In this article, we’ll look at body fat – what it is, why we have it and how to burn it.
The simple answer is a healthy diet and exercise for the rest of your life is all you need to burn fat and lose weight. Easy right? Of course it isn’t! But no one wants to hear is that it is a lifelong commitment to look and feel good. A complex set of strategies are behind sustainable healthy changes that are not just for your appearance, but for your longevity as well.
It is important to remember there is somewhere between a $22 billion and $55 billion market for weight loss products and services. All that money gives companies an incentive to give the consumer false hopes and promises that will lead them to buy into the latest diet fad.
Ultimately, many of these companies are not out there to help you lose weight, because like any business they want return customers to keep making money out of. Not everyone is a bad guy though, and there are some good diet plans out there who really want to build their reputation off of long-term results. They also have good heart and truly want to help people. It is up to you to decipher who is false and who wants to help.
It will not be easy to change your body, because there is no magical trick that will make us all have the figure of circa 2000 Britney Spears (nor is that something that many of us want). You have the power to act and think analytically and to stick to things that will work for you.
You should approach any diet and exercise plan that is short, easy and too good to be true with a very skeptical and non-believing eye. Many fads are waste of time, money, energy and can even be counter-productive. Instead you should replace your enthusiasm with wanting results right now with a long term plan that you will be able to stick to, and actually will be good for your health. If the latest diet pil claims it can make you lose 1lb per day while you sit on the couch eating chips, sadly its a lie.
At the Flat Belly Bible, we aren’t looking for your repeat business. We just want to help you. That is why we offer a book, not just a supplement that promises to be a 5-minute miracle diet fix-all. We want to help you arm yourself with knowledge and prepare yourself for a lifelong challenge that we’ll let you know up front, is not a breeze.
How to Burn Fat: The Science Behind Fat Burning
Why We Need Fat:
Before you begin on your weight loss adventure an important reminder is that fat is not our enemy. Fat is essential for our body to function properly. It nurtures our hair, skin, heart and brain. It helps our body convert nutrients into usable forms. Most crucially to our weight loss journey, it gives us energy.
Any diet that says you should not consume fat or search for low-fat food alternatives pumped with chemicals should not be trusted. Without the energy that fat gives us, we will not have the energy to exercise. If you don’t have the energy to exercise, you won’t have the energy to burn fat or do anything that you enjoy. Crash diets never work!
It makes me so angry that so many diets are based on the very unhealthy premise that are not centered on how to burn fat, but how to eliminate fat from your diet. These fads do not work – period. Short-term you may lose a couple of pounds, but you will not have the energy to build muscle that will make for long-term weight loss changes.
Now, just because I say fat is essential to our weight loss journey, don’t go out and buy yourself a cheeseburger in the name of burning fat. Only certain fats are actually good for us. Bad fats like saturated fats will actually harm us. It is important to monitor closely which types of fats we are consuming to create a healthy diet that will give us energy, keep us healthy and make long-term changes. Watch the video below for a very informative look at good and bad fats in different types of food.
How Our Body Burns Fat
Our body burns fat in three ways: resting, eating and exercising. We want to modify all of these to lose weight.
When we rest our body is still active. Our brain, heart, lungs and other inside stuff is constantly burning calories and using up energy. In fact, this is where you burn most of your fat. You can celebrate if you want for your miraculous achievement. Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) actually accounts for around 60-70% of your overall metabolism, and rather surprisingly, it’s the number of calories you’ll burn by simply doing nothing at all – lying in bed staring at the ceiling or vegging on the couch watching TV.
The problem is the more fat we have, the less fat we burn while resting. The reason for this is that muscle burns more calories while resting than fat. This is why we want to convert fat into muscle.
When we consume or digest our food is where a lot of the other fat burning in our body goes on. Our body has to actively work to convert food we eat into useable nutrients. Fat on our body slows down our metabolic rate, so that we do not burn as many calories.
Lastly, when we are exercising or being physically active is when we burn only around 15% of our fat. These activities include everything from twiddling your thumbs to running on the treadmill. This is part of what makes it impossible to lose weight with just exercising. Exercise is only a small factor in determining how much fat is stored in our bodies, or how much fat we burn. That is why exercise alone will not make us lose weight, the same as just taking a diet supplement or cutting fat from our diet on its own will not make us lose weight.
A good weight loss program’s goal will be to teach you how to burn fat in a healthy manner. This usually means slight modifications to your diet and a regular exercise plan. We want to get rid of excess pounds that inhibit our body from functioning at its best at all times while learning ways to increase our metabolic rate.
There will never be a point where you can stop exercising or eating healthy, but you will need to keep good habits to keep great results!
