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How to Lose Body Fat in 9 Simple Steps

Diet tweaks, exercise ideas and everyday practices — here's how to lose body fat fast
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Burn Body Fat With a HIIT Workout
For those who aren't familiar with high-intensity interval training (HIIT), this workout boosts the heart rate with quick, high-intensity bursts of exercise in between intervals of low-intensity activity (think: jogging with sprints). Why is this effective in losing body fat? Because it doesn't require hours of cardio (which wears and tears at the muscle, rather than building it) and confuses the body by getting it out of the steady state it goes into when you've been running on the treadmill for a half an hour. Instead, your body is forced to exert more energy, thus resulting in losing body fat.

"This is one of the most effective ways to burn fat," Karena and Katrina say. "It's usually a high-energy workout that includes intense cardio moves, which burns major calories." Incorporating even a 20-minute HIIT workout can be supereffective for those looking to lose body fat. Try this HIIT workout to torch your love handles.

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Lose Body Fat via Strength Training
Stay strong, ladies. Picking up the weights will build your muscle and burn calories long after your gym session. "Ladies will not bulk up," Lovitt says. "You will maintain active tissues in your body (tissue that burns calories), which makes your body more efficient at burning fat."

Lovitt recommends mixing weight training and cardio into a circuit-type workout to lose body fat. "Mixing cardio with resistance training helps blast fat and increase your metabolic rate," Lovitt says. "Essentially, you're burning body fat while maintaining muscle mass, which allows you to shred the extra pounds and see definition much more quickly." So lift -- and lift heavy.

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Snack After Your Workout
While many are inclined to load up on carbs before they workout, Lovitt says this is ineffective for losing body fat. "Abstain from eating carbohydrates an hour before activity, especially high glycemic carbohydrates, as carbs release insulin," Lovitt says. "Once insulin is present in your body, your body can no longer utilize body fat as its primary energy source because the insulin suppresses the enzyme required to burn body fat." If you must eat something before a workout, Lovitt recommends picking a protein-based snack.

While you should skip the carbs before your workout, post-exercise is a different story. When you're trying to lose body fat, it is essential to have a snack with a blend of carbs and protein after your workout, advises Lovitt. "You want to snack within a 20- to 30-minute window post-workout," Lovitt says. "This helps bring your cortisol levels back to normal and keeps body fat away from your midsection." Reaching for snacks like rice cakes and peanut butter are great options.

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Pick Up the Protein
"Protein is essential for muscle repair, hair, skin, nails and your metabolism," Karena and Katrina say.

The amount of protein you need depends on how hard you're going in the gym, but the average Jane needs about 46 grams of protein a day.

Protein shakes are a great way to get your protein in quick, especially when you're on the go. Karena and Katrina created the Perfect Fit Protein, where one serving delivers 15 grams of plant-based protein, and is also gluten-free and dairy-free (unlike whey proteins which can bloat you). However, you don't need protein shakes to get your daily amount in. Simply stick to sources like salmon, turkey, chicken, tofu, beans, etc. and watch the body fat melt away.

BY JESSICA AMARIS | FEB 3, 2017 | SHARES
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