Last Updated on November 19, 2024 by Helena Akter
Are you fed up with extra body fat that makes you feel slow and uncomfortable about how you look? If you’re trying to shed body fat quickly, you’re in good company. Many people face the challenge of stubborn fat that seems impossible to lose.
Getting rid of body fat fast is key to not only looking and feeling better but also improving your health. When you lose the extra fat, you lower the risk of various diseases, have more energy, and enjoy a higher quality of life. But it’s important to focus on losing fat, not just weight, which can often come from muscle loss in crash diets.
In this guide, we’ll show you the best ways to improve the balance between fat and muscle. We’ll cover everything from what to eat and how to exercise to other lifestyle tweaks that can help your body burn fat rather than muscle.
Why Is Body Fat Important?
Body fat is crucial for your body to work correctly. In fact, Here’s why it’s important —
- Health Risks: Too much body fat can lead to health problems like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, joint issues, and some cancers. However, too little fat is also harmful.
- Brain Function: Fat makes up about 60% of your brain, showing how vital it is for brain health.
- Energy Supply: Just like proteins and carbs, fat is a key energy source for your body.
- Body Functions: Fat helps with hormone regulation, keeping your body warm, supporting your immune system, helping with reproduction, managing insulin, and absorbing nutrients.
- Vitamin Absorption: Vitamins A, E, D, and K need fat to be absorbed well by your body.
So, a balanced amount of body fat is essential for staying healthy and supporting your body’s many functions.
Best Way To Lose Body Fat Fast to Maintain Your Health
Our research team talked with multiple industry-renowned nutritionists and physicians to figure out ways to lose a chubby belly. And finally, we’ve ended up with a mix of the most effective 12 ways.
So, let’s check them out.
1. Eat More Protein
Adding foods high in protein to your meals can help you feel fuller, cut down your appetite, and burn more body fat. Studies suggest that high-quality protein lowers the risk of storing fat around the stomach.
High protein diets can also keep your muscles strong and your metabolism high when you’re losing weight. By eating more protein, you might find you eat less throughout the day, which can help with weight loss.
Plus, if you’re searching for something good to eat, consider adding more meat, eggs, beans, seafood, and dairy to your meals.
2. Avoid Highly Processed Foods and Sugars
Typical American diets contain nearly 60% processed food calories. And they’re bad for body fat. Surprisingly, it’s not just meat that’s filling us with fats but also bread, baked goods, and sauces.
Besides, these foods are packed with unhealthy fats and large amounts of sugar and salt, making them tempting and easy to overeat. Foods like pastries, doughnuts, and chips contribute to this problem.
Americans consume 152 pounds of refined sugar each year, affecting blood sugar levels and increasing insulin, which in turn can increase fat storage. These sugars add calories without nutrients, causing your body to use stored fat as energy when you eat less.
3. Eat More Fiber
Eating foods rich in soluble fiber can help slow down digestion, making you feel full longer. Studies show that adding more fiber to your diet can help prevent weight gain and reduce fat storage.
Among 1114 adults in a study, adding 10 grams of soluble fiber daily for five years led to about 3.7% loss of belly fat without changing diet or exercise. Another study found that adding 14 grams of fiber each day helped people eat 10% fewer calories and lose about 4.4 pounds over four months.
To burn fat and lose weight, try eating more fruits, vegetables, beans, whole grains, nuts, and seeds.
4. Choose Healthy Fats
Instead of cutting all fats from your diet, eat more healthy fats and cut back on the most unhealthy foods, too. Healthy fats, like polyunsaturated fats, can slow down digestion and make you feel more satisfied after eating.
You can find these good fats in fish, avocados, olives, olive oil, eggs, nuts, and dark chocolate. Try to avoid trans fats, which are in fried foods, vegetable shortening, margarine, and many processed snacks, because they’re bad for your health.
Moreover, you can also eat healthy foods to help you with your weight loss goals.
