I know it’s not what you wanted to hear, and it’s even more frustrating if you exercise regularly and eat a pretty healthy diet.

So what the heck can you do to help get rid of your stubborn belly fat?

• Skip breakfast

• Eat more fat

• Exercise less

Yep…you heard it right.

Skip breakfast

Did I seriously just recommend skipping breakfast?  Ok, it’s not something I normally recommend but studies have shown that fasting for 14 - 16 hours really helps boosts your fat burning hormones.

I know 14 - 16 hours seems like a long time, but if you stop eating at 8pm the night before and skip breakfast it’s fairly easy to get to 14 - 16 hours.  You’ll be having your first meal (brunch or lunch) at 10:00 am - 12:00 pm. You can also have anything that doesn’t have calories in the morning like tea or black coffee.

Eat more fat

Another thing that helps fight your stubborn body fat is omega-3 fats.  A diet high in omega-3 fats is great for fighting off inflammation.  Chronic inflammation is the root cause of many serious health problems AND it’s also shown to promote stubborn stomach fat!

Although inflammation can be caused by many different factors like poor diet, stress and environment, you can protect your body by consuming foods high in omega-3 fats.  The best source of omega-3 fats come from fish like salmon, trout, herring, Atlantic mackerel and anchovies.  Just be mindful of the mercury content in these fish and that smaller fish are less likely to be contaminated compared to larger fish.

If you can’t eat enough fish, you can take high quality omega-3 supplements as well.  There are many different kinds of omega-3 supplements like fish oil, cod liver oil, krill oil and flaxseed oil.  I would stay away from plant based omega-3 supplements like flaxseed because it can only provide you with ALA.  Since your body can only utilize DHA and EPA, which are the active ingredients of omega-3 fatty acids, all ALA must be converted to DHA and EPA before it can be used by your body.  The problem is ALA isn’t efficiently converted to DHA and EPA, so you’re much better off taking fish oil, cod liver oil or krill oil instead.

Between fish oil, cod liver oil and krill oil my personal recommendation is krill oil.  Some fish oil and cod liver oil have high level of toxins due to fish exposure to mercury and other environmental toxins.  Krill on the other hand is found in extreme deep waters, far from any contaminants and toxins…so it’s a much cleaner source of omega-3 fatty acids.  Krill oil is also 40 times higher in antioxidants than regular fish oil or cod liver oil, and since omega-3 fatty acids are susceptible to going rancid, the high antioxidants content found in krill oil will protect it from going bad.

Exercise less

Last, but certainly not least, is exercise.  If you’re used to exercising an hour or more a day, you may want to rethink about the duration, because when it comes to burning fat, quality trumps over quantity EVERY time. Short intense workouts using interval based training is by far the best method for burning off stubborn fat. Although doing long cardio is often thought to be the best way to burn fat… it is NOT the case at all.  Doing excessively long cardio sessions of running, biking or any other forms of cardio can actually increase your cortisol levels perpetuating a vicious cycle of fat retention.

Remember, exercise is still stress, so any form of exercise will increase your cortisol level.  But studies have shown that doing short bursts of intense exercise effectively decreases cortisol levels after the workout…much more than doing long exercise sessions.  Shorter more intense exercise also promotes EPOC which has been shown to burn off stubborn fat much more effectively than doing longer less intense workouts.

So there you have it, 3 simple steps you can take to help you burn off your stubborn belly fat.

For best results you’ll want to combine these 3 simple steps with a diet high in healthy fats, low in carbohydrates and moderate amounts of protein (AKA. Lean Body Diet), so you can re-program your body to optimally burn fat as your major fuel source and enable you to burn off your stubborn belly fat more effectively.