I’m willing to bet that if you are reading this, you have at least once in your life googled something like “how to lose belly fat” or “belly fat loss tips”. 

I’m even more willing to bet that when you google that, all you’re going to find is bullshit. 

So what we’re going to do is go through the top 5 things you would most likely see when you google “how to lose belly fat” and I’m going to tell you why that’s bullshit.

My goal in doing this is to help you be able to identify these types of things while you’re out in the world or researching or going on your fitness journey and realize that they are absolutely not true and to just ignore them. 

Number 1: You can potentially target belly fat for elimination. 

Truth: You can’t preferentially “target” belly fat for elimination or any other type of fat for that matter. Unfortunately, where in our body we lose body fat is all genetic. No amount of crunches or planks or anything else is going to directly burn the fat away. 

If you see something that says, “fat blasting workout” or “a belly fat burning workout”, I want you to know that that is not true and that it’s just a high-intensity workout that’s gonna get you to sweat a lot. To make it clear again, we can’t target where we lose body fat.

Number 2: There are no individual foods that help or harm the process. 

Truth: The belly bulge isn’t caused by high glycemic carbs, it’s not caused by processed foods, it’s not caused by dairy, and no amount of healthy fats, healthy carbs, or healthy protein is gonna get rid of it. So there are no magic foods. But either good or bad, doesn’t exist, it’s just food.

Number 3: your meal frequency isn’t the problem

Truth: Eating many small meals per day doesn’t “stoke the metabolic fire”, and eating fewer larger meals per day doesn’t send your body into “starvation mode. It doesn’t have any significant advantages either. So your meal frequency or when you eat breakfast, or when you eat dinner, eating before bed is not the problem. 

Number 4: eating late at night is not a problem.

Truth: you can eat the majority of your calories at whatever time is comfortable and convenient for you.  Eating the majority of your daily calories early or late has no effect on weight loss parameters or body composition.

Number 5: stress isn’t the culprit

Truth: Stress can promote behaviors that lead to weight gain, but it can’t directly cause it through hormonal imbalances, imbalances, or other mechanisms. Fortunately, losing belly fat is actually much simpler than many people would have you believe. And we’re gonna get into that right now.

So how do you actually lose belly fat? 

The good news is that there’s really only one thing you need to do to get rid of ugly belly fat once and for all: reduce your overall body fat percentage. 

That essentially means to lose fat and maintain or gain muscle. 

Bad news? Easier said than done. 

I’m sure that you have probably already tried to lower your overall body fat percentage before and you either had some success, gained it back, or maybe didn’t have success at all. 

Because of that, I want to go through step by step how to do this and the right way with an example.

To help break this down, I’m going over the exact measurements I use to calculate my client’s macros and calories for their body fat for their weight loss starting with a safe amount of weight loss which is 0.4 – 0.8% of your body weight per week. You can decide where on that scale you want to be depending on how aggressive you want to be with your cut. 

Remember, the higher you go on that scale, the more hungry you’re going to be, and the lower you go on the scale. It’s just going to come off a little bit slower. 

The first thing you need to do to reduce your overall body fat percentage figures out how much bodyweight you want to lose per week, and then find a calorie deficit to match that. 

Let’s say I’m 140 pounds, and I want to be 130 pounds. Let’s say I wanted to lose 0.6% of my body weight per week which would be 0.8 lbs per week for me. 

Based on that, I can find my caloric deficit and how much of a caloric deficit I need to be in. The general rule is to think of one pound as 560 calories per day. In order to lose 0.8 lbs/ week, multiply that by 560 and that will give me a 470-calorie deficit per day for me. 

I know that 0.8 lbs probably doesn’t sound like a lot. But it is a lot to someone who’s only 140 pounds especially if it’s never coming back. 

Next is to ensure that you’re eating enough protein to maintain your muscle mass. 

How much protein should you be eating? A really good rule of thumb is to just do one gram per pound of fat-free mass. OR to make it easier, you could just do your goal weight in grams of protein. In this case, it would be 130 grams of protein each day. 

Last is to be sure that you’re lifting weights 3-5 times a week. 

You want to make sure in order to gain and sustain that muscle, you’re lifting weights at least three times a week. This is important in order to stimulate that muscle protein.

To summarize, this is what I would recommend to someone who is a beginner and is 140 lbs and wants to be 130 lbs: 

• Have a 470-calorie deficit
• Eat at least 130 grams of protein each day
• Life weights 3-5 times a week

If you are farther along in your fitness journey and more in tune with your body, another approach is to decrease your calories by a smaller amount. 

For example, instead of a 470 calorie deficit, lower it to 270 and then do 200 calories of cardio per day, on top of whatever you’re already doing. 

If you were to take this approach, know that it’s extremely important to be really consistent with the cardio and with the calories coming from the cardio. 

Now it’s important as you go through your fat loss cut to track progress using a lot of different things. The scale is just one way to track progress, but it’s really important to track also using photos and using measurements. 

I recommend a hip and a waist measurement because especially in women, some lose weight in their waist or their hips first. It really just depends on what type of body you have. 

Now, if you get to a point in your fat loss-cutting phase where you don’t want to go any lower into your deficit, you’re already hungry enough, your energy’s already low enough, or you’re just tired of dieting for an extended period of time, then it’s time to start your reverse diet which I explain and go over in my last blog post so go check that out. 

If you want even more in-depth information about this topic, don’t forget to check out my podcast here.  

If you’re ready to take action on your fitness journey and see lasting results, click here to apply for my Metabolic Reboot System, and let’s chat!