subject: Lose Those Last 5 to 20 Pounds [print this page] Lose Those Last 5 to 20 Pounds Lose Those Last 5 to 20 Pounds
It is very easy to start losing weight especially if you are largely overweight, small changes in your diet or an increase can drop pounds of you very quickly. The hardest part of losing weight is the last five, ten or twenty pounds.
There can be many reasons that these last few pounds become difficult to shift, but why is this? One wide spread theory is that it is due to our genetics, and that are bodies are programmed to hold onto those last few pounds of fat. So if it's in our genetics to hold onto that last bit of fat, then surely we can't do anything about it then?! Fortunately that isn't the case, although it does become more difficult to shed that last bit of fat, it isn't impossible, we just have to work that bit harder and also throw a few tricks in to confuse our bodies a bit.
When I say we have to work a bit harder, I mean that maybe we can tighten up a bit more on our diets. When we have a bit more excess fat, we may find that we can have the odd chocolate bar or pack of crisps in the week, and still lose weight. When you are trying to convince your body to allow you to rid of that last bit of fat, it really does want to hold onto it, so won't let you be so slack in your diet. I would like to point out that I never recommend that anyone follows a diet one hundred percent, as this leads to temptation, temporary lapses and eventually failure. Allowing yourself the odd treat, maybe a favorite food to reward yourself at the end of a successful week of dieting will help keep you motivated. Here I'm talking about having more than a few snacks that aren't planned, these are the ones that you will need to get rid of to help you in the final hurdle.
I mentioned that there are also a few tricks that you can throw at your body as well. There are a couple used in the bodybuilding world which allow them to achieve amazingly low body fat levels for contests, even if you are not a body builder you can still "borrow" these techniques and use them for your fat loss benefits.
A good technique to try first is to reduce your intake of carbohydrates, a lot of people are sensitive to carbs and a slight reduction can make a big difference. It is important that you don't drop your carbs down too low as this may result in your bodies starvation response kicking in, as carbs are it is main and prefered source of energy. Dropping to a moderate carb diet of about forty percent of your calories coming from carbohydrates should be fine.
If you find that you still need to go a step further to get more results, you can try an advanced dieting technique used by bodybuilders and fitness models called carb cycling. This is an adaption of the low carb diet, but it doesn't have the problems that starving your body of carbs can cause, namely the body starvation response. Just for your information the starvation response is a reaction that your body has when it thinks that it is being starved, this can be of calories or carbohydrates. The starvation response is basically when your body changes the way it processes food, harbours energy and uses energy in order to increase its chances of extended survival. This can include things like slowing its metabolism, holding on to body fat and breaking down muscle to use as energy, so you can see we really want to avoid this!
The idea of a low carb diet is to starve your body of carbs which are its prefered energy supply, forcing it to breakdown fat as an energy source. The body will respond to this but for only a few days before it goes into starvation mode. Carb cycling avoids this by throwing in a high carb day before this happens, so that your body can replenish some of its carbohydrates and feels like it is being sufficiently fed again. A carb cycling program could look as follows:-
Day 1:Low carb (30% carbs)
Day 2: Low carb (30% carbs)
Day 3:Low carb (30% carbs)
Day 4:High Carb (50% carbs)
Day 5:Repeat From day 1 again
This is an amazingly powerful technique, and as I said it allows body builders and fitness models to achieve very low body fat levels. I do recommend that you only stay on this type of diet for about four to six weeks, as it is quite demanding on your body, but will help you smash through a plateau and get rid of those last few pounds of fat.
So there it is a couple of tips and techniques that you can use to help you shed those last five, ten, fifteen or twenty pounds of excess fat. First try just tightening up on your diet and intensifying your training, if that is doing it for you try reducing the amount of carbs in your diet. Finally to explode away that last bit of stubborn fat, try carb cycling I guarantee you will be amazed at the results!
