When it comes to fat loss for women, it can be a pretty unforgiving world. Almost every magazine you pick has a shapely star on the cover looking slim and toned in a gorgeous designer dress, or one showing how a popular actress must have put on a few pounds based on some unsightly recent photos taken of her. These body images that women are forced to endure on a regular basis can be damaging and lead to unhealthy eating and exercise habits in some women who try to look like the Hollywood stars they see every day.

However, the key to effective and consistent fat loss for women is not so much eating less as eating right and exercising. The goal is to get your body into a state where it wants to burn fat on its own and make proper eating habits second nature to you. Below are some fat loss tips for women to make the fat loss journey easier.

Eat smaller, eat often-We’ve all heard of eating fewer meals more frequently throughout the day, but what’s behind this recommendation? Well, when your body is introduced to food, it goes to work to process it. Calories are actually burned during this process, which also helps jump-start the fat burning process. If you starve yourself, your body will fight to maintain the body fat it currently has, and it will become more efficient at converting the food it receives into fat, as it perceives that it must do this in order for you to survive. Eating small meals more times throughout the day allows your body to continually work to burn calories, thereby speeding up the fat loss process.

Skip the sugar, bring on the fat.This fat loss tip may scare some women, but if you take a look at the science behind it, then adopting this one can be really helpful. A high-fat, low-sugar diet can help put your body into a state called ketosis, which simply means your body is burning fat instead of other sources of energy. This will allow your body to burn the fat you eat, and in turn become more effective at burning its existing stores for energy as well.

Bodybuilding for beauty-The fact is that muscle burns twice as many calories as fat, but takes up half the space. Fat molecules are not as dense as muscle molecules, so two people could weigh exactly the same weight and the one with the most fat would appear much larger than the one with the most muscle. Exercising with weights and building muscle can be extremely helpful in your fat loss goal. Don’t worry about looking too bulky, as this is unlikely to happen. Instead, your body will begin to burn its fat stores while increasing your muscle mass, and you will stay about the same size or even appear smaller, even though your weight is about the same as when you started. Adding more muscle to your frame is one of the easiest and most successful fat loss tips for women.

So if you’re looking to throw on this year’s sexy bikini and hit the beach, pay attention to these fat loss tips for women. Eat 4-6 small meals throughout the day, eliminate as much sugar from your diet as possible and instead focus on fat and protein, and maintain a rigorous exercise program that includes weight training to build muscle and you’ll be well on your way to some serious fat loss.