Friday, November 18, 2011

Best Way to Lose Belly Fat

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Almost anyone who is trying to lose weight is probably also placing a lot of focus on attaining a flat stomach. A flat stomach can be a great source of confidence for those who are able to achieve it. Those who are not able to make it, yearn for it.

What is the best way to lose belly fatThe best way to lose belly fat is to do it naturally without the aid of gimmicks or fad diets.  You may be able to lose a lot of weight with these gimmicks but it is seldom fat loss. Weight loss can be a combination of muscle, water and fat loss.  When ever fad diets or gimmicks are used, there is a tendency to lose more muscle and water than fat.

Fad diets and gimmicks will never help you to lose belly fat. This is because the belly fat is the body’s emergency fat store and its going to take a lot more than brute force dieting to get the body to release this for burning. The only way to trick your body into releasing fat from this emergency stores is via a holistic approach to fat loss.

A holistic approach to losing belly fat requires the incorporation of the 7 keys of correct weight loss as explained below.

NutritionHealthy nutrition is essential if you want to shed fat. You essentially got to get rid of junk food and add high quality whole foods into your diet. Take note of meal quantity, quality and timing. Read more about healthy diet to burn belly fat.

ExercisesRegular exercise is extremely important to lose belly fat. Without a proper exercise regimen, you will find it difficult to lose belly fat. Read more about the best exercises to lose belly fat.

SupplementationIt is important that you take a quality multivitamin-multimineral. This acts as nutritional insurance against any deficiency that may exist. Certain nutritional deficiencies can cause a disturbances in your fat metabolism. In addition to this, you should also consider consuming a quality omega-3 fish oil capsule. This again has been shown to aid in fat loss.

RestorationAn often forgotten part of losing weight is restoration. Restoration in this case refers to adequate sleep and stress management. High levels of stress and lack of sleep can severely sabotage your weight loss efforts.

EducationIt is extremely important that you have basic knowledge about how your body handles fat. With this understanding, you will be able to pick out the genuine methods to lose fat and the gimmicks. Most people fall for ridiculous gimmicks because they lack fundamental knowledge about weight loss. Most people think that fat can be made to disappear into thin air.

FeedbackThis relates to all the measurements that you need to take to make sure that you are on the right track. The most important measurement to take is the body fat level with a pair of calipers. This will ultimately tell you if you are making real progress in your efforts to lose belly fat. Most women will have reasonably flat stomachs at about 20% body fat and 6-pack abs at 15%body fat. Men will have reasonably flat stomachs at about 15% body fat and 6-pack abs at about 10% body fat. As long as your body fat is reducing, you know that you are on the right track.

Social SupportThe last essential part of a holistic approach to losing belly fat is the right social support. You have to be in the company of people who have similar goals or practice a healthy lifestyle. These people will uplift you and keep you focused on your goals. This is unlike others who will chide you and do their best to derail your efforts so that they do not feel guilty of not doing something for themselves.

Suresh and Paramjit discuss in greater detail, what you can do to lose belly fat in the video above. They also go into some things that you should avoid. It is hoped that the resources on this page will help in providing you the best way to lose belly fat.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:22 — 10.4MB)

Best Way to Lose Belly Fat FastTranscript of The Best Way to Lose Belly FatHi I am Suresh V and I am Paramjit and we are from the Correct Weight Loss team.

[Suresh] Today we are going to talk about the best way to lose belly fat. I think there is a big interest in this topic for a lot of people who are struggling with belly fat. We are going to talk about what causes belly fat in the first place. We got a list of items that we believe actually induces belly fat.

[Suresh] The first is alcohol. Alcohol is a big no-no as far as belly fat is concerned. If you want to avoid belly fat, try to avoid alcohol. Basically it has a high amount of calories and its a form of toxin to the body. The body wants to get rid of it as quickly as possible. Therefore when you take alcohol, the body starts burning alcohol first and stops all other calorie burning in the form of fat or carbs.

