We All Have Belly Fat… But Which Kind Do You Have? Find Out How to Lose YOUR Belly Fat Faster
Are you tired of your belly being bigger than you want it to be? Have you tried dieting and exercising, but nothing makes your belly shrink?
Don’t despair! Let me tell you about the six types of belly fat and how to tackle them.
Your belly fat may be caused by something that requires a different approach than simply reducing your intake and exercising more.
Unfortunately, it’s true. All types of fat are not created equal, and belly fat is one of the more concerning types because it can put you at risk for developing health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, and liver problems.
Cardiologists in particular warn that belly fat is dangerous because it’s linked to heart disease. Studies have shown that people carrying extra weight and fat in their stomach area are at a greater risk for heart attacks.
We share this not to scare you, but to help you identify what type of belly fat you might have accumulated so you can match the best strategy to combat it with.
Let’s start with the belly fat that probably applies to most of us...
1) Stressed-Out Belly Fat
If your upper belly (right below your ribs) spills over your shorts or protrudes when you sit, you may have Stressed-Out Belly Fat.
Do you feel out of breath or uncomfortable? Those are the symptoms.
Stressed-out belly fat is caused by stress (hence the name), lack of sleep, and the hormones that both of these circumstance can induce. Being overly exhausted is one way that you might be slowing down your metabolism.
When our metabolism slows down, it causes us to store more energy than we burn and this is what leads to excessive fat build-up. We store fat in different places, but it very common for this fat build-up to land right above our upper abdomen.
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Strategies to help fix it:
1. Create proactive healthy sleeping habits. Studies have shown we can adjust our bedtimes in 30-minute increments. Choose your ideal bedtime, then adjust what time you get into bed by 30 minutes each night until you reach that time. It is also recommended to watch your screentime and try to power down computers, tablets, and smartphones at least 30 minutes before bedtime.
2. Eat an earlier dinner so your body can digest supper well before you go to sleep.
3. You don’t have to work out until you drop, but a little low-impact yoga will aid in relaxation and digestion.
4. Say no to caffeine in the evening so your body can relax for a good night’s sleep.
2) Tiered Belly Fat
If your stomach has two layers—fat on top and then another layer of fat near the belly button—you have tiered belly fat. There’s typically fat around the belly AND fat around the hips.
Strategies to help fix it:
Tiered belly fat can be conquered by changing your lifestyle. You need to move around more.
1. First, no smoking, and alcohol consumption must be moderate.
2. Tiered belly fat is caused by not burning enough calories. Engage in some form of physical activity.
Pick something you like. You don’t have to run till you collapse. Just walk, bike, swim, or whatever you enjoy.
Even 20 minutes a day will jumpstart your metabolism.
3. Make small changes in your diet to lose some weight.
Decrease fatty snacks and sugar. A little here and there is fine, but the keyword is “little.”
Focus on lean proteins like fish and eggs. Eat more whole grains, vegetables, and fruit. Read labels when you purchase snacks. Low- or no-salt pretzels and popcorn are easier to burn off than potato chips and French fries.
Try to satisfy chocolate cravings with a square or two of dark chocolate. You can have any dessert you want... if you just have a few bites of it.
I know, this is all easier said than done, but there are people who do that and it’s the best way to indulge without contributing to belly fat. Or, if you don’t have many sweets or snacks for 5 or 6 days, you can have a little extra on the 7th day.
Figure out what works for you.
It may take some time to reduce your belly, but stick with the plan and you’ll succeed.
3) Mommy Belly Fat
This is a common one, and a complicated one. During pregnancy, there are so many amazing changes happening in your body... and one of these includes building up fat stores to help protect and nourish your baby.
After your baby is born, it is not uncommon to have some loose skin and extra fat beneath your waistline from muscles that stretched during pregnancy. As long as this fat doesn’t continue to grow, it is not dangerous. However, you want to be proactive if your little one is starting to grown up and you notice those extra pounds are still present.
Strategies to help fix it:
1. Wait at least 6 week or until your doctor has approved you to start exercising again. You also want to take a mental inventory and make sure that you will not exhaust yourself if you are adjusting to having a new baby and getting back to the gym. Starting with light exercises such as yoga, walking, or a Mommy-And-Me work out group is a good way to start to strengthen your legs and core muscles. Light weight-lifting can also help with?post-pregnancy weight. Some moms use their babies as weights. You can lay on your back and lift your baby above you for “airplane rides.” Baby will love it!
2.?Try to drink lots of water and sleep (or rest) when you can.
3. Nourish yourself with yummy foods. Eat the foods mentioned in #3 of the Tiered Belly section above. If you’re breastfeeding, you’ll be extra motivated to eat healthy food so your baby gets all of the right nutrients in your milk.
And if you’re now a grandmother but are still carrying a “mummy tummy,” these tips can still work just as well now!
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4) Bloated Belly
Bloated belly can be caused by dairy, gluten, wheat, fructose, and similar foods consumed during the day. Gas and fluid cause abdominal bloating as these types of foods are digested.
If your belly is flat in the morning and bloated at the end of the day, this is probably what is causing it.
Strategies to help fix it:
1. A probiotic supplement should help if you feel bloated and uncomfortable.
2. If a probiotic doesn’t do the trick, make an appointment with a dietitian who handles Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Low-FODMAP (Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides, and Polyols) diets are effective for bloated bellies as well.
