When you begin to see your Stomach fat go down and even some six packs peek, don’t be surprised to also find a lower abs pouch.
This the lower stomach fat is in fact a common frustration amongst man and women. It’s something that refuses to go away even after your upper abs start to take shape.
Consider your lower abs the final piece of the six-pack puzzle, cause undoubtedly, the lower belly fat bulge is the last to go, and the absolute first to come back when your diet and workout slip.
So what makes this notoriously stubborn lower belly pouch go away?
MORE FAT
While some sources of fat like hydrogenated oils and lard can lead to weight gain, other sources like extra virgin olive oil and walnut oil can have the opposite effect, making them excellent tools in any flat-belly arsenal. While EVOO increases blood levels of serotonin, a hormone associated with satiety, walnut oil’s high polyunsaturated fatty acid content is to thank for its fat-incinerating powers. The fatty acid has shown to increase diet-induced calorie burn and resting metabolic rate, the calories we burn to keep our body running.
GREEN TEA
In addition to its great taste and laundry list of health benefits, sipping green tea can make the time you log at the gym more worthwhile, research suggests. A recent three-month study found that those who sip up to five cups of the brew daily and log 25 minutes at the gym lose more abdominal fat than their non-tea-drinking counterparts who also broke a sweat. What makes the drink is such a powerful flab incinerator? It’s filled with an antioxidant called catechin that hinders the storage of belly fat.
LEAN PROTEINS
While dairy, fresh fruits, veggies and whole grains are important elements of a healthy diet, no other food group has as big an effect on weight loss as lean proteins. Low-fat meats like flank steak, white meat turkey, chicken and pork chops have been shown to boost satiety, which can reduce your daily caloric intake, fueling weight loss. Lean meats also have a high thermogenic effect, meaning your body actually burns off some of the meat’s calories as it digests. For the best flab-frying results, consume 0.8 to one gram of lean proteins per kilogram of bodyweight each day.
LIFESTYLE
SLEEP
Believe it or not, sleeping, dieting and training are equally important when it comes to sculpting a sick set of abs. No matter how many calories you cut or miles you log, it won’t get you anywhere near your goal unless you’re also getting enough sleep. In fact, losing a mere hour of shut-eye over the course of three days has been shown to negatively impact the body’s hunger hormone, ghrelin, increasing the number of calories you’re bound to consume each day. Researchers also say that skimping on sleep increases the odds you’ll wind up munching on junk food, especially at night, which can make it difficult to get chiseled abs. Conversely, quality sleep fuels the production of fat-burning hormones that can help you get you that washboard stomach you’ve been working for.
And if you find yourself counting sheep more often than not, let us teach you how to get better sleep with our simple, one-day plan.