[Paramjit] It also messes up your hormonal system.

[Suresh] Yes. It reduces your testosterone and other beneficial hormone levels.

Avoid refined carbohydrates [0:01:06.2][Suresh] The other thing that you want to avoid is refined carbs. This is stuff like sugar and white flour. These foods induce huge spikes in insulin. These also cause huge spikes of calories in your body. The body is not used to handling these type of foods. Excess calories that can’t burned are stored as fat in the belly and other areas.

[Paramjit] These refined carbs are the main culprits for the obesity epidemic. You get so much of refined carbohydrates around us. This continuous insulin spikes are really bad for the body. This is where your body starts storing a lot of fat.

[Suresh] When the insulin spikes, you store fat within the abdominal cavity and this is called visceral fat. This is major contributor of belly fat.

Avoid liquid calories [0:01:52.0][Suresh]  The other thing you want to avoid is liquid calories. Things like sodas and all these sweetened beverages are definitely having the same kind of effect on your body as refined carbs. It spikes insulin as too many calories are released into the body at one go. These surplus calories are stored in the body as fat.

[Paramjit] A lot of people do not realize that even the lattes and the coffees that people are used to drinking, are quite calorie dense.

Avoid junk food [0:02:17.1][Suresh] The other thing is fast food and junk food . That is obvious. These are highly dense in calories and very low in nutrition.

[Paramjit] There is also a lot of junk in it like trans fats.

[Suresh] Yes. Trans fats are the other stuff that messes up your hormonal balance. You want to avoid fast food and junk food.

Avoid skipping breakfast [0:02:36.7][Suresh] The last thing you want to do is that is to skip breakfast. A lot of people think that they will lose weight by skipping breakfast. If you want to lose belly fat, you must have a good healthy breakfast. If you don’t have your breakfast, your body goes into a long starvation period because you have not eaten for 8 hours. To make things worse, you skip breakfast. It’s 12 hours to 14 hours before you have your lunch. Your body thinks it is starving and therefore goes into starvation mode where it slows down your metabolism to help you survive. The body does not know that you are skipping breakfast. The body thinks you are starving. The minute you have something to eat at  lunch time, your slow metabolism causes the food that you eat to be stored as fat.

[Paramjit] I guess you covered some of the things not to do. So let us look at some of the things that you should do

Consume a healthy and wholesome diet [0:03:34.6][Paramjit] The most important part to help burn belly fat is your diet. Good nutrition is extremely important for weight loss and for belly fat loss. You have to eat more complex carbs. You spoke earlier about avoiding refined carbs.  Refined carbs really cause havoc in the body. Some people go to the extreme and cut carbs out completely.

[Suresh] That may not be a good strategy because it is not sustainable. We need a certain amount of carbs in our body. Eat healthy carbs. If you cut carbs too much, you lose a lot of nutrients that help your metabolism to work optimally.

[Paramjit] People fail to realize that they will not gain weight if they eat carbohydrates in its natural form….

[Suresh] Like salads, fruits…

[Paramjit] or even potatoes … What we have to be careful about is carbohydrates that have been processed by man. You get white flour. White flour is the biggest poison you can take. Avoid refined carbs but do not avoid complex carbs. Have adequate protein. You also got to be adequately hydrated. Water is very important. When there is inadequate water in the body, the cells cannot function properly.

[Suresh]  Fat burning slows down as a result of inadequate hydration. The metabolism does not function properly.

[Paramjit] You got to have adequate hydration for the cells to work in the proper way to help fat burning. So good nutrition and adequate hydration is extremely important for optimal functioning of your metabolism.

[Paramjit] The other thing to remember is that you have to be on a diet that you can sustain for your whole life. It cannot be a stop-gap measure of a one or two month diet.

[Suresh] It must be a lifestyle.

