Burn Fat Faster: 10 Tips!

"Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action."
- Benjamin Disraeli

Have you been trying to lose weight but find it comes off at a snail's pace? Tired of losing a pound a month as you exercise and diet like crazy?

If you’re taking in fewer calories than you use by working out and maintaining a slight caloric deficit, in theory, you could be losing 1-2lbs per week. But theory and practice aren’t always one and the same. Weight loss can be slower and more frustrating for some of us, even when we’re doing everything ‘right’.

So what can you do? These metabolism-boosting tips that should help ignite some good, steady fat loss.

1. Increase your meal frequency That's right, I want you to eat more often, but don’t increase your total calories. For example, if you eat three times per day, break those three meals into five to six smaller meals and eat every three hours. Food can actually help burn body fat when it’s used strategically. When you eat a large meal such as a big bowl of pasta, you raise your blood sugar levels and the body increases its level of insulin. This only serves to make you store fat! If you break your main meals into smaller but more frequent meals it helps control blood sugar - this puts you in a better position to lose fat.

2. Break up your workout Many people are pressed for time and the thought of exercise becomes another stress in their lives. With family responsibilities, work and financial pressures, the thought of exercise can become another weight on their shoulders. However, research has proven that two short bouts of exercise per day will actually stimulate the metabolism more than one longer bout. Go for a brisk 15 minute walk first thing in the morning before work and then another one at lunch time. Do this five days per week and I know you’ll really see results at the end of a month.

3. Eat breakfast Although this is an obvious one to me, I’m always amazed at the number of people who think they’re doing the right thing by skipping breakfast. I always stress to my clients to think of the body from the inside-out. The human body’s main goal is survival. If it senses any type of emergency, it will do everything in its power to keep you alive. If you sleep through the night and then deprive the body of food in the morning, what do you think the body is sensing at this point? That’s right, it senses a potential famine and then holds onto stored body fat to keep you alive. I'm not exaggerating this point - this is exactly what happens.

4. Cycle calories This is a technique I've used on several clients with amazing success. For three days, consume your minimum calorie requirement based on your height, weight and goals. Then, on day number four, increase your calories by an additional 400 (nutritious foods only). For example, if you're losing fat by consuming 1,200 calories per day, simply raise your calories to 1600 on day number four. This technique can actually get the metabolism racing and stimulate additional fat loss. Just remember that the additional calories come from good sources of protein, carbohydrates and healthy fats - not chips and chocolate.

5. Drinks lots of water Remember what I said about thinking of the body from the inside-out? Muscles and other tissues are made up of approximately 80% water. If you limit your water intake, the body will retain water and make you feel like the "queen or king of bloat." We all know how absolutely awful it feels to be bloated. It doesn’t take much for this to happen - the body only needs to be dehydrated by approximately 2% for this to take place. Staying hydrated will release some excess water trapped in the body and most likely reduce your weight by a few pounds.

6. Exercise in the morning If you can fit it into your schedule, exercise in the morning. People who exercise consistently in the morning find that exercise at this time regulates their appetite all day long. They don't get as hungry and they start the day with a boost to the metabolism.

7. Perform cardio interval training Cardio interval training is simply short bursts of high-intensity exercise combined with more moderate intensity within the same workout. Studies have shown that people who perform interval training twice a week (in addition to two other days of lower intensity cardio) lose twice as much weight as those who do just a moderate cardio workout. You can easily incorporate interval training into your workout by inserting a 45 second burst into your stationary bike workout every four to five minutes. You can also add a 45 second super brisk walk to your treadmill workout in the same timeframe. Your body will be working harder and will be forced to burn more calories. In addition, you won’t need more than 25 total minutes for your workout. Try to get two additional days during the week of lower intensity cardio as well.

8. Boost your metabolism by switching off the TV Researchers at Memphis State University monitored 32 girls as they watched a half-hour television programme. They found their metabolic rates dropped as much as 16% below resting metabolic rate. In other words, they burned fewer calories watching TV than they did just by reading!

9. Drink green tea Green tea is a popular tea from Japan that has numerous health benefits, including weight loss. It's not 100% certain how green tea helps one lose fat, but it appears to increase the amount of calories the body burns - not necessarily because of the small amounts of caffeine it contains, but due to a compound abbreviated as EGCG. When purchasing green tea make sure the label states that the green tea used is standardised for caffeine and EGCG.

10. Practice hydrotherapy This could have been placed in the "drink lots of water" section but deserves its own section due to its efficiency. First thing in the morning, drink 500ml very cold water on an empty stomach. Don’t eat breakfast for at least 30 minutes. The cold water will force your body to raise its core temperature, thereby stimulating your metabolism and excreting any excess water. You may find that you lose two pounds the first month you try this. If you want to take it a step further, do the same thing at lunch. Just make sure to wait the 30 minutes prior to eating. Remember though, if you’re consuming excess calories each day, this tip isn’t going to work.

Try several of these easy-to-use tips and start getting your fat burning metabolism revved.