Youre Not Taking Time To Recover
When you do achieve that afterburn and you’re really feeling your workout the next day, those are the days to focus on different muscle groups. Or, if you prefer to work out your whole body, establish a workout routine where you work your entire body one day and then take the next day to do light cardio, stretching, or complete rest.
Recovery and rest are often more important than the workout itself. It’s during those periods that your body does most of the actual fat burning.
Tip: Give yourself time to fully recover so you’re ready to work hard the following day. Most importantly, listen to your body. Push yourself, but also give it some love, too.
You’re Not Lifting Weights
While bodyweight resistance training is highly effective, pumping a little iron pays dividends when it comes to blasting belly fat.
A few weight training sessions a week will set you on a path for a speedier metabolism, as according to the NHS muscle burns more calories than fat , thus the more muscle you have, the more fat you torch, and the benefits continue after youve left the gym too, as resting metabolic rate improves, meaning that you burn more calories throughout the day.
Get At Least 7 Hours Of Sleep Each Night
Approximately 35% of Americans who sleep less than seven hours a night, according to the CDC. If you’re one of them, here’s one simple way to reduce your waistline: catch more Zs. According to a 2018 study published in BMJ Open Sport and Exercise Medicine, people who regularly slept less than 7 hours per night were more likely to have higher average body mass indexes and develop obesity than those who slept more. The CDC recommends that adults get 7 or more hours of sleep per night for the best health and wellbeing
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Youre Eating Too Many Healthy Sugars
When following a low carb or ketogenic diet, eating sugars marketed as healthier alternatives like coconut sugar or raw cane sugar isnt necessarily good for your health.
All sugar is high in carbs and can prevent your body from adapting to the low carb diet.
This also applies to:
Low calorie sweeteners are fine for most people, but you may want to consider limiting them if you have trouble losing weight. Some products contain digestible carbs as fillers.
SUMMARY
Despite being natural, sweeteners like honey and raw cane sugar are just as high in carbs as regular sugar.
Genetics Arent Working In Your Favor
It’s a tough reality: It may not be possible to choose the body type or shape you want and effortlessly land there with the right diet. When it comes to weight, genetics matter a lot, although people dont like to hear that, says Jason R. Karp, PhD, the author of Lose It Forever. He calls out research on Swedish twins who were raised together or separately. The results of this and other twin studies have shown that genes account for about 70 percent of the variation in peoples body weight. Thats a pretty large influence, says Dr. Karp.
In addition, there’s the theory of the set-point weight range, which is the range that your body is essentially happy at. Its where you might land if youre living a healthy and happy life . If you try to reduce your weight too far below your set point, your brain not your willpower or your conscious decisions responds to weight loss with powerful tools to push your weight back up to what it considers normal, says Karp. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center describes this idea of a set point and notes that slow, gradual weight loss is the key to altering your set point.
What to Do If you dont want to gain weight back after losing it, youre going to have to continue to eat fewer calories, says Karp, and as Beth Israel notes, do it slowly. This means dropping no more than 10 percent of your body weight each six months for a 160-pound woman, that would be 16 pounds in six months.
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Why Would I Be Losing Weight Even If Im Eating A Lot
Unintentional weight loss can be related to a whole host of factors, not just what youre eating every day.
There are a lot of different reasons for unintentional weight loss, especially if you’re eating the same amount of food or exercising the same amount, explains Linda Zhang, MD, a bariatric surgeon and associate professor of surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. Those common issues include hormonal ones such as hyperthyroidism, autoimmune diseases, malabsorption intestinal issues, or even infectious diseases, explains Zhang.
Importance Of Cardio For Stomach Weight Loss
Sit-ups and other abdominal exercises help tone the muscles in your stomach, but they don’t get rid of the fat that’s covering them up. For this, you’ll need to lose weight. Getting 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity cardio per week may help with weight loss. Thankfully, exercise-induced weight loss actually appears to preferentially target abdominal fat, according to a study published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise in 2003.
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Why Is My Stomach So Big And Bloated
The most common cause of stomach pain and bloating is excess intestinal gas. If you get a bloated stomach after eating, it may be a digestive issue. It might be as simple as eating too much too fast, or you could have a food intolerance or other condition that causes gas and digestive contents to build up…. see details
Change Your Lifestyle And Combine Different Methods
Just doing one of the items on this list wont have a big effect on its own.
If you want good results, you need to combine different methods that have been shown to be effective.
