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Lose Belly Fat

Many people believe that to lose belly fat, you must do 100 abdominal exercises or 500 crunches each day.  Although these will help build and strengthen your abdominal muscles, they have nothing to do with losing body fat, expecially in your stomach.

Stomach fat is one of the most problematic areas for many people, especially as we age.  Looking for ways to flatten your stomach goes beyond just doing ab exercises.

You may be thinking that “she’s crazy; of course I have to do the best ab exercises to get a flat stomach”.  The fact is that building and toning your stomach will do very little to help you lose belly fat and flatten your stomach.

How to Lose Body Fat

Melt Fat e-bookTo start reducing your belly fat you need to think in terms of losing excess body fat.  Unfortunately you cannot spot reduce only belly fat but must lose and reduce all your body fat.  

To do this you must do two simple things; 1) start eating healthy and 2) do aerobic exercises.  Additionally, you should also reduce stress and get a good night’s sleep.  Now you’re asking yourself, “What does this have to do with losing belly fat”. 


Well, if you want the ultimate flat stomach, then you have to reduce the fat that surrounds your abdominal muscles.  In order to reduce fat, you must eat the right foods and do aerobic exercises.


Eating Healthy

Although there are claims that certain foods will melt away the fat, the truth is no certain foods have the magic to reduce fat.  But if you start eating healthy and consume fewer calories than you burn, then you will begin to lose fat. 

Just to clarify, you will not automatically lose belly fat first.  Your genetics is what determines where you will shed fat first.  But don’t be discouraged, as you continue to lose fat you will eventually lose fat everywhere, including your belly.

Whether you are trying to lose weight or just lose belly fat, the foods you select can play an important role.  Try to minimize the amount of calories from sugars and fats.  Also select whole grain foods and skim milk.  And don’t forget to add veggies and fruits to your healthy diet.  You may want to check out these metabolism booster foods to add to your healthy menu.

Here is a great e-book that really helped me understand the right food choices to reduce body fat. I highly recommend this book.

burn the fat feed the muscle
This e-book has a complete list of different foods and are graded according to the healthiness of these foods for losing fat.  

In addition, there is lots of information on exercising and living healthy.

Click Here!


Aerobic Exercise to Lose Belly Fat

One of the best benefits to exercise is burning calories and fat.  Aerobic exercises are the best way to get the higher calorie and fat burn from your exercise efforts.  You should aim to get 30 minutes of aerobic exercise at least 3 times a week, more if you really want to lose belly fat faster.

Your aerobic exercise could be something you enjoy like dancing, jogging, water aerobics or just walking for exercise.  If you are just starting an aerobic exercise routine, start our slowly and remember to stay within your target heart rate zone.  Try these weight loss workout example weekly routine.  There's an example for beginners and intermediate level and they include both aerobics and strength training exercises.



Reduce Stress to Lose Belly Fat

Stress can cause many different health related issues from high blood pressure to chronic heart diseases.  But stress also is a main cause to weight gain and increased body fat.  When a person is stressed, the body prepares itself to either fight or get the heck out of there.  This “fight or flight” response is your body’s way of protecting itself in stressful situations. 

What happens when you are stressed is your body releases adrenaline, cortisol and insulin.  What doe’s this mean to you?  Well, the increase in cortisol can cause you to feel hungry and can increase fat production.  This extra fat generally settles in your stomach, creating more belly fat.  The extra insulin can also cause higher levels of fat as too much insulin sends a signal to your body to start storing fat.

Another great benefit of exercising is to reduce stress.  So by adding aerobic exercises to your weekly routine you are not only reducing stress, but you are losing belly fat.  Be sure to read about all the benefits to exercise.



Get More Sleep to Lose Belly Fat

Getting more sleep can help in a couple of ways to help you lose the fat.  One, when you are more rested you are able to exercise at a more intense level and/or can exercise for a longer period of time.  And now that you know you need aerobic exercises to lose belly fat, you want to make sure you are well rested and up for the challenge.

Secondly, studies have shown that those who get less than four hours of sleep per night are 70% more likely to be overweight or obese.  Lack of enough sleep lowers leptin, which is a protein that helps suppress appetite and tells the brain when you are full.  Also, lack of sleep can impact the production of insulin, which is needed to regulate the blood sugar level.  If you have already read my “Metabolism Booster Foods”, then you know that too much insulin in your system can cause your body to store foods as fat.



Abs Exercises

Although doing abdominal exercises does not reduce your belly fat, it will help strengthen and tone these muscles.  So, once you have reached your goal to lose the fat, you will have toned abdominal muscles.

There are many abs exercises; in fact there are probably at least 100 abdominal exercises.  This does not mean you have to do all 100, but just pick some that will strengthen and tone all the abs muscles.  Visit the abdominal exercises page to see a list and links to instructions and illustrations on many common ab exercises.


truth about six pack abs
Here's a great e-book on what it really takes to get six pack abs. This e-book has sample meals, ab exercises and really explains what it takes to flatten your stomach and get six pack abs.  Click Here! to learn more.





In addition to the helpful article and ebook mentioned above, you can also use these free weight loss tools to help you lose belly fat and to help you track your progress.  There are calculators such as the target heart rate calculator, a weight loss calculator and even a free printable weight loss journal.



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Related Articles
 
Fat Burning Foods
Flatten your stomach through exercise and these fat burning foods.  Use these foods to build a weight loss meal plan.

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