Increase Your Neat To Get Rid Of Belly Fat
We’ve been conditioned to think that super hard exercise is going to be the thing to help us get results, especially when trying to lose lower belly fat. In fact surprise, surprise it’s much more holistic than that. Instead of hammering the HIIT, keeping your nutrition, exercise and general movement in check are all important.
Outside of gym workouts , the movement you’re doing walking to the shops, making a cup of tea or taking your pooch out to stretch their legs can contribute more to hitting your healthy fat loss goals. This is known as NEAT and is a cornerstone of healthy body composition.
‘NEAT simply refers to the energy used carrying out any daily activity that isn’t formal exercise or sleeping,’ says Elliott Upton, personal trainer at Ultimate Performance and Head of LiveUP Online Coaching.
NEAT plays a major role in how much energy you expend per day and increasing your metabolic rate. It also helps control your blood sugar, aid muscle recovery, lower stress levels and improve cardiovascular health.
You can increase your NEAT by walking instead of taking public transport, opting for the stairs over the elevator or doing household chores. Whichever you choose, they’ll all contribute to the process in which you lose belly fat.
Get around everything you need to know about NEAT exercise with our full explainer.
Cut Back On Carbs Especially Refined Carbs
Reducing your carb intake can be very beneficial for losing fat, including abdominal fat.
Diets with under 50 grams of carbs per day cause belly fat loss in people who are overweight, those at risk for type 2 diabetes, and women with polycystic ovary syndrome .
You dont have to follow a strict low carb diet. Some research suggests that simply replacing refined carbs with unprocessed starchy carbs may improve metabolic health and reduce belly fat .
In the famous Framingham Heart Study, people with the highest consumption of whole grains were 17% less likely to have excess abdominal fat than those who consumed diets high in refined grains .
SUMMARY
A high intake of refined carbs is associated with excessive belly fat. Consider reducing your carb intake or replacing refined carbs in your diet with healthy carb sources, such as whole grains, legumes, or vegetables.
Coconut oil is one of the healthiest fats you can eat.
Studies show that the medium-chain fats in coconut oil may boost metabolism and decrease the amount of fat you store in response to high calorie intake (
39 ).
In one study, men with obesity who took coconut oil daily for 12 weeks lost an average of 1.1 inches from their waists without intentionally changing their diets or exercise routines (
41 ).
Also, keep in mind that coconut oil is high in calories. Instead of adding extra fat to your diet, replace some of the fats youre already eating with coconut oil.
SUMMARY
Lose Belly Fat By Macro Counting
If you’re already familiar with counting calories and want to fine-tune your fat loss efforts to focus on how to lose belly fat in particular, you might want to consider learning how to count and calculate your macros.
“Counting macros” is a diet technique to make sure you’re eating the right amounts of each macronutrient protein, fat and carbohydrates. By tweaking the volume of each you can make your fat loss efforts more efficient.
How? Each macronutrient plays a different role in keeping our bodies ticking over. In broad strokes: protein helps to build and maintain muscle tissue, carbohydrates provide fast and slow-release energy and healthy fats support hormone function.
Tweaking the volumes you eat can help build muscle and lose body fat more efficiently, as well as allowing you to re-incorporate some of your favourite foods. Because you’re looking at what makes up what you eat, foods that are less nutrient-dense can be incorporated . All you’ll need to do is work out how that impacts the rest of your day.
Counting macros isn’t for everyone, but it can be a helpful guide if you find counting calories too restrictive.
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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.”
Vitamin C Boost For Stomach Fat Reduction
Inadequacy in vitamin C wont let you dispose of stomach fat as this vitamin is vital for the legitimate digestion system of fat. In the event that you have more fat around your stomach, it is more probable that you are low on Vitamin C. This vitamin is required for the processing of those atoms that are utilized as a part of digestion system of fatty tissues and the absence of it implies that your body is not utilizing the put away fat howsoever hard you are working out. Also, this water solvent vitamin cant be put away in the body. Unused vitamin C is discharged out of your body by means of pee. Along these lines, you have to renew your vitamin C stock ordinary.
The greater part of the foods grown from the ground have vitamin C in them. However, there are surely products of the soil that have rich wellsprings of this vitamin. Incorporate these leafy foods in your eating methodology for an everyday help of vitamin C to diminish stomach fat.
- Gooseberry
- Rock melon
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What Causes Stomach Overhang
A stomach overhang can be caused by a number of reasons, including:
- Weight changes
- Stress
- Ageing
One things for sure no-one should have to suffer the distress caused by stomach overhang. The good news is that there are things you can do to either remove stomach overhang completely or considerably reduce it.
