Men and women in their early 30’s and beyond often struggle with how to get rid of or lose their belly fat. Yet, it’s not so difficult to lose belly fat if you’re willing to commit just a few minutes each day to the cause as well as making very slight lifestyle changes.
For most people who are aged 30+, belly fat, pot bellies or love handles are a common problem. This is when you’ll find guys and gals who were very fit in their 20’s, suddenly ballooning and becoming fat and battling with moderate sized to huge guts.
While there are many reasons for this –we’ll highlight them later in this guide- the fact is that belly fat predisposes and increases your risk of developing certain illnesses.
So, if you don’t like how big your belly is or how big it’s getting, and have been thinking of losing belly fat chances are that you have been researching your options, including watching multiple Youtube videos, reading hundreds of articles, buying a few weight loss guides/programs and maybe even joining a few weight loss membership sites.
Unfortunately, there’s a lot of conflicting information out there, and absorbing all that information can lead to information overload –a condition that often results in action paralysis- and can create a situation in which you’d be unable to choose the right workout program or diet that will help you get rid of your belly fat.
The stats don’t lie. According to the data gotten from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, about 69 percent of all adult Americans are considered overweight while 33 percent are obese. That’s two out three, overweight, and one out of three, obese. Then, there’s the 1 out of every 20 who has full blown obesity.
If you’re interested, you can check your Body Mass Index to determine if you’re obese, overweight or have a normal weight. As a rule though, if you have a bulging gut, chances are you’re overweight and have more visceral fat stored around your hips, waist and lower abdomen than you should have.
Unfortunately, obesity is linked to a few chronic diseases –most of which are preventable. Some of these include:
- Cardiovascular disease
- Arteriosclerosis
- Metabolic syndrome
- Diabetes
- Coronary heart disease
- Obstructive sleep apnea
- Stroke
- Fatty liver disease
Bottom line, we have a budding epidemic on our hands -one that we have to do something about right now. Here’s the truth:
If the average individual lost just 20lbs, they’d be far better off in their health, prevent most of the aforementioned conditions, have flatter tummies and overall improved self-confidence.
That’s why we’re writing this guide. In this guide to eliminating belly fat –and by extension whole body fat, we’ll be showing you
- How your body creates and stores fat (understanding is key when you’re trying to lose belly fat without losing lots of overall body weight)
- The habits and activities you consciously and unconsciously engage in that will cause you to start storing up belly fat, and
- Finally, the best and most effective ways to lose the belly fat within 4-8 weeks.
This is a proven guide that details what works to help you get a leaner waist line. If you read and start applying the information herein today, you will lose that belly fat just in time for the summer and enjoy a trimmer waist and flatter belly.
But first, let’s see how your body makes and stores fat. Knowing this will give you an unfair advantage, guaranteeing that you get results, as against the fire brigade approach that most people take –an approach that mostly fails.
How Your Body Creates and Stores Belly Fat
Your body typically stores excess carbohydrate –carbohydrate that your body wasn’t able to break down and turn into energy- as fat in critical areas of your body. As you age, it starts depositing them in areas such as your upper arms, chest, abdomen, hips, and thighs.
These are the key areas where fat gets deposited first before moving to other parts of or body. Therefore, fat deposited in these areas tend to pile up in huge quantities before it starts “spilling over” to other parts of the body.
This is why belly fat can be somewhat hard to get rid of. The quantity of deposits are huge. Unfortunately, this is not even the bad part.
The bad part is the deposit of these fats around, close to and in key organs such as your liver and kidney.
This is where the real danger lies. Then, there’s the part where the fat mimics the functions of key organs in your body, triggering the release of certain hormones and compounds into the blood.
When you have excessive amounts of fats stored in certain parts of the body, it soon starts migrating to other parts of the body usually through arteries and veins. Naturally, this migration results in fatty deposits in these parts of the body, triggering conditions like stroke, arteriosclerosis and other chronic conditions.
The abundance off fats in the body is usually caused by the inability of the pancreas to create enough insulin –the hormone responsible for lowering blood sugar and taking the sugar away from the blood into the cells.
When your body starts producing far less insulin than your body needs, you will have a situation where the exceed blood sugar is converted to fat. And if you still have some left in the blood, it will lead to conditions like diabetes.
Also important in the food and digestive processes are three other hormones:
- Leptin
- Ghrelin
- Cortisol
The first two hormones are partly responsible for regulating your appetite. They determine how hungry or full you feel, whilst working with insulin to determine whether you should stop or not.
