By A lot of people go through this phase when they are trying to lose weight. It sometimes does not matter how much we cut from our diet, and increase your energy expenditure through exercise, we just can’t make the weight budge, or worse, the belly fat is still hovering in the midsection.
I have a few of my own strategies in place that can help you abolish this setback, but I want you to answer these simple questions honestly.
- Are you eating the right foods – and eliminating all refined products from your diet (sugary sweets, drinks and also mindless snacking on refined carbs)?
- Are you eating enough protein to sustain you between meals?
- Are you exercising correctly – as in, are you weight training or just focusing on cardio only for weight loss?
- Are you possibly eating something that causes you digestion upsets, as well as inflammation in your stomach?
These questions you will have to answer yourself, as they will be a key factor in discovering what you are actually doing, that can be the cause of having belly fat. It’s different for everyone, but these factors above need to be taken into consideration.
Given the question, I’m going to give you a bit of a broad answer, and hopefully it will give you some strategies to think about and implement to get rid of that belly fat.
5 steps to eliminating body fat for good
- Intermittent fasting, I always talk about this lifestyle plan, and only because it works wonders for anyone trying to lose weight, especially those with belly fat. Adapt this restricted timing of food lifestyle in your daily life, in order to lose body fat and stop you from having to count calories anymore. The reason why it works so well is that we allow our bodies to rest from constantly eating, lowering our insulin, and therefore, igniting our bodies to begin burning body fat as fuel. This also trains our bodies to be a lot more metabolically flexible, and we basically turn into a fat burning machine!
- Weight train, enough of the constant cardio, this just elevates your cortisol even more, increasing your belly fat. Hire a personal trainer to create a workout plan for you and make lifting weights your main priority. As you get stronger and lift heavier, you will get leaner, and your body will change shape. It will become more toned, trim and look so much better in clothes (and without them mind you!). Adapt the frame of mind that muscle is your key focus in burning extra calories at rest. The more you build, the more calories you can burn at rest. Of course, women will find it hard to put on a lot of muscle, but the amount we do put on, should be maintained as long as possible. Don’t be afraid of a bit of muscle!
- HIIT for ultimate fat burn, if you are doing cardio, this is your best bet for fat burn, especially around the belly. Use a treadmill, or find a steep hill outdoors, and sprint for 20–30 seconds, and then actively recover, until you get back to the time you have to sprint again. This is an all-out effort mind you. You should be struggling to breath and have had enough of it around the 20-minute mark. That’s all you need, so between that time, you must give it your absolute best – the be all and end all. It’s only 20 minutes, and it’s very achievable for anyone to build up to. Only do this kind of training 2–3 times per week, and not when you are too sore. It’s really challenging to sprint when you’ve just had leg day before hand.
- Focus on your protein, protein is essential for fuelling your workouts, as well as helping you shed body fat. It keeps you satisfied between meals, cutting out the need to keep snacking. It’s also a thermogenic, requiring the body to use up calories, in order to digest it. Pick low caloric ranges of protein like eggs, chicken, turkey and fish to get the best protein rate, without the higher calories. You should always cycle your protein, and never allow your body to eat low caloric food all the time. Our bodies adapt well, and this is when we experience that plateau you are talking about.
- Stop working out so much and learn to rest, it’s not about the amount of activity you are doing, it’s about the quality of the activity, as well as the nutritional choices you make on a daily basis. Weight loss is never the result of killing ourselves, and we need to give our bodies the rest it requires to recover, rejuvenate and fuel our next workouts. Think quality, instead of quantity. As I said earlier, our bodies adapt well, and then cope in the best way it knows how to, and that’s usually not allowing us to lose that extra bit of weight. Belly fat is most definitely lot of cortisol, so rest 2 times per week, stay active by walking, and try to relax somewhat. Take up meditation, yoga, whatever resonates with you and your lifestyle.
I hope this has helped you understand what your problem could be, but I believe this may be a huge epidemic amongst a lot of people on the weight loss journey. Hopefully it’s allowed you realise some things that are challenging you. Feel free to contact me if you need further assistance. I have plenty of other blog posts on my wesbsite or join me on fb and insta social standpoints. Please feel free to upvote this answer if it has been useful in some way to you.
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