Below are all the cheap or free ways to lose belly fat that doesn’t involve exercise. Many of these include dieting, as it is another of the most effective ways to lose weight anywhere on the body, as well as other natural lifestyle changes. The more you do at once, the faster you will likely see results.
Perhaps the best and most effective approach is incorporating as many steps into your routine as possible. Turn them into habits. By doing this, you develop a lifestyle that will help you lose belly fat and keep it off.
6. Get Sufficient Sleep
In a 2016 study, King’s College London researchers found a link between sleep deprivation and eating extra calories. Specifically, they found that sleep-deprived people ate an average of 385 more calories per day than those with enough sleep. Read more about this sleep deprivation study here.
It makes sense when you think about it. The purpose of sleep is to recharge your energy for another day. If you don’t generate enough resting energy to get you through the day, your body will find other ways to meet those energy needs, the simplest of which is to eat more.
Health experts recommend at least eight hours of sleep every night. Turns out it can help you lose belly fat.
5. Stay Hydrated
Drinking water helps avoid extra calories. More water will make you feel fuller, so you won’t feel hungry or have cravings. In addition, when your body is adequately hydrated, the energy and nutrients you put in can be used more effectively and efficiently, requiring less from you. In other words, when you’re well hydrated, your body functions better, so you don’t have to eat as much to operate.
Apart from drinking enough water, start your day with water every day. Do it in warm water, and you’ll clean your digestive system nicely and gently to start the day. It also increases your metabolism first thing in the morning and throughout the day. Drink hot or warm water throughout the day to melt, especially visceral fat. And back to square one, drink more water throughout the day, regardless of temperature, to stay hydrated and reduce cravings.
4. Limit Sugar
Excess sugar burdens the liver because simple sugars provide only quick energy. They do not provide continuous power. When the body experiences a spike in energy and a subsequent dip from consuming simple sugars, it begins to arm itself with other means to provide more sustainable energy to smooth out the surge. The easiest and most obvious way to do this is to build your own fat stores to fall back on when the energy spike from simple sugars wears off.
Therefore, when you eat simple sugars like desserts, bread, and anything made with refined flour or refined sugar, the liver can cause the body to store more fat than it should. One of the first places the body stores fat is the stomach.
Instead, choose complex carbohydrates, which are broken down more slowly and supply the body with energy more evenly and sustainably. Examples are whole grains, oatmeal, nuts, legumes, and vegetables. And even this should be eaten in moderation so you don’t end up with excess sugar that isn’t needed for your current energy needs and will eventually turn into more fat stores.
3. Eat More Fiber Foods
Make more of the high-fiber vegetables you eat daily and many high-fiber fruits too. High-fiber vegetables such as summer greens and high-fiber fruits such as apples, bananas, oranges, and strawberries can help you feel full more quickly, so eat less. All that natural fiber also helps remove excess waste from your digestive system that can lead to obesity, especially around the midsection.
In addition to high-fiber fruits and vegetables, high-fiber foods to incorporate into your diet include bran, barley and whole grains, beans, chickpeas and legumes, and nuts and seeds.
2. Eat More Protein Foods
Protein is another crucial nutrient you need to get plenty of each day. The body breaks down protein much slower than carbohydrates and fat, so the energy provided is more sustainable. Also, because of the nature of this protein, it causes the body to release a hormone called Peptide YY, whose job is to make you feel full.
Eating leaner, healthier proteins like eggs, nuts, and fish helps regulate your metabolism and allows you to maintain your weight by optimizing energy expenditure. This encourages your body to shed excess weight it doesn’t need to store anymore. It also helps you build muscle instead of fat, making you feel strong and requiring less food.
1. Chew Thoroughly
Whatever you eat, chew it thoroughly before swallowing. Most of the digestive process in terms of nutrient absorption occurs in the mouth before you even consume food. By the time food reaches your stomach, you have digested most of the nutrients you got from it. Most of what goes into your stomach is processed into waste or fat.
By chewing your food thoroughly before swallowing, you ensure you are getting the maximum nutrition you can from that food, eliminating the need to eat more food to get the same energy benefits. In other words, if you chew more, you eat less. And by eating less, your body produces less waste and fat.
