How I Lost Over 250 Pounds (My Top 11 Fat Loss Tips!)

Coming from someone who has struggled in the past with losing weight and body fat .

Today , I want to share with you effective ways to burn fat .

Explain why stubborn fat hangs around .

Plus my personal strategy that I've broken down into 11 steps for fat loss that I've used to lose over £250 .

So let's get started .

So many of you who have followed me for a while know that starting in my teens and then through college and then as an adult with kids , I've struggled with losing weight and struggled with my body image and just basically haven't really understood the best way to approach how to lose weight and do it the appropriate way .

And it took me a while to figure out the best ways to do it and why it's so much better to do it in the way that I'm gonna share with you than just trying to do fad diets where you yo yo back and forth .

And so what I found is that it's really important to understand the difference between , between losing weight and losing body fat because losing weight doesn't take into consideration your healthy lifestyle it doesn't consider .

Are you going to do this in the future ?

It's just focused on losing weight in this moment and not , how are you going to sustain this for the rest of your life ?

Whereas losing body fat changes how you approach your world .

It changes your lifestyle , your attitude and your motivation for being a healthier person .

It's not worried so much about cutting all those carbs , cutting all those calories as much as it is .

How do I make this work for me for the rest of my life ?

So , first off , let's talk about fat .

So what is fat ?

Well , like it or not , fat is necessary .

It's actually essential for us to live .

Now , you know , me , I got to put a little bit of science behind it , but let me try to explain it in a very simple way .

So body fat can be broken down into three types .

There's essential fats and that's the fat that's found in your brain , in your nerves , in your heart , your livers , your kidneys and your bone marrow .

Just to name a few .

And that essential fat is so important because it helps with body temperature regulation , with mineral absorption and a whole list of other things .

Then there's subcutaneous fat and that's the fat that's in your arms .

It's that you see in your belly and you see basically on your legs and your thighs .

That's the , that's the under your skin fat too .

Much of this kind of fat can lead to issues like stroke and heart disease .

And this is more of like a storage fat that your body can use for energy at a different time if it needs to , rather than essential fat that your body actually needs to function every day .

Now , the third type of fat is called visceral fat .

And this is the type of fat that really starts to accumulate around your organs and is also the type of fat that is known as our belly fat .

And you may have heard that waist circumference is linked with type two diabetes and obesity and heart disease and all these other issues .

And that's what happens when we have too much of that visceral fat and just like subcutaneous fat , visceral fat is also a type of storage fat , which means if we get too much fat in our diets , it's going to get stored as either subcutaneous fat or visceral fat .

So , if we have the healthy level of fat in our bodies , that's going to help us with things like hormone regulation , blood sugar balance , appropriate levels of metabolism , your body temperature is going to be regulated .

You're going to have good neurological health .

Your brain is going to be functioning well and your vitamin storage is going to be really good .

So , visceral fat and subcutaneous fat accumulate when we have too much fat coming into our diets .

And specifically , if we're eating a lot of trans fats .

There are studies that show that trans fats lead to higher levels of visceral fat .

There are also studies that show that having too much sugar in your diet can also lead to additional visceral fat plus being sedentary and not having a lot of activities in a day can lead to that as well .

So there are a lot of ways that we can actually change our body fat percentages by just changing the foods we're eating and the activities that we're doing .

But I'll get more into that in my tips in a little bit .

Also , I want to mention how it's not uncommon to want to lose fat as fast as possible .

And unfortunately , while I would love for it to be different , that's actually not the best way to approach things first off .

If we don't lose that fat right away , we're to be discouraged and that's going to cause us to not want to lose any more fat if we have any road bumps along the way .

Instead , the better way is to approach it as a lifestyle that you actually enjoy .

So you never go back to that other way of living .

Not only that , there's also a lot of hazards that can happen if we have rapid weight loss .

One is you miss out on all those extra nutrients , which means you're going to have less energy .

Your body isn't going to function as well .

You might not have as good a thinking and it's just not going to be fun .

And anyone who's ever gone on a super restrictive diet knows I'm talking about , you're also going to slow down your metabolism by reducing the number of calories you're eating .

