So, what is the best way to burn fat?
I am going to take a wild guess that you have tried to lose fat before and it either didn’t work at all or worked for a short amount of time; then you gained it back. Now you are looking for a way to lose fat for good.
If that’s you, what I’m about to share with you is going to make a big difference in your efforts to burn fat and never have it come back.
The most important factor you have been missing out on is focusing on changing the foundational habits needed to not only burn fat but maintain your new body when you get rid of the unwanted fat.
We typically go about it all wrong. Focusing on specific “magic” diets and “hacks” that are surface solutions.
- Juice fasts
- cutting out all carbs
- cutting out all fats
- counting points
- counting calories
- detox’s
- gluten free
- sodium free
- flavor free 🙂
- Etc.
All these surface solutions have one MAJOR fatal flaw…
They don’t address your LIFESTYLE BEHAVIORS.
Burning fat isn’t so much about a particular food or tactic, but is more about developing essential habits you execute daily to support a fat burning environment.
Unfortunately, these things are lifestyle based and not a sexy, quick sell.
Luckily for you, I am on a mission to help as many people as possible who are tired of the quick-fix and want the long term solution.
The 3 keys to burning fat you must start addressing on a consitent basis are your:
- Eating habits
- Sleeping habits
- Exercise habits
In this post, we are going to dig into 4 easy steps to creating YOUR ultimate fat burning day by addressing these behaviors in a structured day. Building this framework in your day to operate from will be the key to your success. Consistently executing your ultimate fat burning day built around changing your behaviors for the better is the best way to burn fat.
4 Easy Steps to Creating Your Ultimate Fat Burning Day
1. Identify Your Current Day
There are two obvious things that we must do to live, and we are already currently doing.
Sleeping & Eating.
We can make them work for us or against us in this fat burning quest.
More than likely if you are reading this, your current daily routine is what is preventing you from creating your ultimate fat burning day. Luckily, just changing around the things you are already doing is the missing piece! We are primarily going to bring the bad habits to light and work on making them work in your favor.
First, we need to identify our current day so we can have a reality check and know where we need to improve things. It is easy to feel like EVERYTHING is working against us and we just have no time or energy to do anything we plan… much less time to eat better and sleep more.
Log a couple of days and be brutally honest. Note the time you wake, the times you eat…
All of them, even if it is just grabbing a handful of m&m’s in the jar at work. THAT IS EATING YOU KNOW.
Jot down when you are scrolling through Facebook or just procrastinating.
Write down what time you go to bed.
Now after a couple of days of this, look over it.
Are you snacking all day long on junk food?
Do you notice that you end each day wondering where the time went, but see you spend 2.5 hours a day on facebook?
Happen to notice you stay up late at night, even when you have to wake up early?
Truthfully, many of us could just do step one and figure out what we need to do to improve our day.
Now that the “intervention” is over, let’s move on to re-working our bad habits into ones that can benefit us.
In a fat burning way. 🙂
2. Set Your New Bed Time
Sleep.
It is arguably THE most important piece of this whole puzzle. If you already feel like your eating and exercise is on point, but aren’t seeing the results you were hoping for…
There is a high chance your sleep is the issue.
- Poor concentration?
- Depressed?
- Get sick a lot?
- Struggle with your weight?
- Feel sluggish in your workouts?
Yep. Sleep is likely the answer.
Now, there are a ton of sleep strategies and tips that we will have to get into in another post, but for right now we are focused on creating our ultimate fat burning day and need to get our foundation down.
The foundation we need to build is just giving ourselves a chance at 7 hours of sleep.
The best way to do this is by starting with what time you have to wake up.
Take that time and go backward 7 hours.
Boom.
You have your bed time.
Commit to it.
Example:
If you have to wake up at 6 am…
You need to be in bed by 11 pm.
In the beginning, if you struggle with getting to bed by that time, start keeping a journal of what you are doing after the proposed bed time. Then decide if those things are more important than losing fat and improving your health and energy levels.
Often, you will find the answer is no AND you could do most of those things at other times.
