The Ten Commandments of Belly Fat Loss
The most common reason people don’t lose body fat is that they do everything the WRONG way.
This usually isn’t their fault; there is just an astounding amount of bullshit in the fitness industry. Some people call them myths, but I prefer the term bullshit instead. Let’s call it what it is, eh? Let’s take a look at how to ACTUALLY lose belly fat.
FIRST COMMANDMENT OF BELLY FAT LOSS: THOU SHALT PRIORITIZE HIIT TRAINING
Every time in the gym, nearly every single treadmill is full, and most of them are filled with walkers who are trying to lose belly fat.
WRONG.
I think walking is great. But it,along with other forms of low intensity cardio, are not really all that effective for belly fat loss. Here’s a meta-analysis, which is a study of studies…like the last boss of an exercise science video game.
It found that INTENSITY is crucial. Guess what…most people are exercising well BELOW 60% of max heart rate, maybe closer to 40–50%!
Another study confirmed this.
They compared three groups
- high intensity interval exercise (HIIE)
- steady state endurance (SSE)
- control group (that did nothing)
The high intensity interval group lost the most fat and also had the biggest change in “central abdominal fat”. But look at the SEE versus the control group!
Steady state endurance training INCREASED FAT MASS, especially BELLY FAT!
The first thing to change in your programming would be adding HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) workouts. Why don’t most people do this?
Because they are HARD, and most people would rather walk for an hour than do sprints for five minutes. Guess what? The walking might burn you more calories, but the HARD WORK is what will lose fat.
SECOND COMMANDMENT OF BELLY FAT LOSS: THOU SHALT GET 8 HOURS OF SLEEP
When I see (usually young) athletes waking up early to do cardio, I shake my head.
WRONG.
They are shortchanging their development and fat loss in a huge way…to do something that INCREASES their belly fat!
If you are natural, stay in bed. Sleep is really, really important for fat loss, especially belly fat. Check out this chart below. Both groups lost about the same amount of weight-roughly 3kg.
However, the composition of that weight was different.
The 8.5 hours in bed group lost 1.4g of fat, while the 5.5 hours in bed group lost only about .6kg of fat…only 43% as much!!!
THIRD COMMANDMENT OF BELLY FAT LOSS: THOU SHALT CHILL
Why is sleep important? Primarily a hormone named cortisol. This hormone is released when you are stressed, and is essential. Every second that you spend worrying about your belly fat, or your acne, or your hair loss…is literally making it worse!
WRONG.
Just…chill. I suggest deep breathing throughout the day…it doesn’t take long and makes a big difference.
Remember, no hormone is GOOD or BAD.
They all have a reason for existing, and you need SOME cortisol to survive. TOO much, however, can lead to a whole host of nasty symptoms:
- Causes insulin resistance-that’ll make you fat.
- High blood sugar-will also make you fat.
- Disturbed sleep-ever wonder why one night of bad sleep can cause more? Wonder no more…it’s cortisol.
- Food cravings-especially carbs and sugar.
- Muscle loss-Testosterone to Cortisol ratio is a pretty good predictor of muscle mass gains, and more more cortisol=less muscle.
In fact, cortisol and testosterone are both derived from cholesterol by way of pregnenolone. More cortisol needed because you slept poorly or are stressed out means less available for testosterone.
Less testosterone=less lean body mass.
More cortisol=more belly fat.
How can you lower your cortisol, besides getting enough sleep?
- Avoid caffeine and other stimulants, especially at night.
- Exercise, but not excessively (this is likely why endurance training is bad for fat loss, check the first chart!). Exercise increases cortisol temporarily to meet the challenge, but lowers it later. That’s good-you want cortisol to be low in the evening.
- Maintain healthy relationships-having supportive partners and friends who show empathy is huge.
- Limit exposure to bright light at night. I use a program called f.lux to set my screen to BLUE light in the morning and slowly change to ORANGE light after 6pm. Yes, this is a product plug.
- A study of 122 adults found that writing about past stressful experiences increased cortisol over one month compared to writing about positive life experiences or plans for the day. Don’t linger on bad events or experiences!
- Deep breathing is a simple technique for stress reduction that can be used anywhere. A study of 28 middle-aged women found a nearly 50% reduction in cortisol with habitual deep breathing training. FIFTY PERCENT!
- A review of several studies also showed massage therapy can reduce cortisol levels by 30%.
- Laugh more-a study of 18 healthy adults showed cortisol decreased in response to laughter.
You can check the references at the end for more details, but the main idea is to…just relax, in a healthy way.
FOURTH COMMANDMENT OF BELLY FAT LOSS: THOU SHALT CHUG 2–3 LITERS DAILY
I see people trying to diet like they are cutting for a wrestling meet, trying to dehydrate themselves.
WRONG.
Drinking water will also lower your cortisol, but it does so much more that this special molecule gets it’s own commandment.
