Reducing your belly bulge is more important than just vanity’s sake. Excess abdominal fat- visceral fat specifically the fat that surrounds your organs and puffs your belly out into a “beer gut”. Storing high amounts of visceral fat is associated with increased risks of a number of health problems including type 2 diabetes. Read on for 4 possible reasons your belly fat wont shift.
1. Your workouts are wrong
A daily jog or a spin class is great for increasing your fitness levels, but cardio workouts alone won’t do much for your waistline.
You need a combination of weight and cardiovascular training. Strength training increases lean muscle tissue, which sets your body up to burn fat and help keep it off. “Muscle burns more calories than fat, and therefore you naturally burn more calories throughout the day by having more muscle”, says Kate Patton, a registered dietitian at Cleveland Clinic.
2. You’re eating the wrong types of fat
The body reacts to fats in different ways. Researches correlate that high quantities of saturated and trans fats lead to increased visceral fat. Monounsaturated fats however (the kind found in avocados and olive oil) and polyunsaturated fats (mainly found in nuts, seeds and oily fish like salmon) have ant-inflammatory effects in the body, and eaten in moderate portions can do your body good. But be warned eating too much fat of any kind increases your calorie intake and could lead to weight gain.
3. You’re not getting enough sleep
Lack of ZZZ’s can have serious consequences on the waistline:
Why? Too little sleep causes an increase in hormone levels which stimulates appetite. Michael T. Murray, N.D., is widely regarded as a leading authority on natural medicine states:
“Increasing the level of cortisol, thereby promoting increased appetite, cravings for sugar, and weight gain. An elevated cortisol level also interferes with proper utilization of carbohydrates, leading to an increase in the storage of body fat and insulin resistance, a critical step in the development of obesity and diabetes”.
4. You focus too much on ab crunches
If you’re someone who trains abs and thinks that will get rid of belly fat you may find its taking you longer than expected! What I mean is just doing crunches will not give you abs. The only way to lose belly fat is to lose fat from the entire body. This means ditch the ab only workouts and find exercises that work multiple muscle groups at the same time. If you’re stuck on finding which exercises to start with and how to do them download our guide here. Compound exercises such as squats, lunges and push ups will do a much better job than small isolation exercises such as calf raises, sit ups or bicep curls.
To reduce belly fat you have to start ramping up your workouts. In a study published in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, people who completed a more high-intensity workout routine lost more fat around the belly than those who followed a low-intensity plan. You need to train at an intensity where you exceed your comfort zones.
Hope this helps!
Lean Body