Make sure to eat a breakfast that balances carbohydrates, protein and a little fat so you boost your metabolism for the rest of the day. Breakfast (literally “breaking the fast”) is your first opportunity to bring your blood sugar levels back up to normal after your all-night fast.
Eat In The Proper Ratios
Make sure you consume protein, carbs and fat in their proper proportions at every meal and snack. Generally, you want your diet to be comprised of 40 to 50 per cent carbohydrates, 25 to 30 per cent protein and 20 to 30 per cent healthy fats.
You may be surprised to see how much of your caloric intake should come from carbohydrates, but carbs are the most efficient source of energy. With too little carbs in your system, your liver starts converting protein to carbohydrates, which is not a function it should normally be doing.
Protein is critical to building and retaining muscle tissue, which in turn helps to burn more fat. Healthy fats keep hormonal levels balanced, increase strength and create feelings of satiety (fullness).
Weight Train
Muscles burn calories, so the more you have, the more calories you burn, even at rest. Keep your weight training workouts relatively intense. Work in reps of 15 to 20 and train every other day or three times a week. Keep your weight training workouts to an hour.
Rev Your Heart Rate
Cardio exercise burns fat. However, if you already do cardio exercise religiously and fat loss is not taking place, increase the intensity of your session, not the length. Doing cardio for longer than 45 minutes does not get you much closer to your fat loss goals.
Instead, try interval cardio training (integrating slower levels of intensity for several minutes with very high levels for several minutes). Intervals are great for boosting the metabolism and creating more of a post-caloric burn (calories burned 24 hours after the workout).
Drink Enough Water
Your liver converts fat to energy for your muscles to use. If you’re dehydrated, your kidneys can’t do their job as effectively, so your liver kicks in to help them out.
If your liver is busy helping out your kidneys, it can’t metabolize fat as quickly or efficiently. The bottom line? Make sure to drink enough water that your urine runs clear.
Change Up Your Program
When you do the same exercise over and over, your body will eventually stop burning as many calories. So if you jog one day, try biking or swimming the next. With resistance training, change the type of exercises you do every four to six weeks.
Be Disciplined
Part of living a healthy lifestyle is changing the way you think. It’s about doing the right thing for your body, even when you may not feel motivated to. The great thing about discipline is that it too can become a habit, like anything else.
Patience Is Next To Thinness
It takes a lot of tweaking and often more time than you think, to get permanent results. These changes don’t happen overnight because you are changing lifelong habits. Be patient and persistent, and you will see the results you want.
