Let's find out the fastest way to lose fat.
Fat storage is a normal process in your body for survival and safety. But you need to lose fat for health or fitness reasons. Losing fat is challenging and time-consuming.
In search of the fastest way to burn fat, you will see a lot of fat burning gimmicks like spot reduction, target weight loss, belly fat burning workouts, fat-burning exercises. But there are different ways to turn yourself into a fat-burning machine.
How to lose body fat?
To burn fat, you have to keep your body in a calorie deficit state.
How to speed up fat loss?
The fastest way to burn fat:
You have to follow those steps that help you to
It will ensure that you stay in a calorie deficit state.
Let's shift your body from a fat-storage state to a fat-burning state. Learn more about fat storage and burning mechanism.
This article guides you through advanced steps that help you to lose fat. Make sure to add each step in your daily routine.
You can download the 10 part checklist and, I have included 4 more in your checklist as a bonus. Featured Download: 4 extra tactics to burn more fat( Download Now)
Ten steps to turn yourself into a A Fat-burning Machine
1. Take more protein if you want to lose fat fast
Protein is a vital macronutrient needed for preserving your muscles. If your diet is low in protein while trying to lose body fat, then your chances of losing muscles instead of fat will be higher.
Protein intake will increase your metabolism(burns more calories).
You have to follow a balanced diet with enough protein to preserve your muscles.
The Thermic energy of protein is higher than carbohydrates and fat. Your body has to spend 25% of the calories from protein while absorbing.
Thus you make your body spend 4-6 times more energy during absorption of the macronutrients. It's is not a huge change. But small changes will add up in the long run and help you to lose fat at the fastest rate.
Does protein burn fat -is it the best way to lose body fat?
When you are on a high protein, and low or “0“carb diet, your body will spend 33% more energy while producing glucose for its functioning. This diet helps you to lose fat fast as your energy spending increases.
This low carb diet can cause a rapid weight loss. When you are on a low carb diet, glycogen levels in your body will go down. It makes your body lose water, as 1 gram of glycogen holds 3 grams of water in your body.
So when its level gets reduced, the water level in your body will also get reduced. It will cause rapid weight loss. Weight loss and fat loss are not the same.
A high protein diet will aid in satiety; you will feel fuller. It helps you to stay away from snacks in between meals.
Your body will use fat for energy on a high protein diet. This diet will help you to reduce calorie consumption in the evening and late-night due to fullness.
Sources of Protein:
How much protein for fat loss?
While you were trying to lose weight, make sure to get 35% of your calories from the protein source.
Your body needs 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight to preserve muscles.
For 70KG adult: Your body will need 154 gram of protein to maintain muscles during fat loss.
You eat 5 meals a day- Protein in each meal = 30gram
For chicken : Chicken – 21 % protein
For 30 gram of protein from chicken you have to take = 100/21*30 = 140gram approx
How to calculate portion size?
Don’t get obsessed with protein quantity as we were not putting up research on nutrition. You were not dealing with machines.
You can measure the portion size with your hands.
This image will give you an idea.
Measure your protein portion with the palm
The size and thickness of your palm are equal to 3 ounces, and that equals 84 grams. Two palms size of a chicken or any protein-dense food will provide the required protein.
Reduce your carb intake to keep the calories in check.
OUR TAKE: Be sure to add protein in your meals. Choose from any of those protein-rich foods, and don’t forget to reduce the calories you get from carbohydrates. Protein will boost your metabolism, burns more calories, preserve your muscles, and keep you feel fuller.
2.Reduce refined carbohydrates in your diet
Refined carbohydrates include sugar, white rice, white bread. Whole grains and cereals are processed to increase their shelf life and to give it a uniform texture. The processing removes its bran and germ, thus takes away the fiber and other nutrients.
Refined carbohydrates are high in the glycemic index and will cause insulin spikes.
Image credit: weightology.net
Studies have shown that refined grains increase your chance of developing belly fat. It increases the visceral fat around the organs.
People in a low carb diet experience less hunger than people in a low-fat diet.
