How To Lose Belly Fat: The Complete Guide
Everyone has some belly fat, even people who have flat abs. Too much belly fat can affect your health in a way that other fat doesn't. Some of your fat is right under your skin. Other fat is deeper inside, around your heart, lungs, liver, and other organs. It's that deeper fat -- called "visceral" fat -- that may be the bigger problem, even for thin people.
You need some visceral fat. It provides cushioning around your organs. But if you have too much of it, you may be more likely to get type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, dementia, and certain cancers.
The fat doesn't just sit there. It's an active part of your body, making lots of nasty substances.
If you gain too much weight, your body starts to store your fat in unusual places.
With increasing obesity, you have people whose regular areas to store fat are so full that the fat is deposited into the organs and around the heart.
Visceral fat does a real number on your health because of where it sits in the body. With fat, it's all about location, and each fat "depot" has a highly specialized function. We used to think all fat was created equal, that it was just a storage bin for excess calories. But that's not true.
Fat, like muscle, is now known to be metabolically active; it produces dozens of chemicals, including hormones that signal to the brain that someone is hungry or satisfied. Indeed, we now think of fat tissue depots as endocrine organs.
Fat releases hormones that vary depending on where the fat is located. You may not be a big fan of the size of your thighs, but research suggests that the hormones produced there provide a health benefit. We don't know all the details, but it is clear that the fat in the hips, and particularly in the thighs, protects against some of the health consequences of obesity, such as diabetes, by producing substances that increase insulin sensitivity. Visceral fat, on the other hand, is known to produce inflammatory agents that can, over time, increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and breast and colorectal cancers.
What Causes Belly Fat?
Eating too much and moving too little is the foundation upon which flab is built. But there’s more to the belly fat equation than ‘calories in and calories out’. Certain stressors, for example, will see you scaling your belt notches with very little effort. Here’s what you should look out for.
You're Seriously Stressed
You're Eating Trans Fats
If antioxidants are the good guys of gut health, trans fats are the super-villains. These sneaky fats actively contribute to your wobbly waist – not just by adding new fat, but by moving fat from other areas of your body to your belly. During a six-year study at Wake Forest University, monkeys that were fed an 8 per cent trans fat diet had 33 per cent more belly fat than monkeys that were fed an 8 per cent monounsaturated fat diet.
There are currently no legal requirements for food manufacturers to label trans fats, so you need to check ingredients lists for hydrogenated fats and hydrogenated vegetable oils. The biggest culprits? Your ‘cheat day’ favourites: cakes, biscuits, ice cream, popcorn, pies, fried food, fast food, takeaways — the list goes on.
Here are Tips to Get Rid of Belly FatTry curbing carbs instead of fats.
When researchers compared the effects on the heart of losing weight through a low-carbohydrate diet versus a low-fat diet for six months—each containing the same amount of calories—those on a low-carb diet lost an average of 10 pounds more than those on a low-fat diet—28.9 pounds versus 18.7 pounds. An extra benefit of the low-carb diet is that it produced a higher quality of weight loss, Stewart says. With weight loss, fat is reduced, but there is also often a loss of lean tissue (muscle), which is not desirable. On both diets, there was a loss of about 2 to 3 pounds of good lean tissue along with the fat, which means that the fat loss percentage was much higher on the low-carb diet.
Eat plenty of soluble fiber
Soluble fiber absorbs water and forms a gel that helps slow down food as it passes through your digestive system. This type of fiber promotes weight loss by helping you feel full, so you naturally eat less. It may also decrease the number of calories your body absorbs from food.
What’s more, soluble fiber may help fight belly fat.
An observational study in over 1,100 adults found that for every 10-gram increase in soluble fiber intake, belly fat gain decreased by 3.7% over a 5-year period.
Make an effort to consume high fiber foods every day. Excellent sources of soluble fiber include:
Brussels sprouts
avocados
flax seeds
shirataki noodles
legumes
blackberries
Eat a high protein diet
Protein is an extremely important nutrient for weight management. High protein intake increases the release of the fullness hormone PYY, which decreases appetite and promotes fullness.
Protein also raises your metabolic rate and helps you to retain muscle mass during weight loss
Many observational studies show that people who eat more protein tend to have less abdominal fat than those who eat a lower protein diet Be sure to include a good protein source at every meal, such
fish
eggs
as:
meat
dairy
whey protein
beans
Take a minute to chill
Stress isn’t just exhausting — it can actually harm your body. A 2000 study linked visceral fat to the stress hormone cortisol, finding that women with more abdominal fat also had more negative moods and a lot more stress in their lives.
