4 easy ways to keep belly fat in check

This is one question I get from everywhere and almost everyone: how do I reduce belly fat? Owing to their sedentary lifestyle, people tend to gain fat mostly on their belly, which becomes difficult to get rid of. This is very common among working professionals, who struggle to find time to stay fit.

So what do you do to get rid of that unwanted belly? These tips may come in handy:

1. Focus on body fat

Forget about your belly fat and start focusing on minimising your body fat. If your body fat goes down, your belly fat will also come down with it. But doing it the other way will not help. You can't just reduce fat from your stomach, because there is no such thing as spot reduction, unless you want to shell out a heavy amount for a surgery called liposuction, which may be dangerous and give you temporary results.

2. Stop doing ab exercises

People who often think that doing ab exercises in the form of crunches will have a drastic effect on their belly fat percentage are highly mistaken. Doing ab exercises won't get you anywhere, on the contrary, you are more likely to injure your back while performing a crunch, straining your lower back.

3. Weight loss or fat loss?

Weight loss is temporary and keeps fluctuating through the day depending on what we eat. There are days when our weight goes up by one pound if we drink a little too much water. Instead, focus on fat loss - this is more permanent and has little to do with your weight. Don't be surprised if your body fat percentage goes down and your weight goes up. This could be because your lean muscle tissue weighs more than it did earlier.

4. What you eat is what you become

No matter how hard you train in the gym, if you are eating all the junk, chances are you will not make any progress in reducing your belly fat. You can afford to miss your work outs, but you can't risk eating junk, because that would take you back to where you started.