Losing Belly Fat

What's the best way to lose belly fat?


It won't surprise you to learn that the best way to lose abdominal fat is to eat right and exercise regularly. And there's a growing body of research to show that the fastest way to burn off the fat from your belly is with a combination of weight training and aerobic exercise.

A good example comes from research published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism. For the study, researchers compared the effectiveness of two exercise and diet programs. Subjects taking part in the study were assigned to one of two groups.

Group one followed a diet based on the traditional food guide pyramid (50-55% carbohydrate; 15-20% protein; less than 30% fat). They also did cardiovascular exercise 4-6 days per week at 50-75% of their maximal heart rate. Each workout lasted 30-60 minutes.

Group two followed a diet that was higher in protein and lower in carbohydrate and fat. Their exercise program consisted of alternating days of resistance and cardiovascular interval training six days per week.

Body composition was assessed by dual x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) before and after the 12-week training program. DEXA is an extremely accurate way to measure changes in body fat. It’s far more reliable than the skin fold calipers or body fat scales often used in health clubs.



And the result?

Subjects in group two (remember, these were the people who lifted weights, did more intense cardio, and ate more protein) lost more fat overall (-20.6%) than the normal group (-10.1%). They also gained 2 pounds of muscle (0.9 kilograms) while the cardio-only group, not surprisingly, lost muscle.

More interesting still, abdominal fat dropped by 26% in group two, but by just 13.5% in group one. In other words, subjects in group two lost almost twice as much belly fat as those in group one.

Unfortunately, self-reported food intake is a notoriously inaccurate way to measure calorie intake. Some studies show that people underestimate their calorie intake by up to 50%. Which means that someone who says they are eating 1000 calories per day may really be eating 2000 calories.
So, if you want to lose belly fat, what should you do?

Firstly, you will need to exercise. And a feeble 30 or 40 minutes of cardio in your so-called "fat-burning zone" two or three times a week isn't going to be enough. As you've learned, a full-body training program that includes both cardiovascular and resistance exercise will deliver better, faster results.

Forget about doing hundreds of crunches, sit-ups, or any of the various "drawing in the belly button" exercises. They're virtually useless for most people when it comes to losing belly fat.

As Mike Geary, author of The Truth about Six Pack Abs, points out: "Let's get this straight right now. Abdominal exercises do NOT burn fat away from your abs! This can only be accomplished through a much more effective full-body training routine that maximizes both your metabolic response and your hormonal response to your workouts."

Remember, belly fat is stored energy. To get rid of it, you need to burn more energy (calories) than you eat. And these exercises don't burn enough calories to make much of a difference to the appearance of your waist and stomach.
If you've seen pictures of Tom, you'll know he has some of the best abs in the business. "Some people might argue that I was just blessed with good genetics in the ab department, which may be true," says Tom. "But based on my experience with others who have less favorable genetics, I still believe that developing the abdominal muscles is easy. The hardest part is getting your body fat low enough for your abs to show."

Ultimately, while there are a few basic principles to keep in mind when it comes to nutrition and weight loss, losing belly fat requires that you take in fewer calories than you burn.

Here's the type of diet I recommend to people wanting to drop the fat from their belly:
Eat around 10 calories per pound of bodyweight. In other words, just add a zero to your current bodyweight in pounds. For example, if you weigh 200 pounds, you'd eat 2000 calories per day.
Eat 1 gram of protein per pound of target bodyweight. So if you're 200 pounds and want to weigh 180 pounds, you'd eat roughly 180 grams of protein per day.
Fat intake can vary from 20-40% of total calories depending on your food preferences. Some days you might eat a little more fat, some days a little less. As long as total calories and protein are set at the right level, it doesn't matter too much.
That just leaves carbohydrate, which is where the rest of the calories in your diet should come from.
And that's it!


Finally, you'll need to be consistent. To lose belly fat, eating right and exercising regularly needs to become a habit, not just something you do when you can be bothered or when you "have the time."
If your current schedule makes it difficult to find the time for exercise, change it. Get out of bed earlier. Turn off the TV. Stop wasting time on Facebook.








* Taken from: http://www.thefactsaboutfitness.com/news/waist.htm