How To Turn Your Body Into A Fat Burning Machine

In this episode, I’m breaking down what actually makes your body a “fat burning machine” and why eating less and trying to burn off every calorie is keeping so many women stuck. I talk about the two things that help your metabolism work for you, the two things that hold you back, and the mindset shift that has to happen if you want a lean, strong, sculpted body. 

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Your body becomes a fat burning machine when you stop treating fat loss like a punishment and start treating your body like something you need to fuel, train, and build. Welcome back to the Embodiment Lab. My name is Addy and I just want to give an update. So, first of all, I usually film these or sorry, record. I usually record these episodes about a week out from when I'm gonna upload it. Um, yeah, see, my life has been kind of chaotic the last few weeks. So I'm actually filming this two days before it's gonna go out, and I'm in a little bit of a rush, but it's okay. So basically the situation is, and if you tuned into the last episode, I'm moving, which is super exciting. So right now I am staying at my boyfriend's parents' house. I've been here for the last four months, just kind of in this in-between little spot hanging out, waiting for my boyfriend's lease to be up. He has two roommates, so if I moved in there, it would have been absolutely chaotic. So we've been waiting for the lease to be up. And in the meantime, I've just been chilling at his parents' house, which has been truly amazing. But now his lease is up and we found a place and we are moving. So super, super exciting. I'm absolutely freaking thrilled. It's amazing because this place is actually like within five minutes of the gym, and it's like within 10 to 10 minutes of my boyfriend's work, which is so great. So we'll be like right in the middle of everything, and I'm very excited. I feel like I'm gonna have a lot of my life back because I won't be driving all over the place. So that's super exciting. But I've also been an absolute psycho and I've ordered honestly way too many things. But I feel like when you move, the list of shit that you have to get is like endless. Like there's so many things. So that's ever so slightly overwhelming. But if I don't think about that, I'm very excited because I've ordered a new dresser, I've ordered a new desk, I've ordered, gosh, what have I gotten? I got a new office chair. I actually just put that together yesterday, mostly by myself, because I am an independent bitch, but my boyfriend had to help. He didn't have to. I asked him to come have a chair building party with me and he helped me finish it. But I think if I were to do it all by myself and he didn't come help me, I would have done it all by myself. And I'm very proud of myself for that. I'm allowed to be delusional, okay? Let me. But yeah, I have a super cute little office chair. It's pink. And also, like one random little fun fact about me, I can't sit normally in a chair to save my life. I sit like a hoodlum. I sit with like one leg in and one leg up, and I sit like crisscross, and I sit, I sit in all kinds of weird ways. So I also got a chair that's a little bit wider than like a traditional office chair, and it doesn't have handles. So I can kind of just sit however I want, and I'm very excited about it. So, anyways, that was a little side tangent. I also ordered some runners, like rugs, that are fun colors, and I'm very excited about those. Those are actually supposed to get here today. So I'm gonna run over there in a little bit and unbox them and roll them out and see what they look like in the environment. And I'm so excited. So I will be documenting all of the things move related on my Instagram. So if you want to follow along with that, it will be all over my stories. I will probably spam the crap out of all of my followers about all things move related. Anyways, that is not what we were talking about today. I just wanted to give you a little update. What we are talking about today is this concept that I have coined of turning your body into a fat burning machine. Now, I remember a couple years ago, I was somebody who was scared of the scale, thought food was gonna make me fat, thought workouts, strength training, lifting weights were gonna make me bulky, did not understand how the body worked at all. And then one day I had this massive epiphany where I realized if I actually eat the appropriate amount of calories that my body needs on a daily basis, I take that food to the gym and I build muscle and get strong as fuck with it. It will first of all be a lot easier to build that muscle, but then also it will be a heck of a lot easier to stay lean and to lose fat. And it makes my body extremely resilient to being able to eat a bag of chips without getting bloated and uncomfortable and the scale going up five pounds, being able to go out to restaurants and enjoying foods without it completely throwing me off course. All of these things, it makes your body that much more resilient. So today we're gonna dive into exactly how to turn your body into a fat burning machine. And two of the mindset things that will keep you stuck that are actually kind of backwards from what you would