How To Lose Belly Fat With Intermittent Fasting In 3 Steps
Intermittent Fasting is a fantastic tool to help your body tap into fat burning mechanisms. But if used incorrectly by not considering your meals, rest and exercise as well, then any benefits gained from the fasting period can be lost.
Today, I’m breaking down the 3 major steps to consider when incorporating Intermittent Fasting in order to tap into fat burning mechanisms and reduce belly fat.
Consume A Combo Of Calcium And Vitamin D
Say cheese! Adding some extra calcium and vitamin D to your diet could be the best way to get the flat stomach you’ve been dreaming about. Over just 12 months, researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville found that obese female study subjects who upped their calcium intake shed 11 pounds of body fat without other major dietary modifications. To keep your calcium choices healthy, try mixing it up between dairy sources, calcium-rich leafy greens, fatty fish, nuts, and seeds.
Weight Loss For Men: How Does A Man Lose Belly Fat
You go to the gym at least twice a week. You only have a few beers and eat fast food here and there. You think youre eating reasonable portion sizes, but you just cant lose the beer belly. At Medical Transformation Center in Louisville, KY, we are passionate about helping our clients lead happier, healthier lives. Today, we explain weight loss for men to help you lose belly fat.
Weight loss for men is the same as weight loss for women. You must consume fewer calories than your body needs to maintain its current weight. At the end of the day, there are only two things you have to consider. First, you must consider how many calories you consume in a given;period. Second, you must consider how many calories you burn in a given;period.
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This Is The Only Diet That Helped Me Ditch My Belly Fat
About two years ago, I was in the store with my two kids and someone asked me when I was due. I looked down at my belly and said, “I’m not.” This was the second time I’d been asked about my “baby;” the first time was in college after gaining 40 pounds. I felt pretty defeated. My entire life, I’ve always had a little belly and have always felt self-conscious. I exercise regularly and eat healthy, but came to accept that this is how my body is meant to look. Or is it?
Left: July 2016, Right: April 2018
Mistake #: Breaking Your Fast With A High
At the end of a 16-18-hour fast , you may be feeling pretty hungry and tempted to splurge with a high-carb meal like pizza or a burger and fries. Id suggest not doing that if you want to maximize fat loss.
IF allows you to be somewhat loose with your eating, but that doesnt change the fact that high protein intake is important along with healthy, wholesome food choices. Coming off of a fast, I recommend a high-protein meal as opposed to one loaded with carbs.
Research supports my advice. One study found that when subjects consumed a high-carbohydrate meal, levels of a critical uncoupling protein decreased within an hour after the meal; subjects who consumed a low-carb meal, however, maintained elevated levels of the uncoupling protein an hour after eating.
Why is this important? Because IF is effective for fat loss in part because of uncoupling proteins. When you fast, it turns on genes that encode for certain uncoupling proteins and for enzymes that increase fat burning. The uncoupling proteins basically poke holes in the mitochondria inside muscle cells. The mitochondria are where most of your energy is derived from, especially at rest. By poking holes in the mitochondria, they produce less energy, so they have to burn far more calories to produce the same amount of energy in the form of ATP.
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Think Eating Plan Not Diet
Ultimately, you need to pick a healthy eating plan you can stick to,Stewart says. The benefit of a low-carb approach is that it simply involveslearning better food choicesno calorie-counting is necessary. In general,a low-carb way of eating shifts your intake away from problem foodsthosehigh in carbs and sugar and without much fiber, like bread, bagels andsodasand toward high-fiber or high-protein choices, like vegetables, beansand healthy meats.
Keep An Eye On Portion Sizes
Most people who have been lean their whole lives have a much better understanding of proper portion size than people who are overweight, says Deborah Riebe, Ph.D., a professor in the department of kinesiology at the University of Rhode Island. If they go out to eat, theyre much more likely to ask for a doggie bag right away or to leave food on their plate rather than cleaning it up.
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Never Forbid Yourself A Favorite Food
Heres a shocker: When a group of U.K. researchers told 30 women to avoid chocolate, then packed them into a room filled with the stuff; the women were much more likely to sneak a bite than individuals who hadnt been given the order. Blame the allure of the forbidden: The more you tell yourself you cant eat something you love, the more youre going to want it.
Avoid Foods That Contain Trans Fats
Trans fats are created by pumping hydrogen into unsaturated fats, such as soybean oil.
Theyre found in some and spreads and also often added to packaged foods, but many food producers have stopped using them.
These fats have been linked to inflammation, heart disease, insulin resistance, and abdominal fat gain in observational and animal studies .
A 6-year study found that monkeys who ate a high trans fat diet gained 33% more abdominal fat than those eating a diet high in monounsaturated fat .
To help reduce belly fat and protect your health, read ingredient labels carefully and stay away from products that contain trans fats. These are often listed as partially hydrogenated fats.
