How Do I Reduce My Belly Fat

Before we go in to address how to reduce your belly fat let me ask if you really have bellyfat or are you just bloated?

Take a look at the picture below and take a guess if the woman below has bloat or she reduced her bellyfat?

Have you taken a guess?

She’s a prime example of someone who has bloat.

If you have bloat the size of your belly grows towards the end of the day which you can see gets pretty big and can remain big depending on what you’re eating in your diet.

With actual bellyfat the size of your belly is consistent no matter how much you eat or what your diet is.

So what do you have – bloat or bellyfat?

Let’s cover how to address both issues because they have different solutions.

It’s Bloat – What To Do Next

Bloat happens when the foods you’re eating are not properly digested by your stomach acids and you require extra bacteria assistance for digestion which produces gas that causes your stomach to expand. Certain foods can cause more gas and others cause less but that can vary from person to person.

There are foods that are classified as FODMAPS that trigger bloat in people.

You can reduce bloat by avoiding certain foods and adding a digestive enzyme supplement to your diet to aid with digestion. I’ve seen clients lose inches in a few weeks without changing how much they eat or their exercise routine.

You can get a list by reading High and Low FODMAP Diet Foods To Eat.

It’s Actual Bellyfat – What To Do Next

To burn extra fat you must be eating fewer calories than your body needs in order for your body to burn off the fat. There are 3 steps to help you easily reduce your belly fat which are listed below,

1 – Figure Out How Many Calories Your Body Needs

To do this there are plenty of online calculators that will help you figure it out. These ‘maintenance calories’ is known as your Total Daily Energy Expenditure or TDEE. It tells you how many calories you need to eat to stay at your current weight.

None of the calculators are 100% accurate. At best it is a close enough estimate using different equations to predict your calorie burn.

To figure out your exact number would require a few weeks of accurately tracking your eating and taking measurements every week. This way you can get as close to possible in knowing the exact calories your body needs and go from there versus relying on a calculator.

But any calculator can give you an estimate to get you started. Just Google ‘calorie calculator’ and you’ll get plenty of options.

Sometimes calculator predictions can be dramatically off because they are taking the average population. When your bodyfat level is above 30% calculator numbers will be off. Use the equation below instead to get a more accurate prediction,

And the multiplier below to give you your TDEE number,

2 – Create A Caloric Deficit

To reduce your belly fat means that you MUST be eating fewer calories than your body needs consistently over a period of time. This is a caloric deficit.

The key word here is CONSISTENTLY otherwise you won’t see any results.

There are different percentages of deficits you can take but to maintain and do it consistently over the long term I recommend starting out with a minimum of 15% deficit. Small deficits like this are easy to start with, you won’t get too hungry, and it’s easy to maintain.

However, if your body fat is higher than 25% than a 15% deficit is going to be slow and you won’t notice many changes. In this case, I would do a maximum deficit of 25%.

For example if you find out that your TDEE is 2000 calories then below are examples of how many calories to eat at different % deficits,

It’s better to start with a small deficit and increase it if you want faster progress versus the other way around. You want to see progress and you want to be consistently at a deficit to lose your belly fat.

3 – Best Foods To Eat To Reduce Belly Fat

There’s a lot of information on foods that will prevent, burn, and eliminate belly fat. What they all have in common is that the foods are unprocessed, whole foods. Foods in its most natural state are optimal for your health and for fat loss.

These foods fall into the following guidelines,

• They do not have a nutrition label on them. A nutrition label means that they can be possibly processed and the ingredients have gone through multiple stages for the final product.
• They don’t have an expiration date. An expiration date means that the food has preservatives to prevent them from going bad and other additives to preserve their flavors and enhance coloring.
• The foods are in their natural state. This means that they are ready to eat after being picked from the farm. For instance, vegetables and fruits and pasture raised animals versus buying frozen foods.

Because it’s almost impossible for you to eat only unprocessed foods and we like to indulge in unhealthy foods I recommend following an 80/20 rule,

Get 80% of your calories from healthy, unprocessed, natural foods following the guidelines above, and 20% of your calories from your favorite foods.

The 80/20 rule for a 2000 caloric deficit diet means that 1600 of your calories come from healthy, unprocessed foods and 400 calories from your favorite foods.

Now what about macro ratios like protein, fat, and carbs to reduce belly fat?

Your macro ratios come in second priority after getting your calories right.

Below is the hierarchy of priorities when it comes to reducing fat with calories being MOST IMPORTANT and supplements being LEAST IMPORTANT,

If you’re too concerned with cutting out carbs, sugars, fats but your calories are off you won’t see results. That’s why getting your calories right is THE MOST IMPORTANT step you can take to reduce belly fat.

You don’t have to cut everything out in order to lose your belly fat.

Eating at a caloric deficit and a sufficient amount of protein are the 2 most important numbers to get straight. Fat and carbs can be varied based on your eating preferences. Their ratios don’t matter as much.

Good luck on your journey!