Losing belly fat

Are You Ready to Start Losing Belly Fat?

Below are the key principles for losing belly fat. You do not have to follow all of them (the more you do the better and faster the results will be, provided you stick to them for at least a few month).

You should not make extreme changes to your exercise and eating habits all at once, implement only those you are comfortable with, remember that even a few will make a huge difference.

Eat More Often

When we eat smaller more frequent meals we tend to eat less while feeling like we are eating more. When you eat regularly throughout the day, your body knows that more food is on the way, and it's more likely to burn the calories you consume than store them as fat.

Eating more often also keeps our insulin levels constant and our metabolism high for the whole day, in addition to making you feel "full".

When you are less hungry it is much easier to pick a lean and healthy snack, plus if you plan your meals ahead of time you are less likely to make unhealthy last minute choices.

I know it may be difficult to incorporate eating 5 to 6 times per day into your schedule, but it's worth it. You can make your existing meals smaller and add healthy snacks between meals to achieve this.

You shouldn't be hungry. Here is a sample meal plan for you to try.

Drink More Water

Drinking plenty of water has many benefits:

Drinking more water means you gain less empty calories from other drinks (sodas, energy drinks, alcohol...)
Our bodies sometimes confuse thirst with hunger drinking more will cause you to eat less.
Every metabolic process in your body uses water, give your body what it needs.

Don't Skip Breakfast

Don't skip breakfast. A nutritious breakfast rich with protein and whole grains boosts your metabolism for the whole day and reduces food cravings.

Keep Yourself Motivated

Join a support group or a friend who is also trying to lose weight. It can be your family, friends, an online forum, anyone who you will share your progress with and be accountable to other then yourself.

It is harder to cheat this way and it has been proven to help numerous people succeed losing belly fat.

Move and Exercise More

Cardio is a great way to burn calories. And you need to burn fat all over your body to get a flat stomach, spot toning is a myth (read below about sit ups).

Cardio is most effective if done for atleast 30mins a day several times a week. Start with walking. Slowly increase your pace and prolong your workouts to one hour 5 times a week.

Cardio exercises are great at burning calories because they work the bigger muscles of your body and those muscles need a lot of energy.

Think about the athletes in sports that involve a lot of running they all have very little belly fat. Instead of running you can go dancing, swimming anything that gets you moving and gets your heart rate up.

Light weight-training is probably the most under-estimated way of losing belly fat!

Weight training increases your metabolism for hours after a workout. It also prevents loss of lean muscle tissue that occurs with age.

Sit ups, crunches and other ab exercises will tone your abs muscles but they are not the best exercises for burning fat.

Doing sit ups burns far less calories than full body exercises simply because your abs are a small muscle group compared to say your leg muscles.

You will need to do 20000 sit ups to burn enough calories to lose one pound of fat, yes twenty thousand, that's not a typo.

However sit ups are a great exercise to tone and build your stomach muscles for that six pack look.

More Tips

Get plenty of sleep. Lack of sleep has been scientifically linked to stress, depression, lack of motivation and weight gain.

Plan your snacks and meals ahead of time, to avoid less healthy last minute choices.

Lower your fat intake by switching to lean meat, skim milk, use less butter and mayo in your cooking.

Have more protein with every meal good sources of protein are egg whites, lean meats, fish (contains healthy omega-3), poultry, beans (also contain fiber that makes you feel fuller), peas, soy, whole grains, quinoa, seafood, nuts (also a source of healthy fats. Proteins take more energy to digest and contain less calories then fat or carbs.

Eat more veggies, whole grains, tuna and salmon, beans/legumes, nuts and seeds avoid empty calories from sodas, chips, cookies and ice cream.

Don't eat in front of the TV, it's been Shown in several studies that people eat more when they snack while watching TV.

Set goals. Write them down, follow them and most importantly allow enough time for these tips to work, the results will come and motivate you further.

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