The primary cause of stomach overhang is excess fat gathered in the area around the midriff. If you wish to remove this fat, you need to reduce the fat both on the surface and also around your organs.
The ideal scenario is to reduce or remove the fat, then tone the stomach area.
Surgery
The best way of getting rid of stomach overhang is a surgical procedure known as abdominoplasty at our London clinic, which will remove it completely.
This procedure tightens the stomach muscles and removes excess skin and fatty tissues from the middle and lower abdominal region. Liposuction is often performed alongside abdominoplasty for the best results.
Abdominoplasty cant be performed on very overweight patients, so if you are considerably overweight you will need to lose weight until you are within several pounds of your ideal weight before the procedure can be carried out.
Opt for CoolSculpting
For a non-surgical approach to getting rid of stomach overhang, consider a course of CoolSculpting treatments.
CoolSculpting is also ideal to treat stubborn areas such as the upper arms, inner and outer thighs and even under the chin.
Count your calories
Understand insulin
Move more
Avoid Eating After Dinner
Stop treating your kitchen like an all-night diner and you’ll stop seeing those unwanted pounds piling onto your frame, too. The results of a study published in Cell Metabolism found that mice who only had access to food during an eight-hour period stayed slim over the course of the study, while those who ate the same number of calories over a 16-hour period gained significantly more weight, particularly around their middle. When you’re finished with dinner at night, shut the fridge and don’t look back until morning your belly will thank you. When you do head back to the kitchen in the A.M., make sure the best healthy kitchen staples for cooking are there waiting for you.
Eat This, Not That!
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Your Goals Are All Aesthetic
Studies show that when goals are aesthetic-based, rather than health or strength related, they’re more difficult to stick with long term. “There’s nothing wrong with wanting to slim down, burn those love handles, or build a little bit of muscle and definition. But I find that when you focus your energy on non-appearance-based goals, you’ll enjoy your workouts more and feel better about your body all around!” says Fried. “Want to do a pull-up? Run a 5k? Great! Set your mind on those athletic-based goals and the aesthetics will follow.”
Make Healthy Food Substitutions
Make sure the calories you get each day are from quality foods this helps ensure you meet your nutritional needs as you lose weight, so you can look and feel your best. Harvard Medical School recommends a few food substitutions to switch out unhealthy foods for more nutritious options to help you lose abdominal fat.
Use whole grains such as quinoa, brown rice, oatmeal and 100-percent whole-wheat bread and pasta instead of refined grains, like white rice, white bread and white pasta. Whole grains are higher in fiber, a nutrient that’s linked to weight loss. Because fiber also plays a role in satiety, switching from white to whole grains means your meals will be more satisfying, so you’re less likely to overeat later.
Go for unsaturated fats like those found in fatty fish, seeds and nuts instead of saturated fats found in red meat and processed foods to lose fat, recommends Harvard. Making this substitution means you’ll have to avoid calorie-laden fast and processed foods, which will make it easier to meet your calorie goals.
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Do Not Underestimate The Importance Of A Diet
There is a saying, you cannot out exercise a bad diet. And that is especially true when you want to learn how to lose side fat and belly fat.
Side fat and belly fat are some of the biggest challenges because even the tiniest cheat in your diet will contribute to fat in these areas. Understanding the importance of diet in your effort to lose side fat is crucial. In order to get rid of side fat, you need to put 100% effort. And that is 50% exercise and 50% diet.
Here are tips for a successful effort in losing love handles.
- Go for foods that have a low glycemic index
- Stay away from highly processed sugar, processed foods, and processed flours that have few nutrients, but a high amount of calories
- Each meal should have 50% fruits or vegetables
- Consume healthy monosaturated fats, one that you can find in nuts, seeds, whole grains, olive oil, and avocado
- Consume low-fat dairy, the best example being Greek yogurt, which is high in protein, but low in fats. This will help you improve your weight loss efforts
- Drink 2 to 3l of water per day, or 8 to 12 glasses. If you like more flavor, go for green tea instead of water, but not fruit juices, soda, and dairy drinks
Watch Your Stress If You Want To Lose Belly Fat
‘Stress may be an evolutionary response that helps keep us alive,’ says performance nutritionist and qualified dietitian, Tom Irving, ‘but frequent and persistent doses can elevate cortisol levels, which is both inflammatory as well as antilipolytic .’
Why? Well, when we’re in “flight or flight” mode, the body releases glucose into the blood to prepare you for a difficult situation, explains Catherine Rabess, dietitian and NHS dietetic manager.
‘Once the adrenaline wears off the blood glucose levels drop, leaving the brain to send signals of hunger and increasing appetite. This could be in the form of sugary cravings. It’s completely normal.’
