5 Ways to Maximize Fat Loss

1. Eat FAT to lose FAT

The more fat you intake, the more efficiently your body uses fat for fuel. If you are a carb loader, then you will get more efficient at using carbs for fuel. The problem with getting more of your caloric intake from carbs or protein is that you have to be careful to keep your blood sugar levels stable or you may spike your insulin. A large enough Insulin spike depletes the blood sugar, leaving you with a low concentration of blood sugar, thus creating a craving for more carbs so that you can be in homeostasis (balance) again. More carbs = More Fat Storage

Eat just enough protein and carbs to meet your nutritional requirements (read Enter the Zone), and support additional caloric demands with more Omega 3 fatty acids.

2. Keep your Insulin in check!
Insulin is the hormone used for fat storage. But don’t go blaming Insulin if you have to buy a bigger pair of pants or if your blouse no longer fits! Insulin is not evil; excessive Insulin is! By keeping your Insulin in check you won’t intake more energy than you need and more importantly your body will more readily use fats as fuel.

3. Hydrate, and eat your fruits and veggies!
When your intestinal tract is not working very efficiently, things start to back up! A couple sources of irregularity are dehydration and low intake of fibrous foods. Make sure you are getting enough of both to keep the bowels working properly.

When your bowel movements are irregular, toxins from your excrement are reabsorbed through the large intestine and reenter the blood stream. The only way your body can safely manage these toxins is to store them in fat. By reducing your toxicity level, you can remove one of the reasons your body may be storing or “hanging onto” its fat reserves.

4. High intensity exercise DOES burn more fat!
The long distance, slow aerobics crowd has always maintained that aerobics at your “target” heart rate burns more fat than any other exercise. Well, they are right, sort of. (Yes, that was tough to admit)

Aerobic exercise does burn a larger percentage of fat, but only during the effort. So if you jump on the treadmill 30 minutes a day, like any normal hamster, you are only burning fat during that time.

However, by doing short duration, high intensity circuits like CrossFit your metabolism gets a boost that can last for hours after your workout is complete. The net result is in a larger quantity of fat being burned overall.

5. Intermittent Fasting
After you have tweaked your nutrition such that your carb intake and insulin levels are in check, you can start messing with your nutrient timing.

By mimicking the conditions that our cavebrothers and cavesisters evolved in, we can launch our metabolism into fat burning overdrive.

Aim for a 12-15 hour daily fast. It is generally easier to stop eating in the early evening and begin eating again the next morning. To maximize the effects, break your fast with some heavy lifts or a hard metabolic conditioning CrossFit workout and then eat a balanced breakfast afterwards.

You will become leaner and much stronger in a short period of time!