The midsection is the most common problem area for women when it comes to carrying a few extra pounds.
Usually, belly fat is difficult to making it one of the most frustrating types of weight to carry.
Try as they might, many women have a difficult time losing belly fat despite their best efforts.
While some may tack this up to just not doing enough, there are actually a few concrete reasons why your progress could be stalled when working to lose belly fat.
The following problems and factors can contribute to the difficulty surrounding this form of weight loss for women.
Do any of these apply to you?
Not Knowing How to Manage Your Stress
One of the characteristics of stress is that it can wreak serious havoc on your bodily systems. When left unchecked, stress can literally fester within one’s body, causing them to weaken their immune system, hold onto weight, and feel run down.
Proper stress management, when paired with a regular exercise routine and healthy diet, can help keep the belly fat away once it’s gone. Flab from stress will no longer be able to accumulate because the toxins and chemicals associated with stress will, ideally, be gone from the body.
A great way to practice both exercise and stress management is through exercises like Pilates, Yoga, and Tai Chi. Tone your body and free your mind through focused movements, mindfulness and structured breathing.
Compromised Exercise
Most women try to get in a cardio workout a few times a week when trying to shed belly fat. Long jogs, walking, and even running on the treadmill are all a great way to get this exercise in to your weekly routine, but there is a catch. These cardio workouts can quickly become stabilized, meaning your metabolism will adjust and the pounds will stop coming off.
A better way to strengthen your core and tone your tummy consistently is through weight training. This exercise allows your body to target different muscles so that the routine never becomes complacent and the belly fat is attacked on all sides.
Your Body Needs More Magnesium
Magnesium is an extremely important nutritient that the body needs to carry out hundreds of chemical reactions. These include everything from regulating blood sugar levels to keeping the heart rhythm steady and sturdy.
Studies suggest that magnesium may also be necessary for aiding weight loss, mainly because higher levels of the substance have been linked to lower levels of insulin and fasting glucose.
By simply adding a magnesium supplement or magnesium rich foods such as leafy vegetables, nuts, and beans to your daily diet, you could begin to see positive changes in your health and weight.
Not Getting Enough Sleep
Whether you’re exercising religiously and eating a strictly health diet or not, your belly fat won’t budge if your body is not getting enough sleep.
Sleep is a restorative process that helps your body let go of stress and tension, allowing healing and calmness during the night. If you’re trying to lose wait but denying your body the rest it needs, it could cause you to hang onto that belly fat because the stress and tension are still present.
Salt and Sugar Still Have a Place in Your Diet
While there is nothing wrong with salt and sugar in moderation, these substances can cause your belly fat to become stubborn. Keeping salty and sugary foods in your diet can undermine you efforts for a flatter stomach by simply replacing or maintaining what you’ve been working so hard to get rid of.
While sugar and salt are potentially the same across the board, where you get them from makes a difference between a fit stomach and a flabby one. For instance, if most of your sugar is coming from sodas, highly concentrated juices, and similar beverages, you could be making it hard on yourself to shed those last few pounds.
Similarly, consuming overly salty foods like hamburgers, chips, French fries, and the like could be causing the fat to stay the same, even with exercise.
The bottom line is that a sculpted stomach will not be ruined by salt and sugar, but it could be ruined by where the salt and sugar are coming from. Instead, add naturally sweet and salty foods to your diet such as fruits, nuts, oats, grains and lean meats.
Bottom Line
Belly Fat is frustrating but it does not have to stick around forever. These few reasons why your weight loss progress may be stalling can help you and other women fine-tune their lifestyles to promote healthy weight loss. It is important to not get overly stressed when belly fat or flab in other problem areas is not coming off as quickly as you’d like.
Instead, step back and evaluate the factors to see what may be causing your body to hang onto the extra pounds you’re trying to lose. With time, effort, and proper self-care, you’ll be seeing a flatter stomach, fitter body, and a healthier you in no time at all.
