What Can You Eat
Each volunteer was encouraged to measure portions based on the size of their hands.
Aim for a daily intake of:
- Three fist-sized servings of carbs
- Two palm-sized servings of lean protein
- Two cupped handfuls of vegetables or salad
- Two fist-sized servings of fruit
- Two servings of fat or oil covering the tip of your thumb.
You can also have 200ml/ pint of milk, or two 125g pots of natural or low-calorie yoghurt.
Generally, you can eat your usual foods, so long as you reduce the portion size. Avoid or limit sugary and high-fat foods, such as fast foods.
The speed of waist reduction varies from person to person, so even if you reduce your calorie intake by the suggested amount, your results may differ.
As time passes you will lose weight and you’ll need to recalculate your calorie requirement. At your new weight you’ll find your daily requirement has dropped. So you need to drop again to keep 500 calories below your daily requirement. By recalculating you will keep losing 1lb a week.
Try High Intensity Interval Training
High intensity interval training is a type of exercise that usually involves performing intervals of very intense activity, such as sprinting, rowing, or jumping, with short breaks in between.
This method of exercising helps your body burn more fat and temporarily increases your metabolic rate, even after youve finished your workout (
How much protein you need depends on many factors, such as your age, sex, and activity level.
For an easy way to meet your protein needs, be sure include a good such as meat, fish, poultry, eggs, tofu, or legumes in every meal.
Summary
High protein diets may increase your metabolic rate, reduce your appetite, and help you retain muscle mass during weight loss.
Lack Of Sleep Affects Your Hormones
Waking up tired and cranky isn’t the only consequence of not getting enough sleep. Sleep deprivation affects your health in major ways. When you don’t get enough sleep, ghrelin and leptin — the hunger hormones — become imbalanced. The amount of circulating ghrelin, the hormone that tells you you’re hungry, increases, and the amount of leptin, the hormone that signals fullness, decreases. As a result, you may think you’re hungry when you’re not.
Sleep deprivation also causes you to crave junk food, which can lead to overeating. If you notice your stomach starting to grow, take a look at your sleep patterns. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that all adults get 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night.
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You’re Eating Trans Fats
If antioxidants are the good guys of gut health, trans fats are the super-villains. These sneaky fats actively contribute to your growing waist line not just by adding new fat, but by moving fat from other areas of your body to your belly. During a six-year study at Wake Forest University, monkeys that were fed an 8 per cent trans-fat diet had 33 per cent more belly fat than monkeys that were fed an 8 per cent monounsaturated fat diet.
There are currently no legal requirements for food manufacturers to label trans fats, according to the British Dietetic Association, so you need to check ingredients lists for hydrogenated fats and hydrogenated vegetable oils. The biggest culprits? Your cheat day favourites: cakes, biscuits, ice cream, popcorn, pies, fried food, fast food and takeaways.
Try Curbing Carbs Instead Of Fats
When Johns Hopkins researchers compared the effects on the heart of losingweight through a low-carbohydrate diet versus a low-fat diet for sixmonthseach containing the same amount of caloriesthose on a low-carb dietlost an average of 10 pounds more than those on a low-fat diet28.9 poundsversus 18.7 pounds. An extra benefit of the low-carb diet is that itproduced a higher quality of weight loss, Stewart says. With weight loss,fat is reduced, but there is also often a loss of lean tissue ,which is not desirable. On both diets, there was a loss of about 2 to 3pounds of good lean tissue along with the fat, which means that the fatloss percentage was much higher on the low-carb diet.
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Does Exercise Help You Lose Weight The Surprising Truth
If youre trying to lose weight, you may be wondering how much you should be exercising and what types of exercise you should be doing.
At its simplest, losing weight means burning more calories than you consume. So, it makes sense to include exercise in your routine, since it helps you burn more calories.
However, vigorous exercise can also help you work up an appetite. This may cause confusion about the role of exercise in weight loss and whether it can help.
So, what exactly is the purpose of exercise if youre trying to lose weight? This article takes a look at the evidence to help you find the answer and figure out whats best for you.
