10 Tips For Fat Loss

10 Tips For Fat Loss

Losing fat seems like a tough task, but with these 10 proven tips and techniques you will be achieving your goals in no time!

1. Eat Less!
Duh! You absolutely must consume less calories than you use in a day; it’s a very simple equation really. I’m going to use an analogy of a 1ltr water bottle, let’s say it’s full to the top. Throughout the day you consume 500ml – if you top it up with 500ml throughout the day the bottle would not have gained, nor lost any water.

It’s the same with your body’s fat stores, if you eat more, or the same amount of calories (from any type or combination of foods) than you use in a day you will not lose weight.

2. Eat 5-6 Smaller Meals Each Day
Many people think the 3 square meal approach is the best, but there are many reasons why this is not the case. Eating only 3 meals daily leaves you prone to energy fluctuations and hunger pains. This in turn can lead to snacking, binge eating or simple over eating of food when your next meals comes along.

In addition to this, feeding your body with smaller more regular meals fools your body into thinking there is a plentiful supply of energy meaning it will not feel the need to store calories as fat ‘just in case’ unlike eating less regularly.

Another advantage of eating more regular, smaller meals is that your metabolism in general is increased as it is constantly raised to digest the constant flow of food.

Hormone release is also increased when you eat regular meals, including thyroid function. The more thyroid hormones that are released in your body the faster your metabolism. The complete opposite happens when you eat less regularly.

3. Eat Lean Proteins
There are three main reasons for including lean protein with every meal:

Firstly, protein actually requires more energy to be digested than carbohydrates or fat, therefore you burn more calories eating protein than the other macronutrients.

Secondly, including protein with your carbohydrate meals will slow the digestion of the carbohydrates making you less likely to store their energy as fat.

Thirdly, protein has been shown to have a high satiety level, keeping you from feeling hungry.

4. Eat Fat!
Eating healthy fats is essential for your metabolism and literally thousands of processes in the body.

5. Perform Morning Cardio
Just 20 minutes of low to medium intensity cardio in the morning, before breakfast can put your metabolism into overdrive. Performing cardio after a long period without food will also burn more fat as your body will have very low stores of energy in muscle and liver tissue.

6. Train With Weights
Weight training is also essential when on a fat loss regime. There are many reasons why weight training can help you lose fat, here are the top three:

Muscle mass consumes more calories than other body mass (such as fat etc), so the more muscle you have the more calories will be used to keep your muscle rather than being stored as fat.

Weight training increases levels of specific hormones in the body that are responsible for fat loss. This is probably the greatest single factor that helps towards using fat as energy.

The total calorie expenditure that occurs due to high intensity weight training will increase your metabolism for 48-72 hours after the event. The treadmill will tell you roughly how many calories you have burned during your run, but calorie expenditure stops shortly after this so the amount is the total calories you have burned during the exercise. However weight training puts your body under a large amount of stress so it must recovery and burn calories for up to 72 hours!

7. Get Your Sleep
The medical reason for this is that Growth Hormone is released during a good night’s sleep. Without going into too much detail GH is essential for fat loss and lean muscle building – you simply must stimulate its release with heavy weight training and adequate rest. Apart from this a good night’s sleep will keep you fresh for your training and diet regime.

8. Take A Fat Burner Before You Workout
I would only take fat burners pre workout and not on non workout days. Scientifically speaking fat loss supplements will increase fat loss hormones and increase energy (and energy expenditure) when you really want to be burning as much fat as possible.

9. Eat Complex Carbs
A sustainable fat loss plan incorporates a healthy balanced diet so carbohydrates are something you need to eat. However not all carbohydrates are equal with two main definitions; fast and slow digesting carbohydrates.

Eating carbohydrates sparks the release of insulin, a hormone that triggers cells in the body to take in nutrients. The problem is, this initiates fat gain, and the faster a carbohydrate is digested the more insulin is secreted. Therefore slow digesting carbohydrates must be eaten to limit the amount of insulin that is released in your system.

In addition to this slow digesting carbs keep you feeling fuller for longer whilst not giving any more calories than the same amount of fast digesting carbs.

So why eat carbohydrates if they can initiate fat gain? Well, let’s not get carried away eating slow release carbohydrates like rolled oats is not going to make you fat as such. Yes they do spark the release of insulin, which is an anabolic hormone (i.e. it make the body gain certain tissues) but if you are eating a calorie controlled diet you do not have to worry.

The fact is, carbohydrates are essential as they give the body vital energy and are especially needed when training hard. Not only this but carbs have a protein sparing effect. If you do not eat carbohydrates you body will use protein (i.e. muscle tissue) as energy, this is definitely something you want to avoid.

10. Throw Out All Bad Foods
If you have biscuits, crisps, chocolate bars etc in your cupboards then the chances are you are going to eat them if you ever have a weak moment. Chuck them all out; if you only have healthy food options in your cupboards and fridge then you will only eat healthy food. This principle also holds true for your shopping list so make sure you plan out all your meals throughout the week then write your shopping list accordingly. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail so make sure you fill your cupboards only with the healthiest foods!