Why Your Stomach Isn’t Flat
Your stomach may be distended or bloated due to your diet, hormones or habits that cause you to swallow air, such as chewing gum and drinking through a straw. It’s relatively easy to flatten your tummy in two weeks if it’s pooched due to these digestive issues.
A belly carrying a lot of extra fat will take longer than two weeks to trim. Fat at your belly is both subcutaneous, which sits under the skin, and visceral, which surrounds the internal organs.
Although neither is great, visceral fat is particularly dangerous as it secretes compounds that increase body inflammation and risk of disease. You lose both types of belly fat in the same way you lose any body fat â with moderate calorie reductions and increased physical movement.
Are There Other Causes For Abdominal Bloating
Retaining water can make you look and feel bloated. The amount of water your cells retain has a lot to do with the balance of sodium and potassium in your body fluids. Gas can make you bloated, too.
Common causes of abdominal bloating include:
- Too much salt in your diet
- Fluctuating hormones
- Digestive problems like constipation or gas
- Food intolerances
Even if you are retaining water, it is still important to stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water. Drinking enough water will help your body balance minerals like sodium and potassium and maintain your blood pressure.
Go Without Processed Grains
Processed grains, like white bread and pasta, take less time to digest and are quickly converted into sugar and eventually fat.
“By frequently eating highly processed grain products, even in moderate amounts, you will be signaling to your body to store the high levels of sugar as fat,” Quebbemann says.
What the research says: A 2010 study found that people who limit refined grains and eat more whole grains have lower levels of visceral fat, which is located around abdominal organs.
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Track Your Food Intake
When youre trying to lose weight, it can be helpful to monitor your food intake.
There are several ways to do this, but the most popular and effective options involve counting calories or keeping a food diary .
You do not have to do this all the time, but it may be good to keep track of your intake for several days in a row every few weeks. This will make you more aware of your calorie intake and allow you to adjust your eating patterns if needed.
Here are five free apps or websites that can help you easily keep track of your nutrient and calorie intake.
Summary
Monitoring your food intake once in a while may help you lose weight by making you more aware of your calorie intake.
Perfect Posture = Flat Tummy: 6 Tips
1. Stand up straight. Heeding Mom’s advice can make you look 5 pounds thinner instantly. To straighten up, imagine a string tugging you from the top of your head toward the ceiling.
2. Sit like a royal. Slumping accentuates your stomach. To improve your posture while sitting, start with your chair. If your chair seat is too high to let your feet touch the ground without slumping, find a footstool about 4 inches high to let you sit up straight. Or place a pillow at the small of your back to help bring you forward in your chair.
3. Strengthen your shoulders. Strong shoulders will prevent you from hunching forward. To target this area, try the overhead press. Start with dumbbells at shoulder height, feet firmly on the floor. Slowly press the dumbbells straight up until your arms are fully extended. Don’t arch your back. Hold, and then lower.
4. Build your chest. Good posture is easier when you have strong upper body muscles. For the chest, do the bench press: Lie on an exercise bench with your knees bent, feet flat on the floor or on the bench. Hold dumbbells or a barbell at chest height with your hands slightly more than shoulder-width apart. Slowly press the weight straight up until your arms are fully extended, elbows almost locked. Hold, and then lower.
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Thinking Sit Ups And Crunches Burn Belly Fat
Believe it or not, research shows that 6-weeks of direct abdominal exercises had no effect on abdominal fat loss .
While it did increase muscle endurance, the study shows that without being in a caloric deficit, you will not lose belly fat, no matter how many sit ups you do.
If you are looking to get a flat stomach, you need to prioritize your diet, and not think that you can do more situps or exercise to counteract poor diet adherence and planning.
Hormones And Hormone Regulation
Hormonal factors play a big role in whether women will be able to achieve a flat stomach. Specifically, hormonal changes throughout life affect how women store fat. Dr. Grover lists menopause as an example. After menopause, fat tissue produces estrogen, and estrogen causes fat storagecreating a vicious cycle, she explains.
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Do Exercises Standing Instead Of Sitting
If youre able, performing exercises while standing up may benefit your health more than performing the same exercises while sitting or using weight machines.
A 2013 study comparing the effects of standing and sitting exercises showed that some standing exercises increased muscle activation by 725%, compared to sitting .
Another study suggested that standing may improve your breathing and slightly increase your heart rate compared to sitting .
Although this might seem like a minor alteration, for individuals who are able to, standing can be an easy way to strengthen the midsection and maximize your results.
Summary
If youre physically able to, doing exercises while standing instead of sitting may burn more calories, increase muscle activation, improve your breathing, and increase your heart rate.