A moderate carbohydrate diet helps to maintain a weight loss of over 12 months. It also helps to improve cardiovascular risk factors.
This study shows that a low carbohydrate diet is more effective than a low-fat diet for weight loss.
If you increase the intake of whole grains, your chance of decreasing the visceral fat will be higher. The study also shows that refined carbohydrate is associated with an increased visceral fat deposit.
It does not mean you have to follow a very low carbohydrate diet. Carbohydrate is a macronutrient, need for your body. You cant simply avoid carbohydrates. You only have to choose minimally processed foods.
These are some of the less processed food choices for carbohydrates.
You can take vegetables, fruits, nuts, grains that are less processed.
How to determine your ideal carb intake to burn fat fast?
From marksdailyapple.com mark suggest 50 -100 grams of carb per day is the sweet spot for weight loss.
"50-100 grams per day: Sweet Spot for Weight Loss. Steadily drop excess body fat by minimizing insulin production. Enables 1-2 pounds per week of fat loss with satisfying, minimally restrictive meals."
OUR TAKE: From the studies, it shows that you have to reduce your carbohydrate intake for weight loss. Choose the foods which are rich in fiber content. Fiber-rich foods help you to feel fuller, and it slows down absorption.
3. With fiber, you can fight your cravings
The plant products, fruits, and vegetables contain fiber, which is a form of carbohydrate—your body can't digest fiber, whether it's soluble or insoluble. But bacteria in your colon can ferment it to form short-chain fatty acids.
Soluble fiber absorbs water and forms a gel, which slows down the absorption of sugar into the bloodstream. It also slows the movement of digested food, and this will make you feel fuller and keep hunger away.
It also helps you to reduce your belly fat without any significant change in diet habits. The study even showed that an increase of 10g of soluble fiber could decrease the fat deposit by 3.7%.
An important message from this study is that you don't need to follow a strict diet. You have to follow a healthy lifestyle, take fibrous foods. Most vegetables, nuts, and whole-grain foods contain soluble and insoluble fiber.
Fiber also helps to lower cholesterol levels.
Fiber reduces the quantity of food intake. The study shows that an additional intake of 14gram of fiber in the diet helps to decrease the food intake and resulted in a 2 kg weight loss over four months. This study concludes that fiber above 25gram can reduce obesity in adults.
Credit: doitandloseit.com
You need to take 35 + grams of fiber a day. Scroll the food list and choose the foods available locally and add up to meet the requirement.
OUR TAKE: Choose the foods which are rich in fiber content. Fiber-rich foods help you to feel fuller, increases postmeal satiety. It will decrease your hunger and thus eliminating the need for snacks in between meals. It helps to reduce the energy intake resulting in weight loss.
4. Increase your intake of healthy fat to reduce body fat
Yes, you have to increase your intake of healthy fats. Healthy fats help you to keep fuller for a more extended period.
This study shows that your appetite will be low after having a fatty meal. The fats require more time for digestion and absorption, helps to control your appetite.
The Mediterranean diet is high in fat. This study on the Mediterranean diet shows that the high-fat diet helps in weight loss.
The study shows that a daily intake of 30ml of coconut oil reduced the belly size( losing inches ). Two groups were chosen for research, in which one group take coconut oil, and the other group takes soybean oil. The belly size in the soybean group had no noticeable changes.
But not all fats are good; there are unhealthy fats too. Trans fat is not healthy fat.
You have to move away from trans fat and try to use more natural options like coconut oil.
Even if you are in a calorie deficit, transfat consumption can cause an increase in abdominal fat. Trans fat is also associated with insulin resistance too.
This study also supports that trans fat increases your body fat.
Healthy fats sources
How much fat (in a fat shredding diet)?
"About a third of any weightloss plan's calories come from dietary fat- Keri Glassman, RD."
If your fat loss calorie target is 2000 calories, then 20 - 35 % of those calories must come from fats, which is between 44 – 77 grams per day.
