A shrinking belly is the Holy Grail of any weight-loss journey. It’s the final visible sign of progress that you’ve kept up with your diet and exercise program for long enough to see results. The catch is, that it isn’t easy to get there.
While losing weight quickly and steadily is a great way to jumpstart your fat-burning process, it often comes with trade-offs like feeling hungry all the time, being unable to eat certain foods or having your pants feel too snug around the waist.
Shrinking your waistline is probably one of the hardest things you’ll ever have to do. But with some smart strategy and dedication, and putting in the work consistently over an extended period of time, you will get there. Luckily for you, we know exactly what those small changes are!
To help facilitate this process and make your shrinking belly journey a little easier, we’ve compiled 7 small changes that will make a big difference in helping you shrink your belly sooner rather than later.
Commit to a Solid Nutrition Plan
The very first thing you should do when you want to shrink your belly is to commit to a solid nutrition plan. You’ll want to track your calories (if you haven’t already) and make sure that you’re consuming less than you’re burning on a daily basis.
There is no magic formula that will shrink your belly for you, but a great nutrition plan paired with a consistent exercise routine will get you as close to that goal as possible. You should be aiming to eat about 1,500 calories per day if you’re a woman, or about 1,800 if you’re a man.
Your daily calorie intake should consist of about 50% carbs, 30% protein, and 20% fat. If you need help getting started on the right path with your nutrition, you can use an app like My Fitness Pal to track your calories and macronutrients. You can also use a food journal to make sure you’re staying on track.
A food journal is simply a place where you keep track of everything you eat during the day, along with any other factors that may affect your diet such as how many servings of vegetables you ate or how much dairy you consumed.
Track your macros and stay on track with your diet
This may sound scary at first, but it’s really not as bad as it sounds. Macros are short for macronutrients, the three types of calories that are found in food: carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Knowing how many of each you consume each day is the best way to make sure that you’re getting the right balance of nutrients for your body.
This can be a bit tricky at first, especially if you’re new to counting calories, but it becomes second nature very quickly. Simply track your macros and stay on track with your diet, and your shrink-your-belly progress will be that much quicker.
If you’re still struggling to figure out what your daily macro targets are, use an online macro calculator. These calculators will ask you a few simple questions about your current diet and lifestyle, and then tell you exactly how many calories and grams of protein, fat, and carbs you should be consuming each day.
Don’t Be Afraid of Healthy Fats
You’ve probably heard that fat is bad for you. That’s true to an extent, but there are plenty of healthy sources of fat that are actually really good for you. Fats help your body absorb certain vitamins and minerals, and they also help you feel full.
You’ll want to make sure to get the good fats, not the bad fats, but even so, you don’t need to be as nervous about fats as some people make you out to be. As long as you are smart about the types of fats you’re consuming, you’ll be just fine.
Healthy fats can be found in foods like avocado, coconut oil, salmon, peanut butter, eggs, and almonds. If you’re not consuming enough healthy fats, you’ll have a harder time burning fat, so try to up your healthy fat intake.
Be smart about your snack choices.
As amazing and helpful as healthy, nutritious foods can be, they can often slow down the process of shrinking your belly. That’s why it’s important to know when to keep your snacks healthy and when to allow yourself a little bit of leniency.
Don’t let yourself get too hung up on the idea of immediate progress, or you might burn yourself out before you even get started. Instead, make smart snack choices that will help you stay healthy while still giving you the energy you need to keep moving forward.
Nuts are a great option, as they are full of healthy fats and protein. They’ll keep you full and give you the energy you need to stay active, but they don’t have any starch or sugar in them, so they won’t slow down the progress you’re making with your shrinking belly.
Don’t rely on diet shakes as your sole source of nutrition.
Diet shakes can be a nice substitute for a meal if you’re in a pinch, but don’t make them your sole source of nutrition. These drinks don’t offer you the same amount of nutrients and vitamins that real food does, so you’ll have a more difficult time staying healthy while you’re trying to shrink your belly.
Instead, opt for real food as often as possible. You can use diet shakes as a meal replacement every once in a while, but don’t make it a habit.
Choose weights over cardio
Don’t get us wrong, cardio is a great way to burn fat and get your blood pumping. But when you’re trying to shrink your belly, you want to make sure that you’re spending a majority of your time doing things that will help you burn as much fat as possible.
While cardio is definitely a good start, it is not as effective at burning fat as weights are. Weight-lifting is a more effective way to burn fat because it targets your larger muscle groups, which burn more calories at rest than your smaller muscle groups do.
So while you’re lifting, and even after you’ve finished your workout, your larger muscle groups will continue to burn fat and help you shrink your belly a bit faster.
Don’t forget to breathe and stretch!
Now, don’t go thinking you can cut out cardio entirely and just sit on the couch, eating potato chips and drinking diet shakes for the rest of your life. You still need to work out regularly, but you should prioritize strength training over cardio when you’re trying to shrink your belly.
However, don’t forget to take a few minutes to meditate and stretch out your muscles once in a while, especially after a particularly long or strenuous workout. It can be easy to get caught up in counting calories and working out but don’t forget about your stress levels and how important it is to take a step back every once in a while.
Conclusion
It’s easy to get stuck in a rut and think that shrinking your belly is only possible through rigorous cardio-based workouts. Don’t be fooled by this! If you want to shrink your belly, you have to also take some time to make sure that you’re getting your heart rate up and working out your muscles too.
A weight-lifting routine will help you lose fat faster and help you keep it off for good. Be sure to include weights in your routine and don’t forget about those sets of pushups, pullups, rows, rows, and leg presses!
You’ll feel stronger, and that means you’ll be able to get through those cardio workouts with just as much gusto as before.
