Flatten Stomach

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You look at it every day and wish it would just go away; that little pouch below your belly button that keeps staring back at you. You do crunches, sit ups, the works, and yet there it is just “hanging around.” There are all sorts of cute names for it: snack pouch, spare tire, love handles, and the list goes on. All you know is that you want it gone.

The American Council on Exercise calls the bicycle one of the most effective ab exercises out there. This exercise is one of many that should be completed as part of a lifestyle change which includes both diet and exercise. Just doing ab exercises all day will not get rid of the excess fat that you have around your waistline.

The following four areas of diet and exercise will help you gain the toned, flat stomach that you are craving.

1. Fat Intake

How much fat is in your diet? The American Food Pyramid says that a healthy diet is one that “Emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products, includes lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, eggs, and nuts, and is low in saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, salt (sodium), and added sugars.

Following the food pyramid will help you find the fats you need in good foods like nuts and plant oils as opposed to potato chips and ice cream. You should be taking in less than 30% of your caloric intake from fat so check your labels when you’re purchasing packaged products. Many products now have the trans fats listed as well, so you can see which percentage of fat belongs to which group; saturated, non-saturated, trans, etc.

2. Carbohydrate Intake

Maybe your friends were on lo-carb diets and were amazed at the weight they lost. Maybe you tried one too? Carbohydrates are amazing in that each molecule attracts four water molecules to it and they hang out together inside your muscles. When you start decreasing the amount of carbohydrates you take in, you start to see weight loss in the form of fat loss. Oops, I mean WATER loss. No more carbs means no more four molecules of water hanging on, means lower numbers on the scale. Carbohydrate intake is essential for brain activity as well as muscle function. Our bodies feed off of glucose and glycogen which is supplied directly by carbohydrates. Eating whole wheat and whole grain is the way to go- stay away from white products; rice, pasta, bread, etc. Brown is best. Carbohydrate intake should be no more than 65% of your diet.

3. Cardiovascular Exercise

Running, cycling, swimming, aerobics; they are all using oxygen and so the prime energy source comes from muscle glycogen and fatty acids. The furnace is on and it’s burning fat. You may have heard that cardio is good for burning fat, and that is true. Cardio exercise should be done for a minimum of 20 minutes and hopefully for longer and should be done at least three times per week, hopefully more. According to the American Council of Sport Medicine, “If weight loss is your major goal, participate in your aerobic activity at least 30 minutes, for five days each week.”

You can’t melt fat off of one area specifically, but it will come off over the whole body in time. We all lose fat from different places first. Just remember that cardio is a complement to the diet and the floor work that will also do.

4. Floor Work

Abdominal exercises were once believed to be something we could do everyday. We now know that the abdominals are like any other muscle and they need time to recover and rest.

Floor work is an essential component in getting a toned tummy. There are four main abdominal muscles that we can work: the rectus abdominus, which runs from the sternum to the pubic bone, the transverse abdominus which runs horizontal all around the torso connecting near the spine, and there are the obliques- internal and external which run alongside our ribs in opposite directions.

Source: http://www.perfectfit.ws/

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