The online workout platform Studio C regularly receives questions such as 'I have already lost 8 kilos since I trained with you, but I can't get rid of the last edge of belly fat, what can I do?', 'I am starting to develop belly fat, how do I get off?'. These questions are on the mind of many women. It is therefore time to look at that from a training point of view, among other things. You will not get there with training alone. Read here how to get rid of your belly fat.
Whether you naturally have an apple figure, or a pear figure, belly fat is created because you get more energy from food than you burn. That excess energy is stored as body fat. With an apple figure this will be directly around the abdominal area. With a pear figure, it is first stored in other places and then around the abdomen.
Belly fat has often been studied by science. All studies show that too much belly fat is bad for your health. The risk of dying from cardiovascular disease is higher. In addition, hormones are produced by belly fat that also have all kinds of negative effects on your body. So there is every reason to do something about it.
Your diet is the most important thing to lose belly fat. When it comes to nutrition, it's not just about how much you eat, but also about which nutrients you get. If you eat with a calorie deficit, and this food consists of unhealthy food and the wrong ratio of fats, proteins and carbohydrates, you may still not lose weight.
The wrong diet throws all kinds of processes in your body out of balance, including your hormone balance. Hormones control many processes in your body. If your hormones are not in balance, you will gain weight even more easily and it will be more difficult to lose weight.
That hormone imbalance is mainly driven by eating too many carbohydrates in our Western diet. In addition, most packaged products contain a lot of chemical substances. Our vegetables are sprayed and the meat is stuffed with hormones. All this added together ensures that the body of many women (and also men) is not in balance.
So, eat as pure as possible and reduce the amount of carbohydrates you get. At least if you eat like the average Dutch person does. That often means cereal or bread/crackers for breakfast. Bread at lunch. Rice, pasta or potatoes for dinner. And as a snack a biscuit, a slice of gingerbread or fruit. That means an enormous overload of carbohydrates and often a large shortage of healthy fats (nuts, seeds, avocados, fish oil, extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil) and proteins.
If you recognize yourself in a diet like this, then it is really necessary to adjust it. Try not to eat products such as bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, breakfast cereals with 1 or 2 meals. Think, for example, of a salad with chicken (preferably organic), sunflower seeds and avocado. Or eat a piece of salmon with roasted vegetables from the oven in the evening. In addition, limit your eating moments to a maximum of 5 per day and have a handful of nuts instead of a biscuit as a snack.
When you are under stress, the hormone cortisol is produced. Cortisol's function is to supply your body with new energy. If you're stressed every now and then, that's okay. However, if you experience stress throughout the day, your body needs fast energy throughout the day, so you can eat unhealthy things faster that contain a lot of sugar.
There are more cortisol receptors in your abdomen, making the abdominal area more sensitive to the effects of cortisol. To prevent this, it is important that you lower your stress level. It is not always possible to change external factors. What you can change is how you handle situations. So mindset. In addition, it helps if you regularly do breathing exercises, meditate, walk in nature. Activities that lower your stress levels.
First of all, moving always better than not moving. So move as much as possible. In addition, it is important to regularly perform very intensive exercise and to make your muscles stronger.
Many women think that the longer a sports session lasts, the better. After all, you burn more calories. However, this is not true. Long training has adverse effects. Why?
Here too, the hormone balance comes into play. When you start training, your testosterone level rises. Testosterone ensures muscle growth. However, after 45 minutes the testosterone drops and your body starts producing cortisol. As you have read in point 2, cortisol has all kinds of negative effects on your body. In addition, cortisol breaks down muscle tissue for energy. And that's exactly what we don't want.
So it will be short (no longer than 45 minutes) and intensive training. This applies to cardio training as for strength training. So you no longer have to spend hours on the crosstrainer to stand. A 15 or 30 minute HIIT workout is much better for your body. When it comes to strength training, it is important that you target the large muscle groups (legs, back, chest) and use compound exercises in that short time. These are compound exercises in which you use multiple muscle groups in one exercise. Make sure that both your high-intensity training and your strength training everything gives in that short time. This way you start all kinds of processes in your body so that you burn belly fat quickly and lose weight faster.
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Source:Studio C Online, Image:Getty Images
