Top Fat Burning Tips (Tip #1)

Did you know that the number one New Year's resolution is to get fit or lose weight?  It's not a surprise, especially after all the holiday parties, drinking, eating and not moving enough.  Check out my tips to get you started!

Today's tip

TIP #1: DRINK WATER (Lots of it!)

I know you've heard this before, but I cannot tell you how important this is.  Water is the single best natural magic weight loss mineral.  It beats any fat burning diet pill out there! 

Why is drinking water so important?
Water helps digestion, waste removal, muscle recovery when you exercise, and it lubricates your joins.
Water keeps our fat metabolizing process running as efficiently as possible.  It is essential for proper kidney function. If your kidneys are functioning at a sub-optimal level, it receives assistance from your liver.  One of the liver's functions is to metabolize fat. Therefore, when you liver is lending a hand to your kidneys, your fat metabolism process is less efficient, and therefore, less productive.  Basically water helps flush your system out.  Anytime I have a "cheat day" or feel that I have overindulged, I drink extra water the next day to get all the stuff out of my body.

Also the extra water you drink water to lose weight acts as an extremely effective appetite suppressant. This is because your stomach will fill with water, leaving less room for food, and causing you to feel full sooner with less food.

Water keeps you looking beautiful!
Okay so not only is water great for health and to keep you slim, it also does wonders for your looks!  It flushes out impurities in your skin, leaving you with a clear, glowing complexion. It also makes your skin look younger. Skin that is becoming saggy, either due to aging or weight loss, plumps up very nicely when the skin cells are hydrated.

In addition, it improves muscle tone. You can lift weights until you're blue in the face, but if your muscles are suffering from a drought, you won't notice a pleasant difference in your appearance. Muscles that have all the water they need contract more easily, making your workout more effective, and you'll look much nicer than if you had flabby muscles under sagging skin.

How much water you should be drinking? 
There is always debates about this. I am sure that you have heard  the 8 glasses a day rule.  Personally I think that rule does not make sense.  The amount of water you need really depends on a lot of things:  your body weight, how much weight you want to lose, amount of exercise you do, how much alcohol or other diuretics you consume, your climate, if you are pregnant, etc.  However assuming you are not pregnant, you do not live in an overly hot climate, you are moderately active, a good rule that has worked with my clients has been one liter of water for every 50lbs of your body weight.  This works very well for weight loss.  You can get fancy and try some of the online calculators, but I have found that most (in my opinion) are on the lower side of water consumption, and I know you will see a huge difference by drinking more.

Now if you are an athlete training for fitness or figure competitions.  This is a different story.  When I am training for something like that I increase my water intake to be at least one liter per 25 lbs of body weight.  This helps flush out all the extra sodium and keeps me lean.

How to manage drinking more water easily
I know, its kind of annoying to think about drinking so much water. but believe me you will be so thankful once you get in this habit.  At first its hard, especially because you will find your self forcing the water down, and going to the bathroom a lot! But after a week or two it becomes second nature, and you will find yourself craving water, and loving the taste. 

The easiest way to manage drinking this much water is to simply care a water bottle around.  Know how big your water bottle is and calculate how many of them you need to drink to make up the total.  For example the little water bottles are half a liter.  So if you are 150lbs you need to drink 3L of water (your body weight/50=L of water to drink).  Since each little bottle is 500ml you know that you need 6 of those to make up 3L.  I personally like the big bottles that are 1.5L so I know that I just need to drink 2 of those over the course of a day. 

Finally do not drink all your water at once, spread it out throughout the day, and drink more when you exercises.  You can always drink more water then the recommended, but make sure you are at least drinking the suggested amount.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's Top Fat Burning Tip :)