Ways To Lose Belly Fat And Live A Healthier Life
Maintaining a trim midsection does more than make you look greatit canhelp you live longer. Larger waistlines are linked to a higher risk ofheart disease, diabetes and even cancer. Losing weight, especially bellyfat, also improvesblood vesselfunctioning and also improves sleep quality.
Its impossible to target belly fat specifically when you diet. But losing weight overall will help shrink your waistline more importantly, it will help reduce the dangerous layer of visceral fat, a type of fat within the abdominal cavity that you cant see but that heightens health risks, says Kerry Stewart, Ed.D. , director of Clinical and Research Physiology at Johns Hopkins.
Heres how to whittle down where it matters most.
Eat More Vegetables And Fruits
Vegetables and fruits have several properties that make them effective for weight loss.
They contain few calories but a lot of fiber. Their high water content gives them low energy density, making them very filling.
Studies show that people who eat vegetables and fruits tend to weigh less (
These foods are also very nutritious, so eating them is important for your health.
Lifestyle Changes For Weight Loss
Beyond diet and exercise, there are other lifestyle changes you can make to aid your weight loss.
Healthy habits tend to have a domino effect. If you can add one or two healthy changes to your routine, it will become easier to add more as time goes on.
Here are some to consider:
- Drink plenty of water.
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Is The Military Diet Safe And Sustainable
The military diet is likely safe for the average person because its too short to do lasting harm.
However, if you were to follow this diet for months at a time, the strict limit on calories could put you at risk of nutrient deficiencies.
This is especially true if you do not regularly eat vegetables and other quality foods on your days off.
Additionally, eating hot dogs, crackers and ice cream every week has the potential to cause metabolic issues. Junk food should not be a regular part of your diet.
In terms of sustainability, this diet is fairly easy to do. It doesnt rely on long-term habit changes and only requires willpower for a short amount of time.
That being said, it probably wont help you keep the weight off for very long because it doesnt help you change your habits.
Bottom Line:
The military diet is likely safe for healthy people, but it shouldnt be done for extended periods of time. It probably does not lead to lasting weight loss.
Increase Your Neat To Get Rid Of Belly Fat
We’ve been conditioned to think that super hard exercise is going to be the thing to help us get results, especially when trying to lose lower belly fat. In fact surprise, surprise it’s much more holistic than that. Instead of hammering the HIIT, keeping your nutrition, exercise and general movement in check are all important.
Outside of gym workouts , the movement you’re doing walking to the shops, making a cup of tea or taking your pooch out to stretch their legs can contribute more to hitting your healthy fat loss goals. This is known as NEAT and is a cornerstone of healthy body composition.
‘NEAT simply refers to the energy used carrying out any daily activity that isn’t formal exercise or sleeping,’ says Elliott Upton, personal trainer at Ultimate Performance and Head of LiveUP Online Coaching.
NEAT plays a major role in how much energy you expend per day and increasing your metabolic rate. It also helps control your blood sugar, aid muscle recovery, lower stress levels and improve cardiovascular health.
You can increase your NEAT by walking instead of taking public transport, opting for the stairs over the elevator or doing household chores. Whichever you choose, they’ll all contribute to the process in which you lose belly fat.
Get around everything you need to know about NEAT exercise with our full explainer.
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Track Progress In A Healthy Way
‘Remember that scales dont take into account muscle mass so the best way to check your progress is by taking pictures,’ says Belalij. ‘Take them in the morning under the same lighting and compare your physique each week. If you check your belly in the mirror every day, chances are you wont notice any differences, which could be disheartening.’
If you do prefer to go by numbers, invest in a set of smart scales but only weigh yourself once a week.
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.
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Is The Military Diet Based On Evidence
There have been no studies on the military diet. However, the average person is very likely to lose a few pounds due to the week-long calorie restriction.
If fewer calories enter your fat tissue than leave it, you lose fat. Period.
However, proponents of the diet claim that it has a certain weight loss advantage due to the food combinations in the meal plan. These combinations are said to increase your metabolism and burn fat, but there is no truth behind these claims.
Coffee and green tea do contain compounds that can slightly increase metabolism, but there are no known combinations of food able to do this (
6 ). But most of the meals in the military diet are low in protein and high in carbs, which is a bad combination for weight loss.
Some people also claim this diet has similar health benefits to intermittent fasting. However, there is no fasting involved in the diet, so this is false.
Bottom Line:
The military diet can help you lose weight because it is very low in calories. However, it has no special advantage that makes it more effective than other calorie-restricted diets.
