A method and system for fat suppression with T.sub.1-weighted imaging includes a pulse sequence generally constructed to have a non-spectrally selective IR pulse that is played out immediately before a spectrally selective IR tip-up pulse. Thereafter, a fat suppression RF pulse is played out followed by the acquisition of fat-suppressed MR data. The pulse sequence maintains T.sub.1 contrast by not perturbing the non-fat signals from the IR preparation. The pulse sequence also ensures that the blood pool signal is homogeneously suppressed from the non-spectrally selective IR RF pulse. The pulse sequence also allows for increased fat suppression and provides flexibility for adjustment of the degree of fat suppression without affecting the view acquisition order for an image acquisition segment.