How to Burn Fat and Get Ripped

How o Burn Fat and Get Ripped

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How to Burn Fat and Get Ripped

burn fat and get ripped

If you look around, especially on the internet, there is so much advice about diet and lifestyle claiming to help you ‘burn fat and get ripped’.

If you’re one of the many people who want to know how to burn fat and get ripped, beware! There is a lot of useless information on the market from people who have little knowledge and a great big agenda to sell you.

We’re different: our whole mission is to provide you with the FREE advice and guidance you need to make informed decisions about your body. Especially important since this is your body we’re talking about here!

Burning fat is a popular goal and we’re going to provide you with the basics: everything you need to know about burning fat from routine to diet to the top supplements for your goals.

They all go hand in hand to give you the best chance of losing those pounds and really getting ripped, so it’s important to cover them all!

First, a bit of advice:

If You Want to Burn Fat – Stay Dedicated!

They say it takes 5 weeks to form a new habit, that’s why gym memberships peak in January and drop off again by mid-February. The science says its going to be around 66 days, but either way you need to stick with it.

You can’t change your life overnight, but if you stick to it you will view those first steps as the building block for your ripped, lean body in the following weeks and months.

One key player in success and persistence is self-concept. Don’t compare yourself to others in the gym: use your own body as motivation, know what your target body looks like in your head and keep working towards it. Remember, Rome didn’t have rock hard abs in a day (or something like that!).

Ok, let’s get into it – how to actually achieve those goals!

Calorie Deficit to Burn Fat

This is the first rule for burning fat – to get ripped you must keep this in the back of your mind at all times. Think of it like the opposite of what you want your bank balance to look like.

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A calorie deficit simply means that you’re using more calories per day than you’re eating.

For example: If you take in 2,000 calories of food in a day but work off 2,500 then you have a deficit of 500 calories for this day. You should have a weekly goal that turns into a monthly one and becomes a habit.

A calorie deficit will make your body use non-food sources of energy, usually through body fat, causing weight loss. 1 pound of fat is estimated to contain around 3,500 calories so it will take just a week to lose a pound of fat at 500 calories a day.

The idea here is that, no matter what you eat, it has a certain calorie value and that’s what determines weight loss. It’s possible to focus on working out to burn calories, but it’s also much easier to not eat them in the first place!

This is much easier to achieve if you are eating healthily: it’s easier to burn an extra 500 calories over a daily intake of 1,750 calories, rather than 4,000!

Yes, burning fat is hard work, but like with any health goal, there comes a challenge and a level of commitment. Build up to it: start slow with a 200-calorie deficit. You don’t want to start being too harsh and hate your diet – that’s an easy way to fail!

Basically, you want to feel good about what you are doing, don’t set the bar too high too soon if you think it might demotivate you.

Tips for Creating a Calorie Deficit

There are different ways of burning fat through a calorie deficit. Cutting crap, calorie-dense foods out of your diet is often the simplest way and you probably won’t even notice the calorie reduction. Remove empty calories from your diet: junk food, white bread, sweets, fizzy drinks and sugary fruit juices from your diet.

On the other hand, you want to ensure your diet is rich in foods that are nutrient-dense and calories sprace: high in nutrients, low in calories, and they fill you up. Fruits, vegetables, root vegetables, whole wheat products and rice are all great choices.

Another essential method of creating a calorie deficit is through exercise. This will really boost your calorie deficit and you don’t have to sacrifice as much food, as long as you are working towards the deficit. You should be exercising anyway but putting time into endurance exercise can boost your calorie deficit without having to swear off food!

Weight training and intense cardio is important here. Incorporate cardio it into your workout and aim for 30+ minutes 3-5 times a week if you want to see significant results. Combine this with strength training and you will find you have a winning formula that burns fat and increases your musculature.

If you want a pleasing physique, it’s going to be key to build muscle as well as burning fat. Everyone has their own goals, but your dream physique probably isn’t ‘marathon runner’!

There are various online workout programs that can help you along the way. One of the better ones is Boss Workouts Shred (for getting absolutely ripped) and Boss Workouts Shape & Burn (tailored towards getting that female fitness model physique) -they’re brilliant 12 week video workout guides that include a full workout eBook, nutrition eBook and recipe guide so you fully understand why it all works and can repeat it as many times as you wish with lifetime access – we really recommend it!

