The most common mistake dieters make is to try to lose weight and get flatter abs by drastically changing their eating habits, trying to cut down calorie intake. Although this method will initially result in weight-loss, not all of it can be attributed to lost body fat.
Whenever we let ourselves go hungry, our body actually slows down our metabolic rate. This means it won't burn calories from body fat as much and uses up our glycogen stores instead. Glycogen is a carbohydrate-derived substance that is needed by our muscles for proper development. Skipping meals, especially breakfast, can lead to loss of glycogen and muscle tissue.
Muscles help elevate the body's metabolic rate by expending calories. We lower our body's ability to burn calories then when we experience loss of muscle tissue. A lower metabolic rate therefore will mean our body has more of a tendency to store excess calories from the food we eat, converting it into body fat.
Another thing about muscle tissue is it's much heavier per volume than fat. This fact makes it easy to be misled into thinking we've lost a significant amount of body fat when it's actually muscle we've lost by cutting back on calories and skipping meals.
A better way to get flatter abs is not to eat less, but to eat wisely. Eating smaller portions of food several times throughout the day will keep your metabolic rate from dropping and maintain proper fat-burning ability. Doing this will also prevent you from eating too much in one sitting- stretching the walls of the stomach out of proportion.
Small adjustments in one's diet like using olive oil instead of butter or orange juice instead of soda will still let you lose weight without sacrificing flavor in the food you eat. A proper workout program with cardio exercises known for isolating body fat can also shorten the process of getting flatter abs.
Doing resistance training along with cardiovascular sessions will also make it easier for a person to get flatter abs by building muscle. As stated previously, muscle tissue burns calories even while at rest, so the more of it we build, the more calories we can burn each day.
About the Author:
No comments:
Post a Comment