T-minus 8 weeks and counting until 2020. The majority of us will start dusting off the Christmas/New Year’s cheer by re-prioritizing our health goals into gym memberships and better dietary control on January 1st – but WHY WAIT UNTIL THEN?
8 weeks is more than enough time to turn your body into a lean, mean, fat burning machine (even with the upcoming holidays). Here are 6 incredibly easy tips you can do to burn fat without exercising:
Stay Away from Standard American Dietary Recommendations
If you follow standard dietary suggestions (i.e. the U.S. recommended daily allowance), an average American will consume 50-60 grams of fat, 100 grams of protein, and 250-300 grams of carbohydrates in one day.
This would be, by all health and government authorities, a “healthy diet” full of whole grains, fruits and vegetables, animals and plant-based proteins and dairy.
This daily breakdown is a recipe for disaster over time as it puts a tremendous load on your liver to process and metabolize all the carbohydrates and strain on your body’s natural repair systems which require healthy fats. In addition, your metabolism burns what is in excess as a survival / detoxification technique – i.e. what to do with all the excess carbohydrates. A body constantly burning sugar for energy will never be able to enter into healthy fat burning simply because its reserve is being diverted to dealing with the excess storages of sugar.
Focus on Fats
A traditional “no gym required” fat burning plan begins with flipping standard/conventional dietary wisdom towards favoring fats. If you were to consume 60-70% of your diet as fat, 30-35% of your diet as protein and 0-5% of your diet as carbohydrates (mostly natural carbs in the plants/proteins consumed) you will find a new level of metabolism you never knew existed – i.e. effortless fat burning.
When your metabolism no longer has to stress/strain over burning carbs for energy, it can begin to burn fat for energy – which also carries a higher kcal/gram than sugar, thus providing a higher, cleaner level of energy that lasts longer.
One strong indicator that your metabolism has shifted towards burning fat for energy is the presence of ketone bodies in your blood, which can be monitored with a handheld ketosis monitor. No ketones = no fat burning. Ketones = Fat burning and the degree of burning is based on the level of blood ketones achieved.
Clean Your Fats
Now that your body has “switched” from burning carbs for energy to burning fat for energy, one word of caution – your fat more than likely needs to be cleaned! If you have ever tried a “high fat, low carb” diet only to plateau after the first 10-15-20lbs its more than likely because your fats are full of toxins.
Fat is a necessary component of your body and it does have positive health benefits including storage of toxins, secretion of hormones and even storage of body water. Toxin accumulation within a fat cell can prevent your body from burning it for energy (i.e. the burning would release stored toxicities thus increasing your toxic load, negatively affecting your overall health, so instead of releasing itself for energy burning a toxic fat cell will simply remain).
This is where detoxification comes in – specifically, toxin targeted chelation. Chelation involves consuming a chelator (Zeolite, DMSA, EDTA) or foods/vitamins/herbs that have chelation properties (Cilantro, Garlic, Selenium, Vitamin C, Activated Charcoal etc.)
Once your body has become fat adapted, consider activating a detoxification process to grant access to the next layer of fat for burning.
Focus on Protein Rich Foods
The proteins you consume dramatically assist in the repair of body tissues including bone, muscle and cellar function. Various studies have shown that protein consumption can help with fat burning – but this comes with a warning: too much or too little protein can stall your fat burning engines. The majority of studies connecting protein consumption with increased fat burning point out that proteins help to prevent your body from storing fat – thus lowering total % of body fat over time. Protein rich foods also offer satiety, thus reducing the urge to eat promoting longer durations of fasting.
As with fat, these need to be clean proteins, so as not to add to underlying body toxicity, resulting in additional fat storage. Clean proteins include grass fed/grass finished red meats, wild caught small fish and organic free-range poultry. Clean proteins can also be found in nuts/seeds (chia, pumpkin, brazil/walnut etc.) and legumes (chick peas, beans, peas).
Avoid Healthy Sugars/Sugar Free Items
A study recently conducted in Europe found that beverages sweetened with sugar alternatives (i.e. those often labeled as “diet” or “sugar free” were linked to increased metabolic stress, cardiovascular strain and even increased death from chronic disease. The same study also found that beverages sweetened with sugar were directly linked to inflammatory bowel disorders and digestive disease.
Sugar is sugar no matter its organic or natural/raw label. The moment your sugar consumption equals or exceeds your protein/fat consumption, your body will turn off its fat burning ability as it shifts to dealing with the negative inflammatory effects of a high carbohydrate diet.
Skip A Meal (or Two)
Intermittent Fasting (IF) is a process where one consumes their food only within a certain period of the day. Human clinical trials and mice experiments have shown significant improvements in all areas of health as a result of daily intermittent fasting which provides anti-inflammatory effects and drastic benefits in the repopulating of the gut microbiome. Moreover, intermittent fasting has been shown to promote autophagy, a process where your body’s innate immune system selectively removes damaged cells, replacing them with new cells.
Here are a few methods of intermittent fasting to consider:
Alternate-day fasting – This is switching between days of normal eating (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner) and with Intermittent fasting (Lunch/Dinner or Dinner only) For example, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are IF and Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday/Sunday are normal eating.
Whole-day fasting – This is setting aside days for fasting within a week. For example, a “5:2” approach means fasting for two 24hr days each week and eating normally (either intermittently or breakfast/lunch/dinner) for the rest.
Time-restricted fasting – This method is the most effective and consists of consuming foods within an 8-hour window of each day (12-8pm for example) while the other hours (8pm-12pm) are used for fasting.