How To Make A Weight Loss Plan (And Stick To It)

The start of a weight loss journey is an exciting time. I want your plan to last all the way through to your weight loss goals. In this article, I discuss how to make a weight loss plan and how to stick to it for success.

Get A Detailed Plan

Make a clear plan and stick to it. Write out exactly how you are going to be doing things.

For example you might say that you will walk the dog 6 days a week for 30 minutes. You may even get more specific and say that you will walk the dog 30 minutes a day every Monday-Saturday.

If you waver from the plan, have a good reason and write down why. For example, it was raining on Wednesday evening so I couldn't walk the dog that day. You may even choose to make up for it by walking the dog on one of your off days.

These are just examples, but this will help you know how specific you need to be. Keeping yourself on a plan is important to the success of your weight loss journey.

Get A Realistic Plan

Let's be real.

If your plan is too hard and much too strict, you will fall off the plan every single time. You will find yourself too tired to exercise, or so ravenously hungry that you visit the nearest buffet asap. That's not what we want.

Your plan also shouldn't be too easy, because if it's too easy then you won't lose weight from it. There will always be some amount of discomfort when losing weight. You have to expect that when going on a weight loss plan.

Make sure that you are eating at a caloric deficit, and make sure that you are getting moderate activity at least 4 days per week. Other than that, you adjust it how you see fit.

If you want to start out with a smaller deficit, that's fine as long as you are able to lose weight that way. You want to at least shoot for 1-2 lbs lost every week. Less than 1 lb per week is going to be much too slow.

You are looking for that nice middle ground where you are eating at a caloric deficit, losing weight steadily, but not feeling miserable every single day while you do it. Find that balance.

Once you have found the balance, that is your plan to stick to. It could take some experimentation, and that's okay. Different people have different metabolisms and different things work for different people.

Modify If Needed

Over time, you may need to modify your weight loss plan. As you lose weight, your caloric needs change. You will not be burning the same calories at 175 lbs as you did at 210 lbs. You have to check your calorie needs and lower your calories as you lose weight. You should modify your plan as time goes on or you will notice that you stop losing weight altogether.

Another reason you may need to modify your weight loss plan is because of hitting weight loss plateaus. A weight loss plateau is when you are doing everything right, at a deficit every single day, but your weight has stalled week after week.

If you find yourself in this situation, check out my article about weight loss plateaus.

Find Weight Loss Motivation

Another great way to stick to your weight loss plan long term is to stay motivated. Motivation is so important to your success. In fact, having motivation is the only way you will be successful in the long run. You have to live this stuff daily and remind yourself why you are doing it. Because the box of donuts will always be there to remind you of why you don't want to be on a diet.

There are many ways to stay motivated and I even wrote an entire article about weight loss motivation. It's very helpful for reaching your goals, so you should check it out.

Summing It Up

So you have a solid weight loss plan. The plan isn't too hard to stick to long term. And you are fully motivated to continue week after week. This is how you reach your goals and stay there. I am routing for your weight loss success.

6 Things You Need To Know About Intermittent Fasting

In today's post, I will be discussing 6 things you need to know about intermittent fasting. Some of these things are negative, but some are advantages that you receive from intermittent fasting. I think that they are all useful to know if you are going to begin an intermittent fasting plan.

You Will Be Hungry

You probably expected that you'll be hungry on an intermittent fasting program and it's true. You'll have to endure some hunger. If your body is used to eating at certain times, hormones are released during that time that will make you hungry. If you skip a meal, then you'll have to endure that hunger.

The good news is that it does get easier the longer you practice intermittent fasting. Your body will become fat adapted and will learn how to efficiently pull energy from your fat stores to fuel you. You will get less hungry. But you'll always have to deal with some amount of hunger.

Hunger comes and goes in waves. You may feel ravenous for 2 hours, but then the feeling subsides and you aren't so hungry anymore.

People Will Judge You

If people around you find out that you are intermittent fasting, they will judge you. Some will preach at you about your body needing multiple meals a day. Some will stay you're in starvation mode and starving yourself. It seems like everyone becomes a health coach as soon as they hear that you are intermittent fasting, even though they, themselves, are overweight and have been for a long time. But they know better than you.

