Diet

Cut 100 Calories Everyday to Lose Muffin Top

by Stephanie Walters on January 19, 2012

It just may be easier than you think to lose weight without much effort. If you think about it, all that you need to do to lose a pound a month is to cut 100 calories each day. One pound of body fat is equal to roughly 3,500 calories. Cutting out 100 calories a day for one month (31 days), means you cut 3,100 calories, which is nearly a pound.

This all assumes that your calories taken in and calories burned remain the same except for your intake being 100 calories less. Think of it like a financial budget. If you have $2,000 to spend each month and you spend exactly $2,000, you break even. However, if you reduce your expenses to only $1900 a month, you are coming away with a savings of $100 each month.

A Small Reduction in Diet Can Help You Lose Muffin Top

The other benefit of reducing your diet slowly is that you are more likely to keep the weight off according to fitness and nutrition researchers. On top of that, reducing your diet by 100 calories a day is not going to take any drastic effort or changes on your part. It can really be quite simple.

Take a moment to write down what you eat on a typical day. Just make a simple food journal of a lot of the foods you eat for breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner. Once you have your list, try and see what items you can swap out for better, lower calorie options. If you are stuck, here are some ideas:

Breads: If you are eating a burger, try eating it without the bun entirely. For sandwiches, swap in a low calorie wrap, or even try wrapping your sandwich with a lettuce leaf. For breakfast, make sure you try toast or an English muffin instead of a bagel.

Cheese: Drop the cheese from burgers and sandwiches. You’ll be surprised how much you don’t miss it and it will save you the 100 calories almost on its own.

Mayo: Swap in mustard for mayo where you can. You can even use mustard instead of mayo for tuna salad- try it, it is actually quite good.

Butter: Use a low calorie jam on your morning toast instead of butter. When baking foods, you can even replace half the butter in things like cakes and brownies with equal parts mashed bananas or applesauce.

Cutting 100 Calories a Day Can Be Quite Simple

Hopefully this has given you some ideas where you can make small changes in your diet to consume 100 less calories every day. For you it may even be simpler then swapping foods, maybe you just need to cut out that daily soda, or eliminate that afternoon candy snack. You’ll be amazed at how far eliminating just 100 calories can help you in the fight against muffin top.

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Fight Bloat to Help Lose Muffin Top

by Stephanie Walters on January 16, 2012

Completely getting your body into shape takes time. Losing fat and building muscle can be a lengthy process. But, if you are looking to lose muffin top quickly there are some tricks you can do with your diet to tighten up your stomach in just a few days. The key to all of this is to get rid of bloat.

How to Avoid Bloat and Help Lose Muffin Top

You will want to avoid foods that slow down your stomach’s digestive process. These food no-no’s will slow your intestinal functions and bring on the bloat. The foods to avoid are things like greasy, fatty foods, alcohols, sodas, and foods high in sodium. You shouldn’t be eating lots of these foods anyway, but especially if you want to fight bloating.

What to Eat Instead

After you get rid of the bad foods that fill out your belly, you will want to replace them with good foods. The great news is that you don’t have to be rich or go to fancy stores in order to find foods that will aid your digestion and fight the bloat. In fact, you may already have many of these food items in your home right now.

Yogurt: Yogurt is great for you and your digestion. But, you will want to select the right kind. Make sure any yogurt you pick has “active cultures”. These will increase the number of good bacteria in your stomach.

Quinoa: A South American super food that is a great source of protein. Furthermore, the potassium contained in quinoa is known to fight bloating.

Asparagus: New studies are showing that Asparagus may help get rid of gas and also get rid of extra water in your body.

Nuts: Nuts contain the right kinds of fats and have been shown to help make you feel fuller and fight belly flab. Just make sure you don’t overdo it, as nuts can contain a lot of calories.

Mint Tea: Through the ages, mint has been used to help cure bloating. An easy way to consume mint is through mint tea. You can either buy pre-packaged mint tea, or add a few mint leaves of your own to your cup.

Fight Bloat By Eating Better

All it may take to help get rid of that muffin top is to reduce some of your belly’s bloating. Fortunately, it is fairly simple. Avoid eating those salty, greasy foods. Instead, start eating things like yogurt, mint, and Asparagus. Not only will you look and feel slimmer, you’ll end up much healthier.

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