There is no shortcut or a single way to reduce belly fat. It takes loads of hard work & dedication. You can’t get rid of belly fat by focusing only on reducing the stomach area. In other words, you can remove your belly fat when you focus on full-body fat loss. You can’t remove fat from a specific area at a point in time, and when it comes to losing belly fat, the first thing you have to do is customize your diet because this game is incomplete without a balanced diet. The game of fat loss depends 80% on diet and 20% on a workout, so here are some tips to reduce belly fat:-

1. Focus on full body fat loss

As described above, you can’t reduce your belly fat unless you focus on the reduction of full body fat.

In males lower chest, love handles, and belly are common areas in which the excess fat is stored and in females mainly lower body, love handles, and arms are common areas in which the excess fat is stored and this fat become stubborn fat when people does not take care of their fitness. Some people focus on that particular area where there is excess fat and ignored the other body parts and once in a while the time comes when they failed to get wanted results from that area. When you start focusing on full-body fat loss then your belly fat automatically starts reducing.

2. Don’t take heavy meals at night

Eating heavy meals at night has many bad effects on the stomach as well as on your health. Eating at late night is the main cause of obesity. At night, your body goes to rest and the high level of glycogen convert into fat and unfortunately you got that unwanted inches on your waist and belly. So don’t take heavy meals at night.  Our ancestors have also given a quote that “we should have the morning meal like a king – lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar. To reduce your belly fat take your last meal before 8 pm.

3. Consume large amount of soluble fiber

Fiber is the part of plant-based food and is found in fruits and grains. The body can’t break down it easily. It takes a long time to break down the fiber in the body. Having fiber in your meals is advantageous. When you consume soluble fiber-rich foods, you feel full and don’t crave for something more to eat.

There are two types of fibers :-

INSOLUBLE FIBER- This type of fiber does not dissolve in water.

SOLUBLE FIBER- This type of fiber gets easily dissolved in water. It gets digested fast and helps to control blood sugar level which causes a reduction in belly fat.

4. Drink plenty of water

Water is the most important factor in each and every goal of fitness or health for the body. Whether you have weight loss or weight gain goal, in both the cases water has importance because around 70 % of the body is made of water. We need water in every situation. If you want to reduce your belly fat then you must drink 4-5 liters of water every day because water has no calories. It helps to burn more fat because drinking plenty of water tends to increase the metabolic rate which means your body burns more fat at rest. Drink water before having any meal because it calms down the hunger and then you will eat less which means you will take low calories and then your body use stored fat as an energy source in physical activity and you will be able to lose fat from belly or from other parts of the body.

5.  Add high protein food in every meal

Protein, carbohydrates, and fats are the essential macronutrients that help to gain muscles or reduce belly fat. Macronutrients play an important role in each type of fitness goal.

In these three macronutrients, protein works as a fuel for muscles, bones, and tissue. Protein is the main source of muscle gain or fat loss. But carbohydrates are given more importance than protein. Carbohydrates provide energy to the body but an excess of carbs can make you fat and you tend to gain unwanted inches whereas protein is a chain of amino acids that your body needs for repairing tissues, building muscles, and most importantly it increases the metabolic rate which is good for fat loss. That’s why you should always take a high protein diet.

6. Reduce the consumption of refined oil

Almost half of the population of India consumes refined oil to cook or prepare meals because it’s cheap and easily available. Refined oil means the oil that has been refined with chemicals. The more you consume refined oil the more you get fat and several other health problems.

Replace your refined oil with olive oil or coconut oil as these both oils are a good source of fats. Olive oil contains monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA). These fatty acids help to keep your heart healthy and control blood sugar level which is helpful in fat loss or weight loss.

7. Consume enough amounts of good fats

“Eat fats to burn fat” Yes, you read that right. Enough consumption of good fats helps to fat loss and gives you many health benefits. Fat is an essential nutrient that your body can’t produce, you have to consume good fat from foods. There are a lot of good sources of fat like olive oil, peanuts, peanut butter, cashew, and all type of nuts.

Fat contains omega-3, omega-6, omega-9, and monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fat which are healthy for brain and heart. According to the food-drug association (F.D.A) you need to consume 20% of fat daily.

8. Workout at least 5 days in a week

As practicing makes a man perfect same consistency in workout makes the body perfect. You can get a perfect body shape with exercising. You should workout daily but with your busy schedule you may not get to manage your workout routine.

If you want to lose fat from belly then you must do workout for at least 5 days in a week alternately or continuously depending upon you. Consistency in workout produces a high level of testosterone in the body and vice versa. It’s easy to find excuses to not do a workout that’s why only a few have the efficiency to win his laziness over activeness.

9. Do intermittent fasting

Intermittent fasting is the oldest and effective technique and still trending to burn fat from the belly. People who want to lose some pounds or want to get thinner in a short period of time, than this technique is very beneficial to them. Intermittent fasting means having less no. of the meal during a day with long time intervals along with a balanced macronutrient. In simple words, eat-break-eat-break eating plan with having 3 or 4 nutritious meals in a day. This is the best and natural way to lose belly fat.

10. Consume loads of green veggies

Veggies are loaded with antioxidants, fiber, magnesium, iron, and most importantly proteins which cleanse or detoxify and help in the recovery of muscles. The person who consumes a lot of green veggies in their daily routine, their immune system becomes strong.

