Excess belly fat is quite common among men as well as women. You can always find people walking along the streets with visible excess fat around their waistline. Some feel very uncomfortable putting on fitting clothes because of the impression that they are always the centre of attraction when they go out or walk in the streets. At this point, it becomes more than just a nuisance. It is true that people do not like to be associated with belly fat but the question is, what are you doing to avoid or get rid of belly fat? Everyone has some belly fat, but two much belly fat can affect your health in several ways.
Fat inside the belly area is known as visceral fat and is extremely dangerous. If you have too much belly fat, you may be more prone to experiencing high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease (because excess fat is sometimes stored around the heart), dementia, and certain types of cancer like breast and colon cancer. Another disadvantage of having too much belly fat is that excess fat acts as another part of your skin and produces dangerous substances that becomes inconvenient to your body by storing fat in certain unusual places which may pose danger to your health. Belly fat is usually estimated by measuring the circumference around your waist. You can easily do this at home by using a simple tape measure. Anything above 40 inches (102 cm) in men and 35 inches (88 cm) in women, can be termed as abdominal obesity. .
Worthy of note is the fact that not only fat people can have excess belly fat, thin people may also have this problem. The amount of belly fat you have may be partly due to your genes and partly because of your lifestyle, particularly your level of activeness. When you are inactive, especially when you don’t exercise, you give room for excess belly fat because regular exercises, especially say 10 minutes on a daily basis goes a long way to burn up excess fat in your belly in particular and your whole body in general.
There are a number of methods you can use to burn or reduce belly fat and the best ways to lose belly fat have been explained in the following lines.
Best ways to lose belly fat
Do regular exercises: regular and vigorous exercise will help you get rid of belly fat easily. You do not necessarily need to visit a gym before you can actually exercise your body. Of course there are always home workouts for you. You can start by increasing your speed when you walk. This will help you work out some sweat and cause you to breathe harder with your heart beating faster than usual. It will surprise you to know that when you breathe faster than usual, it can help you burn some unusual fat around your heart which may have been dangerous to your health. The same effect is made around your waistline. So just by increasing your walk speed, you can get rid of belly fat.
To get rid of belly fat faster, you need to step up your game. You can leave from speed walk to jogging. With jogging, you breathe harder, get more heart beats and sweat more which is one of the best ways to lose belly fat. To reduce belly fat, you will need to jog for about twenty minutes a day and four days in a week depending on how much fat you may have accumulated. Getting rid of belly fat equally entails that you should be disciplined and faithful to your exercises. That is to say that you need some level of determination and commitment.
Moreover, as earlier mentioned, you do not necessarily need to visit a gym to reduce belly fat. Aside from the home workouts, you can do some outdoor exercises with friends, spouse, or kids. You can do short races, play football and many other collective games that will seem like you are just having fun but apparently, you will be working to reduce belly fat. The whole idea is to get your muscles worked up so that you can burn some fat in your belly. As a matter of fact, always keep in mind that exercise is a very effective way to reduce belly fat. It is among one of the best ways to lose belly fat and the best thing you can do if you want to maintain a healthy lifestyle, avoid diseases and live long.
You should also take note that spot reduction, which is losing fat in one part of the body is not possible. Spending weeks or months exercising just the abdominal muscles will not be very effective. You need to be cautious because it is very common to see people exercising just the abdominal muscles in the name of getting rid of belly fat. No matter how many heel touches you do, you will not get the desired result in real time. Do exercises for the whole body.
The results of a study showed that exercise completely prevents people from re-gaining abdominal fat after weight loss, implying that exercise is particularly important during weight maintenance. Other benefits of exercise especially aerobic exercises like walking, running and swimming comprise of reduced inflammation and lower blood sugar levels. Exercise also minimises other metabolic abnormalities associated with central obesity.
Get enough sleep: When you get the right amount of sleep, it will help you a great deal. In a study, the people who said they had six to seven hours of sleep per night gained less visceral fat (fat inside the belly area) over five years compared to those who slept 5 or fewer hours per night or 8 or more hours per night. This shows that you need to get just the right amount of sleep. Don’t underdo it and don’t overdo it. Sleep may not have been the only thing that mattered in the research but it was part of the main parameters that produced the results. People have the misconception that sleep makes them gain weight. Sleep can only make you gain weight if you spend your whole time sleeping and not exercising. You need sleep to put your muscles at rest to prepare them for the next training. Therefore, one of the best ways to lose belly fat is to get just the right amount of sleep.
