How To Calm An Anxious Stomach: The Brain
Ever wonder why you get butterflies in your stomach before doing something stressful? Or why you feel like your stomach is tied in knots after an argument? Ever had a meeting with a toilet that went longer than expected and it wasnt caused by anything you ate? Stomach problems are one of the most common symptoms of stress and anxiety.
Researchers have identified a powerful connection between the gut and the brain. Like the brain, the gut is full of nerves. It contains the largest area of nerves outside the brain with the digestive tract and the brain sharing many of the same nerve connections.
Whether its a single nerve-wracking event or chronic worry and stress over time, stress can exact a physical toll on your digestive system. When you are anxious, some of the hormones and chemicals released by your body enter your digestive tract, where they interfere with digestion. They have a negative effect on your gut flora and decrease antibody production. The resulting chemical imbalance can cause a number of gastrointestinal conditions.
Common stress-related gut symptoms and conditions include:
- indigestion
- Irritable Bowel Syndrome
- and peptic ulcers
Six Tips for Reducing Stress and Anxiety
You’ve Got Too Much Of The Wrong Gut Bacteria
Most of the bacteria that dwell in your gut are pretty useful. They produce hormones, regulate your immune system, digest food, extract nutrients, control your mood, manage your appetite and much more besides.
Now, two groups of beneficial bacteria are dominant in the human gut, the bacteroidetes and the firmicutes. However, the number of bacteroidetes is decreased in obese people when compared with lean people, according to research.
In another study, scientists took stool samples from 1300 twins and found that the less diverse your gut bacteria, the more likely you are to have belly fat. Grow your gut community to shed serious timber.
The Best Exercise To Lose Belly Fat
Before you ask about the best exercises for a flat stomach, let’s get clear on why crunches and sit-ups alone not going to be the thing to help you lose belly fat. ‘While crunches will help strengthen your abdominals and core muscles, theyre not enough in isolation to burn calories,’ Luke Hughes, Origym PT says.
Instead, Hughes recommends a rounded bodyweight or free weights workout routine done at a higher intensity as the best exercise to lose belly fat. These sessions will help to burn calories and increase muscle mass, which will, in turn, tap into your body fat stores even within a limited time period.
Do note though, too much HIIT can elevate cortisol in your body, which could hinder how effectively you lose stomach fat . Aim for three to four sessions per week and make sure you’re allowing your body plenty of time and space to recover.
‘Burning calories through cardio exercise like this helps to burn belly fat, particularly when we operate at a calorie deficit,’ says Hughes. ‘Try adding star jumps and mountain climbers into your workouts.’
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How To Get Rid Of Tummy Rolls
Lose those love handles now! The waist area is where fat deposits are most often stored in all sexes, which makes our figure look much thicker and unsightly. In order to eliminate these accumulations of fat, we must tweak our daily habits a little bit. Adding an exercise routine to our day and following healthy eating guidelines will help shape your body, reduce love handles and get a much more slender silhouette.
In this OneHowTo article we will tell you how to get rid of tummy rolls so you start to take care of your body right from today and thus be able to feel more confident and show it off at the beach.
To get rid of tummy rolls and flabby skin, it is important to start an exercise routine to burn calories. Note that these so-called love handles are nothing more than accumulations of saturated fat that has been stored in the body due to excess calories. In order to trim your silhouette, then, you should do general fat-burning exercises, not only localized exercises to work the waist.
With a cardio workout we can turn our fat reserves into energy and thus make them disappear. You should incorporate in your routine training exercises that consume calories such as:
- Running
- Jogging
- Aerobics, zumba, step, etc.
There are many exercises to trim your waist. One of the best is side crunches as they work the oblique muscles, eliminating fat accumulations. You should also consider:
Go For High Intensity Intervals
Any type of exercise can help you torch more calories and burn more fat. But high intensity intervals can be particularly potent.
Why? Alternating between hard and easy seems to help keep your insulin levels lower. That can encourage your body to use up fat instead of squirreling it away in your cells for the future.
Youll also keep burning more calories even after you finish a workout. Best of all, you can turn almost any workout into HIIT.
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Keep In Mind That Hormones Play A Role
If you’re struggling to lose lower belly fat, underlying hormone imbalances could be playing a role, explains Maritza Worthington, a functional nutritionist who specializes in digestive and hormone health. “In my experience, the top two culprits behind stubborn belly fat have to do with either excess cortisol or estrogen dominance,” she says. “Typically hormone imbalance issues dont happen overnight, and are the result of insulin resistance, malnutrition, lack of exercise and a high stress lifestyle.”
