Dress Your Salad With Vinegar
While people who claim that vinegar can do everything from cure headaches to clean glass without leaving a single streak may be overstating its benefits, adding some to your meal plan can actually help you shrink your belly. The results of a 2009 study published in Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Biochemistry reveals that obese study subjects who added vinegar to their diet over a 12-week period lost significantly more weight and belly fat than those in the control group. If drinking straight vinegar is a less-than-appetizing proposition, try adding just a little apple cider vinegar to your favorite smoothie or mixing some with olive oil, mustard, and garlic for a flavorful salad dressing.
Why Is Belly Fat So Hard To Shift
Belly fat is tricky to shift because there are so many factors influencing it. For example, where you gain fat will be influenced by your genes, your age and even your weight at birth, with smaller babiesgaining more belly fat later in life. If youre female and child-free then youre less likely to develop high levels of visceral fat than if you are a mum.
More Ways To Lose Your Lower Belly Pooch
The less stress you can put yourself through the better off youll be losing your lower belly fat.
Of course, its impossible to stay stress-free unless youre living on a Caribbean beach.
There are things you can do to minimize the stress in your life and lower the cortisol in your body.
Mindfulness practices like meditation can help.
This study found people practicing mindfulness have less belly fat and theyre less likely to be obese.
Improve your sleep quality.
When youre not getting sleep your body will respond negatively.
This study found even one night of sleep deprivation can lead to increases in ghrelin.
This is one of the reasons why you want to eat more when youre sleep deprived.
This study also found youll have less self-control when youre not getting enough sleep.
You can just use your imagination to see why you wont be able to stick to your diet and exercise program if youre not getting enough rest.
If you have trouble sleeping or want to improve the quality of your sleep then try using a high-quality CBD oil like this one from Sabaidee.
CBD has been found to improve and speed up how fast youre able to get into deep REM sleep.
What is the cause of lower belly fat?
How do you get rid of lower belly bulge?
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Are Low Carbs The Belly Fat Cure
Lowering your carbs will also be of the utmost importance in your diet for lowering belly fat.
Make sure you cut out refined carbohydrates like pasta, breads, and cereals.
That means no more Captain Crunch!
This study found low carb diets helped to target fat in the belly.
Getting enough soluble fiber in your diet will also help to reduce your lower belly fat.
This study found eating 10g of soluble fiber per day was linked to a 3.7% reduction in belly fat.
Also be sure to lower your alcohol consumption for at least a couple weeks to see if it helps you lose your lower belly fat.
Drinking alcohol not only contains a lot of empty calories but itll slow down your metabolism.
You can expect to have some major bloating after drinking alcohol as well as increases in abdominal fat.
Try taking a probiotic supplement to help get rid of that stubborn lower belly fat.
This study by the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found the taking probiotics led to a significant reduction in visceral belly fat.
to get a free container of BioTrust Pro-X10 probiotics.
The best diet you can use to get rid your lower belly fat is without a doubt The Flat Belly Formula. It uses a science-backed foolproof diet you can use to target lose that stubborn belly fat.
Your ‘healthy’ Protein Shake Is Making You Put On Weight
There’s something that feels ever so virtuous about sipping on a protein shake post-workout to supercharge your efforts, but it could be doing you more harm than good.
“Protein powders that contain added sugars can drastically increase your daily calorie intake without you even realising,” warns Shivraj Bassi, founder of supplement brand Innermost. Look at the sugar content in your protein powder to make sure it’s not a secret saboteur.
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The Truth: How To Burn Abdominal Fat
You don’t need to spend a dime to tighten and tone those abdominals. You only need to understand a few things about the human body!
Time to face facts: All those crunches and as-seen-on-TV devices won’t give you a six-pack. What will? Losing the belly fat that covers up your abs, as strong as they may be. Exercise, especially the right kind of cardio, is your ticket to a core you can bounce quarters off.
How Long Does It Take To Lose Belly Fat
As mentioned, anyone wondering how to lose belly fat fast isn’t alone, but this isn’t always realistic, and almost always not sustainable. It plays out differently for every single person. Our genetics, age, lifestyle, stress and sleep all play a role in how fast we lose belly fat the same goes for all body fat actually.
