Reduce your Stress Level Stress causes you to gain body fat by stimulating the adrenal glands to make cortisol, which is also known as the stress hormone.
To lower your belly fat, get regular physical activity, follow a healthy diet, and manage stress levels. The key is to lower total body fat through moderate-intensity physical activity and healthy eating; as you lower your overall body fat, you will reduce your stomach fat as well. Because you cannot control where your body is losing weight, in order to lose your belly fat, you must decrease total body fat. Visceral fat responds to the same types of diet and exercise strategies that will help you shed excess pounds and lower total body fat.
Making key diet changes and doing the right types of exercises can lower visceral fat levels. To reach Visceral Fat, you need to lower total body fat through dietary changes and doing moderate-intensity exercise.
Because muscles are metabolically active, you will continue burning calories after working out, thus decreasing your total body fat. Try Strength Training Strength training may be beneficial for weight loss, as it is focused on building muscle, which burns more calories than fat. Developing an exercise routine that works your entire body, including your stomach, may result in bodyweight loss. You can expect to experience healthy amounts of weight loss between 1-2 pounds per week with diet and exercise.
In terms of exercise, abdominal exercises may help tone the abdomen, but you still have to lose overall body fat in order to noticeably decrease belly fat. You can tone the muscles of the abdomen through crunches or other targeted ab exercises, but simply doing those exercises is not going to eliminate your stomach fat. With a chin-up or other abdominal exercises, you are toning your abdominal muscles, but not burning internal belly fat. These exercises only work your abdominal muscles (which are awesome) but do not burn the visceral fat that is stored deep in the abdomen and encircles the organs.
Simply put, you cannot cut the fat in one place, meaning that the never-ending crunches are going to be very ineffective at getting your stomach out. You cannot cut fat in specific parts of your body just by exercising those parts; our bodies just do not work like that. At the same time, an individual can lose weight and decrease fat by using proven, natural methods, including changing their diet and getting a certain kind of exercise. You can even technically lose stomach fat without exercising, according to Albert Matheny, as long as you are burning more calories than you are taking in.
To reduce belly fat, you would either have to restrict calories that you are eating, or only eat as many calories as you are burning off every day. For that, you have to constantly monitor your caloric intake as well as regularly exercise to burn more calories. Burning these extra calories may help you reach and maintain a healthier weight when combined with regular cardiovascular exercise and healthy eating. Focus on Low-Calories Food One of the most effective ways to lose fat is by eating fewer calories than your body burns.
Track Your Food Intake & Exercise Many things can help you lose weight and stomach fat, but eating fewer calories than the body needs for maintenance is crucial (54). Balancing calories consumed with exercise may help keep you from gaining weight, regardless of age or genetics.
In one study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, individuals who completed a high-intensity exercise program lost more stomach fat than those following a lower-intensity program. A 2014 study published in the journal Exercise Nutrition and Biochemistry had obese women take walks of 50-70 minutes three times per week for 12 weeks, and found they lost significant amounts of stomach fat, compared with those not taking part in a walking program. Researchers from Harvard University followed over 10,500 men over 12 years, and found that those who added 20 minutes of resistance training to regular cardio exercise gained less aging-related abdominal fat compared to those who punched the treadmill. A six-year study found that monkeys fed high-trans-fat diets gained 33% more stomach fat than those fed monounsaturated fat-rich diets (10).
Many observational studies have shown that those who eat more protein tend to have lower abdominal fat compared with those on low-protein diets (16, 17, 18). People are more likely to have high amounts of visceral fat if they eat a diet that is high in processed, sugary foods.
In just one of the many recent studies, the Journal of Nutrition reported that men who reduced carbohydrate consumption to only 8% of their daily calories lost 7 pounds of body fat and gained 2 pounds of lean mass over a period of six weeks. One study found that eating 42g of almonds a day (instead of eating something higher carb for the same calories) helped lower stomach fat and improve cholesterol levels. A small study published in Exercise Nutrition and Biochemistry found that obesity-prone women who did a walking program of 50-70 minutes, three days a week, for 12 weeks dramatically reduced visceral fat, compared with a sedentary control group. When researchers at Johns Hopkins University compared the effects on the heart of losing weight with a low-carb diet and a low-fat diet over a period of six months–each providing an equal number of calories–those who followed a low-carb diet lost, on average, 10 pounds more than those on a low-fat diet lost, on average, 28.9 pounds, compared with a low-fat diet–28.9 pounds, compared with an otherwise similar amount.
Research in 2011 suggests high-intensity interval training can lower body fat more effectively than other types of exercise. High stress levels may also contribute to body fat accumulation, says Lapix, so look for healthier ways of managing stress, as well as avoid unhealthy behaviors such as smoking and alcohol.
The one single most important thing that individuals can do to prevent the accumulation of abdominal fat, and get rid of existing abdominal fat, is to engage in physical activity, and even better, adopt a physical lifestyle. In general, experts say that these health and fitness changes can help you lose belly fat–and fat from other areas–and keep it off. Cutting carbohydrates — and specifically, refined carbohydrates Cutting your carb intake may have big benefits when it comes to losing body fat, including stomach fat.
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