The real "secret" for losing belly fat is that there is no secret. The common sense approach is rarely cited. According to the Mayo Clinic, belly fat has the potential of spurring heart disease, type 2 diabetes and danger of stroke. Reducing that weight around your middle will make you look and feel better and will likely extend your life.
Set a Goal
Set a reachable goal such as one lower waist and pant size. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases advises a safe weight loss of 1 to 2 pounds per week. Tell your friends and family about your goal. If you were building a house or starting college you wouldn't be afraid to let others know what you were doing and would fully expect to reach your goal of a new home to live in or a diploma on your wall.
Forget Fast Food
Fast food and rich dessert eating are right up there with building a home without a plan or skipping classes at college. To get to your goal you need to drive past the burger joints.
Join a Group
Join a diet group for added information and encouragement. Having the extra support can help you get through those tough days when you want to give up and eat everything in sight.
Assemble Your Tools
Stock the refrigerator with the fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains and nuts you will need to accomplish your goal of less belly fat. Remove the impediments of rich, processed foods, snacks and secret stashes that are in the way of your goal. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that only about one third of adults eat adequate amounts of fruits and vegetables.
Stay Busy
Stay busy with interesting projects, volunteer at a local not-for-profit or start a new hobby. Keeping busy makes the time fly. Contemplating your navel won't make it shrink any faster.
Listen to Your Belly
Eat when you are hungry, not because of an artificial schedule. Simply eat less of your preferred, healthy foods. If you don't like grapefruit, raw broccoli and carrots, now is not the time to place further stress on yourself by trying to make yourself eat unfamiliar foods.
Savor Your Food
Eat slowly and chew your food thoroughly to give your belly a chance to feel the fullness. Eating too quickly doesn't give your belly a chance to feel when it is satiated.
Do the Math
A pound of fat equals about 3,500 calories. To lose a pound a week, you must eat 3,500 calories less than your metabolism burns. Double your walk, cut your portions in half, take up the hoola hoop. Whatever it takes, the figures don't lie and no magic pill will take the place of smaller portions and more exercise.
Be Reasonably Good to Yourself
Don't "cottage cheese and grapefruit" yourself to failure. Nor should you "reward" a lost pound or inch at the waist with a big dish of ice cream. Eat reasonably. Unlike abstinence with alcoholism or going cold turkey off drugs, you can't quit eating. Easy does it.
Set Interim Goals
Weigh yourself once a week at the same time of day, measure your stomach monthly and keep score. Make a chart, calendar or poster of a thermometer you can fill in as you approach your goal. The refrigerator door might be an appropriate place to hang your visual measure of progress.
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