Whether your aim is to win a bodybuilding contest or just sport a lean, muscular physique on the beach, one that earns the admiration and respect of the rest, you’ll have to shift that body fat to succeed.
Obviously you can have that handsome physique or a visually striking one that claims respect and admiration of others if your muscles are draped in a thick layer of fat.
It’s more the opposite: too much body fat turns even the most finely constructed physiques into eyesores.
People who have built up remarkably large muscles will still look podgy, out of shape and undesirable – ultimately, far from impressive – if these muscles are blanketed in fat.
Fat has no place on the physique of anyone who wants to call themselves a bodybuilder. However, there are no short cuts when you are trying to shift it. It takes a well-devised program and constant observation of it.
When people fail to condition their muscles they often put it down to genes, their metabolism or any other circumstances but their own regret or lack of will power. But it has to be said that fatty tissue storage by the body has been the system that has enabled us to survive throughout the ages.
The body will go through any lengths to preserve fat, just in case, we should come up against any shortage of food in the future. It, therefore, makes it difficult to condition the muscle well.
If you’re one of those using a single approach to conditioning, you’re condemning yourself to failure by doing so. You must approach the task on several fronts to strip off the fat.
We’re going to suggest 6 simple measures to help you shift the fat. Not all of them are well known, but they are still mighty effective.
1. Don’t Seek A Miracle Diet
A lot of people are still searching for that miracle diet, that one that is easy to stay on and requires no self-discipline, like the kind advertised by famous people and published in a magazine with a wide circulation.
As you can imagine, they never work, and when, after a while, the diet hasn’t produced the results they were hoping for, the person moves from that diet to another, and to another and from failure to failure.
All good diets require – without exceptions – self-discipline and time to produce results. The choice between diets is a matter of taste; for instance, a low carb diet is preferred by people who enjoy eating meat, whereas others who prefer eating cereals, green vegetables, legumes or salads will opt for another type of diet.
Each one of us prefers a specific kind of diet, but no matter which one it is it takes self – discipline and thorough application to witness a change in our physique.
If you’re on a certain type of diet but it doesn’t immediately bring you the results you wish, stick with it and don’t change to another at the smallest hurdle. The body needs time to adapt when we modify our diet.
2. Keep Your Diet Simple
One of the requirements for a good diet is simplicity. If you have to keep on asking yourself constantly what you’re going to eat in the next meal, it may break your concentration and cause you to eat food that you shouldn’t.
Devise the diet beforehand and make sure you have it clear in your mind, and set it out on paper so that you don’t have to improvise. Since you’ll already know in advance, you won’t have to think about what to eat, but just accept what’s already on the menu for that day.
The secret is to think of eating as a way to provide the materials the body needs to build lean muscle. This way, your subconscious will accept the diet easier because the perspective is positive.
Think of the food in your diet as the tools for building the body you desire so badly and that every mouthful you eat will carry you further toward that dream.
The point of the matter is that you know exactly what you will be eating on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc, for each day of the week. The diet must be set out and respected.
3. Ease The Psychological Pressure
I won’t deny there’s a certain level of psychological pressure in switching to a diet and then staying on it. It will involve always keeping your appetite under control and not indulging in your preferences for one food or another.
If you really do respect your diet the whole week through, you should make up for this with one day of dietary freedom for yourself, preferably on the weekend.
Choose a day for doing a couple of meals as you wish, or prepare a meal in which you eat whatever you want every two days; for instance, Saturday and Sunday, the day’s people usually choose to alternate so they can be with their family and friends or eat out.
This meal is a reward for keeping to your diet all week. It will instill you with the discipline it takes to go back to your diet on Monday, and think of it as the way to build the body you want.
4. Water Is An Invaluable Conditioning Aid
Drinking lots of water helps the body with a number of its functions and is absolutely essential to maintain good health. Besides, more than 70% of the muscle is water and well-hydrated muscles grow larger, have greater leverage and build up faster.
Recent research, however, has established that drinking 500ml of cold water also increases the metabolic rate, since the body must heat the water up to body temperature.
Whatever the case may be, the fact is that water doesn’t contain a calorie and has lots of benefits for the body. So get into the habit of drinking plenty of water between meals and this will help boost your metabolism. Your burn off more calories and condition your muscles.
5. Eat More Foods With Fat Burning Properties
Several decades ago a number of weight training gurus claimed drinking water could help people to shift pounds. Funnily enough, today, there are studies that prove their statements to be true.
And a range of studies and experiments have established that certain foods of today can help us break down fatty tissue as well, So it stands to reason that if you make some of these foods part of your diet, you’ll be lending yourself an extra hand in achieving that marvelous conditioning.
Two popular drinks like tea and coffee, for instance, have the capacity to step up the metabolism and increase calorie expenditure. Meanwhile, peppers and peppercorns contain substances and compounds, in particular, capsaicin, which raise calorie expenditure and therefore enable us to slim down.
The most common nutrient, in this sense, is fiber, since it curbs the appetite and helps food to pass through the bowels easier. But not a lot of people know it also allows us to shift fat, for when we excrete, it drags the fat out the body and therefore, we don’t absorb it.
6. Vary Calorie Consumption To Accentuate Conditioning
Earlier we discussed if you stick rigidly to your diet during the week it would do you good to cheat on it in a couple of meals at most on the weekend.
There is, however, another way you can condition your muscles and that’s by varying your calorie intake so your body doesn’t grow used to the same amount of calories all of the time. If it does, it lowers your metabolic rate and you’ll burn off fewer calories.
All of the bodybuilding greats use this approach. It’s a question of eating more calories on some days of the week – and by that, I mean eating more of the foods already in the diet, not fatty or unhealthy foods – and doing the opposite on other days.
If say, on your conditioning diet you consume an average of 2000 calories a day, increase by 200 the next day (2200). The day after, bring it down to 1800, then, on the following one put it back up to 2000 or even up it to 2400. Lower to 1600 the next day, or even 1800 for two days.
The trick is to consume your weekly total, but lower or increase the intake each day within it, rather than slip the total into even amounts per day. The metabolism won’t have a set intake to adapt to and will, therefore, remain fast and burn off fat quickly
Apply these six measures and that conditioning which will leave you with fantastic looking muscles will finally be yours. If you really do want to turn your physique around, now you have the measures to make it happen once and for all!
References & Acknowledgments
Excerpts taken from the excellent article ‘12 Fat-Busting Measures’, Author – Michael Sabaces www.bodyfitnees-uk.com