It’s not about trying to lose belly fat in a week or get rid of belly fat fast it’s about sticking to a pace that keeps you trucking on. For most people, the best way to lose belly fat looks like an 80/20 split of healthy habits and ones that are, perhaps, more fun than functional.
Read our complete guide on how long it takes to lose weight.
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How To Lose Belly Fat
This article was co-authored by Laura Flinn. Laura Flinn is a National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer, USA Olympic Weightlifting Sports Performance Coach and Certified Fitness Nutritionist, with an additional qualification as a TRX Suspension Trainer. Laura runs her own personal training program based in the San Francisco Bay Area and specializes in topics such as weight loss, muscle growth, cardiovascular training, and strength training.There are 14 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. This article received 16 testimonials and 93% of readers who voted found it helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 959,182 times.
Belly fat can be unsightly and hard to get rid of, but it is an issue of more than just appearance. Carrying excessive weight in your midsection is risky, especially for men. A larger waist circumference puts you at a higher risk for a variety of chronic diseases including: diabetes, heart disease, sleep apnea and even certain cancers . You can reduce the amount of belly fat and the risks it poses by losing weight. Make a few dietary and lifestyle changes to help lose weight and support a healthy lifestyle.
Switch To Whole Grains
Those refined carbs on your menu might be the very reason you can’t ditch that belly fat. Fortunately, sliding back into those skinny jeans doesn’t mean you need to turn up your nose at every carb that crosses your plate. Researchers at Tufts University’s Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging found that people who ate three or more servings of whole grains each day and limited their intake of refined grains had approximately 10% less harmful, organ-enveloping visceral belly fat than those who had larger proportions of refined grains in their diet.
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Stop Drinking Your Calories
Regularly sipping stuff other than water, black coffee, or unsweetened tea? Calorie-containing drinks can slow or straight-up stall your weight loss progress, making it almost impossible to get rid of lower belly fat.
Case in point? That 16-ounce latte you get with breakfast can pack about 250 calories. Grab a sugary cocktail after work and youre looking at 300, 400, or even 500 more.
If you have those kinds of drinks on the reg, just cutting them out could be enough to start melting fat all over your body including around your lower belly.
Thats especially true when it comes to booze, since research shows that drinking a lot of alcohol seems to cause fat to be stored around your belly. Dorn JM, et al. . Alcohol drinking patterns differentially affect central adiposity as measured by abdominal height in women and men,
Think Eating Plan Not Diet
Ultimately, you need to pick a healthy eating plan you can stick to,Stewart says. The benefit of a low-carb approach is that it simply involveslearning better food choicesno calorie-counting is necessary. In general,a low-carb way of eating shifts your intake away from problem foodsthosehigh in carbs and sugar and without much fiber, like bread, bagels andsodasand toward high-fiber or high-protein choices, like vegetables, beansand healthy meats.
Read Also: What To Eat For Stomach Fat Loss
Keep Whole Grains In Your Diet
You don’t have to go low-carb to ditch those extra pounds around your waist in a short period of time.
To get rid of belly fat, ditch refined grains like white bread and white rice, and eat more whole grains such as:
- Oatmeal
- Barley
- Farro
In fact, opting for more whole grains might just get you there faster. Researchers at Tufts University have linked eating three or more daily servings of whole grains to as much as a 10 percent reduction in visceral body fat, the kind that ups your risk for chronic diseases, like diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure.
Add Some Acidic Foods
Don’t buy your tickets to Bonnaroo just yet the kind of acid that will help you slim down is the stuff right inside your cabinet. A 12-week study published in Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Biochemistry reveals that obese study subjects who made vinegar part of their diet dropped more belly fat than a control group, and other research suggests that acidic foods, like vinegar, can increase the human carbohydrate metabolism by as much as 40%.
Read Also: Can You Move Fat From Your Stomach To Your Breast
Swap Ketchup For Salsa
Sure, ketchup is tasty, but it’s also a serious saboteur when it comes your weight loss efforts. Ketchup is loaded with sugar up to four grams per tablespoon and bears little nutritional resemblance to the fruit from which it’s derived. Luckily, swapping out your ketchup for salsa can help you shave off that belly fat at home without a diet. Fresh tomatoes, like those used in salsa, are loaded with lycopene, which a study conducted at China Medical University in Taiwan links to reductions in both overall fat and waist circumference. If you like your salsa spicy, all the better the capsaicin in hot peppers, like jalapeños and chipotles, can boost your metabolism, too.