Follow A Diet To Lose Belly
Maintaining healthy habits is essential to feel good and eliminate abdominal fat. If you have accumulated fat in the abdominal belt, carrying out a specific diet to lose belly is one of the keys to help reduce the volume of your belly.
The diet to lose fat should be based on the consumption of vegetables, proteins and healthy carbohydrates, that is, no processed . In addition, you can add sunflower, sesame or pumpkin seeds to your dishes, perfect options to make your dishes more nutritious and less caloric.
On the other hand, if you want to lose belly effectively, you should put aside ultra-processed foods and refined sugars, reduce alcohol consumption, avoid sauces and dressings by substituting herbs and spices, and reduce the intake of inflammatory foods.
Here you can learn more about the diet to lose belly.
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How To Create A Calorie Deficit
Creating a calorie deficit boils down to a simple math equation: Are you burning more calories than youre consuming on a daily basis? If you are, youre at a calorie deficit.
Burning 3,500 calories more than you consume is equal to 1 pound of fat, according to the Mayo Clinic.
For most people, losing more than 2.5 pounds of fat per week involves extreme calorie restriction and isnt recommended.
Turn Off The Late Show After The Monologue
Or skip your favorite early-morning showwhatever it takes to grab a few more minutes of sleep each day. When researchers at the University of Chicago studied men who were sleep-deprived, they found that after just a few days, their bodies had a much harder time processing glucose in the blooda problem common in overweight diabetics. When the individuals returned to a more normal seven to eight hours of sleep a night, however, their metabolisms returned to normal.
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Oolong Tea To Redue Belly Fat
This is an aged Chinese strategy for getting thinner, especially the fat around your waist. While Oolong tea originates from the same Camellia sinensis plant from which comes dark and green tea, it is more successful in boosting your digestion system than even green tea is. In the event that you need to lose your stomach fat rapidly, you can have Oolong tea ordinary as this tea expands your bodys vitality use. Truth be told, when you blend oolong tea and green tea, you can have better comes about. This has been secured by study led by the Linus Pauling Institute, where men who drank tea made of a mixture of green and oolong tea lessened more weight, waist periphery and BMI than the individuals who drank plain green tea!
Get this:
- On the off chance that utilizing both the tea, blend Oolong and green tea.
- Place the tea leaves in a glass
- Spill boiling hot water over it.
- Soak for 2-3 minutes, not more than that.
- Strain and on the off chance that you have to sweeten the tea, include nectar.
- Have this tea 2-3 times each day.
Cut Back On Added Sugar
Added sugar is one of the worst ingredients in the modern diet. Most people consume way too much.
Studies show that sugar consumption is strongly associated with an increased risk of obesity, as well as conditions including type 2 diabetes and heart disease .
If you want to lose weight, cut back on added sugar. Just make sure to read labels, because even so-called health foods can be loaded with sugar.
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Ramp Up Your Cardio Exercise
You don’t have to be the next Usain Bolt in the making to enjoy some serious belly-slimming results from hitting the track from time to time. Even a moderate-rate jog a few times a week can blast through that belly fat in fact, a study conducted at Duke University Medical Center found that, over the course of an eight-month study, overweight adult study subjects who jogged 12 miles a week lost the most belly fat and burned 67 percent more calories than participants who did an equivalent amount of resistance exercise, or a combination of cardio and resistance work.
Build Muscle To Burn More Fat
Toning along with cardiovascular work will speed up and improve the process, but don’t think that you only need to work on your abs. This is another misconception. The truth is that when you work all the larger muscle groups, adding more mass to your muscles, you rev up your metabolism to heights it has never before reached.
Large Muscle Groups To Concentrate On:
- Front and back of thighs
- Buttocks
- Forearms
- Shoulders
Your muscles need extra calories to maintain themselves, so more of the food you eat will be feeding your muscles instead of your trouble spots. Your conditioned heart is more effective at burning calories as well, so you have the golden combination there.
As the fat comes off your body, it will come off your belly. Your body fat is like one organ, located throughout your body, and you can’t take it off just one spot unless you have liposuction done.
Always work your abs at the end of your workout. There’s a good reason for this. You are indirectly using them for all the other exercises you do.
The abs are important stabilizer muscles that keep your form in check. If you do abs first, you will tire them out, and your whole workout will be less than optimal. Work down from the largest to the smallest muscles.
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Cut Back On Carbs Especially Refined Carbs
Reducing your carb intake can be very beneficial for losing fat, including abdominal fat.
Diets with under 50 grams of carbs per day cause belly fat loss in people who are overweight, those at risk for type 2 diabetes, and women with polycystic ovary syndrome .
