Erin Palinski-Wade

If you’re trying to lose weight and reduce your belly fat, but your husband keeps bringing home pizza every night and your kids are always eating ice cream while you’re in the room, you may find staying on track challenging. To be successful, you may need to recruit support of all kinds, from friends and family, from professionals, and from the Internet.

Some behaviors can actually help to shrink your waistline and help you keep weight off for good. Here are ten of the best behaviors to start incorporating today to lose weight and banish belly fat for good. Deep Breathing: Stress can pack on belly fat and lead to a host of medical issues if not controlled. One of the quickest ways to reduce your stress levels and bring stress hormones (the ones that trigger belly fat storage when elevated for long periods of time) back to normal is by deep breathing.

When you are on a diet to lose belly fat, you may be making a few common mistakes when you attend social events. And making these mistakes means you’ll be facing even greater challenges. So avoid doing the following, and you’ll be on your way to sailing through the next social event: Getting too hungry: Don’t ever let yourself get too hungry (whether you’re at home or at an event).

Protein is essential to your belly-blasting plan because it helps to keep you full and prevents muscle loss while losing fat mass. However, you need to take in the right amount of protein each day. Taking in too much or too little can sabotage your weight loss efforts. Credit: ©iStockphoto.com/Lyredmila Suvorova 2009 Except where noted, one serving size of each of the foods in the following tables equals 1 ounce of protein.

When eaten on a regular basis, foods with anti-inflammatory properties can help reduce inflammation in the body, helping to prevent the long-term health consequences associated with it — but only if you also eliminate the foods that cause inflammation. When inflammation is under control, not only will you have more energy and feel better overall, but you’ll also find that weight loss and reduction of belly fat both become easier!

It may sound too good to be true, but losing weight doesn’t have to be complicated. One of the simplest ways to lose weight is by just walking, something you already do each and every day. Anyone can do it, almost anywhere, and at any time. Just get up and start putting one foot in front of the other, and you are well on your way to achieving your weight-loss goals.

You want to know how to lose belly fat, because it not only looks less than desirable, but belly fat and belly bloat also can have very real and very dangerous health implications. The latest research links belly fat to everything from heart disease and type 2 diabetes to certain cancers and even an increased risk of dementia.

Almost any person who’s above an ideal weight carries at least some excess weight in the belly. It’s important to understand what body type you are in order to start losing your belly fat once and for all. How this excess weight makes its way to the belly varies depending on the person, his genetics, and his situation.

Some foods can cause belly bloat. This bloat can come on overnight or even after eating just one meal full of belly-bloating foods. Bloat isn’t true belly fat, but it can distend your stomach, making your waistline appear larger. Some foods have an instant belly-bloating effect due to their ability to introduce added gasses to the body, causing stomach distension.