Losing belly fat is one of the hardest and annoying things to do in life. Well, that and taxes. But it does not have to be that hard as long as you have a great mindset and strategy in place. If you have both, you will succeed. But if your missing just one of these elements, your chances of success are decreased. The biggest key that I see when it comes to successful weight loss is the mental element of it all. The brain controls your thoughts and your body. If you have a weak mindset, you will be hindering your results like I've said before. So, without further ado, I wanted to give you 10 tricks that you can use right away to start losing belly fat.
Tip 1: Have a workout buddy. Having a gym buddy is a great way to make yourself stay accountable and to get to the gym everyday during the week. By having a gym buddy, they are able to push you through your exercise routine and vice versa. It also helps to make exercise fun for all. A lot of people don't like to exercise, but having a buddy to go with you to the gym takes care of most of that boredom. Just make sure not to talk all the time while your at the gym.
Tip 2: Have a competition amongst friends or co-workers. For a lot of people, their jobs offer gym memberships or even have a corporate gym in the basement of the building that they work in. Start off by getting 5 to 10 friends or co-workers. Lay out a timetable for the competition and see who can lose the most weight within a 3 month or 6 month period. However, one thing you must note is you should go by relative amount of weight lost, not absolute because a heavier person who is just starting out will lose more weight than a smaller person. You should also have some type of prize at the end of the competition. Chip in some money and buy a vacation for the winner or a great night out on the town. This will help fuel motivation all the way through.
Tip 3: Use visualization. Visualization is one of the most underated mental exercises to accomplish something. It works wonders in whatever you want to do. If you truly concentrate on the end result of what you want to look like, you just increased your chances of getting there. You see, you can actually re-program your sub conscious mind. It's like a mold of clay and it can be shaped into anything you want it to. For 5 minutes every night, focus on what you want your body to look like. Truly visualize it. Feel it, smell the air, make it as real as possible.
Tip 4: Record all of your progress down in the gym. Whatever weights you use and exercises you perform, record down the number of times you performed each set. Make sure each week to try and beat the number from the previous week. It doesn't matter if you only beat it by 1 repetition. You still made progress. You can do the same for cardiovascular exercise. Record your incline, speed and time and try to increase either or each week by a small degree. Remember, small increases lead to bigger increases over time, which will get you to your end goal.
Tip 5: Keep a food diary. By keeping a food diary, you can keep track of everything that you ingest each day. Many people underestimate the amount of calories they take in each day as well as their portions. Big portions are a problem in this country. For example, a serving of pasta is 1 cup. But most people eat 2 to 4 cups in a sitting. That can be anywhere from 100 to 200 grams of refined carbohydrates that you just consumed and did not need. All those extra calories will be turned into the annoying belly fat that we try to avoid.
Now I want to get into the exercise portion of this article.
Tip 6: Keep your heart rate elevated through out the workout. By keeping your heart rate elevated through out the workout and limiting your breaks, you will be burning more total calories through out the session and through out the day. You don't realize it but you can still have a great workout, keep your heart rate and not feel like you are going to pass out. You just have to keep it at a constant level, especially when you are weight training. And this brings me into my seventh tip.
Tip 7: Do some type of resistance training. Working out with weights is going help you build muscle and burn more calories at rest as compared to cardiovascular exercise. Building muscle is also going to give you that nice, lean and toned look that everyone admires. The more muscle that you build, the more calories you will be burning at rest because muscle is metabolically active tissue. It needs calories to survive, unlike fat.
Principles and Practice of Resistance Training
Tip 8: Do cardiovascular interval training instead of regular boring cardio that you usually do on the treadmill or elliptical. By performing interval training, you will be burning more calories though out your workout. Also, your metabolism will be significantly raised for the rest of the day so you can be burning more total calories. When you are jogging and stop, your metabolism automatically goes back to baseline levels so you don't get that coveted after burn as you would with interval training.
Tip 9: Mix it up. By mixing up your workouts with different exercises, reps, sets, and programs, you are keeping your body guessing. Your body wants to stay where it is. It loves homeostasis. By tricking your body and keeping it out of homeostasis, you will be burning more calories and forcing your body to change at a faster than normal pace. Plus it keeps you from being bored, especially if you don't like to exercise.
Tip 10: Have fun. Don't get too serious with yourself. You will fall off the bandwagon at some point in your journey to losing belly fat. And that's okay. It's normal. Have fun with it all and document your transformation so you can look back and be proud of what you accomplished.
Article by:
Jared DiCarmine
