13/11/2023
"What can we do to combat belly fat? I answered Linda's question! 😍🤩
Linda asked for help regarding belly fat!
I've been part of the team for 4 weeks, I love your workouts, I train with them for an hour every day. I am 165 cm and weigh 64 kg, I'm not overweight. I don't eat flour and sugar-containing foods, I don't eat ice cream, and mostly don't eat sweet fruits. I don't have any harmful habits. I drink the perfect breakfast and eat from 10 am to 6 pm, and I also consume collagen.
I work an office job and have that certain 'spare tire.' The muscles underneath are shaping up, but the fat around my waist and belly won't budge, although my thighs are starting to shape up. What else can I do to combat belly fat?
Thank you if you can help?
I look forward to your reply!
Linda
Hi Linda!
Congratulations on your progress!
If I understand correctly, you're doing about an hour of strength training every day?
From what you've told me, I have two + one thoughts:
First, if I understand correctly, your goal is fat reduction. Fat reduction is a regeneration process - it doesn’t happen significantly during exercise, but during regeneration. The exercise signals the body that 'there is a load, prepare for it,' and this preparation happens during regeneration. This regeneration occurs during sleep, and also when our digestion 'sleeps' during partial fasting.
So, my question is, could you train every other day and insert, for example, a yoga video on alternate days?
Second: I can't guarantee the effectiveness of products from other manufacturers, I don't know how they work, they might break the fast or lead to starvation. If I had found something good from another manufacturer, I wouldn't have had to make my own. A common mistake is skipping grass-fed butter because it's complicated to get or something. Or in the collagen butter coffee recipe, replacing the collagen and butter with something other than in the recipe 🙂 You didn’t mention doing such a thing, I'm just talking about common cases.
Third: One potential cause of belly fat is some irritation affecting the digestive system, leading to suboptimal processing and excretion. This can range widely, from leaky gut to subtly lurking sensitivities.
What we can do:
Consume resistant starches additionally, as they resist digestion but feed gut bacteria (and of course, you can try any other harmless practices to help gut bacteria, some swear by homemade yogurt, others by kombucha, and others by fermented cabbage and other vegetables). For example, rice cooked with added fat, then cooled, should be in the recipes.
That's one side, to help the digestive system.
The other side is to reduce the burden, to investigate hidden allergies or sensitivities. This is detective work: pick a common allergen, like gluten. Don't eat it for a few weeks. Then eat a lot of it and see if you feel better or worse. I suggest doing these experiments synchronized with your menstrual cycle, from a few days before to a few days after your period, as the period itself can easily lead to breaking any diet. Which is fine - just don't draw conclusions from that.
From what you've written, I would start with gluten, because, for example, bulgur is wheat, it also contains gluten (that's why I don't recommend it, and why it's not among my recipes).
But what's unavoidable: quality sources. Because the industry uses a lot of antibiotics in animals, and these antibiotics (and other drugs) themselves are brutal on the gut flora. I don’t have a sure tip for this, as it depends on where you live, but I would bet within a few hours’ drive there is such a source or farmer, and then I would buy from them, ground, in half-kilo or kilo bags (depending on how many you are) and freeze them. Then fill up the freezer every month or two. If possible, also opt for pastured, hypoallergenic animals. Like rabbit or sheep. But you might tolerate beef well, and then you don't have to go that far.
And I want to emphasize again and again, don't starve, ever, not even a little. If you're ever hungry during a fast, especially with exercise, eat. If you're always pushing your limits in training, you also need to push your plate's limits. The extra muscle (and other) has to come from somewhere.
Does this answer your question?
Hugs
Zsac"
