Losing fat is not as hard as it may seem. Although many have tried and failed, others have succeeded by following a simple overlying principle---eat a healthy diet and exercise regularly. Although the world is full of fad diets and other weight-loss schemes, health and fitness is a lifestyle that requires hard work and sacrifice on a daily basis. Although many exercises and activities will burn fat effectively, the best one for you is the one you will enjoy doing.
Fat Burning Food
In order to slim down you do not need to live on food supplements or on a liquid diet. The most important way to deal with fat is to identify foods which have low fat content and at the same time can play the role of a fat cutter with perfection. Nutritionists have identified eggs, skimmed low fat milk, yogurt, organic soybean called edamame and beans of various sorts(navy beans, kidney beans, white beans and lima beans). Oatmeal, lean meat, whole grain and olive oil are also good for health. Any type of fat burning food is rich in fibers and these anti fat fibers are stomach cleansing agents that are good for health. However these food products work best if certain rules of preparation are adhered to. For example frying beans in oil will definitely rob it off it properties. Similarly, you must be able to control your temptation of buying flavored oatmeal which has high glucose content and low nutrition. In case of eggs try eating the egg white and discarding the yolk to keep cholesterol levels under check. Using Olive oil to cook will nourish you with healthy monounsaturated fat. Thus for optimum utilization use fat burning food prudently.
A list of practical foods for burning fat
A lot of people try to starve their nutrition in a bid to reduce fat. This approach can have spurious effects on the harmony of the body and is not a wise or healthy way to reduce fat. The right way to reduce fats would be to eat foods that reduce the possibility of further fat deposition, or foods that assist in burning fats, while also taking up calorie-burning exercises (like aerobics, yoga and resistance/weight training) to use up the past-stored fat in your body. So here’s a compiled list of some easily available foods that can help in this process of burning fats or reducing the fat profile of your body.Citrus Fruits.
Some citrus fruits you can try are Oranges, Kiwi fruit, Grape fruit, Tangerines, Kumquats, Clementine and Fresh Lime. While fruits like Strawberries, Apples, Tomatoes, Plums, Grapes, Cherries, Raspberries, are also good sources of vitamin C. Depending on your budget, and fruit availability, try to use a mix of these fruits for your breakfast to combine health with taste. You can also try out a “citrus fruit only” breakfast for a few weeks to see how effectively it helps in burning fat around your waist and hips. I’ve personally seen excellent results with this method of eating a fruit only breakfast.
Fruits in general are excellent foods for fat reduction because they are natural, they are rich in vitamins & minerals, high in water content and low on calories compared to refined foods. Fruits are known to improve body metabolism and reduce bad cholesterol. Papaya, bananas, mangoes, sapote, pomegranates and blueberries make for excellent snack foods as well as breakfast foods.
Oats.
The Oatmeal and oat bran are rich in dietary fiber, i.e both soluble
and insoluble. One of the most important components of the soluble fiber
abundantly present in oats is beta-glucans. These beta glucans have
been studied to aid in lowering blood cholesterol levels. The benefits
are attributed to the fact that when soluble fiber passes through the
digestive tract, they break down and form a gel like substance. This gel
then traps the cholesterol carrying bile acids and in turn reduces the
absorption of cholesterol into the blood stream and the adjoining cells.
So, the entire process results in entrapping of the bad LDL cholesterol
without having any effect on the good HDL cholesterol.Oats and grains also contain compounds called tocotrienols, which are basically antioxidants which form vitamin E along with tocopherols. These tocotrienols reduce the free radical damage, inhibit cholesterol synthesis and help to lower blood cholesterol levels. A reduced synthesis and absorption of LDL cholesterol help to reduce the risk to coronary heart diseases. However, the point to be noted is that Oats and other whole grains shall be most effective in improving heart health, when consumed as part of a low-fat, high-fiber diet taken together with regular exercise.
It is recommended to have at least ½-1 cup (1½-3 ounces) of oats every day, so as to derive its health benefits. The oats may be prepared into hot cereal or porridge. However, there have been instances where excess consumption of oat bran have led to digestive complaints.
Vegetables
The best way to cook veggies would be to boil them or stir fry them with healthy oils like olive oil, sunflower oil, Soybean oil or sesame oil.
