Bella Adams
There are many ways to maximize your fat burning. We’ll show you the best tips and what it takes to achieve the greatest effects in reducing body fat.
The best news beforehand: It is not true that fat burning only starts after half an hour of training. Even at lower volumes, the body also uses its own fats as an energy source right from the start.
However, there are tricks you can use to stimulate fat burning and additionally increase the weight loss effect when burning fat.
How does fat-burning work?
An active metabolism is crucial for optimal fat burning. The body needs sufficient energy for a healthy metabolism.
It receives this energy in the form of three macronutrients: carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. Fat, with its 9 calories per gram, is the most powerful source of energy.
Our body always falls back on the energy that is most quickly available to it – and that is supplied by carbohydrates. Only when the glycogen stores are exhausted and further energy is needed does it turn to fat reserves – the small fat pads.
However, if you eat more calories during the day than you ultimately consume, the excess energy ends up on your hips in the form of fat.
Fat burning, therefore, takes place when the body breaks down fat that has been absorbed or is present for energy production. Fatty acids are produced, which give the cells the necessary drive.
Fat burning is not the same as losing weight
Unfortunately, a high fat-burning rate does not automatically mean less body fat and fewer kilos on the scales – because the bottom line is that you only lose weight if you eat fewer calories in total than you consume.
And that over a longer period of time. So don’t feed yourself double and triple the calories you’ve saved during training – otherwise, you’ll quickly cancel out the fat-burning effect.
Do you have a weight loss goal in mind? Then it is helpful to consciously stimulate your metabolism and fat burning.
Easy Start: Drink plenty of water – at least 2 liters a day. With a lack of fluids, all metabolic processes run very slowly – including fat metabolism.
In addition, your energy metabolism increases by up to 100 calories if you drink at least two liters of water a day. And the feeling of hunger is suppressed.
In addition to drinking plenty of water, exercising, everyday movement, low-carb nutrition, and abstaining from alcohol, there are many more tricks to improve or accelerate fat burning.
How high should the body fat percentage be?
The body fat percentage – KFA for short – indicates what percentage of the total body weight consists of pure fat mass. Here, a clear distinction should be made between men and women.
A healthy body fat percentage at a normal weight is between 20 and 28 percent for women. For men, it is between 13 and 20 percent. In addition, age also plays a decisive role.
10 tips for optimal fat burning
- Be in a calorie deficit, but refrain from crash diets
Crash diets like the Thonon diet create additional stress on the body.
Hormone balance becomes imbalanced, so the important testosterone production, which is important for muscle building, falters and, in addition, the body reacts with increased cortisol secretion.
Cortisol is a stress hormone that stimulates appetite, promotes water retention, and encourages a bloated belly.
Better: make sure you eat a balanced, healthy diet. Stick to your macros (45 percent carbohydrates/ 30 percent fat/ 25 percent protein) and allow yourself a calorie deficit of 200 to a maximum of 500 calories – this will help you lose weight at a healthy rate.
Anything else creates a yo-yo effect, a reduction in muscle instead of fat reserves, and a throttling of the metabolism.
Tip: Calculate your basal metabolic rate in advance. It’s easy to keep track of calories throughout the day with a fitness tracker and calorie app.
- What stimulates fat burning? Protein
Proteins are your #1 food list from here on out. They boost your metabolism and keep you full longer.
This is mainly because the body has to expend much more energy to break down proteins into amino acids.
We already burn calories during our digestion. So almost a quarter of the food energy of proteins goes to waste without landing on our hips.
In addition, proteins are needed for muscle building, which in turn has a positive effect on metabolism and fat burning.
It is best to integrate a mix of vegetables (tofu, lentils, soy flakes, pumpkin seeds, etc.) and animal protein sources into your diet.
- Avoid increased insulin secretion
Increased insulin levels promote weight gain because the hormone insulin influences fat cells so that they can absorb glucose more easily.
This means that carbohydrates that are not consumed immediately first reach the muscles and liver in the form of glycogen, where they are stored.
When these stores are full, excess carbohydrates are converted to fat and stored in fat cells.
When you eat a lot of simple carbohydrates, blood sugar levels rise rapidly and then drop sharply. These are the situations when you get cravings.
Simple carbohydrates are foods with a high glycemic index, such as baguettes, waffles, white rice, or potatoes.
Instead, choose complex carbohydrates such as oats, whole-grain bread with grains, whole-grain spaghetti, yogurt, lentils, quinoa, or carrots.
They all have a low glycemic index, which has minimal effect on insulin levels.
- Eat enough healthy fats
Did you know that your daily food intake should consist of 30 percent healthy fats?
So, don’t demonize fat in your diet. For example, reach for avocado, flax oil, almonds, walnuts, olive oil, flaxseed, and salmon.
Instead, avoid trans fats – the so-called bad fat. It is found in cookies, chips, potato chips, and crackers – in other words, in everything that has been baked or deep-fried for a very long time.
- Stimulate fat burning at night through sufficient sleep
Many people think that “slim while you sleep” is just an empty phrase – but sleep duration and sleep intensity are crucial for your diet’s success. Why?
Those who sleep too little (<7 hours) produce more ghrelin – a hormone responsible for controlling hunger and satiety.
It also slows down energy metabolism and thus prevents fat stores from being broken down overnight.
Better: adopt a fixed sleep routine and allow yourself seven to eight hours of sleep per night. In addition, scientists have shown that reduced calorie intake can improve your sleep.
- Drink green tea several times a week
Green tea is confirmed to have a positive effect on fat burning, according to a recent study by the German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam.
The polyphenol contained in green tea (epigallocatechin gallate, EGCG) reduces body fat gain in a dose-dependent manner.
Drink green tea several times a week, preferably even once a day, and you will feel more alert, and more active and burn a few extra calories by the way.
- Lukewarm lemon water boosts metabolism
After a good night’s sleep, even if we wake up in between drinking a few sips of water, we are usually completely dehydrated.
Therefore, it makes sense to drink a large glass of lukewarm lemon water directly after waking up – it directly boosts the fat metabolism, provides us with important vitamin C, and makes us just as awake as coffee.
- Ginger, chili & cinnamon promote fat burning
In your diet, chili, ginger, Tabasco, and Co. should be on the menu.
They drive the sweat on our foreheads and bring the calorie furnaces to glow.
The reason: the ingredients capsaicin (chili) and gingerol (ginger) accelerate weight loss and cleanse the stomach and intestines at the same time.
Tip: A ginger shot in the morning boosts your metabolism and makes you more alert than a cup of coffee.
However, it doesn’t always have to be spicy: Cinnamon, turmeric, and mint can also promote fat burning and stimulate your metabolism.
- Build muscle through effective workouts
Interval and endurance training is more effective in the beginning to attack fat reserves.
Interval training in particular shows its effects at first: Canadian scientists have found that fat burning is 36 percent higher during interval training than during a constant moderate endurance program.
But after 1 to 2 weeks of training at the latest, you should start building muscle.
There is a simple formula: The more muscles you have, the more energy is used at rest and the higher your daily basal metabolic rate.
This means that thanks to your muscles you could eat more without gaining weight.
- Make your training varied
That is, in addition to strength training, it would also be useful to include one or two training units from the cardio area, such as jogging, swimming, aerobics, or even HIIT training.
The alternation between aerobic and anaerobic training is the fat burner key – through it even more energy is used.
Try to work out on an empty stomach in the morning from time to time. The carbohydrate stores are almost empty at this time, so your body must also use the fat reserves to get energy.
