Menopause Muffin top how to lose it {16 Proven Tips}
Menopause Muffin top how to lose it {16 Proven Tips}
A muffin top is a frustrating and unsightly band of fat that can spill out over the top of your jeans. It can happen anytime but is most common around menopause.
Muffin top how to lose it. This unsightly band of fat around the waist is hard to get rid of. It’s especially common around menopause. By lowering stress and carbs, avoiding processed foods, sodas, sugars and reducing alcohol you can start to successfully shrink your muffin top within 4 weeks.
It may seem like your unflattering muffin top is impossible to shift. Rest assured though. You can get rid of it with some careful strategies. The best news is that you can do all this without having to kill yourself with extreme exercise. Read on for information on how to go about it.
How to lose a muffin top.
We are often told that exercising like crazy is the way to lose a muffin top. The important thing to know is that this is not true. Working out to a crisp every day will not shift this wobbly nemesis. In fact, too much exercise can even have the opposite effect and increase abdominal fat.
Waist targeting exercises will have very little effect on your muffin top. You need to lose the fat first before you can tone.
I get upset when women are told they just haven’t exercised hard enough in order to lose belly fat. That’s just not true.
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The truth is that if you want to shrink your muffin top, you need to target it from a few different angles.
Exercise is just one part of the puzzle. By making some small lifestyle changes you can start to lose a muffin top.
What causes a muffin top?
The muffin top is a fun way to describe the fat that accumulates around the waist and belly.However, a muffin top is not fun to have.
As a muffin expands over its paper wrapper when cooked, so the muffin top expands over your beltline. It’s not very flattering and causes your clothes to fit poorly.
As well as being unflattering, the muffin top is not good for your health.
Belly fat puts you at higher risk for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
For this reason, it’s important to make a start on slimming down your stomach and waist to shrink your muffin top.
So, Muffin top how to lose it. To know how to lose muffin top you need to know what causes it. When you know the cause you can begin to fix it. Here are the main causes of the muffin top
1 – Menopause
Menopause causes huge changes in a woman body. The muffin top can often be a result of these changes.
Hormone levels fluctuate wildly at Menopause. Estrogen falls and goes out of balance with Progesterone. Estrogen dominance may happen. This changes where your body stores fat.
Fat heads straight for the belly and waist. In midlife, you may be under stress too which causes a rise of the hormone cortisol.
Cortisol is also responsible for the fat build up around the waist. So Menopause hits you with a double whammy of Belly Fat generating issues which can lead to the Muffin Top.
2 – Chronic or Long term stress
Many times, around midlife you are under extreme stress. This can come in the form of stress at work, from your marriage, from looking after your ageing parents or from worrying about your kids. There are a lot of stresses at midlife.
These kinds of stresses go on for a long time. They are chronic long term stresses and cause the release of the stress hormone cortisol. Short term stress, such as sitting an exam, won’t create a muffin top.
However these long term stresses, over time, will upset your system and cause the build-up of a muffin top. Cortisol also increases cravings for sugar and carbs so this also adds to the waist issues.
Study: Stress may cause excess abdominal fat in otherwise slender women
https://news.yale.edu/2000/09/22/study-stress-may-cause-excess-abdominal-fat-otherwise-slender-women
3 – Sleep problems.
Stress and Menopause also tend to cause sleep problems. Not sleeping enough causes major stress on the body. Again, this can cause a rise in the stress hormone Cortisol which as we have seen, changes the way you store fat making it head straight for the waist.
4 – Insulin resistance.
As you age, your body may become insulin resistant. This means that you can no longer process the glucose in your blood effectively. You may develop metabolic syndrome or pre-diabetes. Metabolic syndrome can also be caused by lifestyle factors such as eating too much sugar.
One of the key characteristics of metabolic syndrome is developing an apple shape with fat accumulating around the waist and belly area.
Metabolic syndrome predisposes you to a wide range of health problems. These include heart problems, stroke, type 2 diabetes, obesity and abnormal cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
For this reason, it’s crucial to make lifestyle changes to shrink your belly and muffin top. It’s not just unsightly. It has long term and serious effects on your health going forward.
5 – Systemic health problems.
Whilst a muffin top can be caused by lifestyle factors it may be a sign of a systemic health problem too. I already talked about metabolic syndrome but other health issues may cause an expanding waistline.