Strength Training Plays A Role
As you already know, aging can cause your body to lose muscle mass, regardless of your sex. That doesnt mean you cant fight the process by performing strength training, however. Working out with weights can help you build up and maintain muscle mass, which results in a faster metabolism, says Harvard Health Publications. This helps you to keep excess weight off. Plus, you can perform toning exercises, like sit-ups and crunches, to firm your abdominal muscles and keep your stomach looking flatter.
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Eat More Fiber And Avoid Refined Flour
Foods made with white flour like white bread, white pasta, and white rice are relatively low in fiber and may cause you to get a little, uh, backed up. Instead, opt for whole-grain varieties. A simple switch from white bread to whole wheat or from white rice to brown will keep things moving along smoothly.
High fiber foods that are free of indigestible fibers mentioned before include:
- Whole grain bread
How Much Belly Fat Will You Lose In A Month
You may lose up to 12 pounds in a month. But you will lose overall body weight as well. If you want to lose belly fat, you must laser target the area with exercises . This can help reduce waist circumference, and your stomach will appear flatter than before.
Remember, your weight loss will depend on your adherence to the diet and exercise plan, height, weight, age, sex, medical history, and current medications. If you are on antidepressants, you will not lose belly fat fast. Talk to your doctor or a registered dietitian to know the best way to shed pounds from the tummy area.
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Fight Fat With Fat To Shrink Belly
While it sounds counter-intuitive to eat fat in order to flatten your tummy, the truth is, your body needs fat to function and the type of fat you choose may make a difference. Adding medium-chain fats to your weight management plan may boost fat loss, including abdominal fat, according to a study found in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, published in the 2008.
Clinical data indicates medium-chain fats burn more calories than do long-chain fats, according to the authors. To test whether this increase in calorie-burning leads to a boost in fat loss, participants added either medium-chain fats or olive oil — which contains long-chain fats — to their weight loss program. The group that consumed the medium-chain fats lost more total fat and more abdominal fat than the group that had olive oil.
If you’re looking to add medium-chain fats to your meal plan, the most common and richest source of is coconut oil. You could add a couple teaspoons to a smoothie or use it to stir-fry veggies.
Easy Ways To Flatten Your Belly By Summer
Be beach-ready by July 4 with these tips.
May 24, 2012& #151 — intro: A toned, flat tummy is a goal many of us strive to achieve in time for bathing suit season, but endless crunches and ditching all your favorite foods until July 4th isn’t the rightor fun–way to do it.
A sculpted core and trim tummy can be attained by incorporating small changes into your day, like holding in your abs while you walk and adding the right healthy fats to your diet. In our lean belly guide, you’ll get diet and exercise tips that will help you eliminate hard-to-reach ab flab and reveal a sculpted, sexy midsection.
Here, learn 25 ways to flatten your belly by summer.
quicklist: 1category: Easy Ways to Flatten Your Bellytitle: Take Your Gossip Session On A Walkurl: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/w_DietAndFitness/25-ways-flatten-belly-summer/story?id=16422687text: Instead of catching up with friends over food and drinks, suggest a reunion on the moveyou’re likely to work out 104 percent harder if you have an exercise buddy. Suggest a weekly walk-and-talk session, form a friendly fitness club, or take advantage of gym specials together. You’ll motivate everyone to get moving while you grow even closer.
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Ab Wheel Rollout X 10
Get into a kneeling position with your hands holding the ab wheel. Keeping your core tight and glutes squeezed, extend your body forward towards the ground, leading with your arms and hips. Go down as far as you can while maintaining tension in your abs, then return back to starting position.
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Core Stability Exercise: Marching
For those just building a fitness routine and a foundation for more complex moves, Brent Locey, a certified personal trainer and SoulCycle instructor in Chicago, IL, recommends core stability exercises like marching. To complete this exercise, lie on the floor with your knees together and bent, feet flat and arms by your side. Lift one leg at a time, maintaining the bend, and draw the knee as close to the abdomen as possible. Locey says its important to practice the drawing-in maneuver during all core exercises. To draw-in, pull the area below your navel towards your spine, while maintaining a neutral spine. I often coach this by placing your hand on that area and noticing as you inhale how your stomach draws toward your back, Locey says. The most important thing to focus on, especially for beginners, is making sure they have adequate balance and stability you could easily injury yourself immediately, or develop long-term injury because your body starts to overcompensate in the wrong areas. Here are 16 ways to lose weight by just walking.
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Listen To Your Mom And Stop Chewing With Your Mouth Open
First, its gross. Second, chewing while breathing through your mouth can make you swallow as much air as food, causing your belly to inflate. Learning proper table manners will not only help you keep a trimmer tummy but will also make your friends and family much happier. Here are 9 daily habits that help reduce belly bloat.
