If your belly is the one place where fat just won't disappear, while there's no magic one-step cure, here are some must-dos that are proven to whittle your middle.

Move Faster

Unfortunately, there isn't one exercise or piece of equipment that will spot-reduce fat from your belly. What you need to do is fast-paced cardio to burn calories, which will reduce your overall body fat and slim down every part of your body, including your tummy. Skip the leisurely walks with your dog, and choose the types of cardio that burn the most calories, such as biking, running, and jumping rope. Do 60-minute sessions five times a week to really notice a difference.

Include Short Bursts

Basic cardio isn't enough. In order to target the waistline, interval training is a must. It involves mixing up your regular pace with fast-paced bursts. Here's a 40-minute workout perfect for newbies that incorporates two-minute sprints with one-minute walking recovery intervals. Running isn't the only way to do intervals. They can also be done when biking, swimming, jumping rope, or even dancing. Doing hill repeats is also a form of interval training that as a bonus will also tone your tush.

Get Strong

While crunches alone won't trim your middle, you don't want to skip them altogether. Once you're incorporating cardio regularly and the fat starts to melt away, you want to reveal toned abs underneath. Complement your cardio with strength-training sessions that include core work such as these plank variations, these core-carving yoga poses, or this 10-minute ab workout using hand towels. Simply balancing on one leg on a BOSU will target your core too.

Avoid These Foods

Being overweight or having weak abs isn't the only issue causing your pudgy tummy. If you're having digestive issues, a bloated belly can also make you look plumper than you are. It helps to avoid foods that are known to cause bloating like dairy products and high-fat and high-sodium items. Skip chewing gum since it causes you to swallow air, and you'll also want to turn away carbonated beverages such as seltzer and beer since they release carbon dioxide, which can translate to bloat. For instant relief from bloating, try this yoga sequence.

Say Yes to These

Constipation is one cause of bloating, so be sure to get enough fiber per day (25 to 30 grams) by eating avocado and these other high-fiber foods. Drinking enough water is also key to keeping things moving along. You'll be pleased to hear that blueberries are proven to diminish belly fat as well as pineapple, so sip on flat-belly smoothie or crunch on flat-belly salad to keep you regular and help you debloat.

Don't Skip This

Definitely don't pass over the first meal of the day, since eating within an hour of waking will jump-start your metabolism, helping to reduce your overall body fat to reveal your slimmer middle. Pass on sugary, refined-carb meals, and opt for a combo of protein and fiber-filled complex carbs. The protein will give you energy, so you'll feel pumped for that early-morning cardio workout, and it also helps build muscle. The carbs will sustain that energy and keep you feeling full. If you're short on time, smoothies are quick and satisfying, as well as overnight oats, or make a batch of these apple ring pancakes the night before, so they're ready to enjoy with some scrambled eggs or yogurt.

Snack Time!

Including two snacks between your three main meals is also a must. Eating a little something every few hours will stop hunger from causing you to overeat, which will prevent weight gain. Keep it under 150 calories, and choose foods high in protein and fiber to fill you up and offer energy. Here are 150-calorie homemade snack ideas like these almond-cherry chunks of energy.

Keep Track

Knowing how many calories you're taking in and using up is one way to keep you honest about weight loss. Though it may seem tedious, keeping a food journal works because it helps keep you accountable for every bite. In fact, one study found that those who logged what they ate six days a week lost twice as much weight as those who only kept track of a day or less. In order to lose a pound a week, you need to cut 500 calories a day — 250 through exercise and 250 through diet is a good breakdown. Just be sure not to dip below 1,200 calories, since not consuming enough calories will make your body hold onto fat.

Hit the Hay

Getting enough rest is also proven to aid in weight loss, which can help slim your waistline. Sleepiness makes people snack more, consuming extra calories, while also making them too tired to work out. Wind down 30 minutes before bed, avoid using screens as they stimulate your brain, and hop in bed early enough so you're asleep at least seven hours before you need to wake up.

