Weight loss: How to lose belly fat - but it’s not what you’d think

WEIGHT loss is often a common aim of Britons looking to shape up for the summer as the season of shorts and swimwear approaches. Belly fat can be a particularly tricky area to target. There’s one way you can get rid of it - but it’s nothing to do with eating.

Dr Michael Mosley reveals how much sleep people need

Weight loss efforts can often see dieters trying to lose belly fat in a bid to slim down. It can be a tricky area to target but actually the solution the isn’t always to do with cutting down on food. Several factors influence how to lose belly fat along with nutrition, including hormones, cortisol levels, workout intensity and mental wellbeing. So how can you banish belly fat? One key way to help blast a wobbly tum is by making sure you get a good night’s sleep.

Weight loss: How to lose belly fat - but it’s by sleeping not eating

Poor sleep can have a negative effect on hormones and increase levels of stress hormone cortisol making it harder to shift the bulge.

Quality rather than quantity is important when it comes to sleep. Five hours of deep sleep is much better than eight hours of interrupted slumber.

Personal Trainer Lee Mullins told Women’s Heath that putting your phone away two hours before you go to sleep will boost your snooze.

The blue light emitted by your phone will disrupt your sleeping pattern if looked at just before bed.

“More and more of our sleep issues are related to constant exposure to blue light from our laptops, tablets and phones, so two hours before you go to bed put your phone away so you’re not exposed,” Mullins told the health website.

“Eye exposure to blue light it shuts off the production of melatonin, our body’s natural sleep hormone, so we find it harder to fall asleep because we’re still wired from the day.”

weight loss how to lose belly fat sleep sleeping stress diet plan

Weight loss: One key way to help blast a wobbly tum is by making sure you get a good night’s sleep (Image: Getty Images)

Belly fat can not also an aesthetic concern for some people but it can also put you at greater risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Combatting stress is also vital in trying to lose belly fat. Yale University researchers found that women who experienced significant levels of stress, and were otherwise ‘slim’, were more likely to have “excess abdominal fat.”

“We also found that women with greater abdominal fat had more negative moods and higher levels of life stress,” said Elissa S. Epel, Ph.D., lead investigator on the study she conducted while at Yale's psychology department.

“Greater exposure to life stress or psychological vulnerability to stress may explain their enhanced cortisol reactivity. In turn, their cortisol exposure may have led them to accumulate greater abdominal fat.”

To limit stress before bed it can be a good idea to do deep, diaphragmatic breathing to help you relax.

weight loss how to lose belly fat sleep sleeping stress diet plan

Weight loss: Putting your phone away two hours before you go to sleep will boost your snooze (Image: Getty Images)

 weight loss how to lose belly fat sleep sleeping stress diet plan

Weight loss: Combatting stress is also vital in trying to lose belly fat (Image: Getty Images)

Exercise will also help shift belly fat. But, there’s one type which could be particularly important.

“Now all exercise is good for the body in some shape or form, but the most optimal route to take and one that has proven to be most beneficial for shifting weight and keeping it off long-term is weight training,” personal trainer at Ultimate Performance, Aroosha Nekonam, told Express.co.uk. 

“Weight training two to three times a week, including big compound movements along with a caloric deficit in your nutrition, is going to promote fat loss.”

Aroosha directed slimmers to focus on the big compound movements. These include: deadlifts, squats, lunges, chest presses and shoulder presses

She insisted that these moves “are going to greatly improve your body composition as they are working the whole body”.

It could be worth taking a closer look at your diet. While it may have health benefits in small amounts, research suggests that drinking too much alcohol may see you gain belly fat.

As reported by Healthline, in a study of more than 2,000 people, participants who drank alcohol regularly but with an average of less than one drink per day had less belly fat than those who didn’t drink so often, but consumed more of the beverage than others did on the days that they drank it.

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