You can't do much about this problem. You can try to educate them, but some people are way too brainwashed to even bother with it. The best thing to do is probably keep your mouth shut about intermittent fasting. Only tell someone if you absolutely have to, or if you feel like they are open minded enough to understand it.

Keeping On Schedule Is Hard

You can't end your fast until 2 p.m. but there's a company lunch at 12 p.m. These things happen all the time. If you know about an event beforehand, you can always readjust your fasting window to line up with the event you are supposed to attend. That would mean that you stop eating a little bit earlier the following day so that you can attend that company lunch.

Sometimes adjustments have to be made. Sometimes you just have to say, "To heck with it," and not fast at all on some days. It's okay to do that, as long as it's not a regular thing. As long as you are intermittent fasting 95% of the days, you will see results.

You'll Get Fast Results

This is one of those benefits I was talking about. The results you get from intermittent fasting will come a lot quicker than traditional diet and exercise. That is because intermittent fasting is superior to the traditional diet and exercise guidelines that everyone is taught.

You can expect to lose more fat as well. If you take pictures, you will especially notice your body changing quickly on an intermittent fasting plan.

You'll Feel Better

Little aches and pains that you used to have may go away. That is because intermittent fasting is anti-inflammatory. Sometimes certain things will just completely resolve. I know that many people comment that they used to have digestive issues that cleared up completely on an intermittent fasting schedule.

When you go periods of time without eating, your body can heal more quickly and more efficiently. You are especially giving your digestive system a rest so that it has time and energy to repair.

You Can Eat Cake

There may have been certain foods you had to avoid while on a traditional diet, but on intermittent fasting you have a little bit more freedom. People can eat a wide variety of foods that are considered "no-no" foods in the diet community, and still drop weight just as fast.

Now, I'm not advocating for an unhealthy diet full of processed foods. I'm just saying that you have the freedom to eat those things without it causing as much problems. You are mitigating some of the damage of eating that junk, and in some cases even reversing the damage it causes.

I hope you enjoyed these intermittent fasting tips.

Weight Loss Motivation: How To Stay Motivated

Sometimes weight loss journeys can be long and frustrating. It can be really hard to stay motivated. In this post, I want to give you tips on how to stay motivated and stay the course when losing weight.

Weigh Less Often

I think you should weigh yourself less often when on a weight loss program, especially if you are a woman. Our weight fluctuates so much. Seeing the number go up after working so hard, exercising so much, and being hungry for days can be so demotivating.

Sometimes a person will step on the scale, see no weight loss, and it can be the straw the broke the camel's back. They start wondering why they are even doing all this hard work anyway if they aren't losing weight, and then they just quit.

You may have heard this before, but weight loss is not linear. Your weight will go down 5 lbs, then up 2 lbs, then down 4 lbs, then up 5 lbs, then down 8 lbs, and on and on until you reach your goal. Sometimes you will stay the same weight for weeks on end, even though you are doing everything right. In those times, you may need to shake things up, as you have hit a weight loss plateau. But by all means, don't give up.

The best way to avoid this problem is to stop weighing yourself so much, and never give up on your weight loss efforts. I recommend to weigh about once a month. Pick a day and weigh on the same day each month.

Take Pictures

This tip goes hand in hand with the last tip. The number on the scale doesn't always show the full picture when it comes to weight loss. Sometimes you can see your body changing drastically, but the number isn't changing much at all.

It's frustrating, I know, but your whole point to losing weight is to look smaller, not just see a smaller number on a scale right?

So if you look smaller and fit into smaller size clothes, but the number isn't changing much, that's okay. It may take some time for the number to catch up with all of the changes you are making.

I recommend taking pictures of yourself with the least amount of clothes that you feel comfortable wearing. If that is just shorts and a tank top, that's fine because you can still see a difference with that. Just make sure whatever clothes you are wearing are not baggy and covering most of your body. You want to be able to actually see how fat you are in the pictures, so that you can see the change when it does happen. A sports bra and shorts is a really good choice because you can see your full stomach.

