It’s no secret – people who have lost weight or those of us who are still losing weight, can’t seem to get rid of belly fat that easily. It stays put even when the rest of the body seems to be shrinking. A majority of women who want to lose weight embark on the journey primarily because they want to flatten their belly. Belly fat is also called visceral fat and it is indicative of a whole lot of underlying factors and often is a sign of metabolic disorders. If the abdominal circumference goes beyond 35 inches in women, it’s definitely a cause for concern. It can also make you pre-diabetic with an increased risk for developing diabetes, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular problems. It’s a common notion that the most effective way to flatten the belly is to go as much as low on carbs as possible, but that’s not true. Not all carbs are bad, in fact, they are an important food category that provide the body with energy and fiber, but then, one should be choosing the right kind of carbs. If you are someone who thinks “low carb” diet, especially keto is not practical and sustainable, then instead down cutting down on carbs to get rid of belly fat, you can read this post for amazing ways to blast belly fat without cutting down rice or roti or other complex carb foods.
What are Carbohydrates:
Carbohydrates are the primary source of energy that provides fuel to our body to run its normal day-to-day activities. Carbohydrates are made of sugar, starch and cellulose and when they break down, they release energy. Our body needs – protein, minerals, vitamins, trace elements, fats, and most importantly, carbs to get energy to perform its day-to-day activities. Carbs are broadly divided into “good” and “bad” carbs category, but they can be broadly categorized as simple and complex carbs. Also, further digging down about carbs – they can be of two types – monosaccharides and disaccharides. Monosaccharides are simple carbs and glucose, galactose, and fructose fall into this group. Glucose is found in sugars and sweets. Fructose is found naturally in vegetables, fruits and honey. Galactose is crucial in the formation of lactose. Disaccharides are sugar molecules with two monosaccharides linked together. They get broken down into separate monosaccharides. Sucrose, maltose, and lactose are disaccharides that get broken down eventually into monosaccharides. Table sugar is made of glucose and fructose. Lactose has glucose and galactose. Maltose, which is found in grains, is made of two glucose molecules.
Sugars: These are simple carbohydrates, often termed as monosaccharides and disaccharides.
Starches: These are complex carbohydrates, also polysaccharides.
Fiber: These are also complex carbohydrates, also polysaccharides.
High Carb Food Items that one Should Totally Avoid:
Bread.
Corn starch
Refined flour.
Potatoes.
Pastas.
Cakes.
Pastries.
Muffins.
French fries.
Sugar.
Maple syrup.
Beer.
Flavoured yogurt.
Alcohol.
Packaged fruit juices.
The Best Carbs to Eat to Maintain Good Weight and Lose Weight:
Sweet potato.
Quinoa.
Roasted chickpeas.
Rye.
Greek yogurt.
Oatmeal.
Buckwheat.
Banana
Green peas.
Wheat pasta.
Whole wheat bread.
Black beans.
Cherries.
Apples.
Cauliflower.
Broccoli
Pecan nuts.
Macadamia
Strawberries.
Eggs
Chicken breast
Avocado
Green beans
Almonds
Mushrooms
Bell peppers/capsicum.
Whole grains, brown rice.
Oats.
Apples.
Cabbage.
Fish.
Cottage cheese/paneer.
Tofu.
Cheese.
Eggplant/brinjal.
Spinach.
Celery
How to Blast Belly Fat Without Cutting Down Carbs:
1. Switch to Complex Carbs instead of Simple Carbs: Eliminate refined carbs that are extremely unhealthy, lack fiber, and come loaded with calories, and those shouldn’t be in your diet. As we have mentioned above, switch to complex carbs instead of refined ones so that you are adding fiber and energy to your instead of just calories through refined carbs. Also, whole-grain carbs help to cut down belly fat whereas refined carbs add to the belly fat, so choose wisely from the above list.
2. Eat More Fiber: Fiber is essential to maintain a healthy digestive system, clears constipation, regulate blood sugar levels, and also to control appetite. Fiber helps to reduce appetite, cut the belly fat, and helps with overall weight loss. Soluble fiber also helps the friendly bacteria that exist in the intestines thrive well and these bacterial flora helps with better absorption of vitamins and nutrients into the bloodstream from the small intestine. This process is called fermentation which releases short chain fatty acids which can in turn reduce belly fat.
