How to Lose Belly Fat: Is There a Secret?

How to Lose Belly Fat: Is There a Secret?

The ideal that many of us hold in our minds for our body is a chiseled frame with six pack abs.  Unfortunately, what shows in the mirror for many of us is far from that.  Some have abs that have been crafted by too many six packs but this doesn’t count when we are trying to achieve “the look.”

There are quite a few of us that are packing too many pounds around the middle.  We need to understand the dangers of belly fat and not take an uninterested view of it.  Belly fat has been associated with high blood pressure, high cholesterol diabetes, heart disease, blood clots, breast and prostate cancer, etc.  It is serious business. So the question we should be asking is how to lose belly fat.

Well if you are looking for the magical and sure fire formuala for getting rid of this dangerous stomach fat you are going to be disappointed.  Despite what all of the ads tell you there is not hidden secret for how to lose belly fat fast.  You cannot actually target your belly fat.  For that matter you cannot target any fat on your body.  You can only get rid of stomach fat within the scope of a regular fat burning program.

Let’s take a look at a few things we can do to find success in this arena.

Get more sleep.  This may sound a little silly but your body needs the proper amount of sleep to function appropriately.  In our busy society many of us do not get the eight hours of sleep each night that we should be getting.  You will not burn fat as you should if you are sleep deprived.

Reduce the stress in your life.  Stress releases a chemical called cortisol in your body. Cortisol has been linked with the creation of visceral fat. Visceral fat is fat that surrounds the organs in your body and is the most dangerous type of fat.  Cortisol also promotes eating too much and it does not allow a metabolic response in reaction to this food.  So it is essential to reduce stress in your life if you want to get rid of belly fat.

Engage in daily exercise.  Exercise must be a part of any weight loss or fat burning program.  If you want to know how to lose your belly fat then you must exercise. Fat loss is merely a math computation at the very heart of it. You need to take in fewer calories than you expend.  Spend at least 20 – 25 minutes each day in some form of exercise from cardio to weight training.  You can extend that time up to 45 minutes per day but don’t extend it beyond that too much.  Especially if it is cardio.  Beyond 45 minutes of cardio and you will begin to eat muscle for energy.  We want to keep our muscle. Muscle as we will see in a couple of minutes is a fat burning machine.  By the way, one of the benefits of exercise is a reduce in cortisol levels and insulin levels.

Also as an aside you cannot do enough sit ups to make you fat disappear.  They will strengthen the muscle underneath the fat but until you get rid of the fat you will never see the muscle.

Alter your diet.  You don’t get excess belly fat by eating healthy. You most likely have been eating the wrong kinds of fats such as trans fats and have been eating way too much food.  Despite what you thought your body didn’t need that much food.  If it did you wouldn’t have the belly that you currently do.

You also should eat more whole grains.  There was a study done in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that showed that a diet rich in whole grains actually helped get rid of stomach fat in obese patients.  They compared two groups.  One group ate whole grains and the other ate refined grains.  The whole grain group lost more weight and more weight from their bellies.

Another change to your diet can be too add more foods that are rich in monsaturated fat.  I know the prospect of adding fat to your diet to get rid of fat seems pardoxical.  Monosaturated fats can be found in avocados, nuts, seeds, soybeans and even chocolate (although I do not recommend a diet high in chocolate).  Some studies have suggested that these foods can help prevent belly fat.  I am not sure if it is that or if it is that people who each such foods tend to eat diets lower in calories but nevertheless monosaturated fats are healthy and can at least prevent you from adding more fat to your abdominal region.

Build muscle.  Muscle burns calorie at a high rate.  It requires more energy (calories) to maintain one pound of muscle than it does to maintain one pound of fat.  Therefore the more muscle you build anywhere on your body will help you burn more fat, even fat in your belly.

There is no secret to burning belly fat but if you follow the above suggestions it should help you in learning how to lose lower belly fat or how to lose upper belly fat.

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