Fire Up Fat Loss In Time For Summer

When March hits, there’s no doubt that your mind turns to warmer temperatures, longer days and fewer layers. We’re still a couple of months from warmer temps, here in Vermont spring doesn’t start until mid-May. Getting ready for the beach and bathing suit weather? That starts now.

If you want to fire up your fat loss efforts in time for summer, start working on it now. There’s no need to deprive yourself or turn into the 2-a-day cardio queen to shed a couple of unwanted pounds if you give yourself time and do it right.

 

Stop Stressing

Part of focusing in now, in March, rather than in May, is because it’s far less stressful. Believe it or not, stress plays a significant role in fat loss (or lack there of).

First, stress can lead to stress eating — snacking and over-eating to deal with stress.

Second, your food choices can change if you are stressed. Instead of making rational, healthy choices, you reach for comfort food, often high in fat and sugar, to calm you down.

Third, stress signals your body to produce cortisol. Cortisol is a steroid hormone, a major regulator of blood sugar levels. Changes in the amount of cortisol in your system affects the way your body uses fuel for energy and it changes where fat is deposited (a tip off is excess fat around the belly).

Finally, stress is major factor in sleeplessness. Less sleep leads to fatigue which in turn signals the body to make more ghrelin, the “I’m hungry hormone”.

It all sounds like a dirty cycle, right?

 

 

Total Body Strength Training

Doing total body workouts do a few things:

They allow you to train each muscle group with more frequency while still allowing time to rest and recover. Training frequency is a factor in muscle growth – the more you use a muscle, the more it grows. The more muscle you have, the more fat your body can potentially burn through.

Full body movements require more energy and effort from more muscle groups. What that means is, you’ll be burning through more calories and fat than if you were performing isolated exercises.

 

Eat to Feel Better, Not to Be Skinnier

Firing up fat loss is not about eating a deprivation diet. Firing up fat loss is less about calories as it is about food.

I’ll say that again:

Fat loss is less about calories and more about food.

When you start to clean up your diet a month before your goal-line, you’re a) being unrealistic and b) being unfair.

Starting now let’s you focus on the right things:

• nutrients
• quality
• contentment

Nutrients

Start eating a little bit better every day, so that by the time summer rolls around your healthy diet feels natural. What can you eat more/less of today that gives you more nutrients?

Quality

There is a reason the nickname for junk food is junk food. Because it’s junk.

By definition, junk food has no value to your body, your health, or your fat loss goals. But we live in a time of abundance and it’s easier to find Pringles than it is to find whole grain bread. What can you substitute for a processed food that you commonly eat?

Contentment

Part of the reason those 1-month-dash diets don’t work is because they leave you feeling far from content. You never feel full, you never feel satisfied, you never feel like you ate something delicious. I’ve been there, done that, lived that, eaten that. Sucks, amiright?

Part of the reason starting now works is because you don’t have to 180 your diet. You don’t have to deprive yourself of the foods you love. You just have to learn to be smart about eating them.

 

Increase the Intensity

Part of the reason CrossFit is such an effective workout is because athletes are often working under a time limit. CrossFit purposefully packs a lot of work into a small amount of time to increase the intensity of the workout.

In essence: do more, get more results.

You can increase the intensity of your workouts a few ways:

• set a timer and work to complete as many sets or reps as possible within that limit
• decrease rest times
• substitute 1-2 minutes of cardio for rest periods
• do super sets, giant sets or circuits
• do more sets or reps of any given exercise

It doesn’t matter which route you choose, you’re still asking your body to do more. And your body will always respond to that request with change.

 

Take a Break

Last summer, when you started to workout a month before you hit the beach, how many breaks did you feel like you could take? None, right? When you’re that close to a goal-line and you’re just starting to prepare, it’s hard to feel like taking a rest day is beneficial.

But to continue to hit the gym hard and have the energy to move more and make healthy choices, you need to give your body some rest. You need to take a break, use recovery strategies (stretching, massage, light cardio, yoga, swimming), and maintain your health.