Also (and this is REALLY important) when you take follow up pictures, wear the same outfit as you wore in the first picture. This will really help you see the difference in how the clothes fit. If you are wearing different clothes in each picture, it will be harder to tell a difference.

I recommend taking a new pic once a month on the same day that you weigh yourself.

Weight Loss Collage

A fun and creative project to give you some weight loss motivation would be to make a weight loss collage. A collage is a collection of pictures. They are typically glued to something (like a piece of cardboard) and placed on the wall or somewhere that you can see it everyday. They are usually pictures that are cut out from magazines or printed from the internet, and glued in a creative way onto the cardboard.

A weight loss collage would be any pictures that help motivate you when you see it. So for example, you might print out a copy of your prom photo from high school because you were super fit and it motivates you to lose the weight. You might find a particular quote online that really helps keep you motivated, or you might have a favorite celebrity that inspires you to lose weight.

You can put anything motivational in the collage, as long as it helps you want to keep losing weight. The point is to see it every day and feel motivated not to give up.

Social Media

If you are active on social media such as instagram, facebook, and pinterest then you should follow people that post about weight loss. That means you'll see it every time you login and you will be encouraged and motivated.

Try to follow people that are doing the same plan as you. If you are doing keto, or intermittent fasting, or weight watchers follow others that are doing those things as well. Reddit is a great website to find weight loss motivation as well.

Save Money

Often times when we lose weight, we end up saving money because we aren't eating as much. You could put the money you save each day into a jar and buy yourself something when you reach your goal.

For example, if you used to visit the vending machine for a snack in the afternoon, but you stopped doing that, place that change in the jar. If you are doing intermittent fasting 16/8 place all the money you would have spent on breakfast into the jar. 

By the end of your weight loss journey, you could buy yourself new clothes, help pay for a weekend getaway, or pay off a bill.

Dream Dress

We all have clothes we wish we could fit into. It may be a dress, it may be an old pair of jeans from college, it may be a bikini. I'm sure you have some clothes that you would be thrilled to be able to fit into again.

Take those clothes and hang them up in your room. Remember each day that this is a goal you are working towards: to be able to fit into those clothes.

I hope this article helps motivate you on your weight loss journey. I know it can be hard to keep going sometimes, but it's worth it in the end. Remember that you never fail until you give up. That holds true for many aspects of life. As long as you are trying, you are not failing.

That's why I believe staying motivated is the absolute most important factor in being successful at losing weight.

Why Processed Foods Make You Gain Weight

Processed foods are a part of just about everyone's diet. But they can completely ruin your weight loss efforts and cause weight gain. In this article I'm going to explain how processed foods make you gain weight and what you can do about it.

What Are Processed Foods?

Processed foods are foods that have been taken from nature and modified before being sold to the consumer. Think of things like donuts, cookies, crackers, candy. But processed foods can also hide and pretend to be healthy foods. Foods such as whole wheat bread and granola are processed. It can be confusing to tell what is healthy and what isn't these days.

How Does Processed Food Make You Gain Weight

A new study found that processed foods promoted weight gain among participants. The weight gain was caused by overeating. It appears that when a person eats more processed foods, they feel hungrier and are more likely to eat more than they should, resulting in weight gain.

I believe this happens because of the insulin spike that processed foods cause. Spikes in insulin cause an increased appetite throughout the day. If you are constantly spiking your insulin, then it will subsequently crash. These foods contain simple sugars which are digested more quickly than unprocessed foods. Most Americans are insulin resistant which makes this problem so much worse.

Unprocessed food generally doesn't cause those cravings because there is lots of healthy fiber and the sugar it contains is more natural.

Are All Processed Foods Bad?

Earlier I mentioned that any food that is modified from it's natural form is a processed food. While that is true, this study wasn't so strict on it's definition.

These weren't just your run of the mill processed foods. This study involved "ultra processed" foods. What they defined as ultra processed were foods that contained ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, and artificial flavors.

So this information does not apply to all processed foods; just foods that contain ingredients from that list.

How Can You Fix This?

After hearing this information, you may want to take a look at your diet and make some changes, especially if you have been having trouble with weight gain or are unable to lose weight.

