Everyone wants a perfect waist, but getting it is not as easy as it looks. Fortunately, some people are blessed with such a perfect waist while others have to work for it. Your waist is unique to your body and thus perfect for you. However, lifestyle and eating habits are the key determinants to having the perfect waist.

 

Listed below are five tips for getting the ‘perfect waist’.

 

1. Avoid eating late at night

 

This is a must-do if you want to get that perfect waist. As much as you can, do not eat late at night. When you eat late at night, you tend to consume more calories than you need. Over time, this leads to weight gain, especially around the waistline. Regardless of timing, eating more calories than you can burn leads to weight gain. If you must, eat something very light and healthy, not junk food or calorie-dense foods.

 

Eating right before bedtime may also cause you to experience acid reflux. The stomach struggles to digest food while you lay down, resulting in the loosening of the Lower Esophageal Sphincter(LES). This then allows undigested food and stomach acids to travel back up the oesophagus. There is also the fact that eating late at night affects your circadian rhythm. A circadian rhythm is a natural, internal process that regulates the sleep-wake cycle and repeats roughly every 24 hours.

 

2. Do not take any cold drink right after your meal

 

Taking cold drinks while eating or just after eating could slow down the digestion process. This, in turn, makes the food stay longer than necessary. Cold water slows down the digestive system by constricting blood flow to the stomach and intestines and slowing enzyme secretion which, in turn, leads to a slower metabolism. In addition, it causes the body to hold onto fat. So it’s best to go for warm water when eating to aid the digestion process, decreasing the duration of the food in the stomach.

 

3. Do not eat more than you need

 

As mentioned earlier, eating more than you need will result in weight gain regardless of the timing. One way to go about this is to check ahead. If you’ll be burning a lot of calories on a particular day, then you can consume a lot of calories. Otherwise, eat moderately to avoid taking food in excess.

 

4. Know when to eat certain foods

 

Surprisingly, gaining or losing weight is not just dependent on your caloric intake or food choices but also on the timing of the meal. There is a popular saying: “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper.” Different foods take different amounts of time to digest. Putting this into consideration helps in preventing excess weight around the waistline.

 

5. Exercise regularly

 

The importance of exercising cannot be over-emphasized. Asides helping you keep in shape, there are a lot of health benefits that come with exercising regularly. A sedentary lifestyle has been linked to certain diseases, emphasising the need to move about every hour and cut back on prolonged sitting.

 

If you’re trying to lose weight or reduce your waistline, it’s more effective to exercise before taking breakfast in the morning. Particularly focus on high-intensity interval training, which is an ideal exercise to target belly fat.

 

With the above-mentioned tips, you’re already on your way to rocking that perfect waist.