Here is part of a dietitian’s list of substitutions that will help you avoid the daily bloat:
• Swap whole-meal or multigrain bread for plain, gluten-free bread
• Swap plain flour for buckwheat flour
• Swap garlic for garlic-infused olive oil
• Swap onion for onion-infused olive oil
• Swap cabbage for kale
• Swap leek for ginger
• Swap blueberries for strawberries
• Swap cherries for grapes
• Swap apples for dragon fruit
• Swap regular cow’s milk for lactose-free milk
• Swap yogurt for lactose-free yogurt
• Swap almonds for macadamias
• Swap cashews for peanuts
• Swap honey for maple syrup
5) Beer Or Wine Belly
Who doesn’t want to have a beer or a glass of wine now and then? It’s okay if you just have one or two drinks a day (like Europeans who serve wine every night with dinner)... but if you’re enjoying more than a few beers or glasses of wine daily, it might start to accumulate around your belly.
The alcohol can lead to the production of visceral fat, which is the worst type of fat because it sits against the abdominal wall and traps stored fat. Visceral fat is also dangerous because it resides near your important organs.
Body shapes are often compared to either a pear or an apple. The pear is where fat is equally distributed through the body, but the apple is typically whats referred to as the “beer belly.” This apple shape is more concerning because it is due to fat surrounding your internal organs, which puts added pressure or them and overtime can become dangerous.
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Strategies to help fix it:
You’d be amazed at how decreasing your alcohol consumption can help you drop weight.
1. Experiment with creating low-calorie/healthy mocktails.
2. Limit yourself to 1 or 2 drinks per day. Then your body won’t have to work on burning off alcohol calories before it starts burning off food calories.
6) Muffin Top Belly Fat
Muffin top bellies are often caused by hormonal issues. If your lower waist has soft fat, you might be suffering from insulin resistance and Polycystic Ovary Syndrome may be increasing your insulin levels.
High carbohydrate intake and genetics cause muffin top bellies to develop as we age.
How to fix it:
1. Adjust your diet to try and cut back on carbs and replace simple carbs with complex carbohydrates.
The easiest ways to reduce your carb intake are to avoid soda and fruit juice, reduce bread consumption, use natural sweeteners, request veggies at restaurants when you’re offered potatoes or bread, choose flours made from coconuts and nuts in lieu of wheat, and drink almond or coconut milk instead of cow’s milk.
Be aware that carrots, beets, sweet potatoes, peas, lima beans, and corn are all high in carbs.
Opt for Greek yogurt and cheese when eating dairy. They have less carbs than fruit-flavored yogurt, frozen yogurt, and pudding.
2. Squeeze a little exercise into your schedule. Pick something you’ll be able to stick to. Again, even a 20-minute walk each day will help.
If you like to watch television or listen to music while you work out, you might want to get a stationary bike and pedal while you watch your shows or rock out to some tunes.
3. See your general practitioner or endocrinologist to check your hormones and find out what the doctor recommends.
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As you can see, your belly fat can originate from several different health issues. Once you determine what’s causing your belly fat, you can customize your approach to successfully win the battle against it.
The Best Diet For Getting Rid Of Belly Fat
No matter which type of belly fat you have... maintaining a healthy diet can go a long way in reducing belly fat and helping you reach your weight loss goals.
So, you might be wondering which diet specifically is best for getting rid of belly fat. Keto? Paleo? Vegan? South Beach?
According to one doctor... none of the above! Instead, he recommends...
The Mediterranean diet.
Dr. Steven Masley, a renowned medical doctor with a reputation for helping hundreds of his patients lose significant weight, wrote the following:
According to these multiple clinical studies, a Mediterranean diet was equally effective for weight-loss as was a low-carb eating plan (such as Paleo), and more effective than a standard low-fat eating plan. Plus: when comparing to a low-fat or low-carb diet, followers of a Mediterranean diet showed more improvement in cholesterol levels, blood sugar, and blood pressure control than any other diet plan.
So, studies have shown that the Mediterranean diet is often the MOST effective for weight loss and getting rid of belly fat.
And in addition, this diet is also great for improving your health. Dr. Masley continued:
Even for people with type 2 diabetes, the Mediterranean diet turns out to be the best path for weight-loss. In a different meta-analysis of nine randomized dietary trials with over 1,000 patients, researchers concluded that when a Mediterranean diet was compared to the American Diabetic Association diet, a low-fat diet, or a low-carb diet, once again the Mediterranean diet showed superior results for blood sugar control, weight-loss, and lipid profile changes.
The idea that you could lose 10-22 pounds (and keep the weight off), improve your blood sugar and cholesterol profile, and lower systemic inflammation, all while enjoying delicious Mediterranean food, sounds almost too good to be true.
But…it is true!
So, if you want to get rid of your stubborn belly fat... no matter which type it is... try the Mediterranean diet!
Here’s A “No-Workout” Tip That Will Burn More Of ANY Kind of Stubborn Belly Fat…
While it’s obvious that a healthy diet and some exercise can really help melt off belly fat…
There are also some simple, research-proven ways to get rid of belly fat with NO workouts and NO restricted eating habits required.
What do these things all have in common?
Sleep with less clothing on, open a window at night, or turn down the thermostat before you go to bed.
If you guessed that all of these things will help you stay cooler at night, you’re right!
And studies have shown that when you’re colder, your body works harder to keep you warm…
Which means you’ll burn more calories while you sleep, and will wake up every morning feeling a little healthier and more energized than you did the night before. :-)
But...how cold does it need to be before you really start to see a difference in your body and your fat burn?
This easy-to-understand guide will show you how to do it (plus two more borderline-brilliant ways to burn off more fat while you snooze):
Click Here to Discover How to Effortlessly Melt Off Fat While You Sleep (No Workouts Needed)
