Maintaining a trim midsection has more than just aesthetic benefits—it can also help you live longer. A larger waistline is linked with an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, and even cancer. When you lose weight, particularly belly fat, your blood vessels function better and you sleep better.
It’s difficult to target abdominal fat specifically when you’re on a diet. However, reducing your total weight will assist to reduce your waistline and, more significantly, the dangerous layer of visceral fat that lies beneath the skin but is impossible to see.
With help from a top UK online pharmacy, here’s how to narrow down where it matters the most.
1- Instead of fats, try reducing carbohydrates.
When researchers at Johns Hopkins compared the heart benefits of losing weight through a low-carbohydrate diet versus a low-fat diet for six months—with equal calories—According to a research published in the journal Obesity, people who ate fewer carbohydrates than those on a low-fat diet lost an average of 10 pounds more. Another benefit of eating a low-carb diet was that it resulted in greater weight loss for more individuals, according to Stewart.
2- Make an eating plan, not a diet.
At the end of the day, you’ll have to pick a healthy food plan that you can adhere to. The advantage of a low-carb diet is that it merely entails making better food choices—there’s no need to count calories.
3- Keep moving.
Abdominal fat is burned through physical activity. One of the major advantages of exercise is that it delivers a lot of bang for your buck when it comes to body composition, says Dr Stewart. Because exercise lowers blood insulin levels, it appears to reduce belly fat in particular. Thyroid hormones regulate the storage and release of energy in cells, which would otherwise signal the body to cling to fat. They cause the liver to utilize fatty acids, especially those stored nearby visceral fat deposits, he says.
The quantity of exercise you need to lose weight is determined by your objectives. For most individuals, this might imply about 30 to 60 minutes of moderate to hard activity every day.
4- Lift weights.
Adding even slight strength training to aerobic exercise aids in the growth of lean muscle mass, which means you burn more calories throughout the day, both at rest and during activity.
5- Become a label reader.
Avoid buying the same product from different brands. Some yogurts, for example, claim to be low in fat, but they have more carbs and added sugars than other varieties. Fatty foods like gravy, mayonnaise, sauces and salad dressings frequently contain a lot of calories as well.
6- Minimize your intake of processed foods.
Trans fats, excess sugar, and extra salt or sodium are all common in packaged meals and snack foods. Three things that make it difficult to slim down.
7- Rather than concentrating on your weight, concentrate on how your clothes fit.
Your bathroom scale might not say much, but your pants will become looser as you build muscle and lose fat. That’s a more significant measurement of progress. To reduce heart disease and diabetes risks, your waistline should be less than 35 inches for women or 40 inches for men if it is measured around.
8- Make new friends who are likewise interested in health.
According to research, you’re more likely to eat healthier and exercise more if your friends and family are doing the same.