Measuring your calories is always a guessing game and you’re going to have to accept that and adapt on the fly. There are various apps that can help you along the way, one of the better ones is MyFitnessPal, it is free and easy to use.

Best High Intensity Workouts for Burning Fat and Building Lean Muscle

Weight-Training

When someone says fat-burning, you probably think treadmills and salads, but weight training is one of the best things you can do for your body. While it might be thought of as more of a muscle-building set of exercises, it’s beautifully versatile and has a wide array of health benefits from fat burning and muscle building to fighting osteoporosis.

Weight training has a lower calorie cost during the exercise itself, but it makes up for this with the number of calories that you burn in the recovery and adaptation process. When you perform a tough weight-training workout, your muscles take serious stress and your body has to repair them during the next 36-48 hours.

During the 1-2 days after training, you’re compensating for this workout and consuming more calories while at rest. Not only will you be burning more calories at rest, but you’re going to see more muscular development – a big part of developing an impressive, lean physique.

Our advice is to always perform some type of resistance training – whether its gymnastic strength training or free weights, you should put this first. Following it up with a cardio workout is the best way to combine the different types of training and put together a well-rounded fat-burning, muscle-building workout.

Speaking of cardio…

High-Intensity Cardio for Burning Fat and Beyond

A treadmill is great, and if you can motivate yourself to hop on and go for it then good for you. But, some people (like me!) find this repetitive and like to mix up their cardio. If you’re looking for a shorter, sharper cardio workout then we’ve got you covered…

HIIT or High Intensity Interval Training is a great method for getting in shape – it’s all the rage right now and with good reason: it works. You’ve probably heard about it, but we’re going to take you through the important details.

Obviously, the intensity is high, but you are working hard for short periods, and resting in between sets. Alternatively, you can switch between sprinting and jogging to give yourself a mild rest and keep up your heart rate.

High Intensity Interval Training Benefits:

  • Shorter Exercise Periods (who doesn’t want less cardio!)
  • Higher intensity
  • More fun/interesting!
  • More diversity of exercises
  • Develop a variety of athletic characteristics

A Few HIIT Cardio Workouts to Get You Started:

Never be too embarrassed to ask for advice in the gym, an instructor should be able to give you a few tips along the way, but here are a few of our own to get you going:

#1 Outdoor HIIT

Who doesn’t love training outside? (Answer: the British) Well, if the weather is kind or you just enjoy doing your cardio outside then find a good area for some sprint-intervals where you don’t need to wait for anyone to finish on the equipment to get started.

Mix up the following or do one at a time:

  • Sprint for 10 yards, walk back, sprint 20 then walk back, repeat until you’re sprinting 50 yards. Do 5 sets of this. Your focus should be on going as fast as possible with each sprint.
  • Sprint for 25 yards, jog backward to the start before sprinting 25 yards again. You can really mix this up with some high-knees and side-steps to get back to the beginning.
  • Use the lamp posts. If you’re in a park you can race against the posts. Jog from one post to the next once you reach the second post, sprint to the third then walk to the next one. Jog, sprint, walk and repeat 5 times.

#2 Your Own HIIT Circuits

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Cardio doesn’t mean you have to run, jog or sprint all the time to get your heart racing and your body burning fat. Sometimes you just need to get your pulse going.

With this in mind, you can create your own method of HIIT, customize a workout choosing a whichever order you prefer of these

  • Kettlebell Front Swing x 10
  • Push Ups x 10-15
  • Burpees x 10-15
  • Sled Push x 10-15
  • Steps Up and Down – 30 seconds
  • Mountain Climbers x 10
  • V-Ups x 10
  • Plank – 20 seconds (more squeeze, rather than more time!)
  • Lunges x10-15

Rest for 2-3 minutes between each completed round.

#3 BodyWeight HIIT Training

Great if you can’t make the gym or just want to build up from home. Similar to the previous only you don’t need any specialist equipment, try 10 to 15 reps and start with going full cycle twice, then building up to 3-5 completed cycles once you have built your stamina.

  • Burpees
  • Crunches
  • Squat Jumps
  • Star Jumps
  • Push Ups
  • Mountain Climber Crunches
  • Sprinting on the spot (30 seconds)

The idea is to really go for it: the high intensity is what makes it effective. You’re not going to see the results you want if you’re not switching up gears and pushing yourself to the limit.

