Learn How Many Calories Your Body Needs
You can’t out-exercise a bad diet. Fact. To lose belly fat , you need to be in a calorie deficit. This means consuming fewer calories than you’re expending through exercise and general living.
‘When it comes to knowing how to lose belly fat, the best way to start is to watch what you eat,’ Belalij says. ‘When you digest large amounts of calories, your body allocates some of these to functional systems which work to keep you alive ,’ says Belalij. ‘It also uses it to fill up energy stores. Any excess is then stored in fat cells around the body typically being those of the belly.’
But like we’ve said, learning how to get rid of belly fat shouldn’t come at the expense of your health, so you want to make sure you’re not cutting back too much. To calculate your ideal calorie deficit, check out our handy guide below. It’ll help you work out how many calories you need to eat a day to hit your goals, without going too far.
Worried about the price of healthy eating? Stock up on cheap healthy snacks. By having healthier food in the house you’re less likely to face-plant the sugary stuff when hunger strikes.
You Haven’t Got The Right Exercise Balance
With all the different tips out there, it can be tricky to understand exactly which exercises work the best. “HIIT is great for fat burning and will get your heart rate up, but Id also recommend including strength and resistance exercises too,” shares Dr Luke. “Try lifting weights, using resistance bands or using the weight machines at the gym as these will increase your metabolism to help with weight loss, and increase your muscle strength. Its important to mix-up your whole-body workouts so you dont get bored.”
The Perils Of Belly Fat
As you age — even if your weight on the scale doesn’t change — you may notice that your belly increases in size. The development of visceral fat — which is deep, internal belly fat that surrounds your internal organs and interferes with liver function — increases your risk of heart disease and sets you up for type 2 diabetes. Visceral fat is different from subcutaneous fat, which lies right beneath the skin on your hips, legs and arms. This reduction of estrogen in women and testosterone in men after age 40 means that fat will go to the abdomen more easily. As you age, fat is more likely to accumulate as belly fat instead of going to other parts of the body.
If you intervene with diet and exercise, belly fat will shrink. A study published in the journal Obesity in 2012 showed that after one year, post-menopausal, overweight women who participated in 45 minutes of cardiovascular exercise five times a week and who reduced their caloric intake, experienced a notable reduction in their body mass index, waist size and percentage of body fat. Although this study only included women, the same strategy can be effective for men, too.
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Think About Your Gut If You Want To Lose Belly Fat
Followed everything above to the letter, but not losing belly fat as quickly as you might like? It could be that the levels of good to bad bacteria in your gut arent at their optimum.
Researchers from Washington University found that people with excess weight, including abdominal fat, tend to have greater numbers of Firmicutes bacteria, suggesting this one could encourage the body to absorb more calories from food. Dont believe us? Heres what your poop can tell you about your belly fat.
*Women’s Health Naked Survey 2018
Ignore The Best Exercises For Belly Fat Belly Fat Exercises And Exercises To Lose Belly Fat
Think smashing out crunches every day will get you abs like J.Lo? Think again. ‘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 high 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.’
Cardio workouts to lose belly fat
- This 28-day plan by Alice Liveing will teach you the basics of strength training, helping you to build lean muscle with foundation moves.
- Or, this four-week Kayla Itsines workout plan incorporates HIIT to burn fat and tone muscle.
- PT Gauri Chopra’s four week HIIT plan will help to burn fat efficiently and increase your stamina and muscular endurance.
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How To Get Rid Of Lower Belly Fat After Having A Baby
Having a strong core and a flat stomach after giving birth is every womans dream.
Abdominal muscles and the pelvis are the most affected and take the longest to recover.
Getting into core workouts after pregnancy may pose additional challenges. Wait at least 6 weeks before starting an exercise routine and talk to your doctor about your health and clearance to start.
During pregnancy women gain weight to support the growing baby.
After delivery, its normal to experience a soft midsection with an extra layer that feels like a belly flab, this can be used as an energy store for breastfeeding and the birth recovery process.
Part of your bodys response to pregnancy and post-partum is to have increased calorie needs. Its important to be patient and kind to yourself.
