How to Lose Belly Fat

Ready to lose that belly fat once and for all?

What is it we need to do to lose belly fat? Is it some sort of magic trick?

Do we need to sacrifice a body part? Sometimes, trying to lose belly fat seems like an impossible task. Whether you’re doing no carb, low carb, all carb, all exercise, no exercise, high intensity training or just not eating…

What’s the secret?

For most people, belly fat is their biggest area of concern. It’s ugly and it is stubborn. Trying to get rid of it is so frustrating, especially if you’ve been trying for years and years.

Do you know where to start? How about taking body measurements?

But here’s the thing – if you don’t 100% know and understand what you’re doing or are not doing it correctly, you aren’t going to get rid of that belly fat. It’s going to stick around for a long time.

And call us crazy, but we’re guessing that’s the last thing you want.

So we’ve decided to help you lose belly fat with this helpful article. We can help you incorporate a pretty easy routine that’ll help you do this. But first we need to get to the nitty gritty of it all and understand why so many people struggle to get rid of belly fat.

This should also help you identify what you’re doing wrong.

Lose Belly Fat: Starting with Science

The first thing to consider if your body’s rate of burning fat. Basically, it’s a 2-step process which involves the fat stores in the blood releasing energy (which is called lipolysis) and then our cells accepting those molecules and utilizing them in the best way (called oxidation).

So the whole lipolysis process is activated by the catecholamine chemicals. An example of a catecholamine is adrenaline.

Basically, once you have these chemicals in your blood, they’re going to attach themselves to different attachment sites found on fat cells. These areas are called receptors and it causes them to release some of the energy they have stored up.

The molecules that have been released are free fatty acids and are burned through different types of cells.

Now if you have really well-trained muscles in your body, it’s going to burn up these fats a lot better. This is why it’s a hell of a lot easier to get rid of fat when you already have a decent amount of muscle.

Some of this is what we call body recomposition; losing fat while gaining new muscle.

There are a specific number of receptor sites the fat cells provide for the catecholamines – but don’t go thinking these are the same.

One of the receptors is called alpha-2 and the other is called beta-3. We won’t get into all the complicated medical jargon of it all.

Basically: when it comes to losing belly fat, alpha-2 receptors slow down the lipolysis process, while beta-3 receptors speed it up.

For losing belly fat, alpha-2 receptors slow down the lipolysis process and beta-3 increases it.
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This matters because if your fat cells have more beta-3 receptors in comparison to alpha-2, they’re going to be a lot easier to mobilize.

Make sense?

So that’s where the whole belly fat hatred comes into play. The ratio of beta-3 vs. alpha-2 is leaning a lot more toward alpha-2, meaning there are a lot more alpha-2 receptors than there are of beta-3.

This means when you’re looking to lose fat, you have to start with a big decrease in fat amounts in things that contain a lot of beta-3.

For the majority of the population, this means you’re going to see quick reductions in areas like your legs, face, shoulders, arms, and chest, and a much slower reduction in areas like your thighs, hips, lower back, and yep you guessed it – stomach.

These are definitely the “tough” areas because a large amount of the fat cells have higher levels of alpha-2 receptors.

Lose Belly Fat: Belly Blasting Plan

That’s the science of it all. So how in the world can we get rid of it?

Well, we can make it a little bit easier for you. With this article, you aren’t going to have to cut your calories in half or starve to death. You also aren’t going to have to cut back on the foods you love.

This means you can still have your dose of carbs and yes, we’ll even throw in a cheat meal every once in a while.

So, before you start rolling your eyes and think endless CARDIO, that isn’t what we’re doing here. You aren’t going to have to spend half your life doing cardio or any other kind of fancy ab exercises.

In fact, Interval Workouts can be your best friend when it comes to building muscle while losing fat.

We’re going to do two things:

1. First, we’re going to slowly but surely cut back on the overall fat percentage in your body.

2. Next, we’re going to help make the most of certain kinds of training and supplements that can help your body mobilize these annoyingly stubborn fat cells.

All of the methods we provide are going to work for you so stick with us.

We know you might be pretty frustrated, feeling like you’ve tried every method and strategy possible to get rid of your belly fat. Your goal shouldn’t be losing the belly fat. Rather, your top and most important goal should be to cut back on your body fat percentage.

Dudes, if your body fat percentage is over 10%, you probably already know this but you’re going to have some belly fat on your hands. As for the ladies, if your percentage is over 20%, same goes to you.

If you want to get rid of that belly fat 100%, you need to get pretty lean. Dudes, that’s about 6 to 7% and ladies, that’s about 16 to 17%.

Got that?

Men need to strive for 6-7% body fat and women about 16-17% in order to get rid of belly fat.
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Of course, like most other exercise related topics, it’s critical to have a proper diet in order to cut back on your body fat percentage.

One thing that can certainly help; do you know about the Top Fat Burning Foods?

But even if you are doing the right kinds of things, like doing a somewhat moderate cut back in calories and exercising on a regular basis, it can still be a painstakingly slow process. And that’s why so many people get so frustrated.

Lose Belly Fat: Fast Track Secrets of the Pros

Luckily, there are a few different exercises that can help speed the process along before you get so frustrated you eat an entire bakery full of pastries and cakes.