Worthington shares a few pointers:
- Eat regularly and skip the fastingthe body actually stores more belly fat when skipping meals. “This could be because the body experiences higher cortisol/stress from starvation, and as a coping mechanism stores more belly fat , not knowing when the next meal will come,” she says.
- Focus on balanced meals and avoid eating protein or carbs alone. “Theres a reason why your body uses macronutrientsprotein, carbs, & fatsfor optimal fuel. And skipping one of these macronutrients can actually work against your metabolism.”
Give Your Body Time To Process Foods
“We see a lot of clients come to us with dietary/inflammation issues and it’s certainly a hot topic these days in our own lives,” Laz Versalles, Development Director at Accesa Labs tells Bustle. We’re all a little different, and certain foods react differently to our gastrointestinal systems more than others. So it’s important to listen to your body when it’s telling you something is off. As Versalles says, our gut or GI system is like a second brain. “When it’s inflamed, that’s a message telling us, ‘Hey, give me a break down here!'”
One approach to reducing inflammation in your gut is to stop eating at a certain time each day. “If you have your first meal at 8 a.m., have your last meal of the day at 6 p.m.,” Versalles says. This gives your body 14 hours to process food before you eat breakfast again in the morning. Talking to your doctor about whether this method is good for your body or not is your best bet.
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Diet To Get Rid Of Excess Belly Fat
Consuming more calories than you burn can make you more likely to develop visceral fat. It sometimes accumulates around the abdomen.
Eating the right foods may help aid weight loss. Avoid or limit foods that are highly processed and high in refined sugars and bleached grains. Theyve been linked to blood sugar instability and inflammation in the digestive tract.
Instead, focus on adding healthy protein and fiber sources to your diet. Cruciferous veggies may help keep you full for longer and contain many nutrients. These include:
- broccoli
- kale
- cauliflower
Protein can boost your stamina and energy without adding a lot of calories to your daily calorie needs. Some protein sources include:
- hard-boiled eggs
- beans and legumes
- nuts and seeds
Avoid or limit artificially sweetened drinks, including energy drinks and diet sodas. Stick to anti-inflammatory beverages, such as unsweetened green tea and water.
How To Reduce Upper Belly Fat
If you are too stressed about tis weight, it is best to consult a certified expert, but do understand that you cannot dream of an overnight miracle. Small steps likes these may be a way forward.
1. Drink Water
Drinking enough water regularly can keep a lot of lifestyle diseases at bay. Instead of reaching out for soda or energy drinks, drink plain water. It is known to cleanse our body and flush out all the toxins, keeping us hydrated and in shape. Health Practitioner, Nutritionist and certified Macrobiotic Health Coach, Shilpa Arora, says, “Water therapy magically melts stubborn fat. A tough dehydrated body will not burn calories efficiently. This potent drink in the morning will reboot your body and kick start weight loss. Try this innocent yet very effective treatment, with no side effects.”
Drinking enough water regularly can keep a lot of lifestyle diseases at bay.
2. Eat Foods That Beat Stress
3. Maintain A Healthy Diet
Having a healthy diet is also one of the major factors that can help you get back in shape.
4. Sleep At Least For Eight Hours
5. Exercise At Least Four Days A Week
Exercising is the best way to burn calories, build muscles and get rid of belly fat. We are not telling you it’s going to be easy, we are telling you it’s going to be worthwhile. Exercise for a minimum of 45 minutes, four days a week. You may consider hitting a gym, swimming, yoga, or simply brisk walking, the choice is yours!
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The Best Way To Burn Belly Fat If You’re Over 40
One thing to note if you’re a 40+ woman: losing belly fat naturally might be harder than before. Let us introduce you to a new word: somatopause. It refers to the time in your life when the growth hormone somatotropin begins to decline, something that happens once you hit your 40s.
Combined with declining levels of oestrogen and progesterone, fat storage will also tend to move from your hips and thighs to your stomach. But, this isn’t the time to go HAM on HIIT workouts. Kate Rowe-Ham, personal trainer and founder of the Fit Hut in Sussex advises focussing on resistance training to build muscle tissue that’ll support your metabolism as you age.
‘You cant spot-reduce fat,’ says Rowe-Ham, referring to the myth of removing fat from specific parts of your body. ‘Increasing lean body mass by building muscle is the most sustainable way forward if healthy weight loss is the goal.’
How To Get Rid Of Lower Belly Fat After Having A Baby
Toning your abdomen after pregnancy may pose additional challenges. Wait until you get clearance from your doctor before jumping into any kind of diet and exercise routine.
Its not uncommon to have loose skin or an additional fat layer over your belly after pregnancy, especially if you had a cesarean delivery.
During pregnancy, many women gain weight. After delivery, youll most likely have an extra layer of fat left as an energy store for breastfeeding and the birth recovery process.
