How to burn belly fat and get in shape
By Esther Docherty
If you’re trying to lose weight
fast, it can be easy to get caught up with fad diet or other "quick
fixes" that promise a flat stomach in days. Don't worry about it though,
as there are ways to lose weight that are tried and trusted. Not easy and quick
weight loss maybe, but doable.
If you're serious about losing
weight, you've come to the right place. We won't promise a six pack in as many
hours, but we can guarantee expert advice and key tips for losing weight
quickly, but in a healthy and sustainable way. We’ve also got the lowdown on
the best exercise for losing weight fast, and all the gear you’ll need to get
started.
IS THERE A "BEST" WAY TO LOSE WEIGHT FAST?
The best way for you to lose
weight fast will depend on your starting point, your end goal, and your
lifestyle. In this article we lay out ten strategies that are applicable to
everyone, whether you're a fitness novice looking to shed several stone, or you
simply require motivation to keep going.
Generally speaking the best way
to lose weight quickly, and maintain that weight loss, is to follow a steady,
manageable plan. Don’t try to take on more than you can reasonably fit into one
day, unless you’re willing to make the sacrifice. Most likely sleep or your
social life.
The NHS recommends that you aim
to lose no more than 2 lbs (1kg) per week; anymore than that and you risk
burning out and giving up. With that in mind, here are ten strategies to get
you losing weight quickly.
1. ACHIEVE A CONSISTENT CALORIE DEFICIT
The short answer to the question
of how to lose weight fast is to achieve a consistent calorie deficit. That is,
burn more calories than you consume.
If you eat 2,500 calories a day –
the recommended daily amount for a man, although of course this can vary wildly
depending on your height, weight and frame – and burn 3,000, you are in a
calorie deficit.
If, however, you burn 3,000 but
have consumed 3,500, you’re not in a calorie deficit, even though you've almost
certainly been working out a lot have burned that much energy.
What you need to do is ensure
you’re eating the right food and doing the right exercise so that you’re
sufficiently full and satisfied even when consuming fewer calories than you
burn. Here's how...
2. DECREASE CALORIE INPUT THROUGH DIET CHANGES
As we alluded to above, a common
pitfall that many people experience when trying to lose weight is that as they
start exercising more, they feel like they need to eat more to keep their
energy levels up and consequently fail to see results. Instead, we recommend adapting
your diet to get the most out of your calories.
All foods have different energy
densities. Foods like fruits, vegetables and whole grains have low energy
density, which means you will get fuller faster when eating these than you
would high energy density foods.
Nutritionist Jenna Hope explains:
“Proteins and healthy fats promote more stable blood glucose levels, keeping
you fuller across a time period and less likely to crave sugar or over eat,”
and so these are the kinds of foods you should get the majority of your
calories from.
Consuming the same amount of
calories as you are now (or fewer if possible), but getting more nutritional
value from them will help you feel fuller for longer and lose weight more
quickly as a result.
3. DON'T CUT OUT ALL OF ANY SINGLE FOOD GROUP
We all know that some foods – and
some food groups – are healthier than others, and that we need every type of
food in our diet. The problem is that many of us aren’t getting the right
balance.
Spoon Guru nutritionist Isabel
Butler (MSc, ANutr) recommends that “the best way to reduce weight and maintain
the weight loss is by simply eating a balanced and healthy diet, without
refusing yourself particular foods… If you do cut out foods, you need to make
sure your diet is still balanced and you are getting the nutrients your body
needs from other sources.”
For example, unless you're
training to become a weightlifter, there's nothing wrong with carbs per se, but
the biggest food culprit when it comes to hindering weight loss is the simple
carbohydrate.
Compared to complex carbs like
beans, whole grains and vegetables, which break down and release energy slowly,
thereby keeping you full and energised, simple carbs such as sugar and starchy
foods which break down into sugars – such as pasta and spuds – give you a
shorter boost of energy, then leave you wanting more.
The likelihood is that the more
simple carbs you eat, the more you’ll end up eating overall, harming the
balance of your calorie deficit.
One easy trick if you're a carb
fan is to swap out white pasta or rice for courgetti, or noodles made from
other vegetables like butternut squash. This can make an arrabiata, curry or
stir fry much lower in calories. You’ll hardly notice the difference when
you’re eating it, but you’ll be fuller for longer despite consuming fewer
calories.
4. TRY A FOOD SUBSTITUTE
Sometimes it’s a real struggle to
reduce the calories you take in, or even just to track them. If you’re
constantly on the move and don’t have the time to count calories, or you have
the best intentions and are cooking fresh with ingredients that aren’t all
labelled with their nutrition info broken down, then accurately tracking
calories can be a nightmare.
To ensure you’re getting a good
mix of nutrients, as well as all-important protein, you could try a food
substitute such as Huel.
This is not marketed as a dietary
aid, but it is highly nutritious, and makes calorie counting a lot easier. A
word of caution though: Huel may replace meals from a nutritional standpoint,
but slurping a cool, slightly slimy milkshake instead of getting your teeth
into a warm, healthy paella isn’t for everyone.
5. TRY INTERMITTENT FASTING
Some people thrive on
intermittent fasting, which means significantly cutting calories – or
completely fasting – for a portion of the day or week, and then eating normally
for the rest.
The most popular form of
intermittent fasting is the 5:2 diet, where you eat normally for five days a
week but then eating no more than 600 calories two days a week.
There’s also the 16:8 diet, which
is a bit different. With this diet you can eat anything for 8 hours a day, but
can only drink water during a 16 hour fast. The recommended time to eat is
between 10am and 6pm, although this can be flexible depending on what time
you’d prefer to start or end eating (as long as you stay within an eight hour
window).
