Burn Your Belly Fat - Part 10

Belly Fat Burner#10: Be Mindful of Liquid Calories

You’d be amazed by how many unnecessary liquid calories you consume on a daily basis. Take your morning cup of coffee for instance.

Instead of keeping it basic with a splash of milk and sugar, people are opting for a Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks. The problem is that if you get the 16oz size, you’re drinking about 250 calories and 32 grams of sugar.

Save over 200 calories by making your own coffee and fixing it to your liking or just order regular coffee with skim milk. If you’re looking for an all-natural, zero calorie sweetener, stevia is a great alternative to table sugar or corn syrups.

Stevia is made from a South American plant and has been around for centuries. I’ve tried stevia from several companies and personally like Pure Via Stevia the best.

They come in packets so you can bring some along with you on your coffee run and tell the coffee servers to leave out the sugar. Now that we’re on sweeteners, let’s transition to diet drinks that are laced with artificial sweeteners.

Diet drinks are ok, right? After all, how could zero calorie and zero sugar drinks be bad?

Most artificial sweeteners are essentially a concoction of chemicals made to taste like sugar without actually using sugar. They carefully mix sweet tasting chemicals, until it’s just right.

But what does that mean for your waistline?

A study that followed 474 diet soda drinkers for a decade found their waistline grew by 70 percent. And that was if they only consumed one diet drink a day. Those who drank 2 or more diet sodas had a 500% increase in waist size than those who didn’t drink diet soda!

One reason is because diet soda is so sweet (much sweeter than regular soda) and re-calibrates your taste buds. So foods or drinks that are naturally sweet pale in comparison to the artificial sweeteners we have been accustomed to.

Consequently, you may reach for other sugary high-calorie snacks to satisfy your sweet tooth. When you ditch those diet drinks, you’ll look and feel slimmer.

Sorbitol and other artificial sweeteners cause gas and bloating, which add inches to your waistline. That’s because the artificial sweeteners like sorbitol do not get fermented by the bacteria in your colon. And it’s not just in drinks. Your sugarless chewing gum also has these chemicals in there.

This was particularly hard for me to cut down on because I am a gum-a-holic. I need to chew about two to four pieces at a time. It’s a problem, I know. Since I found it hard to cut down on the frequency of when I chew gum, I ditched gum altogether.

Should I Avoid Alcohol When Trying to Lose Weight?

Typically, alcohol is empty calories. It does not provide your body with nutrients, although in small amounts, certain drinks like wine or stout beer have high anti-oxidant levels. [65]

When you drink alcohol, the calories can quickly add up.

For instance, an 80-proof shot (1. 5 ounces) of alcohol is around 100 calories. It varies slightly but to keep things less confusing, whenever you think of a shot, think 100 calories.

Light beer is around the same calorie count, going up to 110 calories.

Regular beers vary and are about 150 calories per 12 ounces. [66]

Wine has around 120 calories (per 5 ounces). [67]

As you can see, after several glasses of wine and some mixed drinks with friends, you can quickly have over a third of your calories coming from liquids. I think we have to be more aware of this when we go out.

I am not saying you can’t have alcohol. I am saying that you should not binge drink or drink often if you want to lose weight. Alcohol also has an effect on your body’s metabolic process.

When you drink alcohol, it is sent to the liver so it can break down and be digested. Your body shifts its focus from burning body fat and food as energy to burning alcohol.

What Should I Drink to Lose Weight?

Now let’s get into something that we can drink plenty of- water!

In a small study of 7 men and 7 women, both had an increase of 30% in their metabolism after drinking 2 cups of water. Its effect on the metabolism lasted upwards of 40 minutes. [68] Colder water is especially better because your body has to use energy to warm the water, which in turn burns some calories.

The increased metabolic rates will not really matter much in one instance. However, done often and on a daily basis, it can help with losing weight. In fact, researchers estimate that a person who drank around six and a half 8 oz cups of water per day can burn an extra 17,400 calories a year. That could mean dropping an extra 5 pounds for just keeping your body properly hydrated! [69]

Drinking Water Prevents Hunger

There’s another bonus to drinking water. Those who drink water consume less calories because they feel fuller and more satisfied. [70] To make it easy to drink the right amount of water throughout the day, make sure you set specific times of when you will grab some HշO.

Proper Hydration Keeps Your Energy Levels High

The next reason why you must start paying more attention to your daily water intake is because doing so will help to keep your energy levels higher.

Once again, most people don’t realize that drinking water can have this impact on you. But, if you’re in a state of dehydration, you will start to feel sluggish, you’ll be fast to fatigue during exercise, and you may not have the mental sharpness and focus that you otherwise would have.

Drinking a few glasses of water can quickly help you solve this problem. If you ever feel like you just can’t finish up your workout program, you may want to consider drinking a little more throughout that session and see if that makes a difference.

Make an effort to drink water right after waking up. Additionally, drink water before and after eating meals. It may seem like a lot but I guarantee that it will keep you fuller longer. As a bonus, you’ll feel more energetic and refreshed.

☛ Did You Know?

It takes about 10 to 20 minutes for your brain to get the message when you’ve had enough to eat. If you eat too fast, your stomach won’t get the message that you’re full in time, and you’ll eat well beyond the recommended calories.

Try this: drink a full glass of water before and after your meal. Also, drink water when you’re contemplating on going up for seconds. The water will fill your stomach up and buy your brain some time to figure out if you’ve had enough to eat.

GREEN TEA, BELLY FAT’S ENEMY?

I think it’s worth mentioning that green tea has been shown in several studies to reduce belly fat.

The effects the tea antioxidants had on the waistline were shown to be amplified when combined with exercise. [71] Although this information is promising, it is not complete nor is it clear exactly how much tea you should drink for optimal results.

For this reason I was contemplating whether I should include green tea in this guide. However, I felt there were enough studies that show green tea has positive effects on your waistline. And the bonus of adding it to your daily routine goes far beyond weight loss.

Green tea has dozens of health benefits, including cancer-fighting properties! Green tea has a tendency to be bitter, especially if you let it steep for too long.

Add lemon juice (the real stuff, not the one in the squeeze bottles) into green tea to add some flavor and cut through its bitterness. By doing this you will also enhance the absorption of catechins, a powerful anti-oxidant in tea, by up to 6 times. [72]