17 May Advices on how to lose body fat

How can I help my body to lose fat?

We always talk about the fact that if our intake of calories is less than our consumption, then will we lose weight, but what about body fat? 

In this article, I am going to mention the best tricks on how to lose these extra body fat, which we all have to a greater or lesser degree, without going to extremes obviously, as fat is necessary for our body. I will start the list with basic advice and finish with more specific tricks.

1. Reduce your calorie intake.

This is maths and it is not wrong: if you consume fewer calories, then it’s obvious that you will lose weight as if we have a shortage of calories in our body, it will have no choice but to burn fat in order to consume energy.

2. Control food intake.

1. 1. 1. Reduce and control the intake of carbohydrates as it will help you reduce the levels of insulin in your blood ( a hormone which prevents fat from breaking down, encouraging its accumulation) and as a result, you will reduce your body fat. This section talks about the glycaemic index of foods, in a simple form, so that we understand: the higher the glycaemic index, the more insulin released in the blood and it’s for that reason that your body accumulates fat. So if you aim is to reduce body fat, you should introduce carbohydrates with a low glycaemic index into your diet more frequently, such as oats, sweet potato, and pulses amongst others, reducing the consumption of carbohydrates with a high glycaemic index such as white rice, potato, and obviously the all processed baked goods.
      2. Increase the intake of fiber in your body by eating fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds amongst others, so that you fill full for longer, and avoid “eating more” which would add unnecessary calories to your body.
      3. In order to lose fat, you have to eat fat…yes, yes, you have read that correctly, but these have to be healthy fats which foods such as avocadoes, oily fish (salmon), nuts, seeds, and olive oil.
      4. Reduce or eliminate the intake of white sugar or any derivative of it. As well as not being good for your health, it encourages the immediate increase of insulin and as a result, the accumulation of body fat. At present, it is very difficult to eliminate it from our food 100%. Unfortunately, most products have added sugar in them. My advice is to read all the food labels on the products and look for those which contain at least less than 1 % of added sugar for every 100 grams. This will not only help you lose weight, but it is good for your general health.
      5. Increase the intake of proteins in your daily diet given that it is proven that it will help you reduce your appetite. Without eating, the body has more time to use fat as energy. Foods that are high in protein are meat, eggs, pulses, fish, cheese amongst others. These are the keys when it comes to nutrition, ideal to help lose body fat and as we have seen, we’ve mentioned practically all the basic food nutrients. Essentially, as we always say, it’s important to mention that it is not necessary to diet, you simply have to feed yourself with real food, in a healthy manner, controlling the quantities and enjoying the food. It is not about eating less, but about eating well.

3. Reduce stress.

Being stressed increases the release of cortisol. This is the hormone known as the fat hormone. Having higher levels of cortisol in our bodies can cause an increase in body fat, causing truncal obesity (accumulation of fat mainly in the stomach area) in extreme cases.

4. Increase your sleep time.

It is essential to get enough sleep as it is while sleeping that we help increase our basal metabolism which encourages the recuperation of our muscles, as well as producing the hormone ghrelin, which makes us feel hungry. This point is related to the previous point as sleeping enough hours reduces stress levels, therefore, reduces us gaining extra body fat.

5. Practice intermittent fasting.

It is advised to do intermittent fasting under the guidance of a specialist given that it is based on the individual’s body needs. There are various ways of carrying out intermittent fasting, but the most commonly used is the 16 hours fasting – not consuming any food during this time, only eating in the remaining 8 hours. 

This time of practice is very efficient for losing fat and weight in turn, but as I mentioned already it needs to be supervised by a specialist, it has to link to your lifestyle and schedule but don’t be afraid to try it. That said, do find the type of fasting which suits you and your needs the best.

6. Remain active and train.

1. 1. 1. 1. Do between 75000 and 10000 steps daily this is the key to forcing yourself to stay active throughout the day, and remaining active will encourage a quicker and more effective loss of fat.
         2. Do moderate-intensity training on an empty stomach,  of course, this type of training must be controlled under the supervision of a specialist as you have to carry out an activity without eating any food since the previous before going to bed. Doing this encourages your body to use body fat during the activity. However, it does not work with all types of activities, it must be a moderate-easy activity when it comes to intensity, and not too long (between 45- 1 hour). If we do prolonged high-level intensity training, we probably won’t manage to finish it. In terms of losing fat, our body will not use stored fat, instead, it will use the other type, which comes from stored energy in our muscles, causing muscle breakdown, not fat loss, which is worse.
         3. Focus more on strength training (without forgetting cardio training obviously). If your aim is to lose weight, it has been proven that strength training is the better option as you increase muscular mass, which encourages a higher metabolic rate, and this, in turn, will use fat as energy.
         4. Introduce HIIT training in your weekly schedule. Although your principal focus is to lose fat with strength training, HIIT training is an ideal complement ideal as they are intense cardio training sessions, which don’t last long but are very effective when it comes to burning calories and boosting fat loss.

It’s not as complicated if your goal is to reduce body fat, as you have the key tricks to manage it. Start by combining food and exercise, reduce stress levels, sleep more, or readapt your lifestyle.

If from today, you start to apply some of this advice mentioned, you will start on the road to losing body fat. Are you up for doing it with me?