Highlights
- Sugar impacts your metabolic health. Avoid it.
- A combination of honey, lemon and water also works wonders
- You must eat protein in every meal to lose weight
Belly fat is easy to gain but hard to lose. Besides a fatty diet, there are many reasons that can cause you to pile on belly fat such as stress, lack of disease and in some cases lifestyle diseases like diabetes. Exercise alone is not enough to lose belly fat and maintain your weight. Your daily diet places a crucial role in fighting belly fat. Here are some diet tips that you can keep in mind to fight the stubborn belly fat and get a flat tummy.
1. Avoid high glycemic index foods: The moment you load up on high glycemic index foods, your blood sugar levels spike up suddenly. This excess sugar would eventually get stored as fat, and result in a bigger belly.
2. Give up refined sugar: Sugar impacts your metabolic health. It can lead to increased accumulation of fat in your belly. Excess refined sugar can challenge your digestive system and slow down your metabolism. It may lead to greater fat accumulation around your waist, so it is best to avoid if you want to lose few inches around your belly.
3. Drink lots of herbal water: Herbal water such as
jeera water or
ajwain water can help in kick-starting your metabolism. It is good to drink them early morning on an empty stomach. A combination of honey, lemon and water also works wonders.
4. Eat more fiber rich foods: High fiber foods such as oats, whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables delay your digestion and because the output of sugar is not in big quantum, these is not converted into fat.
5. Have protein in each meal: Most health experts suggest that you must eat protein in every meal to lose weight and also maintain it. Protein takes longest to digest which keeps you full and satisfied and avoids unnecessary binging.
6. Eat at the right time: A 2015 study shows that consuming a high-protein breakfast between 6:00 a.m. and 9:45 a.m. is linked to less accumulation of fat and less hunger through the day. Similarly, you must have a small snack between 3 a.m to 4 p.m. to keep cravings away and finally no eating after 8 p.m.
7. Load up on probiotics: A regular intake of probiotics helps in shifting the balance towards beneficial gut flora and reduces the risk of fat accumulation in your abdominal cavity.
8. Switch to green tea: Green tea is great for blasting belly fat. It contains antioxidants like catechins that increase the release of fat from fat cells in the belly and also speed up the liver's fat burning ability.
Tweaking your diet and keeping these tips in mind, can not only help you lose weight but also maintain it in the long run.