We all want to have a flat stomach accompanied by that nice hourglass figure. Sure, we entered an era where a curvy bottom is considered attractive, and we also want a decently-sized bottom to go with it. However, if there’s one thing that we know, it’s that the waist should not have any curves – not the bulging kind, anyway. The only curve that we want there is the one that sets its hourglass shape.
But what can we do in order to achieve that shape? Is there any way to make our stomach shrink and get into the shape that we want? What causes our belly fat – and what can we do to take it off? This guide should give you a few weight loss pointers that will keep you looking like your best self.
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What causes tummy fat?
Tummy fat is also referred to as “visceral fat,” and there are several reasons as to why it keeps appearing around your midsection. This kind of fat is very unhealthy, as it surrounds the liver, as well as your other organs. With that in mind, there are certain activities that will improve the chances of you growing your belly fat collection.
Unhealthy foods and beverages
Unhealthy food intake is likely the main cause for your abs taking a holiday and bulging out. Whether it’s fat food or other kinds of processed food, they are packed with sugars and fats – all of which eventually get deposited around your belly and it’s not good for your blood pressure or blood sugar levels.
The same thing goes with sugary drinks or those with sweeteners. When you are drinking these beverages in their liquid form, you are taking in the calories without necessarily feeling full. As a result, you’ll just end up consuming large doses of sugar over a short period. It will feel good on your taste buds, but your belly certainly won’t be happy about it. Consult your dietitian or healthcare provider if you have any issues.
Alcohol
Sure, if you consume certain drinks (i.e., red wine) in small amounts, it may reduce the risk of strokes or heart attacks. With that in mind, if you kick it up a notch and don’t stop after the first glass, it may trigger a variety of other health problems – for example, liver issues.
Plus, certain studies show that consuming alcohol slows down your body’s ability to burn fat. As a result, the excess calories end up being stored in your belly – leading to the much-dreaded thing that we call “belly fat.”
Soda
Drinking soda may just as well be one of the main reasons why you cannot shed belly fat. These beverages are not only sweetened, causing you to pack the belly fat in all the wrong areas of your body, but the sparkling effect can also lead to bloating. You are practically drinking a lot of air along with the liquid, and consuming multiple rounds of that every night may as well cause your stomach to bulge instantaneously.
Cake
We’ve already been over the fact that sugar is very bad for you – and what is one of the most significant ingredients that we add to cake? That’s right: sugar. We add sugar in the batter, we add some more when we make the cream, and guess what we add in the icing too? That’s right: sugar. This is why, if you make a habit of eating cake quite often, you will likely be facing a very inconvenient stomach fat problem and you’ll feel the bloat!
Candies
Candy is sugar melted into place. It’s the ‘sugariest’ of sweets. When you eat those candies, you don’t really get any nutrients from them, nor do they fill your stomach. The only thing that they do is send calories in your system – calories that will eventually be broken down and sent straight to your belly.
Foods high in trans fats
We have good fats, and we have bad fats. The good, healthy fats that we find in avocado, for example, are the saturated kind. They are easy for your digestive system to burn – allowing us to lose weight. Bad fats – or trans fats, as they are called – are the ones that we need to be careful of.
Trans fats are made by mixing hydrogen with unsaturated fats – a kind that is already unhealthy enough as it is. Made through a technique used to increase shelf life, these are more difficult to digest and have also shown to be a reason for inflammation. So, there’s no surprise that we’d be left with a fabulous(ly bulged) tummy after we splurge on trans fats so often.
Sedentary lifestyle
A sedentary life may also be the cause of belly fat. Sure, you might like to binge-watch Netflix all day or read continuously after finishing your desk work, but here’s a fact: you won’t be burning any calories this way. You may be burning a few calories by breathing or simply keeping yourself up, but this is usually nowhere near enough to burn the excess fat.
When you work out (anything from regular walking to doing aerobics and other kinds of sports), you burn out excess fat, preventing it from being stored in your tummy area. By being sedentary, you’re practically telling the belly fat that it’s ok for it to feel cozy – causing it to get stored around your midsection.
Low-protein diet
If you are stacking up fat around your midsection, it might be because you are not consuming enough protein. There are several reasons why protein is a crucial part of losing weight, including:
Protein fills you up, keeps you from snacking
When you are on a high-protein diet, you often are satiated enough so that you no longer feel the need for overeating and you will eat small meals. It fills you up, meaning that you don’t want to snack so much. Fiber can also make you feel satiated, but protein often does a better job at it.
Plus, protein gives you the amount of energy required for you to burn calories during digestion. This will offer you the energy required to exercise, which will further on help your fat loss. Make sure that your diet includes protein-rich ingredients such as eggs, fatty fish, beans, legumes, and dairy products.
Increases your metabolism
One more great benefit of protein is that it gives your metabolism a boost. Protein has a thermic effect, which is what your body uses in order to break down the food, digest it and then metabolize it. This will ensure that there is no longer as much body fat left to be stored around your midsection.
Menopause
It is very common to gain belly fat once you get closer to menopause. When you are in your puberty years, when the estrogen hormones are at their highest, they will signal your body to store the fat around your hips. This is done in order to prepare your body for a potential pregnancy.
That being said, once you reach menopause, the estrogen level is not that high – which means that your body is no longer expecting any pregnancies. As a result, your hunger hormones will no longer signal your body to send the fat around the thighs, but rather around your midsection.
Stress
Cortisol is an essential hormone that naturally triggers your fight or flight response. Produced in your adrenal glands, it’s essential for survival and triggers the stress response that you need to sharply handle different situations.
The problem is that when stress and cortisol levels go higher than they are supposed to, it can also lead to weight gain – which often shows around your midsection. Moreover, in some cases, stress causes people to eat more carbs – but due to the high cortisol levels, the fat is directed to your tummy rather than all over your body.
