7 Tips for a Flatter Belly Today
Did you know that excess belly fat can be a precursor to serious health problems?
Fat around your midsection can put you at higher risk for diabetes, metabolic disorders, and even digestive issues that leave you feeling bloated.
While having excess fat around the rest of your body—such as your arms, legs, butt, or chin—can be unsightly, it’s the visceral fat on your belly that can be a real health risk.
It’s vital that you get rid of belly fat, and you can do so by following the simple yet super-effective tips below:
Fiber is one of the most important belly fat-burning nutrients you can eat. Not only does it slow your stomach’s emptying rate, but it will expand in your stomach and keep you feeling fuller for longer. This prevents you from overeating and helps you to reduce the amount of calories you consume at each meal.
Soluble fiber is definitely the best for belly fat, as it absorbs water and expands to fill your stomach. However, insoluble fiber can also help to clean out your digestive system, making your body more effective at absorbing the nutrients you eat.
Make it a point to eat more plant-based, high-fiber foods every day, as it will help to prevent the build-up of fat around your organs and on your belly.
Most people who try to exercise to lose belly fat immediately go to cardio: running, jogging, walking, cycling, hitting the Stairmaster, or working on the elliptical. Doing cardio is a great way to burn more calories—and specifically of fat—but on its own, it’s not going to cause you to lose weight or belly fat.
You see, your body is designed to burn both glucose (sugar/carbs) and fats for energy. If you only do cardio, your body will have plenty of carbs to burn through, so it won’t get to burning the fat before you finish your workout. Plus, if you’re not really working your muscles, your body will treat them as unnecessary and burn them for energy.
The key is mixing both resistance training (which burns through glucose) and cardio (which burns fat). Always do resistance training first to blaze through the sugar-based energy your body has stored, and finish off with a good 15-minute cardio session to torch fat as effectively as possible.
Be Smart With Your Calories
Cutting calories is the key to losing weight and eliminating belly fat, but cutting calories too sharply can backfire and cause your body to retain fat. This is because our bodies are designed to adapt to both its energy demands and supply. If it doesn’t get enough supply, it will respond by limiting the amount of calories it will let you burn every day. The result will be a slower metabolic rate and less energy, which will negatively impact your workout.
The key is to reduce your calorie intake slightly, and increase the amount of energy you burn. Let’s say you burn an average of 1800 calories per day without exercise—pretty standard for the average person. Now, you know that when you do your daily workout, you burn around 300 calories. That puts your total at 2100 calories per day.
Your goal should be to cut around 300 to 500 calories from your diet. However, you’re not cutting them from the original 1800, but from the 2100 burned after your workout—meaning you need to eat around 1600 to 1800 calories per day.
Every day you combine exercise with a reduced caloric intake, you’ll be one step closer to getting rid of that belly fat once and for all.
Protein not only satiates your appetite, but it boosts your metabolism and helps your body to more efficiently burn fat for energy, taking it specifically from your midsection. You’ll find that increasing your daily protein intake—especially when paired with a workout—is crucial for losing belly fat.
You should try to get more plant-based proteins from legumes, nuts, seeds, and whole grains. More lean animal-based proteins from beef, pork, chicken, fish, eggs, and turkey are also excellent options. And if you need a concentrated dose of protein, consider a high-quality protein powder to ensure you’re getting enough muscle-building, fat-burning amino acids.
Carbohydrates are your body’s primary source of energy, but eating a lot of them—especially refined and processed carbs—will provide your body with more energy than it can use. That excess energy will be turned into fat to store, and the result will be abdominal fat gain.
The goal should be to limit carbs, but not cut them out completely. Make sure that all of the carbs you eat are whole, unprocessed, and complex with a lot of fiber, including fruits, veggies, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes. These are the foods that will target belly fat and help you lose weight!
Juice, soda, energy drinks, overly sweetened caffeinated beverages, and sports drinks all contain more calories than you need, and all sugar that will be quickly turned to added body fat. They are the first thing to be cut from your diet!
Stick with water whenever possible, along with tea and coffee that contains as few added calories and as little sugar as possible.
Try a Weight Loss Supplement
This tea contains potent antioxidants from some of the best superfoods on the planet, along with metabolism-boosting ingredients that will help your body naturally burn more calories every day. Best of all, it’s free of sugar and will add no unnecessary calories to your daily diet. You can get healthy and lose weight the “easy” way by following our advice above and adding this Tea into your day.