OUR TAKE: Eat fat to lose fat; substitute a significant portion of carbs with fat. Try to get 20- 35% of your calories from fat. But keep in mind your main goal is to limit your calorie intake as it is easy to add up calories with fat. Don't forget to choose healthy fats from oil, nuts, and seeds.
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5. Start lifting weights for faster fat loss
Lifting weights, aka strength training, will help you to add muscles and increase your muscular strength.
Strength training burns calories while working out, but it also increases your oxygen consumption after exercise. This phenomenon is known as afterburn or EPOC( excess post-exercise oxygen consumption). The EPOC will stay for more than 16 hours after you exercise. Thus helping you to burn more calories
After exercise, your body tries to bring the whole system back to normal.
The afterburn effect depends on the surface area of damage. A biceps curl will cause a small area of damage, while deadlift and squats will create a large area of damage. You can increase the afterburn effect by choosing compound exercises like squats and deadlifts.
While you are in a weight loss diet, your chance of losing muscle along with fat is possible.
Strength training, along with aerobics, will preserve your muscle mass, muscle strength, and resting metabolic rate(RMR).
Further evidence on the matter shows that high volume, high-intensity training helps in the preservation of RMR and muscles.
RMR- resting metabolic rate. It is the energy your body needed to survive.
When your body is in a calorie deficit state, your body will start losing its lean body mass. It will cause a decrease in metabolism, further decreasing calorie burned.
Lifting weights add muscles and thus helps to preserve or even increase your RMR.
When exercise combined with a calorie deficit diet, fat loss happens even in 4 days. This study followed an extreme calorie deficit condition(5000 kcal deficit). When combined with exercise caused 2.1 to 2.8 kg weight loss in 4 weeks and 3.8 kg on the 8th day.
The people in the study took only limited food and used to exercise a lot to cause a 5000 kcal deficit. Not a healthy option either.
High intensity and high volume training help to reduce the visceral fat in obese people.
Resistance training, along with aerobics, is shown to speed up fat loss.
Ten weeks of resistance training have caused a 7% decrease in body fat percentage and 1.8 kg of fat loss.
If you are looking for a workout routine
OUR TAKE: Start lifting; Training will boost your metabolism for up to 36 hours post-exercise in addition to the calories burned during the workout. Lifting heavy weights with a calorie deficit diet will help to preserve muscles and lose fat.
If you were planning to start workouts you can download our beginner workout routine : Download The beginner workout routine
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6. High-Intensity interval training- With HIIT, speed up the fat burning process
In HIIT, you alternate between a short burst of high-intensity exercise with low-intensity recovery periods.
A simple HIIT workout can be 20 seconds sprint with 40-second jogging or walking. HIIT has many benefits over steady-state cardio.
This study shows that HIIT training increases the fat burning capacity of the muscles. The study was conducted over two weeks to find out the various effects of HIIT on muscle synthesis and fat burning.
HIIT training will increase the fatty acid transport protein, which helps to increase the fat oxidation capacity of muscles.
The energy expenditure will be higher after HIIT training than in a low intensity, steady-state cardio. Burns more calories than steady-state cardio for the given time. The study suggests this form of exercise(HIIT) for people with time limitations.
Twelve weeks of HIIT training caused a reduction in total fat, abdominal fat, visceral fat, and at the same time, increased fat-free mass.
HIIT similarly affects your metabolism as weight training does. It increases your metabolism for up to 24 hrs. It can cause a 10% increase in your resting metabolism.
Credit: greatist.com
HIIT workouts to lose body fat
High intensity exercise can be jumping jacks, rope jumping, burpees, cycling…
Week | High Intensity | Low Intensity | Sets |
|---|---|---|---|
Week 1-2 | 15 seconds | 60 seconds | 10 |
Week 3-4 | 30 seconds | 60 seconds | 10 |
Week 5-6 | 30 seconds | 30 seconds | 11 |
Week 7-8 | 30 seconds | 15 seconds | 25 |
OUR TAKE: HIIT training will be fun and exciting than steady-state cardio. Choose 2- 3 exercises and start your HIIT. Beginners can start with a short burst of high-intensity with long recovery periods. It helps you to recover during the beginner state. As you progress, you can increase the time on the high-intensity phase and lower the time on the low-intensity phase(recovery).
