Belly fat seems to be the most popular fat around. Sixteen or sixty, they all want to know how to get rid of their belly fat. They are disappointed when I tell them that there is no special diet to get rid of belly fat.
And it’s unanimously accepted that ab crunches every day are all they need in terms of exercise to remove it. Here I listed you the 3 best fat burning tips to get rid of your belly fat.
Here’s looking at belly fat a little differently. To begin with, belly fat is nothing but your body fat. Everyone has the tendency to store it in different places. Some thin people have only belly fat.
That’s their body fat concentrated in one spot. Some others have it distributed all over. Still, others have it concentrated in their arms, chest and neck while others have it in their hips and legs. So you have to aim at losing body fat. That will take care of your belly fat.
The most common reason for gaining weight is burning less amount of calories than you consume. In order to burn more calories, you should do some painful workouts, diets, exercises and other methods.
First of all, we have to distinguish between the two kinds of belly fat:
- Subcutaneous Fat – which is present just below your skin and can be pinched
- Visceral Fat – which lies deep down in your abdominal cavity around your internal organs
Dangers of Belly Fat
- Releases stress hormone – cortisol.
- Affects working of heart, liver, and pancreas.
- Increased risk of type 2 diabetes, heart diseases, fatty liver, and cancer.
- Leads to poor sleep and sleep apnea.
- Gives rise to back pain.
To find out how to remove belly fat, we have to consider three main factors:
- Diet
- Hormones
- Exercise
You can easily follow these fat burning tips to lose your belly fat.
Diet
Diet contributes a huge chunk, almost 80% to belly fat loss. There’s an excess of junk food, ice creams, high sugar food, and drinks, processed and instant food all around to lure us. These are loaded with refined and artificial ingredients, all manmade – Trans fat, high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, excess salt, sugar, fat, and preservatives.
These have to be avoided. They cause water retention, bloated belly, food cravings, addiction, and overeating. Then what does one eat? Eat wholesome food, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables as close to their natural form as possible.
1. Fat storage vs. fat burning
Eating is a hormonal event. With every bite, you control the release of hormones that store fat and burn fat. A high carb meal causes an insulin spike. Insulin is the hormone that loves to make fat. The insulin spike forces the body to burn glucose instead of your stored fat for energy. Excess glucose is turned into fat.
Protein is the best long-term strategy to reduce belly fat. It gives you satiety, Increases muscle mass and metabolism (higher metabolism leads to fat burning) and stimulates the release of glucagon. Glucagon is the hormone, the magic bullet for burning fat. So make sure to include proteins in your diet.
2. Types of dietary fat
Fats are of different types. Aim for healthy fats like omega-3 found in fish, flaxseeds and walnuts and MUFA found in avocado, peanuts etc. While a little-saturated fat is required in the diet, in excess it is easily stored in your fat tissues. While saturated fats found in butter, cheese, and other foods are fattening, it’s less harmful in comparison to manmade Trans Fat.
3. Trans Fats
- This is partially hydrogenated vegetable oil.
- Used to enhance flavor, texture and shelf life of processed foods.
- Leads to insulin resistance and obesity.
- Used in all bakery products, fast food, fried food, non-dairy coffee creamer.
- Another dangerous manmade ingredient found abundantly in food today is high fructose corn syrup.
4. High Fructose Corn Syrup
- It’s a manmade sweetener cheaper and sweeter than sugar.
- It shuts off the body’s natural appetite control switches leading to overeating.
- The body does not use fructose as an immediate source of energy, converts it to fat.
- Used in soft drinks, syrups, sweets, and chocolates.
Important Tips
- Track Your Food.
- Figure out exactly what and how much you are eating.
- Read food labels.
5. Water
An important nutrient which many of us ignore is water. Make it a point to stay hydrated at all times and aim for the 8 glasses of water per day at least. Some may require more.
Listen to your body. Lack of water leads to water retention and constipation which causes belly bloating and increased weight. Besides, it slows down your metabolism and inhibits weight loss.
6. Intestinal bacteria
Also, take care of the health of your intestinal bacteria. Include enough prebiotic and probiotic foods like bananas, whole grains, and low-fat curd to let the good bacteria flourish. Certain types of bacteria increase calories absorbed from food.
7. Toxins
Include raw fruits and vegetables, vegetable juices to get rid of toxins in your body. Toxins settle in your body fat. An increase of toxins means an increase in body fat to accommodate them.
Hormones
Besides Insulin and Glucagon, an excess of the stress hormone, cortisol, contributes to increasing in belly fat. It leads to food cravings and you end up eating whatever comes to your hand. You also eat for the feel-good factor.
Sleep
It’s regarded as the secret weapon in your belly fat loss plan. Short or poor-quality sleep leads to belly fat gain. Sleep maintains a healthy balance between the hormones Ghrelin and Leptin. Ghrelin is the hunger hormone while leptin is the satiety hormone. Insufficient sleep produces more Ghrelin and less Leptin leading to uncontrolled eating.
Exercise
This is a very important part of your plan. The human body was designed for movement. A sedentary lifestyle coupled with wrong eating and sleeping contributes to belly fat gain. So make sure you incorporate at least 30 minutes of intense cardio activity into your life. It could be brisk walking, swimming, Zumba, kickboxing or any concentrated activity. That’s the best bet for getting rid of abdominal fat.
But also remember that it is important to preserve and improve your muscle mass. So some form of resistance or strength training for 3 days has to be included in your exercise regimen. This will increase your resting metabolism and turn your body into a fat burner.
Crunches
And where does that leave the good old crunches? Well, that’s required to strengthen your abdominal muscles not lose abdominal fat. With age, these muscles tend to weaken. So it’s important to strengthen them along with core strengthening.
Try to do simple exercises at least thrice a week to burn your fat and not muscles.
If your face looks puffy, then try these fat face reduction tips to get rid of face fat. And for neck fat, you try these simple neck fat elimination methods.
Try the above fat burning tips to get rid of your belly fat. If you have any doubts, ask me via comments.
