Those who have finally decide to lose weight, should know where to begin. Generally, you must determine the reason or reasons you want to lose weight. By determining and establishing the reasons you decide to lose weight, can help with your willingness or motivation during the weight loss phases that you are about to encounter, as previously mentioned. Here Brielle Gregory, Prevention.com, reflects on ways to lose stubborn belly fat according to weight loss experts:

 

“Losing weight from any part of your body can be hard, as many of us know all too well. But the good news is, shedding belly fat can be a tiny bit easier than slimming down your hips, thighs, or other parts of your body.

That’s because women tend to store more temporary fat in their bellies. “The fat stores are gained and lost,” says Lawrence Cheskin, MD, chair of the department of nutrition and food studies at George Mason University and director of the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center. “By and large, belly fat comes off easier in the sense that it comes off first. That’s where a good amount of the fat is lost from.”

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But just because belly fat comes off a bit more easily doesn’t make it less dangerous. In fact, it’s the exact opposite. “Belly fat is unfortunately the most dangerous location to store fat,” says Dr. Cheskin. Because belly fat—also known as visceral fat, or the deep abdominal fat that surrounds your organs—is more temporary, it’s more active in terms of circulating in the bloodstream. That means it’s likely to raise the amount of fat in your blood (known as blood lipid levels) and increase your blood sugar levels, which as a result raises your risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

And unfortunately, you can’t target fat loss on specific parts of your body, including your belly. “It’s essentially impossible to tell one specific region of your body to accelerate fat metabolism,” says Chris DiVecchio, a NASM-certified personal trainer and founder of Premier Mind and Body.

So if you want to lose that extra layer of tummy, it’s going to require more than going full speed ahead with the crunches. “It’s got to be more losing fat as a whole,” says Chris Gagliardi, a certified personal trainer at the American Council on Exercise (ACE). Here, the best ways to lose belly fat once and for all.

Eat fiber like you mean it

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Foods that are high in refined carbs and sugar don’t actually tame your hunger, so you end up reaching for more. Hello, weight gain.

Instead, load up on foods high in fiber like whole grain breads, oats, vegetables, fruits, beans, legumes, and chia seeds. “They fill you up more,” says Dr. Cheskin, since fiber helps slow your digestion. The result? You’ll be less likely to compensate with less healthful dishes that lead to weight gain, especially in your middle.

Plus, a 2015 study from the Annals of Internal Medicine showed that for those who have a hard time following a strict diet, simplifying the weight loss approach by just increasing fiber intake can still lead to weight loss. Women should aim for at least 25 grams of fiber per day (based on a 2,000-calorie) diet, according to the most recent U.S. Dietary Guidelines. Not sure where to start? Check out our step-by-step guide to increasing your fiber intake.

Take a daily walk

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If you don’t have an established exercise routine, simply walking is the best first step toward weight loss. “Walking is a pretty good entry point for people,” says Gagliardi. This is particularly true if you have been out of the gym for a while and want to ease back into a workout routine. One small study published in The Journal of Exercise Nutrition & Biochemistry found that obese women who did a walking program for 50 to 70 minutes three days per week for 12 weeks significantly slashed their visceral fat compared to a sedentary control group.

“Even if your starting point is a one-minute walk, if that’s more than what you’ve been doing, there’s health benefits to that,” says Gagliardi. And the truth is, one of the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to weight loss is that they try to do too much too soon and inevitably get burnt out.

“Starting slow and working your way up is better than overdoing it and giving up,” says Gagliardi. “I like the idea of attaching the new behavior of taking a walk to an existing behavior.” An easy way to approach it: Commit to going for a quick 10-minute walk after dinner, and slowly increase the time as you become more comfortable with daily movement.

Although you do want to increase your walking over time, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to be working your way up to a more intensive form of cardio like swimming or running. “Moving on to new exercises is not something someone should feel they have to do unless their goals change and a new exercise is needed to support those goals,” says Gagliardi. “Walking alone can be progressed by changing the distance, speed, terrain, and by adding intervals.”

