ExRx.net

Whether you’re tired of seeing a “muffin top” hanging over the waistband of your favorite jeans or are concerned about the health risks associated with excess belly fat, try to adopt eating habits designed to help you reduce the added pounds you’re carrying around the middle. By adopting certain foods into your daily diet, you can increase the ability to lose stomach weight. Combine the dietary changes with exercise and you’ll find success with your diet to lose belly fat.

1.Diet to lose belly fat by eating more foods that are good sources of monounsaturated fatty acids, proven to be an effective way to lose stomach weight. Foods such as peanut butter, nuts (particularly macadamia nuts, sunflower seeds, walnuts and almonds) and green and black olives are touted for their ability to burn belly fat.

2.Include flaxseed oil into fruit juices or smoothies when you’re trying to diet to lose belly fat. The Omega 3-rich ingredient is high in fiber to reduce constipation and water retention and has been shown to increase metabolism to help burn belly fat.

3.Ingest more of the right type of carbs that can help when losing belly fat. A diet considered the best way to lose belly fat includes equal amounts of fruits, vegetables and whole grains and a reduction of simple high-carb foods loaded with detrimental trans fats like fried foods, chips and cookies. It’s recommended to increase carbohydrate consumption slowly, however, since a diet featuring more than seventy percent carbs can lead to bloating (and the look of more belly fat).

4.Increase your water intake to drink at least ten glasses of water each day. Often considered the best way to lose belly fat, the extra fluid can flush toxins and sodium out of your system and reduce constipation and water retention that can lead to bloating. While increasing water intake, avoid liquids with excessive sodium that can increase bloating like sodas or canned soups.

5.Eat smaller meals throughout the day to aid digestion and improve metabolism that can help when losing belly fat. Skew your meals so you’re eating about seventy-five percent of your food before your evening meal so you’ll have time to burn off excess calories before bed.

I have several issues with this advice, even though it may work for some people. The biggest issue is the use of the term "muffin top" and "belly fat". These are 2 different conditions. The first is excess subcutaneous fat and is usually associated with excess fat everywhere, the second is excess visceral fat and is usually associated with fatty liver. The advice given will make the later situation worse.

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Let thy food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy food.~Hippocrates
Strength is the adaptation that leads to all other adaptations that you really care about - Charles Staley
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Thanks TimD

It's spam. Here's the same test on some other sites:

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Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.--Francis Chan

All the more reason to de-bunk it. I'm tired of crap advice cluttering the web. The more stuff is repeated, the more people believe it.

Since a large proportion of our readers are middle aged men, the "belly fat" issue is more important to them and advice like this is dangerous to that group.

_________________
Let thy food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy food.~Hippocrates
Strength is the adaptation that leads to all other adaptations that you really care about - Charles Staley
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Thanks TimD

The Google search turned up a bunch.

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Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.--Francis Chan

nice work
But it was clear it was spam right, without the google/

I'll take parts of it, like Peanut Butter and assume that is true. Yum. Bye bye belly, hello Jiffy.


Stu,
besides egggs and beef liver, what else can I do for my belly fat - that would be distinct from the all around fat person. I do think I'm mroe the belly fat type. I cant grab gobs of loose fat elsewhere

I knew it was spam right off the bat, but by the time I got to it this morning, a discussion had already started, and fairly interesting. I generally watch the Doc Oz show before going to work, and he's always showing something alternative and controversial on his shows, and the fat loss alternatives from mainstream thinking show up a lot. One that was on the other day had to do with the omega 3's. Not sure I buy into it, but it doesn't seem to be able to hurt anyone. Says to eat a small handful of almonds before each meal to provide omega 3's and produce some fat burning effects. Stu, you're up. You're take on this?
Tim

fwiw, I addded almonds quite regularly to my broccoli and coconut oil afternoon snack in October. I have nothing but good things to say about that combination
Even better with a can of tuna tossed in. Then its a meal

Hmm, good idea. I already do a mix like that, but will add almonds to it. I use mackerel though, it's much cheaper than tuna where I'm at, and as a side note, higher in omega 3's. I mix a mackerel mixture, cottage cheese, chopped brocolli, and when I feel like whole grains, add a quinoa lentil mixture. Good stuff.

