If you are trying to take inches off your waistline and lose belly fat, your diet will be extremely important to achieve success. Unfortunately, as the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center explains, you cannot target your stomach area for belly fat loss. You will have to lose fat proportionally off your whole body. This can be done by burning more calories than you consume and avoiding foods and beverages with trans fatty acids and added fructose sweeteners that encourage the deposition of belly fat, according to Harvard Medical School.
Fast Food
You probably know that fast food is "bad" for you. Since most fast food is cooked using large amounts of margarine and hydrogenated vegetable oil, which are major sources of trans fatty acids, fast food can be particularly bad for your waistline. As Sally Barclay, a registered dietitian at Iowa State University explains, fast food is full of trans fat. For example, a large order of French fries contains 4 g to 7 g of trans fatty acids. The University of Maryland Medical Center reports that fast foods such as hamburgers, fried chicken, biscuits, fish sandwiches and fried apple pie desserts are likely to have trans fat and will hinder your belly fat loss efforts.
High-Fructose Corn Syrup
Foods and beverages sweetened with fructose-based sweeteners, such as high-fructose corn syrup, encourage the storage of belly fat and will hurt your dieting efforts. Regular soda is a common source of high-fructose corn syrup. Yogurt, candy, fruit juice, many types of bread and condiments such as ketchup may be sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. According to Princeton University Psychology Professor Bart Hoebel, high-fructose corn syrup encourages the storage of belly fat at a significantly greater rate than regular sugar. The nutrition facts label will not tell you how much high-fructose corn syrup a food has. You will need to check the ingredients list to see if a food or drink has high-fructose corn syrup.
Foods with Trans Fat
You should try to avoid trans fat altogether if you are trying to improve your overall cardiovascular health and lose belly fat. Aside from fast food, likely sources of trans fat include crackers, frozen foods, microwave popped corn, canned biscuits and instant latte coffee beverages. Many sweet treats such as doughnuts, muffins, pastries, cookies, cakes, pies and anything with icing on it that was made from vegetable shortening are likely to be a source of trans fatty acids and high-fructose corn syrup. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires manufacturers to have a nutrition facts label that lists how many grams of trans fat a food has.
Weight Loss
It is important to understand that simply avoiding trans fat and high-fructose corn syrup will not "make" you lose belly fat. You will still likely need to lower your caloric intake to burn more calories than you are consuming. This is most healthfully achieved by replacing foods in your diet that are high in calories with foods that are low in calories. According to the University of Illinois, removing 500 to 1,000 calories from your current daily diet should produce 1 to 2 lbs. of weekly fat loss for the average person. If you need further assistance to achieve your weight loss goals, contact your doctor or a registered dietitian.
References
- Harvard Medical School: Taking An Aim At Belly Fat
- University of Texas - Southwestern Medical Center: Weight Loss: Belly Fat
- Harvard Medical School: Abdominal Fat and What to Do About It
- Princeton University: A Sweet Problem: Princeton Researchers Find That High-Fructose Corn Syrup Prompts Considerably More Weight Gain
- Iowa State University: Trans Fat; Sally Barclay, MS RD LD
- University of Maryland Medical Center: Trans Fat 101
Member Comments