Saturday, May 30, 2009

Bucks County Experts on Flatter Abs - Nutrition Counts

By Dan Solaris

In North America and western European countries right now, over half of the general populace is overweight. This can be attributed to two things: the proliferation of high-calorie food readily available around the clock and the sedentary lifestyles most people have.

The most common mistake dieters make is to try to lose weight and get flatter abs by drastically changing their eating habits, trying to cut down calorie intake. Although this method will initially result in weight-loss, not all of it can be attributed to lost body fat.

Our bodies react to hunger by trying to conserve energy stores. It does this by slowing down the rate of metabolism and this means lesser calories in the form of fat burned. Our body turns to glycogen stored in our muscle tissue and liver for energy instead. This eventually leads to loss of muscle tissue and that's not a good thing.

Muscles help elevate the body's metabolic rate by expending calories. We lower our body's ability to burn calories then when we experience loss of muscle tissue. A lower metabolic rate therefore will mean our body has more of a tendency to store excess calories from the food we eat, converting it into body fat.

Another thing about muscle tissue is it's much heavier per volume than fat. This fact makes it easy to be misled into thinking we've lost a significant amount of body fat when it's actually muscle we've lost by cutting back on calories and skipping meals.

Having a smart diet- eating the right foods instead of eating less will be a much more effective way of getting flatter abs. Also, depriving oneself of proper food consumption can lead to over-indulging on the next scrumptious meal that comes along- resulting in excess calories.

Aside from healthy eating habits like avoiding empty calories and switching to healthier snacks to munch on, flatter abs can also be gained through proper exercise. Exercises that push the cardiovascular system to work at intense levels have been proven to burn the most calories in the least amount of time.

Adding muscle-building exercises to a workout regimen of intense cardiovascular exercise will not only result in a more attractive physique, but will improve metabolism as well. Always keep in mind that a higher metabolism means it's easier to burn-off excess calories and prevent the retention of body fat.

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