People are said to be fat if their body is bigger than someone else’s, and more so when they have belly fat. As such, reducing belly fat is one of the many concerns today. It not only poses a risk to health, but is also a psychological torture for them that they are not pleased to see themselves.
Body fat in general is not considered so bad. To some extent, the body needs fat for certain functions. However, you need to understand the difference between good and bad fats. Good fats can give you essential vitamins like A, D, E and K that our body benefits from. On the other hand, when more fat is stored than our body needs, that is already a bad fat, you can be considered obese or overweight. In this case, there is a need to lose some fat as there is a tendency to store fat in the abdomen.
There are several major factors that contribute to belly fat. These are overeating, lack of exercise and lack of a balanced diet. When restaurants often serve you more food than necessary, or you eat even when you’re not hungry, or have midnight snacks on movie marathons, go to parties and celebrate holidays with foods. All these and much more can lead to increased belly fat. Even the things you do on a daily basis, like driving instead of walking, or using the stairs instead of the elevator, are an additional factor.
You could burn a lot of fat when you use stairs or walk instead, but nowadays people are becoming busy and lazy. Those fast food chains can also increase the fat, sugar and carbohydrates in your diet. Your simple disregard for vegetables and fruits is a big factor. Your belly fat can increase even more when you consume more calories. Simply adding more calories than the body needs, stores more fat. How your sedentary lifestyle can slow down your metabolism.
Really reducing belly fat is hard, you have to make sacrifices and determination to make it happen. It won’t happen overnight or even a week. The process will take a long time. However, as long as you set your goals realistically and you keep your eye on the target, you will soon see the desired results. Here are some tips to get rid of belly fat and say hello to a flat and sexy stomach.
In order to motivate yourself to do the necessary steps to reduce belly fat, you need to understand what are the risks associated with it, especially the health risks. Belly fat has always been linked to cardiovascular diseases (heart conditions), diabetes (high sugar) and cancer. This is because fat cells from belly fat produce hormones and other substances that are harmful to health. On the other hand, since the stomach is close to the liver, fatty liver is also common in obese people. For you to be able to know whether you are unwell or not, here is how to take measures.
Using a measuring tape, wrap it around your waist at the level of your navel. Measurements above 35 inches for women and 40 inches for men are considered unhealthy/obese/overweight.
Exercise is necessary for weight loss in the whole body, especially in the abdomen. Again, spot-reduction is not advised. To flatten it, don’t just focus on your abs, but exercise the whole body. Do calorie burning exercises instead of just sit-ups or crunches. Abdominal exercises are not an effective way to reduce belly fat as it only tightens your stomach. A good cardiovascular or aerobic exercise is more beneficial. It has also been proven that a combination of resistance training and cardiovascular exercise works better. One study even showed that people who lifted weights and did cardio at the same time lost twice as much belly fat as those who did cardio alone. Exercise can also reduce stress, thus, reducing the hormone that causes excess belly fat to be stored.
Knowing how to structure a workout is important. Don’t waste all your time doing abdominal exercises targeting only the abdominal area as it will not be very effective. It is quite unfortunate that many people still do not understand this and spend so much time doing exercises that target the abs. Most of the workout time should be spent doing multi-joint exercises with different body parts like legs, chest, back etc. as this will increase the metabolic rate during and after the workout.
It is also very important to consider changes in your diet. Do not limit calorie intake, reduce those that are unnecessary.
It is also important to switch refined grains to whole grains. Eating whole grains with an extra serving of fruits and vegetables, low-fat dairy products, lean meats (fish or poultry) may help reduce belly fat more than eating refined grains. Remember, whole grains can alter the body’s glucose response which can accelerate the melting of the deep layer of fat in the abdomen making it easier for the body to burn the fat underneath.
The high proportion of monounsaturated fat may also prevent the accumulation of belly fat. These fats are commonly found in avocados, nuts and seeds (cashews, peanuts and almonds), dark chocolate, grape seed oil, etc.
Trans fats found in margarine, crackers, cookies, etc. can cause excess fat to be stored in the abdomen; That’s why it should be avoided.
Soluble fiber can reduce hormones that cause fat production. Eat more of these which are mostly found in apples, oats, cherries, beans etc.
Eat more fat burning foods with negative calorie content. Examples are beans, apples, apricots, olive oil, egg whites, lean cuts of meat, etc.
Losing belly fat is not always an easy task. The more you make something worth trying, the more successful you will be. Most people fail in their quest to lose belly fat because they stop midway because they can’t stand the fatigue, and the most successful are the individuals who can approach the challenge in a positive way. Exhaustion seems to be a challenge for those who are very determined to do anything. So, when you want to stay fit and with a flat stomach, be a positive person who can fit into the newly adopted lifestyle to make you healthier and sexier.
Source by Stepfanie Wayne
