How to Get Rid of Stomach Fat : Secrets for the Regular Person - Part 3 of a 4 Part Series

Part 3 - The Foods You Must Eat to Get Rid Of Stomach Fat

Back in Part 1 of my 4 part series I gave an overview of Stomach Fat, Why We Have It, and What We Have to do to Get Rid of Stomach Fat. In Part 2 of this series I went on to focus on nutrition and how changing the way you eat will help you get rid of stomach fat, lose weight, and lower body fat. We also covered the foods you must avoid to get rid of stomach fat. Now let's look at what to eat and when to eat it.

The Foods You Must Eat

• G - Good carbohydrates (vegetables like spinach, broccoli and other colorful vegetables. Whole grains like whole wheat bread, whole wheat pasta, and brown rice)
• E - Eggs and egg whites
• T - Turkey and other lean meats
• R - Raspberries and other berries
• I - Instant oatmeal and oat based cereals (Cheerios)
• D - Dairy like low-fat yogurt, low-fat milk or cheese
• O - Olive Oil and other healthy fats
• F - Fruit like apples and grapefruit
• F - Fiber, Fiber, Fiber (beans, Fiber One Cereal, Apples, Vegetables)
• A - Almonds, other nuts, and low-sugar peanut butter
• T - Tasty Protein drinks, Whey Protein Powder, and Power Smoothies

How about that for simple? Just remember these foods and you will easily GET RID OF FAT. If you base all of your meals around these foods and eat appropriate portions, you will get rid of stomach fat. It is that simple. So let's dig in a little deeper and review these different food groups.

My plan focuses on 3 basic healthy food groups; lean protein, healthy carbohydrates, and healthy fats. So let's start at the top:

