How To Remove Lower Stomach Fat

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 lose stomach 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.

Create A Calorie Deficit

Its fairly straightforward: If you want to lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you take in. This is what is referred to as a calorie deficit.

You can reduce calories by lowering your calorie intake, increasing physical activity, or a combination of both.

For most people, a calorie deficit of 500 calories per day is sufficient for weight loss and unlikely to significantly affect your hunger or energy.

However, it should be noted that women generally should not consume fewer than 1,200 calories per day, and men no fewer than 1,500 calories.

Journaling about your food intake will help you get a sense of what youre eating and the calories in each meal. If a journal isnt your thing, try an app like MyFitnessPal.

A good tip to use when creating a calorie deficit with diet is to fill half of your plate with veggiesand the remaining parts with lean protein and some healthy carbs This will help you with portion control.

For increasing physical activity, youll be more motivated if you pick something you like to do. I always suggest walking, especially for beginners, because most people are willing to try power walking.

Power walking doesnt require a trip to the gym or a lot of extra time it can burn up to 200 or more calories per 30-minute walk. The key to walking for weight loss is to walk fast. Walk like you are in an airport and late for a flight.

Why Cant You Get Rid Of The Upper Belly Fat

Stubborn fat is usually the last to go. We all have those stubborn fat places on our bodies that seem to hold on no matter what we do. Hip dips, arm fat, and love handles can be the worst, but so is the upper abdominal fat.

Weight loss will be the first step toward getting rid of the upper stomach fat, but usually, this isnt enough. Crazy enough, just losing weight can make your upper abdominal fat look even worse. This is because you might also be losing muscle, which youre going to need if you want to tone your body.

Without muscle, the fat on your body will continue to be high despite losing weight. Think of it like water in a plastic bag. You can take water out, but the bag will still be saggy. The trick is to lose weight and lower your body fat, which will then finally reduce upper belly fat.

The first thing you need to do is make sure youre doing weight training to build up your muscle to lower the overall fat on your body. This will help to lose upper belly region fat as it shapes and tones the area. This should also reduce any extra fat thats trapped underneath.

Visceral fat is the deep fat under your abdominal muscles that makes your stomach pop out. Its the fact that you cant see unless youre standing above your hips. Unfortunately, since this is deep in the abdominal region, weight loss wont get rid of visceral fat so quickly since it requires dieting and a more intense workout routine.

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How To Create A Caloric Deficit

A caloric deficit doesnt have to be dramatic to have an effect on your weight. It takes 3,500 calories to equal a pound. If you reduce your caloric intake by 300 to 500 calories per day, youll start to lose a pound or 2 every week.

The easiest way to create a caloric deficit is to cut back on foods that are high in calories but low in nutritional value.

Cutting out sugary drinks, processed and bleached grains, and foods with a lot of artificial preservatives can be a simple place to start.

Another way to create a caloric deficit is to beef up your exercise routine. Burning 300 to 500 calories at the gym, in addition to cutting 300 to 500 calories per day from your diet, will double your weight loss results.

These exercises target the muscles in your lower back muscles, including your obliques and extensors. The exercises can be done at home or at the gym, with minimal exercise equipment necessary.

Avoid Being Constantly Seated

Sitting is the new smoking. Be at work, home, or while commuting, we sit more than we stand or walk. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity every week to stay active .

Main Idea: A good diet, exercise, de-stressing, and leading a better lifestyle can help you get rid of the belly pooch.

What can you do to whittle away the tummy flab? First, follow this diet chart.

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How To Get Rid Of Lower Belly Fat

Eating healthy and adopting a good fitness schedule helps you get rid of lower stomach fat and keep it that way. You can also wear a slimming belt to speed up the process of fat burn. We have rounded up the best tricks to lose belly fat for you. Whether you are a woman searching for how to get rid of lower belly fat female or a man looking for how to lose lower belly fat male, we have got you covered with the best ways for shifting belly fat. Stick with us till the end if you want to know how to get rid of a lower belly fat.

Scientific Reasons For Belly Fat

We all know that eating too much and moving too little is the foundation upon which flab is built. But theres more to the belly fat equation than calories in and calories out. Certain stressors, for example, will see you scaling your belt notches with very little effort. Heres what you should look out for.

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Getting Rid Of Lower Stomach Fat

First, throw out the idea that you can spot treat areas of fat on your body. You can do thousands of reps of toning exercises to tighten your waistline and not see fat loss.

Exercises like cardio, yoga, and crunches may tone your muscles and strengthen your lower abs, but they wont erase fat deposits.

The only way to lose fat on your lower stomach is to lose fat overall. A calorie deficit helps with this.

What Foods Help Burn Belly Fat

Can we be honest? No foods can help to burn belly fat. That’s just not how it works.

There are, however, nutrient-dense foods that you can incorporate into your diet to help you load up on goodness whilst you’re aiming for a calorie deficit. They include, but aren’t limited to:

It’s also important to remember that food is to be enjoyed, so the key to a sustainable diet is creating one that’s full of produce you look forward to eating and with meals that leave you feeling satisfied and not craving more due to restriction. While the number of calories in food affects satiety , its much more complex than that, explains Dr Barbara Rolls, professor of nutritional sciences at Penn State University. Satiety and how long that feeling is sustained depends on numerous factors, including portion size, how long it takes to eat a food, its texture and how filling you expect it to be.’

