Clients at Rising Fitness Gym in Houston, Texas, tell us how grateful they are to finally succeed at their goals. Each person is special here and has an individualized program. One thing many have in common is the desire to build more muscle and burn more fat. There are many things you can do and some don’t require a lot of effort, but do require consistency. Every little bit counts, so even if you burn a few extra calories, if you do it and other small changes every day, the results compound.
Vary the intensity of your exercise.
Even if you’re walking, you can vary your speed and intensity. Studies show that altering between a brisk walk and a more moderate recovery walking pace can burn more calories and get you into shape faster. It’s called HIIT—high intensity interval training. It builds cardio strength faster and ignites fat. You can modify any exercise with this technique, whether it’s doing bodyweight workouts, cardio or even running up the stairs. HIIT workouts also burn calories even after you quit. It’s called afterburn or EPOC. It increases calorie burning by as much as 15%.
Lift something heavy and build more muscle tissue.
Do you want to build strength and muscle tissue, lift something heavy. Unlike aerobic workouts that do burn tons of calories, but those calories come from both lean muscle and fat, strength-building exercises build muscle tissue as it burns calories. Muscle tissue requires more calories to maintain than fat tissue does. The more muscle tissue you have, the more calories you burn 24/7.
Focus on your diet.
Without a healthy diet, your fitness goals will be harder or even impossible to reach. Everyone knows that you need lots of fruit and vegetables, but there are other things you can do. Increasing protein in your diet can help. It causes you to feel fuller faster and longer, so you’ll probably eat less. It also helps you build muscle tissue. Make sure you have healthy fat in your diet, too. Healthy fat is necessary to help you burn fat and like protein, fills you up longer.
- Opt for compound exercises. Compound exercises like jump lunges and burpees exercise multiple joints, muscles and tendons, burning more calories and working more muscle groups in less time.
- Get adequate sleep. Your body needs sleep to build muscles and maintain healthy hormone levels. Too little sleep causes an increase in ghrelin—the hunger hormone and a decrease in leptin—the satiety hormone.
- Drink more water and ditch soft drinks. An 8-ounce cola has as many calories as an apple, but the apple has nutrients and fills you. Studies show that people who drink soft drinks, particularly diet ones, have more belly fat.
- Some foods are calorie burners. Green tea is one of those and so is coconut oil—when compared to other oils. The medium chain fats in coconut oil can boost metabolism by as much as 12%.
For more information, contact us today at Rising Fitness Gym