Cardio

Cardio is essential to combat fats, one of the tools to speed up fat loss. Before we start, I need to empathize the importance of understanding your heart rate.

Everyone has a maximum heart rate in which our heartbeat per minute will not exceed. Theres a formula to calculate:

220 - your age = max heart rate

Here's a guide for beginners:

1) Make sure your heart rate falls between 60 to 70% of your maximum heart rate to attain fat burning zone.
E.g. For someone who is 20yr old:
220 - 20 = 200bpm (beats per min)
60% x 200 = 120bpm
70% x 200 = 140bpm
The optimal heart rate for fat loss is between 120 to 140bpm for this individual.

2) Run at your optimal heart rate for at least 40mins, thrice per week.

3) Hydrate a few hours before your run so that your liver can concentrate on helping to burn off fats rather than coping with dehyration.

Alright, so now we've gotten the basic guideline out of the way, I would like to answer a question asked frequently by ladies.

Q) Does running make my thighs grow big?
A) Directly, NO. Your thighs will be toner and firmer. Indirectly, POSSIBLE. What do I mean by indirectly? As now, from reading my earlier entries, you would've known that ladies do not have enough muscle cells to build bulky muscles. You would also have known that as you exercise, your metabolism goes up and thus you eat more. When you cut down on your exercises, your metabolism goes down and if your appetite for food remains, there could be a problem whereby you stored extra calories as fats. For ladies, thigh is where most fats go to whereas for guys, tummy is where most fats go to. Instead of asking does running make your thighs grow big, maybe ask if you've eaten more calories than you can burn? If yes, do change your exercise or dieting routine.

The other thing to note is when we are running, we are not necessarily burning 100% fats. Let's say for someone who walks for 20mins, he/she would burn approx 100 calories of which 65% comes from fats. This means he/she burns 65 calories of fats from this activity. If this person jogs for 20mins instead of walking, he/she would burn approx 250 calories of which only 40% comes from fats. Even though lower percentage of fats were used, this person has already burnt out 100 calories of fats (40% of 250kcal) compared to when he/she was walking. High intensity exercises utilise lower percentage of fats but chances are, you will burn more fats.

Based on what I've shared about intensity of exercises and amount of calories burnt, I do have ways to accelerate fat loss through cardio exercises. Next entry, I will share with all a great way to accelerate fat loss. Stay tuned to FatsOff!

3 Major Muscles to Accelerate Fat Loss

For those following this blog would've read about muscles increase your metabolism and thus allowing you to lose fats faster. Which muscle groups should be trained to accelerate fat loss?

Heres the answer:

1) Chest
Do remember to hit all parts of the chest. Upper, lower, inner and outer.

2) Back
Hit on the trapz (the muscles at each side of your neck), lats (a.k.a wings), upper and lower back.

3) Thighs
You can even do this at home with squats exercises.

For those familiar with muscle groups would've spotted the similarity between those muscle groups. Yes, they are 3 of the biggest muscles in our body. Remember, the bigger your muscles, the higher your rate of metabolism.

For ladies, do not worry too much about building bulky frame as the female body is built in such a way that you will not build up to be bulky like your male counterparts. To get the bulky mass, you have to do a whole lot more work and external help like supplements!! You will simply tone up when you do weights training which in turn firms up your body giving you a sexier curve.

Yes, so why not engage in weights training too? Lose fats and be sexy at the same time! How much better can it get right? Sentosa, here I come? Yes! Definately!

I will go more into my own training regime for the 3 major muscle groups in another entry. Next entry, I will leave metabolism and go into another important weapon to battle fats, CARDIO TRAINING.

Stay tuned to FatsOff!!! =D

Muscles into Fats?

Ever heard of this statement: "If you stop exercising, your muscles will turn into fats!"? Well, alot of people asked me about this and my answer is a resounding NO!

The next question they ask will be, "Why do my muscles turn flabby then?". So here I am, to explain what is actually happening.

When we are engage in weights training actively, our metabolism rate goes up and we tend to eat more to sustain our daily energy needs. At this point, what we eat will be burnt off to be used as energy.

When we stop training for a long period, our metabolism rate goes down, our muscles shrink. But for most, the appetite for food remains as the body is used to the amount of food intake during training (e.g Alex ate 5 plates of rice everyday when he was engaging in weight training, when he stopped training, he continues to eat 5 plates of rice). There will be an over-intake of food.

So the extra food that are not burnt to be used for energy would be stored as fats! So the theory of muscles turning into fats is not true. Fats and muscles are two different kind of tissues. Muscles lies underneath fats so losing fats will allow your muscles to stand out.

If you have been training regularly, keep up the good work. But if you intend to tone down or even stop completely, do remember to adjust your food intake accordingly. Do not slack off if you want your fats off!

