How to Get Rid of Your Muffin Top?

A common weight loss challenge most people face is the horrid “muffin top.” Conventionally, obese people are advised to concentrate on spot reduction exercises to get rid of the excess fat. However, these days, studies advise that a plenty of cardio exercises, healthy food and a positive attitude can effectively get rid of belly fat or the muffin top. If you want to know how to lose muffin top, here are some tried and tested ways of getting rid of a muffin top.

Diet Changes

Eat fewer toxins:

Toxins are present in caffeine, processed foods, sugar, alcohol and animal products and tobacco. By eating a diet low in sugar, and rich in legumes, vegetables, nuts and whole grains, you can flush out toxins from your body. Also drink at least two litres of water per day to aid the release of toxins from your system. Bathing in Epsom salts is another way of reducing water retention in the body and get rid of muffin top.

Increase Your Intake of Essential Fats:

Fats have certain duties within our bodies such as transporting nutrients to different parts of the body, and to absorb fat-soluble vitamins that give us healthy nails, hair and skin. Therefore, a low intake of these fats can prevent our fat cells from optimal functioning.

Reduce Your Intake of Sugar:

An excess of calories is converted into fat and stored. This includes sugar-based foods, alcohol and low-fat foods. Instead of eating sugar, it is healthy to eat low GI carbs such as sweet potatoes, basmati rice and oats, nuts, green leafy vegetables and fish, you won’t have sudden surges of blood sugar levels. A regular diet of such foods can help you lose muffin top fast.

Increase Your Protein Intake:

It helps to increase your protein intake as this class of foods increase your insulin sensitivity, thus preventing quick digestion of food and causing less fat to be stored in the abdomen or surrounding regions. Proteins also encourage metabolism. You can get a good amount of proteins from fish, lean meat, vegetables and fruits.

Reduce Your Portion Size:

If you concentrate on your food and the amount you serve yourself, you will automatically eat less and your muffin top won’t grow at a fast pace. Instead, eat small meals every two to three hours and ensure they come with small portions. Do this five times in the day and include healthy food options.

Add Fibre to Your Diet:

By adding fibre to your diet, you will experience a feeling of satiety for longer, thus preventing you from eating unhealthy foods that will give you an ugly muffin top. It’s advisable to eat fibre for breakfast and lunch so that by the time you eat dinner, your metabolic rate is fast.

Reduce Your Salt Intake:

Possibly, the food you eat is very salty. To get rid of your muffin top fast, reduce your salt intake per day. You can do this by cooking your meals yourself so that you control the amount of salt in your food. To counter the effects of excess salt in your food, drink a lot of water to flush it out of your system.

Exercise

Focus on Cardio Exercises:

These days, trainers don’t recommend doing spot training to lose weight as this doesn’t work to give the desired results. Though some body parts lose weight faster than others, the fastest way to lose muffin top is to do exercises that promote overall weight loss.

Cardiovascular exercises like swimming, cycling, kick-boxing and dancing are good to get your body working to work harder to get rid of more calories and make your heart beat faster. As you begin to lose more calories, your muffin top will begin to recede.

Walking 10,000 steps a day with the help of a pedometer and doing short bursts of high-intensity exercises are also effective.

Do Strength Training Exercises:

This class of exercises help build muscle, which helps get rid of fat faster. These exercises should be done on alternate days, three times a week for about 25-30 minutes each day.

Lateral Workouts:

You may exercise your abdomen, chest and legs by doing lunges, squats and crunches, but what about your sides and back? By conditioning your muscles in every part of your body, you can reduce your muffin top. One good exercise for you would be to enter a swimming pool and hold on to the side rails and kick the water you stand in from behind you. Thirty minutes of this amazing exercise will give you fantastic results.

Learn Kick-Boxing:

You can get rid of your muffin top with this exercise and its side-kick combos and other twisting and jumping movements. This high-intensity exercise teaches you balance, and works your core, so that you have a lean figure.

Exercise is perhaps the best way to lose muffin top.

Get Rid of Stress:

When the body goes through stress, it releases a hormone called Cortisol. This hormone stimulates the body to release blood sugar into the blood to provide the body with the energy it needs to fight or take flight. When this sugar is released often through stress, it is stored as fat. Meanwhile, the female hormone estrogen stimulates fat to be stored in the body’s pelvic area, which worsens with stress. Stress can be relieved by doing Yoga exercises accompanied by meditation and having a positive attitude.

Improve Your Posture

If the muscles of the abdomen, hips and back are strong, it will reduce the rounded muffin top appearance because it helps to have well-defined muscles and strong blood circulation. A good blood circulation system helps the body to have a good supply of blood and oxygen to the body’s cells. This has a two-fold benefit to the body: One, it rejuvenates the individual; and two, it helps get rid of toxins from the body.

Exercise like Yoga or Pilates will also help, but to have one’s own correct posture is more important. So, you need to pull your stomach inwards, stand or sit tall and concentrate on your muscles of the stomach, back and hips or core. In time, your core muscles will give you the results you seek.

With so much going for you to get rid of that ugly muffin top, why not look at these options seriously and work towards achieving healthy results?