Take a Blowtorch to Fat! - Essential Steps to Fat Loss
I have listed below the essential steps and how to implement them into your own training and dieting program. Here are a few things to consider when weight loss (fat) is your primary goal while retaining muscle.
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1. Eat less simple sugars.
This was the biggest result getter for me. One easy way to do this is to drop sodas. They have a lot of empty calories up to 120...although diet sodas aren’t necessarily healthy, they are minus sugar. I used to subscribe to the idea that products labeled as “fat free” and “low fat” were the way to go. What I didn’t know was that those same products often times had added simple sugars. Many items labeled “lite” usually have less sugars. Don’t be afraid to learn how to read nutritional information on the labels. Once I dropped extra sugar in my diet, I dropped about 6 pounds, with no extra cardio at all... just the sugar alone. It happened gradually, but has stayed off permanently.
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2. Drink 1% or skim milk.
Sometimes I drink half a gallon of milk a day, all skim. Milk is almost a perfect source of protein as well...and half a gallon has 80g! This can make a HUGE difference, ask me, I know. Try fat free, lite or reduced fat cheese, sour cream, and cottage cheese as well (watch the added sugar!).
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3. Eat more often!
You probably eat 2-3 times a day, right? Eat more frequent, smaller meals, spaced out every 2-4 hours, as many as 6-8 times a day. Basically you’ll be “grazing”, and this will help your body boost your metabolism. Digestion is a big calorie burner...up to 20% of the calories from each meal go towards digestion. This will help keep your “internal furnace”” going. Try to shoot for 250+ grams of protein a day. Keep simple sugars low, (fruit is a good choice!) and saturated fats to a minimum.
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4. Eat wheat bread instead of white.
Not too sure about the science behind this one yet, but it has seemed to help. I think it has something to do with the white bread’s ability to be converted into simple sugars more quickly or something.
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5. Drink more!
No you raging alcoholics... I can hear the cheering already! Make sure what you drink is a hydrating liquid...not caffeinated soda or coffee, and alcohol does not count! Drink up to and even more than 1 gallon of water a day, depending on you activities. This will rid the body of toxins, and flush your system. This may be more important than any of the other points. One way to monitor your water intake is to keep an empty mile jug, and will it with water every night before you go to bed. Drink some from the jug throughout the day. At the end of the night, evaluate how much you have drank. If you are at work a lot like I am, take a plastic bottle, (12oz, 16oz) and keep filling it throughout the day. Keep it on you during your workouts...don’t rely on the water fountain, as sips are hard to measure.
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6. Cardio Before Breakfast.
Fasted cardio in the morning is optimal because insulin levels are bottomed out, hormone sensitive lipase (the fat cell releasing enzyme) is fully active while lipoprotein lipase (the fat storage enzyme) is dormant. GH is still coming off its overnight high, a major fat burning hormone. At this time there is less glucose in your blood stream to be burned, vs. after having just ate a meal, leaving fats as the go-to substrate. Keep the session under 60 minutes long, 45 minutes is ample, too long and you eat up muscle tissue when your body perceives starvation
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7. Be Aware Of Your Carbohydrates.
Do not consume carbs when you don’t need them! The best times to give yourself larger portions of carbs is when you first wake up and before and after workouts, as you can be sure it will be put to use and be burned off, not stored as fat. Consume no more than 25-35 grams in other meals if you must have more carbs based on your job and or lifestyle and even then, make them high fiber vegetable based carbs. Give yourself the proper carbohydrate fuel to get the day started, get through a workout and the carbs to recover from the workout, that’s it! Any other carbs taken in should be trace carbs or sources that are not true carb sources like starches and sugars.
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8. Don’t Get Hungry.
Letting yourself get hungry causes loops to enter the diet; you get impatient and look for anything to eat. It’s human nature when you feel starved. Even if it’s the right thing to eat, you end up eating way too much of it. Eat often enough to stay full even if it’s lots of veggies and water.
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9. Do Not Consume Large Amounts of Fat And Carbs Together.
