Losing a belly by reducing abdominal fat is one of the most common goals for both gendersEspecially in men who, due to their hormonal state, accumulate a lot of fat and develop what is known as the “floater”, which would be that excess fat that surrounds the entire belly area, the obliques and the lumbar spine.
This goal is so common that it has even become quite a business, and many people have tried to profit by creating or sponsoring useless products like detox shakes. Do you know what you really should do to lose this belly fat?
Losing your belly: what you should do
Diet to lose fat
Although all factors are important, the diet stands out a little more above the rest since it is the one that will determine our final fat loss the most.
Our diet should be based 80 – 90% on real food, that is, on minimally processed foods that conserve their nutrients and do not harm our health.
These foods generally have a low caloric density and a high nutritional density (they provide a large amount of nutrients per calorie ingested), in addition to provide a greater feeling of fullness than ultra-processed foods.
We don’t need to say what they are; We know that fruit, vegetables, nuts, legumes or eggs are examples of these food groups.
On the other hand, it will also be a priority that your protein intake is high, since proteins are the macronutrient that has the best effect on body composition.
Physical activity to lose fat
Strength training can help us mobilize abdominal fat, while cardiovascular training can promote its oxidation.
It does not consist in determining which is better than the other, but rather the idea is to try to combine both to get the best results.
Since the goal in this case is the loss of abdominal fat, it will make sense that we do strength training first and then focus on cardiovascular training afterwards.
This will not only improve the hormonal environment that caused you to accumulate fat in the first place, but it will also very likely improve your current health.
Losing your belly: what you shouldn’t do
Diet to lose belly: don’t do this
If you want to lose fat you should not try to follow a specific diet, but you should focus on enjoying eating while maintaining a sustainable caloric deficit.
This means that you must create a diet that allows you to ingest the nutrients you need throughout the day while at the same time eating fewer calories than you expend and you get to keep this for a considerable period of time (and no, we are not talking about a couple of weeks).
Do not seek to carry out miracle diets that in the short term allow you to lose a lot of weight because in addition to the fact that this loss will be transitory and later you will most likely suffer a rebound effect, you will lose weight at the cost of losing health by following the ridiculous strategies that these diets pose miracle.
Physical activity: what doesn’t make sense for you to do
We have commented that training is important, but it is not everything.
Do not neglect the 23 hours a day that you are not training because they are also an opportunity to increase your caloric expenditure through physical activity.
Acquire a smartwatch or smart watch is a good way to monitor your daily physical activity level, since in this way we can assess whether we are really achieving a considerable caloric expenditure during the 24 hours.
Another thing that doesn’t make sense for you to do is infinite series of crunches, because this is not going to make you lose a significant amount of belly fat.
Nor should you try to copy all the ridiculous exercises that many influencers On Instagram. In most cases these exercises are not well designed, do not effectively recruit the muscles to be worked, or they aren’t completely safe, so don’t look to reinvent the wheel.
Lifestyle: the great forgotten
Finally, although we have already discussed the most important points that will provide you with most of the results, you should also value the lifestyle you lead currently.
Losing belly fat is relatively straightforward, and it can even be difficult to gain it in the first place if you’re already taking proper care of your body.
Ask yourself if you drink alcohol, if you smoke, if you sleep poorly, if you are under a lot of stress … And if the answer to all these questions is “yes”, consider start making more changes in your life than just eating or training.
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