6 Simple Ways to Lose Belly Fat, Based on Science

First, let’s clear up a big misunderstanding: Overweight does not equal unhealthy. There are plenty of overweight people who are in excellent health. Conversely, many normal weight people have the metabolic problems associated with obesity.

That’s because the fat under the skin is actually not that big of a problem (at least not from a health standpoint). It’s the fat in the abdominal cavity, the belly fat, that causes the biggest issues.

If you have a lot of excess fat around your waistline, even if you’re not very heavy, then you should take some steps to get rid of it.

Belly fat is usually estimated by measuring the circumference around your waist. This can easily be done at home with a simple tape measure. Anything above 40 inches (102 cm) in men and 35 inches (88 cm) in women, is known as abdominal obesity.

There are actually a few proven strategies that have been shown to target the fat in the belly area more than other areas of the body.

Here are 6 evidence-based ways to lose belly fat.

1. DON’T EAT SUGAR AND AVOID SUGAR-SWEETENED DRINKS.

Studies show that sugar has uniquely harmful effects on metabolic health. Sugar is half glucose, half fructose, and fructose can only be metabolized by the liver in any significant amount.

When you eat a lot of refined sugar, the liver gets overloaded with fructose, and is forced to turn it all into fat.

Numerous studies have shown that excess sugar, mostly due to the large amounts of fructose, can lead to increased accumulation of fat in the belly.

Some believe that this is the primary mechanism behind sugar’s harmful effects on health. It increases belly fat and liver fat, which leads to insulin resistance and a host of metabolic problems.

Liquid sugar is even worse in this regard. Liquid calories don’t get “registered” by the brain in the same way as solid calories, so when you drink sugar-sweetened beverages, you end up eating more total calories.

Studies show that sugar-sweetened beverages are linked to a 60% increased risk of obesity in children, per each daily serving.

Make a decision to minimize the amount of sugar in your diet, and consider completely eliminating sugary drinks.

This includes sugar-sweetened beverages, fruit juices and various high-sugar sports drinks.

Keep in mind that none of this applies to whole fruit, which are extremely healthy and have plenty of fiber that mitigates the negative effects of fructose.

The amount of fructose you get from fruit is negligible compared to what you get from a diet high in refined sugar.

If you want to cut back on refined sugar, then you must start reading labels. Even foods marketed as health foods can contain huge amounts of sugar.

2. EATING MORE PROTEIN IS A GREAT LONG-TERM STRATEGY TO REDUCE BELLY FAT.

Protein is the most important macronutrient when it comes to losing weight. 

It has been shown to reduce cravings by 60%, boost metabolism by 80-100 calories per day and help you eat up to 441 fewer calories per day.

If weight loss is your goal, then adding protein is perhaps the single most effective change you can do to your diet.

Not only will it help you lose, it can also help you avoid re-gaining weight if you ever decide to abandon your weight loss efforts.

There is also some evidence that protein is particularly effective against belly fat.

One study showed that the amount and quality of protein consumed was inversely related to fat in the belly. That is, people who ate more and better protein had much less belly fat.

Another study in Denmark showed that protein was linked to significantly reduced risk of belly fat gain over a period of 5 years.

This study also showed that refined carbs and oils were linked to increased amounts of belly fat, but fruits and vegetables linked to reduced amounts.

Many of the studies showing protein to be effective had protein at 25-30% of calories. That’s what you should aim for.

So make an effort to increase your intake of high-protein foods such as whole eggs, fish, seafood, legumes, nuts, meat, dairy products and some whole grains. These are the best protein sources in the diet.

If you struggle with getting enough protein in your diet, then a quality protein supplement (like whey protein) is a healthy and convenient way to boost your total intake.

If you’re a vegetarian or vegan, then check out this article on how to increase your protein intake.

Bonus tip: Consider cooking your foods in coconut oil. Some studies have shown that 30 mL (about 2 tablespoons) of coconut oil per day reduces belly fat slightly.

3. CUT CARBS FROM YOUR DIET.

Carb restriction is a very effective way to lose fat. This is supported by numerous studies. When people cut carbs, their appetite goes down and they lose weight.