These are particularly effective when you eat organic, natural, fiber rich foods that take time to digest and cause little to no blood sugar spikes. They are however, less effective when you eat sugar filled foods, junk foods, drinks loaded with sugar and all those unhealthy items that can easily affect you.
When this happens, all the spikes and “uncertainty” throws the hormones and your digestive system off balance, causing the brain to release the stress hormone aka cortisol. The result is your body goes into survival mode and starts storing away as much of that sugar as possible. As you already know, these sugars are converted into fats and stored particularly around your midsection.
This is why nutritionists and fitness experts tell you to cut out the junk from your meals. Show me an individual who eats healthy, whose meals contain sizable portions of protein, veggies, fruits and moderate amounts of carbs, someone who drinks more water than sugary drinks and beer, and I’ll show you someone who still has a flat belly.
Weight loss around your belly is a predominantly input-output issue. If you eat far what you need, choose healthy meals and strengthen your core, you will never battle the bulge.
In the next section, we’ll be addressing the habits that cause excess fat deposits around your waist and abdomen, as well as what you can do to both prevent it as well as get rid of the beer belly.
Habits that Cause Belly Fat
Now that we have discussed how your body deals with excess sugar/carbs and creates sugar, let’s take a look at the things you’re doing that’s triggering the bodily mechanisms mentioned earlier.
One of the reasons why you need to do everything possible to lower your chances of becoming potbellied is that it’s basically the last part of the body that the fact goes from. So, it’s very possible that you can lose fat in your upper arms, thighs, chest and still struggle with the belly.
The key to making this work is to simply get rid of the habits that trigger these results in your body. The following are some of the habits that you’ve indulged in, that’s resulted in your girth’s increase:
1. Eating Excessively and Unhealthily
This is the first major problem. As stated earlier, weight gain or loss is an input/output problem. If you are eating more food than your body needs or can process at any given time, odds are that you would gain weight. And guess where the first stop is? Your belly and hips.
Now, this normally happens when you eat healthy foods. But, when you eat processed, refined foods with high sugar content, the rate at which you out away the excess rapidly increases. You’ll be amazed at how fast your body puts away the excess sugar as fat. This is particularly when you have another habit that we’ll be mentioning next.
Most people eat far less fruits, veggies and natural organic foods than our predecessors ate some five or so decades ago. Yet, we wonder why there’s such a prevalence of obesity and big bellies in our time.
The average individual eats sugar loaded cereals, junk foods, takes about 200 percent more sugar on a daily basis than the average individual did in the 50’s. The number one habit you need to kick therefore, is the consumption of processed and junk foods/drinks. We are eating more high calorie foods than our predecessors did 50 to 100 years ago.
While it may be an issue of affordability –more people are earning far lower than they need to survive and junk foods are cheaper- there are ways to cut back on the consumption of junk foods and eat healthy, even with a limited budget.
2. Sedentary Living
Have you noticed how quickly you put on weight when you’re sedentary? Your body needs to consistently use up the energy provided. But, when you are sedentary, your body is often forced to start storing away all that unused energy in the form of sugar.
This is why people who spend the better part of their days lying or sitting down gain weight. The good news is that it takes time to put on this weight, which means you can nip it in the bud right now.
We understand that you may have legitimate reasons for sitting down all day. But the reality is that it shouldn’t be the case (read the next section for how you can become more active even at work). The effects of sedentary living aren’t just limited to the accumulation of body fat and a wider girth.
It extends to multiple conditions like a slower metabolism, metabolic syndrome, too tired syndrome (this is why fat people tend to look dull and sleepy all the time), and increases your risk of becoming diabetic, developing cancer and dying early.
In fact, sitting down for far too long has been associated with telling your body to shut down. If you want to live long, look trim and fit, you need to get rid of this bad habit.
3. Busier Schedules and Less Rest
60-80 hour weeks are pretty common in America. More people are becoming stressed, sleeping less and dealing with busier schedules. All of these subtract from man’s natural rhythm and biology.
For optimal function, people need to sleep at 7 hours and a max of 8 hours. About 40 percent of all Americans get less than the requisite amount of sleep needed for them to function well during the day. What does this have to do with belly fat? It’s simple: remember the cortisol aka the stress hormone we talked about earlier?
