24 February 2024 , 08:00
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Losing weight is tricky, but it could be made easier if you cut just one thing out of your diet.
We all know that certain foods are unhealthy for our bodies, but getting the right balance can be harder than it seems, especially when we all live busy lives and don't necessarily have the time to spend hours cooking a healthy dinner.
However, according to one weight loss expert, there's one easy swap you can make that will cut out some foods that contribute to excess belly fat and will add foods that are better for your overall health - without you having to stop eating certain food groups entirely.
Lucy Jones, dietician and chief clinical officer of weight management provider Oviva, explained that targeting specific areas of the body when it comes to losing weight isn't easy, but there are things you can do to help if you specifically want to lose belly fat.
Excess stomach fat in particular can be dangerous because it surrounds internal organs and puts you at a greater risk of developing several kinds of health problems such as heart disease, diabetes, and liver problems. One thing you can do to help tackle belly fat is to eat less "refined carbs", Lucy told the Daily Star.
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She said: "Targeting particular body areas is hard, but there is some evidence from studies like the Framlingham Heart Study, that eating less sugar and refined carbs – and instead replacing these with wholegrain foods – can help to reduce more abdominal fat."
Lucy's recommendation to cut down on sugar and refined carbs is backed by other experts too, with family and preventive medicine physician Brenda Rea also stating that sugar can create an "inflammatory response in the body, putting the body in a stressed-out state", which makes the body store fat in the belly.
But you don't have to stop eating pasta and bread completely in order to cut down on refined carbs - you simply need to swap them for healthier alternatives. Instead of eating white bread and pasta, try wholegrain versions of the same products instead. Not only are these healthier for you, but they could also help you lose belly fat.
One study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition looked at 50 obese adults with metabolic syndrome - which is a collection of risk factors that increase the risk of heart disease and diabetes - who were split into two groups. Both groups were told to cut calories for 12 weeks, but one group was told to eat only wholegrain products, while the other was asked not to eat any wholegrain.
By the end of the study, both groups had lost weight, an average of 8 pounds among the wholegrain group and 11 pounds in the refined-grain group. Both groups also experienced a decrease in body fat, but the wholegrain group lost significantly more body fat from the abdominal region than the refined-grain group.