There are many ways to quickly lose stubborn belly fat. And many of those ways are very effective, natural and simple. However, there are many recommendations for losing belly fat and body weight that are absolutely ridiculous. These recommendations can not only cause you to not get results, but can also cause you to end up with side effects and yo-yo weight loss too! I have listed for you below the 6 WORST ways that I have come across as “recommended ways to lose fat from your stomach”. Dude, I highly recommend you avoid doing these things and stick with the healthier alternatives that I’ll talk about below.
1. Do abdominal exercises…
Now you may be thinking to yourself “what the hell is wrong with doing abdominal exercises”? I am right? Well, there is nothing wrong with doing abdominal exercises. The problem is what abdominal exercises are intended to be. They are being pitched as a method to burn belly fat! This is not true! Abdominal exercises do NOT remove fat from your stomach. They only strengthen the core muscles and tone the abs. If you have fat above your abdominal muscles, these exercises will not remove it.
2. Take diet pills…
“Take these magic pills and flatten your stomach in a month!” That sounds great, doesn’t it? Well, unfortunately, this is not going to happen. Diet pills are highly ineffective and very dangerous, I might add. All most of these pills do is shed your water weight (slightly). They come with tons of side effects, are overpriced, and are very ineffective.
3. Caloric restriction…
You would think that a low calorie diet would be the perfect diet to lose belly fat… but this is further from the truth. Reducing calories lowers your metabolism. A reduced metabolism means that your body will stop burning fat at a high rate. When this happens, your belly (and the rest of your body) WILL KEEP fat!
4. Restrict carbs…
This is a big one! The direct connection between carbs and belly fat is pretty straightforward…to say the least. And this is where most people turn when trying to burn belly fat. And you know what? There is nothing wrong in it. Except for one problem: Most of these low carb diets want you to restrict ALL carbs…and that’s asking for trouble! Your body needs good carbohydrates (such as fiber) to keep your digestive system active and healthy. Otherwise, you’ll end up bloated, have stomach problems, and much more.
On the other hand, of course, you should seriously decrease your intake of bad carbs (flooding sugar and white flour) to flatten your belly, and you shouldn’t eat too many good carbs to avoid seriously bloating.
5. Starving…
This is similar to restricting calories… but obviously on a much larger scale. Doing this will basically slow your metabolism to a crawl. This will also put you at risk of developing serious diseases.
6. Focus on losing a lot of weight as quickly as possible…
This will only cause you to end up with loose skin. This will also cause you to have other side effects (such as a slower metabolism and digestive problems).
What I recommend you do instead:
A.) Instead of ab exercises specifically to lose belly fat, do high-intensity interval cardio and weight-training exercises. High intensity workouts burn fat (not muscle) and building muscle burns a lot (especially stubborn fat).
B.) Instead of taking diet pills, take healthy supplements. Some supplements that will help with fat loss are green tea extract, chromium, CLA, and fish oil. Consult your doctor before taking any supplement.
C.) Instead of restricting calories, follow a diet that has you eating the right amount of calories spread throughout the day in small meals. This will fire up your metabolism.
D.) Instead of restricting carbohydrates, I recommend that you eat the proper amount of good carbohydrates that your body needs.
E.) Instead of starving yourself, well, don’t!
F.) And instead of focusing on losing a lot of weight as quickly as possible, focus more on dieting and exercising that burns body fat (like a metabolism-boosting diet and the exercises I mentioned above).