3 eating tips to get rid of belly fat

Make these 3 changes to drastically lose your love handles

“To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art.”

- La Rochefoucauld  

Naturally, one of the common questions I get as a trainer is, “what do I have to eat to get rid of my belly fat?” I hear this question several times a day. What you really want is a simple diet that will help you reduce belly and get a flat stomach. 

Well for those of you asking this question; you’ve asked the RIGHT question. Nutrition is EVERYTHING! It doesn’t matter how hard you train, how many times you workout or what exercises you do; if you are not eating properly, then you will not get rid of your love handles. Plain and simple. 

Also, the sad reality is that certified dieticians and nutritionists are also subject to their own biases. There is constant disagreement as to what is right and wrong. However, having said that, if you are now starting out and have no idea what to do; it is still a good idea to consult a nutritionist or dietician because they will be able to get you started in the right direction. You also need to remember that just because someone may be in great shape or have a great body; it does not make them an expert on nutrition. Do not ask someone to give you a meal plan just because they have a good body! When it comes to getting a flat stomach, nutrition is just like training – what works for some won’t necessarily work for others. There are numerous factors that influence how your body burns calories, such as your body type, your genetics and even your previous activity levels. People who were active throughout their life have an easier time losing weight.  

However, blaming your current physical health on genetics is absolutely no excuse, because countless research has proven, time and time, again that you are more in control of your health than your genes – it’s all a matter of doing. Some of my friends and fellow trainers are great athletes with terrific bodies, but their diet is absolutely horrible! To be honest, my diet can be pretty horrible too… However, I know my body and I know how my body responds to training and nutrition. Trainers and athletes can get away with poor eating because they live in the gym and burn calories at a higher rate than the average human being.  

You need to follow the rules of healthy eating and be consistent with your diet if you want to get rid of belly fat. You will have good days and bad days when it comes to eating, so try to have at least five good days in a week. Always remember – 80% of your physical appearance is determined by your diet. To get rid of your love handles, reduce belly fat, get a flat stomach – whatever you want to call it – you have to maintain a healthy diet.  

Did you know? – Eight-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps consumes a mind-blowing 12,000 calories a day when training – that amounts to six days worth of calories for an active human! For breakfast: Three fried-egg sandwiches loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise. Two cups of coffee. One five-egg omelette. One bowl of grits. Three slices of French toast topped with powdered sugar. Three chocolate-chip pancakes. Lunch: One pound of enriched pasta. Two large ham and cheese sandwiches with mayo on white bread. Energy drinks packing 1,000 calories. Dinner: One pound of pasta. An entire pizza. More energy drinks.   
 
 
  

Smart eating tips to reduce belly fat:  

1) Eat more frequently 

Eating six days worth of food in one day won’t work for you because you are not Michael Phelps, but there are processes that occur in the human body that are the same for everyone. So if you have tried starving yourself to lose weight and noticed that your stomach actually got bigger, there is a reason for that. 

Your body needs a certain amount of calories to carry out important processes such as breathing and pumping blood to your organs. These are the calories you burn while doing nothing – your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate). If you don’t get enough calories in your diet to carry out those processes, your body kicks into survival mode and converts more of what you eat into fat. If your body could talk when you finally decide to eat, it would say, “I am not getting enough calories to survive so I am going to convert more of this food into fat so I can store for the times when you don’t eat. This way, I have a chance of survival”. Because of this, starving yourself is counterproductive. You cannot get rid of belly by starving yourself; your love handles will actually get worse. 

To prevent your body from converting more of what you eat into fat, you don’t need to eat more, you need to eat more FREQUENTLY – every 2-3 hours. In this situation, if your body could talk, it would say “Since I always have a constant source of food, I don’t need to convert most of it into fat because I know that I won’t have to go very long before my next meal.” Your metabolism actually increases when you eat more frequently. Eating more frequently is one step to getting rid of excess belly fat. 

