Do you struggle with excess belly fat and or bloat in your mid-section? Even if you are following a clean eating meal plan and doing your daily workouts, you may still have this issue. It’s a common problem many women struggle with, but here are five tips that may help you.
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Here are five tips to help you get rid of excess belly fat or bloat:
1.Take a deeper look at what you are eating. First, if you over 20% body fat, roughly, you do have fat to lose. A caloric deficit through eating less/ moving more can help with this. But, you do not want to be in too much of a deficit as this can cause the body more stress. I will discuss this momentarily.
But look at the quality of the foods you are eating. Soy, gluten, dairy, sugar, alcohol and artificial sweeteners are the most common culprits in our diet that causes stress and dysfunction to our gut. Our gut runs our entire body and if this is not functioning at a high level, your fat loss efforts may remain futile. To learn how the digestive system impacts fat loss, go here. Follow a clean eating meal plan of foods that come from the earth and eliminate things that may be harmful to your gut. If you are unsure of what those may be, download my Gut Health Ebook and Elimination Diet here.
2. Take a deeper look at your hormones. Get blood work done, especially if you are following a clean eating meal plan and daily workout plan already. Your thyroid may not be functioning properly. Your cortisol levels may have compromised your adrenal glands. Your estrogen and progesterone could be out of whack. Your testosterone may be low. All of these things have an impact on your body’s ability to lose fat.
If you know your hormones are not balanced or functioning properly you can take further steps to fix those through healthy eating, workouts, different activities, supplementation, etc, but you will only be working against yourself until you know.
3. De-stress your mind. Do the things that help you cope with stress. This could include cleaning or organizing your home, journaling, meditating, walking, getting outside, coloring, etc. If you are mentally or emotionally stressed this can impact your hormones, your brain function, your ability to sleep, and overall, your ability to lose fat. We have to accept that life is about balance.. the yin and the yang. Being go-go-go is all yang.. you must incorporate your yin.
4. Prioritize sleep. 7-9 hours of deep sleep will help you lose fat, and I hate to tell you, if you are not getting rest, your body will continue to store fat, particularly in your mid-section. Read this for a deeper look at the importance of sleep. Sleep optimizes your hormone and brain function. Sleep helps you recover so you can build muscle. Sleep is the foundation to our health. If you struggle with your ability to sleep, go back to steps #1 and #3 and incorporate more yin into your life and follow a clean eating meal plan, as this will help with sleep, then sleep will help with hormone balance and then fat loss.
5. Make sure your workout plans include lifting weights 2 – 4 times a week and high intensity interval training 1 – 3 times a week. Lifting weights will help build muscle, balances your hormones and brain function. It can even be a yin-like activity as well, leading to less stress! As you build muscle, fat loss becomes easier. High intensity interval training is the only cardio you truly need if your goal is fat loss. It also helps balance brain and hormone function and oxidizes fat which leads to fat loss. Both of them can also help you create a calorie deficit if that is something you need to lose fat. Both of these are great to free up some time so you can do more of the yin activities to continue on your journey of de-stressing your mind and spirit, thus de-stressing your physical body as well.
Do you need help figuring out the right clean eating meal plan and daily workout plan for you?
Go to Commit2FitCoaching.com/freeassessment and let me help you.
Your Coach,
Kyra