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Class OverviewBurning fat isn’t about cutting calories or clocking in more hours on the cardio equipment at the gym. With a little fine-tuning and proven lifestyle tweaks, you can get your metabolism fired up. (Check out the Top 10 Big Ideas from the class below!)Your ProfessorDr. Sara Gottfried teaches women and men how to balance their hormones so they can rock their mission. She is the author of The Hormone Cure, a Harvard-trained M.D. and a yoga teacher.How to 10x Fat Loss (Not For Women Only!)Burn, Baby, burn.At least that’s what I hope your body is telling your excess fat when you implement a new food plan or exercise regimen. Whether you’re a woman looking to lean out and rock your Lululemons, or a dude strategizing how to look more cut in your Robert Graham shirt – let’s agree that hard science is sexy and even yummier when broken down into 10 Big Ideas.Hopefully by now you got the memo that burning fat isn’t about cutting calories or clocking in more hours on the cardio equipment at the gym. Your metabolism is like a Macbook Air – with a little fine-tuning and the proven lifestyle tweaks, you can get it fired up to work more efficiently.Dr. Sara, Break It Down for Me…Combined with a healthy diet, here are 10 tips that will help you 10x your fat loss:The Top 10 Big Ideas1Make a Protein Breakfast Your BFFIf you don’t eat breakfast within about 30 minutes of waking, it’s like getting into a car, not turning on the engine and expecting it to run.Breakfast is what jump-starts your metabolism each day, especially when you eat a protein load such as pastured eggs or a protein smoothie with kale and fiber. You give your body the signal that it’s time to start burning calories. Similarly, you need to cue your system to shut down appropriately at night. Don’t eat past 7 p.m. if you can help it. Your organs need adequate rest to digest the day’s meals, and they can’t do that if you’re indulging late-night cravings. An overnight “fast” (the time between dinner and breakfast) helps to ensure proper elimination, hormone balance and sound circadian rhythms – all factors that affect your fat stores.2Clean Up Your ActSometimes stubborn pounds can be caused by a food allergy, intolerance or an overload of toxins in the body. Doing a detox a few times a year can help eliminate endocrine disruptors (synthetic chemicals that can disturb hormone balance and cause weight gain), cleanse the liver and kidneys, and reset the body. For most people, this results in weight (and fat) loss.3Sooth Your StressStress is one of the biggest obstacles to weight loss. It causes cravings, increases cortisol levels (and that triggers your body to store fat around the midsection), gives you monkey mind, and almost always prevents you from staying consistent with healthy habits. It erodes your will power. We need a pattern interrupt. Even if you can’t effectively remove the stressors in your life, just include more things that bring you joy and pleasure – like time with friends, travel or a soothing hobby like yoga or reading. Work on integration and positive feeling states, such as gratitude, awe, or as my dear friend Brian Johnson likes to call it… arête.4Snooze To LoseRemember those circadian rhythms I mentioned before?They’re like your body’s master clock, governing when certain hormones are released based on your sleep/wake schedule. Do them a favor and get enough sleep! Very few people (about 6 percent) have the gene that allows them to get away with minimal sleep around 6 hours per night. The rest of us need at least 8 hours. That’s not just my opinion – check out Malcomb Gladwell’s report on how concert violinists sleep on average an hour longer than musicians who become teachers. Otherwise, you’re priming your body to store fat, feel sluggish and age faster. No thanks. That would be like falling down a hormonal flight of stairs, and we don’t want that.5Get Hormone HelpExtra fat can certainly result from diet and lifestyle choices, but there’s often an underlying hormonal imbalance that’s truly running the show. If you have a thyroid issue, high (or low) testosterone or overworked adrenals, for example, calorie counting or excessive exercise won’t help you shed pounds. But if you address your hormonal imbalances, this gives your body the green light to return to a healthy weight. I happen to have written a book on this topic, so check out The Hormone Cure on Amazon and your local independent bookseller.6Balance Your Blood SugarIt’s not an exaggeration to say that diabesity (most simply the combination of diabetes and obesity) is becoming a matter of life and death in our country. This blood sugar condition often goes hand in hand with increased visceral fat (also known as the dreaded muffin top), cardiovascular complications, high cholesterol, metabolic syndrome, hypertension, and prediabetes.Even being at a normal weight but skinny fat (your body mass index is normal, but body fat is increased) can dispose you to exercise-resistant weight gain and higher rates of mortality, so get your blood sugar tested as a precautionary measure. The good news about diabesity is that they’re 100 percent reversible through diet and lifestyle changes that mostly involve reducing consumption of refined carbohydrates and sugar, eating more whole foods, bumping up the fiber, and targeting exercise to promote insulin sensitivity.7Skip the ScaleI’ll preface this by saying that pounds can be an important indicator of how healthy you are, but healthy weight loss should be centered more on the idea of losing body fat and inches. Muscle tends to be denser than fat, so while you might not see the pounds disappearing on the scale, you can monitor true changes in your body by taking measurements of your waist, hips, upper arms, thighs and chest.Also more important than the number on the scale is your body fat percentage, which you can usually have tested at the gym or through a company that performs body composition testing.8Eat With Your Other HandYour non-dominant hand, that is. Dr. Susan Albers reminded me of this great tip: Try eating and drinking with the opposite hand. It’s a great way to interrupt autopilot patterns you have at meal times (like inhaling your food or guzzling wine too fast), and it can serve as a way to stay mindful on a daily basis.9Burst to BurnBurst training, often called high-intensity interval training, involves exercising at 90+ percent of your maximum effort for 30 to 60 seconds, followed by 30 to 60 seconds of low-impact exercise for recovery. Just four to six sets of this type of training enable the body to burn stored glycogen (sugar) and continue to burn fat for the following 36 hours. That’s right – swapping that boring hour on the treadmill for just 20-30 minutes of burst training is actually better for fat loss. Burst training also helps to raise growth hormone, which, second to cortisol, determines how much fat you store around your midsection.10Sleep DeeplyI already mentioned the importance of getting enough sleep, but just as crucial is getting quality sleep. When you don’t sleep deeply each night, your cortisol levels rise and your body stores excess fat. In order to increase melatonin production – which helps to control your natural sleep-wake cycle – make sure you:1) sleep in a dark room that doesn’t have blinking electronic lights,2) minimize outside noise with a fan or white noise machine, and3) use the bedroom only for sleep and sex (which helps your brain disassociate the bedroom from stimulating things like watching TV or working).Remember that fat loss isn’t something you can accomplish overnight or with a “magic bullet” solution. But by balancing your diet, getting enough rest and implementing a few lifestyle adjustments, you can ramp up your body’s natural fat-burning abilities in no time. Lean body mass is one of the best indicators of health, harmony, and longevity – so track your body fat, and get lean. Your cells will love you for it!