Relax to relieve stress: Each human being goes through stress at one point in time. The difference is how these different people handle their stress levels? Now, there are certain things you can do to relieve stress. You can get involved with pleasurable activities like outings with your family, relaxing with family and friends, exercising to work out some sweat and blow off steam as well as meditating. All these will get you prepared to make choices in life and of course, it will help you become healthier. In the course of doing your exercises, you get to reduce some amount of belly fat and other fat stored in unusual places. Stress can make you gain belly fat by triggering your adrenal glands to produce cortisol, also known as the "stress hormone." Research shows that high cortisol levels increase appetite and thus excess abdominal fat storage. Moreover, more cortisol is produced in response to stress in women who tend to have broad waistlines.
Belly fat diet
Eat a good quantity of fibre. You can get fibre from eating apples, green peas and pinto beans. A research study showed that people who ate 10 grams of soluble fibre per day and did not change their diets, developed less visceral fat over time than those who did not. Dietary fibre is mostly indigestible plant matter. Many people often claim that eating a good quantity of fibre can help with weight loss, which is true but it is also important to bear in mind that not all fibre is created equal.
The most effective for weight loss seems to be the soluble and viscous fibres. The soluble and viscous fibres are the fibres that bind water and form a thick gel that stays in the gut. The gel can dramatically slow the movement of food through your stomach and small bowel, and slow down the digestion and absorption of nutrients. The end result is a prolonged feeling of fullness and reduced appetite. Thus, these two fibres help you to manage your appetite issues for those who always have huge appetite. Remember that the amount of food you eat will determine the amount of belly fat you get. Another study reviewed that an additional 14 grams of fibre per day were linked to a 10% decrease in calorie intake and weight loss of 2 kg (4.5 lbs) over 4 months. Belly fat diet always comprise of the type of food that burns belly fat to keep you more comfortable and to help you manage your appetite.
In another related five year study, those who ate 10 grams of soluble fibre per day were linked to a 3.7% reduction in the amount of fat in their abdominal cavity, though it was revealed that it had no effect on the amount of fat under their skin. From this study, one can conclude that soluble fibre may be particularly effective at reducing a great quantity of excess fat in the belly area which may be dangerous to your health.
Fibre as food that burns belly fat can also be gotten by eating a lot of plant foods such as; vegetables and fruits. Legumes are also a good source, as well as some cereals like oats. It is also possible to get fibre from a fibre supplement like galactomannan which is one of the most viscous dietary fibres in existence. Many studies have proven its effectiveness in causing weight loss. Meanwhile there is some evidence that soluble dietary fibre may lead to reduced amounts of belly fat, which should cause major improvements in metabolic health.
Eat less sugar: sugar has been linked with various chronic diseases when consumed in excess. Such illnesses include; diabetes, obesity and others. You can eat sugar in many forms; refined sugar, sweetened drinks, and added sugar which is very unhealthy. Studies over the years have shown that sugar has uniquely harmful effects on metabolic health. Sugar consists of other chemicals like glucose and fructose. Fructose on its part can only be metabolized by the liver in any significant amount. When a lot of refined sugar is consumed, the liver becomes overloaded with fructose, and will have no other option than to convert it into fat. Numerous studies have shown that excess sugar, mostly due to the large amounts of fructose, can lead to increased accumulation of fat in the belly. It is believed that the fact that the liver converts excess sugar into fat can be seen as the primary mechanism associated with the harmful effects of sugar on health, as it increases belly and liver fat which can lead to insulin resistance and then to diabetes and a lot of other metabolic problems.
The worst form of sugar is the liquid sugar as liquid calories do not get registered by the brain in the same way as solid sugar. Liquid sugar is gotten from sweetened beverages which people normally take at random. This form of sugar is mostly consumed by children because they are fund of sweetened drinks, candies and the like. Women are also fund of consuming such drinks. Pertaining to this, some studies have revealed that sugar-sweetened beverages are linked to a 60% increased risk of obesity in children, per each daily serving.
Therefore, it is your duty to minimize the amount of sugar in take in your diet, and consider completely eliminating sugar sweetened drinks. This includes sugar-sweetened beverages, fruit juices and various high-sugar sports drinks.
It is also important to bear in mind that none of these sugar talk applies to whole natural fruits because they contain a good quantity of fibre that reduces the harmful effects of fructose and are extremely healthy. The amount of fructose you get from fruit is neglectable compared to what you get from a diet high in refined sugar. Always make sure that you read the labels on food items when you go out to do grocery shopping because sometimes the food sold in these places contain high amount of sugar and even those that are said not to contain huge amounts of sugar may just not be the case. Instead go for food that burns belly fat.
