By Excess belly fat can put you at risk of serious disease
Fat that’s located predominantly around the belly is called visceral fat. It negatively affects your health by increasing inflammation in the organs, increasing blood pressure, and screwing up your insulin health. This fat also decreases the amount of adiponectin in the body, which is an essential hormone for fat burning and helps speed up metabolism. If you are a man, visceral fat leads to lower testosterone levels, which leads to less muscle mass. If you are a woman, excess visceral is not only due to poor diet and lifestyle choices & may relate to hormonal changes (such as menopause). This is why many people with belly fat struggle to lose body fat and gain muscle mass. It’s about manipulating your hormone levels through proper nutrition and exercise and having the patience and persistence to implement your goal constantly.
5 ways to build muscle and eliminate body fat
Step One: Eat more protein in your diet.
Protein is the critical macronutrient for fat burning, muscle building and keeping you full for long periods of time. That means you will be less inclined to snack and eat less over time because you won’t be hungry! Isn’t that great news all around? Soon enough, you will begin to build muscle mass and lose belly fat.
Step Two: Try intermittent fasting to lower insulin levels
I love intermittent fasting, and so do many other people.
Talk about instant results, especially around the belly! Also, expect to increase human growth hormone immensely, increasing your fat burning and muscle building capabilities even more.
This strategy is great for those willing to stick at it long term, for health and body composition results.
Step Three: Train with weights — and lift heavy
Lifting weights is essential, not only for building muscle mass but also for fat burning. It’s another strategy to re-shape your body, tone and sculpt it with heavy and consistent lifting.
As you know, building muscle is to your advantage from a metabolic and hormone point of view.
Lifting weights makes you a lot more sensitive to insulin, therefore, allowing the fat burning to take place in your body.
Make sure you train properly and do so 3–4 times per week. I’ve elaborated on this subject on many occasions, and you can read more on this in my blog posts.
Step Four: Eliminate all refined carbs and sugars from your diet
The easiest way to lose body fat, especially from the abdomen area, is to eliminate all refined carbohydrates and sugars from your diet. These foods include bread, sugar-filled cereals, cakes, biscuits and candy. If you do this one thing, you will see some major results in such a short time. Instead, eat only the essential nutrients that boost muscle building and fat loss. This is protein, fats, vegetables and complex carbohydrates.
No one said this had to last forever, but if you want to lose belly fat, you have to give your body the best nutrition possible and eliminate the causes that are stopping you from losing weight and burning that belly fat.
Step Five: Try HIIT for belly fat loss
HIIT is known for reducing more belly fat than any other type of cardio exercise. It also improves your insulin sensitivity, which leads to further weight loss should you continue with this protocol.
HIIT also increases post-exercise energy consumption. Fat burning increases to remove the build-up of lactate and hydrogen ions.
It also elevates growth hormone, which further increases support in fat burning. You should only perform sprint intervals 2 times per week, allowing for 20 minutes maximum. Longer sessions do not mean faster results. Every one of these strategies I have used and experienced great results. It’s not only one thing that works, but several different ways to achieve your goals. Some work best, whilst others may not be so good. But these strategies above have worked for many, and when applied to a lifestyle plan, they will allow you to experience great results well into old age.