Accumulation of fat around your stomach causes a host of health problems that can lead to heart disease including hardened arteries and high blood pressure. Reducing stomach fat and your blood pressure is best accomplished with a comprehensive exercise and nutrition plan. You do not need to run a marathon or to give up fats completely to improve your health, but you do need to make lifestyle changes you can incorporate for the rest of your life.
Exercise
Step 1
Do moderately challenging aerobic exercise, such as a brisk walk or a jog-and-walk workout, two to three days per week. You should be able to talk, but not be able to sing at this intensity level. Gradually increase your duration to 45 to 60 minutes even if you can only do five or 10 minutes when you start. It takes 20 to 30 minutes before your body begins to burn stored fat, including that located around your stomach.
Step 2
Perform a more difficult aerobic session one or two days per week. For example, sprint as fast as you can for 20 seconds, walk for 1 minute, and then sprint for 40 seconds. Do this for a total of 20 to 25 minutes. High intensity intervals improve your cardiac health and reduce your blood pressure.
Step 3
Incorporate one or two days per week of aerobic exercise that is easier than sprinting but a little harder than a long workout. Take a 30-minute indoor cycling class or use the elliptical for 30 minutes instead of the treadmill for 60 minutes. Alternate three minutes of moderately intense exercise with one minute of vigorously intense exercise for a total 30 minutes. These exercises will help burn fat and reduce your blood pressure.
Nutrition
Step 1
Decrease the amount of saturated, trans fat and cholesterol that you consume. This will minimize the concentration of cholesterol circulating in your blood, reducing plaque buildup on the walls of your arteries and improving your blood pressure. Eat foods high in unsaturated fats instead like unsalted almonds, walnuts, olive oil, cholesterol-lowering margarine, avocados, salmon and mackerel. The type of fats in these foods especially remove plaque and cholesterol, reducing your blood pressure.
Step 2
Limit your intake of sodium as excess sodium in your diet increases your blood volume, which increases your blood pressure. Keep a food journal to track your sodium intake, ensuring you do not eat more than 1,500 mg of sodium per day.
Step 3
Choose primarily slow-digesting or low-glycemic carbohydrate-rich foods like cooked spaghetti noodles, cooked fettuccine noodles, all-bran cereals, apples, oranges, sweet cherries, and pears to reduce the tendency for your body to hang onto and store fat around your stomach. Foods with a low glycemic index do not spike your blood sugar compared to foods with a high glycemic index.
Step 4
Eat fiber-rich foods like whole grains, peas, carrots, beans and oats. Consume 25g of fiber per day if you are an adult woman between the ages of 19 and 50 and 30g of fiber per day if you are an adult man between the ages of 19 and 50. Increasing your fiber intake reduces your blood pressure.
Tips and Warnings
- After a month of aerobic conditioning, consider adding resistance training into your daily routine, which increases the number of calories you will burn even while you sleep, expediting fat loss all over your body, including the area around your gut.
- Ignoring the growing fat around your belly and your rising blood pressure will likely lead to obesity and kidney disease, placing you at risk for vision, nerve and limb loss.
References
- “Health and Fitness Journal”; Clinical Applications: Toxic “Waist” Dump: Our Abdominal Visceral Fat; Paul Ribisl, Ph.D.; July/Aug. 2004
- “Strength and Conditioning Journal”; Fat Burning; Bruce Craig, Ph.D.; October 2006
- “Strength and Conditioning Journal”; High-Intensity Interval Training; Brad Schoenfeld and Jay Dawes; Dec. 2009
- “ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal”; Eat Like You’re in Crete: Teach Your Clients the Benefits of the Mediterranean Diet; Janet Bond Brill, Ph.D., R.D.; September/October 2007
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Most Americans Should Consume Less Sodium
- “Strength and Conditioning Journal”; The Glycemic Index and Weight Control; R. Paul Gustafson, Ph.D.; June 2008
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