How to Get Rid of Lower Belly Fat Fast
For some people, losing weight is the ultimate goal. It can be easy for some, but not so easy for others.
And the worst thing about losing weight is that you can't spot reduce, no matter how hard you try. This can be especially frustrating for someone who has lost weight but those stubborn last pounds refuse to budge.
Are you one of those people who has the dreaded pooch? Struggling with lower belly fat that just won't go away?
While females tend to struggle more than males, both sexes can understand wanting to get rid of lower belly fat.
In this area, it can be especially hard to lose fat. That's because of the type of fat in the abdominal area. While subcutaneous fat is the type you can see and feel on the body, visceral fat is deep inside.
It is mainly in the stomach, living deep inside the organs.
What does visceral fat do?
Too much visceral fat is a bad thing, causing health issues including:
- Insulin resistance
- Hormone imbalance
- Increased LDL (bad) cholesterol
- Decreased HDL (good) cholesterol
- Cardiovascular disease
If you want to learn more about visceral fat, make sure you check out our article here.
For many in the Golden Era of bodybuilding, lower belly fat wasn't a huge issue. This is mainly due to their heavy workouts and also because of the lack of processed foods that are so prevalent today.
Golden Era greats were eating vegetables, potatoes, dairy, and meat and not sugar or empty calorie foods. They were eating to fuel their workouts and physiques, and it showed.
Today, we're going to offer some tips and tricks that you might not have tried to do just that. First, we'll start out with diet tips for you to implement.
Then, we'll talk about the best exercises to help get that stubborn lower belly pooch gone.
Diet Tips to Get Rid of Lower Belly Fat
Some people want to get rid of the belly with diet alone. And to an extent, you can. Male or female, here is how you can get rid of belly fat without exercise.
If you haven't met your overall weight loss goals, these tips will definitely help. Here are our tips on how to get rid of belly fat by changing your diet.
1. Track Your Food Intake
If you aren't already tracking your food, you should definitely start doing that now. Tracking your food will do many things:
- Keep you accountable
- Show you what you're actually eating
- Help determine your macros
- See what you can remove from your diet
- See what you're missing from your diet
You can write everything out if you want, but there are apps out there now to make life easier. You can use something like myfitnesspal to track your food.
We also have a guide on how to calculate your macros if you want a more hands-on approach.
If you want to lose that stubborn lower belly fat, you'll need to track your food to get the best results.
2. Say No to Added Sugar
This can be harder for some more than others. The reality is, sugar addiction is real and it affects many people.
If you have a hard time saying no to added sugar or sugar-sweetened drinks, this will be harder than others.
The types of sugars you're ingesting matter as well. Fructose is commonly added to drinks and foods. This also includes high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which is another common ingredient to look out for.
If you drink certain sports drinks, like Gatorade, it includes HFCS. These hidden sugars not only contribute to a growing waistline, but it's also a large driver for type 2 diabetes.
In this study review, 6,671 men and women were assessed from an Epidemiology of Obesity study in the Netherlands.
For both males and females, there was a correlation with less belly fat and visceral liver fat. In those participants, they ate fewer sweets and more fruits and vegetables.
The World Health Organization encourages less than 5% of total calories to be added sugar. If you want to build the best health possible though, try to reduce that even lower.
3. Eat More Fat
"Wait a second! I'm here to lose weight and you're telling me to eat MORE fat?" Yes, we sure are!
Contrary to popular belief, eating fat doesn't make you fat. Eating crappy junk food and not exercising regularly makes you fat.
The key to eating more fat is eating the right types of fat:
- Trans fat: Should be avoided completely or as much as possible. This is baked goods, fried foods, cookies, some crackers, margarine.
- Saturated fat: Should be very limited, can increase bad cholesterol. This is full-fat dairy, lard, shortening, palm oil.
- Unsaturated fats: What you need more of. This includes avocado, seeds, nuts, seed oil, nut oil, fish.
Men, if you are trying to get rid of your belly fat, you need to make sure you're getting enough fish oil. It will increase your testosterone levels if you get enough fish oil.
Which will help you lose weight and build muscle more easily, among other things.
4. Eat More Protein
This tip is one of the secret weapons that will help you lose weight and keep it off for good.
Your body actually burns more calories digesting protein than it does carbs or fat.
This study followed a large number of Danish men and women over a 5-year period. They found that above all other macronutrients, protein consumption had the greatest impact on waist circumference.
