Discover these 16 easy ways to supercharge your body’s ability to burn fat, specifically around your midsection. Say goodbye to stubborn belly fat once and for all!
1. Maintain your blood sugar levels.
Maintaining balanced blood sugar levels not only helps keep you from grabbing for sugary foods, it also helps keep your energy levels stable so you still have energy for a workout at the end of the day.
2. Watch your calorie intake.
Even if you only eat “healthy” foods, you must create a calorie deficit to burn fat, and lose weight around your midsection.
3. Eat a healthy breakfast.
Eating in the morning can increase your metabolic rate, the process by which your body burns fat. Skipping the most important meal of the day to save calories, may ultimately leave you eating more over the course of the day.
4. Eat a balanced diet, including carbohydrates.
Don’t follow fad diets. Eat a balanced combination of carbohydrates, protein and raw foods. Carbohydrates are not the enemy, and slow-burning carbs can actually help you feel fuller, longer.
5. Lift weights, the heavier, the better.
Bodies that have higher muscle mass burn more calories at a resting rate than body’s with a higher fat content. Period.
6. Drink more water.
Water is an essential nutrient, can help you feel full and is important to the elimination of toxins in every cell in your body. Drink up!
7. Switch to low-fat dairy.
It’s easy to cut tons of fat, and calories from your diet by opting for low-fat dairy products. Why? 70 percent of the calories in most whole-fat dairy is from saturated fat.
8. Eat more fat-burning foods.
Green tea, coconut oil and other fat-burning foods can help shrink fat cells, and reduce fat storage.
9. Be realistic.
Being honest with yourself about what your dietary needs are, and what your fitness abilities are is essential to long term weight loss success.
10. Try a new workout.
Everyone from fitness novice to fitness pro hits a plateau. Keep your body guessing by trying new workouts, to keep losing fat.
11. Remove processed foods from your diet.
Anything processed or artificial isn’t a real food. By allowing these toxins into your body, you put your elimination organs into overdrive. Cut those out and eat clean, whole foods.
12. Satisfy hunger.
Ignoring cravings can leave you helpless in the face of tempting foods. Beat these hunger pangs, and your cravings by munching on crunchy veggies in between meals, or before you eat to reduce your calorie intake.
13. Ingest enzymes.
Enzymes found in fruits, like kiwi and pineapple, offer support for a healthy digestive system. Healthy digestion means proper elimination of toxins, and an overall lighter feeling.
14. Cut down some, if not all, salt intake.
Salt can cause your body to retain water. As water is retained, waste is also retained. Eliminate salt, or at least reduce your intake to slim down.
15. Stay away from fried foods.
Not only do fried foods pack on the pounds, they also cause gas. Eliminate these foods to eliminate enormous amounts of fat.
16. Get good sleep.
Numerous studies have shown that getting less than 5–6 hours of sleep per night is associated with increased incidence of obesity. There are several reasons behind this.
Research suggests that insufficient and poor-quality sleep slows down the process in which the body converts calories to energy, called metabolism. When metabolism is less effective, the body may store unused energy as fat. In addition, poor sleep can increase the production of insulin and cortisol, which also prompt fat storage.
How long and how deep someone sleeps also affects the regulation of the appetite-controlling hormones leptin and ghrelin. Leptin sends signals of fullness to the brain while ghrelin tells your brain you’re hungry.
Without a properly functioning leptin and ghrelin, you’re constantly hungry and nothing you eat will ever make you full.
So, sleep more and sleep well.