You go to the gym at least twice a week. You only have a few beers and eat fast food here and there. You think you’re eating reasonable portion sizes, but you just can’t lose the beer belly. At Medical Transformation Center in Louisville, KY, we are passionate about helping our clients lead happier, healthier lives. Today, we explain weight loss for men to help you lose belly fat.
Weight loss for men is the same as weight loss for women. You must consume fewer calories than your body needs to maintain its current weight. At the end of the day, there are only two things you have to consider. First, you must consider how many calories you consume in a given period. Second, you must consider how many calories you burn in a given period.
Weight Loss Tips For Men: Calories In
Eat Plenty of Protein
The easiest change you can make to your diet to lose belly fat is to eat enough protein. There are several reasons for this. Increasing your protein intake increases satiety. In most cases, if you’re not hungry, you won’t eat. Therefore, increasing satiety can result in effortless weight loss.
Moreover, eating enough protein throughout the day ensures you maintain your metabolically active mass even when you eat at a calorie deficit. If you push your muscles to failure through resistance training, you can even build muscle while burning belly fat by eating enough protein. Bio-available protein sources include legumes, dairy products, game meat, eggs, and lean seafood.
Add Vinegar to Your Diet
If you’re trying to lose weight, vinegar is an excellent addition to your diet. Whether white vinegar or apple cider vinegar, vinegar is one of the most versatile condiments regarding health benefits. One study found that a mere 15 to 30 ml (one to two tablespoons) of vinegar daily reduced body weight, belly fat and waist circumference over a three-month period.
According to one study, adding vinegar to your diet will reduce your daily caloric intake by 275 calories. Considering there are 3,500 calories in a pound of fat, you can lose over half a pound of fat per week with this one simple change. To increase your metabolism and satiety, try adding white vinegar to refreshing, hydrating salads and tangy barbecue sauces.
Eat More Healthy Fats
When you’re trying to burn belly fat, dietary fat is not the enemy. While it may seem counterintuitive, eating healthy fats can increase satiety, which mitigates the risk of future weight gain. It also makes weight loss easier because you will be less tempted to overeat. Try adding fatty foods to your diet such as fatty tuna, salmon, almonds, olive oil, and whole milk.
At the same time, you should make a conscious effort to limit your consumption of unhealthy fats. Do not consume processed food that includes trans fats. Eat foods with saturated fat in extreme moderation. The best foods to eat include only monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat unless the food is natural. For instance, a cup of milk has 1.5 grams of saturated fat, but this occurs naturally.
Drink Healthier Beverages
Another simple change you can make to burn belly fat is to make healthier beverage choices. If you drink soda, stop. This may be a difficult change to make at first, but it will cut hundreds of calories from your daily intake without even committing more time to the gym. You should also stop drinking processed fruit juices.
If you can’t start your day without a glass of orange juice, make homemade orange juice. Limit your alcohol intake. A single shot of liquor contains only 96 calories. However, alcohol dehydrates you, which makes you crave salty foods like pretzels and french fries. Alcohol also reduces your inhibitions so you are more likely to eat half of a pizza or a double bacon cheeseburger.
Drink More Water
There is nothing wrong with drinking a reasonable portion of whole milk or homemade fruit juice. However, most of your liquid intake should come from calorie-free beverages. Green tea and coffee are high in polyphenols, antioxidants and other micronutrients that are good for your health. If you’re not sensitive to caffeine, these are good choices.
But drinking water is the best thing you can do to help you lose weight. Often, we mistake our thirst for hunger. Therefore, we instinctively eat high-sodium foods to help our body retain what little water it has left. But our body does not actually need the calories for fuel, so we gain weight. Water boosts your metabolism, does not confuse your hunger signals, and is calorie-free.
Eat More Fiber
One study of over 1,100 adults showed that for every 10-gram increase in soluble fiber intake, participants lost 3.7% of belly fat without changing their exercise routine or any other part of their diet. Soluble fiber moves slowly through the digestive tract and absorbs water along the way. This helps to keep you feeling fuller for longer.
A different study showed that increasing overall fiber intake (soluble and insoluble) by 14 grams resulted in a natural 10% reduction in caloric intake. This equated to 4.4 pounds of weight loss in a four-month period with no other conscious changes to diet and exercise. Try to eat nuts, seeds, whole grains, high-fiber fruits, legumes and high-fiber vegetables.
