While sit-ups and other abdominal workouts help strengthen the abdominal muscles, they don’t really reduce fat around the stomach. What is equally important to get a flat stomach is eating right and doing cardio exercise to reduce overall body fat and weight.
Eat Right to Lose Weight
More than half the battle to lose belly fat is won simply by eating healthily. That means cutting down drastically on fatty, oily and sugary foods. Stop eating fast food such as hamburgers, fries, chips, pizzas and fried chicken. The same goes with carbonated drinks, commercially available fruit juices and alcoholic beverages regularly.
Instead, pile up on complex carbohydrates and low GI foods such as wholegrain breads, oat meals as well as fresh fruits and vegetables. Opt for low-fat dairy products as well. Try to satisfy hunger pangs in between meals by munching on healthy snacks such as carrots and celery sticks. Apply the same practices as much as possible while eating out.
Exercise before Breakfast
Those who exercise before breakfast will also be able to burn body fat more and faster. This is because the body hasn’t had any fuel for the last six to eight hours so the first source of fuel it will use during the workout is body fat. Another advantage is that it will also get your metabolism going for the rest of the day.
Do Cardio Exercises
Cardio exercises, also called aerobic exercises, use oxygen and help burn body fat. Effective cardio workouts includes walking, running, swimming and cycling. These exercises don’t only burn body fat, which will in turn lead to getting rid of belly fat, they are also ideal in improving cardiovascular and respiratory health.
Start Practicing Pilates
Pilates focuses on the core postural muscles which helps keep the body balanced as well as strengthens the deep torso or abdominal muscles. Without these strong muscles around the abdomen, it’s hard to get a flat stomach.
Tone the Tummy Anywhere, Anytime
Another way to strengthen the deep stomach muscles is to keep working them no matter where you are. Draw the stomach in and keep it tight as you are walking, sitting, working on the computer, doing housework or when queuing up to buy movie tickets. Switching on the stomach muscles will come naturally as you practice it more and more.
Do Balancing Acts
Try exercises that will challenge the body balance to work the stomach muscles more. Skating, rollerblading, surfing, water and snow skiing, skateboarding and snowboarding are all activities that require lots of balancing acts. If these sports sound too extreme for you, try using a Swiss ball. Sit on the ball to do arm exercises and try to keep the balance.
A few simple lifestyle changes are all that’s needed to get a flat stomach. Healthy eating, exercises that bring body and abdominal fat loss as well as exercises to strengthen stomach muscles are essential. Many of these practices are also easy and can be done without expensive equipment.
Those who find this article useful may also be interested to read How to Prevent a Bloated Stomach, Firm the Body and How to Shed off those Extra Pounds.
Reference:
Donna Jones. “Beat Jelly Belly” in Good Health and Medicine magazine. Australia: ACP Magazine, August 2008.
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