How to Burn Fat Successfully

A sensible, successful fat-burning plan includes making smart nutrition choices, tackling a variety of cardiovascular exercises and building lean muscle through strength training. While committing to eating healthy or revving your heart rate or pumping iron will help you burn fat and rev up your metabolism, combining all three healthy activities will give you the greatest results in the shortest amount of time. Keep in mind that fat burning occurs all over the body; there is no way to spot train or choose where you lose fat when.

The Fat-Burning Trifecta

Step 1

In order to burn fat even when you are not exercising, consume foods and drinks that will boost your metabolism naturally. Milk, which contains calcium; whole grains, which contain fiber; hot foods, such as jalapeños and cayenne pepper; green tea, which contains a potent antioxidant; and lean proteins such as chicken and fish all help to burn fat. Plan your meals and eat often in order to stoke your metabolism and avoid the extreme hunger that often leads to unhealthy binges. Thirst sometimes feels like hunger, so make sure to drink plenty of water.

Step 2

Cardiovascular exercise will burn calories and will therefore expedite fat loss. Burning more calories than you consume is the key to losing weight and fat. Options for cardiovascular exercise include long, low-intensity workouts; medium-length, medium-intensity workouts; and short, high-intensity interval workouts. In any cardiovascular workout, make sure that your heart rate is at least 50 percent of its maximum (220 minus your age). The debate over whether high-, medium- or low-intensity cardiovascular exercise burns the most fat is ongoing. Running, walking, biking, swimming and jumping rope are examples of effective cardiovascular workouts.

Step 3

Strength training is the secret weapon in any fat-burning program. Strength training builds lean muscle, and lean muscle burns fat. Weight training increases your resting metabolism which means that, even if you are not moving, you are still burning calories. To get the most out of your strength training, focus on big body muscles such as those in the chest, back and legs. Perform exercises such as squats with rows or lunges with flys, which recruit multiple muscles from the top and bottom halves of the body.