So, you’ve had it with your stomach fat and you want it gone right now. Unfortunately, this will take some time – you didn’t put all that fat in one week, so you shouldn’t expect it to disappear overnight as well. Belly fat is a metabolically active type of fat that’s seated deep inside the abdominal cavity, and it’s usually the last to melt away when you’re trying to lose weight.
But there’s a lot of changes you can make to your lifestyle in order to achieve this goal. The article below contains six methods you can use if you feel ready for long-term improvements: being more healthy, getting rid of the excess stomach fat and simply looking the best you can!
1. Straighten out your life
Yes, this part is important for your weight loss goals as well. If your general lifestyle perpetuates stress, dieting will be difficult and won’t bring much of a progress. When your cortisol levels are constantly high, your body will be inclined to store more fat. Find a better way to deal with daily obligations, family situations or problems at the workplace – stress has a negative effect on your overall health and can quickly become a pattern of living that’s hard to shake off.
Make sure you get a minimum of 8 hours of sleep at night and make some time to relax. Learning to take care of yourself is the most important foundation for improvement in any area of life.
2. Mix up your calories
If you’re like most people, when you want to lose weight you’ll start off by dramatically cutting a lot of calories from your diet. This creates a calorie deficit that can eventually backfire and discourage you even further. If you want to make lasting positive changes concerning your body, you’ll need to do some research and learn more about the inner workings of your metabolism.
It’s natural for your body to resist the changes you’re trying to make to your diet. After all, it has been used to a certain lifestyle. Reducing your calorie intake leads to increasing hunger cravings, since your body is not receiving the nutrients it needs and was used to getting regularly. You’ll be fine at the beginning, but later on as the hunger cravings increase, you could face some difficulties keeping them under control and you might end up overeating. Starving your body is simply not a good way to go.
But the real problem is that after a few weeks of rigorous dieting, the body will adapt by decreasing the production of your thyroid hormones, which in turn will slow down your metabolism, making it even harder to burn off calories. On the other hand, these stressful changes will push your levels of insulin and cortisol really high, making your body store more fat. And the answer to this problem is not reducing the calorie intake even further – that will only make things worse.
To avoid this situation, you need to find ways to prevent your body from getting used to a certain daily calorie intake. The constant change will keep it on the edge and as a result you’ll burn more calories. Try changing the level of daily calorie intake by changing the amount of calories you consume every week or two. This will trick the body into not lowering its metabolism and you can continue burning that stomach fat while not having to endure constant hunger cravings.
3. Eat the right type of foods
A good diet is one of the most important parts of this process. Some foods simply work better at helping you lose fat while maintaining a healthy intake of nutrients and calories you need to function properly. Here is a list of 7 foods to keep you full and prevent you from holding too much water and waste in the body at the same time.
- Avocados – Avocados contain a lot of fibre and healthy fats which keep you full, maintain your testosterone levels high and enable you to lose stomach fat. Remember, there are different kinds of fat, and not all of them are bad for you.
- Peanut Butter – peanuts are an excellent source of healthy fats, and they can keep you full for a long time. Combined with some fruits, a natural variant of peanut butter can be a tasty and healthy snack. Stay away from the regular kinds of peanut butter because they contain a lot of processed ingredients.
- Dark Chocolate – Contrary to popular belief, chocolate can be helpful in the process of losing fat, which doesn’t mean you should stuff yourself with it. A little bit every day will give your body a decent intake of antioxidants.
- Green Tea – Research has shown many times that green tea can be a powerful and inexpensive tool for fat loss. It contains a lot of antioxidants and it supports your metabolism.
- Cinnamon – Cinnamon is another great source of antioxidants which stabilize your blood sugar levels and improves your insulin sensitivity. And it can be a great addition to your favorite foods!
- Yogurt – Choose a sugar-free type that has a lot of probiotics (greek yogurt is a good option) and mix it with pieces of your favorite fruit. It’s both tasty and helpful at fat burning!
- Lean Protein – Meats containing lean protein include chicken, salmon and white turkey meat, to name a few. The best part about them is that the body burns around 30% of the calories they contain just from the process of their digestion, and they will still keep you full for a long time.
4. Boost your metabolism
Why is metabolism so important? First of all, having a fast metabolism allows us to eat more and still maintain the same amount of weight. Additionally, having a strong metabolism will prevent unhealthy foods from increasing your storage of fat. If you’ve had a number of unsuccessful diets in the past period, they have most probably taken their toll on your metabolism. An active metabolism is crucial in the process of burning fat, and fortunately there are a lot of ways to boost it.
All calories are different and have their specific effect on your organism. While some have a definitive negative effect on your metabolism, others can help you burn more calories. For example, complex carbs are better for you because they boost the metabolism a lot more than simple carbs that get digested very quickly. Proteins, on the other hand, are very powerful and can increase the metabolism by 30%!
The thing is that your body has to work very hard to break down protein, so a third of the calories it contains are getting spent in that process. This puts protein on the top of the list of nutritients you need to consume while you’re on a mission to burn more calories.
So for a good start, replace the simple carbs with more complex ones, and increase the consumption of foods high in protein.
5. Eliminate artificial foods from your diet
In order to last longer and taste better, a lot of products contain a variety of chemically engineered additives, preservatives and added sugar. If you want to achieve your fat loss goals, you’ll need to choose your products with greater care for their nutritional values and means of production. Opt for naturally produced foods that are free of unhealthy and even toxic additives.
Good quality food is essential for both your health and appearance, so don’t stuff your body with cheap, over processed foods that don’t keep you full, slow down your metabolism and turn into stored fat right away.
6. Use a fat burning supplement
As discussed above, your body will resist the changes in the diet you’re forcing it to live by, and those last 10% of fat will be the most difficult to get rid of – especially on the stomach. Keep this fact in mind and don’t get discouraged when you struggle with a slow progress.
One way to boost the fat burning process is by using a fat burning supplement, in addition to the healthy diet and exercise. Although some supplement companies have created an infamous reputation for fat burning supplements as dangerous and ineffective in general, this is not the whole truth.
There are plenty of effective and natural products which contain ingredients like Vitamin B6 and B12, already proven as helpful at fat loss. Do some research and choose a high quality supplement that will speed up your progress and motivate you to go even further down the road – shredding those last bits of fat on your belly!
The older you get, the more stubborn your belly fat becomes. And getting rid of stomach fat is actually important for greater reasons than better looks. The excess abdominal fat which surrounds the internal organs is a predictor of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance and many types of cancer. No matter what you read and hear, there ain’t any incredible tricks that will magically melt the fat surrounding your stomach – if you want it gone, be ready to make some long-term changes in your lifestyle.
– See more at: http://www.fitnessandpower.com/fitness-and-health/hacks-to-get-rid-of-stomach-fat#sthash.aUVqRtDz.dpuf
