Last week I shared with you 6 Weight Loss Myths people believe that don’t necessarily make the biggest difference in weight loss. So, today I figured I would share with you some real ways on how to burn some fat and drop the pounds.
I researched this topic and came across a great video from one of my favorite exercise and diet YouTuber’s, Gravity Transformation. Their video, 5 Ways to Burn Fat (MUCH FASTER), hit on some true, key things to do if you want to burn fat fast. Here is a break down of the five ways:
1. HIRT Workout
It’s not as bad as it sounds, and please don’t “hurt” yourself doing it. Hehe…cheesy pun. HIRT is an acronym for High Intensity Resistance Training. You’ve probably heard of HIIT, High Intensity Interval Training, which focuses on cardiovascular style exercises. HIRT, on the other hand, focuses on strength training for fat loss. Pick 3-5 exercises, performing 10 repetitions with a medium weight appropriate for each exercise, and perform circuits with a 60-90 second rest in between. This keeps your heart rate elevated with little muscle recovery time. This helps you build muscle, endurance, and burn a ton of calories at the same time.
2. Aggressive Fat Loss Diet
Most fat loss diets aim to reduce daily caloric intake by 20-25%. With an Aggressive Fat Lost Diet, your goal is to reduce daily caloric intake by about 40 – 45% for a set period of time. This aggressive reduction in calories should only be for a short amount of time as this is NOT sustainable nor advisable long term. Gravity Transformation recommends that this diet be sustained for 4-6 weeks. Personally, I think this is very aggressive and difficult to do. I would recommend the 5and2Guy approach of doing the diet for 5 days, take a 2 day (weekend) break where you eat normal calories and then hit it again for 5 days. You can then do this for 4-6 weeks much easier.
3. Peripheral Heart Action Training (P.H.A)
This was a new one to me as I’ve never heard of it, but it makes sense. It is similar to HIRT based training with the difference being that you’re going to alternate between upper and lower body exercises. This will be tough because the heart pumps blood to the muscles that are being exercised. So, a bench press would have your heart pumping blood to your pectoral muscles, triceps, and your upper body. If you were to immediately hop up and perform a set of squats, the blood would have to focus the blood flow back down to your lower body, which makes your heart work a lot harder forcing your body to burn much more calories and fat. You can also alternate between anterior and posterior exercises.
4. Fasting
Most people believe that you have to eat every couple of hours to keep your metabolism high. In reality, your metabolism doesn’t increase or decrease by the number of meals you eat a day. Your metabolism responds to your totals for the day, not individual meals you eat. When you fast, you keep insulin levels low, which aids in fat loss and fat burning. There are all types of fasts. Two popular ones are a 24-hr fast and Intermittent Fasting where you fast for 16 hours and have an 8 hour eating window. Fasting is a great way to lower insulin levels and reduce your daily caloric intake without having to worry about counting calories.
5. Consistency
Eating healthy and working out is great and will help you be healthier and get in shape, but ONLY if you are consistent with it. You can’t eat healthy one week and then eat like crap for two weeks. Same goes for exercise. If you workout a few times a month versus consistently every week, you won’t see results. And when you don’t see results, you will tend to quit. You HAVE to be consistent. Consistency is the key in helping you reach your fitness goals.
The Takeaway
If you’re looking for some definite ways to help you burn fast faster, Gravity Transformation delivered. These five ways will surely help you burn fat faster and drop the pounds quicker. But like anything else, you have to be consistent. I would say that consistency is the most important one of the five ways. If you consistently eat healthy and exercise, you’re not just getting in better shape. You’re also building healthy habits and a way of life. You’ll find your new habits are delivering on your fitness goals and will become your preferred way to live.
Here is Gravity Transformation’s video that inspired this post: