The abdomen is a very difficult area to lose weight. If you’re trying to lose fat from that area, you have a lot of work ahead of you. Everyone’s got a solution: take this pill, do this new type of crunch, follow this exercise program, and you’ll lose that weight, they promise.
The truth is, it takes more than one approach to lose stubborn belly fat.
You are what you eat
You need a program that encompasses both diet and exercise. Finding the diet and the exercise regime that will work for you may take some experimenting. Have you ever gone on a diet to lose your belly fat, but instead lost weight from your arms or face or some other strange area that wasn’t even flabby? That’s because different bodies tend to store different types of calories in different areas. You have to figure out what your body does with food in order to lose weight where you want to lose it.
- Balanced diet. If you’re not already eating a nicely balanced diet – something like 40% carbs, 30% proteins and 30% fats, try it. It works for many people. Also consider the types of carbs you’re getting: choose veggies, fruits and whole grains over processed pastas, potatoes and sweets. Ditto with fat, though there are conflicting studies on whether saturated animal fats are as bad as we’ve long thought. But some people find that avoiding saturated fats and instead getting their fat from avocados, nuts, fish oil and other sources of “good” fats helps them lose belly fat.
- Low fat. If, and only if, the balanced diet doesn’t work, try going low-fat. Be very careful with this diet, because you actually need “good” fat in order to burn “bad” fat, so simply cutting out fat altogether can result in no weight loss despite all your effort. But you could safely lower your fat intake to about 20% of your calories, being sure to choose “good” fats over bad. (They’re also good for your skin.)
- Low carb. If you have an insulin disorder of any kind, you’ll almost surely need a low carb diet to lose all the weight you want to lose. Even among those without insulin disorders are many people who are somewhat “sensitive” to carbs. Generally, if you feel more sleepy than energetic after a carb-heavy meal, you’re probably sensitive to carbs. Your body may need only about 20-30% carb calories, and tend to store anything above that ratio as fat. Cut down on carbs and eat more protein and fat to lose belly flab.
You also need an exercise program to get rid of the fat you’ve already stored at your belly, and that exercise program must include two kinds of exercise. You need:
- Cardio or aerobic exercise to burn the fat. Without this, all the diet and other types of exercise in the world won’t get rid of all the belly fat you already have. The fat that’s already there must be burned off as fuel.
- Targeted strength training exercises that work the belly muscles. These will help target fat burning in the abdominal area, strengthen muscles that keep your belly from sagging, and build more lean muscle mass to raise your metabolism.
Putting it all together
What you’re actually doing here is:
- Burning off existing fat with cardio.
- Ensuring your diet doesn’t just replace the fat you’re using as fuel.
- Strengthening and toning muscles to boost your metabolism and tighten your belly more quickly than fat loss alone.
Once you put all three of these elements together, losing your belly is just a matter of dedication and effort.
Filed in Exercise
Updated: September 1, 2010
Copyright: September 8, 2010