Drink alcohol moderately: As a rule of life, everything has benefits and disadvantages including alcohol. Alcohol will be beneficial to you if you take just the right quantity that your body needs. But if you take too much of it, it just might add some excess fat in your body. Surprised? Don’t be. I’ll explain how. Most beer products contain carbohydrates (starch) which is later converted to sugar. Now imagine that you take 15 bottles of beer in a week and sometimes the beer converts to sugar. This shows that you have piled up a good quantity of sugar in your system. The sugar too will sometime later be converted to fat and that is how by drinking too much alcohol, you gain excess belly fat.
Consume foods rich in protein: when it comes to the burning of belly fat, protein is very important. When a high amount of protein is consumed, it releases a fullness hormone PYY. This hormone helps to reduce appetite and give you a feeling of fullness always. This will help you consume less calories and other food that would have helped to store excess fat in your body.
Cut down on your carbohydrate intake: when you decide to go on a belly fat diet, think about reducing the way you eat food that contains carbohydrates. True, carbohydrates gives you energy but don’t over consume it. Carbohydrates is sometimes converted to sugar from starch which may be very dangerous to your health and will also allow for excess belly fat. Sometimes, it is argued that food that contains carbs is more dangerous than fatty food. This is because when you consume fatty food, you know the quantity you have consumed but when you take large quantities of carbs, you may be surprised at how much sugar and fat that will have been converted in your body. Reducing the amount of carbs you consume will keep your body in ketosis (which is a metabolic state in which the body produces ketones to be used as fuel by some organs so that glycogen can be reserved for organs that depend on it). This will help burn fat because when you are faced with ketosis, the excess fat in your body will be used as fuel to keep your body running during such periods. By this condition, your appetite will be reduced and you will minimise your calorie intake because after staying for long in ketosis, you will learn how to effectively control your diet, and it will equally help you to hold much longer during your fasting periods.
Food that burns belly fat
Consume cucumber very often: Cucumbers are extremely low in calories which means less fabrication of fat. They also have high water content which can aid in weight loss which is why you should add cucumber to your belly fat diet. Many studies have found that eating foods with high water content and low calorie content on the other hand can be associated with a significant reduction in body weight. Cucumber does not only burn belly fat, it also goes a long way to lower blood sugar level. It is also very easy to add cucumbers to your belly fat diet because they have a refreshing flavour and are used for making salads.
Almonds and other nuts: Almond also contains fibres that leave you with the feeling of fullness. It contains little amount of calories and it is also important to note that 10-15% of an almond’s calories are not easily absorbed by the body because almond fat is very complex to reach and breakdown. When you eat almonds, it reduces your hunger and lowers your overall calorie intake. In short, almonds increase satiety and has hunger fighting effects. Despite being high in fat, almonds should be added to your belly fat diet because they are most definitely a weight loss friendly food.
Use coconut oil for cooking: Coconut oil is one of the healthiest fats you can eat. Consuming more of coconut oil will lead to abdominal fat loss. Studies have shown that the medium-chain fats that coconut oil possesses will act as natural boosters of metabolism and will decrease the amount of fat an individual stores as a result of high calorie intake. In one study, obese men who took coconut oil daily for 12 weeks lost an average of 1.1 inch (2.86 cm) from their waists without intentionally changing their diets or exercise routines (39, 40). Specialists advice that in order to boost belly fat loss, it's best to take about 2 tablespoons (30 ml) of coconut oil per day, which is the amount used in most of the studies reporting good results. However, you should not be confused here because coconut oil is still high in calories, so rather than mixing the other fat which you are already consuming, you should instead replace such fat with coconut oil. For instance, you can replace refined groundnut oil with coconut and not consume both at the same time.
Drink more of apple cider vinegar: Drinking apple cider vinegar has impressive health benefits, including lowering blood sugar levels. Apple cider vinegar contains a compound known as acetic acid, which has been proven though mildly to reduce abdominal fat storage in most animal studies. In a case control study of obese men, those who took 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar per day for 12 weeks lost half an inch (1.4 cm) of fat from their waists.
Drink Green Tea: green tea improves on metabolic rate and increases fat burning in your body. Green tea is an exceptionally healthy beverage. This exceptionally powerful and healthy beverage contains caffeine and an antioxidant called epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). More importantly, caffeine and EGCG are both substances which appear to boost metabolism. EGCG is a catechin, which has been suggested by several studies to be effective for losing belly fat. The effect may be strengthened when green tea consumption is combined with exercise.
What you should bear in mind is that to burn belly fat is not something you will accomplish in a day. The time it will take for you to achieve your dream of a flat tommy will depend on your level of consciousness, especially when it comes to your dieting, the amount of hard work you put in for your exercises, determination and commitment and above all consistency. If you are not consistent with your exercises, you may just find that even if you actually burn a reasonable amount of belly fat, after some time you will start gathering up belly fat again. So be faithful and consistent with your exercises if you must effectively get rid of belly fat.