"How to shed fat fast."
by Shawn Lebrun

 

 

Well, it's that time of year where everyone starts turning their attention to getting in shape for the summer beach season. But I'm not an advocate of trying to drop fat in a very short time period, I think it's better to have a longer term approach to fat loss. However, there are several things you can do immediately to start melting off fat at a much faster pace.

Here are my top 8 strategies for shedding fat fast!

1. Commit to it.

Without this first step, all others are pointless. Losing fat takes commitment. Effort is required, a complete strategy is necessary, and there aren't any shortcuts. With that said, it's do-able. You just have to have a plan and you have to work that plan to the best of your ability.

If you're not used to exercising, the initial inertia will want to hold you back, but don't let it. Once you start building momentum by doing something each and every day, soon it will become habit and fat will start dropping off fast!

2. Start to decrease your daily calories.
Let's face it, you gain weight from eating excess calories. So to lose fat, you must reverse that process and begin to create a calorie deficit, in which body fat is burned for energy.

You don't have to be a slave to calorie counting each meal, just start getting rid of extras like dressings, sugars, sauces, mayo, or anything else that adds calories.

What you don't want to do is reduce calories too much, too fast. This will cause your metabolism to slow down, bringing fat loss to a halt. Instead, start to reduce calories by 150-200 a day for the first few weeks and track the results. If that continues to work, stay with it. If not, keep reducing by 150-200 each week until you start to see results.

3. Do 4 to 5 short, intense cardio sessions each week.

Recent studies have shown that as little as 15 to 20 minutes of cardio 3 to 4 times a week is sufficient at losing body fat and keeping the fat off for good. However, the cardio you perform should be at a very intense level, meaning for the duration of the 15 minutes you're working very hard with no pausing to rest.

It's this ultra intense exercise that is so effective at burning calories, which in turn leads to burning body fat.
Your body uses little, if any, stored body fat as energy during a cardio session. What's important to realize is that intense cardio has an effect on your resting metabolic rate after your cardio session, or the time in which you're resting and not exerting yourself.

High intensity cardio in brief sessions has a greater impact on raising your resting metabolic rate than does low intensity, longer duration cardio. Brief, high intensity cardio sessions not only expends calories while performing it, but it also conditions your body to burn more calories after the session, while you are at rest.

4. Do 3 to 5 short, intense weight training sessions

Muscle is metabolically active tissue. When fat is burned, it actually has to be released into the bloodstream and shuttled into a muscle cell where it's burned as fuel. Muscle, therefore, is very effective at burning fat. If you increase muscle mass, you increase the amount of calories burned, not only while you exercise, but while you rest.

Resistance training is a vital key to any fat loss program.Perform 3 to 5 sessions a week of intense but brief weight training. Work each muscle group once and then allow a full 7 days before training it again.

5. Avoid simple sugars, refined carbs, and avoid adding saturated or hydrogenated fats to foods

Simple sugars include glucose, sucrose, fructose, and most of the foods you'd normally consider "sweets." Fruit juice, sugared cola, and cakes and cookies (even those labeled "fat free") contain enough sugar to severely limit the potential for fat release.

Sugar intake can also lead to erratic energy levels, food cravings, and sudden fatigue due to insulin spikes and residual blood sugar drops. Refined carbs include white flour and bleached and processed grains. These foods have very little actual nutritional value and the carbs are rapidly broken down into glucose which, again, can limit the potential for fat release.

In addition, they are easily converted into triglycerides and stored as fats. Essential fats are vital (as the name implies) but the fats that are solid at room temperature, such as the fats in a marbled steak, butter, or the hydrogenated oils found in butter substitutes have no place in an effective fat loss program.

6. Eat small, well balanced meals/snacks every 3 to 4 hours.

An easy way to effectively speed up your body's metabolism is by eating small, well-balanced, nutritious meals or snacks every three to four hours. This alone can drastically improve the efficiency of your body's metabolism and it's fat burning potential.

For a typical day, this would amount to six meals per day (bodybuilders often consume up to 8 daily meals). Each meal should contain a mix of lean protein, starchy carbohydrate, and fibrous carbohydrate.

So a chicken breast, sweet potato, and broccoli would make the perfect meal.

If you have trouble consuming 6 whole food meals, use meal replacements. Meal replacements are pre-packaged powdered drink mixes that you mix with water or skim milk and then drink in place of a meal. They are convenient, inexpensive, and they allow the opportunity for you to be precision-accurate with your nutrition.
In order to get the same benefits from whole food as some of the high quality meal replacements, you'd have to put together a large meal like a chicken breast (protein) a potato for some carbs,and a salad for the vitamins---six times a day!

Why bother when you can just rip open a meal replacement packet and toss it into a cup with some water or skim milk. Instant nutrition.

7. Consume plenty of water throughout the day

Your body is primarily made up of water, so it stands to reason that in order to keep your body healthy, you should supply plenty of it to your cells.

Aim for at least a gallon of water a day, keep it with you at all times. Keep a bottle with you at work, one in the car, and one handy at home. Not only will water help reduce hunger, it will act as a valuable step in helping to mobilize fat and keep the cells healthy.

8. Use 200 mg of caffeine daily for four weeks

This is not a "must" but research indicates that caffeine can have not only a performance enhancing effect but also a thermogenic (heat-producing) fat-releasing value. Using caffeine 30 minutes prior to your workout may allow you to release and burn additional fat.

If you don't use caffeine regularly, you might start out in this four week fat loss period with 75 mg., gradually increasing up to but not to exceed 200 mg depending on how you feel.

You can use caffeine pills like Vivarin or sip on some strong, black coffee a half-hour before your workouts. Not only does the caffeine create a heat-producing and fat-releasing effect, the extra energy will allow you to get through those tough workouts, especially during a restricted-calorie phase.

Again, this step is NOT a MUST and I'm not advocating that everyone use caffeine, but there is overwhelming evidence and study after study that shows the positive effect caffeine has on fat-release.

There you have 8 steps you can take immediately to start getting the physique you want for the summer. The more of these steps you take, the more of a "synergistic" effect that will occur where they all work together to help you shed fat fast!
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