The most effective way to lose fat not muscle is to combine both exercise and diet. Doing just one of these will give you some results but not nearly as effectively as including both.
Losing fat is dependent on the simple formula of calories in versus calories out. By burning more calories than you consume, weight loss is inevitable.
Your body may not always need all the fuel you feed it, especially if you’re not particularly physically active. Being sensible about your portion sizes will not only help you to lose fat not muscle, it will also assist with certain disease prevention such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.
Learning how to read nutritional labels is imperative. Here is an excellent resource on the FDA website.
Setting goals can keep you on track and keep you motivated every day. You should set targets that lose body fat, rather than body weight. There are various tools to measure body fat, such as scales, skinfold calipers, body fat analyzers, or even the simple tape measure.
If using a tape measure, the best places to measure are chest, waist, hips, mid thigh, calf, and upper arm. Measure once a week and keep a note in a spreadsheet or jotted down somewhere so you can see your progress (or not!) This should keep you motivated to either increase your exercise or decrease your calorie consumption.
When setting your goals, write down at the beginning of each week what you would like to achieve and what you exercises you plan to do each day. Aim to exercise daily for a minimum of 30 minutes, even if it means getting up 30 minutes earlier to fit a walk in before you start your day. At the end of each week, evaluate how you have done and where you need to focus most for the upcoming week. If you find it difficult to keep yourself accountable, why not find a training buddy who also wants to lose fat not muscle. Hold each other accountable each week and make sure you’re honest with each other or you’ll never see the results you’re after.
photo credit: Lee Carson
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