How Do You Burn Fat? Avoid Fat Free Food

The other day I had someone ask me, 'How do you burn fat?' Being a pretty basic question, I asked him what he was currently doing to lose weight.

Here is the basic rundown of what he told me he did:

• Cardio 4 times a week for 30 minutes
  
  
• Resistance training 4 times a week
  
  
• 12 eight ounce glasses of water a day
  
  
• Eat fat free foods....

That is where I stopped him. The workouts and hydration parts were good but I asked him to clarify the fat free foods. They ended up being prepackaged, ready to heat up meals, fat free milk, and diet soda. I told him that his diet is why he was not losing belly fat. He seemed a bit surprised so I educated him on 'Fat Free Foods'.

Companies that produce these foods know who they are marketing to. Their basic customers are used to eating whatever they want... that is why they need to lose weight. Their customers are used to filling meals and sweet snacks. Now that their customers want to lose weight the companies offer filling meals and sweet snacks but with no fat.

The problem is that quite a bit of the taste in these foods came from the fat. Since they took the fat out of the equation, they had to add things to the food to make them taste as good as possible. This usually ends up being sugar and salt. The companies that produce these products often argue that since there are more calories in a gram of fat than a gram of sugar then sugar is better for their customers. The problem is that it is much easier for the human body to break down simple sugars than it is to break down fat.

When these sugars are broken down into glucose (blood sugar) but not used soon, they get stored as fat. Fat actually breaks down slower and gives the body more time to burn it off before it is stored.

I am not saying to go out and eat a bunch of fat, but do not fall into the trap of thinking that sugary and salty "fat free" foods are good for you.

If you want a healthy diet, go back to the basics. We all learned about the food pyramid in school. It has changed a bit because of nutrition research, so you may want to go check it out again. You will also need to know what a portion size actually is. America has super sized everything so our perception of portion sizes are often way off.

In the end, the answer to 'how do you burn fat?' is to have a good workout routine and eat a healthy diet with sensible portions... and stay away from prepackaged "fat free" foods.

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