Tropical Weight Loss
Photo by Michelle Leman Pexels Logo Photo: Michelle Leman

How can I slim my waist in 2 weeks?

22 Ways to Lose 2 inches of Belly Fat in 2 Weeks Start Your Day Early. Woman at window. ... Bring on the Berries. Blueberries in bowl. ... Skip the Hydrogenated Oils. Cronut. ... Switch to Sprouted Bread. Sprouted grain bread. ... Lift. Weight training. ... Say So Long to Sweeteners. ... Make Fiber Your Friend. ... Swap Out Ketchup For Salsa. More items... •

news.yahoo.com - 22 Ways to Lose 2 inches of Belly Fat in 2 Weeks - Yahoo News
Can I lose weight by taking supplements?
Can I lose weight by taking supplements?

Sellers of these supplements might claim that their products help you lose weight by blocking the absorption of fat or carbohydrates, curbing your...

Read More »
Last updated May 29, 2018
Is it possible to lose 20 pounds in a month?
Is it possible to lose 20 pounds in a month?

While losing 20 pounds in a month is possible, losing weight too quickly often comes with a metabolism that slows down, increased cravings, and...

Read More »
Last updated Jul 10, 2022

By Sarah Crow

A slimmer waist, healthier body, and reduced risk of chronic disease start today with these belly fat-fighting tips. Let’s face it: that marshmallowy middle you’re sporting didn’t get there overnight. Stressful days at the office, indulging in one-too-many cheat meals, or finding excuses to skip a day, week, or month’s worth of workouts are all making it easy to pack on the pounds and making it difficult to get them off. Watching that extra junk around your trunk turn your body into a full-blown Buddha belly puts you at an increased risk for heart disease, diabetes, and early death. Luckily, losing the weight doesn’t have to take forever; with these 22 belly fat-fighting tips, you can shave two inches off your waistline in as little as two weeks. Think your age will stand in the way of your weight loss? The 20 Ways to Lose Your Belly When You’re Older will help folks of any age get on track to their best body ever.

1. Start Your Day Early

Woman at window

Don’t let extra hours lounging in bed stand between you and a flatter belly. While getting enough sleep can help boost your metabolic rate, sleeping in may undo any benefit you’d enjoy from catching a few extra winks. One study reveals that late sleepers who snoozed past 10:45 in the morning ate nearly 250 more calories over the course of the day, despite eating half as many fruits and vegetables as their early bird counterparts. Even worse, they chowed down on more salty, sugary, and trans fat-laden fast food than those who woke up earlier. If you happen to head out of the house early, you’re in for an additional metabolic boost; researchers at Northwestern University have found that people exposed to just a short period of early morning sunlight had lower BMIs than their late-waking counterparts.

2. Bring on the Berries

Blueberries in bowl

Instead of satisfying your sweet tooth with some refined sugar, turn to berries and enjoy a slimmer waistline in no time. Berries are loaded with antioxidants, which can help reduce inflammation throughout the body, and research from the University of Michigan reveals that rats given a berry-rich diet shaved off a significant proportion of their belly fat when compared to a control group. Berries like strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries are also loaded with resveratrol, an antioxidant pigment that has been linked to reductions in belly fat and a reduced risk of dementia, to boot.

Story continues

3. Skip the Hydrogenated Oils

Cronut

Those trans fats on your menu are hiding out in plain sight and sabotaging your lean belly plans every time you eat them. If a food product says it contains partially hydrogenated oils, you’re eating trans fat, which can increase your risk of heart disease, high cholesterol, and obesity with every bite. In fact, research conducted at Wake Forest University reveals that monkeys whose diets contained eight percent trans fat upped their body fat by 7.2 percent over a six-year study, while those who ate monounsaturated fat gained just a fraction of that amount. Instead of letting harmful trans fat take up space on your menu, fill up with the 20 Healthy Fats to Make You Thin.

4. Switch to Sprouted Bread

Sprouted grain bread

While it’s often assumed that bread is off-limits when you’re trying to lose belly fat, the right bread may actually expedite the process. Switching to sprouted bread can help out carb-lovers eager to get their fix without going up a belt size, thanks to the inulin content of sprouted grains. The results of a study published in Nutrition&Metabolism reveal that found that pre-diabetic study subjects whose diets were supplemented with inulin shaved off more belly fat and total weight than those whose meal plans didn’t pack this healthy prebiotic fiber.

5. Lift

Weight training

Do you even lift, bro? If you’re serious about getting rid of that belly fat fast, resistance training might just be the key. A study from the Harvard School of Public Health found that adding weight training to adult male test subjects’ workouts significantly reduced their risk of abdominal obesity over a multi-year study period, although doing the same amount of cardio had no such effect. Research from the University of Maryland even found that just 16 weeks of weight training boosted study participants’ metabolic rates by a whopping 7.7 percent, making it easier to ditch those extra inches around your middle.

6. Say So Long to Sweeteners

Artificial sweetener

While many people turn to artificial sweeteners in a misguided attempt to whittle their waistlines, those fake sugars are likely to have the opposite effect. According to researchers at Yale, artificial sweeteners are actually linked with an increased risk of abdominal obesity and weight gain, possibly because they can trigger cravings for the real stuff and spike insulin levels in a similar fashion to real sugar.

