You may call it your muffin top, flabby wings, or atomic waistband spill. No matter how you you choose to glorify the existence of your excess belly bulge, these are the five ways to reduce its mayhem on your self image.
1. Roll Out the Dough
One thing that most newcomers get wrong, it that it is not about how long or hard you exercise, but how smart you go about it. A spot workout involves doing thousands of sit ups to sculpt a flabby belly. The problem is, your belly is a product of excess fat, not a lack of muscle. To lose fat, you need to work the entire body, which burns more calories. In addition, long sessions on the treadmill while lethargically reading a book, are often much less efficient than spending 15 minutes at your target intensity.
2. Skip the Muffins
At the root of most muffin tops, are excess fat and bloating caused by a poor diet. Here are a few tips to eat right:
- You may know it’s healthier to eat around a crème filled donut. However, there is also a benefit to shopping around the outside of your supermarket. This is because most of the processed foods, stuffed with sodium (causes bloating), preservatives, and fructose (promotes overeating), are located in the middle aisles.
- Minimize alcohol consumption, which can stimulate appetite, lower your inhibition, and release excess estrogen into the blood, which encourages the body to hold onto fat.
- Women who eliminate all fat from their diet are not doing themselves any favors. The body needs fat to survive. Instead, replace the bad fat with the good, such as in nuts, avocados, and dark chocolate. In moderate quantities, these are particularly effective in reducing visceral chub (the fat around the internal organs).
- Your memory has a way of protecting your self image by remembering only the good points to each day. This is why an honest journal of what you eat can double your weight loss results. While a written diary is great, it may be easier to snap a picture of each meal.
3. Keep Your Muffin Chilled
Stress is a leading cause of a belly bulge, because it encourages the body to hold onto fat. The body is more concerned with its energy stores than you are about impressing your new boyfriend. Tension also influences your choice in foods you eat, which usually goes towards the fast food spectrum, especially when you feel short on time. Stress affects your quality of sleep, which is important for maintaining a good metabolism. This is why you need to take time out of every day to relax and have fun. There is nothing you can do to change a difficult situation, so why worry to the point of growing a spare tire over it?
4. Muffins Also Do Well in the Freezer
The newest muffin top zapper is called Zeltiq, which incorporates the use of a gel patch, which literally freezes fat cells, causing them to become damaged, and then absorbed into the body. This procedure is not for extensive weight loss, but can do wonders for a small pooch that refuses to go away. Zerona, is another new technique, which uses low-energy lasers to zap fat cells, forcing them to empty their blubbery contents within the body over a period of weeks.
5. The Muffin Top Chop (Liposuction)
This is the grand daddy of muffin top blasters, which should be your last resort when regular diet and exercise fail. The muffin top chop is a code word for ‘gentle’ liposuction, that involves removing the top layer of fat from your most troublesome areas, the waist and rear. Your belly bulge should tighten within a couple of months of this procedure. However, in some cases, a tummy tuck may be necessary to tighten up stretched muscles (especially after a pregnancy), and trim away excess skin. Keep in mind that a tummy tuck is not a summer bikini guarantee, as it can leave behind significant scarring.