How Do I Get Rid of My Belly Fat/Muffin Top?
One of the most often questions I get asked as a Personal Trainer is “How do I get rid of my belly fat/muffin top?” To put it simply you need to clean up your diet and start exercising more often.
Most people usually only want to lose fat in few specific areas of their bodies such as their stomach or thighs while keeping other parts of their body the same. However you don’t get to choose where the fat will come off of when you exercise. As we exercise the body uses energy (stored fat) to help us get through our workouts due to an increase in our calorie expenditure. Typically the stored fat that is easiest to access by our body will be burned off first. So this means simply doing hundreds of crunches each day will not technically burn the fat off in front of your abs. You will build strong abs underneath that layer of belly fat but they won’t show until you shed the fat. Shed the fat by increasing your daily caloric expenditure by increasing your exercise. Include a combination of cardiovascular training and strength training to get the most noticeable results.
Diet is the most important aspect of getting rid of belly fat. I don’t mean you need to go on a select diet, I mean diet in a term of what you eat daily and consistently not just a month fix. Avoid those unhealthy processed foods that are high in calories, sugar, trans fat and many other toxins that make the body sluggish and heavy. One of the tips I tell my clients when they ask what they should eat is to start reading labels. If you read the ingredients of something and have no idea what the first three are it probably wont be very healthy for you. Another big contributor to belly fat is alcohol. Many people don’t realize how many calories a beer or highball has in it. You don’t have to completely cut alcohol out of your diet, just pay attention to what you are consuming. If you have four beers in a night that will almost add 1000 extra calories to your diet! Be mindful of what you are consuming and choose the healthier option. Try and substitute water for pop/juice at meals and fruit for desserts.
Another thing to realize is that this will not happen over night, or even a week for that matter. I would assume the belly fat you are looking to get rid of did not appear on your body from one week of unhealthy eating habits so do not expect it to go away within a week. Typically you will start to notice changes in your body after about four weeks of consistent exercise and healthy eating. Have patience and don’t give up, because the longer you stick to a healthy regime the more results you will notice. There is no quick fix, if you want to shed that belly fat for good you need to put the time and effort in to make sure it doesn’t come back.
– Jacki Neumann