You may not have a celebrity trainer and nutritionist like pop superstar Beyonce Knowles, but you can get a flat stomach like hers with the right combination of interval cardio training, strength training and sensible eating. Beyonce's exact plan may not be appropriate for you, but the general idea will get you in shape and lower your body fat percentage to take weight off your stomach, which is often the last place your body will hold excess fat.
Exercise
Step 1
Do high intensity cardio three days a week. High intensity exercise cannot be maintained for a long amount of time so alternate your high intensity periods of sprinting or running with lower intensity rest periods during which you walk or jog. Try one minute of high intensity with one minute of lower intensity cardio and work up to three minutes of high intensity for every one minute of lower intensity recovery time.
Step 2
Dance, cycle or do some moderate intensity cardio two days a week. Beyonce says she "started riding a bike on my days off with others like my assistant and stylist." Grab a friend to make exercise more fun if it's motivating for you. Consider dance-inspired cardio DVDs as another option. The Phat Moves Street Dance Grooves DVD has choreography inspired by Beyonce videos.
Step 3
Strength train using full-body movements like jumping squats, push-ups and exercises with exercise bands. Two to three days a week of strength training for 30 to 45 minutes is enough. Hit all your major muscles groups including the quads, hamstrings, pecs, lats, deltoids, biceps and triceps.
Step 4
Include core exercises in your strength training routine such as crunches, planks and side crunches to tone your abdominal muscles or sign up for a Pilates or yoga class.
Diet
Step 1
Cut your calories and start watching your portions. Men and women should eat at least 1200 calories a day, with men needing closer to 1400, but if you want to lose weight don't eat much more than this.
Step 2
Eat a good breakfast of complex carbs or lean protein and a salad or lean protein for lunch.
Step 3
Have a snack or two throughout the day to stave off hunger. Fruit, vegetables or nuts are healthy options.
Step 4
Eat a small to medium-sized dinner with a good helping or lean protein and vegetables.
Step 5
Allow yourself 100 to 200 calories a day of foods you love so you don't binge on them later. Once or twice a week cut yourself some slack and eat something off your menu.
Tips and Warnings
- Do cardio activities that you enjoy and you'll be more likely to stick with it. Beyonce's dance-laden performance rehearsals help keep your stomach toned while burning fat. She also enjoys it more, which is why the diva is looking into starting her own fitness game. She says, "I think it would be a great idea to incorporate choreography, because, for me, my workout is way more fun when it involves dancing, as opposed to running on a boring treadmill. So I would love to do some kind of fitness game but incorporate dance and performance into it. I think a lot of women would enjoy that." Beyonce helped popularize a lemonade fast called the Master Cleanse. It is a ten-day minimum program in which followers consume only water, lemonade and tea -- peppermint and detox teas are allowed. The lemonade follows a particular recipe so you cannot use store-bought lemonade. This "diet" is said to promote weight loss and detox your body. Definitely consult your doctor before trying this diet.
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