When I tell people to eat more frequently, they usually say that they can’t. I would hear, “My body isn’t used to eating 5 times a day”. Well your body is an intelligent machine and it picks up on patterns in your daily life. For example, if you routinely drink a cup of coffee at the same time every day, you would definitely feel the effects if you missed your coffee break for one day. You weren’t always like that, you formed a habit to which your body became accustomed, and it adjusted its functioning on the expectation of that cup of coffee at that certain time of day. The same will happen when you train your body to eat more frequently. 

You might think that by eating five times in a day that you will be consuming more calories, that’s not true. Instead of having 3 large meals, you should be eating 3 small meals along with 2 snacks; you are simply spreading out your calories more evenly throughout the day. In addition to preventing the onset of starvation, eating more frequently helps to improve your body’s metabolism because it is constantly working to process the nutrients that you can supplying your body with regularly. It has been suggested your metabolic rate slows after food has been processed and digest, therefore increasing your meal frequency can keep your body in a higher metabolic state.  

Some other benefits of frequent eating include: 

1) Increased energy 

2) Prevent overeating 

3) Combat cravings

In order to reduce belly fat, you must:

• Eat every 2-3 hours

• Never skip meals

2) Plan and prepare your meals 

To achieve anything in life, planning and preparation is key. The same goes for your goal of reducing belly fat. When you know exactly what you are going to eat then it is much easier to keep track of your caloric intake and more importantly, you are not leaving any room for unhealthy eating.  

This might sound like a tedious task to some, but it’s actually quite easy to plan and prepare your meals for the week. However, it does require you to grocery shop. While I’m personally not a big fan of going to the grocery store, I certainly understand and appreciate its importance. The best way to plan and prepare your meals for the week is to first make a list of what you would like to eat for the upcoming week.  

My fiancé actually started doing this and it’s been great. We would decide on what we would eat for lunch and dinner from Monday to Friday. Breakfast is usually oatmeal, cereal or whole grain toast. Once we’ve decided, we simply go to the store on Sunday and buy what needed for the week. On the list we would also include snacks such as fruits, yogurt, nuts and cereal bars. You don’t have to eat the same thing every night for dinner; you just need to make sure your refrigerator is stocked so that you’ll have options.  

Eating out more than once per week makes it very hard to get a flat stomach because practically all restaurants load their meals with salt to enhance the flavour. They use the richest and most fattening products because it makes food taste better; but health wise, you’re doing more harm to your body than you know. When you prepare your own meals, you know exactly what you’re getting and you can be sure that you are putting only healthy foods into your body.    

To get rid of love handles, you must:

• Plan your meals for the week

• Start grocery shopping

• Prepare your meals

3) Snack with purpose 

Snacking between your main meals is a very important for many reasons. First, you constantly provide your body with energy so that you are always alert and energetic. Second, your metabolism is always up because your body is always breaking down food and has a good source of fuel to burn energy between your main meals. Third, by snacking between your main meals, you never get very hungry and you lower the chances of overeating during lunch and dinner.  

The next good thing about this is that you won’t experience that mental crash after a heavy meal. You know what I’m talking about – that lethargic feeling that sneaks up on you after a nice big lunch or dinner and the only thing you want is a nice comfy bed or couch so you can fall asleep. Well that happens because your body is busy producing insulin to process all the excess carbohydrates you just consumed because you were so hungry. A spike in insulin is usually accompanied by dips in energy and lethargy. Remember, as much as 20% of your blood supply is diverted to digestion after a meal; that fatigue you feel is also caused in part to a reduction in blood flow to the brain because your body is busy digesting a big meal. Snacking can change all of that!  

Choose healthy snacks such as yogurt, unsalted nuts (almonds, cashews, sunflower seeds), low carb, low fat cereal bars, fruit (strawberries, apples, grapes, raisins).

To get a flat stomach, you must:

• Have a light snack between breakfast and lunch

• Choose healthy snacks such as nuts, fruits and yogurt

Follow these three rules and your quest to get rid of belly fat and get a flat stomach will be much easier. Combine these tips with regular exercise and you will lose your love handles in a hurry.  

Stay focused, be consistent, and don’t give up!