5. Eat Before Sleeping
Your body uses amino acids from your muscles for energy while you sleep because it’s not getting food. So, losing muscle can slow down your metabolism, making it harder to lose fat. Eating before bed ensures your body uses nutrients from your food instead of your muscles.
So, choose proteins or fats instead of carbs for your pre-sleep snack. Good choices include low-fat cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, natural peanut butter, nuts, flaxseed oil, and casein protein powder. These foods digest slowly and can help keep your metabolism active overnight.
Casein protein, in particular, is known to help with overnight fat burning. Try eating 8 ounces of low-fat cottage cheese, a tablespoon of natural peanut butter, or a scoop of casein protein powder before bed.
6. Get More Sleep
Sleeping a little longer each night can increase fat burning and help avoid weight gain. Research links enough sleep to weight loss. For example, a study found women who slept five hours or less a night for 16 years were more likely to gain weight than those who slept over seven hours.
Another study found that women who slept well and for at least seven hours a night were 33% more likely to lose weight in a six-month program. Not sleeping enough can make you feel hungrier, change your hunger hormones, and raise your risk of becoming overweight.
While everyone’s sleep needs vary, sleeping at least seven hours a night is generally connected with maintaining a healthy weight. It’s best to reduce caffeine in the afternoon and limit screen time before bed if you want to sleep better.
7. Choose Healthier Drinks
Switching from drinks full of empty calories, like juice and soda, to healthier options can easily help you burn more fat. These sugary drinks add calories but don’t have much nutritional value. Besides, alcohol not only adds calories but can also make you eat more by lowering your self-control.
Cutting down on these drinks can help you lower your calorie intake and keep your waistline slim. Try drinking water or green tea instead. In one study, people who drank 17 ounces of water before meals lost more weight over 12 weeks than those who didn’t.
Green tea is another good choice. It has caffeine and antioxidants that might help you burn fat and boost your metabolism. For example, one study found that green tea extract increased fat burning by 12% compared to a placebo.
Just replacing a couple of high-calorie drinks with water or green tea each day is an easy step toward burning more fat.
8. Choose Fruits That Help Burn Fat
It’s rare to hear about someone gaining weight from fruits like berries and bananas. While not all fruits are the same, some can help you lose body fat fast. For example, a San Diego study showed that grapefruit juice or half grapefruit eaten three times daily led to weight loss of four pounds.
This might be because grapefruit can lower insulin levels and increase your metabolism. Apples are also great for losing fat, particularly around your stomach, in part because of the polyphenol antioxidants they contain.
Try adding half a grapefruit to your breakfast and lunch, and eat a large apple before you exercise. An apple has about 30 grams of slow-releasing carbs, making it an excellent snack before working out.
9. Do More Cardio Workouts
Cardio, or aerobic exercise, includes activities that get your heart rate up. Adding cardio to your daily routine is a great way to burn more fat. Research shows that people who do more cardio lose more belly fat. It can also help you gain muscle, reduce your waist size, and lower your overall body fat.
Experts suggest going for 150 to 300 minutes of moderate to intense cardio every week. It breaks down to about 20 to 40 minutes a day. Running, walking, biking, and swimming are great cardio activities that can help you lose weight and burn fat.
10. Give High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) a Go
High-Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT, mixes short, intense bursts of exercise with brief rest periods to keep your heart rate up. It’s proven to be a powerful method to increase fat loss and help in weight loss. Plus, you should eat heart healthy foods to stay fit.
A study found that young men who did HIIT workouts three times a week lost about 4.4 pounds without modifying their diet or lifestyle. They also saw a significant drop in belly fat and waist size.
HIIT can help you burn more calories in less time compared to other exercises. Research found that HIIT could burn up to 30% more calories than jogging or biking for the same duration. Starting HIIT can be as simple as alternating between fast walking and sprinting for 30 seconds each.
You can also mix in exercises like burpees, push-ups, or squats with short breaks in between.
