If you have some excess fat around your tummy then you may be looking at natural ways to lose belly fat. Do you wish you had six pack abs or that pre-pregnancy flat stomach but you really don’t want to use those unnatural shakes or pills? Do you wish there was an exercise program that gave fast results without requiring you to be an athlete?

Well there is a natural way to lose belly fat and basically it involved a good, healthy diet and exercise.

The first thing you want to change is your diet to one that is low calorie. Try to eat as much natural food as possible and less processed foods. A good, healthy diet should include lots of fruit and vegetables and moderate amounts of low fat dairy products and lean meats. Whole grains and legumes are also great to include into your diet.

There are a lot of choices that you can make with your diet that can reduce the calories you eat. For example, eating 1/2 cup of fruit with 1/2 cup of fat free vanilla yogurt will be 105 calories less than eating a strawberry yogurt with pre-packaged fruit. Another example is eating 2 cups of air popped popcorn instead of 1 cup of potato chips will save you 95 calories.

Next you will want to start doing some exercise each day. If you can’t fit in some exercise every day then at least try to exercise five times a week. Cardio exercise is the best for burning off fat but you can burn off even more by combining it with some strength exercises. Studies have shown that people who walked for 50 minutes, 3 times a week lost almost twice as much belly fat as people who only reduced their calories but didn’t exercise.

Cardio exercises include brisk walking, jogging, running, cycling or there are many cardio machines that you can also use. You should try to get 45 minutes of cardio exercise with each workout which is a great natural way to lose belly fat.

Here is a great exercise routine that can have you burn up to 500 calories in one session. First do 3 minutes of warm up exercise. Next push up the intensity for 3 minutes, then push yourself as hard as you absolutely can for 2 minutes. Slow down a little for 3 minutes and then push yourself as hard as you can for 2 minutes. Repeat this 3 minutes regular intensity then 2 minutes high intensity combination for a total of 45 minutes ending with 2 minutes of cooling down exercises.

Working and building your muscles is also very beneficial when you are trying a natural way to lose belly fat. Muscle burns more energy than fat so the more muscle you build the more fat you will burn off when exercising. Try to combine your cardio exercises with some strength training to build up and tone your muscles.

A stability ball is also great for toning your tummy muscles and getting a flat stomach. You can get a stability ball for about $30 from most sporting goods stores. Lie on your back and hold the ball between your legs and lift into the air, hold this position for one minute. This is just one of the many exercises that you can do with the stability ball to help tone your stomach muscles. The ball should come with a manual that will include exercises.

A good diet and exercise that includes both cardio and strength training is the key to a natural way to lose belly fat.

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Obesity is on the rise and the number of people with too much body fat is higher than ever. A human body consists of fat, water, carbohydrates, protein, vitamins and minerals. When the amount of fat is too high then you are at higher risk of serious medical problems like heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes.

When you have excess fat in your body it raises your cholesterol and triglyceride levels. It can also raise your blood pressure and increase your risk of diabetes. The risk of heart disease is significantly higher when you are obese. In fact a person that is obese may have double the risk of having a major heart attack or a stroke.

When a person consumes more calories than they burn then those calories turn into stored fat. This causes a person to become overweight and may lead to obesity. When there is too many calories consumed that contain a lot of cholesterol and saturated fats the cholesterol levels in the blood increase. This increase of cholesterol will increase the risk of heart disease.

How do you know if you are obese?

Body fat is measure by both body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference. If your waistline is more than 35 inches for women and more than 40 inches for men then you are at a high risk of becoming obese.

The BMI is the body weight in comparison to the persons height. This is calculated by taking the body weight (in pounds) and dividing it by the height (in inches) squared then multiply this by 703.

Here are the levels of body mass index calculations:

18.5 or less is considered as being underweight

18.5 to 24.9 is considered a healthy weight range

25.0 to 29.9 is considered as being overweight

30.0 or higher is considered as being obese

40.0 or higher is considered as extreme obesity.

How to reduce or prevent obesity:

1. Add some exercise into your daily routine, even if you start out with something simple such as walking for 30 minutes a day. If you can’t exercise every day then try to exercise at least three to four times a week.

