Highly Effective Stomach Weight Loss

Excess fat in the stomach is not only unsightly, it is unhealthy. Carrying too much fat around the middle puts you at risk for heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes and some cancers. Flattening your stomach requires a healthy diet, exercise and strength training. Choosing diet and exercise options that focus on burning belly fat and strengthening the abdominal muscles produces the best results for weight loss in the stomach area.

Diet

Excess fat in the stomach is the result of eating more food than your body needs to function. Reducing your calorie intake is the solution. However, you don't need to go on a severe diet. Eating well means you consume at least 1,500 calories if you are a woman and 1,800 if you are a man of lean proteins, whole grains and fruits and vegetables. It also requires eliminating or reducing refined foods such as sugar and white flour.

Cardiovascular Exercise

The best way to burn the fat around your stomach is through cardiovascular exercise. To be effective, cardio exercise needs to be performed at an intensity that gets your heart rate up for 30 to 60 minutes, five days a week. Choose tummy-toning cardiovascular exercise to maximize your efforts to get flat abs. Tennis, running, kick boxing and rowing all burn calories while also engaging abdominal muscles.

Build Muscle

Muscles require energy to function. The more muscle you have, the more energy or calories you burn, not just during a workout, but in your daily activities as well. Muscle building shouldn't be limited to ab exercises. All of the major muscle groups need to be worked including the legs, arms, shoulders, back and abs.

Ab Toning

Losing fat in the stomach requires diet and cardiovascular exercise. A sleek, toned stomach comes from strengthening the abdominal muscles. The American Council on Exercise recommends the bicycle as one of most effective crunch-type ab exercises for rectus abdominis and oblique muscles. Pilates is an exercise program that targets the entire core and is effective in building strong abdominal muscles. Inner IDEA suggests the roll-up, the teaser, the double-leg stretch and the criss-cross Pilates moves for sculpting a lean stomach.