weight loss – weightlossadvice

Yeah, you’re going to need to start eating more avocado.

Yogurt, granola, seeds, fresh, dry fruits and honey in bowl

So you’re wondering how to get rid of belly fat, huh?

Well, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: There’s no such thing as spot-reducingwhen it comes to weight loss. Translation: You can’t specifically lose belly fat, for example, without also losing the fat in, say, your butt or boobs.

Still, there’s a certain allure to losing belly fat that goes way beyond looking good in a crop top.

Visceral fat—a type of fat that lies deep inside your abdomen and surrounds your internal organs—is linked to a whole slew of terrifying health problems like heart disease and type 2 diabetes, according to the Mayo Clinic. Even scarier: According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), your risk of those health issues increases even more if your waist size is greater than 35 inches for women and 40 inches for men.

So yeah, the reasons to lose belly fat go way beyond your desire for six-pack (okay, fine, two-pack) abs. Try these strategies to drop pounds—and shed that belly fat in the process.

1. Move as much as you can.

Running, biking, or swimming—basically anything that gets your heart rate up and makes you sweat—will help reduce visceral fat.

Noam Tamir, C.S.C.S, founder of TS Fitness, also says that metabolic resistance training and high-intensity interval training is a solid way to reduce fat all over, including belly fat. “These [types of exercise] help to burn calories during the workout, and they also give you that after-burn effect,” he says. “Plus, they help to change your body composition by increasing your muscle mass.”

Research backs up the big fat-loss benefits of HIIT. A 2017 meta-analysis in the journal Sports Medicine found that working in all-out bursts, followed by rest periods—especially while running—reduced fat, including abdominal fat.

2. Eat more protein.

You know you’re supposed to eat more protein to lose weight, but you might not know exactly why. Well, it actually has to do with how your body handles insulin. “Your body starts to produce more insulin as you age, since your muscle and fat cells aren’t responding to it properly,” explains Louis Aronne, M.D., director of the obesity clinic at Cornell University.

This is what’s known as insulin resistance. Basically, when your body doesn’t respond well to insulin, it actually makes more of the stuff, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. And that can lead to fat storage, especially around the middle of your body. That’s where protein comes into play: A diet high in protein may protect you against insulin resistance, says Aronne.

Zeratsky suggests choosing lean cuts of meat and opting for poultry and fish to get your fill of protein. An even better option: plant-based proteins, like beans and lentils, which also serve up fiber and healthy carbs.

3. Add more (healthy) fats to your diet.

Think: Olive oil (unsaturated fat) instead of butter (saturated fat). Aside from raising your cholesterol levels, saturated fats also pack on more visceral fat than unsaturated ones, according to a 2014 study in the journal Diabetes.

When subjects ate 750 more calories daily for seven weeks—either in the form of palm oil (saturated) or sunflower oil (polyunsaturated)—the former gained more visceral fat while the latter gained more muscle mass and less body fat. Polyunsaturated fats can be found in nuts, seeds, and fish.

Plus: “Foods with fat taste good and feel good, so you get that satiety and enjoyment of a meal,” says Zeratsky. This can help you cut back on overeating or reaching for more food post-meal. Just keep in mind, fats are higher in calories so you still have to keep your portions in check.

4. Pay more attention to how well (and how much) you sleep.

Don’t sell your sleep short. According to one 2017 study in the journal PLOS ONE, participants who got six hours of sleep a night had a waistline that was, on average, three centimeters larger than those who got nine hours.

Keeping a sleep schedule can also help reduce belly fat: Women who wake up and go to bed at the same time each evening have lower levels of body fat, according to a recent Brigham Young University study.

And yet another study—from 2018, published in the American Journal of Physiology—found that just one night of little sleep can mess with your body’s metabolism. So even if you skip a night of rest during the week, the weekend won’t make up for it.

5. Don’t skimp on the fiber.

Both Tamir and Zeratsky suggest eating more soluble fiber to keep you fuller for longer, which keeps you from overeating. “Foods high in fiber slow your digestion and can help you manage hunger,” Zeratsky says.

In a 2012 study in the journal Obesity, subjects who increased their soluble fiber intake by 10 grams a day—the equivalent of two small apples, one cup of green peas, and one half-cup of pinto beans—reduced visceral fat by 3.7 percent after five years. Even more, participants who also engaged in moderate physical activity (exercising vigorously two to four times a week) experienced a 7.4 decrease in visceral fat over the same period of time.

6. Remember to find some balance.

Losing belly fat shouldn’t mean strict dieting or deprivation. “People often think that you have to eat certain foods or avoid certain foods [to lose weight] and in reality, it comes down to eating more of a balanced diet that is portion- and calorie-controlled,” says Zeratsky. “This allows your body to have enough energy to do what it wants to do while managing weight.”

When you want to turn your diet around, don’t focus on the idea of restriction, Zeratsky says. Instead, think about the foods you can eat and how you can manage your hunger. “Eat foods that are more filling and have more water, like fruits and veggies, which will help your stomach respond to the weight to food,” she says. Plus, they’re low-cal and you still need that calorie deficit to drop belly fat.