2. Reduce the amount of time you spend doing activities sitting down, such as watching TV or time on the computer.

3. Make fitter choices, such as taking the stairs instead of the lift.

4. Eat a healthy, nutritious diet that is low in fat. Include lots of fruit and vegetables in your diet.

5. Reduce the amount of food consumed each day by making your proportions smaller.

It is easiest to prevent obesity but if you are already obese it isn’t too late to get back to a healthy weight range. To live longer and have a healthier and more active life, try the above tips to get yourself to a healthy weight and stay at a healthy weight. Having a healthy weight range is the best choice for avoiding those serious conditions, such as heart disease and stroke, which you are at higher risk at by being overweight.

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Perhaps you saw it coming for quite a while, and knew it would get to this point. Or, maybe you looked in the mirror one day and all of a sudden realized just how much weight you have put on over the years. Chances are good that the second scenario is more likely. Most of us don’t want to be overweight. And while we may have a few clues as to how we got here, it still comes as somewhat of a shock. Either way, you have finally made the decision to shed those extra pounds once and for all, and you want to lose weight fast.

Hold on! That is an admirable goal, but you need to step back for a moment and put things into perspective. To put it another way, you need to be realistic and specific. How much weight you want to lose and how quickly will play a bog role in which diet and exercise program you choose.

You still have to be realistic though. If you want to lose 20 pounds in 2 weeks, then you’re not going to have much luck. Not only that, but any diet that makes such promises is most likely lying at best, or bad for your health at worst. It simply isn’t safe to lose that much weight, except for a few rare exceptions, and only if you are doing so under the guidance of a qualified medical professional.

Most experts agree that losing 1 or 2 pounds per week is safe and effective. However, you may be able to bump that up to 5 pounds in the first week in some cases. For most people, 1 to 2 pounds is ideal. It’s not only relatively easy, but you will be more likely to stay on such a diet. If you have a choice between losing 20 pounds over two months, only to regain it; or losing 1 pound per week over the course of 6 months, but keeping it off forever, which one would you choose.

The good news is that you don’t really have to choose. You can still lose the 20 pounds, but if you take the right approach, you will be able to keep it off. It’s all about a simple formula: 3,500 calories is equivalent to 1 pound of body weight. That means if you take in 500 calories less per day for a week, you will lose 1 pound. Or, if you burn off an extra 500 calories per day, you will lose a pound.

So, here’s the real “secret” to lose weight fast: do both! Take in 500 calories less and burn off an extra 500 calories. That’s 1,000 calories per day in your favor. That’s a loss of 2 pounds per week, or just over 100 pounds in a year’s time. And the best part it is that it won’t be nearly as hard as if you were depriving yourself, and that means you will be able to keep the weight off for good.

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Swimming is a gentle but effective exercise for improve ones health. Although not too strenuous, swimming does work all the muscles in your body and it is also an exercise that is enjoyable to do. If you are looking to introduce an exercise into your routine but don’t want something too strenuous then swimming is a great choice.

If you want to maintain good health, be fit and look and feel younger then it is important that you have an exercise routine. Staying active will keep you active as you grow older and help you to maintain a healthy weight. Not everyone enjoys exercising though and not everyone is able to do strenuous exercise. Swimming is one exercise that many people do enjoy and that people can do without worrying about it being too difficult or too strenuous.

Many gyms now have swimming pools that people can use specifically for exercising. You can do regular swimming laps or you could even attend an aqua aerobics class. When you use a pool at a gym you don’t need to worry about the weather being perfect for swimming as an indoor pool is perfect to swim in all year round.

YMCA’s will usually have indoor swimming pools available for their members to use. They tend to have Olympic size pools which are perfect for those who want a good workout by swimming laps of the pool. There are a number of different swimming strokes that you can try and each one will exercise different muscles in the body. Swimming is a sport that really does give you a good workout and tone up your muscles even though you don’t really feel like you are exercising.

You don’t have to limit your exercise routine to just swimming, in fact swimming is good to include in part of a varied exercise routine. You can do swimming perhaps twice a week while on other days do some other sort of exercise such as cycling, aerobics, running or weight training. Varying your exercise routine will help you to stay motivated and enjoy exercising instead of doing the same routine each day and becoming bored with it.

If you join a gym with a swimming pool then your gym membership may also include using other areas of the gym. You can use the treadmills, rowing machines, cross trainers and other gym equipment to get a varied workout. Different exercises will give different benefits, work different muscles and burn off different amounts of calories so a varied regime is very beneficial.

Swimming is one exercise that is great for those who suffer from join problems as it is low impact and is not damaging to the joints. Swimming is a great way for seniors to stay fit and active, particularly if they do suffer from arthritis or other joint ailments. So if you are looking for a low impact exercise then why not try swimming and swim your way to being fit and healthy.

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