All the secrets on how to remove belly fat at home

Of course, it is impossible to achieve your dream figure in a matter of days - you need to work on it long and persistently, if nature has not rewarded you with excellent physical data, or you have lost them for some reason. But you can significantly reduce your belly even in a week, at least visually.

Is it possible to lose belly fat in a week?

Is it possible to significantly reduce the fat layer on the anterior abdominal wall in just seven days? Unfortunately no. However, you will definitely succeed in reducing the size of your abdomen, making it more toned and aesthetically pleasing, regardless of gender and age. To do this, we need to remember that the stomach is not only fat, but also muscles and internal organs, primarily the intestines. This means that for urgent weight loss in the abdominal area you need to:

• Get rid of waste accumulated in the intestines.
• Get rid of excess fluid in body tissues.
• Oddly enough, work on your posture.
• Tighten the rectus and transverse abdominal muscles.
• Lose excess weight as much as possible.

Burning belly fat

Men and women of all ages and body types point to their belly and ask me the same question with a puzzled face: “how to burn belly fat?”

This is a real million-dollar question and many companies make even large sums of money from this. However, you don't have to spend that kind of money to tighten and tone your abdominal muscles. You just need to understand the basic principles of how your body works and how you burn fat.

On TV, various exercise machines are increasingly being advertised that stimulate the muscles of various parts of the body, saving us from unnecessary exercises. I even remember an advertisement for an abdominal machine that claimed it would give you the same effect as doing 700 squats in just 10 minutes. The advertisement shows smiling men and women using the exercise machine literally anytime, anywhere. It looks so tempting!

Several people in this ad claim to have lost weight around their waist using this machine. Men with toned abs claim that they achieved this result thanks to the exercise machine. All this makes the viewer believe in the miracles that this miracle product can do to them. But physical exercise (if you can call it that) will never give such an effect.

Why? Yes because! Even if a woman pumps up her abs a hundred times a day, she will certainly strengthen her abdominal muscles, but the fat will not go away and the abs will not be visible behind it.

Almost 50% of fat deposits are located directly under the skin. Do you know where the rest is? Inside the abdominal cavity, the so-called visceral fat.

And just pumping your abs won't help you here. And even more so, this simulator from the advertisement will not help you.

“You shouldn’t believe advertising and buy devices to burn belly fat.”

Cleansing procedures and diet

The large intestine of an adult, as a rule, is clogged with unremoved waste products, and the desire to reduce the volume of the abdomen in a week is an excellent reason to clean it. This can reduce your weight by several kilograms. At home, a fasting day of bran, freshly squeezed juices, kefir, apple, herbal infusions or rice will help you cleanse yourself. In this case, an enema will enhance the effect.

Switch to a lighter diet, mostly plant-based. Fiber-rich vegetables and fruits will help remove all excess from the body. In addition, plant-based foods are quickly digested and do not stay in the body for long, which means you will feel lighter and your stomach will look flatter.

Give up salt at least for a while - this will help prevent fluid from accumulating in the tissues and reduce volume. You can use mild diuretics (herbs, teas, herbal remedies), but only if your kidneys are absolutely healthy.

The above methods will reduce abdominal girth and body weight, as well as improve your appearance and well-being. After all, a clogged intestine means constant poisoning of the body with products of rotting and fermentation. Cleansing and healing the gastrointestinal tract refreshes the skin, improves complexion, hair and nails, improves mood and vitality. Now doing exercises will be much more fun!

Sample menu for weight loss for a week

Below is an approximate diet that will help reduce body fat, but for maximum effect you need to adjust any diet to suit yourself.

First, you need to base your daily calorie intake at the beginning of losing weight and eat a little less per day to create a calorie deficit. Or increase your energy expenditure by doing an extra run, a walk in the park, or a gym workout, your choice.

Secondly, in the process of losing weight, metabolism may slow down, which will lead to a decrease in the daily norm or simply decrease body weight, which will also lead to a decrease in the body's need for calories. And at this moment, in order for fat burning to continue, it will be necessary to again reduce the calorie content of the diet for a day or increase consumption, if this is still possible.

For example, to lose 12 kg in 6 weeks, I personally had to reduce my calorie intake twice in weeks 2 and 4. And also, from the 3rd week, increase the number of workouts to 2 per day in order to get sculpted abs on your stomach in such a short time. If I weren’t in a hurry, I would need to train less and wouldn’t have to cut my diet much.

