How to Enter Fat Burning Mode, Without Starving Yourself Or Living In the Gym

It’s not as difficult as you’d think….

Photo by Christopher Campbell on Unsplash

I don’t know about you, but most weeks, I simply don’t have enough time to make it to the gym.

It seems like life always finds a way to keep me from pumping iron, and for the longest time, I thought this meant I had no chance of losing weight either.

So I continued with this sob story for many months, but then one day I came across an interesting concept, one that allowed me to burn fat without living in the gym.

At first I was skeptical as there’s always a new diet that’s supposed to change millions of lives, but this one seemed different, so I decided to give it a try.

And let’s just say, within 12 months — all of that skepticism was gone…

Because I was finally able to lose the excess fat I’d carried around for many years, without having to starve myself or even go to the gym.

Now don’t take that the wrong way, I’m not saying the gym is a bad thing and it definitely helps, but I am saying you don’t have to go there 6 days a week to lose weight…

And in this article, I’m going to show you how you can lose the dreaded fat, even if you don’t have time to workout every day.

Drink Exogenous Ketones

The first key concept that I came across was exogenous ketones.

And I know this sounds like some scary steroid that’s reserved for elite athletes, but don’t let the name fool you, it’s actually a source of energy that can be naturally created by your body.

So what exactly is it then?

Well, a ketone is the source of energy that’s created when your body burns fat.

This is commonly known as the “alternative” source of fuel, because there’s only one other source that our bodies can run off of, and that’s glucose. Glucose is energy that’s created when carbs are burned, and since we all love our carbs, most of us live our entire lives in “glycogen burning mode”…the mode that primarily runs off glucose.

Okay, so ketones are the source of fuel, and exogenous simply means something you take.

If you want to get real technical, the definition of exogenous is “growing or originating from outside an organism”.

In other words, when you take exogenous ketones, you immediately get a great source of energy, without having to do HIIT training and burn fat.

Now this is great for many reasons as ketones have been proven to have many therapeutic effects.

I can’t confirm this, and it’s merely an observation, but I get a huge rush of euphoria every time I take exogenous ketones…so I’m almost starting to think this is a big reason (if not THE reason) that intense exercise makes people feel so good.

And I could go on about these benefits for days, but from a fat burn standpoint, it’s extremely useful as it tells our body to start burning fat.

This was confusing to me at first, but then I got to thinking about it, and it started to make a lot of sense.

There’s a lot of science in it, but I’m a fan of simple — so in simple terms…

These ketones are only produced when we’re in fat burning mode, so when we take exogenous ketones, it tells our body that we’re in fat burning mode and it instinctively makes the switch.

Yes, it’s that easy, and here’s the best part. With advancing technology in this field over the recent years, these exogenous ketones are extremely easy to get ahold of.

I personally recommend KetoCaNa, which can be found at ketosports.com, and they have a few other options for you to choose from as well.

The other product that I’ll take sometimes is MCT Oil by Quest Nutrition. Now this MCT Oil isn’t exactly exogenous ketones, but the body quickly converts this oil into ketones, so it’ll still get the job done.

And that’s the 2 products that I enjoy, but if you go to Amazon and search for ketones, you’ll see how many different options there are today.

Okay, and that’s how you enter fat burning mode, but then we have to entertain the next part, staying in fat burning mode.

Eat Under 20g of Carbs Per Day

So as I briefly mentioned earlier, there’s 2 sources of energy that our body can run off of — ketones and glucose.

Ketones is the source of energy that’s created from fat burn, and glucose is the source of energy that’s created when carbs are burned.

Okay, so that parts easy enough, but here’s where things get tricky — the 2 don’t work well together.

And it’s not really the sources of energy that don’t work well together, but it’s the fact that our body can only be in one “mode”.

What I mean by “mode” is the difference between “fat burning mode” and “glycogen burning mode”.

Now to be completely honest, our bodies do use both sources at all times, but the secondary source is always minimal and pretty much irrelevant. I think it’s just enough to let your body know that the other source is there, but other than that, it doesn’t do anything.

And this works both ways, but when your body is in “glycogen burning mode”, then it’s really hard to burn fat.

There’s a few different reasons for this as well, but the biggest reason is that our bloodstreams can only have so much sugar (glucose) at one time.

In other words, when you’re eating carbs, your body is going to have its full focus on maintaining this energy. It’ll instantly start using it as fuel and if the glucose levels are too high (i.e. you ate too much carbs) then insulin will kick in and start removing the excess sugar from your bloodstream.

Now that’s a good thing, but here’s the kicker. When that excess sugar is removed from the bloodstream, guess where it goes?

That’s right, straight to your lovehandles…in the form of body fat.

Now that’s bad enough, but since most of us are constantly in glycogen burning mode, that makes it very difficult to ever access and burn the energy that was converted into fat…

Starting to see the problem here?

Okay, so here’s where I’m going with this.

In step 1, we drank ketones to enter fat burning mode.

In step 2, it’s important to stay in fat burning mode, and we have to do this by avoiding glycogen burning mode.

As we just discussed, the only way to avoid glycogen burning mode is by staying away from glucose, or in layman’s terms — staying away from carbs. The amount will fluctuate for everybody, but if you start at 20g per day, then you’ll be in fat burning mode.

And I know, this sounds terrible at first, but trust me — once you start to see the results…you’ll love it.