These include
- Thyroid problems [hypothyroidism]
- Polycystic ovary syndrome
- Cushing’s syndrome
- Medication side effects
If your waistline is expanding for no apparent reason it’s a good idea to visit your doctor to get checked out.
6 – Food and lifestyle issues.
The old adage of “you are what you eat” certainly holds true when it comes to how to lose a muffin top. If you mainly eat an ultra-processed diet, heavy in sugars and carbs, then this will head straight to your waistline. I’ll talk about the best diet for whittling your waist shortly.
Similarly, if you are very sedentary, this can slow down your metabolism and lead to muffin top accumulation. Too much exercise can be counterproductive as we will see. However, making sure you are not sitting for long periods is crucial for your health and losing the muffin top.
Muffin top how to lose it. What foods to avoid.
So now that you know what causes the muffin top, how do you start to lose it?
The most important element of starting to slim your spare tyre is what you eat and drink. If you start to make some simple changes this will start to make the biggest impact.
1 – Breakfast cereals – these are very high in carbs and sugars. Eat a high protein breakfast instead such as scrambled eggs.
2 – Sodas – sugary drinks will head straight for your waist. Drink water or Kombucha
3 – Diet sodas – Even though these sodas don’t contain sugar, diet sweeteners have a disturbing effect on your metabolism and can lead to weight gain.
4 – Cakes and baked goods – High in sugars and carbs. Avoid
5 – Candy and sweets – Just pure sugar which will disturb your insulin levels and cause insulin resistance. Nibble on carrot batons instead.
6 – Fruit juices – Fruit juices are often marketed as healthy drinks. However, fruit juices are made entirely of sugar with no fibre. Fruit juices can seriously disturb your insulin levels. Beginning your day with breakfast cereals and a glass of orange juice is one of the worst things you can do if you want to lose your muffin top.
7 – High Carb foods – High carb foods, such as bread and potatoes are treated like sugars by the body. As such, they can raise your blood sugar levels and contribute to insulin resistance. In turn, this can lead to metabolic syndrome which leads to waist and belly fat.
8 – Processed foods – Processed foods contain many added sugars and additives which can disturb your metabolism and make the accumulation of a muffin top more likely.
Muffin top how to lose it. What foods to eat.
Now that we have seen what you shouldn’t eat you may be asking what you should aim for.
The rules are pretty simple. If you aim for these lifestyle changes you will be on the path towards trimming your waist.
- Eat lots of fresh vegetables.
- Eat enough protein. This will help you avoid hunger and cravings.
- Drink enough water instead of sodas. Teas are also a healthy substitute.
- Cook from scratch and create your own healthy food instead of buying ready-made.
- Substitute lower carb sweet potatoes and squashes for potatoes and rice
- These lifestyle changes are the main component of how to lose a muffin top.
How long does it take to lose muffin top?
I know you are probably in a rush to trim down your waist. However, I have to be honest and say that trimming your waist is not an instant fix. It’s more of a journey. The more you change your lifestyle you will find your waist measurements start to head in the right direction.
As with everything, it depends on how much weight you have to lose. If you don’t have too many pounds to lose it may take you just 2 to 4 weeks to start to see a noticeably slimmer waist.
Best exercises for muffin top
The internet is full of videos advising crazy amounts of “waist-whittling” exercises as a way to remove the muffin top.
However, even if you spend hours a day doing sit-ups, twists and crunches it won’t make much difference to your waist.
You have to remove the fat first and the key to shrinking fat is actually in what you eat, not how much exercise you do.
In fact, if you over-exercise this can have a counter effect and make muffin top fat even worse. This is because over-exercising actually puts a great strain on the body. This makes it release cortisol the stress hormone, which makes fat accumulate on the waist.
Whilst your diet is the most important thing, exercise can help to boost your metabolism and tone you up. So it’s important to do the right kind of exercise if you are going to do it so that you don’t waste your time.
There are two great types of exercise that will help.
Walking
Brisk walking 20 to 30 minutes a day will help to boost your metabolism and also get your lymphatic fluid moving. This will help you to burn fat successfully.
Mini trampolining.
