Lose Belly Fat Like a Pro: The Only Guide You’ll Ever Need

Don’t you just wish there was a magic solution to getting rid of body fat? For many people, general exercise is insufficient to shed excess fat from their midsection.

There are no shortcuts to getting the body you want instantly. However, you can reduce your belly fat through a dedicated and sustained effort.

It will take hard work and discipline to achieve results, but nothing is more satisfying than finally having the body you worked so hard for. Here is a basic guide to help you learn how to lose lower belly fat.

1. If You Aren’t Already, Get in Shape

If you are overweight or not already at a basic minimum standard of fitness, you will have some work to do before you can begin focusing on lowering your body fat percentage.

The first step for you is to get your weight down to a healthy level, which should be accomplished with a basic diet and exercise plan.

At this stage, the goals are fairly simple: You want to consume fewer calories than your body is burning so you can lose weight.

Focus on eating healthier foods from various food groups, and make it a goal to get regular exercise. Any type of cardio exercise that keeps your heart rate up will do.

Once you are at a good fitness level and within your ideal weight range, you can target specific problem areas, such as belly fat.

2. Don’t Try the Same Thing Again and Expect Things to Turn Out Differently

If you have done a million crunches without seeing any noticeable changes to your abs and stomach, perhaps your approach is wrong.

Think about it simply: crunches and sit-ups work your abdominal muscles, but you aren’t trying to build muscle; you are trying to lose extra fat.

You will see an improvement in the strength of the abdominal muscles, but this strategy will not remove the fat in the area. If doing endless ab exercises hasn’t yielded the desired results, consider trying something different.

3. Focus on Reducing Your Overall Body Fat Percentage, Not Spot Reduction

Most people give up trying to lose lower belly fat after all their crunches fail to impact them positively. You have to realize that the science behind the idea of spot fat reduction is shaky at best.

This means that working the muscles around an area does not necessarily result in fat loss in that area.

Focusing on a strategy that lowers your overall body fat percentage and increases your muscle mass will benefit you more. Two ways to approach this strategy work best in combination.

4. A Combined Cardio and Strength Routine 

Both techniques are essential to achieving the body you want, especially to lose fat in the midsection.

Cardio exercises will help you to shed extra pounds of fat. To prevent your body from overcompensating and storing extra fat, combine this with strength training exercises to increase your muscle mass.

When you strength train, your body’s muscle mass will increase, ensuring that your cardio exercise leads to greater fat loss and less muscle loss.

You can do abdominal strength exercises if you want to, but you won’t see targeted fat loss in the midsection like you would hope to. Fat loss only comes with an exercise approach incorporating cardio and strength workouts.

5. Make Sure Your Diet Is Not Holding You Back

Anyone will lose weight just by burning more calories than they eat daily, but that does not mean they are eating healthy.

Calorie counting is a good enough approach if your only goal is weight loss, but it will not help you to lose stubborn fat in your midsection. A healthy and well-balanced diet is one of the most important keys to reducing body fat.

This sounds obvious to most people, but you will be surprised how many spend hours a week doing crunches yet spend their evenings drinking beer and eating unhealthy food. If this sounds like you, it is time to shift your diet and nutrition plan significantly.

6. Create a Balanced Nutrition Plan

Many people want to automatically make an extreme plan if they are trying to cut their fat levels. They strive to cut out ALL fats from their diet and eat massive amounts of protein.

They are correct in the basic idea: lowering overall fat consumption, and increasing consumption of healthy lean proteins, but the extreme approach is going to backfire.

The best nutrition is well-balanced, with foods from every major food group and portions of each type of food adjusted to maximize fat loss.

You should aim to consume far less fat, but remember that a few healthy fats, such as olive oil, can help promote fat loss.

You should also strive to increase your lean protein intake, but not at the cost of skipping foods from the other food groups.

Fruits and vegetables are always a good choice because they are rich in vitamins and minerals that your body needs. Moderation of your carbohydrate intake would be best, but it is unnecessary to forego carbs completely.

A moderate amount of complex carbohydrates is fine; your body will only convert large quantities of carbohydrates into fat when you eat in excess.

There is no secret trick to losing lower belly fat other than a good nutrition and exercise plan. You can do as many crunches as you want, but it is important to realize that this alone is insufficient.

Crunches will make your stomach look leaner or your abdominals look more defined, but you must follow the tips above to shed the excess body fat from your stomach.