Hi everyone! Welcome to Healthhacks!
As you know, every Tuesday, I bring health hacks for you. The purpose of sharing this weekly hacks is simply to help you become more productive at work. And also, in day to day life.
#Healthhacks #23
When you are taking in more energy than the body is using, the surplus gets stored as fat anywhere in the body. Simple, nothing new. Yeah! But the question is why, then, it’s so tough to lose fat from the belly than the other part of your body? Also, in your weight loss journey, you might have felt that the abdomen holds fat for a longer time than the rest of the body parts. Questions sound familiar? Let’s dig deeper.
Fat stored in your abdomen and around all the major body organs is basically the deeper fat. This deep belly fat is known as Visceral fat which is hard to lose.
To put it simply, the breakdown of belly fat really gets tough because it has a higher amount of fat cells that don’t respond as easily to the metabolic pathways of fat-breakdown called lipolysis. The rising concern is unlike fat parked on the hips and thighs, fat around the belly calls for serious health risks like obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. And so, today’s post is all about hacking the tummy fat.
- Studies suggest that the best workout to lose belly fat is doing aerobic exercise. Even though weight training helps you get a lean and toned body, aerobic exercise will shed that excess fat faster.
- A good dose of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats in the diet can actually help reduce belly fat.
- Correcting sleep patterns can affect the circadian release of the stress hormone, cortisol. The elevated level of cortisol means higher fat storage.
You can measure your abdominal fat by measuring the waist circumference. Measures of above 40 inches (102 cm) in men and 35 inches (88 cm) in women are the sign of abdominal obesity. Remember to measure it while you’re standing up and use the right measuring tape.
Along with keeping low sugar intake and saying no to processed foods, know these simple hacks to farewell belly fat.
- Diet and workout conjunction
Eating low calories in the diet is not enough to lose your belly puff. A diet rich in soluble fibre, good biological value proteins and monounsaturated fatty acids works well. Diet must include foods that boost body metabolism.
Diet food alone will not do wonder, exercise must be in conjunction with it. I suggest, incorporating high-intensity interval training (HIIT) into your weight loss program. This will speed up the tummy fat burning. Do sweat-inducing exercises more to add up your heart rate and burn more calories in less time. In addition to this, they reduce insulin and cortisol, the hormones that cause the body to hang onto belly fat.
2. Workout that works
Those who undergo a high-intensity workout makes you lose more belly fat than those who follow a low-intensity one. Exercising with full intensity will burn more calories, and burn the fat easily.
Types of aerobic exercise include running, swimming, biking, spinning classes, Zumba. Basically, you should opt for exercise that keeps your heart rate elevated and gives a good sweat.
Think about muscle more. Doing functional exercises that use the muscles in your core – abdominals, back, pelvic, obliques as well as other body parts. These exercises use more muscles, so there is a higher rate of calorie burn while you are doing them.
3. Alcohol soaking
Putting a limitation to moderation is really wise and honest if you really want to lose tummy fat. Alcohol contributes significantly to weight gain, especially abdomen fat. Alcohol is metabolised differently. When you take in alcohol, it gets immediately absorbed without going through the specific digestion pathways. This further delays the liver’s ability to breakdown fat. The result is the wider waist and muffin top on the belly. Pick up a low-calorie alcohol drink, If you just cannot stop boozing.
4. Good fat bad fat
Understand that the body doesn’t react to all fats in the same way. High intake of saturated fats present in meat and dairy increases visceral fat. So, prefer monounsaturated fats (MUFA) to cook your food. Oil made from plants or seeds like canola, olive, peanut, soybean, rice bran, sesame and sunflower oil is the source of MUFA.
Inclusion of omega 3 fatty acids found in nuts and super seeds like walnuts, sunflower seeds, and fatty fish like salmon will add on benefits. These have anti-inflammatory effects in our body.
Check out the link for what and how much should be the oil consumption.
5. Stress
Stress has millions of causes because everyone has got a different reason for it. The stress hormone cortisol, known to increase the number of fat cells in your body. And higher levels of cortisol have been linked to more visceral fat.
Now since you know that stress hormones encourage your body to retain more bulk around your middle. So, it’s better to familiarize yourself with your stress triggers. Take note of such feelings and aim to rearrange your schedule to reduce your stress triggers. Believe me, this will act better than anti-stress pills and supplements.
The market is flooded with supplements and diet pills claiming to decrease stress hormone cortisol, thereby reducing the ability of your body to make visceral fat. Unfortunately, no scientifically vetted study has ever backed up such claims.
Do you keep yourself engaged in any wellness activity? Are you looking for any health hacks in particular? Feel free to write me back in the comments section for any such hacks.