You dont have to follow a strict low carb diet. Some research suggests that simply replacing refined carbs with unprocessed starchy carbs may improve metabolic health and reduce belly fat .
In the famous Framingham Heart Study, people with the highest consumption of whole grains were 17% less likely to have excess abdominal fat than those who consumed diets high in refined grains .
SUMMARY
A high intake of refined carbs is associated with excessive belly fat. Consider reducing your carb intake or replacing refined carbs in your diet with healthy carb sources, such as whole grains, legumes, or vegetables.
Coconut oil is one of the healthiest fats you can eat.
Studies show that the medium-chain fats in coconut oil may boost metabolism and decrease the amount of fat you store in response to high calorie intake (
39 ).
In one study, men with obesity who took coconut oil daily for 12 weeks lost an average of 1.1 inches from their waists without intentionally changing their diets or exercise routines (
41 ).
Also, keep in mind that coconut oil is high in calories. Instead of adding extra fat to your diet, replace some of the fats youre already eating with coconut oil.
SUMMARY
Exercises To Lose Belly Fat In 1 Week
Running is the best way to lose belly fat fast because it burns a great number of calories in a short period of time – in just 25 minutes of running, you can burn up to 300 calories. If youre just starting out doing physical activity, then remember to slowly, and gradually increase the intensity and duration of your workouts.
You can also add some abdominal exercises to complete your daily workout to lose belly fat in one week, which in addition to strengthening your core, decreases the amount of fat accumulated in the area, helping you to lose belly fat.
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Keep Your Stress Situation In Check
Stress, like that which happens as a result of sleep deprivation, might mess with your weight. Unchecked tension or anxiety can drive you to eat more, especially when it comes to high calorie comfort foods.
Research also shows that high levels of the stress hormone cortisol may encourage your body to store fat around your middle. Warne JP. . Shaping the stress response: Interplay of palatable food choices, glucocorticoids, insulin and abdominal obesity.
Your plan: Seek out stress management techniques that work for your lifestyle.
If you dont have an hour to meditate or do yoga, thats totally fine. There are plenty of short-term, effective strategies for feeling calmer, such as journaling, connecting with friends, or just watching a funny YouTube video.
Give Intermittent Fasting A Shot
Intermittent fasting is a diet pattern that involves cycling between periods of eating and fasting.
Research shows that intermittent fasting may help enhance both weight loss and fat loss.
One review looked at the effects of intermittent fasting, including alternate-day fasting a method that involves alternating between days of fasting and eating normally.
They found that alternate-day fasting over a period of 312 weeks reduced body weight by up to 7% and decreased body fat by up to 12 pounds .
Another small study showed that eating only during an eight-hour window each day helped decrease fat mass and maintain muscle mass when combined with resistance training .
There are several different types of intermittent fasting, including some where you eat only on certain days of the week and others where eating is restricted to specific hours of the day.
Popular types of intermittent fasting include Eat Stop Eat, the Warrior Diet, the 16/8 method and the 5:2 diet.
Find a variation that fits in with your schedule and lifestyle and dont be afraid to experiment to find what works best for you.
Summary Intermittent fasting has been shown to reduce body weight and body fat and may help preserve muscle mass when combined with resistance training.
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And Maybe Cut Your Carbs Too
You dont have to go low carb to lose body fat and lower belly fat. But breaking up with bread might help you reach your goal a little faster.
In a 2014 study, participants who ate a low carb diet lost more weight than those who ate a low fat diet. Bazzano LA. . Effects of low-carbohydrate and low-fat diets. Going low carb also seems to help people lose more fat while preserving calorie-torching lean muscle tissue.
Exercises That Won’t Burn Belly Fat
Abdominal exercises. Simply put, bashing out endless reps of sit-ups won’t have any real impact on your belly fat, according to a study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning. Of course, these kind of exercises will help strengthen your abdominal muscles, even tone them, but they won’t shift the layer of fat above them.
There is a belief, among some, that you are able to target a specific body part for weight loss, a process known as ‘spot reduction’. Unfortunately, the majority of studies cast doubt of the validity of this process.
So let’s make it clear: in order to reduce belly fat you’ll have to reduce the body fat percentage of your whole body. Unfortunately, and we’re sorry to be the bearer of bad news, you have no real control over where you’ll lose the fat first. But that’s not to say that the exercises below a combination of full-body movements that demand a bucket load of effort won’t almost immediately start to bring your body fat down and, in time, shave flab from around your stomach, revealing your muscle groups. What’s more, when they do finally make an appearance, they’ll look strong and chiselled.
Start with the following eight fat burning exercises to hammer the dozens of muscles between your shoulders and hips and get better metabolism at the same time.
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