I was somewhat inspired by you and your mixes previously. Not saying its the way you think, but I've developed a "85% of the taste/texture benefit with 20% the effort". For example who needs to blend berries and yogurt and oatmeal? Just eat them toether with a spoon. Quiches? Why not ust scramble eggs with broccoli/spinach sauteed onion and throw on some cheddar. Anyway, you know what I mean. The recipes add these extra steps that do little for flavor but add time and clean up.
The cook up large batch of green beans and mix in with good proteins was something I "stole" from you. Probably 80% of what I eat at home now comes from Big Shopping Club

Alcohol is the traditional cause of a big belly, hence the name, "beer belly". It appears that fructose has the same effect on the liver as alcohol, therefore you should eliminate concentrated fructose sources like table sugar or high fructose corn syrup. I think the reason it's reached epidemic proportions is due to increased consumption of soft drinks.

The reason that I think the post is dangerous is that the measures they gave, increased mono-unsaturates, fruit juices, fibre, etc, aren't going to do anything for you. Flax is only a benefit from the fibre but if you increase your vegetable intake you don't need it. Increasing carbs to the extent they recommend will lead to fat and protein deficiencies. You can't get the fat soluble and B vitamins on a high carb diet and you need them in order to repair your metabolism.

"Fruits, vegetables and whole grains" are better than "simple high-carb foods loaded with detrimental trans fats like fried foods, chips and cookies". However that way of eating is nowhere's near as good as a vegetable and meat based diet.

Omega 3 was mentioned. Controlling inflammation is important but the method presented won't do it. Flax is a poor source of omega 3. Get it from fish. Minimize omega 6 which is in vegetable oils and grains.

You and Tim already know all this and I'm just preaching to the choir but thanks to both of you for the opportunity to give my take on this.

I should also point out, just for completeness, that this type of fat is the most dangerous and greatly increases the chance of early mortality. No one is going to die from a "muffin top".

_________________
Let thy food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy food.~Hippocrates
Strength is the adaptation that leads to all other adaptations that you really care about - Charles Staley
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Thanks TimD

Part of October diet legacy has been the elimination pretty much of Diet Soda now. I not to fond of Aspartime as it turns out.
So, I'm doing Unsweet Tea mosly when out, or water at home.
But with the occasional slice or two of Pizza (Whole Foods mostly), dang gum, I like my soda. What do you think of Sierra Mist - no HFCS, jsut normal sugar, no artifical ingredients. Is it slightly better? I'm talking 12oz 2x per month.
And I never get tired of seeing it all again Stu. I really learned in October how muchof a diffence what I eat does for me. Boy, I felt really sharp too. It was qurter end here, and I was on the ball. Ufortunately, my simple carb craving did not go away, so I got to struggle a bit with that.

Almonds don't have Omega 3 to speak of. It's walnuts that have it. However it's ALA, as in flax and other vegetable sources. It has about 3% of the potency of your that found in fish. Almonds are good sources of manganese, magnesium and vitamin E. I suspect that's where the health benefits come from. Best is to eat a variety of nuts in small quantities. It seems every nut is high in different nutrients. I'd suggest a mix of almonds, walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts and brazil nuts. Getting the nuts in the shell that are so common at Christmas is probably the best way to buy them. Having them before your mean dulls your appetite and helps you keep calories down.

_________________
Let thy food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy food.~Hippocrates
Strength is the adaptation that leads to all other adaptations that you really care about - Charles Staley
_________________
Thanks TimD

Sorry to disappoint but normal sugar is 50% fructose, HFCS is 55%. Not much difference. Twice a month won't hurt. Have it after your workout and it will all go to replenish your glycogen instead of to your liver.

_________________
Let thy food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy food.~Hippocrates
Strength is the adaptation that leads to all other adaptations that you really care about - Charles Staley
_________________
Thanks TimD

Ground Flax Seed makes for a great texture whe added to yougurt and berries.

Anything wrong with it, presuming I get plenty of O3 elsewher?