Let yourself go a bit during the pandemic or finally decided to take care of the beer belly? Whatever the motivation, we got you!

In this article, we’ll cover 10 scientifically proven ways with which you can lose belly fat in the fastest way possible. Before we get into that, let’s quickly cover why you should even bother losing that extra cushion.

Despite the obvious aesthetic aspects, excess abdominal fat increases the risk of many health conditions such as stroke, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, poor digestive health, an imbalanced gut microbiome, increased stress and reduced immunity.

Belly fat is so dangerous because it can often include visceral fat, which lies deeper inside the abdomen than normal fat and surrounds the most vital internal organs.

Okay, so now that we know why we need to get rid of it, let’s find out how.

Getting into a calorie deficit is one of the simplest and most effective ways of losing fat. In other words, eat less than you burn.

There are two ways of getting there, either you simply eat less, or you exercise more (burn more). What route you go is completely open to your personal preferences, but a mix of both strategies is probably the easiest.

A good rule of thumb here is to have a deficit of around 500 calories per day (+- 100 depending on how quickly you want to lose fat).

Of course, to know whether you are on track you need to, at least, track your food consumption for a couple of days to get a rough idea of your calorie intake and get an estimate of how much you burn per day.

Luckily, there are many apps, online calculators, and devices that make this very easy.

Eating enough protein is a principle every athlete is more than familiar with. But also for simple goals such as losing belly fat, protein has several benefits.

Firstly, protein intake increases satiety, which means that you feel fuller quicker and will have fewer problems with getting into a calorie deficit.

Secondly, protein has a very “high thermic effect of food” (TEF), which means it strongly boosts your metabolism and increases the number of calories burned. The difference compared to carbs or fats can be as high as 50-100 calories per day.

A relatively recent study even suggests you can burn a lot more. In the conducted experiment, a high-protein group burned 260 more calories per day than a low-protein group. 

That’s equivalent to an hour of moderate-intensity exercise per day.

Generally, you should avoid any beverages with a large amount of added sugar. The best thing you can drink is simply water.

Water is completely calorie-free, reduces your appetite, and boosts your metabolism. Drinking a lot of water every day will catalyse the fat loss process and also give you more energy.

The U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine determined that an adequate daily water intake for men is about 3.7 litres.

Sleep is important for many aspects of your life, including fat loss.

A 16-year study found that people who slept less than 5 hours per night were significantly more likely to gain weight than those who slept 7 hours or more per night.

The exact relationship between sleep and weight loss is still unclear, however, the main links are through the rate of your metabolism, appetite, stress, and overall energy levels.

Of course, completely removing stress from your life is impossible.

However, chronic stress, the constant state of feeling stressed, is something that can be prevented. Controlling your stress levels through meditation, getting enough sleep, and task prioritisation techniques will have many positive benefits. One of them being accelerated fat loss.

This is because stress can inhibit weight loss by causing a slower metabolism and high levels of stress hormones. For instance, higher levels of cortisol - the primary stress hormone - have been associated with abdominal obesity.

Fat itself is not bad. In fact, certain fats are very healthy and should be part of every balanced diet. There are, however, fats that should be avoided.

Trans fats, or trans-fatty acids, are a form of unsaturated fat and come in both natural and artificial forms.

Some foods that are very high in trans fats are certain types of margarines, frozen pizza, microwave popcorn, and commercial baked goods (cakes, muffins etc.).

Next to leading to increased abdominal fat, studies have have linked these fats to inflammation, heart disease, insulin resistance, and other health complications.

While all forms of cardio will help you burn fat, some will get you to your goal quicker than others.

One of the best forms is high-intensity interval training (also known as HIIT). HIIT is an umbrella term for cardio workouts that focus on intense intervals of high-intensity exercise that are alternated with low-intensity recovery periods. 

The form of exercise can vary between sprints, burpees, cycling, or any other form of high-intensity cardio.

The advantage of HIIT is that it allows you to burn a maximum number of calories in a relatively short time.

A comparative study conducted in 2015 showed that HIIT burned 25-30% more calories than standard forms of cardio such as jogging.

Vitamin C is one of the most effective vitamins and plays many important roles in the functioning of your body.

Recent studies have found that it also affects how well your body can turn fat into energy. This means that it’s very important that you ensure your diet contains enough vitamin C.

Especially when it comes to your belly, there seems to be strong evidence for a link between low levels of Vitamin C and higher abdominal fat.

Some foods that are high in Vitamin C are guavas, kiwis, bell peppers, strawberries, oranges papayas, and broccoli.

While small amounts of alcohol are even shown to have health benefits and we do not want to stop you from having a bit of fun, excess drinking has been found to be linked to the development of abdominal fat.

One study from 2003 showed that out of the 2000 participants those who drank alcohol daily in very small amounts had less belly fat than those who drank less frequently but consumed more alcohol on the days they drank.

Adding apple cider vinegar to a weight loss diet is a hack that has been known for many years.

Next to lowering blood sugar levels, detoxing the body, and improving heart health, the acetic acid in vinegar has been shown to reduce abdominal fat storage in several animal studies.

In another controlled study conducted in 2009 in Japan, 12 men diagnosed with obesity took 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar per day and lost half an inch (1.5cm) of fat circumference from their waist.

As can be seen, the results for the effectiveness of apple cider vinegar are pretty strong.