Over 20 randomized controlled trials have now shown that low-carb diets lead to 2-3 times more weight loss than low-fat diets.

This is true even when the low-carb groups are allowed to eat as much as they want, while the low-fat groups are calorie restricted and hungry. Low-carb diets also lead to quick reductions in water weight, which gives people near instant results. A major difference on the scale is often seen within a few days.

There are also studies comparing low-carb and low-fat diets, showing that low-carb diets specifically target the fat in the belly, and around the organs and liver.

What this means is that a particularly high proportion of the fat lost on a low-carb diet is the dangerous and disease promoting abdominal fat.

Just avoiding the refined carbs (white breads, pastas, etc) should be sufficient, especially if you keep your protein high.

However, if you need to lose weight fast, then consider dropping your carbs down to 50 grams per day. This will put your body into ketosis, killing your appetite and making your body start burning primarily fats for fuel.

Of course, low-carb diets have many other health benefits besides just weight loss. They can have life-saving effects in type 2 diabetics, for example.

4. EAT FOODS RICH IN FIBER, ESPECIALLY VISCOUS FIBER.

Dietary fiber is mostly indigestible plant matter. It is often claimed that eating plenty of fiber can help with weight loss.

This is true, but it’s important to keep in mind that not all fiber is created equal. It seems to be mostly the soluble and viscous fibers that have an effect on your weight.

These are fibers that bind water and form a thick gel that “sits” in the gut.

This gel can dramatically slow the movement of food through your stomach and small bowel, and slow down the digestion and absorption of nutrients. The end result is a prolonged feeling of fullness and reduced appetite.

One review study found that an additional 14 grams of fiber per day were linked to a 10% decrease in calorie intake and weight loss of 2 kg (4.5 lbs) over 4 months.

In one 5-year study, eating 10 grams of soluble fiber per day was linked to a 3.7% reduction in the amount of fat in the abdominal cavity, but it had no effect on the amount of fat under the skin.

What this implies, is that soluble fiber may be particularly effective at reducing the harmful belly fat.

The best way to get more fiber is to eat a lot of plant foods like vegetables and fruit. Legumes are also a good source, as well as some cereals like oats.

Then you could also try taking a fiber supplement like glucomannan. This is one of the most viscous dietary fibers in existence, and has been shown to cause weight loss in many studies.

5. EXERCISE IS VERY EFFECTIVE AT REDUCING BELLY FAT.

Exercise is important for various reasons. It is among the best things you can do if you want to live a long, healthy life and avoid disease.

Getting into all of the amazing health benefits of exercise is beyond the scope of this article, but exercise does appear to be effective at reducing belly fat.

However, keep in mind that I’m not talking about abdominal exercises here. Spot reduction (losing fat in one spot) is not possible, and doing endless amounts of crunches will not make you lose fat from the belly.

In one study, 6 weeks of training just the abdominal muscles had no measurable effect on waist circumference or the amount of fat in the abdominal cavity.

That being said, other types of exercise can be very effective.

Aerobic exercise (like walking, running, swimming, etc) has been shown to cause major reductions in belly fat in numerous studies.

Another study found that exercise completely prevented people from re-gaining abdominal fat after weight loss, implying that exercise is particularly important during weight maintenance.

Exercise also leads to reduced inflammation, blood sugar levels and all the other metabolic abnormalities that are associated with central obesity.

6. TRACK YOUR FOODS AND FIGURE OUT EXACTLY WHAT AND HOW MUCH YOU ARE EATING.

What you eat is important. Pretty much everyone knows this. However, surprisingly, most people actually don’t have a clue what they are really eating. People think they’re eating “high protein,” “low-carb” or whatever, but tend to drastically over- or underestimate.

I think that for anyone who truly wants to optimize their diet, tracking things for a while is absolutely essential.

It doesn’t mean you need to weigh and measure everything for the rest of your life, but doing it every now and then for a few days in a row can help you realize where you need to make changes.

If you want to boost your protein intake to 25-30% of calories, as recommended above, just eating more protein rich foods won’t cut it. You need to actually measure and fine tune in order to reach that goal.

Is Eating Raw Garlic Good For You?

