Working out at the gym is a lot of fun, especially if you’re seeing results. However, sometimes you’re confused about whether you’re actually burning fat, building your muscle strength or improving your muscle endurance. In such a case, learning to tell if your body is burning fatcomes in very handy.
BUT! How exactly can you tell whether your workout and diet regimens are working for you? Simple. By keeping an eye out for the following methods!
How to Tell If Your Body Is Burning Fat
1. Check Your Weight
Now, your weight isn’t exactly the most helpful when it comes to measuring your body’s specifics, but it sure does help you in giving a rough idea as to where you stand. You also have to keep in mind that:
- Your weight fluctuates throughout the day. You’ll be lighter in the morning and heavier in the evening.
- Your weighing scale won’t be able to tell you if you’ve lost muscle mass or body fat – it will only tell you how much you’ve lost.
This is why it’s always smart to get your Body Composition Analysis done.
2. Body Composition Analysis
For those who didn’t know, there are machines created specifically to inform you about your body’s composition, which includes your body fat percentage, muscle mass, protein, iron, vitamin and mineral content, the metabolic rate (BMR), BMI, along with bone density. Of course, the best course of action is to get a BCA done before you start your workout, but that’s okay. Get one done today and compare it a month later with your future results. This is one of the best ways on how to tell if your body is burning fat.
3. Measure Yourself
This method is as unreliable as the weighing scale, sad to say. Let me illustrate with an example. Let’s say you’ve gained 1 inch on your waist. But how will your measurement tell you if that’s an inch of fat you’ve gained, or an inch of muscle mass? Plus, like with a weighing scale, you have to keep in mind that your measurements will fluctuate throughout the day. And might even be different on different days. A fluctuation of 1-1.5 inch is quite normal and nothing to worry about.
4. Reduced Sugar Cravings
The thing is, when you work out, your body releases Serotonin, also known as the happy hormone. Now apart from instantly improving your mood, serotonin has shown great efficacy in suppressing your sugar cravings.
5. Better Physical Performances
You’ve noticed that the same flight of stairs that once left you out of breath don’t even break a sweat on you today. You also feel more mentally sharp, have more levels of energy, feel less sleepy and are able to perform tasks with greater efficiency.
6. Your Clothes
This one’s a no-brainer when it comes to how to tell if your body is burning fat. So even if your weight on the scale is the same and your clothes are looser, well, congrats! You’ve lost fat!
7. People Have Started Noticing a Difference
Sometimes, our fat burning and weight loss results aren’t as obvious to us as they are to other people, especially those who are meeting us after a long period of time. The first thing they’ll notice is your face, and how different it is. Since we see our face on a daily basis, we’re unable to make an informed decision regarding the changes that have occurred to it. However, other people can do so very easily.
How to Burn Fat Faster
Now that you know how to tell if your body is burning fat, it’s time to learn about unique ways in which you can burn fat!
- Binge on watermelons: Believe it or not, watermelons promote weight loss because of the amino acid arginine present in them. It increases the oxidation of glucose and fat in your body, thus hastening fat burning.
- Cold water: Drink lots of it. The colder the water, the better it is. Why? Because your body needs more energy to heat colder water to body temperature than room temperature water.
- Vary your caloric intake: Keep your body on its toes! This way you won’t lower your metabolism, nor will you hit plateau.
- More protein: The more protein you consume, the better your metabolism is (which aids in fat burning). Not to mention that you get improved muscle mass as well. Fun fact: You burn more calories when consuming proteins than when consuming carbs or fats.
- Consume more fat: The good kind, of course, aka monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. They build your muscle and help you recover quicker from workout fatigue.
- Eat more organic food: Apart from being good for your health, organic food has little to no pesticides, which is good for you. How? Well, the higher the amount of pesticides in your food, the more fluctuation in your metabolism, which needless to say, interferes with your body’s energy-burning process.
- Walk more: Cycle/walk instead of driving your car, take the stairs instead of the elevator, park your car away from your office building’s parking…you know the drill. These little changes might seem, well, little, but they make a huge impact on your fitness in the long run.
- More iron: An iron rich diet ensures a higher amount of oxygen being carried by your body. And the more oxygen your body has, the more fat it’s able to burn.
- More fiber: Did you know that including as little as 25g of fiber in your daily diet can result in as high as a 30% fat burn by your body? It’s true. What’s even better is that several studies have shown that people who eat a lot of fiber are the least likely to gain weight.
- Burn it up! If you’re someone who can tolerate spicy food and chilies, well, I’d say pile it on! Eating them results in a temporary metabolism spike in your body, which in turn helps your body to burn fat faster in that short period of time.