What Does The Science Say About burning Belly Fat?

Just googling “burn belly fat” and you find hundreds, if not thousands, of sites and videos that talk about steps, ways, plans, diets, workouts, pills, magic, anything, everything on the does and don’ts, hows and how tos, to burn body fat. Filter out all the hype and sales pitches, let’s look at what studies have objectively shown. Then, our 14 Point Washboard Abs Plan.

First, we need to have the proper understanding as to what “belly fat” is and why we want to burn it, shrink it, and reduce it. Here is another helpful article to understand body fat better.

There are two primary types of belly fat: Subcutaneous and Visceral.

Visceral body fat is the fat the surrounds your organs and keeps them safe and warm. This kind of fat is most metabolically active. It contains more cells, blood vessels, and nerves than subcutaneous fat; and is strongly linked to increased resistance to the hormone insulin, which regulates your blood sugar levels. Over time, insulin resistance may lead to elevated blood sugar levels and the development of type 2 diabetes. Visceral fat also contributes to systemic inflammation, which may raise your disease risk. [1, 2, 3, 5]

Subcutaneous fat is the fat that’s found under your skin. Subcutaneous fat isn’t as strongly linked to increased disease risk [4]. This is the jiggly fat that hides your abs.

The possible health risks of excessive body fat:

People who have more visceral fat are at a greater risk of several health conditions, such as type 2 diabetes, metabolic disease, fatty liver, and elevated heart disease risk factors like high blood fat and blood pressure levels. [6, 7, 8, 9]. Overall, a study found high amount of visceral fat increased a persons risk of dying in general, more than those with lower visceral fat [10]. This is why it is important to not ‘accept how you are’ if you are overweight, but be motivating factors to change how you are and turn into who you want to be.

So, now we know the types of body fat and the kind that needs to be reduced. The question then becomes, how?

DIET – BAD STUFF

Liquid, Processed Calories

Stay the hell away from soft drinks. Pepsi and Coca-Cola do not care about your health at all. Sugary carbonated drinks are one of the absolute worst. It is literally like a very slow suicide. Soda has been linked to increased visceral fat accumulation and a larger waist circumference [11, 12, 13]. Water, tea, coffee, anything but sodas.

Drinking too much alcohol may harm your overall health in a number of ways, including contributing to excessive accumulation of belly fat [19, 20, 21, 22, 32].

Food, Processed Calories

Studies show that frequently eating ultra-processed foods like snack foods, sweets, fast food, and refined grain products is linked to a greater waist circumference and increase in both types of fats [14]. The ultra refined carbs allow for quick absorption, fat conversion, and bodily storage real quick as top of causing inflammation and possibly ingesting forever chemicals that will never leave your body.

Reduce and stay away from sugar! A 15-week study among 50 middle-age adults with overweight or obesity found that those who were assigned a very low carb, high fat, energy-restricted diet that provided 5% of calories from carbs lost more belly fat, including visceral fat, than those who followed a low fat diet [30]. The words “no added sugar” on the packaging is not a healthy sign at all, that just means they didn’t add more sugar than what is already there. Even “zero calorie” products contain cancerous sweeteners that are just as bad long term as highly refined sugars anyway. So don’t let those catchy phrases fool you.

Trans fats are evil. Trans fats, in particular, can cause inflammation and may lead to obesity. Trans fats are in many foods, including fast food and baked goods like muffins and crackers [31]. Don’t eat anything that contains trans fats, saturated fats, avoid like the plague. Aim for Unsaturated Fats, monounsaturated fats, and polyunsaturated fats.

DIET – GOOD STUFF

Fiber Intake: People who follow high fiber diets tend to have less belly fat than those who don’t. Plus, transitioning to a high fiber diet may help you lose excess belly fat [15, 16, 17]. Fiber is a type of complex carb that cleans you out, sustains energy levels, and less likely to stick with you, in your belly. In an observational study involving 1,114 men and women, soluble fiber intake was associated with reduced abdominal fat. For each 10-gram increase in soluble fiber, there was a 3.7% decrease in belly fat accumulation [43].

Proteins Intake: Diets that are high in protein may help promote belly fat loss. A review including 23,876 people linked higher protein diets to a smaller waist circumference [18]. This also helps build build muscle to burn more fat and reduce muscle loss. High protein intake increases the release of the fullness hormone peptide YY, which decreases appetite and promotes fullness.

Caffeine Intake: Green tea contains caffeine and the antioxidant epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), which appear to boost metabolism [56, 57]. EGCG is a catechin, which several studies suggest may help you lose belly fat. The effect may be strengthened when green tea consumption is combined with exercise [58, 59, 60]. One review concluded that green tea could increase weight loss, especially when consumed in doses of less than 500 milligrams per day for 12 weeks [61].

