If you want to lose weight and maintain good health, it's beneficial to understand why body fat is an important factor for weight loss and health. Learning all about body fat is the first step to being successful at losing weight and toning up. Essential fat should account for at least 10 to 12 percent of a woman's total weight. Body fat is a far greater measurement of health, fitness than fitness gains than a simple scale. Body fat is measured in terms of percentage, and you can get your body fat measured at your gym, for example, but what are you going to do with the number. Remember that having a certain amount of body fat is vital. The best method to go about burning body fat is using a complete exercise program which includes weight training and cardio exercise.

Weight loss by diet alone may result in a loss of muscle, and this will slow the metaboloic rate, making it more difficult to keep the weight off. Weight training is a cheaper, and arguably more effective, alternative to spending a lot of money on doctors. Weight lifting has been shown to be effective in lowering blood pressure, increasing bone strength, and regulating insulin and blood sugar levels. Weight training can be a good complement to aerobic exercise; however, do not lift heavy weights.

Measure Body-Fat

Measurements of skin-fold thickness (the amount of fat just under the skin) are taken at the upper-arm, upper-back, lower-back, stomach and upper thigh. Measure body-fat at the same time of day, and under the same conditions each time. The most important rules to observe in order to make a more accurate calculation of your body fat are: Don't eat or drink for 4 hours before the body fat measurement test.

Body fat calipers do not measure your body fat percentage directly. Body fat calipers measure skinfolds to calculate how much subcutaneous fat (fat under the skin) a person has. Putting those measurements into a formula to calculate body fat percentage. If the skinfold measurements for a young and old person were exactly the same, their body fat percentage would still be considerably different.

Aerobic Exercises

Talk to any world renowned fitness expert or any recent contest winner they will come with the same answer, "Aerobic Exercises are the best Weight Loss Exercises there is".

Aerobics and weight training works together helping you burn fat, preserve muscle and get tones. Aerobic exercises are those which demand large quantities of oxygen for prolonged periods and ultimately force the body to improve those systems which transport oxygen. Any Exercise that increases the heart rate into a target zone and maintains it for at least 20 minutes is considered Aerobic. For people with slow metabolisms its very essential to perform regular aerobics with high intensity. Treadmills, Bicycles and Step Aerobics provide these grading benefits and therefore are among the highest rated Weight Loss Exercises.

Heart Rate

The human body is constantly trying to perform activities with the least energy expenditure and your heart and lungs are no exception. Researchers have found that if individuals keep their heart rate within a certain range for 15 to 60 minutes, the exercise they do cancontribute to cardiovascular fitness. For an exercise to be aerobic, the heart rate must be at least 50 percent above the resting heart rate.

Your heart rate when exercising can determine whether you are doing aerobic or anaerobic exercise. Since aerobic exercises benefit the heart, it might be a good idea to experiment with varying your intensity and alternating between your heart's rate low range and high range at different sessions. The machines you see in modern gyms these days produce a read-out of your intensity level, calories expended, distance, speed and heart rate.

Fat Binders

Many people think that their weight problem is caused by not knowing when to stop eating. They reason that if they dont feel hungry, they wont eat as much and will lose weight. Fewer calories, less fat intake leads to weight loss. When we think of eating several smaller meals instead of the normal three, we automatically think that it will make us gain weight. It is suggested that if you are trying to loose weight that you should eat six mini meals per day.

When you eat foods prior to complete digestion fats are broken down and they float at the surface of the stomach. When you have taken a supplement prior to or just after eating containing a fat binder, the lipids in the fats attract the molecular fat binders. The fat binders bind with the fats and effectively make them to large and insoluble to pass into the small intestine and be absorbed by the body.

Fat Binders are basically chemical fat magnets and can be a key to effective weight loss, by tying up fats before they are digested so they are never absorbed by your body. You do not have to worry about losing weight by dieting or exercising to reduce fat or calories that never entered your body in the first place that is the seeming magic of fat binders. Fat Binders have been proven in clinical trials to produce reduce obesity and the FDA has approved several of them for weight loss. You can use Proactol in combination with regular exercise and a smart diet to see a huge difference in your weight.

Author's Bio: 

Fat Binders are basically chemical fat magnets and can be a key to effective weight loss, by tying up fats before they are digested so they are never absorbed by your body.Find out more about Proactol - Fat Binder

Paul Rodgers specializes in marketing natural health and beauty products