10 tips to avoid belly fat
Have you gained a little stomach over the years? It is not inevitable, some changes in your daily life will help you lose belly.
The belly is one of the areas most affected by weight gain (much to our misfortune!) Growing belly depends on several factors: your genetic predisposition, your metabolism and of course your diet. In particular, snacking between meals, eating too rich and not doing enough physical exercises. To lose belly fat, start by following these tips first.
1. Measure your waist
Why ? Because beyond the aesthetic considerations, the fat located inside the belly is harmful: it manufactures a large number of substances which can cause a procession of disturbances on the functioning of the organism (cardiovascular diseases, diabetes .. .).
How? 'Or' What ? Place a meter of seamstress under your last floating rib and measure. Below 80 cm, the waist size is normal in women. It is raised between 80 and 88 cm and very high above 88 cm.
2. Get moving
Any physical activity is good for reducing belly fat. The important thing is not to be focused on the result by wanting to lose everything quickly! Otherwise, failure is guaranteed. Rest assured, physical activity is not synonymous with competitive sport! In fact, it corresponds to any bodily movement produced by the contraction of the muscles and resulting in an increase in energy expenditure compared to the expenditure of rest. Consequently, it also covers the movements of daily life, in particular walking, but also gardening or housework.
Note: abdominal strengthening exercises are no more interesting than another bodybuilding activity against the fat located in the belly. This only strengthens the abdominal muscles, which is very important, but it doesn't particularly lose belly fat.
3. Avoid restrictive diets
Avoid: any restrictive regime that will only worsen the situation in the medium term. Not only can these practices be dangerous for health and lead to deficiencies, but in addition weight gain is present in 80% of cases.
To do: you must first analyze your eating habits and question yourself: do you wait until you are hungry to sit at the table? Do you know how to stop eating when you are full? Do you snack during the day? Etc. Then only you have to learn to get as close as possible to the "ideal" diet, if necessary with the help of a nutritionist.
Attention: all this takes time and work on oneself. It is the obligatory condition to respect if you want to protect your body and your health in the long term!
4. Watch your plate
As we have said, paying attention to your diet in no way implies depriving yourself and excluding certain foods. Even less to brutalize his body. Paying attention is adopting a balanced diet and gradually changing your habits:
Eat moderately and vary the dishes as much as possible: meat such as fish, fruits and vegetables at each meal. Eat 3 meals a day with a real breakfast, without skipping lunch and without snacking. For snacks, prefer an apple for wedging rather than a cookie. Without completely eliminating them, reduce the enemies of weight, namely: fried foods, cold meats, sodas, alcohol, meats that are too fatty or in sauce. Also, all foods that ferment and therefore swell the belly, such as cabbage, onions, pulses ...
5. Don't gain too much weight
In theory, to have a stable weight, food intake must be equivalent to caloric expenditure. It is therefore a priori simple: to lose weight, either you have to eat less or you have to spend more.
In reality, it is obviously not easy to quantify all this. What is certain is that if you gain weight regularly, you must react by trying both to do more physical exercise, but also by reducing the food rations a little.
Be careful though: the objective must be reasonable. If you decide to lose 10 pounds in 3 months, there is little chance that it will succeed. We can set ourselves to lose 5% to 10% of the initial weight.
6. Stay Zen
Yes, stress promotes weight gain in the stomach. In general, lifestyle has a definite influence on weight gain. Lack of physical exercise also plays an important role. Various mechanisms are involved. But the first consequence is very often the increase in food intake, without even being aware of it. For example: you get a little more to eat, you take an extra square of chocolate ... It is these little excesses that add up over the long term and that cause the accumulation of pounds.
7. Become a food label pro
Be careful with foods developed under a brand that targets women and their line: they are not always lower in calories than the others. Even if the claims are strictly regulated, it should be known that a product reduced in sugar does not prejudge other characteristics of the product, which can quite be richer in fats.
Also beware of ready-made dishes, which are generally richer in fat (and salt) than homemade preparations. Furthermore, even between two products that are a priori equivalent, we sometimes have surprises when we look at their composition. Example with dairy products: some can be eaten regularly, like yogurts with 0% fat or even plain, while others are rich in fat, like Greek yogurts or dairy desserts.
8. Cook light
This is an essential condition for taking good eating habits: you have to reduce bad fats as much as possible in favor of good fats. It will be all the more beneficial if you have risk factors for cardiovascular diseases in addition to your small stomach: a little cholesterol, a little diabetes, a little high blood pressure ...
The first rule is to avoid anything that is rich in bad fats, that is to say saturated fats of animal origin. These are butter, cheese, cold meats, fatty dairy products, fresh cream. For cooking your meals, prefer vegetable fats (olive oil, rapeseed oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil) to butter, which is of animal origin and therefore richer in saturated fat.
9. Avoid snacking
Forget the candy machine in the break room! Snacking is bad for your health and for your line. Even delicious, these little chocolate bars are very fatty and very sweet. Forget also the sweet sodas: a can contains the equivalent of 6 pieces of sugar!
How? 'Or' What ? First a piece of common sense: eat three full meals a day. Often people snack simply because they don't eat enough or even skip meals. Result: they are hungry all day long.
Then, do not deny yourself the foods that make you happy. They are escalators against the stress and worries of everyday life, they are good for morale. Finally, rather than chaining the chocolate squares all afternoon, eat them for breakfast. It is THE meal where fat is burned the most quickly. So you will start the day off right!
10. Bet on probiotics
From time to time, take a course of probiotics: dietary supplements that can boost the activity of the intestines and thus limit the discomfort of the bloated stomach.
