What are the best ways to burn fat? If you’ve been wondering how to burn fat fast, you’ve probably noticed that there’s plenty of conflicting advice out there, and in truth, there is no one single best method that will work for everyone, since we all have different body types. That said, the following steps form the core of a good fat burning program, and should be followed if you want to burn fat fast:
1. Eat Moderately Sized Portions of Healthy Foods
There’s no getting around the fact that a eating good diet plays a key role in burning fat. And that means the right foods in the right amounts. Good food choices include wholegrains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans and pulses and moderate quantities of dairy and lean meat if you eat those. Cut right back on processed junk food, and stop eating when you feel full – it’s very difficult to burn fat if you overeat, even if you’re eating good foods.
2. Eat Four or Five Times a Day
Eating smaller meals regularly is one of the best ways to burn body fat, as it helps to keep your metabolic rate up, boosting the speed at which you burn fat. If it’s easier for you to eat three main meals, have healthy snacks in between. It’s also best to eat your largest meal earlier in the day, not right before you go to bed, so then you have more time to burn it off before sleeping – and you’ll probably wake up with more energy too. For an easy and enjoyable eating plan that’s based around eating five meals a day of delicious, healthy foods, check out Strip That Fat.
3. Get Your Heart Rate Up
Take some cardiovascular exercise for 20 minutes or more at least three days a week (four or five days is better). This type of exercise gets your heart rate up and speeds up your metabolism – so not only do you burn more fat while working out, but afterwards too. Exercise is one of the best ways to burn fat, and you can choose any type that you enjoy. Brisk walking, jogging, cycling, rebounding (using a small trampoline-like rebounder
Some of these activities are more effective for fat burning than others (running, for example, will burn more calories than walking for the same amount of time), but you’ll only burn fat if you exercise consistently, so base your choices on what you enjoy rather than worrying about exactly how many calories each activity will burn. All of these are good fat burning exercise methods if you stick with them for long enough.
As far as intensity is concerned, both high and low intensity cardio exercise will burn fat. If you don’t have a lot of time available, exercise for shorter periods at a higher intensity (your state of health permitting of course). Otherwise you might choose longer sessions at a lower intensity, which will usually maximise the amount of fat burned during the exercise session itself.
4. Work Your Muscles
Including some weight training work in your exercise routine will help you to keep burning fat over the long term, because you will build more lean muscle tissue, and muscle is more metabolically active than fat – so you’ll be burning fat even when you’re at rest. You’ll also continue to burn fat immediately after your workout, as the body’s metabolic rate will stay up for a while as it repairs the muscle tissue that has been stressed by the exercise. You don’t need to worry about bulking up if you don’t want to – just choose light weights and do lots of repetitions. For a good introduction to weight training click here, or if you’re really keen, check out Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle.
5. Exercise In The Morning
If you really want to burn fat quick, try exercising in the morning, before you eat anything. Studies have shown that a morning workout can burn up to three times more fat than the same workout later in the day. This is because your body has been using the energy in the food you ate the previous day during sleep, and by the time you wake up, much of this stored carbohydrate is depleted, so your body dips into its fat stores to fuel your morning workout. If you exercise later on, you’ll be using the energy from the food you’ve eaten that day, as well as from your fat stores.
However, if for whatever reason you just can’t exercise early on, or you’re simply not very energetic first thing, don’t be discouraged. You’ll still burn fat if you work out later in the day – it just might take a little bit longer.
6. Get Enough Rest
Exercise is important, but it’s just as vital not to overdo it. After weight training a specific muscle group, you should rest it for a day or two before your next session. Don’t overdo the cardio either – 3 to 6 hours a week at the most should be enough for most people, and again, it’s best not to repeat the same activity on consecutive days (unless it’s a low stress activity such as walking). Make sure you get enough sleep too – your body needs this time to rest and regenerate, and if you’re sleep-deprived your workouts will be less effective and your general health will suffer.
7. Eat Breakfast
You don’t have to have a huge meal at the crack of dawn if you don’t feel like it, but it’s important to eat something during the morning, in order to jump start your metabolism. Eating breakfast also helps to keep your energy levels high and to prevent extreme hunger and food cravings later in the day.
We’ve seen some of the best ways to burn body fat, but it’s also important to know how not to do it. In short – don’t starve yourself. Crash dieting might seem to help you lose weight quickly to begin with, but most of this initial weight loss will be water and stored carbohydrates – not fat. To make matters worse, the metabolic rate slows when you undereat, making fat burning more difficult as your body reacts to what appears to be a starvation situation by trying to hold on to the energy (fat) stores that it has.
So to burn fat and keep it off, commit to a healthy long-term eating and exercise plan, and forget about chasing the quick fixes.
Related posts:
- How To Raise Your Metabolism – 7 Easy Tips
- 5 Tips to Avoid Plateaus and Metabolic Slowdown
- 20 Easy Diet Tips To Lose Weight (Part 1)
- 20 Easy Diet Tips To Lose Weight (Part 2)
- Tom Venuto’s Top 10 Travel Fitness Tips, Part 2
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