Terminate Belly Fat In Your 40s
In your 40s, belly fat can feel immovable. It isn’t. Use our quadrilogy of weight loss techniques to ensure once it’s gone, it’s gone for good. Remember, there is no fate but what you make for yourself.
Getting rid of unwanted belly fat doesn’t have to turn you into a robot!
THE BRIEF
Time to read: 3 minutes 40 seconds
Time to action: 5 minutes
Mantra: Never stop fighting. The belly fat battle has just begun
Main message: Your belly-fat-free future starts right now
Stat: 78% of successful weight loss study participants ate breakfast every day
Your future has not been written.
At our age, the feeling of unwanted waist expansion can, after a time, feel like it's your present and your future, even if it wasn’t in your past.
But fear not. There are new techniques to eliminate the threat of belly fat once and for all. No danger of slipping back into old habits. No risk of revisiting your previous excesses. Just your beloved belly back to flat. Once you start, don’t feel resentful, depressed, or get FOMO, and do not ever stop, ever, until your belly is beaten. Or try it, knowing doing something is always an excellent way to go.
Judgement day for your rewards
A week spent eating like a saint can leave you feeling like you’ve earned a few food sins for the weekend. The problem is that decreased body fat often results in a greater desire to eat as a reward – a proper no-no. As the idea of a ‘cheat day’ becomes increasingly outdated, your debit/credit reward system needs a facelift.
It’s all about finding a low-cost, easily attainable reward to replace food. The answer is simple: time. You can decide how much time is a reward for how well you’ve eaten. As commodities go, it’s hard to find one that’s more precious, and it’s running short for all of us. Do what you want with it: YouTube to your heart’s content. Take on that Lego Darth Vader head. Put together the ultimate 80s power ballad playlist… just don’t spend it in front of the fridge.
Dark coffee salvation
Food and mindfulness fit like Sarah and Kyle. When people eat mindfully, they improve their glucose levels and heart health. Some exceptional research in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism found people who took 30 minutes to eat a cup of ice cream felt full, but those who downed it in 5 minutes were still hungry.
Look at something calming to remove distractions (not on your phone) and enjoy your meal. Then, finish with a small black coffee to prompt your system out of post-eating slumps and into the possibility of action. This gives your body a time signal that your meal has ended and allows for improved food absorption to remind you that you are, in fact, satiated.
If you struggle to relax, before you eat, try inhaling to the count of 6, holding for 3 seconds, and then exhaling for another count of 6. It’s a yoga technique proven to increase mindful eating and reduce weight gain over time.
Rise of the machine (bodies)
A kilogram of fat is burned 67% faster when training is done on an empty stomach and in the morning. Granted, getting up early can be challenging, so help as much as you can and sleep with the blinds open. Your circadian rhythm will soon adjust, and you’ll find an extra 30 minutes of awake time to use as you see fit. Morning natural light also helps slightly older people start the day in a better mood, which allows you to train more efficiently. Although there is no actual guarantee of sunlight in the UK, your body should still tell you that a marginally less grey skyline means it’s time to get up and go.
Protein Genisys
Every time you eat protein, you trigger a burst of protein synthesis (muscle building) that lasts 3 hours. You probably eat the most protein at dinner, so you’re only fueling muscle growth for a few hours daily.
The solution is simple: spread your protein throughout the day and limit it to 30g portions because too much does nothing. Stagger your intake, particularly around a workout – eat 30g of protein 30 minutes before training and do it again directly after exercise. Lifting without eating protein is counterproductive to muscle building, and as we all know, more lean muscle mass means more calories burnt more efficiently.
Steadily apply all these easy-to-use tactics over a few months, and you’ll fast-track yourself toward a future self who’ll be happy to stare back at you in the mirror. “I’ll be back” may be your starting point, but the finishing point in your timeline will be far more rewarding.
DR DRAGON
A GP for an eclectic community, Dr Dragon is a prolific author in the world of health. Award-winning for his content creation and ability to answer the actual questions asked of him, his theories are always worth listening to for those looking for the little things that can make a real difference in our lives.
