow:

1. Reduce calorie intake.

Times and times I have stressed the importance of basic principle of calorie in versus calorie out. In order to lose one pound of body fat, one has to maintain a calorie deficit of 3,500. If you reduce your calorie intake of 500 calories per day, you can expect to lose one pound of body fat in a week’s time. However, this is not always the case. As your body adapts to the reduction of calorie intake, your metabolism will slow down. When you eat less, your body eventually starts to burn fewer calories. Typically, one will hit a plateau after 4 weeks. How do you increase your metabolism, then? Continue reading….

2. Exercise within your aerobic capacity.

Please refer to my other articles: "Optimizing Exercise for Fat Loss" and "How to Exercise Effectively to Lose Fat". Buy a heart rate monitor and maintain your exercise heart rate between 70-80% of your maximum heart rate for effective fat burning.

3. Nutritional supplements may help.

If you cannot get enough from diet, I would advise you take omega-3 supplements. Essential fatty acids, such as omega-3 have been shown to increase fat oxidation during exercise. For more information on this, please refer to my articles: “Achieve Fat Loss – The Scientific Way!”, and “Fat Loss Promoting Food”.

4. The glycemic index of food impact body fat burning.

Studies have shown that people on low-fat diet lost less body fat than those who followed a plan that emphasized low-glycemic carbohydrates, even though the low-fat group consumed fewer calories. Low-glycemic index carbohydrates are digested slower, hence making the body less efficient at storing them as body fat than other sources of carbohydrates. For more on glycemic index, please refer to “Achieve Fat Loss – The Scientific Way!”

5. Calories from fat and carbohydrates are more readily stored as body fat.

Your body needs energy to digest the food you ingest. However, it burns 2 to 3 times less calories digesting fat compared to carbohydrates, and about 10 times less calories compared to protein. Hence, dietary fat provides greater net caloric intake, which is available for body fat storage compared to carbohydrates or protein.

6. Increase protein intake.

For reason explained above, taking in a higher proportion of protein in your diet, forces your body to burn more calories. Protein is also needed round the clock to maintain positive nitrogen balance, without which your muscles will be broken down to be burnt as fuel. Dietary protein spares your well-trained muscles. By maintaining higher proportion of lean muscle mass, your basal metabolic rate will increase. Which means a bodybuilder will burn more calories while sitting in couch watching TV, compared to a normal person. It is often difficult to meet your protein requirement, which can be as high as 1 gram per pound body weight, if you train very hard, especially athletes. For these subgroups, I will strongly recommend the use of protein supplementation. Please refer to my articles “Protein 101” and “Protein 102” for more information.

7. Eat small meals frequently.

If you do not have the time to eat that often, typically 7 to 10 times a day, which I personally do, I recommend meal replacement supplements or protein bars. Every time you eat, you burn calories and your metabolic rate will increase.

8. Eat fewer carbohydrates later in the day.

Morning breakfast is the best time to take low-glycemic index carbohydrates to fuel your body for the rest of the day. When you eat carbohydrates, your pancreas will release insulin, which will transport the nutrients into cells. As the day progresses, the cells’ sensitivity to insulin decreases, which means more insulin will have to be released to get the same effect. However, the problem is insulin also increases fat storage. Hence, if you eat high carbohydrate meals in the evening, especially high glycemic index carbohydrates, more insulin will be released, which in effect will cause greater fat storage in the body.

20th September 2005