Where your body stores fat depends on a few different factors. Diet, lifestyle, and genetics all play a role in where fat is most likely to accumulate on the body. For those who store fat in the upper belly region, losing this fat can be particularly frustrating.
Upper belly fat is an accumulation of visceral fat that surrounds the organs of the upper abdomen. While this fat can be difficult to lose, it’s far from impossible. 5 tips for how to lose upper belly fat:
Create A Caloric Deficit
Creating a caloric deficit is one lifestyle change that should be considered first when trying to lose upper belly fat. If a person is consuming the same number of calories they’re consuming in a day, they can expect their weight (and their belly fat) to remain fairly stable. If a person is consuming more calories in a day than they’re burning through activity, they can expect to gain weight.
Consuming fewer calories in a day than what is being burned through activity is what is called caloric deficit, and the result is a boost in weight loss – including losing fat from the upper belly area. To lose one pound of fat, one would need to burn around 3,500 calories. The healthy way to use caloric deficit to target belly fat is to aim for consuming around 500 fewer calories per day than what is being burned through activity, resulting in a weight loss of around 1 pound per week. This weight is lost from all over the body, including the upper belly.
How To Lose Upper Belly Fat With Your Diet
What you eat matters just as much as caloric intake. Consuming fewer calories, but from unhealthy sources, can still lead to fat storage in the upper belly area. If a person takes to salty foods, for example, upper belly fat could be the result of water weight storage. If a person fails to consume enough healthy fiber, poor digestion may lead to accumulation of fat in the upper belly.
The calories being consumed should be from nourishing sources like lean proteins, whole grains, fresh vegetables, and fruit for maximum impact against upper belly fat.
Invest Time In Stress Relief
Stress has a way of sneaking up on a person. The stress accumulates until a person begins feeling the physical manifestations of stress. For this reason, stress relief should be a regular time investment – not something saved for when the feelings of stress become overwhelming.
Cortisol is also known as the “stress hormone”. It’s the hormone that triggers the fight or flight response someone feels when they’re under a great deal of stress. When a person is experiencing chronic stress, there is a constant heightened supply of cortisol flowing throughout the body.
In prehistoric times, there was a good reason for this cortisol production. Stresses were not caused by a tough day at work or being stuck in a traffic jam, they were caused by real threats that may require an immediate physical response from an individual. Prehistoric human ancestors would need to flee from an animal or human threat, get to higher ground during a flood, or save themselves from other imminent dangers. The cortisol helped their bodies to store the energy they needed to make and act upon this quick life-saving decision. In order to store energy, the body was storing fat that would later be burned during a fight or an escape.
In modern times, this stress hormone and its function may seem a bit outdated. Those with chronic stress, and therefore chronic cortisol production, find that their bodies are storing fat inappropriately – fat that will be more difficult to burn later. Investing time in stress relief can work to eliminate this improper upper belly fat storage.
Prioritize Healthy Sleep
According to the CDC, more than 1/3 of American adults are regularly sleep deprived. Stressful daily lives, busy schedules, and difficulty staying asleep are just a few of the reasons many cite as to why they can’t seem to get enough sleep on a regular basis. Not only will a lack of sleep effect how a person feels throughout the day, it will also impact how (and where) their bodies store fat.
While a person is asleep, hormones that control metabolic activity are being regulated throughout the body. These two hormones are called ghrelin (the hormone that tells a person when they’re hungry) and leptin (the hormone that tells a person when it’s time to stop eating.) With sleep deprivation, these hormones will fall out of balance, often causing the body to overproduce ghrelin while underproducing leptin.
An overproduction of ghrelin can cause a person to overeat, while a lack of energy often leads to food cravings high in carbohydrates and sugars. Overeating unhealthy foods quickly leads to upper belly fat accumulation.
Create An Exercise Regimen And Stick To It
Exercise helps the body to burn excess calories, and it works to target certain areas of the body depending on the exercises being performed. While maintaining an exercise routine isn’t easy, it’s one of the most effective ways to target upper belly fat and keep it from coming back.
New exercise routines can start slowly and build up in intensity as a person grows more comfortable with regular activity. However, consistency is key. For targeting upper belly fat, an effective starting goal is to set aside around 45 minutes to dedicate to exercise around 4 days per week. Planning for 4 days per week gives a person the on-day to off-day schedule that gives plenty of time for recovery and won’t overwhelm those who maybe aren’t used to regular physical activity.
As an individual gets more experienced with regular activity, they can begin to up the intensity level of their workouts, work out for longer periods of time, or extend their exercise days from 4 days per week to 5, 6, or even 7. So the answer to the question “how to lose upper belly fat”, it is simple. With regular activity targeting cardiovascular exercise and the upper belly region, one can eliminate upper belly fat quickly and effectively