SUMMARY
Some studies have linked a high intake of trans fat to increased belly fat gain. Regardless of whether youre trying to lose weight, limiting your intake of trans fat is a good idea.
Alcohol can have health benefits in small amounts, but its seriously harmful if you drink too much.
Research suggests that too much alcohol can also make you gain belly fat.
Observational studies link heavy alcohol consumption to a significantly increased risk of developing central obesity that is, excess fat storage around the waist .
Cutting back on alcohol may help reduce your waist size. You dont need to give it up altogether, but limiting the amount you drink in a single day can help.
One study on alcohol use involved more than 2,000 people.
- meat
- beans
26 ).
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Flavor Your Food With Garlic
A little garlic in your meals could mean a lot less weight around your middle. The results of a Korean study found that mice given a high-fat diet supplemented with garlic lost significantly more weight and abdominal fat than those who just ate fatty foods. Even better, they also improved their liver health, making it easier to stay healthy and burn off that excess fat in the long term. For more flavorful ways to make your food more enjoyable, turn to the metabolism-boosting spicy recipes and watch those pounds melt away.
So No There’s Not But Here’s What You Can Do
1. Start simple
Typically there are many things you may need to improve to lose belly fat. But start by focusing on changing or improving just one thing. Then, once you conquer that first objective, you can move on to the next thing, and so on.
2. Target sugar
One good place to begin improving your food choices is to eliminate sugary drinks and not just soda, but juices. Sugar increases belly fat and fiber reduces belly fat; thus when you’re juicing fruits, you’re removing the fiber, leaving pure sugar. So one quick fix, a very concrete fix, would be eliminating sugary drinks.
Replacing sugary beverages with water will help dramatically cut down your sugar intake, and then once you’ve taken that step, you can figure out how to cut down on foods that are high in sugar.
If you have a sweet tooth and need to put that final accent to your meal, eat an apple, melon or fresh berries. Just remember, fruit is not a substitute for vegetables.
3. Go Mediterranean
The popular “flat belly diets”embrace much of the wisdom found in eating a Mediterranean diet, which helps everything from brain health to hearth health. The basic premise for both diets is eat foods rich in monosaturated fatty acids that may help reduce your belly fat storage. MUFA-rich foods include olive oil, nuts and seeds, avocodos, and fish. Eating yogurt regularly has also been found to be helpful in reducing belly fat.
4. Front-load your meal
5. Commit to a physical lifestyle
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Make A Special Request
A recent survey by our friends at GrubHub found that “sauce on the side” was the number-one healthy takeout request. After crunching the numbers, we discovered thatno matter what kind of joint you’re ordering fromyou can save up to 1,000 calories at each meal just by asking them to put the sauce on the side.
Overhead Medicine Ball Slam
Overhead medicine ball slam is another fun exercise that works your entire body.;
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, holding the medicine ball in both hands at your navel.
Engage your core and roll your shoulder blades back. Squat, inhale, rising onto the balls of your feet.;
Bring the medicine ball overhead. Using your abdominals and arms to slam the ball into the ground.;
Squat to pick up the ball and move on to your next slam.;
Repeat for 30 slams.;
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Optimal Intermittent Fasting Windows
This so-called time-restricted eating is a form of intermittent fasting. Instead of fasting on alternate days or several 24-hour periods per week, time-restricted eating encourages dieters to limit their meals to certain windows of time.
Eating and drinking during a 10-hour window allows your body to rest and restore for 14 hours while drinking water, coffee or tea. According to study co-author Satchin Panda, PhD, Your body can also anticipate when you will eat, so it can prepare the body to optimize metabolism.
Other studies on time-restricted eating have found similar results. Researchers from the University of Alabama split obese men with prediabetes into two groups: One group ate all of its meals within an 8-hour window between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. and the other spread its meals out over 12 hours between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. The study showed both groups maintained their weight but those who restricted their eating to an 8-hour window had lower insulin levels, reduced insulin sensitivity and lower blood pressure; their appetites decreased, too.
How Much Body Fat Should You Have
The way in which women could and should lose belly fat is different to that of men. Women need somebelly fat to function fat cells store oestrogen, so having too little can cause your whole hormonal function to go out of whack, causing serious health issues such as irregular periods and even infertility.
To that end, striving to lose fat from your stomach with the aim of getting a six-pack, for most females, wouldn’t be healthy. Instead, aim to sit within the 21-30% body fat category. This is what’s considered a healthy body fat percentage range for women.
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Different Names For Sugar
Sugar goes by countless names many of which you may not recognize.
Food manufacturers use this to their advantage by purposely adding many different types of sugar to their products to hide the actual amount.
In doing so, they can list a healthier ingredient at the top, mentioning sugar further down. So even though a product may be loaded with sugar, it doesnt necessarily appear as one of the first three ingredients.
