The Weight Off

Carbohydrates are critical for fat loss and proper body functioning. If you simply eliminate them from your diet you will suffer some nasty consequences.

The problem here is that most people do not know how to optimize their carbohydrate intake for the best health and fitness benefits.

So here is how to dial in your intake of carbohydrates:

1. Make sure you are having enough: Once your intake goes below forty percent of total calories, you are going to run into some serious trouble. First, your brain will not be able to perform as quickly. Second, you will burn through precious calorie-burning muscle for energy.

2. Have liquid carbs immediately after a resistance training session: And you don't have much time here because the effect you are going to take advantage of disappears very quickly. Now keep in mind that you don't have to take a supplement, you can make a shake with natural ingredients.

3. Don't focus on whole grains: Whole grains are ok around times of intense activity. However, for best results you want to focus on beans and legumes. You see, the latter digest much slower than their whole grain counterparts. And slower digesting carbs are less likely to get stored as fat.

4. Don't focus on fruit: Too much fruit does more harm than good. You see, fruit has a lot of fructose. And fructose can cause your body to produce more triglycerides and bad cholesterol. So make sure the bulk of your fruit intake is in the morning.

5. Try to pair your carbohydrates with vegetables: This will slow down the digestion of your carbohydrates even further. And recall that slower digestion rates will transport more calories towards active tissues and not fat. So really ramp up your vegetable intake here.

6. Avoid carbs during the last meal of the day: Now this is really nitpicky here, but by doing this you may be able to increase growth hormone output. And recall that growth hormone burns fat while building muscle. So don't binge on carbs late at night.

Most people are not managing their intake of carbohydrates properly. So make sure you take action here sooner rather than later!

Writer Katherine Crawford, a fitness physiologist and recent arm fat sufferer, instructs on exercise for flabby arms. Unearth how to get sexy arms by exploring her blog with shake weight reviews right now!