Picking up one 10-minute habit every day after dinner could help you seriously slash your visceral fat – and it’s something all of us can start from today for free
One daily habit could help you cut your belly fat.
Let’s face it, losing weight is no easy task. It’s far easier to put weight on than it is to try and lose it through healthy eating and rigorous exercise – especially when there are so many unhealthy foods out there to tempt us. But according to one personal trainer, there’s an easy way to kickstart your journey to losing weight, and it’s something most of us already do, but simply don’t do often enough.
Chris Gagliardi said that losing visceral fat – which is the fat hidden inside your body around your vital organs – is the key to helping you lose weight on the rest of your body, and one easy way to start doing that is to adopt this habit into your routine: going for a walk.
The expert, who is a certified personal trainer at the American Council on Exercise (ACE), explained that if you don’t have an established exercise routine already, walking is a “good entry point”, as it’s something we can start doing immediately without needing to pay money for gym memberships or special equipment, Prevention reports.
And walking does have its own health benefits, as one small study published in the Journal of Exercise Nutrition and Biochemistry found that obese women who participated in a walking program for 50 to 70 minutes three days a week for 12 weeks significantly cut down their visceral fat when compared to a sedentary control group.
Gagliardi said: “Even if your starting point is a one-minute walk, if that’s more than what you’ve been doing, there’s health benefits to that. Starting slow and working your way up is better than overdoing it and giving up.”
The expert said that one good way to approach your daily walk is to commit to going for a quick 10-minute jaunt after you’ve eaten your dinner, and slowly increase the time you walk as you become more comfortable with daily movement.
Walking has been touted as being good for your health for years, and recently, diet guru Doctor Michael Mosley advocated for one specific walking technique that is supposed to boost your memory – walking backwards. According to one study by Roehampton University in 2018, walking backwards can help you “walk back” mentally as well, meaning you can retrieve memories from something you did earlier.
Dr Mosley said he was “intrigued” by the bizarre technique and said the easiest way to try it out is on a treadmill, however, it can be done at home or outside as long as you’re careful about your surroundings. He suggested starting slowly with just a few steps at a time, and if you can, have a partner with you so you can help guide each other.
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Sarah Carter is a health and wellness expert residing in the UK. With a background in healthcare, she offers evidence-based advice on fitness, nutrition, and mental well-being, promoting healthier living for readers.
