How to burn fat and lose weight effectively

The obesity epidemic is completely out of control, it’s staggering. The prevalence of obesity is rising to the point where the majority of adults in western society will be obese. The US has the highest obesity rates in the world and if they continue to rise as they have, then by the year 2022, 80% of American adults could be overweight or obese; and the prevalence may even reach a startling 100% by the year 2048. Wow!

Losing weight/fat is not easy, bottom line. Our environment is one that promotes weight gain and excess fat, which is why so many people are so big. If I put you, as you are right now, in an environment that promotes non-physical activity (buses, cars, dishwashers, washing machines, playstations, DVDs, internet, cable TV, lawnmowers etc.) and offers high calorie foods and beverages, then it is inevitable that you will gain weight, unless of course you make dedicated, disciplined efforts to do otherwise.

What do you do? Well firstly you have to eat right. Our problem is not fat. Our problem is the over-consumption of carbohydrates that does two things: 1. Over-consumption of carbohydrates leads to excess glycogen being stored as fat, a process known as lipogenesis 2. more importantly, fat is not being burned for energy. When you lower your carbohydrate intake, you reduce your calorie intake, but you also promote fat burning. Fat is used for energy in the absence of carbohydrate. Does this mean you can’t have pasta, potatoes, bread etc. well not quite. But if you wish to lose weight/fat, you will need to reduce these food groups.

I do not eat a lot of carbohydrates. I have cereal, and maybe new potatoes, but unless I’m eating out I don’t eat much carbohydrate. I never have no-carb days though as you do need them for energy and training, your brain for instance runs solely on carbohydrate. My diet typically looks like this:

7am Cereal (weetabix) & protein shake (with a raw egg)
11am Three egg omelette with ham, cheese, peppers, onions
2am Train
4pm Full cup of Blueberries with organic natural yoghurt and a scoop of protein powder
7pm Two chicken breasts or steak, brussell sprouts, turnip, mushrooms & onions.

I may add another snack in there if I feel too hungry but that’s pretty much my diet. I drink nearly a gallon of water a day. My only other drink is tea, never drink sodas, or fruit juices. I do treat myself when I’m dining out but that’s not too often. Most fitness people eat the same foods with a slight bit of variety, but their diets don’t change much, just like athletes.

Exercise is very important for promoting fat loss as long as it is done correctly, and unfortunately the way that most people train, it isn’t. I could give you a program written by the alien from the film Super 8 and it would still be effective as long as you were training at the correct intensity. Even if you had the world’s best program with incredible exercise selection, it would be useless if you didn’t train with the proper intensity.

Have you ever seen a car break down and two people then help to push it? Do they just put their hand on the car and give it a nudge? No they don’t. They’ve got both hands on, they bend their knees and push like hell! In order to move the car it needs the appropriate force. If you want your body to change, lose weight/fat, then the appropriate amount of physical stress must be placed upon it.

A great way to do this is by using weights with no rest between exercises and I’m not talking about using machines, although some machines are effective. Try doing a circuit of five exercises four times. Something like:

1. Dumbbell squats
2. Standing shoulder presses
3. Barbell curls
4. Lunges
5. Assisted pull-ups

The key is not the exercises as such although exercise selection is important, but it’s the intensity that will crank up your metabolic and hormonal system and start burning fat effectively. The reduced rest period is designed to promote the build-up of lactic acid (cruelly and unjustifiably labelled a waste product when it actually provides us with energy!) which then promotes the release of growth hormone which is a major fat-burner.

One point I have to make here, exercise is not great for weight loss, dieting is. A good workout may burn 10kcals/min, so if it’s an hour that’s 600 kcals. The equivalent in food? Maybe two slices of pizza, a quarter pounder with cheese or a Chicken Sandwich from MacDonalds, 6” (not 12”) Meatball Sub from Subway, three lattes from Starbucks, one Lasagne, three packets of Doritos or Walkers crisps. It’s easy to see that it’s far better to diet for weight loss than to exercise for weight loss.

This combination of exercise and diet will GUARNTEE wonderful results. At my Personal Training Studio in Edinburgh we’re seeing incredible results with our clients. A young lad who came to us weighing 24 stone (336 lbs) has now lost over 7 stone (98 lbs). One lady has lost over 60 lbs, another recently passed the 45 lb mark. Personal Training does help as the trainer is able to push you further than you can do by yourself and that’s very important as many people just go through the motions with exercise, especially those who read books and watch TV, a lack of focus.

Make sure you have a goal and work hard consistently every day towards it. We all enjoy our treats, that’s the way it should be. Just make sure you’re doing more things each day that contribute to your weight loss than to hinder it.

Mike Heatlie MSc CSCS