Can't Lose That Belly Fat?

Many workout enthusiasts find that once abdominal fat gets there, it becomes difficult to lose it! Learning effective methods for shrinking and firming your waistline is worth the effort and the benefits extend far beyond aesthetics.

Abdominal fat produces inflammatory factors, which can trigger a wide range of systemic diseases linked with metabolic syndrome. This is why carrying extra weight around your middle is linked to type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and other chronic diseases.
Besides aesthetics and reducing your risk of disease, having strong core muscles will also allow you to maintain good posture, conduct everyday movements more easily and safely, be more balanced and to be more stable. All of this results in you being less likely to fall and to injure yourself.

Why is it so difficult to shed fat from this area, even if you workout hard?

Age May Be a Factor, But It’s Not an Excuse:

With age, your body chemistry changes, and many of those changes make it increasingly more difficult to lose weight. For example, around the age of 30, your human growth hormone (HGH) level begins to drop off. HGH helps with both fat metabolism and muscle building.

The good news is that you can do specific exercises to boost your HGH production naturally, which isn’t the traditional cardio workouts that you may have been doing for years.
Instead, opt for high-intensity interval training (HIIT). Studies have confirmed that exercising in shorter bursts, with rest periods in between, burns more fat than exercising continuously for an entire session. HIIT is also extremely time efficient. You can actually lose more weight by reducing the amount of time you spend exercising, because when you’re doing HIIT, you only need 20 minutes, two times a week. If you do any more, it may be doing too much, which could negate the benefits. Too much exercise can break down your body and cause additional inflammation!

In addition to HIIT, you’ll want to consider adding some strength training to your workout program. You can turn a strength training session into a high-intensity workout simply by slowing down your movements. This is referred to as “Super-Slow Weight Training.” You should only do a total of two sessions of high intensity training a week. If you are doing one session a week of Super-Slow Weight Training, then you only need one additional HIIT session a week. This might sound too good to be true, but it is. Less can indeed be better.

A Proper Diet is a Key for Success:

No matter how much or how well you exercise, all your efforts may come unraveled if you’re still eating processed foods and junk foods, too many carbohydrates and the wrong kinds of fat.

Eating properly is the key for any kind of workout program as well as for weight loss success. It is also crucial when you’re trying to get rid of visceral fat around your internal organs. If you decide to cut down on carbs, replace the missing carbs with healthful fats. Fat is actually the preferred fuel of human metabolism, which can be traced back to primitive times. Avoid highly processed and genetically engineered omega-6 oils, such as corn, canola and soy. All trans fats should also be avoided. Most people need as much as 50-85% of their daily calories in the form of healthy fats for optimal health.

Sources of healthy fats that you’ll want to add to your diet include:

1. Olives and olive oil (for cold dishes)
2. Coconuts and coconut oil (for all types of cooking and baking)
3. Butter made from grass-fed organic milk
4. Grass-fed and pasture-finished meats
5. Raw nuts, particularly macadamia
6. Organic pastured egg yolks
7. Avocados
8. Unheated organic nut oils

Address Your Stress to Boost Your Weight Loss Efforts:

Stress makes your body produce cortisol, known as “the stress hormone,” which depletes lean muscle and makes your body hold on to fat in the abdominal region. It also enlarges your fat cells, allowing them to store more fat. One of the most important strategies for addressing elevated cortisol levels is to reduce stress in your life.

Get Enough Restful Sleep:

To address your sleep problems, try realigning your circadian rhythms to the natural rhythm of daylight and nightfall. It helps if you get daylight exposure, ideally around solar noon, for at least half an hour daily. In the evening, dim environmental lights and avoid the blue light wavelength. When it’s time to go to sleep, make sure your bedroom is dark. I recommend installing blackout shades for this purpose, or use a sleep mask to avoid disrupting your melatonin production

Before starting any supplement or exercise program, you should consult your physician, to make sure that the program is appropriate for yur specific health condition.

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