Too much belly fat not only looks unsightly, but it’s also unhealthy. How certain foods can melt the pounds more easily in the right place.
What Is Belly Fat?
When speaking of abdominal fat, one must distinguish between subcutaneous fat and visceral fat. The sub-edge fat sits directly under the skin and mostly covers the abdominal muscles. It protects the body from the cold and serves as an energy store. This tissue is relatively passive but not particularly beautiful to look at. Subcutaneous fat is a hated term, especially for women, as hip gold or saddlebags.
However, in most cases, a big belly is an indication that someone has accumulated a lot of visceral fat. This fat lies deeper in the abdomen, above the muscles, and surrounds organs like the liver and intestines. It is there to protect the organs and provide quick energy and is therefore very metabolically active. It forms more than 200 messenger substances that negatively affect blood pressure, the cardiovascular system and the immune system, among other things.
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The Relationship Between The Abdomen And Hips
The body mass index, also known as BMI, provides information on whether a person is under, normal or overweight. However, it does not consider where the fat is on the body and therefore gives little information about whether the abdominal fat percentage is questionable. The ratio of stomach and hips is more meaningful here – the waist to hip ratio or WHR for short.
The WHR can be calculated very easily on your own:
- Take the measurements on the best morning before breakfast, stand upright in front of the mirror, breathe calmly and do not pull in your stomach.
- Use a tape measure to measure your waist circumference at about navel level and then your hip circumference at the widest point.
- Divide the value of the waist circumference by the hip size.
A critical value has been reached if the result is above 1 for men and above 0.85 for women.
Reduce Belly Fat
Contrary to many assumptions, you will not succeed in reducing the dangerous belly fat with just a particularly tight exercise program and loads of sit-ups. Not at all! In contrast to muscles, which can be built up or reduced selectively in different body areas with different intensities, fat cannot be lost either. Fat is not broken down where the movement takes place – fat has to be broken down holistically.
The Right Way
Diet is particularly important when losing belly fat: Away with the french fries, the rolls, the chocolate, the lemonades and on with the regular, protein-rich meals made from fresh ingredients. We have listed foods for you that are perfect for melting belly fat in the following.
The Top 5 Foods To Get Rid Of Belly Fat
Of course, you shouldn’t expect miracles here. Belly fat does not automatically go away with eating certain foods. However, the combination of a healthy diet, exercise, and avoiding unhealthy foods can positively affect fat burning. These three areas should be approached together to lose unnecessary belly fat as effectively as possible.
Eggs
Eggs contain many healthy ingredients, such as omega-3 fatty acids, which reduce inflammation in the body and make you feel full more quickly. They’re also great at burning belly fat as they all contain nine amino acids essential for building muscle. And the higher the percentage of muscle in the body, the higher the energy consumption, which means that the body burns more calories even when at rest.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that you’ll automatically lose belly fat if you eat a lot of eggs. But in connection with sports exercises to build muscle, eggs can make an important contribution on the way to a flat stomach. And of course, eggs fried with a lot of butter are not conducive to losing belly fat – the boiled breakfast egg is healthier here – practical and easy to prepare in a one egg cooker.
Salmon
Salmon is extremely rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which, among other things, affect the hormone leptin. This hormone regulates hunger and metabolism, making the fish a perfect helper in burning fat. Prostaglandins are also released as the fish is digested, which help reduce swelling in the body. Unsightly bulges on the stomach disappear in no time.
Almonds
Almonds are an ideal snack for a low carbohydrate diet and reduce the risk of heart disease. They can also help reduce belly fat – especially if the almonds are eaten instead of carbohydrate-rich snacks such as cakes. Almonds have been shown to reduce the amount of fat on the legs and stomach.
Green Tea
Obesity is a rather rare problem in Japan. Researchers attribute the reasons for this to the regular consumption of green tea, among other things. In combination with exercise, green tea can work wonders in losing belly fat, as the tea stimulates fat metabolism. The body burns around four per cent more fat if green tea is consumed regularly, which also benefits the loss of unsightly padding on the stomach.
Raw Cocoa
Raw cocoa is a real beauty when getting rid of belly fat. The main reasons for this are the high amount of antioxidants it contains, which can prevent cancer, among other things. But cocoa also positively affects the burning of belly fat in several ways. On the one hand, it supports the body’s metabolic activity and increases the feeling of satiety. In addition, raw cocoa reduces the stress hormone cortisol in the body. This also has a positive effect on fat burning, as too much stress slows down the metabolism in the body.
Combine Your Ways To Lose Weight
However, these foods alone do not help against belly fat. They should, of course, be combined with other things for the maximum effect. For example, these ingredients can be easily integrated into a nutritional plan to shed pounds even more effectively. But a healthy and active lifestyle also plays a major role in losing weight. As I said, so that the bacon melts, you should concentrate on your diet and take exercise into account.
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