Losing Belly Fat

“How do I lose belly fat” is a question that I get constantly.  Whether it be from men looking for a 6-pack to women looking to look good in a bathing suit, it seems like everyone wants to lose weight around their belly.  I have heard people doing crunches till they can’t move, taking fat burning supplements like their candy, cutting calories dramatically and doing excess cardio to try to burn as much as they can.  The only problem is that spot reduction is a myth.  You can’t just lose fat around your belly, you need to lose it everywhere.  You do that by committing to good nutrition and exercise. So step 1 is to change your mindset.  In order to lose belly fat you need to lose body fat all over your body.  The good news is that once you start exercises and eating well you will start to lose body fat all over.

Most people think that there is some sort of secret that I’m keeping from them, but really it all comes down to having a good well rounded fitness program like P90X, TurboFire and eating good clean food.  If you think your doing both of these things and still are not seeing results then here are some tips for nutrition and exercise to keep in mind that will help you lose belly fat.

Nutrition Tips

1.  Eat 5-6 meals per day.  Eating every 2-3 hours helps to keep your body fueled, and helps to keep your metabolism working throughout the day.  A sample of this would be having Breakfast, snack, Lunch, snack, Dinner, optional snack.  Having your larger meals consist of 400-500 calories and your snacks around 200 will put you in a good caloric intake to help burn body fat.

2.  Eat Healthy. No surprise here right?  As they say “abs are built in the kitchen”.  This saying has been around for years because it’s absolutely true.  If you eat junk/processed foods you won’t lose body fat.  So the idea here is to eat good clean, whole foods that are as not processed.  Some examples are:

• Protein:  Lean proteins consisting of chicken, fish, turkey, whey, eggs, and grass fed beef, etc.
• Carbs:  Complex carbs like Oats, Quinoa, Brown Rice, Farro, Black Beans, whole grain bread.
• Fats:  Heart healthy fats that come from Olive Oil, Seeds, Nuts, Avocado,
• Veggies:  The more the merrier.  Eat as many veggies as you can
• Fruits:  What ever is in season at the time, Berries, Bananas, Apples, etc.
• Low Far Dairy:  Organic dairy like skim milk, low fat cottage cheese, Greek Yogurt.

3.  Adjust your Caloric intake. Most people try crash diets when they are trying to lose belly fat.  The problem with this is that your body goes into starvation mode and immediately burns the most abundant source of energy in your body which is your muscle tissue.  So your body will hold onto fat so it can keep itself going.  Do Not Do This.  You need to make sure that you are eating enough calories in order to promote muscle growth and have your body functioning at a high level.  If your doing a program like P90X or Insanity it is very important you follow the calories suggested in those programs so you can build muscle and burn body fat.  Sometimes you need to eat to lose.

That being said, there are those who are eating too much.  So make sure your not on the other end of the spectrum.  This is a lot easier to determine because most people know when they are eating too much.  This can usually be fixed by following tips 1 and 2.  Not sure where you stand on this?  LOG YOUR FOOD!

4.  Eat Less Carbs. One way that I drop body fat is to drop my carbs by adjusting my ratios of protein/carbs/fat.  The fat shredder phase of the P90X nutrition plan is a perfect example.  This is a high protein, low carb diet that you can do for 2-4 weeks to help drop body fat.  The idea is to get 50% of your calories from protein, 30% from carbs, and 20% from fat.  When doing this route make sure you eat plenty of veggies and keep your carb intake to that ratio.  This will force your body to use up the carbs you do eat for energy while keeping your protein high enough so you can keep building muscle.  Your body will be forced to burn body fat as fuel.   Also try to keep your carbs to mostly around your workout and limit them at night.

5.  No Alcohol.  A lot of times people don’t count the calories they drink.  Drink too much alcohol can completely undermine your success when it comes to your health and fitness.  Especially with losing body fat.  If you really want to lose that belly fat then start by not drinking alcohol for 90 days.  After that point you can limit your alcohol to the weekend only and never drink to get drunk.  Drink your water people!

6.  Don’t Eat 2 hours before bed.  If your trying to lose body fat then the last thing you want to do is snack late.  If you eat make sure it’s at least 2 hours before you go to bed so your body can burn the calories while your awake. If your trying to build mass muscle then this goes out the window and you want to try to have some sort of casein (slow digesting) protein before bed.

Exercise Tips

1.  Add Resistance Training. weight training helps to build muscle which in turn helps to burn body fat.  As Chalene Johnson says “muscle burns fat”.  Getting stronger is a great indicator that your doing something right.  Far too often people get obsessed with cardio and end up with poor results.  Don’t get me wrong, Cardio has it’s place in your program but you must do some resistance training to help build muscle which will help you lose body fat.

2.  Add some HIIT training.  If you are doing tip 1 then you can add some 15 min HIIT training to your post resistance workout to help burn more fat.  HIIT training has been shown to help burn body fat and preserve muscle mass.  Adding just 15 mins can help you get rid of that stubborn belly fat. It’s important that you don’t overdue the cardio though.  Think of a sprinter vs a marathon runner.  Who seems more fit to you?  A sprinter does resistance training and HIIT training a marathon runner does only long cardio training.

3.  Bring Intensity to your workouts. This doesn’t mean that I want you working out so hard that your hating life and throwing up.  This means that your working out with purpose.  We all can take each ourselves a little further a lot of the time.  So before you start make sure you have a weight and rep range in mind and go to it.  If your feeling good that day then go until it’s tough.  Write that down and try to match that or do more next time around.

4.  Keep your ab routine to 3x per week. You don’t need to do abs every day to build a 6-pack.  Even Tony says “Once or twice per week.  That’s all you need….Do you do chest everyday?  Do you do back everyday?  Do you do calves everyday?  No, No, No!  So why would you do abs everyday?”  I do abs 3x per week and have a very strong core.  Keep your ab routine to 3x per week and you will be doing plenty to get that great looking stomach.

Well I hope that helps.  I know it’s a lot of tips but these are some things that you can keep in mind while your going through your fitness program.  Whether your a man or women these tips should help you with your results and help you get that beachbody you have always wanted.

Do you think these tips will help you lose body fat?  Do you have any more tips?  Let us know!

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