Belly fat is not just a problem because it can look bad.
In fact, having lots of fat in the abdominal area is strongly linked to diseases like type 2 diabetes and heart disease (1).
For this reason, losing belly fat has massive benefits for your health and can help you live longer.
Belly fat is usually estimated by measuring the circumference around your waist. This can easily be done at home with a simple tape measure.
Anything above 40 inches (102 cm) in men and 35 inches (88 cm) in women is known as abdominal obesity.
If you have a lot of excess fat around your waistline, then you should take some steps to get rid of it even if you're not very heavy overall.
Fortunately, there are a few proven strategies that have been shown to target the fat in the belly area more than other areas of the body.
Here are 7 evidence-based ways to lose belly fat.
What Is The Best Way To Lose Belly Fat?
#1. Go Crazy Over Soluble Fibres
Soluble fibers are the reason that you feel full even after having light food. It has the potential to absorb fewer calories from the food that you consume. It fights your abdominal fat and increased soluble fat helps in decreasing your abdominal fat. Sources of soluble fibers are sprouts, avocados, flaxseeds etc. Make them an important part of your diet today to fight that belly fat effectively.
#2. Focus on Protein
Protein is quite an important component when you are aiming for weightloss. It is effective in releasing the fullness Hormone which will make you feel full for a longer period of time. It is effective in increasing your metabolic rate and weight loss. Many researchers have proved that people who consume protein successfully lose weight within very limited time. The main source of proteins is meat, fish, eggs, dairy, nuts etc. Try to incorporate them into your diet to stay healthy and fit.
#3. Cut carbs from your diet
Carb restriction is a very effective way to lose fat.
This is supported by numerous studies. When people cut carbs, their appetite goes down and they lose weight (19).
Over 20 randomized controlled trials have now shown that low-carb diets lead to 2-3 times more weight loss than low-fat diets.
This is true even when the low-carb groups are allowed to eat as much as they want, while the low-fat groups are calorie restricted and hungry.
Low-carb diets also lead to quick reductions in water weight, which gives people near instant results. A difference on the scale is often seen within 1-2 days.
There are also studies comparing low-carb and low-fat diets, showing that low-carb diets specifically target the fat in the belly, and around the organs and liver.
What this means is that a particularly high proportion of the fat lost on a low-carb diet is the dangerous and disease promoting abdominal fat.
Just avoiding the refined carbs (sugar, candy, white bread, etc) should be sufficient, especially if you keep your protein intake high.
However, if you need to lose weight fast, then consider dropping your carbs down to 50 grams per day. This will put your body into ketosis, killing your appetite and making your body start burning primarily fats for fuel.
Of course, low-carb diets have many other health benefits besides just weight loss. They can have life-saving effects in type 2 diabetics.
#4. Keep A Track of Calories Than You Consume
If you go to a strict diet plan, it will be very good for you. But if you do not have a strict diet plan, you must keep a track of how much calories you are consuming and how much calories you are losing each day. Write down everything that you eat. The first benefit will be that you will start consuming less food and the second one will be that you will start working out accordingly.
#5. Exercise is very effective at reducing belly fat
Exercise is important for various reasons.
It is among the best things you can do if you want to live a long, healthy life and avoid disease.
Listing all of the amazing health benefits of exercise is beyond the scope of this article, but exercise does appear to be effective at reducing belly fat.
However, keep in mind that I'm not talking about abdominal exercises here. Spot reduction (losing fat in one spot) is not possible, and doing endless amounts of ab exercises will not make you lose fat from the belly.
In one study, 6 weeks of training just the abdominal muscles had no measurable effect on waist circumference or the amount of fat in the abdominal cavity.
That being said, other types of exercise can be very effective.
Aerobic exercise (like walking, running, swimming, etc) has been shown to cause major reductions in belly fat in numerous studies.
Another study found that exercise completely prevented people from re-gaining abdominal fat after weight loss, implying that exercise is particularly important during weight maintenance.
Exercise also leads to reduced inflammation, lower blood sugar levels and improvements in all the other metabolic abnormalities that are associated with excess abdominal fat.
#6. Avoid Sweeteners
Packed or processed food contains a large amount of unhealthy sugar content. You must avoid it if you are aiming to lose weight. The carbonated drinks are also packed with unhealthy sugar in it. Tea or coffee is also a source of unhealthy sugar. Avoid consuming any kind of sweeteners.
#7. Sleep Like A Baby
You need at least 8 hours of sleep to stay healthy. Take out time from your busy schedule and try to go to bed early and wake up early. Waking up early will keep you fresh throughout the day and help you in staying healthy.
Follow the above given 7 simple Best Way to Lose Belly Fat. Incorporate the tips into your daily routine and keep tracking the changes that you see when you adopt a healthier way of living. Also, only some of the exercises focus on losing belly fat. Most of the exercises are focused on losing overall fat. The exercises that focus on losing overall fat are more useful. Staying healthy is not a difficult task if you have dedication. Stay fit, stay healthy.