7 Ways to Burn Fat Faster

It takes great determination to lose weight. The fat has just been adding up for months or years, as the case may be. However, don’t kill ourselves with a mean crash diet.

These fab fitness tricks can help ramp up our body to burn more calories throughout the day. Add these activities in to our everyday fitness routine, and they are sure to add up some big results.

Step it up with intervals:

When we train in intervals, we add bursts of high intensity exercises into our workout. A study found that, after interval training, the amount of fat burned in an hour of continuous, moderate paced cycling exercised increased by 36%. These bursts of high intensity exercise burn off more fat than steadily paced exercise. To change our body, we have to shock our body.

Divide and conquer:

Who says we don’t have the time to work out? Breaking up our workout into two 20-minute exercise sessions spread throughout the day can be even more effective than spending an hour at the gym because our metabolism is revved up for 1-2 hours after a workout. Time is on our side!

Find our inner peace:

Stress can be a huge contributor to belly fat. Cortisol, a stress hormone that increases our appetite and encourages fat storage around our abdomen, to environmental and emotional stresses. The best way to fight cortisol is to lower the stress in our life. Find activities that we enjoy that lower our stress levels. Some activities proven to reduce stress are yoga, or long walk with good friends.

Break routine, get sporty:

Challenge our body by trying new sport or exercise class. Even if we’re a dedicated runner or live for our circuit training, a new activity is sure to work our muscles in a new way and “shock” our body into working harder.

Lift heavy:

Once a week, train with heavier weights than we usually use. When we lift heavier, we challenge our muscles, and the result is lean, strong muscle mass.  While cardio may burn more calories during exercise, that muscle mass will burn more calories for 24 hours after exercise. Plus, weightlifters burn fat tissue almost exclusively, while cardio devotees burn both fat and some muscle. Lifting will help cut the fat and help you tone up.

Sleep it off:

Remember cortisol? Lack of sleep increases the stress hormone, too. Lack of sleep also increases levels of insulin, and makes it more difficult to process carbs throughout the day. Sleep is our time to recharge the batteries that run our metabolism. Get at least 6 hours a night to start out fresh and ready in the morning.

Get Up, Stand Up:

Whether we sit or stand at work may play as big a role in our waistline as our fitness routine. Inactivity (4 hours or more) causes a near shut- down of an enzyme that controls fat and cholesterol metabolism. To keep this enzyme active and increase our fat-burning, break up long periods of downtime by standing up—for example, while talking on the phone.