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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.”

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.

‘The key to continually improving and losing belly fat is to scale up your workouts every week. Incrementally increase the intensity and load of your workouts, and you will soon see improvements to your fitness,’ says Hughes.

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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 I’d 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. It’s important to mix-up your whole-body workouts so you don’t get bored.”

Avoid Sugary Refined Foods And Drinks

A high consumption of beverages like carbonated soft drinks, sports drinks, specialty coffee drinks, and sodas is associated with weight gain because of the excessive added sugar content.

Alcohol is considered a sugary drink too. Heavy drinking, or drinking more than seven times per week, increases the risk of weight gain and obesity. Beer, which is high in calories and carbs, is related to overall weight gain. You may have heard the term “beer belly,” though the idea that beer only puts fat around your waist is largely a myth. However, overall weight gain can result in more belly fat.

Try switching to flavored seltzers or add fruit and herbs to your water. When you’re exercising, replenish your minerals with electrolyte drink packets instead of sugary sports drinks.

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Low Carb / Carb Cycling

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.

Do What You Can To Reduce Stress Levels

“If you are working out consistently, eating healthy and still not losing the belly fat, I suggest having your hormones checked,” Tucker suggests. “Too much cortisol can be a result of adrenal fatigue and can cause weight gain and bloat around the lower belly.”

If the belly fat is the result of a hormone imbalance, you’ll also want to prioritize adding stress reduction activities into your day. “Try incorporating a daily meditation practice or yin yoga and limiting time on devices to reduce stress and calm your nervous system”.

• How can I flatten my lower stomach in a week?

  For those looking to decrease their body fat percentage, the American Council of Exercise recommends losing no more than 1 percent of your body fat per month.

  If you have minimal body fat, trainer Anna Victoria told us that you can expect to see some improvements if you reduce bloating. You can do this by eating whole, natural foods. In this situation, you’ll likely see an increase in definitionbut not exactly shredded abs.

• What is the cause of lower stomach fat?

  As stated above, hormones, fitness level, diet, and stress all play a part in lower belly fat. Additionally, genetics and heredity are a factorsome people simply store more fat in their stomachs than others, regardless of diet and lifestyle.

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How Fast Can You Realistically Lose Belly Fat

Reducing overall body fat will cut down on your belly fat. However, this isn’t a process that happens overnight or even within days of starting your weight loss journey.

“A healthy amount of weight loss is one to two pounds per week,” says Lapaix.

“It is more important to select a sustainable diet and learn what foods work for you long-term versus a ‘quick fix.’ This is what leads to results and maintaining weight loss results,” says Lapaix.

What the research says: A 2019 study showed that losing 6% to 7% of your total body weight can reduce both subcutaneous and visceral fat. This means that if you weigh 180 lbs, it can take you about six to 12 weeks to lose this percentage of your total body weight and reduce belly fat in the process.

However, “there are many factors to consider with body composition, including age, gender, current weight, body fat, and muscle mass, to name a few,” says Lapaix. “These will affect the rate at which someone loses weight, which nutritional plan to follow, and an appropriate activity level for them.”

Combining exercise and a healthy diet is more effective than either of those factors alone.

Tactic #: Follow A Suitable Diet Approach

There is a pattern I often find with people that are having issues with stubborn fat.

That is, theyve been dieting for awhile, arent eating very many calories, potentially exercising a lot, but their weight loss has come to a standstill.

They are pretty lean, but still have some areas of stubborn fat that they cant seem to get rid of its almost as if their body just doesnt want to drop fat from any of these final areas.

Well, in a sense, this is exactly what has happened: the long period of dieting has resulted in metabolic slowdown, as their body attempts to protect itself from losing more weight .

Unfortunately, people in this situation cant feasibly decrease calories further, since they are already so low, leaving them in an annoying bind.

The solution here is to do something called reverse dieting, as I discuss in more detail in this article.

If you do this properly, youll be able to speed up your metabolism, which will make it easier to cut calories and create an appropriate energy deficit in the future, allowing you to properly lose fat from those stubborn areas.

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Increase Protein And Fiber Intake

In order to lose weight, including from your lower belly, you should consume an adequate amount of fiber and protein.

Fiber has a wide range of benefits, including aiding weight loss. Some types of fiber slow the absorption of nutrients, allowing you to feel full longer, therefore consuming fewer calories throughout the day and helping achieve a deficit.

Men need between 30 and 38 grams of fiber per day, and women need between 21 and 25 grams per day.

Some good sources of fiber include avocados, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and beans.

Protein is made up of amino acids and helps feed and repair our muscles, among other parts of our body. However, its where you are getting your protein that matters most.

Choose good sources of animal protein, like fish, poultry, eggs, and low-fat dairy. Vegetables also provide ample amounts of protein look for dark, leafy greens like kale, spinach, broccoli and asparagus.

And dont forget quinoa, a grain that mimics the same amino acid profile as an animal protein. A good choice for vegetarians and vegans.