Be Kind

A healthy lifestyle doesn’t necessarily require major changes in diet and fitness. Make these small changes in your daily routine to get leaner and healthier.

Let’s face it, we are bombarded with advice from all sides on how to eat healthy and exercise. But after the trial period, it can seem like a chore to shop for ‘superfoods’ or hit the treadmill regularly.

But lifestyle changes need not always be time-consuming, or require you to splurge. Instead, you need to focus on setting small, tangible goals over the long run. 10 simple tweaks to your daily routine to feel healthier:

Chew your food well

This is the easiest and most effective way to conquer gut issues. 70% of our immunity lies in our gut. So better the digestion, healthier is the gut. Due to a fast-paced lifestyle, we rarely pay attention to chewing food, but this important habit can help resolve digestive issues like flatulence, burping and indigestion.

Remember, digestion starts right from the mouth and just chewing food thoroughly and being mindful of what you eat can help food become your greatest medicine.

Go off white poisons

A simple change in your kitchen ingredients can help you manage blood pressure or blood sugar fluctuations. Just say no to white sugar, salt, and refined flour. Instead, switch to healthier options, such as pink salt/rock salt, organic jaggery, and unpasteurised honey or manuka honey. You don’t even have to compromise on the taste.

Healthy beverages

You can also replace regular tea with green tea, and kombucha tea which are rich in antioxidants. Fermented tea also helps healthy gut bacteria to flourish. You can also replace regular milk with coconut or almond milk to overcome lactose intolerance and reduce inflammatory foods going in the system.

Make the plate colourful

Add dark-coloured fruits and vegetables to your meal to boost levels of antioxidants. Such foods combat cellular damage caused by free radicals and produced during various body processes. Having salads 30 minutes prior to major meals can also curb appetite and make weight loss goals easier to achieve along with adding roughage to the food to help better excretion of waste.

The art of drinking water

Drinking water at the right time and quantity is crucial for good health. Water should never be drank immediately after a meal. Instead, a gap of 45 minutes to an hour should be maintained as drinking water immediately afterwards prevent absorption of nutrients. It’s also important to hydrate before, during and post a workout to replenish lost electrolytes.

Similarly, detox water (water infused with fruits or herbs) can flush toxins, keep the body adequately alkaline, control flatulence, acidity, and prevent indigestion. These detox drinks can be sipped through the day to add to your total water intake.

Stay fit while travelling

For individuals who travel frequently, it’s important to stay fit and not deviate from the fitness routine. Stick to general guidelines like using the wait time at the airport to walk around, not leaving home without eating a meal so that one doesn’t feel tempted to eat at food counters and following the GPRS mantra (grilled, poached, roasted steamed/stir-fry) while ordering food at restaurants.

Do chair workouts at work

If you start early for work and are tired by day-end to hit the gym, learn some easy chair workouts to practice while you are sitting in office. Just 10 minutes of this will help you stay active, as well as avoid aches and pains that arise from sitting for long, as well as improve circulation and posture. Stretches like shoulder rotation, arm rotation, ankle rotation, and push-ups done keeping the desk as support is a great way to stay active.

Walk after your meal

For those who don’t find time for physical activities, walking 10 minutes after each meal can help you get fit. On an average, we eat 5-6 meals a day, so walking 10 minutes 5-6 times would make it to 50-60 minutes of total activity in a day, which will keep you healthy, improve digestion, and keep joints supple.

Keep a gap between dinner and sleep

Keep a gap of two hours between dinner and sleep to avoid acidity, heart burn and acid reflux. Meals that are eaten close to bedtime can affect quality of sleep as foods rich in proteins, spices, and oil interfere in deep sleep and may lead to chain reactions that cause fat storage. So to stay healthy, eat a light dinner.

Learn to de-stress

Try Pranayama or deep breathing, take up a hobby, go on a short vacation or meet friends to de-stress. De-stressing helps in lowering stress hormones, soothing nerves and relaxing tense muscles. Organs like the heart and intestine are also muscles, so stress can impact them in the same way as other skeletal muscles. Simple deep breathing exercises are a great way to feel fresh and get vital oxygen.

