Saturday, August 17, 2013

How To Achieve Long Term Weight Loss By Lowering Your Carb Intake Sensibly

By Russ Hollywood


If you are trying to figure out how to lose weight quickly and safely, it's possible that you will have already looked into learning how to cut your carbohydrate intake to increase fat loss. Today, you will find out how to do this both safely and effectively in order to ensure long term, sustainable weight loss.

On top of this, you'll find out how you can combine a correctly structured macronutrient intake with high intensity interval training, yielding excellent results both inside and outside of your local gym.

Unfortunately, the last ten years or so have seen carbohydrates labelled as the bad guy, at least as far as diets go. Myths started by fad diets have created a society where most individuals are so afraid to eat carbs they will voluntarily skip meals instead. The truth is that this bad reputation is undeserved and despite what many gym members falsely believe, they are not to be thought of as the enemy. In fact, you'll enjoy far superior results by consuming a low carbohydrate diet in comparison to a zero carbohydrate diet.

Diets which contain zero of any of the three major macronutrients have been proven unsuccessful by rigorous scientific studies. Your body needs protein, fat and carbohydrates in order to survive. Contrary to popular belief, you cannot lose any unwanted fat if you are not consuming carbs or fats. These type of diets often lead to situations where people make themselves ill and eventually wind up heavier than when they started!

The best starting point before you begin with any new eating plan is to find out where you are right now. You can do this by keeping a log of your food over the next two or three days. Once you have established your current intake of protein, carbohydrates and fats it will become much easier to make a positive change. The following split is optimal for those with a fat loss orientated goal:

* 1.25 grams of protein for every pound of your weight.

* 0.5g carbs per pound of body weight.

* 0.5g fats for every lb you weigh.

Beware of changing your diet too quickly, though. It would be wiser to use the targets given above as the destination you would like to reach. Take your time to move in line with these figures, as opposed to immediately changing your whole approach. Otherwise, your body could reject the change. Use the next few weeks to start making small changes each week, so that by the end of the month you have dialed your entire calorie intake into line with the recommended targets.

Scientific studies have shown countless times that a smarter, gradual approach to changes within the diet brings more long term success than knee-jerk reactions and sudden drastic measures.

One of the extra benefits to sorting out your eating habits, of course, is that the efforts you put in at the gym will be much more noticeable. For example, if you are performing regular bouts of high intensity interval training you will be able to fully realize the many benefits of this training method with the correct carbohydrate intake. []

With all of the fad diets and conflicting information out there, learning proven facts on how to lose weight quickly can be a difficult task. However, despite the many myths which are surely out there, the most effective method is still making small, manageable changes to your diet.




About the Author: