What is belly fat?
Why belly fat is bad for your health
- type 2 diabetes
- heart disease
- cancer
- high blood pressure
- inflammation
- cardiovascular diseases etc.
How long does it take to lose belly fat?
The time it takes to lose belly fat is determined by three factors, the amount of fat you already accumulated, the amount of calories intake, and the level of physical activities you do.
It is impossible to lose fat from a specific part of your body, so the best way to lose your belly fat would be to lose the extra body fat you are carrying.
According to the research, you need to burn about 3,500 calories to lose 1 pound. This is because 3,500 calories equal about 1 pound of fat.
For healthy fat loss, it is recommended to lose 1 pound of fat per week, this means you will need to burn 500 calories per day.
At this rate you can eliminate 2 pounds of fat in the first two weeks, at this stage you should be able to see some results.
Losing 4 pounds of fats per month is equivalent to losing 24 pounds in 6 months, for some people that is enough to have a flat belly.
So I would say that if you have belly fat and your overweight, it may take you 6 to 12 months to lose the belly fat, and if you’re obese it might take you between 15 and 24 months to get rid of belly fat, this if you’re consistent with your diet and physical activities.
How to create a calorie deficiency
As I stated above, the plan is to create a deficiency of 500 calories per day, in order to lose 1 pound of fat per week, but how do you do that? I am going to explain below.
What are the calories?
Before we go on let us define what are calories, in simple words calories are units of energy from food.
The more energy you use, the more calories you burn. Unused calories are stored as fat. You can burn fat stores by taking in fewer calories and using more energy.
How do you reduce the number of calories you eat?
For me it was easy, I used to drink 2 bottles of Cocacola per day ( one during lunch and another during dinner), the 500 ml bottle of Coke contains about 200 calories, to removing them from my diet created about 400 calories deficit per day.
You might not be a Coke addict like me but, you can find some of the high calories foods in your diet you can eliminate them or swap them with low calories foods.
Here are some ways to cut calories that you can start today:
Switch drinks
- Drink water instead of soda. ( this is what I did)
- Try black coffee instead of coffee flavored with added cream and sugar.
- Cut down on alcohol.
Remove junk food
- Remove fast food
- East boiled food instead of fried food.
- Replace snacks with fruits
Also, you can start eating negative calories foods, these are foods that have low calories and the amount of calories you use to chew and eat them is higher than the number of calories they add to your body, hence the name, here I have a list of negative calories foods.
Physical activities
The second part of the equation of having a flat belly is doing physical activities, you can start small, especially if you’re obese.
All you need to do is start walking around the house for a few minutes, with time you will increase the amount of time you walk and the intensity.
This is what I did, I started walking around the house, then around the block, in a month a started walking for 30 minutes, nowadays I walk 30 minutes on weekdays and 2 hours on the weekends.
- Walking, especially at a quick pace.
- Running.
- Biking.
- Rowing.
- Swimming.
- Cycling.
These activities can help you to burn 100 to 500 calories per day, do not make the mistake that most people do, they go for a workout, they burn 500 calories and consume 600 calories, even though you worked out you will never lose that fat because you did not create calories deficit.
If any of the above activities do not attract you or you want to do something else. I create a list of simple ways to burn 200 calories per day without exercising, you can check it here.
How to measure your progress
I am a big believer that you can not control something that you can not measure, so in order to have control and track your progress, you should record your progress.
You need to weigh yourself once per week, the same day, same hour, and using the same measuring instrument, you should record how are you progressing, remember losing too much fat in a short amount of time is not good and if you’re not losing fat then you will need to evaluate your routines.
Measure your waist every week, this is also very important, you need to take a tape and measure your waist every week.
I would recommend also doing it at the same time and same day of the week and keeping track of it.
What is the secret to permanent flat belly fat?
The only secret I can share with you today is to be consistent if you want a permanent flat belly there is no magic pill or fad diet that can help you, this has to be your lifestyle, you need to become the girl or guy who eats healthily and works out, that is the secret.
Do shortcut or fad diets work?
There are a lot of diets, supplements, detox, drinks, and magic tricks that promise to help you to get rid of belly fat overnight.
The truth is that belly fat is called stubborn fat for a reason. You could perform a number of core-targeting moves, planks, or crunches but yet, spot-reduction fat loss, such as belly fat could be a near-impossible feat.
The best way to get rid of belly fat is to eat well and perform some physical exercise and change your lifestyle.
Conclusion
The three factors that will determine how long it will take to lose belly fat are, the amount of fat you have accumulated, the food you eat, and the number of physical activities you do.
It can take 6 to 12 months to lose belly fat if you’re overweight and between 15 to 24 months if you are obese.
Targeting only belly fat may not be the best plan. To lose weight and keep it off, you have to make changes you can stick with. If it sounds like too much, start with one small change and add others when you’re ready.
The best way to lose belly fat is not to create a plan, is to change your lifestyle.