Program your body to burn fat

Most people want to lead a healthy lifestyle and follow a good diet pattern and training program to make them feel better and provide a sense of wellness. But ultimately people also do these things to look good. Achieving a slim, toned and strong body is the underlying aim of most people’s efforts. But, despite this desire to look and feel great, the body fat percentages of many of the population are steadily on the rise. People are more interested in their health now than ever before and millions of pounds a year is spent on diet books and different diet products. So with all this hype and all these products and fool proof plans available why do obesity levels continue to rise at such a dramatic rate?

Simple answer….what people are trying clearly DOES NOT WORK. There is no quick fix to healthy living; it requires the correct lifestyle choices to be made continuously for as long as you want to feel fit, healthy and well.

So put down the diet books, stop reading about the latest celebrity fads and start programming your body to burn that excess fat in a healthy, natural way.

Learn to love fat

After years of being told that a low fat diet is best, I am going to need you to completely alter your opinion on this essential nutrient. Fat will not make you fat. It will not directly cause heart disease and will not cause you to suffer a sudden heart attack. Change your relationship with fat and you’re already on the path to reprogramming your body and providing it with the essential nutrients it needs to function correctly.

You need to look a lot closer at the body to understand what causes accumulation of unwanted fat….and by closer I mean microscopically close….to hormones! To save boring you with too much confusing information I will briefly summarise as much as I feel you need to know in order to reprogram your bodies.

Insulin

The key hormone i’m talking about is insulin. Managing your insulin levels is key as if done correctly insulin can help you maintain lean muscle mass (great for metabolism) but if insulin levels are allowed to go haywire so will your waist line (along with your mood and energy levels!). Insulin encourages your body to store fat and inhibits it from utilising your fat stores for energy.

Control your blood sugar

Controlling your insulin response requires control of blood sugar levels. This relates not only to what you are eating but when and how often you are eating. You should never allow your body to be hungry, as the hunger signal is a sign that your blood sugar has dropped too low. Eat to prevent hunger rather than eating because you are already hungry. This will also help you to make good food choices when it comes to eating.

Tip: Keep a small hunger diary so you can pin point times in the day that you have your slump and can prepare to avoid it by carrying small snacks with you or ensuring you have a meal prepared in time.

Eating nutrient poor refined carbohydrates will play havoc with your insulin levels. Protein and fat have a much less insulin stimulating effect than carbohydrate does so ensure all meals and snacks contain a protein and/or healthy fat source to keep insulin levels steady. Foods with high fibre content will also help to release energy slowly to avoid highs and lows.

Reintroduce fat

Following a low fat diet causes a form of eating that stimulates excessive insulin release which I hope you now understand is counter productive and why low fat diets don’t work. Despite the fact you are going to be lacking in essential nutrients from a low fat diet you are also going to struggle to lose weight, maintain a healthy body composition and feel good.

People tend to shy away from fat when they see that it contains more than twice as many calories per gram than carbohydrate (7kcal/g and 4kcal/g, respectively). However, fat has a very strong satiating effect and will keep you feeling full for 3 times longer than carbohydrate. Snacking on processed carbohydrate foods (cereal bar ring any bells..?) may mean you are eating fewer calories in that one snack, but over the day you’re likely to eat more due to a greater frequency of hunger pangs. This type of food will also be stored in a way you don’t want….as excess fat!

By introducing more healthy fat sources into your diet you are going to help to reprogram your body to use fat as a source of fuel. To put it simply, your metabolism will either be set to ‘sugar burn’ or to ‘fat burn’ depending on whether you decide to feed it refined, processed carbohydrate foods or give it what it really needs. A fat burning metabolism is more sustainable, seeing as there is enough fat stored on the average human body to fuel 3.5 days of constant running at marathon pace. It is also healthier for your body, as blood sugar highs and lows that cause excessive insulin secretion are inevitably linked to type 2 diabetes and the numerous health concerns that come hand in hand with this increasingly prevalent disease.

So to avoid myself going off on a tangent and overloading everyone with far too much information I will quickly summarise the key things you should consider to reprogram you metabolism from sugar burner to fat burner. Ensure to keep your blood sugar levels maintained by avoiding refined carbohydrates and including plenty of protein, healthy fats and fibre rich foods in your diet. Avoid hunger and ensure you always have a snack to hand – that isn’t a sugar-laced cereal bar disguised as a ‘diet food’. And finally, get rid of the mentality that ‘low fat is best’. 

I hope you enjoy your next meal, which with the reintroduction of fat will undoubtedly taste great! J