7. Make Fiber Your Friend

Does Saxenda help hormones?
Does Saxenda help hormones?

Saxenda works by working with the hormones your body produces that regulate feelings of hunger. Your body produces a hormone called GLP-1, which...

Read More »
Last updated Jun 6, 2022
How long does it take to start burning fat?
How long does it take to start burning fat?

Fat burning typically begins after approximately 12 hours of fasting and escalates between 16 and 24 hours of fasting. Jul 29, 2019

Read More »
Last updated Jan 25, 2021

Flax seeds

The secret to a slimmer stomach in no time? A whole lot of fiber in your diet. Although many people are loath to add carbs to their diet when they’re trying to lose weight, adding the right, fiber-rich ones can have inches off your belly in a hurry. In fact, researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center found that every 10-gram daily increase in soluble fiber was associated with a 3.7 percent decrease in dangerous visceral fat over five years. Those who were active got even leaner, shaving off twice that much fat in the same amount of time. To start ditching that extra belly fat today, add the 30 Best Foods For Fiber to your menu!

8. Swap Out Ketchup For Salsa

Sure, ketchup is tasty, but it’s also a serious saboteur when it comes your weight loss efforts. Ketchup is loaded with sugar — up to four grams per tablespoon — and bears little nutritional resemblance to the fruit from which it’s derived. Luckily, swapping out your ketchup for salsa can help you shave off that belly fat fast. Fresh tomatoes, like those used in salsa, are loaded with lycopene, which a study conducted at China Medical University in Taiwan links to reductions in both overall fat and waist circumference. If you like your salsa spicy, all the better; the capsaicin in hot peppers, like jalapeños and chipotles, can boost your metabolism, too.

9. Score Some Rays

Outdoor yoga

While few would suggest you start hitting up the tanning beds for better health, getting some natural sunlight can help you get rid of those extra inches on your waist in a hurry. Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center found that vitamin D-deficient overweight women between 50 and 75 who upped their intake of the so-called sunshine vitamin shed more weight and body fat than those who didn’t. To practice safe sun, make sure you’re limiting yourself to 15 sunscreen-free minutes per day.

10. Nosh on Some Nuts

Mixed nuts

Sometimes, to whip your body into shape, you have to get a little nutty. While nuts are high in fat, it’s that very fat that makes them such powerful weapons in the war against a ballooning belly. In fact, research from Reina Sofia University Hospital reveals that study participants who consumed a diet rich in monounsaturated fats, like those in nuts, over a 28-day period gained less belly fat than their saturated fat-consuming counterparts while improving their insulin sensitivity.

11. Think Fast

Pushup

Instead of subjecting yourself to another endless workout, crank up the intensity and you’ll see results faster than you ever thought possible. The results of a study conducted at McMaster University in Ontario reveal that adult male study subjects who exercised intensely for a single minute had equivalent respiratory and metabolic changes to those who worked out at a slower pace for close to an hour, so if you want to burn through that belly fat, say so long to slow and steady.

12. Flavor Your Food With Garlic

Garlic

A little garlic in your meals could mean a lot less weight around your middle. The results of a Korean study found that mice given a high-fat diet supplemented with garlic lost significantly more weight and abdominal fat than those who just ate fatty foods. Even better, they also improved their liver health, making it easier to stay healthy and burn off that excess fat in the long term. For more flavorful ways to make your food more enjoyable, turn to the 20 Spicy Recipes That Fire Up Your Metabolism and watch those pounds melt away.

13. Brush Up

Brushing teeth

Keeping a toothbrush handy can do more than polish up that smile (and counter the effects of all that belly-slimming garlic); brushing your teeth throughout the day can also help you ditch that belly fat fast. A study conducted a sample of over 14,000 participants found that brushing after every meal was linked to lower weight. That minty toothpaste flavor not only clashes with virtually every food, brushing may also trigger a Pavlovian response that tells your brain the kitchen’s closed.

14. Fill Up on Fish

Salmon filet

If you’ve got weight to lose and you want it gone fast, try swapping out your usual proteins in favor of fish. Not only is fish lower in calories than an equivalent amount of beef or chicken, a study published in Obesity reveals study subjects who added omega-3 fatty acids, like those found in fish, to their diets shed more weight and had an easier time keeping it off than those who skipped them.

15. Don’t Give Up on Grains

Rolled oats

You don’t have to go low-carb to ditch those extra pounds around your waist in a short period of time. In fact, opting for more whole grains might just get you there faster. Researchers at Tufts University have linked eating three or more daily servings of whole grains to as much as a 10 percent reduction in visceral body fat, the kind that ups your risk for chronic diseases, like diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure.

Apple cider vinegar

Am I not losing weight because I'm not eating enough?
Am I not losing weight because I'm not eating enough?

Not eating enough can stunt weight loss When you severely reduce calorie intake, the body holds onto fat and turns to muscle stores for energy,...