3. Schedule 3 Meal Times
Looking back at your journal from step one did you notice any alarming trends?
Maybe you are eating ALL DAY long, but just munching mindlessly on crap. Or you go all day and don’t eat a thing then binge on crap all night.
Don’t worry; these are two common scenarios I see the most.
We are going to prevent these pitfalls by adding in a bit of structure and start eating real meals.
Food is important, make time for it.
Don’t have time? Check back to your step one log and make sure you don’t see any, ahem: social media, news reading, procrastinating times you can shift around. 🙂
We are going with 3 square meals a day. That is pretty standard in society and works for most people. Schedule in 3 times that you are going to stop what you are doing and eat.
Try and limit your eating for the day to these 3 times. This will help eliminate mindless snacking.
Give them priority, plan AROUND your meal times. Your world won’t fall apart, and people will respect you for it.
Just look at your current schedule for 3 relatively even spaced meal times that could currently fit in.
Maybe it is 7 am, 1 pm, and 6 pm.
When it’s time to eat, stop what you are doing. Eat and be mindful, don’t just scarf it down.
Alright.
Now we are making some progress!
Our commitment to behaviors and habits that create a fat burning day are starting to shape up.
And look at all those hours in-between for work, family time, Netflix, and Facebook!
This commitment to a proper structure in your day is WAY MORE important at first than having a perfect meal plan or how extreme your workouts are.
You are building a house. Good habits are your foundation.
Now you are consistently knocking out 7 hours of sleep and planning the times you are going to nourish yourself with great food instead of letting it just happen and being a victim of the day.
Focus on protein, veggies, fruit, and starches in your meals.
If you absolutely must snack in-between meals have a piece of fruit.
But, you will find having a square meal with a decent portion of protein will go a long way in helping keep you full.
Even if you have to resort to Chic-fil-a for lunch every day right now, don’t stress it. Build the foundation and commit to the eating times. Once the foundation is a habit, you can start focusing on the composition of the meals more. The furniture and decorations for the house you are building, so to speak. 🙂
4. Plan 30-60 Minutes for Exercise
Now it is time to plan for some movement.
This should be every day. It doesn’t always have to be a gym workout or intense session, but it is important to keep it scheduled.
If you just plan on 2 exercise days a week, it is hard to make dedicating the time a habit that sticks. So give yourself 30-60 mins every day to do something.
Ideally, this would be a mixture of 3 weight training workouts, 1 interval session, and the rest should be active recovery. This is low-intensity activities like walking, hiking, biking, throwing the frisbee with your kids or dogs, etc.
But, if you are starting at square one and currently not doing anything, it is okay to just plan on going for a 30 min walk every day.
Remember, we are working on our foundation here. Committing to the habit of giving yourself the time is the most important thing, and then you can worry about the details of your workouts.
On the other side of the coin, if you are used to training 6 days a week like you are going to be a navy seal, you probably need to tone it down and do more active recovery.
Train Hard. Recover Easy.
An equal amount (or more) of time should be spent on recovery workouts and tactics in relation to intense workouts (weight training, HIIT, pushing your limits, etc.)
You only benefit from workouts that you can recover from.
You need balance.
Understand that elite fitness does not mean elite health.
Know your ultimate goal and train smart and in line with those goals.
What To Do
Follow the 4 steps in this article and be consistent.
Recap:
- Identify your current day
- Set a new bed time
- Schedule 3 meal times
- Plan 30-60 minutes a day for exercise (intense & active recovery)
Don’t try and do it all at once in a day. Truly commit to these 4 steps and give yourself a chance to build your foundation.
This foundation is the best way to burn fat.
Without proper sleep, eating, and exercising habits, you can’t burn fat and keep it off for any length of time.
Want To Learn More?
If you’ve enjoyed this article and want to make your exercise and eating balanced and uncomplicated so you can lose fat, get stronger, and improve your health, then be sure to get my exclusive tips and strategies on nutrition, training, and mindset delivered to your inbox: