Burning Fat

So maybe you’ve noticed that you gained a few extra pounds and your favorite pants don’t fit that well anymore.

The first solution you think is to exercise more. But somehow, the numbers on the scale don’t seem to budge, no matter how often you go to the gym or how many salads you eat.

But don’t worry, we’re going to breaking down the science of burning fat and what you can do to get the best and most effective weight loss results.

Ways to Burn Fat

These are the most common ways that people use to burn fat:

• Exercise
• Diet

We’ll be going more in-depth about each of these methods and how you can utilize them the best.

Exercising

Everyone has a love-hate relationship with exercise. We know it’s necessary to be healthy but sometimes we just don’t want to do it. There are so many benefits to exercising and here are just a few reasons.

Burns calories

This is probably the main benefit that you want when you exercise. High caloric intake is what leads you to gain weight. So exercising burns those calories and helps you reduce the weight gained. Sometimes the motivation behind exercising is really so you can eat more calories and that works too.

Releases endorphins

Endorphins are chemicals in your body that interact with the receptors in your brain that reduce the perception of pain.

You might notice that after you exercise, you feel an extremely positive and energizing feeling. That’s the endorphins being released.

Releasing endorphins during exercise can give you other psychological benefits too. Studies have also shown that exercising is able to boost your self-esteem, reduce stress and anxiety, improve sleep, and help depression.

Strengthens your heart

Heart disease, or also known as cardiovascular disease has been the #1 leading cause of death in America for more than a decade. This occurs when plaque buildup in the bloodstream clogs up and blocks blood vessels, which can lead to a heart attack or stroke.

Heart disease can be prevented with healthy lifestyle choices, starting with exercise. Regular exercise has been proven to strengthen your heart, lower blood pressure, and increase your energy levels.

Diet Tips

You may think that burning fat is done solely in the gym, but the real weight loss progress happens in the kitchen.

Here are a few diet tips that you can easily add into your everyday life to help you lose weight faster.

Cut down on sugar

For years, people have been told that fat in foods is what is making us heavier. However, the real heavy hitter is sugar.

Sugar does not cause weight gain directly. But sugar has many more calories than other substances, which can lead to you to consuming an excess amount of calories that get stored in your body as fat.

Be careful of foods that claim they are “low-fat” but may be high in sugar to enhance the flavor. A cup of low-fat yogurt may sound healthy, but contains the same amount of calories as a can of soda.

Don’t drink your calories

When you think about dieting, you might be thinking about eating healthier but what about drinking healthier?

The bulk of our daily caloric intake comes from food but we can forget that our beverages throughout the day also contain calories, some more than others.

For example, a grande Starbucks frappuccino can average around 400 calories, which is about the same amount of calories as a cheeseburger.

If you like to have a few drinks with friends on the weekend, you’ll be surprised to know that a standard pour of wine is about 200 calories and one beer is about 150 calories.

We often don’t think about calories from beverages because they’re so easy to consume. But beverages add up on top of the food you’ve eaten that day, so opt for light and diet drinks, and skip the sugary drinks that may have hidden calories.

Cook more at home

Life gets busy, so there’s nothing wrong with wanting to order fast food or takeout once in a while.

Though it’s convenient and tasty to order out, we may forget that restaurants and fast food places use ingredients that have a lot of calories to achieve a better taste.

For example, a popular restaurant’s cobb salad with dressing and toppings can become almost 800 calories. Restaurants tend to serve 2-3 times the portion than recommended servings, so you might be eating a meal meant for 2 or 3 people.

When you cook at home, you’re in control of the amount of oil and salt you put in your food and the quality of the ingredients, thus leading to a more satisfying and lower calorie meal than the restaurant equivalent.

So save your money and your waistline by cooking delicious and healthy food at home.