I get asked all the time what are the best exercises, how much cardio I should do and what fat loss pill will help me get rid of my belly fat. Well before any of the above can even be discussed, your body must go through this 3 step process in order to accelerate your fat loss, especially in your belly.

STEP #1: Release Stored Fat

In order to burn fat you must first get your body to release fat out of the fat cells and burned up for energy. The body can’t burn it off and use it for energy until it’s released from the fat cell.

In order to do this you must create a calorie deficit. Basically you must burn more calories throughout each day, week, month and year than you consume. This is accomplished through your workouts, nutrition and activities performed throughout the day.

Your body naturally reacts by sending a message to your body that it needs to look somewhere else for energy. I’m going to guess that you would agree that burning up fat cells, especially from your belly fat for energy is an ideal situation.

Sounds simple right? Well unfortunately it’s not quite that easy. Your body is no fool, especially when it comes to survival, so it won’t immediately use the fat from these fat stores for fuel, as it needs these fat stores for survival when starving and to stay alive. So your body will fight to preserve these fat stores as a survival mechanism.

In response to this survival mode your body will first turn to two other sources in the body.

Location # 1: Glycogen (Sugars) from Muscle and Liver

This basically is the carbohydrates (Sugars) that are stored in your muscle and liver from your diet and used primarily for fuel when exercising. But in situations when your body is in a caloric deficit it will use these stored sugars for energy.

Location #2: Muscle Tissue

The second location your body will seek fuel in times of need is your muscle. This must be avoided at all costs as muscle is your metabolism and if your metabolism decreases your fat loss decreases as well.

So you must put your body in a situation where it needs and will hold onto to your precious muscle. In other words, when your body knows it needs to maintain that muscle mass for from high intensity workouts, it will by pass this source of fuel and will move on to the third and most ideal source of energy.

So you must use an exercise program that is designed to have a concern for muscle, so your body is in a positive state of protein synthesis (building).

Location # 3: Body Fat

Once you get here, your burning fat and getting leaner each day, week, month and year.

Here is a sum of the above parts:

1. Deplete the glycogen (Sugar) stores in your muscles so source number one doesn’t exist.

2. Perform proven and efficient calorically expensive workouts so your body knows it can’t turn to muscle tissue for fuel.

3. Release fat from your fat stores so your body will burn fat as your main energy source during your workouts and throughout the day.

In order to accomplish step one which is to deplete the sugar stored in your muscles, you must implement a strategic nutrition plan and calorically expensive workouts so you can quickly use up the glycogen that‘s stored in your muscle.

When your muscle glycogen (Sugar) storage is low, it will cause your blood sugar levels (Glucose) to decline, this sends a signal to your fat cells to turn on HSL (Hormone Sensitive Lipase).

This hormone converts fat from the fat cells into free fatty acids, which then are transported to muscle and liver where they are burned for energy. So when HSL levels are low, fat burning is LOW, and when HSL levels are high, fat burning is HIGH.

So we must increase HSL levels by calling on another hormone known as catecholamine’s. This hormone can be increased only by high intensity calorie expensive workouts, which send signals to your adrenal glands in times of the stress that are induced by strategic high intensity workouts.

Step one is a very important process as you can see, so now let’s move onto to steps two and three of our fat loss blueprint….

STEP 2 and 3: Transport Free Fatty Acids and Burn Them For Energy (Oxidation).

Ok so hopefully you’re following me so far. Next we have to be able to transport those free fatty acids to the mitochondria which are located in your muscles and where energy is produced. In order for this to take place carnitine must be high. When carnitine is high, fat is now used as your main fuel source thanks to those higher HSL levels in your body.

Carnitine plays a critical role in energy production. It transports long-chain fatty acids into the mitochondria so they can be oxidized (“burned”) to produce energy. Given these key functions, carnitine is concentrated in tissues like skeletal and cardiac muscle that utilize fatty acids as a dietary fuel.

Think of carnitine like the security gates at your local Airport. If there are 100 people ready to go through the security gate and only two gates are open, then it will take a long time to get through the gates and to your destination. But if there are 100 gates open, then your through lighting fast and on your way to your desired destination.

So in order to increase your carnitine levels, we first must have low muscle glycogen (Sugar) levels, which result in higher carnitine levels. As I already mentioned earlier you must implement a strategic nutrition plan coupled with high intense calorie expensive workouts to deplete these glycogen stores which is the secret to elevating your carnitine levels. See how it all comes to a full circle?

So you must use a proven and strategic system that is designed to decrease glycogen stores, increase catecholamine’s as well as HSL and carnitine levels, so fatty acids are being burned as your main source of energy not just for your workouts, but also throughout the day as well. Now your body will truly be a fat burning machine, resulting a leaner, tighter, more toned body.

Go to http://f2cbootcamps.com/contact/twofreeweek/ for your two week trial and see first hand how effective a strategic high intensity calorie expensive workout cab be!

•  Source: Rebouche CJ. Carnitine. In: Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease, 9th Edition (edited by Shils ME, Olson JA, Shike M, Ross, AC). Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, New York, 1999, pp. 505-12.
• Source:The editors. Carnitine: lessons from one hundred years of research. Ann NY Acad Sci 2004;1033:ix-xi.
• Source:J Biol Chem. 1996 Dec 6;271(49):31426-30.Hormone-sensitive lipase is structurally related to acetylcholinesterase, bile salt-stimulated lipase, and several fungal lipases. Building of a three-dimensional model for the catalytic domain of hormone-sensitive lipase.Contreras JA, Karlsson M, Osterlund T, Laurell H, Svensson A, Holm C.Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Lund University, Lund S-221 00, Sweden. cecilia.holm@medkem.lu.se
• Source: *Kjaer M, Secher NH, Galbo H. Physical stress and catecholamine release. Baillieres Clin Endocrinol Metab, 1987 May;1(2):279-98. Review.
• Source: *McMurray RG, Forsythe WA, Mar MH, Hardy CJ. Exercise intensity-related responses of beta-endorphin and catecholamines. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 1987 Dec;19(6):570-4.
• Source: *Engfeldt P, Hellmer J, Wahrenberg H, Arner P. Effects of insulin on adrenoceptor binding and the rate of catecholamine-induced lipolysis in isolated human fat cells. J Biol Chem, 1988 Oct 25;263(30):15553-60.