Why is this,
This is due to the fact that losing fat is hard. It takes hard work and determination. You probably didn’t get fat overnight. It took a few years. Most people do have a tendency to store fat in the abdominal region, and this isn’t healthy at all.
Some old studies would tell us if we were shaped like a pear it was ok, but an apple wasn’t, or something along those lines. Now research is leaning towards the fact that any fat around the midsection isn’t good for us at all.
If you fail to set a realistic goal, you’ll never reach it.
Fortunately, if you do have the right game plan in place, you can quickly see the success that you’re looking for and realize your dream body.
Let’s review some of the key components to losing fat around the midsection.
Protein Intake Must Be Increased
The first step if you want to be successful with losing fat is to start increasing your protein intake. Protein is one of the 3 macronutrients that will boost your metabolic rate and help you preserve your lean muscle mass.
Since you will be consuming fewer calories, and eating foods that are rich in nutrients, overall over the course of the day, if you aren’t increasing your protein, there is a greater chance you may run a deficiency as the body could start to turn to incoming protein as a fuel source.
If you’re serious about progress, this is precisely what you don’t want.
Protein will also make you feel full longer over foods not rich in nutrients. That can keep the processed foods away.
Track Those Calories
Now, I’m not a big fan of tracking calories. I think it just adds a step that doesn’t need to be there. If you are following the Paleo Diet, there is no need to do this. Basically, you can eat wholesome foods, but be smart about the quantity.
In the beginning, you may want to just get a feel for how many calories are in a particular meal, and then as you learn, the calories shouldn’t be an issue.
A good rule of thumb is meat should be the size of your hand and as thick as your hand, vegetables the size of your fist. Again it’s a guideline.
If you aren’t counting calories, or watching the volume of food you eat, you may be taking in more calories than you are burning, which is the basic fundamental for fat loss.
If you eat at a certain calorie level for a two week period and see no fat loss come about because of it, that’s your sign that you should immediately lower then downwards by 20% or so, which should then get fat loss moving along faster again.
If you are still not seeing results after those adjustments, see your doctor. There could be some hormone issues going on that you are not aware of. I have experienced this myself first hand.
Implement High Intensity Interval Training
The next must-do if you want to be successful with losing fat is to make sure that you add in high intensity exercise to your plan.
This is the form of exercise that is going to best help ensure that you’re burning up plenty of calories not just during the workout, but for hours afterwards as well.
High intensity exercise also allows you to keep your workouts short so will fit perfectly in any busy schedule.
This applies to both weight lifting as well as cardio training. On the weight lifting side of things, keep the rest breaks short so that you move from exercise to exercise as quickly as possible.
Then on the cardio side of things, implement sprint or interval training as it’s sometimes referred to rather than doing steady state sessions that go on for hours.
You’ll see far better results from this form of training.
Instability a Must for Ab Exercises
When it comes to the abdominal exercises you choose to include in your program for helping you reach the goal of losing fat around your midsection, choose movements that cause you to become as instable as possible.
It’s these that are really going to get your muscle fibers firing up the fastest and ensure that you work every muscle deep within your core.
The more muscle fibers you can hit with each abdominal exercise you perform, the more calories that given movement is going to burn.
Lower the Stress and Get Rest
Finally, the last step for losing fat effectively is to make sure that you keep your stress level down lower. Stress is something that will seriously throw off your progress as it’s going to cause you to emotional eat, taking in far more calories than you should be.
Your doctor can actually do a saliva test for your cortisol levels which can give them an idea about your stress levels.
And perhaps the most important piece of all is sleep. You can’t expect to lose weight if you are only getting 5 hours a night. You need ideally 8 to 9 hours per night. Your body is a machine that is only effective if you give it the rest it rightly deserves.
Schedule an appointment with your doctor prior to beginning any diet or physical exercise program. They can be a valuable partner in your weight loss journey.
Corey Lewis is currently a ISSA Certified personal trainer. Corey is actively involved in helping others improve their health and fitness through his website, http://www.lose-body-fat-today.com. For tips on killer ab workouts and other tools visit http://www.lose-body-fat-today.com/losing-belly-fat.html
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