Posture correction to reduce belly fat

If you look at people with big bellies, you will definitely notice that they also have problems with posture - a relaxed, voluminous belly “pulls” the back along with it, it bends in the lower back, and the shoulder blades and hunched shoulders go back. It turns out to be a “question mark”. As soon as such a person tries to straighten up, straighten his shoulders, his stomach immediately tightens. The problem is that a person usually does not stay in this position for a long time - he forgets about the need to monitor his posture, gets distracted and takes a normal position.

Three things can help: periodic reminders (at least on the phone), a special bandage to correct your posture, and exercises.

A static exercise developed in Japan gives good results in reducing the abdomen:

1. Prepare a thick roll (for example, a rolled towel) with a diameter of about 10 cm.
2. Lie on the floor and place the roller exactly under your lower back (the projection of your navel should be right on it).
3. Extend your arms straight above your head and place them on the floor, palms down, with your little fingers touching each other.
4. The legs should also be straight, the heels should be feet apart, and the big toes should be joined.
5. You need to lie there, trying to relax your whole body as much as possible, for at least five minutes. At first it is not easy to maintain the described position of the palms and feet, but as the spine straightens and the joints become more flexible, this will become easier.

The exercise helps to normalize the relative position of the spine and pelvic bones, as a result of which the intestines also move “into place,” which, due to imbalance of the musculoskeletal system, seems to fall forward. If you perform the exercise correctly and daily, the results will become noticeable in a short time.

Exercises to reduce belly fat, lose weight and tone your body

Even if you don’t have a lot of bad habits and are not prone to overeating, with age the processes in our body begin to proceed differently, and what you ate at 18 is no longer absorbed at the same speed at 30. For people who play sports, this problem is not acute. They burn calories, speed up metabolism and do not suffer from obesity, which leads to a large number of dangerous diseases. At the same time, men lose fat more easily than women, due to gender physiological characteristics, so you can lose weight by regularly exercising at home.

What exercises are suitable to lose excess weight and reduce belly fat?

Ab crunches

Crunches are a classic abdominal exercise that can be performed at home, quite simple and yet very effective.

Ab crunch exercise technique

Technique:

1. We lie down on the floor.
2. It is best to bend your legs at the knees and place them at a distance of 10–15 cm from the buttocks. When your feet are completely on the floor, getting up can be quite difficult.
3. Press your back, including your lower back, firmly to the floor.
4. You can leave your hands along the body; this option is most preferable for beginners, it is the simplest. You can also cross them over your chest or put them behind your head, in which case the exercise will be somewhat more difficult.
5. We take a deep breath and, as we exhale, begin to lift our body up. Our task is to twist ourselves, that is, we first raise our shoulders, then the upper back, the lower back (if we perform the exercise in full amplitude) and do this with a round back.
6. At the top point, we exhale as much as possible and contract the abdominal muscles. We fix the position for one or two seconds, lower ourselves to the floor and relax.
7. Then we repeat.

8. Ab crunch exercise technique

During the exercise, it is important to breathe correctly and keep your abdominal muscles toned at all times. You can do at least 100 crunches, but if these are uncontrolled rapid body lifts, the result will be of less quality. If you want to get the maximum effect, perform 20–25 crunches, but correctly. Also, an excellent option would be interval training, when you do an exercise for a while, for example, we perform the exercise with full effort for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds, and repeat 8 such mini-circles in total.

It is important to note that the abs quickly adapt to the load, so if you do 25 crunches every day, after a week it will be quite easy for you. It is necessary to make the exercise more difficult or change it, for example by adding weight or changing the position of the legs.

If you want to make crunches more challenging, raise your legs up and once you get used to them, lift them up and hold them in the air. You can also twist your legs and body at the same time.

Exercise "climber"

Another great, but slightly more difficult abdominal exercise is the rock climber.

This exercise can be used during abdominal and cardio training.

Technique:

1. Get into the classic plank position with your arms outstretched.
2. The palms are strictly under the shoulders.
3. Feet are approximately shoulder-width apart or slightly narrower on your toes.
4. Our task is to alternately pull the legs towards the body.

This can be done slowly - move your legs one after the other.

An easier version of the climber exercise

You can do it faster, as if you were running.