To avoid accidentally consuming a lot of sugar, watch out for the following names of sugar in ingredient lists:
- Types of sugar: beet sugar, brown sugar, buttered sugar, cane sugar, caster sugar, coconut sugar, date sugar, golden sugar, invert sugar, muscovado sugar, organic raw sugar, raspadura sugar, evaporated cane juice, and confectioners sugar.
- Types of syrup: carob syrup, golden syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, honey, agave nectar, malt syrup, maple syrup, oat syrup, rice bran syrup, and rice syrup.
- Other added sugars: barley malt, molasses, cane juice crystals, lactose, corn sweetener, crystalline fructose, dextran, malt powder, ethyl maltol, fructose, fruit juice concentrate, galactose, glucose, disaccharides, maltodextrin, and maltose.
Many more names for sugar exist, but these are the most common.
If you see any of these in the top spots on the ingredients lists or several kinds throughout the list then the product is high in added sugar.
Eat Plenty Of Soluble Fiber
Soluble fiber absorbs water and forms a gel that helps slow down food as it passes through your digestive system.
Studies show that this type of fiber promotes weight loss by helping you feel full, so you naturally eat less. It may also decrease the number of calories your body absorbs from food .
Whats more, soluble fiber may help fight belly fat.
An observational study in over 1,100 adults found that for every 10-gram increase in soluble fiber intake, belly fat gain decreased by 3.7% over a 5-year period (
Make an effort to consume high fiber foods every day. Excellent include:
- flax seeds
- blackberries
SUMMARY
Soluble fiber may help you to lose weight by increasing fullness and reducing calorie absorption. Try to include plenty of high fiber foods in your weight loss diet.
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Peanut Butter And Other Nut Butters
Instead of spreading sugary filled jams and jellies on bread, switch to peanut butter . You can also have peanut butter as a snack with fruits and vegetables like apples or celery. One serving of natural peanut butter can have up to 8 grams of protein and up to 4 grams of fiber per serving which keeps you satiated for longer and boosts your metabolism.
Diet Myth Or Truth: Fasting Is Effective For Weight Loss
Fasting is an age-old practice, often done for religious reasons, but fasting for weight loss is still capturing the public imagination. You can find dozens of do-it-yourself plans touting the unproven benefits of fasting, ranging from flushing “poisons” from the body to purging 30 pounds of fat in 30 days.
It’s true that fasting — that is, eating little to no food — will result in weight loss, at least in the short term. But the risks far outweigh any benefits, and ultimately, fasting can cause more harm than good.
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Cut Back On Carbs Especially Refined Carbs
Reducing your carb intake can be very beneficial for losing fat, including abdominal fat.
Diets with under 50 grams of carbs per day cause belly fat loss in people who are overweight, those at risk for type 2 diabetes, and women with polycystic ovary syndrome .
You dont have to follow a strict low carb diet. Some research suggests that simply replacing refined carbs with unprocessed starchy carbs may improve metabolic health and reduce belly fat .
In the famous Framingham Heart Study, people with the highest consumption of whole grains were 17% less likely to have excess abdominal fat than those who consumed diets high in refined grains .
SUMMARY
A high intake of refined carbs is associated with excessive belly fat. Consider reducing your carb intake or replacing refined carbs in your diet with healthy carb sources, such as whole grains, legumes, or vegetables.
Coconut oil is one of the healthiest fats you can eat.
Studies show that the medium-chain fats in coconut oil may boost metabolism and decrease the amount of fat you store in response to high calorie intake (
39 ).
In one study, men with obesity who took coconut oil daily for 12 weeks lost an average of 1.1 inches from their waists without intentionally changing their diets or exercise routines (
41 ).
Also, keep in mind that coconut oil is high in calories. Instead of adding extra fat to your diet, replace some of the fats youre already eating with coconut oil.
SUMMARY
The Drink Recipe That Can Reshape Your Stomach
Success is the best motivator for implementing a healthy diet and having some exercise. With the help of this weight loss drink, you will achieve whatever you like. You will only spend several minutes of your time and it will provide you with positive results very soon. When you will see how easy is, to begin with lowering belly fat, you will be motivated to implement your diet.
Steps to prepare weight losing drink:
Grab one small handful of fresh parsley leaves and place them into a blender. Blend them well.
Then grab one lemon and roll it against the surface to get some juices. Then split the fruit into two halves and squeeze the juice and add it to the blended parley.
Then add ½ cup of water in the blender and blend the composite for several seconds.
This composite works in few different ways. The parsley is a great source of vitamins that are necessary for normal digestion. The lemon is very helpful for burning the fat. This combination enhances your metabolism and helps in losing belly fast very fast.
Consume this composite for five days in the mornings. Consume it on an empty stomach. You should make 10 days pause if you intend to iterate the process again. Iterate the process only if you need to.
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