One of the most popular types of exercise for weight loss is aerobic exercise, also known as cardio. Examples include:
- walking
- cycling
- swimming
Aerobic exercise doesnt have a major effect on your muscle mass, at least not compared to lifting weights. However, it is very effective at burning calories.
A 10-month study examined how cardio without dieting affected 141 people with obesity or overweight. Participants were split into three groups and not told to reduce calorie intake .
Those who burned 400 calories per cardio session lost 4.3% of their body weight, while those who burned 600 calories per session lost a little more, at 5.7%. The control group, which didnt exercise, actually gained 0.5% of their body weight.
The Best Diet To Lose Belly Fat
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.
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Top Your Salad With Vinaigrette Dressing
Studies show that acidic foods such as vinegar and lemon juice work like lighter fluid in your bodys fat incinerator, increasing carb combustion 20%-40%. Researchers believe the acids blunt insulin spikes and slow the rate at which food empties from your stomach. Fermented foods like pickles and yogurt are also good sour options.
Prioritize Getting Good Sleep
Just as a bad nights sleep can ruin your whole day, a track record of bad sleep can mess with a lot of other aspects of your lifeand one of those might just be belly fat.
A study in Sleep found routinely logging less than five hours of sleep a night to be associated with a significant increase in both visceral and subcutaneous fat accumulation among adults younger than 40Hairston KG, Bryer-Ash M, Norris JM, Haffner S, Bowden DW, Wagenknecht LE. Sleep duration and five-year abdominal fat accumulation in a minority cohort: the IRAS family study. Sleep. 2010 33:289-295. .
Poor sleep has been linked to the accumulation of body fat, as well as insulin resistance, says Dr. Kroll. Better sleep hygiene and stress reduction can help with fat loss.
Have trouble getting consistent sleep? Check out these expert sleep tips from the Forbes Health Advisory Board.
Consult A Sleep Medicine Specilaist
Visit with a sleep medicine specialist to evaluate your sleep issues, discuss various sleep options and more, including an at-home sleep study.
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Eat Every Three To Four Hours
Starving yourself and skipping meals is no way to lose weight safely. Instead, keep your metabolism fire up by eating every three to four hours and adding in plenty of complex carbs and protein, with fibre
Swap refined carbs such as white pasta, bread and rice for the wholemeal version and ditch processed foods. One of the good things that’s come out of lockdown is that people have had time to prepare food from scratch rather than relying on a quick ready meal. Keep in that habit a simple rule to follow is that if something needs an ingredients label, make it yourself instead.
Do Exercises Standing Instead Of Sitting
If youre able, performing exercises while standing up may benefit your health more than performing the same exercises while sitting or using weight machines.
A 2013 study comparing the effects of standing and sitting exercises showed that some standing exercises increased muscle activation by 725%, compared to sitting .
Another study suggested that standing may improve your breathing and slightly increase your heart rate compared to sitting .
Although this might seem like a minor alteration, for individuals who are able to, standing can be an easy way to strengthen the midsection and maximize your results.
Summary
If youre physically able to, doing exercises while standing instead of sitting may burn more calories, increase muscle activation, improve your breathing, and increase your heart rate.
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Accept That Your Behaviors Will Adjust
A big part of weight loss is simply being aware of the decisions youre making. For example, when out at happy hour with friends, you may lose track of how much you’re eating or drinking. But if you take a split second to step back and become aware of that fact, youre able to course correct. The awareness and then planning for what else I can be doing, that might give me the same benefit of eating comfort foods, says Gagliardi.
2. Track your calories.
The most basic approach to weight loss is burning more calories than you consume. For instance, since 3,500 calories equals one pound of fat, a weight loss appor even just a pen and papercan help you decide how many calories you need to cut from your diet or burn at the gym in order to meet your goals. If you were to burn 500 more calories per day seven days a week, that would lead to 3,500 calories in a week and one pound of weight loss, says Gagliardi.
An easy way to help you figure out what you need to hit your goal is to look at the National Institutes of Healths Body Weight Planner. This online tool asks you to you enter in information about your current weight and activity level, along with what your weight loss goals are and how much time you want to spend reaching them. From there, it will give you an estimated amount of calories you should strive to eat each day. While it wont tell you exactly how to lose that weight off your belly, it can still help guide you overall.
