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6th September 2009
Not burning fat fast enough?
Don't blame those hormones just yet!
Cliff Baker
What do a five foot woman and a six foot man have in common when burning fat? Almost nothing, as it turns out.
At least that's the conclusion of Tom Venuto, renowned fat loss coach and author of the book
Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle, And a pretty sound conclusion it is.
Now, why should this be? Why should a five foot woman be worlds apart when it comes down the exact same thing a six foot man is doing: burning fat (or at trying her darndest to burning her fat).
I'll give you a hint: it has absolutely nothing to do with female hormones like estrogen. And here's another hint: Don't even think about citing the thyroid or the adrenal glands as a factor in the vast difference, either?
Give up? Close your eyes for a moment. Imagine a woman barely five foot standing next to a gentleman who is pushing six foot. For starters, let's just ask this simple question. Who do you think needs more calories just to maintain their skeletal size?
Bingo! The man, obviously, says Venuto. He's going to burn more calories by just "being," throughout the day than the shorter, lighter woman.
Relatively speaking then, the woman burns fat at a slower rate than the man. And that translates into less weight loss. (Life just doesn't seem fair, now does it?)
Venuto suggests (and yes, this too is also difficult to accept) that women -- especially petite women with lighter frames -- just stop comparing their progress in burning the fat, creating lean muscle and weight loss in general.
If you're a short woman, then you have to face the truth: losing a pound a week is about as good as it gets. Oh, yes, we'd all like to lose weight faster . . burn that fat off just a little more quickly . . . step up our workout routine to see the progress.
But the truth of the matter is that you must work with the body you have. You can change many things about you, from the color of your hair to the shape of your nose.
But right now it's difficult to change your height -- and hence your caloric needs.
But don't despair, Venuto encourages you. Yes, you may slam into those plateaus of weight loss resistance harder than taller individuals. But that doesn't mean you necessarily have to accept them. Heck no!
Venuto offers several tried and proven tips to have you blasting through those plateaus of stubborn resistance in no time at all.
Weigh all of your food. Feel like you're stuck? Then go back to basics. It's probably how you first began your fat-burning efforts, now isn't it? Simply weigh your foods.
Worry less about your body composition (your percentage of fat) and more about how your clothes are fitting, how you feel and even how look in the mirror and how you look in photos. In other words: Accentuate the positive.
Reevaluate your total caloric intake a little less often. It's all right, Venuto says, to even wait 10 to 12 days to readjust your calories. By waiting longer, he explains, you can create a large calorie deficit. This just might get out off of that plateau.
Kick your cardio routine up. Either do more cardio -- to burn more calories -- or switch to high intensity interval training. Get on that treadmill and run like a crazed hamster for as long as you can, then go back to a sane rate for a while. By doing this, you're jumpstarting your metabolism and turbocharging it to burn more fat.
But more than anything else, Venuto says, realize that your fat burning rate as a woman -- especially if you're a petite, short woman -- is going to be slower than for a man. Yep, sometimes life just isn't fair. But look at it this way, you look much better in that mini-skirt than he does (Yeah, he does need to shave those legs before he surfaces in public in that skirt!)
You can find more information about Tom Venuto's book, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle Here
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