A large midsection is not just a cosmetic issue, it has very real health implications as well. A disproportionate amount of fat stored at your tummy indicates you are at a greater risk of developing chronic conditions like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke and some cancers. The American Heart Association warns that women with a waist size greater than 35 inches, and men with one over 40 inches, should take action to decrease belly fat. Flatten your tummy by combining smart diet choices with targeted exercise.
Step 1
Commit to a reduced-calorie diet. Eat fewer calories than you burn in a day to lose weight. Try to create a 500-calorie per day deficit to encourage fat loss. The fat at the tummy is known to be more metabolically active and tends to disappear when faced with calorie deprivation.
Step 2
Make monounsaturated fats part of your reduced-calorie plan. Use olive oil instead of butter, guacamole instead of French onion dip and nuts instead of chips. Monounsaturated fats, found in nuts, seeds, avocados and most plant-based oils, help prevent fat distribution at the stomach as shown by a report in the journal Diabetes Care in 2007.
Step 3
Eat whole grains instead of white flour and other refined grain products. Replace your white bagel with one made from 100-percent whole wheat and serve quinoa instead of white rice. Whole grains have more fiber and nutrients than highly processed grains. Heather Katcher in a 2008 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition also shows that whole grains, when eaten as part of a low-calorie diet, promote more weight loss at the abdomen.
Step 4
Cut out all trans fats. This man-made fat that helps keep baked goods and oils stable causes an increase in belly fat, as shown by a Wake Forest University study published in the journal Obesity in 2007. In the study, monkeys who were fed trans fats, despite control of other calories, accumulated a disproportionate amount of fat at their abdomen.
Step 5
Eat five servings of dairy per day. Choose low-fat versions of milk, plain yogurt, cottage cheese and kefir. An Australian study performed at Curtin University of Technology in October 2009 revealed that dieters who consumed five servings of dairy lost more weight overall, and more belly fat, than did dieters eating just three servings per day.
Step 6
Exercise the equivalent of 20 miles of jogging per week. As reported by the Journal of Applied Physiology, author Cris A. Slentz concluded this amount of exercise leads to a significant loss in belly fat in a study of 175 overweight men and women.
Step 7
Strength train, including your abs, at least two nonconsecutive days per week. Use weights to perform one to three sets of eight exercises to address all of the major muscle groups: the back, chest, hamstrings, quadriceps, biceps, triceps and shoulders. For your abdominals, complete exercises like traditional crunches and oblique twists. As you become stronger, add props like a stability balls or weights to make these exercises more challenging. Building lean muscle through strength training helps raise your resting metabolism and encourages fat loss. Abdominal exercises will not flatten your tummy, but they will strengthen the muscles underneath the fat.
Tips and Warnings
- Try to reduce stress as this can also make fat accumulate at the belly.
- Crash diets may yield quicker weight loss, but you are likely to gain it back at the midsection as soon as you resume regular eating habits.
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