The first thing we want you to try is fasted training.

We know you’re thinking exercising on an empty stomach (and you’re also thinking torture) but hear us out, because this might be different than you thought.

It really has more to do with the levels of insulin you have in your blood than anything else. When you start eating, the food is broken down into a bunch of different molecules that get used up by your cells.

Eventually, these molecules get released into your bloodstream. Because insulin is released during this time too, its number one job is to get these molecules to all the different cells.

While it mostly depends on how much you eat, your blood insulin levels pretty much stay elevated for a couple of hours. This can be anywhere from as little as three hours to as much as six hours. You might be scratching your head wondering why you should care about this.

Well, insulin is like a quarterback for lipolysis – it blocks the fat mobilization.

And when the body’s in the happily just-fed stage (aka when the insulin levels are still elevated and your body is absorbing all of the nutrients from the meal you just had), there isn’t much fat burning going on.

Immediately after your body is done getting all the nutrients from the food, and insulin levels go back to normal, you’re officially in the fasted stage. So exercising during this time is ideal, because fat loss is going to be sped up.

The best way to get this done?

Get your workout in before breakfast. In fact, if you fast longer than 6 hours, your body is going to turn up its ability to burn all that fat.

The downside? Well in this state, your muscle is going to be broken down a lot faster. You can prevent this pretty easily by taking 3-5 grams of leucine or even 10 grams of BCAAs beforehand, about ten to fifteen minutes.

Next, we want you to try high intensity interval cardio.

Called HIIT for short, this is basically where you start with a warm up and then go back and forth between going your hardest and doing what you would consider a cool down.

There have been countless studies that have proven this to be one of the most effective workouts. Places like Baylor College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University, University of North Wales and Laval University have clinical evidence that shorter, higher-intensity workouts always provide greater fat loss results.

So you want to keep your usual cardio session pretty short. This way, you can preserve both your strength and your muscles while losing fat.

If you aren’t sure where to start, head on over to the recumbent bike. We all know that different kinds of cardio can affect the way our body makes muscle and gives us strength.

However, a study from the Stephen F. Austin State University had some pretty dramatic findings. It found that those who ran/walked had a lot less strength and muscle mass over those who cycled.

Interesting, huh? Yet another read to get on that bike!

Some believe that HIIT cardio puts too much stress on your body. But there isn’t really any kind of research or evidence that proves this. But if you feel like you’re really overtraining with the high intensity, try doing a lower intensity at a stage rate.

Thirdly, we’re going to suggest you give heavy weightlifting a shot, even if you’re new to strength training.

When you’re cutting back on your calories in hopes of weight loss, your body is also getting ready to start losing some muscle, since you’re cutting these calories.

While your body ins this state, and you’re throwing in some muscle endurance exercises into your workouts, you’re setting yourself up for a big decrease in strength, which goes hand in hand with a decrease in muscle mass.

With this being said, you want your focus dedicated to keeping your strength. And the way to do this is to start lifting heavy weights progressively. You’re going to keep your strength and not lose nearly as much muscle.

Another bonus?

Lifting heavier weights actually plays a role with your metabolic rate, which is how many calories your body is able to burn in a day. In fact, there’s a lot of research that shows metabolic rates continue to climb following a few DAYS after lifting weights. That means you’re burning calories long after your workout has stopped.

So we’re telling you to do a lot more squats and deadlifts to keep the calories burning and your muscles growing.

Guess what else can help you out?

Caffeine Supplements. Because weight loss essentially comes down to the amount of energy you consume and the amount of energy you’re able to get rid of it, caffeine helps out because it can actually increase the amount of energy your body gets rid of.

Caffeine also offers a lot more perks you might not be aware of, like increasing your strength and muscle endurance and getting rid of any “morning weakness” a lot of weightlifters face.

Here’s what you can try. Before your next session at the gym, give your body 3 to 5 mg of caffeine for every kg of your body weight.

Make sure you keep your overall intake either exactly at or below 6 mg for every pound. So don’t go pounding down the coffee after you’ve already taken 6 mg of caffeine. To keep things a bit more even, have 1 to 2 days of zero caffeine every week and give yourself a completely caffeine free day on those days.

Conclusion

And here’s where we will leave you – with a routine to get started. Wake up nice and early and drink some water with 10 grams of BCAA’s and your dose of caffeine. Do your workout and have your post workout meal, which is going to be your first meal of the day. If you can mix in another workout that day, try to do it about four hours after you’ve had a fairly light dinner. You’ll be impressed with the results you see and how quickly you see them.

When you want to lose belly fat, the number one word is dedication.

You’ll have to change around how and when you do some things in your training. Many have found intermittent fasting extremely useful along with starting their day with bulletproof coffee. No single body works exactly the same, so be open minded but remember first and foremost, that cutting sugars and unnecessary starches are a great place to start.

-Terry Asher

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Article Name

How to Lose Belly Fat

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Today's post is about targeting stubborn belly fat. We'll go over everything to blast your midsection and that unwanted gut to lose belly fat.

Author

Terry Asher

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Gym Junkies

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