As most of us reach the middle age of our life, we begin to add on a few pounds here and there, particularly in the stomach region. These extra pounds used to be considered annoying but harmless, just a part of aging. But we know now that it can be extremely harmful for your health.
You need to learn how to lose tummy fat because it is directly tied to terrible conditions ranging from heart disease and some cancers, to diabetes and hypertension.
It’s also important to understand the different types of fat in your midsection. The first is subcutaneous, which is just under the skin, and is the fat you actually see and can grab. The second is visceral, which surrounds the organs and intestines within the body. This second variety is much more harmful, which highlights why there’s much more than appearance at stake when you want to lose tummy fat. Through nutrition and exercise however, both of these tummy fat types can be combated and you can end up much healthier.
Exercise speeds up our metabolism and develops muscle tissue, each of which will help to lose tummy fat.
Dieting to Lose Tummy Fat
Sometimes people eat far too little with their nutritional program, and end up seeing worse results than they would have otherwise. Our metabolism doesn’t burn calories when it’s being starved, instead it stores them to try to keep you alive.
That’s why more moderate reduction in caloric intake is preferred to lose tummy fat, at about 10-20% of your healthy daily total.
To help you with your progress and to stay on course, you should keep a log or diary of all of the foods you eat, the calories they had, and the kind of results you’re seeing. Before you even start a diet to lose tummy fat you can do this for a reference later on.
While you don’t need to eliminate carbs from your diet, you do need to avoid eating the bad carbs and bad fats. These are the processed foods rich in sugars and low on nutrients, and the foods with trans-fats that can harm your health a great deal.
Don’t eat prepared foods, that is, those that only require warming before serving. These are usually filled with chemical preservatives, including high-fructose corn syrup.
Your diet should mainly consist of fresh fruits and vegetables, unprocessed meats, poultry and fish. Alcohol consumption (empty calories converted to sugar by our metabolism) should also be minimized.
Cut down your total carbohydrate intake to about 50 grams per day as you first begin your diet, just to get the process started, then you can include a bit more of the healthy variety each day.
As you begin to lose tummy fat effectively, you can then begin to raise your intake to help even yourself off. You’ll naturally approach a healthy, maintenance level.
Meanwhile, you want to be eating more protein, as much as 25% of your calories when you want to lose tummy fat. High quality protein sources include beans and legumes, eggs and low fat dairy products, chicken, fish, pork and lean beef.
Don’t rely too heavily on soy protein, which our bodies are not entirely adapted to. They don’t provide all of the amino acids that the human body needs for muscle growth and proper functioning.
Adding in Exercise
Weightlifting and all-purpose strength training will help you lose tummy fat by increasing your metabolism and adding new muscle mass. Muscle mass burns three times more calories than fat of the same quantity.
Join a local health and fitness club or the YWCA and have a trainer set up a program of weight training. Minimize the cardiovascular exercises because they don’t really burn fat, but instead diminish muscle tissue.
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