What is the best way to lose belly fat? This question bothers many people. Belly fat is a subject that concerns health and fashion-conscious people. Fat is hated and called a bad condition. Nobody wants to be overweight. However, we see more and more people who barely fit in the standard bus or airplane chair. Previously I thought that these people were lazy and stupid. How did it happen to them? Do they want to be big?
Do you want to lose weight?
I can bet that everybody would like to have control over body weight. Being in good shape increases our confidence, boosts self-esteem, and most importantly, weight control keeps us healthy.
Obese people are prone to chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular problems and diabetes. Fat people are great people and human beings; they deal with additional weight and consequences from it.
You could tell that I talk about things that I did not experience. I do not know what one hundred pounds overweight is, but I know how it feels when you gain twenty pounds. It comes unexpectedly, like from thin air. Unfortunately, it was white bread and cakes. It happened when I came from Europe to the USA. I did not feel anything except my jeans which were too tight for me.
My story is just a drop in the ocean. People have more significant problems with weight gain and loss. I was bothered because it was not so easy to go back to the previous state.
What is the best way to lose belly fat?
The best way to lose weight is to strengthen our will and be friends with our fat. When we hate ourselves, we create a hostile environment around us. We blame ourselves for the little cookie before bed or the big piece of chocolate.
Blaming will not help us. We must train our will. The high will assist us in going through ups and downs. We will not be easily tempted by the additional piece of pizza or cake. We gently would tell ourselves that we eat enough today. We will pick the water bottle and fill the stomach with liquid without calories.
What is about the strong will?
The fat is the organ, a smart one. When we lose weight, we can expect different results compared with our friends or with people from work. It is advisable not to compare ourselves with models from commercials. These models survive on a few apples throughout the day. Not so much fun.
We will experience different outcomes when losing fat. Our genes are other. Gender is important. Age influences the ability to lose fat.
Without a strong will, we do not have the patience to endure the process of losing fat.
Why do we need a strong will to lose weight and belly fat?
Sylvia Tara, Ph., in her book The Secret Life of Fat, explains the reasons why weight loss is a painful and exhausting event for us.
Doctors Rudy Leibel and Michael Rosenbaum researched differences in metabolism by comparing lean and obese individuals. Scientists do not understand why overweight people eat less than healthy people and can not get rid of excessive body fat.
Finally, they(scientists) found out that hormones are involved when we lose weight. Hormones decrease, and metabolism slows down. It means that we do not burn calories fast enough.
Scientists found out that fat can alter the activity of hormones and brains. When we lose fat, the leptin levels slow down. Leptin influences secretion levels of thyroid hormones and adrenaline. These hormones increase metabolism. When leptin levels go down, thyroid hormones and adrenaline are in smaller quantities. Hormones are too lazy to participate in the burning of fat.
Conclusion
It is a tricky situation. Fat can control our minds and influence weight loss. Fat can control appetite.
Through it’s most powerful messenger, leptin, fat can influence our appetites. It can cause our muscles to reduce their energy usage. It can alter our sympathetic nervous system, and control the flow of hormones such as thyroid, adrenaline, and noradrenaline. Most profoundly, it can influence our thoughts and elicit stronger responses to food, lower our inhibition to eating, and cause us to misjudge how much we’ve eaten. Fat, it turns out, is capable of mind control!
It is a reason why we need a strong will. Strong will help us continually exercise, count calories, and check the quality of food.
Sorry guys and girls, there is no magic pill to solve all problems. You can lose weight using drugs once, and you will gain again but faster and more pounds. It is better to relax and prepare ourselves for the long journey towards a healthy weight.
If you have doubts, please check Sylvia Tara’s book The Secret Life of Fat
Very useful advice. As you rightly pointed out, training our will is much more effective than blaming ourselves for things we did and shouldn’t have. Of course. it’s not easy, and in the beginning, we can encounter a lot of difficulties and some days we will still fail to control our desire for food such as chocolate or chips, which our body doesn’t need at all. It’s a long-term process that we must fully embrace.
Hrllo, Horatius. For sure losing fat takes perseverance and dedication. I think that it is the same as with everything. If we want something badly we can make it. I have some friends who practice intermittent fasting. It means that we do not eat breakfast. First time for eating is lunch. We finish last meal at 6 or 7 p.m. This long period without food helps to burn calories.
You are right that it is a long term process.
All the best, Nemira
Hi there Nemira,
Thank you! At last I know exactly why I eat very little, just breakfast and only fruit at that, consume little sugar 2 teaspoons a day in coffee only! yet never seem to lose weight!
I do wonder now if I eat more (healthy food only) would I lose that belly fat?
The will and determination is there!
Hi Derek. How about exercises? It can be any kind but you will burn all your unwanted calories. I know that most of us, including myself want this magic pill which could solve all problems. Unfortunately drugs work for a short period of time. People do not move as their ancestors. We eat different food. Nutrients are invisible in the conventional food. Sedentary life leads to various problems.
If you will exercise, you will lose belly fat. If not, you will gain some pounds because with age metabolism slows down.
All the best, Nemira
I have never experience being obese but as you stated I have felt the repercussions of gaining 20 pounds of unwanted weight over a span of time. The biggest issue I have dealt with is my sweet addiction. I can go all day just eating sweets and nothing else which is terrible, I know. I think sweets probably eventually turn into fat. Like you said it’s all in your mind and it’s about training your mind to not want those things right?
Hello here. The sweet addiction is common thing. You are not alone. Magnesium is a great food supplement which helps ease a temptation burden. When we lack some of vital minerals, our bodies crave things which are missing in our diet.
When you eat plenty of sweets and do not exercise, you will gain weight. Besides it, you can be prone for diabetes. Consulting nutritionist t or the right health practitioner would help you to choose the right way towards health being.
All the best, Nemira.
Very good article on a subject dear and near to everyone’s heart. I believe losing belly fat is a combination of many things. Eating healthy, eating right, exercise and a life style change. If never ceases to amaze me when products are pushed as the answer to six pack abs. You can’t see the six pack if belly fat is in the way. You have to work at all of it and it will take a while because you didn’t get there overnight. There is no quick fix but there is a solution to the answer and it starts with a life style change, healthy diet and exercise.
Hello, Robert. Yes, I wondered previously why people can not loose weight, most of them? It seems that plenty of us do not have patience to work on agenda how t loose weight. We hope that the miraculous pill will help us shed belly fat without work. Hopes are just hopes. We want to see results.Why people go the gym? Because they can follow routine and orders from trainers. It keeps them on the track. Somebody pushes them to the right direction. It can be a coach, trainer or a friend.
Of course, it is not easy to lose weight. However, Sylvia Tara described in her book The Secret Life of Fat how she outsmarted her weight. She all her life fought against fat. She learned how to do it and achieved the victory being persistent all the time.
You are right that lifestyle plays important role in our lives. Without it we would stay in one phase without progress.
All the best, Nemira.