Gut Health Imbalance
The wrong gut bacteria can also cause fat to gather around your tummy area. There are hundreds of bacteria types going around in your gut, mostly in the colon. Some of these bacteria are good for you, but others can actually cause an imbalance in your gut. Your body’s response to this is to send fat around your midsection – and sometimes, signaling the body to eat more. Obviously, this can lead to weight gain.
Poor sleep
Sleep is not only essential for your health but also your weight. When you don’t get enough sleep, your body will try to find other ways to get the energy that it’s lacking – causing you to eat more than you are supposed to. It has been shown that people who sleep less than 5 hours per night are 35% more likely to gain extra weight compared to those that are getting at least 7 hours.
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We help women shed that stubborn belly fat by using body contouring garments that help support and shape the waistline so you can look fabulous and feel confident!
How harmful is belly fat?
Belly fat doesn’t just look bad and affects your hourglass figure; it can also put your health in harm’s way. An accumulation of visceral belly fat can put you at the risk of various health conditions – so, you are not just dealing with the embarrassment of having a bigger size. Here are the dangers of gathering too much belly fat.
Belly fat can increase your risk of cancer
Too much belly fat can put you at a risk for cancer. Little is known about the process or why belly fat causes non-cancerous cells to become cancerous – but the fact is that obese people have shown to be more likely to develop cancer over the years.
Increased fat in the belly puts you at risk for diabetes
Belly fat can also affect your body’s ability to properly regulate sugar. Moreover, if the excess belly is caused by a larger intake of sugar, then this will further increase the risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes. Obese or overweight people are 90% more likely to develop diabetes.
Higher risk of heart disease linked to belly fat
Heart diseases have also been linked to an accumulation of belly fat. The bigger your waistline is, the higher the risk will be. Studies conducted by the American Heart Association show that a person with a large waist-to-hip ratio and packing a lot of belly fat is 10%-20% more likely to have a heart attack.
Can you specifically target tummy fat with diet and exercise?
The bad news is that when you have belly fat, you can’t really use diets and exercises that will specifically target your belly fat. Your belly fat is practically your core – so, if you want to lose weight around it, you must target the rest of your body as well. Following a healthy lifestyle is what you need to do in order to get rid of that belly fat, so here are some hacks in that regard.
Eat enough fiber, protein, veggies and whole grains.
As we mentioned above, protein can boost your metabolism and allow you to burn more calories as the day goes by – allowing you to lose weight. Plus, protein fills you up, which means you will no longer feel like eating as often. You can maintain a calorie deficit by preventing needless snacking, eat smaller meals and avoid too many carbohydrates.
Get at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise 5 days per week.
In order to lose belly fat, you may want to undergo at least 30 minutes of moderate exercising for about 5 days a week. Don’t skip the rest day, because more often than not, it will cause your body to feel exhausted and stressed – causing your efforts to backfire.
While some might think that abs are the best way to reduce belly fat, spot exercising is rarely efficient. It needs to be combined with some cardio as well since your purpose here is to burn fat over your whole body. Here are some moderate exercises that can give you the required effects.
Walking
When you are walking, you are activating your core enough to keep your body upward, preventing it from sprawling over. The simple act of walking is making your abdominal muscles work. Make sure that you swing the arms as you are walking and that you are contracting your midsection – while maintaining a brisk pace. It may feel weird at first, and you may not be accustomed to daily walks – but eventually, you’ll get the hang of it.
Weight training
Weight/strength training not only makes your bones and muscles stronger but also activates your metabolism. Plus, weight training will add muscles, which will do wonders on your energy levels and will give your self-esteem a boost as you grow older and stronger.
Yoga
Yoga is just as effective as any other exercise in making your body stronger, particularly around your abdominal area and your back. It can make you look taller and leaner, significantly improving your posture with every pose.
If you want to kick it up a notch, you might want to go for pilates or other yoga mat-based workouts to strengthen your core. What’s most important here is that you choose an activity that you know you’ll enjoy. This will make you more likely to stick to your routine.
HIIT
High-intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts are also a very efficient way to tackle down your belly fat. These workouts involve short sessions of intense work followed by a period of rest, meant to kick up your heart rate. And when your heart pumps, fat is burned as well. HIIT workouts allow you to burn fat from your whole body – and implicitly, your tummy as well.
How Waist Training Can Help
When you are looking to achieve that perfect hourglass figure, you might want to go for waist training as a way to do it. Here are the benefits that a waist trainer may provide you with:
Use our waist trimmer belt while exercising
Waist trainers make you sweat a lot – so, imagine what’s going to happen when you add some training in the mix as well. Mixed with the amount of sweating that you normally do, a waist trainer (specifically, a waist trimmer belt used for exercising) can enhance your exercising effects while offering lumbar support. Our LuxxCurves waist trimmer belt can help you in that regard.
Helps reduce appetite
When you are waist training, your stomach will be significantly compressed. This means that you will no longer be eating as much, simply because the compression on your middle area will give you the sensation that you’re full for longer. Take probiotics for extra health benefits.
It can increase body temperature which will make you sweat out water weight
A waist trainer can increase your body temperature, making you sweat and burn more calories throughout the day. Bear in mind that this also means that your body uses a lot of liquids, so make sure to stay hydrated and drink plenty of water.
Over 250 Glowing Reviews!
We help women shed that stubborn belly fat by using body contouring garments that help support and shape the waistline so you can look fabulous and feel confident!
Summary
Achieving that perfect hourglass figure might be a journey, depending on the stage in which your belly area is. With that in mind, if you plan your diet right, exercise, and add a LuxxCurves waist trainer or waist trimmer belt in the mix, then you should be able to see results in due time.