4 Super-Fast Ways to Burn Calories and Fat

The beginning of the year is often the time when fingers are ‘pulled out’ and gym sessions are undertaken with renewed rigor. What if there was an easier route to your calorie or fat burning goals than 2 hours a day on the treadmill, though? Sometimes what it takes is a consistent metabolic boost and a little nutritional know-how, and you’re already ten steps ahead. With that in mind, here’s my advice to you:

HIIT

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is short intervals of high-intensity exercise, training at around 90% of your maximum heart rate (MHR) for a short period of time;you alternate those periods with intervals of a slower pace so you’re recovering while still exercising. You can burn around 500 calories in 32 minutes this way (dependent on the exercise). This is a great option for those who are impatient or lack free time for long gym sessions.

The Metabolism journal published study results back in 1994 confirming that the HIIT method is superior to steady cardio over a longer period. One group followed an HIIT program for fifteen weeks while another did steady cardio over a twenty week period. Although the latter group burned more calories, the HIIT group lost a lot more body fat.

HIIT works because your body isn’t able to predict what is required of it, and the increased intensity keeps your metabolism ticking over long after you’ve finished working out; meaning it’s still burning off those pesky calories while you’re slumped in your office chair all afternoon. You’ll burn 10% more calories than those who opt to go steady - for the next 24 hours.

Good HIIT workouts might include jumping jacks/squats, skipping, hill sprints, or running up and down stairs. Aim for around 90 seconds of HIIT, then around 30 seconds at a calmer pace. If you do this for half an hour, that should be enough.

Your brain is no different than rest of the parts of your body – you either use it or lose it. To make your brain work better, go for Nootropic Energy Gum. It fuels your body and activates your mind.

Hydrate with ice-cold water

Hydration is one of the most important aspects to staying healthy, but it aidscalorie too – if you do it the right way. It’s all to do with the temperature; your body has towarm or cool fluids you drink to 98.6°F before it can use them, which takes energy. It may not take lots of calories to do so, but this method (in conjunction with other calorie-burning techniques) can go far.

If water is very cold, you’ll burn a calorie every time you consume 1floz of water. So if you chug a liter of ice-cold water, you’ve burned off another 32 calories without moving. Word of warning: the more often you do this, the more often you’ll need to move anyway… to the toilet. 

Over the course of a week, one liter a day equates to 224 calories. A liter a day is not really enough anyway – especially if you’re doing HIIT – so you can up that number substantially and get all the other benefits of hydration in the process. If you are suitably hydrated, this will have an even more positive impact on your overall calorie burn.

Intermittent Fasting

Think about it: in nature, animals eat only when they can eat.They’ll go for extended periods without any food, and then eat one huge meal. They’re rarely starving, though; if anything, they are never subject to disease, they have plenty of energy and no extra body fat. Primitive man functioned the same way;no food for extended periods. Simply put, they fasted because nature necessitated it. Convenience food is not only destroying our health; it’s extending our waistlines too.

I’m not suggesting you don’t eat for the next five days, although there are some well-documented health benefits for that. There are ways to fast comfortably; for example the 16:8 fast (16 hours fasting, 8 hour eating window), the 24 hour once per week fast, the one meal per day containing all your daily calories fast, or the 5:2 plan: two days per week eat a quarter of your usual calories (e.g. 500 for women, 600 for men). You might be surprised at how significantly your energy levels rise, now that your digestion isn’t working overtime all day long.

It works because when you fast for an extended period, you’ll have less blood sugar and less carb storage. Fasts work best when you go 14 or more hours without food. Your body will then start burning fat for energy, so you won’t feel tired. Intermittent fasting also encourages cell renewal and heightened immunity. Simply put, it’s good for you!

Boost your metabolism

Sometimes all your metabolism needs is a good kick up the backside. There are many ways you can do this; food-wise, as long as you’re consuming enough monounsaturated fats rather than saturated fats, you’ll burn more calories.

Olives (and olive oil), peanuts, macadamias, hazelnuts, avocados and coconut oil are incredibly healthy fats, famed for reducing belly-fat in particular. Hot peppers will also give your metabolism a helping hand… no, not in the form of a creamy curry. Sorry.

These foods increase your body’s fat and calorie burning ability – equating to an increase of around 4.3%. This is apparently because such fats prompt our mitochondria (our cells’ calorie-burning engines)to burn energy as heat. Remember, dropping the saturated fats is a must, or your MUFAs are going to have their work cut out for them.

Coffee and green teas are also popular metabolism boosters. EGCG is an antioxidant (found in green tea) that boosts fat burn and weight loss, provided that it’scombined with caffeine. Green tea happens to contain both, so it’s a winner. If you don’t fancy supping tea all day, you can try a super-healthy energy such as Neurogum, which combines all the elements you need to set your metabolism flying.

