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Belly Fat Impacting Your Confidence? 6 Helpful Tips to Reduce It

Belly Fat Impacting Your Confidence? 6 Helpful Tips to Reduce It

Maybe you haven't been feeling as confident lately, or you'd just like to be a bit healthier. Here are some tips to help you burn away unwanted belly fat!

Don't Starve

Don’t go on a starvation diet, as starving yourself prompts your body to store fat in order to tide it over during this starvation period. The best idea is change your eating habits overall and to eat healthily. Many people go on liquid diets to cleanse themselves, but this is only effective when combined with a healthy diet. A liquid diet doesn’t give you the nutrients you need for lasting weight loss, so it's better to change your eating habits to fresh fruit and vegetables and lean protein instead.

Most of us love food and the sheer pleasure of eating, but alas, the first step towards reducing belly fat starts with the stuff we most love - unhealthy food. Now is the time to start eating real foods from nature, instead of those processed foods packed with preservatives and packed into boxes.

Eat More Protein

The reason why it is important to eat enough protein, is that fish, chicken and eggs provide you with energy. Your body needs energy in order to do its job in digesting your food, burning fat, and building muscle. Building muscle in turn helps burn more fat and speed up metabolism.

Protein will also make you feel fuller for longer. Ensuring you consume fewer calories!

Good Digestion

Speaking of digestion, make sure your digestive system is functioning optimally. Replace those processed grains with whole grains. Eat ‘real grains’ - foods packed with fiber. Eat whole-grain bread and foods like apples, flax, oatmeal, quinoa and bananas. Foods like this all help with digestion and ensure less fat deposition.

Quinoa for instance is an ancient grain packed full of protein, vitamin E, amino acids, and phytosterols. It's beneficial to eat foods like this because of their exceptional nutrition profile. In fact, animals fed supplements with quinoa-seed extract had less body fat and a decreased appetite.

Eat Mindfully

It’s the 21st century, and there is scarcely time to think, let alone to prepare a meal and to sit down and savour it slowly and in peace. We’re living in a time of fast food and on-the-go snacking. Gobbling down food causes gas, bloating, flatulence, and poor digestion, along with digestive problems such as heartburn and gastroesophageal reflux disease. This is when you get that burning stomach acid feeling that then rises into the esophagus.

Mindful eating is actually key to losing belly fat. Being aware of your food, chewing it slowly, and swallowing it slowly will make you feel more satisfied when eating. The idea is to make time to eat, to enjoy the process of eating and to eat without any other distractions.

More Sleep - Less Stress

Did you know that too little sleep and too much stress also alerts your body to produce cortisol hormone? This hormone ‘warns’ your body to take action and to store fat in your mid-section. Our bodies store this fat so that when there isn’t enough food, it can still be fueled. Cortisol is produced by the body’s adrenal glands, and it is released into the body in response to stress.

An excess of cortisol in the blood might be good for an emergency stressful situation, but it is no good when it circulates for long periods of time. High blood sugar levels caused by this constant cortisol promotes the storage of fat in the abdomen. When you’re constantly stressed, your body is motivated to accumulate fat in the belly.

Get Moving

Sitting for long periods contributes to weight gain and a host of health problems such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Many people with desk jobs find themselves putting on weight around their middles, and inconsistent exercise won’t be enough to counteract the harmful effects of sitting all day.

Choose some vigorous exercise that to becone a part of your day-to-day. Choose high-intensity workouts such as cycling and running or swimming laps.

Conclusion

The cruel reality is that our bodies put on extra fat because we take in more calories than we expend – we’re eating way too much, we’re eating the wrongs foods, and we’re not exercising. It’s not easy giving up the foods we love to lose belly fat. The good news is that you don’t have to give up on food at all - just change what you eat a little bit.

If you are trying slim down a bit, try saying no to sugar and yes to protein and good fats. Your hunger will go down as you make lifestyle changes and you start exercising. Soon, you’ll start feeling so good, you'll be motivated to keep these new habits!

Written by Emily Green for Working Mother and legally licensed through the Matcha publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@getmatcha.com.