Obviously, start by pacing yourself and, once you have built your confidence, increase your intensity. The important part is to make sure that you’re training at maximal intensity when you’re on your “go” phases! These need to be around 90-100% of your best output, so get moving!

Like we mentioned previously, work your way into this method: don’t try to do too much too soon and you will enjoy the process. Begin doing what you can with what you have and build up your strength and movement slowly – it’ll reduce injuries and ensure you’re progressing in a way you can sustain!

Diet and Nutrition Tips To Burn Fat and Look Ripped

The first thing you need to remember here is that you are committing to a new way of life. You must break your bad habits of eating too much of the wrong foods. This isn’t to say that you must forego every food you enjoy, it just means you have to be reasonable and make improvements along the way.

Improving your diet and burning fat is simple, just reduce portion sizes and make a few changes – you still need the energy to exercise!

Here are a few Tips to Help You with Your Diet and Nutrition:

#1 Drink More Water to Burn Fat

This will help your body to burn fat as well as improving how your body uses it and fuels performance. Aside from being essential to organ health and life in general, it will fill you up more and its calorie content is a pleasing ‘0’.

There is a recommended daily intake of around 2.7 litres for women and 3.7 for men but everyone is different, and you should focus on your pee (yes, your pee): if it’s clear and colourless or a very pale yellow then you’re properly hydrated, but if you’re seeing a distinct yellow or worse; yellowy-brown, then you need to drink more water!

It’s important to remember to stay hydrated when you lead an active lifestyle: doing more cardio means you will want to take on more water as well.

#2 Consume a Sensible Amount of Protein

Anyone looking to get ripped and build muscle often overcompensates on the protein. Don’t forget that even the best proteins have calories so give yourself a chance of showing off your abs and eat what you need, but don’t overdo it.

Protein should make up around 35% of your diet’s calories. Alternatively, you can take your bodyweight in kilos and eat 2g of protein per kilo. These are both good estimates but, ultimately, it’s going to be important to prioritize eating lean proteins as part of every meal, where possible.

#3 Eat a Good Breakfast to Control Your Diet

Of course, it has to be a good choice of food here to start your day, but don’t start without eating something.

While your calorie-balance is always the most important part of dieting to burn fat, it’s important to find out what works for you and learn to control your diet – breakfast is a great place to start.

The best approach upon rising is to get a breakfast that is going to sustain you and provide fuel. You’ve been fasting for the past 8 hours and your body has been doing all kinds of cool stuff from recovery to growth – time to provide it with raw materials to capitalize on this and prepare for the day!

Skipping breakfast isn’t going to stop you from burning fat or cause you serious problems, but can be a bad practice. Approaching food as fuel is an important step in making the most of your diet: eating breakfast is associated with better eating habits and can be a great way to curb cravings.

HOWEVER, if you naturally skip breakfast at the moment and have plenty of energy through your day, then suddenly changing your habits to eating an additional meal at breakfast without adjusting the amount of calories in your lunch, dinner and snacks will cause you to gain weight as you’ll be eating extra calories. So if you don’t currently eat breakfast and want to try, remember to reduce the amount of calories you eat in the remainder of the day to stay in a calorie deficit, like we mentioned earlier.

Oatmeal topped with fruit and nuts is always a quick and easy start: oats are a slow-digesting carb that will keep you fueled, while the fiber and fats from fruit and nuts are great for health and metabolism.

Skipping breakfast can significantly impact your workout for the worse and people who skip breakfast often over-consume later in the day to compensate.

#4 Black Coffee for Thermogenesis Fat Burning

How to burn fat and get ripped with black coffeeGet rid of the milk as these are calories your body doesn’t need and take a black coffee either before or up to two hours after a workout to maximize its effect.

Caffeine is one of the most effective thermogenic compounds in existence – there’s a reason it’s in everything from fat-burners to pre-workouts. It boosts mental and physical performance and increases your metabolism – meaning better fat-burning without a change in diet.

#5 Eat More Vegetables To Fill You Up and Avoid Fat Gain

Low in calories and high in nutrients – the magic formula for any food if you are looking to burn fat. You will feel full with less calories to burn off, giving you the best possible start.