7. Shift your focus towards muscle building
Having more muscles can help you to speed up your fat loss. Muscles are active tissues. Muscles help you to burn more calories. One pound of muscles burns 7-13 calories while fat burns only 2-4 calories.
Do you know 1 lbs of fat will burn 2-4 calories a day and muscles will burn 5-10 calories a day.
While you are on a fat loss diet, your chances of losing muscles will be higher. To preserve your muscles, you have two options.
It will help you to preserve your resting metabolic rate. More muscles mean more calories you are burning.
There will be constant breakdown and rebuilding of your muscles. Proper nutrition and exercise will help you to preserve your muscles.
Fourteen weeks of study on beginners shows that the participants lost 16 pounds of fat, and at the same time, they gained 10 pounds of muscle. Resistance training, when combined with aerobic exercise, had caused a favorable change in body composition.
OUR TAKE: Muscles are active tissues, helping to burn more calories. Lifting weights along with a high protein diet will help you to preserve muscles.
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8. Move more( Burn more calories than exercise)
The calorie you burn in physical activities other than exercise is known as non-exercise activity thermogenesis(NEAT). Lack of NEAT activities can be one of the reasons you are obese.
Studies have shown that NEAT calorie expenditure can be as high as 2000 calories. It heavily depends on physical activity.
Agriculture and manual workers are on the higher side of NEAT activities. The study also suggests NEAT could work as a tool to control body weight.
These activities can contribute 15% to 50% depending on the activity levels.
This study shows that your NEAT activities will decrease with underfeeding and will increase with overfeeding. It's essential to add NEAT activities into your lifestyle.
This study on NEAT activities shows some interesting things. If you take surplus calories and lead an active lifestyle (does not include any exercise), you may not gain fat; on the other side, if you lack NEAT activities, you will gain fat.
As Dr. James Levin from mayo clinic says about this
"This information collectively demonstrates that there may be a NEAT defect in human obesity."
NEAT activity ideas
​Buy a pedometer: Pedometer is a small device that can count the number of steps you have taken each day. It makes you accountable for the number of steps you take each day. Try to add 1000steps/day each week until you reach 10,000 steps /day.
Take the stairs: instead of using elevators, use stairs.
Carry Your Groceries: if your grocery store is near your house, walk
Walk during lunch break
Clean your house
Have walk meetings
Pace And Fidget
OUR TAKE: Take the ideas above and use it. Try to increase your NEAT activities and their duration whenever possible. That will add up to a lot of calories. An active lifestyle is a way to fat loss.
9. Watch your snacking and drinking
Credit: memes.com
Obesity has increased in the last 30- 40 years, and researches have shown a relation between snacking and obesity. The study conducted on 4259 people reveals that obese people are more frequent snackers.
The research found that average snacking frequency has been increased from 0-1 to 2-3 times per day, over 40 years.
Image Credit
Does snacking affect calorie intake?
Yes, they also found that adults that snacks four times a day consumes one and a half times the calorie than adults who take no snacks.
Snacking is not always a bad thing. You can get your nutrients if you choose your snacks wisely.
Sweet and fatty groups are the main contributors of calories from the above study.
Change your snacking habit to less processed food options. Nuts have fiber, fats, and other nutrients, they are energy-dense and nutrient-dense. Most of the snacks you eat may be calorie-dense, but they are not nutrient-dense.
The chart shows the average calorie contribution of various food sources from snacking.
From the above table, you can see that 60% of calorie comes from energy-dense foods that are low in nutrients. Snacking causes an increase in calorie intake, usually creating calorie surplus.
This study conducted in the Philippines shows that obese students take more servings of sweetened beverages and low-quality snacks. Low quality means calorie dense and nutrient scarce snacks.
But the study shows that if you lower your food portions (based on your snacking), you can manage your body weight.
Sugary beverages are increases the fat in your belly. The study also recommends the restriction of sweet drinks while controlling diabetes.