In short, combining high-intensity exercise with eating the right kind of metabolism-boosting foods and drinks (at the right temperature and time) is a sure-fire route to success. Get ready to make some new notches on those belts. 

I Don’t Believe In New Year’s Resolutions

Well, it’s the end of January. It’s time to check in with your New Year’s resolutions, right? Millions of individuals who respond to life on traditional autopilot make pacts and set personal goals on the spot when the urgent almighty New Year’s siren call suddenly rings a bell out of the blue. Individuals waste years of their life screening each and every angle of the inevitable and storm into the ring with fists of fire ready to chop the deadwood and conquer internal battles they have shunned aside and harped about all year-long when the annual universal days of self-reflection spark an inspirational flame. It’s no sweat to get intoxicated five nights a week for 51 weeks and brush-off facing the reality of your life. Therefore, millions of individuals follow sheep among the flock and decide to slow down to ruminate for one whole week prior to the new year to generate meritorious resolutions and curate Hallmark greeting cards in the form of social media statuses based on their boastfulness and pride. Need someone to tie your shoes as well?

Let me guess; along with nearly 80% of the human population, creeping dissatisfaction sporadically entered your world on December 28th at 11:11pm. The power of the universe aligned with the dream world that you are living in and a rainbow unicorn appeared to add a dash of glitter to your halo. Shimmering fairy wings wondrously grew from your back. You decorated your Facebook wall with a full house of dramatic, starry-eyed intentions. Your eyes cried a plea of pity as you changed your iPhone ringtone to “I Believe I Can Fly” by R. Kelly and relished in the sudden bolt of round-the-clock willpower that has been injected into your fresh, fiery blood. Chin up, chest out, shoulders back, stomach in; “failure” is not an option. This year, you mean business. Three more days to linger behind the excitement of introducing the new “you” to the world. And as the clock strikes 11:59pm on December 31st, you morphed into the drunken jackass with an almighty announcement frantically searching for their party cowbells and kazoos. High and mighty, you shamelessly stood up on a table full of empty glasses and last year’s vices to proclaim your New Year’s Resolution to a crowd full of inebriated fools on bar stools. 

Over the next few hours, you felt like King Tut walking around clinking glasses full of craft beer and spreading enthusiastic cheer. You stumbled home, threw your bedroom door wide open, sent out a mass “I Love You” text to everyone in your phone book and fell face forward onto your bed of lies. You woke up to an aching stomach and a plethora of hangover brunch invites “tempting” you to ring in the New Year with “just one more” Bloody Mary before you buy out the Nike store (just do it) in hopes to fulfill your quest to shed excess baggage around your midsection. You gave in. You quit. In a war between you and your gut, you sucked that Bloody Mary down before you shared your food/drink caloric intake with a phone application collecting your personal data and using artificial intelligence to make a judgement call on your progress. Feeling like a pile of dirt? Sucks to be you.

New Year, same you. Unless you had an overnight run-in with the DeLorean time machine and flux capacitor which took you on a psychedelic trip back to 1967, you have not transformed into an individual who is suddenly free of their so-called vices overnight whether you believe it or not. I am not one to dog the footsteps of arbitrary imbeciles setting “rules” and masquerading as leaders. Why wait until January 1st to make a change? How truly passionate are you about the change that you delayed? If you wholeheartedly desired a change in your life, you would cut the idealistic bullshit, acknowledge that you always have a personal choice, and take the necessary actions toward making that change happen. Right now. Start today. Shining a light on the behavioral, environmental, or personal modifications that require sacrifice and consistency on your end solely on the brink of the New Year entirely compromises your mental stability and delays your personal progress. Some day is not a day. You do not need a ritual group pledge to invoke motivation within you and your ivory tower of complacency. If you are persistent, you will get there. If you beyond doubt believed in what you desire, then you can and you will. Pay the price. Make a way. Stick to it. Commit yourself. Do not ask for or wait for permission. Act accordingly. Period. Wisely take matters of your own existence into your own hands prior to the day in which you simply flip the calendar from December to January.

Individuals prescribe themselves with limits through setting artificial and vigorously intended resolutions. Existing through a mindset that is solely focused on one theme (resolution) unconsciously hammers in the acceptance of walking on eggshells through a limited existence. Quit trying to preserve the wind and reclaim your aliveness. If you “fail”, it does not matter. There is no such thing as perfection. Do not discredit the unfoldment. Fear and stagnation are the thieves of the reality you desire to live. Live bold, experience life outside of your comfort zone and bloom. Start right now. And most importantly, do it for you.

NeuroGum 

NeuroGum Nootropic Caffeine Gum is a sugar free energy gum that contains 40 mg Caffeine, 60 mg L Theanine and B12 vitamin.