Tackle both issues by prioritizing stress relief. Whether it’s catching up on a great book, taking a slow-flow yoga class, or soaking in the tub, try to get in some R&R.
Think eating plan, not diet.
Ultimately, you need to pick a healthy eating plan you can stick to, Stewart says. The benefit of a low-carb approach is that it simply involves learning better food choices—no calorie-counting is necessary. In general, a low-carb way of eating shifts your intake away from problem foods—those high in carbs and sugar and without much fiber, like bread, bagels and sodas—and toward high-fiber or high-protein choices, like vegetables, beans and healthy meats.
Exercise on the regular
Exercise does more than just release endorphins — it actively decreases the amount of visceral fat in your body. Aerobic exercise in particular is very helpful, so try hitting up a fun dance class, going for a walk, or running a few times a week.
Second-guess the bread basket
A low carb diet isn’t exactly fun, but it can be an effective way to reduce body fat. Research has shown that a lower carb, higher fat diet can make a significant difference in belly fat.
While you don’t need to cut out carbs completely (elimination diets like this can often backfire), you may want to shift to a more low carb way of life.
Skip the cocktails
It should be no surprise that too much alcohol isn’t great for your body. In addition to hangovers and other health concerns, research has shown that drinking a lot of alcohol can cause fat to be stored as visceral fat.
Consume less sugar
As delicious as sugar may be, too much of it just isn’t good for you. Consuming a lot of added sugar has been linked to an increased amount of body fat, and a 2017 study focused on kids found that eating less sugar could reduce body fat in just days.
It may not be the easiest thing to do, but trying to eliminate sugar from your diet can be extremely beneficial.
Summary
There are no magic solutions to losing belly fat.
Weight loss always requires some effort, commitment, and perseverance on your behalf.
Successfully adopting some or all of the strategies and lifestyle goals discussed in this article will definitely help you lose the extra pounds around your waist.
Everyone has some belly fat, even people who have flat abs. Too much belly fat can affect your health in a way that other fat doesn't. Some of your fat is right under your skin. Other fat is deeper inside, around your heart, lungs, liver, and other organs. It's that deeper fat -- called "visceral" fat -- that may be the bigger problem, even for thin people.
You need some visceral fat. It provides cushioning around your organs. But if you have too much of it, you may be more likely to get type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, dementia, and certain cancers.
The fat doesn't just sit there. It's an active part of your body, making lots of nasty substances.
If you gain too much weight, your body starts to store your fat in unusual places.
With increasing obesity, you have people whose regular areas to store fat are so full that the fat is deposited into the organs and around the heart.
What Is Belly Fat?
Abdominal fat takes two major forms: subcutaneous fat (the visible kind just below the skin) and visceral fat (which is embedded deep within your abdomen and wraps around the organs clustered there). Though the first kind of fat is easier to see, the latter kind poses the far greater health risk—and as a result is more important in your overall quest to lose belly fat. Weirdly, this fat is not always evident. Even if you're not overweight, you still could be packing a lot of visceral fat.Visceral fat does a real number on your health because of where it sits in the body. With fat, it's all about location, and each fat "depot" has a highly specialized function. We used to think all fat was created equal, that it was just a storage bin for excess calories. But that's not true.
Fat, like muscle, is now known to be metabolically active; it produces dozens of chemicals, including hormones that signal to the brain that someone is hungry or satisfied. Indeed, we now think of fat tissue depots as endocrine organs.
Fat releases hormones that vary depending on where the fat is located. You may not be a big fan of the size of your thighs, but research suggests that the hormones produced there provide a health benefit. We don't know all the details, but it is clear that the fat in the hips, and particularly in the thighs, protects against some of the health consequences of obesity, such as diabetes, by producing substances that increase insulin sensitivity. Visceral fat, on the other hand, is known to produce inflammatory agents that can, over time, increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and breast and colorectal cancers.
What Causes Belly Fat?
Eating too much and moving too little is the foundation upon which flab is built. But there’s more to the belly fat equation than ‘calories in and calories out’. Certain stressors, for example, will see you scaling your belt notches with very little effort. Here’s what you should look out for.
You're Seriously Stressed
When your cortisol levels are through the roof, it triggers the release of insulin, and this is where things go awry. Initially, the ‘fight-or-flight’ response shuts down your digestive system so you can deal with the “threat”, like a very hungry lion or, more realistically, heavy traffic on your way to work. Once the danger has passed, your body seeks to replenish the hundreds of calories you burned fighting to the death/swearing at rush hour traffic and makes you ravenously hungry.
Since your blood sugar levels are now super low and your reward centres are blinkered , you wind up face-planting the biscuit tin rather than the fruit bowl. To make matters worse, cortisol helps to release myostatin, a protein that breaks down muscle.
