Three Fat Loss Tips

When on the path to finding a healthier you, there is often a lot of focus on weight loss, but it's important to remember that not all weight loss is created equal.  Your primary focus should be on reducing your fat - which doesn't necessarily equal a reduction on the scales.  Muscle is denser than fat, so while your fat may be dropping, you could find you're not seeing any movement on the scales - so don't worry about losing weight, let's focus on losing fat.

Here are three tips to losing that fat.

Tip 1: Keep a food diary.  - It's amazing how little attention we pay to what we put in our bodies.  By keeping a food diary, you'll increase your awareness of the food that you eat every day.  Take note of everything, down to the smallest snack.  Making yourself aware of what you're eating and being able to take stock of a week's worth of food can provide you with the perspective to make healthier choices.

If you want even more control over what you're eating - try out an app that counts the calories from your foods too.  Many of them enable you to enter a target weight and will present you with a daily kilojoule goal.  Lifesum and My FitnessPal are popular options to try.

Tip 2: Drink more water. - Have you ever gotten the feeling that you need to have a snack, but end up pouring yourself a glass of water first and feeling the craving fall away?  You're not alone.  Keeping yourself properly hydrated is a proven way to reduce cravings throughout the day as the signals the body sends to the brain to tell you you're thirsty can often be confused with 'I'm hungry'.  Not only that, but it also assists with all sorts of body function - from cell repair to concentration.  There's no downside here.

Tip 3: Reduce starchy carbs. - Try to steer away from starchy carbs like bread, rice, potatoes and pasta where possible.  They tend to provide your body with more energy than it needs in one hit, and anything that's left over gets converted into body fat to be saved for a rainy (or hungry) day.  "You don't have to eliminate starchy carbs completely," days IFBB pro Mike Matarazzo.  "But you should really cut back on them when trying to shed body fat".