Have extra belly fat can increase the risks of diabetes, high blood pressure, and premature death even among people considered healthy weight. But the good news is that it’s often easy to cut calories to shed any unwanted midsection weight.
Doing this requires eating more whole grains, fruits, and vegetables with low-cal but high-fiber content.
1. You’re not eating enough
If your weight loss plan has failed to address your belly fat issues, it may be time for a change. Establishing the appropriate caloric intake can help ensure you succeed at losing belly fat in an efficient way and long term.
Your body relies on essential vitamins and nutrients in its diet in order to function optimally, so consuming an unhealthy diet could create health issues ranging from heart disease and high cholesterol to an increased risk of diabetes and cancer.
One effective way to ensure you’re eating enough is keeping a food diary. Doing this can help track calorie consumption and identify patterns which could be contributing to weight gain.
Consult a registered dietitian or nutritionist for advice in order to assess your caloric requirements, they will also give an estimate based on your height, age and activity level.
Your body responds to eating insufficiently by producing stress hormones that cause it to retain every calorie it can find, leading to excess belly fat in the form of visceral fat, which surrounds organs and increases risk for diseases like heart disease, diabetes and certain cancers.
One sure sign you may be eating too little is an uncomfortable bloated belly or “belly pooch”, caused by excess fluid accumulation in your abdomen. This excess fluid can clog your colon, making it more difficult for you to absorb essential vitamins and nutrients from food sources.
Lack of sleep is also one of the primary contributors to an accumulation of toxins in your blood, leading to serious health complications like stroke and heart attack, while disrupting your rest can make losing belly fat harder than expected.
Eating food that provides essential calories to the body is an excellent way to improve mood, increase energy and enhance immunity – essential components of living a healthy life. A balanced diet can go far toward helping you meet your goals and maintain an active lifestyle.
2. You’re not exercising enough
Lacking proper exercise could put you at greater risk for disease. According to one recent study, failing to exercise regularly is among the top contributors to early death worldwide.
Physical inactivity increases one’s risk for cardiovascular disease, stroke, high blood pressure and diabetes – among other health conditions – while having an impactful result in terms of body weight management and the formation of belly fat.
No one likes having too much belly fat, and there are various strategies available to people to help prevent it, including eating healthily and participating in physical activities regularly. Unfortunately, however, certain individuals seem more prone than others. If this describes you, working with a personal trainer or fitness coach might help devise an exercise program tailored specifically to meet your goals and lifestyle.
Before moving onto more intense workouts, start with shorter workouts that will get your body in shape. Five or ten minute sessions may suffice before gradually building up to longer ones as your energy increases.
As you do workouts, be mindful that they address multiple areas of the body. This means doing core-focused movements (such as sit-ups and crunches ) in addition to strength-training moves like squats, lunges, rows and push-ups.
Utilizing these exercises will help you build muscle and tone it while burning intra-abdominal fat, which poses more dangers to health than subcutaneous fat, which rests beneath your skin.
Without sufficient exercise, your body won’t receive the essential nutrients it needs for healthy cells and organs, leading to decreased immunity and inflammation that contribute to stubborn belly fat accumulation.
Making exercise part of your everyday routine and selecting activities you enjoy are key components to reaching fitness goals, from walking and jogging to biking and swimming. You can find an abundance of options available that can help you do just that!
3. You’re stressed out
Feeling stressed out can have serious repercussions for your health, leading to weight gain, headaches, heart disease, depression fatigue irritability sleep problems and more.
Stress can be normal and beneficial, but too much prolonged anxiety can have detrimental effects on both our physical health and overall wellbeing. The good news is there are several things we can do to combat our own personal stressors and keep stress at a manageable level.
First and foremost, it is important to recognize when stress becomes excessive. Although these warning signs may seem innocuous at first, they can often provide crucial insights.
Your body may be producing more cortisol than usual during times of stress, the main hormone responsible for responding to challenges or threats with an immediate “fight or flight” response, which triggers physiological and emotional reactions in response.
Changes to your appetite are another telltale sign of chronic stress. If you find that you’re no longer eating as much at each meal as before and instead craving more, that could be an indicator that your cortisol levels have become unbalanced and your body is experiencing high cortisol levels.
Your appetite for sweet or fatty foods could also be an indicator that cortisol levels are out of whack and contributing to belly fat accumulation.
If you want to eliminate stress belly, diet and exercise should be top priorities. Eating more antioxidant-rich fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, fish and lean meats may help decrease inflammation in the body and support weight loss.
Be sure to set aside enough time for exercise and other stress-relief activities, too. Even just 10 minutes of meditation, yoga or just hanging out with friends can have a tremendous effect on both your stress level and overall health.
If you’re feeling stressed out, speaking to a physician may help identify its sources and devise solutions to manage them.
4. You’re aging
As we age, our resting metabolic rates decrease and muscle mass decreases, meaning we don’t burn as many calories even though our food consumption remains constant.
Belly fat may continue to increase for various reasons. Excess padding around your abdominal region may not always be healthy, particularly given the health implications associated with visceral fat that resides deep inside and covers organs.
There are steps you can take to increase your odds of shedding belly fat and make lifestyle changes that support its removal, such as cutting back or eliminating sugary beverages from your diet altogether. In particular, cutting down or eliminating sweetened beverages from daily consumption is one of the best things you can do for overall health and well-being.
Exercise regularly: Another effective strategy for losing belly fat is finding ways to work out more often. Not only can regular physical activity help maintain an attractive appearance and help with mood enhancement, it may also prevent certain medical problems from developing over time.
As it can take multiple approaches to reach your weight loss goal, don’t be intimidated to give various approaches a try. You might be amazed by just how much progress can be made with minimal effort! For optimal results, analyze both diet and lifestyle and adjust accordingly – the more changes made, the higher your likelihood is of weight loss success.
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