4 effective ways to reduce belly fat

There are many people putting on more weight, despite their best efforts to reverse or prevent it. Losing extra fat around your midsection is one of the biggest obstacles along your weight loss journey. It is often called "stubborn fat" because no matter what you do, it doesn't seem to budge much.

This stubborn fat lies in close proximity to the vital organs of the body, including the liver, kidneys and other digestive organs, and it's a real health concern. Fat is actually similar to an organ, in that it releases compounds in the blood and alters hormone levels.

Here are 4 ways you can take to reduce belly fat:

1. Stay Away from Sugar, Liquid Calories and Grains:

It's important to realize that controlling your insulin levels is important in optimizing your weight as it is protecting you against diseases like diabetes. When your insulin levels increase, you are telling your body to store carbs as fat and to not release any of the stored fat. This makes it impossible for you to use your own stored body fat for energy.

So, the excess refined and processed carbohydrates in your diet (such as breads and pasta) not only make you gain weight, they make sure you keep that weight on. By cutting grains and sugars from your diet, you can significantly improve your chances of successful weight loss. It is important to avoid added sugar when it comes to reducing belly fat. Even hidden sources of sugar like sweetened dairy, juices or packaged snacks made with grains must be avoided. Don't drink your calories! Drink plain water, herbal tea or water with lemon slices.

2. Exercise:

Most important factor in shedding unwanted body fat and normalizing your insulin levels is exercise. When you exercise to achieve weight loss, you'll want to focus on weight bearing exercises, as muscle burns calories quite efficiently. To really maximize your weight loss efforts, make sure you include high-intensity interval exercises and strength training in your program.

As far as individual exercises to target your abdominal region are concerned, sit-ups and abdominal exercises that are associated with breath control mechanisms, can help tighten your abdominal muscles.

However, it's important to keep in mind that there is no single abdominal exercise that challenges all your abdominal muscles. So you need to perform a variety of exercises that involve the full range of muscles.

Another factor that is often overlooked is your back muscles. Your back helps you hold yourself up and your stomach in, from behind. So having strong back muscles, as well as abs, is essential for a flatter stomach.

3. Intuitive eating:

Intuitive eating involves paying attention to your body and eating only when you're hungry and stopping when you're full. It doesn't limit what you eat or how much you eat. Many people who are overweight, eat for reasons that have nothing to do with hunger. When you reach for the chocolates, snack foods or other "comfort" foods, it's often because you're stressed, depressed, or bored.

When you eat in response to social cues – such as having lunch or dinner even though you're not hungry – or when you eat unconsciously – snacking while driving or putting away a tub of popcorn at the movies – you're doing the opposite of "intuitive eating" and you're consuming unneeded calories that lead to weight gain.

a study published in Public Health Nutrition found that higher intuitive eating scores were tied to healthier weight management and healthier BMIs and improved physical health indicators other than BMI.

While weight loss may occur, it isn't the primary benefit or goal. The real benefits of IE include lowered stress, more flexibility, eating a wide variety of foods, better self-trust, increased confidence and improved overall health.

4. Sleep:

4 ways you can take to reduce belly fatWhat does proper sleep have to do with a flatter stomach? Researchers have found that all body fat is not created equal, and that holds especially true for belly fat. Abdominal fat has a very rich blood supply and has four times more cortisol receptors than other body fat.

Cortisol is a stress hormone, produced by your adrenal glands in response to stress and sleeping too little or too much. Cortisol tends to store unused fat that has been released by your body in stress response. Since your belly fat contains large amounts of cortisol receptors, you may tend to gain fat in the abdominal region when you're chronically stressed or have trouble sleeping properly.

Start incorporating the points mentioned above and you will definitely start seeing a change when it comes to your belly fat!