think. So diving in, first things first, there are two components that will determine or help you turn your body into a fat burning machine. One is food and one is workouts. We're gonna start with the food thing. Your body kind of works like a calculator. Obviously, it's a lot more in-depth than a calculator, but if you were to boil it down to the most basic things, it is calories in versus out. Okay. So in order to lose fat, you would need to consume less food than what you're burning. You would need to burn more than you're consuming, in other words. Now, the problem is that so many people have taken this way too far. A daily recommended number of calories, just in a generic recommendation, is around 2,000 calories. Like if you were to look at a nutrition label on a box, it would say recommended for a daily intake of 2,000 calories. Okay, that's recommended. Majority of the women who come into my program are eating nowhere near 2,000 calories. And you're probably thinking, okay, great. So if you're eating less than what you're supposed to be eating, then you would lose fat. Yes, until you've been doing that for months, years, probably at this point, your body adapts. It will downregulate. And where before it was working, now it is no longer working because your body is conserving energy because it's not getting enough energy. Okay, you're not supposed to live in a deficit forever. It's supposed to be a phase. So, yes, it is calories in versus out, but if you've been doing it for so long that your body has adapted to it, it is no longer effective. So, what you want to do, and I've talked about this in previous episodes, is you want to make sure you're at least eating at maintenance before going into a deficit. Getting out of that mindset of less is more, because at a certain point, less is not more. It's detrimental. So getting out of that mindset and not paying so much attention to carbs and the actual ingredients that you're putting in your body and stressing yourself out about oh, is this good? Is this bad? Am I gonna no, don't look at that. I want you to just focus on nourishing your body and getting in enough fuel for your body. Because if you're not, you're running on fumes. And what happens is when you chronically under-eat, that will affect your energy. You'll feel tired, you'll feel inflamed, you'll feel puffy, flat, hungry, you'll become more obsessed with food, and you won't be getting the results that you think that you should be from that. But when you learn to eat the amount of food that your body needs, your metabolism upregulates because now it's being given energy that it's like, okay, now we have to like figure out how to deal with this energy. And so it's going to start to pick up the pace and it's gonna burn more calories at rest. I want you to think of it like this, okay? Your body is not going to give you what you want, aka fat loss, a fat booty, whatever, until you give it what it needs. When you give your body what it needs, it starts to function the way that it is supposed to function, and that makes fat loss happen a lot more effortlessly. Your hunger cues come back, your recovery improves, your mood improves, your sleep gets better, your gym performance improves. All of these wonderful things happen. Your digestion, your hormones, your brain function, all of these things improve. Your body's actually able to function at a higher capacity because it's being given enough food. It's a wonderful time to be alive when you actually fuel your body. And you don't have to think so hard about food because you're not starving yourself anymore. Your body's actually getting what it needs, and those cravings can quiet, calm down. You can't expect your body to respond when it is in a very high stress environment. And when you're not eating enough food, you're creating a very high stress environment and a lot of other issues. It's like a domino effect that begins to trickle into a lot of different areas of your life. So, first things first is we have to reduce the amount of stress that is being put on your body by making sure that it's getting fed adequately. Okay, so that's the first thing. The second thing is your workouts. Okay, so now we're eating an appropriate amount of food. What we do next is with that energy that we're consuming, we take that straight to the gym and we get strong. We focus on lifting heavy, challenging weights, and we focus on building muscle because now our body has the energy in the tank, it has the building blocks, and we're able to actually build muscle. A lot of why people go to the gym and they're like, I just don't feel like my workouts are actually working for me. It's because you're not eating enough food. So your body has nothing to create that muscle with. It is very, very, very, very difficult to build muscle, which is kind of funny because a lot of people are really scared to get bulky. And when people say that, I'm like, okay, do you really think it's gonna be that easy for you? You don't even lift heavy. You don't eat anywhere near enough food. And you think you're gonna do a bicep curl and all of a sudden look like the Hulk. Like, I'm sorry, it's not that easy. Especially like now that I'm dating a bodybuilder, I see how hard this man trains. He trains