Many people want to burn belly fat quickly because they simply don't like it. However, the aesthetic aspect should not be the only reason to lose that belly fat. Because excess weight, and especially belly fat, is very unhealthy. We must make a distinction between two types of belly fat: the fat on the surface and the fat that is located deeper, around your organs.
Subcutaneous abdominal fat
The surface fat or subcutaneous fat is especially unhealthy if your BMI is too high. After all, then you are overweight or obese and you have a higher risk of metabolic disorders such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. You can recognize it by a large abdominal circumference and a lot of soft and mobile subcutaneous fat that you can grasp with your fingers.
Visceral belly fat
The fat around your organs, also called visceral fat tissue, is an even higher risk factor for your health, according to science! You can mainly recognize this by a rounded, swollen abdomen that feels hard. The abdomen feels hard because your abdominal muscles and your entire abdominal cavity are completely inflated like a balloon. But underneath there is a large amount of fat.
How do you lose belly fat?
All kinds of stories are told to lose belly fat. That is why we want to give you insight into how fat burning works on your abdomen and the importance of specific nutrition, (abdominal muscle) exercises and your hormones.
Burn belly fat with special nutrition
On the internet you can find all kinds of foods that would help you lose belly fat. A spoonful of apple cider vinegar every day, for example, or eat extra red fruit. Leafy vegetables and green tea are also common remedies that supposedly specifically burn belly fat.
But how useful are those kinds of lists? Unfortunately: not very sensible.
Yes, there are products that slightly stimulate your fat burning. However, they usually have a minimal effect – your fat burning is not a machine that you can suddenly turn on twice as hard with the right fuel.
Burn belly fat quickly with exercises
There is still the idea that you can burn belly fat by doing more abdominal exercises. Unfortunately, this strategy is very inefficient.
Just because you activate your abdominal muscles does not mean that your body also thinks: “now we have to remove fat from the abdomen”. Your metabolism works as one whole. So when you exercise your abdominal muscles, the energy for this is taken from all the fat reserves in your body. And because your abdominal muscles do not use that much energy, the result is usually quite limited.
To lose belly fat, it is better not to focus too much on your belly. You will have to create a general energy deficit, which means you have to get energy from your body fat and therefore also from the reserves on your stomach. That is why it is much more efficient to cycle for an hour or do strength exercises. After all, you need a general energy deficit in your body.
Burn belly fat and cortisol
But, you might say, if it always concerns the entire body, what about people who only have too much fat on their stomach? If all fat reserves have been proportionately removed, why are their limbs so much slimmer than their bellies?
The reason for this is that your body can indeed prefer certain storage locations. These are just not determined by where you activate your muscles, or by what you eat. Your hormones play a much more important role in this.
Misty Jhones