A Key To Losing Belly Fat Is Eating Right

While exercise is very important to losing excess belly fat there is something even more key and that is what you put in your body. You have to eat a good diet or being overweight to some degree is inevitable.

When people hear the word diet they normally freak out and think of eating celery sticks all day long. That is not true at all. The word diet simply refers to what you eat, a diet can be a good diet or it can be a bad diet, for example, eating fast food 3 times a day every day, would be a bad diet.

When a person eats simple sugars it triggers a rapid release of insulin. Insulin is the key regulator of fat. It helps your body store fat and makes it stay put. This means that if you control insulin, then you can control fat. It's as simple as that.

I referred to simple sugars above because there is a difference in insulin production caused by candy as opposed to the sugar from an apple, for example. An apple will have fiber with it when its sugar is consumed and this then slows down the rate of absorption of the sugar and thereby slows down the release of insulin into the body. This gets into what is called the glycemic index of a food, which is simply described as the rate at which your body absorbs the sugar. The lower the glycemic index of a food is the less insulin it will cause your body to secrete. You can get a glycemic index of various foods by simply googling it.

The glycemic index of foods like steak or eggs, for example is zero, because they have no sugar, only proteins and fats. Fats, by the way, are not your enemy when trying to lose fat. Unless you're eating a lot of bad fats, such as are in fried foods, then we are talking a whole different ballgame. In fact, having the correct amount of fats in your diet is essential for proper hormone function.

Getting ample fiber in your diet is also very important. Fiber helps promote belly-fat loss by creating optimum digestive health. Whole fruits, vegetables and legumes are a great source of fiber as are most nuts.

Cinnamon, the delicious spice that makes apple and pumpkin pies taste so good, can really be a friend to you in combating excess insulin production as it slows down the rate of insulin secretion. Add that to a bowl of sliced apples or other fruit, or just add it to hot water and drink it as a tea and you will have made a great ally in the battle of the bulge.

Exercise is also important in losing belly-fat but a much better reason to exercise is for overall health and to improve and strengthen muscle tone, as well as relieve stress.

In summary, the correct target in changing your diet is cutting down on sugary food. A good starting point is to eliminate processed and packaged foods, as they are generally high in sugars. Eat fresh fruits and vegetable as your source of carbohydrates and get plenty of proteins and good fats. If you do these things you will start to see the scale go down, your clothes getting loser and you feeling better and better about yourself.