There are several thoughts, feelings and beliefs for dropping body fat but everyone has their preferred method and not all methods work for all people. Fad diets and extreme measures are ridiculous and not suggested as a healthy way to drop pounds and keep them off. Things like the banana diet, cabbage soup diet, or other starvation diets will simply set you back further and make it even more difficult for future fat loss by messing up your body’s metabolism. When your calorie intake gets too low, your body goes into starvation mode and holds onto fat while burning lean muscle tissue for energy. This is exactly what you want to avoid! Your goal is to retain as much precious muscle mass you currently have and burn off the excess fat. It’s a fine balancing act but you can do it!
One of the most popular and highly marketed diet plans on the market includes a diet plan which has lower calorie guidelines. Although I do not prefer cutting calories, I certainly do not suggest 1,200 or fewer calories per day! For some clients, they prefer to cut calories or portion sizes and find this is the only way they can succeed. If you feel that you need to do this then do it in a smart way. Choose nutrient dense foods, limit your carbohydrate intake along with high sugar fruits and focus the bulk of your diet on dark fibrous greens, clean starchy carbs and lean meats. Choose starches that give you the most bang for your buck which include things like quinoa, millet, brown, red and black rice, oatmeal and yams.
These items will nourish your body with low-fat, nutrient dense fuel to help your body and brain function at a high level while also keeping you satisfied so that you are not feeling hungry all the time. Even with portion control or calorie reduced options, you will want to follow the grazing suggestion by eating no later than 3 hours between meals. Ideally, consuming 5-6 meals per day will be your goal. This tells your body that food is always on the way so that it does not feel like it needs to pack it away as body fat for a rainy day! As discussed previously, this is called going into “starvation mode” and your body will slow down its metabolic rate which is a terrible thing and one you want to avoid at all costs!
Sample Fat Burning Grocery List
- White fish
- Poultry (chicken, turkey)
- Egg whites
- Lean steak (top round)
- Brown rice
- Sweet potato (yams)
- Broccoli
- Green beans
- Raw almonds
- Cottage cheese
- Plain nonfat yogurt
- Kidney beans
- Lentils
- Mixed greens
- Skim milk or no fat soy milk
- Old fashioned oatmeal
- All natural peanut butter
The next thing to do is kickstart the fat burning process by increasing your exercise and weight training routine. You should be doing at least 3-5 days of strength training workouts per week with 30-45 minute sessions. This will help you succeed with your goals and keep you consistently in the gym which will help greatly with building healthy habits. Use compound multi-joint exercises like squats, lunges, deadlifts, bench press, pushups, pullups and shoulder press. These are all excellent exercises for recruiting more than one muscle group while enhancing your heart rate to burn calories and build lean muscle.
Cardio is a great tool you will also need to implement into your fat loss plan. You can start with daily walks then try something a bit higher in speed and intensity like jogging, sprints and jump rope. If you like hiking, biking, or other sports then use these for your cardio exercise. Kickboxing and martial arts has come up in popularity with both men and women as a fantastic way to get a fun workout in and burn extra calories! Just make sure to choose something you really enjoy which will help to keep you motivated so you can stay on track with your fitness program and reach your fat loss goals!