The high fiber content of most vegetables also provides you with satiety and improves both metabolic and digestive health. This means you’re going to shed fat, improve your health and get healthier while you get shredded.

Swap your side of fries for a side of seasonal vegetables and even use cut up carrots or cucumber as a snacking alternative throughout the day.

#6 Supplements to Fuel Your Muscles

Yes, Creatine is more than just a great added ingredient to protein powder supplements, this can really help your body to burn fat. It’s a well-known and well-researched fact that creatine helps your body to improve strength-endurance.

This increases your ability to build and maintain muscle. The increase in muscle will encourage your resting metabolic rate to rise and in turn, this makes your body burn fat.

Beta-Alanine is a less popular but equally effective supplement that has been shown to improve your time-to-exhaustion. This is the creatine of cardio: it boosts your performance, meaning you can work harder for longer and burn more calories along the way!

#7 Natural Fat Burning Supplements

That’s right, complementing your diet and exercise routine with natural, quality fat-burners can significantly impact your success.

Used by some of the world’s most successful elite athletes, we will go into the many benefits of this a little further on (If you can’t wait, then check out our top recommended fat burner and all it has to offer!).

#8 SLEEP!

Get into the habit of getting plenty of sleep at the right time and try to sleep at the same time every night to allow your body to recover after your exercise. When you sleep, your body puts all its effort into secreting hormones, rebuilding muscles and fat-burning.

Good quality sleep will keep your glucose control in check so that you don’t crave carbohydrates through the day and, if you’re in a calorie deficit, you’ll need the extra energy of a sound night’s sleep to get you through until the next evening!

Good sleep boosts testosterone, increases muscle gains, elevates mood, reduces the risk of depression and controls your aging process. All of these contribute to fat loss and, if you’re looking to become the best version of yourself, they all play important roles.

Great Fat Burning Ingredients

This is where you can start to use your diet to your advantage. A regular intake of these foods can improve your body’s capacity for burning fat – and they have plenty of other advantages!

A few small changes can go a long way. A lot of the following are included in our top fat burning ingredients article. This piece is a fantastic source of information that can help on your journey to burn fat and get ripped.

Top ingredients for fat burning:

Green Tea Extract

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That’s right, this has a calming caffeine content that has been proven time and time again to benefit your overall health, but what can it do for weight loss?

Firstly, Green tea catechins are a great way of boosting your fat oxidization: a key process in utilising fats as fuel. You burn just under 6 calories of fat for every mg of catechins you consume! Catechins are also a strong antioxidant and will reduce your risk of cancer and other dangerous side-effects of aging.

Second, it boosts your ability to relax, associated with improved hormonal health and better testosterone levels!

Finally, the GABA in green tea can boost your growth hormone levels if you pair it with resistance training, so you’re going to see better musculature as well as reduced fat!

Caffeine

Another ingredient that encourages your metabolism to get into gear it also helps your body to release body fat, so you can use it for energy.

We’ve covered caffeine above, but it’s so effective and beneficial that it deserves repeating! It’s the greatest drug ever and it should have a place in your diet.

It can be found in many different formats and in fat burners it is often the Green Coffee Bean version that is most effective.

Glucomannan

This fiber is an appetite suppressor. By making you feel fuller for longer it can really be an essential ingredient in a diet. By stopping you from wanting more calories you can win half the battle and make fat burning a lot easier: imagine how easy dieting would be without hunger!

It has been shown in studies to improve your cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. It can be taken in supplementation and even be bought on its own and sprinkled onto food.

It is best found as part of a fat burner as you can get the benefit of various ingredients in one go: efficiency is always a great way to approach your supplements!

Zinc

Unfortunately, many of us do not get enough of this in our diets, mainly because it is difficult to include and absorb.

This is probably why it is found in so many quality fat burner supplements and it is an important inclusion. People with lower levels of Zinc are more likely to have a lower metabolic rate (your thyroid gland needs Zinc for it to function properly).

Zinc is also crucial for the health of the hormones and deficiency can cause serious problems. You only have to look at the effects of zinc deficiency on young men to understand: precocious puberty is awful and zinc deficiency is a possible cause.

