11 Foods to Avoid When Trying to Lose Weight

Belly fat is more than unsightly, it is dangerous. Visceral fat releases a hormone that causes diabetes and inflammation. It’s also linked to cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, and gallbladder issues. The only way to get rid of belly fat is to eat certain foods and exercise.

Miracle cures, pills, and surgery won’t help. Belly fat is very responsive to diet and exercise. By eating these foods, you will see results very quickly. And the best part is, you’ll feel better overall.

1. Drink More Water and Unsweetened Tea

Stop drinking sweetened drinks immediately. This includes sugar and artificial sweeteners. Drink plain water, unsweetened tea, black coffee, and green tea for maximum benefit.

You must avoid sugar because sugar is made, in part, of fructose. Your liver can’t metabolize much fructose and turns extra into fat and stores it in your belly. Artificial sweeteners cause cravings.

These four beverages are known to stop dehydration and may increase your metabolism.

2. Stop Eating Sugar

Now stop eating sugar/artificial sweeteners. It’s going to be tough! But losing dangerous belly fat is worth it. Eliminating sugar means no more soft drinks, fruit juices, cookies, pastries, and candy bars.

It also means reading labels. You might eat a healthy salad, but your salad dressing is probably packed with sugar. So is your ketchup, barbeque sauce, and even mustard.

Open your cabinets and randomly pick out a favorite. The odds are there is a lot of sugar in it, but it may be listed under one of sugar’s many names.

3. Eat Fruit

Soothe a sweet tooth by eating fruit. At first, you may crave a lot of fruit, but that wears off.

Fruit is healthy, even through it contains sugars, because fruit generally comes in a single serving size, chewing makes your brain release hormones to make you feel full, and fruit contains fiber. Fiber makes you feel full longer and you won’t eat as much.

Fruit also contains many healthy vitamins and anti-oxidants.

4. Eat Your Veggies

Eat raw, steamed, or roasted veggies. Veggies contain vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants, and other important nutrients. Eat the rainbow – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet veggies each contain different nutrients. Like fruit, veggies contain a lot of fiber and it will take longer for you to digest them.

Don’t add butter, cheese, mayo, or commercial dressing to your veggies. If you roast them, use olive or coconut oil for added health benefits.

5. Eat Meat

Lean meat like beef, chicken, whole eggs, and fish are winners in the belly fat fight. Plant based proteins like beans, legumes, quinoa and seitan are also excellent for belly fat loss.

Studies show that the more good quality protein you eat, the less belly fat you have. Obviously, you can get too much of a good thing, so try for about 5 ounces a day.

6. Avoid Refined Carbs

You will want to avoid carbs. Fruits, grains, vegetables and milk products are carbohydrates. Not all carbs are created equally. Refined carbs must be avoided to lose belly fat.

Refined carbs are metabolized into sugar and from sugar to belly fat. They’ll also increase your appetite. Cutting refined carbs leads to a quick reduction in water weight. Limiting carbs increases loss of belly fat.

7. Go Whole Grain

Instead of refined grains, eat less than 50 grams a day of whole grains. There are hundreds of whole grains that are excellent sources of plant-based protein.

Whole wheat is not always a whole grain. Some “whole wheat” products are refined white flour with food coloring and some additives like bran. Read the ingredients list for whole wheat flour.

8. Eat Viscous Fiber

Viscous fiber forms a thick “gel” that takes a lot of time to work through your guts. You’ll feel full much longer. You’ll also absorb more nutrients as food moves more slowly through the intestines.

Study show that eating 10 to 14 grams of soluble fiber a day reduces belly fat by 4.5 pounds over 4 months.

9. Add Chia Seeds

If you are looking for one perfect food, try chia seeds. They are exceptionally high in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fiber, protein, healthy fats and are a terrific viscous fiber. Eat your daily chia seeds raw, soaked in juice, or added to oatmeal, cereal, yogurt, vegetables or rice dishes.

Eat about 1.5 tablespoons twice a day.

10. Choose Healthy Fats

All fats are not created equal. You absolutely must cut down on all fat intake. Saturated fats are found in meat, so the leaner the meat, the better.

Transfats are really bad for you. These include partially hydrogenated and hydrogenated vegetable oils. Do not eat these. They will not help you lose weight and are hard on your heart.

11. Exercise

This isn’t food, but…. Exercise is extremely important. If you eat the foods discussed, you will lose weight. Adding aerobic exercise will increase the belly fat loss.

Continuing to exercise after you’ve lost weight will keep it off. Work up to 105 minutes of aerobic exercise a week. That’s 15 minutes a day!

Oh… and exercise isn’t sit-ups or planks (although they, and weight training won’t hurt). Aerobic exercise includes activities like walking, running swimming, and biking.

Conclusion

You can lose body fat! Stop eating sugar, artificial sweeteners and all trans-fats. Eat more fruit, veggies, and lean meat. Sprinkle on the chia seeds for maximum results. And most importantly, add aerobic exercise.

You’ll feel better and be healthier.