There are all kinds of tricks for burning fat and slimming down you might not think about. It’s all about outsmarting your fat cells with techniques that release the fat to be burned—and then burning it.
So, yes. If you need to get into your favourite outfit, some sexy sleek little dress, or a that Hugo Boss suit you bought for a wedding before you put on some muscle, there are things you can do to see immediate results.
What I like about these tricks is that typically, when my clients can get a kind of flash forward to what they’ll look and feel like two pounds lighter and slimmer—they become even more motivated to lose weight and get fit.
Fill your playlist with tunes that you cannot resist saying “Mannnnn, I love dancing, running, lifting to that song.” Whether it’s Bruno Mars or Kanye, Jay Z, Drake, Deep house, studies show you’ll speed up your workout speed and intensity if you listen to songs that have at least 180 beats per minute.
Go to mixmeister.com or jog.fm for a cheap app that helps you analyze the beats per minute in songs and create BANGING playlists that motivate you to run longer, harder, do HIIT harder and better, and lift weights with perfect form. See study. As Ferris Jabr notes in this fascinating article on the power of music, memory, and altered states of being in music to revolutionize workouts states that
When up against high-intensity exercise, music loses its power to override the physical feelings of tiredness, but it can still change the way people respond to that fatigue. The right music elevates mood and persuades people to ride out waves of exhaustion, rather than giving up. . . Music also increases endurance by keeping people awash in strong emotions. Listening to music is often an incredibly pleasurable experience and certain songs open the mental floodgates with which people control their emotions in everyday situations. If one strongly identifies with the singer’s emotions or perspective, the song becomes all the more motivational. (fantastic article& study).
You probably know it takes cellular energy to digest foods. In other words, you have to burn calories to bite, chew, digest, metabolize—all of it. But some foods require more calories to metabolize than they contain. For example, an apple has 85 calories, but it requires 99 calories to metabolize it. Think of what would happen with a diet composed of only catabolic foods? You’d be burning more calories than you’re taking in, and thus . . . dare we hope to lose weight while eating?? Trust me, readers, this is going to be the next big thing in weight loss. Actually, editors must be really combing old libraries of women’s magazines as this trick hasn’t been talked about for a looooong time. Like since 1939. But the science is there!
Here’s a list of highly catabolic foods that require more calories to metabolize than they supply.
List of fruits:
List of vegetables:
List of fruits:
List of vegetables:
Proteins
In studies, taking a caffeine supplement or drinking coffee before a hot bath helped individuals to release fat to be burned, increased lipolysis (fat burning), and helped shrink waist circumference as well. (See study).
In fact, just 3 mgs per kg bodyweight of caffeine and a hot bath of 42 °C to 107.6°F for 30 min (with water up to the navel) increases fat burning by 80% and ups circulating leptin levels by 28%. In fact, in a group of male subjects, the effects of the bath with the caffeine helped shrink waist circumference from 8.9 mm to 6.7 mm.
Hot epsom salt baths have been a favorite trick of models and bodybuilders for decades. Taking a long bath in Epsom salts helps release toxins trapped in fat and has a very slimming effect upon the body. Furthermore, healthy minerals like magnesium and sulfate get absorbed through the skin when we bathe in Epsom salt.
Blood levels of the two minerals increase after a good soak and they can then work to rid body of environmental toxins, stress, and also heal various skin issues. Some scientists believe it is the calming effect of magnesium that contributes to the weight loss—but whatever way it works, models and bodybuilders love using this technique before shows to get that lean + sculpted look where the muscles stand out but little else. It’s also a quick fix for a fun pizza or ice cream “allow yourself to indulge a little” kind of evening—which we all need from time to time but hate paying that price.
A bath in Epsom also helps you get high quality beauty sleep for skin repair and muscle building before shows. Since magnesium helps relax muscles, helping you relax enough to sleep better, it will enable you to sleep long and restfully enough to enter that stage of deep delta wave sleep where all the magic—fat burning and muscle acquisition—happens. That’s just one reason why late night transdermal magnesium is becoming so popular.
Combine that with a fast at night, a good 10 hours sleep for lots of fat-burning delta wave sleep, and you’ll wake up several pounds lighter, I’ll just bet! Not that there’s not a lot of Pub Med science on this one. I’m telling you from personal experience on this one.
Getting cold in showers can help you turn unhealthy white fat into thermogenic brown fat, which, in turn helps you whittle the white fat off your body. I admit, it is not easy the first time. You really have to psyche yourself into it. Tell yourself things like “how bad can this be?” Or “I can step out or warm the temperature any time.” And add in there “my bad ass, ass-kicking ass can do anything anyway.”
And step in there smiling and stand tall and strong as the cold water rains down. It cannot be that bad. And the payoffs are immense.
Now, studies show, the colder the better. Also, you don’t want to do this when you really need a somewhat colder shower, like after a workout. It has to take your body by surprise—it has to make you shiver and uncomfortable, not make you sigh with relief that you’re finally cooling off.
You need to turn on your body’s switch to start burning fat to keep you warm. If you’ve ever opened the window in the winter and slept in the cold and noticed you woke up a little slimmer, you’re probably already convinced, right?
In one study, individuals boosted fat burning by 500 calories every six hours just by sitting in a room at below 66 F (19℃).
What happens is that by subjecting ourselves to very cold temperatures, we set off a cascade of very healthy effects in the body as the body gets stronger in its efforts to protect us from harm. The body wants to stay alive, always, so it starts using up its fat stores to get warm. (study).
Cold exposure also
So, yeah, subjecting ourselves to some challenging temperatures sets off all kinds of ancestral, healing, anti-aging, diabetes-fighting mechanisms in the body. Try it.
Of course, if you do it every day, you’ll build up a tolerance to it. The best way is early in the morning. So you can do this! You’re a warrior. You’ll love the results. It’s also great for increasing motivation and helping individuals develop a steely sense of determination to succeed in all things.
Red light devices and infrared saunas are revolutionizing the world of weight loss and body contouring. Researchers have been looking for a cure for cellulite for how many years?
Well, they’ve finally found it!
Search “cellulite and red light and pub med.” You won’t believe the fast results people are getting with red laser light devices.
This is because red light therapy is most effective the first few times you use it. Then, it tapers. So, you get the most significant results in your first few visits or uses of your device. So, yes, it’s a surprisingly fast form of fat loss therapy.
Red light reduces fat mass and melts whole layers of fat, in fact, on the body and removes cellulite impressively. Red light actually causes fat cells to let go of fat—set them free like when you let go of a balloon. Then you can go burn it!
However, LLLT (low laser light therapy) does all this—releases all this fat—without raising blood serum lipid profiles (study).
Studies show that after two weeks of red light therapy, individuals were able to achieve a 3.51 loss of inches across the waist, hips, and thighs in just 2 weeks of red light device therapy (study). Other studies with the same red light therapy device showed a 5.17 inch loss over all measurement points (study).
So, yes, I only gave you five ways to burn fat today. But these are five ways that really, really work. So try these.
You can get high quality red light devices many places on the web. Some are better than others. So carefully research your supplier and the devices. It’s important to buy a light between the either 630 and 680 nm for surface skin healing and improvement or 800 and 880nm wattage for deeper tissue effects, like fat burning, because only certain wattages set off the fat-burning, anti-aging mechanisms in the body you want. The lower level wattages only penetrate skin by 5 mms, keep in mind. This is okay for the skin on the face, but for cellular benefits, go for a mixed wattage light or higher wattage device.
Good luck to you and enjoy your week. I’ll be back soon with more tips on enhancing your health and happiness.
Jackson Litchfield