Cayenne Pepper

A bit easier to get into your day-to-day meals, this works as a thermogenic. The spice raises your body’s temperature, requiring more fat to be burned to keep you warm. There have also been studies to show that it works as an effective appetite suppressor, meaning less calories consumed and an easier calorie deficit.

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If you are not a fan of spice, it is found in many fat burners. So you will only be washing it down with water and not running for a third glass to cool your mouth down.

There are many supplements that have most of if not all of these ingredients, as well as many more beneficial fat burning nutrients. Our list of the top recommended fat burners is a reliable source for many who are looking at how a quality supplement can benefit them.

These all have good dosages of the best ingredients and is an easier way of getting these ingredients into your diet without trying to put them in every meal.

How Fat Burning Supplements Can Help You Get Ripped:

Thankfully there are a lot of top natural fat burner supplements on the market. So anyone concerned about putting something new into their diet does not need to worry.

We only recommend products that fit our strict criteria so if you want a fat burner supplement that is safe, with no side effects and is natural, we can help.

Don’t be fooled by clever marketing, there are a lot of sub-par supplements on the market: the internet is crawling with them. Keep your wits about you around this infestation and try recommended natural products that have science-backed ingredients.

Before they were used by recreational fitness enthusiasts, fat burners were (and still are) used by some of the world’s top athletes.

Many of the top MMA fighters and boxers swear by them when trying to make weight as it is a safe and effective way of doing so without risking serious side-effect or injury.

If the world’s best bodybuilders use them for competition to get rid of the excess pounds and get truly ripped, then they are more than good enough for us! These guys and girls are a great example of how much you can achieve with diet, exercise and supplementation – they know a thing or two about getting lean!

It is the best way of getting many of the best ingredients into your body. It’s not easy to get Zinc, Cayenne Powder, Vitamin D3 (and many more!) into your diet on a daily basis. These are some of the best compounds to burn fat and they’re going to take a little effort to reach optimum levels.

Instant Knockout – #1 Recommended Fat Burner

For us, there are two fat burners that stand out in today’s market, the first is one that we swear by and have had a lot of positive feedback from. That is Instant Knockout, the completely Natural fat burner with no side effects from the people at Roar Ambition. 

They review their ingredients and dosages every few months, so when you purchase their product, you are getting the very best version. For a complete study of this fat burner and it’s many benefits, read our in depth Instant Knockout review.

Only available to buy directly from: www.instantknockout.com

Hourglass – Recommended Female Fat Burner

The other fat burner we recommend is tailored towards the female market and is called Hourglass. another natural fat burner it has many quality ingredients that really compliment anyone looking to find an effective way of enhancing their fat burning regime. Our in depth Hourglass fat burner review can shed some more light on its benefits for you.

There you have it, there is so much you can do to burn fat, all you need is the will to start, some sound knowledge and the self-control to follow it through.

With so much advice out there we have tried to make it as uncomplicated as possible to give you the best chance of reaching your goals.

Only available to buy from: hourglassfit.com

Now Go Burn Fat and Get Ripped!

Good luck on your journey to becoming a Clean Lean Machine!

We’d love to hear your thoughts, if you have any tips to share with what helped you burn fat and get toned or if you have any questions just drop a comment below…

2 comments

  • I learned more a new challenge on this fat reduction issue.
    One particular issue is that good nutrition is tremendously vital while dieting.

    A tremendous reduction in fast foods, sugary ingredients, fried foods,
    sugary foods, pork, and white flour products could
    possibly be necessary. Having wastes bloodsuckers, and toxic compounds may prevent targets for
    fat loss. While selected drugs momentarily solve the condition, the awful side effects
    are usually not worth it, and in addition they never offer more than a temporary solution.
    This can be a known incontrovertible fact that 95% of diet
    plans fail. Thank you for sharing your ideas on this weblog.

    • Good points, Bob! Thanks for sharing your thoughts – you’re quite right, making sure you include nutrient dense whole foods while reducing the amount of junk you eat to achieve a calorie deficit will help. Sustainability for life is the ultimate goal of a good diet. So you need to make sensible choices and understand that eating fewer calories than you’re burning causes fat loss so that you have the best chances of success! Fat burning products do help achieve goals quicker, but should be part of a sustainable diet and exercise routine. Weight loss drugs and medical treatments should only be a last resort if advised by your doctor.

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