If you really want to smooth your stomach and get yourself abs of steel, there is no miracle solution. A healthy lifestyle remains essential: a balanced diet and sport, with no exceptions. The important thing is not to let bad habits set in, but instead to get into good habits. Those excess pounds that have been there a long time are hard to get rid of. If you want a flat stomach and to lose your love handles, check out these five tips from Domyos.
Men have a habit of satisfying their appetites as quickly as possible… But this can often rack up the numbers on the scales. Each time you get peckish, the fridge is calling, and the calories too! In order to get rid of a growing stomach, you simply need to keep an eye on your habits. Without depriving yourself of everything, enjoy yourself but also control any excesses. Keep a closer eye on your calorie intake: it should be appropriate for your age and level of physical activity. Eat a balanced diet and in moderate quantities. It is recommended that men aged 20 to 40 eat an average of 2700 calories per day; men aged 41 to 60 should eat 2500 calories. Listen to your body and stop eating when you feel full.
In order to lose the love handles that have been gradually building up around your middle, get into these healthy eating habits.
Say goodbye to fatty meals in front of a football match or after a heavy night out. Forget about fats and try to eat more vegetables - real ones. Choose foods that burn fat by using more energy to be digested than they provide your body with. What are they? Mainly, green vegetables, which are rich in vitamins and give the body a detox: garlic, artichokes, asparagus, aubergines (antioxidants that absorb fat), Swiss chard, beetroot, broccoli, carrots, celery, mushrooms, chicory, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, kale, red cabbage, sauerkraut, pumpkin, cucumber, courgettes, endives, spinach, green beans, lettuce, lamb's lettuce, corn, turnip, onions, leeks, peppers, radish, tomatoes. With all that, you are spoilt for choice!
Add a touch of green to your plate with some herbs and enjoy their unexpected powers. You can use them with everything: sprinkle fresh herbs such as coriander, parsley and basil over any dish… They contain fibres that hold back some fat during digestion, preventing it from getting absorbed. A particularly good choice is fresh mint. It is very good for helping you sculpt a flat stomach because it activates your digestion. When drunk as an infusion half an hour before meals, it reduces the feeling of hunger and naturally limits your appetite.
Having an aperitif can be one of the most dangerous parts of the day. A cheeky drink can really help to grow that belly… In order to get rid of your stomach, you will need to cut out these sugary drinks. On average a can contains six spoonfuls of sugar. Likewise, every glass of alcohol is very calorific, as well as excessive consumption leading to health problems. If you want your diet to succeed, you need to change your habits and switch to water. For a good detox, drink at least 2 L of water per day. It is the best way of getting rid of waste and toxins from your body, decongesting your body, and fighting water retention. It just takes a little bit of effort to stick to this regime, and in a few weeks your love handles will be nothing more than a bad memory.
Do you want a slim waist and less of a stomach? Then get some sleep! American researchers have proven a link between the amount of time we sleep and the risk of excess stomach fat. They have shown that young adults or adults who spend less than five hours per night in the land of Nod tend to build up stomach fat more than those who sleep between six and seven hours per night. Why? The less we sleep, the more hungry we are, the more fat cells we produce, and the fewer we burn. A lack of sleep increases the number of hunger hormones (ghrelin) and reduces the production of hormones that help us feel full (leptin). For those who are short-changing on sleep, be careful - the scales could start creeping up!
As well as becoming accentuated with age and sagging skin, the distension of the abdomen (rectus abdominis, internal oblique, external oblique and transverse) is mainly due to a lack of exercise. As you have seen, in order to get a flat stomach, there are no secrets. Sport is your ally. Physical activity combined with a healthy diet works as a preventative: the more muscular the body, the more energy is burned, and the harder it is for fat to become established. Men are lucky enough to lose weight more easily than women, so get working on your abs now! To do so, strength training is an excellent way of losing stomach fat. As a result of your abs being used, your metabolic rate will increase. And you will burn more calories, even when resting. Work all of your muscle groups even if your main goal is to lose fat around your stomach and strengthen your abdominals.