Here comes the summer. That means your clothes will be coming off soon. Are you looking your best? If the answer is yes, then you are actually a fitness freak, which is a good thing BTW. But, if your answer is NO, then you have come to the right place.
Everybody wants to look great in a swimming suit, but only a few of us actually do. So, if you are planning to loose those extra few kilos off your body to enjoy this summer then follow these few tips for fat loss:
1. Whether you believe it or not, water is the best natural fat burner you can ever have. Our liver, which processes fats, needs a lot of water to function properly. Dehydration slows down the fat burning process, and effects muscles and joints also.
So, to stay hydrated and beat the fat, you have to drink lots and lots of water. The 8-glasses per day plan is enough to start off, but you should know how much water u need and it would depend on your lifestyle. One easy way to judge your water intake is by the color of your urine. If its somewhere between clear to pale yellow, then you are drinking enough water. If its on the darker shade of yellow, then u need to drink more water.
Having a glass of water before each meal would help you with your cravings and you would eat less, hence work towards fat loss.
2. Avoid Crash Dieting
Yes it is true that a crash diet can help u loose some kilos quickly but your lean body wont last long. Once u start your regular diet again, you would be even worse than you were before. Plus, crash diets are missing so many nutrients which are essential for a healthy body.
So, choose your diet carefully. Choose a diet that you can stick to for long time without getting bored. This will enhance your fat loss rate. Small changes in the diet are permissible but a cheat day every week is a big NO! NO!
3. Eat Frequently
Yes, eating 6 meals a day instead of 3 will also help you with fat loss. This doesn’t mean that you have to eat your regular big meals 6 times but you have to break up your 3 meals into 6. Divide your meals into small proportions.
Complex carbs, lean proteins and healthy fats should be your key ingredients for every meal. You can mix up things like carbs with proteins or fats with protein but avoid mixing carbs with fats. This plan would keep your metabolism boosted up all day and you will burn more fat (fat loss).
4. Cardio is Must
Now some people would suggest you to perform cardio before your weightlifting session and some people would suggest you to perform cardio after your weight training session. I would suggest you to try both of them an
d then choose whichever works best for you.
But you must include cardio in your schedule if you really want to burn fat. A 20-30 mins high-intensity cardio in a day would help you melt fat off your body even faster.
5. Get Proper Sleep
People who get enough sleep at night burn more fat than people who sleep less at night. 6-8 hours sleep is very important for keeping metabolism rates high which ultimately helps in fat loss. People who get enough sleep also tend to feel less hungry throughout the day than people who sleep less.
6. Start Drinking Green Tea
If your favourite morning beverage is tea or coffee, swap it with green tea, today. Green tea helps in burning fat by increasing metabolism rate in our body. It also provides an excellent antioxidant support for recovery of body from intense exercise. And last but not the least it provides better hydration levels than both coffee and tea.
7. Avoid stress
I know its too hard to avoid stress in today’s lifestyle. But stress causes you to eat unhealthy food, drink more alcohol and live a poor lifestyle. Moreover stress also causes excess secretion of fat-storing harmone Cortisol. If you have excess amount of Cortisol in your system, it breaks down muscle and also stores more fat in belly area.
To keep a check on your stress, include some stress-busting activities in your daily schedule, like yoga, exercise, morning walks, talking to friends, socializing, playing outdoor games, owning a pet, listening to music etc. These kind of activities will keep your mind away from stress and you would see the results in your fat loss plan too.
8. Cheat Meals
Yes! Here it comes. Keeping a low-carbs diet will definitely help you cut off fat faster. But keeping a low-carbs diet for very long periods might not be as good as it sounds. This can slow your metabolism as the body gets used to with your diet. So, it can be fatal in achieving your fat loss goals.
To fight this situation, I suggest you to have your cheat meals once in 12-15 days. These high-carb cheat meals will help you keep your fat-burning hormone Leptin in check. They will also keep your metabolism high and will keep your mind focused on your fat loss plan and diet.
9. Consistency
If you really want to achieve your goal of burning fat, a very important thing that u have to add in your plan is consistency. Being consistent in your diet and training will help you move towards your goal even faster.
See it for yourself. Follow a diet plan and traning plan for a month with consistency, and I promise you, you would be surprised by the results.
10. Set Achievable Goals
Lets say, you want to loose 10 kilos in 1 month. Its not impossible, but maybe you are not ready for it. And if you fail in achieving it, you would be left frustrated and heart broken.
That’s why I recommend you to set smaller goals. Know your strengths and limitations, know your self. Set goals that you can achieve. Because once you achieve them, you would be proud and motivated to set new, bigger goals.
Bring your planner. Make sure you have noted down these points and go through them every single day so that you can remember what needs to be done for fat loss and looking better this summer.
Hello Tuhin, I am glad that these points would be of some help 🙂
Take Care