Well, it comes out to play when you aren’t getting enough rest. So, with this hormone being present in abundance in your bloodstream, your body will put away more fats and store them in the abdomen and hip areas of your body.
4. Personal or Close Proximity to Obese and Overweight Individuals
There’s a study showing that if you’re close to or friends with people who are obese or overweight, chances are that you’d be too. Most people already suspect this. It’s obvious really –you often see fat or overweight people together.
The study carried out among friends, family and spouses however, quantified and proved it to be true. It showed that an individual had a 57 percent chance of becoming overweight or obese if their very close friend was obese, had a 37 percent chance if their spouse was overweight/obese and 40 percent chance if their siblings were overweight/obese.
Now, imagine what would happen if your spouse also doubles as your best friend. This makes sense because people naturally flock to where they wouldn’t be judged, and where they’d be accepted.
Men and women with protruding tummies will most times, spend more time with people who have the same physique. Interestingly, when people start losing weight, they start spending less time with these people and more time with fitter people.
You would hardly find a fat/obese individual among a group of friends who workout. It’s something about the validation, lack of judgment, and the enabling environment that comes from those people.
If you are in an environment where people eat lots of junk foods, you’ll soon find yourself reaching for some of that before long. The same applies to healthy eating habits among fit people.
Also, there have been arguments that some people have a genetic predisposition to a wider girth and an increase in their mid-section. This might true to some degree. But if you got rid of all the aforementioned habits chances are that you would never have to deal with a pot belly.
That said, here are the proven strategies designed to help you get rid of belly fat within 30-60 days. Do these, and you will have a trimmer midsection in a few weeks.
Effective Ways to Effortlessly Get Rid of Belly Fat
Now that we’ve taken care of the backgrounds, caucuses and other issues, and you have an understanding of why your body stores fat around your midsection, it’s time to learn and apply the proven strategies that will help you lose that midsection. Read? Let’s do it:
1. Stop Eating Junk Foods and Taking Sugary Drinks
Of course, the first line of action would be to watch what you put into your body.
This is broken down into two parts:
- Getting rid of unhealthy foods
- Replacing them with healthy foods that also rev up your metabolism
Start by cutting out all the junk foods. If you need help with identifying junk foods and their many sources, check the following link. Admittedly, junk foods tend to be very cheap, which is why lower income individuals tend to eat more junk. And it’s also the reason most of those who have huge bellies and are obese tend to be in the lower income bracket. But, there are ways to eat healthy whilst still on a budget. So, get rid of the junk foods, refined/processed cereals, sugars, sugary and alcoholic drinks.
Replace them with vegetables, fruits, healthy foods, fish, lean meats, seeds and drink more water. This works very effectively. This might mean that you will cook at home more often, but it beats the junk you put inside your body.
The one thing you might have noticed is that losing your belly fat will require frequent cooking. What we’ll suggest is that if you can’t cook on a daily basis, you should just try batch cooking. Cook a few of your meals in big quantities, pack them properly and store them in the freezer.
This way, you’ll just scoop out what you need for the meal, microwave it, and you’re good to go. Avoid any pre-packaged foods. These tend to be without nutrients and often contain sugars to sweeten them.
Also, eat more fiber rich foods, whole grain cereals, peppers, broccolis, brown rice, green tea and spices. Most of these are very good at accelerating your metabolism so that your body not only digests food faster, but also loses the belly fat.
You should focus on eating more high fiber foods as well, as they tend to fill you up faster and digest slower. As a result, your body will have less blood sugar to deal with –meaning less fat storage, and you will feel fuller for longer –which means fewer meals.
Likewise, you should pay attention to your rate of food consumption. There’s no doubt that when you’re hungry, all you want to do is eat as much as possible to fill your hunger. But research and studies have shown that it takes about 20 minutes before your stomach catches up with your eating.
So, if you eat a lot in a shorter time frame, you’ll feel extremely full after about 20 minutes. But, if you eat slowly, you’ll find that it not only does the process aid digestion, it also helps you eat far less than you would have ordinarily eaten, resulting in fewer calories taken in.
Also important is to start a low carb, high protein diet. There are so many of them out there. Pick one and go with it.
2. Start Being More Active
The average American adult spends about 13 hours a day sitting down, and another 6-8 hours lying down when they sleep. That leaves about 3 hours for moving around and getting the blood flowing.
Unfortunately, most are too tired to do this after sitting for so long. The reality however, is you need to start moving frequently. Sitting or lying down for prolonged periods is unhealthy for you.