11. Try Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting alternates between times of eating and not eating. Studies suggest it can help you lose weight and fat. For example, one study found that fasting on alternate days for 3 to 12 weeks can reduce body weight by up to 7% and cut body fat by up to 12 pounds.
The study also found that eating within 8 hours helped lower fat without losing muscle, especially when combined with weight training.
There are various ways to do intermittent fasting. Some methods involve fasting on certain days of the week, while others limit eating to specific hours each day. Some well-known methods include Eat Stop Eat, the Warrior Diet, the 16/8 method, and the 5:2 diet.
Choose a method that suits your lifestyle and feel free to try out different approaches to see what fits you best.
12. Enjoy Your Coffee
Coffee isn’t just a morning ritual; it’s also great for burning fat, thanks to caffeine, a common ingredient in fat-burning supplements. Caffeine stimulates your nervous system, speeds up your metabolism, and helps break down fats. Studies have found that caffeine can boost your metabolism by 3–11% for a short time.
Plus, an extensive study involving over 58,000 people showed that those who drank more caffeine gained less weight over 12 years. Another study linked high caffeine consumption to better success in keeping weight off in over 2,600 people.
For the healthiest cup of coffee, leave out the sugar and cream. Try it black or with just a little milk to keep the calorie count low.
How To Lose Body Fat Fast And Get Lean
In addition to these steps, you can also follow them to get lean and lose body fat fast.
- Eat four to five small meals throughout the day, about 3 to 4 hours apart, to ensure your metabolism stays high.
- Drink lots of water.
- Stay away from high-fat and high-sugar foods.
- Don’t skip meals or fast to lose weight, as this can slow down your metabolism.
- Do weight training to build lean muscle.
- Add low-intensity aerobic exercises, like stationary biking, for 30 minutes a day, 3-4 days a week.
- Follow a meal plan with 65-70% carbs, 15-20% protein, and 10-15% fat.
- Aim to lose 1 to 2 pounds a week. You could lose muscle, not get enough calories, or miss out on essential nutrients if you lose weight fast.
- Plan your meals ahead of time and set specific times for eating each day.
- Get 8 hours of sleep a night to prevent overtraining and give your body time to recover.
Potential Side Effects of Rapid Weight Loss
Losing more than 1 to 2 pounds a week can lead to muscle, water, and bone density loss and isn’t usually advised. Quick weight loss can also cause —
- Diarrhea
- Tiredness
- Constipation
- Gallstones
- Nausea
- Gout
Plus, if you lose weight too fast, you’re more likely to gain it back quickly. It’s best to talk to your doctor about safe ways to lose weight.
Conclusion
To lose body fat fast while staying healthy, try mixing different approaches into your daily routine. Start by eating more protein and avoiding foods that are highly processed or full of sugar.
Make sure you get enough sleep and drink healthier choices like water or green tea. Adding fruits that help burn fat, doing cardio exercises, giving high-intensity interval training (HIIT) a go, and considering intermittent fasting can all make a big difference. Drinking coffee might also help speed up your metabolism.
We suggest you try these tips to see which ones fit you best. It’s all about making changes that feel right for you, without any stress.
FAQs
Who should avoid rapid weight loss?
Rapid weight loss isn’t recommended for children, teenagers, pregnant women, and older adults due to health risks. Always talk to a doctor before starting a weight loss plan to make sure it’s safe for you.
How long does it usually take to lose weight?
The CDC suggests trying to lose 1 to 2 pounds a week for lasting results. How fast you can lose weight depends on your age, health, sleep, genetics, and other factors. To lose a pound a week, you typically need to reduce your daily calories by 500 through diet changes or exercise.
What’s the quickest way to lose weight safely?
To lose weight at a steady pace, cut down on your calorie intake and increase your physical activity. Aim for at least 150 minutes of exercise a week and eat 500 calories less each day to potentially lose about 1 pound per week.
