As you’re probably well aware, burning your belly fat is not just for improving your looks – it’ll also improve your health as well, the dangers of excess belly fat are well documented.
But how to lose that unhealthy belly fat quickly, easily and safely? We’ve already covered fruits that can burn belly fat, and fat burning foods that you should be eating – today we’ll give you a simple list of 7 Easy ways you can burn that excess belly fat – starting right now! In no particular order, here’s 7 ways to burn that belly fat.
1: Skip the sugar
We revealed some of the shocking amounts of sugar that are hiding in your food in a previous post – even something as harmless looking as ketchup can contain huge amounts of sugar. You need to pay attention to the nutritional information labels on the food and condiments you consume and avoid high hidden sugar content foods and snacks. Check out our 100 healthy snack alternatives for some ideas for better snacks.
Supplementary sugar is extremely unhealthy and harmful for your body, so you should be focused on sugar-free and calorie-free products that are increasing in popularity. Even that is a trend in nowadays, according to the statistics, an average American consumes about 152 pounds of calorie sweetener (sugar) per year, which can be even more than their weight!
As that’s a lot of sugar, and it only adds calories and contains no nutritional value, it can also cause fat to accumulate in your body. Sugar is quite simply your belly fat enemy number one.
In order to keep your sugar intake in check the best way is to eliminate refined sugar or liquid sugar or sugar-sweetened beverages from your diet. That means no various sports drinks, fruit juices, coffees and teas with sugar added to them. Check out our post showing what 200 calories looks like in food to get a better idea of how sugar vastly increases your caloric intake.
2: Do High intensity aerobic (cardio) exercises
These types of exercises push your body to its limit and sometimes a little bit farther. If you are trying out a new high-intensity work out, make sure you listen to your body. If anything hurts or feels wrong make sure to modify or tune down what you are doing to avoid injury.
After these types of exercises you will be gasping for breath, because your body needs to recover from the amount of energy that you use. Some examples of this type of exercises include plyometrics, sprints and agility training.
This type of exercise helps individuals build the muscles that they need to get flatter bellies. The only downside is that there is a great risk of injury and it is a lot harder. It is important to listen to your body, and do what you and your doctor think you can handle. Check out this 6 minute high intensity abs exercise routine:
3: Do low-intensity aerobic (cardio) exercises
Besides improving your overall body shape, aerobic exercise is important for improving heart health and overall health, as well. Recent research reported cardio (aerobic) exercises as the most effective method to help in burning belly fat, .
By doing aerobic or cardio exercises, even such simple things as brisk walking or light jogging you can very effectively reduce belly fat.
Because there are different theories what kind of exercise apply to your program of losing weight, Duke University Medical Center conducted an eight-month-long study on 196 overweight participants 18 to 70 years of age, which showed that aerobic training did a far superior job burning calories, compared to resistance training.
We covered some great simple flat-belly exercises you can do in the comfort of your own home in a recent post so check them out for 8 easy fat burning exercise ideas. Here’s one of our favorites to get you started.
4: Drink Lemon Water
It’s well known that keeping your body properly hydrated is vital to health and achieving your weight loss goals – if you want to turbo-charge those effects, simply add freshly squeezed lemon juice to your water.
Lemon water doesn’t regulate losing belly fat directly, but it provides a wealth of health benefits that can positively impact your body and spark it to burn belly fat.
In particular, lemon water is extremely beneficial when you drink it on an empty stomach (it’s best to do this in the morning right after you wake up).
That happens because of the ability of water with lemon to increase the levels of stomach acids, which greatly improves the digestion and helps the break down of the food you eat more effectively.
In addition, the lemon water helps to detoxify your liver and make it function more properly, as it is one of the most important organs in the body, responsible for performing hundreds of different functions. Read more about the benefits of cleansing and detoxing your body.
Some studies have even showed that simply drinking lemon water even helps to improve your metabolism, reduce appetite and remove unwanted fat sludge.
Take away: When you wake up in the morning drink warm lemon water with a squeeze of fresh lemon to boost your metabolism, which will give you energy and wake up your digestive system.
Here is a warm water lemon recipe:
–1 glass of warm water,
–Squeeze the juice of half a lemon directly into the water.
Drink up each morning and enjoy!
5: Eat more fiber in your diet
The health and weight loss benefits of eating more fiber in your diet are well-known – including lowering your risk for diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease, constipation and improving digestion.
Fiber has also been shown to help with weight loss, reducing abdominal belly fat aside from helping you lose weight. The reason it works so effectively is that a diet high in fiber rich foods tends to be more filling and provide a sense of satiety after eating – even small portions of foods high in fiber will leave you feeling fuller, and less inclined to reach for a bag of chips half an hour later.
Another weight loss benefit of fiber is that it tends to be less energy dense (less calories for the same food volume).
It’s apparent that we all need more fiber in our diet but evidence shows that 90% of Americans aren’t getting their daily minimum recommended allowance of fiber, due to high consumption of poor quality high-sugar processed foods.
How much fiber is enough to meet the daily requirement?
Women should eat from 21 to 25 grams of fiber per day, while men for 30 to 38 grams a day.
The best sources of dietary fiber are fruits, whole grains, vegetables, and legumes, and more specifically, quinoa, beans, chia seeds, kale, oats, and berries like strawberries and blueberries.
6: Drink green tea
Weight loss is naturally linked with green tea and apart from that, the tea is one of the healthiest beverages you can drink.
Due to the active compounds found in green tea, it is able to increase the levels of hormones that send the signals to fat cells to break down fat and releases fat into the bloodstream in form of energy.
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition claimed the positive effects of green tea on weight and body fat reduction, particularly on belly fat.
Green tea properties are linked to the compounds called catechins a well-known, belly fat burner. So, swap your morning coffee for a cup of green tea for faster, more efficient weight loss and more health benefits.
7: Eat less carbs
A study sponsored by the National Institutes of Health concluded that reducing the consumption of high carbohydrates foods, even in a moderate way may promote the loss of stubborn belly fat.
The moderately carb-restricted diet means a relatively low glycemic index, a measure of the extent to which foods raises blood glucose levels. This diet should consist of 43 percent calories from carbohydrates and 39 percent calories from fat (while the standard diet contained 55 percent of calories from carbohydrates and 27 percent from fat).
Combine eating less carbs, with increasing your fiber intake for the best results.
The takeaway: cut down on carbs to reduce belly fat.
There we have it – 7 easy ways you can safely start to burn off that unsightly and unhealthy stubborn belly fat. What are you waiting for? Check out more tips on how to lose weight quickly.