Choosing Better Foods

You can start by eliminating foods that contain high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, artificial flavors, and emulsifiers. That's a decent start.

It is super hard to resist all those foods, and I understand that. There are some tricks you can do to help mitigate the effects of insulin resistance.

Intermittent Fasting

I talk about intermittent fasting quite a bit, because it really is the best weight loss method that I know of. It's better than any one diet when it comes to weight loss. A person can even eat a diet full of processed foods and still lose weight following this method, although I'm not encouraging anyone to have an unhealthy diet.

You can find out more about intermittent fasting and how to do it here.

Cinnamon

Adding cinnamon to your foods or using a cinnamon supplement is a great way to control blood sugar. If you have cinnamon with meals that contain processed foods, you will lower the blood sugar spike that typically follows a meal of that sort.

Apple Cider Vinegar

I have also mentioned apple cider vinegar before. It's one of the best natural remedies for increasing insulin sensitivity. I recommend make a drink out of it. Don't take apple cider vinegar by itself. It is damaging to tooth enamel. You can mix it in a drink with honey, lemon, and water.

I have a drink recipe for apple cider vinegar if you are interested.

Stay Active

Staying active can also help you combat insulin resistance. If you have a pedometer, make a personal goal to reach 10,000 steps per day. You can download a pedometer on your phone, and some phones come with them already installed. You can also buy an external pedometer that you clip onto your clothing.

A pedometer tracks how many steps you take. You can start it in the morning and track your steps for the whole day. Some will even tell you how many calories you have burned from your daily activity.

Organized exercise is another way of staying active. You should pick an activity that you love and do it 3 to 4 times per week. It could be taking the dog for a walk, or tennis, or yoga. You decide what you do. The whole point is to just have an active lifestyle instead of being sedentary.

So use these tips in case you still want to have some processed foods, but you also want to look good and lose weight.

How To Lose The Freshman 15

In this post, we are going to be talking about how you can lose the freshman 15. I've got tips and tricks and plenty of advice for those of you who are in college and need to lose weight.

What Is Freshman 15?

The Freshman 15 is a term used to refer to the weight gain people typically experience in their first year of college. Freshman is a first year student, and 15 means 15 pounds of weight gain.

The reality is, you can gain more or less than 15 lbs when going to college. I gained more like 23 lbs in my first year. I had a friend who gained 40 lbs and another friend who gained 50 lbs. So if you only gain 15, you are kind of lucky. It's frightening to think of how much weight a person can gain in such a short amount of time.

This extra weight gain can be depressing. Whether you are looking to prevent the weight gain, or get the weight off after you have already gained it, my tips will work for either situation.

What Causes The Freshman 15?

The cause of the freshman 15 is increased consumption. You are likely just as active as you were in high school. The only real difference when you are in college is more socializing. And with more socializing, there are more reasons to eat and drink and be merry.

You've got parties where there is alcohol. There are birthday parties and dorm parties, and holiday celebrations with cake. There are late night study groups with snacks. There are the cafeteria and fast food places on campus with lots of tempting food. The list goes on. When people get together, they love to eat together.

When you take in more calories than what you are burning, you start to gain weight. That's what causes you to gain that extra weight in college. You are finally away from Mom and Dad and can make your own rules. But what you'll find is that you typically make poor decisions, especially when it comes to your health and well being, and this leads to excess weight gain.

The last thing you want is to come home for Christmas holiday and let everyone see you with a big ole gut. And family will comment because they don't know how to be polite about those things.

Where To Start

This is a big job to handle, but you can do it. You can get the weight to stay off. Start by figuring out how many calories per day you should be eating.

Everyone needs a certain amount of calories per day. This is according to your age, height, weight, gender, and activity level. You can plug that information into this calculator to find out. The maintenance number is the amount of calories you burn every single day. Men usually burn more calories than women each day.

In order to lose weight, you will need to eat less than your maintenance number of calories. You will see beneath maintenance a fat loss number and an extreme fat loss number. You can pick one of those calorie goals and stick to it every day.

If you count your calories and eat only that amount of calories per day, you can lose up to 2 lbs per week.

