“Abs are Made in the Kitchen!” This popular quote may raise eyebrows but it’s true that even though you cannot get washboard abs, following the correct diet can stop fat from getting collected around the belly area, it can also help to melt away visceral fat that has been collecting around the waistline over the years. Exercise helps to shape up the waistline and make the abs visible once the layers of fat have melted away. In fact, belly fat is a reason to worry because it can trigger and increase the risk of insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and even heart disease. It’s a known fact that certain foods has a tendency to get stored as fat, particularly around the belly area. In this post, 16 Extremely Delicious Food That Cause Belly Fat.
What Causes Belly Fat?
Belly fat or visceral fat is a result of bad dietary choices, high-calorie diet, lack of exercise, sedentary lifestyle, lack of sleep, and the main trigger – “cortisol.” Cortisol is a hormone which rises up and triggers storage of fat, particularly, around the tummy area. There are a lot of things one can do to get rid of belly fat – by sticking to good diet (Rati Beauty diet programs are a great way to start), avoid refined food and bad carbs, also getting rid of transfat and sugar. Apart from these, you can also exercise for at least 30 minutes a day, increase the intake of healthy fats, soluble fiber, and also indulge in HIIT form of exercise. Also, you can eat your way, through a healthy way, to lose weight, particularly around the waist area. So, the main factors that cause accumulation of belly fat are hormonal imbalance, high stress, inflammation, and wrong dietary choices.
16 Extremely Delicious Food That Cause Belly Fat:
1. Packaged fruit juices: For long, we have been deceived by packaged fruit juices with liquid calories, artificial flavours, preservatives, and artificial sweeteners as a healthy alternative to raw fruits. It is completely wrong to replace raw and fresh fruits with packaged fruit juices because they spike insulin up, lack fiber, have preservatives that supply a lot of calories that increase the waist circumference rather quickly.
2. Packaged chips: Potato chips are not okay, not even the baked ones because when potatoes are baked at extremely high temperatures, they release a compound called acrylamides, which can cause cancer. Also, acrylamides are linked to abdominal obesity. Research has found that baked chips usually have three times more acrylamides than normally fried chips. So, even though potato chips are extremely delicious, an easy snacking option, and your best companion when you are bored – potato chips are extremely bad if you are trying to slim down from the middle.
3. White Rice: Unless you have a super active metabolism, it’s better to stay away from white rice because research has shown that people who consume polished white rice as a staple tend to gain more belly fat. It would be a good idea to switch to complex carbs-rich brown rice instead.
4. Packaged Sweet Corn: Does that sound yummy? But sweet corn that comes packaged with sweet syrup contains fructose sugar which leads to visceral fat.
5. Chocolates: We are not asking you to give away on chocolates totally, you can totally indulge in dark chocolate which is rich in antioxidants instead because all other forms of this delicious thing have loads of sugar and come high in calories.
4. French Fries: Transfat is commonly used in processed food, and in French fries. Usually foods that have been fried in transfat are high in calories and transfat, not only encourages belly fat, it tends to push fat from other areas to the belly.
5. Soft Drinks: A single can of cola or soft drink can supply a huge amount of empty calories without any nutrition value attached to them. If you want to lose weight, the one thing you should absolutely stop is soft drinks.
6. Pizza: Do you know a single slice of pizza can take your calorie count by 300! And if you eat a whole pizza, you would have to stop counting calories. Pizza should be a one-time indulgence or a cheat meal if you want to lose belly fat.
7. Flavoured Greek Yogurt: Though we might think it as a good source of probiotics, flavoured Greek yogurt are also loaded with artificial color, flavour, preserveratives, and loads of added sugar
8. White bread: Switch to brown bread because white bread is made of refined carbs which is totally not okay for belly fat.
9. Canned Fruits: Canned fruits are not equal to fresh fruits. These fruits come soaked in high-corn fructose syrup which is totally bad for health and weight loss efforts.
10. Dalgona Coffee: This yummy coffee drink was all over instagram stories a few months ago, but if you are still whipping up this kind of a coffee every single day, that might be one reason you have belly fat because this kind of coffee is made by whipping coffee powder with sugar! Totally not okay!
11. Sugar-free Cookies: Though these cookies may claim to have no refined sugar, they still might have artificial sweeteners which are equally bad and potentially dangerous to health. Avoid them to keep your waistline small.
12. Margarine: People who want to lose weight and are wrongly informed are actively replacing their butter with margarine in the mornings. A lot of people believe that margarine is healthier than butter because it’s low fat, but we are sorry to burst that bubble because margarine is made from vegetable oils, salt, and emulsifiers – completely bad for belly fat. Switch to butter instead.
13. Waffles: Though waffles have eggs in them, the refined flour or maida content is completely bad for your weight loss.
14. Granola: They are often marketed as a healthy snack, but such bars are high in sugar, sodium, artificial color and flavour. It’s best to avoid them completely or just indulge in them as a cheat meal once a week
15. Oats are healthy and a great option when you want to lose weight, but the instant ones may not be a great way to start your day because they are low in fiber and get digested quickly by the body, making you hungry right after. That’s why Rati Beauty diet programs suggest rolled oats than instant oats for breakfast. Check out the detailed rolled oats recipe on the Rati Beauty app.
16. Protein bars: We often pick up protein bars to reward ourselves for working out hard in the gym and to supply the body with protein, but you are just putting back all those calories that you burnt during exercise with the high sugar content in the bars. full of sugar which can raise your insulin levels, cause sugar crashes and even inflammation in the body.
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