Oats is a cereal commonly known to be loaded with dietary fiber and properties to control cholesterol and help in losing weight.

It's one of the best things you can do for your health, and it's totally free.

 The solution to most of your health problems could be solved with a simple trip to the water fountain. Seriously, Feeling groggy? Have a headache? Want to lose weight? Drink more water. Since your body is made up of about 60 percent H2O, it’s essential that we drink enough to keep our organs functioning properly and keep our body in tip-top shape.

Sure, drinking water is in just about every article about health and weight loss, but that’s because it’s so important. And people are starting to catch on; in 2016, Americans drank more bottled water than soda.

Whether you prefer pricey bottled brands, filtered from the faucet, or plain old tap water, sipping on agua is essential for overall health. Make sure you're drinking at least 64 ounces a day to reap all of the health benefits—and read on to discover what happens to your body when you drink water. 

Having a tough time staying on track at work? Try drinking a glass of water. Since your brain is made up of 80 percent water, it’s no wondering proper hydration keeps your noggin functioning at its best. According to a UK study, mental flexibility improves by 14 after consuming water. So drink up for memory and creativity!

Drinking more water flushes out toxins from your body. It sounds too good to be true, but there’s a scientific reason. The more water you drink, the better your kidneys will work. Since your kidneys’ job is to filter out waste from your blood, the more efficient your kidneys are, the more toxins are being eliminated. To keep your valuable kidneys in tip-top shape (and avoid painful kidney stones), stay hydrated.

Plain old water could be a natural pain reliever. People who suffered from headaches and migraines found relief by drinking seven glasses of water a day, according to a study out of the Netherlands. Plus, dehydration leads to muscle cramps like killer charley horses; drink up to stay pain-free.

One of the easiest ways to tell if you’re getting enough water is a visual urine test; the darker color your pee is, the more dehydrated you are. On the flip side, if your stream is regularly a very light yellow, almost clear color, that means you’re drinking plenty of fluids. To stay healthy and properly hydrated, aim to have your pee color more on the light yellow/clear end of the spectrum. Any darker, and you know it’s time to refill your water bottle.

Seafood earns for itself an ideal place in weight loss programmes because of its wealth of Omega-3 fatty acids and special decrease the growth of fat cells, fish proteins contribute to the reduction of body fat mass (BFM).

Sea Food

Seafood for Health and Beauty

• Reduces weight: Consuming Omegea-3 fish oil and combining it or following it with moderate aerobic exercises is found to speed up weight loss.
• Stimulate fat transporting enzymes and improves blood flow to the muscles. Alternatively, it helps the body to transport stored fat to body areas where it can be used as energy during exercise.
• Increase metabolic rate and tallies in the count of fat burned by the body. When your body is burning more fat (because the enzymes are stimulated) and you combine it with exercise, there is an increase in your intake of oxygen, and therefore an increase your metabolic rate too. In this cycle of body processes, increased metabolic rate also means more fat is burned by your body.
• Regulate blood sugar and insulin levels. Insulin levels drop when you consume Omega 3 oil.
• Keeps hunger at bay.
• Reduces the risk or seriousness of ailments commonly associated with overweight or obesity.
• Decreases blood pressure contributes to good cardiac health.
• You will live linger and look younger as antioxidants will work to reduce free radicals.
  Good for the eyes. Improves your vision. DHA, one of the Omega 3 fatty acids, protects the retina from macular degeneration.

Fish Facts in Diet

fish food

Seafood has fewer calories and less fat than red meat. Fish is one of the best fat-burning foods for women. In men too, low-calorie diets that include fish are found to ensure more weight loss than those without fish. Leading the trend is Europe’s Mediterranean Diet, which is now popular in the US too. It is a heart-healthy way to lose weight, while eating healthy fats, fresh and unprocessed foods and plenty of seafood.