This is part of your bodys natural instinct and is normal. Its important to be patient with yourself.
You can, for the most part, follow the same protocols as you would before you were pregnant to lose postpartum weight, with a few exceptions.
Dont restrict calories while youre breastfeeding. It can reduce your breast milk supply.
If it appears that the muscles in your lower abs have been separated by pregnancy, you may have a condition called diastasis recti.
It can worsen with traditional crunch exercises. Ask your doctor about workouts and physical therapy options if you believe you might have this condition.
Your sex may have something to do with the reasons why you gain belly fat. Females tend to store fat in the lower belly because of hormones, genetics, and age, and may be difficult to reduce in some cases.
However, everyone should take the same basic approach to lose weight, regardless of sex or gender.
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How Much Body Fat Should You Have
The way in which women could and should lose belly fat is different to that of men. Women need somebelly fat to function fat cells store oestrogen, so having too little can cause your whole hormonal function to go out of whack, causing serious health issues such as irregular periods and even infertility.
To that end, striving to lose fat from your stomach with the aim of getting a six-pack, for most females, wouldn’t be healthy. Instead, aim to sit within the 21-30% body fat category. This is what’s considered a healthy body fat percentage range for women.
The Truth About Targeting And Fat Loss
Is there actually a way to get rid of fat just around your lower belly? Sadly, the answer is no, you cant target fat on certain areas of your body. Instead, the focus has to be on shedding fat from head to toe.
Spot exercises can strengthen your abdominal muscles, but they wont actually get rid of the fat that sits on top of your abs. For that, youve gotta make an effort to lose weight all over. Heres how.
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Why Is Fructose Bad For You
Glucose and fructose are metabolized very differently by the body.
While every cell in the body can use glucose, the liver is the only organ that can metabolize fructose in significant amounts.
When people eat a diet that is high in calories and high in fructose, the liver gets overloaded and starts turning the fructose into fat.
Many scientists believe that excess fructose consumption may be a key driver of many of the most serious diseases of today. These include obesity, type II diabetes, heart disease and even cancer.
However, more human evidence is needed. Researchers debate the extent to which fructose contributes to these disorders .
Summary
Many health professionals have claimed that excessive fructose intake is a major cause of metabolic disorders.
How To Help Your Windy Baby
If you find your baby struggles a little to get up wind here are a few tips you can try from www.breastfeeding.ie: Walking with your baby in your arms or in a baby sling, the upright position gently helps to relax them. Put a gentle bump or bounce in your walk.
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Focus On Certain Healthy Foods
There are several foods that you may wish to include in your diet to combat water retention.
Potassium-rich foods are often recommended, as potassium can help balance sodium levels and increase urine production, helping you drop excess water .
Dark green leafy vegetables, beans, bananas,avocados, tomatoes and yogurt or other dairy products are all healthy and potassium-rich.
Magnesium supplements or magnesium-rich foods are also recommended. These include dark chocolate, dark green leafy vegetables, nuts and whole grains.
The following foods and herbs are often recommended by alternative practitioners to drop water weight. Some clinical evidence supporting their use:
- Corn silk (
- 39 ).
Although bloated belly is usually not caused by water retention, you may also wish to limit or temporarily remove foods that may cause bloating.
These include highly processed foods, foods with lots of fiber and sometimes beans and dairy. You can also try sticking to low-FODMAP foods for a while to see if that helps.
Summary Certain foods and herbs can act as diuretics and reduce water retention. Combine them with easily digestible foods that dont cause bloating or intolerances.
Results After The Six Weeks
After the six weeks had ended, all the volunteers were tested again on their waistline, blood cholesterol, blood glucose, and blood pressure.
The first group whose goal was to be more active did not lose any fat. Before you check out this method, these individuals health markers improved vastly. There were significant drops in their blood pressure, and blood glucose. The second group who did sit ups, did not get any healthier through any of the parameters measured. They, however, did lose two centimeters from their waistline. This was likely due a stronger core and their abdomen muscles holding their fat better .
Now to the diet groups. The third group who were to drink three glasses of milk every day did not show any changes in health or weight. The good news is that they did not gain any weight even though four hundred calories a day had been added to their daily consumption. A simple explanation for this would be they were too full from drinking milk to eat the amount of food they would normally eat .
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Take An Epsom Salt Bath
Relaxing in any tub is always nice, and adding two cups of magnesium-rich Epsom salt may help deflate your belly more effectively Your skin also absorbs the mineral and electrolyte, magnesium, which can help reduce inflammation and may even reduce muscle cramps. Soaking in an Epsom salt bath for 20 minutes can help alleviate constipation as well, which is another cause of bloating.