The age old question is how is a person supposed to get rid of their belly fat. Is it diet or exercise? A person will be able to lose weight if they exercise or diet, but to get the most effectiveness out of them, they need to learn what the body does with the food that you take in.

We are all subject to what is called the Basal Metabolic Rate. The BMR gives us an idea of exactly how much energy a person needs to function. This number is the bare minimum needed for survival and does not do anything else. Even walking to the fridge for some tempting snack or a cold one, and then back to the sofa for the next TV show would be considered exercise, just as doing a six pack ab exercise program is considered exercise when computing your BMR. The number is strictly the energy that is required to keep your organs functioning. Your basal metabolic rate gets lower as you get older. People who are more toned have a higher basal metabolic rate. Because a man and woman are not exactly the same, the way to figure out their number is also different.

A detailed analysis of a person’s basal metabolic rate can be done but it requires a complete physical history of a persons’ body. There are formulas that can help a person figure it out and a search on the internet or some time spent checking out the message boards at biggest loser weight loss forum can help a person determine their basic metabolism rate. The basal metabolic rate can be used to determine how much energy is used when a person does any physical activity. Figuring out this lets you know what your body uses up. By knowing how calories you are expending you can determine how many calories you should take in to help you lose the weight.

Knowing these things does not make it clear whether you should watch what you eat or workout to shed the pounds. By eating less food only, a person will make their number smaller. If your BMR is lower it is much harder to lose weight through diet alone. Extreme dieting may actually have negative side effects like hormone disruption

Exercise without also reducing calories will result in very slow weight loss You do not burn enough calories without very rigorous exercise. That usually results in an increase in food consumption. Depending on how much exercise they get they should try to reduce their BMR by at most a thousand calories daily.

In the end it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the formula for dropping the pounds. You need to create a deficit of calories in order for the fat to be used. When you take in more energy than you use, it is stored as fat in our bodies. It is essential to get the right amount of exercise in combination with the right foods.

By putting a regular exercise routine into your schedule you can make your body run by. The most successful fitness regimens are the ones that work in a slower fashion. There are many helpful sites on the internet such as http://www.fatlossfactor.com, for someone who needs guidance in coming up with a plan to lose the unwanted weight they are carrying.

Reducing your calories by just 500 a day can result in a loss of one lb. a week. The combination of exercise and calorie reduction will give you the results you are looking for with the added benefit of becoming much more fit in the process.~The answer to the question is to do a little of both to make sure that you are safely losing the weight that you want to.~A healthy lifestyle includes both eating right and regular activity and will result in a fit and trim body.} A little effort will go a long way towards happy weight loss.