With a few diet and exercise tweaks, losing body fat can be fast and easy. Depriving yourself of foods you love and working out for hours at a time are the images most people conjure up when thinking about burning body fat. Losing unsightly fat can be achieved by eating clean, healthy meals, adding the appropriate fats to your diet, combining your foods properly and doing exercises that raise the metabolism to help your body burn energy from fat.
Step 1
Eat clean, whole, healthy foods. According to Tosca Reno, author of the "Eat Clean Diet," eating foods in their most natural whole state, which she calls eating clean, helps the body burn fat. Eating fresh, whole foods provides the body with the micronutrients it needs to function properly, allowing for more energy to be used from fat.
Step 2
Include a MUFA with every meal to help burn fat. According to a study published in the "Journal For Diabetes Care," eating a monounsaturated fatty acids with every meal will help your body burn fat from the stomach area. Foods high in monounsaturated fatty acids, MUFAs, include oils, avocados, nuts, seeds, olives and dark chocolate. When adding MUFAs to your meals keep the portion size small--about 10 almonds, 1/2 an avocado or 1 Tbs of oil is all you need for fat burning benefits.
Step 3
Combine your protein and carbohydrates for effective fat burning. To avoid a slow digestive system, keep your high-protein foods paired with your simpler carbohydrates such as asparagus or broccoli. If you are eating a complex carbohydrate, choose a low-protein food like beans or lentils.
Step 4
Add muscle building exercises to your weekly routine. The more muscle mass you have the higher your metabolism. This does not mean you need to be a body builder. Adding just three days a week of moderate weight-lifting will tone your muscle and raise your metabolism. Choose exercises that target the whole body and use body weight as well free weights.
Step 5
Do moderate to intense aerobic activity five to six times a week. Aerobic activity helps the body burn energy from fat, elevates your energy levels and keeps your heart healthy. Aerobic exercise is any activity that elevates your heart rate between 65% and 85% of your resting heart rate and maintains this state for a minimum of 15 minutes.
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