10 tips to avoid belly fat

The belly is one of the areas most affected by weight gain (to our great misfortune!) Belly fat in fact depends on several factors: your genetic predisposition, your metabolism and of course your diet. In particular, the fact of snacking between meals, eating too rich and not doing enough physical exercises. For lose some belly, start by following these few tips.

1. Measure your waistline

Why ? Because beyond aesthetic considerations, the fat located inside the belly is harmful: it produces a large number of substances that can cause a series of disturbances on the functioning of the body (cardiovascular diseases, diabetes … .).

How? ‘Or’ What ? Place a tape measure under your last floating rib and measure. Below 80 cm, the waist circumference is normal in women. It is high between 80 and 88 cm and very high beyond 88 cm.

2. Get moving

Any physical activity is good for reducing belly fat. The important thing is not to be focused on the result by wanting at all costs to lose everything quickly! Otherwise, it is guaranteed failure. Rest assured, physical activity is not synonymous with competitive sport! In fact, it corresponds to any bodily movement produced by the contraction of the muscles and causing an increase in the expenditure of energy compared to the expenditure of rest. Consequently, it also covers the movements of daily life, in particular walking, but also gardening or cleaning.

To know : abdominal strengthening exercises are no more interesting than any other weight training activity against belly fat. It only strengthens the abdominal muscles which is very important, but it does not particularly lose belly fat.

3. Avoid restrictive diets

To avoid : any restrictive regime that will only worsen the situation in the medium term. Not only can these practices be dangerous for health and lead to deficiencies, but in addition weight gain is present in 80% of cases.

To do : you must first analyze your eating habits and question yourself: do you wait until you are hungry to sit down to eat? Do you know how to stop eating when you are full? Do you snack during the day? Etc. Only then must you learn to get as close as possible to the “ideal” diet, if necessary with the help of a nutritionist doctor.

Warning : all this requires time and work on oneself. This is the mandatory condition to respect if you want to protect your body and health in the long term!

4. Watch your plate

As we have said, paying attention to your diet in no way implies depriving yourself and excluding certain foods. Even less to brutalize his body. Being careful means adopting a balanced diet and gradually changing your habits:

Eat moderately and vary the dishes as much as possible: meat such as fish, fruits and vegetables at each meal. Eat 3 meals a day with a real breakfast, without skipping lunch and without snacking. For snacks, prefer an apple to wedge you rather than a cookie. Without completely eliminating them, reduce the enemies of weight, namely: fried foods, cold meats, sodas, alcohol, meats that are too fatty or in sauce. Also, all the foods that ferment and therefore make inflate the belly, cabbage, onions, pulses …

5. Don’t gain too much weight

In theory, to have a stable weight, it is necessary that the food intake is equivalent to the calorie expenditure. It is therefore a priori simple: for losing weight, either you have to eat less or you have to spend more.

In reality, it is obviously not easy to quantify all this. What is certain is that if you gain weight regularly, you have to react by trying to do more physical exercise, but also by reducing food rations a little.

Be careful though: the goal must be reasonable. If you decide to lose 10 pounds in 3 months, there is little chance that it will succeed. We can set ourselves to lose 5% to 10% of the initial weight.

6. Stay zen

Yes, stress promotes weight gain in the stomach. In general, lifestyle has a definite influence on weight gain. Lack of physical exercise also plays an important role. Various mechanisms are involved. But the first consequence is very often the increase in food intake, without even realizing it. For example: we strain a little more to eat, we take an extra square of chocolate … It is these small excesses that are added in the long term and cause the accumulation of pounds.

7. Become a food label pro

Be careful with foods developed under a brand that targets women and their line: they are not always less caloric than others. Even if the claims are strictly regulated, it should be noted that a product low in sugar does not prejudge the other characteristics of the product, which can be quite richer in fat.

Also beware of ready-made meals, which are generally higher in fat (and salt) than homemade preparations. Moreover, even between two products which are a priori equivalent, we sometimes have surprises when we look at their composition. Example with dairy products: some can be consumed regularly, such as 0% fat or even plain yoghurts, while others are high in fat, such as Greek yogurts or dairy desserts.

8. Cook light

It is an essential condition to take good food reflexes: it is necessary to reduce as much as possible the bad fats in favor of the good fats. This will be all the more beneficial if you have risk factors for cardiovascular disease in addition to your little stomach: a little cholesterol, a little diabetes, a little high blood pressure …

The first rule is to avoid anything that is high in bad fats, that is to say in saturated fats of animal origin. These are butter, cheese, cold cuts, fatty dairy products, fresh cream. For cooking your meals, prefer fats of vegetable origin (olive oil, rapeseed oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil) to butter, which is of animal origin and therefore richer in saturated fat.

9. Avoid snacking

Forget the candy machine in the break room! Snacking is bad for your health and bad for your figure. Even delicious, these little chocolate bars are very fatty and very sweet. Forget about sugary sodas too: one can contains the equivalent of 6 lumps of sugar!

How? ‘Or’ What ? First, a piece of common sense: make three full meals per day. Often people snack simply because they are not eating enough or even skipping meals. Result: they are hungry all day long.

Then, do not refrain from foods that make you happy. They are stimulants against the stress and worries of daily life, they are good for morale. Finally, rather than stringing squares of chocolate all afternoon, eat it for breakfast. This is THE meal where fat is burnt the fastest. This will give you a great start to the day!

10. Bet on probiotics

From time to time, do a probiotic cure : food supplements that can boost the activity of the intestines and thus limit the discomfort of a bloated belly.

Source: journaldesfemmes.fr