If you start starving your body , your body is going to hold on to everything it has .

It's actually going to be harder to lose weight than if you were to eat the same amount or more calories .

Your body might also start breaking down your muscle for energy if it's not getting enough energy from your diet .

And that means you're going to be leaving the fat behind while the muscle is getting burned , it can make you feel super hungry all the time and just hate life and nobody likes to be hungry all the time .

And it can also cause a lot of issues with your own personal body and , and how you feel about yourself to the point where you're no longer happy with what you achieve , even if you get to the weight that you're thinking that you want to get to .

So in my weight loss journey , I've learned a ton of lessons on how to burn fat , how to keep it off and how to approach your lifestyle so that you actually are successful .

And so let's dive into those tips right now .

First off , I recommend checking out intermittent fasting as an option .

If you've watched my video on what I eat in a day or my intermittent fasting guide for women .

You already know that intermittent fasting is a great tool for fat burning .

It also helps me to go periods of time without eating .

And then when I am eating , I feel nice and full , which was something that I really couldn't stand when I was cutting so many calories in the past was I felt hungry all the time and I hated it .

So with intermittent fasting , I feel full , I'm burning fat .

I'm making a productive plan for how I'm going to have my meals during the day .

And it's just an all around better lifestyle for me .

Plus , intermittent fasting has been shown in studies to reduce body fat percentage , help you lose weight and lower your cholesterol .

Next strength training has been a huge part of my fat loss journey .

So , strength training or weight training is a form of exercise where you're basically training your muscles to get stronger and stronger .

So that means you're not only burning more energy and more fat while you're strength training studies have actually shown that strength training continues to burn extra fat even at rest after your workout for a whole 24 hours afterwards .

So it's awesome .

So if you're tired of just doing cardio and you feel like you're running and running and running and you're never losing that weight check out strength training , I highly , highly recommend it and I have a few routines that you can do to get started even without weights .

And I can share this for you in the description below .

Increasing your daily movement or your knee is also a really important factor .

So if you already watch me on Instagram stories , you know that I often share how I'm getting my steps in each day and I'm staying as active as I can every day .

And the reason why we do that is we want to increase what's called our needs and what need stands for is non exercise , activity , thermogenesis .

And what that basically means is aside from the time that you're exercising in a day , how active is your body ?

Are you making it move ?

Are you taking a bunch of steps in a day ?

How much does your body just have to stay at a higher level of metabolism in order to sustain your activity level ?

So if you're sitting in a chair all day , your body is really not going to have to do much and it's going to learn .

Ok ?

I don't have to burn a lot of energy .

I'll just store the fat that you're eating .

Versus if you're walking a few miles in a day or getting 10-K steps in a day , it's going to have to keep ready to go and it's going to burn that energy throughout the day with a higher metabolism .

Next , tracking your macros is really helpful for understanding how much you're consuming and breaking down what types of foods you're eating and the percentages of fat , protein and carbs in your daily life and how those make up your total calories .

So , a mistake that I've made in the past is that I've only cared about the total calories and I've tried to cut that down as far as possible .

The problem with that is you're not focusing on the quality of the food , the nutrients you're getting or what your body actually needs to burn the fat and to give you energy to burn more fat in the day .

So I recently shared a video on how to calculate your macros if you want to check it out , so you can figure it out for yourself .

Try reducing your refined carb intake .

So refined carbs are found in packaged foods , they're found in highly processed foods , sugary snacks and foods that are meant to stay on the shelf for a long time .

So definitely paying attention to the food you're eating .

If it has a lot of refined sugars in it , a lot of refined carbs , enriched flowers and all purpose flowers instead of whole wheat and whole grains is going to be very beneficial because like we talked about earlier that all gets stored as visceral fat in your body and it gets stored for later and in a lot of amounts of it .

And that's what's going to lead to that extra belly fat , especially if you're not burning it off in a day .

And if you need help with understanding what's in your foods , check out my video on the hidden sugars in foods because I go into a lot of explanation on how to read ingredient labels so that you are aware and you're not having it unknowingly as well .