A more complicated version of the climber exercise

The choice of technique depends on your level of training. It's worth starting with a simpler option.

It is best to do this exercise for a while. A Tabata system or other interval training option is great. That is, for example, you perform an exercise for 20 seconds, 10 seconds are given for rest. You need to do 8 such circles of 30 seconds each. This is the Tabata system. You can also try your own variations - 30/30 or 40/20 if you are well prepared.

In addition to the fact that the “climber” exercise pumps up the abdominal muscles well, it can already be considered a cardio load if you maintain a high enough pace.

Side plank

Unlike previous exercises, the side plank specifically targets the serratus and oblique abdominal muscles, that is, those muscles that are located on the sides of the body.

Correct body position in the plank exercise

1. We take the starting position - lie on our side.
2. The best option is when one leg lies completely on the other, but if it is still difficult to perform the side plank this way, you can place your feet next to each other.
3. We place our hand on the forearm.
4. We take a deep breath and rise on the elbow, while it should be under the shoulder.
5. Ideally, we have only two supporting points: the edge of the foot and the forearm. If you are a beginner, then three points: two feet and a supporting hand. No other parts of the body touch the floor - not the thigh, not the lower leg, and especially not the stomach.
6. The body should be tense, the stomach should be tucked. The pelvis does not stick out upward and does not “fall” down. The body, pelvis and legs are one straight line.
7. The second hand can be held along the body, near the head, placed on the waist or extended upward.

This exercise is also done for a while. Usually start with 15–20 seconds and gradually, regularly performing this exercise, if desired, increase to several minutes.

The side plank can also be held at arm's length, that is, resting on the palm. In this case, the wrist should be exactly under the shoulder.

Lying on your back

One of the simple exercises that is suitable for people with heavy weight and a voluminous stomach is sit-ups. This exercise has slight similarities with crunches, but they are still different exercises.

Technique for performing exercises: body raises

Technique:

1. Lie on your back, pressing your lower back tightly to the floor.
2. Legs can be bent at the knees and placed 10–15 cm from the buttocks.
3. We put our hands behind our heads. They can also be held on the chest or along the body - choose the option that you like best and is more comfortable to perform.
4. Let's take a deep breath. As you exhale, lift your body off the floor and lift it completely up.
5. While inhaling, also with a slightly rounded back, we smoothly lower ourselves to the floor, relax for a second and resume our rise.
6. 25-30 repetitions in 3 sets will be enough.

This exercise should be used only in the initial stages of training, and then replaced with something more complex. When it becomes easy to do, change the exercise or make it more difficult.

Leg raises lying on the floor

A more difficult exercise for the rectus abdominis muscle is the leg raise. Compared to crunches and sit-ups, you will immediately feel the difference. For beginners, 10–12 lifts are usually enough to feel the abdominal muscles.

If you want to try more challenging abdominal exercises, do a few sets of leg raises.

Technique:

1. We lie down on our backs. Legs extended.
2. Hands lie along the body. For convenience, to reduce the load on the lumbar region, it is best to place your palms under your buttocks. You can also find a stationary support behind your head that you can hold on to.
3. With an exhalation, we lift our legs off the floor and raise them either to an angle of 50–70 degrees, or 90. It is more difficult to keep our legs at medium height.
4. We linger at the top point for a few seconds, then inhale and lower our legs. There are also two options here: you can either lower your feet to the floor, thereby relaxing your abs, or keep them a short distance from the floor. In the latter case, the lower back should be pressed to the floor all the time.

Lying leg raise exercise technique

For beginners, it will be more convenient to work in a large amplitude; for more experienced athletes, it is better to reduce it in order to maintain constant tension in the abdominal area.

Number of repetitions - from 8 to 15, 4-5 approaches.

Cardio training to lose weight

Cardio exercises will help you tone your body overall and lose weight not only in the abdominal area.

The main purpose of cardio is to work the heart muscle . We perform exercises at moderate intensity for a while. To perform them, we need a large amount of air, so our breathing becomes difficult and our heart rate increases.

Cardio exercises traditionally include:

• running outside or on a treadmill
• brisk walking
• riding a bicycle or exercise bike
• jumping rope
• running or walking up the stairs
• various exercises such as burpees, jumping jacks, squat jumps, lunge walks and others
• some sports games

But, by and large, cardio exercise can include any activity that leads to an acceleration of the heartbeat. If you are unloading a truck or vigorously working in the garden, this is also cardio.

