One of the best goals you can set for yourself is to lose your belly fat (if you have some) and keep it that way. This takes not only motivation in the beginning, but dedication, self-discipline and a well planned diet and cardio program. In this article I am going to prepare you to take that step and get in the best shape of your life.
Set It As A Goal
The first step to losing your belly fat is to decide TODAY that you want to do it. Nothing is more motivating than having a goal to guide you
So what you have to do now is take a piece of paper and a pen and write down your goal. Study's have show that you are 4 times more likely to achieve your goal if it is written down - so write it down.
Your goal should be specific, in present tense, measurable and obtainable.
So two good examples would be; "I weigh 75 kg in December" or "I lost 20 kg fat in 2013". Remember to write them in present tense so your subconscious mind accept it as a reality and help you achieve your goal.
When you have your goal written down, pin it on the wall or a place where you will look at it often.
By doing this you will boost your motivation and prepare you on the work that lies ahead of you, and always keep the result in mind. Imagine yourself at your ideal weight and do everything to achieve the "perfect" body.
Be Realistic
One more important point is to be realistic. When you set your goal it is incredibly important to be realistic. Nothing is more demotivating to pursue a goal you know you can`t reach.
So what is realistic? - You should aim to lose around 0.5 kg of fat each week. That may not sound like a lot but it adds up to a whole bunch at the end of the year. You should not aim to burn more than that, because this way you would only end up burning a lot of muscle and starving yourself. Eat a little bit less than your body burns, but not more than that. What I mean by a "little bit", you are going to read later on in this article.
Fat Loss Pr. Week: 0.5 kg
Month: 2 kg
Year: 24 kg
Why Should You Lose Fat
There are several reasons to why you should get rid of the fat that is covering your stomach. One of the reasons are improved health. When you reach your ideal weight you will be much more healthy and decrease the risk of Heart Disease, Stroke, Type 2 Diabetes and other types of health risks. You will also look much more healthy and feel healthy which will boost your self-esteem and your confidence.
Which leads me to the second point, you will feels better. You will just feel much better and look better which will give you, as mentioned, increased confidence.
What it all comes down to is that you sit down, and find YOUR reasons for losing fat. Find out what motivates you and make that your motivator.
Diet
You can make the diet part very complicated and time consuming, but that is not what it is all about. It is making healthy eating a lifestyle that should be simple to obtain and continue.
So to make it simple, we are only concerned about calories in vs calories out.
Let me explain; Your body burns around 1800-2500 calories pr day depending on person to person. What this means is, that without you doing anything, your body will burn 1800-2500 calories no matter what you do.
If you eat more, it will be stored as fat. If you eat less, your body is going to take the energy it need from other energy stores like fat.
So what you want to do, is consume less calories than your body burns, to run a caloric deficit or in other terms, burn fat.
If you are wondering how many calories you should be aiming for, take your metabolic rate and multiply it by 0.80 (-20%). So if your body burns 2500 calories you should eat 2000 calories. This way you will lose ca 0.5 kg pr week.
So first off we need to know how many calories your body burns when your body is at rest (metabolic rate). To find out, I would ask you to type in your stats in the calorie calculator. It will then find your metabolic rate, and we will continue from there. So to get to the calculator, just click the link below
Calorie CalculatorNow that you know your metabolic rate (how may calories your body burns) I can give you some tips to make it easier to keep a caloric deficit.
Tip 1 Drink lots of water: This is really a great tip to make you eat less. If you drink lots of water you will feel much more full and satisfied and the craving for food will therefor not be as strong. You will also be satisfied with much less food than normal, because your stomach already is filled up with calorie free water. To get the maximal benefit you should try to aim for 2 glasses of water before each meal.
It is also a good idea to drink water trough out the whole day to stay alert and you will feel much more healthy and your skin will also benefit.
Tip 2 Make small portions of food: By making small portions of food when you are cooking, you will stop eating when there is not more left to eat. So plan your meals in advance.
Tip 3 Don`t snack: By don`t snacking in between your meals you will cut out a whole lot of calories here and there.
You would be shocked if you knew how many calories there are in a chocolate bar. One chocolate bar and a cola = 300 calories. Those 300 calories may look un-harmful at first but if you do the math it will add up to a whole lot in one year. So cut out the snacks and focus on your 3-5 meals pr day.
3-5 Meals each day
By eating small well balanced meals during the day you will feel full during the whole day and will therefor not be tempted by small snacks. Make every meal count by getting ca 400 calories in each meal which will add up to 2000 calories during one day (400x5). Or you could just eat 3 meals with 650 calories in each. Just remember to eat breakfast. Never consider dropping breakfast. Breakfast sets you up for the day and prepare your body with the fuel it needs to kick start the day, so do not think about dropping breakfast :)
Track Your calories
Now you probably wonder how you can keep track of your calories and see how many calories you have got left to eat, and I am glad to tell you that it has never been easier.
With calorie counter apps all around the app store and the Android marked, simply download a calorie counter app.
What you do is you download the app and than you specify your body weight, height etc.
Then you are just going to register all you eat in the app. If you eat a sandwich, simply search for "sandwich" inside the app and you can add it which a touch of a button. It is really easy and it makes also fat loss a lot easier.
But cheating is not allowed. Everything you put in your mouth has to be registered inside the app, else it will be cheating and you wont achieve your goal.
When you have reached your daily goal you have to stop eating. And next day you simply start over and eat a little bit more smart with incorporating vegetables and fruits in to your diet.
I found this out the hard way when I had reached my daily calorie goal and it was only 15:00. That really is no fun, so eat smart and make all your calories count.
To not make it more complicated than it in reality is I will just mention one more thing and that is cardio
Cardio
Cardio can really help you lose fat by increasing the amount of calories your body burns each day.
By doing at least 20 min of cardio each day you will burn additional 300 calories, depending on the person.
It really makes fat loss a whole lot easier and it does not take as much time. 20-30 min is really all you need, and this also goes in to your calorie calculator.
To get much more info about cardio, I will post an extensive and detailed article about cardio with all the information you need to know. So please stay tuned for the article that I am going to post 1. October.
Summary
As a short summary i am going to go over all we went through in this article.
#1 Set a goal and commit to it. Promise yourself that you are going to do everything you can, to achieve it.
#2 Find out how many calories your body burns each day and eat 20% less in order to lose fat
#3 Do optional cardio to make fat loss a lot easier
Don`t make fat loss more complicated than it is. Go out there and accomplish your fat loss goal.
You can do it, GOOD LUCK!