Often, this kind of stress is associated with unhealthy habits like emotional eating, not getting enough sleep, skipping meals, eating quick and accessible fast food and exercising less, she adds all of which can lead to unhealthy weight gain.
Add a year plus of COVID-19 upheaval into the mix and you’ll understand why you might find it more difficult to lose body fat now than previously. This isn’t something to beat yourself up over. It just means you may need to be more vigilant about managing your stress as much as you can by controlling what’s controllable and reminding yourself that losing body fat needn’t be your biggest priority right now.
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Reduce Belly Fat With Apple Cider Vinegar
Apple Cider Vinegar, with its acidic, corrosive, helps you dispose of stomach fat. Corrosive for the most part guarantees better assimilation of protein, which is thus vital for development hormones of our body. Development hormone is one of the best mediums that can break down your fat cells. This additionally keeps your digestion system working actually when you are resting or dozing. By empowering the usage of iron in your body, ACV likewise helps in expending vitality. Vitality utilization is equivalent to smoldering fat.
Get this:
- Add ACV to the glass of water.
- Have this water before your dinners three times each day.
Drink Green Tea To Reduce Belly Fat
Green tea supports digestion system fantastically. It likewise generates warm inside your body separated from fortifying fat oxidation. Green tea compound called epigallocatechin gallate helps fortify fat smoldering. Indeed, there is an intriguing finding about green tea expressed in the Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry which says that green tea works at hereditary level! It does not just appearing to trigger those genes that help you lose weight additionally averts the establishment of new fat cells.
Get this:
- In the event that you require sweetener, include nectar
- Have green tea two to three times each day.
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Is There Really One Trick To Losing Belly Fat
When ads claim a “one trick” solution, remember that their main objective is to sell their product rather than to help you. Good marketing means one message, because it is hard to follow too many things at once. So they focus on one fad, and that tickles your curiosity and you click on the link to go their website.
What Should I Do If Ive Got Excess Weight Round My Middle
Regardless of your height or BMI, you should aim to lose weight if:
- you are a man with a waist measurement of 94 cm or more
- youre a woman with a waist measuring 80 cm or more
And your risk of serious health problems will greatly increase if:
- you are a man with a waist measurement of 102 cm ,
- youre a woman with a waist measuring higher that 88cm .
If your tummy weight is in the higher risk category above I would advise you to contact your GP. You might also find it helpful to contact a dietitian, who will help you to develop an individualised plan for a healthier lifestyle.
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Eat Plenty Of Protein
The easiest change you can make to your diet to lose belly fat is to eat enough protein. There are several reasons for this. Increasing your protein intake increases satiety. In most cases, if youre not hungry, you wont eat. Therefore, increasing satiety can result in effortless weight loss.
Moreover, eating enough protein throughout the day ensures you maintain your metabolically active mass even when you eat at a calorie deficit. If you push your muscles to failure through resistance training, you can even build muscle while burning belly fat by eating enough protein. Bio-available protein sources include legumes, dairy products, game meat, eggs, and lean seafood.
You’re Relying On Changing Your Diet Without Exercising
White recommends following the 60/5 rule when you’re trying to get rid of love handles. In addition to cutting 500 calories a week through diet, White explains the rule is based on working out for “60 minutes of exercise five times a week.” This amount of time should be enough to help you burn an additional 500 calories a day by incorporating weight training and cardiovascular training into your routine.
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The Best Foods For Losing Love Handles
Protein sources: chicken, eggs, lean, ground turkey, all-natural chicken sausage, shrimp, tilapia, salmon, tuna, lean cuts of steak, whey protein powder, tofu, hemp protein, pea protein. Recommendation: Eat at every meal
Carb sources: sweet potato, brown rice, quinoa, whole-grain pasta, wild rice, oats, Ezekiel bread. Recommendation: 3-4 servings a day
Fat sources: avocado, almonds, cashews, pecans, coconut oil, olives, nut butters, hummus. Recommendation: 2 servings a day
Vegetable sources: Feel free to eat whatever veggies you like! But some of the best for weight loss are kale, spinach, watercress, chard, and beet greens. Recommendation: Eat at every meal
Fruit sources: Avocado, tomatoes, eggplant, raspberries, strawberries, and blackberries, and watermelon.Recommendation: 2 servings of fresh fruit a day. One serving of fruit is one piece of fruit, or 1/2 cup of berries or sliced fruit. Stay away from dried fruits because of their high sugar content.
Be mindful of portion size: Lowe says proteins should be the size of your fist. Complex carbs should be about the size of your palm. Healthy fats should be about 2 tablespoons per serving . Veggies should be two handfuls.