The blueprint to slim down that gut is finally here! Here’s your plan to getting lean around the middle in less than one month! You can thank us later.

Everyone – from the obese to bodybuilders – wants to lose fat. It’s one of the most common pursuits. We now have plenty of research showing that body fat is bad for our bodies and can lead to serious health conditions such as diabetes and heart disease. Burning fat and losing several inches around your waist might sound a bit hard, but, in the end, everybody can achieve this goal through proper dieting and exercise. Learn the best way how to get rid of love handles.

You do not need any fancy diet to lose two to four inches off your waistline.

Why?

Simple, you are about to learn the proven basic concept to training and dieting correctly for your fat loss needs. Before we get into it, though, let’s clarify some things so you have a better understanding behind certain techniques.

Weight Loss vs. Fat Loss

There is a difference between losing weight and losing fat. Understanding these differences will make your fat loss program more effective. Let’s look at weight loss first. This is what you really don’t want to happen. Body weight is the overall weight of your body. That includes everything from your blood to your bones, fat, muscles, organs and even your water weight. It’s the total amount you see when you step on the weight scale.

So if you lost five pounds according to the scale, how much of it was actually fat? You really wouldn’t know because all it says to you is five pounds of something has left your body. In the first couple of months, the primary weight you usually see being lost is water weight. Fat and muscle loss come after this phase, and maintaining the muscle is hard if you are going by weight loss instead of fat loss.

Fat loss is the amount of fat being lost from your body. The definition is plain and simple. This is what you want if you are looking to burn extra calories and lose fat. Although the measurements are only approximations, there are ways you can determine how much fat you have far better than if you used a weight scale.

How?

Many use devices such as fat calipers to get easy approximations of body fat percentage.

Why does this even matter?

Let’s take a look at a man that’s 5’10” and 200 pounds with 15% body fat. Then, let’s compare him to a man that is 5’10” 200 pounds with 45% body fat. On the weight scale they are apparently equal. In reality, we know enough to assume one guy is pretty muscular while the other is overweight. This just proves that weight scales are useless for most of us trying to diet and lose fat.

The Goal Is To Maintain Lean Muscle While Trying to Lose Weight

Losing fat effectively and quickly could be detrimental for people with muscle mass.

Why?

The reason is that your muscle could literally be used up as fuel for your body. It is naturally going to happen if your body is in a calorie deficit and runs out of glucose. Let’s try to break this down as simple as possible so you have an understanding of how energy is produced without reading through a bunch of research.

Carbohydrates are sugar, and sugar is glucose used by your body to produce energy through your metabolism. The exception would be fiber. This is indigestible carbs that leave your body. So if you see something that has a carb count of 20 grams, but 18 of those grams are fiber, then the actual carbs you count being consumed are 2 grams.

Glucose is stored throughout areas on your body such as your muscles and liver in the form of glycogen. Your body uses all this glycogen during the first phase of your training and, after it has been depleted, your body needs a new energy source. This energy would be from ketones created by fats in your body. However, muscle can possibly break down as well if you don’t keep focus on them with training and nutrients.

Yes, cardio is the primary method for losing fat. But, strength training is still required to maintain lean muscle mass. Don’t try to increase lean muscle gains because you are focusing on too many things if you do. Just maintain them until after your fat loss diet or cutting cycle.

Why Do Cardio Instead of Strength Training?

Some want to put the idea in the heads of others that strength training is going to boost lean muscle mass, which is going to burn a significant amount of calories throughout the day. Lean muscle gains are true, but the possibility of burning a lot of calories is not. Research shows that only six extra calories are burned per extra pound of muscle and two calories per pound of fat.

These are approximations obviously because calories can’t really be perfectly measured. But, it is definitely not 50 extra calories burned per pound of muscle. Nobody knows how this myth started, but people still believe it to this day. This shows you that strength training is great for what it is proven to do like boost muscle strength, endurance, power and bone health. But you shouldn’t expect it to be your savior when it comes to burning fat.

Cardio training, on the other hand, burns up to twice the amount of calories per hour when compared to weight training and the after-burn effect lasts up to 24 hours after training. The after-burn effect is basically when your body as a whole is intensely repairing itself from the physical training and uses much more calories to complete the process.

What Are Some Good Forms Of Cardio?

Cardio is a lot of other things besides just running on a treadmill or using a stationary bike. Doing purely this type of cardio is bad. Why? You will get bored pretty quickly. Other activities we often hear about are swimming, sprints and elliptical use. The problem is that the same thing applies. You need to keep things mixed up to keep the fat loss at its maximum.