As you lose weight, you calorie needs change, so go back to the calculator and plug in your new weight after you have lost some. Then see if the numbers change. If the number of calories got lower, then you will need to lower your intake even more in order to keep losing weight.

Sounds easy right? Not so fast.

Plateaus

The math of calories in/calories out should work theoretically. It should, but it doesn't always. Our bodies will sometimes adjust to this and you could stop losing weight completely, even though you are doing everything right. This is called a plateau. Don't give up. I've got some tips to help you even more than just counting calories.

Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting is my go-to weight loss tool. It works so well. You don't even have to save this for when you hit a plateau. You can start this immediately as soon as you want to lose weight and it will likely completely prevent a plateau from ever happening in the first place.

Intermittent fasting is when you eat all of your calories within a time limit. Have you ever heard of someone saying they never eat past 5 p.m.? Well that is a sort of intermittent fasting. It's very simple. You just eat during a specified window of time, and do not eat outside that window. You can drink only water outside of that time frame.

The most popular intermittent fasting schedule is 16/8. On this schedule a person would skip breakfast and stop eating earlier than usual. It would look something like this:

8 p.m. (stop eating) (only water)
8 pm.m to 12 p.m. noon (only water)
12 p.m. noon (have your first meal)
12 p.m. to 8 p.m. (continue eating your daily calories in the form of snacks and meals during this time)
8 p.m. (stop eating) (only water)
And repeat every day.

It's really not that difficult to do and it has many scientifically proven health benefits such as anti-aging, better immune function, decreased risk of cancer and other illnesses, etc.

This method of eating has helped many people lose weight and reduce the risk of hitting a plateau on a weight loss program. You are not starving yourself by any means. You are still eating the same amount of food. You are just changing the times when you eat the food. Your body functions much better on a schedule such as this.

During your fasting window, you can drink only water. There are ways to spruce up your water while fasting, so read this article and it will help you make your water taste more appealing.

What To Eat To Lose The Freshman 15

I've talked about how many calories you should eat to lose weight, but I didn't expand on what you should eat.

There are so many modes of eating. There is vegan, keto, paleo, carnivore, vegetarian, etc. In reality, a variety of diets work for a variety of people because our bodies are all made differently. What works for one may not work for another. I won't tell you how to eat. That is your decision.

But, I understand that in college you have some limitations. Especially when living in a dorm room, you are super limited in ways you can cook and what kinds of foods you can store. That's why I wrote an article with tips on healthy ways of eating in college. It will give you some tips for choosing healthier options and how to make the most of your limitations while in college. You should check it out if you are living on campus and struggling with the freshman 15.

Other Freshman 15 Weight Loss Tips

I have a few more tips for you so that you can lose weight in college.

Pedometer

Get yourself a pedometer, or use your phone's pedometer. Many smart phones have built in pedometers and there are apps you can use as well. You'll want to track your activity level and make sure that you are getting 10,000 steps per day. Most people only get about 5,000 steps in, so you will want to increase that number to make sure you are active.

For tips on how to increase your step count, read this article.

Gym

Your college has a nice gym. All colleges do. As a student, you get to use the college gym for free. Take advantage of that. There are cardio machines, free weights, weight machines, yoga classes, etc. Check out everything your gym has to offer you. Try to visit the gym about 4 days a week.

I'm not going to tell you what to do when exercising, because the truth is it doesn't matter. As long as you are active, you are doing your body good. It's even better if you are doing an activity that you love or enjoy. Make sure that your workouts are enjoyable. Make it a group activity with at least one friend. Then you will know that that friend is expecting you to go to the gym on certain days and you will feel obligated to go, even if you don't feel like going. This will motivate you.

I have very fond memories of going to yoga class each week with a friend and then having a nice cup of hot tea afterward. The feeling is incredible after yoga class. You are tired, yet buzzing with this satisfied feeling. We always knew that Wednesday was yoga day. It was just expected that that's what we were doing that evening.

Apple Cider Vinegar

Apple cider vinegar is a little weight loss secret. It helps lower insulin sensitivity and reduce your appetite. Taking 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar per day mixed in a glass of water will help you with weight loss.

