How Intermittent Fasting Helps with Belly Fat Loss

SoonFasting Team

1 year ago

What gives? You exercise most days of the week and try to eat as many nutritious meals as you can, yet the scale says you’re gaining rather than losing weight. The hardest areas of weight to lose can be those around your waist. However, think about this before you criticize yourself for not performing enough crunches at the gym: As we age, even a small hormonal imbalance might cause stubborn belly fat to persist.

However, there are still ways helping you lose weight and belly fat as well in a healthy way. That is, intermittent fasting or IF, which has gained much media attention as a promising way to keep a healthy eating pattern and lifestyle.

Science-Backed Evidence on Intermittent Fasting’s Benefit for Belly Fat Loss

A sizeable section of the population is obese, which increases the chance of developing chronic illnesses like cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and blood sugar, heart disease, type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance. Numerous weight-loss programs make the claim that body fat loss would bring many health benefits, so more people are turning to intermittent fasting to burn fat.

Intermittent fasting (IF) has long been used as a method of religious devotion, but more lately, it has gained attention as a purported method of weight loss. However, a lot of folks ponder whether it can especially aid in belly fat or abdominal fat loss. The ins and outs of intermittent fasting (IF) will be covered in this article, as well as how it might help people lose their persistent belly fat. The significance of additional human research is underlined.

If you take fewer calories than you burn off during IF, you will lose body fat and experience an accelerated burning of fatty acids because you burn fat by creating a calorie deficit and using fat as fuel. A 2014 study has shown that both IF and alternate day fasting are just as powerful for weight loss and type 2 diabetes risk reduction in overweight and obese populations as calorie restriction. Similar to any other temporary diet, losing belly fat will happen at the same time as losing overall body fat. In addition to the controversy surrounding the spot therapy, additional studies have revealed that IF causes a bigger reduction in waist circumference than calorie restriction alone. Evidently, additional study is required, especially concerning humans.

How to Do Intermittent Fasting for Belly Fat Loss?

Intermittent fasting, also known as IF, places more emphasis on when you eat than other diets do on what you should consume. It focuses on the timing of your meals rather than the specific items you should eat. This makes it less of a diet in the traditional sense and more of a tool for changing eating habits. In fact, the most important thing about IF is the eating and fasting windows. There are a lot of popular IF plans offered such as 16:8 method, 5:2 method, alternate day fasting, eat-stop-eat fasting, 14:10 diet, the warrior diet and so on. Then, what is the best fasting window for belly fat loss?

Not just IF diets are affected by meal timing. It is not surprising that your bodies would respond differently to varied fasting periods as our bodies respond differently to meals and snacks throughout the day in terms of nutrient metabolism and hormonal balance.

While more research is still required to determine the appropriate fasting window, a recent study indicated that participants who fasted for 14 hours and then ate for the following 10 hours experienced weight loss success. In a different study, participants who fasted for 16 hours as opposed to 12 hours showed similar weight trends, but those who fasted for 16 hours had lower insulin levels, lessened insulin resistance, and lower blood pressure. The alternate-day fasting or 16:8 IF regimens had no effect on weight loss or waist circumference, according to another review of studies.

The time of day the fasting window occurs is something that is sometimes overlooked when thinking about an IF schedule. There is a circadian rhythm in the metabolism of nutrients, and this rhythm is highest during the day, when eating should take place. In order to allow for calorie intake when metabolism is high and more calories are digested due to high thermogenesis, a circadian rhythm diet includes an eating window from 7am to 7pm. But you may easily change this fasting window to a 16-hour fast with meals limited to 11am to 7pm in order to get the same beneficial metabolic effects on belly fat reduction while synchronizing with your circadian rhythm.

3 Steps to Schedule Intermittent Fasting for Belly Fat Loss

An excellent strategy for assisting your body in activating fat-burning processes is intermittent fasting. But any advantage from the fasting time could be lost if employed improperly by not taking into account your meals, rest, and exercise as well. Here is a step-by-step instruction of intermittent fasting for belly fat loss.

Step 1. Adjust your fasting window.

Although it seems like the most apparent step to take, it may actually be a little more complicated than you first thought.

