5 Ways to Melt Fat Without Adding More Cardio

2. Implement Activity Breaks Throughout the Day

Most jobs involve a lot of sitting.

 

This sucks, because you could be pushing yourself hard in the gym for an hour every evening, but it's often not enough to cancel out the 8 hours spent sitting at a desk.

 

But by implementing activity breaks into your work day, you'll increase the number of calories you're burning while also eliminating many of the undesirable effects associated with chronic sitting (i.e. poor posture, back pain, disease, etc.)

 

Here's what to do:

 

Set a silent alarm to go off every 45-60 minutes. Once it goes off, stand up and move around for 10 straight minutes. This might mean going to the bathroom, walking to the break room and back, or going outside and stretching.

 

The key, though, is to keep moving the entire 10 minutes.

 

Here's why this is powerful: A short 10-minute walk won't do much, but if you're having one 4-6 time a day, the fat burning benefits can start to add up quickly.

 

So instead of switching to your private Facebook internet browser or watching the same cat video for the third time in a row, implement an activity break to maximize your time and weight loss potential.

 

3. Sit, Stand and Wiggle Around

Did you know that workers who stand vs. sit burn around 50-75 more calories per hour?

 

So even if you're standing for just half the workday, you could burn close to ~250 additional calories!

 

What's more is that standing will help naturally increase your NEAT from adjusting, fidgeting, and moving around more as compared to sitting where you pretty much stay motionless the entire time.

 

I typically try and do a mix of standing, sitting, and "lounging" on a couch when I'm working on updating and answering clients, or writing emails & articles.

 

Note: I know that not everyone has access to a standing desk, but you'd be surprised how willing your boss/company would be to purchase something that's proven to increase their worker's health and productivity.

 

4. Don't Be Lazy in a World of Comfort

Honest questions time.

 

Do you spend an extra 5 or 10 minutes driving around a crowded parking lot trying to score a spot right next to the entrance?

 

I know I'm guilty of this, and it's silly if you think about it...

 

You could have just parked at the first available spot, walked an extra 50 steps, and actually saved yourself time instead of stressing out from playing Parking Lot Stratego.

 

The same can be said for a lot of our supposedly "time-saving" conveniences. Which, in reality, don't usually end up save us much time, and are often just excuses to be lazy.

 

Here's what to do:

 

Instead of being a typical lazy human zealot, opt for the active alternatives of getting to places.

 

Things like:

 

• Taking the stairs over waiting for the elevator

• Standing at your kid's soccer game instead of sitting on the uncomfortable bleachers

• Standing on the bus instead of sitting on your morning commute.

• Parking in the farthest lot space and walk to the store

 

None of these alternatives will add much, if any extra time to your life, but they WILL boost your energy expenditure and fat burning potential.

 

5.Double Your Steps & Invest in a Fitbit

I use to be the biggest hater on activity trackers such as Fitbits and Jawbones.

 

The reason for my hostility goes back to what we were talking about earlier in that most people grossly overestimate how many calories they're burning from cardio activities.

 

Fitbit's make things even worse by displaying estimates for calories burned which are incredibly inaccurate...(sometimes overestimating calories burned by as much as 40%!)

 

"My Fitbit told me I'm burning 4000 calories today! Seconds please!!"

 

However, there's one useful function of an activity tracker, and it's the pedometer (step tracker) function.

 

You see, most Americans only take 4000-6000 steps per day. If you work a sedentary job, chances are you are at or close to this average.

 

By doubling your total steps per day, you could easily burn an additional 250-350 calories or more!

 

The best part is that you'll have the Fitbit on your wrist to keep you accountable for reaching your step goal.

 

(Here's the Fitbit I use and recommend)

 

For most people, I recommend trying to get between 10-15k steps per day (if you're mostly sedentary, that will likely double your total step count).

 

You don't have to get in 10-15k steps EVERY day, but you should try to average that number over the course of a week.

 

For example, your week may look like this:

 

Monday - 12,000 steps

Tuesday - 13,000 steps

Wednesday - 7,000 steps

Thursday - 9,000 steps

Friday - 11,000 steps

Saturday - 5,000 steps

Sunday - 15,000 steps (went on a long, relaxing walk with your significant other)

 

Week Total = 72,000 steps

Daily Average = 72,000 steps / 7 days = 10,286 steps

 

Although there were days below 10k steps, taking extra steps to compensate resulted in just over a 10k average.

 

Follow a Fat Loss Plan Guaranteed to Work Forever

 

I mentioned earlier that cardio alone won't get you to your ultimate fitness goal.

 

It's just a piece of a much bigger weight loss puzzle.

 

Other just as important (if not more important) pieces include:

 

• Being Active in Your Day-to-Day Life (like we talked about in this article)

• Following an Effective Diet Plan

• Working out Strategically to build lean muscle and burn more fat

• Doing all of these things consistently over time

 

Similar to a puzzle, if one of these pieces is missing or out of place, you'll never be able to achieve your goals of losing fat and living a lean, healthy life.

 

That's where my free course, Fat Loss Forever, comes in...