If you want to lose belly fat without spending money on a gym membership or trainer, you’ll need to make healthy eating choices and exercise on a regular basis. It’s important to get rid of fat around your stomach, because it’s more dangerous than fat on other places on your body such as your hips and thighs. It surrounds some of your vital organs and can increase your risk for diabetes, heart disease and some types of cancer.
Step 1
Figure out how many calories you’re consuming on a daily basis by jotting down all meals and accompanying caloric intake in a journal or notebook for a few days. Average how many calories you’re consuming. Then go to the American Cancer Society’s website (see "Resources") to figure out how many calories you should be consuming according to your height, weight and age.
Step 2
Eat the right amount of calories. This might mean you have to reduce your caloric intake by hundreds of calories, but this is important for your health and essential to losing belly fat. Eat foods that naturally help to decrease belly fat such as melon, whole-grain bread, grapefruit and walnuts. According to “Shape,” stay away from sugar substitutes, canned soup and partially hydrogenated oils.
Step 3
Aim to eat nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Eat a salad before dinner each night, so you fill up on healthy foods before your entree. Incorporate healthy proteins such as grilled chicken, fish and beans into your daily diet.
Step 4
Exercise most days of the week. Try to fit in heart-pumping cardio for 30 to 45 minutes at least five days a week. Run, play basketball with friends or do some other heart rate elevating cardio exercise. Find an exercise you enjoy doing, so you can maintain it long-term. You don’t have to go to the gym or pay money to exercise.
Step 5
Add weight lifting into your workout routine. If you have a set of hand weights at home, it’s all you’ll need. Use your own body weight by doing push-ups, dips, lunges and squats if you don’t own hand weights. Look up exercises on the Internet or check out a book on lifting weights at your local library. Lifting weights is important, because it helps you build lean muscle mass and continue to burn fat for hours after your workout.
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