Thursday, July 18, 2013

360fit - The other way to lose body fat

Weight loss is very simple, eat fewer calories than you burn and you will lose weight. This is a law of thermo dynamics and it is undisputed. If all we have to do is eat less then why are more people not very lean? Are we all pigs who cannot put down the fork?


Eating less and less is not the answer to looking lean, because it is not the best way to lose body fat. Let’s not fall into the weight loss trap; dropping calories is a mistake that accomplishes one goal-- weight loss. We can no longer settle for weight loss as an acceptable measure of success, we need to lose body fat, we need to become fit.

The problem with only caring about weight loss is that we sacrifice our hard earned muscle. With a decent calorie deficit we will begin to lose both fat and muscle. As we lose muscle we begin to feel tired and our strength begins to fade. Why is this? Our metabolism slows as we lose muscle. We start to feel lazy and tired because our slower metabolism, not because we lack the will power to keep pushing through our diet. The less muscle we have the fewer calories we burn.

We need to rethink eating less; let’s burn more and more. The key is muscle. The more muscle we carry the more calories we burn in a given day. So how much muscle do we need to really start noticing a difference? If we can add 3 pounds of muscle we will burn the equivalent of a mile’s jog worth of calories every day. Think about that for a second. This is an extra mile a day for the rest of your life. Add on 6 pounds of muscles and we are at 2 miles a day for life! When we eat enough to support activity we can build muscle, increase performance and burn fat. This is magic! We can become: stronger, leaner, healthier and not starve all at the same time. 

So what is the catch? It takes patience and hard work. Putting on 6 pounds of muscle takes 4 to 6 months of quality eating and exercising. The second downside is your scale will no longer be a valuable resource. We want to gain muscle and lose fat which means the number on the scale does not measure our goal of body fat loss. What do we need to measure? Performance. When we put on muscle and lose fat, performance goes through the roof - so start measuring it!
-Ben Costigan

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