You can also count on a higher protein diet to keep your weight managed in the long-term. It not only helps with weight loss but also with keeping your appetite at bay.
According to the study, plan to get between 25 – 30 grams of protein per meal.
What are good sources of protein? Here are a few suggestions:
- Pumpkin seeds
- Eggs
- Cottage cheese
- Lentils
- Quinoa
- Tempeh
- Chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
- Almonds
- Chicken
- Hemp and chia seeds
Vintage Brawn™ includes 24g of protein in each serving, to help you get the protein you need to build muscle. It doesn't include any sugar or calories and gives you a complete amino acid profile in just one scoop.
You can also count on fiber to help keep your appetite in check, which we'll talk about right now.
5. Eat More Fiber
As with fat, it's not just any fiber that is beneficial, but certain types of fiber. For best results, you want to eat viscous, soluble fiber over insoluble fiber.
When you eat the right type of fiber, it binds with all the water you're drinking – more on that later – to create a gel. This helps you to feel fuller longer and helps slow down the digesting process.
This also helps you absorb more of the macronutrients in your food.
Viscous, soluble fiber can also help:
- Improve glycemic control in type 2 diabetics
- Lower cholesterol
- Decrease constipation and/or diarrhea
- Improve blood pressure
- Improve heart health
In this 5-year study, over 1,000 people were followed and tests are done to measure abdominal fat accumulation. In the end, it was determined that each 10% increase of soluble fiber decreased stomach fat by 3.7%.
Here are some foods that are high in soluble fiber:
- Black beans
- Oats
- Lentils
- Flaxseeds
- Brussels sprouts
- Avocados
- Sweet potatoes
- Pears
- Figs
- Apricots
- Carrots
6. Eat Fewer Carbs
If you're trying to lose weight and get rid of lower belly fat, you should also be eating fewer carbs. This shouldn't be too much of a problem if you are implementing the other tips for a diet change.
We don't want you to eliminate carbs entirely. After all, a lot of fruits and vegetables include carbs. As with the other categories, the types of carbs you eat matter.
You want to get rid of the simple carbs in your diet: white flour, bread, pasta, cookies. Eat more whole grains, legumes, starchy vegetables instead.
If you're looking for rapid weight loss, you might want to check out the keto diet. This low-carb diet isn't sustainable, but it can jumpstart your weight loss journey and help get rid of lower belly fat.
Eating a low-carb diet has been effective for weight loss in both type 2 and non-diabetics. It even has the added benefit of targeting abdominal fat over a low-fat diet.
7. Drink More Water
Some people drink plenty of water, while others forget about drinking enough throughout the day.
By drinking 500ml (16.9 oz) of water prior to a meal, it can speed up weight loss faster than diet alone. This study confirms that drinking 1.5 liters per day (500ml before three meals) increases energy expenditure by 30%.
That means extra calories burned by doing nothing more than increasing your water intake.
The results of this study were pretty surprising. It followed 173 premenopausal overweight women. This group can find it challenging to lose weight, especially stubborn belly fat.
Those who increased water consumption to a liter or more showed marked improvement, even without diet change.
8. Limit or Eliminate Alcohol Consumption
This might not be surprising, but regular alcohol consumption can also be a reason you can't get rid of lower belly fat. Depending on the type of alcohol you drink, you're adding large amounts of sugar and calories you don't need.
It can also be part of the reason you have man boobs. Let's put the calories and sugar into perspective:
- A bottle of white wine = 8 teaspoons of sugar and 564 calories
- A shot of spirits with soda = 4 teaspoons of sugar and 163 calories
- A pint of beer = 1 teaspoon of sugar and 91 calories
Depending on how much you drink, it can really add up. The more you drink, the worse the food choices you make as well. You don't want to work hard all week just to blow your hard work on one evening out.
Most likely, you'll regret it in the morning.
Also, consider some stats provided by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) from 2007 – 2010 (most recent survey):
- Almost 20% of men consume over 300 calories in alcohol on any given day, 6% for women
- Men and women aged 20 – 39 had the highest alcohol intake (average of 174 calories per day)
- Men mostly get their calories from beer, while women are almost identical in beer and liquor, followed closely by wine
If you can't go without drinks when socializing, limit your intake. Choose a spirit low in calories and sugar (tequila, gin, vodka), and choose club soda or seltzer water to mix.
Fitness Tips to Get Rid of Lower Belly Fat
Now that we've gone over diet tips that can help to get rid of lower belly fat, let's look at exercise tips. Whether you're male or female, we can't tell you how to get rid of lower belly fat in a week.