like a freaking maniac. And also, he eats 6,000 freaking calories. And on top of that, he's taking enhancements, like outside sources through a syringe to become bulky. It takes a shit ton of work and you think you're gonna accidentally get bulky, like be so for real. Anyways, side tangent, you're not gonna get bulky. But what I am saying is if you are going to the gym and you feel like your workouts are not effective, it's because you have less than no gas in the tank. So, what do you expect your body to create that muscle out of? Air? No, you gotta fuel your body in order to create the muscle in your body. And what happens when you build muscle is that muscle is a very highly expensive metabolic tissue, meaning it takes a lot more calories to sustain that muscle on your body, which means that your body is going to burn more calories simply by having more muscle on your frame. So if you do the math, the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn at rest. And if you circle this around, the more food you're allowed, quote unquote, to eat, which makes your body a hell of a lot more resilient to the foods that you eat. And so you eat to fuel your body, you take that food to the gym, you build muscle, you add muscle to your body, your body burns calories, your body burns fat, and next thing you know, you are strong, you are lean, you are jacked, and you're dropping body fat. And that is how you turn your body into a fat-burning machine. You actually have to fuel your body and get strong in order to turn your body into a fat-burning machine. So, again, let's recap. You eat enough food, you train better, you recover from your workouts better, you're able to build more muscle, your body becomes more metabolically active, you can handle more food, you have better energy and performance, and you create more freedom and a better physique. And the cycle compounds on itself. And that's what makes having a lean and sculpted physique easier to achieve and easier to maintain because the results compound on each other. Now, there are two mindsets that will hold you back from being able to create this cycle in your body. One of them has to do with food, the other has to do with workouts. Again, let's start with food. So when you approach food from the mindset of scarcity, of like, I need to eat as little as possible, and you're scared of carbs and you feel like you have to earn your meals and you panic anytime that you eat too much or you eat the wrong thing, you're way too concerned about food, that creates a state of panic in your brain, which translates down to your body and creates an environment of stress on top of the fact that you're not eating enough. I promise the problem is not specifically what you eat, it's how much of it. Because again, your body is like a math equation. Okay, it's like a calculator. So freaking out because you had one singular donut is not going to serve you well in the long run. It's gonna keep you stuck because what are you gonna do in response to having that donut? Okay, you're probably going to restrict. Or you might let your guilt get the best of you and completely overindulge. Either way of the spectrum, not good. No bueno, not gonna help you reach your goals. Whereas if you could just have the mindset of like, okay, I'm actually allowed to fuel my body with enough calories. Sure, these calories came from a donut, okay? Move on.com. Don't let that donut turn into more than what it is. It's just a freaking donut. Calm down, right? But if you turn it into, okay, I'll just have a second one. And then, well, shit, I screwed up, I had a donut. Let me just like go out to eat with my friends and eat the entire bowl of queso. And then you're spiraling eating a shit ton of food that your body doesn't need. You didn't need to do that. You just needed to breathe, accept the fact that you ate a donut, give yourself grace, and make a better decision with the rest of your day. Okay. Focus on taking one step at a time. The problem is that you are fast forwarding, probably about like 75 steps, when you aren't even concerned about the one that's directly in front of you. You think because you ate that one donut that you are screwed and that you will never reach your goals because you completely messed up and you don't have enough discipline and you have a willpower problem and all these things. You just can't be consistent. No, focus on the next step. Focus on the next step. What's the next step? Maybe drink some water. Maybe go for a walk. Maybe decide to eat a nice, nourishing lunch. Get some food in your body. Maybe go to the gym and use that donut to fuel some hip thrust and grow fat ass with it. Focus on the next step in front of you, one foot in front of the other. Don't get too far ahead of yourself. The other mindset shift that will cause problems in this fat-burning machine cycle is when you approach your workouts from I need to burn calories, rather than from a mindset of I need to get strong and build muscle. Now, I see this time and time again. I see this on Instagram. People will post this. I see this on TikTok. I see this with my clients. I see this all the time. Tale as old as time. The whole I'm walking to burn off that cookie that I ate, or I'm running to burn off those calories