PRINCE KUMAR
Ranchi, April 24: In the age of casually passing health tips that make it easy to fall into the trap of fitness misconceptions, few know that a glass of detox water alone cannot make you healthy nor help you lose weight, as health experts assert that there is a combination of activities and a complete meal plan that needs to be followed, throughout the day and done the right way, to be able to see the benefits.
In an interview with lagatar24.com, Dr Vijayshree Prasad, senior consultant dietician at MEDICA shared, “Belly fat is not just an ordinary layer of flab but something that surrounds your vital organs like heart, lungs, and liver and could trigger a host of diseases from diabetes, cardiac issues to breast cancer. Even people who have a normal weight and are not considered obese, could bear the brunt of a big belly and suffer from several health issues. ”
“While one may feel it is inevitable to accumulate fat around the waist as one grows old, taking it lightly could lead to disastrous consequences. Modifying your diet and adding more fibre and protein to it, reducing consumption of alcohol, shunning sugar, addressing your stress and increasing your physical activity are some of the lifestyle changes you could adopt to reduce belly fat, “added Dr Vijayshree.
Sharing a few effective ways to burn belly fat while reiterating the fact that our diet plays an extremely important role in weight loss, Dr Vijayshree listed:
- Eat pulses, salads, fruits and vegetables to increase the intake of soluble fibre. Fibre makes the food convert to a viscous gel by absorbing water that delays the emptying of food from stomach and helps us feel fuller for longer. We tend to eat less on consuming a high fibre diet. Also, it decreases the amount of calories absorbed from food.
- The FDA has instructed the producers to ban the use of trans fat in their products. The packaged and processed foods are loaded with trans-fat. Read the food labels carefully, these health dangers are mentioned as ‘partially hydrogenated fats’. It increases the abdominal obesity, insulin resistance and risk of heart diseases.
- Excessive alcohol intake is known to increase the waist circumference. If you want to reduce your waistline, check your alcohol intake and if possible, abstain from it.
- Stress triggers the production of cortisol in our body which is also known as the stress hormone. This hormone will increase the urge for food and promotes fat deposition. Minimise stress by doing activities you like and try to incorporate yoga and meditation in your routine.
- Sugar has been related to weight problems since time immemorial. Sugar is essentially composed of glucose and fructose; this fructose has been known to cause many illnesses.
- An active physical routine fastens the process of healthy weight loss and ensures healthy metabolism. Any form of physical routine like brisk walking, jogging, yoga, Pilates, Zumba, gymnasium, etc. can be consistently followed.
The bottom line is, no diet routine works magically overnight as a consistent and sustainable way of living is the key to achieve your health goals and a mix-n-match of all such good practices accelerates success. Understand that weight loss looks different for everyone and despite following all good practices the weight remains same or attains plateau, it can be an indication of underlying gut or health issue which needs to be medically examined.