AND MY TOP 5 FAT BURNING EXERCISE
The "Big 5" movements are guaranteed to boost your metabolism and help you lose belly fat. If you don't have these types of exercises in your program, then you are wasting your time and money when trying to lose fat.
So I designed this workout around the Big 5, and put them into a circuit to help you get more results in less time. But first, let's go over the Big 5 fat burning exercises...
Actually, let me clarify something. The Big 5 are not specific exercises. Instead, they are specific movements, but this allows for a huge number of exercises to be used, and therefore a lot of variety in your workouts. And don't forget, variety is one of the 3 main principles that explain why the short, burst exercise workouts work so well.
Here are the Big 5 movements, starting with the most important of them all.
1) Squat movements.
This could be a barbell squat to a dumbbell squat, it could be a deadlift because that's the same type of movement, or it could even be a kettlebell or dumbbell swing, which is becoming a very popular exercise these days.
Kettlebells are becoming more popular for fat-burning because it's just that movement of pushing your hips back, bending you knees, and dropping your body. You're moving your entire body there.
The squat movement allows you to do a lot of mechanical work which is one of the keys to burning a lot of calories. So that's the first movement in the "Big 5". Always start your Big 5 workouts with a squat.
Please note: Lunges and split-squats also qualify as a "Squat-type" movement, even though you will also be able to use them in the Single-Leg Exercise category below. Sometimes the lines blur between movement types for such great multi-muscle exercises.
2) Pushing exercises.
The next exercise to use is any type of push-up or dumbbell press or bench press or even standing shoulder press. Again, very large amount of muscle to be used in those exercises that burn a lot of calories.
Plus, using the "non-compete" principle of the short, burst exercises, by using a pushing exercise next, we let our leg muscles recover (and often our grip strength too, depending on the first movement used).
3) Pulling exercises.
The next movement is any type of pulling exercise, so it could be rowing or pull-ups, dumbbell rows, seated rows, anything in a pulling motion is going to work a lot of musculature so a lot of your upper back, some of your arms, your lats, and even a little bit of your lower back if you keep that - by holding yourself in that static upright position.
This is a powerful fat burning, muscle-building movement. You could even use the deadlift at this time because it is a pulling movement. Again, often the lines blur between movement types for such great multi-muscle exercises.
And at this time, you'd have gotten about 80-90% of your results. So if you are really crunched for time, you could stick to only the first 3 movement patterns. But if you want to put the finishing touches on your body and rev up your metabolism even more, then you'll need the last 2 pieces of the Big 5 circuit.
4) Single leg exercises.
This could be a dumbell lunge or split squat or a reverse lunge or a single leg squat, anything that works one leg at a time. Because you're using the lower body, it's a lot of musculature.
This is a tricky movement to do right after the Pulling movement, because your grip strength will be fatigued from the rowing or chin-ups or whatever you did. So try to use a bodyweight only single-leg exercise, such as the 1- leg squat or 1-leg lying hip extension.
This would also be a great place for a single-leg stability ball leg curl, or a single-leg exercise holding the barbell across your back. If you must use a dumbbell exercise, choose the Bulgarian Split Squat or DB Step-up because less weight is needed than for lunges or split squats (and therefore less competition for grip occurs).
5) Total body ab exercises.
The final movement in the Big 5 circuit could be anything from a mountain climber to a stability ball rollout, it could be using the old infomercial gadget - the Ab Wheel since that works great - or it could be a hanging knee raise. Alternatives include cable chops and cable crunches if you have access to cables in a gym.
But you'll notice these aren't just basic crunches. Instead, you're working your arms, legs, and torso. That's why you must use a total-body ab exercise to finish off the Big 5 circuit workout.
Those are all the exercises that you could use for the Big 5 movements.
Fortunately, you have an endless variety of exercises and set-ups that you can choose.
If you did those exercises, you would have a total body workout, you'd have an incredible muscle-building, fat-burning, metabolism-boosting training session and if you did that type of stuff 3 days per week and maybe did your interval training after each circuit you'd lose a lot of belly fat. Man, it would just melt right off!
That's my Big 5 exercise movement system for building a better body.
If you want to burn fat, you want to build muscle, and you want results that are absolutely guaranteed, implement the Big 5 into your workout today.
To recap, here are the Big 5 Movements:
- Squat
- Push
- Pull
- Single Leg Exercise
- Total Body Ab Exercise
