How To Lose Belly Fat – 16 Tips for a Flatter Stomach Belly fat?

By SANJEET KUMAR

Updated on:

I often receive the question of how to reduce belly fat, especially during the Ganapati, Navratri, and Diwali festivals. This page provides the most comprehensive and effective information on habits, diets, and exercises for reducing belly fat. It covers topics such as reducing belly fat through exercise, drinks that aid in belly fat reduction, exercises specifically targeting belly fat loss, and even belly fat reducing belts belly fat reducing drink.

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Why it is important to look after your body fat percentage

Before you dismiss the significance of having a flat stomach and move on, it is crucial to understand that there is limited connection between having a flat abdomen and maintaining a healthy body fat percentage. The notion that being thin automatically ensures a controlled body fat percentage has been proven untrue in a study, which can be found at this link: [http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2047487313492631]. Measuring your waist can provide a quick assessment of your overall health. It extends beyond mere discomfort and ill-fitting jeans. If your waist measures more than 38 inches as a man or 34 inches as a woman, it is likely that you have excessive visceral fat, known to contribute to various diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and certain mental health problems.

reducing belly fat exercise

 This deeper level of fat is called visceral fat. Unlike subcutaneous fat, visceral fat is an endocrine reactor that secretes hormones and a flux of chemicals related to diseases that are commonly noted in older adults. Retinol-Binding Protein 4 (RBP4) is noted to increase the risk of heart disease over a study conducted over sixteen years. [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/11/well/live/belly-fat-health-visceral-fat-waist-cancer.html]

The same visceral fat is also linked to raising the risk of cancer in women. Locally in the heart of India, in a study of more than 3,000 premenopausal and postmenopausal women in Mumbai, India, women whose waists were about as big as their hips faced a three to four fold risk of getting a breast cancer than ideal weight women

We will break this article down into four parts?

  1. 15 Quick Tips to Reduce Belly Fat.
  2. Best Diet for Reducing Belly Fat
  3. The Best Exercise for Reducing Belly Fat.
  4. How to measure your progress with losing Belly Fat

15 Quick Tips for Reducing Belly Fat Fast:

Take Charge of your Metabolism

Suggesting the best diet isn’t as simple as ‘You should eat X at Y time for Z days.’ In my methodology I leave you capable of making choices that help you choose the food you want to eat in order to achieve the body you deserve.

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Start your day off bright and early with a balanced breakfast of your choice, just make sure you’re not doing any shenanigans like skipping breakfast or heavy breakfast. This study https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15699226 showed unstable insulin levels can be avoided by not skipping breakfast. It is on you to make your metabolism work for you not against you. With my diets you can make it help you lose weight even when you are resting on your sofa. A good diet would have many sources of proteins and fiber like beans, nuts, oats, fruits, green vegetables, etc. Foods with high fiber will be extremely effective at combating blood sugar.

For the full list of Recipe continue reading or click here [anchor link to recipe/diet page]

2. Reduce your stress:

Try to get seven to eight hours of healthy sleep every night. When you are stressed your body secretes cortisol which is linked to increase in belly fat. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16353426 . Separate your work and family or self-time. Close your exposure to things that make you stress such as say a company report or perhaps social media. Reinforce in your head that you are going to have a great night of sleep. And for people that like to use screens right before going to bed, it is highly recommended to use a blue light filter at night or to avoid using all screens thirty minutes before bed time, because the blue light gives your brain the signal that it is time to wake up, thus making it harder for you to sleep.

To learn more about methods of controlling your stress read here [Link to anxiety stress portion on Kailash mantry site]

Walk. Walk. Walk.

Studies show that by just taking 10,000 steps everyday compared to 1500 steps a day, comparatively puts you at 7% less visceral belly fat compared to the other group. http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=181635

. Walking is a simple exercise that can be followed almost anywhere. Walk to get your grocery, take one day from work where you make the hike home, or start taking stairs and stop using travellators. If you go to the gym, amp up your treadmill, hit the block running. For those that have a desk job set a one-hour timer to remind yourself to stretch yourself out and move for a bit. To be more accurate with your step count, it is possible to buy a cheap fitness tracker to help track your steps, heartbeat, sleep quality, and inactivity.

Set a target, and keep at it. I personally suggest doing 15,000 steps every-day.