Unfortunately, you won't see results that quickly, and if you do, it may have been bloat or water retention. However, if you take these fitness tips along with the diet tips above, you should be able to over time.
Whenever you need workout inspiration or exercise ideas, make sure to check out our library. We've got a great list for you, most of them divided up by muscle group, for ease of use.
9. Do More Cardio
Wherever you are in your fitness journey, you can probably stand to add in more cardio to your routine. Many bodybuilders get so focused on strength training that they forget about this important fitness tip.
For optimal health, you should be getting 150 – 300 minutes per week of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise. That's two and a half to five hours each week.
The American College of Sports Medicine believes that for weight loss, a minimum of 250 minutes is needed for results.
Not only does regular cardio exercise provide many health benefits, but it can also get rid of visceral fat. According to meta-analyses on various studies and articles, cardio and strength training provide similar results.
In this study, results showed that aerobic exercise was superior to strength exercise in reducing visceral fat. Liver fat and overall fat reduction were also higher in the cardio vs strength training groups.
It's also not just cardio for the sake of cardio, but the types of cardio you choose to do. Consider changing up your cardio routine to include aerobic exercise and high-intensity interval training.
HIIT has been shown to speed up body fat reduction better than steady-state cardio alone.
So, if your goal is to lose lower belly fat, consider increasing your cardio and reducing strength training. Once you've hit your goal, you can make adjustments as needed.
10. Build Your Core
This is another sometimes forgotten area that people miss in their fitness journey. Improving strength and core development is not just for getting rid of lower belly fat, but your overall health.
Many of us take for granted that our bodies react appropriately in times of interference. If you happen to knock shoulders with someone, you will likely stay upright.
Unless you don't have good core stability, which in that case could cause you to complete the rotation and fall.
If you need to work on your core, then here are some great exercises from the American Council for Exercise (ACE).
These are called anti-rotation exercises, which keep your torso and spine stabile while strengthening your core.
Add these exercises to your cardio routine for at least a few months to get the best results. Once that lower belly fat leaves, you'll be left with a solid platform to build up your abs!
11. Don't Forget About Strength Training
Now, we don't want you to forego strength training completely. After all, increasing muscle mass does burn more calories.
Plus, you want to maintain what muscle you do have and not lose it during the weight loss process.
Just like you can't spot reduce fat, you can't tell your body when to burn fat and when to burn muscle. Wouldn't it be great if we could? We would all have the perfect body in no time.
One of the great things about strength training is that it helps you burn fat even after you're done exercising.
Lifting weights is considered anaerobic exercise and increases the excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). This afterburn effect can help in both HIIT and strength training by burning more calories with less work.
Aim to get two to three days of strength training in. Alternate with your HIIT days and make sure you get at least one full rest day to recover and recharge.
12. Work Out in the Morning
Do you wonder if there is any benefit to working out at a certain time of day? It turns out, you might get rid of lower belly fat faster if you work out in the morning.
Getting your work out first thing before you eat a meal can increase calories burned by fat. There are also other benefits:
- Improved glucose tolerance
- Being more alert and awake during the day
- The ability to focus better
- Improved glycemic control and insulin sensitivity (especially important for diabetics)
- Increased metabolism
You can also get your workout in early to free up your afternoons and/or evenings. Starting your day early can also help you get more things accomplished throughout the day.
Final Thoughts
When it comes to how to get rid of lower belly fat, there is no fast way to do it. It took you months or years to get here, it's going to take at least a few months to undo.
We hope these tips gave you a solid foundation to start your lower belly fat reduction journey. Make sure to check out our library of workouts (linked above) and articles on nutrition to help you along the way.
The good news is, everyone has to start somewhere, so right here and now is a good place to start. Set goals, stay motivated, and get a partner if needed to keep you accountable.
Are you struggling with how to get rid of lower belly fat? Do you have any tips or tricks to add? Let us know what worked (and what didn't) in the comments below!
Disclaimer: None of the individuals and/or companies mentioned necessarily endorse Old School Labs or COSIDLA Inc. products or the contents of this article. Any programs provided for illustration purposes only. Always consult with your personal trainer, nutritionist and physician before changing or starting any new exercise, nutrition, or supplementation program.
How to Get Rid of Lower Belly Fat Fast
Source: https://www.oldschoollabs.com/how-to-get-rid-of-lower-belly-fat/