• G - Good carbohydrates (vegetables like spinach, broccoli and other colorful vegetables. Whole grains like whole wheat bread, whole wheat pasta, and brown rice)- These foods are chock full of fiber, vitamins, and many antioxidants. We can really eat as many vegetables a day as we would like. By doing this, we will stay full and this will help us stay on track with our plan. We should plan our lunch and dinner around good size portions of these vegetables and can eat these other whole grains, but it is always best to do so in moderation, and earlier in the day. Try to avoid the whole grains after your afternoon snack as they still tend to raise blood sugar and convert into fat.
• E - Eggs and egg whites- Study after study has been done to show that people that get started with a big, healthy, filling breakfast eat fewer calories a day than those that skip breakfast or start with a carb and sugar loaded breakfast. Eggs are a great source of protein and if you boil a bunch of them and keep them in the fridge, you can take them with you and pop them in your mouth as a nice, filling snack.
• T - Turkey and other lean meats- These foods are loaded with protein with deli turkey packing about 30 grams of protein per 6 oz. serving. Other lean meats are lean ham, roast beef, or chicken. You can also throw lean steak into this category, but try to keep it to around once a week or less. Make sure to watch the sodium in deli meats. Most are loaded with it and this can cause all kinds of health problems. Stick to low-sodium.
• R - Raspberries and other berries- Berries are loaded with fiber, vitamin C and antioxidants. Add these to low fat yogurt, oatmeal, smoothies, and or just have a bowl of assorted berries for dessert or to satisfy that sweet tooth. Just try to avoid sugary jellies and jams.
• I - Instant oatmeal and oat based cereals (Cheerios)- Plain oatmeal and Cheerios are excellent sources of good complex carbohydrates. Oatmeal and Cheerios are loaded with soluble fiber so we will feel full longer and not get that spike in blood sugar we are trying to avoid. These foods also help to lower cholesterol by sending it out of your body. It is a great way lower cholesterol without taking drugs like statins. We all need more fiber anyway, between 25-35 grams a day, but must of us get half that amount. These true power foods, especially oatmeal, can help us start our day at breakfast, or provide a great afternoon snack a couple of hours before our workout. Figure out your favorite way to fit them into your diet, and eat them every day.
• D - Dairy (low-fat yogurt, low-fat milk, or cheese)- These foods are loaded with calcium can help you feel full. Of course we are going to want to add milk to our Cheerios, and berries to our yogurt. This is a great way to combine my foods and fit them in to every meal. There is some evidence that dairy products may actually help to control weight gain, so this may provide us with another added benefit.
• O - Olive Oil and other health fats- There are good fats out there and olive oil provides plenty of the monounsaturated fat we need in our diet. Use is to cook your eggs, or drizzle it on your spinach instead of salad dressing, with a little balsamic vinegar. Some other healthy oils include peanut oil and sesame oil. The great thing about fat is that it not only tastes great, but it helps fill us up, and may help to burn fat and keep cholesterol in check as well. As always, use these fats in your food plan in moderation.
• F - Fruit (apples and grapefruit)- Have you ever heard, "an apple a day keeps the doctor away"? Well it could be true. Apples are loaded in fiber, help us feel full, and actually control blood sugar. They are great anytime of day as a snack or on top of a spinach salad. Eat as many as you like. Grapefruit is another powerful food that will make you feel full and also may help to lower cholesterol. Eat one for breakfast as often as you can. You'll be amazed at how filling they can be.
• F - Fiber, fiber, fiber (beans, Fiber One Cereal, Apples, Vegetables)- As mentioned above, we do not get enough fiber. Beans, Fiber One Cereal, Apples, and vegetables are excellent sources of fiber. If we eat fiber at every meal, we have a much better chance of hitting our goal of 35 grams. Beans, such as pinto, red, and black, are almost the perfect side dish. They are loaded with fiber and protein, so they serve two purposes for us. Add them as a side to your chicken breast at dinner or toss them on a salad. Sneak a half cup of Fiber One cereal into a power smoothie, or use it as a crunchy topping for your yogurt or you can throw it in with your Cheerios for a quick, healthy breakfast.
• A - Almonds, other nuts, and low-sugar peanut butter- Everyone loves nuts. They are a great source of fiber, protein, and monounsaturated fats. Nuts also make a great snack which is easy to stick in your briefcase or purse. Be careful, a handful or two a day is all you need. Be sure to check the serving size and stick to it. Your local supermarket or health food store should have some excellent tasting all natural peanut butter. It tastes great and we can add it to power smoothies, as a topping for an apple, or just have a spoonful to satisfy that salt craving. Don't forget peanut butter and mashed blueberry sandwiches on whole-wheat bread. What a tasty snack.
• T - Tasty Protein drinks, Whey Protein Powder, and Power Smoothies- In the past couple of years there have been some great tasting additions to the health food industry in the form of protein drinks and powders. Since most us do not even come close to getting the 1 gram to 1.5 grams per pound of protein that we should be eating daily to promote weight loss, these little helpers are a great source of protein. Some favorite ready to drink versions of mine are Labrada's Lean Body drinks (40g of protein, 260 cal, 0 g of sugar), Muscle Milk Chocolate (350 cal, 35g of protein, 7 g of sugar), and IDS Sports New Whey liquid protein drinks (176 cal, 40 g of protein, 0g of sugar). These are some great ways to add protein into your diet and turn your body into a lean fat burning machine. Remember, we should try to add protein into every meal.

Now that we know how to change the way that we eat, the foods to avoid, and the foods we must eat, we are well on our way to healthy lifestyle. Play around with different combinations of these food to see what fits into your lifestyle. Try to base all of your meals around the above foods and focus on getting some protein into every meal.

I would like add a little personal note here, or call it a testimonial. My wife was struggling to shed pounds and turned to the Jenny Craig plan. She was doing great and lost about 10 lbs. over a 3 or 4 month period, then she just kind leveled off. She then started an eating plan that implemented all of the strategies that I am about to discuss and has since lost over 30 additional pounds over the last 4 months. She looks and feels fantastic. She is never full. She is never tired. She is sleeping better. She is full of energy. To top it all off, she has not done one minute of exercise. I am an advocate of keeping fit and healthy through exercise, but I think my wife's success just further proves that weight loss is tied directly to a healthy eating plan.

In Part 4 of my series, How to Get Rid of Stomach Fat: Secrets for the Regular Person, we will focus on exercise. If you really want to get the fat loss into hyper-overdrive, adding some kind of workout routine to your lifestyle will get rid of stomach fat in no time. We might even find some abs in there. If you haven't read parts 1 and 2 in my series, How to Get Rid of Stomach Fat: Secrets for the Regular Person, be sure to look them up on this article site. See my resource box for more details.

