Losing weight involves hard work and a commitment to a new lifestyle. No special exercises or magic pills rapidly burn fat from your belly. Instead, you must change your diet habits and incorporate more exercise into your routine. Create a healthy lifestyle that includes fat-burning activities to effectively lose a big belly.
Setting Goals
Goal-setting can help keep your weight-loss program on track. Weigh yourself and measure your waist size, then use these measurements as benchmarks against which to follow your progress. Set long-term goals for your weight and waist size, then set smaller goals that you can achieve more quickly on your way to your long-term goals. Include goals regarding lifestyle changes such eating three servings of fruits and vegetables each day. Write these goals, and post them somewhere prominent.
Dietary Modifications
Losing belly fat requires restricting caloric intake and switching to healthier foods. Use a calorie calculator to estimate your daily caloric needs. To lose 2 pounds a week, you need to cut 1,000 calories from this estimate each day. You can achieve this goal by reducing the number of calories you eat, by increasing the number of calories you burn through exercise, or by a combination of the two. Balance your diet to include lean protein, complex carbohydrates and healthy fats. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends that adults eat three servings of fruits and vegetables each day. Aim for six servings of carbohydrates, with three servings coming from whole-grain sources such as quinoa, buckwheat, whole-wheat bread, brown rice or wheat pasta. Lean protein from salmon, turkey, beef and soy products provide your body with energy and boost your metabolism. The website Natural Fat Burning Foods reports that drinking green tea and nonfat milk helps burn fat and promote weight loss.
Physical Activity
Physical activity burns calories and increases fat metabolism. Aim for 30 to 45 minutes five or six times per week. Aerobic activity such as running, step aerobics, swimming or biking boosts your heart rate and burns fat. Use interval training techniques to further increase fat metabolism. Alternate between slow aerobic activity for 90 seconds and high-intensity activity for 30 seconds to effectively decrease body fat, according to the website My Fit.
Incorporate strength training into your workouts to build muscle and create a leaner physique. Target your stomach area by doing crunches. In addition to standard crunches, incorporate weights or an exercise ball into your routine to work different abdominal muscles. Do not substitute abdominal strength training workouts for aerobic activity, because crunches do not promote efficient fat loss.
Benefits
Having lots of belly fat can increase your risk of several serious medical conditions, including heart disease, stroke, certain cancers, metabolic problems, sleep apnea and type 2 diabetes. Eliminating excess belly fat increases longevity by lowering risk of these medical complications. Talk to your doctor to devise a fat-burning plan that is best for your body and circumstances.
References
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Improving Your Eating Habits
- MayoClinic: Weight Loss -- Better to Cut Calories or Exercise More?
- MayoClinic: Belly Fat in Men -- Why Weight Loss Matters
- My Fit: High Intensity Interval Training
- Natural Fat Burning Foods: Best Fat Burning Foods
- My Pyramid: Inside The Pyramid
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