This post is part of a series called Fitness for Beginners - check out my other posts here and here, if you'd like to see the introductory post click here

So you've been working out for a time now and feel stronger than ever and you've grown huge ? Congratulations. Now you'd probably like to see the muscles you built, but all this fat is preventing you from it ?

Let's take it down.

The basic rule

It's all about calories. Don't let anyone tell you it isn't. If you eat more calories than you burn then you will put on fat. If you burn more than you eat then you will burn fat.

How to burn more than you eat

Diet

If you eat less food, then you'll have less calories to burn. I wouldn't advise to only burn fat through diet, because it's very hard and will destroy your muscles.

Exercise

You'll increase the number you burn. You can't out-train a bad diet though. (Technically you can, but you'd look at 4-10 hours of working out every day.) You should always be exercising, because that keeps your muscles from melting when you're in calorie deficit mode.

Eating clean

Eating clean doesn't mean you'll automatically get shredded. If you eat a lot of clean food, you'll still be in a caloric surplus. Clean food is great, because it has nutrients at very little caloric numbers though.

Muscle catabolism

When you decrease your calorie intake, your body will try to reduce it's burnage (is that a word ?) , that means it'll start shedding of everything unnecessary (bastard body, always trying to be efficient) - like your huge mountains of muscle. To prevent it from doing that, you'll need to be working out your muscles so you fool your body into thinking you need them all. You also should be eating tons of protein.

The tools

I've already talked about some of these in my first post, so I'll just quote myself on them:

Green tea

Green tea has almost magical properties -it's loaded with antioxidants, helps your brain function better, it improves physical performance, lowers the risk of cancer, lowers the risk of parkinson and alzheimer down the line, helps your heart, your breath etc. Green tea is probably the healthiest drink in the world - why do you think tea drinking countries have a better longevity ? All that is amazing, but the most important benefit for me was the fat burning increase. Yes it helps with that too ! You gotta make sure to drink it pure though, no flavors or sugar..

Intermittent fasting

Intermittent fasting comes in many forms - I chose the 16/8 one , that means you fast for 16 hours and then have an 8 hour eating window. It might sound harsh, but it's actually very bearable after you get used to it, you sleep through most of the fasting. I had my eating window from 12pm to 8pm that means I avoided eating late at night, which is the time we are most susceptible to overeating. There are known benefits to intermittent fasting, but I was using it mainly as a calorie saver - skipping breakfast saves you a nice number and not eating at night helps you too - that meant I could eat sweets during the day and still have a semi-six pack - I do love sweets.

Water

Water gave us life, so why stay away from it ? Drink a lot of water, it makes your metabolism faster, it helps your skin, you'll lose some weight. There is a huge number of articles about water benefits so I'll make it short - drink water, it's good for you !

HIIT Cardio

While HIIT cardio doesn't have the same healthy effects on your cardiovascular like regular cardio has, it is great for burning fat, because you'll burn a lot of calories in a short period of time. An example of HIIT cardio is sprinting for a minute, running for 3, sprinting for a minute, running for 3, sprinting for a minute, running for 3, sprinting for.... There are tons of youtube videos on these.

Cardio

Cardio is great for burning fat if you have an hour to spend so it's not very viable as a fat burning option if you only have a limited amount of time to spend, but it also makes your body (mainly heart and lungs) healthier. You should work on a healthier body overall so skipping cardio is not a good idea. Remember looking good is one thing, but being healthy is sometimes something completely else.

Hot peppers

Eating hot peppers makes your metabolism go faster helping you burn more calories, it also helps your heart, they also help if you have a cold.

Cheat days

If you eat clean food containing little calories, your body will start noticing and will slow down your metabolism rate, so you'll burn less and less calories the less you eat. (Our bodies are way too smart if you ask me.) That's why we need to fool our body into thinking it's not starving. Every week pick one day and eat everything you've been denying yourself from eating. Eat good, but don't overdo it, you can't eat all the calories you've cut during the week.

Don't overdo it

A good cut shouldn't last more than 2 months (at maximum) , because you're basically starving your body and it's not very healthy, also don't give up midway and try to catch up by starving yourself even more. Go hard during your cut - eat low calories and work out hard and you'll get your results with time to spare. After a cut don't immediately stuff your face with everything you want to eat, remember your metabolism is slower, because of the cut so you would gain more fat than normal. You need an after cut diet - slowly increase the amount of food you eat and get to a point of maintenance - you don't burn fat anymore, but you also don't gain too much fat. Enjoy your sexy new look ! :)

Thanks for reading. Please share, upvote and reply - I'd love to hear from you ! Check out my other posts and don't forget to Follow @lorddominik007 so you don't miss out on my new posts :)