Maintaining a slim waist does more than look great - it can help you live longer. A larger waistline is associated with an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, and even cancer. Losing weight, especially belly fat, also improves the function of blood vessels and improves the quality of sleep.
It is impossible to specifically target belly fat while dieting. But losing weight in general will help you reduce your waistline; More importantly, it will help reduce the dangerous layer of visceral fat, a type of fat inside the abdominal cavity that cannot be seen but increases health risks, says Kerry Stewart, Ed.D. , director of clinical physiology and research at Johns Hopkins.
See how to narrow down what's most important.
1. Try to cut out carbohydrates instead of fats.
When Johns Hopkins researchers compared the cardiac weight-loss effects of a low-carb diet and a low-fat diet for six months, each with the same number of calories, those who followed a low diet carbohydrate lost an average of 10 pounds.
more than those on a low fat diet: 28.9 lbs vs. 18.7 lbs. An added benefit of the low-carb diet is that it produces high-quality weight loss, says Stewart. With weight loss, fat is reduced, but there is often a loss of lean tissue (muscle) as well, which is undesirable.
On both diets, there was a loss of about 2-3 pounds of good lean tissue with fat, meaning the percentage of fat loss was much higher on the low-carb diet.
2. Think about a diet, not a diet.
At the end of the day, you have to choose a healthy diet that you can stick to, says Stewart. The advantage of a low-carb approach is that it simply involves learning how to make better food choices; it is not necessary to count calories.
In general, a low-carb way of eating changes your intake of problematic foods, those that are high in carbohydrates and sugar and not high in fiber, such as bread, bagels, and soda, and high-fiber options or in protein. , like vegetables, beans and healthy meats.
3. Keep walking.
Physical activity helps burn belly fat. “One of the biggest benefits of exercise is that you get paid a lot for your investment in body composition,” says Stewart. Exercise seems to remove belly fat especially because it lowers circulating insulin levels, which would otherwise tell the body to retain fat and cause the liver to use fatty acids, especially near deposit.
visceral fat, he said.
The amount of exercise needed to lose weight depends on your goals. For most people, that can mean 30 to 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise almost every day.
4. Bodybuilding.
Adding moderate strength training to aerobic exercise helps build lean muscle mass, which causes you to burn more calories throughout the day, at rest, and during exercise.
5. Become a tag reader.
Compare and contrast brands. Some yogurts, for example, claim to be low in fat but are higher in carbohydrates and added sugars than others, says Stewart. Foods such as salad dressings, mayonnaise, salad dressings, and salad dressings often contain high amounts of fat and high in calories.
6. Stay away from processed foods.
The ingredients in packaged products and snacks are often high in trans fat, added sugar, and added salt or sodium - three things that make weight loss difficult.
7. Focus on the size of your clothes rather than reading a scale.
As you gain muscle mass and lose fat, your scale reading may not change much, but your pants will loosen up. It is a better mark of progress. Measured around, your waistline should be less than 35 inches for a woman or less than 40 inches for a man to reduce heart and diabetes risks.
8. Go out with health conscious friends.
Research shows that you're more likely to eat better and exercise more if your friends and family do the same.
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