Summer is on the way, and there's a good chance that you're looking for the perfect beach body diet. The good news is that there is still time to get your body beach-ready before summer comes. The real question is: is there a perfect diet to get that beach body?
Beach Body Diet
Obtaining the perfect beach body is the dream of almost anyone who plans on donning a bathing suit during the summer months. The best and most sensible way to obtain a beach-ready body is through an ongoing healthy lifestyle that consists of a nutritious, well-balanced diet, adequate water intake, and proper exercise. While a number of websites tout themselves as a beach body diet with products to sell, the truth is that a beach body diet is really no different than any other sensible diet and exercise program. You don't need to spend a lot of money to obtain a beach body. All you need is to be armed with the right information and then follow a sensible program of diet and exercise.
Crash Dieting
With summer looming, it's easy to get caught up in the crash diet and exercise mentality. After all, it's easy to feel self-conscious in a bathing suit on a crowded beach. Crash diets, however, aren't the answer. While you may lose weight quickly, there's a good chance that while you are thinner, it won't improve the look of your body in a bathing suit. That is because instead of losing body fat on crash diets, you often lose lean muscle tissue instead. Since most people want to look firm in a bathing suit, losing lean body mass while retaining body fat on a crash diet works at cross-purposes to this goal, and you can wind up being a flabby thin person in a bathing suit rather than having the lean, toned look you desire.
Weight Loss Products
Many of the beach body websites also offer a variety of weight loss products that promise quick fat burning and thermogenesis. The truth is that most of these products make promises they can't live up to. While some may, indeed, increase your body's ability to burn calories or fat, the increased calorie burning is usually minimal - increasing your body's capacity to burn calories by fewer than 100 extra calories per day. Only you can decide whether or not the cost of the product is justified by the minimal effect it may have on your metabolism. Before taking any supplement, check with your doctor or health care provider to make sure the product's ingredients are safe and don't contain any ingredients that may be contraindicated by your personal health picture.
A Sensible Plan
A more sensible plan to get that beach body you've always wanted is to adapt your nutritional regimen towards healthy, calorie-controlled eating while following a fitness program that covers the five components of physical fitness. By combining these two components - healthy eating and exercise, you can lose weight while firming your body.
Healthy eating involves eating an adequate amount of calories for your body type and activity level by choosing healthy foods from all of the food groups: fruits and vegetables, grains, protein and low fat dairy. To determine how many calories your body needs, you can calculate your basal metabolic rate using a BMR calculator and then factor in your Harris-Benedict Equation to determine caloric needs for your activity level. For best results, eat between the lowest number (calculated in the BMR calculator) and about 300 to 400 calories less than the highest number (calculated using the Harris-Benedict equation). If you choose healthy foods from all of the food groups and eat fewer calories than you burn, the result will be sensible fat loss.
To firm up your body so that it is beach ready as you lose weight, opt for exercises that strengthen and tone muscles such as weightlifting or other types of strength training a minimum of two days per week with some kind of cardiovascular conditioning activity for three or four days a week. This doesn't have to be the typical weightlifting/treadmill combination. You could also try other activities like interval training, yoga or even sports like tennis or racquetball.
Getting Your Body Beach-Ready
The amount of time it takes to get your body beach ready depends on a number of factors, such as how much weight you need to lose, your current level of fitness and how closely you stick to your program. Regardless of these factors, if you follow a sensible diet and exercise program, you will begin to see changes to your body in just a few weeks of healthy living.
The sooner you start and the closer you follow your program, the sooner your body will be ready for the beach. While there is no fast and easy route to a beach body, by following a simple program of healthy nutrition and moderate exercise, you'll be ready to bare it all on the beach in no time.
