Below are 16 ways you can fire up your fat burning before for the upcoming swimsuit season. Apply these tips and you'll soon find yourself looking damn fine in your Daisy Dukes or board shorts.
1. HYDRATE
Believe it or not, water is the best fat-burning agent on the market. Your liver, which processes fat, needs a lot of water to function well. Dehydration slows the fat-burning process down and has negative effects on your muscles and joints. If you want to beat dehydration, drink up!
I'm sure you've heard the advice: Drink eight glasses of water per day. Although that's a great starting point, your weight, diet, activity level, and even your altitude will influence your hydration needs. Judge how much you should be drinking by the color of your urine. If it's pale yellow to clear, then you're probably drinking enough water. If it's a darker shade of yellow, you need to do more water drinking.
Staying well hydrated can also keep you from feeling hungry. "Thirst is often mistaken for hunger," says Gaspari athlete Ashley Kaltwasser, an IFBB Bikini Pro. "If you're feeling hungry, you well could be slightly dehydrated. If you suspect this may be the case, drink a few glasses of water before you eat."
2. DON'T BE A CRASH-DIET DUMMY
Although fad crash diets like the grapefruit diet or the cabbage soup diet can help you slim down quickly, your leaner body won't last long. As soon as you introduce regular food back into your diet, you'll be worse off than you were before. Moreover, these crash diets are missing key nutrients that are essential for a healthy body.
Kaltwasser believes that using a diet you can maintain is the best way to lose fat. Sticking to a diet for longer than a week or two will help you burn fat faster and will allow you to maintain your lean physique for a long time.
3. EAT FREQUENTLY
Although it might seem like crazy talk, increasing the frequency of your meals can help you lean down. Don't get me wrong—eating frequently isn't as important as the quality of your food. Gaspari athlete Collin Wasiak, an IFBB Pro, says, "Quality is key. Complex carbs, healthy fats, and lean proteins spaced evenly throughout your day gives your metabolism a boost which in turn promotes fat loss." If you're still eating just three squares a day, it's time to change your routine.
Bodybuilding legend Rich Gaspari knows exactly how the frequency and quality of his meals will transform his body. "When my goal is to shed fat," he says, "I make sure I eat 6-8 times per day and keep my portions small. The increased meal frequency is great for boosting metabolism and I don't eat any meal so big that it's likely to store fat."
4. LIFT HEAVIER
I hear a lot of people claim that if you want to lose fat, you have to do more reps with lighter weight. Wait, you're telling me that you'll get more benefits from doing 20 reps of biceps curls with 10-pound dumbbells than 10 reps with 20-pound dumbbells? It doesn't make sense. The more muscle you have on your body, the more energy it takes your body to operate. Lily lifting is not the answer.
Your weight should always be challenging, but don't sacrifice good form for heavier weight.
Kaltwasser advises: "If you aren't using good form, you aren't stressing the muscles as you need to in order to receive good benefit." Without the mental connection to the muscle you're working during the exercise, you'll just be going through the movement pattern without stressing your muscles for growth.
5. EAT AFTER YOU TRAIN
The post-workout meal is critical for improving recovery, building muscle, and re-energizing after a tough lifting session. However, you can't rely on your post-workout nutrition to make your gains for you.
What you eat before you train and throughout your day is a huge factor in getting lean. In other words, if your nutrition isn't great, eating a protein-packed post-workout meal isn't going to do much.
One of Kaltwasser's favorite post-workout meals is a serving of cooked cream of rice mixed with a scoop of Gaspari Nutrition Cinnamon Roll Myofusion protein powder and a tablespoon of almond butter. This meal has it all: protein, carbs, and fats!
6. DO COMPOUND LIFTS
A great way to efficiently work more muscle fibers is to do compound lifts. Doing compound movements will allow you to lift more weight, creating a higher hormonal and metabolic response. That means more fat-burning for you!
Include lifts like the squat, deadlift, bench press, overhead press, and row in your program.
7. DO CARDIO
When Wasiak really wants to crank up fat burning and dial in for a show or a photo shoot, he uses cardio to help him get there. "Perform cardio after you lift, not before ," he explains. "Performing cardio post-workout has helped me increase my fat-burning potential because I'm burning through my glycogen stores."
Doing your cardio training after your lifting workouts also allows you to maintain the most energy for when you need it—during those big compound exercises.
Gaspari, on the other hand, has a different style. "I prefer to do cardio first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. When I want to get ripped, I start with 20-30 minutes five times per week. As fat loss slows, I add 10 minutes each cardio session. "
Everybody will have different needs and preferences for their cardio. Choose whichever method works best with your plan.
8. SHORTEN YOUR REST PERIODS
Gaspari lives by this rule. "In the weight room, I shorten my rest periods and use advanced techniques like supersets, compound sets, and dropsets to build muscle and burn fat."
"The key here is to keep training hard and heavy—don't trick yourself into thinking that you have to use really light weights and high reps. If you put your mind to it, you can still train just as heavy at a fast pace."
Wasiak also utilizes this technique to burn fat. "High intensity with shorter rest periods maximizes your efforts in the gym," he says.
"It has worked very well for me when I'm dieting down for a show and trying to lose those stubborn pounds of body fat."
When it comes to fat burning, intensity is the name of your game.
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