Stomach fat is many things, among them annoying, ugly and impossible to lose. Worry no more, for there are steps you can take to make losing stomach fat easier than it has ever been!

[Being a cartoon character is the only way to stop worrying about losing stomach fat!]

All you have to do is make a few small changes to your life and ridding your body of that pesky stomach fat will just another goal to accomplish. Weight loss is never easy, but we’ve come up with a few tips that will make losing stomach fat easier.

Count It Out

Eyes always roll when I mention diets because people hate food restrictions. The bad news is that losing stomach fat cannot occur without some changes in your daily diet. Changes to you diet means reducing or eliminating certain foods, while adding others like fruits and vegetables.

The key to losing stomach fat however, is to seriously cut down on how much junk you eat. The first place you should start is with snack foods. Get rid of big Family Size bags of chips and cookies and get individual packs. Sitting a huge bag of chips on the sofa next to you is like an open invitation to eat the whole thing, by counting it out, or only eating what the serving suggestion is. This will help you eliminate unnecessary calories that occur from overeating, and a calorie reduction is how weight loss happens.

A well-balanced diet that has fresh fruits and vegetables will satisfy you without adding unnecessary fat and sugar. Whole grain foods will really help you control how much you eat because they make you feel more satisfied with a smaller amount of food. Lean meats and beans are will also make losing stomach fat even easier.

Go To Bed

Your success or failure in losing stomach fat has a lot to do with your sleeping habits. Successful weight loss requires you to be of sound mind and body for most of the day. When you don’t get enough sleep your mind isn’t sharply focused and you’re twice as likely to make unhealthy decisions. A tired person will choose the elevator over the stairs, a cupcake over a fruit cup and a night on the couch over a few hours at the gym.

[If this is too much for you, how're you gonna make it to the gym?]

In addition to bad decision making, getting enough sleep each night gives your body the times it needs to recharge to function properly for the next day. When you don’t get enough sleep your body incorrectly assumes its stress and often makes the decision to store the cortisol rather than burn it. Losing stomach fat will be easier if you get 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night.

Water

It doesn’t matter what you think about water as long as you drink it. Water is essential for all types of weight loss, but especially for losing belly fat. Besides flushing out toxins, water gives your body life. It keeps you hydrated so that you don’t bloat up like a hot air balloon.

Water also makes bowel movements easier, and nothing makes a stomach look bigger than being full of crap! Pardon the imagery, but water helps your body function as it should, which makes losing stomach fat easier. Water alone won’t expedite your weight loss, but drinking enough water each day will help in your quest to lose belly fat.

Don’t Force Yourself to Exercise

Losing stomach fat requires you to be active! Whether its playing tennis to get a good upper body workout or taking a long with a few friends, getting moving is about being out and enjoying life without always eating. When you get used to leading a life of activity, going to the gym or scheduling time for regular workouts will become easier. By being active on a regular basis you’ll feel almost restless on days when you’re less active.

When you do decide to have a traditional workout, an exercise regimen that includes both strength training and aerobic exercises—combined with improved eating habits—is the most effective method for losing stomach fat. It really doesn’t matter what kind of exercises you do as long as you’ve created that calorie deficit for weight loss. Go the gym, play your favorite sport or do things that get you off the couch and get movin’ around and watch the stomach fat melt away!

Reduce Portion Size

Reducing portion size is probably one of the most difficult aspects of losing stomach fat. Your stomach has gotten bigger and takes more food to fill it up, however eating isn’t supposed to “fill you up”. You should feel satisfied after a meal, not stuffed to the brink of explosion.

[Sure portion sizes have gotten bigger...but do you really have to eat the whole thing!?!]

The only way to see your belly begin to shrink is to eat less (and exercise more) so your stomach actually has an opportunity to shrink. Losing stomach fat means only eating as much as your body needs to sustain itself. When you eat, don’t allow food to be falling off the plate—that’s the number one sign that you’re eating way too much.

Eat less food and losing stomach fat will be easier than you thought. The difficult part is to keep the tiny tummy you worked so hard for!

Read our The Truth About Six Pack Abs review and get even more tips to make losing stomach fat less of a headache and more of reward!

