by Lance Devero

Created on: May 29, 2007

Contrary to popular belief, exercising a particular area of your body does not help you lose the fat from that area. Rather, working out any area of the body will strengthen and build the muscle that lies underneath the fat. The body is non-selective when it comes to burning fat and the only way to do it is with a healthy balanced diet and regular exercise that gets your heart pumping.

The first thing to know about losing fat is that the energy consumed must be less than the energy used on a day-to-day basis. That way, the body is not getting enough energy to burn and will switch to an alternative energy source which has been stored (fat).

Although many may say it is better to increase the amount of exercise instead of controlling your diet, it is more practical to do a hybrid of the two. It's important to decide how and what you eat if you are serious about losing fat.
What you are trying to do is create a diet that will give you enough energy to last your day without giving the body too much energy.

Start by shaving off unhealthy snacks during the day and eliminating lunch or replacing it with some fruit/vegetables or a light salad. Try to stay away from sugary or high fat content foods.

For breakfast, you should have a large but healthy meal - cereals that have a mix of fruit pieces, oats, bran and wheat provide you with essential vitamins and minerals, slow releasing energy and rich dietary fiber. Together with a low fat milk, cereal is easy to make and easy to go down. Follow this with some fruit or fruit juice and toast, and you will be ready to start your day.

When dinner comes around, avoid foods with large amounts of carbohydrates. Carbs (sugar in particular) give you energy, but if this energy is not used then it will be converted by your body and stored as fat. Since you are least active overnight, dinner should not consist of foods high in carbs - which is not to say that you should avoid sugar completely, but avoid things like rice, bread and other starchy foods (potatoes, pumpkins, etc.).
Combine this diet with regular exercise and you will be guaranteed to begin losing the excess fat within the fortnight.

When exercising to burn fat, it only becomes effective when it's kept up for extended periods of time - i.e. more than half an hour of jogging or cycling. Keep this in mind next time you go to the gym.

Of course, the diet doesn't need to be a sacrificial leap - you can tailor it to suit yourself by gradually lowering intake and increasing exercise. As long as you make the effort, you will see the results.

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