Belly Flab Fighters

 One of my favorite forms of exercise is weight training/strength training. While strength training certainly has its benefits, when it comes to reducing belly fat, your best bet is aerobic exercise, say researchers from Duke University. A recent study found that resistance training alone had little effect on eliminating belly flab, while aerobic exercise burned 67 percent more calories for study participants and significantly reduced their abdominal fat. Study participants ran an equivalent of 12 miles per week to achieve these results. If your goal is to shed your muffin top quickly, first focus on adding aerobic exercise (four or five days a week) to burn more calories, and then add in resistance training on alternate days to help add definition and shape to your body.

Kick your Diet Soda Habit

If you think your diet soda is helping your waistline, you may want to reconsider: A 10-year study conducted by researchers at the University of Texas found that people who consume two or more diet sodas per day gained 70 percent more belly fat than those that didn’t drink it. What’s worse is the artificial sweeteners found in diet soda can cause belly bloating and may be worsening your sugar cravings. To kick your fake sugar habit, start slowly reducing your intake, by replacing that Diet Coke with a glass of sparkling water and a splash of lime or a cup of green tea. I know it's not easy to do but over time it can be achieved.

Carbs

There has been so much noise about carbs lately that people are getting confused and avoiding carbs altogether. Carbs DO have a place in your diet.


No need to cut carbs out completely, just reduce your daily intake. And better yet, make the carbs you do eat whole grains. According to a 2008 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, people who replaced refined grains with whole grains like oatmeal, bulgur or brown rice, lost more abdominal fat than people that also restricted-calorie diets but didn’t add whole grains to their meals. Not all whole grain products are created equal, though, so be sure to look for foods that list a whole grain as the first ingredient in order to reap its belly-busting benefits (whole wheat, rye, whole oats, etc.). Enjoy your carbs a little less often and you will make significant gains in the battle of the bulge.

Breakfast

 Rania Batayneh, a nutritionist and healthy eating strategist and owner of Essential Nutrition for You in San Francisco, Calif. “Studies show that people who regularly skip breakfast consume more calories throughout the day and are heavier than those who do. A healthy breakfast jumpstarts your metabolism and provides you with energy for a busy day.”

Choose one of these tips and begin TODAY! See the difference in a few short weeks.

To your best health and success.

Joyce Hearn
www.joycehearn.com