Eat More, Lift More, Lose Fat

More often than not, people want to eat more and want to lose fat. Does this sound familiar? I know I like to eat and I also like the idea of being lean and mean year round. So, how can this be accomplished? Eat more frequently and lift more reps. The result of this concept is fat loss and a satiated appetite.

How does this work? First, let’s discuss eating more frequently. Your body is smart and fortunately it wants to survive no matter what. What does this mean to you when it comes to eating more and losing weight? Simple... if your body thinks that it is going to have to wait 5, 10 or 15 hours for another meal it is going to do what it deems necessary to survive. What that means to your body is save fat. When your body decides to save fat it stores it on the gut and the rest of the physique. It does this because it wants an adequate supply of energy in reserve (fat) because it doesn’t think you will feed it when fuel is necessary.

When you eat frequently, your body realizes it is going to have a steady supply of fuel. This is a huge change that allows the body to stop saving fat. The fat doesn’t just fall off; however, the body will stop storing an excess. The reason behind this is that it knows you are going to feed it. When the body becomes aware that fuel is abundant it realizes it doesn’t need to stockpile calories in the form of a fat gut. Of course you can’t eat 7 large pizzas a day and expect to lose weight. A reasonable caloric intake is necessary so the frequent meals/snacks will be smaller than that of the person that eats just lunch and dinner; but, the frequent feedings will keep the appetite suppressed.

Next, do more reps and lose weight. This is a simple one. The more you move the more calories you burn. So long as you keep your caloric intake the same or less, more calories burned will result in weight lost. By choosing more sets and/or more reps per set you will burn more calories per every workout. Versatile fitness equipments at home allow you to do different sets of workout and has the ability to increase the amount of resistance in one sturdy piece. It comes in handy too as you gain tolerance. Home gyms that allows full body workout works perfectly well as it allows you to do a total body training with a full range of motion using the same equipment.

As you increase your workload, you will you also create more muscle adaptation resulting in higher metabolism after the lift and more calories burned by sitting on the couch. Both of these byproducts lead to fat loss. Doesn’t that sound good? Lose fat sitting on the couch.

Another consideration is maintaining the same workout time-frame but squeezing in these extra sets and reps. When you do this you have to adapt by reducing rest time between sets. This is going to cause your heart rate to remain more elevated during the duration of the workout. What does that mean? More calories burned in the same amount of time. That’s the best! Same workout time... more results!

So, what’s the take home message? Eat smaller meals and snacks more frequently. Eat six or more times a day (I prefer to eat meals/snacks of 150-450 calories with some source of protein in each). Increase your reps and sets in your workout while reducing the rest time between sets. You will see a spike in intensified training while powered by the quality nutrition you are fueling up with more frequently. The end result is a leaner, stronger, and more fit you.