It is important not to overdo it: during exercise, monitor your pulse. The simplest formula for calculating your highest heart rate per minute is 220 minus your age. Thus, if you are 39 years old, your heart rate should never exceed 181 beats per minute.

Exercise "vacuum" to reduce belly fat

Almost all abdominal exercises are aimed at strengthening the rectus abdominis muscle. It is interesting that the degree of abdominal convexity is much more affected by the condition of the transverse muscle, for training which there is only one exercise - “vacuum”:

1. Take the starting position, calm your breathing.
2. Exhale all the air completely, draw in your stomach as much as possible, as if trying to press its front wall to the spine, the direction of movement is under the ribs.
3. Stay in this position for as long as possible, but not to such an extent that you then convulsively swallow air.
4. Calmly relax your stomach and inhale.

To quickly reduce your belly and maintain the achieved result, you must perform this exercise daily at least 40 times - 10 repetitions in four positions:

• lying on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor:

• standing on your feet;
• standing on your hands and knees;
• sitting on your heels.

It is best to do the “vacuum” in the morning on an empty stomach, but after drinking 1-2 glasses of water. A beneficial side effect is the activation of intestinal motility and the general awakening of the digestive system.

You can clearly see how this exercise is done in different stances in the video:

A set of exercises for working the abs and core

A set of the following exercises will help you remove your stomach and sides:

• Push-ups with lunges . Starting position (IP) - high plank. Move your leg to the arm of the same name so that the foot and hand are parallel, bend your arms slightly. Return to IP, repeat on the other leg.

• Abduction of legs and arms . IP in emphasis on hands and knees. Touch the knee of the opposite leg with your elbow, extend your arm forward and your leg back parallel to the floor. Repeat the movement up to 15 times, switch arms and legs.

Nutrition

One of the main factors influencing your figure is diet. Strict time restrictions and fasting are not only pointless, but can also be harmful to health. When the body is exposed to stress during a diet, it gains even more kilograms upon returning to a normal diet in order to replenish expended resources and make reserves for such cases.

Following a diet does not mean eating only low-calorie and bland diet foods. It allows you to eat nourishingly and tasty, but some products will have to be excluded from at least the regular menu or replaced with less fattening analogues.

Essence and basic principles

Paying attention to the absorption of foods will help you lose weight and get rid of your belly. In addition to their composition, it is determined by food consumption habits. It is better to eat little by little, with frequent meals, than to fill yourself up for half a day at one time. In order to remove fat from the stomach and sides, you will need to give up fried, sweet, flour, whole milk and fast food products.

You can eat sweet fruits and dried fruits, but you need to be careful with the latter and such gifts of nature as pears, grapes, watermelon and bananas. They are not recommended to be eaten at night, and they also have high levels of appetite-stimulating fructose.

You should limit the amount of starch in your diet. Red and green vegetables, meat, preferably brown or wild rice, fish and high-fiber foods are encouraged. Along with weight loss, its fibers have a satiating effect due to the longer digestion time of fiber.

At the same time, you can return to excluded products on weekends. This technique, developed by American nutritionist Paul Rivas, is called cheating; in his opinion, everyone who adheres to fasting or a strict diet sooner or later breaks into fatty and unhealthy foods.

Thanks to cheating, the body will stop accumulating calories, and high-calorie foods allowed in reasonable quantities 1 or 2 times a week will serve as a good incentive to continue the diet.

It is useful to make a list of prohibited products in advance, which, in addition to those listed, should include:

• smoked meats;
• ice cream;
• potatoes;
• instant offal;
• milkshakes;
• sweet carbonated drinks;
• fatty meat cooked over fire;
• mayonnaise;
• crackers and chips;
• canned fish and meat.

In order to lose weight and speed up the removal of toxins from the body, it will be useful to drink clean water more often. The minimum daily portion of water for an adult is 2 liters. Breakfast must be included.

Recommendations for those who want to lose weight and lose belly fat

For better absorption, food should be cut into small pieces and chewed as thoroughly as possible, trying not to eat to the point of satiety. You will also have to give up eating before bed; the last meal should be taken no later than 4-5 hours before it. At first, attacks of hunger can be extinguished with a small amount of kefir.