Interestingly, many of these methods are things generally associated with healthy eating and an overall healthy lifestyle.
Therefore, changing your lifestyle for the long term is the key to losing your belly fat and keeping it off.
When you have healthy habits and eat real food, fat loss tends to follow as a natural side effect.
SUMMARY
Losing weight and keeping it off is difficult unless you permanently change your dietary habits and lifestyle.
There are no magic solutions to losing belly fat.
Weight loss always requires some effort, commitment, and perseverance on your behalf.
Successfully adopting some or all of the strategies and lifestyle goals discussed in this article will definitely help you lose the extra pounds around your waist.
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You’re Eating The Wrong Foods
While calories in vs. calories out is the number one factor in determining weight reduction, the quality of your food choices is important when it comes to body composition. If your macros are out of whack, you may be hindering your fat-burning capabilities. In addition, eating nutritionally poor foods could slow your progress further by messing with your energy, mood, and appetite.
The Fix: Foods That Burn Belly Fat
Okay, technically there aren’t any foods that specialize in burning fat more than others. But some types of food can potentially give you an edge when it comes to improving lean mass and burning fat more efficiently.
Studies are continuing to show that what you eat plays a role in losing fat. The best fat-burning diets should include lots of vegetables. Most non-starchy veggies – anything except peas, corn, and potatoes – provide few calories and loads of good nutrition you need. Micronutrients, or vitamins and minerals, in vegetables are an important factor in weight management because they help control appetite and support a healthy metabolism.
To clean up your diet, try the following:
Macros for Fat Loss
Getting your macro balance on point will ensure you are utilizing the food you eat as efficiently as possible so that more fatty tissue is broken down for energy.
While your overall macro diet can play a key role in fat loss, protein is the most important. Figure out how many grams of protein you need each day and make it a priority to get this amount.
Youre Eating Too Much Dairy
Dairy is a low carb food that can cause problems for some people.
Dairy products are often high in protein. Protein, like carbs, can raise insulin levels, which encourages your body to store energy.
The amino acid composition of dairy protein makes it very good at spiking insulin. In fact, dairy proteins can spike insulin as much as white bread (
Its important to do the right kind of exercise.
A mixture of cardio and muscle building can be an effective combination:
- Weightlifting. Lifting weights can greatly improve hormone levels and increase muscle mass, which may help you lose fat and keep it off over the long term if you maintain your exercise regime.
- Interval training. High intensity intervals is an excellent form of cardio that boosts your metabolism and raises your levels of human growth hormone .
- Low intensity. Being consistently active and doing some low intensity exercise each day, including walking, can make a big difference.
SUMMARY
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Get Your Hormone Levels Checked
If your testosterone levels are highâsomething that can occur with polycystic ovary syndrome âyou might have difficulty losing weight. “If you’re an apple shape and overweight, too, it’s a good idea to see your doctor,” said Dr. Kashyap, since there may also be a chance that you are prediabetic or diabetic.
Dr. Cheskin also said men tend to carry more fat in their bellies than women, who typically find more weight around their lower half.
You Have Painful Periods
Non-cancerous growths called fibroids could be behind your abdominal distention, a heavy feeling in your belly, and heavy periods. Women with fibroids, or benign muscle tumors, in their uterus can experience weight gain, Dr. van Dis says. According to estimates, between 40 and 80 percent of women have fibroids. Luckily, they dont usually cause harm, and they often go away after menopause, when the female hormones that feed them stop being produced. But if they are causing unwanted symptoms like weight gain, you might want to have them treated with medication or surgery. Here are more silent signs you have uterine fibroids.
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Choose Healthy Eating Over A Diet
Reducing belly fat is less about a short-term diet and more about a new approach to eating. “Reducing belly fat takes a combination approach of a low-calorie diet that is high in fiber and low in carbohydrates and sugar along with cardiovascular and weight training,” said Dr. Kashyap. “If you are willing to do the work, you can move past genetics and lose it.”
Better Fats In Your Diet
In addition to reducing calories, you may want to incorporate monounsaturated fats into your diet. The goal is not to consume more monounsaturated fat, but rather to replace the unhealthy saturated and trans fats you currently eat. Your body needs some fat so it can absorb fat-soluble vitamins, such as vitamin A, D, E, and K, and fatty acids, essential for brain functions and controlling inflammation. Try adding avocado to your sandwich in place of mayonnaise. Use olive or canola oil instead of butter, margarine or shortening when cooking or baking. Nuts and seeds are also high in monounsaturated fats. A small amount of fat in your diet makes you feel full, or satisfied, and helps prevent overeating.