How to Get Rid of Stomach Fat: Secrets for the Regular Person – Part 2 of a 4 Part Series

Part 2 - Changing the Way You Eat and the Foods to Avoid to Get Rid Of Stomach Fat

Changing the Way You Eat

Back in Part 1 of my 4 part series I gave an overview of Stomach Fat, Why We Have It, and What We Have to do to Get Rid of Stomach Fat. In Part 2 of this series I will shift the focus to nutrition and how changing the way you eat will help you get rid of stomach fat, lose weight, and lower body fat.

According to who you talk to, nutrition probably accounts for 70-90% of a lifestyle change designed to lose weight. That's right; I said lifestyle change, not diet. Diets have let us down for years, starting with how the USDA designed the food pyramids. The USDA let us down back in the early 80's. They changed the food pyramid to focus on more carbohydrates and less fat. The USDA drove us to start eating more carbs by making the base of the pyramid (the biggest portion of the suggested diet) heavy in starches, grains, and other carbs. They didn't educate the average American on the dangers of a diet rich in refined carbohydrates like regular pasta, white bread, and baked potatoes. This was a great disservice to the American public, based on what we know now.

The other thing that has really hindered us is all of the diets out there, especially low fat diets. The tendency is for us to follow a diet for a few weeks, or months, lose some weight, and then go back to unhealthy habits and gain all the weight back, or even more than what we lost. How is anyone ever going to stick to a lifestyle like that and keep themselves at a health weight?

So what is the solution? The easiest solution is to make a resolution to ourselves to eat healthy (90% of the time) for the rest of our lives. In my next section I am going to outline an easy eating plan to help do just that. But before I do that, let's do some math.

Counting Calories

Counting calories on a daily basis isn't necessarily part of my plan to get rid of stomach fat, but it is a good idea to have a basic understanding of daily caloric needs so we can put some kind of a plan in place, so let's do it. There are many different formulas out there and you can do your own research to find one that works for you, but here is a simple formula to determine your basic daily caloric needs to work from:

* You need to know that 3500 calories = 1 pound

Let's use an example of a woman that weighs 160 lbs. and whose goal weight is 130 lbs.

1. Multiply your goal weight by 10: 130x10 = 1300

2. Add 20 percent if you are sedentary (sit at a desk, etc.), add 50 percent if you are moderately active (outside sales, walk up and down stairs, etc.), and add 70 percent if you are active all day. For our example our woman is sedentary so, 1300 x 1.20 = 1560

3. Add the number of calories you burn during your workouts. For our example, our woman is not doing any exercise, so any additional calories burned during exercise is a bonus. We'll cover calories burned during exercise in Part 3 of the 4 Part Series on How to Get Rid of Stomach Fat for the Regular Person.

4. Reduce this total by 15 percent for steady weight loss. So in our example, our woman needs about 1560 to maintain her weight, and since she doesn't exercise, she needs to eat about 1326 calories a day for steady weight loss. If you are more active and exercising, then you need to eat more calories or your bodies metabolism will slow down too much.

Now one of the biggest fears we have in trying to lose weight is being in a constant state of hunger because we feel we have to starve ourselves. That is just not a healthy way to live and it isn't part of this plan. Another part of our plan to change the way you eat is to eat smaller portions more often. In fact, we need to eat 4-6 times a day. I prefer 6 times a day, but it all depends on your goals and your lifestyle.

So in our example, our woman should try to eat 4-5 times a day dividing 1326 calories among those meals, so that would be approximately 330 calories a meal. It could be broken down like this:

Breakfast - 400 calories
Snack - 100-200 calories
Lunch - 300 calories Afternoon
Snack - 100-200 calories
Dinner - 400 calories

In this example we would eat 1300-1500 calories and would eat 5 times a day. I will go over what we should eat later in the article. Now let's look at what we shouldn't eat so we can finally get rid of stomach fat.

Another easy calculation is to figure out how many calories you are eating on a daily basis with a diet log and then subtract 15%. You have to be true to yourself and count every single thing that goes in your mouth for 3 or 4 days (a week is optimal).

Foods to Avoid

I'll be any one of you reading this could help me write this section. We all know what foods we should not be eating. We should not eat foods high in sugar. We should not eat foods high in saturated fat. We should not eat fast food. We should avoid liquid calories. We know this. We still do it. You know what? It's OK. Just do it in moderation. I am not going to tell you to cut these foods out of your diet completely, but to get rid of stomach fat; you must eat these types of foods and drinks in moderation. If you are at a birthday party with your kids, go ahead and have some cake, with the key word being "some". Don't scarf down 2 pieces; instead have half of 1 piece or just a bite or two. You'll satisfy your sweet tooth and save a ton of calories over time. If you are out to eat, go ahead and have a French fry or two, or a slice of pizza. Just don't over do it, and limit these little "cheats" to once a week. More on that later too.