Take your Pick

1. Tuna contains more fatty acids and quality protein to help burn excess body fat and balance blood sugar levels. It is heart friendly.
2. Salmon is rich in natural astaxanthin and unsaturated fatty acids, which increases HDL and decreases LDL. It helps improve cardiovascular functions, controls cholesterol, burns fat and ensures healthy weight loss.
3. Sardines are the best as they contain very high amounts of Omega-3 fatty acids.

Caution!!!!

1. Too much fish oil can be harmful, as fish contains high levels of methyl mercury, a metal. It is so in larger fish, mackerel in particular, as they feed on smaller fishes which contain the metal. Other metals found in fish include lead, nickel, arsenic and cadmium. All of them are poisonous, in varying degrees.
2. Fish must be cooked thoroughly and correctly, whatever be its kind. If weight loss is your aim, seafood has to be grilled, baked, steamed, boiled or broiled. Eating fish prepared incorrectly can only add calories. For example, frying or serving fish in heavy sauces does nothing but add on calories.

Vitamin D is responsible for maintaining normal calcium levels in the body and mineralization of bones. The past decade has seen a renewed interest in this vitamin called the ‘sunshine Vitamin’.

The renewed interest is attributed to the medical fraternity’s increasing realization that the benefits of Vitamin D extend far beyond healthy bones.

Some of its numerous effects have been observed under various clinical conditions and there have been epidemiological suggestions stating that children and adults with adequate or sufficient levels of Vitamin D are at lower risk for metabolic syndrome, hypertension and high blood sugar.

Vitamin D level in a person is assessed in terms of 25-hydroxy-vitamin D concentration (It is abbreviated as 25(OH)D and the test too is referred to as such).

Dietary intake of Vitamin D to maximize bone health and muscle function for patients at risk for Vitamin D deficiency is as follows:

1. Infants and children aged 0-1 year: at least 400 IU/day

2. Children aged 1-18: 600 IU/day

3. Adults aged 19-50: 600 IU/day

4. Adults aged 50-70 and above: 600 and 800 IU/day

5. Pregnant and lactating women: 600 IU/day

(IU is read as the standard International Unit. )

Sources of Vitamin D

Vitamin D is produced in the skin natural in response to ultraviolet B radiation from sunlight. In food it can be obtained from animal sources such as deep-sea fatty fish, egg yolks or liver or from dietary supplements.

About 50 to 90 per cent of the Indian population reportedly shows Vitamin D deficiency of varying degrees. Australia, Middle East, Africa and South America are the other regions or populations know to be affected by Vitamin D deficiency. Of late, countries like the US, UK and Canada too have been contending with significant levels of Vitamin D deficiency in their elderly.

What has come to be the cause for alarm is the increasing prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency in adolescents – an age group that is supposedly healthy and must be healthy as the immediate future’s working population of any society.

Lack of Vitamin D typically presents with bone deformity (rickets) or low calcium levels in infancy and childhood.

In adults, it causes reduced bone mineral density, musculoskeletal pain and weakness. The elderly in particular have increased sway and frequent falls, and are at increased risk for fractures.

Of late, other health issues like cardiovascular diseases, type-2 diabetes, various forms of cancer, and auto-immune conditions too, have been linked to Vitamin D deficiency.

Tests for Vitamin D Status

Laboratory tests to assess 25(OH)D are available. The result classifies the person’s status as Vitamin D sufficient or insufficient or deficient.

Few foods have substantial Vitamin D content. Outdoor sun exposure and intake of vitamin D supplements leads to higher serum Vitamin d. If sunlight exposure is adequate, the body can produce Vitamin D without the need for supplementation through diet.

In the US, Canada and parts of Europe, milk, cheese and fruit juices are supplemented with Vitamin D supplementation are practically nonexistent. It may be cost-effective to introduce food supplementation in India

The best source of Vitamin D

Without doubt, sensible exposure to sunlight is the best source of Vitamin D.

Various contribute to Vitamin D deficiency and the risk groups too are varied.