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 is important for a woman post-partum to:
- First be patient and kind to her body
- If breastfeeding, increased calorie needs will take priority
- Wait for doctor to clear exercise routine
- If possible, request for a Registered Dietitian to help create a balanced weight loss plan that will continue to provide enough nutrients for breastfeeding.
- If possible, get a personal trainer to evaluate the abdomen for best exercises.
Decrease Foods That Cause Inflammation
All foods in balance are healthy, but there are a few that cause inflammation in our bodies.
Which can then increase lower abdominal fat.
Some foods that promote inflammation include the saturated fat found in meat and dairy products, fast food, junk food, fried food, palm oil, foods with trans fats .
The good news is that some foods aid the inflamed body. Lowering inflammation can be achieved by increasing unprocessed foods.
Good diet tips: Choose foods with unsaturated fats, such foods are the oil in fish oils, nuts, flaxseed these carry the famed omega-3 fatty acids.
Also, olive oil, avocado oil and fruits and vegetables, mushrooms, legumes, whole grains, teas, and spices.
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What Is Visceral Body Fat
Visceral body fat, also known as ‘hidden’ fat, is fat stored deep inside the belly, wrapped around the organs, including the liver and intestines. It makes up about one tenth of all the fat stored in the body.
Most fat is stored underneath the skin and is known as subcutaneous fat. That is the fat that is visible and that you can feel. The rest of the fat in the body is hidden. That is visceral fat.
Visceral fat makes the belly stick out or gives a person an ‘apple’ shape. It also produces chemicals and hormones that can be toxic to the body.
Visceral fat produces more toxic substances than subcutaneous fat, so it is more dangerous. Even in thin people, having visceral fat carries a range of health risks.
Visceral fat is more common in men than in women.
Gradually Cut Back On All Bad Fats While Strategically Cutting Back On Carbohydrates
It has been shown that fat intake of the wrong kind will result in increased fat gains. This stands to reason, as the body will typically burn carbohydrates for fuel and use protein for repair. Therefore, it makes sense to cut back on bad fat while increasing the good type.
Good fats such as the omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids will actually have a fat-burning effect, as they enhance metabolic function . Their useâas opposed to the saturated bad type found in meats and hard at room temperatureâshould be encouraged.
Strategically cutting back on carbohydrates means eating specific carbs at certain times to achieve a fat-burning effect. Complex carbohydrates will generally maximize the fat-burning effect because they stimulate the metabolism without causing the outpouring of insulin, which causes greater fat storage.
Complex carbs include brown rice, beans, oats, and potatoes, and their use is to be encouraged. However, the short-burst simple-sugar carbohydrates are to be avoided during a fat loss phase, as they can cause a large insulin spike and resultant fat gains. They are also concentrated, and generally higher in calories.
A third type of carbohydrate, fiber, which can be found in high-wheat foods and certain fruits and vegetables, is an important one for fat loss because it increases feelings of fullness and pushes fat through the system to be eliminated.
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What Is Spot Reduction And Why Doesn’t It Work
Spot reduction is also called targeted fat loss, and it’s the idea that if you exercise a part of your body enough, you lose fat in that specific body part. For example, the idea that doing squats will reduce fat on your butt, or doing tricep dips will get rid of extra fat on your arms.
A ton of researchers have investigated over the years whether spot reduction actually works, and they’ve come to the general consensus that it doesn’t. This is mainly for two reasons. One, exercise alone won’t automatically make you lose weight — it all depends on your energy intake being lower than your energy burned. Furthermore, like I mentioned above we can’t really control which parts of our body lose weight first.
Sit-ups alone aren’t enough to get a six-pack.
In one study, abdominal exercise alone was not shown to reduce abdominal fat. Another study suggested that it doesn’t happen with upper-body resistance training either. And, we’re out of luck with the legs — a lower-body-focused training program reduced the overall body fat percentage of subjects in a third study, but not in the trained body segment. Several other researchers have come to the same conclusion — unfortunately, spot reduction is just not a real thing.
