What Is The Best Way To Burn Fat And Keep It Off For Good?

It’s not “exercise more and eat less”

You’ll lose that battle each and every time with your metabolism. The problem is most people want their excess fat to be gone ASAP. That’s why they adopt the wrong approach. It’s like firing all the cannons at once, it makes a big splash but your metabolism just hunkers down in the bunker. It waits for you to get tired, laughing at your folly attempts to put a lasting dent in it. You need a smarter approach. You need to whittle away at it, guerrilla style. Instead of trying and failing to burn all the unwanted fat at once we’re going to sneakily lose a small amount every week. We’ll continue to win the weekly battles until the war is won. Here’s how it’s done.

Eat more food

Yes, more food. Your body needs a caloric deficit but only by a few hundred calories a day when done the right way. Too harsh a deficit and those unwanted metabolic pathways kick into gear. Aim for a 10-15% deficit and begin tracking your progress. This way you’ll retain more muscle which burns more calories in the long run. (more on muscle shortly) While I say eat more food I also mean the right kind of food. You want high quality sources of protein, vegetables, smart carbs and healthy fats. They should make up 80-90% of your nutrition. Depending on the amount you feel you can or want to lose, give yourself 10-20% for the foods you absolutely love and can’t do without. Be brutally honest with yourself here though. I don’t ask my clients to cut out their favourite foods. They have a time and place. But if you have an unhealthy relationship with any food/beverage that’s holding you back you need to work on that. These are trigger foods. The ones where a little just isn’t enough and before you know it any sense of control is lost. A topic for another time!

Don’t be a carbophobe!

Years ago, fats had a bad name and everyone said you need to go low fat and fats were the devil! Now fats are getting a better time of it as carbs are taking all the heat. This is down to many fad diets blaming carbs for excess weight gain. It’s just not true. The vast majority of us need carbs to fuel our workouts, to give us energy for daily tasks. Our brains need glucose to function optimally. You know you’re getting enough carbs if you’re losing fat while your hunger, energy and cravings are in check. This can take a bit of experimenting to find that point but once you have it, you’re golden.

Focus on strength training

Strength training does more for your physique than spending hours and hours per week on a piece of cardio equipment. Before I move on just reflect on what your eyes tell you. When you walk into a gym, where are the people who are generally in better shape? What are they doing? They’re lifting weights, using resistance machines or using their bodies as resistance. On the occasion that they might use the cardio machines, they’re probably hill walking or doing intervals. And if not that’s what they should be doing. How does a beginner start doing these things? Use lighter weights or body-weight routines. Focus on getting stronger. Use bigger movements like squats, lunges, upper body pulls and pushes. Think compound exercises and fewer isolation exercises to begin with. Are you worried about becoming “bulky”? Snap out of it right this second. Women generally don’t have enough testosterone to build muscle. You also need to be in a caloric surplus for that to happen (you shouldn’t be) and need to be lifting a lot of weight, frequently.

Strength training works better over time because muscle is more metabolically active. It burns more calories at rest than fat does in the long run. This means we want to hold on to as much muscle as possible. As we age our bodies lose muscle. We can slow this down by strength training. It will also help us in later life if we have a fall and we don’t break a hip! When someone says “I just want to tone up” they’re saying they want to have more definition. This means there’s less fat covering the muscles leading to more definition or the muscles get bigger and the fat that is there is spread over a larger area and there’s more definition that way.

Do the right types of cardio

Cardio is better done these two ways, low impact walking or high intensity intervals. The middle ground (jogging) isn’t optimal. Walking is great for reducing cortisol (a stress hormone), it gives you time to think and doesn’t put stress on your joints. It won’t burn a ton of calories but it can be done at the end of a strength workout. Burn more calories by increasing the incline on a treadmill. High intensity interval training is great for your fitness and burning calories well after your workout has finished. This can be done as a standalone session or on days where you’ve trained upper body. Build up your fitness with some smaller runs before you begin interval training. No need to go crazy with the amount of time with these runs. We just want to look and feel better, you’re not trying to be the next Sonia O’Sullivan! I’ll talk about jogging another time. It deserves its own post for how it just isn’t good for most people.

Enjoy the process

Getting in better shape is not a quick process, it takes time and consistent effort. Give yourself that time and celebrate the many wins along the way. Being able to do a properly executed push up or pull up. Playing with your kids without being out of breath. Feeling confident in a new pair of jeans or fitting into some old favourite clothes. Notice I didn’t mention weighing a certain weight. Enjoy the food you eat and make better food choices 80-90% of the time. Do the right kind of cardio for your body and get stronger.