Not only does this result in fat storage because your body isn’t burning off the calories, it also has other side effects like early death. In fact, there’s something now called the “Sitting Disease” or the “Too Tired Syndrome”. These tend to happen when you sit around for too long in one spot.
In fact, studies have shown that people who sit most of the day have the same predisposition to a heart attack as those who smoke all day every day. The “Sitting Disease” is largely a collection of syndromes, illnesses and conditions that arise from living a sedentary life.
These include obesity, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes to mention a few. To help put things in perspective, research studies have shown that women who sat for longer than 6 hours a day had a 94 percent higher risk of dying within the period they’re sitting than those who sit for less than 3 hours a day.
Sitting and lying down for too long triggers the “death process”, wherein your body’s organs start slowing down and start mimicking the process of dying. This is why you’ll often find that you have less energy and feel tired after sitting down for so long. This is why you need to get more active.
People who are more on their feet tend to burn off more fat, particularly around the midsection. It is often difficult to find someone who walks vigorously for 2-4 hours a day, carrying a paunch. That’s not going to happen.
Here’s what we recommend if you’re deskbound: Work in sets of 35-45 minutes, and then stand up or walk around for 10-15 minutes. Even better, make sure to walk to 15-20 minutes in the morning and evening too.
You can do this by parking 3-4 blocks away from the office and walking the distance to and from your office building. Walk around more often, and start working out. This is the ultimate solution a flat belly. Do more cardio workouts and get your heart rate up for 20-30 minutes, 3 times weekly at least.
You could also try high intensity workouts for 10-20 minutes 2-3 times weekly. These are great at increasing your metabolic rate, and burning off fat faster. Also, do more planking and ab workouts. The more, the merrier. Start moving around more often.
If the grocery, or department store is a 5-10 minutes drive, that means it’s a 15-25 minute walk away. Walk to and from the place. Spend more time on your feet, and you’ll soon start shedding that belly fat. The good news is that once you overcome that inertia, your body’s metabolic processes speed up, which in turn, aid belly fat loss.
3. Practice Intermittent Fasting
This is an amazing, simple and natural way to lose belly fat big time. Intermittent fasting is simply the process of keeping away from food for 12 to 16 hours a day. This is very easy to do because you’ll do it at night.
All you have to do is eat your dinner between 5 and 7 pm, and breakfast around 10-12 the next day. And when you break your fast, do so with light foods, some fruits, smoothies, black coffee or teas.
You can also drink water in between as that’s great for flushing the toxins out of your system, increasing bowel movements so you can get rid of the waste you’ve been carrying around for days and flatten your belly.
Once you break the fast with a light meal in the morning, you are allowed to eat a heavy meal in the afternoon, and something light at night. If you practice intermittent fasting for 2-4 weeks, you will lose at least 6 inches off your waist line and shed between 15-25 lbs. Intermittent fasting similarly has many other benefits. For a more comprehensive list of benefits, go read this article.
4. Lower Your Stress Levels and Get More Sleep
You know how models need their beauty sleep? Well, you also need your own restorative sleep. This means 7-8 hours of sleep for an adult, and preferably going to bed on or before 10.30pm. Sleep is incredibly important for rejuvenating your body and restoring it after a long, hard day at work.
It is also plays a key role in the prevention of obesity and diabetes. You also need to find ways to lower your stress levels. We all understand that work can be stressful, no thanks to that fastidious boss, office politics, difficult clients and impractical/unreasonable deadline.
For whatever reason, your body is capable of enduring incredible levels of stress during the day. However, you need to find ways to cope with and diffuse that stress at the end of the day.
Some people go to massage parlors, some take a cold/hot bath, some watch comedies (this, by the way, is incredibly effective at lowering your stress levels), and some go to the gym. Whatever your choice of stress relief is, indulge in it as frequently as possible –and no, alcohol intake doesn’t count.
How To Get Rid of Belly Fat Conclusion
The reality is that flattening your belly and getting rid of your belly fat will require a significant, if radical change in lifestyle. But with the low calorie, high fat and high protein diets, increased active lifestyle, improved rest and lowered stress levels, you will find your belly fat melting away, enjoy an overall sense of well-being improved, and an even higher self-esteem, and confidence.
This may be somewhat difficult to begin, but once you do and get in the flow, you’ll come to love and enjoy the benefits and rewards.