Vampires may not like it, but garlic is a favorite for many other humans. A common ingredient used for preparing Italian dishes, sauteed or stir-fried vegetables, and a variety of sauces and marinades, this savory bulb is a potent way to spice up any number of meals—just have some gum on hand afterwards to freshen things up.

In fact, garlic is so powerful (just one clove can flavor an entire pot of food), many often incorrectly think of it as an herb or spice. Technically, though, it’s a vegetable in the same family as onions, leeks, and shallots.

But is eating it good for you?

According to editors at Bon Appetit magazine who dug through research journals from the past century and created this pretty cool timeline of garlic’s claims to fame, the answer is yes.

“Garlic is one of few products used in the world’s three major ancient healing systems: Indian Ayurveda, traditional Chinese medicine, and traditional European medicine. It has been used to treat ailments for millennia and is listed in the world’s oldest medical text, the Eber’s Papyrus (1552 B.C.), and De Materia Medica, an herbal book from ancient Rome that was written by Dioscorides in 1 A.D. and used throughout Europe until the 1600s.”

Though it still has benefits when it’s used in formal cooked preparations, raw garlic in particular is even more effective at providing a number of these health boosts.

THE RAW DIFFERENCE

While you probably wouldn’t want to eat raw eggs or raw meat, when it comes to plant-based foods, eating them uncooked can unlock their potential, say proponents of raw diets. The main tenet is that cooking destroys the inherent vitamins in food along with nearly all of the immune-boosting nutrients.

In this philosophy, preparation of food is super important. As a rule, no food is heated above 105-120 degrees, and nothing is pasteurized, homogenized, or produced with the use of synthetic pesticides, chemical fertilizers, industrial solvents, or chemical food additives.

The movement can be traced back to the late 1800s, according to U.S. News and World Report, at a time when a prominent doctor by the name of Maximilian Bircher-Benner discovered “he could cure his own jaundice by eating raw apples.” From there, humans have been experimenting with how eating raw foods can affect health, and today the diet ranks in the top 10 for weight loss, according to the publication.

The diet proposes eating 75-80 percent of your daily intake this way to reap the benefits, and while some do also eat sashimi (or raw fish) and cheese made from unpasteurized milk, most followers are vegan. This is where garlic can become a major component for raw foodies—even when uncooked, raw garlic is incredibly tasty and nutritious.

THE HEALTH BENEFITS OF RAW GARLIC

Raw garlic has been bestowed with the holy grail title of a “superfood,” which according to the dictionary, is “a nutrient-rich food considered to be especially beneficial for health and well-being.” 

Part of it has to do with its primary molecules, alliin and alliinase, which are stored in different cells in fresh cloves. The distinct flavor behind this plant happens when alliin reacts with alliinase, a process that is highly accelerated when cloves are crushed, cut up, or even damaged. After about ten seconds of this physical activity, the two compounds merge to create the phytochemical allicin, a potent antimicrobial and antifungal agent.

Since it’s relatively unstable, though, allicin degrades within a day. Heat will also destroy allicin, so the most beneficial use of garlic is consuming it raw, and within a few minutes of crushing the cloves.

If you want to use garlic in a cooked meal, wait until the last few seconds of cooking to add in—or add what is called for in the recipe, and then throw in an extra bit of minced garlic near the end of the cooking time.

You can also invest in garlic supplements to get a concentrated form of allicin if you can’t find ways to eat garlic raw, which shouldn’t be too hard. Doing so can help the body in a myriad of ways.

Immune system boost

Not only does allicin help give garlic its incredible taste, it’s also one of the most potent antioxidants in food and an incredible bacteria and fungal fighter. In fact, garlic was used during World War II to help soldiers fight against gangrene. It’s so powerful, in fact, that garlic supplements have been used successfully against strep throat, staph infections, and even anthrax bacteria. Although more research is currently underway, garlic seems to be especially effective in treating difficult infections where the body may have become resistant to certain drugs and antibiotics.

Better heart health

In the fight against cardiovascular disease, garlic could be a key player. According to new research from UCLA, aged garlic extract helps “stop heart disease from progressing and, in some cases, even reverse artery plaque accumulation.” One of the factors is that garlic can reduce homocysteine, a marker for heart disease.

