If you eat more calories than you burn, you will gain weight.
The extra calories become long stores of energy in the form of body fat. The opposite is true If you eat less calories than you burn. However, it's generally easier to gain fat than to lose fat, and it's especially difficult to reduce belly fat. Because each pound of fat contains roughly 3,500 calories, there's a general saying that to lose one pound of fat a week, you need to create a calorie deficit of 3,500 each week, which equals a calorie deficit of 500 per day.

Drinking more water can also help increase weight loss. Your kidneys requires water to function properly. When your kidney does not get enough water, it does not operate at optimal levels, and your liver ends up assisting the kidneys. This is significant because a key function of your liver is to metabolize fat.

When it has to pick up the slack from the kidneys, the liver is unable to metabolize fat efficiently.
There are studies that have confirmed this and found that water consumption reduces meal energy intake, and increases weight loss. A study involving 48 adults with BMI range between 25 to 40 found that weight loss was 2kg greater in the water group compared to the non-water group, and the water group had a 44% greater decline in weight over 12 weeks compared to the non-water group.

So if you're not drinking plenty of water, then you need to start now. Not only does drinking extra water help you lose weight, it's also good for you, and helps improve your bodily functions. After all, 60% of your body is made up of water.
For a diet to help you reduce belly fat and lose weight, it needs to create a calorie deficit where the amount of calories you consume is less than the amount of calories you burn. There is no shortage of diets that are created to help you lose weight and burn belly fat; however, as many will eventually discover, it gets more and more difficult to lose weight as your weight loss progress.

So what can you do to combat this slow down in weight loss and keep up with the weight loss? There are several factors to consider:
- Increase your lean muscle mass by strength
- Engage in high intensity strength training
- Follow a calorie shifting diet to lose belly fat
The Fat Loss for Idiots diet is a popular diet plan based on shifting calories to increase your metabolism.