Plus, don’t worry…this doesn’t mean you have to starve yourself either!

Eat A Lot of Fat (Natural Foods Preferred)

Yes, you read that correctly, I want you to eat more fat.

And before you think I’ve completely lost my mind, please hear me out.

I realize it’s hard to understand how eating more fat can help you burn fat, to be honest, it took me a lot of months to wrap my head around this.

And I couldn’t of done it by myself, I had to reach out to a lot of professionals that simplified it for me and eventually got me to a point of understanding.

I think this is another point I could talk about for days, but in my best attempt to simplify it down further, I think the reason for this can be explained in 5 key points:

1. When you eat fat in fat burning mode, you’re just adding fuel to the fire
2. Body fat is stored energy, so there’s no biological reason why we should believe eating fat makes you fat. As I mentioned earlier, excess sugar is quickly converted into body fat, so in all honesty…carbs create more body fat than dietary fat does
3. Fat is filling and keeps you full longer. When I first started dieting, the hardest part for me was being hungry all the time. I absolutely hated this feeling and I think that’s what led to my constant battle with “yo-yo” dieting
4. Eating a lot of fat helps regulate your “ghrelin” levels. Ghrelin is the hormone that regulates your hunger, so when you eat more fat, you aren’t hungry as often and you don’t have the sudden urges to eat all the time
5. Eating fat DOES NOT give you heart problems. This is a completely different subject, but if you want more information on this, I highly recommend Cholesterol Clarity by Jimmy Moore

Okay, so that’s the 5 key points to why eating fat is actually good for you…but again, that’s only if you’re in fat burning mode.

If you eat a lot of fat while you’re in glycogen burning mode, then yes, it can easily be converted into stored energy…and that’d be counterintuitive to your goal.

So that’s why steps 1 and 2 are so important, and once you start these steps, you can start to enjoy the benefits of a high fat diet.

The 5 points explain most of the benefits of high fat, but there’s 2 more things I wanted to mention.

1. Make sure you’re eating actual fat

When most people hear fat, they instantly think of things that make us fat, like snickers or candy.

As we mentioned earlier, the reason these things make us fat is because they’re full of sugar (glucose), and that’s something we need to stay away from.

On the other hand, actual fats are good for you, and those include things like:

• Grass-fed beef (any beef is okay, but grass-fed is always better)
• Fatty fish (sardines, salmon, etc.)
• Pork (pork chops, pulled pork, even bacon)
• Butter (just make sure it’s real butter)
• Full-fat sour cream
• Full-fat cheese
• Avocados
• Eggs
• Pepperonis
• Cream cheese
• Coconut oil
• Olive Oil
• Avocado Oil
• Walnuts
• Etc…

2. Be careful with your protein intake

So we’ve talked about carbs and fat, but we’ve left out 1 macro — protein.

This macro has gained a lot of popularity over the recent years, and everybody now thinks it’s the miracle food that’ll help you build muscle and lose weight overnight.

Don’t get me wrong, protein is a great macro and something that our body absolutely needs, but I also think people consume too much of it.

There’s a few reasons for this, but for the purposes of this article, too much protein can kick you out of fat burning mode through a process known as “gluconeogenesis”. This is a fancy way of saying that extra protein is converted into glucose, and when glucose starts to show up…our fat burning mode turns off.

So how much protein should you eat then?

This is a highly debated topic in the low carb industry, and rightfully so. Some health bloggers make it sound like one bite of chicken will kick you out of fat burning mode while other health bloggers claim 100% protein will get you into fat burning mode.

Now I’ve tested both extremes, and I’m here to let you know that they’re both wrong. Your body uses protein for a lot of different things and it takes A LOT to reach the point of gluconeogenesis, but at the same time, it’s possible.

I think the easiest way to do this, and one that seems to work for everybody, is to eat a ratio of 1 gram of fat for every gram of protein.

I realize this can be tough to do with some meals, so I’ll always melt butter and dip my food in there if I’m having a protein-heavy meal.

And at the end of the day, don’t worry too much if your grams of protein are a little higher during one meal. The key thing is to stay away from straight protein sources (like protein bars and shakes), get a fair amount of healthy fats, restrict carbs…and you’ll probably be okay.

Go For A Short Walk

Last but not least, going for a walk.

So if you follow the first 3 steps, this one is completely optional, but it does help.

Long walks have been proven to deepen ketosis (fat burning mode), and besides that, it’s always good to get out for awhile.

I personally love going for a walk 4x a week just so I can stay up-to-date with my favorite podcasts, but if your schedule doesn’t allow for this right away, you’ll still be okay.

Feel the burn…

Congrats! You officially know how to enter fat burning mode now.

This is the mode that allows you to actually lose the dreaded fat that’s been lingering for too many years, and it does all of this with minimal effort.

That’s not saying it’s easy and you’ll drop 50 lbs a week, but I am saying that burning fat while in fat burning mode is much easier than doing so while in glycogen mode…

And from personal experience, that was the one shift I needed to finally get the results I’d tried so hard to achieve.

Before you go…

I did my best to explain everything you need in this article, but if you’d like to learn more, I did create a Free 5-Day Video Course that explains everything in more detail.

I’m not sure how much longer I’ll leave this course up for free, but if you’d like, you can get your free access by visiting seanmeyer.com/video-course