Mix Up Your Movements
When you lift, perform supersets in which you alternate between sets of lower-body exercises and upper-body exercises. That way your lower body rests while your upper body is working. This allows you to work your muscles maximally with very little downtime between sets for a faster, more effective workout, says Craig Ballantyne, C.S.C.S.
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What To Do To Lose Fat On The Upper Belly
Following a proper diet is going to be the first thing youre going to have to do. Lowering your calorie intake, eating nutrient-rich foods, and eliminating junk food are going to be key to reducing your weight. Sugar should be kicked out of your body otherwise the fat burning is going to stop, and the fat deposits are just going to keep piling onto your upper abdomen.
Adding in a cardio-based workout routine will also help you lose weight. Cardio is going to be key since its the best type of workout for overall weight loss. Even if youre doing strength training, cardio is still a good idea on top to burn off more fat and get rid of stubborn belly fat such as upper stomach fat.
Now that you have the weight loss under control, its time to focus on fat loss. Getting rid of the stubborn fat on your upper stomach can only be achieved with fat loss. Unfortunately, most people miss this step and just focus on losing weight but the stubborn fat will always cling on!
To reduce body fat, make sure youre lifting weights in a consistent resistance training workout routine. The only way you can build muscle is by lifting weights. So make sure you not only try to add muscle to your upper body but rather your entire body. If you dont have access to a gym, then using your bodys weight can even give you some impressive results to reduce upper belly fat.
Best Exercise to Get Rid of Upper Belly Fat
How To Get Rid Of Belly Fat With Exercise
Make physical activity a part of your daily routine with a goal of exercising for at least 20-30 minutes a day. Don’t push yourself too hard. Begin slowly as you train your muscles to become stronger, and extend the duration of your workouts gradually to burn more calories. Exercises to try include:
- Circuit training: Burpees, sprints, press-ups, squats, lunges, jumping jacks, push- or pull-ups, etc. are great for burning calories
- Cardio:Walking, running, swimming, etc. and high-intensity workouts that combine cardio and weight training may take 6-8 weeks to see results.
- Strength training: Adding muscle to your frame is a great way to boost your metabolism. When you have more muscle, you burn more calories. Include 2-3 days of strength training in your exercise regime.
- Tabata: This high-intensity interval training exercise involves 20 seconds of intense workout followed by 10 seconds of rest, and is one of the best forms of exercise to target fat around your abdomen.
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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.
Bonus: Weighted Ab Training
Here’s the thing. You cant directly target fat loss from your belly. But you can grow your abs just like any other muscle by training them with weights. As they grow, they will pop more through your skin. And as a result, make them more visible even if you havent lost all the belly fat.
To do this, train your abs with weighted movements regularly 2-3 times a week. Great exercise options include weighted:
- Cable crunches
- Reverse crunches
- Sit ups
I do have an article covering weighted ab training as well – so, if you’re truly serious about belly fat loss, do check it out.
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Tracking & Increasing Your Daily Step Count
The easiest way to track your general activity is through your step count. Most phones and smartwatches nowadays can track this with high accuracy.
As for how many steps to aim for, the greatest benefits seem to occur in the neighbourhood of 7,000-9,000 steps per day. And is a good minimum goal to aim for. If youre well below this number, gradually increase your current step count by about 10% at a time until youre within that range. This can be as easy as adding in a 10-minute walk in the morning and evening or after each meal.
Once youve nailed this down, then you can finally move onto week 4, to further speed up the process.
Reduce Refined Carbohydrate Intake
Just as you should drink whole milk because it is less processed, you should also reduce refined carbohydrate intake for the same reason. Refined carbs, during processing, are stripped of their bran and germ. The end result is food that is artificially low in fiber and nutrients and high on the glycemic index. When you eat foods with a high glycemic index, your blood sugar levels fluctuate.
Blood sugar levels spiking and crashing increases hunger and calorie consumption. This results in excess belly fat. Contrastingly, when you incorporate more whole grains into your diet, you will lose inches off your belly, lower your BMI and burn overall body fat. Replace processed cereals, white bread, and pasta with whole wheat pasta, whole grain bread, oats, barley, and quinoa.
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