Managing Belly Fat for Men & Women

Managing Belly Fat for Men 

Many men must deal with getting rid of belly fat. But how do you go about doing it? First we need to understand where it comes from, what are the problems with belly fat and then we can determine ways to get rid of it and keep it off.

Where Belly Fat Comes From

Doing research on this I found one article stated that it is more prevalent in women than men. I would disagree with this because I think women pack on their excess weight on their backside, while men collect it around the belly.

Your fat can comes from many places such as hormonal changes in your body, hereditary, weight gain as you age, sitting behind a desk at work and not getting any physical exercise, and the big one is poor diet because of a poor selection of food choices.

Problems With Belly Fat

Besides making you not look good, belly fat can also cause health problems. Such health problems as:

• Hypertension - This is just another word for high blood pressure.
• Heart Disease- This can lead to many problems with the main one being heart attack. This is one of the main killers of both men and women.
• Diabetes- This is Type 2 Diabetes, which develops in adults and comes from various sources, with obesity being the main source.

These are the main health problems you can develop when you collect all this fat.

Stopping Belly Fat

If you get to the point where you notice you are developing fat, there are certain steps you can take to stop it and even remove it. Here is what you need to do:

• Exercise- This not only will remove your fat but also give you better health. I belong to a health club and ride a stationary bike for about 50 minutes at about 17 miles per hour. So if you get on a stationary bike, make an effort at it. Also I lift weights for about 20 to 30 minutes. All this is done six days a week.
• Diet- Also important in losing belly fat, in fact if you just exercise, you will probably keep your belly fat. Your diet should consist of plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains, poultry and fish. I also take Omega-3 for their essential fatty acids, which have been proven to help you lose fat when you also include exercise.

Managing Belly Fat for Women

Belly fat is the most frequently asked question by women, and of course they want the fastest and quickest way to lose it. There are many articles and diets out there that claim they can help you lose unwanted belly fat but it can be very overwhelming. I have been in the fitness industry for 10 years and have worked with real women that have struggled with these issues. Let me say it can get a bit complicated then just going on a diet. Women do struggle more than men to lose this. You must be patient in the process as it is not a linear process.

First off, I don't like the word "diet" it sounds very negative, and is short-lived. Most women that go on fad diets gain the weight back and then some, which contributes more to losing belly fat. What you first must understand is that if you want to really lose the belly fat you must adapt a healthy life-style. You also must mentally prepare yourself for this and feel you are ready to change. It is a decision to be committed rather than just interested. Committed means you do what it takes, and interested is that you will only do just a little and end up frustrated because you didn't get the results you wanted.

The first thing you want to do is look at your nutrition. The main thing to be concerned about is calories. Too little calories and the belly fat will not come off and the same thing for too many. You need to be in the right calorie deficit to lose belly fat. You might be thinking of what type of plan you should be on, but the real secret is how many calories you are taking in for the day, but also make sure that protein is set up to your daily requirement. This can vary anywhere from 1-1.5 grams per body weight or some like to go by their lean muscle mass.

The second thing you need to get is fish oils (6 grams daily) this will help you lose fat.
You actually need the right amount and types of fat to lose the belly fat. Most programs can show you how to take weight off, put if your serious about losing the belly fat you need to focus on fat loss not weight loss for permanent results. As you progress your body will plateau and you actually have to keep adjusting your metabolism. This is done mainly through nutrition.

Believe it or not sometimes you have to go up in calories in order to lose more belly fat. I know this may sound counterintuitive but it's true. Do this very carefully, otherwise you can end up worse off than before. I recommend hiring a highly skilled fitness professional that knows how to do this. They must understand nutrition beyond the scope of what most people think.

Thirdly, is your training program. This will consist of both weight training and cardio. I find many women doing cardio the wrong way. Forget about long sessions on steady state cardio, these can actually produce too much cortisol, which leads to belly fat. Many women are exercising this way to lose belly fat, when in fact they are being counterproductive in their exercise. The right way to do cardio to lose belly fat is interval and HIIT (high intensity interval training). These are short bursts that can be done outside or on a cardio machine. For example of HIIT would be 20 seconds of a workload followed by 30 seconds recovery then repeat the cycle for 8-12 times then perform a moderate cool down. Intervals will be longer in both work and rest segments. When it comes to losing belly fat, weight training is very important and you want to keep a variety of reps schemes.

Doing heavy sets one week (6-8 reps), and the following higher rep sets (10-15) is a good way to mix things up. There are many ways you could put together a weight training program, but I want to stress that you need to have variety and don't think doing light weights and more reps is going to get rid of the belly fat either. Just to keep things simple, know that you need to vary your program. Another key to getting rid of belly fat is intensity, if you are working out and you are not sweating an breathing hard then you need to push yourself harder. Dont' waste time when you are working out, rather keep your sessions intense and keep rest brief in between sets (45 seconds- 2 minute rest). This will vary depending on your program.

The forth component is tracking your progress. Take your body fat every 2 weeks, along with measurements, pictures, and try on a pair of pants that are too small. Things can fluctuate so you might have the measurements read the same but your pants feel looser. I find that by doing all of these things gives you a more accurate picture. Even the mirror can be deceiving as you look at yourself everyday, water weight can give you the wrong impression of progression. If you are not changing after every 3 weeks, you need to change your program. Women tend to stay on the same program for a long time and wonder why things aren't working. Like I said in the beginning, losing belly fat is not a linear process. You're body will plateau, so you need to take the necessary steps in tweaking your program.

Lastly, but most importantly is conditioning your mind to stay motivated. For some reason this doesn't get addressed the way it should. Everything you do is a mental process and that goes with losing the unwanted belly fat too.