This quarantine has been difficult for us all. After a nearly five-month lock down, you’ve likely noticed a bit of belly fat where there wasn’t any before.
It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Being stuck in the house every day with nothing to do and nowhere to go will do that.
Luckily, the issue is easy to fix. All you need to do is implement a few simple lifestyle changes and the lock down belly will be gone before you know it.
Eating the Right Foods
Avoid Foods High in Sugar
Eating sugar causes your body to produce insulin, which is stored in the form of fat. Naturally, the more sugar you eat, the more fat you store.
Cutting down on sugar can help your body use this fat for fuel, instead of useless storage. Eliminating sugar is a conscious effort, since so many foods are absolutely saturated with it.
Get into the habit of checking your foods’ nutrition labels for high amounts of sugar before you chow down.
Opt for Foods High in Fiber and Protein
Fiber and protein are amazing nutrients. They both help you feel full sooner and stay full longer. Essentially, you won’t have to consume as much food to feel satisfied, nor will you be as tempted to snack later.
Consuming soluble fiber is also beneficial for your digestive health and can help keep your bowel movements regular.
Say No to Alcohol
Drinking alcohol is one of the easiest ways to sabotage your weight loss plan. Alcoholic beverages contain empty calories that have almost no nutritional value.
Consuming alcohol also signals to the brain that you’re hungry, even if you just ate.
Lastly, alcohol can severely inhibit your ability to get a good night’s sleep. You may fall asleep faster after drinking, but your quality of rest is severely reduced.
Drink Green Tea
Green tea is loaded with antioxidants that can help you burn unwanted belly fat. It can also help boost your metabolic rate and help you burn more calories throughout the day.
Additionally, green tea is caffeinated, so you can drink it in place of any sugary, creamy coffee drinks you usually start your day with.
You’re Allowed a Cheat Meal
Cheat meals are more than just a license to indulge. Most diets involve cutting back on calorie intake, which our body responds to by burning fat more slowly. It’s a survival technique intended to prevent starvation.
Introducing a cheat meal once each week signals to the body that it’s okay to burn fat less conservatively. Plus, it gives you something to look forward to each week.
Stay Hydrated
Humans are mostly water, so it’s important to drink plenty of it. This is especially important if you’re implementing a rigorous exercise routine into your weight loss plan.
Our muscles and organs need water to function and depriving them is extremely detrimental.
Additionally, drinking a glass of water before meals is an excellent way to curb hunger and help us not indulge as much.
Don’t Starve Yourself
Many dieters believe that the less they eat, the more weight they will lose. Unfortunately, this often leads to not consuming enough calories throughout the day. It’s important to give your body the necessary fuel that it needs to function.
Starving yourself can also have the opposite effect of what you want it to and can lead to excess fat storage, as your body desperately clings to what fuel source it has.
Intermittent Fasting (IF)
Many dieters have been able to find success using Intermittent Fasting (IF). This is because there are fewer restrictions regarding what you eat, and more emphasis placed on when you eat.
That being said, you absolutely still need to fuel your body with the correct nutrients; it’s not merely a license to go on an all-cake diet.
There are many different IF methods, and you’re free to choose which one is right for you, if any.
The two most popular methods are:
- 24 Hours: also called “eat-stop-eat,” this method involves implementing one or two days per week where you fast for 24 hours straight.
- 16/8: as the name suggests, you couple a 16-hour fast cycle with an 8-hour eating cycle.
Exercise Regularly
High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)
HIIT workouts are awesome if you don’t have a ton of time to exercise. They are categorized by short, intense bouts of activity with very little rest in between each set.
Exercising this way helps keep your heart rate elevated and burns more calories in a shorter amount of time. HIIT workouts can also be performed from home, as many exercises don’t require any equipment.
Steady State Cardio (SSC)
SSC workouts are the types of routines most people gravitate towards when looking to lose weight. They place greater emphasis on aerobic endurance rather than intensity.
Long runs, bike rides or other types of sustained, low-intensity cardio are SSC workouts. SSC helps build aerobic capacity, which in turn will allow you to work harder during your HIIT workouts.
Long Walks
Walking is a good replacement for HIIT and SSC if you aren’t physically capable of performing those types of exercises.
It’s all about staying active and not succumbing to a sedentary lifestyle.
Strength Training
Lifting weights is an excellent way to burn calories while increasing muscle strength, bone density and flexibility.
Implementing dumbbells or other types of free weights into your HIIT workouts can help increase the intensity of the session as well.
Get Enough Sleep
Failure to get enough sleep each night is detrimental to nearly every bodily function. Exhaustion can block receptors in the frontal lobe that affect impulse control, thus increasing the likelihood that you’ll give in to cravings. Taking Organic CBD oil before bed has been shown to help with your body getting enough high quality rest.
Likewise, inadequate rest slows down your body’s metabolism and prevents you from properly burning the calories that you do take in.
If you’re implementing intense exercise routines into your weight loss plan, sleep is even more important. Your body recovers and rebuilds while in REM sleep so it’s nearly impossible to build strength while not getting enough rest.
Avoid Shortcuts
Fad Diets
These are any type of diets that force you to completely eliminate certain foods, such as a juice cleanse.
They can be effective, but you’re likely to revert back to your old habits after the conclusion of the diet ultimately just putting the weight back on.
They key to successful weight loss is sustainability. You’re not looking for temporary diets; you’re aiming for sustainable lifestyle adjustments.
Drugs and Other Fat Burners
It’s hard to avoid all of the targeted advertisements on social media praising “miracle” fat burning drugs.
Many Instagram influencers falsely claim that simply taking one miracle pill magically melts fat. Not only is this false advertising, it’s also extremely dangerous.
Many fat burners are not regulated by the FDA and their safety concerns are left solely up to the manufacturer. These manufacturers are significantly more concerned with making money than keeping you safe.
Many bodybuilders also use drugs like Winstrol to help them shed fat fast for competitions, but these drugs are not without their side effects. Some of which can be detrimental to your health. You can read more about Winstrol side effects on the flat12.me portal.
Some fat burners can also be detrimental to fat burning. Since caffeine is such a prevalent ingredient, many fat burning drugs effectively prevent users from sleeping properly. This can lead to increased levels of anxiety and unwanted behavioral changes.
In some extreme cases, these drugs have been known to cause deadly seizures and strokes. Instead try using natural fat burners, such as green tea or black coffee.
Closing Thoughts
The road to burning lockdown belly fat may be a long one, but it doesn’t have to be an unpleasant one.
You’ll likely find that implementing these simple lifestyle adjustments can leave you feeling healthier, happier and more energized.
It’s all about feeling and looking your best. You should feel happy while doing it and it shouldn’t be a chore.
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