Figuring out how to lose fat quickly yet safely can be more complex than it seems. While there are many fad diets, supplements, and exercise routines that claim to be able to banish belly fat and stubborn areas, the reality is that losing fat successfully takes time, dedication, effort and patience. 

However, focusing on losing fat (while building muscle) is far better for your body and overall health than simply trying to shed excess pounds as quickly as possible. When it comes to how to lose fat, the right strategy will ensure you can maintain essential muscle mass while still achieving your goals of a lower body fat percentage and increased energy levels.

Below are some of the best, most effective, scientific and proven strategies anyone can use to start reducing excess fat on the body, and shaping the physique you’ve always wanted.

1. How to Lose Fat with Your Diet and Nutrition

Primarily, learning how to lose fat comes down to two major factors: mastering your diet, as well as your approach to exercise. 

Creating a caloric deficit by eating smaller portions can be helpful, but it’s important to ensure you’re still eating a healthy, balanced diet that’s realistic and sustainable. 

A balanced diet ensures your body gets the nutrition it needs to perform at its best. Furthermore, eating the right foods can also reduce your risk of overeating due to spikes in hunger or late-night cravings from eating the wrong foods (such as simple carbohydrates) at meal time.

When devising your diet strategy, focus on:

• Lean protein: Protein is an essential macronutrient and a powerful tool for maintaining a healthy weight. Eating adequate protein will help you to build muscle, increase your metabolism, and reduce high levels of ghrelin (the hunger hormone which spikes the appetite). You can find healthy sources of protein in everything from fish and lean meats to eggs and tofu. If your diet includes meat, try to focus on leaner meats with minimal fat, such as chicken breast or lean cuts of beef. Stay away from processed meats whenever possible. 
• Complex carbohydrates: Have you ever noticed that a healthy dinner that included some complex carbohydrates such as sweet potato left you feeling more full, satisfied, and left you craving nothing further for the rest of the evening? Cutting carbohydrates out of your diet might sound like a fast way to lose weight, but these macronutrients are essential to supporting bodily functions. A great way to master how to lose fat is to swap simple, processed carbs for complex carbohydrates. Complex carbs are rich in fibre, a substance which can help you feel fuller for longer, improve your energy levels throughout the day, and reduce the chances you’ll reach for a midnight snack.
• Healthy fats: Losing fat doesn’t mean eliminating all sources of fat from your diet. Healthy fats are essential for nourishing your brain and body. Fatty fish and avocado are excellent for a balanced diet, along with seeds and nuts. Healthy fats are also fantastic for increasing your metabolism, allowing you to burn calories faster. 
• Fruits and vegetables: Packing your diet with generous amounts of fruits and vegetables is another fantastic way to enhance your fat loss strategy. Fruits and vegetables are high in fibre, nutrients, and minerals, and they’re often low in calories and fat. Some options, such as cucumbers, watermelons, and oranges can also help to keep you hydrated. If you’re craving dessert and you opt for a few slices of apple with peanut butter instead, you’ll likely notice your sweet tooth cravings dissipate. 

Remember that consistency and routine are both crucial. Eating the same number of meals at regular times during the day helps to keep your metabolism working smoothly. It also reduces the temptation to snack on foods that might be higher in levels of fat, sugar, and sodium.

Certain routines such as intermittent fasting where you stop eating after 7pm every night, for example, can also help your body shed excess fat. While in fasting mode, you’re more likely to enter a state of ketosis where your body is burning more fat for fuel. However, intermittent fasting only works if you remain in a caloric deficit (so you can’t binge eat 3,000 calories of food during your eating window) and you also need to ensure you’re still consuming sufficient nutrients while intermittent fasting.

Certain low-carb diets such as the Keto diet will help your body enter ketosis (fat-burning mode) and you’ll burn more fat for energy, instead of burning carbs for energy. Keep in mind, however, that the Keto diet is extremely strict and challenging, and more of a quick fix than a sustainable strategy. Another low-carb diet that is much more sustainable is the Paleo diet. When it comes to how to lose fat, low-carb diets can be helpful, since without carbs to burn for energy, your body will naturally burn more fat for energy.