Combine All Of The Above
No one method is going to get rid of your belly for you, so if you want to see results you’re going to have to take heed of the above advice and make changes to your diet, training and lifestyle as a whole.
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You’re Drinking Too Much Alcohol
Can one too many pintsreally earn you a beer belly? Well, yes. As you gulp down your drink, your body turns the alcohol into acetate, which your body cant store. It becomes your primary energy source, and the proteins, carbs and fats swirling around your digestive system are converted to fat by default.
Factor in the excess calories from your drinks with the gut-busting kebab you pick up on the way home and suddenly youre looking at excess fat storage.
Not only does a night on the sauce send your cortisol levels through the roof, it saps your testosterone, which means youll find it more difficult to build lean muscle and burn fat as fuel.
Reduce Your Stress Levels
Stress and anxiety are common problems that affect many people.
They can stimulate the bodys adrenal glands to produce more cortisol, a stress hormone (
65 ).
Women who already have large waists in proportion to their hips, which is a marker of visceral fat, tend to produce more cortisol when stressed .
A few proven strategies to reduce stress include exercising more, trying yoga or meditation or just spending more time with friends and family.
SUMMARY
Studies have shown that chronic stress is linked to visceral fat gain. To relieve stress, try exercising more, yoga, meditation or more family time.
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Move Your Body Everyday In Any Way You Can
Daily movement is not only healthy, but typically makes you feel better, too. Make sure to move your body in some shape or form every single day, and remember that this exercise doesn’t necessarily require a trip to the gym. It can be anything from walking a certain amount of steps to taking the stairs instead of the elevator. “If you’re looking to burn more calories than you consume, you need to get yourself moving at least once a day,” Pelc Graca says.
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.’
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Exercise And Dieting Helps You Lose Belly Fat
So what can we do about tubby tummies? A lot, it turns out. The starting point for bringing weight under control, in general, and combating abdominal fat, in particular, is regular moderate-intensity physical activity at least 30 minutes per day to control weight and lose belly fat. Strength training may also help fight abdominal fat. Spot exercising, such as doing sit-ups, can tighten abdominal muscles, but it won’t get at visceral fat.
Diet is also important. Pay attention to portion size, and emphasize complex carbohydrates and lean protein over simple carbohydrates such as white bread, refined-grain pasta, and sugary drinks. Replacing saturated fats and trans fats with polyunsaturated fats can also help.
Scientists hope to develop drug treatments that target abdominal fat. For now, experts stress that lifestyle, especially exercise, is the very best way to fight visceral fat.
Try Eating More Soluble Fiber
Fiber can be divided into two broad categories soluble and insoluble.
The soluble kind mixes with water to form a viscous gel-like substance. This helps slow down the delivery of digested food from the stomach to the intestines .
When soluble fiber reaches the colon, its fermented by gut bacteria into short-chain fatty acids. These fatty acids are a major source of nutrition for colon cells.
Interestingly, they may also help reduce visceral fat by suppressing your appetite.
For example, studies show that short-chain fatty acids help increase levels of fullness hormones, such as cholecystokinin, GLP-1 and PYY (
27 ).
A study in 1,114 people found that simply increasing soluble fiber intake by 10 grams daily reduced the risk of visceral fat gain by up to 3.7% .
To increase your fiber intake, try eating more flaxseeds, sweet potatoes, legumes and grains. You can also try taking a soluble fiber supplement.
SUMMARY
Eating more soluble fiber can help reduce visceral fat by suppressing your appetite and keeping gut bacteria healthy. Try eating more soluble fiber-rich foods or taking a soluble fiber supplement.
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Stop Adding Sweeteners To Your Food And Drinks
While many people turn to artificial sweeteners in a misguided attempt to whittle their waistlines, those fake sugars are likely to have the opposite effect. According to Yale researchers, artificial sweeteners are actually linked with an increased risk of abdominal obesity and weight gain, possibly because they can trigger cravings for the real stuff and spike insulin levels in a similar fashion to real sugar.
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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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