With so much contradictory information floating around the media these days it’s hard to know exactly what will help with fat-loss. Below we uncover a few genuine methods that could make a world of difference to hitting your goals and living a strong, healthy life.
Fat Will Help
Fat is an essential macronutrient, consuming essential fatty acids ensures that the body feels satisfied and stops sending out hunger signals. Foods rich in essential fatty acids (monounsaturated fat, omega 3, CLA etc) such as avocados, nuts, fish and butter have been shown to be highly effective in shifting visceral (belly) fat which too much of can interfere with organ function. Not only that but many micronutrients and vitamins are fat-soluble, meaning that your body will only be able to digest them when consumed with fats. Now, throw away your margarine and butter your bacon.
Takeaway point: Fat is an essential nutrient. Don’t be afraid of the word ‘fat’ in food and don’t get stuck thinking that eating fat will make you fat.
It Only Takes 1 Minute of Exercise
OK.. so there might be a little more to it than that – but studies have shown that sedentary men and women who did one minute of intense, all-out exercise as part of a full 10-minute workout three times a week for six weeks showed improvements in their overall endurance, lowered their blood pressure and lowered their body fat percentage.
So in full, on stationary bike with a two minute warm up the participants pedalled as hard as they possibly could for a 20 second interval followed by two minutes of slow pedalling for three rounds. They ended with a three minute cool-down, adding up to a total of 10 minutes. Three times a week of this workout totalled only 30 minutes of exercise per week, showing that adding short, high-intense intervals into any training schedule is key to burning fat.
Takeaway point: Keeping workouts short and intense will send your fat-burning potential through the roof.
Find out about Tabata Intervals.
Avoid Sugar and Milk in Your Tea & Coffee
Ditch the milk & sugar in your tea and coffee and these drinks will do more than perk you up in the morning or reinforce your Englishness. As well as the huge amount of antioxidants and vitamins (including B-vitamins and potassium) contained in one mug, the stimulants contained in these drinks (including caffeine, theophylline and theobromine) can boost your body’s metabolic rate by up to 11% and fire up your nervous system, essentially sending direct signals to cells telling them to break down fat.
Avoiding putting sugar in your tea or coffee will benefit your health for obvious reasons, but avoiding milk will also help due to your brew containing catechins – forms of antioxidants, B-vitamins and other micronutrients which are, of course, very good for us. Milk contains the protein casein, which binds to and neutralizes the catechins, removing the many benefits they would otherwise have.
Takeaway point: Drink tea/coffee black and receive more antioxidants and vitamins in one hit than most foods can give you all day.
Spice Up Your Life
Sprinkling on some herbs and spices to anything you are eating is not only going to make your food taste great – it can help shrink your waistline too. From cinnamon’s blood sugar stabilising effects, to ginger aiding digestion, you can pick up anything from your rack and it will have some kind of super benefit you may have not previously know about – Cayenne pepper? Contains capsaicin which helps to burn fat and suppresses your hunger cravings; Black pepper? Contains piperine which blocks the formation of new fat cells; Mustard? Boosts metabolism by up to 25%; Cumin? reduces the formation of fatty tissues and improves glycemic control; Basil? Highly effective anti-infalmmatory properties; Turmeric? Generally makes you super-human.
Who said healthy eating has to be boring?
Takeaway point: Herbs and spices are extremely nutrient-dense and each contain many life-protecting and fat-burning properties.
Stop Focusing so Much on Calories
Do you really understand what a calorie is? Does a calorie from a chocolate bar effect you in the same way as a calorie from a stem of broccoli? Numerous studies show calorie counting to be an ineffective was to lose fat, in fact types of calories, timings of calories, and quality of calories will significantly alter the effect of the calories on the body. The quality of the calories is especially important because the chemicals, hormones, and general byproducts that are found within processed food effects the absorption of real nutrients whereas quality calories are nutrient dense, when coming from a food source such as kale, spinach or avocados.
Start focusing on the quality of food that you intake rather than seeing it as a number, and DEFINITELY forgo any plan or scheme that leaves you seeing food in ‘points’ or as ‘sins’.
Takeaway point: Focusing on quality of food is much, much more important that counting calories.
Relax
Have you realised how much stress can cause you to store fat? Our bodies contain a hormone called Cortisol which is released when the body is under stress. It is used by our body as a reaction to an incredibly stressful environment suddenly being created eg. being woken up by a sabretooth tiger, to aid in our ‘fight-or-flight’ response before we can relax again down at Bedrock Bowling.. However, due to modern lifestyles eg. being woken up by an alarm clock, rushing to work, pressures at work etc Cortisol will be released in greater amounts than necessary. Cortisol will make your body resist fat loss, increase cravings, cause sleeping problems and generally cause fatigue among other negative qualities. So go for a calming walk in the woods, listen to some music, browse Muddyrace or do whatever it is you like to do to relax, it’s no secret that being stressed is bad for you, so chill out and reap the benefits.
Takeaway point: Stress is a major factor in your body storing fat - learn to avoid stress and watch your waistline shrink.
Want more information on getting stronger and shedding fat? Check out Muddyrace Fitness.
References
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