The flat abs diet has six core principles that will help you to lose belly fat and have a sleeker body all around. Even if you cant get rid of your gut through endless crunches, you should see success with this flat abs diet. That is because new research has show that what you eat may be just as important as how much you exercise.

The first important step is to eat more fiber. You should eat at least 25 grams of fiber a day. The reason is that bulk fiber is like a sponge which, when combined with water, moves the fat through your body more quickly.

The best high fiber foods are fruits and vegetables. In addition to having a lot of fiber naturally, fruits and vegetables are very low in calories. Whole grains are preferable to processed flours for the same reason.

Part of what makes natural food so good for you is the chew factor. It takes longer to eat these foods, so your brain has time to get the signals that your stomach is sending that it is full. Researchers have found that eating high fiber plant food with any meal reduces the average amount of calories by 100.

The next step is to opt for a sensible amount of high quality carbs. The flat abs diet does not require that you dramatically limit your carbohydrates the way the Adkins or South Beach plans do. However, if you want to lose your belly fat, you will have to control your carb intake.

Again, fruits and vegetables provide the highest quality carbs available. They are the foods least likely to promote bloat. Because they are composed of a lot of water, they have fewer calories and carbs for their volume.

You should have no more than 65 percent of your diet in carbs. That means that on an 1800 calorie diet, you will have between 200 and 300 grams of carbs. On the Adkins diet, you can have no more than 35 grams of carbs, so as you can see the flat abs diet is more generous.

Next, you want to drink lots of water at least eight 8-ounce glasses a day.

Many people think that drinking water will make them bloat when the opposite is actually true. Water washes away the sodium in the body and thus reduces bloat.

If you are having trouble consuming that much water, try these variations:

Drink 2 glasses of lukewarm water twice a day. It is easier to consume lots of water in a single setting if it is not ice cold.
If you like cold water, freeze fruit or small pieces of fruit and float it in your water. It will keep the water cold and add a nice flavor to it.
Use small amounts of fruit juice or other extracts such as mint to flavor the water.

Along those lines, tip number 4 on the flat abs diet is to avoid sodium wherever possible. A woman needs 500 mg. of sodium to keep her body functioning regularly but the average American woman gets between 3000 and 6000 mg. daily. If you eat a typical meal at a Chinese restaurant, you will get about 3000 mg. of sodium. The body responds to this sodium intake by retaining water. The next day, you will see the result on the scale and in the mirror. Its not that the Chinese food added too many calories its that it has so much sodium.

The next bit of advice is to not eat too much at night. When you put food in your body less than three hours before going to sleep, it causes you to bloat. Plan to shut down the kitchen after a light to moderate dinner. If you must eat, consider limiting it to a snack of 100 calories or less. A cup of tea can often satisfy your need for food after dinner.

Finally, the last bit of advice on our flat abs diet has nothing to do with food at all. Instead, you will want to work on reducing stress.

Stress triggers the hormone cortisol which turns up your appetite and directs your body to deposit fat around your abdomen. One way to eliminate stress (and lose weight) is to exercise. You should also practice ways of relaxing when you get into a stressful situation.

So, there you have it. When exercise alone isnt working to remove your belly fat, try the flat abs diet.

Tags: 1800 Calorie Diet, Abs Diet, Adkins Diet, Bloat, Calories, Core Principles, Crunches, Diet Exercise, Drinking Water, Fewer Calories, Fiber Plant, Flours, food;, Fruits And Vegetables, Healthy Diet, High Fiber Foods, high fiber plant food, Losing Weight, Lot Of Water, Natural Food, Ounce Glasses, Plant Food, South Beach, Sponge, Whole Grains —

Loose belly skin has many causes: pregnancy and losing a significant amount of weight are probably the two most common. We all want to look our best and having loose skiin around our middle is unsightly and can make us feel bad about ourselves. Whatever the cause, you have several options to help tighten loose skin.

Before you jump right into thinking you need a surgical option try these less invasive options.

1. A simple daily exercise program may be just the thing for you. Get your body moving and include some specific core exercises like crunches and lunges. If you firm up and tone the muscles in your sides called your obliques, the skin should follow suit and tighten as well. Get some cardio in, too.

If you can’t stand running or walking on a treadmill then get out and go for a walk around the neighborhood or find a friend with some free time and go run around the tennis court for an hour three times a week. Running after all those mis-hit balls can be quite the awesome workout.

2. If you adjust your eating habits along with starting a simple daily exercise program you will find your loose belly skin tightening up even faster. A low-fat, low-carb, high protein diet will help whip you into shape in no time.

3. Stay away from sugary drinks and snacks. All they will do is add fat to the already loose skin and then you will have two problems to deal with instead of just one.

4. Stay hydrated. This is the most important thing for everyone. Your skin will love you for it and it will reward you with remaining elastic. Drink one-half of your body weight in ounces of water each day. If that seems like too much or you find you are spending an inordinate amount of time in the bathroom then back off to just 8-10 eight ounce glasses everyday.

5. Do some research about skin tightening creams. They are out there and you can buy them over the counter. They may have a skin firming compound in them and also a moisturizer to help increase your skin’s elasticity.

6. If you try everything I have suggested here and find it does not give you the results you want then talk to your personal physician about maybe making a referral to a plastic surgeon to discuss a tummy tuck. This should be your very last resort though. There are risks involved with every surgery and a tummy tuck is no exception.

