Last time we talked about the Thermic Effect of Feeding (TEF) and its role in burning fat. TEF can represent as much as 10% of the calories burned in a day. So how do you burn the other 90%?
Physical activity can represent 20-30% of your daily energy expenditure – this is comprised of your normal physical activity (for example, lifting the kids or groceries, washing the car, walking, etc.).
So that leaves 60-70% of your daily energy expenditure coming from – get this – DOING NOTHING! That’s right, sitting around watching TV, sleeping, etc. Your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) is where most of your calorie burn comes from! When you hear people blame a “slow metabolism” for being fat, they are partially right – their RMR is not what it should be to burn the amount of calories they consume!
So, last time we learned that eating more frequently increases your TEF, but how do you increase your RMR, which is REALLY going to get the fat burning?
It’s really simple – the more muscle you have, the higher your RMR will be. When you workout, you are breaking down muscle fibers. The process of rebuilding that muscle is intense – it requires rest and protein, and subsequently raises your metabolic rate. Once you have built the muscle, it will keep your RMR elevated as it takes a lot of the body’s effort to maintain it.
Also, the high intensity intervals, the cardio where you do all-out bursts for a short period of time followed by recovery, creates the
same demand on your metabolism as resistance training. If you choose to do cardio, this is the kind of cardio you should be doing.
So to wrap this up, science tells us these things are the most effective things you can do to lose fat:
1. Eating more often (shooting for 6 small meals per day)
2. Resistance training
3. Interval cardio
There are two more things to add to this list that I’ll cover next time.
If your stomach is growling here are five great options to fill you up and keep you on the fat-burning track:
Almonds – 1 ounce of almonds contains 6 grams of protein and 9 grams of monounsaturated (healthy) fat
Oatmeal – 1 cup of oatmeal has 4 grams of fiber, which will fill you up and keep your regular
Salmon – Full of omega-3 fats, a 4 ounce serving has 25 grams of protein
Quinoa – Quinoa is higher in protein than other grains like barley or couscous, and is extremely versatile
Black beans – 1 cup has a whopping 15 grams of protein and 15 grams of fiber!
Adding these foods to your 6-meals-per-day eating plan will ensure that you are always feeling satisfied and have the protein and healthy fats that will help to burn that stubborn body fat!
Besides burning calories, exercise helps your brain stick to a diet. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh studies overweight adults for two years, and found that the participants who didn’t follow a 3-hour-per-week exercise plan ate more than the 1,500 calories per day the study allotted. The reverse was also true – sneaking in extra snacks sabotaged their workouts. You need diet AND exercise to maintain long-term weight loss. Both actions serve as reminders to stay the course, reinforcing your fat loss goals and drive.
Here is one of my favorite lunch time feasts – it has fat-burning protein, monounsaturated fat and lots of fiber! And even a non-cook like me can whip this up in no time:
Cook 2 cloves of minced garlic in olive oil until fragrant. Add 1 pound of peeled shrimp (I like to take the tails off as well), sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook until the shrimp is no longer pink, about 3 minutes. Mash an avocado with 2 Tablespoons of minced onion (the dried kind is good), 1 teaspoon of garlic, 1 teaspoon of diced chili, a squeeze of lemon juice, salt and pepper. Serve the shrimp and guacamole with heated high-protein, high-fiber tortillas.
Olive oil has been king-of-the-oils for a while, but coconut oil may be a better choice for fat burning. Coconut oil is made up of more than 50 percent of medium-chain triacylglycerol (MCT), a fatty acid that increases fat oxidation, thus enhancing weight loss, according to a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Researchers had test subjects use 4 to 5 teaspoons of MCT oil or olive oil each day for 16 weeks. The MCT group lost four more pounds than the olive oil group.