You're Eating Trans Fats
If antioxidants are the good guys of gut health, trans fats are the super-villains. These sneaky fats actively contribute to your wobbly waist – not just by adding new fat, but by moving fat from other areas of your body to your belly. During a six-year study at Wake Forest University, monkeys that were fed an 8 per cent trans fat diet had 33 per cent more belly fat than monkeys that were fed an 8 per cent monounsaturated fat diet.
There are currently no legal requirements for food manufacturers to label trans fats, so you need to check ingredients lists for hydrogenated fats and hydrogenated vegetable oils. The biggest culprits? Your ‘cheat day’ favourites: cakes, biscuits, ice cream, popcorn, pies, fried food, fast food, takeaways — the list goes on.
Here are Tips to Get Rid of Belly Fat
When researchers compared the effects on the heart of losing weight through a low-carbohydrate diet versus a low-fat diet for six months—each containing the same amount of calories—those on a low-carb diet lost an average of 10 pounds more than those on a low-fat diet—28.9 pounds versus 18.7 pounds. An extra benefit of the low-carb diet is that it produced a higher quality of weight loss, Stewart says. With weight loss, fat is reduced, but there is also often a loss of lean tissue (muscle), which is not desirable. On both diets, there was a loss of about 2 to 3 pounds of good lean tissue along with the fat, which means that the fat loss percentage was much higher on the low-carb diet.
Eat plenty of soluble fiber
Soluble fiber absorbs water and forms a gel that helps slow down food as it passes through your digestive system. This type of fiber promotes weight loss by helping you feel full, so you naturally eat less. It may also decrease the number of calories your body absorbs from food.
What’s more, soluble fiber may help fight belly fat.
An observational study in over 1,100 adults found that for every 10-gram increase in soluble fiber intake, belly fat gain decreased by 3.7% over a 5-year period.
Make an effort to consume high fiber foods every day. Excellent sources of soluble fiber include:
Brussels sprouts
avocados
flax seeds
shirataki noodles
legumes
blackberries
Eat a high protein diet
Protein is an extremely important nutrient for weight management. High protein intake increases the release of the fullness hormone PYY, which decreases appetite and promotes fullness.
Protein also raises your metabolic rate and helps you to retain muscle mass during weight loss
Many observational studies show that people who eat more protein tend to have less abdominal fat than those who eat a lower protein diet Be sure to include a good protein source at every meal, such
fish
eggs
as:
meat
dairy
whey protein
beans
Take a minute to chill
Stress isn’t just exhausting — it can actually harm your body. A 2000 study linked visceral fat to the stress hormone cortisol, finding that women with more abdominal fat also had more negative moods and a lot more stress in their lives.
Tackle both issues by prioritizing stress relief. Whether it’s catching up on a great book, taking a slow-flow yoga class, or soaking in the tub, try to get in some R&R.
Think eating plan, not diet.
Ultimately, you need to pick a healthy eating plan you can stick to, Stewart says. The benefit of a low-carb approach is that it simply involves learning better food choices—no calorie-counting is necessary. In general, a low-carb way of eating shifts your intake away from problem foods—those high in carbs and sugar and without much fiber, like bread, bagels and sodas—and toward high-fiber or high-protein choices, like vegetables, beans and healthy meats.
Exercise on the regular
Exercise does more than just release endorphins — it actively decreases the amount of visceral fat in your body. Aerobic exercise in particular is very helpful, so try hitting up a fun dance class, going for a walk, or running a few times a week.
Second-guess the bread basket
A low carb diet isn’t exactly fun, but it can be an effective way to reduce body fat. Research has shown that a lower carb, higher fat diet can make a significant difference in belly fat.
While you don’t need to cut out carbs completely (elimination diets like this can often backfire), you may want to shift to a more low carb way of life.
Skip the cocktails
It should be no surprise that too much alcohol isn’t great for your body. In addition to hangovers and other health concerns, research has shown that drinking a lot of alcohol can cause fat to be stored as visceral fat.
Consume less sugar
As delicious as sugar may be, too much of it just isn’t good for you. Consuming a lot of added sugar has been linked to an increased amount of body fat, and a 2017 study focused on kids found that eating less sugar could reduce body fat in just days.
It may not be the easiest thing to do, but trying to eliminate sugar from your diet can be extremely beneficial.
Summary
There are no magic solutions to losing belly fat.
Weight loss always requires some effort, commitment, and perseverance on your behalf.
Successfully adopting some or all of the strategies and lifestyle goals discussed in this article will definitely help you lose the extra pounds around your waist.
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