BURN FAT

Burn fat with the right exercises and focus can lead to a healthy percentage of body fat. That's what matters for your long term health.

You may have performance goals, or slimming down to fit into those new jeans, or simply need to lose weight for health reasons. It can become burdensome for many and losing belly fat can seem like an incredibly daunting task.

If you do it right, to burn fat in a safe and effective way, it's definitely achievable. In fact, it can be quite simple and quite rewarding. 

EAT TO BURN FAT

People usually think that exercise is the most important key to losing belly fat. They think that if they eat whatever they want but exercise for an hour a day, they will shrink their midsection substantially.

Unfortunately, that piece of advice is incredibly misleading. When your goal is to lose belly fat, the most important thing you can do is eat nutritiously. Even if you miss a day of exercise, if you eat properly you'll still lose weight. According to the Mayo Clinic, caloric intake and following the proper diet is crucial to losing belly fat. 

Remember, even if you work out for 2 hours a day, there are 22 other hours that can ruin what you did in that workout if you don’t eat mindfully. It’s a cliche, but abs are made in the kitchen! Be sure to get exercise in with optimized food intake daily to truly achieve long lasting results.

PREPARATION TO BURN FAT

Prepare To Burn Fat:

1. Track everything you eat. Everything. If you mess up, you'll at least know where. This also helps when regulating your exercise. You want to exercise in healthy amounts, not too much and not too little. Knowing how many calories you ate that day and what your food consisted of is a great way to judge how much you should do each day.
2. Plan your meals. It's easier to diet if you've already got lunch packed rather than going to a restaurant with colleagues and trying to find something healthy on the menu.
3. Read your labels. Avoid things with added and/or artificial sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup, maltodextrin, sucralose, dextrose, cane sugar. These ingredients are often found in sodas, condiments, and so many other food products and it's a major no-no when losing belly fat. Instead, opt for items that use stevia or monk fruit as the sweetener. 
4. Finish your meals 3 hours before you go to sleep. This is crucial for digestion and for getting proper sleep. When you’re sleeping you want your body to be resting, not working to digest all the food you ate before bed. Also, here’s a big secret,  the majority of fat burning is done while you sleep! So, if you are not getting quality sleep you are not going to be able to burn fat efficiently.
5. Eat more protein! About 25%-30% of the calories in each gram of protein are burned in digestion, compared to only 6%-8% of the calories in carbs. Example: You save 41 calories every time you substitute 50 grams of protein for an equal amount of carbs. 

BURN FAT OPTIMIZATION

Although nutrition is crucial to losing belly fat, we can’t ignore exercise. Don't write it off simply because you've become a pro at eating clean and not overindulging. If you are on a diet and don't exercise, you may lose weight but you'll have other issues.

You can develop irregular heart rates, get sagging skin from too much weight loss and no muscle gain (aka “skinny-fat”) and it's easier to plateau in your weight loss journey.

Okay, so maybe this year got the best of you or maybe this is finally the year you decided to join the fitness scene. Either way, getting into the swing of things can be challenging to say the least. We're here to give you a crash course in wrecking it at the gym - without wrecking yourself.

Healthy Tips To Burn Fat:

1. Don't Over-Do It - Seriously, we mean that. Everyone wants to hit the ground running with high ambitions and gratuitous confidence, but surpassing your limits right off the bat will only end in tragedy. Remember, this is the first time you're starting a fitness regime or you took a few too many days off during the holidays (or weeks... or months...), test the waters, and discover your comfort level for each exercise.
2. Get Creative - Try something unique that you haven't done before. Keeping a variety of options at your disposal will keep you engaged and eager to be healthy. Want to be more flexible? Try some basic yoga - most gyms offer free classes or streaming services like Netflix and Hulu have instructional videos. Live in a warm climate? Go hiking or mountain biking. For those hunkered down for winter, take a mini-vacation and go skiing or snowboarding and you'll never even know you're working out. 
3. Consistency Is Key - We know this one is pretty obvious - but bear with us. Everyone has been told again and again to never skip the gym but life can occasionally get in the way, which is the largest stumbling block for fitness. It is incredibly easy to say "I don't have time" and write off an entire day. Remember this, if you have just 15 minutes free you can walk or go for an easy run. You can have a complete yoga session. You can dance to five songs. It doesn't matter how you find your fitness, it only matters that you do it.
4. Start Small - Don't go to the gym expecting to run five miles that day. Start with exercises that get your heart rate up and keep it up for thirty minutes and slowly work your way up in intensity and time. 
5. Partner Up - If you're working out with someone else, you'll have support which can be a major benefit. Moral support can go a long way in a journey like this one and should never be underestimated.

BURN FAT WITH EXERCISE

Targeting The Core:

1. Planking -  When you plank it's critical to have proper form to get the best results and strengthen your core. When you plank you should be on your forearms with your palms flat on the ground and on your toes, with your back in a straight line. With planking, you can increase the intensity by moving your midsection and hips side to side. It's good to start with reps of thirty seconds or less and work your way up to a few minutes overtime.
2. Crunches - People often hate the thought of doing crunches but there are so many ways to vary them and they are critical to building abdominal strength and definition. 
3. Leg Lifts - Focus on form, it’s important to engage your abdominals and hip flexors to lift your feet off the ground by raising your legs straight and outward in front of you. Focus on breathing and exhaling while lifting the legs. Aim to raise them parallel to the ground with your hip bent at a 90-degree angle or a little higher if possible. Slowly lower your legs back down to vertical, while you slowly inhale.
4. V-Ups - V-Ups consist of laying on your back and spreading your legs into a V. You lower your legs to about six inches or less above the ground and pull them back up into the air. This exercise targets your lower abdominals and gets you that 'v-line' so many people crave. 
5. Cardio - Power walking, jogging, running, swimming, biking, climbing stairs, they all count! When you do cardio, you increase your metabolic rate and burn fat. Cardio combined with the aforementioned exercises and nutrition guidelines will leave you with a toned belly in no time!

BURN FAT, NOT MUSCLE

There's no magic pill that safely delivers quick results, but there is a safer alternative for those that want real progress. 

Honey Badger Safeburn™ Performance Thermogenic helps fortify the metabolism and reduce inflammation. This is the catalyst to then deliver optimized and safe fat burning.

One of the main ingredients is green tea extract which targets belly fat. It also regulates the glucose in your body while promoting a healthy metabolism. The blend is vegan, keto, paleo-friendly with zero calories and no gluten or soy. The capsule is vegetarian which means that it is made from plant-derived materials. 

In conclusion, stay the course, be consistent and train your body to become a fat burning machine. Don't expect instant results, you are in it for the long haul.