What to Eat or Drink to Get Rid of Bloating & Stomach Fat

The accumulation of gas in your lower stomach often triggers bloating, or a swollen abdomen. Your abdomen may also swell due to the presence of excess stomach fat, also called visceral fat. While bloating typically does not represent a significant threat to your health, visceral fat increases your risk for cancer and other concerns. Recognize how changes to your diet can reduce both stomach fat and bloating to ensure your well-being.

Ripe peaches on a wooden table. (Image: Alexlukin/iStock/Getty Images)

Understanding Bloating

Gas that fails to leave your body during flatulence or belching often builds up inside your intestines or stomach and causes bloating. People with bloating often suffer pain that can range from mild to severe. Doctors think bloating is linked to stress levels, smoking, gastrointestinal problems and other factors. Fatty foods may also play a role, since fried chicken and hamburgers, as well as desserts and any products with saturated fats and trans fats, increase your full feeling and delay the natural emptying process of your stomach.

Recommended Foods

A meal plan that significantly reduces your fat intake may help eliminate the discomfort of bloating. Choose fresh fish like salmon and lean cuts of meat and always bake, roast or broil instead of frying. Plan to carve away any visible fat from your meat -- as well as skin on chicken -- before consumption.

Focus on desserts and snacks less likely to cause bloating, including sorbet, non-fat cheese sticks and yogurt. Fruits and vegetables are essential to a healthy diet, but eat smaller portions of apples, broccoli, cauliflower and peaches, which can cause bloating.

Diet for Stomach Fat

Visceral fat that builds in your stomach is more threatening than other fat in your body and opens the door to a gateway of health concerns, including stroke and sleep apnea. Fitness experts recommend adopting a balanced diet with low-calorie fruits, vegetables and whole grains in order to reduce stomach fat.

Your beverage choices are important as well. Consider drinking water, unsweetened tea and diet soda as a healthy substitute for alcoholic beverages and sugary sodas or fruit drinks with fattening fructose sweetening. Low-fat milk is also an ideal choice, since calcium may discourage the development of visceral fat.

Increased Activity

A low-calorie diet is vital to eliminate stomach fat, although you'll also need to become physically active. Consider 30 minutes or more of aerobic exercise like riding a bike, brisk walking or jogging on most days. Weightlifting at least twice weekly when approved by your physician is also beneficial in preventing and blocking the growth of visceral fat.

Additional steps that can ensure you reduce stomach fat include weighing yourself every week as a motivational tool and maintaining a daily record of your calorie intake, so you can ensure you're burning more calories with exercise than you consume through food and drinks.