Reduce Refined Carbohydrate Intake
Just as you should drink whole milk because it is less processed, you should also reduce refined carbohydrate intake for the same reason. Refined carbs, during processing, are stripped of their bran and germ. The end result is food that is artificially low in fiber and nutrients and high on the glycemic index. When you eat foods with a high glycemic index, your blood sugar levels fluctuate.
Blood sugar levels spiking and crashing increases hunger and calorie consumption. This results in excess belly fat. Contrastingly, when you incorporate more whole grains into your diet, you will lose inches off your belly, lower your BMI and burn overall body fat. Replace processed cereals, white bread, and pasta with whole wheat pasta, whole grain bread, oats, barley, and quinoa.
Try Intermittent Fasting
Research indicates that intermittent fasting is a particularly useful technique for weight loss for men. Intermittent fasting is no more complex than cycling through periods of eating and not eating. By “not eating,” we mean not consuming more than 50 calories during the fasting period. This means you may have a shot of milk in your morning coffee during your fasting window.
The idea behind limiting caloric intake during your fasting window is that you don’t want to raise your glycemic index. The most popular intermittent fasting diet is the 16/8 method of intermittent fasting. Following this protocol, you fast for 16 hours and eat for eight hours. So, you may eat lunch at noon, eat dinner at 5 o’clock and eat a snack at 8 p.m. Then, you would go to bed and not eat breakfast.
Try Extended Fasting
Extended fasting is generally considered to describe a period of at least 24 hours without eating. This is perfectly safe and healthy for most individuals. Research shows that fasting for one day followed by a day of normal eating resulted in a 7% decrease in body weight and 12-pound weight loss.
Some people try extended fasting to lose weight and stick to this eating pattern once they have hit their target weight. You would be amazed by how much more time and mental energy you would have if you knew what you were (not) eating for the day.
Increase Your Iron Intake
Iron is one of the most important minerals for thyroid health. When you don’t consume enough iron, you can develop thyroid disease, such as hypothyroidism. This results in such symptoms as fatigue, weakness, shortness of breath, and weight gain.
Weight Loss Tips For Men: Calories Out
Start Strength Training
If you’re seeking weight loss for men to lose belly fat, you need to start strength training. If you’re already strength training, add an extra session to your weekly workout routine. Research shows that strength training reduces visceral fat. Visceral fat is the type of fat that surrounds the organs in your belly and makes your stomach look larger than it may actually be.
Other studies have found that combining weight training with aerobic training burned more belly fat and overall body fat than aerobic training alone. Moreover, a mere 10 weeks of strength training can increase calories burned at rest by 7% and help you shed four pounds. If you don’t have access to a gym or lifting equipment, do body-weight exercises, like pushups, squats, and lunges.
Increase Your Cardio
Cardiovascular exercise, also known as aerobic exercise, is one of the best things you can do to achieve weight loss for men. This type of exercise specifically improves the strength and endurance of the heart and lungs. A review of 16 studies found that there is a strong correlation between cardiovascular exercise performed and belly fat loss.
Moreover, cardiovascular exercise leads to increased muscle mass and reduced waist circumference, belly fat, and overall body fat. If you’re trying to lose weight, aim for 150 to 300 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise per week. This equates to around 20 to 40 minutes of exercise per day. The best cardiovascular exercise for weight loss is, for most people, indoor rowing.
Engage in HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training)
If you’re serious about burning belly fat, you need to engage in high-intensity interval training. This form of training involves a quick burst of high-intensity activity followed by a short recovery period. This is usually repeated for six to 10 cycles. One study revealed that only 20 minutes of HIIT performed three times per week resulted in 4.4 pounds of fat lost over three months.
Imagine how much weight you could safely use if you included HIIT in your workout routine in addition to regular strength training and traditional cardio. If you are crunched for time, don’t give up the resistance training. Rather, use HIIT to replace the cardio in your workout routine. The HIIT alone will result in a 17% reduction in belly fat in just three months.
Learn More About Weight Loss Tips For Men Today
To learn more about weight loss for men, please contact us at Medical Transformation Center in Louisville, KY today to schedule your initial consultation. Whether you’re trying to lose belly fat to be healthier, improve your aesthetic, or for some other reason, we can help you reach and maintain a healthy weight.
We have licensed nutritionists to help you create a diet plan that will allow you to meet your nutritional needs while fitting into your daily caloric budget. We also offer medical guidance and treatment for conditions that lead to weight gain, such as hypothyroidism.
