Belly fat can take on many forms depending on your body shape, gathering on the sides to form what are often referred to as "love handles" or a "muffin top," or filling out the front in an apron-like appearance. Whether caused by age, childbirth, genetics or poor health habits, belly fat can lead to health problems down the road if left untreated. Getting rid of belly fat can be tough to accomplish, but the results are extremely rewarding and well worth it.
Step 1
Reduce how many calories of food you consume. This will help you reduce fat all over your body, including your belly. One pound of fat equals approximately 3500 calories. To lose weight at a healthy rate of two pounds per week, you will need to eliminate 1000 calories from your diet each day which can be accomplished by reducing your caloric intake together with exercise to burn calories (discussed in Step 3).
Step 2
Avoid foods like white sugars and white flour. These foods are extremely high in calories and offer no nutritional value whatsoever. In addition, your body naturally treats them as carbs, storing them for use as fuel and quickly turning them to fat which can lodge itself in your belly and elsewhere.
Step 3
Exercise your body to burn calories. Exercise makes the muscles in your body work. To do this, it needs calories to use as fuel. In addition, exercise enlarges your muscle tissue and raises your metabolic rate, the amount of calories burned while resting. This means by exercising you burn calories both during and after your workout.
The ideal calorie-burning training program involves a combination of both aerobic and anaerobic exercises, or cardio and strength training, according to the diet website annecollins.com. This means that if you plan on an hour working, devote 40 minutes to cardio and 20 minutes to strength training, or alternate cardio and weight training from day to day.
Tips and Warnings
- Incorporate Pilates exercises into your strength training regime. Pilates works all three groups of abdominal muscles, according to LA-based Pilates instructor Michelle Dozois, who designed a Pilates workout for the website prevention.com. By strengthening these muscles, your stomach will soon gain the appearance of being firmer and leaner.
- Crash diets and appetite suppressants are not an effective means to get rid of belly fat. These diets or pills usually result in you reducing your caloric intake to unhealthy amounts. While your belly may disappear initially, the weight will likely return and then some when you resume your normal eating habits, making your belly fat seem worse than ever.
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