How to Diet and Lose Belly Fat – Can You Still Eat

Learning how to diet and lose belly fat can seem like a daunting question. What can I eat? How much should I eat? When will I notice a difference?

When people realize that they want to shed some extra pounds, one of the first things that becomes a discouraging road block to their success is the notion that they have to stop eating anything tasty.

There is the doubt that they can ever eat what they like anymore.

Not eating all of your favorite foods might be what stops you from even trying to lose weight.

Starting Out Right to Lose Belly Fat

But it is possible to learn how to diet and lose belly fat once you know how to create a plate of food that will satisfy your taste buds. The right foods can actually activate your metabolism.

It is true that initially you will probably want to make some adjustments to your portion sizes. Then you’ll want to reduce the processed, fatty fast foods from your daily intake.

But once you learn how to eat the right foods in the right combinations, your body will naturally start to slim down.

Eating for Nutrition

We’ve all seen the pictures of perfectly healthy looking foods nicely presented in front of us for a photo. It’s pretty to look at but how do we implement that into daily life to slim down the belly area?

It is important to realize that just as a house is built with the proper foundations, a toned body is built with good nutrition.

Think about that old phrase, “you are what you eat.” To a large degree there is truth in that statement.

Along with regular exercise that does not have to be boot camp tough, when you eat nutritionally, your body starts to work towards achieving visible toned goals.

By building lean muscle in your body over time, you accelerate the metabolic burn. As a result, you end up with a flatter stomach.

It is important to learn about foods that help support and built lean muscle. Did you know that there are actually foods that can encourage fat cells to grow faster?

You may be eating completely unaware of the result!

Foods To Remove

If you want to slim down your belly, you need to reduce things like fried foods, margarine, lard, fried animal skins, fatty pieces of beef/pork, and processed foods that contain partially hydrogenated fats.

Eliminating these will be better for heart health too.

These foods give the body very little nutrition and over the long haul, will accelerate fat growth in your cells.

If losing belly fat is your goal, try your best to avoid ingesting these things because they will not do you any favors.

Healthier food will keep you full longer. As well, it provides a healthier you in the long run.

Overall, you will get a better bang for the buck for your well-being with nutritionally dense food. Always choose fresh over empty calorie, sugary, fatty processed foods.

What Do I Put On My Plate?

For each of your three daily meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) a simple idea is to imagine portioning your standard plate into 3 parts.

To help get your body burning your stored fat and start slimming down, half your plate should be vegetables (or fruit if it is breakfast) and the other half should be broken down into equal parts of lean protein and carbohydrate.

These two smaller portions would be essentially a quarter each of your dinner plate.

Always think of fruits and vegetables in their pure form as “green light” foods because they will fill you up with fiber and they pack a ton of nutrition which your body craves.

So if you are still hungry at the end of your meal, add some more vegetables (or fruit for breakfast).

You will never see anyone overweight from eating too much broccoli.

Watch The Portion Sizes To Lose Belly Fat

Thinking about the portion sizes, this does not mean that you can pile your foods as high as you want like an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Think about the size of a deck of cards and use good judgment. North Americans are so conditioned to super-sizing and buffet style eating that we often have a built in habit of overeating.

So try to moderate yourself…eat for nutrition.

There are a number of great products on the market to actually help you learn to portion out your different foods.

This can be a great help when you are first starting out.

Once you start putting thought into what goes on your plate in the right proportion, it will become a new healthier habit that will help you long term in slimming down.

Using this idea to build your meal also helps eliminate the frustration of counting calories.

Breaking down your plate into three food sections will simplify eating, give you great nutrition and help your body build lean muscle.

This in turn helps your body burn fat, reduce hunger and keep your blood sugar regulated so you can lose weight.

Break Your Day into Threes

1. Divide Your Plate in Three

Dividing your plate into three sections will be important to help you portion out what foods to eat.

You’ll also want to eat breakfast within about one hour of waking up. This is to help get your metabolic burn rate going.

Think of it in terms of a fire burning. As the fire burns down the logs, so does your metabolism slow down its caloric burn rate.

Throw another log on the fire (the right food) and the burn regains strength.

After a night of sleep, your body is ready to get charged again for the day and it requires breakfast…something to break the overnight fast. Stoke that fire!

2. Eat Every Three Hours

Try to eat every three hours to keep your metabolism functioning optimally. So in between your meals, you will want to think about adding in a small snack after three hours to keep you going.

Little snacks can keep you satisfied in between meals so that you don’t overeat later or have cravings to dive into the wrong things.

3. Stop Eating Three Hours Before Sleeping

Try to stop eating three hours before you go to bed. Stay out of your kitchen in those final hours of the day.

Moving rooms or getting away from food will help you psychologically to not be tempted.

Eating less in the evening will also help you to sleep better as you have now had time to digest food. Undigested food that takes energy to break down can often be a problem for getting deeper sleep.

Your body is a scientific machine. Give it a chance to recover during sleep. You will sleep better if your body is not at work digesting.

As an added benefit, you’ll wake up feeling better too.

How Destructive Emotional Eating Can Be

Have you ever given much thought to what emotional eating is? Probably not.

But the truth is, far too many of us do it as a way to soothe ourselves or even relieve stress and boredom.

Emotional eating is when you eat to fill an emptiness.

You probably are not even aware that you are doing it. When you are not hungry and you eat, it is emotional eating.

This habit can be very damaging because you end up eating mostly non-nutritious foods that will not help your waistline.

If you do not learn how to stop emotional eating, you will always struggle with weight loss. This will stop you from achieving that toned belly you want.

Emotional Eating Starts Early In Life

We often have learned emotional eating from our childhoods.

Did you ever get rewarded with a cookie or ice cream for having done something right as a child? We often have memories of comfort foods rewarding us when we were little.

We may even have learned to go to certain foods when we felt down or lonely. 

Mastering the reason why we eat is fundamental to losing weight and keeping it off long term.

To help you stop this bad habit, always ask yourself if you are truly hungry or just wanting emotional comfort.

Try to get at least one supportive friend in your life to bond with. Learn to become your best friend. Snuggle with your dog or cat.

Learning to fill your emotional voids without using food as a tool is difficult. However, it is an important skill to work at.

After all, you and you alone have to walk through this life in your body. So you’d best get on your own team and cheer you on! Be your own best support.

Always try to replace your emotional needs with the comforts of pets, people or experiences to nourish your soul. Only then can you get off this damaging cycle.

How To Diet and Lose Belly Fat For Great Results

When you learn how to build your meals correctly in the right portion size and combination, you will be well on your way to mastering the food side of belly weight loss.

The added benefits are more energy and feeling better in the long run too.

It’s a win-win!

Eating the right foods, timed throughout the day will give your body the proper fuel to run and burn calories efficiently.

Your moods and energy will stay consistent. With a positive mindset, weight loss will naturally follow.

Stay committed to you and your goals because you CAN do it!