Belly fat can be unsightly and hard to get rid of, but it is an issue of more than just appearance. Carrying excessive weight in your midsection is risky, especially for men. You see, your belly fat is different from fat elsewhere in your body. It's metabolically active tissue that actually functions like a separate organ, releasing substances into the rest of your body that, in excess, can increase your risk of disease.
Some of your fat is right under your skin. Other fat is deeper inside, around your heart, lungs, liver, and other organs. Belly fat, also called visceral or intra-abdominal fat, builds around your organs.
The experts say that belly fat could be the most dangerous type of fat that you could accumulate, and the most difficult one to remove.
How Much Belly Fat Do You Have?
Get a measuring tape, wrap it around your waist at your belly button, and check your girth. Do it while you're standing up, and make sure the tape measure is level.
For your health's sake, you want your waist size to be less than 40 inches if you're a man.
A larger waist circumference (or the measurement around your midsection) puts you at a higher risk for a variety of chronic diseases including: diabetes, heart disease, sleep apnea and even certain cancers (like colon or rectal cancer). You can reduce the amount of belly fat and the risks it poses by losing weight.
Steps for Beating and Getting Rid of Belly Fat
The fact of the matter is battling belly fat takes different strategies and approaches depending upon your genetics, your metabolism, your willpower, etc. What works for your buddy won’t necessarily be your be-all and end-all solution.
While there are countless miracle pills and quick fixes available out there, most of them either don’t work or carry incredible health risks.
Here are the best ways to naturally controlling belly fat:
Exercise
Burn fat with aerobic exercise. Doing a minimum of 30 minutes of aerobic activity four to five times a week will increase your body's natural fat-burning abilities. The body burns energy from fat stores when in an aerobic state; to achieve this state, you must be in movement within your training heart rate for a minimum of 30 minutes. Choose cardiovascular exercises that motivate you and that are easy to incorporate into your weekly routine.
Burn more fat calories with muscle. Scientists estimate that with each additional pound of muscle you will burn an extra seven kilocalories per day. Weight training two to three times a week will help increase your lean muscle fiber and your metabolism.
Balanced Diet
One of the biggest reasons why people put on weight in their mid section is due to the imbalanced diet and sedentary lifestyle that they follow. Arguably, therefore, one of the best ways to ensure that you lose stomach fat without exercise is through a balanced diet.
This should ideally include a high protein diet, which contains no sugars but high amount of fibers and other nutrients. There's a good amount of evidence to suggestion that protein is key to losing tummy fat. Addition of fruits and fresh vegetables also ensures that your diet is more balanced and ultimately leads to weight loss.
Get Enough Sleep
This isn’t just great advice for shedding unwanted pounds around the midsection. The health benefits of getting adequate rest are well-documented and can help you lose weight from several different angles. Sure, it’s easy to make excuses as to why you don’t have time for the prescribed eight hours of sleep or why you don’t really need it, but please read on!
Needless to say, not getting enough rest leaves you feeling exhausted and hinders physical performance. What you may not realize is that nervous function, hormone production, and metabolism are also crippled due to lack of quality sleep. If your nervous system can’t function at full capacity, you’re far more likely to work slower, stress more, exercise less, and eat things that you shouldn’t because you’re in a hurry. Furthermore, inadequate rest can impair the production of key hormones responsible for the metabolism of fat cells.
Remember that one complete sleep cycle for adult humans can range from 90 – 110 minutes and ideally you want to get in 7.5 to 9 hours of sleep – about five complete cycles. This will help your brain and body to function at peak performance and to burn away stubborn belly fat much more efficiently.
Back Off the Booze
It's called a "beer belly" for a reason. Boozy bubbles are a major cause of belly bloat, as anyone who's ever looked in the mirror after a few too many drinks can attest. But it's not just the carbonation that is the culprit. Alcohol can lead to an overgrowth of bad bacteria in your stomach, leading to gas, not to mention all the empty calories that are going straight to your waistline. Instead, skip the alcohol altogether or limit yourself to one serving per day.
Stress Management
Everyone has stress. How you handle it matters. Stress causes your body to gain fat because it triggers the release of the stress hormone cortisol, which in turn increases your appetite.
How do you relieve stress? To an extent, the answer is personal – we're all different – but studies consistently show that getting out in nature and regular bouts of meditation work to reduce our anxiety.
Conclusion
To reduce belly fat naturally you will need to cut down on your calories, eat a diet rich in monounsaturated fats and exercise. With a little patience and effort, it is possible to see those abdominal muscles again.
Justin Arndt is the Director of Content at loseweight.io