In this article I’ll cover the 9 perfect conditions for fat burning. You will see that unless you know about them, you will find it much more challenging to achieve your ideal body.
You will leave knowing
#1: No Sugar
Your body and your brain prefers to run off sugar. Sugar fuels every cell in your brain and it also sees sugar as a reward which makes you keep wanting more of it. If you eat a lot of sugar, you’re reinforcing that reward which can make it an even tougher habit to break.
When you consume carbohydrates it will cause sugar levels to rise in the blood therefore some carbohydrates are treated the same as if you were consuming table sugar.
When your body detects the rising levels of glucose insulin is released into the bloodstream. Weight loss is achieved when blood sugars remain stable, no spikes from excess sugar, carbohydrates, or over eating therefore no excessive insulin.
Bottom line – Fat will not burn in the presence of too much insulin in the blood. There are 4gms of sugar per tsp. Reduce added sugars to no more than 4-6 tsp per day that’s 16-24gms total. for some perspective – there is 22.3 gms of sugar in ½ cup of fresh and fruity low fat yogurt. Or you could eat 5 tsp of table sugar. both would trigger insulin.
#2: Managed stress
Studies have linked cortisol, a hormone released during times of stress, to cravings for sugar and fat. Scientists believe the hormone binds to receptors in the brain that control food intake. And if you already have a high body mass index, you may be even more susceptible.
The key is to know your triggers, and be ready whenever stress is likely. That means, stock up on healthy snacks if you tend to hit the vending machine at work, or, just make sure you don’t have unhealthy treats on hand for those times when an attack of emotional eating is likely.
You can clearly correlate stress to weight gain. Part of that link is due to poor eating during stress, but the stress hormone cortisol also increases the amount of fat tissue your body hangs onto especially around the midsection. Higher levels of cortisol have been linked to more deep-abdominal fat—yes, belly fat.
Bottom line – sometimes stress can be unnavoidable, keep healthy snacks on hand so you don’t get caught out during those times and be reaching for high fat high sugar foods.
#3: Correct ratio of high intensity to low intensity exercise
The role that exercise plays in fat loss is actually one of recovery. Exercise is also a trigger.
Exercise’s job is to stimulate new cellular developments – this is a process of adding stress (not pain) and in easy terms – to hurt your body a little bit, so that while you sleep your body is required to produce higher levels of growth and recovery hormones.
That’s the first part of the puzzle. But the crucial element that will determine whether this process is optimised – is whether your body uses blood glucose (sugar) as its source of fuel to recover, or your stored fat as it’s source of fuel to recover. This will depend entirely on how you have eaten during the day.
I hope you are following my point. How you eat determines which source of fuel your body will use to perform the necessary recovery, provided you have exercised in a way that has stimulated the right recovery hormones.
High intensity exercise is best 2-3 times per week alternating with low intensity exercise. It is not recommended to do high intensity exercise multiple days in a row as you will not be optimising the recovery time, and fat burning happens in recovery not in the actual exercise time itself.
The definition of high intensity exercise – Weights, or interval training where you are pushing yourself hard for 30secs up to 2mins followed by rest and then repeat.
The definition of low intensity exercise. Walking or anything that you can sustain for a minimum of 15 minutes.
Bottom line -You can alternate them but do not do high intensity back to back days.
#4: No over training
High intensity exercise will hurt your body more, and therefore take more time to recover. So provided you have eaten well to keep insulin at bay, kept healthy snacks around to keep cortisol at bay, you can be fat burning anywhere from 14 – 48 after doing high intensity exercise.
However – low intensity exercise is necessary in between so that you do not hurt the body too much, because hurting the body too much from exercise stresses it out and it will make cortisol.
Alternate the days of high intensity : low intensity exercise, don’t do high intensity exercise multiple days in a row.
Bottom line – if you feel muscle soreness you have not recovered enough yet so do something low intensity like going for a walk. If you think doing more exercise without allowing yourself optimal recovery time will get you to your goal faster and keep you there. You are mistaken.
#5: Sleeping through the night
This means that you are able to get into deep sleep which is where fat burning and recovery happens. 98% of your fat burning happens at rest.
Waking up in the night at 2-3 am, waking up to pee, difficulty falling asleep, waking up in the morning feeling unrested are all signs that cortisol the stress hormone is too high and cortisol – like insulin – counteracts fat burning.
For the mums out there, Quality is actually equal to quantity and I know this because I have a 6month old baby and sleeping through the night is unlikely but the quality of sleep I’m getting is high therefore I can recover and I wake up feeling well rested. This is because cortisol is low not because I am a super mum.
Bottom line – manage your cortisol by keeping healthy snacks on hand so get grumpy hungry, keep insulin low by keeping unhealthy carbohydrates and sugars low, and you will sleep better.
#6&7: No hunger & frequent meals
I really mean feeling starving. Feeling a little hunger is no problem. Wanting to eat your own arm – obviously thats a problem.
Going to long without food will cause blood sugars to drop too low, this will leave you feeling hangry (grumpy hungry) and you will eat the next thing you see. This situation is insulin and cortisol producing, and they are both fat storage hormones.
Bottom line – manage your hunger the same way I’m telling you to manage cortisol by keeping healthy snacks on hand, in your bag, in your glovebox, in your office. I have 2 meal replacement shakes in my baby bag, an apple, a bag of nuts incase I get caught out. I have 2 snack bars in the glovebox in my car incase I get caught out while i’m driving. Planning and organisation is ½ the battle won
#7&8: optimal vitamins and minerals & 7+ veggie servings per day
According to the latest national nutrition survey, less than 30% of New Zealanders are getting the minimum servings of 5+ a day. Thats less than 1 in 3 people eating a minimum of 3 fists of vegetables through the day.
Think about what you ate today? Did you have a fist of vegetables at breakfast? Did you have a fist full at lunch?
3 fists is the minimum serve,
7 fists is now the recommended daily amount. That leaves us woefully short.
In the long term, vitamin and mineral deficiencies manifest as chronic degenerative diseases such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, obesity not limited to this list and of which 9 out of 10 adults will suffer from in their lifetime.
In the short term you may not get a disease, but you can end up with impaired functioning, because vitamins are cofactors for all the biochemical reactions in the body. We need them in order to function properly.
That impaired functioning can sometimes manifest in mysterious ways. It’s your bodies way of communicating to you that it needs help.
The good news: Most are fixable with dietary tweaks and supplementation—all the more reason to make nutrition a top priority.
Bottom line – a healthy body does not store excessive body fat. eat your veggies, take a pharmaceutical grade multivitamin
So I’ve given you 9 specific things you can start doing right away for optimal fat burning. If you need more help in this area I want to invite you now to learn more about our 12 week Nutrition Education Course where you not only get all the education you need to change your health and change your body but the support and mentoring from our team of coaches.
Its these two elements when combined can make all the difference for you.
Before you go any further, if you haven’t already taken the body type quiz go ahead and take it now. Take note of the results as it’ll show you your dominant body type.
Then have a read about our 12 week Nutrition Education Course and if your ready to make a lasting change then go ahead and enrol. I look forward to working with you soon.
Yours in Health
Tarryn Thompson
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