For the vast majority of us, the hardest weight to keep off are those stubborn pounds around the belly. Worse yet, this fat seems to be the first to come back! While there’s no quick fix for stomach flattening, there are a few things you can do to enhance your efforts to knock off that last bit of stubborn fat.

Bedtime Belly Buster

The Bedtime Belly Buster (BBB) is famed for helping target the fat around the stomach through use of supplemental IsaPro® whey protein mixed with Isagenix Fruits™ or Isagenix Greens™ taken at night. Together, the different components of the BBB not only satisfy your post-dinner sweet tooth, but also support metabolism, weight loss, and improve body composition.

Read more about the science behind the BBB and the recipe found here.

Targeted Exercise

While spot reduction is generally accepted as something unachievable, a variety of core-stabilizing moves can help mix up your fitness routine, burn calories, and get you closer to the toned look you are working for:

Exercise 1: Forearm Side Plank

Sitting on your left hip, place your left elbow directly under your left shoulder. Straighten your legs, keeping a slight bend at the knee. Stack your feet on top of each other, flexed into a 90-degree angle at your ankles. Brace your torso, contracting the left side to lift your hips off of the ground in line with your feet and shoulders. Hold at the top for three seconds then lower back down. That is considered one rep. Repeat 10 times, then switch sides

Exercise 2: Dumbbell Chop

If this is your first time trying this exercise, start off with a five or eight-pound dumbbell. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and knees slightly bent. Extend your arms up over your right shoulder, holding the dumbbell with both hands, allowing your torso to twist to the right slightly. Activating your core muscles, bring the dumbbell downward across your body so that you end with it on the outside of your left knee. Pause for a moment and with control raise the dumbbell back to the starting position. Repeat 15 times, then switch sides.

Exercise 3: Squat Jump

Stand with your feel should-width apart, knees slightly bent, and hands loosely at your sides. Slowly squat down, making sure your knees don’t pass your toes. Once your quads are parallel to the ground jump straight up in the air, landing softly in a squat. This is one rep. Repeat 10 times.

Manage Energy Intake

As you have probably learned from experience, the number of crunches you do has little effect on reducing belly fat. Whenever the goal is fat loss, adjusting caloric intake is essential. What you want to aim for is an energy, or calorie deficit—meaning you’ll be consuming less than your body is burning. An easy way to determine this threshold is with a calorie calculator or a smartphone app such as MyFitnessPal or MyNetDiary. You can also read this article for more information.

You can also adopt Isagenix Shake Days. Shake Days are a convenient tool to help you keep your daily energy intake low without having to meticulously count calories and stress over meal planning. Regularly incorporating weekly Cleanse Days between Shake Days is also a scientifically supported approach to rev up fat burning, reset food cravings, and lose weight while preserving muscle (1, 2).

Remember, if your calorie intake is not under control, fat loss will not happen no matter how much effort you put in.

Boost Vitamin and Mineral Status

When the focus is on cutting calories, vitamin and mineral intake can suffer. A lower intake can sabotage weight-loss goals by affecting key metabolic processes in the body. For instance, calcium in the diet can bind with fat and prevent it from being absorbed. In addition, calcium and vitamin D are associated with decreased visceral fat, the type of fat that accumulates in the midsection dangerously padding internal organs (3). Supplementing meals with a vitamin and mineral supplement containing calcium and vitamin D—like Ageless Essentials™ Daily Pack—can help ensure giving the body all the micronutrients it needs to thrive.

Manage Stress

Controlling stress is easier said than done, but is a practice repeatedly shown to improve health and support weight loss (4). Increased amounts of stress heighten the amount of cortisol in our systems, causing us to cope with stress by binge-eating and drinking.

Approaches such as deep-breathing, yoga, meditation, or exercise are great tools to help manage stress. Another approach is the use of Adaptogenic herbs, which have been shown to help counter the effects of stress before it strikes (5, 6). Ionix® Supreme contains a cocktail of these Adaptogens and is designed to be taken daily.

Sleep Hygiene

Even one hour of sleep missed can disrupt metabolism and hamper the body’s ability to burn fat efficiently (6). This is not a suggestion or excuse to sleep in and skip the gym, but a reminder to plan ahead to make getting at least seven to eight hours of quality sleep a priority. Remember that the quality of sleep is just as important as the amount of sleep you get every night. Quality sleep is achieved by limiting noise and light in the bedroom, turning off smartphones and tablets, and supplementing with melatonin. Found in Sleep Support and Renewal™, melatonin has been shown to help those who take it fall asleep faster, improve the overall quality of sleep, and make getting up in the morning a little easier (7).

References

  1. Harvie MN, Pegington M, Mattson MP et al. The effects of intermittent or continuous energy restriction on weight loss and metabolic disease risk markers: a randomized trial in young overweight women. Int J Obes (Lond). 2011;35:714-27.
  2. Varady KA, Hellerstein MK. Alternate-day fasting and chronic disease prevention: a review of human and animal trials. Am J Clin Nutr. 2012.
  3. Rosenblum JL, et al. Calcium and vitamin D supplementation is associated with decreased abdominal visceral adipose tissue in overweight and obese adults. Am J Clin Nutr 2012; 95:101-8. doi: 10.3945/​ajcn.111.019489
  4. Jantz G L PhD. The physical dangers of stress: Is being stressed out more harmful than you realize? Hope for Relationships. 2014.
  5. Panossian A, Wikman G. Evidence-based efficacy of adaptogens in fatigue, and molecular mechanisms related to their stress-protective activity. Curr Clin Pharmacol 2009; 4:198-219.
  6. Panossian A, Wikman G. Effects of adaptogens on the central nervous system and the molecular mechanisms associated with their stree-protective activity. Pharmaceuticals 2010; 3: 188-224.
  7. Rondanelli M et al. A double-blind, placebo controlled clinical trial. J Am Geriatrics Soc 2011;59:82-90.