from whatever meal. I'm burning off calories. No, no, no. No, you're not. Stop thinking of it that way. You do not have to punish yourself for the meal that you ate. You don't have to immediately burn off the calories that you ate. Flip side, you don't have to pre-burn off calories in preparation for eating something that you don't feel good about. The biggest mental shift for me in my fitness journey was because a big struggle for me was Christmas and Thanksgiving. I would absolutely overdo those holidays and I would go back for like seconds, thirds, like I overstuffed myself with those holidays. And then the next day I would feel so guilty and I would go for a run and I would do a HIT workout and I would starve myself and I would try to burn off and undo everything that I did. And no wonder my body didn't change. No wonder. When I realized that food was the magic answer to building muscle and my body needed those resources in order to build that muscle, I went, no shit. You mean I can take this Thanksgiving dinner to the gym tomorrow morning, do some hip thrust and fuel my workout to lift heavier, get strong as fuck and build muscle with it. I no longer think, okay, I need to burn off these calories. Nope. We don't do that anymore. That is toxic behavior and we do not do that anymore. I build muscle with the food that I eat. I do not give a shit if I go over my calories because I know that I am in the gym getting strong as fuck and I'm building muscle with it. Mm-mm. I'm no longer burning calories. I'm no longer afraid of gaining weight or getting fat or whatever. Nope. I get strong. And it's when you switch your mindset from working out to burn calories to working out to get strong. That changes absolutely everything for you. And all of a sudden, you are broken free from the prison that your mind creates around food. And you no longer have to view it that way. And that was the best thing that I ever did for myself. That also makes your workout so much more fun. Like honestly, my favorite workouts are the workouts immediately after a holiday. Like, are you joking? Oh my gosh, I freaking love it. So be aware of your mindset. If you were asking yourself, how many calories did I burn during my workout? Did I earn my food? Did I earn being able to eat this? Did I sweat enough? That mindset turns exercise into a punishment. And nobody wants to go to the gym or take care of their body from a punishment mindset. Absolutely not. Do not do that. So in turning your body into a fat burning machine, there needs to be this major identity mindset shift. Okay. Shifting your mindset from burning calories to I'm going to build my body with the food that I eat. Another shift of I'm going to eat as little as possible so that I can burn more than what I'm consuming, to I'm going to fuel my body to make sure that it's getting what it needs. And so that I can fuel my workouts to get as strong as I can so that I can burn more calories by simply breathing. And I don't have to try so damn hard. That shift is life-changing and it's life-giving. Oh my gosh, it's amazing. Shifting your mindset from trying to be smaller at all cost to being stronger and more metabolically capable. That is where the real shift is. That is how you turn your body into a fat burning machine. That is how you get your body working for you. So you don't have to punish your body so hard to get it to do what you want it to do when it's literally screaming at you, saying, Hi, I need food. Can you please just feed me? Because again, if you can't even give your body what it needs, which is nutrients at the end of the day, how the hell do you expect it to give you what you want? Take care of your body. That is it for today's episode. I hope this was helpful. I really just want to change your mindset and change the way that you approach food and the gym so that this can actually start to be something that gives back to you, that gives you so much of your life back, gives you so much more mental space and allows you to stop beating yourself up and being so damn hard on yourself because I promise it's not that serious. But there is an easier way to approach your fitness journey, and I'm here to share that because it was absolutely life-changing for me. And I want you to have that same mindset that I had because I was that person that had the mindset of I just want to be smaller, I need to burn calories, I need to eat as little as possible. And that was not fun. That actually made my workouts miserable. That made food miserable, that made food boring as well. And now I eat food that I love every day. Oh my gosh, I love it. And I'm allowed to eat enough of it so I don't feel hungry all the time. I don't. I also am able to go to the gym and get so strong. Like it is so cool to get so strong. So cool. The pumps are immaculate. Amazing. Like, oh my gosh. So yeah, I just I want you to experience this level of freedom because it can be this fun and it can be that simple. So that is it for today's episode. If you liked it, let me know. Message me on Instagram. I will have all the links down below. The link to my Instagram, my TikTok, and the link to work with me inside my program, Embody You. You know what to do from there. And I will chat with you in the next episode. Bye.