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What's the Best Fat Burner?

This is a common question asked by many women on a quest to lose weight.

The answer to this question is that the best fat burner is increased muscle mass. This may not be the answer most were looking for. However, increased muscle mass is the best and safest fat burner.

Fat versus Muscle

Fat just sits on your body taking up space because fat is not metabolically active. Muscle weighs more than fat, but takes up less space and so you will be smaller and look thinner if you have more muscle than fat. Also, muscle is metabolically active, which means it will help you burn more calories even when you are at rest.

Unlike fat burning supplements, increased muscle will not result in unwanted side effects either and so it is a safe alternative to taking pills.

Because men typically have a lot more muscle than women do, men burn off calories at a much greater rate than women. That is why they can eat so much more than women can without gaining as much weight.

However, many women are reluctant to work out with weights and the thought of building muscle fills them with dread. Some women fear that if they pick up a 10 pound dumbbell they will end up looking like The Incredible Hulk by the next day or that they'll end up looking manly.

What women rarely worry about is the muscle atrophy that occurs as they age and the osteoporosis that could possibly be prevented by working out with weights and increasing their muscle mass. Stong muscles need strong bones to support them and so if you increase your muscle mass you'll also increase your bone density as well. If you build up a solid foundation of muscle and bone you shouldn't have to worry about ending up as a hunched over old woman.

So another point in favor of increasing muscle mass instead of taking a fat burning supplement is that no fat burning supplement is ever going to increase your bone density.

Of course building up muscle is more work than purchasing a fat burning supplement and many people are not willing to go through the trouble of working out and exercising to build muscle.

If the effects of exercise were immediate then everyone would do it.

Unfortunately it takes a few weeks to see any noticable improvement. However, if you keep at it on a consistent basis then you WILL see an improvement in time.

The key is to find a workout that is fun and not too terribly difficult so that you look forward to the workout instead of dreading it.

The Best Women's Exercise Books

There are several good workout books available. Among my personal favorites are Cori Everson's Superflex and Joyce Vedral's The Fat Burning Workout and Now or Never, Flex Appeal by Rachel Mclish, and Power Body Building by Bev Francis. Joyce Vedral even has a book specifically about exercise and bone density - The Bone-Building Body Shaping Workout

Unless you have been working out for some time I'd recommend starting with Joyce Vedral's The Fat Burning Workout. This book can be purchased very cheaply used on Amazon.com, often for as low as a penny (and no, I don't receive any compensation for recommending it).

In fact, I bought this book new back in 1995. I was not overweight at the time, but I wasn't in shape either. I knew nothing about working out either. After a few months of doing this workout I was in the best shape of my life.

The exercises are easy to do and they require no special equipment other than a few dumbbells. She recommends having three different weight categories, but in the beginning I only had one size (two 10 lb dumbbells) and it still worked for me. I didn't have a weight bench either, but did the weights on the floor and/or skipped the ones where I absolutely needed a bench.

Even with these modifications I still managed to get into excellent shape with this workout. I found the workout pleasant to do, easy to understand how to do the exercises and I typically did them while watching television to make it more fun.

The above mentioned workout books also have nutrition tips in them too.

What all of these books have in common is good advice from fitness and bodybuilding experts who advocate exercising with weights to build muscle, getting enough rest, and good nutrition to get in shape.

What NONE of these books advocate is taking fat burning supplements to get into shape.