Fat Burning Machine with clean eating

 

Eat 6 meals a day
You need to eat (something, even if it's very litle) every 2-3 hours. When you do this, your metabolism skyrockets and when your body knows food is coming, it can use the food you eat as readily available energy opposed to storing it as bodyfat for energy later. The 3 meal mantra is done and outdated. When you eat infrequently, you tend to overcompensate for what you really need (Your body says to you "I'm starving, I haven't eaten in forever, I need to eat a lot of food now."- and you wind up eating more throughout the day this way then if your meals were to be spread out over the course of the day. Also, When your body goes more than 4 hours of not eating, it stops burning fat (instead holding on to it) and catabolizes your muscle to use as energy. The more muscle you have, the more fat you burn.

Cut the junk food out
Cut out the chips, pretzels, fatty salad dressings (only use olive oil and/or balsamic vinegar), soda, donuts, cakes, pastries, etc.

Eat whole foods
You do a good job of this already but eat things like meats, fish, whole grains, beans, legumes, fruits, vegetables, etc. but be aware how your putting your meals together and what foods might trigger you to be more hungry such as certain carbs even good ones :)
 
Protein should constitute your foundation for every meal
At every meal, you must consume a protein source as the main part of your meal and everything else you have along with it should be secondary. Things like fish, meat, poultry, etc. Also, having protein with your carbs slows down carbohydrate absorption, making it less likely for the carbs to be stored as bodyfat.

Never eat carbs alone
Eating carbs by their lonesome is a sure way to put on bodyfat. They create an insulin spike that goes to one of two ways: Muscle-growth or fat-growth. Obviously, we want the first and not the second. Only 2 times in the day does it goes to muscle-mass  and that is directly in the morning and post-workout. Every other time, will constitute in fat-growth.

Do not over-eat and do not under-eat
Eat until you are satisfied but not full and never go hungry. It is a balancing act but it is manageable.

3500 calories=1 pound. If you cut your calories by 500 from either cutting your food intake or by expending it through exercise, or a combination of both, from its normal daily maintenance , then you will lose 1 pound per week. That does not mean that if you cut your calories by thousands of calories a day will it come quicker. Just because something occurs at a given rate does not mean it stays that way throughout. If you go too under your caloric intake, your body will go into starvation mode and just shut down fat-burning stores (It thinks you won't get enough food to last you through the day so it will hold onto whatever you give it and expend the least amount of energy possible. This is not something you want. You want your body to be a fat-burning machine.

Cut your carbs at night
When you eat carbs at night, your body does not use them efficiently. You are probably not active late at night and you don't burn those carbs efficiently, which are used for long bouts of energy. If you are sedentary, you need to cut your carbs by even more and earlier in the day. If you are more active, you may need to cut off carbs a little later on, but regardless, you need to cut them off at some point at night well before bedtime.

Have healthy snacks throughout the day
 eat every 2-3 hours. So obviously, not all of those meals are going to constitute sitting down and eating a hefty meal but rather smaller meals throughout the day. You need to keep your metabolism chugging and supply your muscles with food so you stay anabolic and don't go catabolic. Have things like a quest bar or greek yogurt & some berries would be good choices

Drink lots of water
You should be drinking close to a gallon of cold water a day. The more water you drink, the better you will look. The more subcutaneous water will be flushed out of your system. This cold water will burn more calories to heat the cold water up to your normal body temperature.

Have lots of vegetables and fruit
Have as many vegetables as you want. They are low in calories and are nutritionally packed with vitamins and minerals. Fruit is awesome and although they have sugar, it is absorbed very slowly into the system and provide a lot of nutritional value. Grapefruits, especially, help torch the bodyfat.

Proper carb intake
Carbohydrates, when not burned, get stored as glycogen or as bodyfat. When glycogen stores, become full, they turn into bodyfat. There are two times during the day in which your body is generally inefficient at storing carbohydrates as bodyfat due to low stores of glycogen: morning and right around a workout. Breakfast should constitute the bulk of your carbs with each successive meal after that being less in calories from carbs. Decrease your carb intake gradually throughout the day and keep total carb intake throughout the day generally low. Right around your workout is another time when you need to intake carbs. Before your workout it is a good idea to have some carbs and right after your workout again along with protein.

Pre & Post-Workout
You need carbs and protein within an hour of your weight lifting workout...preferably 30 minutes after your resistance training workout.
You need just protein right after your cardio workout to halt muscle breakdown and continue fat burning (which carbohydrates inhibit).

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day
Eat within 30 minutes of waking up.  Those who eat breakfast within 30 minutes of waking up are generally leaner than those who don't. Eat a healthful and plentiful breakfast like eggs & lots of veggies & some fruit

Catch Your ZZZ's
Research shows that getting 8-9 hours of sleep at night is most beneficial for your health and fat burning. These hours will provide you with the perfect amount of energy and attentiveness to get you through your day and help your body recover from the stresses of the day. Anything under 6 hours or over 9 hours is actually harmful to your health.