2. Count Calories and Create a Caloric Deficit

As mentioned above, creating a caloric deficit is often essential to learning how to lose fat. A caloric deficit is what happens when the number of calories you eat each day is lower than the number of calories you burn in a day. When your body enters this caloric deficit, it’s forced to draw on existing resources (fat stores) for energy, thus burning fat for fuel.

There are online calculators you can use to estimate your exact caloric needs based on your age, gender, how active your lifestyle is, and your current weight. 

Most people burn about 2,200 calories per day, give or take 600 calories. If you burn 2200 calories per day and you start eating only 1600 or 1700 calories per day, that’s an example of a caloric deficit that can help you lose fat. 

Once you know how many calories you should be consuming, look for ways to reduce your intake, by making more strategic food choices and reading nutritional labels to help you count calories.

You can use apps like the Ad Iron Fitness nutrition app or MyFitnessPal to track the number of calories in each snack, drink, and food choice, and begin eating more mindfully. It’s also possible to check the number of calories in most foods on the packaging. However, if you’re eating at a restaurant or café, you might need to research each ingredient of the meal separately, to estimate how many calories you’re eating. 

When estimating the number of calories you’re eating when there is no nutritional label to look at, try looking up a similar meal, and paying attention to the portions of each ingredient on your plate.

Track the calories you burn alongside the number of calories you consume, with fitness apps. The Apple watch has some excellent tools available for monitoring calorie expenditure, or you can experiment with other options like Fitbit to track your activity and the calories you burn. 

3. Build Muscle with Strength Training

Building muscle mass with a strength training routine isn’t just an excellent way to burn extra calories. It’s also a great strategy if you want to master how to lose fat. When you build lean muscle mass, the extra muscle in your body needs extra energy to function. 

This means that regular strength training such as weight lifting with your personal trainer is going to raise your resting metabolic rate, or the number of calories you burn when you’re at rest. 

Typically, the best way to build muscle is by lifting weights. Doing this 3-4 times per week will help you to burn fat faster, and increase your endurance, so you’ll be able to exercise more consistently on a daily basis. 

Research proves that strength training (also referred to as resistance training or weightlifting)  is extremely beneficial for fat loss. One study in particular found that resistance training for just 4 weeks can help to decrease body fat by an average of 1.46%. What’s more, this form of training also reduces “visceral fat,” which is the stubborn fat around your belly that’s quite difficult to lose.

For best results, hire a personal trainer to help you design and execute your strength training program.

4. Walking on a Daily Basis

Strength training isn’t the only form of exercise worth investing in for fat loss. Cardio, such as power walking or cycling, is one of the most common ways to burn calories and lose fat. It’s also excellent for strengthening your heart and lungs.

One review of 15 studies found that cardio or aerobic exercise can effectively decrease belly fat. Other studies have found that aerobic exercise can accelerate the fat burning process. 

Even simple cardio exercises, such as walking 10,000 to 20,000 steps per day, can boost your weight loss results. Not only will you burn extra calories by walking daily and getting your steps in, but you can also improve your endurance and stamina levels, so you’ll be able to work out for longer. 

For extra motivation to get those 10,000 to 20,000 steps in per day, use a FitBit or Apple Watch to track your steps and set it to notify you when you’ve reached your daily walking goals. 

10,000 steps per day should be your daily minimum. 20,000 steps per day will help you lose fat even faster. 

Go for a walk either before or after your personal training session. Or, incorporate a morning walk with your morning routine. Get into the habit of starting your day with a walk. It’ll help wake you up, and you can always sip on a coffee while you enjoy your morning walk.

