Fat Belly, Stay Away from Pasta and any Noodles

Time and time again, I get approached by men and women asking me how to lose their belly fat. The answer is multi-faceted, and can’t be answered quickly. Belly fat isn’t caused by one food or only inactivity, it’s caused by a lifestyle of processed food and possibly the wrong type of physical activity.

Certain food will most certainly be stored in your stomach as fat. Juice of any kind, sweets, sodas, fat free candy like licorice, gummy bears, white bread and pasta are partly to blame. Refined sugar is the big culprit because it so easily and quickly processes into sugar and gets stored as fat. If you can cut the intake of these food items you will lose belly fat. If you find it hard to stop, cut down eating each of these items by 50 percent. Then slowly cut them out and replace them with the high fiber versions. Instead of drinking juice, eat the fruit, instead of white rice, brown rice with 3 grams of fiber or more, instead of gummy bears, Hershey’s with almonds..(just remove the chocolate around the outside of the almonds and eat the strip of almond chocolate). The good fat and fiber in the almonds will help slow the digestion of the sugar in the candy bar.

For those of you who love pasta, I have found a wonderful whole wheat Japanese noodle.

Shirataki Noodles! The famous noodle seen in several health magazines is available on-line now. These low-carb noodles can satisfy your spaghetti cravings, and are a gluten free replacement for pasta. Shirataki Noodles are made from yams, and are naturally low in calories and carbs, plus they are an excellent source of fiber, depending on the brand you prefer. These low fat noodles are tender and absorb the flavors you cook them with, so be creative and try them with every meal. If you are a health-conscious eater then Shirataki Noodles are for you. Go to http// www.asianfoodgrocer.com to order. This can take the place of pancit noodles, ramen noodles or Thai noodles. You many also find whole wheat noodles at your favorite grocery store. Look for 6 grams of fiber per serving (2 ounces) and stick to the serving size. The noodles are dark brown but taste delicious.

Once you’ve attempted to eliminate processed carbohydrates from your diet, make sure you do activities that burn fat for energy. Swimming burns very little fat. I suggest swimming for the obese, or elderly or those with arthritis. If you can walk, you should swim for fun only. Swimming actually stimulates your appetite because the energy source you use is not predominantly fat but glycogen. Glycogen is limited and once used up, must be replaced. Thus the craving for carbohydrates after the swim.

Weight lifting is great to put back muscle lost from dieting and aging. Weight lifting without doing cardio workouts will increase your appetite, especially for carbohydrates. I suggest you weight train to raise you overall metabolism but you must do cardio fat burning work-outs as well.

Volleyball, baseball and tennis are not fat burning exercises. Do these exercises for fun and overall exercise but don’t expect your waistline to be smaller just from doing these activities.

Finally, do abdominal and lower back strengthening exercises daily. You won’t burn fat doing ab exercises but you will strengthen your ab and lower back muscles so that when the fat on top and underneath your abs are burned away your posture will be better. You’ll have a stronger core and you’ll look better.