Not Your Average Fat Loss Tips

Yes, I’m sucking you in with buzz words. “Fat loss” is all the rage and one of the biggest reasons people start working out or changing their diet. Most people know generally what is recommended to help lower your body fat percentage and enjoy the associated health benefits. You know you should lay off the sugar, you know fast food is terrible, you know you have to expend more calories than you take in. So, let’s look at some of the lesser-known ways you can help your body burn fat.

FEED YOUR GUT.

First off, you have to keep your gut healthy. Your gut microbiome is made up of good and bad bacteria and if the balance gets thrown off you can plan on having inefficient digestion and/or poor absorption of nutrients. The biggest overriding goal of your body and your brain is survival. So, if your body isn’t getting the nutrition it needs or isn’t able to rid itself of toxins, getting that beach body comes dead last on its list of priorities. You can help keep your gut happy by taking quality probiotics, eating fermented foods, eat your veggies for their fiber content and micronutrients, take apple cider vinegar (it comes in capsules like this or check out these refreshing drinks), and stay away from foods your body is sensitive to.

When people ask me for diet advice I always say “eat REAL food and take a food sensitivity test”. You can be sensitive to foods that are otherwise considered healthy; you may think you’re doing all the right things but if you get pain, bloating, increased heart rate, or feel tired when you eat certain foods you likely have a food sensitivity.

SIMMER DOWN.

Next, keep your inflammation levels down. Eating processed foods, sugar, drinking alcohol, not sleeping enough, and living in a constant state of stress jack up inflammation in your body and it causes all sorts of issues. Again, think priorities. When your body is trying to deal with the effects of chronic inflammation how efficient do you think you are at burning fat? Not very. Dr. Andrew Weil, the man who basically invented the field of Integrative Medicine, says "when your body is inflamed it is easier to gain weight and harder to lose it" (listen to the podcast here ). In addition to avoiding the things above that will feed inflammation, here are some things you can do to help.

1. Take or eat turmeric (more info here).

2. Eat red and orange veggies and these other foods naturally high in antioxidants

3. Breathing techniques to reduce stress

4. Avoid dairy, gluten, and fried foods, some of the most inflammatory foods there are

FREEZE IT. OKAY NOT REALLY.

Cold immersion therapy is getting popular for its numerous health benefits including recovery, inflammation reduction, higher immune function, and better sleep quality but it can also aid in fat burning. Cold immersion causes a process called mitochondrial biogenesis, the production of new mitochondria, which just happen to feed on fat cells in order to make ATP, aka energy (listen here). This is a phenomenon called "browning the fat".

SPICE IT UP

Cinnamon helps to lower blood sugar, which means your body doesn’t need to release as much insulin, “the fat storage hormone” to drop it back down. When you do eat carbs, add some cinnamon to help keep your blood sugar from spiking and your waistline from expanding (listen here). Vinegars, like apple cider vinegar, also have this effect.

H2O

There’s a reason every single health practitioner you’ve ever seen tells you to drink water. Hydration is crucial to every single system in your body, so much so that, according to Dr. David Perlmutter, our bodies will actually begin to convert fat into water so your body may increase fat stores so that you don’t shrivel up and die (listen here). An easy tip for staying hydrated is to drink AT LEAST half your bodyweight in ounces (i.e. 200lbs person should drink 100oz of water). You can also add a little sea salt to your water to give yourself some electrolyte love. I use Pink Himalayan.

GIVE IT A REST

Turns out, we are not designed to eat all day every day (and if you're anything like me you'll find this news very distressing #foodaddict). Time-restricted eating and intermittent fasting have been shown to have numerous health benefits, including fat loss, increased life span, and lower risk of certain cancers and heart disease. Even eating the same number of calories, just in a smaller window of time, ideally six to eight hours, has been shown to help athletes drop body fat without compromising their performance (read the article or

listen to the podcast). I just recently weaned myself down from a nine-hour window to an eight-hour window by eating breakfast an hour later than I was used to, which is also an easy way to get started if you want to try it. According to Dr. Steven Gundry, you start making ketones 12 hours into fasting, so even a 10-hour window will give you some of the benefits. (Sidenote: eating late negatively affects sleep so I try to keep my last meal of the day at least a few hours before I go to bed). My current eating window is from about 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

GETTING STARTED

I use all of these things on a daily and/or weekly basis to help my body run as efficiently as possible. If I had to pick a top three I'd take gut health, inflammation management, and hydration as the first to incorporate because of the numerous health benefits. The healthier you are, the more efficient your body will be. To start, pick ONE THING you can be consistent with, make it a habit, then add something else when you have that one down. Give it a shot and let me know what you think!