Hydration:

Like I mentioned before, water helps you take control of your metabolism, and promotes weight-loss https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18787524 . Drink an amount of water which is suitable for your age, gender and body size. Lots of people suffer and experience pain in kidneys from over doing this tip. The key is in balance, drink 8 glasses of water on average. Your body will indicate that you are properly hydrated when your urine runs light yellow or almost clear, however if it is darker you need to drink more water

5. Sugar and Sweet Beverages:

If you want to see magical results, I have a tip for you, quit that chai or coffee. (pick your poison really) Both of these beverages are responsible for making your body acidic, which makes it harder for your body to shed off fat. Simply not having that cup of tea for a short period of time will bring respectable results even without intense exercise and dieting.

The same applies to caffeinated drinks or soda, sugar is not good, when you consume lots of sugar the liver converts the fructose into fat. http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/54/7/1907.short leading to accumulation of fat on the belly and liver.

Also avoid artificial fruit juices and sports drinks as these despite the marketing suggesting otherwise are not healthy or energetic. Studies have shown that you are likely to consume more sugar in liquid form compared to solid form sugar foods. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3840121/

For the Best Results I suggest completely eliminating all sugar-sweetened drinks.

6. Cut down on Carbs:

There are two prominent choices when choosing a diet plan, low fat or low carbs. People suffering from diabetes are often suggested low carb diets so that they slow down appetite and lose weight. Studies show that in 20 clinical trials, low carb diets lead to 200% to 300% more weight loss than low-fat diets. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/23-studies-on-low-carb-and-low-fat-diets

This study is so successful because low carbs helps the body lose the body weight and gives your trummy a slimmer look almost instantly.

7. Consume High Fiber Foods

Soluble Fiber helps digestion by slowing down the food passing through you digestive system by forming a soluble gel. Eating Fiber rich foods like oats makes you feel full for longer and helps you combat belly fat.

Some examples of fiber rich foods are apples, bananas, oranges, strawberries, raspberries, and mangoes for fruits. And Carrots, beets, and broccoli are good vegetables rich in fiber.

8. Avoid Alcohol

Some kinds of alcohol such as Red Wine https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20238396 when consumed in smaller amounts can lower the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Heavy alcohol consumption is linked to several diseases and excess belly fat. Studies show that alcohol stops fat burning and stores excess calories is stored as belly fat.

9. Drink Green Tea

If you are reading this article, it is obvious that you know about green tea. So here are some quick reasons why you should drink green tea.

  • ✔️ Reduces Risk of Cancer
  • ✔️ Better Heart Health
  • ✔️ Controls Blood Pressure
  • ✔️ Helps control Insulin Sensitivity
  • ✔️ Promotes Weight-loss
  • ✔️ Helps reduce Arthritis Pain
  • ✔️ Improves Life Expectancy
  • ✔️ Boosts Digestion
  • ✔️ Helps to bring glow to your skin
  • ✔️ Anti-Aging

10. No Fruit Juice:

Even home-made natural fruit juices are still rich in sugars like carbonated soda pops and other pre-packaged artificial fruit juices. Drinking generous quantities invites the risk of tummy fat gain. This myth originates from the thought that since the process is all natural, the end result has to be healthy and beneficial for consumption. While the said logic is true for majority of the cases you come across, it is harmful for people trying to lose abdominal fat. The value of nutrients gained by consuming fruit juices is not worth the sugar content you ingest.

Do not assume X juice is helpful for Y purpose, do your research and then decide. Following is a juice meant to help aid fatloss. [ Fat cutterino juice Youtube Video Link]

  1. Start Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent Fasting is one of the most popular trends of the year for a reason. It helps you lose weight, lose abdominal fat, and have a healthier body. Tests have shown that Intermittent Fasting is effective for reducing carb intake, fat percentage and insulin sensitivity. There are various methods for undertaking this technique, you can learn more about it here. [https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/intermittent-fasting-guide#what-it-is] <Future Content Idea>

  1. Cook with coconut oil:

It doesn’t get healthier than coconut oil, even though I would recommend you stop consuming oil all together, if you must, use coconut oil.

Coconut oil has the benefit of boosting your metabolism and is verified by scientific tests. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19437058

In this study men who consumed coconut oil daily for 12 weeks were able to lose an average of 1.1 inches of their waistline without doing any additional exercise or dieting.

It is important to know that coconut oil is high in calories so make sure to replace it for the fats that are already in your diet.

