How to flatten your belly? Exercise won’t do it. Pounding the streets or hitting the gym is unlikely to move it. 90% of your problem is diet. You must change what you eat.
Your body processes different foods in a strict order. Here is a rough picture. If you have alcohol to move, then everything incoming gets stored as fat until the alcohol is cleared. If you have glucose (from carbs) to move, either blood sugar or glycogen, this gets processed next. While this is happening any excess dietary carbohydrates or dietary fat gets stored as belly fat. If you are a woman then it may be stored on the hips.
If you have too much dietary fat in your blood, this is used up next. Only after the load of alcohol, glucose and dietary fats in the blood are disposed of, can you access your stored body fat. Only then can you unload this body fat, and convert to energy, making you slimmer.
How can you put your body into this belly fat melting state? By reducing insulin. It’s not rocket science. Step 1 - Throw out all the vegetable oils; Step 2 - Avoid alcohol; Step 3 - Tightly limit the carbs and sugar (the sources of glucose); Step 4 - Only eat when hungry; No snacking. That’s it. Seems easy right? But it’s not easy. You must transition slowly.
The hardest part is limiting the carbs. We have a food environment where carbs are everywhere and you have to be diligent to limit them. Almost all ultra processed foods are carbohydrate based. Avoid them. Many people are addicted to carbs and find it near impossible to give up their Grains, Bread, Pasta, Sports Drinks, Cola, Cake, Fruit juice, Biscuits, Donuts, Wraps, Cereals, Rice, Corn, Potatoes, Sugar, etc. You might ask “what can I eat”?
Plenty. But as I said, you have to go looking for it. You can eat Meat (all sorts), eggs, fish, green vegetables, dairy, sausages, cheese, mushrooms, olive oil, or coconut oil. You need to switch to a diet like your grandparents may have eaten. Meat and vegetables, fish, omelette, bacon and eggs, stews, cream, cheese, animal fats, BBQ food, butter, mushrooms, and liver. All very delicious.
This is a challenge because you are giving up the food that is most profitable to the food manufacturers, so they push back with all sorts of outdated claims. Such as: you need dietary glucose for your brain, healthy whole grains, saturated fat will clog your arteries, or eating fat will make you fat. None are actually true, but they help sell carbs.
Stick with it despite friends and family objecting due to their poor diet understanding. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that despite claims to the contrary, your nutrition level will increase. I’ve been doing this for 4 years, now off all meds and after 40 years of belly, it’s gone.
Seek professional medical advice before making dietary changes, particularly if on medication. Questions are welcome. Good health, George Elder, Diet Research Reviewer, Diploma in Nutrition.