As promised here goes my two more mantras which will help you understand your body and to get set on your journey of weight loss and fat loss. 

Welcome to series – II.

What are we disclosing today? Well! you will come to know about “Body Composition” and about “Calories in and Calories out”.

Let’s begin…

Body Composition:

The major part of our body’s lean mass and fat is made of from the food we consume. It is only with the right diet you are able to run your weight loss and fat loss journey successfully.

EXERCISE is the TOOL when you are thinking of growing muscles and increasing the rate at which you lose fat.

In short it clearly depicts a 80-20 rule where exercise plays 20 and nutrition from food plays 80 in order to gift you that immensely fantastic body.

Exercise enhances your mental health too in addition to physical health.

Make a promise to yourself that you will exercise at least 30 minutes for 6 days a week. Do it just after you wake up in the morning. Devote just 30 minutes of your day.

Our body’s composition is based on various factors like genes, weight, body fat, metabolism.

Genes:

When you reach puberty the structure of your body, height, predisposition of fat storage along with muscularity gets determined. They also influence the base of your body shape and how you appear. And this my friends you cannot change with some surgery or any type of medication.

What you can definitely do is increase or decrease the fat% and increase muscle weight in order to sculpt your body in a way to attain a great shape.

If you are still wondering why does obesity strike many, then let me tell you that this is caused by behavioral and environmental factors and not due to your genes.

So, from now on you don’t get to blame your genes to be obese. Start to work out, eat healthy and you will see the difference.

Weight:

As we all know that our body is composed of components such as water, blood, organs, waste, other fluids, tissue, bones, fat and muscles. The scale that you use to weigh tells you your weight without bifurcating the exact weight of each one of these components separately.

A difference of 2-3 pounds at the beginning could be due to loss of water weight. If you want to measure your body go by the rule of measuring your weight week after week. And the other golden rule is to measure your inches every month. [will share what to measure in my next series of weight loss and fat loss. So, do come back.]

Note: You can burn up to 2 lbs of fat and build up to 0.5 lbs of muscle every week in a healthy way. If you are way away from your ideal weight you will be able to burn more fat.

Body Fat:

You can visit fitness centers or even some hospitals where they provide facilities to measure body fat so as to learn your fat %. Even by looking at yourself in the mirror and pinching those fat around your midsection you can easily learn about the amount of fat.

If you are not able to see your abdominal muscle you have above 20% of body fat. If you can see partial outlines of your abs you will have between 15-19% of body fat. If you are fit and can see all abdominal muscles you would have around 10% body fat.

All these numbers of body fat % mentioned above are for men. Whereas in case of women the number is always a 10+. Women has higher body fat than men due to presence of extra adipose tissues located in breast, thighs, and glutes.

Note: If you think you can spot reduce then you are wrong. This is not possible. When you burn fat it burns from all over your body. All women will be happy to know that you can easily reduce abdominal fat as compared to men as they have stubborn fat in this area.

BEST PRACTICE:

If you want to know your progress then start tracking it. You must know that BMI (Body Mass Index) takes only weight into consideration. So, opt for a body fat percentage calculation or measurement as it considers muscle mass. Thus, body fat% gives a better picture of your entire health and fitness. 

Metabolism:

Metabolism is a process where the cells in your body produce energy and this energy is required by you to sustain life.

You must be aware that metabolism is related to the amount of activity we are involved in and the number of times our body has to break food during its consumption. The higher the number of smaller meals during the day, your body functions more so as to break down the food with the process of metabolism.

Resting metabolism varies from person to person. Breakdown of protein can enhance the metabolism. So more muscle you have your resting metabolism is higher as your body is working at resting phase to ensure good health of your muscles.

Metabolism can also be increased by exercise, particularly by incorporating weight training, as your body needs energy to repair muscles throughout the day.

Calories in and Calories out:

We need to learn what amount of calories should go in and what should go out in order to either lose weight or gain weight.

Let’s start with the law of thermodynamics which is all about if you consume more than you burn you will gain weight and doing vice versa you will lose weight.

What you consume directly effects your body, its process of metabolism and even your hormonal secretions. Due to these you may store fat or expend fat. This is the sole reason why we need to keep a check on the food we consume.

Knowing about diet transitioning is also equally important. When you are moving from a phase of cutting down your caloric intake by 200-250 calories per week make sure you allow enough time so that your body adapts to the change. This will ensure that your body does not fail in meeting the energy needs for its daily activities. And you will also be delighted to see that the scale reads few pounds lower than the last time and see yourself cutting down.

Note: Take it slow else your body will slow down.

If you have taken a plan of bulking up then you must plan to increase your muscles slowly and this can be well accomplished when you increase your right diet by increasing calories per week.

Use a BMR calculator to know the required calorie intake (approximately) and make sure that you achieve your target weight.

Note: You must be shocked to know that it takes approximately 3500 calories to be burnt off in order to burn 1 lb of fat. And this can be achieved by an intake deficit of 500 calorie per day for a week. 

So, start exercising and eating right as you don’t want to cause any major damage to your body by going into such crash diet. Right!

Women should never consume fewer than 1200 calories per day once they close up towards their goal weight and men should never go lesser than 1500 calories.

If you get stuck in a plateau you can follow an intermittent fasting diet plan for 2-3 days and get back to your path once again. This is more about increasing your fasting phase between your last nights meal and the next days first meal. However, personally I would not advice this procedure. Instead increase the hours of your workout or activities per day.

Finally, you must be getting eager to know what should be your right caloric intake. And most importantly how much should be your macro nutrient consumption. Below figure will help you here.

During workout days you would require more carbohydrates, proteins and fats.

Keep reading for the next series of weight loss and fat loss. Wish you all a very healthy life. Eat healthy and stay fit.