A study of overweight and obese children found a 25% increase in resting energy expenditure after drinking cold water.
Other studies have monitored overweight people who drank 1–1.5 liters of water for a few weeks. They found a significant reduction in weight, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference and body fat.
Drink up, I’d suggest 2–3L a day. It’s cheap, easy and good for your health as well as your waistline. I sometimes drink 4–6L a day if it’s really hot out.
FIFTH COMMANDMENT OF BELLY FAT LOSS: THOU SHALT DO FULL BODY WORKOUTS
Many people do weight training, but the most common workout split I see BY FAR is working out one muscle group per day.
WRONG.
Doing full body workouts is MUCH more effective.
A study looked at rugby players doing full body workouts or split routines.
At least do upper/lower or push/pull/legs, so that you are working each muscle at least 2x per week. A split routine is going to be shite-for-gains, which means shite-for-belly-fat-loss.
SIXTH COMMANDMENT OF BELLY FAT LOSS: THOU SHALT DIVIDE CARDIO & LIFTING
Another thing is doing cardio and strength training on the same day. People ask me whether to lift first or do cardio first.
WRONG.
Both wrong. Do them on different days-one study showed that doing them separately increased fat loss-by a LOT as well!
If you do cardio first, you’ll be tired and get a crappier weight workout.
If you do strength first, you’ll be tired and get a crappier cardio workout. Plus, all that juicy broken down muscle is perfect to be consumed instead of fat.
Split them up, or keep the cardio to a minimum.
SEVENTH COMMANDMENT OF BELLY FAT LOSS: THOU SHALT CONSUME MORE FIBER
I see a lot of people relying overly on caffeine, preworkout supplements and protein powder.
WRONG.
So very wrong. One study showed that in analyzing obese or overweight individuals over six months, fiber intake strongly correlated with weight loss.
Another study checked the diets of 800 high school students in Georgia, USA. Only TWO were getting the recommended amount of fiber. TWO.
Yea, a quarter of one percent…not shocking why we have an obesity epidemic.
Ketchup is a vegetable now. Our government has failed us. If you aren’t sure whether you are getting enough fiber…you probably aren’t getting enough fiber. How to do that?
EIGHTH COMMANDMENT OF BELLY FAT LOSS: THOU SHALT EAT MORE VEGETABLES
I see a lot of people, especially those who do keto, almost entirely ignoring these gentle jolly green giants of fat loss.
WRONG.
Vegetables check a lot of the boxes of fat loss. They have lots of vitamins, minerals and they are high in fiber and water. They fill you up.
Don’t go overboard with these, as they can cause bloating, but not getting any vegetables at all is a sin, my child. Listen to your mother!
NINTH COMMANDMENT OF BELLY FAT LOSS: THOU SHALT EAT FEWER CALORIES
Some people think that there are magic methods to get around the concept of thermodynamics.
WRONG.
This one won’t cite any studies or post any charts, because this one is pretty fundamental. If you are consuming too many calories, you could be doing everything else perfectly, and you won’t lose weight.
There are a lot of minor things you can tweak to optimize your results, but you can’t optimize anything if you are consuming too many calories. This is paramount!
TENTH COMMANDMENT OF BELLY FAT LOSS: THOU SHALT BE CONSISTENT
Finally, the ultimate commandment, even more important than calories. A lot of people crash diet, doing some kind of extreme weight loss protocol with no plan on how to eat normally in the future.
WRONG.
None of these work if you don’t FOLLOW them, and follow them CONSISTENTLY over a long period of time. This is why most people lose weight, and then gain it all back later. Or worse, the rebound will carry them past where they were and to a “new high”. 90% of those who lose weight gain most of it back.
Here they are all, in an easily screenshotted format:
THOU SHALT PRIORITIZE HIIT TRAINING
THOU SHALT GET 8 HOURS OF SLEEP
THOU SHALT CHILL
THOU SHALT CHUG 2–3 LITERS DAILY
THOU SHALT DO FULL BODY WORKOUTS
THOU SHALT DIVIDE CARDIO & LIFTING
THOU SHALT CONSUME MORE FIBER
THOU SHALT EAT MORE VEGETABLES
THOU SHALT EAT FEWER CALORIES
THOU SHALT BE CONSISTENT
If you follow all of these, you WILL get results.
I’m not saying that it will be fast.
It won’t be.
Or that it will be easy.
It won’t be.
But it’s 100% doable if you follow these commandments.
Further Reading & References
Missing the Dark: Health Effects of Light Pollution
The role of deep breathing on stress.
Cortisol decreases and serotonin and dopamine increase following massage therapy.
Divergent effects of laughter and mental stress on arterial stiffness and central hemodynamics.
I know this post was long, but it’s an incredibly important topic for a lot of people around the world, and you all deserve a thorough, complete and well-researched answer!
