10 Mistakes you Are Making When Trying To Lose Lower Belly Fat

Contrary to what popular fitness experts would like you to believe, it’s practically impossible to spot reduce fat from the belly area, or for that matter, any of your other problem areas. Coming back to belly fat, everyone has abs, but most of us have a thick layer of fat covering those abs, and only when the layer of fat melts away, abs can be revealed with targeted exercises. This can happen by achieving calorie deficit – when you get into a calorie deficit, through dieting and physical activity, burning more calories, the body would reach out to stored fat from everywhere to make up for the energy deficit, including the tummy area. That’s why the first mistake that you could ever do is to believe that you can spot reduce fat – no amount of crunches or ab exercises can help flatten out that pooch without actually taking care of the diet, period! Additionally, the fat cells that in the lower belly area have beta receptors that do not actively participate in the lipolysis/fat burning process, so you would have to switch gears and try different strategies (most of them are mentioned on the Rati Beauty diet). Apart from believing in spot reduction, here are 10 other mistakes you are making when trying to lose lower belly fat.

1. Having A Lot of Liquid Calories: When you are trying to lose weight, every calorie counts! We often do not count calories that make their way through juices, beverages, and other liquids. When you are cutting calories from all corners, it would be prudent to swap empty calories from aerated beverages, soft drinks, packaged fruit juices with just plain water. It’s also wrong to assume that liquids such as fruit juices would not add many calories because they are “healthy.” In fact, liquid calories, through these beverages, raise blood sugar, cause sharp insulin spikes, and with the subsequent crash, you would be craving for more food, and in that way, would be adding more calories to the diet. Apart from that, the insulin spike clears extra sugar from the blood and stores them away in fat cells!
2. Hitting the gym and becoming immobile for the rest of the day: Just one hour of sweat session in the gym would not be enough to target lower belly pooch. Be active through the day, try to be on your feet as much as possible to keep the fat-burning enzymes active and metabolism high.
3. No stress management: Chronic stress is bad for your mental as well as physical health. Stress triggers the release of cortisol which increases cravings for unhealthy food and high amount of cortisol can actually mobilize fat from other areas of the body to the belly area! If you are not finding ways to manage stress, that belly fat isn’t going anywhere. Exercise, walking, listening to music, engaging in hobbies, even playing with pets are considered good stress busters.
4. Not Sleeping for 7 Hours: Sleep deprivation is considered one of the major causes behind buildup of belly fat. If you are not getting even 7 hours of sleep, cortisol, insulin, and other hormones go out of whack, encourage storing of extra fat around the belly area.
5. Too Much Refined Flour: It’s everywhere – from biscuits, white bread, to instant noodles, to every other processed food – with an increase in consumption of refined flour – it becomes extremely difficult to burn tummy fat. Refined flour gets easily digestible, raises blood sugar, and all the empty calories eventually get stored around the belly area.
6. Not Addressing Hormonal Imbalance: Estrogen and insulin are two hormones that can make losing weight and belly fat extremely difficult. Make sure to consult a doctor to address hormonal imbalance and correct them.
7. Eating Fruits without Portion Control: Though healthy, fruits do have natural sugars that eventually, is considered as a sugar molecule by the body. Natural sugars too raise the blood sugar and that’s why portion control is essential even with healthy foods such as fruits.
8. Not Eating Enough Protein: Protein keeps you full for longer, controls appetite, burns more calories, and boosts metabolism as well. Need high-protein meal plans to lose weight? Look no further – check out the Rati Beauty diet to lose weight successfully.
9. Picking Only Low-Fat Stuff: Low-fat food options may have an insane amount of added sugar to compensate for the bland taste after ripping away the fat content. So, do make sure to check ingredients list of every food product that says “low fat.”
10. Crash Dieting: When you cut down calories drastically, without following a proper diet, the body switches to the “famine mode” where it will make harder to reach out to belly fat, with a dip in metabolism and other adaptive changes kicked into place.

So, to lose weight and burn up belly fat, follow a healthy and nutrient-dense diet like Rati Beauty, exercise consistently, and of course manage stress and do not compromise on sleep!

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