Nobody like to have fat belly. If you’re looking effective way to reduce your belly fat, make sure to read this until the end!
In this technological and advanced era, more and more people are experiencing a distended stomach while everything is instant with the help of technology.
A lot have difficulty finding ways to shrink their distended stomachs that interfere with their appearance.
In fact, stomach is very easy to stretch. This is because the stomach is one part of the body that has high elasticity and is most easily fatty.
The fat belly is not always experienced by people who are obese or overweight. Even skinny people can have this fat belly.
In addition to dealing with appearance, a distended abdomen will create many health problems peering.
Several studies have shown that people with stroke, diabetes, and heart attacks are mostly caused by belly that is already severe.
Causes of Fat Belly
The causes of fat belly are sometimes the thing that we do consciously. Maintaining an ideal body shape is certainly not an easy matter. Maintaining a healthy and orderly lifestyle requires high dedication.
Here are the common causes of distended stomach.
1. Eat Before Bed
Do you always feel hungry before sleeping or can’t sleep in a hungry state?
Actually, the body does naturally burn some fats during sleep. However, if you sleep on a full stomach then the body will not burn efficiently. This will further increase the fats in the stomach.
Not just eating before bedtime, even lying down when the stomach is full can cause a risk of stomach acid reflux and indigestion. This actually happens because of changes in gravity, so the body is unable to pull food in the stomach downward.
Therefore, avoid to eat before going to sleep.
2. Snacking Frequently
Although it sounds trivial, but the frequency of snacking also contributes to make the stomach distended. Avoid snacks that contain lots of artificial sweeteners and excessive food flavorings.
Snacks contain many artificial sweeteners and chemical food flavorings that will not be digested properly by our digestive system. This will certainly cause intestinal disorders.
3. Lack of Exercise
If you rarely exercise, the fat in your stomach will pill up so that the fat and calorie burning that occurs there is very minimal. Especially if you just sit, eat, do activities in front of a computer, laptop, or other gadget the whole day. This will certainly make your fat belly bigger.
4. Alcohol
Consuming excessive alcohol is one of the triggers of fat belly. Alcoholic drinks are not just for drinking, but also cause various other health problems besides a distended stomach.
Alcohol contains excessive amounts of sugar and calories or is excessive for the body’s needs. Excess sugar and calories have absolutely no benefit for the body. It also can open a gap for many diseases to enter the body. If you have already become an alcoholic, you should start reducing this habit before your it is too late.
5. Lack of Sleep
Ideally, we should get 7 to 8 hours of sleep every night. When you sleep less than that, the level of cortisol (stress hormone) will increase and cause you to eat foods with excess sugar levels to replace energy that is not obtained due to lack of sleep.
By getting enough sleep and quality every night, you can balance cortisol levels while increasing leptin production (a hormone that can make you control your appetite).
If you’re having trouble to fall asleep or insomnia at night, check out our post about: 10 Tricks to Fall Asleep Easier If You Can’t Sleep
6. Smoking
Smoking can indeed help to reduce weight, but it can also cause a fat belly.
In fact, the study revealed that instead of being thin, a distended stomach is obtained through smoking. Scientists from the University of Glasgow found that smoking might be related to weight loss, but it actually pushed fat into the core areas of the body causing the stomach to get bigger.
How to Reduce Fat Belly
After we find out what are the causes of a distended stomach, it is time to see how to shrink a distended stomach. Here are some ways to reduce belly fat naturally:
1. Fat Burning Exercise
Cardio
Cardio is a type of exercise that involves almost all members of the body such as running, cycling, and swimming. By doing cardio, the muscles in our body work starting from the calf muscles, thigh muscles, back muscles, abdominal muscles, arms and shoulders.
Sit-ups and push-ups
To reduce fat belly, you must do sit ups and push ups regularly to get the maximum result. Do 10 sit-ups and 10 push-ups everyday and increase the intensity of exercise each day.
This will help you shrink the stomach belly in a short time as it can eliminate fat in the stomach. In addition, doing these exercise can also be useful to control appetite because it can cause the effect of being full.
2. Never Eat Before Bed Time
As explained earlier, avoid to eat before your bed time. It takes 2 hours for food to be processed in your stomach. The absence of activity before going to sleep will only make the incoming calories are converted into fat instead of energy.
Avoid lying down immediately after eating. If it is in a state of hunger before going to sleep, eat fruits which of course are more healthy.
To trick yourself to stop being hungry, you can check out our post: How to Trick Yourself to Stop Being Hungry
3. Yoga
Yoga is a sport that focuses on strength, flexibility and breathing. Research proves yoga is very helpful in removing excess gas in the stomach, thereby launching digestion and eliminating folds in the stomach.
Train and harmonize the body and mind so that they are more relaxed and will stimulate the body to release hormones that can help the process of burning fat effectively in the body.
Start practicing yoga for 10-20 minutes every day so that the body can carry out the metabolic system to its full potential.
4. Green Tea
Green tea is famous for its many benefits. The studies shows that green tea is an effective way to lose weight and shrink the stomach.
To get the maximum benefit, drink green tea regularly before you eat. And make sure you also drink it without sugar. By drinking it before eating, it will automatically make your stomach feel fuller while eating, and of course reduce your portion of food.
Then, green tea is able to facilitate the body’s metabolism, including fat metabolism, so that it will help eliminate fat in the body. In addition, green tea is rich in anti-oxidants which are useful for preventing cancer and reducing levels of bad LDL cholesterol in the body.
5. Increase consumption of vegetables and fruits
Vegetables and fruits are low-fat foods with little calorie content and high in fiber. This high content and content will help to bind water so that digestion can take place better in order to dissolve fat.
A study says that consuming 14 grams of fiber every day can reduce calorie intake by 10 percent and reduce 4 percent fat in the stomach.
6. Lime Tea
Not only do you have to use green tea, you can also use regular tea mixed with lime juice. Simply prepare a bag of tea or you can also use 3 teaspoons and 1 lime, and a glass of hot water. Brew the tea and mix the lime juice into it. Eat regularly.
7. Honey & Ginger
Honey is known to have many properties to prevent and treat several diseases. It can also be used to shrink a distended stomach.
Honey contains substances that will burn body fat indirectly, namely fructose. As for ginger, naturally it can suppress appetite, so you can reduce your food intake easily because you feel less hungry.
To make it, mix 3 tablespoons of honey and 2 tablespoons of ginger juice into a glass and brewed with hot water. Drink 2 times a day.
8. Limiting foods with high sugar levels
There are two types of sugar that can be found in food which are glucose and fructose.
Fructose can only be metabolized in the liver in certain doses.
If you eat foods and drinks with high sugar levels, your heart will not be able to metabolize all fructose and will only convert it into fat that accumulates in the stomach.
Bottom Line
Besides all the ways to reduce fat belly above, the most important thing that make it happen is commitment from yourself. Do it consistently and we believe that you’ll see the result soon!