Belly fat is something that all of us want to reduce whether we have a full beer belly or just that last bit of stubborn fat covering the lower abs. Having a more defined midsection is always a plus since it makes you look more fit, attractive, and healthier. But unfortunately, regardless of whether you’re trying to get ready for a beach vacation or you’re simply aiming to boost your confidence, the path towards a slimmer waistline can definitely feel like an uphill battle, where you have to fight for every inch you lose, but the second you break your diet all the fat comes right back on seemingly overnight. So today I want to give you guys actionable tips that you can use to start losing that belly fat for good.
And the first one is for those of you who don’t want to count calories, don’t want to obsess about meal prep, and want a very simple straightforward way to quickly start burning away that excess belly fat, which is to combine fasting with single ingredient natural foods. This is the simplest way to get the job done. You either have one or two meals a day and you fill those meals with single-ingredient foods that either grow out of the ground or walk on the ground. That’s it.
With this strategy you can eat until you’re full without worrying about eating too much because real natural foods that you won’t find in a pretty little box within the inner aisles of the grocery store (1) but instead these foods come in their original form and are mostly found around the outside perimeter of the store, that kind of food is very filling and has a low-calorie density. Meaning there are very few calories within large amounts of those foods. So your stomach is naturally going to start feeling full for a very low amount of calories, and if you fill up your stomach with low-calorie density foods, just once or twice a day you’re essentially guaranteed to wind up with a large calorie deficit causing your body to draw energy from your fat stores including your belly fat without much thought throughout the process. The one downside is that it may take a little time to adapt to simply skipping breakfast if you’re having 2 meals a day or waiting until dinner if you’re having just one meal a day, but I guarantee you, after just a week or two of fasting, you’re body will very much adapt by changing its hunger patterns and even changing when it releases hunger hormones like ghrelin versus satiety hormones like leptin.
This brings me to the next tip to make this kind of diet or almost any kind of fat loss calorie deficit plan work optimally you need to prioritize protein. So single-ingredient protein sources include foods like chicken breast, ground beef, steak, salmon, white fish, ground turkey, shrimp, shellfish, tuna, eggs, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, and also if you’re vegetarian or vegan you can go with products like seitan, black bean pasta, and tofu that are actually quite high in protein without any animal-based ingredients. You want to prioritize protein for many reasons. First of all protein is extremely filling. Remember the goal is to fill your stomach and to feel satisfied with your meals without consuming too many calories in the process. Well, protein is perfect for this because not only is it very filling but it also actually costs calories just to digest. This is known as the thermic effect of foods. Protein has a much higher thermic effect than fats or carbs. Its thermic effect is 20–35% compared to 5–15% for fat and carbs. (6) So that means 20 to 35 percent of calories that you take in from protein sources will be used up just to digest and assimilate the nutrients found in that food. On top of all of that protein also helps you build and maintain muscle as long as you’re getting at least .73 grams of protein per pound of body weight per day which for most men will work out to about 1 to 2 pounds of animal-based protein sources per day.
And that’s another tip, base your workouts around the purpose of building muscle not burning fat. I know it’s counterintuitive but your muscles are metabolically active tissues, that require a substantial amount of energy to maintain. This forces your body to burn more calories even at rest. So you should be performing strength-based exercises like deadlifts, squats, bench presses, pullups, and rows with an average of 6 to 10 reps per set while using heavyweight, and your goal should be to continuously up that weight. As you do this over time your muscle fibers will undergo microscopic tears and that will trigger repair and growth over and…
