If you want to get rid of belly fat, you should pay a lot. How the annoying belly fat develops and what helps against it, we tell you here.
Get rid of belly fat – is that even possible?
Many people find their stomach a problem zone – and if you want to get rid of belly fat, that’s not so easy. Much more likely is that you also lose fat in body parts, where you might not want it, for example, on the buttocks or on the thighs. Nevertheless, you do not have to bury the dream of a shapely flat stomach directly: With targeted nutrition, certain exercises and discipline, it is already possible in principle to get rid of belly fat.
Why is belly fat so unhealthy?
There are two types of fatty tissue:
- Subcutaneous Fat: Subcutaneous fat is the name of the subcutaneous fatty tissue and its purpose is to store energy and keep it warm. It is found, for example, on the thighs and buttocks and is less harmful than belly fat.
- Visceral fat: The visceral fat, so the belly fat, has a rather bad reputation. Because it attaches to the organs around and ensures that certain messengers are distributed, which have negative effects on us. For example, they cause increased blood pressure and increased insulin secretion, which can trigger inflammation. Therefore, visceral fat increases the risk of various diseases such as heart attack, stroke, diabetes, high blood pressure , thrombosis, arteriosclerosis, cancer and Alzheimer’s.
Get rid of belly fat: who is actually affected?
Sounds weird, but: In fact, men are more likely to struggle with belly fat than women. The reason is the hormone testosterone – it ensures that fat is increasingly stored in the stomach. In women, the fat is due to the hormone estrogen rather on the buttocks and thighs. But: During the menopause, the production of estrogen slowly decreases – then women tend more to the formation of fat on the stomach.
But there are other causes of increased abdominal fat:
- Too little movement
- Certain medications
- Genetic predisposition
- Unhealthy diet
- Various diseases which, for example, impair the metabolism (eg hypothyroidism )
How much belly fat is too much?
Through various research, researchers have found out which abdominal circumference can be harmful in both men and women:
- Women: From 80 centimeters, one speaks of an unhealthy waist circumference, from 88 centimeters, the belly fat is considered dangerous and increases the risk of disease significantly.
- Men: From 94 centimeters, the waist is unhealthy, from 102 centimeters, the belly fat is considered dangerous.
Get rid of belly fat: The right building blocks for your diet
Unfortunately, it does not help anything: If your stomach is your problem zone, you can not avoid adjusting your diet if you want to get rid of the belly fat. It is all about relying on a good mix of healthy foods . This includes:
- Complex carbohydrates (eg in whole grains, legumes, vegetables, potatoes, quinoa),
- healthy fats (especially unsaturated fatty acids, eg in vegetable oils such as olive oil, avocados, nuts and fish),
- many proteins (from protein sources such as meat, milk and dairy products and eggs)
- and vitamins and trace elements from fruits and vegetables.
Training against the belly fat helps
Although losing weight without exercise is possible, workouts are unfortunately almost inevitable to get rid of belly fat. Basically, any kind of exercise is good first. It is important that you are there with fun – that keeps the motivation up and without regular exercises, unfortunately nothing works. Good is a mix of strength and endurance training, so always different muscle groups are claimed. Tip: Try HIIT . High Intense Interval Training puts fat burning at its best and you can celebrate real success in a short time.
Which exercises are best for stomach fat?
Targeted exercises for the abdomen help to build muscle and burn belly fat. But training that takes the whole body, is useful. For example, the following exercises are good:
- Burpees
- Plank
- squats
- Sit-ups
- pushups
- Beck Lift
- crunches
In order for the new well-formed abdominal muscles to come into their own, a low body fat percentage is indispensable. Which brings us back to annoying abdominal fat: Depending on the predisposition, some women may have a body fat percentage of 20 percent so that the abdominal muscles become visible. Others have to make even more effort and bring their body fat percentage to 15 percent. Unfortunately, only patience helps – set yourself small goals and celebrate every success. That’s how you stay on the ball.
What role stress plays in obesity and abdominal fat
We all know it well: As soon as it gets a bit more stressful in the office or at home, we reach for chocolate and increase our risk for overweight . And the constant snacking is not the only problem: When we are under stress, the hormone cortisol is increasingly released, which also supports the storage of belly fat.
Relaxed body thanks to Yoga and Co.
In order to prevent this effect for more belly fat, you should always pay attention to build recovery periods in everyday life. How exactly they look is different: some people just want to curl up and read in a quiet corner with a book, others prefer to sit down with their best friend over a nice chat. If you want to know what else helps, watch some games in our products reduce stress . Numerous studies also show that yoga, meditation and autogenic training against stress are particularly effective.
Get rid of belly fat: These tips will help you
You want to get rid of your belly fat? The following tips will help you reach a flat stomach:
- Use a few and above all complex carbohydrates and consume more proteins when eating.
- Give up largely on sugar and salt: sweets, chips, ready meals and fast food should only be allowed in exceptional cases.
- Drink two to three liters of water daily and at best do without soft drinks – a fruit spritzer is allowed.
- Cook fresh and best with local ingredients.
- Even alcohol should be largely avoided – in almost all varieties are many calories.
- Use on spices to lose weight – they stimulate the metabolism and thus the burning of fat!
- Avoid stress and create recovery periods.
- Find a sport that you enjoy.
- Exercise regularly – at least three times a week – and make sure that all muscle groups are progressively strained.
- Do not forget the rest: Muscles do not grow during exercise, but during regeneration. If you’re doing stomach sit-ups on Monday, you should not strain your abs on Tuesday.
- Do not expect miracles – changes take time. Have a little patience and set yourself small milestones.
- Reward yourself if you have achieved one of these goals – for example with a great crop top.
Get rid of belly fat: Beware of these mistakes
Even if we heed various tips that help us to lose weight on the stomach and get our body in shape, sometimes it does not work so well. To really lose fat, avoid the following mistakes:
- While you take care to eat healthily, you still eat too much: losing fat and losing weight only works if you consume less energy than you consume. Best hold everything you eat with appropriate calorie count in a food diary.
- You eat after exercise : Often you have the feeling that you can treat yourself to something, if you have put the training behind you. Beware of this mistake! So you make the training success in the worst case. If you want to have something to eat after exercise, it should be a small protein snack, eg. A shake, for example, helps your muscles grow.
- You’re just doing strength or just endurance training: your whole body should work if you want a flat stomach. Combine both sports with each other and perform them alternately.
- You treat yourself too many exceptions: today the cake that the colleague has brought, tomorrow two cocktails on the girls’ evening – with so many temptations, we quickly become weak. But if the exception becomes the rule, the fat remains stubbornly where we do not want it – on the stomach. Therefore, plan your week as possible: If you know that Wednesday is a delicious meal with friends, you should probably refrain the cake on Tuesday.