When it comes to losing weight, intelligent dieters know that success means a healthy low-calorie diet and regular exercises. However when a diet plan comes along that makes a smart argument, it’s difficult to ignore. I found that to be (mostly) true with the Paleo Diet.

[Are these svelte frames from a Paleo diet or the paleo exercise regimen of hunting & gathering?]

The Paleo Diet is a diet plan that follows the same nutritional diet that our ancestors ate during the paleolithic period. Keep reading to find out if the Paleo Diet is just another fad or if it really works for weight loss.

The Paleo Diet

The Paleo Diet focuses on foods that contribute to good health, and cautions dieters to stay away from foods that contain nutrients which cause or contribute to weight gain. The main purpose of the Paleo Diet meal plan is to reduce fat and decrease the risk of contracting weight-related illnesses that include diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and many others.

The Paleo diet is very simple, consisting only of foods that were available prior to widespread agriculture. Below is a list of foods you are allowed to eat on the Paleo Diet:
Lean meats
Offal
Fresh Fruits
Fresh Vegetables
Shellfish
Fish
Roots
Tree Nuts

Like any diet, the Paleo Diet comes with a list of prohibited foods as well. The foods you may not eat on the Paleo Diet includes foods that were unavailable to paleolithic humans. Those foods include:
Salt
Refined Sugars
Grains
Processed foods
Dairy
Saturated & Trans fats
High glycemic carbs (refined grains mostly)

[If you run out of ideas, you can purchase a Paleo Diet cookbook for $20. It has 150 recipes.]

What’s Good About The Paleo Diet?

What’s good about the Paleo Diet is that it focuses on weight loss from a health standpoint. Although the main goal of the Paleo diet is to help lose weight, there is an undeniable focus on reducing risks of obesity related diseases, which is always a positive thing. The best thing about the Paleo diet eating plan is that avoiding processed foods is encouraged. Processed foods are often made from saturated and trans fats, as well as high-glycemic carbohydrates like glucose and fructose.

The meal plans provided in the Paleo Diet allow the dieter to take more control of their meals, and that’s always good for weight loss. When you have to look for ingredients and cook your own meals, you feel more invested in your weight loss and tend to take it more seriously. This, in my opinion, is probably one of the most positive aspects of the Paleo Diet meal plan.

What’s Bad About The Paleo Diet?

There are 2 main issues I have with the Paleo Diet. First I have to question the wisdom of completely eliminating grain products and legumes from a diet. Grains, especially whole grains are packed with nutrients like fiber and iron that the body needs. Furthermore, new evidence suggests that our paleolithic ancestors did eat grains.

The other fault I see with the Paleo Diet is that it does not give exercise a proper focus. Thinking back on the lives of hunters and gatherers, it seems odd that exercise isn’t credited more with the svelte frame and overall health of our ancestors. Exercise is mentioned only as an afterthought, and that is not something TFLA endorses.

[Rock climbing is a great paleo-esque exercise that'll give you a full body workout!]

Successful weight loss requires a calorie deficit, which most of us create through eating less AND exercising. Trying to simply eat less to lose weight, is possible, but not advised.

A sedentary lifestyle (being a couch potato) is responsible for many of the diseases associated with obesity, including heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and death. With this information available, how can the Paleo Diet produce effective weight loss without exercise?

Does The Paleo Diet Help Weight Loss?

Yes and no. A meal plan based on the Paleo Diet will very likely lead to weight loss, as long as you stick with the allowed foods. However you can eat lean proteins and fresh produce as much as you want, but if the body isn’t getting enough exercise weight loss won’t be significant. Creating a calorie deficit is key to weight loss, which the Paleo Diet does endorse. Unfortunately it is virtually impossible to create a calorie deficit through eating alone AND have successful weight loss.

No diet or lifestyle change is complete unless it includes an exercise regimen that will help you tone and get healthy. A healthier diet is necessary for many things, but successful weight loss requires proper diet and exercise.

The Paleo Diet aids weight loss because the major focus of the meals plans is lean proteins along with fresh fruits and vegetables. These foods don’t have a high fat or calorie content so they are a great way to start creating a calorie deficit, especially if your current diet is filled with processed foods. This first step get the weight loss ball rolling, but it will stop shortly if you don’t add regular exercise.

