What are the Key Components to Healthy Weight Loss?

It's past the middle of the first month of the year and I'm still trying to plan some of the things that I want to do. One of which is to lose weight and belly fat.

How to do that exactly is still a question. We all know that diet and exercise are both important elements in losing weight, inches and belly fat. But they are not that easy to do especially if you haven't adopted healthy habits.

Knowing Your Why

Knowing your why is very important if you want to succeed in everything and not just in losing belly fat. It would help you keep doing what you should keep doing. But specifically, why do you want to lose weight particularly belly fat? Basically, it is for health reasons and, of course, looking and feeling good.

• Having a lot of fat in your tummy can lead to serious diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and many other illnesses.
• It is a heavy burden that comes with many scary health problems like high blood pressure or high cholesterol.
• It is dangerous to have belly fat because it could mean storing fat in the liver as well.  With fat in the liver, the body becomes more resistant to insulin.  This makes you more likely to overeat and gain weight.

Knowing How?

WORK IT OUT

There are many ways to get rid of fat in belly areas. You probably think that crunches or sit-ups would help get rid of fat in the abs. That is not really so. You need to burn fat and then do crunches to tone your abs. Here are 5 activities that will help you to burn fat:

Jogging

The best fat burning activity is jogging. Jogging increases your heart rate and gives your lungs a good work out. It promotes the burning of fat cells in your midsection. Jog for at least 30 minutes every time or you won’t see any results.

Belly Dancing

Another great way to eliminate fat in belly areas is by belly dancing.  Belly dancing is not only effective but fun. It burns anywhere from 200-400 calories per hour!  It burns fat and tones muscles so your stomach would be flat and muscular.

Swimming

Swimming is another great belly busting workout.  It allows you to do many exercises without worrying about the weight of your body. It also helps your lungs build endurance as you're able to hold your breath longer.

Zumba

Doing Zumba classes once or two times a week can also help decrease your belly fat.  Zumba is a Latin-based dance workout that’s really fun and easy to follow. One Zumba class can help you burn up to 900-1000 calories.

Biking

Riding your bike is also a great way to burn belly fat down. Biking up a hill gives you a hard workout. Biking down a hill gives you a little bit of rest.

Other exercises that could tone your tummy include knee-ups, vacuum contractions, and running.  Doing squats will also control belly fat, tone your thighs and your butt.


You probably won't do all these activities. You can try them one at a time and see which one you find most interesting. Also, remember that you won't get an overnight result. For a mom to lose weight and get a trimmer tummy will take time and consistency in doing physical activities.

PROPER DIET - Which Belly Fat Diet Works Best?

Aside from making our bodies work to burn fat, we also need to work on our diet. This is not just to flatten the tummy, but to be really healthy. Don’t be fooled to skip a meal or starve yourself. It won't help you slim down but will only harm you in the long run. Read the following ten tips to have a healthier diet.

1. To lower calorie intake, drink lots of water, 8 glasses and more. Substitute water for whatever drink you have especially sodas that have 150-300 calories per can or bottle. Sodas of any kind, including diet sodas, also have carbonation, which has been found to give an appearance of a bloated midsection. Sodas of any kind range from 150-300 calories per can or bottle alone

It's also a good practice to drink two glasses of warm water in the morning and eat any food 30 minutes after. This helps flush out toxins from the body and have a regular bowel movement. Water carries oxygen to the cells of the body and helps cushion the joints, which keeps arthritis at bay also.

2. Pay close attention to all of the ingredients in your food.  Incorporate as many fruits and veggies into your diet as possible.  Have low-sugar fruit like strawberries, papaya, peaches, and watermelon. Beware of high sugar fruits like grapes, pomegranates, bananas, mangoes, cherries, and oranges.

Veggies that are enriched with water are the best for toning up your loose belly fat.  Eat veggies like iceberg lettuce, celery, or tomatoes. You could avoid some veggies like carrots and corn because of their high sugar content.

3. Avoid alcoholic drinks. Alcohol consists of a lot of calories, that's why alcohol drinkers have more fat in their belly -- “beer belly.”

4. If you’re a sweet tooth, try to use both artificial and organic sweeteners to replace sugar.  You can use honey instead of sugar in teas.

5. Lower your sodium intake because high sodium levels in the body promote thirst. The thirstier you are, the more likely you are to take high-sugar drinks.

6. Minimize caloric intake to an appropriate level. A woman aged 18-35 needs 1100-1300 calories per day to stay healthy while losing weight.  A man in the same age range needs 1600-1800 calories per day.

7. Beware of smoking. It is bad for your health.

8. Incorporate as much fiber as possible into your diet. Fiber helps support a healthy cycle, decrease bloating, thus slims down stubborn belly fat.

9. Before a meal, have a full glass of ice water and a small handful of nuts with low sodium and no sugar on them. Doing so will help you to eat less of the next meal.

10. Just remember that cutting sugar or bad carbohydrates from your diet will do wonders for your body.

These healthy diet reminders can help with weight and belly fat loss if put into consistent practice.