The Best Way to Quickly Lose Belly Fat

No one wants to deal with belly fat. It's unsightly and can make you wary of bikini season. More importantly, it's a prime indicator of serious diseases like heart disease and diabetes. Getting rid of belly fat is challenging and takes a lot of work and dedication, you can conquer the bulge fast by adopting specific dietary and fitness habits.

Step 1

Eat belly fat-busting foods. Fruits and vegetables are a given for any healthy diet, but to help shed lbs. from your gut faster, consider upping your vitamin C intake since it's known to increase metabolism. Soybeans are another fat-burning food because of their lecithin content. Lecithin makes it so your cells can't absorb fat as well. Put the finishing touches on your fat-burning diet by drinking eight 8-oz. glasses of water a day. Staying hydrated helps to flush fat and toxins from your system and also helps you feel full, further promoting weight loss from your middle.

Step 2

Don't eat foods that make your body hold onto fat. For instance, alcohol and caffeinated beverages cause your body to retain water, causing bloating. This prevents you from losing weight, especially in your midsection. Avoid complex carbohydrates as well, since they are very hard to process and encourage your body to store fat.

Step 3

Do cardiovascular exercises such as jogging, swimming, biking or aerobics. Anything that gets your heart rate up for at least 30 minutes a day should do the trick. When combined with a healthier diet, cardio burns calories, which in turn burns stored fat, allowing you to lose weight all over, including around your middle.

Step 4

Do crunches every day to tighten your abdominal muscles. While strengthening exercises like crunches don't help you lose belly fat, they do tone up the underlying muscles so that once you start losing fat, the skin will snap back into place and reveal your toned abs. A simple crunch merely involves lying on the floor with your arms across your chest or at your ears and your knees bent. Lift your upper body off the floor slightly, hold for a moment, then lower back down. Repeat at least 10 times. Increase the number of repetitions as you build strength.

Step 5

Do leg lifts to tone your lower abdominal muscles and to further provide support for your slimmer form. To perform a leg lift, lie on your back, legs stretched out and arms out to the sides for support. Then, lift your legs off the ground a few inches, squeezing your thighs together as you do so. Hold this for a moment before lowering your legs once more. Repeat at least five times. Add more repetitions as you gain confidence in this exercise.

References

Article reviewed by Matt Olberding Last updated on: Nov 7, 2009

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