One of the most important areas for a lot of people on their health and fitness journey, is their belly. So it’s no surprise it’s one of the most common questions I get asked about is how to lose fat from that body part. A lot of us look for specific exercises and special diets to help reduce fat. There are a few points we need to be aware of that we will get into.
So can we target this area?
Unfortunately, as much as we want to believe we can not lose body fat from the belly in isolation. What we can do is lose weight in general. Which will reduce body fat all over our body at different rates. How we do this comes down to calorie balance. We need to cut our overall calorie intake. Which will then trigger weight loss.
So when we look for certain diets for weight loss. Yes, they all achieve the same thing, by cutting total calorie intake even if we are not aware that is what’s going on. It all comes down to if you’re able to stick to the diet, which is often connected to if you’re eating in a way that you enjoy.
So, what about exercise?
On the exercise side of the equation, we look for exercises that target that area. But they won’t help you lose body fat from that area. The common one looking for specific exercises that target the stomach, or back of the arms. Not to say, it won’t provide some benefits. As it will strengthen the muscles groups, which will become noticeable to the eye when the weight drops off, where there will be a “toned” appearance.
My recommendation on the exercise side of things. Is to focus more on how much you move throughout the day and week. Because daily movement contributes around 15 to 20% of calories burned in a day. Whereas many people put all their attention on workouts that will typically range from 20 to 60 minutes. Makeup to 10% of calories burned in a day. Now am I saying don’t bother doing planned exercise? Not at all, but what I am saying is to put all our eggs in one basket and expect it to be the solution. Because we also need to consider we generally spend less time on it, as we may go to the gym or do home workouts a few times a week.
Moving more to lose fat
In comparison to workouts. We can spend more of our time each day walking more or increasing daily movement. For example, we could spend a few hours on our feet moving around on a single day. Whereas we can’t workout for hours on end in a day because we typically put more physical effort into it. Whereas walking, we are not using as much energy during the activity. Most of us can walk around and a lot of us could do with walking more.
Another important point to be aware of is. Although people will normally try to eat “healthier” by generally eating more healthier foods and cut out certain food groups. You need to be aware certain “healthy” foods can be high in calories, what I mean by that is just because it’s “healthy” doesn’t automatically mean you will lose body fat. For example, avocado, nuts, nut butter, seeds, smoothies, dried fruit, olive oil and coconut oil.
