By If you’re struggling to lose belly fat, these belly-busting foods will help move the needle
Belly fat is a complex and stubborn fat that sometimes lingers for longer than we anticipate.
Fat along the abdominal area has a lot to do with diet, but we also have to consider our gut health and any gastrointestinal conditions we might face.
Bloating, wind and feeling uncomfortable in the mid-section can have much to do with your nutritional choices. Stress also plays a big part.
As much as I hate to say this — simple foods are your best fight against flab. To lose weight and stay lean, eating clean is a must.
Clean eating usually means simple, essential, minimal add-ons and as natural as possible.
I suffer from many gastrointestinal upsets, and one small thing can make my abdomen look like I’m pregnant.
It’s not visually appealing, but it isn’t very comfortable either. In addition, the amount of rumbling due to gas is excruciating.
So, if you’re struggling with belly fat, here are some simple food strategies to help push your results forward and eliminate uncomfortable abdominal symptoms.
One: Turkey is somewhat better than chicken
Gone are my old body-building theories regarding clean eating with chicken and broccoli.
The new ‘in’ lean and mean protein source is turkey!
Turkey is high in linoleic acid, or CLA, trans fat, which helps improve heart health and reduce belly fat.
Chicken doesn’t cut it as much as Turkey.
Try eating more turkey than chicken and notice the difference.
Two: Eat more fats
I hope you’re still not petrified of eating fats — because you shouldn’t be!
A study conducted in 2015 encouraged people to cut down on saturated fats.
They looked at over 26K people between ages 45 and 75 and if they developed diabetes.
The surprising moral of this study is that the more high dairy products people eat, the lower their risk of diabetes.
People who ate more cream, high-fat fermented milk and whole-fat cheese showed lower incidences of diabetes.
However, these findings compare to those who ate low-fat dairy alternatives.
I believe this may be a case of the lower fat a product is — the more sugar and artificial ingredients it contains.
It’s no wonder people develop diabetes from eating them!
Full-fat milk products are filled with protein, calcium and vitamin D. If you can tolerate dairy, there isn’t any harm in consuming these nutritious products.
Three: Certain fish can make you fatter
This isn’t to scare you away from fish — but to bring awareness about how fish are farmed before being sold on our supermarket fridge shelves.
Omega Three is an essential nutrient, and so is the protein in fish.
The problem is that many fish we eat today (due to convenience) are farmed — like salmon, tilapia and catfish.
Do you know where your fish comes from before you eat it? Sadly most of us won’t have a clue.
If it’s not wild-caught fish, then stay away, as farmed fish are fed diets high in soy meal and contain toxins & polyunsaturated fats.
These all add up to produce unwanted stores of belly fat & inflammation.
Four: Stop turning your nose up at carbs
Not all carbs promote weight gain.
Eating starches like lentils, peas, beans, oatmeal and banana are resistant starch options.
You can make white potatoes resistant by boiling them and then cooling them before reheating them.
Resistant starches pass through the small intestine and are digested by the large intestine.
Those healthy microbiomes release a fatty acid called butyrate.
Butyrate helps turn off genes that lead to inflammation and insulin resistance.
This increases the gut microbiome strength, improving gut health in general.
When our gut is happy, we live a longer and disease-free life.
Five: Don’t ever replace olive oil with the vegetable kind
I gave up vegetable oil a long time ago. I say olive oil all the way, and for a good reason.
Vegetable oil is another polyunsaturated oil that disrupts our sensations of fullness and hunger.
It changes how ghrelin and leptin work to regulate our appetite.
Instead of helping to keep us full, it increases hunger and diminishes any signs of food satisfaction.
If you consume these oils in excess, it contributes to keeping signalling the brain’s hunger.
No wonder people who consume these oils overeat and believe it’s just their willpower. Well, our hormones are beyond our level of self-control.
All you have to do is stop using these toxic oils and choose cold-pressed olive oil.
Key takeaways
Success with any dietary changes should be realistic and inclined to impact your health positively.
We alter our nutritional habits to lose weight, get shredded, or lose that excess belly fat.
But when we attain that part of our goal, how we feel daily is far more critical.
I’m highlighting how essential it is to be realistic about how you want to look and what’s involved in achieving this.
Make it impactful, but not as far as diminishing the quality of life you will have. And not so far as to sacrifice highly healthy options for fake foods.
What changes are you going to start making?
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