Pain is one obvious side effect, the risk of infection is another, not to mention the recovery time of about six weeks. The results you get when the surgeon tightens up your loose belly skin may be absolutely amazing but you will not be able to even stand up straight afterward for about a week, so you will need someone with you for at least the first 24 hours until you recover from the anesthesia and get your bearings and learn how to move effectively.

Tags: Atkins, Cardio, Core Exercises, Crunches, Eating Habits, Elas, Exercise Program, Free Time, Healthy Diet, High Protein Diet, Loose Skin, Losing Weight, Low Carb High Protein Diet, Lunges, Moisturizer, Obliques, Ounce Glasses, Pillsbury Doe Boy, Skiin, Sugary Drinks, Surgical Option, Tennis Court, Treadmill —

You may think that you know what the best workout to lose abdominal fat is but I would wager that what you are thinking is incorrect. If you are thinking that doing a thousand crunches everyday or running on a treadmill or other cardio exercises will get rid of your belly then you need to keep reading to change your thinking.

Cardio exercises and crunches really have little to no effect on losing your flabby belly. Not for nothing though, cardio exercises and crunches can be an effective part of an overall strength training program.

Lean muscle burns more calories and fat than all the cardio and crunches you can do. Building lean muscle, or strength training, is the best workout to lose abdominal fat, not to mention fat all over the rest of your body.

I am not saying that you can’t incorporate some cardio into your workout but you do not have to spend mind-numbing hours on end on the treadmill. Use the treadmill as your warm up and then when your muscles are warm concentrate on resistance training and really work your muscles.

Test yourself first and figure out how much weight you can safely lift without causing yourself injury. When you have the heaviest weight then do one slow set of about 10-12 reps. You should be barely able to even lift the last two reps. If this is not the case then you should increase the weight you use.

If you are able to work your muscles to fatigue in one set then your muscle is working at it’s peak. You can significantly reduce the amount of time you spend working out with this system. One set, at maximum weight, for all the major muscles of the body is the best way to build the lean muscle you need to burn the excess fat you have.

With toned, lean muscle you will be able to better burn fat and calories even when you are resting you will burn more than you did without the lean muscle. Your metabolism will be stoked all the time, especially if you are eating healthier, too. Decreasing your carbohydrate intake and increasing your protein intake will help lose the weight quickly.

Now, ladies, building lean muscle does not mean you have to bulk up. You will get toned and look better than you have in years. Lean muscle just keeps burning calories and fat. In fact you may be surprised at how easily it will seem that not only your belly fat disappears but that you slim down all over.

Do not try to spot lose, this is impossible. You either have to lose weight all over or not at all. You can do individual resistance exercises that target each muscle system at different times in your workout, this is different than spot reducing. You are still getting the best workout to lose abdominal fat, you just are also including the rest of your body, as well.

Tags: Amount Of Time, Atkins, Burn Calories, Burn Fat, Calories, Calories Fat, Carbohydrate Intake, Cardio Exercises, Cardio Workout, Concentrate, Crunches, Eating Habits, Fat Calories, fatigue;, Flabby Belly, Lean Muscle, Losing Weight, Major Muscles Of The Body, Maximum Weight, Metabolism, Muscles Of The Body, Resistance Training, Running On A Treadmill, Strength Training Program —

Have you been wondering for a long time ‘how can I lose my belly fat’? Do you have a bit of excess tummy flab that you just can’t seem to be able to get rid of? Well stop asking yourself ‘how can I lose my belly fat’ because we are about to tell you how.

There are a number of reasons why you may have gained some fat around your tummy. The trick to losing that belly fat is to control what you are eating or drinking that will cause fat gain and to introduce some exercise into your life, particularly exercises that target the tummy area.

Here are four tips that can help you to love that belly fat.

1. Sit ups and crunches are the two main exercises that people do to lose belly fat. Sit ups are probably the single most effective exercise for toning stomach muscles and getting rid of belly fat. Sit ups are even more effective when done on a stability ball. To lose fat you do need to burn off more calories than you consume so keep this in mind also.

2. Cut out all fried foods from your diet. Fried foods are the worst foods for putting on fat around the waist and they are poor in nutrient value also. Fried food has no nutritional value at all to your diet and all it does it provide you with calories that add to your weight.

3. Stop snacking between meals. Snacking is a big contributor to gaining belly fat. Late night snacking is the worst kind of all as you don’t burn the calories off if you got to bed after snacking. When you consume calories during the day you will burn some of them off with your daily movements, but at night you just relax or go to bed allowing those calories to become fat that doesn’t get burned off. When you snack a lot you will often find that you only intend to have one small snack but you keep on eating more and more and it all adds up around your tummy. If you are asking yourself ‘how can I lose my belly fat’ then you need to tell yourself to stop snacking between meals.

4. Burn those excess calories off. Belly fat is unused energy that accumulates in the form of fat around the stomach. To get rid of belly fat you need to burn off more calories than you consume. Cardio workouts are great for burning off fat and these can include aerobics, walking, jogging, running, cycling or working out on a cardio machine. There are many little changes that you can make that will also help you to burn off calories like parking at the back of the car park and walking that little bit further to the shop or office, or taking the stairs instead of the elevator. Remember that every little bit of exercise you do helps.

If you are asking yourself ‘how can I lose my belly fat’ then try these four suggestions and you will soon find your tummy getting thinner and you will be well on your way to having those flat abs.

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