8 ways to lose belly fat and live a healthier life (2024)

Maintaining a well-groomed midsection does more than just make you look good: it can help you live longer. A larger waistline is associated with a higher risk of heart disease, diabetes and even cancer. Weight loss, especially belly fat, is also improvedblood vesselworks and also improves sleep quality.

It is impossible to specifically target belly fat during a diet. But losing weight in general will help shrink your waistline; More importantly, it will help reduce the dangerous layer of visceral fat, a type of fat in the abdominal cavity that you can't see but which increases health risks, says Kerry Stewart, Ed.D., director of Clinical and Research Physiology at Johns. Hopkins.

How to cut back where it matters most.

1. Try to limit carbohydrates instead of fat.

   When Johns Hopkins researchers compared the heart effects of losing weight on a low-carb diet versus a low-fat diet for six months — each with the same amount of calories — those following the low-carb diet lost an average of 10 pounds. more than those on a low-fat diet: 28.9 pounds versus 18.7 pounds. An added benefit of the low-carb diet is that it produces higher quality weight loss, says Stewart. When losing weight, fat is reduced, but there is often also loss of lean tissue (muscle), which is not desirable. On both diets, along with the fat, there was a loss of about 2 to 3 pounds of good lean tissue, meaning the fat loss rate was much higher on the low-carb diet.

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2. Think of a meal plan, not a diet.

   Ultimately, you need to choose a healthy diet that you can stick to, says Stewart. The benefit of a low-carb approach is that it's simply about learning better food choices – no calorie counting required. In general, a low-carb way of eating shifts your intake away from problem foods (high in carbohydrates and sugar and low in fiber, such as bread, bagels and soda) and toward high-fiber or high-protein choices, such as vegetables. , beans and healthy meat.

3. Get on.

   Physical activity helps burn belly fat. “One of the biggest benefits of exercise is that you get a lot of bang for your buck in terms of body composition,” says Stewart. Exercise appears to reduce abdominal fat, mainly because it reduces circulating levels of fatinsulin— which would otherwise signal the body to hold on to fat — and causes the liver to use fatty acids, especially the nearby visceral fat stores, he says.

   The amount of exercise you need to lose weight depends on your goals. For most people, this can mean 30 to 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise almost every day.

4. Weightlifting.

   Adding even moderate strength training to aerobic exercise will build muscle mass, helping you burn more calories throughout the day, both at rest and while exercising.

5. Become a label reader.

   Compare and contrast brands. For example, some yogurts may boast of being low in fat, but contain more carbohydrates and added sugars than others, says Stewart. Foods such as gravy, mayonnaise, sauces and fabric softeners for salads contain high amounts of fat and many calories.

6. Move away from processed foods.

   The ingredients in packaged goods and snack foods are often high in trans fats, added sugars and added salt or sodium – three things that make losing weight difficult.

7. Focus more on how your clothes fit than on reading a scale.

   As you add muscle and lose fat, the reading on your scale may not change much, but your pants will be looser. It's a better sign of progress. On average, your waist should be less than 90 cm if you are a woman, or less than 100 cm if you are a man, to reduce the risks of heart and diabetes.

8. Hang out with health-oriented friends.

   Research shows that you're more likely to eat better and exercise more if your friends and family do the same.

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   The 80-20 rule (also known as the Pareto principle): what it is, how it works

Definitions

Insuline (in-suh-lin):A hormone produced by the cells of your pancreas. Insulin helps your body store glucose (sugar) from your meals. If you have diabetes and your pancreas is unable to produce enough of this hormone, you may be prescribed medications to help your liver produce more insulin or to make your muscles more sensitive to the available insulin. If these medicines are not enough, you may be prescribed insulin injections.

Blodkar (veh-suls):The system of flexible tubes – arteries, capillaries, and veins – that transport blood throughout the body. Oxygen and nutrients are delivered by the arteries to small, thin-walled capillaries that carry them to the cells and collect waste material, including carbon dioxide. Capillaries carry waste to veins, which return blood to the heart and lungs, where carbon dioxide is removed. through your breath as you exhale.

Artery (are-to-rease):The blood vessels that carry oxygen-rich blood from your heart so it can be delivered to all parts of your body. Arteries look like thin tubes or tubes. The walls are made of a tough outer layer, a middle muscle layer, and a smooth inner wall that allows blood to flow easily. The muscle layer expands and contracts to help move the blood.