In today’s day and age, there is no shortage of tips and tricks on how to lose weight quickly. Some of the information is beneficial and effective, while other tips are useless and leave you frustrated. Most people who want to lose weight want to see it disappear from the stomach area. While the main reason for losing belly fat may be due to vanity, there is a lot of evidence that trimming down your midsection benefits your overall health.
It is very difficult to target belly fat specifically when dieting. When you take a multi-faceted approach to weight loss, you ultimately work to shrink your waistline. The most important part of losing weight around the midsection is that you reduce dangerous layers of visceral fat. This type of fat, which you can’t see, exists within the abdominal cavity and it increases the risk of several health conditions.Â
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 40% of the world’s population is overweight. Being overweight or obese can increase the risk of metabolic conditions, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, fatty liver disease, sleep apnea, osteoarthritis, and certain types of cancer. Continue reading if you want to learn about tips that can help you lose belly fat.Â
Eat Mindfully
The concept of eating mindfully means that you pay attention to food on purpose, moment by moment. It’s an approach to eating that helps you focus on the awareness of the food you eat and how you experience it. This eating style is a helpful way to achieve a healthy weight. Slow down when you eat so that you don’t inhale your food too quickly. When you eat, make sure that there are no distractions because the goal is to focus on your meal.
Reduce Stress
When you experience stress over a longer period of time, it’s not only dangerous to your health, but it’s also linked to fat gain. Chronic stress can increase the risk of heart disease, mental disorders, autoimmune disorders, and diabetes. Stress manifests in the body in several ways, some of which you may not always notice. Increasing levels of cortisol, changes in appetite, interfering with digestion, and increasing blood sugar levels are a few examples. Carve out more time for relaxation activities if you feel an overwhelming amount of stress in your life, because it may be keeping that fat around your belly.Â
Think Eating Plan, Not Diet
The idea that a quick fix diet is the answer to your belly fat problems is a false promise. Sure, you may see the weight fall off in two weeks, but then you return to your old eating habits and the fat comes back. Instead, you should decide on a healthy eating plan that you can sustain over time. You may benefit from a low-carb approach that involves learning smarter food choices. Low-carb eating helps to shift your focus away from problem foods that are rich in calories, carbs, and sodium. Instead, you eat more nutrient-dense foods!
Limit Your Alcohol
According to research, people who drink regularly have more belly fat than people who drink socially or casually. While there are low-calorie alcoholic beverages, drinking excessively tends to increase your caloric intake. Alcohol also lowers your inhibitions, meaning that you are more inclined to eat unhealthy foods after a few drinks. If you have more than two drinks a day, try cutting back on your consumption to trim down your midsection.
Don’t Neglect Your Sleep
Sleep affects your mood, immune function, productivity, and more. How does it relate to the fat around your belly, though? Sleep can affect ghrelin and leptin, both of which are appetite-stimulating hormones. When you don’t get enough sleep, or you don’t sleep well, you impact those hunger hormones. The biochemical response to sleep deprivation is that you want to eat more, and the foods you want to eat are typically unhealthy. Aim to get seven to eight hours of sleep per night to help regulate those hunger hormones.Â
HIIT Workouts
If you want to lose belly fat, you have to focus on your diet, but you also need to incorporate fitness into your weight loss regimen. If you want to make the most of your workouts, high-intensity interval (HIIT) workouts give you the most bang for your workout buck. They combine cardiovascular exercise and strength training movements. Studies show that HIIT workouts help you burn fat in a short period of time. In fact, a systematic review found that HIIT workouts led to 28% greater reductions in total fat mass compared to moderate-intensity training.
Curb Your Late Night Eating
If you mindlessly snack while binging a TV show late at night, you aren’t doing yourself any favors. It’s best to implement a cutoff time for eating, especially at night. Aim to eat dinner no later than 7 p.m. and don’t eat until the next morning. Think of this as a way of intermittent fasting, trying to eat the majority of your food during an eight-hour period in the daytime. Registered dietitians say that people who struggle to lose weight often overeat at night, so if you fall into this category then you know what you have to work on.
Vincent Stevens is the senior content writer at Dherbs. As a fitness and health and wellness enthusiast, he enjoys covering a variety of topics, including the latest health, fitness, beauty, and lifestyle trends. His goal is to inform people of different ways they can improve their overall health, which aligns with Dherbs’ core values. He received his bachelor’s degree in creative writing from the University of Redlands, graduating summa cum laude. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.
