One goal most people strive to achieve is to lose belly fat. Whether you want your new six-pack abs to show or reduce your unsightly protruding belly, you have to do several things to make it happen. Belly fat is visceral fat, the most dangerous type of fat. It crowds organs, creates inflammation, and causes health issues. It’s also the hardest type of fat to lose. If you have visceral fat, getting a flat stomach is impossible without making other lifestyle changes.
It all starts with a healthy diet.
You can’t spot-reduce, so don’t think that only doing crunches, leg lifts, and sit-ups will solve your problem. Getting rid of belly fat starts with a healthy diet. Fat is stored calories ready to burn for energy. If you want to burn belly fat, you have to lose weight. That means reducing your calorie intake and getting your energy from the fat stored all over your body. Beware of choosing diet drinks. Studies show there’s a link between diet drinks and belly fat.
Some foods are better at burning belly fat than others.
If you have a low-calorie diet and all those calories come from simple carbs, losing belly fat will be a greater struggle. A low-carb diet and eliminating sugar, sugary drinks, and highly processed food helps. Increasing fiber also can help reduce belly fat. It slows glucose absorption into the bloodstream and helps prevent insulin resistance by stabilizing blood glucose levels. Insulin resistance can cause belly fat. What’s worse is that belly fat can cause insulin resistance, so it’s a vicious cycle.
Stress adds to the problem.
Stress creates a flight-or-flight response that sends a rush of hormones, including cortisol. It reduces circulation in the digestive system and makes belly fat more likely. Cortisol is also linked to increased hunger. Exercise burns off some stress hormones, but you can help prevent your body from creating them by learning relaxation techniques, such as meditation, controlled breathing techniques, or other options like yoga or tai chi.
Include HIIT—high intensity interval training—sessions in your workout. You alternate the intensity of any exercise between maximum intensity and recovery. It burns more calories and relieves stress in less time.
Drink plenty of water. It fills you up so you eat less, boosts your energy so you burn more calories, and helps flush out waste.
If you make the extra fiber in your diet soluble fiber, your microbes will help you lose belly fat. The beneficial bacteria produce short-chain fatty acids that aid in reducing belly fat and lower the risk of increasing it.
Get adequate sleep. When you have too little sleep, your body produces more ghrelin—the hunger hormone—and less leptin—the one that makes you feel full. You’ll eat more when you lack sleep.