How to Lose Belly Fat: 7 Expert-Approved Ways

Sitting in a fancy restaurant with your favorite dress on, you casually look down to check your phone, and there it is your stomach roll making quite an unwelcome entrance. Feeling defeated, you walk down memory lane to revisit every rocca salad you unwillingly devoured in the hopes of getting rid of your too much belly fat, every exercise you performed, and all the trendy diets you followed to reshape your life and body. We know the struggle. We know by heart that we took it upon ourselves to find what every woman deserves: effective methods. In this article, we’ll discuss how to lose belly fat in 7 different ways.

Increase Your Fiber Intake

From red chili and bean soup to overnight oats, increasing fiber intake can do wonders for your health. A fiber-loaded diet not only lowers your cholesterol levels, controls blood sugar levels, and maintains a healthy bowel, but (and this is what concerns us here) it fiercely fights belly fat, especially soluble fibers.

What Exactly Is Soluble Fiber and Why Is Consuming It Essential for Targeting Stubborn Belly Fat?

Soluble and insoluble fibers divide and interact with the water in your body differently. When mixed with water, soluble fibers form a gel-like substance that slows down the release of digested food from your stomach and into your gut, eventually increasing fullness and helping reduce excess belly fat. Sources of soluble fibers include carrots, Brussels sprouts, green beans, sweet potatoes, eggplants, citrus fruits, blueberries, and bananas.

While this superfood comes with loads of benefits and nutrients, it might cause bloating and abdominal discomfort at first. It’s worth noting that increasing your fiber intake immediately might leave you feeling uncomfortable and thinking, “Maybe this is not for me”. Well, kill that thought, and don’t ditch fiber because this is normal. All you have to do is gradually introduce fibers to your digestive system by adding a source or two of soluble fiber to your diet and then some more the following week.

Also, there are some clues to look for if the fiber problem persists, like drinking enough water to help with the digestion process, not eating too much fiber that your digestive system is overwhelmed, and having FODMAP or lectin sensitivity.

Stay Away From Stress

It’s no secret that stress is an integral part of our lives. The stress we experience stems from our work and concerns about our contribution to society. We stress about our relationships because the more we care about someone, the more consumed we’ll feel. We stress about our lifestyle, fitness routine, and diet. Guess what? We even stress about being stressed all the time!

Unfortunately, nothing makes the already challenging task of losing belly fat more difficult than stress. When you are under a lot of stress, your body feels attacked and naturally triggers the adrenal glands to produce cortisol, a stress hormone that increases your appetite and heightens abdominal fat storage. As a result, your body will constantly disrupt your weight loss journey, hitting one plateau after another for no apparent reason (or so you would think).

Cut Back on Sugar and Trans-Fat

You must have heard it before: sugar is one of the white poisons that can heavily take its sweet toll on your body, from increased risk of heart disease, weight gain, type 2 diabetes, and cancer to accelerating cellular aging and depleting your energy. What’s more, consuming high levels of sugar and foods containing trans-fat results in an increase in visceral belly fat (unlike subcutaneous fat found under your skin, visceral fat builds up deep inside your abdominal cavity and surrounds your organs).

According to a study by the Department of Pediatrics, Georgia Health Sciences University, greater fructose consumption is associated with excess visceral fat. That’s why if you are in search of effective ways to reduce belly fat, consider skipping this muffin and replacing it with an apple.

Incorporate Cardiovascular Exercise

Over the past months, you have been trying every single ab workout that you stumble across online, from planking in your living room, performing countless sets of bicycle crunches every morning, and doing leg raises while sending an email, down to every other awkward position there is. However, your belly fat seems to have a stubborn mind of its own, and it doesn’t seem to budge.

Unlike what has been viral for years on the internet and even among trainees that ab exercises fight belly fat (after all it is called “ab” exercises), studies concluded that even though you are strengthening the abdominal muscles, losing belly fat requires engaging in aerobic or cardio exercises like walking, running, biking, or swimming, which ultimately reduces overall body fat and increases your muscle mass. Only then you will start to see some real results and this is when you should add ab workouts to your fitness routine to help tone your body.

Give Intermittent Fasting a Go

What happens to your body when you fast? Originally, your body is designed to rely on your glycogen stores, breaking it into glucose and using it as fuel. When you start intermittent fasting (say a cycle of 14/10), you disrupt your body’s natural process (not a bad thing though). To provide you with the necessary energy, you need to function properly throughout the day, your body exhausts its sugar stores and then searches for another source of energy: fat, particularly the one surrounding the midsection.

The best part about intermittent fasting? This process doesn’t only mean you lose fat and get a smaller waistline. Promoting blood sugar control, helping you lose weight, fighting inflammation, improving blood pressure, boosting brain function, and increasing the effectiveness of chemotherapy are all among the health benefits of fasting.

Get Enough Sleep

How many times have you stayed up late, scrolling up and down your feed across various social media platforms, desperately counting the remaining hours you get to sleep till the alarm goes off? We’ve all been there. You are probably familiar with the commonly discussed chronic health problems associated with disturbed sleep, among which are heart disease, high blood pressure, depression, mood swings, and anxiety. But did it ever cross your mind that you have belly fat because you don’t get enough sleep?

Reduced insulin response to glucose, ultimately resulting in excess fat accumulation, especially around the belly, is linked to sleep deprivation. So, if you want to get rid of your stomach rolls, consider getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night.

Drink Enough Water

Installing that application that tracks your water intake wasn’t in vain after all. One of the key tools to fighting belly fat is increasing your water consumption. Drinking enough water throughout the day means you get to eat less. How’s so? Well, when your stomach is full, it sends a signal to your brain to urge you to stop eating. So, water can take up more space in your stomach, acting as a natural appetite suppressant and making you feel less hungry after just a few bites.

On the other hand, skipping this glass of water may give you a false alarm that you are hungry, when in fact you are just thirsty. Plus, without enough water, your body wouldn’t be able to burn fat.

The Bottom Line

With the combination of these 7 effective methods, you have an in-depth guide to help you fight your belly fat. Start implementing this science-backed strategy, and, just a few weeks from now, you will notice the difference. Just remember that this is a ride towards your dream body, and it is essential to enjoy it instead of beating yourself up every time you look in the mirror. Accept who you are today and do the work to meet a better you tomorrow.

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