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Let’s Get Started!

The easiest way is by changing your diet.

Here are the rules of engagement:

Skip “white” carbohydrates: bread, rice, cereal, potatoes, pasta, and grains. Avoid eating anything white and you’re safe
Eat the same few meals over and over again: mix and match but use only a few items (more below)
Don’t drink calories: a glass or two of dry red wine per night is fine
No fruit: avocado and tomatoes are exceptions (in moderation) but stay away from everything else
Take one day/three meals off per week: I choose three meals per week as it allowed me more flexibility

As for the actual foods, mix and match from the following list, constructing each meal with one pick from each of the three groups:

Proteins: egg whites with 1–2 whole eggs for ﬂavor, chicken breast or thigh, black beans, beef (preferably grass-fed), pork, fish

Legumes: lentils, pinto, read or soy beans

Vegetables: spinach, mixed veggies (such as broccoli, cauliﬂower, or any other cruciferous vegetables), sauerkraut, kimchee, asparagus, peas, green beans

You can eat as much as you like from that list. But keep it simple by repeating the same meals over and over again. This will save you time — you can cook multiple meals in one go (batching) — and money — you can buy in bulk.

Stick With the Diet

You know the theory and you might even stick with it for a few days. But the hard part is keeping it for long-term. Sometimes your strongest motivation is not enough.

What can you do in those situations?

Here are two simple hacks:

#1 Design Your Environment

Remove unhealthy food by hiding them from view in the back of a high cupboard. Stock your fridge with vegetables, lean meat, and water.
Don’t buy soft drinks or sweets. Out of sight, out of mind. Eating healthier starts at the supermarket.
If you want to automate healthier eating, buy a subscription of fresh, seasonal produce delivered to your door each week
Waiters and what other people ordered can pressure you into eating more than you otherwise might, such as appetizers, drinks or dessert. Make your decision before the waiter comes and order before others.
If you can, an even better option is to look at the restaurant menu online and make your decision in advance. Since portions in restaurants tend to be larger, order one main course and split or ask for a to-go box right away and stash a portion before you start.

#2 Design Your Defaults

Remove from the house food that isn’t on your diet or you know is unhealthy
Buy items from the outer edges of the grocery store. Healthy, wholesome foods are on the perimeter. Junk and processed foods tend to live in the aisles
Trick your brain into eating less per meal by using smaller plates and bowls
Plan your meals in advance so you always know what to eat each day. Use Sundays to cook for the entire week and freeze excess food
Do not keep alcohol at home. If you want to drink, you’ll have to go outside and buy it
Have a bottle next to your bed so you get in the habit of drinking water immediately after waking up
Keep another bottle at your desk throughout the day and fill with it cold water to energize your brain
Only have water at home. Ban everything else, especially juice and soda. Drink a glass of water before meals. It will also make you less hungry
Always order water when eating out, instead of soda. Bonus points: it’s cheaper. At restaurants, ask for salad as a side dish instead of french fries, potatoes, or rice.

Designing your environment and defaults will be especially helpful when your cravings are high. If there’s no chocolate at home, you probably won’t go out to get.

The more friction you add to a habit, the easier it is to quit it.

Weigh Yourself Every Day

Consistency is the key to develop habits and change behavior.

This is where a simple productivity hack by Jerry Seinfeld comes in handy. Seinfeld wanted to become a better comedian. So he decided to write new jokes every day. He was consistent with it. To help him motivate, he used a simple technique.

Here’s how it works:

Find Your One Thing: we want to lose weight, so that’s going to be our thing
Put Up a Calendar: hang a huge annual calendar at your workspace, office or home. If you prefer digital, use a spreadsheet
Mark the Days: put a big X across each day when you devote time to working on your one thing. This creates a chain of X’s showing your progress. Focus on growing your chain longer and longer
Keep the Chain Going: your only job is NOT to break the chain.

After a few days, you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt.

Using this productivity hack for weight loss, all you need to is weight yourself every single day at the same time. I recommend immediately after waking up.

Set up a reminder at the same time of your alarm clock at first and place the body weighing scale next to your bed, so it’s the first thing you see in the morning.

And if you forget to do it, remember: don’t skip twice in a row.

Set Up Your Tracker

Write your weight on your physical or digital calendar and soon enough it will look something like this:

The tool doesn’t really matter, as long as you do it every day. But a spreadsheet gives you an automatic third column that computes the variance in weight — how much you lose or gain each day.

I find that to be a deciding point to adopt a spreadsheet because it increases the awareness of your weight and its oscillations throughout time.

The Power of Awareness

Why go to the trouble of tracking your weight every day? Sounds like a silly idea.

The truth is, by constantly tracking your weight, two things will happen:

You will become more aware of the progress in your goal by celebrating small wins every day
Because the number is always on your mind, if your weight goes up, you will think twice before eating something out of the diet. Your brain will unconsciously do the work for you and stop you for a second right before you eat that chocolate

Let’s use this graph as an example. This is weight over time:

See what I mean by small wins every day? Look at that nice downward line in the first few weeks.