Personal trainers throughout England share a few life hacks to burn off belly fat in time for 2025’s summer season.
Belly fat, also known as visceral fat, is the archenemy of…well…certainly anyone hoping to showcase a trim, ripped waistline in time for the summer season.
If you’ve never heard of visceral fat before, it’s a type of fat that likes to settle in along our midsection where it gets perilously close to vital organs like our intestines and liver. But the most obnoxious thing about visceral fat is that it makes our bellies rounder, and perhaps even a bit unsightly.
Alas, we’ve consulted some of the best personal trainers throughout London and discovered that there are some surprisingly effective and simple ways we can target belly fat.
Get More Steps!
I truly don’t understand why more Brits don’t make walking a daily habit, or why everyone is so prone to making excuses for not walking more. Because walking for just 15 to 20 minutes every day can be an excellent strategy for a trimmer waistline…if you make it a habit. This is especially true if walking is a new fitness habit for you.
From the eclectic beauty of Thames Path stretching through Central London to the 16 plus acres of parks and gardens within the Canary Wharf area, walking can be a rewarding and beautiful experience for any Brits interested in losing weight.
“Think about it,” one Canary Wharf personal trainer told us, “...if you’re working a standard 9-to-5 sedentary desk job where you’re sitting on your duff all day, even just a short walk after you get home has the potential to yield remarkable weight loss results over time.”
Just how much belly fat we can burn off from walking depends largely on how intensively we walk and what other healthy habits we adopt. Remember, weight loss success occurs over time.
Your goal, personal trainers tell us, should be to cultivate new, healthy habits that we’ll stick to, and not just go looking to walk on a treadmill for hours on end solely for the purpose of losing weight.
Exercise During Your Leisure Time (like Watching TV)
Let’s be real for a moment. You want a trimmer waistline, but the thought of having to carve an hour and a half out of our nightly schedule to travel to a gym to slog through a long workout doesn’t always sound appealing. Some nights, you just want to go home and watch TV.
Brother, SAME!
But one Canary Wharf personal trainer showed us a few marvelous exercises that we can do in front of the television which are wildly effective in burning off belly fat.
Here are a few of the best choices:
Planks
Start with 3 sets, holding each plank for a minimum of 30 seconds (for starters). Remember to keep the core tight and maintain a straight line from the toes to your knees to your hips. And keep those hips from dipping! The better your form, the more effective your planks will be in strengthening your core muscles, which can help make your stomach appear flatter.
Leg Raises
Leg raises focus chiefly on the lower abdominal region, which, as we all know, is awfully difficult to tone. You can raise both legs at one time so your body is at a 90-degree angle, or you can elevate one leg at a time. You can also elevate your hips to enhance intensity as shown in the image below.
Personal trainers recommend elevating your leg and attempting to keep it elevated for 5 seconds. Lower your leg and repeat. Do 2 sets of 10 leg lifts each session.
Flutter Kicks
Commonly included in Pilates routines, flutter kicks are a series of leg movements that can significantly strengthen your core muscles and torch that unwanted belly fat. As shown in the image below, lay on your back and start moving your legs up and down, alternating as you go as if your legs are “fluttering.” Keep it up for 30 seconds to begin with and increase from there. Do 3 sets of fluttering activity for 30 seconds.
Bottom line? Perform these 3 exercises twice a day for 30 days and you may be astonished by how effective these small investments of time and energy can be. Paired with a sensible diet that includes excellent sources of protein, and you can be sure to take a few inches off your waistline.
Make Protein a Priority for Every Meal
Here’s the real secret of fat loss: muscle mass burns unwanted fat. Protein is the fuel our bodies depend on to build lean muscle mass that can turn our bodies into fat-burning machines. Unfortunately, if you’re a woman regardless of your age, recent studies show that you may not be including enough protein sources in your diet.
If belly fat is a concern, then protein needs to play a vital role in every one of your meals because it has a remarkable ability to support our weight loss efforts in a variety of ways. For example, protein has the ability to make us feel fuller longer, boost our body’s metabolism, and help our bodies maintain crucial muscle mass.
Personal trainers and dieticians recommend consuming at least 25 grams of protein per meal. Lean meat, whitefish, and low-fat dairy are all excellent sources of protein. A Canary Wharf personal trainer also told us that animal sources offer more complete protein sources than plant-based options, so you need to eat less of it.
However, if you’re not a huge “meat eater” there are excellent sources of plant-based proteins you can look into.
Ditch the Scale!
One Liverpool personal trainer we met with said he encourages clients to stop focusing so much on their damned bathroom scales to measure their weight loss progress. This is especially true as weight training gains popularity as an effective means of losing weight.
Think about it! The trauma we experience from stepping onto a scale and seeing a sudden increment can be immense, and it’s likely an entirely false metric.
Why? Well, for starters most bathroom scales aren’t even accurate. And perhaps more importantly, the standard bathroom scale isn’t built to distinguish the difference between muscle and fat – a key factor when trying to determine the changes in your body composition throughout your weight loss journey.
One Canary Wharf personal trainer even suggests we ditch our scales altogether in favor of a tape measure to determine the circumference of our waist once a week and track that number over time.
Lastly, body photos are another great way to monitor your progress over time.
Conclusion | Start Small
The biggest takeaway from the conversations we had with England’s personal trainers is that successful weight loss boils down to cultivating new, healthy habits like the ones mentioned above that we’ll stick with over time.
The secret is to start small until the habits above become a part of our daily routine. Soon enough, we won’t just develop a slimmer waistline, we’ll also experience a healthier overall mindset.