Fat facts for everyone

Fat facts for everyone

Let’s face it—you can’t get rid of all the fat in your body, no matter how much you exercise and how rigorously you do your diet.

Besides, your body needs a healthy amount of fat to continue with its daily functions. The first step in crafting the most suitable fitness program for you is to zero in on a target weight that takes into account your body fat percentage, not just your water and muscle weight.

To lose weight effectively, you should shed off the excessive fatty deposits in your body  and replace it with muscle mass or so-called lean tissue.

The acceptable body fat levels for males is 18% and for females 23% or less. But your body fat percentage should not alarm you until you reach 35 and 40%, respectively, which means that you really have to lose the extra pounds to avoid developing obesity-related health conditions.

So where does fat come from? And more importantly, how do you lose body fat efficiently?

Fat is formed when you consume more calories than your body needs at the moment, based on your current level of physical activity and other general body functions like breathing and sleeping. The excess energy is stored as fat deposits for future use.

To break down excess fat and get rid of it permanently, you have to increase the levels of fat-burning activities that melt away the deposits in your body while lessening the fat-generating activities. In other words, you have to exercise more and eat less of the unhealthy foods that you are used to eating. This means that you draw the needed energy for the increased exercise from the stored fats in your body.

Some diet programs will promise spot reduction of fat, but the truth is that you are genetically wired to store fat in certain portions of your body, and you can’t shed them as you wish. Fat is stored energy, but when you exercise a particular body part only (say your left leg or arm), it doesn’t necessarily mean that the fuel for the activity comes from that same body part.

You will accumulate more muscle tissue in your arm or leg, yes, but this doesn’t mean that you’ve already melted away the fat deposit in that area and it’s time for you to move to the next body part. Fat is gained and used up by the body as a whole and not in certain portions only.