Maintaining a Calorie Deficit is almost an human body universal way to reduce belly fat [33, 51].

Maintaining good gut bacteria is important to the proper breakdown and usage of nutrients. Some research suggesting that having an unhealthy balance of gut bacteria may promote weight gain, including abdominal fat. In particular, having a higher ratio of Firmicutes bacteria to Bacteroidetes is associated with higher weight and visceral fat [37, 38, 39, 40]. One randomized, double-blind 12-week study in postmenopausal women with obesity showed that taking a probiotic containing five strains of “good” bacteria led to significant reductions in body fat percentage and visceral fat. However, the small group size and uncontrolled diet posed limitations [41]. A 2018 review of studies involving 957 people showed probiotic supplementation was significantly associated with lower BMI, body fat percentage, and visceral fat. The effect sizes were small, meaning the results may not be clinically meaningful [42]. Those shown to reduce belly fat include members of the Lactobacillus family, such as Lactobacillus fermentum, Lactobacillus amylovorus, and Lactobacillus gasseri [52, 53, 54, 55].

HABBITS

Poor sleep quality is associated with visceral fat accumulation. Plus, one review including over 56,000 people tied shorter sleep duration to a greater waist circumference. [23, 24, 34, 46, 47, 48, 49].

Increasing physical activity may significantly reduce belly fat. Try mixing up your workouts, including high and low intensity aerobic activity, as well as resistance training, all of which have been shown to help reduce belly fat [25, 26, 27, 28, 29]. One study involving teenagers with overweight showed that a combination of strength training and aerobic exercise led to the greatest decrease in visceral fat [50].

Go outside and get some Sunlight! A 2016 review indicates that exposure to sunlight in animals could lead to a reduction in weight gain and metabolic dysfunction. The review notes that few studies have looked at the effects of sunlight on humans with respect to weight gain, and that more research is required.

Reduce stress in your life! A steroid hormone known as cortisol helps the body control and deal with stress. When a person is in a dangerous or high-pressure situation, their body releases cortisol, and this can impact their metabolism. People often reach for food for comfort when they feel stressed. Cortisol causes those excess calories to remain around the belly and other areas of the body for later use. Less stress, less cortisol.

Smoking may be related to visceral belly fat. A 2012 study published in the journal showed that, although obesity was the same between smokers and nonsmokers, smokers had more belly and visceral fat than nonsmokers [35]. So, since smoking is terrible for you anyway, you need to quit.

Myths and Legends

Targeted body fat burning is false. Any “fitness” site or profile pushing a workout of a bunch of different core workouts to “burn belly fat” is a shameless lie to your face [62]. Check out Targeted Spot Reduction myth.

It’s not all your DNA’s fault. Yes, genetics can and does play a role in the storage and growth of belly fat, but your body does not create body fat out of thin air or all on its own, it must ingest it first. It appears that the tendency to store fat in the abdomen versus other parts of the body, is partly influenced by genetics [44, 45] but, you must first give it things to convert into body fat in the first place.

There is no magic pill, cream, or magic supplement that will melt away your belly fat. Those are a lie. It is a combination of various factors that when applied together, lead to the result of reducing belly fat. Now, some of those pills and supplements contain things that assist, but them alone, can not do the trick.

Don’t buy into those dehydrating belly bands. Sucking the water out of belly fat doesn’t kill the fat cells. The fat cell will just rehydrate later lol. Those are good for the quick appearance of results, but again, it is just dehydrating fat, not killing it.

RECAP

Want some washboard tough abs?

We can break down “The 14 Washboard Tough Abs Plan” into Nos and Yeses. If you can say no to drugs and STDs, you can say no to these unnecessary things too. Below are 14 points to make changes too that studies have shown to impact belly fat:

The 14 Washboard Abs Plan

NOs

No sodas or alcohol
No extra/added/processed sugar, trans-fats, and ultra processed foods
No smoking
Reduce stress
Avoid Spot reduction body weight workouts (only workout out your core).
Don’t blame your genetics

YESs

Maintain a Calorie Deficit
More fiber intake
More animal Protein intake
More probiotics
More Sunlight
More Physicals activity – strength training, multi-joint compound workouts
More sleep
Caffeine

Therefore:

Drink teas, coffee, and water. Eat fresh fruits and veggies, paleo sort of diet, fish and chicken high protein and fiber diet. Supplement some probiotics and maintain a calorie deficit. Work out at least 3 days a week, and go out side. Find stress reliving hobbies and get extra sleep. That’s it. Do this, as part of your normal life and daily routine, and according to science, belly fat should start to shrink (and all your body fat in general).

The results and success depends completely on your effort, intensity, self-control, discipline, and consistency.

Sources:

The Life Gym

What Does The Science Say About burning Belly Fat?

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Rate this:

Share right meow:

Related

Leave a comment Cancel reply