My Fytness Journal

For anyone that has decided to get in shape, it is important to maximize your effort. If you are hitting the gym for an hour why not get the most out of it? One of the obvious goals is to look good.

For 99% of people it is not an issue of having too much muscle. The problem is all that fat. But, there can be a problem if you don't eat right when you are pushing you body at the gym. You may be burning muscle instead of fat. One of the biggest ways of doing this is by not taking in enough calories. Fad or crash diets are notorious for doing this.

Most people think they need to cut out meals or really cut down on what they eat. This is not always true. I have found that changing what your eat and the times you do it gets far more results. Some things are obvious, if you eat potato chips, candy bars, or fatty foots everyday you should know better dummy. Substitute these with veggies and fruits and you will be far better off. But, don't pig out on the those either. Everything in moderation. Heck, even too much water is not good for you.

So, getting back to the point, when you cut down your calories you run the risk of your body burning muscle for energy. This can be very bad. Not only does it take away from your overall health, energy level, and looks, it can be fatal if done to extremes. There are muscles other than the ones on your arms and legs in your body.

One of the reasons for going to the gym is to sculpt muscles to be more physically attractive. If you remove the muscles it does not look very appealing. Having a proper diet and consuming a proper amount of calories is vital to repairing the building blocks of these muscles.

But, how can you tell if you are brining muscles or fat? One simple way is the use of a ketone test. When your body burns fat, one of the byproducts is ketone. You are can pick up ketone "pee strips" at most pharmacies. They stock them for diabetics. If you are in the midst of a workout routine/healthy eating plan I suggest you pick up some of these strips and see how your body is doing. If there is no ketone, see your doctor and change what you are doing.

Add to Technorati Favorites