The mini-trampoline or rebounder is one of the best exercises that you can do to boost your metabolism, strengthen your core and stomach muscles and get the lymphatic fluid moving.
Just 10 minutes a day will have significant positive impacts on your health and body shape. It’s great fun too.
You can buy a rebounder cheaply and its a good health investment.
Muffin top how to lose it – 16 top tips
So now you know the basics of losing the muffin top I will leave you with a summary checklist of tips that will help you to achieve your muffin top goals.
1 – Cut out sugars.
Avoid added sugars in foods and drinks
2 – Cut processed carbs.
Avoid cakes, pastries, refined grains, breakfast cereals, pasta, white bread and rice
3 – Eat healthy fats
For example, Avocados, nuts and oily fish such as salmon stop cravings and support your healthy metabolism
4 – Eat live yoghurts and probiotic foods
Fermented and live foods to help your gut bacteria to be healthy which improves your digestion and overall health. For example, Keffir, Kombucha and Sauerkraut.
5 – Avoid fruit juices.
They are unhealthy and full of sugar
6 – Eat plenty of protein.
This will help your body to grow lean muscle, boost the metabolism and avoid cravings.
7 – Reduce alcohol.
Alcohol is heavy in sugar and carbs and clogs up the liver [the major organ involved in breaking down fat]. If you cut down it will help you to lose the muffin top.
8 – Drink plenty of water.
Water flushes through your system, helping you to detox and have properly hydrated tissues. It will also fill you up so that you don’t overeat.
9 – Avoid snacking.
Snacking means that your insulin levels are kept high which in turn can lead to insulin resistance. It’s much healthier to stick to your main meals and avoid snacking in between. If you really need to snack try half an avocado or a small handful of nuts or seeds.
10 – Change up your breakfast.
Avoid the traditional breakfast of cereals and orange juice. This is the worst way to start your day if you want to lose the muffin top. Instead, start your day with a protein-based breakfast. Scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, kippers or eggs and bacon are a great way to start the day.
11 – Strengthen and tone your core by using a mini trampoline or walking
12 – Take the stairs instead of the escalator.
Although this is a simple idea, boosting your movement during the day can help to boost your metabolism.
13 – Look at your stress levels.
Lowering stress is very important for lowering the hormone cortisol which has a big impact on the size of your muffin top. Analyse your life and see which areas are causing you stress. Is there anything you can change to lower your stress levels?
14 – Learn to Meditate.
Meditation is amazing for lowering stress. It’s simple to learn and 5 minutes at the beginning of your day can help you to lower your stress levels significantly.
15 – Work on getting better sleep.
Lack of sleep can really mean growth of your muffin top. For this reason, it’s important to improve your sleep. Avoid using laptops and devices before bed. Go to bed at the same time each night and use an eye mask to enable you to sleep in darkness.
16 – Avoid the news and violent programs
The news is designed to create stress. It’s what keeps people watching. Your brain doesn’t know the difference between things on TV or real things that are happening directly to you. Therefore watching violent programs increase your stress hormones. Read calming books or take a bath instead.
Bonus – Drink a natural Fat Burning Drink
I wrote a post with natural fat burning drink recipes. Check out the post here. {What Can I Drink To Burn Belly Fat?”
How lose muffin top – You can do it.
The muffin top can be depressing but please do rest assured that you can get rid of it {without having to exercise yourself to a crisp}.
It’s so important for your future health to shrink belly fat and fat around the was it as it can have adverse health effects.
Lifestyle changes over time will gradually shrink your waist and leave you in much better overall health.
If you would like a little more help to lose belly fat please download my free guide by clicking below.
Wishing you all the best with your quest to lose your muffin top.
Is there a good diet or weight loss plan I could try?
Yes. I learnt a lot about how to lose Menopause Belly Fat in my research to improve my own health over the last 3 years. I have put all my information into my structured weight loss plan.
The Belly Fat Solution – 14 Day Menopause Weight Loss Plan
The Holistic Way To Balance your Hormones, Lose Weight & Feel Great – in 14 days
If you need a holistic and structured weight loss plan that walks you through losing your Menopause Belly Fat this will help you. It’s designed specifically for women struggling with their weight at midlife… and exercise is optional!
You can read more about my Belly Fat Weight Loss Plan here
and you can get a free sample guide here
Love & Light
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