It's a fact. The only way to lose weight is to burn more calories than you take in. If you want to lose weight, you must cut back on your food intake, raise your metabolism (the rate at which you burn calories), or increase your activity level. However, depending on your weight, age, activities, and other variables, you may need to adjust it somewhat higher to fit your unique physiology.

You can actually increase your metabolism by eating several small meals per day and/or increasing the amount of lean muscle tissue on your body. When you continually fuel your body with small 'meals' it is continually working to process the food, and any time you body is working, it is burning calories. Having the right kinds of foods and supplements every few hours will also help you keep your energy high, your hunger satisfied, and your nutrition at a maximum.

Most fitness and nutrition specialists recommend that you get 40% of your calories from carbohydrates, 30% from protein, and 30% from essential fats. For many people, this represents a decrease in the high calorie carbs that can bloat you and make you fatter. It also represents a healthy increase in the protein you need to repair the muscles you break down during weight workouts. Since protein will help give you the shape and tone you want, it is important to get adequate amounts in small, frequent increments. This concept provides the essential fats that your body needs for survival, while providing a great variety of foods that actually taste good. It doesn't leave you feeling deprived like many fad diets. If you take into account the time of day at which you are most active (morning and afternoon for most people) and eat the majority of your carbohydrate foods during those times, your body will store less fat because you will utilize more of the calories that you take in. You will also begin to notice that your energy levels are more consistent throughout the day.

EXERCISE HELPS EVERYTHING WORK OUT!!
Exercise can be divided in two basic components; resistance training and cardiovascular training. It is good to rotate these types of workouts every other day, allowing the body to recover from one while doing the other. Some people are misinformed when it comes to weight training. Weight training is absolutely essential to give your muscles the shape that you desire. Properly executed, weight training will make your bones stronger and your body more flexible. Don't worry about building big bulging muscles. Unless you are training with big heavy weights and eating enough to gain muscle, it is not going to happen. When you focus on increasing your lean muscle you increase the amount of living tissue that require food fuel to survive. All things being equal an individual with more muscle mass can burn up to 500 calories more a day just to survive than a similarly active individual with less muscle tissue. A pound of fat is equal to approximately 3500 calories. That works out to a pound of fat burned every week doing the exact same things! (note: you donšt have to be "muscle bound" to increase your metabolism).

One good cardio workout can be of long duration, at low to moderate intensity. It is great for beginners because of the high number of calories it burns, and because it is relatively easy to do. Plus, after 20+ minutes, you body begins to directly burn the fat as fuel. Like all cardiovascular work, a sufficient amount will increase your metabolism for several hours after you workout, and progressively raise your BASL metabolic rate (the rate at which your body burns calories at rest). Your long duration, low intensity workout can be any activity that is brisk enough to elevate your heart rate, but still allows you to carry on a conversation. Start off slowly, and gradually work up to a steady pace for 40-60 minutes. For more advanced fitness enthusiasts, interval training can be quite an efficient way of getting in a cardiovascular workout. Interval training involves moderate to high intensity bouts of activities such as running, cycling, swimming or anything else that elevates your heart rate to 85-95% of maximum exertion. Interval workouts are shorter in duration than low intensity cardio workouts and will require more time to recover afterwards (your metabolism is elevated during the entire recovery period).

Bryant Howard BA, MA, CFT, SPN — Bryant is certified through the International Sports Sciences Association. He is both a Fitness Trainer and Performance Nutrition Specialist. He also holds certification in CPR and First Aid. He has trained competitive athletes for ten years and offers personal and group training sessions in the Portland, OR area. Bryant Howard owns Performance Fitness Training