Improved skin and scalp

The antifungal properties of garlic are so potent the plant has often been used to treat acne and some herbalists believe that garlic might have the ability to heal dandruff since it has been seen as proactive in fighting Pityrosporum ovale, a fungus that lives on the scalp and plays a role in the development of itchy, flaky skin. Allicin compounds have been linked to effective hair loss treatment as well, helping to actually slow shedding.

Normalized blood pressure

Studies have shown that eating garlic can help reduce blood pressure, which in itself can prevent the onset of serious health issues. Eating garlic increases production in hydrogen sulfide gas that then expands blood vessels, letting blood flow easier and therefore putting less pressure on them to do their job.

Reduced inflammation

One of the most heavily studied benefits of garlic is its anti-inflammatory properties. Garlic contains four different sulphuric compounds that can help cut down on inflammation. This benefit can also extend to those with autoimmune diseases triggered by an inflammatory response as well as arthritis.

In addition to all the benefits listed, garlic also provides the body with a good dose of nutrition with added vitamin C, vitamin B6, manganese, calcium, iron, and potassium.

HOW TO SELECT AND STORE GARLIC

Obviously, since you’ll want to take advantage of the benefits of raw garlic, you should always purchase bulbs fresh. The main thing to look for is garlic that is undamaged. You’ll want to find bulbs that are plump and don’t have any broken outer skin. When holding the garlic, it should feel weighty; and when gently squeezing the bulb between your fingers, it should appear firm—not mushy or damp.

Soft and shriveled garlic bulbs will not provide the same potent power as a fresh bulb, so you should heed any that have mold or have started to sprout (indicating the plant is older and near the end of its lifespan).

With good storage, a solid, well-wrapped garlic bulb can stay fresh for a month, or even longer. To keep the garlic as fresh as possible for as long as possible, store in a cool place (60-65 degrees Fahrenheit) that’s away from direct heat and sunlight. A little bit of humidity and air circulation is fine, but once you’ve broken the head of the garlic, know that the shelf life lasts for just a few days.

The 10 Healthiest—and 10 Unhealthiest—Cities in the U.S.

Do you live in one of the healthiest cities in the U.S.? The researchers at The American College of Sports Medicine have your answer. They recently crunched the data and released a list of the healthiest cities in the country.

This year's healthiest city award goes to Washington, DC, with a score of 77.3 (out of 100). Our capital earned high scores for having a lot of public areas available for physical activity (like parks, pools, recreational centers, and tennis courts) and a high percentage of people walking, biking, or taking public transportation. Plus, the report indicated that 58.7 percent of people are considered to be in excellent or very good health.

Compare that to Memphis, Tennessee—the city that came in at the bottom of the list, where only 42.6 percent of people are considered to be in excellent or very good health. And it's not surprising why: Memphis scored low on exercise, fruit and veggie consumption, parkland area, and walking. Levels for smoking, obesity, and diabetes were high. 

Top 10 Healthiest Cities in the U.S.:
1. Washington, DC

2. Minneapolis, MN

3. Portland, OR

4. Denver, Colorado 

5. San Francisco, CA

6. San Jose, CA

7. Seattle, WA

8. San Diego, CA

9. Boston, MA

10. Sacramento, CA

10 Unhealthiest Cities in the U.S.:
1. Memphis, TN

2. Louisville, KY

3. Oklahoma City, OK

4. Indianapolis, IN

5. Nashville, TN

6. San Antonio, TX

7. Birmingham, AL

8. Detroit, MI

9. Orlando, FL

10. St. Louis, MO

5 Unhealthy Foods Engineered to Be Addictive

There are three reasons Americans' love affair with snacks is growing-- along with their waistlines: the ubiquity of junk food, the ubiquity of  junk food advertising, and stealth food technology. People who polish off a whole bag of chips or cookies at one sitting (usually in front of TV) are often doing exactly what the product was designed to do--be addictive.