[Paramjit] It has to be a lifestyle. It has to be something that you can sustain. If it is something that you practice for only 2 or 3  months, what happens when you stop and go back to your “normal lifestyle”? You put on all the fat again.

Regular exercise is a must [0:05:26.7][Paramjit] The other part that you got to consider is exercise. Some people don’t like it when you mention exercise.

[Suresh] Look, I think most of us don’t like the exercise part. The idea is not to enjoy the exercise too much but to learn to enjoy the results of the exercise. You got to think beyond the exercise. You do the exercise to get the results that you want.

[Paramjit] That is a very good point. You are working for the results that exercise gives. Off course the exercise itself is a little painful but endure it for the results. It is the results that we are all after.

[Suresh] The pain is temporary but the results are forever.

[Paramjit] Well said. the pain is temporary and the results are permanent.

Get adequate sleep and manage stress [0:06:14.4][Paramjit] Another point to take note of is sleep.This is one part that a lot of people do not realize

[Suresh] I believe there is actually a correlation. Studies show that Americans are sleeping less and less. They are getting less sleep with the internet and all the latest gadgets available. You will notice that there is an increase in obesity. Sleep has been proven scientifically to have a tremendous effect on your fat burning abilities. If you don’t get enough sleep, you mess up a lot of processes in the body.

[Paramjit] The other part to be aware of  is that our minds are working all the time. We are not able to shut down.

[Suresh] Basically people are stressed up. The cortisol levels are elevated.

[Paramjit] Yes people are stressed. Stress hormones are bad for losing fat and losing weight. Besides good sleep, you also neet to have a technique or mechanism to de-stress yourself. Off course exercise helps to de-stress.

[Paramjit] To a certain extent….

[Suresh] Yes to a certain extent. But there are other de-stressing mechanism like meditation which definitely helps  to cut your stress levels.

Find a source of motivation [0:07:20.3][Paramjit] You need to have some level of motivation and this can come from having other people around you who are going after the same weight loss goals. Try to find other people who also want to lose weight and get a slim belly. Find people that have the same common goal. People with common goals can motivate each other. Some times you have down days and some time your partner may have his or her down days. It is important to motivate each other. It is an important aspect. It is a the softer side of weight loss

[Suresh] The body and the mind are inter-related. Get your mind on the right track and your body will follow. You  have to mix around with the right crowd and read the good stuff. Your mind will start moving in the right direction and your body will follow.

[Paramjit] These are the softer aspects of losing belly fat or weight loss but these are important and carry you a long way.

Educate yourself about weight loss basics [0:08:17.6][Paramjit] The other aspect that I always thought was important is to have at least adequate basic knowledge about weight loss. You got to at least know the difference between weight loss and fat loss. You have to know if  all of your weight loss is coming from fat loss? Are you losing muscles in the process? These are all fundamentals that you got to know. Some people try to be ignorant. Just tell me what to do, they say. When you have this frame of mind, you can fall for gimmicks. You got to know what is right and what is wrong. Having the right knowledge is extremely important so that you continue to get results.

[Suresh] Adequate knowledge actually creates self-discipline. Human beings by nature cannot knowingly do something foolish. It is impossible to knowingly do something foolish. You only foolish things when you are ignorant. Once you know the truth, you can’t knowingly do something foolish. It creates self-discipline effortlessly.

[Paramjit] It is sad because some people just say, “Just tell me what to do and I will do it”. It may work to a certain extent

[Suresh] It works to some degree but you will gain all the weight back because you are not taking responsibility for that area of your life.

[Paramjit] You got to take responsibility.

[Suresh] Responsibility and freedom goes together. Which ever area in your life that you take responsibility, you are free in that area. That is part of growing up.

So I guess without going into more details, these quick tips can help you and put you on the right track to lose belly fat. This is one of the fastest ways to  start losing belly fat. If you incorporate these tips into your lifestyle, you will get results.

From the Correct Weight Loss team, this time do it right.

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