I understand it stinks and it definitely doesn't taste great. You can add honey, lemon juice, and a number of things to help with the taste. You can also mix it with orange juice which will almost completely disguise the taste of the apple cider vinegar. Always use a straw when drinking apple cider vinegar.

Apple cider vinegar is found in the grocery area, next to the salad dressings because vinegar is often used as an ingredient in salad dressing.

Green Tea

Don't become a coffee drinker in college. Become a green tea drinker instead. Green tea is scientifically proven to boost your metabolism. That means it increases the number of calories you burn each day. Yeah, it helps with fat loss. Make sure you get a good quality green tea and sweeten it with zero calorie stevia.

With all of these tips in mind, you should have no problem losing the freshman 15 and keeping the weight off for good.

How To Eat Healthy In College

Eating healthy in college can be a challenge. Most of the time, all you have available is a microwave and whatever the cafeteria is serving. In this post, I will be giving you tips on how to eat healthy in college.

Smoothies

If you live in a dorm room, then your cooking options are limited. One healthy thing you can make is a smoothie. You can have a smoothie as a meal replacement for any meal. All you need is a blender and a small dorm fridge where you can keep the frozen fruit.

You can increase the fiber content of a smoothie by adding chia seeds or flax seeds to your smoothie. You can increase your protein by adding all natural peanut butter or protein powder mix.

My suggestion for a healthy smoothie is to not add any extra sugar. If you need your smoothie to be sweeter, try adding fruits that have more sweetness to them such as dates or pineapple. Do your best to have unsweetened coconut or almond milk, or just use water. Smoothies can quickly become an unhealthy meal by adding extra sugar in the form of milk or table sugar.

Microwavable Meals

Most dorms have a microwave, and eating microwavable meals can be a good thing. It can also be a bad thing. It depends on what you choose. There are healthier options out there. Just a tip: Usually the cheaper microwavable meals are also the most unhealthy ones. The more expensive microwavable meals tend to be healthier for you.

You can find microwavable frozen vegetables as well, which can help you out in a pinch. Try to stick to protein and veggies when eating microwavable meals and stay away from the processed pasta and breading.

In general, you would want to stay away from processed foods and most microwavable meals are highly processed. But this is college and you are quite limited. I do believe microwavable meals are okay as long as you stick to the guidelines I've put here and mostly include meat and veggies.

Fresh Fruit

Something that anyone can keep in their dorm, whether they have a fridge or not, is a bowl of fresh fruit. You can buy fruit at any grocery store and get yourself a bowl to place the fruit in. Fresh fruit is a healthy snack that you can keep around any time of the year. I suggest getting started on a fruit bowl if you don't already have one. It can help you with preventing cravings and provide you with healthy fiber to keep you full.

Healthy Snacks

Besides fresh fruit, you can keep around nuts as well. Peanuts are not as healthy as most other nuts. Almonds tend to be the most healthy nut to consume. My favorites are pistachios and cashews.

A plant protein shake is another healthy snack/meal. Plant protein shakes use all plant based ingredients and provide you with healthy protein to help build a healthy body. You don't even need any equipment to make a protein shake. You could simply buy a blender bottle which comes with a metal piece inside. Just fill the bottle with the ingredients and shake. It will blend it for you. Alternatively, you can mix it yourself by hand using a spoon.

Something I love to snack on is dried coconut. It provides plenty of healthy fats and fiber, plus it tastes good. At least, I believe it tastes good. There are also other dried fruits. Dried fruits do tend to have a lot of sugar if you eat too much, so watch your portions.

Trail mix is a nice little snack you can keep in the dorm. You can find some healthy trailmixes and some unhealthy ones. It just depends, so you need to look at the label. Hint: The ones with the chocolate morsels are not the healthy ones.

Cafe

Most students that live on campus will have a meal package that comes with their dorm expenses. This allows you to eat in the cafeteria a certain amount of times per semester.

Now, the cafeteria can be a trap because it's like an all-you-can-eat buffet. This is where most students pack on the freshman 15. Imagine each of your meals being spent at a buffet. Don't you think you'd gain a fair amount of weight doing that? Anyone would.