Since I'm in the topic of metabolism, I'll touch on the parts to train to shed off fats faster in my next entry. Stay tuned to FatsOff!!! =D

Ways to Boost BMR

This week, we take a look at ways to boost metabolism rate. First I'll just explain briefly what is it all about. Its commonly known in the world of fitness as Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). Its the amount of daily energy used while resting in order to sustain the body. It decreases as one ages. Everyone has different BMR depending on gender, age, lifestyle, level of activeness and so on.

Someone with a high BMR tends to burn off more fats to create energy needed to sustain the daily needs of the body. Someone with high BMR can kill off fats easily while someone with low BMR will struggle to burn off fats. Good news! BMR can be increased!!! Read on!!!

It is true that the more muscles your body has, the higher your BMR. The more muscles you have, the more energy your body needs to sustain the daily needs of the body. For ladies, as I've said, due to the lack of muscle cells in their body, would find it very hard to build bulky muscles. For guys, great news, bulk up and your BMR will go up.

Playing sports helps alot in burning extra fats. The more you move, the more you burn! Although they will not help much in increasing the BMR but ultimately, exercising will contribute to a leaner body. Jogging, cycling, swimming are all some of the ways. In summary, stay active!!

Next, eat frequent meals (5 to 6 small meals daily). People who stop eating in order to lose weight are putting themselves at alot of health risks, not only that, their plan to lose weight will eventually backfire. The body will store food as fats if you starve yourself. So whatever you put into your mouth would not be used as energy but stored as fats instead. And since its not being burnt to be used as energy, you will still feel hungry and would be tempted to eat more. In addition, the body will slow metabolism to conserve energy which means your BMR slows down. To prevent your body from doing this, reducing the interval of hunger maintains the "burning process".

Do have breakfast. Giving your body some healthy nutrition gets your metabolism kicking for the day!

Drink enough water! 6 to 8 glasses of water is deemed sufficient (of course I dun mean liqour shots glasses, when I say glasses, I really do mean the glasses you use to drink milk!). This way, your liver will have the time to deal with important duty like burning fats rather than focusing on water retention.

Get enough sleep. The body burns fats even during sleep. Someone who gets 8 hours of sleep will have higher BMR as opposed to someone who sleeps only 4 hours daily. Of course, sleeping too much will not help either because the extra hours you used to sleep can be put into better use like exercising to further burn off fats!!!

In conclusion, in order to boost BMR, one should:

1) Increase muscle mass.
2) Stay active.
3) Eat small frequent meals.
4) Consume breakfast.
5) Drink enough water daily.
6) Get enough sleep.

As we go further, FatsOff will go in-depth into ways to enhance your BMR. The next entry will be on how not exercising can contribute to the myth of muscles turning into fats. Stay tuned to FatsOff!!! =D

Weight Loss vs Fat Loss

Here's my 1st post after the introduction. Theres so many components that needs to be addressed to achieve the best effect for fat loss. I shall 1st talk about the differences between losing weight and losing fats.

It is so easy to lose weight that someone who knows nuts about fitness can do it. Simply just stop eating and your weight will go down. But beware! The next time you eat, the body will store fats in case you decides to diet again. Let's face it, people wants to lose weight to look good. Now the burning question is, do one really look good after doing that? By not eating to lose weight, one will only look a smaller and weaker version of him or herself. Looking good? I dun think so. Healthy? I dun think so too. It is true that muscles weigh more than fats so using weight as an indication is not accurate. You can be heavier with a nice body or lighter with a flabby body. Think along this line, look toned rather than slim. And for ladies, do not worry, you do not have enough muscle cells to look bulky like the guys. Those you saw on TV (wrestlers/ bodybuilders), they went through special training program and did it with the aid of external help like mass gainer. Working out will make gals toner rather than bulkier.

And theres slimming centres popping out everywhere. They help you lose weight, not fats. And this is a temporary measure, afterwhich, be prepared to shell out more money to maintain it. All they really did was to reduce the body fluid and thus making one look slimmer. And do not forget, this is only temporary.

What about I propose a way where one can eat happily, stay healthy and look good all at once? One word does all the work! Yes, its true. The magic word is Metabolism. To get your desired body, this will help alot along with other vital components.

To sum up, fats can weigh lesser than muscles so stop using the weighing machine as an indicator. Fats can build up if one stops eating for a period of time whereas for someone eating regular small meals, they burn fats faster due to their metabolism rate. Exercising will increase metabolism rate and in turns helps to burn off fats the right way. Losing weight does not really make you look better while you can be sure that losing fats does! In all, losing fats over losing weight... Will go more into metabolism rate, how to build this ultimate fat burning weapon, in my next entry... Stay tuned to FatsOff =D

FatsOff Debuts!

Hi to all, welcome to my blog. Bascially, I'm aiming to use this blog to help peeps who wants to shed some fats the correct way and keep themselves healthy. There will be entries to dispel myths, correct methods of exercising and so on. Stay tuned as more entries are on their way!

MVG