Lose Belly Fat

Doctor Marilyn Glenville's* Four-point Plan

To feel ''fit as a fiddle'' you must tone down your middle......Anonymous

All you ever wanted to know about losing belly fat, but didn't dare ask
If you want to lose weight, especially the belly fat which has accumulated round your middle Dr. Glenville, like many doctors and dieticians, does not recommend dieting. In fact she strongly advises against it. Restricting your diet will give your body the message that there is a famine and cause a stress reaction. This in turn will slow down your metabolism in order to hang on to the fat you have stored. Furthermore, if your blood sugar levels fluctuate, your body will be releasing adrenaline, which is the same hormone it releases when you are under stress. Once more it encourages your body to store fat.

Dr. Glenville's Three-Month Eating Plan

• Stop dieting

Stop dieting, otherwise your body will think there’s a famine and raise stress levels, which will contribute to fat storage.
• Eat little and often

Try to keep your blood sugar and energy levels stable by eating every three hours. Eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus a snack mid morning and mid afternoon, with no longer than three hours between. Try not to eat carbohydrates after 18:00 hrs.

This will stop those roller-coaster highs and cravings for sweet foods. Because your blood sugar isn’t allowed to drop, your body will no longer have to ask you for a quick fix. As the blood sugar steadies, so will the mood swings. As your cortisol levels reduce you will automatically start to happier and calmer inside.

• Don’t skip breakfast

If you miss breakfast completely your body immediately registers famine and hangs on tight to your ample stores of fat.
• Eliminate all sugar and refined carbohydrates

Avoid any foods that make your blood sugar rise quickly because, as blood sugar drops, again your body releases adrenaline and cortisol to stabilise it once more. Swap to whole grain alternatives.
• Add protein to each meal

Protein slows down the rate the stomach processes food and slows the passage of the carbohydrates with it. As soon as you add a protein (be it animal or vegetable) to a carbohydrate you change it into a slower releasing carbohydrate, which is a very good thing.

Protein helps in the control of insulin because it slows the rate of digestion. It also encourages the production of glucagons, which works in the opposite way to insulin, increasing blood glucose by encouraging the body to burn fat for energy.

• Eat essential fats

A lifelong dependency on low fat diets might mean you’re consuming less saturated fat, but most people today have unwittingly made themselves deficient in the good fats – essential fatty acids. As the name implies these essential fatty acids (EFAs) are essential and you can only get them from your diet. Your body cannot manufacture them so you have to eat them.
Essential fats are so important as that they help you in a number of ways:
• They slow down the rate at which the stomach empties, so making carbohydrates even more slow releasing,
• They boost your metabolism,
• They make you less insulin resistant,
• They reduce inflammation.

• Don’t eat on the run

Don't gives your body the message that time is scarce, you are under pressure and stressed. Your digestive system will also be less efficient. Make a point of sitting down and eating your food as calmly as possible.
• Watch what you drink

Cut out all caffeine and sugary drinks and significantly reduce alcohol intake (Dr. Glenville suggests cutting it out completely for a month).
• Change the way you think about food
  If you’re really serious about changing your body shape you need to think about food and eating as a way of life, so that healthy, enjoyable eating becomes a habit, something you do everyday without even thinking about it, just like cleaning your teeth.

(For a much more detailed breakdown of an altogether healthier way to eat, you should read the book. Links will shortly be added to this page)


Fat Around the Middle - Books and E-books

"Fat Around the Middle" or an abridged e-book Fat Around The Middle E-book. A link to where you can obtain this book will be included in this site shortly.

Source: This is a shortened version of Dr. Glenville’s Advice for losing fat around the middle. Marilyn Glenville PhD is the UK’s leading expert in nutritional health for women. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine a member of the Nutrition Society ,a psychologist, author and popular broadcaster.

Dr Glenville is the author of eight internationally best-selling books on health including. : Fat Around The Middle, Dr Glenville runs her own clinics in London and Tunbridge Wells and also has a non-commercial website. Link to Dr. Glenville's Website