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How To Lose Belly Fat Overnight Wrap
Its very common for people to carry too much belly fat. For example, if youre going on a weekend camping trip, then packing a little extra weight is not a good idea. You could end up spending the entire weekend trying to get this excess weight off of your body, which isnt healthy at all. So instead, if your schedule allows it, go for this waist wrap or any other belly wraps that you can use during those times when you have to have a little extra weight around the middle area. You can also use this Wrap anytime you need to lose belly fat overnight without exercise.
The Wrap claims that their waist trimmer is specifically designed to be worn over the users torso, allowing it to roll across the body without sliding off. This allows it to hold onto the body with its elasticity, not bounce back with each step you take. It also claims that it holds the weight of the abdomen in place, not allowing it to slip either.
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How To Lose Belly Fat Drinking Green Tea
It’s a bit higher in fat than other protein alternatives, but it’s the great type of fat that we require in our diet . I see a great deal of athletes that don’t include any fat in their diets and hesitate to consume fat, however this is a great fat to have.
Include chicken to the pan and cook for 5-7 minutes before including all of the herbs, spices, salt, and pepper then continue to prepare until prepared through . While the chicken is cooking, get rid of leading and seeds from each pepper and cut each into 3-4 sections.
Youre Expecting A Quick Fix
Dr Luke explains that it’s easy to become impatient and frustrated when youre trying to lose weight and havent seen the results yet. “But be realistic,” he encourages. “You wont see results overnight. Your brains wiring plays a huge part in resisting changes in lifestyle, and it takes time to establish new habits up to 12 weeks. Stick with it for at least eight weeks and you should notice a change.”
Emily agrees, further emphasising that progress takes time. Disappointed that your progress looks a little different to someone elses? Remember, one of the biggest misconceptions when trying to lose lower stomach fat is that a flat stomach, or ab definition of any kind, looks the same on everyone.
“Major spoiler – they dont! Id try to avoid chasing the perfect set of abs and instead focus on striving towards a strong core – whatever that looks and feels like for you. Remember, even if we all trained the same, we wouldnt all look the same!,” she points out.
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On The Scale At Least Once A Day
If theres one thing that comes up over and over with the thousands of patients enrolled in the National Weight Control Registry, its weighing yourself every day on a scale, says Rena Wing, Ph.D., founder of the registry, which tracks more than 4,500 men and women who have lost an average of 20lbs or more and kept it off for at least six years. Dont obsess over the number, she says, but at least keep track of the general range of what you weigh so you can catch small changes as they occur and take corrective measures immediately.
Tracking Progress And Staying Motivated
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Eat More Healthy Fats
Although it may seem counterintuitive, increasing your intake of healthy fats may actually help prevent weight gain and help you maintain feelings of fullness.
Fat takes a while to digest and can help slow the emptying of the stomach, which can reduce appetite and hunger .
One study found that following a Mediterranean diet rich in healthy fats from olive oil and nuts was associated with a lower risk of weight gain compared to a low-fat diet .
Another small study found that when people on a weight loss diet took two tablespoons of coconut oil daily, they lost more belly fat than those who were given soybean oil .
Meanwhile, unhealthy types of fat like trans fats have been shown to increase body fat, waist circumference and belly fat in human and animal studies .
Olive oil, coconut oil, avocados, nuts and seeds are just a few examples of healthy types of fat that may have beneficial effects on fat burning.
However, keep in mind that healthy fat is still high in calories, so moderate how much you consume. Instead of eating more fat overall, try swapping the unhealthy fats in your diet for these healthy fat varieties.
Summary Fat is digested slowly, so eating it can help reduce appetite. A higher intake of healthy fats is associated with a lower risk of weight gain and decreased belly fat.
Focus On The Way Your Clothes Fit More Than Reading A Scale
As you add muscle mass and lose fat, the reading on your bathroom scale maynot change much, but your pants will be looser. Thats a better mark ofprogress. Measured around, your waistline should be less than 35 inches ifyoure a woman or less than 40 inches if youre a man to reduce heart anddiabetes risks.
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