Read More »
Last updated Mar 9, 2021
Does fat grow back after tummy tuck?
Does fat grow back after tummy tuck?

During body contouring procedures like a tummy tuck, fat cells are eliminated from the body and cannot return. Because of this, patients may gain...

Read More »
Last updated Sep 25, 2022

Don’t buy your tickets to Bonnaroo just yet; the kind of acid that will help you slim down is the stuff right inside your cabinet. A 12-week study published in Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Biochemistry reveals that obese study subjects who made vinegar part of their diet dropped more belly fat than a control group, and other research suggests that acidic foods, like vinegar, can increase the human carbohydrate metabolism by as much as 40 percent.

17. Snack on Some Veggies

Veggie sticks

Your parents weren’t kidding about how important veggies are for a healthy body. What they probably didn’t tell you, however, was that snacking on veggies is also one of the easiest ways to shed unwanted belly fat, too. According to a study published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, opting for non-starchy veggies, like cauliflower, broccoli, and cucumber, as snacks helped overweight kids shed 17 percent of their visceral fat while improving their insulin sensitivity over a five-year period. Think snacking on veggies will leave you hungry? The 20 Most Filling Fruits and Veggies will have your belly satisfied in no time.

18. Crank Up the Calcium

Greek yogurt

Say cheese! Adding some extra calcium to your diet could be the key to getting that flat stomach you’ve been dreaming about. Over just 12 months, researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville found that obese female study subjects who upped their calcium intake shed 11 pounds of body fat without other major dietary modifications. To keep your calcium choices healthy, try mixing it up between dairy sources, calcium-rich leafy greens, fatty fish, nuts, and seeds.

19. Snack on Some Tart Cherries

Basket of cherries

That sour cherry is pretty sweet when it comes to your health. The results of a study conducted at the University of Michigan found that rats given high-fat foods along with tart cherries ditched nine percent more body fat than those in a control group over just 12 weeks. Cherries are also a good source of antioxidant pigment resveratrol, which has been linked to reductions in belly fat, dementia risk, and lower rates of macular degeneration among the elderly.

20. Hit the Track

Man running

You don’t have to be the next Usain Bolt in the making to enjoy some serious belly-slimming results from hitting the track from time to time. Even a moderate-rate jog a few times a week can blast through that belly fat; in fact, a study conducted at Duke University Medical Center found that, over the course of an eight-month study, overweight adult study subjects who jogged 12 miles a week lost the most belly fat and burned 67 percent more calories than participants who did an equivalent amount of resistance exercise, or a combination of cardio and resistance work.

21. Sleep It Off

Sleeping woman

Want to lose that belly fat? In your dreams! Seriously, though: a good night’s sleep is one of the best ways to get rid of that extra fat around your waist for good. Among the 60,000 women participating in the Nurses’ Health Study, those who snoozed for fewer than five hours a night were at the greatest risk of becoming obese and gaining 30 or more pounds over the course of the 16-year study period when compared to those who slept for seven or more hours.

22. Close Up Shop

Open fridge

Stop treating your kitchen like an all-night diner and you’ll stop seeing those unwanted pounds piling onto your frame, too. The results of a study published in Cell Metabolism found that mice who only had access to food during an eight-hour period stayed slim over the course of the study, while those who ate the same number of calories over a 16-hour period gained significantly more weight, particularly around their middle. When you’re finished with dinner at night, shut the fridge and don’t look back until morning — your belly will thank you. When you do head back to the kitchen in the A.M., make sure the 40 Things Healthy Cooks Always Have in Their Kitchen are there waiting for you.

MORE FROM EAT THIS, NOT THAT!

Zero Belly Breakfasts

Lose Up to 14 Pounds in One Week Eating Breakfast!

The new book Zero Belly Breakfasts will have you looking and feeling great in no time flat, thanks to hundreds of delicious and nutritious breakfast secrets—and more than 100 mouthwatering recipes you can prepare in minutes! Buy Zero Belly Breakfasts today!

news.yahoo.com - 22 Ways to Lose 2 inches of Belly Fat in 2 Weeks - Yahoo News
Does lemon water lower A1C?
Does lemon water lower A1C?

Lemon water may not directly impact your blood sugar levels and cause it to come down, but it can surely help prevent untimely spikes. The easy to...

Read More »
Last updated Apr 24, 2021
Can I drink 2 protein shakes a day to lose weight?
Can I drink 2 protein shakes a day to lose weight?

Protein shakes support muscle growth and repair after exercise and they can be a quick meal replacement when you're on the go. Drinking two protein...

Read More »
Last updated Jun 20, 2022
What happens to your body when you start drinking more water?
What happens to your body when you start drinking more water?

You'll urinate more. You'll feel less hungry and may even lose weight. You'll probably experience more comfortable digestion (less heartburn)....

Read More »
Last updated Jul 17, 2020
How do you detox your gut and flatten your stomach?
How do you detox your gut and flatten your stomach?

3-Day Cleanse To Lose Belly Fat: Get A Flat Tummy With These Tips Step 1 – Avoid These Foods. Step 2 – Eat These Foods Instead. Colorful Fruits And...

Read More »
Last updated Jan 27, 2019