Easy Tips To Lose Belly Fat Naturally
It may be so embarrassing for a woman to be mistaken as being pregnant when in fact, she is still single. It can also be the same for a man to be mistaken to be a heavy drinker because of his beer belly. The culprit is belly fat.
Necessity of Alertness to Belly Fat
Among all kinds of fat, this seems to be the hardest to shed off. It is also the most dangerous. Increased amounts of this may indicate a more serious health problem. People who have this are prone to heart disease, hypertension, high blood pressure, diabetes and stroke.
Abdominal fat is commonly seen among men since women are protected from this by the presence of Estrogen until the time she reaches the age of menopause, when Estrogen levels drop. This is why men of younger age are more prone to have diseases linked to abdominal fat. On the other hand, this is common among women who are in their menopause stage.
Higher Impact on Women
There can be many factors that bring on abdominal fat in women: hormone changes, aging and heredity. Abdominal fat increases as a woman age, especially after menopause. Women experience a higher percentage of abdominal fat than men.
Another reason is that the body metabolism slows down as a person ages and with the increasing abdominal fat. Body fat distribution can shift around after menopause with more fat in your belly than elsewhere on your body.
Stress Hormone
The stress hormone Cortisol promotes storage of fat in the abdomen. High levels of this hormone may be found in people who live stressful lives. It is important to check a person’s stress levels and to find ways to keep stress at bay so as to reduce or to prevent belly fat.
We are required to eat food which has the right amount of calories, but if we take more than that, the excess will be converted into fat. This will then be stored in the abdomen. So to prevent this from happening, we have to maintain our ideal weight based on our height. To do this, we have to be careful with our food intake.
Once again, exercise is vital, not only in keeping our ideal weight but also in preventing or getting rid of abdominal fat. High intensity workouts together with resistance training, either with the use of weights or doing sit-ups and crunches, speeds up our metabolism and burns excessive fat fast.
Visceral Fat
This type of fat is situated between internal organs inside the body’s peritoneal cavity and not underneath your skin like subcutaneous fat or intramuscular fat that is in skeletal muscle. Excessive visceral fat forms the infamous “pot belly”, “beer belly” or “spare tire”. Visceral fats can bring on diabetes, metabolic syndrome, gallbladder problems, breast cancer, colorectal cancer and cardiovascular disease.
Ways To Lose Abdominal Fat
Having a balanced diet will not help to lose abdominal fat per se but it does help to lose unnecessary weight from all parts of your body, including the belly. Hence, a healthy diet with a regular exercise routine will help you burn the necessary calories while toning your body muscles simultaneously to avoid belly fat settling in your abdominal area as much as possible.
Adopt a proper exercise regime that targets the tummy area to firm up your abdominal muscles while burning up the fat around it. This will keep your belly flat and without the fat. The exercise routine should be moderately intense to burn the belly fat so that you will experience your belly shrinking even before other areas of your body lose their fat. Consult your doctor on the right type of tummy exercises and their frequency as well as intensity before commencing.
Types of Belly Exercises
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Sit ups may be a popular form of exercise to firm up the belly but it is not the best method as many may think it to be. If you really want to firm up the belly muscles, you would need to target the lower and deeper abdominal muscles.
Pelvic lift or pelvic tilt exercises are great in firming up lower abdominal muscles. They are also very effective for the lower back, sacroiliac joints, adjacent structures and abdominals.
The Pelvic Tilt
Lie down with your back on the floor and knees bent. Simultaneously flatten your back and tighten your belly muscles with your pelvis bent a little. Hold for about eight to ten seconds. Do this exercise for 5 times with 10-20 repetitions.
The Pelvic Lifts
Lie on your back on the floor and have your knees bent upwards to your chest, relaxing your arms at your sides. Tighten or tense up your lower abdomen before lifting your bum slowly off the floor with your knees aimed at the roof. Hold this position for eight to ten seconds; repeat 5 times with a gradual increase to 10-20 repetitions.
Toning Deeper Abdominal Muscles
A good way to tone your deeper belly muscles is through pelvic lifts which can burn off buttock fat and ease sore backs. Get down facing the floor on all fours with your belly hanging down. Breathe deeply in and then exhale. Near the end of exhaling, you should pull in your belly as much as possible until there is a bit of tightening around the waist.
Hold and breathe normally while counting to ten. Then, relax your belly for a count of ten while keeping your back position. Repeat 10 to 12 times. When you are proficient with this exercise routine, it is possible to perform it at an upright position at any place anytime. Adopt a good exercise routine that you can use daily while establishing a balanced healthy diet to lose the belly fat effectively.
You can Lose Belly Fat
Losing belly fat may be hard to achieve but it is not impossible. It may take time to see the desired results but as long as you are persistent to reach your goal, you will succeed. Once you do, you can flaunt your great body shape without the belly fat.
