In this post I explain how to reduce level of body fat with exercise, diet and some other tricks.
With the right level of knowledge, understanding and good connection between body and mind*, adjusting the level of body fat becomes fun and almost trivial. The main hindrance for most people is the doubt that it will work. The belief that you can’t lose weight must be proven wrong! Following the following strategy will remove doubt quickly. Progress will quickly be noticable and it becomes fun to continue.
Forget about how many calories you are burning during your workout. The key to reducing fat is to increase your resting metabolism. During 24 hours, your body’s metabolism is distributed like this:
Digestion: 10%, Activity: 20%, resting/maintenance: 70%
Which of the three would you increase by 10% if you could chose? The one with the biggest number right? I agree, and based on this, we can simply deduce the logic strategy: Do the right Activity as little as possible to increase Resting metabolism as much as possible for as long as possible!
Listen, if you exercise correct, a short 30 minute workout will increase your Resting metabolism for over 48 hours!
Trying to use the exercise to burn calories is the least effective strategy. But what is worse is that it will reduce your resting metabolism over time, making it harder and harder to lose weight. Bad strategy!
Understand that everything in your body that’s not related to movement is controlled by hormones. Correct exercise will trigger the hormones responsible for the increased energy consumption. Once you have amped up the resting metabolism, you can boost it even more by handling your diet in the proper way (this is also related to the hormones).
Don’t exercise to lose weight. Instead, do it to build muscle in such a way that losing fat becomes a positive side-effect. It makes you become better at getting better!
Exercising to lose weight will not lead to progressive progress. It could cause you to lose muscle and lower your resting metabolism. Once you stop exercising, you will bounce back to start in no time and we don’t want that!
Before you go on reading, some preliminary information should be understood. The body can store energy (calories) from food as glycogen and fat. Glycogen is the result of digesting carbohydrates which again can be converted into fat. Glycogen is stored around the muscles, but the storage capacity is limited. Once it’s full, the rest is stored as fat (unlimited capacity). The body will begin to burn fat once the glycogen tanks are empty.
Fat is the body’s defense against starvation. It takes a lot of energy to convert fat into energy, but it makes the body and mind operate really well. Once your system is running on “the spare fuel tank” you’ll feel full of energy! If you’re current habit is to begin the day eating bread, you will likely feel hungry again after only 3-4 hours. You are probably familiar with the sense of “feeling empty of gas” too, but both problems vanish when the metabolism is driven by your body’s own home made energy energy source. As long as you have enough fat on your body you do not have to worry about feeling dizzy and drained of energy.
While you wait for me to complete this post, here’s how I do it:
I like to exercise in the evening, so this is what I would do:
- Exercise with focus on generating a build-up of lactic acid in your muscles. (It will stimulate the secretion of hormones responsible for repair and recovery of muscle fibers – something that requires a lot of energy). The workout should be in the range of 5-20 minutes. Be so intense that you have depleted yourself from the capacity to do your best. If you normally exercise in the gym – like a normal person, the exercise must be well planed because now you must do in 15-20 minutes what usually takes you one hour.
- Delay your breakfast** the following day to allow the body to get fuel directly from your fat reserves. (The glycogen will be depleted during sleep and when you wake up the system is running on fat). Another large benefit is that it will make your body release more of the same “good hormones” you triggered with exercise “for free”! (This video on youtube called “Terry Crews on intermittent fasting”, is a good example.
- Avoid sugars or fine flour in your diet at all cost until the evening comes. (It will stimulate the secretion of insulin. Once this hormone is active, your body will stop burning fat immediately. It will also set an effective stop to release of “good hormones”.
- Be mentally prepared for two things in the day: First, your subconscious mind will insist that you MUST have food at the time you are used to. This “knowledge” is a false belief from a program that was generated by habit. Second, your belly may rumble a little at least the first 2-3 days. When you feel or hear your belly, consciously notice that you feel energized and tell yourself “this is great because now I know my fat reserves are being burned off! :D”
- The first day you may delay breakfast 2-3 hours, then more after that. (I usually don’t have my breakfast until afternoon and then I might eat eggs, bacon, avocado, nuts and salad to make sure I don’t ruin everything by triggering release of insulin.
- Spike your insulin level 1-2 times per week by eating bad carbs (chocolate, pizza, beer, wine, etc). This will make the brain produce Leptin, a very important survival mechanism. This hormone is depleted when you burn fat. When it is empty (after 5-6 days) it becomes almost impossible to burn fat.
Best of luck – have fun!
** Break fast indicates that you are breaking the fasting period in which your body resets the system and get hormones and energy sources into balance. The easiest way to achieve this is by doing something that get’s you into flow, meaning the focus an a activity is so intense that time seem to disappear. Just decide in advance which activity you will like to do and and care about – make it part of your morning ritual. Use music to lift you up.
3 Trigger your Brown Fat Metabolism
The human body contains more than one type of fat. Our fuel tank consist of white fat for extra energy. The other type is brown fat that creates heat and help maintain body temperature by breaking down blood sugar and fat molecules.
Drink 1/2 liter cold water to increase your resting metabolism with 30% for one hour.
Research has shown a 6% increase in resting metabolism in people who learned to activate their brown fat. That means just making your brown fat cells work faster can make you shed pounds and lose belly fat faster, on any eating plan. The best part? It’s not even difficult to do.
At the end of your warm morning shower, lower the water temperature for a few seconds and learn the sensation in the body that tells you what the feeling is that tells you your body reacted to the cooler water. Does not have to be ice cold and terrible! Then you just practice to make your subconscious turn on the heat by trying to notice or expect that subjective sensation. It may take a couple of days, but it’s fascinating and fun to learn.