Reducing Body Fat
Carolyn Classick-Kohn,MS,RD
How
did you gain the extra fat you currently have?
Was the reason you gained the extra fat because of eating or lack of
exercise or both? The weight you gained was primarily because
of what you ate. Various foods, not just fat are converted to fat and stored in
your body.
An important fact
made in this article is the that if we are to maintain our weight, reduce our
weight or lose weight there is a need for a strict balance. Foods eaten are
within our control and the correct balance of them in our diets is essential if
we are to effectively keep fat off our body. Burning fat calories later after
we've already put on excess fat, is much less likely as our body uses up fat
calories slower than the other energy sources we use in our bodies. Besides fat
being stored, instead of being efficiently used by our body, we also get a
double whammy because we also put on body fat as we store other foods being
converted to fat when we eat more than we burn off. This is why exercise is also
important in helping us to reduce our fat.
To reduce
our body fat we need to find the correct balance of calories we should be eating
while choosing the right combinations of fat, carbohydrates, and protein
(so that we don't place fat on our bodies unnecessarily).
Planning the correct diet to accomplish this requires more than simply
restricting or eliminating fat from our diets.
Our body requires a certain amount of fat too. Dietitians and physicians who
practice nutrition are the experts. They can determine exactly what your bodies
needs based upon age, gender, activity levels, athletic goals, and physical
characteristics, etc (as does
Personal Dietitian's Diet Plan). As an athlete or non-athlete your body has
a demand for balanced nutrition and the correct balance of these along with
eating foods in the right amounts is critical to maintain if you are to improve
your health, achieve athletic goals, or to eliminate and or reduce body fat.
