If you have the problem of excess stored body fat on your body you may have been mislead into believing that all you need to do is eat less and the fat will disappear. How often have we been told or have wanted to believe that it is all about food intake, that it is all about what we eat?

Are you aware that this method doesn't work for long term permanent fat loss? You see what you do when you cut calories and reduce your food intake is to send your body into a downward spiral of decreasing metabolic rate. This means that the rate your body burns fuel is reduced (your engine size in other words).

This is done to conserve energy as your body thinks that a famine is imminent. It doesn't know that there is a fridge full of food in the next room and there is really no need to worry. You see the problem is you that don't know at what level this famine mode will kick in.

Each of us require between 1500 -2500 calories per day just to keep all body systems functioning, but we are all different. What would send someone into the famine mode would be different for someone else.

That is why this food reduction (dieting) idea is so flawed. After all it fails to work 95% of the time. So why do we keep believing such wrong, misleading, metabolism damaging information that puts us into a deep "metabolic hole"?

Although there is only one way to lose body fat - and that is to create a calorie deficit, there are two ways to create a calorie deficit. One is to decrease your food intake (dieting) so you are eating less than you use and the other is to increase your metabolic rate through proper exercise and activity so you are burning more than you eat.

The second way of using exercise to increase the metabolic rate is the newer, more effective, sustainable, long term and more permanent way to encourage your body to burn up unwanted fat stores and discourage it from storing excess fat again.

But to achieve this, the exercise program utilized has to be right. Old fashioned, long, slow, boring, low intensity exercise such as walking, jogging, cycling etc are not intense enough to stimulate the metabolism in the manner needed to incinerate excess body fat.

Strength training exercise using exercises that work multiple large muscle groups together are the perfect formula to stimulate the hormones necessary to rev up your metabolic engines. Anything less than this will not work.

You will also need to work at rebuilding optimum health. If you have been cutting food intake for any length of time it is unlikely you will have the strength and stamina needed to be able to perform your exercise program at the correct level of intensity.

To support your exercise program you will also need to eat quality, unprocessed food divided up into small meals eaten at regular intervals throughout the day. A proper exercise program burns calories and creates a calorie deficit, but the real advantage of exercise over diet is that exercise increases your metabolism, dieting only slows it down.

Exercise also has many other major health benefits, while starvation can only create health problems. So if you eat more (healthy foods) and exercise intensely enough, you get a double increase in metabolism. This is the solution to the widespread problem of being overweight, it really is this simple. Try it for yourself and see.