When it comes to belly fat, which is situated in the upper abdominal area, is a common source of collective frustration for us all. All of the crunches and planks in the world can strengthen the muscles in that area, but a layer of fat may still remain.

With a combined focus of understanding of our personal genetics, ongoing lifestyles, and a rich-diet can determine where your body stores excess fat, hence resulting in the way you end up looking every day.

Most believe you can “spot-treat” areas of fat on the body, which is actually false. The remedy requires us to focus on losing fat overall and exercise to target your persistent belly region. A mixture of different cardio exercises, strength-training and focusing on targeting losing weight specifically, can greatly reduce fat and improve how you feel day to day.

1. Diet

Touted as one of the most effective factors when it comes to reducing Belly fat, Diet is therefore King in the arena of looking your best. It truly matters what you choose to actually eat from moment to moment. Every little helps.

Upper abdominal belly fat can be the result of your body storing water weight. Anything from high sodium consumption, dehydration, and a lack of electrolytes in your system can cause your body to retain water.

This can make your stomach and other areas of your body appear more swollen than they actually are. Therefore, sticking to a diet low in salt while you’re working to lose belly fat is the normal way to go. 

Getting enough fiber in you, could be one of the causes of retained fat. A lack of nutritious fiber could indicate to your stomach to push itself more  outward by a combination of gases and waste in your digestive system.

This results in that droopy-belly look that doesn’t have enough fiber to push food through and out of your digestive system in any given window of time.

Not only does it actually help you to look trim, but it should help you to feel fuller for longer, as it definitely cuts calories far more easily this way. 

Be aware of how much white starches you’re eating too, sugary soft drinks and sugary foods. Even highly processed grains. These foods can disrupt your endocrine system and make it harder for your body to let go of fat.

2. Exercises

Personal Trainers come armed with the experience and wisdom in the type of exercises that are crucial in getting you to adopt healthy mindsets needed on your fitness journey.

Some of the most famous and widely used mix of exercises still may not exactly pinpoint the belly fat you’re looking for, they could certainly strengthen your core areas, tone your waistline, and improve your posture while you’re losing weight.

Have you heard of the Boat Poses? Perhaps even the Russian Twist. 

Maybe you’ve even tried the Upward and Side Planks. Whichever happens to suit you, remember to have fun and enjoy it as you go along.

3. Lifestyle Changes 

Usually overlooked for their simplicity, these tiny lifestyle tweaks can almost instantly help, if consistently performed. 

Drinking more water, many times a day is so very effective. It immediately helps digestion, any inflammation you’re experiencing even when you can’t first feel it. It hydrates those sore muscles and flushes any toxics that decided to stick around. 

A build-up of stress is another huge one. It may be the reason why many people are holding onto that belly fat. Great coping mechanisms such as taking a brief 10-min guided meditation, a quick yoga, and definitely deep breathing rounds. All of these would have an impact on making weight loss far easier than it needs to be. 

Quitting smoking may be a cause too, if you happen to find yourself still battling the challenging habit. Smoking is known to increase your insulin, and therefore make you crave things you really do not need in your system. Especially when you’re trying to cut fat. 

Ask your nearest pharmacy or your doctor for any smoking cessation groups near you.

4. Causes

While the answer isn’t simple, there are numerous causes to fat accumulating in the upper belly area. Some of them are:

• Your Hormones
• Getting Older
• Lack Of Quality Sleep
• Menopause
• Your Genetics
• Overall Stress

5. Takeaways

Working out your upper body and core will strengthen and tone your muscles, but rest assured you simply cannot spot-treat the layer of fat on your upper belly, or for any part of the body that has high-fat stored. 

Making a plan to lose overall weight is the only way to get rid of fat deposits on your stomach.

What helps is being realistic about how quickly you would like to lose weight. Remember that everyone we know has at least some amount of fat, and fat is not always an indicator of how healthy you are.

If you’re concerned with fat on your upper belly, get in touch and speak with one of our UAE Personal Trainers. They can walk you through creating healthy weight-loss goals for your height and body type. Good luck!