 

Have you noticed the overpowering something-in-the-oven smell that wafts up when you walk past a Subway?  Mark Christiano, Subway's Global Baking Technologist, insists the aroma is not pumped outside to entice passers-by and adds that the bread recipe is "proprietary." But in the war for your food dollar, all tactics are clearly on the table including the way a food smells, looks, and feels in the mouth. Nothing is left up to chance.

 

"Food technologists" use  $40,000 devices that simulate a chewing mouth to test and perfect chips, for example. "People like a chip that snaps with about four pounds of pressure per square inch," says Michael Moss, author of  Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us so technologists seek "the perfect break point."

 

Fat is a big part of the food technology stagecraft too because it promotes crunch, creaminess and contrast, blends flavors and even lubricates mouthfuls so that people eat faster. And, speaking of fast eating, people who wolf down their food do not entirely have themselves to blame--the actual time it takes  to chew food has shrunk. "In the [45 years] that I have been in the food business, we used to have foods that we chewed 15 times and 20 times and 30 times before we swallowed," says Gail Vance Civille, of the consumer research firm Sensory Spectrum. Now most foods only have to be chewed 12 times and  "you’re in for the next hit to get more pleasure, says Civille.

 

Of course sugar, salt and fat themselves can be addictive as Häagen-Dazs or Krispy Kreme junkies can attest, but food technologists have a clear equation for designing hyper-rewarding, hyper-palatable foods. They fabricate "complex formulas that pique the taste buds enough to be alluring but don't have a distinct, overriding single flavor that tells the brain to stop eating," says Moss.

 

Here are some foods deliberately designed to hook you at the first whiff or taste.

 

1. Soft drinks

 

Half of Americans drink a soft drink every day and many people say they are addicted. This is not an accident. To create Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper, for example, food technologists tested  3,904 "tastings"  or versions for "dryness," "gumminess," and  "moisture release," the right mix of  cherry, vanilla and Dr Pepper flavoring and of course color. 

 

Of course caffeine is one reason people get hooked on soft drinks. Constant exposure to caffeine makes your brain compensate by decreasing the number of receptors for its  own "stimulant," norepinephrine, which makes you seek the stimulation from an outside source. But there are other probable "addictors" as seen in Mountain Dew, arguably the most addictive of the soft drinks (including among some gamers who reportedly drink it nonstop). While Dew certainly packs a lot of caffeine, it derives its fizzy bite from phosphoric, citric,  malic and tartaric acids, all kept afloat by a controversial additive known as BVO or brominated vegetable oil. Beverage companies are starting  to drop BVO, which the public has turned against because it is also a flame retardant. But Dew will likely keep its bite.

 

2. Cured Meats

 

Even people who would give wide berth to a Slim Jim or Kentucky cured ham have been swept up in the Bacon Everywhere movement with bacon added to everything from gum and candy to ice cream. Unfortunately the bacon flavor everyone loves is created by ingredients no one loves--nitrites. Sodium nitrite, also found in ham, pastrami, salami hot dogs and sausages,  inhibits bacteria, lengthens shelf life and imparts the pleasing taste and color that add to these foods' appeal. But, and it is a big  but, during the process of cooking, nitrites combine with other chemicals  to form carcinogens which many  health organizations warn against.

 

Can't bacon be made without nitrites? Yes and no. "America's Test Kitchen had the results of their bacon testing and they disliked the nitrite free sample because it was too pale and didn't taste like bacon," says one post on the web site  chowhound. "Nitrates add plenty to flavor. You'll find bacon producers who attest to that all over Google," says another post.  The  New York Times food writer R.W. Apple himself states that "nitrates provide some of the characteristic bacon flavor, and the only nitrite-free bacon I have sampled tasted more like roast pork," defending the safety profile of the chemicals. The web site Livestrong agrees that nitrites "give cured meats that characteristic smoky flavor and pink color that make them irresistible," but suggests that people limit their intake and  "have a salad" instead.

 

3. Microwave Popcorn

 

Have you ever tried to surreptitiously make yourself a microwave popcorn at work and found it is impossible to disguise? Microwave popcorn sends off an immediate olfactory alarm to everyone on your floor and probably the floors above and below you. Not only do they know you are not working but  snacking they want some microwave popcorn too.

