Flattening your stomach is no easy task, but it's certainly not impossible. With a comprehensive plan and a fervent dedication, you can not only flatten your midsection but also tone and strengthen your abdominal muscles. The keys to changing your physique are healthy eating, strength training and aerobic fitness. For real change to occur, however, you must approach your plan as a more than a short-term attempt at losing weight. Flattening your stomach and keeping it flat means you have to commit yourself to long-term lifestyle changes.
Diet and Exercise Philosophy
Step 1
Avoid eating foods that contribute to unhealthy weight gain, which makes flattening your stomach a more daunting challenge. Cut out processed foods that are high in fat, sugar and sodium, which can hinder you from losing weight around your midsection. Incorporate instead healthy foods into your diet, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, lean cut meats, whole grain cereals and breads, nuts and low-fat dairy products. Don't cut out entire foods groups in an effort to lose weight, but simply reduce the amount you eat from each food group. To encourage a flat tummy, you must burn more calories per day through exercise than you consume to help shed pounds.
Step 2
Perform some type of cardiovascular exercise for at least 30 minutes per day. Increase the amount of daily aerobic exercise depending on how much weight you're trying to lose around your midsection. Alternate your exercises to keep your workouts interesting and to engage your core muscles in different ways. Select from cardiovascular exercises such as running, elliptical training, swimming, walking, jumping rope and biking. Start slow and don't push yourself too much if you are a beginner. Increase the intensity and duration of your aerobic workouts as your cardiovascular endurance improves. Drink plenty of fluids before, during and after your workouts to stay hydrated.
Step 3
Work your abdominal muscles at least three times a week to help flatten your midsection. Train your core muscles with specific abdominal exercises, such as crunches, hanging knee raises and dumbbell side bends. Vary the equipment on which you perform any of the seated or lying exercises, such as a mat, exercise ball and bench. Don't perform more than three abdominal exercises per workout and keep incorporating new exercises, such as decline bench sit ups, cross-body crunches, bent-knee hip raises and jackknife sit ups, to keep your abdominal muscles from plateauing. Allow your muscles to recover if they are sore after workout, but stick to your schedule as much as possible, as abdominal muscles are resilient and can be trained more often than other muscle groups.
Specific Exercises
Step 1
Lie on your back on an exercise mat with knees at a 60-degree angle and your hands behind your head. Contract your muscles and crunch up, lifting your shoulders off the mat about eight inches. Exhale one the way up and hold for one count, then release and inhale as your return to the starting position. Do three to four sets of 15 to 20 crunches.
Step 2
Grasp a chin up bar using a shoulder-width grip. Ensure your back is to the wall. Steady yourself and raise your knees, pulling them in toward your chest. Contract your abdominal muscles as hard as you can. Slowly lower your knees back down and keep your core engaged to minimize any swinging. Exhale on the way up and inhale on the way down. Do two to three sets of 10 to 12 repetitions.
Step 3
Hold a dumbbell with your right hand and place your left hand on your hip. Stand straight with feet shoulder-with apart and a slight bend at your knees. Slowly bend to your right side and contract your left oblique muscles as you come up to straighten your body. Inhale on the way down and exhale on the way up. Do 12 to 15 side bends toward the right side, then switch the dumbbell to the left hand and do 12 to 15 side bends to the left. Do two to three sets total.
Tips and Warnings
- Spot reduction is not an effective approach to losing weight, and you will most likely lose weight in places besides your stomach, if you change your eating habits and exercise regularly. Consistently doing abdominal exercises, however, will target your midsection and help you flatten your stomach and tone your core.
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