Want to burn more fat? Follow these five simple rules that will boost metabolism and have your body burning more fat in no time at all.
Rule 1: Eat Breakfast
Eating breakfast is like putting kindling on the fire of your metabolism. Make a promise never to skip it again. Researchers found that if you do you’ll be 4.5 times more likely to be obese.
Try to eat something within 90 minutes of waking. Breakfast skippers tend to replace calories during the day with mindless snacking and they’re often so hungry that they’ll binge at lunch and dinner. Also, try to make sure your breakfast has protein in it.
Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University found dieters who ate a protein-rich, 600-calorie breakfast lost significantly more weight in eight months than those who consumed only 300 calories and a quarter of the protein.
Eating extra protein for breakfast leads to feelings of fullness that can last throughout the day. Try two scrambled eggs and a glass of semi-skimmed milk.
Rule 2: Exercise
Study after study has shown that dieting alone rarely works, and weight loss is impossible to sustain without some exercise.
High intensity interval training really works to torch fat quicker than steady state cardio. Add into that some resistance work and you’re laughing.
Intervals are short bursts of intense exertion interspersed with periods of slower activity. These are proven to burn fat and improve fitness more quickly than long, moderate bouts of exercise.
You should also do some resistance work to build muscle. This will increase your fat burning long after your workout finishes as your body needs to burn extra calories in order to repair muscle.
Rule 3: Eat regularly
Eat three meals and one or two snacks every day to keep your metabolism working at optimum speed. When you skip meals, your metabolic furnace goes cold, triggering your body’s primal instinct to slow down, conserve energy and store fat. By contrast, every time you eat, your metabolism speeds up as it swings into action to digest the food.
Whenever possible, prepare your own meals from raw ingredients. This way you will reduce your need to visit junk food outlets or resort to ready meals, which are often high in calories, carbs, salt and fat. Cooking your own food gives you a proper understanding of exactly what it is you are eating at each and every meal.
4. Cut refined carbs
Eliminate or cut back drastically on cakes, biscuits, chocolate, fizzy drinks, fruit juice, white bread, pasta, potatoes and sugary breakfast cereals. All of these are fast-absorbing, refined carbohydrates, the foods that spike blood sugar, instigate cravings and help fat set up residence round your middle.
However, it’s also important to remember that slow-burning complex carbohydrates are essential to good health. So replace highly processed foods in your diet with vegetables and whole fruits, wholemeal bread, brown rice and brown pasta. Nevertheless, try to keep the bulk of these to before 6pm in your day; this will ensure your body has time to burn the energy they contain rather than storing it as fat while you sleep.
You should also consume protein and fat with every meal. Both are satiating and take longer to digest, burning more calories in the process. Yes I said consume fat. Not all fats are bad for you and are essential to maintain good health.
5. Avoid alcohol
If you enjoy a glass of wine every night, and maybe a fair few vodka and Red Bulls on the weekends, cutting out alcohol will give you an enormous head start on shedding pounds and belly fat.
Abstain for a month and you’ll be convinced. Alcohol stops your body from burning fat and can be loaded with a lot of ‘empty’ carbs which will fill you out without filling you up. Cutting booze of all types for just four weeks is the best way to start controlling your sugar intake.
I hope you found these fat burning rules useful and simple to follow. If you need help with any aspect of weight loss and getting fit I can help. Book me for a free no obligation personal training consultation and see how I can help you.