Complex carbohydrates like peas, lentils, or chickpeas are full of fibre and necessary to help reduce belly fat. Nor do you need to consume large amounts: the expert assures that you can already be satisfied with only six grams a day—the bread, always whole. And fresh fruit like bananas or kiwis will not only fill you up with fibre; they’ll load you up with vitamins, making you feel more vital and energetic.
Strength training
Many people believe that to lose weight; you should focus on cardio exercises. And it’s true since cardio can help you establish that calorie deficit, but lifting weights will make the loss continuous and long-term.
If you don’t get enough sleep, your cortisol levels will rise, making it harder to lose weight.
Strength training will help you build muscle, and increased muscle mass will burn calories much faster. As always, the level of effort should be progressive. If you are not familiar with this type of physical activity, it is best to start low to add kilos to each day that passes.
HIIT
High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is the best form of physical activity for losing body fat. In addition, they will take you very little time a day, so you no longer have an excuse. You can do burpees, squats, or push-ups. You can also go outside and alternate moments of rest or slow walking with 30-minute sprints.
The NEAT
This English contraction of “non-exercise activity thermogenesis” (NEAT) is a technique that consists in turning domestic activities into actual physical exercise. For example, gardening. “Sometimes it is completely forgotten, but it is a powerful tool for fat loss,” says Gomer. You don’t need to join the gym or spend a few hours a day jogging. Just focus on daily chores from burning calories. If you have small children, losing weight will be inevitable due to the physical demand that requires being with them.
Get enough sleep
While diet and exercise are essential for fat loss, many people overlook the other important lifestyle habit: sleeping. Science has already shown that lack of sleep can increase the production of the stress hormone cortisol. “When you feel deprived of sleep, cortisol levels increase to keep the body at full capacity,” observes the expert. “You are likely to experience fatigue and have more cravings, as well as feel less energetic. All of this will affect your effectiveness in the gym and your eating plan.”
Bone densitometry
It uses X-rays that evaluate the lean mass, the fat mass and the mineral content of the bones. It is very priced and reliable, but it is also costly.
According to the KilosOut team, “the ideal is to assess the actual nutritional situation of a person; the anthropometric results determine the energy and nutritional needs, which will lead to guide correct nutrition and in the case of athletes, an optimal training.
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Do you exercise?
If so, it is a significant factor to take into account, especially if you are following a weight loss plan that combines diet and physical training. “Exercise will generate a series of internal processes that are not visible in the first weeks but that are helping to improve our health and that we must give time to act on the metabolism and in this case on fat if it is what we are looking for,” points out Bustos.
“Specifically, strength training increases basal metabolism and, depending on the intensity; it can keep it high for a longer or shorter time after finishing the exercise.”
So if you are following a strength exercise program, “the scale is not going to reflect the reality of what happens inside your body, so you will have to pay more attention to more objective points such as clothing or the waist of the pants,” says Bustos. That is, the increase in muscle mass to the detriment of fat mass can make you weigh the same and yet have dropped your clothing size.
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How to know if you are on the right track
We insist again that you should not give so much importance to the scale and much more to what you see in the mirror, how your clothes fit and, above all, how you feel. “How the clothes fit us, how we feel, the colour of our skin, the mentality with which we feel after exercising and taking care of ourselves because we are eating better, are the important variables,” emphasizes Bustos. And a clave: “if we can maintain a stable weight or body composition parameters for at least three months, that will mean that we are on the right track (seems like a long time, but stop and think if it were the other way around … How much can I get fat in three months if I don’t take care of myself?)”.
“The scale, along with marketing in the world of weight loss, is our worst companions when it comes to losing weight properly and being able to maintain it over time, which is the real challenge,” says the director of Prof.
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