  1. Hit the Weights

Strength training can burn more fat than any comparable program for cardio and dieting. A well planned resistance program can keep your metabolism active for over 38 hours after a session. Read more in the exercise section of this article.

  1. Low Carb Diets

High Carb, Low Fat diets do not post sustainable results in the long term, the right way to promote fat loss and lean muscle gain is by undertaking a Low Carb Diet. Low Carb diets work by forcing the body to burn fats instead of burning carbs.   

  1. Wake up early

Natural sunlight is a great source of vitamin D It can be easily done by taking a small walk before you get on your commute or going out earlier for yoga class. Simple lifestyle changes like these go a long way to help you get closer to your ideal belly size.

Diet for Losing Belly Fat

If it isn’t clear already, first off, stop consuming sugar sweetened beverages, processed foods, sweet fruit juices, high calorie foods, carbonated drinks and alcohol.

Exercises for losing belly fat?

Basic things to understand before you exercise:

First thing you must understand; is the process your body undergoes when it wants to create energy. Your body creates energy from fats, carbohydrates and protein. Depending on the activity, your body will burn either fat, carbs or proteins. In most cases your body uses fats and carbs as fuel. However an small amount of proteins can also be used during exercise

The general rule is the higher intensity

Dieting and exercising go hand in hand. Doing both brings forth most optimal results. You must bring forth good habits and drop your bad habits to achieve your goal. Take an hour out of your day to do the following exercises to see your fat burn on the regular.

  1. Crunches

While crunches don’t burn a lot of calories, they help you build the strong and stiff muscles that will show when you lose that belly fat. Your Cardio helps you lose fats; crunches help your efforts shine through.

HOW DO YOU DO IT?

  1. ✔️ Get on your back, as flat as you can, then lift your knees off the ground while keeping your feet together on the ground.
  2. ✔️ Place your hands behind your head.
  3. ✔️ Take a deep breath and lift your chest off the ground, once you are up, exhale.
  4. ✔️ Go back down to the floor gently, while doing the same inhale deeply.
  5. ✔️ Repeat steps c and d

As you start out, you can do 3 sets of 10 crunches a day. Make sure to add more crunches as you feel comfortable and willing to do more. Make sure to maintain track of your exercise sets and repetitions. The best way to lose fat is by planning increases in repetitions from day one itself.

Important Precautions?

Make sure you are breathing frequently during the workout, it is natural to want to hold your breath throughout the exercise. Not following this step can cause raised blood pressure and low oxygen levels.

Keep your spine straight. Otherwise crunches can cause back pain and vertebral disc issues. Also don’t push too far into it, only go so far as your spine allows you to go.

Always make sure to have your hands behind your neck to help support your head. Do not pull your head up with your hands. A great way to understand if you are doing crunches correctly is monitoring your eye level. If you are watching the ceiling, you are doing it right. If your eyes face forward, you are pulling yourself up with your hands.

Go low and slow. Jerky and uncontrolled movements increase risk of injuries.

  1. Twist Crunches:

A step up form regular crunches, you can move on to twist crunches once you are comfortable doing regular crunches. It is more effective than regular crunches however it has an higher execution requirement and can be challenging to many people just starting out in the world of belly fat reducing exercises.

HOW DO YOU DO IT:

  1. ✔️ Lie down on a comfortable flat surface such as a yoga or gym mat. Keep your back as straight as possible.
  2. ✔️ Bend your knees upwards, bringing your feet closer to your body keeping your feet flat on the ground.
  3. ✔️ The key difference is you have to lift and twist your right shoulder to the left while performing crunches. Once you are done with the right shoulder move to the left one and twist your torso to the right.

Like Crunches you can start out with 10 repetitions for 3 sets a day and go on from there.

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  1. Dumbbell Crunches:

If you are someone getting into using basic equipment this exercise is perfect for you.

HOW DO YOU DO IT:

  1. ✔️ Lie comfortably on a floor or a mat with your back straight and body relaxed.
  2. ✔️ Bring your knees up towards your body keeping your feet flat on the floor and take a deep breath.
  3. ✔️ Slowly lift your head, shoulders and torso off the ground, while trying to raise your dumbbell towards the ceiling as you exhale.
  4. ✔️ Once done, inhale and slowly return to the mat.
  5. ✔️ Seated Knee Lifts with Chair
  6. ✔️ Get any char and sit on the edge, place your feet flat on the ground, hold the sides of the seat and lean back gently.
  7. ✔️ Exhaling slowly, raise your knees up towards your torso using your abdominal muscles, not your arms.
  8. ✔️ Inhaling, take your feet down slowly, make sure you don’t place your feet down on the floor until you are done with your set.
  9. ✔️ Start with 5 repetitions in 4 sets a day.

