Often called the good fat, it is found in our upper backs and necks, where calories are burned in order to produce heat and keep us warm, explains Dr. Campbell. It burns more calories in a shorter period than other forms of cardio, and has been shown to improve fat loss.
While resistance training does not directly burn through more of your fat stores than aerobics, resistance training builds muscle, which, in turn, increases your 24-hour metabolic rate. Weight training does not burn nearly as many calories as interval workouts (30 minutes of weights burns about 100 calories), but it helps preserve and even gain lean muscle mass. Resistance training can also help you maintain lean mass without fat, which may boost how many calories your body burns when it is at rest (3).
One study found that resistance training for 10 weeks could improve your number of calories burned while you are resting by 7 percent and decrease body fat by 4 pounds (1.8 kg). Another study found that 12 weeks of strength training combined with aerobic training was more effective in reducing body fat and abdominal fat compared to aerobic exercise alone (2). Other studies found aerobic exercise could improve muscle mass and reduce abdominal fat, waist size, and body fat ( 38, 39, 40 ).
Adding more muscle through lifting weights and doing other resistance exercises may also help burn fat, particularly if you are dieting as well. As you age, your amount of muscle tends to decline, with fat making up more of your body mass, which will slow your rate of burning calories. Males typically have less body fat and more muscle than females at a similar age and body mass, meaning males burn more calories. If you are lifting heavy at high intensity, you may actually increase your afterburn, or calories burned following a workout.
This means you are burning calories while working out, but your body continues burning calories after the workout as well, allowing your body to return to a pre-existing state. By using more calories than you consume, your body burns fat off your body to make up for the rest of your energy needs.
This puts your body into ketosis, which means that your body does not have enough blood sugar to burn for energy, so it burns fat instead. Muscle is metabolically active, so when you lose it, you are also losing out on any additional calories-burning muscle could provide.
Working out at lower intensities is not necessarily bad, but if you are not burning more calories than you are eating, then working out at lower intensities is not going to get your body burning any more fat. Do note, however, that working at higher cardiovascular intensities may mean that you are likely burning muscle, or your bodys own protein stores, instead of fat, as a source of energy.
Adding more protein to your diet may also help to increase your metabolism, so that your body burns more calories during the day. Including more protein-rich foods in your diet is an effective way to curb appetite and burn more fat. Diets rich in high-quality protein may help you lose fat by encouraging fullness (the sense of being full), helping you maintain lean muscle mass as you shed fat, and increasing thermogenesis (the burning of calories by digestion) caused by your diet. Found in many tasty, nutrient-dense foods, protein curbs appetite and burns body fat — including our oldest arch-nemesis, visceral fat.
With just four calories per gram, protein is the most filling macronutrient, while also building muscle — something thatll aid your body transformation. Foods high in leucine, an amino acid, may help you build lean muscle mass, which is necessary for trimming extra body fat off of your frame.
Increasing your probiotic intake, through either foods or supplements, can also help boost fat-burning and help you maintain a healthy weight. Another, smaller study found that taking probiotic supplements helped individuals following a high-fat, high-calorie diet keep their fat and weight from getting worse (51). Dieting gets the weight-loss O started, but the data shows that women who eat well while also increasing their physical activity are much more likely to lose weight and keep it off over the long-term, explains Dr. Campbell.
The best strategies to shed excess weight and stored body fat involve a behavior modification program combined with caloric reduction and increased physical activity. The best strategy will involve progressively losing excess body fat with a mix of lower-intensity and higher-intensity exercise combined with a smart eating approach. Check out these best ways to burn fat in the long term, and find out how your unique body type is built for weight loss. There are easy ways that you can adjust your lifestyle to burn fat, like changing up your diet and making sure that you are eating the right types of foods.
The keto diet, for example, is often touted as the best way to lose weight, as cutting carbohydrates very low encourages your body to shift toward burning fat as fuel. If you are seriously overweight, you are probably best off starting the fat-burning phase with some light aerobics and resistance training, so that you do not put the body under undue stress in this initial stage.
If you are looking to get your fat-loss going in a higher gear, consider adding in some high-intensity interval training (HIIT) into the aerobic mix, too. The Bottom Line Just 20-40 minutes a day of aerobic activity, such as running, can help jumpstart fat loss. Bottom line Strength training, whether it is weightlifting, yoga, or using other resistance gear, is an excellent way to reduce bad belly fat — that is, fat that surrounds organs — build muscle, and burn more calories when you are resting. In either the Smooth phase (a thin fat layer independent of watera covering your body) or the Shape phase (about six percent body fat), it is probably okay to stagger food intake, so you might want to have a couple days with a lot of calories (1,000 or so more than usual) followed by a three-day stretch with lower calories.
Because your bodyas glycogen levels are at their lowest point because you havenat eaten since the previous evening, itas going to be turning to your stored fat pretty rapidly for energy, which may increase fat burning overall.
Share
