So…you wanna lose weight the easy way? I think every Personal Trainer and Health Care professional in the world loves it when largely overweight people who have spent years indulging themselves on every kind of food you could think of, no exercise, and sitting down rather than doing anything say they want to lose weight but don’t want to exercise. A quick fix is never the answer and in most cases it can take a dangerous turn.
Today I want to talk about Fat burners and their place in your life. Many people go on fat burners and don’t understand exactly how they work. The same way people start crash diets without understanding what the “crash” part means. There are a few things you need to ask yourself before you even consider taking a fat burner.
The biggest is…WHY?.
What do you think a fat burner is going to do that proper eating and exercise won’t? If the reason you are considering a fat burner is because you don’t have time to exercise then give up now. Every single (good) fat burner on the market will tell you with a teeny tiny little * at the bottom of the packaging that they are to be consumed along with regular diet and exercise. Those that don’t will not work at all and you should probably chuck them in the bin.
Diet.
When I use the word “diet” I don’t mean all the crazy grapefruit, lemon juice, green food diets. I mean, all clean, fresh foods. It’s not rocket science. If its covered in crumbs and fried…it’s not clean. If its grilled with nothing added but maybe salt and pepper…its clean. If its dripping in oil, or sauce, or cream…it’s not clean. If its steamed or fresh like salad, its clean. Clean foods are what we USED to eat before someone invented tomato sauce and thought to put it on everything including fritz which is made of god knows what and has no nutritious value whatsoever! Yet we put it in our kids lunch boxes and wonder why they’re so crabby at the end of a long day, trying to learn and running around like chickens with their heads cut off at recess and lunch! Have a long good hard look at your diet. Do you think that what your eating is:
- Enough for your body to have energy for an entire day just doing what your currently doing now?
- Lacking because you never have energy and your always tired and when you get home you binge?
- Making you bloated?
- Excessive?
If you need help with some ideas for food, you should see a nutritionist, or do some research yourself. The internet has everything you need to know about everything these days. Just like high school though, make sure you look at a few sources and don’t just use the one! Calorie King is a site that has been around for years telling people exactly what is in your favourite foods and snacks. From the fat content of a banana to how many calories are in a single ferrero rocher, you can look up how much fat your putting in your body and how you can cut back. Not only for yourself but for those you love around you too. If it seems too hard, book in with a trainer and they can do it all with you. Having someone educated in how your body uses food for fuel is a great tool to have on hand.
Sleep.
How much sleep do you get a night? You need to be having 7.5-8 hours of good healthy uninterrupted sleep. The best way to get this is to take everything electrical out of your room. Cover up your windows so there is no light at all, and watch how quickly your sleeping changes. I was at a lecture a few years ago where the speaker was talking about a study they had done. In this study they had subjects sleeping in a bed, and they shined a torch on parts of their body while they were sleeping. In nearly every case, the subject’s sleep either became lighter, and more interrupted, or they woke up as soon as the light touched them. Your body naturally rises with the sun, it’s how it has been programmed. However, your body cannot distinguish between sunlight, and the light of a TV, an outside light or a torch. So cover up those blinds, hide those flashing alarm clocks because good sleep, also helps with lesser stress levels which also helps with weight loss but more importantly healthy life.
These are the two most important key factors to weight loss. If you have high stress levels from no sleep and hardly any food, using a fat burner which elevates your heart rate, and in most cases with high levels of caffeine-like chemicals in them make sleeping impossible, your body will be dehydrated and leave you jittery for hours causing your body stress!
Make an Action Plan.
Sit down with a trainer. It can be a one off. You don’t have to commit to 100 sessions a week. Get them to help you work out an action plan. Ways that you can change your diet, change your routines and make your sleeping better. The long term aim is not only to make you 10kg’s lighter, but also to help you make it to 80 without any serious health risks. Making an action plan now, could save you from having diabetes or even a heart attack later.
Make a Commitment.
Now that you have your action plan, I dare you to make a commitment to work hard at sticking with your new healthy diet and sleeping plan for at least half as long as it took you to become unhealthy. For example, if over 2 years, you put on 20kg’s like I did, I want you to make a commitment to spend 1 year trying to work it off naturally. By this I mean, your above action plan, plus regular exercise. If by the end of that year, you are still not getting results, and you have been working really really hard. Honestly hard. As hard as you can possibly work and know that you did everything you could humanly do to lose the weight and there are a few kilos that just won’t budge. Then go for a fat burner….or a health care professional cos you might just be at a healthy weight, and you might not get any thinner!
Fat Burners.
The whole purpose for fat burners originally were to help bodybuilders lose the final weight before their competitions. Some of these guys have 5% body fat. You are not a bodybuilder. You’re a mum, an admin worker, or a tradesman. These people are putting their bodies through things, you would not be willing to put your body through. Having said that, I know that with all the advice in the world, when you just wanna try something, no one will stop you. So here are my top 3 Fat burners. I suggest you research them, or again, see a Personal Trainer about them. Australia also has a very strict body who watch over what comes into Australia from America. Unlike America, we have regulations of what can be in our workout supplements. If Australian Supplement stores do not stock them, you will not be able to get them.
- Thermo Fuel
- Lipo 6 (x/black)
- Opti elite pro
Be warned, you should NOT take any of these products without first seeing a health care professional to make sure that your heart is in healthy condition. Do NOT mix these with anything else containing caffeine and make sure that you are drinking AT LEAST 2 litres of water a day!
To be honest, there are so many people in the gym who have lost weight naturally without the need of fat burners and their stories are all the same. In most cases, they spoke with a trainer, they were given advice which they followed and they were patient. If you have been over weight for 15 years you aren’t going to lose all of it in 2 months. So long as you know, it is really a life change, everything that you have been doing in the past needs to change. A tablet will not solve everything. Having a healthy mind and body and attitude will!