5. Choose Foods that Support Healthy Hormone Levels

The way your body retains or loses fat is often dictated by your hormone levels, and fat loss goals can be disrupted by hormonal imbalances in your body. Certain hormones encourage us to seek out food, while others reduce our desire to overeat. For instance, ghrelin, the “hunger hormone”, is the hormone that spikes your appetite and tells your body to seek out food. It makes you consume more food, store fat, and take in more calories. It also affects your metabolic function. 

Leptin, on the other hand, is an appetite suppressant. It’s the hormone that tells your brain when you’re full. 

Some foods increase your ghrelin levels more than most. Eating foods high in saturated fat, sodium, and sugar can increase your appetite and cause food cravings rather than causing feelings of satisfaction. Foods high in chemicals, such as fast food and processed meats, can also influence the performance of your metabolism. 

There are also foods that can help keep your hormones balanced. Healthy protein sources and complex carbohydrates, for instance, influence the release of leptin (the appetite suppressing hormone.). Eating a breakfast rich in high-quality protein sources such as eggs can be an excellent way to lower your ghrelin response and increase your leptin levels. One study found that eating eggs for breakfast instead of bagels reduced the ghrelin response of the study’s  participants. 

Complex carbohydrates with high levels of fiber are excellent for balancing hormone levels, as they stabilize blood sugar, reduce cortisol levels, and keep you feeling fuller and much more satisfied for longer which reduces late-night food cravings. Additionally, studies indicate that healthy fats, such as avocado, are excellent for triggering leptin release, and reducing hunger pangs. 

6. Metabolism-Boosting Hacks

A slow metabolism can be one of the biggest challenges to overcome when learning how to lose fat. Some people unfortunately have a slower metabolism due to factors such as their genetics. Your metabolism is responsible for converting the foods you eat into energy. 

The higher your metabolic rate, the more calories you’ll burn, both when exercising and at rest. Here are some tips for boosting your metabolism:

• Drink more water: Drinking water helps you to feel fuller for longer, and ensures you’re hydrated enough to ace your exercise routines. It can also temporarily speed up your metabolism. One study found drinking 500ml of water increases a person’s resting metabolic rate by around 30% for as long as an hour. Don’t forget that sometimes when you think you’re hungry late at night, you’re actually thirsty, and a glass of water is what you should be reaching for.
• Get plenty of sleep: Your metabolism and sleeping pattern go hand in hand. Sleep deprivation can influence everything from how your body processes glucose, to how you produce hunger hormones such as ghrelin and leptin. Lack of sleep can even influence how fat is processed or stored. When you’re deprived of sleep, your body tends to store fat for extra energy. 
• Spice up your meals: Spicy foods like peppers contain capsaicin, a compound excellent for boosting your metabolism. Adding some extra spice to your meal could be an excellent way to give your metabolism a boost. You can even consider taking capsaicin supplements if you can’t handle the spice level of spicy foods.
• Lift weights: People who lift weights and incorporate strength training into their routine are going to burn more calories at rest and their metabolism will become improved. Building muscle increases your metabolic rate over time.

7. Hire a Personal Trainer

Lack of motivation and lack of accountability are some of the top reasons why people fail when they attempt to lose fat. Not everyone has the self-discipline or willpower to achieve their fitness goals on their own.

Hiring a personal trainer helps guarantee that you won’t forget to exercise, since pre-scheduled and booked appointments with your trainer result in accountability on your end that you’ll show up for a planned workout session.

Your trainer can also design a workout program that is meant for fat loss, with the right amount of strength training and the appropriate weights and reps for your body type and weight loss goals.

Say Goodbye to Stubborn Fat

Learning how to lose fat takes time, patience, and understanding the science behind fat loss. There are no quick fixes, but there are ways to speed up fat loss results. Ultimately, you’ll need to commit to following a healthy, balanced diet, exercising regularly, and monitoring your strength training routine with a trainer.

With the above tips on how to lose fat, you should start to see real results from your efforts, without the need for any dangerous fad diets. 

Losing fat can be difficult, but with the right strategy and commitment, anyone can do it.