Precautions?

Take it slow and easy knee jerk movements can harm your body in many ways. Make sure your movements are precise and controlled instead of simply moving with the flow of your legs.

  1. ✔️ Reverse Crunch:
  2. ✔️ Lie down comfortably on your back on a flat surface preferably a yoga mat or gym mat.
  3. ✔️ Now slowly lift your legs upwards with your knees bent at a ninety-degree angle.
  4. ✔️ Make sure to keep your head laying back on the floor
  5. ✔️ Exhaling slowly, pull your knees toward your chest and rest them there for two seconds.
  6. ✔️ Inhaling slowly, move your legs back down to the starting point.
  7. ✔️ Bicycle Exercise:
  8. ✔️ As usual lie down comfortably on a flat floor with your hands behind your neck.
  9. ✔️ Lift your legs off the ground and bend your knees at an approximate ninety-degree angle.
  10. ✔️ Pull your right leg towards your chest, while pushing your left leg away.
  11. ✔️ Repeat the opposite for 30 repetitions in 5 sets.

AKA Resistance Training, helps you maintain and loose fats from your body

Can I lose belly fat in 7 days?

While you cannot reduce fat, you can lose belly fat by decreasing your total body fat percentage. And you don’t have to completely alter your daily habits to get a flat stomach within 7 days !
 

How can I lose my belly fat in a week?

Diet for losing belly fat in 1 week
  1. ✔️ Eating six meals a day, one every 3 hours;
  2. ✔️ Drinking at least two liters of water or green tea a day;
  3. ✔️ Eating a different salad every day and a piece of meat, fish or chicken that fits in the palm of your hand;

Can I lose belly fat in 7 days?

 

How can I get a flat stomach at home?

The 30 Best Ways to Get a Flat Stomach
  1. ✔️ Cut Calories, but Not Too Much. Share on Pinterest
  2. ✔️ Eat More Fiber, Especially Soluble Fiber
  3. ✔️ Take Probiotics
  4. ✔️ Do Some Cardio
  5. ✔️ Drink Protein Shakes
  6. ✔️ Eat Foods Rich in Monounsaturated Fatty Acids
  7. ✔️ Limit Your Intake of Carbs, Especially Refined Carbs
  8. ✔️ Do Resistance Training
Why do I only have fat on my stomach?

Gaining weight solely in your stomach may be the result of specific lifestyle choices. The two S’s — stress and sugar — play a significant role in the size of your midsection. Certain medical conditions and hormonal changes can contribute to abdominal weight gain belly fat reducing belt 

Can I lose belly fat in 7 days?

While you cannot reduce fat, you can lose belly fat by decreasing your total body fat percentage. And you don’t have to completely alter your daily habits to get a flat stomach within 7 days !

How can I lose my belly fat in a week?

Diet for losing belly fat in 1 week
Eating six meals a day, one every 3 hours;
Drinking at least two liters of water or green tea a day;
Eating a different salad every day and a piece of meat, fish or chicken that fits in the palm of your hand; belly fat reducing drink

Can I lose belly fat in 7 days?

While you cannot reduce fat, you can lose belly fat by decreasing your total body fat percentage. And you don’t have to completely alter your daily habits to get a flat stomach within 7 days !

How can I get a flat stomach at home?

The 30 Best Ways to Get a Flat Stomach
Cut Calories, but Not Too Much. Share on Pinterest
Eat More Fiber, Especially Soluble Fiber
Take Probiotics
Do Some Cardio
Drink Protein Shakes
Eat Foods Rich in Monounsaturated Fatty Acids
Limit Your Intake of Carbs, Especially Refined Carbs
Do Resistance Training belly fat loss exercise

Sanjeet Kumar is a graduate of Journalism, Psychology, and English. Passionate about communication - with words spoken and unspoken, written and unwritten - he looks forward to learning and growing at every opportunity. Pursuing a Post-graduate Diploma in Translation Studies, he aims to do his part in saving the 'lost…

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