By Get accustomed to the bar for the best fat loss results.
As the saying goes, you can’t out eat a bad diet.
There are several training strategies to help you get to that weight loss goal you aspire in achieving. Sadly, this will not become a reality if your diet is not on par with your program. Yes, you will have some success when starting out, especially when you implement the strategies I’m going to highlight for you, but there is only a limit to how far you can take this without proper nutrition.
Let’s highlight some nutritional essentials in order to put you into the proper framework for weight loss, as this will help you excel in your training, and provide the most optimal energy levels and also get your metabolism working a lot better, to get results faster. We all want to get there faster, right?
3 nutrition essentials for optimal fat loss and energy
- Make sure all of your meals contain a source or protein. Protein consumption will help you create a thermogenic environment, as well as curbing your body from using muscle as a source of fuel. They key is to retain as much muscle (and build more if we can) to increase our metabolism long term. The best protein sources when trying to burn body fat will be low calorie, but create satiety, which will give you a stabilised energy flow during the day, and decrease cravings. Opt for chicken breast, turkey, eggs and fish.
- Eat cruciferous veggies with every meal These veggies will infuse your meals with vitamins, minerals and fibre. Fibre keeps us full for longer, and also aids us in eliminating those diet cravings. Opt for broccoli, cabbage, kale and lettuce with your meals. Make veggies your most prominent macro on every plate. Don’t forget that vegetables have protein as well, therefore you will be getting more by adding those veggies above.
- Drinking adequate amounts of water is essential Dehydration puts your body in a catabolic state, which will be counter intuitive to what you want to achieve. Drink at least 3 litres of water, or more, depending on your activity levels. Staying hydrated helps you to power through your workouts. Water also takes the edge of your hunger, when you have to transition from meal to meal. Keep a bottle with you at all times and sip when you can. Did I mention it burns body fat too (and eliminates cellulite for the ladies?)
Now we have some simple nutrition tactics under our belts, we can move onto an effective training protocol for achieving weight loss (and I must add in the muscle building component, as it’s very important)
3 program essentials that burn body fat fast
- German body composition or super-setting. This is the best way to torch body fat, get lean and also put on some hard earned muscle. The idea of this program is to decide on 4–5 exercises performed back to back with no rest in between. The rest period is only allowed when you finish all the exercises, which should only be in the 60 second range. You can split your body parts, which I highly recommend, in order to really pin point those areas you want to target.
Superset workouts take less time, and energy expenditure will be significantly greater. Your rate of EPOC – excess post exercise oxygen consumption will be significantly higher after this workout.
If you are a beginner, train this way 2 times a week. For the more advanced, 3–4 times a week is appropriate. Don’t forget to split your body parts with this, or you will become toasted!
- HIIT – high intensity interval training. This is a highly popular training protocol, as it’s only required for 20–30 minutes, and will create a huge EPOC, as well as build strength, muscle and burn stubborn body fat. You can use this method outdoors, or within a gym. The trick is you must go all out for 20–30 seconds, and rest for 60 seconds. Do this on and off for your preferred time, and you are done! Remember that going all out means that you are struggling. This is the only way for HIIT to be effective for fat loss. I recommend HIIT 2 times a week, 3 if you need to lose a lot of body fat.
- Weight train with compound movements. These movements include squats, deadlifts, bench presses, lunges and pull ups. These exercises recruit the largest number of muscle fibres, therefore increasing caloric burn and your potential to increase strength and muscle mass.
Split your compound movements according to what body part you are training in a particular day. For instance, use squats on leg day, and adding in lunges to your workout. Legs are the biggest muscle group, requiring huge amounts of energy. Use this to your advantage for weight loss results. The potential for an after-burn is magnified significantly, compared to your biceps and triceps session. Weight training 4 times a week is very manageable.
Summary. I recommend that you train with weights 3–4 times a week. You can use the circuit training method 1–2 days, and straight up weight training for 2–3, whilst adding in some HIIT whenever you can for extra fat burning potential.
Remember that lifting weights long term is key to sustained weight loss, and reshaping your body. Make this your main form of training, using HIIT sparingly for the added potential to burn stubborn body fat. This, coupled with proper nutrition, will see you achieving your goals in no time. Have fun and train hard.