5 best ways to blast belly fat

The ‘soft’ fat on your belly (the fat directly under your skin – not the ‘beer-belly’ fat) is called ‘subcutaneous’ fat.

If you have this kind of fat you may not be happy about it, but it is the better of the two types. The hard fat that creates a beer gut (‘visceral’ fat) is less healthy because it is the fat that surrounds your organs and wreaks havoc inside your body.

Here are some strategies to get rid of your subcutaneous and visceral fat. If you follow these five strategies, you’ll lose fat from your belly as well as the rest of your body. These strategies will also help you lose excess fat around your organs.

1. Get onto a weight-loss diet (Obvious, I know!)

The first thing to do is the most obvious. You need to start losing weight. We all carry our excess fat in different places. As women age, many tend to carry excess weight around their belly.

The bad news is that there aren’t any diets that ‘target’ belly fat. But there are many healthy, effective diets that help you lose weight over your whole body, and therefore, over your tummy area.

Stop agonising over which diet to do. Identify three diets that you think will suit your lifestyle, and your needs. They must be healthy, and they must be realistic (Don’t go for ones which promise ridiculous results after a few days!).

Now pick one of the three and stick to it.

Because the big secret is that any diet that you stick to will work. The catch is that you have to be able to follow it over the long term. Make sure that you get your portion-sizing right, because even healthy or ‘diet’ food won’t help you if you’re eating too much of it.

2. Eat less fat

Picture: iStock

If you’re trying to lose fat around your belly, then adding excess fat to your system is counter-productive.

Every competitive bodybuilder knows this. Yes, you might not be going for a super toned six-pack, but bodybuilders have it right when it comes to their diet. When training for a competition, they stick to meat and veg.

‘Clean’ eating is the way to go: When it’s time to cut fat from your body, cut it from your diet. A little fat (a teaspoon of olive oil on your salad) is okay, but ideally you want to really limit your fat intake, especially the bad animal fats (no bacon!).

3. Get your habits under control

Whether you’re a smoker, a drinker, an all-night gamer or a sweet-addict, your lifestyle habits need to be brought under control if you wish to succeed in losing fat in any substantial amount.

All of the habits listed above are detrimental to the process of fat loss, so you need to get those things in check.

Stop smoking, don’t drink excessively (at most, one small glass of red wine per day is admissible), make sure you sleep six to eight hours per night, and stop eating sweets.

This might sound like you’re taking all the ‘fun’ out of life. But trust me, when you start loving the way you look in your new outfits, and you have more energy and zest for life than you ever had before, you will agree that it is worth it!

Focus on building a ‘new you’. You will find fun in a wide variety of things, and you’ll have the energy to enjoy them.

4. Eat more natural fibre

Picture: iStock

Fibre is incredibly important for proper digestion, digestive health and weight loss.

You need to eat 30g of fibre per day (or more) from fruits and vegetables in order to have the right internal balance and stave off the accumulation of visceral fat. You should be eating lots of fruits and veggies anyway, so if you get your diet right you’ll be consuming lots of fibre by default.

Proper digestion also helps you feel far less bloated, and will help flatten out your belly area by reducing the amount of food that is stuck in your gut.

5. Don’t waste your time

Many mechanisms that were previously considered to be effective for fat reduction have been proven to be ineffective. Things like direct abdominal exercise and fat-reducing superfoods simply don’t offer the results you want.

Also, treatments like ‘freezing off your fat’ and such are a sham. Don’t kid yourself. If you want to lose fat, you need diet, exercise, and a healthy lifestyle. Those are the only things that work for long-term, effective fat loss.

Don’t despair. It takes some time, but it will be worth it in the end!

Brought to you by All4Women

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