Increasing your daily fiber intake is a huge help in both weight loss and fat loss as well .

So not only does eating more fiber in your diet make you feel fuller and help you with your digestion .

But it also helps you to reduce overall excess fat as well .

And that's because fiber filled foods like avocados and quinoa can help you burn fat .

You can check out my video on the top 21 high fiber foods if you want to for some really good ideas on how to start adding those into your diet , but start including those not all at once because having too much fiber all at once can be a little tricky with your digestion , but starting to incorporate those more on a daily basis .

Drinking caffeine can be really helpful for burning fat .

So if you've watched my video on the benefits of coffee or on green tea , or even when I've talked about dark chocolate , having caffeine is a great way to help your body , increase your metabolism , increase your fat burning potential and keep you more active and alert as well .

Plus caffeine increases your epinephrine levels , which is going to help with fat burning because that hormone will actually send signals to your fat tissues to start breaking down the fat so that you have more energy in your blood system to keep your body moving more , eating healthy fats .

So it might sound counterintuitive , but eating more healthy fat will actually help you lose body fat as well .

So foods that contain healthy fats are things like almonds and walnuts , full fat dairy , like full fat , Greek yogurt , full fat , cottage cheese , and fatty fish like salmon .

These are all really good high good fat foods .

Plus eating high fat fat foods that are good for you will also slow down your digestion , which is going to help you feel fuller longer .

So overall , incorporating those into your daily lifestyle is going to give you the good fats that your body needs for those essential fats and it's going to make you feel fuller .

So you're not snacking as much .

You don't need to eat as much .

So you can keep your calorie count lower plus healthy fats are delicious .

So our body enjoys eating them .

So the more you have of those and have them in a good amount of your total diet , the happier you're going to be with your diet .

Drinking apple cider vinegar is also a great option for fat loss .

And if you've watched my video on the benefits of apple cider vinegar , you already know that drinking apple cider vinegar increases your fat burning and your metabolism .

Both things are very helpful for total fat loss .

Not only that , if you're diluting it into water , having that daily water and staying hydrated each day is going to also help with reducing your body fat .

Just 1 to 2 tablespoons a day , whether it's in a large glass of water or throughout the day , incorporated into salad dressings and marinades is all you need .

And you can check out my video on a CV and intermittent fasting to see how you can combine both of those to have even more fat burning potential .

Getting adequate sleep is huge for fat burning .

And this can be tricky coming from someone who has four kids .

I get that sleep is definitely worth its weight in gold , especially if you have littles and it can be very difficult to get all of your sleep even if you want to .

But if you can focus on having a good night time routine , reducing your caffeine levels before you go to sleep and just making sleep a priority , it's going to have a huge effect on your fat burning potential .

In fact , there have been studies that show that just getting an hour more of sleep a night .

So seven hours versus six hours in a night showed that the participants in the study lost more body fat percentage over the trial of the study than those who didn't also being deprived of sleep is going to do a few things .

It's going to decrease your metabolism .

So your body is going to feel a lot more sluggish .

It's not going to burn as much energy .

And it can also increase certain hormones that make you go feel hungry so that your body gets more energy from food .

And it's just , it's a complete out of whack system .

If you're not getting enough sleep , getting enough protein is also very important .

If you watch my video on why women need to eat more protein , you already know that having more protein in your diet is so important for fat loss , for being content with the food you're eating and for muscle growth and for losing body fat , especially in your abdomen , which is where a lot of people have that excess body fat because of that visceral fat .

And if you haven't checked out that video , I will link to it for you below and you'll see that the common denominator in all of these tips is to find a way that you enjoy your lifestyle because if you don't enjoy it , you're not gonna be successful .

And that's coming from someone who's lost the weight and had it come back .

And then now I've been able to keep the weight off for years because I found a way that works for me that I enjoy that is healthy and sustainable .

If it's not that you're just going to be bound to that yo , yo , dieting and it's gonna be no fun whatsoever .

So for more weight loss tips , check out my video on my top weight loss tips that actually work because I've done them and I know they work and I will see you in the next video .