If you’re like 200 million+ other Americans, a burning question you have, or should have, is how to lose belly fat. We’re going to share the most powerful method to do exactly that. But an even more important question is why you should lose belly fat.
You do not need to have what medical guidelines consider obesity (BMI 30+), to be in grave danger of fat-related disease. Most people at risk don’t look like the images portrayed in the media either. They are “normal” by today’s standards with just a bit of belly fat.
Why Most People Want To Know How To Lose Belly Fat
Most people want to know how to lose belly fat because they find it to be the least desirable place for fat on the body, so in other words, it’s all about appearances. We understand, everyone wants to look their best so they can feel their best and enjoy life to its fullest.
But the even more important why, isn’t about appearance. Belly fat is some of the most dangerous fat in your body. When you lose belly fat, you don’t just scratch that vanity itch, you actually lower your risk for metabolic disease.
In fact, a recent study by the Mayo Clinic analyzed the waist size of 650,000 people. What they found was that your waist size actually determines your risk for premature death. And even more interesting, the correlation was valid regardless of BMI (Body Mass Index).
For women, every 2 inches in waist size correlated with a 9% increased risk of premature death. Yikes! Men don’t fare much better, with a 7% increase in death risk.
Without going into the science of why belly fat is so deadly, essentially it’s the deeper layers of fat known as visceral fat that are metabolically active. Visceral fat affects your bodies hormone levels and how your hormones function, especially visceral fat in the abdominal cavity.
This unwanted impact on your hormones can lead to high blood sugar, bad cholesterol, cardiovascular disease and even cancer.
Your Body Knows How To Lose Belly Fat Quickly and Safely
Belly fat is a problem that is caused primarily by food. Yes, genetics always play a role, but what you eat also affects how your genes are expressed. So if belly fat is caused by food, would you agree that it can best be solved by food?
We see so many people whipping themselves like mules in the gym, running the trails, spinning their bikes… crunching their abs.. because that is their understanding of how to lose belly fat. All we can do at our clinics is face-palm and hope they come across an article like this to snap them out of it, or maybe we’ll sneak a note into their gym bag, to share a secret.
Your body has been tricked by the food you’re eating. It thinks it needs that belly fat for a rainy day. It doesn’t have any intention of letting it go. And why should it? You eat it’s favorite easy burning fuel source every day, probably 200+ grams of it.
What is this offending fuel? Carbohydrates (aka SUGAR).
Your body isn’t going to dip into something it considers a survival fuel source, unless it absolutely believes it must do so. And furthermore, it must be convinced for an extended period of time, not just a few days that happen to be most convenient for you.
You accomplish this by cutting of the primary fuel source which is glucose supplied by carbohydrates and sugar.
“Wait a minute, are you saying do a low carb diet?” you might be asking.
Not just a low-carb diet. A restricted carb, low-fat diet.
“But didn’t you say fat isn’t bad?” Yes we did, unless you’re trying to burn your own fat, and do it quickly. You have to force your body to switch fuel sources, from sugar (glucose) to fat. And you probably don’t want too much ingested fat slowing things down.
Some folks can get away with eating lots of fat and still burn plenty of their own (if they simultaneously eliminate all but essential carbs)… but initially you may not be very efficient at burning fat for energy so the most effective and safe plan is to limit fats to carefully calculated healthy fats. This is what we do in our clinics.
The result of low carb, low fat is a potent belly fat burning diet.
A critical point is that you must ensure you eat enough quality proteins to prevent the catalyzing of your own muscle and vital organs. This is a HUGE factor for both fat burning results and safety. We help you do this with specially formulated, protein-based partial meal replacements.
When you follow this plan you will be in what is called Ketosis, which just means burning fat for energy. Most people dip into Ketosis when they sleep but probably not too many other times, which is part of the problem to begin with.
Forcing your body to utilize fat for energy for an extended period of time is the most effective answer for how to lose belly fat.
You can crunch and cycle your brains out… aint gonna matter, all you will likely end up doing is building up the muscle under your belly fat and make your belly look even bigger!
If you see people in the gym with ripped abs… it is NOT because of their workout, it’s because of their diet and metabolism. Some folks are blessed with more active metabolism, most of us are not.
The good news is that what you eat has a major impact on your metabolism and you can ramp it up by avoiding carbohydrates as much as possible, and ensuring you get high quality protein with essential healthy fats.
Fat Burners Are Deluding You
The next thing we hear about all the various fat burning pills or thermodynamic herbal agents. That’s like soaking yourself in water so you can stay alive in a burning house. You might see temporary results but the inevitable outcome at some point, isn’t pretty.
You don’t need any trickery or drugery. Just let your body do what it wants to do… which is restore balance to your biochemistry. When you put the right fuels in, this will happen. It’s worth noting that we can unbalance these fuels by design to achieve rapid and safe weight loss, but it’s what nature designed us to do (you know before we had Walmarts, Publix, Seven Eleven and Fast Food on every corner).
Why intense exercise kills your results
We’ll post more on this topic, but basically just understand that when you restrict glucose levels to force the burning of belly fat, you don’t have enough glucose readily available to support intense exercise. What’s going to happen is that your body will dip into muscle for energy, defeating the purpose of this approach. You could also faint, so there’s that 🙂
Cheat Sheet For How To Lose Belly Fat
1. Cut Carbohydrates to 35-40 grams per day
2. Avoid eating fat until you lose the belly fat
3. Supplement with healthy fats like Fish Oil and Olive Oil
4. Ensure adequate lean protein, about 1/2 g per pound of lean body mass, 60-80 grams is fine for most people. The protein meals are a key tool here, one can only handle so much chicken and fish!
5. Lay off the intense exercise until you lose your belly fat
If you have 2-10 pounds of belly fat to lose (check out the image of what just 1 pound of fat looks like), you should be able to burn it off within 2-5 weeks with this approach.