Weight Loss Tip: How to Use Fat For Fuel

Cindy is 42. She admits she is overweight, but from the look of things, she is obese. She has decided to do something about it though. She is not so much an experimenter. She is confused by all these diet pills and weight loss options, so she decides to change to a healthier diet and exercise at least 4 mornings per week for an hour each morning.

She never told me her weight; maybe the number was too heavy a word to utter. However, I could ‘see’ it bulging from her upper arms and her mid-section.

Cindy has a big payoff in mind for wanting to undertake this self-propelled weight loss program. She is determined not to exit this world by a heart attack like her dad. He was in his early fifties that fateful Monday morning almost 21 years ago. She also wants her son, Carey who is in the eleventh grade, to think of her pleasant face and her loving ways instead of her waddling physique whenever he and his friends meet her. [You know how teens are.]

How Cindy Burns Her Fat

Cindy decides to walk for one hour each time she exercises. Even though she has concerns about her neighbors having a laugh at her struggling by every morning, she didn’t care. They have been laughing already anyway.

She would walk for 10 minutes then rest for 2 or 3 minutes, then go on again. Following her doctor’s advice she carries a heart rate monitor and makes sure her heart rare did not exceed a certain number. It was scientific too: her maximum heart rate is 70% of (200 – her age). I calculated that to be about 110.

Another thing Cindy believes is that she has to exercise long enough (but not necessarily hard) for her fat to burn. I later checked it out and found it to be true. This is what I found…

At the beginning of physical activity the body uses mostly blood glucose for fuel. It also may convert from its glycogen stores in the muscles and liver. Fat burning really becomes significant when physical activity is prolonged and the body begins to conserve on its readily-available energy supply.

Researchers suggest a minimum of 10 to 12 minutes of aerobic activity is needed for it to be effective. For example, people with diabetes and who are able to walk, would see a significant improvement in blood sugar control if they decided to walk for 30 to 60 minutes every day for a few weeks.

They would lose weight and build muscle at the same time, and do it in a natural and very healthy way. More muscle means more power to do more exercise. Stronger muscles also mean increased fat burning capacity. That’s why the best weight loss tip I can think of is one that will give lasting results and a health benefit in every area of lifestyle related health condition.

If you need to lose weight and gain much more than you lose at the same time, just do what Cindy did. Use your fat to fuel your way back to a younger and healthier you.

Copyright © 2006 by Bentley Thompson

Bentley writes about lifestyle-related conditions such as diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol, and cardiovascular diseases. He advocates the anti-diabetes diet which he describes on his website. You may visit his website and blog using the following URLs:
http://www.anti-diabetes-diet-supplements.com/ and
http://choosehealthtoday.blogspot.com

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