Friday, 21 January 2011

Hit a weight loss plateu? Here's what to do....


Faced with the task of dieting down for competition – or simply to get cut – you can often hit a wall where your weight hits a sticking point. What can you do?

You might be tempted to try a quick-fix diet, but it won’t work. Drastically cutting calories everyday is bad for fat loss because a constant, never-changing low carbohydrate intake allows the body’s metabolism to adapt readily.

Essentially your body goes into starvation mode, hanging on to every single calorie.  This means your body will ultimately burn fewer calories and less body-fat. The body produces leptin, a hormone responsible for slowing down your metabolic rate, which makes losing fat harder in the long run. If that wasn’t enough, cutting calories like this is unsustainable.

Ramping up cardio exercises may not always do the trick either – so think about varying your calorie intake on a daily basis instead.

Try reducing your carbohydrate intake by 50 – 75% for two consecutive days. By reducing carbohydrates you are lowering your overall calorie intake which can help trigger fat burning. And when you are on a low calorie day the body will draw upon glycogen reserves – as your glycogen levels drop, fat burning increases.

Lower glycogen stores are associated with greater levels of glucagon and hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL). Glucagon is a noted fat burning hormone that encourages the use of fat as a primary source of energy in the body. HSL acts to help fat exit the fat cells, so it can be burned for fuel. As glycogen drops, HSL increases the amount of fat released from your fat cells, while glucagon rises to boost the burning of this freed-up fat.

By sticking to two low carbohydrate days every seven, you are also helping to burn fat on the days you are back to normal. That’s because when you go back to eating a moderate amount of carbohydrates the hormonal changes that you have prompted remain, keeping the fat burning process going.

Glucagon and HSL levels do not drop suddenly with a return to higher carbohydrate intake. They remain moderately elevated which means your body will continue to lean down even though you are eating more carbohydrates.

For optimum results while you’re working for ripped muscle definition take Multipower’s whey protein Iso complex -- the ultimate catalyst for that low fat muscular body. It will supply you with readily available protein, delivered to muscles directly after training and it eliminates non-essential carbohydrates. Whey Protein Iso complex is rich in the essential amino acids required during the training recovery phase. The need for amino acids rises massively after training to combat the degeneration effect (catabolic phase). If you want to add to your intake try super amino protein shots