9 Ways to Burn Fat

By Robyn Moreno

Easy steps you can take

Everyone's metabolism naturally slows down with age. At 40, you could be burning 100 to 300 fewer calories a day than you did at 30, says Pamela M. Peeke, M.D., author of Body for Life for Women and assistant professor of medicine at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. That can translate into a 5 – 12 kilograms of weight gain in a year. But you can counteract that slowdown and boost your body's fat-burning capabilities by making just a few tweaks to your daily routine. The following strategies will help you bust out of a weight-loss plateau and burn even more fat.

Take five
Do five minutes of exercise each morning. We all have a metabolic thermostat, called the metastat, that can be turned up or down, and morning is the best time to activate it. Each day, your metastat is waiting for signals to rev up, so the more signals you can send it, the better. Your best bet is a light, full-body activity like walking or push-ups.

Fuel up in the morning
Numerous studies have found that regular breakfast eaters are often leaner than breakfast skippers. "Your metabolism naturally slows at night, but you can jump-start it in the morning by eating breakfast," says Tammy Lakatos Shames, R.D., C.D.N., co-author of Fire Up Your Metabolism. And because both your activity level and metabolism decrease later in the day, it's a good idea to make breakfast or lunch your largest meal.
 

Fill up on good grains
Whole grains such as brown rice, wheat germ, dark bread, whole-grain cereal, oatmeal and bran leave you feeling full because they take longer to digest than simple carbohydrates. In a study from The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School evaluated the dietary intake of more than 74,000 women for 12 years. Overall, women who regularly ate the most whole-grain foods — about 1.5 servings a day — gained less weight than women who ate the least.

Pump yourself up
Muscle burns more calories than fat does, and decreased muscle mass can be one of the main reasons metabolism slows. Disuse can cause women to drop as much as 5kgs of muscle between the ages of 30 and 50. Losing that much muscle means you'll burn 350 to 500 fewer calories a day. To build and maintain muscle mass, aim for two to three strength-training workouts a week. If you don't belong to a gym, try push-ups, squats, abdominal crunches and tricep dips off a chair.

Power on with protein
Add a little high-quality, low fat protein, such as chicken, fish and egg whites, to your meals, and you'll help your body burn fat faster. "Because protein requires more energy to digest, it speeds up your metabolism, and protein is necessary to ensure against loss of muscle tissue," says Michael Thurmond, author of 6 Day Body Makeover.

Get your vitamin "I"
That's "I" for intensity. You love to walk, but if that usually means strolling along at a snail's pace, your waistline will pay little attention. Instead, put intensity, or "vitamin I," into your stride. Pick up your pace so you're walking at 4 mph, or one mile per 15 minutes. Once you build up your cardiovascular fitness level, you can even alternate between walking and jogging. The key is to get your heart rate up and keep your workouts challenging.

Say yes to yogurt
In a recent study from the International Journal of Obesity, women who ate three daily servings of low fat yogurt lost 60 percent more fat than women who didn't. In another study, participants who ate three daily servings of dairy lost more than twice as much fat as those who ate less than that. "Calcium-rich diets reduce fat-producing enzymes and increase enzymes that break down fat," says Michael B. Zemel, Ph.D., lead author of both studies and director of the Nutrition Institute at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Eat three servings of low fat dairy a day, like milk, yogurt and hard cheeses (Gouda, Cheddar and Monterey Jack).

Get active after eating
Your body's metabolic rate increases 10 percent after eating, and just a few minutes of activity could double that boost for up to three hours. Within 15 to 30 minutes of eating a snack or meal, do five or 10 minutes of light activity. Take the dog for a walk, climb stairs in your house or do some basic strength exercises.

Sip green tea
You might love your lattes, but if you switch to green tea, not only will you get a healthy dose of disease-fighting compounds, you'll also cut body fat. In a study from The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, people who drank a bottle of tea fortified with green tea extract every day for three months lost more body fat than people who drank black tea. Researchers at a health care lab in Tokyo believe disease-fighting antioxidants called catechins in green tea may help decrease body fat.

The Benefits of Strength Training

Strength training activities, such as elastic-band workouts and using weight machines or free weights, are important for building muscle and bone. Bones lose calcium and weaken with age, but strength training (also known as resistance training) can help reverse this trend. And without strength training, a 30-year-old man can expect to lose 25% of his muscle mass by age 70 and another 25% by age 90. The good news is that a man who begins strength training can increase his strength by 30%–100% over a period of months. Women can also build strength with resistance training.

As well as making you look and feel better, the improvement translates into better performance of everyday activities, such as climbing stairs and carrying bundles. Stronger muscles also mean better mobility and balance, and thus a lower risk of falling and injuring yourself. In addition, more lean body mass aids in weight control because each pound of muscle burns up substantially more calories than its equivalent in fat.

Technically speaking, strength training or resistance exercise occurs any time a contracting muscle is faced with a stronger-than-usual counterforce. There are several categories of resistance exercises. In isometric exercise, the muscle contracts against a fixed resistance so that no motion occurs. One example is pushing against a wall. Lifting a very heavy weight causes your muscles to respond in a similar manner even though there's a small amount of movement. A second type of muscle-building activity is called isotonic exercise, or dynamic exercise. Here, the muscle moves through its range of motion. Raising a light weight from knee to shoulder height is an example.

Isometric exercise is the quickest way to build muscle strength, but it's also the most stressful on your heart and circulatory system. Without clinical supervision, this type of exercise is best left to young athletes. Isotonic exercise, on the other hand, builds muscle strength and endurance without excessively taxing your cardiovascular system.

Unlike aerobic exercise, which should be done on most days, strength training should be performed only two or three times a week. Also, never work the same muscles on consecutive days; it's important to allow muscles a chance to recover fully between sessions. Your best bet is a program of high-repetition, low-resistance exercises. That is, the exercise won't seem difficult when performed once or twice, but it'll make you fatigued, though not exhausted, when done repeatedly in a steady rhythm. You should be able to comfortably lift the weight for 8 repetitions; if you can do more than 15 repetitions, increase your weight.

As you gain strength, you can gradually increase the level of resistance or weight until you reach a sustainable plateau. As with aerobic exercise, be sure to include 5–10 minutes of warm-up and cool-down in your training sessions.