How Can I Burn More Calories?

Eat Less And Train More

Yeah sure and that’s why you are here!

It would be pointless for me to suggest that you simply work or train harder or raise the intensity as this would make no sense in the context of the question. To burn more calories, without actually putting in more effort on the treadmill, elliptical or whatever else you are using to train, involves the use of science, and some hacks or tricks.

What Is A Calorie?

Let’s look at what a calorie is for a second. In simple terms a calorie is a unit of energy. It isn’t just food related it must be noted, as the way we calculate what is a calorie is, is determined by the amount of energy it takes to raise 1 gram of water 1 degree higher (in Celsius), in Fahrenheit it is 1.8.  In terms of food, we see in the supermarket, it is broken down into fats, carbohydrates and protein. Food you buy in the store is listed in calories, but in reality it is Kcal, sometimes they list this, sometimes they don’t.

• 1 g Carbohydrates: 4 calories
• 1 g Protein: 4 calories
• 1 g Fat: 9 calories

Moving on, we should be looking at how our bodies breakdown calories, or in fact your metabolic processes.

Metabolism

You’ve probably heard of the word metabolism before. People talk about their metabolism being slow or fast, and vice versa. Depending on what composition of your diet is fat, proteins and carbs will also depend on how your body uses these energy sources as well – energy. You need energy (glycogen) to walk, get out of bed, and think. Your brain needs it, your muscles need it. When glycogen is depleted your energy will drop and you may feel faint. Your body metabolizes fats, proteins and carbohydrates in different ways. If you are fat, then you need to convert fat into a waste product through lipolysis – or metabolism of stored fat. If your body is very lean, you don’t need to burn fat, because you don’t much of it.

Depending on your diet composition you will be processing calories differently. On a very high protein diet with little or no carbs, your body will most likely enter ketosis, whereby energy is converted from stored fat, this is after glycogen is depleted from liver stores.  It is possible through diet and exercise to go in and out ketosis. This is not particularly advisable, the body can become very acidic and produce gallstones. Although this diet can be managed more meaningfully, it relies on starving the body of carbohydrates and then forces it to convert fats into usable energy.

Which Diet

What you must remember about burning calories and metabolism, is that when an amount of protein, fats, or carbs is ingested by the human body N amount is retained in some way. Retained carbs are more likely to be stored as fat, and should therefore be consumed early in the day, with protein being ingested later on in the day. A well balanced diet is best.  Not enough research has taken place amongst the myriad of fad diets, one more in depth study shows that various diets with proportioned amount of fat, carbs and protein all showed weight loss in test subjects.

Studies show that a diet with caloric deficits still result in weight loss. To lose one pound of fat one must consume 3500 less calories than the week before, as one pound of fat contains 3500 calories, or have a deficit of -3500 calories through working out.

Thermogenesis

Thermogenesis is simply related to the production of heat with an organism, various substances, and situations will cause this. During thermogenesis the body will be consuming more units of energy and fat oxidation will occur faster. Some popular preparations that can induce thermogenesis include ephedra, bitter orange, capsicum, ginger, guar gum, yohimbine, red ginseng, and pyruvate. Caffeine and EGCG, which are both found in green tea. Some lean proteins also have more thermogenic effects which raise the metabolism, these would include lean meats like turkey, rabbit, certain cuts of beef, egg whites, chicken breasts and more.

Certain fat burners also aim to raise metabolism, through this process, many contain a mix of ingredients which raise core temperature. I did an experiment on how well they work, the same workout with a training partner, while we were both tired after the workout, my training shirt had produced a lot more sweat, seeing as I don’t sweat at all in normal day to day situations, the fat burner was the difference in producing more body heat.

Workouts

Focus on mixed workout routines, and do not stay on the same benchmark all the time, this means in week 10 if you are still going 30 mins on the elliptical, then up it to 35 or 40. Also consider resistance training, and or weights.