5 Fat Burning Mistakes

You’re not tweeting

If you haven’t taken part in the social revolution and don’t have a clue what a hashtag is, you’re making a fat burning mistake. According to scientists at the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health, Twitter can help us all shed pounds.

The lead researcher from the study, Brie Turner-McGrievy, said that: “The results show that those who regularly utilised Twitter as part of a mobile weight loss program lost more weight”.

The study, which was published in Translational Behavioural Medicine, found that those participants that were already on a weight loss programme and who used Twitter to receive informational and emotional support, lost more than those participants that did not use Twitter. In fact, for every 10 health related tweets sent the participants on average lost 0.5 per cent more weight.

You’re not eating whole grain foods

If you’re avoiding eating foods like pasta and bread because you think it will prevent you from losing weight, you’re making a fat burning mistake. According to the Whole Grains Council, eating whole grain foods (such as bread and pasta made using whole wheat) can not only help you to reduce your risk of stroke, type 2 diabetes and heart disease, but they can also help you to lose weight.

A study published in the Public Health Nutrition found that of 119,829 participants those that ate more whole grains per day (at least three servings) had lower BMIs and less abdominal fat than those participants who ate less than three servings of whole grain foods per day. Similarly, researchers from the University of Rhode Island published a study in the Journal of The American Dietetic Association that found that eating whole grain foods encouraged weight loss in the 180 overweight adult participants.

To try to lose weight and burn fat you could add the following whole grain foods to your diet: brown rice, whole rye, quinoa, wild rice, whole grain cereals, as well as pasta and bread made from 100 per cent whole-wheat flour.

You’re not visualising

Resistance training is a great form of exercise if you want to lose weight and tone up because it gives our metabolisms a boost. Resistance training also helps us to build lean muscle, which is important because it is thought that for every pound of muscle you have, you burn around six and half calories per hour.

Yet, just because you’re doing resistance training doesn’t mean you’re getting the maximum fat burn possible. To make the most of your workout you need to work hard, because the harder you exercise the more calories you burn.

According to a study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research one way you can ensure you lift more and work hard is to visualise doing the reps before you actually do them. So, for example if you are planning to deadlift, you should rehearse the lift in your mind. Why? Well, according to the researchers visualising reps in this manner can increase your strength by an average of five per cent. Therefore this simple trick can help you lift more and burn more calories. Make sure you always progress safely and never lift weights that will cause you to sacrifice your technique or cause injury.

You’re drinking from the wrong cup

If you want to lose weight you have to consume less calories. One great trick that will help you to consume less is trying to cut down on the amount of calorific drinks you have. An easy way to do this is to try swapping the cup you drink from.

Researchers from the Polytechnic University of Valencia and the University of Oxford found that participants who drank from an orange or cream cup enjoyed the hot-chocolate drink more than those who drank the same drink from a red or white coloured cup. So, try drinking your calorific drinks from an orange or cream cup in the future as this will hopefully make you feel more satisfied and therefore you’ll consume fewer calories.

Ideally, you should swap the high-fat hot drinks you have for green tea. TheAmerican Journal of Clinical Nutrition has published a study that found that drinking four cups of the green stuff each and every day helped people to lose six pounds in just two months.

You’re doing the wrong exercises

Not doing the right kind of fat burning exercises is one of the biggest fat burning mistakes you can make.

So, what training should you be doing? Well, compound exercises (exercises that work more than one muscle at once) are fantastic at encouraging weight loss. This is because compound exercises work larger muscle groups simultaneously, which leads to higher overall calorie expenditure. Similarly, compound exercises tend to form part of a high-intensity workout. This type of workout also leads to an increase in calorie expenditure.

Some great compound exercises include: squats, deadlifts, bench press, pull-ups and the compound row.