Are your pants that normally fit so well suddenly tight? Does the scale show significantly more weight than before the pandemic? No wonder: with the home office and no meaningful social activities, we lack the movement we would otherwise have in everyday life. Some kilos add up quickly.
But that doesn’t have to be the case – those that stimulate fat burning can also increase your calorie intake at home and effectively counteract weight gain:
Fat burning tips: get enough sleep
Getting enough sleep is essential to increase fat burning. This may seem absurd at first glance – after all, you are comfortably lying in bed instead of moving around and burning a lot of calories as a result. Sleep and recovery are essential for the body so that all processes develop without interruption. If you lack sleep, fat burning won’t work optimally either.
Also, tired people tend to consume excessive amounts of fast food. The body tries to make up for the lack of energy with readily available calories. That is why pizza, kebab, chocolate, or French fries seem tempting when we do not sleep well and find it difficult to control ourselves. Also, sleeping too little increases the concentration of stress hormones. This can also lead to the fact that we quickly turn to sugary or fatty foods to do “something good” for ourselves supposedly. But we are disrupting fat burning.
By the way, some people find it difficult to find their way to bed at night: for example, you scroll through social media feeds or lose track of time while watching your favorite series. Psychologists speak of the phenomenon of inverse postponement of bedtime, a kind of postponement of bedtime out of revenge. The phenomenon especially affects people who have little time to themselves during the day and at night have the feeling that they have to somehow make up for the lost free time by staying up late.
The problem: Most of the time, you are so exhausted that you do nothing at night that does you good and relaxes you, and the next day you are tired and upset that you did not fall asleep earlier. As understandable as the desire to have some time to yourself at night is: if you stay up (too) long, you are hurting yourself and your fat metabolism.
Fat burning tips: drink water, water, water (and green tea)
If you want to burn fat, make sure you drink enough fluids. When the body lacks water, some processes slow down, and fat burning can also stop. The German Nutrition Society recommends drinking around 1.5 liters of water a day. However, the amount varies from person to person: those who do many sports and sweat a lot need more fluids than those who sit all day. The feeling of thirst also varies from person to person: some get by with very little liquid, others only feel good after drinking three or four liters.
Water is best suited to meet fluid needs: it does not contain calories and is available in good quality everywhere. On the other hand, soft drinks should not be used to quench thirst, as they are high in calories. For this reason, juices should only be enjoyed very diluted. However, you can access green tea: Researchers have found that it can increase calorie consumption by up to four percent by stimulating fat burning. Lemon water is also said to stimulate fat metabolism. Also, if you drink something before eating, you often don’t eat as much, as the stomach is already somewhat full of fluid.
It’s also exciting that scientists are on the trail of the phenomenon that drinking water increases calorie burn. In this case, men get more calories from fats they need to burn, while women get more from carbohydrates. It is not yet clear why this is so and why water increases calorie intake in the first place. However, it seems to play a role that the water is colder than body temperature, and the body uses energy, that is, calories, to maintain its temperature.
Fat burning tips: get moving
Safe – Exercise is crucial to boost fat burning. What you choose is up to you: Do moderate endurance sports, stimulate your metabolism in the long term, but above all, burn fat over time. With high-intensity interval training (HIIT) you can use up a lot of energy in a short time, but you don’t train for that long.
The results of the research on which of the two variants
more strongly stimulates fat burning are inconclusive. Therefore, you should choose the variant that gives you the most pleasure. For endurance sports, for example, walking, cycling, and running are suitable. Exercises like burpees, jumping jacks, and jumping rope is ideal for HIIT. You should also do strength training because muscles use energy even when at rest to boost your metabolism.
Fat Burning Tips: Don’t Cut Fat From Your Diet
Your body needs what is known as essential fats to function optimally. Therefore, do not eliminate fatty and healthy foods from your menu; continue eating fatty products like nuts, fatty fish, or avocados. What interrupts fat burning is the more readily available carbohydrates, such as those found in white flour and sweets. The body can use these calories quickly and therefore does not turn to stored fat when it needs energy. This becomes a particular problem for fat burning if eaten between meals. In this case, the body repeatedly receives easily usable energy and does not draw on its reserves.
You should also stay away from diets – they usually only bring short-term success, but they often ensure that metabolism, and thus fat burning as well, go into savings mode. That is why many people weigh even more after a diet than before. Instead, eat a balanced diet, eat plenty of fiber, and replace white flour with whole-grain products. With them, the body takes longer to use the energy they contain.
Fat Burning Tips: Harness the Power of Cold
The cold can stimulate fat burning in several ways: If you turn the heat down a little, your body must use more energy to maintain temperature. We are no longer used to being in cool rooms. Therefore, your body may first have to learn to regulate its temperature again. So that it is not too uncomfortable, you can gradually lower the temperature: if you have always worked in the home office to 22 degrees, try what a temperature of 20.5 degrees feels like.
In addition, the cold causes the brown fat to be activated. Unlike white fat, which is common in the body and stores energy, brown fat burns energy to maintain body temperature. This is one of the reasons why it is advantageous to expose yourself to the cold from time to time, for example, in a cool room or a cold shower. However, the percentage of brown fat in adults is meager, so you should use the cold as a side effect, but not focus on it as the main focus to burn fat.
