Besides proper diet followed by a proper exercise, you should also sleep enough as well as manage and reduce stress. When the levels of the stress hormone called cortisol increase, it depletes lean muscle and attaches to the fat in the stomach area.
You must understand that having an optimal weight and reducing the belly fat is not just good for your physical appearance, but also for your overall health and wellbeing.
The visceral fat – abdominal fat that accumulates around the internal organs releases hormones and proteins which can cause inflammation.
This can lead to artery damage and entry to the liver. Once here, the hormones and proteins from the visceral fat will interfere with the way your body breaks down fats and sugars.
This type of inflammation can cause various systemic diseases associated with metabolic syndrome.
You can understand now why people with extra belly fat are connected to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, etc. Also, this is the reason why the WHR ratio (waist-hip ratio) can show your health condition better than your BMI (body mass index).
2 Dietary Factors for Burning Abdominal Fat
If you like to burn your stomach fat, first you’ll have to lose some body fat. In other words, targeting just one body part for fat burning is simply impossible. To succeed in this, you’ll have to pay closer attention to your diet. Consuming improper foods and drinks promotes fat buildup and makes your body hold on to the extra fat.
Here are the three main keys regarding your diet that will help you lose weight:
1. Avoid or Reduce Sugar
The first dietary key to burning stomach fat is eliminating or reducing all forms of sugar and fructose. This doesn’t refer to the refined sugar only, but also to the “natural” forms like honey or agave.
In addition, you’ll have to eliminate all grains, even the organic ones, since they are quickly converted into sugars in your body.
So far, the worst type of sugar is the high fructose syrup as it causes metabolic dysfunction. The human’s body metabolizes this and other forms of processed fructose in the same way as alcohol. This means increased fat accumulation and insulin resistance, incomparably higher than other forms of sugar.
Since processed fructose is found in numerous sweetened beverages and processed foods under more than 60 names, the best way to avoid it is to stop eating processed foods altogether. Instead, change them with organic, whole foods.
If you have excess stomach fat and insulin resistance, make sure your daily intake of sugar/fructose is less than 15 grams. On the other hand, those with normal weight and no signs of insulin resistance should consume not more than 25 grams per day.
2. Eat More Healthy Fats
You might be surprised, but when you want to lose some weight, you should not follow a low-fat diet. Instead, you should consume plenty of healthy saturated fats.
If you’re insulin resistant, your daily calories should consist of 50-85% healthy fats.
Great sources of healthy fats include raw dairy, butter produced from raw grass-fed organic milk, coconut oil and coconuts, organic pastured egg yolks, raw nuts, unheated organic nut oils, animal-based omega 3 fatty acids, avocados, and grass-fed meats.
Researchers discovered that MUFAs (monounsaturated fatty acids) in olive oil, nuts, and avocados could speed up the abdominal fat burning process.
3. Intermittent Fasting
This is the third dietary factor when it comes to burning abdominal (and overall) fat. This type of diet forces your body to use fat as opposed to sugar as its primary fuel.
A Good Version of Intermittent Fasting
Here’s a great intermittent fasting version for anyone with insulin resistance. All you have to do is restricting your diet to an 8-hour window of time every day. This means you could have your first meal at 11 AM, and the second at 7 PM.
What you’d do actually is making lunch your breakfast. So, following this type of diet will mean fasting for 16 hours. This time is twice the minimum you’ll need to deplete your body’s stores of glycogen. This, in turn, will shift your body from fat-storing to fat-burning mode.
Even though there are many different versions of intermittent fasting, this one has proven to be highly effective when your body begins burning fat instead of sugar.
The slow-burning fuel called fat will prevent suffering from the huge energy crashes connected with sugar. So, if you have no problems when you don’t eat for several hours and you’re not hungry, follow this diet schedule until your weight normalizes, insulin resistance and health problems resolve, including high blood sugar, and blood pressure.
Once your health condition and weight normalize, do this eating schedule as often as you want to maintain an optimal weight and health.
Foods Which Can Help You Burn Stomach Fat
The author of “Zero Belly Diet” David Zinczenko recommends several foods which can help reduce inflammation, bloating, and turn off the genes responsible for fat storage. This, in turn, can help you get a leaner belly. As he explains, the results from his Zero Belly program were astonishing.
Apparently, in a period of only six weeks, the average person managed to lose 4 inches around their waist. This program is based on nutritional genetics. In other words, it turns your fat genes off, making the weight loss process natural. This diet doesn’t have deprivation or calorie counting.
Here’s how it works:
1. The Zero Belly program cuts down on excess salt, artificial sweeteners, and dairy, thus eliminating the bloating. Some participants in the research succeeded to lose up to 3 inches in their waist in only a week period.
2. This diet feeds the good microbes in the stomach, healing your gut. When you have balanced gut, the inflammation in your body decreases and your fat genes can turn off more easily.
3. It supplies your metabolism with enough quality fiber, healthy fats, and protein.