Main menu

The list of products allowed for consumption on weekdays includes:

• cottage cheese;
• apples;
• any varieties of cabbage;
• beef;
• zucchini;
• beans;
• pumpkin that keeps you full for a long time;
• bell pepper;
• carrot;
• light cheeses;
• beets with a cleansing effect;
• a pineapple;
• chicken or turkey fillet;
• eggs;
• fresh tomatoes and cucumbers;
• cod and some seafood;
• cereals;
• celery, spinach and other greens.

This dietary abundance will allow you to create varied and appetizing dishes that do not clog the body.

There are many diets for removing fat from the abdomen and sides, an example of a diet for women for every day:

You can eat sweet and sour berries as dessert. Instead of tea, black coffee without sugar is occasionally acceptable, eggs are replaced with cottage cheese, and soup with evaporated or boiled fish. Preferably, the lunch menu can be combined with vegetable salads.

The recommendations given are not strict rules; the list of products that promote weight loss is enough for free improvisation. Those who want maximum efficiency can create their menu based on the number of calories.

Due to their physiology, it is easier for men to lose their sides and belly; when switching from high-calorie dishes to salads and diet foods, they should be smooth. You need to eat in such quantity that there is no heaviness in the stomach. To do this, the daily amount of food is gradually reduced by 30%; it is also useful to accustom yourself to a glass of preferably spring water within 40 minutes. before breakfast.

An example of a daily diet for men:

Diets are indicated in the form of three daily meals, however, the amount of food required for this can be divided into a larger number of servings and even slightly increased without filling up on them.

Additional procedures for rapid belly reduction

Cosmetology offers wraps - salon or home. Specialists use special formulations with seaweed, medicinal muds and clays, and ready-made cosmetic pharmacology preparations. At home, you can use, for example, the following recipes:

1. Coffee wrap . Mix the drunk coffee (the grounds remaining after preparing the drink) with any base oil, you can also add essential oils - pine or citrus.
2. Honey mustard wrap . Mix a little honey, base oil and mustard powder until a not too thick paste is obtained.
3. Pepper wrap . Combine ground red pepper with olive or other oil, add honey.
4. Clay wraps . Blue and/or white clay, diluted with water to a creamy consistency.
5. Just vinegar and water in a 1:1 ratio.

The wrapping is quite simple:

• Apply the composition to the skin of the abdomen.
• Wrap cling film on top in several thick layers.
• Lie down, cover yourself warmly and relax.
• After finishing the procedure, take a shower and apply nourishing cream to the skin.

Any composition for wraps must be tested on a small area of ​​skin before use (usually on the bend of the elbow) to exclude the possibility of an allergic reaction.

Recipes with mustard or pepper are warming, they should be used carefully so as not to cause burns, and only in the absence of any diseases of the abdominal organs. The procedure time is no more than 20 minutes. Coffee and clay wraps remove excess fluid and saturate the skin with antioxidants, minerals and other beneficial substances. They can be kept for up to an hour.

Vinegar wrap is performed slightly differently - it does not require film. Simply cover your stomach with a thin cloth soaked in vinegar solution. As vinegar evaporates from the surface of the skin, it will cool it, causing the body to increase blood supply to the area to warm it up. This wrap is good to do in the warm season, when warming procedures are completely unpleasant.

Fat burning abdominal massage

Massage increases blood circulation and breaks down fat deposits. It should be done every day for 4-5 minutes, an hour before and an hour after meals. A useful additional effect of massage will be the normalization of intestinal function.

Types of fat-burning abdominal massages:

1. Plucked. Before the session, massage cream is applied. To pinch is to slightly pull the skin. The pinches are done in a circle, clockwise. The intensity of the pinch increases with each circle. At the end of the procedure, the entire abdomen should be light red. After the session, the skin is massaged with a rough towel. The treated area is moisturized with cream.
2. Water. The stream of water in the shower is passed over the stomach in a clockwise direction. Use cool water.
3. Canned. Silicone jars are bought for him at the pharmacy. The skin is cleansed in the shower, dried, essential oil is applied, and lightly massaged with hands. Next comes the “canning” stage. When the jar is secured, you need to check that the skin inside has risen by 1 cm. The jar is moved along the stomach, drawing different shapes and sometimes lifting it. After the procedure, wrap your stomach in a warm blanket for 5 minutes and rest. Small bruises after the first sessions will stop appearing over time.

