10 Ways to Beat Middle Aged Spread
3. Reduce portion sizes
Serve your food on a smaller plate and don’t have second helpings, for example a meat portion (3-4oz) is about the palm of your hand in size, and a portion of carbs, fruit or veg is the size of a fist.”
4. Keep active
Further studies have revealed that older people who take moderate exercise lower their risk of diabetes and heart disease by reducing abdominal fat.
Walking for half an hour a day, even in periods of 10 minutes and build from there, do that five to seven times a week.
Walking, cycling, dancing – even housework can burn a large amount of fat.
5. A Good Sleep
Scientific research has shown that seven hours’ sleep per night decreases the risk of heart disease, diabetes and obesity.
When we go without sleep we make poor food choices and crave the bad carbohydrate foods.
6. Release your Stress
The stress hormone cortisol is one of the reasons fat sticks to that tummy. The brain releases adrenaline and cortisol to provide energy when we are in stressful situations. This promotes fat storage around the midriff if it’s not burnt off.
Eliminating stress as from your daily routine, and you’ll reduce the amounts of cortisol released. Yoga and Pilates are particularly successful exercise regimes that help to reduce stress.
1 Eat Clean
A recent scientific study showed middle-aged people who ate white bread and other highly refined foods watched their waistlines expand three times more than those who ate less processed foods with the same calories.
That’s about half an inch in the course of a year.
So if you want to reduce that tummy before your summer holidays get into a clean eating frame of mind, cut out the bad carbs, bread, potatoes, pasta etc., bring in the good carbs like sweet potatoes, butternut squash and whole grain rice for example.
Forgetting all about fat won’t help keep you trim either, you need to eat the right type of fat, that means adding olive oil, avocados, nuts, seeds, oily fish and eggs to your weekly shopping list to effectively burn off weight
2. Eat Clean Protein
The body can store fat and carbs but it can’t store protein. You must eat enough protein regularly or the body will “take” protein from the muscles.
Maintaining muscle mass by eating protein at every meal will also will keep you feeling fuller for longer. Target around 100g of protein a day, a chicken breast contains 25g, an egg 12g and a tin of tuna 40g. Cottage cheese, Greek yoghurt, nuts and beans are also good sources.
7. Move about
An enzyme called lipoprotein lipase that helps us burn fat is decreased if we sit down and don’t move, take every opportunity to stand, walk while your on the phone and stand on the train home
8. No Breakfast Try Brunch
Avoid eating for about three hours before bed and don’t eat breakfast for around 16-18 hours. The body hits its glycogen stores for energy this in turn makes it burn fat. Even better if you can exercise before your ‘breakfast. Delaying breakfast can make all the difference to shedding excess pounds.
9. Weekend Tipples only
Having one bottle of wine an evening could add four inches of fat to your waist in just a year. Wine produces sugar, which goes straight to your waist and stops you burning fats until its processed. Try to have four alcohol-free days a week.
10. Exercise to Increase muscle
At around 40 years of age the body naturally loses muscle mass. Lean muscle is metabolically active and burns calories, so unless you eat less to balance the muscle loss, you will increase fat because you’ll have a calorie surplus.
Exercise to build muscle will help so it is necessary to get some regular strength training exercise such as resistance bands or weights.
For more information on Clean Eating or weight loss and exercise visit www.fitgirlslim.london and sign up for a free trial and consultation.