The benefits of intermittent
fasting is that during the fast period the body will run out of carbohydrates
to run on, and so start to take energy from the body’s fat stores, thus
starting to burn that belly fat once and for all.
6. DRINK MORE WATER AND LESS ALCOHOL
Drinking more water – especially
before a meal – can help us to feel fuller, thereby helping us to stop eating
sooner and consume fewer calories than we otherwise would have.
What's more, few of us consider
what we drink when we total up our daily calorie count and so potentially
hundreds of extra calories can sneak into our bodies. Replacing fruit juices,
fizzy drinks and even tea and coffee with water means we can save up our
calorie allowance for the good stuff: the food that fills us up.
Top tip: keep a reusable water
bottle with you at all times and restrict what else you drink. This can feel
like a hard habit to break at first, but is surprisingly easy to maintain once
you have a zero calorie drink to hand 24/7.
Reducing the amount of alcohol we
drink also comes with benefits. Most obviously, alcoholic drinks are often
very calorific, so drinking less alcohol
means consuming fewer calories. Simple.
Secondly, drinking alcohol
increases our appetite, so we’re more likely to eat more than usual – and more
of the bad stuff – when we’ve been drinking. Cheesy chips, I’m looking at you.
Lastly, we all know how we feel
after a night of heavy drinking. Ready for a session and the gym and a day
eating fruit, veg and simple carbohydrates? We didn’t think so. Drinking
alcohol not only means we take in more calories at the time, but can affect our
ability to function well and make healthy choices the next day.
7. INCREASE CALORIE OUTPUT THROUGH EXERCISE
Now we’ve tackled diet and
nutrition (calories in), it’s time to look at exercise (calories out).
Even if you're eating healthily
and are reasonably active in your daily life, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to
lose weight quickly without additional exercise, whether that's running, gym,
crossfit, team sports, cycling or any of the other myriad activities
available.
What's more, working out will
make you look and feel better and in our view, once you start looking and
feeling better, it gets a lot easier to find the will power needed to improve
your diet.
When it comes to choosing what
type of exercise you do, the most important thing is that it's something you
enjoy and will stick to. Don't force yourself to run if chances are you'll be
walking ten minutes in.
8. FOCUS ON WEIGHT TRAINING IN ADDITION TO CARDIO
There are two main types of
exercise: cardio training and weight – or resistance –training.
Both burn calories, the
difference is that whilst cardio burns a lot of calories upfront, weight
training continues to to burn calories post workout.
This is because weight training
builds muscle, and muscle burns more than fat as you carry out day-to-day
tasks. In short, the greater your muscle:fat ratio, the more calories you burn
even when you are standing still.
Weight training may seem
daunting, but you don’t have to join a gym and face up to the squat rack right away.
There are so many weight exercises you can do at home with simple bits of
equipment from dumbbells to kettlebells, and balls to ropes.
All of this aside, don’t neglect
cardio, as cardio workouts are important for fitness and stamina, and will
still burn calories.
9. VARY THE INTENSITY OF YOUR WORKOUTS
As well doing both cardio and
weight training, if you want to lose weight it’s also important to vary the
intensity with which you exercise.
In any given week, and within any
given workout, you should exercise both aerobically (a little out of breath but
not gasping) and anaerobically (going flat out, like when running for a bus).
Aerobic exercise needs oxygen to
give muscles energy and generally requires moderate exertion. Examples include
gentler running, cycling and swimming.
It’s a crucial part of losing
weight quickly because it uses both sugar and fat as its energy source, but to
burn fat you need to do it for long enough that you’ve burned through your
sugar stores first.
Anaerobic exercise, on the other
hand, primarily uses sugar as its fuel. This doesn’t mean that it’s not good
for weight loss, though. Anaerobic exercise helps build muscle, and as we
explained above, this will help you burn calories even when you’re resting.
Anaerobic exercises are generally high intensity, for example sprinting and
weight lifting.
A running watch or fitness
tracker will help you to know what intensity exercise you're doing. As they
either have built-in heart-rate trackers or pair with ones you strap to your
chest, they can show you how hard you're working out and let you know when you
need to push it harder.
10. TRACK YOUR INPUT VS. OUTPUT (THAT ALL IMPORTANT CALORIE DEFICIT)
It’s important to decide how you
want to measure your success and keep track consistently, understanding that
you will see daily fluctuations due to things like digestive contents and water
retention.
Running watches are the easiest
way to track your progress, remain motivated and keep weight off. Depending how
fancy you go, you can track pretty much any metric that works for you,
certainly way beyond whether you’ve achieved your 10,000 steps. Whether it’s
weight, BMI, resting heart rate, calories burned or activity level, the best
running watch will track it all.
Many wearables branded as fitness
trackers also have a stab at these more advanced metrics nowadays, but we'd
always recommend a watch over a band.
Another way to keep track of your
progress is the old fashioned method of weighing yourself. The great thing
about modern bathroom scales is they don't just tell you your weight; they also
let you know your body fat percentage.
This is a much, much better
metric to track than weight alone. If you're working out while dieting you can
easily put on weight, even when running a calorie deficit, just because muscle
is heavier than fat.
Now, although the calculations of
body fat percentage scales produce are based on sound science, accuracy can
vary. The key thing to note is that if the overall trend is going down, you're
doing well.
We can't stress enough the
importance of giving your body time to lose weight. You can lose weight faster
by using the right gear and having the right knowledge and attitude, but you'll
likely need to redefine what 'fast' means to you.
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