How to Lose Belly Fat and More Tips for Fast Weight Loss
It’s January, Baby!! A new year brings about the perfect time to shed the old and aspire for the new and improved you!
Typically speaking, we like to visualize a lighter, leaner, and more energetic version of ourselves this time of year. Let’s face it, most of us look at the new year as an opportunity to turn the ship in a new direction. You know, away from the pirates and our imminent hostile takeover and death.
Instead, we look to turn our ship towards Longevity Beach! At Longevity Beach, you feel comfortable in your own skin, finally shed that stubborn belly fat, and have more energy and mental sharpness!
The problem for so many lies in not knowing how their ship works. Although you’ve called this ship home for all these years, you still do not understand how it works. Every time the ship breaks down or sounds an alarm, you think, “Well, it is getting older…”
We at Apogee Wellness say (in our best English accent), “That is pure rubbish!”
The old adage that your age prevents you from looking, feeling, and actually being fit and healthy is as outdated as believing margarine helps you lose weight!
Anyone remember when “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” came out on the market? Our family gobbled that up as if it were saving our souls, but guess who’s parents still had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and eventually, cancer? Yep, right here!
The following will help you understand how to turn your ship around for the long haul. By following these steps, you will not only lose belly fat, but you will also experience sustained, fast weight loss, improved energy, and zest for life!
Belly Fat: Sounding Alarm for Danger Ahead
Consider belly fat your body’s way of turning on the “check engine” light. The check engine light went on when your waist circumference increased year after year.
I notoriously fix my car’s issues by simply turning the music up louder, but I understand that eventually someone will find me in a smoking car along the roadside. Probably crying. Essentially, ignoring the fact that your six pack abs decided to play hide and sneak under loads of weighted blankets equates to turning up the music and ignoring the problem.
One particular type of belly fat, known as visceral fat, surrounds your internal organs. Visceral fat negatively affects your hormones and precedes major health issues.
My grandpa used to take me to the dog racetrack in Council Bluffs, Iowa when I was a child. I loved it! You know, typical grandfather-granddaughter bonding excursion. One thing he would do is study the statistics of each dog before we left for the track. His statistical method for betting often led him to the winners circle.
If we studied visceral fat statistics of a group of people, we could predict with great accuracy who would end up with diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, and/or many other diagnoses. Visceral fat negatively impacts hormones such as testosterone and estrogen as fat plays a vital role in hormonal signaling.
Unfortunately, instead of receiving the winning accolades like the dogs at the racetrack, the winners of this competition simply pick out their casket earlier than others.
As we discussed in previous posts, our fat cells often house toxins that harm our body. This fact bears repeating as higher levels of fat indicate the potential for a toxic terrain, and when the body attempts to metabolize the stored fat, the fat-protected toxins need to safely and effectively exit the body. For some, this is easier said than done, which greatly impedes your body’s ability to lose weight.
Your entire system, in particular, your detox organs, must be up for the elimination task like Richard Simmons in “Sweatin’ to the Oldies!“
If you kids do not know what I’m talking about, search it up! It’s a classic.
Our Tips for Losing Belly Fat and Fast Weight Loss
We at Apogee Wellness believe weight balances once the body’s system works properly, with that in mind, the following guidelines support not only your weight loss goals but your entire detox system to ensure immediate and long-term health improvement.
Count your calories and track your macros. A weight loss plan without calorie and macro tracking is like trying to save money without a budget. You must understand where and how you spend to know if you save money. Macros, short for macronutrients, refers to carbohydrates, protein, and fat, which primarily provides the body with energy. With this data, you may adjust your calories and macros accordingly to determine what strategy best suits your body.
Consume 90-130 grams of protein per day. Protein contains amino acids, which the body needs to facilitate its metabolic processes. All too many people neglect this essential macro in their day-to-day lives making weight loss nearly impossible.
Remove food sensitivities. Food sensitivities cause blood sugar spikes, increased cortisol, decreased insulin sensitivity, and increased hunger (learn more).
Remove inflammatory foods. Inflammation drives disease. Inflammation creates excess weight. The known foods that increase inflammation include gluten, dairy, soy, corn, nightshades, vegetable seed oils, and sugar. Although, some people tolerate ancestral sprouted grains and grass-fed raw dairy without experiencing an inflammatory response in the body.
Eat for the season. In the winter, your body needs seasonal, cooked vegetables, and in the summer, your body calls for cooler foods such as salads and other seasonal fruits and vegetables.
Get up and move every 50 minutes for 10 minutes. Studies indicate that a sedentary lifestyle increases your risk of disease and death. As Dr. James Levine said, “Sitting is the new smoking.” Even with regular exercise, lack of movement throughout the day negatively impacts your health and body’s ability to lose weight.
Drink filtered water throughout the day. By drinking half of your body weight in ounces of filtered water, you help the body flush out toxins and feel less hungry.
Detox the body. As stated earlier, toxins are lipophilic and love to live in our stored fat including our brain, which is a big ‘ol ball of fat! We often hear our patients say they eat clean and exercise and still cannot lose weight, and when we start unblocking their drainage pathways, their weight quickly drops. To learn more about detoxing the body, check out our post on Detoxing Like a Boss.
Lower your stress levels. Cortisol, a stress hormone, increases visceral fat, chronic infections, toxins, deficiencies, and allergens. To avoid the stressful effects of overtraining, use HRV to track your training. Also, use a chiropractor, acupuncturist, and/or kinesiologist to help counter structural and energetic stress.
Avoid alcohol. Alcohol counts for 7 calories per gram. Not only do you increase your body’s toxic load, but you consume unnecessary, poor quality calories. Studies show that alcohol makes us less tolerant to stress, so our body secretes more cortisol at times when our body would not normally react. Again, cortisol levels increase visceral fat. It’s called a beer belly for a reason, people!
If you’ve been calorie restricted for months, reverse it. A reverse diet gives your body a break and may actually increase your metabolism. In this case, we recommend increasing 100 calories per week until you hit your maintenance calories and staying there for a month before decreasing.
Check your thyroid. The thyroid gland helps control our basal metabolic rate. Ask your doctor to run a full thyroid panel, which includes Free T3, Free T4, Total T3, Total T4, Reverse T3, TSH, TPO antibodies, and Thyroglobulin antibodies. You want to check for functional ranges not average ranges. To learn more, check out The Thyroid Connection by Dr. Amy Myers.
Avoid extremes. For women, especially, extreme diets such as Keto for long periods of time wreak havoc on our hormones. Metabolic flexibility is key so practice cross-training using different nutrition plans just as you would cross-train for physical fitness.
Avoid juicing. Juices often contain a high concentration of sugar as they include the juice of fruit. Green vegetable juices contain dense nutrients that benefit our detox organs, but often, vegetable juices contain fruit juices or high sugar vegetables such as carrots to improve its palatability, which harms our system and potentially increases our stored fat.
Enjoy your life! Happiness, joy, and love will bring harmony and an energetic balance to your system making it easier to shed weight and unhealthy emotions that hold you back in life.
Here’s to the Best Year Yet!
We have no doubt that you’ll crush your goals this year, and we at Apogee Wellness appreciate the opportunity to help you along your journey to true wellness! We strive to help you understand your ship and steer it in the direction you most desire.
Nude beach, here we come! Ok, maybe not the nude beach, but whatever - you do you! We are here to help, not judge!
