* Get rid of fat around your waist for the summer
* Quick tweaks to your routine will get you shredded
* Anyone can do these moves with minimal equipment
When the sun comes out for the summer each year, so do all the beautiful people with their flat stomachs and shredded abs. Having a tight midsection isn’t everything, but it sure does look nice at the pool or beach. Besides, abs are always in style.
Working to earn these lean muscles requires hard work and discipline. Sorry, there’s no way around that. However, there are easy tweaks and tips to follow that will make your workout routine more efficient in burning fat. Whether you just started working out last week or you consider yourself a veteran of the weight room, try to incorporate some of these movements and dietary suggestions for fat loss on a large scale — or just for that last stubborn layer.
1. Keep Moving
Traditional workouts have taught us that we need time to rest in between sets. This is not necessarily true. Nix the time between sets when you’re texting your friends, scrolling through Instagram or picking the next song. Instead, use this time to perform simple movements designed to keep your heart rate elevated. The output of energy for these movements should be much lower than your actual sets. This is called an active rest period. Things like jumping rope, pushups, lunges or planks are all great active rest exercises. When the name of the game is burning calories, you want to focus on keeping your heart pumping and letting the fat melt away.
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2. Sauna or Steam Room
The ever-so-popular “lazy man’s workout” is one of the best ways to reduce water weight and make your skin more transparent, revealing the muscle underneath. This works best if you’re someone already at an intermediate level of fitness with some muscle on your frame, but you just can’t get rid of that last layer of fat. The sauna or steam room will not fix all of your problems though. Don’t be the person who wants an amazing body, but won’t give an amazing effort. Come to the sauna or steam room only to keep that sweat rolling for an extra 15-20 minutes. As you heat up and sweat, your pores on the surface of your skin open up and release water. Weigh yourself before and after to see how much you lose. Research also shows that the more sessions per week you can get in, the better off your cardiovascular health will become and it will promote overall longevity.
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3. Fasted Workouts
Your body needs food for energy right? Well the idea here is to workout in the morning as soon as your feet hit the floor and utilize the fat that your body spent all night storing for energy, rather than using the easier accessed carbohydrates you ate for breakfast. When there are no carbohydrates to turn into energy, your body will naturally target stored fat. This way you can start off your day at a calorie deficit and manage your diet accordingly throughout the day. For beginners, this trick will usually yield the most visible results in a shorter period of time. Any aerobic activity before your breakfast is bound to break down fat in your problem areas. Going for a run, performing any HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) or a simple bike ride will suffice. Try to workout for at least half an hour for this method to work properly.
4. Start Your Workout With a Walk
Sounds easy, right? Wrong…its extremely easy. This is probably the best place to start for beginners embarking on their fitness journey, but is also super effective for seasoned athletes. Plus, all the time you spend scrolling through your phone, texting, answering emails or listening to podcasts can be done while you’re burning fat. Walking on an inclined treadmill for at least half an hour before your workout will raise your heart rate to baseline level that will be more manageable to maintain throughout your workout. Sometimes its hard to start a workout cold, but warming up with an incline walk makes that transition very smooth.
5. Portioned Diet and Water Management
From a dietary standpoint, all bodies are different and will react to diets in different ways. This diet simply takes your everyday diet and stretches it out so that you’re not telling your metabolism to process so much food at once. Try to eat five to six meals per day rather than the traditional three. That means eat approximately every three hours. Each of these meals should be much smaller though. Palm-sized portions is a good rule of thumb to use and if you get snacky between meals, drink a tall glass of water to satisfy that urge instead. You should be consuming approximately one gallon of water today for healthy metabolic function and thus, fat loss. Plenty of water will also promote skin health.