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Why Exercise Alone Won’t Banish Your Belly Fat
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Let’s get right to the meat of the matter here.
To burn fat you absolutely must eat the right foods. Up to 3/4 of your internal and external physical and mental fitness is determined by what you put into your body.
This could explain why serious exercise efforts on your part in the past failed to melt the fat off of your body.
Don’t get us wrong here.
Exercise is an excellent tool for becoming stronger and healthier, and removing dangerous belly fat from your midsection.
But it can’t do the job alone. The way your body responds to certain foods can unfortunately overcome and undo the physical fitness efforts you are making.
Refined sugar and processed foods are full of what are called empty calories. These foods deliver little nutritional value.
These simple carbohydrates do not take long to process. That is why they become fat so quickly. Your body does not have the time to properly process them, recognize them as worthless, and get rid of them as waste.
What’s the answer?
Eat fewer fried foods, soft drinks, energy drinks, refined sugar, salt and any food that comes in a wrapper or package. These foods offer very little nutrition (if any at all), and end up sitting around your belly as fat, putting pressure on your internal organs.
Eat more raw foods, fruits, vegetables and whole grains. These foods take a long time for your body to process. They are also extremely high in healthy nutrients, minerals and vitamins.
Your body spends a lot of time pulling out those wonderfully healthy natural components, every one of your internal systems benefits, and you simply create less belly fat.
Do this in conjunction with a smart exercise plan and you can literally watch your spare tire deflate.
The Deadly Dangers of Belly Fat
That spare tire around your stomach is more than just unattractive.
Let’s make this very clear – at worst, belly fat can kill you. At best it can take years off of your life and lead to multiple, debilitating health problems.
Odds are you are toting around roughly 30 billion fat cells. That is the average amount of fat a typical American is weighed down with. Wherever you live on planet earth, if you exist in a modern-day society, your numbers are about the same.
Where does much of the fat generated by today’s unhealthy diet tend to accumulate? You guessed it, right around your midsection. Here is some more scary data that reveals just how dangerous belly fat can be.
Canadian research involving 8,000 people of all fitness levels was tracked for 13 years. In that short period of time, the people with the weaker abdominal muscles experienced a 100% higher death rate than those with the strongest abdominals.
Excessive weight around your stomach puts you at a heightened risk of developing diabetes.
You are more susceptible to dropping dead from a heart attack if you are obese around your midsection.
People with belly fat develop more cancer than fit people.
Your “beer gut” causes inflammation which can deliver painful symptoms related to poor organ health.
Visceral fat, the fat around your belly, actually fills the spaces between and around your internal organs, leading to a long list of dangerous health conditions.
“Targeting” Belly Fat Doesn’t Work
Have you heard of miracle fat loss supplements that promise to “target” your belly fat?
Don’t believe that line of horse hockey!
You can no more target belly fat than you can any other area of your body, concerning fat loss. You may think targeting belly fat is possible, and your argument is that you have successfully done it before.
Guess what? No, you haven’t, you just think you have. Here’s what actually happens when your body burns fat.
When you eat right, exercise regularly, drink lots of water and get plenty of rest, you cannot help but regulate a healthy body weight. The fact that those smart health efforts may have appeared to target your belly fat is because that is where most of the fat on your body is located.
So when you start living right and burning fat, you see the biggest and quickest results where your largest fat accumulation is … around your midsection.
The way your body burns fat is not selective. Smart nutrition and exercise will reward you by cranking up your fat burning furnace. However, it doesn’t allow you to target fat in your belly, or anywhere else for that matter.
Just start eating right, exercise regularly, get plenty of sleep at night and stay hydrated.
If you do these things, your health will improve, you will look and feel better and live longer, and have to buy smaller pants because of your slim and trim midsection.
What to Eat (And Avoid) to Burn Belly Fat
Some foods promote the storage of fat around your belly. In a lot of cases that stinks, because some of those foods taste really good. But the bottom line is, they are just not healthy for you. This means avoiding entirely, or at least limiting, the following foods in your diet:
- Baked goods
- Pizza
- Fried food
- Potato chips
- Energy and sports drinks
- French fries
- Too much fruit juice (even the natural kinds)
- Foods with refined sugar
- Foods with high levels of sodium (salt)
- Diet soda
- Fast food
- Processed food (food that comes in a wrapper or package)
- Deli meats
- Trans fats
Here are some wonderfully healthy flat belly foods:
- Eggs
- Salmon, mackerel and other fish high in omega-3 fatty acids
- Oatmeal
- Walnuts, almonds and other nuts
- Avocados
- Protein found in lean cuts of chicken, turkey and beef
- Whole grains
- Cherries and bananas
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Coconut oil
- Strawberries, raspberries and blueberries
- Beans and legumes
- Green leafy vegetables
- Green tea
Eat fewer of the 1st group of foods. Eat more of the 2nd group of foods. It can be that simple to get your fat burning furnace cranked up and begin banishing your belly fat.
Why not head into your kitchen right now and begin pulling out those unhealthy foods which are packing on the pounds around your midsection? Then drive down to your local grocer, and begin purchasing flat belly foods found on the list above.
A simple food replacement approach might be all it takes to begin removing significant levels of unhealthy belly fat.
Smart Lifestyle Moves That Destroy Belly Fat
Even small decisions can have big consequences.
That’s why simply making small but significant lifestyle changes in several areas can combine to put your fat burning furnace on steroids. Start practicing the smart lifestyle moves below and you will enjoy a healthier life, as well as less belly fat.
Cut back on the amount of alcohol and beer you drink. Wine, alcohol and beer are full of empty calories and carbohydrates which can lead to fat gain.
Stay active. Walk a couple of miles every day. Adopt an aerobic exercise program. Getting your heart pumping is a great way to burn fat throughout your body.
Eat less food, more frequently. Figure out your healthy daily caloric intake. Then spread it over 5 or 6 meals and snacks. Every time you eat you crank up your metabolism, so when you eat sensible amounts of foods more frequently, you can’t help but burn more fat.
Start strength training. Did you know that strength training exercises, like lifting weights or body weight training, can burn fat and calories for up to 72 hours after your workout is over? Just 20 or 30 minute sessions of strength training 3 to 5 times a week can really ramp up the amount of belly fat you lose.
Get more rest. Adults need 7 to 8 hours of rest each and every night. When you don’t get enough rest, your insulin resistance is thrown out of whack, and you begin storing fat.
Drink plenty of water. Are you getting the 1 gallon of water your body requires on a daily basis to work properly? Water helps flush your body of toxins and waste, and when you are properly hydrated, you store less fat.
Start today and you will feel and look better, and add years to your life.