This is a controversy in many fitness circles right now, but it is my belief based on human metabolism and peoples over-reliance on carbs. Carbs of any kind will release insulin (high GI more so then low GI) which acts to store anything in your blood stream. Fats normally get booted to storage since they don’t need chemical processing or active transport to become body fat. Plus the body prefers to use carbs (glucose) as energy. So my message is don’t eat them together in huge amounts. A few grams of healthy fat with complex carbs are ok (about 15g fat for every 50 grams carbs eaten at a sitting). Assuming you always eat a protein at every meal of course!
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10. Take Your Fish Oil.
They increase your sensitivity to carbs (allowing you to use more vs store more) and they assist with fat loss via PPAR-delta stimulation (a mitochondrial activator found in muscle). (Take 3-6g a day).
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11. Use Thermogenics Correctly.
Taken at the right time with the right ingredients and you can gain an edge with such products. Look for supplements to take before cardio that are known to assist with fat burning. There’s plenty of quality brands out there. Ingredients to look for are: Caffeine: PDE inhibitor, beta 1,2,3 adrenergic agonist, acetylcholine antagonist. Yohimbine HCL: Alpha 2 adrenergic antagonist. Aspirin: Inhibits alpha-glycerol-phosphate, the re-esterification enzyme of free fatty acids. Green Tea Extract: Iinhibits the breakdown of norepinephrine. L-Carnitine: Acts a fatty acid transporter to get fats burned as energy.
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12. Protein Before Bed.
45 to 60 minutes before bed eat 1-1.5 cups cottage cheese (2% fat or less) or casein protein powder to fight late night hunger cravings and give your body some slow digesting casein protein to breakdown and use during the night; it’s void of sugar, low carb (lactose) and high protein, plus it’s got calcium which can help you sleep. No, it won’t get stored as fat! Your body does not just turn off your digestive system at night people! If calories are controlled during the day and exercise is intense enough, you will process and use foods like this even at night.
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13. Eat Citrus Fruits.
Eat citrus fruits if you must eat fruits as they are acidic and raise insulin less than most typical fruits (exception of pineapple). Plus they contain flavonoids such as naringin, found in oranges and more so in grapefruit which also help with fat loss by extending caffeine’s effects. Do not eat grapefruit with prescription meds as it may have negative side effects. Kiwi, mango and strawberries also fit the bill as good citrus fruits.
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14. Weight Train To Hold Lean Muscle.
Maintain some form of weight training at least 3 times a week or your body won’t have a single reason to hold lean muscle, it will burn muscle faster than the recession is burning away at the stock market, even more so if you’re doing substantial amounts of cardio each week. Too much cardio and no weights means a soft skeleton body in no time.
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15. Interval Train To Burst Through Plateaus.
If long duration steady state cardio (45+ minute session) stops working, throw in a shorter 30- minute interval (hard/easy work rest periods), 1-2 times a week and go with that as a plateau buster. Works every time for most!
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16. Refeed Rather Than Cheat.
Lastly, when you really feel like you’re hungry all the time and weight loss is not keeping up, “refeeds” are far more effective then cheat meals or cheat days at kick starting your metabolism. Refeed’s are just 1 single very-high carb meal of slow and medium digesting carbs. Eaten before bed (yes 2-3 hours before bed) it tricks your body into sucking up all these carbs all night long causing it to blunt any hint of starvation or metabolic slow down. T3, leptin, and a couple other hormones related to hunger and metabolic rate go through the roof because of the overnight presence of insulin (you won’t store much at all if your diet has been spot on over the week). This does have a limit however. The amount and type of carbs needs to be titrated to your bodyweight. These rules only work when adhered to in the strictest sense. If you give the rules 100% compliance you will get 100% of the effect. If you give a sad effort then you get sad results. I don’t mean to be blunt but I do mean to be honest and straight forward. Results only come to those who do what it takes to get them, not to those who look for short cuts and magic pills. Many people are surprised when they find out how small changes in their diet can lead to big results in fat loss... I know I was, but I learned it was true! I have listed a few common things in the diet that can be manipulated, added, or dropped, to attain desired results. Try some or all of these tips to help boost your fat loss efforts. It’s not easy, and not quick...(I’m still gettin’ there myself), so give it at least 1-2 months before you start to see results. Try to participate in some cardiovascular activity about 3 times a week, for 20-30 minutes a session.
