Sometimes following a low-calorie diet and performing abdominal exercises is not enough to obtain or sustain a flat stomach. Genetic preconditions and lifestyle choices play a role in your ability to flatten out your tummy. Although you cannot change your genes, you can make specific dietary changes and alterations to your fitness program to get you closer to a flat stomach.
Exercise Smarter
Doing hundreds of crunches a day will not in and of themselves result in a flat stomach. Crunches strengthen the muscles of the abdominals, which lie under your belly fat. To flatten the stomach, you must reduce overall body fat through cardiovascular exercise. Follow American College of Sports Medicine guidelines for weight loss---exercising at least 60 minutes five times per week at an intensity that raises your heart rate and makes you sweat. Continue to perform abdominal exercises to keep your muscles tight and ready to appear when you lose the extra fat. Try varying your abdominal by using a stability ball, performing hanging leg raises or incorporating Pilates moves.
Include Certain Foods
Whole grains, dairy and monounsaturated fat have all been proven to help reduce fat around the belly. In a 2008 edition of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researcher Heather Katcher found that dieters who followed a low calorie diet in which carbohydrate intake featured mainly whole grains lost considerably more belly fat than those who ate refined grains.
An Australian study from the Curtin University of Technology released in October 2009 demonstrated that participants who ate five servings of low fat dairy per day lost more weight at the belly than those who ate only three servings per day.
Monounsaturated fat, found in olives, plant oils and nuts, also prevents accumulation of fat at the midsection as demonstrated in a study in Diabetes Care in which eleven participants ate either a diet high in carbohydrates, high in saturated fats or high in monounsaturated fats. The results, published in 2007, found that those eating monounsaturated fats accumulated less fat at their midsection and experienced a reversal of insulin resistance.
Exclude Certain Foods
Cut back on saturated fat, found in animal proteins, full fat dairy and palm kernel oils. Eliminate trans fats altogether. This man-made fat helps increase the shelf life of certain products, particularly snack foods, oil used to fry fast food and pre-packaged baked goods. Researchers from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine reported in the journal Obesity in 2007 that monkeys who ate a diet rich in trans fats, but did not increase calories, gained significant abdominal weight over the course of six years.
Relax
Stress makes your body produce a hormone, called cortisol, that contributes to the storage of fat at the belly according to a study published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine in 2000. Seek out stress self-management skills through therapy, yoga or meditation practices. Strive to delegate more at work and home. Lack of sleep can also contribute to stress and overeating, so turn off the television a half hour earlier and get to bed.
References
- Obesity: Trans Fat Diet Induces Abdominal Obesity and Changes in Insulin Sensitivity in Monkeys
- Psychosomatic Medicine: Stress and Body Shape
- American Journal of Clinical Nutrition: The effects of a whole grain--enriched hypocaloric diet on cardiovascular disease risk factors in men and women with metabolic syndrome
Member Comments