What you can do is limit yourself. You can either limit the amount of food you eat or the types of food you eat. Either one will help you stay at a healthy weight. Meat, fruits, and vegetables are generally the more healthy options, so try to go for those items. You can have a nice stir fry with salad as a meal.

Getting a to-go plate and deciding not to eat inside the cafe is a great way to keep yourself from going overboard on food.

Counting Calories

Counting your calories is a great way to make sure you aren't overeating. Overeating leads to weight gain. So use this calculator to figure out how many calories you should be eating each day. It will tell you how many calories your body needs in order to stay the same weight (maintain) or to lose weight, if you are interested in losing some.

With these tips, you should be able to eat healthy in college in order to prevent weight gain.

How To Get Rid Of Belly Fat

Getting rid of belly fat can be a challenge. In this post I will be giving pointers and tips for how to get rid of belly fat. This is based on personal experience and research. Hope you find it helpful.

Belly Fat Loss

When we are trying to burn fat, we often lose it in different areas according to our genetics. So someone might lose it all over equally. Someone else may lose in their face and arms first before anything else, etc.

Losing belly fat requires you to actually lose fat in general all over. You can't just burn it from your belly. So keep that in mind if you like your booty. Because you may lose fat from there too while attempting to lose your belly fat. You can always gain the weight back if you don't like how things look after you lose it.

Stress

Stress can contribute to excess belly fat due to stress hormones being released. Any kind of stress or anxiety can cause those stress hormones to be released. You should lower your stress. If you work at a stressful job, it may be time to switch jobs. If you can't switch jobs, then handling the stress better is the only way.

Meditating daily for at least 10 minutes can help you handle stress better. Checking out a guided meditation for stress is your best bet for getting into a daily meditation practice. Once you develop the habit, you will look forward to your daily meditations.

Yoga is another way to help you handle stress. Yoga teaches you to breathe through difficult to handle positions. This will translate to lowered stress in your day to day life. Seek out a beginner's yoga class near you or online.

Chamomile tea is also a good way to decrease stress. Chamomile tea is a mild sedative which can have an impact on how easily provoked we are. Hibiscus tea is another tea that helps you with stress. Be sure to drink 3 to 5 cups of tea per day.

Green Tea

Green tea decreases belly fat when paired with exercise. If you exercise, try adding green tea. Matcha green tea is the most potent green tea that has the most antioxidants. Green tea is a well known weight loss aid and has been proven in many studies to help people achieve their weight loss goals.

Green tea increases your metabolism and helps you burn excess fat. It especially targets the belly fat and helps you burn it for fuel.

Exercise

If you aren't exercising, you should try to add exercise. If you want to get rid of belly fat, there are a couple of exercises you can do to help you achieve this goal.

Resistance Training

Increasing your strength and muscle mass through resistance training is a great way to burn belly fat. Any body weight exercises will count as resistance training. That includes push-ups, squats, and lunges.

And yes working out other parts of the body (other than just the belly) will help you lose belly fat. This is because these exercises will raise your metabolism which will cause you to burn fat. When you burn fat, belly fat is included in that fat. So don't only focus on exercises that target your belly. Workout the entire body when you are doing resistance training. Doing so will help you have a fit and toned body to match your flat stomach.

Planks are a great exercise to tighten the entire core. Be sure to include planks in your total body workout.

Cut Out Processed Foods

One sure fire way of getting rid of belly fat is cutting out processed foods and switching to a whole foods diet.

Whole foods are foods that are as close to nature as possible, so they have had very little if any processing. They are mostly fresh, frozen, or dried foods. They don't have artificial preservatives or sugar added to them. They are natural foods.

Some examples of processed foods are: Doritos, Oreos, sliced bread, crackers, ice cream, etc.

Some examples of whole foods are: Bananas, chicken breast, frozen fruit, carrots, cashews.

The goal is to try to buy foods that have as little ingredients as possible. Ideally, you will want to buy foods that have 2 ingredients or less and you should be able to pronounce and know what all those ingredients are.

If there are any ingredients on the list that you do not know, it's probably processed. If the item is in a package, it's probably processed. If it has added sugar, it's definitely processed.

I hope these tips help those of you who are looking to get rid of belly fat. Thank you for reading.