Consumption of green veggies along with exercising helps to lose fat from belly and provide many health benefits like prevention from heart diseases, keep lungs healthy, and boost the metabolism and help in weight management.

11.  Always count your macros

Normally people don’t care about macros. They just want to calm their hunger with the food they like. Whether it is causing harm to their body or makes them fat, they don’t care about that. Many health problems arise when people don’t count their macros.

Macro means protein, carbohydrates, and fats in a balanced form. If we talk about a person, his macro diet must look like this ( protein intake = 0.7 gms to 1 gm per pound and fat intake=  0.25 gm to 0.4 gm per pound of your body weight and rest of the calories are allotted to carbs). If you want to reduce your belly fat then you must count your macros in every meal.

12.  Reduce stress level

Stress has a big role to play in making you fat and look ugly. Stress hormones make you obese. A stress hormone called cortisol distracts you from losing weight.  When the level of cortisol increases, you stop thinking about what you eat. Your hunger tends to increase and you started eating unhealthy foods that can harm you as well as makes you fat. Cortisol rises when you start taking tension. You can say that stress can be a reason that you can’t rid of belly fat. For that, you have to put effort into reducing your stress level to lose fat.

13.  Don’t stick to clean diet always

Nutrition is the key to achieving your fitness goals whether it’s a weight gain or fat loss. The perfect diet plan helps you to achieve your fitness goal but most of the people who want to lose some pounds or want to reduce the fat percentage from the body, make a strict clean diet plan and follow it for a longer period of time. Due to this, their body gets adapted to that diet and if they do cheat themselves someday than their body won’t digest the thing and they may get suffer from stomach problems. It can also lower the rate of your metabolism.

In fact, once in a week you should cheat on your diet as it can be really good for your fat loss and prevents craving and also satisfy the mental health and rise up the metabolism.

14. Customize your meals from time to time

When you set some fitness goals then you make a diet plan which is perfectly suitable for your goal and you started to follow the same diet plan for a long period of time even when you get your results. But at the time, it would happen that the meal will stop supporting your fitness goals. This is the time when you should start customizing your meals and go on with achieving those goals you have set earlier.

The benefit of customization meals is that it calms your stress hormones and improves mental health and makes the tummy happy.

15. Train your abs 3 times in a week

When you decide to lose fat form belly, you start training your abs daily and think that your fat will reduce by doing this. You are wrong, you must consider these four factors first when you want to lose belly fat :-

Only with abs training, you can’t get rid of belly fat because it will train your muscles not fat. You must consider the above-mentioned factors but you must train your abs 3 times in a week not in a row but with a one day gap between the week days then you can be successful in losing so much fat.

Abs is the workout of the abdomen muscles like any other body part. Abs training makes your core muscles strong and gives you an attractive look and builds self-confidence and helps in reducing belly fat with the coordination of other factors.

16. Do cardio

Cardio is a workout for your heart but it can be a factor of burning belly fat along with overall diet plan.

Cardio works in fat loss when you start doing caloric deficit. It means you have to drop some carbs from your diet before starting cardio. It tends to reduce the level of glycogen in your body and your blood sugar level goes down. In this situation, your body energy requirement goes high. This excess of energy can be taken from fats stored in the body. Your body uses fat cells as fuel for energy and you lose fat from your belly.

17. Practice yoga

If you want to lose fat from belly than yoga is an easy and guaranteed result given choice. There are lots of benefits to doing yoga. It can help to enhance flexibility and relieves mental stress and most importantly it burns fat. Just 20 minutes of yoga in a day has the capability in burning a lot of calories.

There are some poses you can do at home or gym to burn large amount of calories and lose weight

This poses will burn out your fat at a fast rate like any no other source can do. If you want your body to get back in shape or want to reduce ugly fat from your belly or any spot reduction area then yoga is a very effective way to burn fat.

18. Don’t depend too much on packed foods

Packed food contains a lot of calories and harmful chemicals that are not beneficial to your body.  Not all the packed foods are bad, some packed food contains fewer calories and more nutrition. Packed food contains saturated fats that are harmful to your health. Always try to make food at home because self-cooking is an art you can express it by making your meals healthy and fat-free.

19. Lower the consumption of sugar and salt

If you want to reduce your belly fat and want to make your skin thin like paper then you must lower the consumption of salt and sugar. Now a day meals contain a large amount of sugar and salt which is not good for health.

Salt increases the absorption of fluids which makes you look fatty and sugar contains loads of calories which lower the pace of metabolism and hence you gain weight. So, lower the salt and sugar intake to lose fat.

20. Avoid junk foods

Eating junk food makes you fat and it gives you a lot of unwanted calories which encourages weight gain. Even if the sugar and salt content is low in junk food it then also harms your body. Junk food directly targets your metabolism as it contains an excess of calories, bad carbs, and fats. You can avoid sugar cravings by following some habits.

So avoid eating junk food. Make a habit of eating a nutritious meal and stay fit and healthy.

Disclaimer: This content including advice provides generic information only. It is in no way a substitute for a qualified medical opinion. Always consult a specialist or your own doctor for more information. Jugaadin.com does not claim responsibility for this information.