So let's address these foods and drinks to avoid in a little more detail.

* Sugar - let me say this, sugar is the enemy. Food or drink high in sugar will sabotage your healthy eating plan faster than anything else. Look at your food labels and try to stay away from anything over 10 grams of sugar per serving.

* High Fructose Corn Syrup- another ingredient that will kill your chances of losing weight. Your body doesn't even recognize the calories and in fact your body shuts off its natural appetite control switches, so you can eat and eat far more than what your body would be able to handle. In fact, HFCS is sort of like setting up a direct line into your stomach to produce fat. HFCS is in cereal, ketchup, soda, flavored waters, marinades, etc. I've even seen it as the first or second ingredient on supposedly healthy WHOLE WHEAT BREAD! It's everywhere. Avoid it all costs. If it is listed as one of the first 4 or 5 ingredients on the label, think twice about eating or drinking that item.

* Trans Fats and Saturated Fats- thankfully the government finally cracked down on the food companies to remove trans fat and put it in the labeling. They are tough to digest and increase the amount of bad cholesterol in your blood. Since trans fat is synthetic and doesn't exist naturally, your body has a tough time processing it. It not only raises bad cholesterol (LDL), but it lowers good cholesterol (HDL). This is awful. Check labels for these words and avoid at all costs: hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated. The higher on the label, the more they have. Here some common foods with hidden trans fat: soups, biscuits, fries, Oreos, spreads, frozen foods (chicken pot pie and waffles), most fast food, and movie popcorn. Keep away from these foods at all costs. Saturated fat is also bad for your heart and cholesterol levels. Saturated fat shows up in fatty cuts of red meat and in whole-milk dairy products. Saturated fat basically goes right from your stomach, to your stomach. How do you like that? It doesn't have far to go at all to make you fat, so eat fatty meats sparingly and drink low fat or fat free milk. We'll talk about good fats when I discuss my easy to remember nutrition plan below.

* Sugar Filled Drinks- if we really want to drop pounds and shed calories in a hurry, we need to get rid of sugary drinks. Sodas, Fruit Juices, Flavored Teas, Flavored Milk, Flavored Coffees, and Smoothies from a store. Some of us get up to 25% of our daily calorie intake from sugary drinks without even processing this in our mind as bad for us. Did you know that a can of Sunkist Orange Soda has 190 calories and 52 grams of sugar per 12 oz. can? Did you know that a Jamba Juice Peanut Butter Moo'd Power Smoothie has 1170 calories and 169 grams of sugar? These numbers are shocking. Imagine our woman in the example above is trying to lose weight by eating around 1300-1500 calories a day and she drinks a Jamba Juice Power Smoothie thinking the "power" in the title is healthy. She just drank almost her entire day's worth of calories in 10 minutes! Let's say we are drinking a coffee loaded with cream and sugar, an 8 oz. glass of OJ in morning, a couple of regular sodas a day, and maybe a beer or two for dinner, then guess what, that is about 500-600 liquid calories a day. Just by switching to water or mineral water, we would lose a pound a week without changing anything else. Think about that for a moment. Just by switching to water, sugar less green tea or diet soda, we could lose a pound a week. Pretty incredible.

* High Glycemic Foods- these are starchy foods like regular potatoes, white rice, regular pasta, pretzels, plain bagels, white bread, or any other food made with enriched flour. These foods are almost like eating sugar because they are converting almost directly into fat (guess what the USDA had us eating all those years at the bottom of the food pyramid. No wonder we got fat!)

You can do some research on the internet at sites like calorieking.com to learn how many calories your favorite foods have. Remember, I am not going to recommend counting calories on a daily basis, but you should really get an idea of how much sugar, fat, and calories your favorite foods and drinks have. We have covered the bad stuff, so now let's move onto to my easy to remember and easy to follow eating plan. Part 3 of my series, How to Get Rid of Stomach Fat: Secrets for the Regular Person will cover the foods you must eat to get rid of stomach fat.

Here is an incredibly easy eating plan. Losing Weight Has Never Tasted So Good!