4. Manual. Do not put too much pressure on your stomach. Performed like a regular massage.

Common questions on the topic

Very often, nutritionists and fitness trainers receive questions from those who want to lose weight quickly and beautifully. The answers to the most common ones can be found below.

How to get rid of beer belly in a week?

The so-called beer belly is a serious problem that is caused by regular overeating, a sedentary lifestyle, and possibly hormonal changes caused by estrogen-like substances contained in hops.

Abdominal obesity in men cannot be associated solely with beer - the direct effect of this drink on the volume of fat accumulation has not been scientifically proven, like the “hormonal version”.

Rather, the growth of the belly among beer drinkers is associated with the consumption of high-calorie snacks with beer, as well as with a sedentary lifestyle - if a person is used to drinking a liter or two of beer almost every day, he is unlikely to have the time and desire to exercise.

However, if a man decides to quickly get rid of his beer belly, he will be able to do it easier and faster than a woman - all the same hormones, only male ones, contribute to high training efficiency and rapid loss of fat mass. The main thing is to abstain from beer. Otherwise, it will be enough to follow these recommendations.

How to quickly get rid of belly fat for a teenager?

This question is usually asked by girls 12-14 years old. Unfortunately, modern beauty standards, which are far from reality, force teenagers to react painfully to natural body changes during puberty. The fact that a small layer of fat on the thighs and abdomen is natural for the female body is of little consolation to them. If there really is a problem, first of all, you need to normalize your diet by removing “food waste” from it, and also go in for sports, at least with the exercises given in the article.

Under no circumstances should a teenager go on extreme diets, carry out any cleansing procedures, anti-cellulite massages, etc. on their own.

During a period when a child’s body not only grows very quickly, but also changes, acquiring new functions, any inadequate load or lack of nutrition can have the most deplorable effect. And vice versa - any correct effort is incredibly effective, since a young, strong and rapidly growing organism is able to quickly transform and develop.

How to get rid of belly fat after childbirth in a week?

Naturally, it is important to take care of your belly, because reducing it to normal size is not only a matter of beauty, but also of health. But setting yourself such a narrow time frame is unreasonable.

After childbirth, the uterus shrinks to its normal size within three days, but the muscles of the abdominal wall and skin do not immediately regain their original tone. The postpartum recovery time depends on many factors: the woman’s age, her state of health, the woman’s behavior during pregnancy, the natural elasticity of the skin, etc.

To support the internal organs, speed up the restoration of the muscle corset and reduce stretched skin, they practice swaddling (swaddling) the abdomen - tightly swaddling it with a long towel. Today, special bandages, belts, and shapewear can be used for this purpose.

It is important that the shapewear is natural and not too tight. A light massage using oils is possible. No exercises, body wraps, hardware or cosmetic procedures, diets! All this can be connected a little later with the doctor’s permission.

As soon as a woman’s health has fully recovered after pregnancy and childbirth, she can begin an active fight against a sagging and/or enlarged belly. In this case, all the recommendations given in the article are suitable. Massages and wraps will have a good effect, especially if you have skin problems. It is important to coordinate any planned procedures with your doctor, especially if you are a nursing mother.

Our next article will tell you more about how to remove belly fat after childbirth.

Start with letter A

However, it is possible to combat such undesirable consequences of an unhealthy diet, and a properly selected diet, the elements of which will contain “fat-burning” substances, will help in this matter.

Burn to the body

Photo: RIA Novosti/Maxim Blinov

One of the most famous foods in this context is pineapple - a sweet and juicy tropical fruit that is not only low in calories, but also contains bromelain. This unique plant enzyme is known for its ability to break down proteins and fats and remove them from the body faster.

There is also a whole group of products that play a key role in starting the fat burning process. What they have in common is that they contain so-called healthy fats, rich in polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids. These include fatty sea fish, flaxseed oil, walnuts, and avocados. The latter, by the way, despite its significant calorie content, has a low energy value and, accordingly, helps to reduce excess weight. In addition, eating avocados helps lower blood cholesterol levels.

Hungry time: why it’s better not to deny yourself food

Dietary restrictions can affect not only the health of the person losing weight, but also the life expectancy of his offspring.