Alcoholic beverages will also contribute to abdominal obesity. It can also cause overeating as alcohol enhances appetite.
Always choose water over sugary or alcoholic beverages. While you are trying to lose weight, you will be in a calorie deficit diet. Study shows that drinking 500ml of water before each meal will cause a 44% increase in weight loss over 12 weeks.
If you want to have, a healthy beverage choose green tea or coffee. Green tea has shown some excellent results with fat oxidation and improving insulin sensitivity.
Coffee contains caffeine; it helps to mobilize fatty acids from fat cells. Caffeine will cause a 13% increase in energy spending and double the mobilization of fatty acids. But your body must oxidize or burn these fatty acids for fat loss. Otherwise, as the study shows, almost 75% of the fatty acids are recycled and sent back to fat cells.
You have to be in a calorie deficit state to oxidize the mobilized fatty acids.
Healthy low calorie Snack ideas
OUR TAKE: snacking is not that bad, but your choices can be. Choose nuts and seeds over sugary and salty snacks. Don't engage yourself in mindless eating by watching TV (But once in a while is fine). When it comes to the beverage, choose water, and if you don't like drinking plain water, try green tea.
10. Plate metrics and meal pattern
Credit: smallplatemovement.org
Plate size and plate color affect your eating behavior.
Plate size affects the amount of food that you will consume. Smaller size plates help to consume smaller meals.
Plate size affects your calorie intake and appetite. The study also shows that changing the plate size from 12 inches to 10-inch cause a 22% decrease in calorie intake.
That equals 350 calories in an 1800 calorie diet plan.
The second plate metric is plate color.
Yes, but it is the contrast between plate color and food that helps to take fewer calories.
The study shows that when the color of food and plate matches, you may eat 30% more calories. Choose your plates to have a contrast with food.
Plate color affects your appetite and satiety.
OUR TAKE: Choose a smaller plate of size 9-10," which helps you to eat less. If possible, get a plate whose color gives high contrast with food color. These two will help you to eat less food.
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A calorie deficit is the fastest way to burn fat
For all those efforts to bring good results, your body must be in a calorie deficit state.
When you were reading this article, your body will be either in any of the three stages.
Calorie surplus: your calorie intake will be more than calorie out/ calorie usage
Calorie maintenance: your calorie intake will be equal to calorie usage and will be sufficient for maintenance
Calorie deficit: your calorie intake is lower than calorie out and helps you to become a fat-burning machine.
It is a crucial step in fat loss, and those mentioned above will help you to reach a calorie deficit state.
This study shows the importance of a calorie deficit diet. It shows that if you had a calorie surplus diet, then you will gain fat irrespective of the source of calories, whether it comes from carbohydrate, fat, or protein.
You have read about reducing snacks in #8; do you know that a nutrition professor had lost 27 pounds by eating snacks.
Yes, snacks!
Mark Haub had lost 27 pounds in 10 weeks. He did so to prove that a calorie deficit diet will enable fat loss and does not depend on what you eat. A balanced diet from whole minimally processed foods that helps you to stay in a calorie deficit is the best diet for fat loss.
But he didn't recommend that diet to anybody.
OUR TAKE: Calorie deficit is the solution to fat loss. Whatever you eat, try to keep your body in a calorie deficit state(fastest way to burn fat).
Let’s summarize
Thus you have read about the ten practical steps in fat loss. The most important of those are calorie deficit and NEAT activities.
Neat activities will help you to burn more calories without much effort. It helps you to remain in a calorie deficit.
What do you think about these fat loss tactics? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
And one more thing; if you like this article, please shares it with your friends.
Very informative article. Keep posting.
I have a question. I am a beginner, If I go on calorie deficit of 200 calories with high protein diet and tips mentioned above, does it also affect my muscle building or muscle mass ?
Thanks Anish, glad you enjoyed it!
High protein diet along with strength training will help to preserve and build your muscle.
This article was a great read. It was very informative. All of the visual aids were very nice.
Thanks Chris, glad you enjoyed it!