You do so by actually incorporating strength training into cardio as a mixture. Sure you can do each separately, (resistance first and then cardio last). But, there is an even better solution. That better option is called HIIT. We have all heard of this before and people tend to look at it as a trend of some sort. Research says otherwise.

HIIT stands for High-Intensity Interval Training.

How does it work?

This is achieved when you change your training intensity to high, medium and low in an effort to keep your body in constant motion. Usually the low part is intended for those just starting out, or the last set following a medium intensity exercise.

And, the results speak for themselves. Studies show that only 15 minutes of HIIT is equal to jogging for 60 minutes on a treadmill. This goes to show that you if you aren’t doing HIIT, you are missing out on a training program that speeds up the amount of fat being lost.

What Exercises Are Used For HIIT?

If you want to burn fat and slash your waistline by a few inches, then you need to get your heart rate up through training. You can turn a lot of exercises into a beneficial HIIT workout. An example of a more cardio based HIIT workout would be:

Sprint for 200 yards

Jog for 10 minutes

Sprint for 100 yards

Jog for 5 minutes

1 minute of push-ups

1 minute of pull-ups

1 minute of squats

Sprint for 50 yards

Jog briskly for 2 minute cool down

Looks pretty hard? Well it honestly is. But you have to push yourself hard for a short period to get pretty awesome results. You can either do a workout routine similar to this such as CrossFit or spend one to two hours on a treadmill. The best option would be the HIIT so you can carry on with your day after only 15 to 20 minutes of exercise.

Your Diet Is The Most Important Factor

Burning calories is everything. But, the amount of calories you consume and the source they came from matters more. Dieting does not have to be a hard task. However, people do some of the most extreme things you can imagine just to lose fat and will consume just about all types of fat burners.

Sadly, those fad diets generally produce only short-term results. To this day, there is yet to be a magic fat loss pill. Instead of wasting your time, you can use the basic fundamentals for dieting to lose fat. And, the goods news is that these have been proven to work for most.

What Is The Calorie Deficit?

The calorie deficit means that you are taking in fewer calories than you are burning. This is a simple formula to live by when it comes to cutting fat. The total amount of calories going into your body should be less than the amount going out. This is what a calorie deficit is. How much? This depends on your current weight and goals. A 500-calorie deficit may be best for you since you want to lose two to four inches from your waist.

What you need to do is calculate what your daily calorie requirement is. How? Subtract how many calories you use in your training. Then subtract another 500 from the remaining calories that need to be consumed. This will tell you how much you need to eat for your new diet program.

According to research published by the Harvard Medical School, a simple 30-minute strength-training workout burns about of 90 calories for a 125-pound person, 112 calories for a 155-pound person and 133 calories for a 185-pound person.

Your Food Consumption Is Important!

What you eat matters a lot. If you need to consume 1,700 calories a day and you intend to get these calories through eating chips and cookies, then you need some serious coaching. Nutritious foods such as meats, poultry, veggies, fish, fruits, nuts and legumes are great for your body if purchased with minimum processing.

Processed foods have ingredients that cause fat gains and contribute to a number of medical conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. Stay away from packaged non-organic food as much as possible.

Flavored liquids are also an issue because almost all of them have lots of sugar that your body does not need. Yes, even fruit juice applies to this. It’s even advised that 100% fruit juice should be consumed only sparingly.

A Diet Low In Carbs Is Best.

Carbs are great for energy use, but you only need enough carbs to get you by while dieting. Extra carbs that become unused for energy get stored as fat. You definitely do not want that.

Non-starchy veggies are the best substitution for carbs during dinner and lunch if it is a non-training day. Grains, starchy veggies and fruits should be eaten sparingly throughout the day. Cheat days are the only exception. These are the days you can eat more carbs than you usually do to reset your metabolism for better fat loss and strength gains.

 

Burn Calories And Eat Less To Trim Your Waist

Eating less doesn’t mean eating only a few carrots a day. You need all the important nutrients for your body to function properly. But, you should be having fewer carbs than usual. As mentioned, start the calorie deficit at 500. You can decrease it further, if necessary. Just do not go past a 1,000-calorie decrease so that you don’t risk doing any harm to your body.

On the other hand, the calories being consumed need to be used in your training. You can easily accomplish this through HIIT followed by strength training if you wish to retain lean muscle.

Conclusion

There aren’t too many people on the planet that wouldn’t love to know how to drop a few inches off of their midsection. If you’re one of them, this is the plan for you. Just remember to stay committed and you’ll be leaner than ever—and the envy of all of your friends!

By Brian Pankau, CPT