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Intelligent Ways To Lose Fat


By Jeremy Chin
Posted on 06 Sep, 2018


Intelligent Ways To Lose Fat

The goal of losing weight should not only be to look good, but to feel good. With the time pressures of the working world, we’ve come up with a list of ways you can get a better physique and feel great each day. 

1. High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

Interval training is a time-efficient form of exercise that involves doing high intensity physical activities for short periods of time. What happens during a HIIT session is you exercise very hard, relax a little while, exercise just as hard again, and repeat the cycle for a set amount of time. One of the huge benefits of High Intensity Interval Training is that you continue to burn calories for up to 24 hours after your workout has ended.

 

2. Lift Weights

Many people, especially women, worry that lifting weights will cause them to bulk up instead of slim down. That they’d have shoulders of an anvil and the trunk of an ox. Not true, not unless you go bat shit crazy at the gym.

The link between building muscle and weight loss is simple. Muscles burn calories, and the more you have, the more you will burn. Also, by doing weight training, the parts that use to jiggle gets tucked in and gives you a trimmer look.

 

3. Pick Up A Sport

One of the first things we think of when we’d like to lose weight is cardio, and the activities that usually come to mind are running, swimming, sex, biking or mounting the stairmaster. Those are excellent activities to be engaged in, but to prevent repetitive stress injuries, it’s good to sometimes switch things up. Sports usually involve non-linear movement, side-stepping, jumping and back pedaling. They are a great way to work different muscle groups and improve our agility.

 

4. Take Up Yoga

Aside from being great for flexibility, balance and strengthening your core, yoga is great for stress relief. And how does this help with fat loss?
The science of it is simple. When we are stressed, our body tends to produce more acid (this is why people who are stressed tend to develop ulcers). In response to this happening, out body produces more fat to insulate our internals against this acidity. Reduce your stress, and you will reduce your weight.

 

5. Stop Trying To Spot Reduce

Have that bit of flab on your belly you’ve been trying to get rid off since you 16th birthday? Doing 1000 crunches a day isn’t the best way to get rid of it. Why? Because that’s not how the body works.

The only way to reduce fat in a certain part of your body is to lower the overall fat content in your body. And the best way to do that isn’t through crunches, but through a more effective fat-burning workout like Interval Training.

 

6. Take Selfies

One of the main reasons many of us don’t arrive at our fitness goals is because we give up too soon. And a great way to keep ourselves motivated is to track our progress through photos, so we get to see the fruits of our labor.

But don’t expect to see results right away. What we suggest you do is snap a photo at the first of every month, and pin them next to each other.

 

7. Train With A Friend

The main reason to do this is to have support. Quite often we have bad days, and it always helps when you have someone to help lift you up.

And what happens when you both are having a bad day? Well, you just help each other along. It still beats having to go it alone.

Remember:
Leg Day = Misery.
And Misery loves company.

 

8. Plan Your Meals Ahead Of Time

One of the biggest reasons why we eat unhealthy is when we are caught in a situation where we are pressed for time or have limited food options. When hunger strikes, we often look for the nearest and most convenient food option. What we will most likely find are fast food restaurants, greasy spoons and unsanitary street food that can walk under its own power.

Create a weekly food calendar and prepare healthy meals for yourself ahead of time. That way, you’re covered when the hunger pangs come knocking, you can show it to the fridge.

 

9. Drink More Water

It is a common misconception that water retention or water weight is caused by drinking too much water. The opposite is actually true.

When you starve yourself of water, your body starts to ask questions like, “Hey, is this dude trapped in the desert?” And to protect itself, your body will retain water because it is unsure of the next time it will get hydrated.

Water also helps stabilize your blood sugar levels. With less sugar spikes and drops, you will have a much easier time keeping bingeing in check.

 

10. Eat More Vegetables

Vegetables, especially of the cruciferous variety, are anti-estrogenic and help offset that hormone in your body that encourages fat storage. Vegetables are a good, healthy way to fill up. And they also give you great skin.

 

11. Eat More Often

Ever had those days where you felt you could eat a horse? So you pig out, feel guilty afterwards, and find yourself completely stripped of energy as your body works tirelessly to process all that food.

The way to prevent that from happening is to eat more often, but in smaller portions. Always keep healthy food like fresh fruit and nuts on hand that you can snack on in between meals. Your body will thank you for it, and the horses will sleep better at night.

 

12. Don’t Skip Breakfast

If the first meal of your day is lunch, it would have been approximately 15 hours since your last meal. And it’s seldom pretty when food and 15 hours of not eating come face to face.

Power the first half of your day with a good healthy breakfast, eat a moderate lunch to keep yourself going, and end your day with a light dinner. Remember, eating a heavy dinner affects the quality of sleep as our body has to break all that food down while it’s supposed to be at rest.

 

13. Watch Those Carbs

Carbs are great sources of energy, but we should consume them in moderation. Too much leads to high blood glucose which causes an over release of insulin in our body. This then triggers a fat storage response by the body.

Also high sugar in our body also leads to sugar crashes. And we know what happens in that situation. We toss food into our body as if we were a food relief station dispensing fresh supplies.

 

14. Get More Sleep

Not getting enough sleep can significantly impede your weight loss goals in a number of ways. Firstly, when we feel sleepy and in need of an energy boost, chances are we’ll reach for a cup of coffee or a donut for an immediate energy boost, both of which aren’t good for the waistline. Secondly, when we are fatigued from lack of sleep, we will be more likely to exercise less.

On a hormonal level, being deprived of sleep has been shown to cause weight gain. Our body produces two hormones, ghrelin, which tells us when to eat, and leptin, which tells us when to stop. When you don’t get enough sleep, you have more ghrelin… and more leptin, a double whammy.

On a psychological level, when the body is deprived of sleep, it thinks it is because we have been on high alert and that there is danger present. To prepare itself against this perceived threat, the body down shifts to a lower level of metabolism to conserve energy for a fight-or-flight response. When your body is in that state of arrest, fewer calories are burnt. Also, when the body is under stress, cortisol levels go up, and your appetite increases.

 

15. Think Physical

Ever used the elevator to go up or down just one floor? Chances are, it would have been faster for you to walk. You would have also helped conserve electricity and help improve the environment in the process.

Modern day living has conditioned us to be lazy. Examine what you do on a day-to-day basis, and seize every opportunity to get that bit of exercise in.

Do you drive out on the weekends to get your coffee from the deli around the corner? Why not take a brisk walk? If time is an issue, sprint.

Ever push a shopping cart with only 5 items in it to your car? How ridiculous is that? Carry your shopping bags to your car, the heavier the better. View it as weight training.

 

16. Stop Looking At The Weighing Scale

Chances are, you won’t see an initial weight difference in the early stages of your new fitness routine. But that isn’t bad news. Chances are, you are losing fatty weight and gaining muscle weight.

Give it some time for your body to start operating at a new, higher rate of metabolism, and we are confident that you will start shedding pounds from that point on. But till that happens, start to enjoy the trimmer, firmer and healthier YOU!

In your training, it is best to switch things up; with cross training and weight training. Engaging in low impact activities like biking and swimming does wonders for working other muscle groups and improving your cardio. And yoga is great for flexibility, balance and strengthening your core.


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