Get Rid of Belly Fat: These Tips Will Help You

If you want to get rid of belly fat, there are some things you should consider. How the annoying belly fat is created and what helps against it, we tell you here.

Getting rid of belly fat: Is that even possible?

Many people perceive their belly as a problem zone – and if you explicitly want to get rid of belly fat, it is not so easy. It is much more likely that you will also lose fat on parts of your body where you might not want it, such as your bottom or thighs. Nevertheless, you don’t have to bury the dream of a shapely, flat stomach: With targeted nutrition, certain exercises and discipline, it is basically already possible to get rid of belly fat.

Why is belly fat actually so unhealthy?

There are two types of fatty tissue:

• Subcutaneous fat: Subcutaneous fat is the subcutaneous fat tissue and has the task, among other things, of storing energy and thus keeping us warm. It is found, for example, on the thighs and bottom and is less harmful than belly fat.
• Visceral fat: The visceral fat, i.e. belly fat, has a rather bad reputation. This is because it accumulates around the organs and ensures that certain messenger substances are released which have a negative effect on us. For example, they cause high blood pressure and increased insulin secretion, which can trigger inflammation. Therefore, visceral fat increases the risk of various diseases such as heart attack, stroke, diabetes, high blood pressure, thrombosis, arteriosclerosis, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.

Because of these disease risks, belly fat is not only a visual problem, but also a health problem.

Who is actually affected by this?

Sounds funny, but: In fact, men have to deal with belly fat more often than women. The hormone testosterone is to blame for this – it ensures that fat is stored more on the stomach. In women, fat tends to sit on the buttocks and thighs due to the hormone estrogen. But: During the menopause, the production of oestrogen slowly decreases – then women also tend to form more fat on the stomach.

But there are also other causes for increased belly fat:

• Too little exercise
• Certain drugs
• Genetic predisposition
• Unhealthy nutrition
• Various diseases that affect the metabolism (e.g. hypothyroidism)

How much belly fat is too much?

Through various studies, researchers have found out which belly circumference (abdominal girth) can be harmful to both men and women:

• Women: From 80 centimetres upwards one speaks of an unhealthy abdominal girth, from 88 centimetres upwards belly fat is considered dangerous and significantly increases the risk of illness.
• Men: From 94 centimetres upwards the abdominal girth is unhealthy, from 102 centimetres upwards the belly fat is considered dangerous.

The right building blocks for your diet

Unfortunately, nothing helps: If your belly is your problem zone, you cannot avoid adjusting your diet if you want to get rid of belly fat. The main thing is to focus on a good mix of healthy foods. This includes:

• Complex carbohydrates (e.g. in whole grain products, pulses, vegetables, potatoes, quinoa),
• Healthy fats (especially unsaturated fatty acids, e.g. in vegetable oils like olive oil, avocados, nuts and fish),
• Many proteins (from protein sources such as meat, milk and dairy products and eggs)
• and vitamins and trace elements from fruit and vegetables.

Training helps against belly fat

Even if losing weight is possible without sport, unfortunately, workouts are almost inevitable to get rid of belly fat. Basically any kind of exercise is good for the time being. It is important to have fun – this keeps motivation high and without regular exercises nothing works. A mixture of strength and endurance training is well suited to ensure that different muscle groups are always used. Tip: Why not try HIIT? The High Intense Interval workout really gets fat burning going and you can achieve real success in just a short time.

Which exercises are best suited against belly fat?

Above all, targeted exercises for the stomach help to build up muscles and thus burn belly fat. But training that takes up the whole body is also useful. The following exercises are good, for example:

• Burpees
• Plan
• Squats
• Sit-ups
• Push-ups
• Pelvic lifting
• Crunches

In order for the new well-formed abdominal muscles to really come into their own, a low body fat percentage is essential. Which brings us back to the annoying belly fat: Depending on the predisposition, a body fat percentage of 20 percent is sufficient for some women to make the abdominal muscles visible. Others have to work even harder and increase their body fat percentage to 15 percent. Unfortunately, patience is the only thing that helps – set yourself small goals and celebrate every success. That way you stay on the ball.

What role does stress play in overweight and belly fat

We all know it: As soon as things get a little more stressful in the office or at home, we reach for chocolate and increase our risk of being overweight. And the constant snacking is not the only problem: when we are under stress, the hormone cortisol is released in greater quantities, which also supports the storage of belly fat.

Completely relaxed body thanks to Yoga and etc.

In order to prevent this effect for more belly fat, you should definitely make sure to include recovery phases in your everyday life. What exactly these phases look like varies from person to person: Some people just want to curl up in a quiet corner with a book and read, others prefer to sit with their best friend for a cosy chat. If you want to know what else helps, take a look at our article stress reduction. Numerous studies also show that yoga, meditation and autogenic training are particularly effective against stress.

Get rid of belly fat: These tips will help you

You want to get rid of your belly fat? The following tips will help you achieve a flat stomach:

• Eat few and above all complex carbohydrates and consume more protein.
• Do without sugar and salt as far as possible: sweets, crisps, ready meals and fast food should only be allowed in exceptional cases.
• Drink two to three litres of water a day and at best avoid soft drinks altogether – a fruit spritzer is sometimes allowed.
• Cook fresh and preferably with regional ingredients.
• Alcohol should also be avoided to a large extent – almost all types contain many calories.
• Use spices to lose weight – they boost the metabolism and thus fat burning!
• Avoid stress and create recovery phases.
• Find a sport that you enjoy.
• Train regularly – at least three times a week – and make sure that all muscle groups are gradually loaded.
• Do not forget the rest periods: muscles do not grow during training, but during regeneration. If you do sit-ups for your abdomen on Monday, you should not strain your abdominal muscles on Tuesday.
• Do not expect miracles – changes take time. Have a little patience and set yourself small milestones.
• Reward yourself when you have achieved one of these goals – for example with a great belly top.

Beware of these mistakes

Even if we follow various tips that should help us lose weight on our stomach and get our body in shape, sometimes it still doesn’t work out properly. To really lose fat, you should avoid the following mistakes:

• Although you take care to eat healthy, you generally still eat too much: losing and losing weight only works if you take in less energy than you consume. It is best to record everything you eat with the corresponding number of calories in a diet diary.
• You eat after sports: Often you have the feeling that you can treat yourself to something after you’ve done the training. Beware of this mistake! This is the worst way to ruin your training success. If you want to eat something after exercise, it should be a small protein snack, e.g. a shake – this helps your muscles grow.
• You are only doing strength training or just endurance training: Your whole body should work if you want a flat stomach. So combine both sports with each other and do them alternately.
• You allow yourself too many exceptions: Today the cake brought by our colleague, tomorrow two cocktails on girls’ night out – with so many temptations we quickly become weak. But when the exception becomes the rule, the fat stubbornly stays where we don’t want it – on our stomach. So plan your week ahead: If you know you’re having a nice dinner with friends on Wednesday night, you might want to hold off on the cake on Tuesday.