To lose fat in your stomach, you need to lose overall body fat by burning more calories than you eat every day. Cutting back on your caloric intake and doing fat-burning cardiovascular exercise daily can help you achieve your goals of a flat belly, according to FitnessMagazine.com. Cutting out foods that cause belly bloat and water retention can help reduce a poofy-looking belly for flatter abs quick. Doing core exercises will strengthen and tone your stomach muscles for tighter, flatter-looking abs.
Core Cardio Walk
Step 1
Stand with your shoulders upright and engage your entire core--your stomach, back, pelvic and hip muscles. Relax your shoulders and begin a slow- to moderate-paced walk for five to eight minutes. Keep your arms comfortably at your side.
Step 2
Increase your walking pace to moderate to intense after eight minutes. Lengthen your stride, engaging your core and keeping your torso in correct posture. Bend your elbows slightly and move your arms with the natural rhythm of your pace. Move at this moderately intense pace for five minutes.
Step 3
Slow your pace to moderate and shorten your stride. Lift your knees up to your chest as you step into your walk. Pull your bellybutton in as your knee comes up, creating a mini standing crunch. Repeat this knee lift step 20 times on each leg or for one minute.
Step 4
Lengthen your stride and increase your pace to moderate intensity for 10 minutes. Keep your shoulders down and engage your core.
Step 5
Shorten your stride and slow your pace down to moderate lifting of the knees to the chest again. Continue this movement for 20 repetitions on each leg or one minute.
Step 6
Repeat the entire sequence of fast-paced walking with slow-knee-lift walking for a total of 45 minutes to one hour. Add intensity by doing this on a hilly terrain or raising the incline level on your treadmill.
Nutrition
Step 1
Eat monounsaturated fatty acids, or MUFAs, with every meal to prevent and burn fat in the stomach, according to the March 2007 Journal of Diabetes Care. Choose one MUFA, such as 1 tbsp. of olive or flaxseed oil, 1/4 avocado, 10 olives, 10 almonds or nuts, or 1/4 cup of dark chocolate to add to every meal.
Step 2
Eat a high-protein breakfast to keep you full and promote healthy metabolism, according to Fitness Magazine. Make a scrambled egg white omelet with 4 egg whites and 1/4 cup of fresh spinach.
Step 3
Eat healthy complex carbohydrates instead of processed, refined and sugary carbs. Choose brown and wild rice, vegetables, whole grain breads and cereals, and steel-cut oatmeal instead of pastries, bagels, cakes, cookies, and white or processed breads and cereals.
References
- FitnessMagazine.com: Best Way to Beat Belly Flab
- ACEFitness.com: How Can I Get Rid of Belly Fat?
- "Journal of Diabetes Care"; "Monounsaturated Fat--Rich Diet Prevents Central Body Fat Distribution"; Juan A. Paniagua González et al; March 2007
- FitnessMagazine.com: Waist Management--How to Lose Belly Fat For Good
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