First of all, because it gives your body time to naturally lower its insulin levels, the fasting phase is essential to intermittent fasting. High insulin levels stop fat burning, after all. When insulin is allowed to naturally fall off when you aren’t eating, lipolysis is triggered, which enables your body to begin utilizing the stored fuel in your fat tissues.

It’s crucial to pick a window that fits your schedule the best while selecting it. Not everyone will have the same window, and not everyone will fast for the same amount of time. Start with a 12-hour fast if you’re just starting out and increase it to a 16-hour fast as your body becomes more “fat adaptive” and metabolically flexible.

Step 2. Prepare meals with a reduced insulin response in mind.

The lowered insulin response brought on by eating less frequently and include a fasting period is one of intermittent fasting’s key benefits for burning fat including belly fat. By preparing and consuming meals that focus on reaching a similar result, you can further enhance and build upon these outcomes. High-quality proteins, high fiber fruits and vegetables, and high fiber fats are the foods that have the least effect on insulin levels. Eat them as many as possible.

Step 3. Improve your sleep, stress, and exercise routine.

Improving your sleep and cortisol (the stress hormone) balance is crucial to achieving your primary aim of decreasing belly fat. It turns out that increased cortisol levels are associated with weight gain, particularly around the abdomen. Poor sleep, high emotional stress levels, and a poorly planned fitness routine are some of the main contributors to overly high cortisol levels.

Other Tips Beneficial to Reduce Belly Fat

It’s not just a nuisance when your clothes feel snug because of belly fat. It’s quite hazardous. Body mass index (BMI) is a popular tool used by health organizations to categorize weight and determine the likelihood of developing metabolic disease. This is false, though, as even those who appear slender have a higher risk of developing excess abdominal fat.

But don’t worry!

There are a few tips to eliminate excess long-term fat stored in belly, even though reducing fat from this area might be challenging.

Reduce carb intake.

You can lose a lot of fat, particularly belly fat, by cutting back on your carb intake. Overweight individuals, those at risk for type 2 diabetes, and those with polycystic ovary syndrome who follow diets with fewer than 50 grams of carbohydrates per day have a reduction in belly fat (PCOS).

You are not required to adhere to a rigorous low-carb diet. According to several studies, merely substituting unprocessed starchy carbohydrates for refined carbohydrates will enhance metabolic health and reduce belly fat.

Avoid trans-fat-containing foods.

By adding hydrogen into unsaturated fats like soybean oil, trans fats are produced. They are frequently added to packaged goods as well as various margarines and spreads. In observational and animal research, these lipids have been connected to inflammation, heart disease, insulin resistance, and belly fat growth.

According to a 6-year study, monkeys who consumed more trans-fat developed 33 percent more belly fat than those who consumed more monounsaturated fat.

Read ingredient labels carefully and steer clear of goods that contain trans fats to aid in belly fat reduction and safeguard your health. Partially hydrogenated fats are frequently used to describe them.

Maintain healthy habits.

Let’s say you want to attempt IF and your objectives are to safely lose weight and gain lean muscle mass. In that situation, it’s imperative to maintain healthy routines like working out, getting enough sleep, consuming enough calories and protein throughout your eating window, and always remaining hydrated. If you want to keep losing weight, building muscle, and losing visceral fat, you cannot sacrifice other aspects of your health in the sake of fat burning.

Have high-protein meals.

According to new research, eating high-protein meals frequently throughout the day and fasting one or two days a week may help you lose more weight and belly fat than calorie restriction alone. According to a presentation at ObesityWeek® 2021, the annual conference of the Obesity Society for academics and clinicians, a protein-pacing diet combined with intermittent fasting resulted in more fat loss in a study than a typical heart-healthy diet.

For controlling weight, protein is a crucial food. If you’re attempting to lose weight around your midsection, high protein foods like fish, lean meat, and beans are recommended.

Do resistance exercise.

For maintaining and building muscle mass, it’s vital to engage in resistance training, generally referred to as weightlifting or strength training. Resistance exercise may also help with belly fat loss, according to research including individuals with prediabetes, type 2 diabetes, and fatty liver disease.

In fact, a study involving overweight teenagers found that the largest reduction in visceral fat occurred when strength training and aerobic exercise were combined. It’s a good idea to seek counsel from a licensed personal trainer if you decide to start weightlifting.

References: