Weight loss is all about burning fat, but how do you do that in a way that doesn’t harm your wellbeing? We’ve rounded up the best expert tips and scientifically proven facts to help you burn fat faster and look after your wellness in the process.
1. Drink Green Tea: Wellness expert Hallie Levine details, ‘Green tea isn’t known only for its cancer-fighting benefits: It may help boost your metabolism, too. People who took green-tea extract three times a day saw their metabolic rate increase by about 4%, according to a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.’ Joy Bauer, a New York City nutritionist and author of Cooking with Joy, comments that because green tea contains catechins, it increases your brain’s levels of the metabolism-speeding chemical norepinephrine.
2. Pump Iron: ‘A pound of muscle burns up to nine times the calories of a pound of fat,’ notes Richard Cotton, MA, chief exercise physiologist for myexerciseplan.com. Levine explains, ‘Weight training increases your resting metabolic rate, which is the number of calories you burn while sitting on your butt. What’s more, it gives your metabolism an added boost after you exercise: It remains in overdrive for up to two hours after the last bench press, according to a study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.’
3. Eat Iron: Samantha Heller, RD, a nutritionist at the New York University Medical Centre, warns, ‘If you don’t have enough of this mineral, your body can’t get enough oxygen to your cells, which slows down your metabolism.’ Good sources of iron include lean red meat, chicken, fortified cereal and soy nuts.
4. Drink Plenty of Water: ‘A new German study found that when you drink 17 ounces of water (about two glasses) within a certain time frame, your metabolic rate shoots up by about 30%,’ says Levine. ‘Using these results, they estimate that by increasing your current water intake by 1.5 litres a day, a person would burn an extra 17,400 calories a year, resulting in about a five-pound weight loss.’
5. Get Your Thyroid Checked: Pamela Peeke, MD, professor of medicine at the University of Maryland and author of Fight Fat After Forty, points out, ‘The thyroid gland controls your body’s metabolism, so one of the first signs that it may be off is an inability to lose weight.’
6. Avoid Alcohol: While everyone likes a glass of wine with dinner, drinking water instead can help keep your favourite meals from going straight to your hips. ‘Alcohol slows your metabolism by depressing the central nervous system,’ Levine states. ‘A British study found that when alcohol was added to a high-fat, high-calorie meal, less dietary fat was burned off and more was stored as body fat.’
7. Start Interval Training: Researchers at Laval University in Quebec have shown that high-intensity interval training burns more fat than regular, consistent aerobic exercise. Glenn Gaesser, PhD, director of the Kinesiology Programme at the University of Virginia and author of The Spark, recommends, ‘Even if you just have 10 minutes for a quick workout, you can walk at a normal pace and then add in a 30-second bout of speed-walking every three minutes.’
8. Consume More Calcium: A study published in the journal Obesity Research found that if you eat low-fat dairy products, such as non-fat yoghurt and low-fat cheese, three to four times a day, you can lose 70% more fat than low-dairy dieters. Study author Michael Zemel, MD, director of the Nutrition Institute at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, explains, ‘Calcium serves as a switch that tells your body to burn excess fat faster.’