Pursuing Productivity One Baby Step at a Time

The Zeigarnik Effect “shows that when we don’t finish a task, we experience discomfort and elusive thoughts because of it.” As humans, we cope with this “discomfort” by either escaping into a mode of complacency or taking action. As a Nootropic user, the latter interests me much more. So if you’re looking to change the world, take it one step at a time. Your brain and body will thank you. 

During my time in college, the balance between work, school, and training became a daunting task. Despite constantly being active, the induced stress of this lifestyle ultimately led to unhealthy habits like ingesting exorbitant amounts of caffeine or managing unreasonable sleep cycles. 

Yet, in my search for maximizing efficiency and productivity, I found nootropics Caffeine Gum(namely piracetam, modafinil, and vasopressin), and in the end, I found peace using caffeine and L-theanine combined with a few drastic changes in lifestyle. Naturally, taking a few compounds doesn’t lead to a better lifestyle. Healthy sleep schedules, diet, and exercise all contribute to a healthy brain, but there’s a few things you can do now to increase your productivity. 

Start it. Now.

In AsapScience’s video, he states that “willpower is an exhaustible source that can be used up” and the best way to deal with ego depletion is to simply “get started”. Nootropics are fascinating because they provide that initial boost of motivation while helping maintain the high levels of productivity that needs to follow. If you want the most control over your mind, don’t overload yourself with artificial energy. Supplement healthy eating and breaks with your Nootropic Energy stacks to maximize your willpower. Speaking of which…

Find the equilibrium between work and breaks.

Inc.com says that “long hours have a cumulative effect on your productivity. Working for 11 or more hours a day more than doubles the risk of depression and a loss in cognitive function.” So beyond simply getting started, a good daily routine should be set, where larger goals are broken up into digestible packets. The Pomodoro cycleis a fantastic way to break up your work day into manageable chunks, and our new caffeine plan helps maximize the effects you get from that aforementioned boost you get with Best Nootropic Gum.

If you wait until the last minute, it only takes a minute to do.

Create a deadline. Don’t succumb to Parkinson’s law, which plays on the principle that work expands to fill the time available for its completion. Strategic planning helps concentrate your focus into the tasks at hand, and complete what’s necessary in the time frame you assign it. Still feeling overwhelmed by everything that needs to be done? Use the Pareto principle to tackle the most critical 20% and start dealing with the other 80% later.

Finally, trust in yourself.

I always keep a notebook in hand to write any stray thoughts that may come up in regards to business or creativity. It helps differentiate my own ideas with the information that floods into my head every day, and even when I’m drowning in a crazy schedule, my thoughts remain intimately related to me and only me. With so much the current world offers us, its easy to get lost in our search for an uber-productive lifestyle.

As is Bill Murray’s mantra in What About Bob?, its all about those baby steps.

What causes “brain fog”?

If you’re unfamiliar with the phrase, Brain Fog is a term used for those moments when your thoughts become suddenly unclear. You become unfocused. Simple math somehow becomes challenging.
It’s a scary feeling for most people — a sudden loss of control of the most important part of their body. As we get older, these moments become more common, but dismissing them as a normal part of aging can be a mistake. People remain sharp well into their 90's.

So what’s the cause? What makes the difference between that sharp-minded 90-something and the 30-something that gets recurring episodes of forgetfulness?

There are several, and if you get Brain Fog yourself, you may need to do some experimentation before you find the one that’s been affecting you, but I assure you it is well worth it to finally feel as though you can make it through each day without having a ‘senior moment’.
Here are some of the biggest causes as well as some suggestions for solving the problem.

LACK OF SLEEP, OR TOO MUCH

I’ve gone over this so many times on this blog that if you’re honestly still trying to get away with less than six hours of sleep all I have for you is a sort of disappointed roll of the eyes. If you haven’t gotten the message that you need sleep by now, I must refer you to this article, as well as this gif:

Now I haven’t harped too much on getting an overabundance of sleep, but recent sleep guidelines have made it clear that getting too much sleep can absolutely cause Brain Fog and fatigue.
For adults you really don’t need much more than 9 hours of sleep, so aim for that as your maximum. If you are one of those who struggles no matter what time you wake up, I recommend the Sleep Time App, which monitors your sleep and attempts to wake you at the right time in your sleep cycles so that you don’t wake up feeling groggy. It will also present you with loads of info on your sleeping habits.

STRESS
Stress is often called the silent killer in American culture, and its damage on the body is constantly being discovered to be more and more harmful.

Nootropic Caffeine Energy Gum is the best Stress reliever.

This is most apparent in your brain. Sadly when you seem to need it most, your brain shuts down in face of too much stress, bombarded with the hormones your body is releasing.
If you feel that stress is likely the cause of your Brain Fog, check out our 5 favorite techniques to relax in the face of stress.