Paleo Diet Verdict

Since there is still some scientific debate about whether or not human genetics have “adapted” to a paleolithic diet, the jury is still out on the long-term effectiveness of the Paleo Diet. However since TFLA does endorse a diet filled with lean proteins and fresh fruits & vegetables, a meal plan similar to the Paleo diet plan is recommended.

If you’re just starting your weight loss regimen, the Paleo Diet is a good reference of the types of food you should be eating. We think you should also be eating whole grains and legumes in moderation as well as getting regular physical activity. Other good bits from the Paleo Diet includes avoiding processed foods, salt, saturated & trans fats, and refined sugars.

Find a less restrictive way to break your food addiction by reading our review of Eat Stop Eat.

Another catchy title on the fat loss book circuit has made it’s way across my desk this month with The Denim Diet -16 Simple Habits to Get You into Your Dream Pair of Jeans coming in from wardrobe stylist and set designer Kami Gray. I’m not kidding. Gray is not a dietitian nor does she have an emotional fat-to-skinny story to fall back on. Instead she’s a working woman who has styled for TV shows House, Veronica Mars and Hell’s Kitchen as well as commercials for Toyota and Nike.

I try not to judge but sometimes you just want to stop and consider the facts. Her background doesn’t exactly scream expert but I’m an open-minded individual so let’s give Kami a chance and see what she has to offer.

[Love the look of dark blue jeans but not completely sold on the whole let-me-show-you-my-underwear look?]

The Denim Diet claim

Gray dismisses the bathroom scale and fad diets as nothing more then a waste of your time. She claims that a favorite pair of designer jeans – or as she puts it the wow-him date-night jeans or the back-of-the-closet pair waiting for the skinner you – is the only fat loss motivator and guide you need.

Get with the program

Gray’s fat loss ideas are pretty simple. It’s all about a lifestyle change centered around healthy habits and eliminating those habits which do you harm. I’m not going to cover all 16 here but some of the bigger habits she talks about include: choosing high fiber, whole-grain carbs over empty white carbs like pasta and bread; Eating whole foods such as fruits and veggies over processed fast food snacks; and avoiding the liquid calorie beverages such as fancy coffees and carbonated sodas.

Her “good food list” is refreshing with the standard inclusions of fruits, veggies, and lean meats combined with “sweets” in the form of applesauce, all-fruit jams, honey and dark chocolate. No surprises on her “bad foods” list with junk food and low nutrient snacks topping the list as usual.

Styling tips before fat loss results

This is where the book takes us down a somewhat untraveled path, but one with which Gray is much more comfortable with. Gray offers up 10 styling tips to help dieters look slimmer before diet results kick in. The “wear black” tip was on the list because as Gray put it so simply, “nothing does the trick better”. The always popular “wear clothes that fit” is always a good rule to follow and Gray pointedly states that oversize clothes add weight, while undersized shirts in particular squeeze the top layer of subcutaneous fat which never looks good. Can you say muffin tops?

And the verdict is…

I enjoyed this book from an entertainment perspective. Kami Gray has an easy-going approach in delivering her message to the audience. At no point did I feel the typical scare mongering or pressure tactics that so many weight loss authors rely on. Her advice is sensible and should encourage more women to adopt the healthy habits outlined in the book. Throw in the fact the recipes she includes don’t require you to be a skilled chef with exotic ingredients. BUT….

And now the buts… and you knew they were coming…

Yes, the healthy habits are smart and most importantly backed by scientific research but there is no step-by-step plan. Most people need specific and tangible instructions in order to guide one through the change. Also, the inclusion of styling tips may in fact do more harm then good here. Readers will be tempted to skip right to the styling tips since it’s easier to hide a problem then it is to face it head on. In the end, you’re only masking the problem and afraid of the sacrifices and work needed to achieve you’re fat loss goal.

If – and I strongly mean if – you’re able to understand the healthy habits portion of this book and enjoy a little humor and fun then I definitely recommend you take a look at The Denim Diet. If you’re looking for a detailed fat loss plan-of-attack then I would suggest men and women check out our Truth About Six Pack Abs program review. It’s shown to be an effective program for anyone looking to get in great shape and live a healthier life.