 

The irresistible smell is from the butter flavoring chemicals like  diacetyl and Pentanedione which are dissipated into the air by the heating process. And, not surprisingly, there are questions about their safety. While lawsuits have been brought and won by  workers in microwave popcorn manufacturing plants who developed "popcorn lung" from working around diacetyl, consumers are also apparently at risk. Two years ago,  Wayne Watson was awarded $7 million when he sued the manufacturer and retailers of microwave buttered popcorn that caused him to develop "popcorn lung" after eating two bags daily for 10 years. The potentially fatal respiratory disease is usually a condition called constrictive bronchiolitis obliterans in which the smallest airways of the lung become scarred and constricted, blocking off movement of air.

 

Since diacetyl concerns have been raised, many manufacturers have dropped the ingredient. Some still use the potentially harmful slippery nonstick surface coating PFOA  on the popcorn bags, however--another reason to "resist" microwave popcorn and make your own. Especially if you are eating it twice a day like Watson.

 

4. Salty, Roasted Snacks

 

Like sugar, people can become addicted to salt and the only way to "kick," say experts, is to go cold turkey and let your taste buds return to normal. But there is another reason that salty snacks like potato chips, French fries, toasted crisp breads and even non-salty roasted breakfast cereals can be irresistible. These foods have undergone the "Maillard reaction," explains New York University food expert Marion Nestle which "causes baked, fried, and toasted foods to turn attractively  brown and taste yummy." Cooking carbohydrate-rich foods at temperatures high enough to produce a yellow or brown surface usually means that acrylamide has formed. And, you guessed it, acrylamide is a  cancer-causing and potentially dangerous chemical. Once again, the chemicals that make food irresistible are the ones we should resist. The state of California actually sued potato chip makers for failing to warn California consumers about the health risks of acrylamide in 2005.

 

There is something else that makes us crave salty snacks, They are designed to have "vanishing caloric density" or the ability to melt in the mouth, writes Michael Moss. “If something melts down quickly, your brain thinks that there’s no calories in it . . . you can just keep eating it forever," food scientist  Steven Witherly tells him during an interview for his book.

 

Potato chips have another hook, say food experts. Their coating of salt, fat and sugar found in the starch of the potato itself reward the brain in a triple punch. The starch is actually absorbed more quickly than sugar, which causes glucose levels in the blood to spike and the body to yell "more!" A  New England Journal of Medicine study of 120,877 women and men found the most weight-inducing food they ate was potato chips.

 

5. All Fast Food

 

Fast food, of course, is predicated on cravings and addictions. Why else would it last--including drive-through windows? Why else would its overriding features be salt, fat and sugar? Eighty-three percent of people who eat outside of their home do so because of  "cravings" a recent study revealed and 75 percent who visit restaurants more than once a week do so for a specific dish they crave.

 

While McDonald's has  never been toppled from the number one burger position that Wendy's, Burger King, Carl's Jr, Jack in the Box and Hardee's crave, its  Chicken McNuggets opened it up to fast food  chicken lovers and were also an instant success. Unfortunately, McNuggets are probably the McDonald's item with the most problematical chemicals. They are made with dimethylpolysiloxane, an anti-foaming agent used in, believe it or not yoga mats, propylene glycol, an antifreeze ingredient and autolyzed yeast extract which "artificially enhance[s] the taste and craveability of food," says  Healthy Living.

 

Clearly, sweet, salty and fatty foods can be hard to resist, especially when they are ubiquitous, cheap, marketed around the clock and fast. But just to be on the safe side, Big Food has also added   addictive chemicals to amp up the "irresistibility."

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Wall Street Banker Quits to Open $1 Pizza Joint, Customers Pay It Forward to Feed Homeless (18 Pics)

Meet Mason Wartman. In 2013, Wartman left his job on Wall Street to open up Rosa’s Fresh Pizza, a shop that sells slices of pizza for only $1 (tax included). The concept is popular in New York City and Wartman wanted to bring the idea to his home town of Philadelphia. One day a customer asked if he could ‘pay it forward’ and buy a slice for someone in need. Wartman loved the gesture so he drew a smiley face on a Post-It note and stuck it on the wall to symbolize a free slice for someone in need.