Your body is quite the machine. It has numerous systems that intertwine and having a good grasp on a couple of them can help you lose weight and stay healthy as an Athletic Sleever.

As you thin down and become more fit; your muscle mass will become the heaviest structure in your body, by far. And it's imperative that you understand a few simple thing about muscle.
Every muscle in your body needs protein every day to continue to exist. When you eat protein your digestive system breaks it down into amino acids and those are what muscles need to grow and repair themselves DAILY. Protein is what allows muscle and all the connective tissue in your body to regenerate. Pull a muscle? It takes protein to repair it! Work out hard and are sore? Protein will help you fix that. Protein is what makes the building and repair process for muscle possible.

You don't want weight loss that comes at the expense of muscle loss. That is how you end up scrawny and weak and without shape. You will also be more prone to injury without enough muscle to sustain your spine and hips and legs. Keeping the protein will keep the muscle you have and will open the door for fat loss. The more muscle you have the more fat your body can consume. Also, muscle takes up far less space than fat. Have a look here to see the difference. You really do want to have a lot more muscle than fat.

Fat is one of the most misunderstood things in the human body. Believe it or not fat is a VERY efficient fuel source for your muscles. A pound of fat contains 2,843 to 3,752 calories.The problem is that the body has to get trained a bit to use it freely. Most people start working out thinking they are burning fat when actually they never get their body to burn it during exercise. Why is that? It's because your body keeps a stash of really good energy in your Liver called Glycogen. It's such good energy that the body prefers as its first source. The problem is that it can only run your body for about 12 min under heavy physical expenditure. Most people never learn this concept and its actually really important to know. An average runner can blast out a mile and a half in 12 min and actually just be getting to the end of their glycogen. So what happens once you deplete your Glycogen? Ah HA! You start burning FAT. That is one of the reasons you usually want to work out at least a half hour to an hour. And you have to keep your heart up a bit to get the glycogen out of your body before it really flips you over to burning fat.

So what if I wanted to fuel up for a long ride or workout? You can intake carbs before and during a workout but you have to consider how long your workout is going to be. Keep in mind it will take you a while to digest them. Also if you spend some time training your body to run on fat; you will not need to intake calories for long workouts. Most of us have PLENTY of fuel! And you wouldn't actually want to take in extra carbs or 'energy' you if you want to see your fat disappear. Your body can get used to using fat as its fuel source. And while you are working out you can focus on taking in electrolytes, water and potassium in stead of digesting carbs. Trust me when I say most people won't run out of energy while they are out exercising. Some elite athletes train down to the point that they are 6% body fat; and then they have to make sure that they put back the calories they take in. But even then they rely on burining fat to fuel their workouts. But for most of us; we wont see that low of a body fat percentage so putting it back may be something you never have to worry about.