Start strength training

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It’s important to do full-body strength training if you want to lose belly fat—especially if you’re trying to keep it off for the long haul. “Strength training should be a part of just about everybody’s exercise plan,” says Dr. Cheskin.

That’s because strength training helps you build muscle, which will replace body fat. In fact, strength training is one of the few activities you can do to spike the amount of calories you burn, even after you’re done with your workout. Bonus: When your metabolic rate becomes faster due to muscle growth, you’ll have a little more wiggle room in your diet if that’s something you struggle with, says Dr. Cheskin.

To get started, plan to lift weights two days per week and work up from there, says Gagliardi. “One way to think of it is that you are building up to supporting your long-term goals,” he explains.

For example, maybe you want to be able to do certain movements, like a deadlift or bench press, and work your way up to more reps of those exercises—or maybe it’s as simple as wanting to improve your activities in daily living, like more easily lifting the groceries.

Down enough protein—especially before exercise

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There’s a reason everyone harps on about protein: Not only does it help keep you full, but it’s also responsible for repairing the tiny tears caused by strength training in your muscles. This helps them grow bigger and stronger, nudging out body fat in the process. As a general rule of thumb, aim to get at least 70 grams of protein throughout the day, says Dr. Cheskin. (These high-protein foods can help you reach that goal.)

This is especially important before you exercise. We’re all guilty of going hard at the gym, and then heading straight to Chipotle after because we’re super hungry. The result? You eat more calories than you burn and end up with excess belly fat.

To prevent yourself from feeling hungry after a workout, eat a snack with at least 12 grams of protein before your workout to help curb any hunger that might approach as you burn calories, says Dr. Cheskin.

And if you’re still hungry after your workout? First, check in with yourself and make sure it’s actual hunger, says Dr. Cheskin. Then, eat a protein-rich snack that also includes some carbs, like a protein bar with whole grains. “Your body will need some carbohydrates, especially after a long aerobic workout,” he explains.

Target your belly with abs exercises

Although you can’t spot reduce fat, you can target building lean muscle tissue, which in turn helps burn fat. “There are literally dozens of muscles between your shoulders and your hips that are involved in every movement you do,” says DiVecchio. “The fastest way to create a lean midsection begins with choosing the right moves.”

To start off, aim to do ab work 3 or 4 times a week on non-consecutive days with at least 24 hours of rest in between sessions, says Gagliardi. During those sessions, you can start with simpler moves like crunches, bicycle crunches, and planks. Even though you may only be directly targeting your abs 3 or 4 times a week, you should still be activating your core (aka, tightening your ab muscles) in every workout you do, says Gagliardi.

The best part is that you don’t need a fancy gym memberships, since there are tons of different ab workouts you can do right in your home. Once you’re comfortable in an ab routine, work your way up to more complex ab exercises, like side-to-side med ball slams and weighted Russian twists, says DiVecchio.

Try a low-carb diet

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There’s a reason low-carb diets have made a huge comeback: they work for many people. “By and large, the scientific studies that are controlled clinical trials tend to show that the low-carb dieting is better than the low-fat dieting for the average person for initially losing weight,” says Dr. Cheskin.

That’s because it theoretically causes a mild ketosis (yep, the basis of the keto diet), which is a fat-burning state that should make you feel less hungry. The key in being successful with a low-carb diet (especially if you’re used to a more high-carb lifestyle) is to compensate for those lost carbs with protein-rich foods, says Dr. Cheskin. That way, your volume of food stays the same, but you’re doing it healthfully rather than in a way that exacerbates your weight gain.

Plus, a low-carb diet helps decrease your overall calorie intake since you’re replacing unsatisfying calories with more filling ones. Although there’s no standard definition for what “low-carb” really means, Dr. Cheskin says you’ll typically aim for less than 60 grams of carbs per day.”

 

To stay healthy, there are many specific and worthy steps to follow that’ll increase life expectancy. For example, exercise, which is considered one way to extend life. The Body Reboot book reveals how a low carb, high fat diet can improve health. Keep reading to learn about additional ways to increase life expectancy and improve your health.

 

Read More … Article Source: https://www.prevention.com/weight-loss/a20458064/new-research-on-how-to-lose-belly-fat/

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