4 Insanely Helpful Fat-Loss Tips For Summer!
Summer is just around the corner which means..
Cookouts.
Beautiful weather.
The beach.
Your summer wardrobe.
And that bathing suit!
With all these things in mind, you're ready to shred some fat.
You're ready to look and feel your best this summer.
Here at DSC, we've got your back!
In fact, we were just named the #1 gym in N.H. again because of our ability to help our members transform their health and results.
Let's get into our 4 tips that will help you lose fat and feel your best this summer!
1| Get started NOW!
Not tomorrow.
Not on Monday.
Not next week.
There is no time like the present and why not start moving towards your goals now?
You don't need permission.
Zig Ziglar said it best, "You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great!"
So how do you get started?
Getting results is all about getting started.
So where exactly should you start?
Start small.
Even the simplest of things like cutting out soda from your diet or going for a 20-minute walk a few times per week is progress and it's progress in the right direction.
Which brings us to the rest of our list.
2| Track Your Food
When it comes to fat-loss and getting into the best shape of your life, nutrition is key!
Yes it is true, you cannot out-exercise a bad diet and you certainly cannot shred fat with poor or inconsistent nutrition.
One of the best ways to improve your diet and eat for fat-loss is to start tracking your food. This simply means recording everything you eat and drink throughout the day.
And the research agrees.
One study gave over 1,000 participants a heart healthy diet and exercise regimen.
Over the course of the study participants lost an average of 13lbs.
Here's the kicker though: the participants who tracked what they ate lost an average of 18lbs where participants who did not track what they ate lost an average of 9lbs. That's a BIG difference in weight-loss achieved just by simply tracking their food.
There are a few ways to track like keeping a good old-fashioned food journal, but we recommend using an app like My Fitness Pal which will break down how much of each food you're eating (carbs, fats, proteins, sugar, fiber, etc) and your total calories for you.
This is a key component of our Nutrition Coaching Programs here at DSC where our coaches help guide you to how much of each food you should be eating on a daily basis to lose fat and perform at your highest level in and out of the gym.
Some very important things happen when you start tracking your food and beverage intake:
1) You start to eat less
Tracking can really open your eyes to the amount of food that you are not only eating but overeating.
When tracking, you're going to be less likely to eat that extra dessert or indulge in an additional spoonful of peanut butter. These once mindless additions to your day add up quick and can easily account for an additional 200-600 calories per day. This is bad news for losing fat.
2) You increase your consistency
If you want to lose fat, you need to create a calorie deficit. This means we need to burn off more calories than we consume.
When you track you will get a great idea of where your calories end up each day.
This is key for fat-loss. If you're calories end up where you want them to be one day, only to be too high the next day, it's going to be very hard to lose fat.
Tracking will allow you to be consistent throughout the week and allow you to continually work towards your goals and lose fat.
3| Join a Group Training Class
So what is the best type of exercise for fat-loss?
Running?
Weight training?
High-intensity cardio?
Yoga?
Well the research can't quite decide. Yes, there may not be ONE best type of exercise for fat-loss which is a big reason we implement such a variety of exercises and workouts here at DSC.
The research on exercise and fat-loss can agree on one thing though:
The most impactful mode of exercise on fat-loss is exercise done in a group or with other people.
Yes, you will lose more fat working out in a group setting than trying on your own.
Study after study, and the hundreds upon hundreds of transformations at DSC show that exercising in a group setting improves all aspects of fat-loss like:
Your workout consistency ↑
The effort you put in during your workouts ↑
How long your workouts last ↑
The intensity of your workouts ↑
The amount of calories burned during your workouts ↑
The team, support and friendly competition aspect of group training pushes our members to new levels.
Not only do they enjoy their workouts more (a key component to consistency) but they workout harder than ever before leading to some incredible fat-loss results!
4| Think Long-Term
One reason people struggle to see the results they want is that they fail to think long-term.
They want instant changes without enjoying the process.
Improving your health isn't an overnight thing, it's a lifelong thing.
Thinking short term (how can I lose this weight the quickest -- insert crash diet) can yield results but often times results in the individual putting the weight they lost back on, and then some!
Thinking quick fix can cause you to jump from diet to diet, program to program, gym to gym when you don't see the results you want.
Or you quit all together.
Most often all you needed was time as you didn't give yourself a chance to improve and build momentum toward your goals.
Instead, start with a big goal (ie - My goal is to lose 50lbs) and then break that goal up into small, manageable goals (ie - My goal is to go to the gym 3x/week, track my food daily, drink more water) that help you move towards your big goal.
Understand that it's a process and that it's about small daily wins that add up to BIG results.