3. Stop frequent snacking: Stop making frequent trips to the refrigerator because frequent snacking causes insulin to always be in a spiked state, leading to creation of fat cells in the process. The idea is to cause lesser insulin spikes to stay lean. Insulin is the hormone required for the cells to absorb glucose and put it to better use; however, in people with insulin resistance and diabetes, the cells do not respond to insulin and this triggers more insulin release. When extra blood sugar accumulates, insulin converts sugar into fat and stores them for future use, especially around the belly area. When you switch to a low-carb diet, insulin spikes are less frequent and as a result, there is less to no fat storage. In such a scenario, body opts to make use of stored fat (particularly belly fat), and that’s when weight drop happens. Since refined carbs go through the digestion process quickly since they have nil fiber content, they cause rapid insulin spikes and insulin pushes the body to create new fat cells for storage which leads to weight gain and obesity.
4. Transfat should be off your diet: Guess what will prevent you from losing weight even after slogging it out for hours in the gym – yes, transfat. It can also put you at risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Here’s a list of transfat food items that you should totally avoid.
5. High protein diet: Many fitness instructors, health experts, and dieticians recommend keeping your protein level high in order to lose weight. It is important to consume enough protein to avoid losing your lean muscles and burn only unwanted fat, like belly fat.
6. Lower cortisol levels, aka lower stress: Losing weight itself can be a stressful job for some of us, but it’s one of the reasons why you are not losing any weight, especially around the belly. Stress can increase the level of a hormone called cortisol which leads to weight gain. If you have a stressful life at home or work, take a step back, indulge in meditation, exercise, yoga, and it will help calm your mind and help some shed some weight off the waist in the process.
7. Practice Ab Strengthening Exercises: Practice exercises that would help you work on ab muscles, for example, bicycle crunches, sit ups, mountain climbers, etc. Here’s a complete list of ab exercises that you can do at home.
8. Practice these yogasanas: Bhujangasana, Camel Pose, Khumbakasana, dhanurasana, etc. help to burn the belly fat.
9. Coconut oil and Ghee are Healthy Fats: Kareena Kapoor has mentioned many a times that ghee has helped with her weight loss process. Coconut oil and ghee can not only curb appetite, they can actually help burn fat, especially around the belly area. Here’s how you can use coconut oil for weight loss.
10. Turmeric Tea for Belly Fat: Make a warm cup of turmeric tea not only to boost your immunity but also to cut belly fat. To make turmeric tea, take 2 cups of water, half an inch ginger, 1 tsp of turmeric and boil everything for 2 to 3 minutes. Take it off the flame and let it come to room temperature. Add 1 tsp of raw honey and drink this mixture everyday before going to bed.
11. Lift weights: It’s a big secret that lifting weights will help you burn more calories, long after your workout session. More calories burnt means more quickly you would lose the belly fat.
12. Stop juicing your fruits: Fruit juices, even, the freshly-squeezed ones are not nutritionally equal as whole fruits because the juicing process breaks down the fiber content which is so necessary to keep the digestive system healthy because it helps in active absorption of nutrients, in controlling blood sugar, and in lowering cholesterol. Also, packaged fruit juices are not only high in sugar content, they have little fiber and come loaded with preservatives. So, whole fruit is the best way to eat your fruit.
13. Probiotic Foods Help Burn the Belly Fat: Probiotics, especially, Lactobacillus gasseri is a probiotic which has been linked to reduction in belly fat. Get your daily dose of probiotics with apple cider vinegar, buttermilk, paneer, yogurt, etc.
14. Drink Green tea up to three times a day: Green tea is rich in antioxidants and compounds that help you burn belly fat. You can drink green tea up to three times a day to aid weight loss.
15. Practice Pilates 100: It’s a bit difficult to do, but once you master this exercise, burning the fat is extremely easy. To do this exercise, lie face up first with legs raised straight. Now lift your head and shoulder off the mat and extend legs forming a 45-degree angle with the mat. Do not stress your neck while holding the position but try to maintain the pressure on the lower abs. Now lift hands off the mat at shoulder height. Keeping the palms down, pump your arms simultaneously up and down (from the shoulder height to nearly touching the ground) 5 times while inhaling and 5 times while exhaling. Repeat this set 10 times.
16. Switch to a Healthy Diet: A good diet will help shed weight from all problematic areas including belly and back fat. All Rati Beauty diet programs are designed to help you lose weight with healthy food.
17. Cut down sugar as much as possible without eliminating natural sugars from fruits: Fructose can add fat around the belly area and cola beverages, sugary sodas, fruit juices, and various high sugar sports drinks have fructose in them which add fat around the belly area.
18. Make Plank your Favorite Exercise: There’s one thing you should absolutely do to burn belly fat and that is do at least one minute of plank a day. It is a simple yet powerful exercise to strengthen the body and burn some fat, especially around the belly area. Start off with a very basic plank position. Now rock your body forward so that the shoulder blade goes past the elbows towards the palms. Then go back to the starting position. As plank tightens up all body muscles, this variation adds some extra stress to lower abs, making the fat burning process easier.
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