- Don’t you just wish that there were a magic solution to getting rid of body fat? For many people, general exercise is not enough to shed excess fat from their midsection.
There are no shortcuts that will help you get the body you want instantly. However, you can reduce your belly fat content through a dedicated and sustained effort.
It will take hard work and discipline to achieve results but nothing is more satisfying than finally having the body you worked so hard to get. Here is a basic guide to help you learn how to lose lower belly fat.
1. If You Aren’t Already, Get in Shape
If you are overweight or not already at a basic minimum standard of fitness, you will have some work to do before you can begin focusing on lowering your body fat percentage.
The first step for you is to get your weight down to a healthy level, which should be accomplished with a basic diet and exercise plan.
At this stage, the goals are fairly simple, you want to be consuming fewer calories than your body is burning, so you can lose weight.
Focus on eating healthier foods from a variety of food groups, and make it a goal to get regular exercise. Any type of cardio exercise that keeps your heart rate up will do.
Once you are at a good fitness level and within your ideal weight range, you can start to target specific problem areas such as belly fat.
2. Don’t Try the Same Thing Again and Expect Things to Turn Out Differently
If you have done a million crunches without seeing any noticeable changes to your abs and stomach, perhaps there is something wrong with your approach.
Think about it simply: crunches and sit-ups work your abdominal muscles, but you aren’t trying to build muscle, you are trying to lose extra fat.
You will see an improvement in the strength of the abdominal muscles, but this type of strategy will not remove the fat in the area. If doing an endless number of ab exercises haven’t given you the results you want, then consider trying something different.
3. Focus on Reducing Your Overall Body Fat Percentage, Not Spot Reduction
Most people give up trying to lose lower belly fat after all their crunches fail to have any positive impact. What you have to realize is that the science behind the idea of spot reduction of fat is shaky at best.
What this means is you are not going to necessarily lose fat in a certain area just by working the muscles around it.
You will benefit more from focusing on a strategy that lowers your overall body fat percentage and increases your muscle mass. There are two ways to approach this strategy and they work best in combination.
4. A Combined Cardio and Strength Routine
Both techniques are essential to helping you get the body you want, especially if you want to lose fat in the midsection.
Cardio exercises will help you to shed extra pounds of fat. To prevent your body from overcompensating and storing extra fat, you have to combine this with strength training exercises aimed at increasing your muscle mass.
When you strength train, your body’s muscle mass will increase, ensuring that your cardio exercise leads to greater fat loss and less muscle loss.
You can do abdominal strength exercises if you want to, but you won’t see a targeted fat loss in the midsection like you would hope to. The fat loss only comes with an exercise approach that incorporates both cardio and strength workouts.
5. Make Sure Your Diet Is Not Holding You Back
Anyone will lose weight just by burning more calories than they are eating each day, but that does not mean that they are eating healthy.
Calorie counting is a good enough approach if your only goal is weight loss, but it will not help you to lose stubborn fat in your midsection. One of the most important keys to reducing your body fat all over is a healthy and well-balanced diet.
This sounds obvious to most people, but you will be surprised how many people spend hours a week doing crunches, yet spend their evenings drinking beer and eating unhealthy food. If this sounds like you, it is time to make a significant shift in your diet and nutrition plan.
6. Create a Balanced Nutrition Plan
Many people want to automatically make an extreme plan if they are trying to cut their fat levels. They strive to cut out ALL fats from their diet and eat massive amounts of protein.
They are correct in the basic idea: lowering overall fat consumption, and increasing consumption of healthy lean proteins, but the extreme approach is going to backfire.
The best nutrition is well balanced with foods from every major food group, with the portions of each type of food adjusted to maximize fat loss.
You should aim to consume far less fat, but keep in mind that a small number of healthy fats, such as olive oil, can actually help promote fat loss.
You should also strive to increase your lean protein intake, but not at the cost of skipping foods from the other food groups.
Fruits and vegetables are always a good choice because they are rich in vitamins and minerals that your body needs. You should also try to moderate your carbohydrate intake, but it is not necessary to forego carbs completely.
A moderate amount of complex carbs is fine; your body will only convert large quantities of carbs into fat when you are eating an excess of carbs.
There is no secret trick to knowing how to lose lower belly fat, other than a good nutrition and exercise plan. You can do as many crunches as you want to, but it is important to realize that this alone is not enough to help you lose lower belly fat.
Crunches will make your stomach look leaner or your abdominals look more defined, but you will have to follow the tips above if you want to shed the excess body fat from your stomach.
