Living the tropical lifestyle means living in a bathing suit, shorts, short sleeve shirts and sandals to survive the heat. For most of your life, you may have had one notion about how to look good in your bathing suit or shorts - Limit your food intake, sweat bullets on the treadmill or in an aerobics class, eat rabbit food forever and you will lose body fat. Unfortunately, those thoughts could be the very reason why you couldn't lose weight or you gained it all back if you did lose weight.

Stop thinking about every single calorie that goes into your body and start thinking about the best way to burn calories. Once you master that, your body will know what to do to strip away fat so you can show off your new bathing suit instead of wearing shorts. One of the best ways to burn calories is to ingest good quality protein sources at every meal throughout the day. Eating mini-meals every 3 hours that include protein like chicken, fish, tuna, egg whites or whey protein powder with leafy greens, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds will be the first step in losing body fat.

Protein does so many wonderful things in the body; it transports oxygen to your muscles and organs through the blood so you can exercise to your fullest potential.

• protects you from illness by serving as an antibody when viruses or bacteria attack the body
• helps the body digest food in the form of enzymes builds muscle, organs, tendons and connective tissues is critical for helping the body function at optimum levels

Protein tastes good and is probably one of the most important nutrient-dense foods that will help you lose body fat. The process your body has to go through to break down protein takes tremendous energy and creates a thermal effect or heat to do it. It takes much more effort for the body to break down protein than it does carbohydrates, so your body will automatically burn more calories throughout the day.

Muscle burns fat and when you add a weight-lifting program to your regimen, protein will help repair the muscle after your workouts. This is how you get results and successful weight loss. You will burn more calories throughout the day while ingesting less calories ending up with more fat-burning muscle. Eating protein at every meal will allow you to lose the belly fat while de-stressing you and your body.

Be sure to check out the delicious tropical meal ideas that will help you look great in your bathing suit or shorts!