Excess Belly Fat Is Not Only Ugly And Embarrassing It Can Be Dangerous For Your Health It Increases Your Risk Of Various Serious Health Problems Including Heart Disease Type 2 Diabetes And Some Types Of Cancer Follow These Simple Tricks To Get Rid Of Stomach Fat And Lose Weight Fast
New Delhi: A healthy weight loss isnt just about following a calorie-restricted diet or a programme. It is about a lifestyle that includes making long-term changes in daily eating and exercise habits. While its true that losing weight isnt that easy for many people trying to shed a few extra kilos, it isnt impossible either. Perhaps, there are simple tricks that can help you beat your belly bloat and look slimmer in a matter of hours. The key to getting a lean and toned body you want is to stick to a plan that involves working out and eating right. But when you want to shrink your belly as fast as possible in one day, you need to work really hard on your bodys own internal belly-flattening mechanisms that will help bring your digestive system into balance and kick-start your metabolism.
Excess belly fat is not only ugly and embarrassing, it can be dangerous for your health too. It increases your risk of various serious health problems, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and some types of cancer – to name a few. The good thing is that there are a number of things you can do to reduce abdominal excess fat. If you feel your efforts arent giving you results you want, follow these five simple tips that can flatten your tummy and make you look like youve lost weight by the end of the day. Read – Want to lose weight fast? Watch out for these 5 health conditions to avoid gaining belly fat
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Dine On Dark Chocolate
Not for every meal, but a square or two of the darker variety can actually help lessen your tum. It’s all down to the monounsaturated fat, which can help to speed up your metabolism.
Dark chocolate 70% bar, £3.98, Tony’s Chocolonely
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Eating To Flatten Your Stomach
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Increase Protein And Fiber Intake
In order to lose weight, including from your lower belly, you should consume an adequate amount of fiber and protein.
Fiber has a wide range of benefits, including aiding weight loss. Some types of fiber slow the absorption of nutrients, allowing you to feel full longer, therefore consuming less calories throughout the day and helping achieve a deficit.
Men need between 30 and 38 grams of fiber per day, and women need between 21 and 25 grams per day.
Some good sources of fiber include: avocados, fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans.
Protein is made up of amino acids and helps feed and repair our muscles, among other parts of our body. However, its where you are getting your protein that matters most.
Choose good sources of animal protein, like fish, poultry, eggs and low-fat dairy. Vegetables also provide ample amounts of protein look for dark, leafy greens like kale, spinach, broccoli and asparagus.
And dont forget quinoa, a grain that mimics the same amino acid profile as an animal protein. A good choice for vegetarians and vegans.
How To Flatten Your Stomach
The stomach is one of the most common areas where fat tends to accumulate. Many lifestyle factors lead to getting a bit of a rounder belly. If youre looking to flatten your stomach, there are a few things you can do. These tips will help burn off that excess fat and reduce swelling and bloating in your stomach.
Here are five of the best ways to flatten your stomach. Best of all, you can do it in about 10 minutes or less per day.
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Do Hiit And Resistance Training
HIIT and resistance training can help you lose belly fat , . HIIT induces EPOC , which means that you will burn fat even after 2 hours of exercising .
Scientists have found that HIIT aids 28.5% greater weight loss than moderate-intensity workouts . Resistance training, on the other hand, prevents muscle loss and helps build lean muscle , . Do the following HIIT and resistance exercises to reduce belly fat:HIIT
Eat More Fiber Especially Soluble Fiber
Soluble fibers absorb large quantities of water and slow down the passing of food through the digestive tract.
This has been shown to delay stomach emptying, causing the stomach to expand and make you feel more full between meals .
Furthermore, soluble fiber may decrease the number of calories your body is able to absorb from food .
Some research also suggests that eating more soluble fiber could be associated with less visceral fat, a type of fat that wraps around your organs especially in the abdominal area and is linked to several chronic health conditions (
- Lactobacillus gasseri
Probiotic foods include fermented ingredients like Kombucha, yogurt, kefir, tempeh, kimchi, and pickles.
Its important to note that probiotics do not directly cause weight loss. They can be a helpful tool when used in conjunction with a nutritious diet and exercise, but they may not have the same effect on everyone. Always talk with your doctor before deciding to add probiotics to your diet.
Summary
Probiotics may help build up beneficial gut flora. Some Lactobacillus strains have been shown to be effective at helping prevent weight gain and reduce belly fat in individuals already living with obesity, but this is typically in conjunction with other lifestyle changes.
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