The reason aerobic exercise is so effective is because it elevates your heart rate. Doing hours of sit-ups wont help you reduce fat rather, it will help you tone your muscles. You need to incorporate aerobic activities into your exercise routine to burn calories and see results. Change up your routine by trying biking, running, swimming or another sport. Aim to complete at least 30 minutes of exercise a minimum of five days a week. To maintain your current weight, you should get at least 150 minutes of aerobic exercise a week. To lose weight, you should participate in additional aerobic activities 300 minutes or more per week.
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Don’t Stress Over Genetics
If you tend to pack the pounds around your middle rather than your hips and thighs, then you’re known as apple-shaped. This genetic predisposition means ridding yourself of belly fat will be harder, said Dr. Kashyap, but not impossible.
Again, you can’t lose fat only on a certain part of your body. So if your genetics have you carrying it around your middle, focus on losing weight all over, said Dr. Cheskin.
Says About Your Own Health
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.
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Reasons You Arent Losing Weight
Weight loss isnt always a simple equation other factors, both internal and external may be standing in the way of your goal. Here are some common stumbling blocks and how to overcome them.
Weight loss is hard. Many people will tell you, Its calories in versus calories out that counts as if your body were a simple math equation. Honestly, if it were that easy, everyone would have aced this test.
There are so many more factors at play, and these include genetics, environment, sleep habits, and muscle mass, among others. Weight management is incredibly complicated, says Amy Gorin, RDN, who specializes in plant-based eating in Stamford, Connecticut.
While clearly difficult, weight loss is not impossible. Its important to focus on the small successes . It can also help to work backward and pinpoint those factors that are standing in your way or causing a plateau.
Become aware of these eight common roadblocks and you may once again be on your way to winning at losing.
Relax There Is An Answer To This
Do you aspire to a certain body shape?
I guess we all do. The bad news is that genetics dictate certain things. The good news is that we do have the power to change some things.
We cant change our bone structure, and the way our body burns fat in specific areas is also something that is unique to us.
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You’re Doing The Wrong Exercises
Those sit-ups arenât enough. You also need weight training to build muscle. More muscle means more calorie burning.
That said, if you can only do one exercise, choose aerobic exercise . It works best for burning fat. Make it a habit, and slowly ratchet up the intensity to get the results youâre after.
Your Workouts Aren’t Hard Enough
Exercise is not required for fat loss, but it can certainly help! The good news is that any exercise can help get rid of belly fat since fat loss boils down to eating fewer calories than you burn. However, certain styles of exercise like strength training and HIIT may offer additional advantages.
The Fix: Exercises That Get Rid of Belly Fat
A long jog or spin on the elliptical may no longer cut it. While you may be burning calories with a moderate workout regime, the key to increased fat burning is to increase calorie burn even after your done in the gym – by building lean mass or increasing your VO2 max. Muscle is more metabolic, meaning it helps you burn more calories at rest, and the more muscle you have, the better you store carbs and utilize them for energy.
VO2 max is the measurement of how efficiently your body can access fat stores for energy and oxygen during intense workouts. And increasing your VO2 max, will increase the amount of fat you are able to burn.
High-Intensity Interval Training – HIIT
HIIT workouts may promote fat loss and improve stamina faster than endurance training alone . HIIT not only helps you maximize fat burning throughout the day but can also whip you into shape super fast – since most workouts are short and burn a ton of calories.
Psst… the Trifecta app has a pretty sick workout timer too! And daily workouts to try.
Strength Training
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You Overestimate Your Calorie Burn
When youre trying to lose weight, what and how much you eat is more important than your exercise habits, says Karp. And yet, exercise is the secret to keeping weight off, he says. Thats because exercise stimulates the synthesis of mitochondria within muscles, research shows.
Ultimately, this makes you a better fat- and carbohydrate-burning machine, he says. Whats more, says Karp, the people who are successful in weight loss are exercisers. Most National Weight Control Registry members 89.6 percent of women and 85.3 percent of men exercise as part of their weight loss and weight-maintenance strategy, he says.
What to Do Exercise shouldnt be used as a form of punishment for eating something, says Gorin. Exercise is a celebration of the movement that your body can achieve, and its a beautiful thing, she says. Better to figure out enjoyable ways to incorporate physical activity into your life, activities that make you feel capable or that build in social interaction all these factors can help you stick to a routine, according to a study published in August 2016 in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.